Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is characterized by numerous co-morbidities including eating problems, the most common of which is food selectivity, and gastrointestinal (GI) dysfunction, which often occurs concurrently with eating problems. Aim: To investigate the relationships between food selectivity, GI symptoms and various metabolic pathways in children with ASD using parental report and quantitative urine organic acid testing. Methods: An anonymous review of the clinical charts of 68 children aged 1.6 to 11 with a diagnosis of ASD was performed. Demographic and health information from intake forms and urine organic acid test reports were analyzed; descriptive statistics and Chi square tests were conducted. Results: Parents of 60% of children reported food selectivity in their child and parents of 69% of children reported GI symptoms. 47% of parents reported both food selectivity and GI symptoms in their child. 90% of the participants were found to have at least one elevated GI fungal metabolite, and 30% or more had elevated levels of 5 different GI bacterial metabolites. No significant correlation between food selectivity and GI symptoms was identified. Conclusion: This study highlights important trends among FS, GI symptoms and select organic acid metabolites; further studies of the clinical significance of these metabolites and their effect on the behavior, sensory experiences and physical symptoms among children with ASD are suggested.


A stellarator-mirror fusion-fission hybrid has recently been proposed. Neutral beam injection (NBI) is here studied numerically for this hybrid using a two-dimensional kinetic code, KNBIM. The code accounts for Coulomb collisions between the hot ions and the background plasma. The geometry of the confining magnetic field is arbitrary for the code and is accounted for via a numerical bounce averaging procedure. Along with the kinetic calculations the neutron production intensity is computed. The calculated hot ion distribution function from NBI is used in power balance estimates for the whole system. The requirement that the fast neutrals should be efficiently captured in the plasma is imposed to restrict the range of plasma parameters. The results obtained balance calculations are close to results obtained previously with a bi-Maxwellian ion distribution function. The calculated parameters for a power producing stellarator mirror device and within modern top technical capabilities. The parameters of plasma and NBI characteristics seem also attainable. The calculated fusion Q is within a range with potential for energy production in a hybrid reactor.


This paper develops understanding of appreciative action research that generates curiosity and motivation as a better platform for collaborative change. Blending theory and practice it draws on the example of the My Home Life leadership programme in Scotland that explores the concepts and approaches of 'Caring Conversations' and 'playful provocation' in care homes for older people. The paper shows how they expand notions of appreciation and help people to deepen inquiry, explore values, acknowledge and express emotion without dispute or judgement, articulate tacit knowledge and give voice to things previously thought to be 'unsayable'. We explore how these generative approaches act as a powerful positive 'disruption' that brings existing relationships to life, supports a positive attitude to risk-taking and helps to devise new approaches to the local design and testing of approaches to problems. Ultimately these approaches play an important part in developing understanding of how to do appreciative action research to enhance relationships and more strengths or assets-based and collaborative ways of working and so, to develop new possibilities for changing social systems and a more future-making orientation to action research.


Ringing recoveries of European Stonechats Saxicola torquata increased more than tenfold to 1162 since the last in-depth analysis in 1965. This paper presents a new overview over all recoveries and detailed analyses of Stonechats ringed during the breeding season in Britain, Benelux countries, and Germany. Stonechats showed stronger migratory tendencies than previously thought. Birds of known origin from all parts of Europe were recorded in north African winter quarters. Local overwintering was only observed in Britain, France, Spain, and Italy. Benelux Stonechats were fully migratory, just as their German conspecifics. British Stonechats were partially migrant; according to conservative estimates almost half (42.1%) of the British Stonechats migrated. Instead of segregating into residents and migrants they travelled over a continuous range of distances. Some reached north African winter ranges but median routes were shorter than those of Benelux and German Stonechats. Surprisingly, natal dispersal and post-fledging movements were longer in British partial migrants than in continental obligate migrants. These movements tended to be biased in migration directions. Sexes and age classes showed identical migratory behaviour, an unusual observation among individually migrating birds. Furthermore, migration of Stonechats did not change consistently over the last decades, counter to predictions. In conclusion, European Stonechats are predominantly migratory but partial migration and summer movements seem to be surprisingly plastic.


The transport of high-Z impurity in a toroidally rotating tokamak plasma is investigated analytically and numerically. It is shown that the inward pinch is driven by the atomic processes of ionization/recombination along the particle orbit both in coand ctrrotating plasmas. This inward pinch is enhanced by the radial electric field. It is derived that the negative and positive radial electric fields cause the inward pinch and the outward movement (unpinch) of the high-Z impurity, respectively, under the influence of Coulomb collisions with the rotating background plasma. In the ctr-rotation case, the inward pinch becomes significant with increasing toroidal rotation velocity, because the directions of the both pinches are inward. On the other hand, in the co-rotation case, these pinches have opposite directions. Therefore, the unpinch due to the positive radial electric field is decreased by the inward pinch due to the atomic processes. These tendencies are consistent with the tungsten accumulation observed in the JT-60U rotation scan experiment.


How would you cope if you had no control over how you urinated or defecated and regularly or constantly leaked urine or faeces? How would this make you feel? How would you deal with the smell, with the indignity? What if you were a young teenager, traumatized by very stressful events and returned to bed-wetting as a result? And what would you do if you didn't have the money to buy spare underwear or incontinence protection products or those are simply not available to you? Could you manage if you were suddenly displaced in an emergency and did not have access to a toilet, shower or bathing facilities, or your usual materials and coping mechanisms? What if you lived in a camp and your toilet or bathing shelter was a 5 minute walk away and had a long line in front of it? Would you be able to stand in line at food distribution or water collection points, go to school, or look for or undertake work?


To explore an efficient catalytic system with high activity and selectivity is the key to improve Fischer–Tropsch synthesis (FTS) technology and the main focus in the academic field. Herein, a photothermocatalytic system for FTS was constructed by combining thermo-active components with photosensitive supports. 20 wt% and 30 wt% Co supported on TiO2 nanotube (TNT) catalysts were prepared through an incipient wetness impregnation method (named 20% Co/TNT and 30% Co/TNT) and were applied to a photothermocatalytic process to investigate the role of ultraviolet (UV) illumination in the traditional thermochemical FTS reaction. The results indicated that the introduction of UV light dramatically improved CO conversion, from 9.2% to 64.0% for 20% Co/TNT and from 8.6% to 17.1% for 30% Co/TNT. In addition, UV illumination gave rise to an increase in light paraffin selectivity. The improvement of CO conversion was found to be related to the photogenerated electron transfer from TNTs to active Co sites upon UV light irradiation, which caused the Co sites to have increased surface electron density and subsequently enhanced the adsorption and activation of CO molecules at Co sites. Meanwhile, the increase in light paraffin selectivity was attributed to the photo-promoted hydrogenation of olefin and the hydrogenolysis of the long-chain hydrocarbons. The present work promoted a deeper understanding of the photothermal FTS reaction mechanism and demonstrated that photothermocatalysis could have potential for enhancing FTS catalytic performance and adjusting product distribution.


The influence of structural parameters, including the Schottky barrier height for electron (φBn) and channel doping (Na), on the electrical characteristics of a scaled Schottky barrier tunneling FET (SBTFET) have been clarified by numerical device simulation. The thermionic emission current (ITH) as well as the tunneling current (ITN) have been considered as the main electron injections at the source edge. Simulation results have revealed that the main conduction is ITN in the region near and above the threshold voltage (Vth). As tunneling probability is determined by φBn and the width of the triangular potential barrier at the source edge, a lower φBn with higher Na results in a better subthreshold swing (SS) with high on-state drive current (ION) at a gate length (Lg) of 50 nm. With Lg scaling down to 10 nm, however, a lower φBn has shown an increased off-state leakage current (IOFF) due to the short-channel effect (SCE), while a larger φBn can suppress the IOFF at the cost of ION. Therefore, considering SS with ION and IOFF ratio, it can be concluded that an optimum φBn exists for short-channel devices. The SBTFET showed good subthreshold performance and higher ION/IOFF than the conventional silicon-on-insulator (SOI) MOSFET in 10 nm region with the Schottky barrier height optimization.


Although ultrasound imaging is the main modality to study fetal growth, the analysis of such images is an under-studied area of research especially using 3D ultrasound. In this paper we propose an automatic technique to locate four local fetal brain structures in 3D ultrasound images. Clinically, the localization of such structures in 3D is hard and subjective. However, structure localization is critical to detect some brain abnormalities and to do fetal biometry. The technique we propose is based on a discriminative model (Random Forests) which is gaining a lot of interest recently. The novelty of this work lies in 1) the implicit integration of image features and the relative position of structures in the fetal brain within the technique and 2) the application itself since it is very challenging. We report promising first results which are consistent with published literature on visual detection of fetal brain structures, and suggest that automated analysis of 3D fetal neurosonography may be possible in the future.


One of the key problems in theoretical biology is the identification of the mechanisms underlying the evolution of complexity. This paper suggests that some difficulties in current models could be avoided by taking account of niche selection as proposed by Waddington [21] and subsequent authors [2]. Computer simulations, in which an evolving population of artificial organisms selects the niche(s) that maximize their fitness, are compared with a Control Model in which Niche Selection is absent. In the simulations the Niche Selection Model consistently produced a greater number of fit organisms than the Control Model; although the Niche Selection Model tended, in general, to produce organisms occupying simple niches, it was nonetheless more effective than the Control Model in producing well-adapted organisms inhabiting complex niches. It is shown that the production of these organisms is critically dependent on the rate of environmental change: Slow change leads to fit but undifferentiated populations, dominated by organisms occupying simple niches; differentiated populations, including well-adapted organisms living in complex niches, require rates of environmental change lying just beyond a mathematically well-defined critical value. In simulation Niche Selection, unlike conventional Natural Selection, provides a permanent selective bias in favor of simplicity. This tendency is counterbalanced by statistical forces favoring shifts from rare simple niches to commoner niches of greater complexity. Fit organisms inhabiting complex niches only emerge in conditions where the rate of environmental change is high enough to avoid the concentration of the population in very simple niches, but slow enough to permit step-by-step adaptation to niches of gradually increasing complexity. This result appears to be robust to changes in simulation parameters and assumptions, and leads to interesting conjectures about the real world behavior of biological organisms (and other complex adaptive systems). It is suggested that some of these conjectures might be relatively easy to test.


Rapid ageing leads to huge transformations in many areas of life politics, economy, culture, education, medicine and care services, which in turn shapes the future of all people. Active lifestyle, education and better quality of geriatric care will undoubtedly improve the health and well-being of seniors. The growing population of elderly people, caused, among other things, by the increase in average life expectancy, and current trends in reproduction, migration and mortality, necessitate the development of a new vision on the functioning of seniors and their social roles in the transforming social reality. One platform for the activity and cooperation of older people involves universities of the third age. Universities of the Third Age is an international initiative promoting lifelong learning. They are educational institutions for adults whose programme offers are targeted at seniors. Universities of the third age were established in response to rapid socio-demographic changes in society. They are part of the lifelong learning concept, where education in modern gerontology is regarded as a process enabling seniors to develop comprehensively, manage their own lives, be active in late adulthood, and develop and broaden their interests. The purpose of this article is to explain the idea behind universities of the third age as an unquestioned need to support seniors in education and adaptation to old age.


Government of India (GoI) recognizes that e-Governance, in the context of developing countries, provides an excellent opportunity for improving governance. These changes could not only go a long way in improving the quality of life of these sections of society, but could actually provide them more equitable access to economic opportunities than ever before. Hence the Government of India views e-Governance as a vehicle to initiate and sustain reforms. The present work focuses on various e-government initiatives in India and China. This study aims at finding users perception on level of Satisfaction from e-filling Project in Indian companies. Questionnaire is administered on Company Secretaries, Chartered Accountants of various manufacturing and Service Sector companies of India. Descriptive as well as inferential statistics were used for analyzing data. Data analysis suggested e-filling system need to be strengthened on various parameters like Connectivity with server, Forms format, Ease in communicating information to outsiders, and data Accuracy in India. Implications of the study, limitations and future research directions have also been discussed in this paper.


Coastal shrimp farming has been contributing significantly to the socio-economic development of many tropical countries. This industry, however, is now of great environmental concern regarding mangrove deforestation and eutrophication of coastal waterways. Rapid development of coastal shrimp farming in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, adjacent to the World Heritage-listed Ha Long Bay, over the last decade may lead to unrecognized and undesirable environmental impacts. Hence, this study aimed to investigate key coastal management issues in Quang Ninh including the contraction and expansion of mangroves and shrimp farms, and the impacts of shrimp farm effluent on water/sediment quality of receiving waterways. Satellite images were used to detect land cover/land use change at two study sites (Ha Long and Mong Cai) between 1999 and 2008. The results showed that mangrove areas reduced by an estimated 2,071.9 ha while shrimp farming areas increased by 2,898.4 ha over the same period. Although shrimp farming was the main reason for mangrove loss in Mong Cai, shrimp farms in Ha Long were mainly constructed on areas previously comprising bare soil or waterways. Water and sediment samples from tidal creeks receiving shrimp farm effluent were collected and analyzed for spatial and temporal variation. Spatial variation was found with high levels of nutrient and nutrient-related parameters (dissolved inorganic nitrogen, total phosphorus, biochemical oxygen demand, chlorophyll-a in water; total nitrogen, total phosphorus, total organic carbon in sediment) at channels/creeks adjacent to shrimp farms with these levels declining in the same creeks 2–3 km away from the effluent discharged points. Water quality was found to vary temporally with nutrient levels elevated after shrimp crops, especially for sampling sites adjacent to shrimp farms. From the findings, strategies for improving the existing management regime to promote sustainable management of coastal shrimp farming and broader environmental protection of the study area are discussed.


Until the sixties linguists didn't show any interest in the natural language of prelingually deaf people. Generally speaking their communication system was not considered a real language comparable to any spoken language. The signs used by deaf people were taken as natural gestures. In 1880 at the Milan conference on deaf education it was decided that signs should no longer be used in the schools for the deaf and that deaf people should not be allowed to use their own communication system. Instead, the spoken language of the hearing environment should be learned. At that time deaf educators were convinced of the damaging influence on spoken language development of the use of signs. However, there is no evidence for this. On the contrary, research has shown that the use of sign language as a first language improves the communicative abilities of the deaf people, which could be the basis for learning the spoken language.Despite this resolution deaf communities continued, albeit isola-ted and not openly, to use their own communication system. In 1963 a book was published by an American linguist, William Stokoe, that changed the way in which people thought about sign language. He showed how signs can be analysed into elements comparable to phonemes in spoken language and started the lingu-istic research on grammatical aspects of American Sign Language. This research showed that sign language is indeed a 'real' language, equal to any spoken language and that deaf people should have the right to use this language. Following American research, many linguists in Europe discovered' sign languages in their countries. Even in traditionally oral countries like the Netherlands and Belgium. In this paper some grammatical aspects of sign languages are discussed.


Diamond is a unique material that often exhibits extreme properties compared to other materials. Discovered about 30 years ago, the use of hydrogen in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has enabled the growth and coating of diamond in film form on various substrate materials. CVD diamond research has been actively continued subsequently to develop new understanding and approaches for the growth and processing of this fascinating material. Currently, the study and development of diamond films has enabled a wide range of applications based on the combination of unique and extreme properties of diamond and the variety of film properties obtainable through tuning the microstructure, morphology, impurities, and surfaces. This issue of MRS Bulletin introduces the latest research, recent applications, and the challenges ahead for CVD diamond films.


We present an experimental and numerical analysis of a planar metamaterial that selectively absorbs terahertz radiation. The metamaterial is produced as a planar two-dimensional network of electromagnetic resonators and is characterized by electric and magnetic responses in a narrow frequency range. The unit cell of the metamaterial has fourfold symmetry about the axis perpendicular to the planes containing the metallic resonators. Such a planar metamaterial is polarization-insensitive to the electromagnetic waves. A good agreement of the absorption characteristics obtained from the numerical simulations and from the spectroscopic experiments is shown. The analysis of wave impedance, refractive index, permittivity and permeability of the metamaterial allows the identification of the characteristic electromagnetic resonance and antiresonance in the system. It is shown that the absorption is mostly the result of the electric field energy accumulation in the metamaterial absorber.


Entrepreneurs respond to opportunities that come in two basic forms: innovation and arbitrage. This article presents a technique called the minimum performance inefficiency (MPI) estimation method that could be used to estimate arbitrage opportunities. The technique has several advantages over the conceptually similar data envelopment analysis (DEA) and other techniques. The authors validate the technique with a well-known data set and illustrate its use based on secondary data from the publishing industry.


The proposed SDN-based Mobility Management solution uses OpenFlow 1.3 as Southbound API and RYU as Network Controller. The Network Controller it is responsible to store the users' mobility sessions and to configure properly the anchors. By the access network's point of view, any OpenFlow-enabled node can play the role of anchor. Unlike classical protocol such as GPT and PMIPv6, our solution does not involve any tunnelling mechanism. This can be done by having an IP-based access network where the internal routing is independently driven by MPLS or 802.1Q VLANs. Our implementation deals only the case where the whole access network is Ethernet-based. The internal routing is thus performed using 802.1Q VLANs. As a use case to show the benefits of our SDN-based solution, the MN run multiple flows and a different anchor is selected for each flow. The anchor selection is based on the characteristics of the flows. Furthermore, we cover the use case of network reconfiguration, namely the case when a branch of the network is switched-off for energy saving purpose. In case of anchors placed in the switched-off branch, that have been already assigned and are still active, we show the anchor reassignment mechanism where new anchors are selected in the active branch of the network.


The tax entry threshold is the amount of income a family can earn prior to owing federal income taxes. The poverty threshold is considered to be the minimum dollar amount needed for individuals, couples, or families to purchase food and meet other basic needs. The poverty level increases with family size. How the two relate provides one way to measure how the tax system treats low-income families. If the tax entry threshold falls below the poverty threshold, policy makers might be concerned that low-income families are being asked to pay too much tax.


VC-entrepreneur partnership agreements often contain flaws that become highly damaging as the parties come up against issues of power, trust, and much more. Yet many of the flaws are systematic and predictable-and hence preventable. The author, a longtime consultant to the VC industry, outlines four recommendations for entrepreneurs sitting down at the table with prospective funders. Understand your leverage. Your leverage is not only a function of your alternatives; it has a lot to do with the VC's as well. Seek to understand them, and be prepared to educate the VC about why his exercising too much power could hurt both parties in the long term. Maximize trust. Beneath all the financial projections, the VC negotiation is a process in which people are deciding whom they want to associate with for years to come. If the VC is vulnerable, use the opportunity to build trust rather than to take advantage. Focus on value-not just valuation. Nonfinancial considerations such as control are also important. Strive for understanding. Seemingly abstruse provisions can be highly consequential. And bear in mind that the choices a VC makes when negotiating can contain important clues about her assessments and expectations. Above all, when you're negotiating with a VC, think not only about what will look good in a press release today but also about what will help you create and capture value over the long run. INSETS: Idea in Brief;Lessons for Dealing with VCs.


As research continues to examine the deleterious impact of long-duration spaceflight on human muscle mass and function, there remain gaps in our knowledge of muscle physiology, especially in examining how muscle's ability to recover or rehabilitate from unloading may alter the results of multiple exposures to microgravity followed by 1g recovery. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of resistance exercise training of gastrocnemius muscle mass and anabolism during the initial recovery period immediately following a bout of unloading, as well as to examine the role that exercise may have on a subsequent period of weightlessness. This was achieved in rodent models of simulated spaceflight (0g), recovery (1g), and resistance training (>1g) using male Sprague-Dawley (6 mo) rats randomly assigned to the following groups: 28d hindlimb unloading (HU), 28d HU followed by a 56d recovery period of normal cage ambulation at 1g (1HU+REC), 2 cycles of 28d HU with a 56d recovery period between unloading (2HU), 2HU followed by an additional 56d recovery at 1g (2HU+REC), or an ageand housing-matched control group (CON). In addition, following the initial 28d HU period, two groups of animals were given 7d recovery at 1g followed by a 7wk (3 sessions/wk) moderate-intensity, moderatevolume voluntary resistance exercise program (EX) in which the animals were trained to perform a squatlike motion with full extension of the lower limb and resistance was applied incrementally by weighted pouches over the scapula to ~65% bodyweight. At the conclusion of the experiments, gastrocnemius muscles were carefully excised, weighed, and evaluated for cumulative (24h) rates of protein synthesis (FSR). Values of both muscle mass and FSR were lower than control during periods of unloading (p 0.05), and both were diminished in comparison to control animals, suggesting that benefits of exercise during periods of ambulatory reloading after disuse/microgravity may not be additive. In conclusion, our data suggest that given adequate recovery, microgravity-induced losses of muscle mass can be fully restored to control values, and this adaptational response persists even with multiple exposures. These findings may have important implications not only for career astronauts, but also for individuals who have been subjected to casting of a limb or a period of bed rest following severe injury or illness.


Second-hand smoke exposure (SHSe) causes significant morbidity and mortality in children. A large proportion of children with smoking parents do not live in smoke-free homes, however, to date, little is known about the prevalence of partial smoking restrictions and their efficacy in reducing children's SHSe. Given the lack of convincing evidence on how to achieve further reductions in children's SHSe in the home, the identification of the modifiable factors associated with childhood SHSe is imperative to reduce the burden of disease resulting from childhood SHSe. Analysis of the Omnibus Survey (OS) revealed that the prevalence of smoke-free homes in England did not increase significantly between 2006 and 2008. Only 30% of smokers reported a smoke-free home in 2008. However, during the same time period, the proportion of smokers (who did not have a smoke-free home) reporting that they did not smoke when in the same room as a child increased significantly from 62.5% to 74.8%. Using the Health Survey for England, biologically validated self-reported measures of child SHSe revealed that in 2008 and 2009 approximately 50% of children living with a smoking parent were not exposed to SHSe in the home (0.30ng/ml, 95% confidence interval 0.27-0.32ng/ml). Of the 50% of children who remained exposed inside the home, 29% had a parent that smoked in one room only in the home. These children had significantly lower cotinine concentrations (1.13ng/ml, 95% CI 1.05-1.22) than the 21% of children with smoking parents who smoked in 2 or more rooms in the home (2.36ng/ml, 95% CI 2.08-2.68ng/ml). Although smoking in one room equates to lower risk it does not equate to no risk and so interventions are required to change indoor smoking to outdoor smoking. The OS data found that good knowledge of SHS-related illnesses was predictive of both full and partial smoking restrictions in the home. Increases in the proportion of respondents with good knowledge occurred during 2003-2006, a period when frequent anti-SHS mass media campaigns were aired. A case-study evaluation of a brief mass media campaign in the North West and North East of England, which aimed to move smoking parents to smoke outside, was found to have no statistically significant effect on home smoking behaviour in the short term, however knowledge that SHS caused both heart attack and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome increased in this region following the campaign whilst simultaneous decreases were found in the rest of England. Following the identification of those children most exposed to SHS, and the modifiable factors associated with this exposure, this thesis suggests that a comprehensive multi-level approach to tobacco control policy, which includes emotive media campaigns which include information on SHS-related illnesses, will contribute to the continued reduction of childhood SHSe.


I thought finished cattle prices were going to have a very bullish year with prices well into the $130s by now. Live cattle futures started the year with the same enthusiasm, but have deflated since. What went wrong? The mystery can be unraveled by looking at supply and demand. On the supply side, the expectation at the start of 2013 was for a three percent decline in beef production during the first-half of the year. To date, beef supplies have been down closer to one percent. More beef often means lower prices. There seem to be three demand components contributing to the weaker than expected cattle prices. First, the U.S. economy may have been weaker so far this year than anticipated. Second, reduced pork and chicken exports have meant that more of those products have been adding to domestic meat supplies. Third, retail beef prices rose to record high levels while retail prices of competitive animal proteins were not rising as much, or even falling. Beef exports now look somewhat weaker than last year. The culprit seems to be the strength of the U.S. dollar. The dollar has risen about four percent so far this year. Even more dramatic has been the 12 percent drop in the value of the Japanese yen relative to the dollar. Japan is an important buyer of U.S. beef. Pork exports have dropped off sharply this year, being down fourteen percent in the first two months of the year and chicken exports were down three percent. Lower exports means there is more pork and chicken that remains in the domestic market to compete with beef. The weak U.S. economy has many consumers shopping for value and competitive animal proteins have had lower prices relative to beef over the past six months. Retail choice beef prices have been at record high levels this year reaching $5.30 per retail pound in March. Retail beef prices have risen relative to retail pork prices by about six


This article aims at giving a broad overview on competency-based education to those who are currently in the predominantly knowledge focused discipline-based curriculum and so are uninitiated to the competency-based educational paradigm. This is done by taking them through the curricular trends in medical education that have happened elsewhere in the world and providing them with a gist of what is competency-based medical education, how it is different from the earlier paradigms of instruction, the advantages that this paradigm of mastery learning presents to help the learner acquire competencies needed for doing the professional tasks and duties that are in alignment with health needs of the country, the framework and the broad steps involved in its implementation, the challenges that its implementation presents particularly with regard to benchmarking for assessment as revealed by the experiences in the Western world that resulted in a three-decade lag between intention to change and actual change and the way forward to overcome these challenges particularly through faculty capacity-building using longitudinal faculty development programs or series of faculty retreats to ensure that it can be successfully implemented and sustained to serve the purpose of producing job-ready professionals.


In the present paper, we synthesized the CdS hollow spheres by using PMMA sphere templates of 298-301 nm diameters and 20-51 nm of shell thickness. A CdS hollow sphere was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), optical absorption and photoluminescence technique. CdS products are all cubic face-centered structure with the cell constant a = 5.815 A. We also explore the morphology, structure and possible synthesis mechanism. A possible template mechanism has been proposed for the production of the hollow CdS nano-particles. The band gap of bulk CdS is about 2.45 eV, showing an absorption onset of bulk at about 513 nm. This shows a blue shift in the absorption spectra due to the quantum size effect, which is quite possible due to the small size of the CdS nano crystals as is evident in XRD pattern. The diameter of the beads is about 265-310 nm. The change in beads size due to the CdS over-layer is not so apparent in structures, due to its small thickness. The average diameter of the sphere is similar to that of the beads. Therefore, the spherical shells were obtained after the removal of PMMA core. Copyright © 2010 VBRI press.


Stable blast furnace operation is required to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission in iron and steelmaking industry. For the stable blast furnace operation, precise controlled drainage is one of the important factors. Therefore, in this work, the effect of coke diameter, void fraction, coke diameter distribution, coke free space, impermeable zone, slag viscosity in a blast furnace hearth on drainage rates, gas-slag and slag-iron interfaces shapes and maximum gas-slag interfaces height were examined with a three-dimensional mathematical model.The results indicate that the conditions of the peripheral region at the taphole level determine the residual slag volume. The packed bed in the region 2.0m from the taphole has about 50% of contribution to the residual slag volume. The void fraction change has the largest effect on the gas-slag interfaces height. The coke diameter distribution has little effect on the total drainage rate as well as the coke diameter of the uniform packed bed, coke free space, and impermeable zone bellow the taphole level. The taphole conditions dominate the total drainage rate under the terms of the assumed blast furnace conditions. The conditions of the peripheral region in the hearth determine the drainage rate patterns of the iron and slag. The peripheral region's permeability can be predicted from the drainage rate patterns of iron and slag, if precise measurement of the drainage rate patterns can be achieved. A drainage pattern, whether iron drains prior to slag or slag drains prior to iron, is largely affected by a drainage interval.


Already since the start of civilisation dredging is carried out to create and maintain waterways and ports or to create new land. In recent times the scale of dredging and awareness of potential environmental impact of dredging have increased drastically. An often used dredging vessel is the trailing suction hopper dredger (TSHD). A TSHD pumps up a sediment-water mixture from the bed into a hopper. In this hopper the sediment is given time to settle and the process water is spilled overboard, often through a vertical shaft called the overflow. The spilled process water will contain some suspended sediment which has not deposited yet and this forms a turbid plume. Increased turbidity and deposition at the bed of the suspended sediment from the overflow dredging plume can have negative environmental impact. Identify the factors which create the surface plume and testing a solution to improve this is done in this thesis. Initial mixing of the overflow dredging plume under/near the TSHD is not well understood. Although the plume starts under the keel of a TSHD, it has initial downward velocity and it is denser than the ambient water, sometimes a part of the plume flows up- ward and reaches the free surface right behind the TSHD. This so called surface plume can stay suspended for long periods and is therefore important for the potential environmental impact. This thesis reports on laboratory experiments in still ambient water and numerical modelling with a crossflow. Specific attention is given to the change of overflow shape, from round to rectangular, which is tested in the laboratory experiments. Firstly, all influence factors which create a surface plume are investigated to see which factors have the highest influence. Based on the wish of a passive solution and the ability to do laboratory experiments, the change of overflow shape is chosen to investigate further. The analytical background of plume dispersion with different shapes is investigated to find the differences between them. The laboratory experiments where conducted at the dredging lab at the Technical University of Delft. In this lab, a 25m³ tank filled with water where at the top a frame is positioned which holds the overflow pipe. By adding two type of nozzles (different rectangular aspect ratio) onto the pipe, the outflow shape is changed to see if a rectangular outflow shape improves the plume path in still ambient water. This is done by measuring the concentrations at the bottom and measuring the angle of the plume. Results of the experiments show less entrainment and higher concentrations in the middle of the plume when having a rectangular outflow shape. To say something about the improvement of the plume path in real live, the plume is modelled by adding a crossflow. The information from the experiments is used to create a plume trajectory of the round outflow shape and rectangular outflow shape which are then compared with each other. Practical values are then scaled and used in the model. Results of the model show similarity from the experiments, with a deeper plume trajectory when having a rectangular outflow shape.


Rapid infiltration basin systems (RIBS) are used for the application of treated wastewater to soil for wastewater disposal. To ensure sufficient additional wastewater treatment, U.S. regulations require a minimum separation distance between the infiltration basin and groundwater. Analytical and numerical models that predict groundwater mounding beneath basins have assumed a uniform specified flux boundary condition across the basin. In many systems, however, the basins are only partially flooded, with overland flow and soil infiltration controlling the extent of basin inundation. The iTOUGH2 computer code was modified to describe the coupled surface–subsurface flow in RIBS. After testing the model with published laboratory and field data, simulations were used to estimate groundwater mounding beneath RIBS for four hydraulic loading rates and two flooding periods in two representative soils. Because of interest in nitrate (NO3−) removal beneath RIBS, a simplified approach using a domain‐average denitrification reduction factor, Fs, was used to assess the impact of pore water saturation on denitrification. Simulations using the conventional specified flux boundary condition underpredicted groundwater mounding by as much as a factor of 25 in loamy sand and a factor of 6 in sand. The impact of the basin boundary condition on Fs was less significant, with Fs reduced by up to 50% if the specified flux boundary condition was used. Thus, ignoring overland flow underpredicts denitrification and groundwater mounding for the cases studied here. For a fixed amount of wastewater discharged during a weekly flooding–drying cycle, simulations indicate that longer flooding periods result in less groundwater mounding but a reduction in denitrification.


Abstract On the Madison Symmetric Torus magnetic fusion plasma experiment, frozen pellet injection is an established method of depositing deuterium fuel into the core of the plasma. To freeze deuterium gas into pellets, the injector is cooled to 10 K with a cryogenic helium refrigerator. To exhaust residual frozen deuterium following injection of each pellet, the injector is warmed by resistive heating to >18.7 K, the triple point of deuterium. Motivated by the desire to inject carbon-containing pellets, the injector was modified to allow the freezing and injection of methane. The triple point of methane, 90.7 K, is well beyond the capability of the resistive heating hardware. To supplement the resistive heating, a small, steady flow of room-temperature helium was introduced as a heat source. The flow rate was optimized to provide minimum and maximum injector temperatures of 24 and 95 K, respectively, sufficient for methane pellet formation and exhaust. The flow rate can easily be optimized for other gases as well.


Mackenzie outlines a scheme to provide greater adult and community support young people at risk of falling into a life of crime and young offenders. Ippr's research has already shown that the most prolific criminals begin offending between the ages of 10 and 13, and that a lack of adult support is a key risk factor for young people turning to crime. Simon MacKenzie has proposed creating mentoring circles for these young people, based on a model already used in Canada. The aim of the circles to prevent young people offending in the first place, and to prevent reoffending by young people who have already committed a crime. Each 'circle' would consist of three to give adult volunteers who would meet regularly with the young person to offer mentoring, and support with problems that could lead to offending and re-offending. The cost of running each circle would be £9,000 per year, compared to the annual cost of £40,000 for a young person in the criminal justice system.


In 1991, the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) formed a joint cooperative research program for wood transportation structures. Development and execution of this program was based on a national assessment of research needs and priorities. In the 5 years since the completion of the research needs assessment, significant research has been completed or is ongoing for wood transportation structures. This publication provides a summary of the research accomplishments of the joint research program.


The increasing popularity of wood fired heating appliances in cold winter climates has focused attention on assessment of woodsmoke exposures. Pollution from residential wood combustion (RWC) is a major concern in areas with valley topography where nighttime inversions limit the dispersion of pollutants from ground-level sources. An intensive characterization of ambient particulate mater (PM) from RWC was performed in northern New York State during winter 2008-2009 in an area where the 2005 U.S. EPA National Emissions Inventory shows RWC to be the largest source of PM2.5. Measurements of woodsmoke PM were made using optical scattering and absorption techniques during repeated night-time mobile monitoring to provide data with high spatial and temporal resolution; measurements were also made at six fixed sites for the study period to provide temporal context for the mobile measurements. The difference in optical absorption at near-infrared and near-ultraviolet wavelengths was used as a specific marker for woodsmoke PM. Woodsmoke was the only significant contributor to elevated night-time valley PM concentrations during mobile run nights; short-term (3 minute) PM concentrations frequently exceeded 100 μg/m^3. Concentrations observed with mobile monitoring were consistently elevated at valley bottoms where the majority of the population lives, and approached zero outside of valleys. Data from fixed sites indicated that woodsmoke levels peaked near midnight, with a secondary peak around 7 AM and a mid-day minimum. These patterns are consistent with RWC use and diurnal patterns of atmospheric dispersion.


Recommender Systems heavily rely on numerical preferences, whereas the importance of ordinal preferences has only been recognised in recent works of Ordinal Matrix Factorisation (OMF). Although the OMF can eectively exploit ordinal properties, it captures only the higher-order interactions among users and items, without considering the localised interactions properly. This paper employs Markov Random Fields (MRF) to investigate the localised interactions, and proposes a unied model called Ordinal Random Fields (ORF) to take advantages of both the representational power of the MRF and the ease of modelling ordinal preferences by the OMF. Experimental result on public datasets demonstrates that the proposed ORF model can capture both types of interactions, resulting in improved recommendation accuracy.


The report provides a coherent set of strategy measures and action programme for the diversification of activities in the rural areas of Armenia. The main findings of this report will complement the Government of Armenia's (GoA) agriculture development strategy delineating the main lines of an action plan for the promotion of activity diversification in rural areas. It is expected that the reports will indicate priorities for the design of technical assistance projects dealing with the diversification of activities and rural development. The report is organised as follows. The first section provides background information on the RNFE in Armenia. The second section summarises recent agricultural sector and macroeconomic developments in Armenia as they relate to the RNFE. The third section describes the sampled communities socio-economic structure, agricultural sector and natural resource base. Section 4 outlines our regional/community level analysis of the pattern of non-farm rural employment and income generating activities (IGAs) diversification in a transition economy context. Section 5 of the report is based on our social survey and focus group activities which analyse the main determinants of participation in the non-farm economy. The findings from section 5 are then discussed and elaborated upon in Section 6 of the report where data are presented on the activities of "successful" rural non-farm diversifiers – non-farm enterprises – which is presented in the context of the rural economies of the surveyed marzes/ regions (Ararat, Gegharkounik and Syunik). Finally, the main findings of the report are placed in a national context and RNFE policy proposals and suggestions on strategic planning are advanced.


We describe the arrival time measurements and timing modeling of the periodic radio flares and optical brightness variations of the M9 ultracool dwarf, TVLM 513-46546. We confirm the stability of the observed period and determine its best-fit value to be 7054.468 ± 0.007 s over the last 7 yr, based on both the new and archival radio observations and the archival optical data. The period, when measured separately for the radio flare and the optical periodicities, is the same to within ±0.02 s. We show that the radio flares are out of phase with respect to the optical brightness maxima by 0.41 ± 0.02 of the period. Our analysis also reveals that, on shorter timescales, the period varies with the amplitude of ±1–2 s about its long-term average and that these variations are correlated between the radio and the optical wavelengths. These results provide further evidence that TVLM 513-46546 is equipped with a stable, approximately dipolar magnetic field that powers the activity of the star observed over a wide wavelength range, and that the active area has been maintaining its identity and positional stability over no less than 7 yr. A stepwise decline of the apparent radio flaring period of TVLM 513-46546, deduced from timing observations with the Arecibo radio telescope in late 2012 and early 2013, suggests that this effect may be the manifestation of differential rotation of the star.


The Nakasib suture is a late Proterozoic (Pan-African) ophiolite-decorated structural belt in the central Red Sea Hills of the Sudan. It represents one of the sutures along which the island arc/back-arc terranes and continental microplates of the Arabian-Nubian Shield are welded together. The Nakasib suture separates the 900–850 Ma old Haya terrane in the south from the 830–720 Ma old Gebeit terrane to the north. Five thrust-bounded stratigraphical groups are identified across the suture. These are, from south to north, Arbaat volcanic group (c. 730 Ma rift-related volcanic rocks), Salatib group (early passive margin volcanic and sedimentary rocks), Meritri group (the lower part of which contains alluvial and submarine fans of an incipient ocean basin, while its upper part can be tentatively equated with a platform of clastic sedimentary and carbonate intercalations which mark the stage of mature ocean basin opening), Nakasib ophiolite, and Shalhout group (arc-related volcanic and sedimentary rocks). These are intruded by syn-tectonic and post-tectonic plutonic rocks. The tectonic setting of the above lithological groups suggests that the early stage of the Nakasib suture development was marked by rifting of older crust, probably the Haya terrane, which culminated in development of a passive margin on the south margin of an oceanic basin prior to collapse into an ophiolite-decorated suture. This indicates that the Nakasib suture evolved through a complete Wilson cycle orogeny from rifting, through passive margin formation, to closure of the basin and suturing.


The discrete multitone (DMT) modulation/demodulation scheme is the standard transmission technique in the application of asymmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL) and very-high-speed digital subscriber lines (VDSL). Although the DMT can achieve higher data rate compared with other modulation/demodulation schemes, its computational complexity is too high for cost-efficient implementations. For example, it requires 512-point IFFT/FFT as the modulation/demodulation kernel in the ADSL systems and even higher in the VDSL systems. The large block size results in heavy computational load in running programmable digital signal processors (DSPs). In this paper, we derive computationally efficient fast algorithm for the IFFT/FFT. The proposed algorithm can avoid complex-domain operations that are inevitable in conventional IFFT/FFT computation. The resulting software function requires less computational complexity. We show that it acquires only 17% number of multiplications to compute the IFFT and FFT compared with the Cooly-Tukey algorithm. Hence, the proposed fast algorithm is very suitable for firmware development in reducing the MIPS count in programmable DSPs.


The use of immunoglobulin (Ig) preparations (intravenous, IVIg, subcutaneous, SCIg) for replacement and immunomodulation therapy worldwide has tripled in the past 20 years and represents an ever‐increasing cost factor for healthcare organizations. The limited access to the starting material of this essential medicinal product is currently the driving force for human plasma collection. Increasing awareness and improved diagnosis of human primary immunodeficiencies and a broadening of immunomodulatory indications are responsible for this development, and on a longer run might lead to plasma supply shortages. Consensus recommendations for the optimal use of Ig in clinical practice, including priority rankings for the most urgent indications, are therefore urgently needed. During a recent meeting in Kreuth, Germany, expert nominees from 36 Council of Europe states, together with colleagues from observer countries and regulatory agencies came up with this consensus statement.


In phase-shifting interferometry spatial nonuniformity of the phase shift gives a significant error in the evaluated phase when the phase shift is nonlinear. However, current error-compensating algorithms can counteract the spatial nonuniformity only in linear miscalibrations of the phase shift. We describe an error-expansion method to construct phase-shifting algorithms that can compensate for nonlinear and spatially nonuniform phase shifts. The condition for eliminating the effect of nonlinear and spatially nonuniform phase shifts is given as a set of linear equations of the sampling amplitudes. As examples, three new algorithms (six-sample, eight-sample, and nine-sample algorithms) are given to show the method of compensation for a quadratic and spatially nonuniform phase shift.


Numerous initiatives, such as the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Race and Values in Education process of the Department of Education, the government‐initiated (but now civic‐led) Moral Regeneration Movement and the pervasive indigenous African philosophy of ubuntu have, over the past twelve years since South Africa's transition to democracy, contributed materially to reforming and renewing the concepts of citizenship and morality in South Africa. Central to this debate have been issues of socio‐economic justice for the vast majority of her historically disadvantaged citizens; a developing conception of the nature of citizenship in a country newly emerging from totalitarianism; a maturing understanding of the possible roles of faith within a democracy; and the struggle to define the relationship between citizenship, moral and religious education. This paper describes and critiques these initiatives and offers an analysis of the lessons each have contributed to the long road to citizenship in post‐apartheid South Africa.


In times of public crises, including the current Covid-19 pandemic, rapid dissemination of relevant scientific knowledge is of paramount importance. The duration of scholarly journals' publication process is one of the main factors hindering quick delivery of new information. While proper editorial assessment and peer review obviously require some time, turnaround times for medical journals can be up to several months, which is undesirable in the era of a crisis. Following initiatives of medical journals and scholarly publishers to accelerate their publication process, this study assesses whether medical journals have indeed managed to speed up their publication process for Covid-19 related articles. It studies the duration of 14 medical journals' publication process both during and prior to the current pandemic. Assessing a total of 669 articles, the study concludes that medical journals have indeed drastically accelerated the publication process for Covid-19 related articles since the outbreak of the pandemic. Compared to articles published in the same journals before the pandemic, turnaround times have decreased on average by 49%. The largest decrease in number of days between submission and publication of articles was due to a decrease in the number of days required for peer review. For articles not related to Covid-19, no acceleration of the publication process is found. While the acceleration of journals' publication process is laudable from the perspective of quick information dissemination, it also raises concerns relating to the quality of the peer review process and the quality of the resulting publications.


A repeated finding in the literature of face recognition is that expressive faces are remembered better than neutral faces. However, a better facial-identity recognition may come at a cost of a reduced precision with which the pictorial facial features, irrelevant for identity recognition, are represented in memory. By means of a continuous-report task, we tested this hypothesis by measuring the memory precision of expressive and neutral faces. Commensurable face-identity and facial-expressions variations were generated with the method of Fechnerian scaling. The results confirm our hypothesis, but only under conditions of high memory load. We interpret the present findings as due to the effects of the categorical processes required for facial-identity recognition.


We present an approach for efficient navigation through an on-line product catalog. The goals of the approach are (i) to support a user in a step-by-step searching for a product and (ii) to ensure the product he has found is the best solution for his need. The product database is based on a light-weighted ontology and structured in the form of a lattice that enables hierarchicals clustering of users' requests. It means that a user can navigate from a very general product-attribute cluster, which satisfies user's buying need and contains a lot of products, to the very specific clusters that seem to contain a few, but for the user highly relevant, products. In each navigation step, the user is provided with the minimal set of navigation alternatives. In order to enhance the processing of the lattice, the partial ordering of the products-attributes clusters is computed using methods from formal concept analysis.


In the first volume of Raymond E. Brown's magisterial three-volume commentary on the Gospel According to John, all of the major Johannine questions—of authorship, composition, dating, the relationship of John to the Synoptics (Mark, Matthew, and Luke)—are discussed. The important theories of modern biblical scholarship concerning John are weighed against the evidence given in the text and against prevailing biblical research. In sum, what is attempted is a synthesis of the major scholarly insights that bear on the Fourth Gospel.
 The translation—as Father Brown states at the outset—strives not for any formal beauty but rather for an accurate and contemporary version: "the simple, everyday Greek of the Gospel has been rendered into the ordinary American English of today." The result is a translation that will strike the reader with uncommon immediacy.
 Father Brown also analyzes, in the appendixes, the meaning, use, and frequency of certain key words and phrases that occur in John, and examines the differences between the Johannine and Synoptic treatments of the miracle stories. The chapters of the Gospel translated here in Volume 29 (1–12) comprise the Prologue, which opens with the famous "In the beginning was the Word," and the Book of Signs, an account of the miracles of Jesus and of his ministry.


Salinity measurements have been used to calculate the freshwater content in Hornsund for the years 2001 to 2014. In 2011 there was significantly higher freshwater content in the fjord, compared to the other years, with a total freshwater content of 1.08 km, when calculated with a reference salinity of 34.2. The high freshwater content in 2011 was attributed to the inflow of sea ice and sea ice meltwater of Barents Sea origin, that had been advected into the fjord from the shelf. The lowest amount of freshwater was found in July 2014. No good relashionship between estimations of variations in terrestial runoff and freshwater content in the fjord was found. The distribution of freshwater in Hornsund seems to be governed by wind conditions and the rotational dynamics in the fjord. The fractional contributions of meteoric water, sea ice meltwater, and seawater was calculated based on δO and salinity measurements in September 2013. Significant amounts of meteoric water was found in the surface waters of the bays Burgerbukta and Brepollen. The δO in Brepollen, the innermost bay of Hornsund, showed unusually high values compared to other δO measurements taken in and around Svalbard. This was attributed to the possible existence of a hydrothermal vent or significant amounts of sea ice meltwater in the bay.


A virtual plague is a process in which a behavior-affecting property spreads among characters in a Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG). The MMOG individuals constitute a synthetic population, and the game can be seen as a form of interactive executable model for studying disease spread, albeit of a very special kind. To a game developer maintaining an MMOG, recognizing, monitoring, and ultimately controlling a virtual plague is important, regardless of how it was initiated. The prospect of using tools, methods and theory from the field of epidemiology to do this seems natural and appealing. We will address the feasibility of such a prospect, first by considering some basic measures used in epidemiology, then by pointing out the differences between real world epidemics and virtual plagues. We also suggest directions for MMOG developer control through epidemiological modeling. Our aim is understanding the properties of virtual plagues, rather than trying to eliminate them or mitigate their effects, as would be in the case of real infectious disease.


In ancient times, the Celsius first identified the masses in the neck and reported that their surgical removal was fatal. The sources related to thyroid surgery show that the success of the neck masses with the surgical intervention was limited until the second half of the nineteenth century. Among the names leading the development of thyroid surgery in contemporary times are Emil Theodor Kocher, Theodor Billroth, William James Mayo, and William Stewart Halsted. In this chapter, we will be investigating thyroid gland embryology, histology, and anatomy that is essential to the practicing thyroid surgeon.


Over the past three decades the occurrence of high environmental concentrations of arsenic has been recognized as a major public health concern. Arsenic is a carcinogen and causative agent for number of diseases. The toxic and carcinogenic effects of arsenic are the result of inactivation of specific enzymes of metabolism, induction of oxidative stress, inhibition of DNA repair mechanisms and deregulation of cell proliferation. Despite its toxicity, arsenic has a long history of usage as chemotherapeutic agent. Today, drugs containing arsenic (and the related metalloid antimony) are used for treating acute promyelocytic leukemia and diseases caused by protozoan parasites. In response to its toxicity, many microorganisms have developed arsenic resistance mechanism. In bacteria, arsenic resistance genes are organized in ars operons. The best characterized, the ars operon from Escherichia coli plasmid R773, has five genes, arsRDABC. ArsC is a reductase that reduces inorganic As(V) to As(III). ArsR is a 117-residue homodimeric As(III)-responsive transcriptional repressor with high affinity for the ars promoter. ArsA is an ATPase, which is the catalytic subunit of the ArsAB efflux pump, and ArsD is an As(III) chaperone to the ArsAB pump. ArsD is a homodimer of two 120-residue subunits with three vicinal cysteine pairs, Cys12-Cys13, Cys112-Cys113 and Cys119-Cys120. A fully-active truncated version of ArsD protein with 109 residues (ArsD109) has been crystallized, and the structure has been solved using X-ray crystallography. Biochemical studies suggested that wild-type ArsD binds three As(III) per monomer, while the derivative with a truncation at residue 109 binds only a single As(III). To understand the secondary structure and folding of the C-terminus of ArsD, which includes two cysteine pairs Cys112-Cys113 and Cys119-Cys120, Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations were employed using AMBER software in presence or absence of arsenite [As(III)] ligand.


Wind products from geostationary satellites have been generated for over 20 years and are now used in numerical weather prediction systems. However, geostationary satellites are of limited utility poleward of the midlatitudes. This study demonstrates the feasibility of deriving high latitude tropospheric wind information from polar-orbiting satellites. The methodology employed is based on the algorithms currently used with geostationary satellites, modified for use with the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) infrared window and water vapor bands. These bands provide wind information throughout the troposphere in both clear and cloudy conditions. The project presents some unique challenges, including the irregularity of temporal sampling, varying viewing geometries, and uncertainties in wind vector height assignment as a result of low atmospheric water vapor amounts and thin clouds. A 30-day case study dataset has been produced and is being used in model impact studies. Preliminary results are encouraging: when the MODIS winds are assimilated in the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) system and the NASA Data Assimilation Office system, forecasts of the geopotential height for the Arctic, the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, and the Antarctic are improved significantly.


Following information scent has been established as a metaphor to describe a user's behaviour while navigating an information space by successively selecting hyperlinks. This metaphor suggests that users assess the profitability of following a particular hyperlink based on its perceived semantic association with their goal. The purpose of this paper is to study how information scent, this important attribute of hypermedia navigability, influences concurrently four aspects of users' behaviour while exploring a website: (1) distribution of attention; (2) confidence in choice of link; (3) efficiency; and (4) effectiveness. It was found that in webpages with high scent, users were significantly more focused, confident of their choices, efficient and effective compared to webpages with ambiguous scent. The findings of the study are discussed in comparison with results obtained from a previously conducted analysis using InfoScent Evaluator (ISEtool), a tool that has been proposed to facilitate scent evaluation of websites. This comparison provided support for the effectiveness of ISEtool in indicating potential scent-related navigability problems. We argue that such a tool-based approach can facilitate hypermedia design by reducing the resources and expertise required, and by providing the necessary flexibility for practitioners.


The drop shock reliability of a Sn-Ag-Cu solder system in ball grid array (BGA) interconnects were improved by selecting a lower Ag chemical content and the addition of a small amount of Ni. The drop shock reliability of Sn-Ag-Cu solder in BGA interconnects was enhanced by the addition of small amount of Ni, and LF35(Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-Ni) had twice better drop shock reliability than LF45(Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu). One of the main reasons is the solder with lower Ag contents in the Sn-Ag-Cu solder system demonstrated softer properties in terms of hardness. Different intermetallic compound (IMC) layer morphologies were found on the Cu electrodes after reflow between Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-Ni and Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu, in which the former is smooth IMC and the latter is like a peninsula IMC. Different cracks modes were also detected. Cracks in Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-Ni were mainly inside solder and cracks in Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu were near the solder/electrode interface for all drop shocks tested. From SEM, EPMA mapping and TEM analysis, the small amount of doped Ni was mostly segregated at the interface. The doped Ni mainly existed in the Cu6Sn5 IMC layer region as formed (Cu,Ni)6Sn5, and the Cu3Sn IMC region contains less Ni. Both different IMC morphologies and crack locations were discussed on the basis of the lattice distortion relaxation. The Cu 6Sn5 peninsula IMC growth was discussed that was caused by the compression stress of itself, and the Sn-3.0Ag-0.5Cu crack inside the IMC was also discussed that was caused by the difference stress between Cu6Sn5 (compression stress) and Cu 3Sn (tensile stress). Namely, the doped Ni was substituted for the Cu site of Cu6Sn5 and their lattice distortions were relaxed due to the smaller atomic radius of Ni compared with Cu. The stress difference between (Cu,Ni)6Sn5 and Cu3Sn was relieved by the Ni substitutions, which improved the drop shock reliability in BGA of Sn-1.2Ag-0.5Cu-Ni


INTRODUCTION Although the outcome may be death, the act of the physician may be solely to provide comfort. In this case, a physician is not acting as a tool of the government; he is acting as a physician whose goals temporarily align with the goals of the government. (1) The medical profession has been involved in capital punishment for hundreds of years. For the majority of history, this involvement has been limited to the design of execution techniques, with the primary goal of eliminating the risk of unnecessary suffering. (2) This effort on the part of physicians to make executions more humane influenced the development of the guillotine, the electric chair, the gas chamber, and lethal injection. Lethal injection, however, is unique in that it was not only designed by a physician, it was also designed to imitate a medical procedure: the intravenous induction of general anesthesia. Thus lethal injection, unlike other execution methods, not only simulates medical practice, but also uses materials and expertise that are ordinarily used for healing. This has required medical professionals (3) to become active participants in executions. The introduction of lethal injection in the United States marked the beginning of a rapid rise in the execution rate that has only recently begun to decline. At the same time, executions by other modern methods have fallen to nearly zero. (4) Thus, lethal injection has become synonymous with capital punishment in the United States, forcing the medical profession to become an integral part of the machinery of death. Part I of this Article provides a brief background of physician involvement in capital punishment prior to the development of lethal injection and discusses the pathophysiology of various execution methods. Part II demonstrates how the introduction of lethal injection fundamentally changed capital punishment in the United States by adding a veneer of medical respectability to judicial executions. Part III concludes that the direct result of this "medicalized" execution technique has been to draw medical professionals into the death chamber in violation of national and international ethical guidelines. Part IV describes how medicalized executions create an ethical conflict--the "Hippocratic paradox." (5) This paradox exists because it is immoral for medical professionals to increase the risk of another human being suffering torture by not participating, but also immoral for medical professionals to perform executions, because such participation risks irreparable harm to the medical profession and to the community as a whole. I. BACKGROUND: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF KILLING AND THE SEARCH FOR "HUMANE" CAPITAL PUNISHMENT "The device strikes like lightning; the head flies, blood spouts, the man has ceased to live." --Dr. Louis Guillotin, describing a humane execution (6) The origin of physician involvement in legally sanctioned killing is unknown. The first, and still the most famous, physician to be associated with a specific killing technique was Dr. Louis Guillotin. (7) Torture-executions were common in Guillotin's time, including execution methods that caused multiple skeletal fractures ("breaking on the wheel"), massive full thickness burns ("burning at the stake"), and asphyxiation by spinal cord transection (hanging). (8) By comparison, beheading with a sword must have seemed quite humane. In fact, in Guillotin's day, this form of punishment was reserved for "convicted aristocrats, and occasionally for royalty." (9) Decapitation by sword, however, was exceedingly operator-dependent, and required both a strong, accurate executioner and a sharp blade for success. (10) Guillotin, in his role as a reformer of capital punishment, (11) sought to end torture-executions and suggested that the same killing technique be used regardless of the social class of the condemned. He endorsed, but did not design, the execution machinery that now so famously bears his name. …


The Theoretical Roots of Early Behaviourism: Functionalism, the Critique of Introspection, and the Nature and Evolution of Consciousness. (An Anthology of 26 articles by John Dewey and Henry Bode, among others)[1842-1914] 360pp The Experimental and Comparative Roots of Early Behaviourism: Studies of Animal and Infant Behaviour. (An Anthology of 12 articles by Charles Darwin and Leonard Hobhouse, among others) [1840-1911] 412pp An Introduction to Comparative Psychology [1894] Conwy Lloyd Morgan 628pp Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology [1900] Jacques Loeb 342pp Fundamental Laws of Human Behaviour [1911] Max Frederick Meyer 264pp Behaviour. An Introduction to Comparative Psychology [1914] John Broadus Watson 482pp


Much attention has been given to the content of introductory computer science courses, but based upon a perusal of introductory textbooks, it appears that somewhat less attention has been given to the programming exercises to be used in these courses. Programming exercises can be modified to provide a better educational experience for the student. An example of how atypical programming exercises were incorporated into an introductory programming language course is described.


Trace element analysis of 60 Burmese and Thai rubies by using the technique of proton-induced x-ray emission was carried out. It was found that the Burmese rubies contained higher concentrations of all impurities except iron. Our results also reveal that vanadium and iron are useful indicators for Burmese and Thai ruby attribution. The Thai rubies have high contents of iron and very low concentrations of vanadium. On the other hand, all the Burmese rubies examined contain significant amounts of vanadium, and their iron contents are, on the average, four times lower than those in the Thai rubies.


Few journeys have had as great an impact on American culture as Orville Wright's first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903--a twelve-second, one-hundred-twenty-foot trip that has captivated American thought and influenced American life ever since.Although countless books for aviation buffs have appeared since World War II, none has attempted to place the airplane in its full social, cultural, and interdisciplinary context until now. The first book of its kind, "The Airplane in American Culture" presents essays by distinguished contributors including historians, literary scholars, scholars of American studies, art historians, and museum professionals that explore a range of topics, including the connections between flying and race and gender; aviation's role in forming perceptions of the landscape; the airplane's significance to the culture of war; and the influence of flight on literature and art.A must-read collection for anyone fascinated by the airplane, "The Airplane in American Culture" represents a dramatic new approach to writing the history of aviation, and makes an important contribution to American social and cultural history.Dominick A. Pisano is Curator of the Aeronautics Department at the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.


The average symbol error rate is studied for subcarrier intensity modulated wireless optical communication systems employing general order rectangular quadrature amplitude modulation. We consider three different turbulence channel models, i.e., the Gamma-Gamma channel, the K-distributed channel, and the negative exponential channel with different levels of turbulence. Closed-form error rate expressions are derived using a series expansion of the modified Bessel function. In addition, detailed truncation error analysis and asymptotic error rate analysis are also presented. Numerical results demonstrate that our series solutions are highly accurate and efficient.


: The population trend of the red-backed shrike, Lanius collurio , is declining in its range. We studied the breeding biology of this species in the 2011 and 2012 breeding seasons in the north of Turkey. Our study site was an area of approximately 650 ha in the Kızılırmak Delta. Population density was 2.4 breeding pairs (bp)/10 ha and 2.7 bp/10 ha in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Blackberry bushes were used most frequently as nest sites (66%). The mean height of the nests from the ground was 125 ± 39 cm. The mean height of nest plants was 224 cm ± 76 cm. Nest height and nest plant height were positively correlated. We present an inequality of breeding parameters in the two successive breeding seasons. In 2011, the red-backed shrikes arrived at their breeding sites later, began to breed later, laid smaller clutches, and were less productive than in 2012. The main factor of the nest failures was nest predation in the study area. We detected normal second broods (six pairs) and it seems that this case was not exceptional. The Kızılırmak Delta is an important breeding area of the red-backed shrike population and more comprehensive studies are required.


Abstract When data arrive in a sequence of two or more datasets, modeling on the most recent dataset should take previous datasets into account. We specifically investigate a strategy for regression modeling when parameter estimates from previous data can be used as anchoring points, yet may not be available for all parameters, thus, covariance information cannot be reused. A procedure that updates through targeted penalized estimation, which shrinks the estimator toward a nonzero value, is presented. The parameter estimate from the previous data serves as this nonzero value when an update is sought from novel data. This naturally extends to a sequence of datasets with the same response, but potentially only partial overlap in covariates. The iteratively updated regression parameter estimator is shown to be asymptotically unbiased and consistent. The penalty parameter is chosen through constrained cross-validated log-likelihood optimization. The constraint bounds the amount of shrinkage of the updated estimator toward the current one from below. The bound aims to preserve the (updated) estimator's goodness of fit on all-but-the-novel data. The proposed approach is compared to other regression modeling procedures. Finally, it is illustrated on an epidemiological study where the data arrive in batches with different covariate-availability and the model is refitted with the availability of a novel batch. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Clostridium difficile has emerged rapidly as the leading cause of antibiotic-associated diarrheal disease, with the temporal and geographical appearance of dominant PCR ribotypes such as 017, 027 and 078. Despite this continued threat, we have a poor understanding of how or why particular variants emerge and the sources of strains that dominate different human populations. We have undertaken a breadth genotyping study using multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis of 385 C. difficile strains from diverse sources by host (human, animal and food), geographical locations (North America, Europe and Australia) and PCR ribotypes. Results identified 18 novel sequence types (STs) and 3 new allele sequences and confirmed the presence of five distinct clonal lineages generally associated with outbreaks of C. difficile infection in humans. Strains of animal and food origin were found of both ST-1 and ST-11 that are frequently associated with human disease. An in depth MLST analysis of the evolutionary distant ST-11/PCR ribotype 078 clonal lineage revealed that ST-11 can be found in alternative but closely related PCR ribotypes and PCR ribotype 078 alleles contain mutations generating novel STs. PCR ribotype 027 and 017 lineages may consist of two divergent subclades. Furthermore evidence of microdiversity was present within the heterogeneous clade 1. This study helps to define the evolutionary origin of dominant C. difficile lineages and demonstrates that C. difficile is continuing to evolve in concert with human activity.


Increasing demand paired with declining catch rates from traditional fisheries has caused fishers from across the tropical Indian and Pacific Oceans to shift their focus towards deep-reef species. This trend is also seen in Australia; however, little is known about the local biology and ecology of these newly targeted species. Therefore, my objective was to combine multiple techniques, including underwater video, multibeam analysis of habitat, and otolith microchemistry, to examine the distribution, abundance, and species composition of a commercially important assemblage of deep-reef fishes. The information gathered from this project will assist in the resource management of these unique fish assemblages.

In this project I examined the biodiversity and ecology of deep-reef fishes at multiple spatial scales. I considered large depth gradients along the continental shelf-break to look at shifts in assemblage structure, but also broad geographic scales extending thousands of kilometres that had the potential to encapsulate multiple stocks. My specific aims were: (1) to describe deep-reef fish assemblages and examine fish-habitat associations for shelf-break environments in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), Chapters 2 through 5; (2) to determine the utility of otolith microchemistry to identify regional stock structure, and then to apply the technique to fish populations across the Indian Ocean to the Central Pacific (Chapters 6 and 7).

In Chapter 2, I demonstrated that depth was a strong predictor of the distribution of fishes. Individual species had different depth distributions and few fish species overlapped between adjacent depth strata, indicating that these are unique assemblages that change with respect to depth. In general, species richness and abundance decreased with increasing depth. New species location records were found for Chromis circumaurea, Chromis okamurai, Chromis mirationis, Hoplolatilus marcosi and Bodianus bennetti in the GBR at lower mesophotic depths. After consulting various fish experts, three potentially new species from the genera Selenanthias, Chromis, and Bodianus species were detected. This was the first research project to use underwater video stations at multiple reefs down to 260 m depths in the GBR and in doing so this research has re-defined depth distributions of some fish assemblages and increased maximum depth records for a number of species.

Habitat was also important in predicting where deep-reef fish occur and there was high variation within depth strata (Chapter 3). Although species were often only found within a certain depth range, species' distribution and abundance was determined by localized habitat features. Furthermore, species distribution was dependent on the trophic group and degree of habitat specialization. Shelf-break slope environments had decreasing structural complexity with depth, such as greater proportion of plants and calcified reefs at shallower and middle depths and more mud, sand and rubble at the deepest depths. Depth, relative steepness, topographical relief and hardness of substrate differentiated where these species were distributed. Epibenthic cover and substrate were important factors in influencing fish distributions and the presence of encrusting organisms and calcified reef translated to higher abundance and diversity (Chapter 4). Deeper fishes had varying degrees of habitat specialization and these habitat preferences can have important management implications (Chapter 5). Closely related species (in the same genus) had varying levels of habitat association; these differences likely reflected their species-specific ecology and behaviour (i.e. what they eat, degree of movement). Species with stronger associations may be more easily targeted and directly or indirectly impacted by environmental changes.

I hypothesized that environmental variation among species would be reflected in the hard structures of the fish themselves and give some insight to population structure at multiple spatial scales. I investigated otolith elemental composition for commercially-valuable deep-reef fishes of the Pacific: Etelis coruscans (flame snapper) and Etelis sp. (ruby snapper, recently distinguished from the pygmy ruby snapper) to determine the most robust approach to elemental chemistry that would assist in revealing population structure (Chapter 6). Overlapping and non-overlapping elemental fingerprints clarified where deepwater fish resources should be considered a continuous stock or separate stocks between locations. I compared the two major methods of otolith chemistry; laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) had better discriminatory accuracy than solution-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Using a smaller ablation spot size had greater temporal resolution when I used a transect of the cross-section of the otolith, from the core to the edge to represent the timeline, or life history, of the fish. Using specific locations of the otolith transect also increased the spatial discrimination of the elemental fingerprints. It was concluded that the spatial separation of the otolith edge was better for stock discrimination.

Fishery management decisions rely on accurate information of where natural boundaries in fish populations occur (i.e. stock structure), and it was predicted that the chemistry of otoliths could help in discriminating distinct groups or management units. Based on the outcomes of Chapter 6, I then extended LA-ICP-MS chemical analyses to assess fish populations from otolith samples collected by fisheries researchers from the Pacific Community (New Caledonia) and Fisheries Western Australia. Otoliths were from three broad regions (Indian Ocean, West Pacific and Central Pacific) and included multiple Pacific Island nations: New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Samoa, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Wallis and Futuna, and Monowai Seamount (international waters). Combined with samples I collected from the Indonesia, the GBR and Coral Sea (Australia), this sampling design included ten international Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), and three fishery management zones in Australia (Kimberley, Pilbara/Gascoyne and GBR/Coral Sea). This is the first project that applied otolith chemical analyses of multiple deep-reef species (E. coruscans, E. sp. and Etelis carbunculus, the pygmy ruby snapper) across a broad area (most of their distribution), for which identifying stock structure could assist management decisions and promote cooperation between adjoining nations. The potentially robust stocks identified were smaller than previously suggested, which is cause for concern. Smaller stocks may be more vulnerable to fishing pressure and local extirpation. For these locations precautionary management measures should be put in place that recognises these biological units until further evidence suggests otherwise.

My PhD research suggests that due to narrow depth distributions, deep-reef assemblages of fishes are vulnerable to overexploitation. Further, deep-reef fish depend on certain habitats and this can add an extra level of vulnerability if these depths and preferred habitat are isolated or uncommon. Deep reefs are critical ecological habitats and unique from shallower environments. Deep-reef ecosystems are still poorly understood, but they are an increasingly threatened component of the GBR and mesophotic reefs worldwide. Tropical deep-reef fish stocks are at risk of over-exploitation in the Indo-Pacific without sufficient information for fisheries management. Sensible protection of deeper areas will be critical if stocks are to be sustainably managed before they are lost. Deep-reef fisheries have been managed by EEZ rather than biological stocks. Here, I used elemental chemistry to identify biological units that could be useful for management strategies. Greater resolution of stock identity and pathways of connectivity in large biological stocks, is required to conserve the unique resources and unappreciated biodiversity of deep-reef fishes.


BIM is capable of generating cost estimate directly from a 3D model. It can thus offer a significant benefit by creating accurate and fast cost plans during different design stages, thereby increasing the quantity surveyor's ability in cost planning and control. However, quantity surveyors are generally reluctant to adopt BIM due to their resistance to change to the model-based quantity take-off and estimate, data interoperability between BIM and estimating tools, undefined model outputs at various project stages, and incompatible BIM information classification systems with the traditional elemental cost planning formats. In order to overcome these problems, this study has proposed a BIM-based precontract cost planning and control framework. Based on the UniFormat information classification system for model elements, the proposed framework consists of four levels of estimate based on LOD 100, 200, 300 and 350/400 model elements, respectively. It has also incorporated the measurement principles which are formulated based on the specified amount of graphical and non-graphical information for each model element. Quantity surveyors can systemically measure individual generic and precise elements or items according to defined information contents and measurement principles, thus leading to a more accurate estimate. This study would help significantly improve the industry practice in cost planning and control and also systemically refine the existing standard method of measurement in alignment with the latest BIM development.


The aim of this work was to explore the applicability of capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) and multivariate partial least squares (PLS) regression in the analysis of organic compounds and inorganic ions in natural waters. A new CZE application was developed to analyze low molecular weight (LMW) organic acids. A UV-absorbing co-ion (trimellitic acid) was used to allow indirect detection, and a cationic electrolyte additive (Ca2+) was employed to optimize separation selectivity. The method was applied to determine LMW organic acids in surface waters and precipitation samples. The use of CZE to characterize humic substances was evaluated. Small, but significant, differences in electrophoretic mobility were observed between the analyzed humic samples. A new CZE method using on-capillary complexation with 2,4,6-tri(2'-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPTZ) was developed to analyze FE(II) in natural waters. The procedure is easy to use and requires a minimum of sample pretreatment. Multivariate calibration by means of PLS regression, using spectroscopic data in the UV/VIS range, was applied to calculate models to estimate the molecular weight of isolated aquatic fulvic acids. A combination of PLS and UV/VIS spectroscopy was also employed to establish models to predict levels of nitrate and non-purgeable organic carbon (NPOC), as well as other common parameters of groundwater quality. In conclusion, the examined methods are highly useful for analyzing natural waters-CZE due to its extreme flexibility, and PLS due to its ability to extract information from complex data matrices.


Field experiments were conducted in 2007 and 2008 near Oakes, North Dakota (ND), USA, to evaluate if strip tillage could be incorporated into a production system of seeded onion (Allium cepa) to eliminate the standard use of a barley (Hordeum vulgare) companion crop with conventional, full width tillage, yet support common early-season weed control programs. A split-factor design was used with tillage (conventional and strip tillage) as the main plot and herbicide treatments (bromoxynil, DCPA, oxyfluorfen, and pendimethalin) as sub-plots. Neither tillage nor herbicide treatments affected onion stand counts. Common lambsquarters (Chenopodium album) densities were lower in strip tillage compared to conventional tillage up to three weeks after the post-emergence applied herbicides. In general, micro-rate post-emergence herbicide treatments provided greater early-season broadleaf weed control than pre-emergence herbicide treatments. Onion yield and grade did not differ among herbicide treatments because the mid-season herbicide application provided sufficient control/suppression of the early-season weed escapes that these initial weed escapes did not impact onion yield or bulb diameter. In 2007, onion in the strip tillage treatment were larger in diameter resulting in greater total and marketable yields compared to conventional tillage. Marketable onion yield was 82.1 Mg ha−1 in strip tillage and 64.9 Mg ha−1 in conventional tillage. Results indicate that strip tillage use in direct-seeded onion production was beneficial, especially when growing conditions were conducive to higher yields and that the use of strip tillage in onion may provide an alternative to using a companion crop as it did not interfere with either early-season weed management system.


In recent decades, East Asia has become increasingly interconnected through trade, investment, migration, and popular culture at regional and global levels. At the same time, the region has seen renewed national assertiveness and nationalist impulses. The book interrogates these seemingly contradictory developments as they bear on the transformations of the nation and citizenship in East Asia. Conventionally, studies on East Asia juxtapose these developments, focusing on the much-exercised dichotomy of the national and transnational. In contrast, this book suggests a different orientation. First, it moves beyond the simplistic view that demarcates the transnational as "the West". Second, it does not view the national and transnational as distinct or contradictory spheres of influence and analysis, but rather, focuses on the interactions between the two, with a view on how these interactions work to transform the ideals and practices of the "good nation", "good society", and "good citizen". The chapters cover a broad range of empirical research--education, science, immigration, multicultural policy, human rights, gender and youth orientations, art and food flows, politics of values and regional identity--which highlight the ways in which the nation is reconfigured, and the relationship between the citizen and (national) collective is redefined, in relation to transnational dynamics and frameworks. Transnational Trajectories in East Asia provides a new perspective on and original analysis of transnational processes, bringing a fresh understanding to developments of the nation and citizenship in the region. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of transnationalization and globalization; comparative citizenship, migration, and multiculturalism; and Asian politics, society, and regionalism.