The conventional narrative that the last generation has seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer while the middle class gets hollowed out has serious flaws. First, the claims of growing inequality overlook data on income mobility. It is not the same households who are rich and poor each year, and many poor households become richer over time. Second, the claim of middle class stagnation is largely a statistical deception based on an incomplete interpretation of median household income. The middle class has shrunk but so has the percentage of poor households as the percentage of rich households has grown significantly in the last few decades. Third, looking at consumption rather than income enables us to see both the absolute gains of poor US households and the narrowing of the gap with the wealthy. Poor US households are more likely to have basic appliances than the average household of the 1970s, and those appliances are of much higher quality. Together these three points offer a much more optimistic view of the degree of inequality and the ability of the poor to become rich. The picture is not all rosy and a final section discusses the relevance of housing, health care, and education costs to this argument.


Abstract. Biomass burning releases trace gases and aerosol particles that significantly affect the composition and chemistry of the atmosphere. Australia contributes approximately 8% of gross global carbon emissions from biomass burning, yet there are few previous measurements of emissions from Australian forest fires available in the literature. This paper describes the results of field measurements of trace gases emitted during hazard reduction burns in Australian temperate forests using open-path Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In a companion paper, similar techniques are used to characterise the emissions from hazard reduction burns in the savanna regions of the Northern Territory. Details of the experimental methods are explained, including both the measurement set-up and the analysis techniques employed. The advantages and disadvantages of different ways to estimate whole-fire emission factors are discussed and a measurement uncertainty budget is developed. Emission factors for Australian temperate forest fires are measured locally for the first time for many trace gases. Where ecosystem-relevant data are required, we recommend the following emission factors for Australian temperate forest fires (in grams of gas emitted per kilogram of dry fuel burned) which are our mean measured values: 1620 ± 160 g kg−1 of carbon dioxide; 120 ± 20 g kg−1 of carbon monoxide; 3.6 ± 1.1 g kg−1 of methane; 1.3 ± 0.3 g kg−1 of ethylene; 1.7 ± 0.4 g kg−1 of formaldehyde; 2.4 ± 1.2 g kg−1 of methanol; 3.8 ± 1.3 g kg−1 of acetic acid; 0.4 ± 0.2 g kg−1 of formic acid; 1.6 ± 0.6 g kg−1 of ammonia; 0.15 ± 0.09 g kg−1 of nitrous oxide and 0.5 ± 0.2 g kg−1 of ethane.


This paper reports on our research towards an economic analysis of money laundering schemes utilizing cryptocurrencies, which are convertible decentralized virtual currencies based on cryptographic operations. They gain ground as means to offer enterprises and its customers new payment methods, investing opportunities and some are even intended as substitutes for centrally controlled governmentissued fiat currencies. Our starting point is the observation that their increasing popularity attracts the attention of practitioners and scholars, particularly because of raising anti-money laundering concerns. Consequently, work has already been conducted in this area, mainly focusing on implications on anti-money laundering efforts. However, we argue that the potential benefits for criminal individuals are an important, yet neglected factor in the dissemination of cryptocurrencies as money laundering instrument. Addressing this issue, the paper firstly presents the structure of the money laundering process and introduces prevailing anti money-laundering controls. This forms the basis for the subsequent analysis of contextual and transactional factors with respect to their influence on the incentives of criminals to utilize cryptocurrencies for money laundering. This aims at providing an answer to the open question, whether cryptocurrencies constitute a driver for money laundering.


Background: Pierre Robin sequence (PRS)-related airway obstruction is often treated surgically; however, objective measures predicting the need for surgery are poorly defined. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed on 171 neonates with PRS. Infants were grouped based upon intervention modality: nonsurgical (conservative) or surgical [mandibular distraction osteogenesis (MDO) or tracheostomy]. Demographic data, physical examination findings, and study results were compared between groups to determine risk factors for surgical intervention, and to predict long-term success or failure of those interventions. Results: The most significant, objective risk factor among those receiving surgery was a poor preintervention sleep study [obstructive index (OI): 42.4 versus 12.9 for the conservative treatment group; P < 0.001]. Only 11% of those treated conservatively had an OI >20, whereas 67.5% of those treated surgically met this severity measure. Of those receiving surgery, tracheostomy was associated with neurologic impairment (P = 0.030) and low birth weight (P = 0.046) compared with the MDO group. Together with syndromic status, these risk factors were useful for predicting failure of MDO to avoid subsequent tracheostomy (test sensitivity and specificity were 64.2% and 100.0%, respectively). No long-term differences in speech or micrognathia were detected between the 3 groups; however, those treated conservatively or with MDO had improved long-term feeding and airway obstruction outcomes compared with the tracheostomy group. Conclusions: Surgical intervention for PRS-related tongue-based airway obstruction should be strongly considered with an OI >20. Tracheostomy should be reserved for complex patients with concomitant syndromic diagnosis, neurologic impairment, and low birth weight.


With increasing data availability, treatment causal effects can be evaluated across different dataset, both randomized trials and observational studies. Randomized trials isolate the effect of the treatment from that of unwanted (confounding) co-occuring effects. But they may be applied to limited populations, and thus lack external validity. On the opposite large observational samples are often more representative of the target population but can conflate confounding effects with the treatment of interest. In this paper, we review the growing literature on methods for causal inference on combined randomized trial and observational studies, striving for the best of both worlds. We first discuss identification and estimation methods that improve generalizability of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) using the representativeness of observational data. Classical estimators include weighting, difference between conditional outcome models, and double robust estimators. We then discuss methods that combining RCTs and observational data to improve the (conditional) average treatment effect estimation, handling possible unmeasured confounding in the observational data. We also connect and contrast works developed in both the potential outcomes framework and the structural causal models framework. Finally, we compare the main methods using a simulation study and real world data to analyse the effect of tranexamic acid on the mortality rate in major trauma patients. Code to implement many of the methods is provided.


Moral education, Derek Bok (1990) reminds us, once occupied a central place in the intellectual life of students and professors. Strengthening or building the character of students was part and parcel of academe, at least until World War II. College presidents and professors believed that character building contributed to "an educated class committed to a principled life in the service of society" (Bok, 1990, 66). This view and practice, Bok contends, has been largely abandoned, having lost ground to logical positivists, the growth of big science, and the spectacular advances of technology. The secularization of society also took its toll on moral education in the halls of academe. In public administration, questions of morality and ethics became captives of the Wilsonian legacy of neutral competency, which found expression in the dominant operating philosophy of public managers to get the job done. Getting the job done right meant for all practical purposes doing what was right or ethical. Professionals in the "pro-state" tirelessly pursued the holy trilogy of efficiency, economy, and effectiveness (Stillman, 1991). In combination with a heavy dose of clientelism and paternalism, questions of morality and ethics were largely relegated to the sidelines in the teaching and practice of public administration, even though new public administration theorists made a determined effort to inject values into the life of the administrative state. Then came Watergate, the Iran-Contra affair, and the Wall Street-HUD-Capitol Hill scandals of the 1980s. The near impeachment and removal of a sitting president stirred the American soul and prompted renewed public interest in governmental ethics. Thus, in 1978 President Jimmy Carter signed into law the Ethics in Government Act, committing federal employees to standards of behavior believed to be in the best interests of the American public. Six years later, in 1984, the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) adopted an ethics code designed to raise the ethical standards and practices of its members. And in the late 1980s, the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) incorporated language into its curriculum standards that called for public administration programs to "enhance the student's values, knowledge, and skills to act ethically and effectively." These laudable efforts -- federal legislation, ASPA's code of ethics, and NASPAA's new language -- were clear signals to the public and academe that ethical behavior is needed and expected of government officials. Moreover, the message sent to public administration graduate programs was unequivocal -- ethics education cannot and should not be relegated to the curriculum sidelines. Indeed, the evidence points to the fact that MPA programs have moved steadily over the past 25 years toward the incorporation of ethics instruction and courses in their curriculums. A 1995 survey of NASPAA-member schools found that about a dozen schools added ethics courses in the 1970s, with another ten schools added to the list in the early and mid-1980s (Menzel, forthcoming). The adoption curve increased sharply in the late 1980s and 1990s following NASPAA's change in the language of its accreditation standards. By the mid-1990s, 78 NASPAA-member, MPA-degree-granting schools offered an ethics course. Among these 78 schools, one of every four requires matriculating students to complete an ethics course (Menzel, forthcoming). The purpose of this article is to extend previous research in order to address what is probably the most important but least investigated question facing faculty and public administration programs that provide ethics instruction: Does ethics education make a difference? That is, does formal ethics instruction in graduate public affairs/administration (PA/A) schools help public service professionals resolve ethical dilemmas? Stated differently, does ethics pedagogy matter? …


Greater financial integration between core and peripheral EMU members had an effect on both sets of countries. Lower interest rates allowed peripheral countries to run bigger deficits, which inflated their economies by allowing credit booms. Core EMU countries took on extra foreign leverage to expose themselves to the peripherals. The result has been asset-price bubbles and collapses in some of the peripheral countries, area-wide banking crisis, and sovereign debt problems. We analyze the geography of international debt flows using multiple data sources and provide evidence that after the euro's introduction, Core EMU countries increased their borrowing from outside of EMU and their lending to the EMU periphery.


A combination of the two lowest Rayleigh–Lamb modes, for a waveguide of uniform thickness with traction–free surfaces, can approximate, on one surface, a Rayleigh surface wave. If the guide is one or more shear wavelengths thick, the Rayleigh wave will be weakly coupled to the opposite surface and will transfer to that surface and then back over a distance of several wavelengths. This is caused by the two modes moving into and out of phase. We examine the same phenomenon in a waveguide whose thickness changes slowly with respect to wavelength and we develop a mathematical framework to describe it. Using the variation in thickness over a wavelength as a small parameter, an asymptotic expansion, that represents the lateral propagation with rays, but the transverse variation with local Rayleigh–Lamb modes, is used. In adapting this expansion to in–plane elastic wave propagation, we reformulate the problem for the Rayleigh–Lamb modes as an eigenvalue problem whose eigenvector is comprised of the two displacement components and the two components of the traction acting on a plane perpendicular to the axis of the guide. This enables us to exploit the orthogonality between the modes given by the reciprocity relation. The zero–order analysis indicates that, for waveguides with increasing thickness, the coupling phenomenon endures indefinitely (in the absence of damping) if the rate of growth in thickness is, at most, logarithmic. For a waveguide with a slow sinusoidal thickness variation, the coupling persists more or less as it would in a uniform guide.


ABSTRACT A new consensus has emerged which stipulates that the Eurozone problems are caused by a lack of embeddedness of the euro in proper financial and fiscal unions. This paper reviews the debates on the Eurozone's state of disembeddedness and argues that it is not enough to embed the monetary union in scaled-up financial and fiscal unions. For the euro problems to disappear it needs to be embedded in social Europe. The transfer of policy prerogatives at the supranational level does not make the structure embedded, but the substance of the policy measures. From a Polanyian perspective, the extent of the Eurozone dis/embeddedness depends not on the level of centralization of policymaking, but on the interplay between the two forgotten Polanyian principles: improvement and habitation. This paper tries to assess the extent of dis-embeddedness through these two principles.


The authors present a record of the Matuyama-Brunhes (0.73 Ma) polarity transition from a southern hemisphere deep-sea sediment core (V16-58; 46{degree}S, 30{degree}E). The transition is recorded across at least 30 sm of section and is defined by a nearly 180{degree} change in directions which occurs during a low in the relative intensities. An increase in the {sup 10}Be/{sup 9}Be ratios associated with the intensity low suggests that the relative intensities may document a decrease in the strength of the geomagnetic field. The virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) path is neither clearly near- or far-sided, but tracks approximately 120{degree} west of the site longitude. Considered with other Matuyama-Brunhes transition records, this southern hemisphere record supports previous interpretations that the Matuyama-Brunhes transitional field was not dipolar. Instead, the V16-58 transition together with other records of this reversal recently obtained from this longitudinal sector suggests that nonzonal terms which are symmetric about the equator were important during this transitional field.


The hypoxemia of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) depends chiefly upon shunt and ventilation-perfusion (VA/Q) inequality produced by fluid located in the interstitial space, alveolar collapse and flooding. Variables other tham inspired oxygen fraction and the underlying physiological abnormality can influence arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO2). Changes in cardiac output, hemoglobin concentration, oxygen consumption and alcalosis can cause changes in PaO2 through their influence on mixed venous PO2. Gas exchange (GE) in ARDS may be studied using the inert gas elimination technique (MIGET) which enables to define the distribution of ventilation and perfusion without necessarily altering the FIO2 differentiating shunt from lung units with low VA/Q ratios and dead space from lung units with high VA/Q ratios. Different ventilatory strategies that increase mean airway pressure (positive end-expiratory pressure, high tidal volumes, inverse inspiratory-expiratory ratio, etc) improve PaO2 through increasing lung volume by recruiting new open alveoli and spreading the intra-alveolar fluid over a large surface area. Also prone-position ventilation would result in a marked improvement in GE enhancing dorsal lung ventilation by the effects on the gravitional distribution of pleural pressure and the reduction in the positive pleural pressure that develops in dorsal regions in ARDS. Inhaled nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to increase PaO2 in ARDS patients by inducing vasodilation predominantly in ventilated areas redistributing pulmonary blood flow away from nonventilated toward ventilated areas of the lung thus resulting in a shunt reduction. On the same way inhaled prostaglandins (PGI2 or PGE1) causes selective pulmonary vasodilation improving pulmonary GE. Intravenous almitrine, a selective pulmonary vasoconstrictor, has been shown to increase PaO2 by increasing hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. A synergistic effect was found between inhaled NO and almitrine. In spite of the improval of GE shown by these different techniques on ARDS, no effect was demonstrated on mortality or duration of mechanical ventilation.


In this work, we develop repair strategies for simplified models of electric power grids. The goal is to gain insight into the combinatorial properties of repair problems in order to improve maintenance and restoration planning. Firstly, we consider a seriously damaged grid and try to find the set of lines that should be repaired first in order to resupply the customers as fast as possible. We analyse two abstract repair problems that are also of theoretical interest and show how to solve them approximately. Secondly, we consider a power grid during normal operation where only a few lines are not operating due to random failures. We try to find repair strategies that minimise the risk of cascading failures in such situations. We develop a blackout model in order to understand the dynamics of blackouts and propose a repair strategy. The first computational results indicate that the proposed strategy provides a good starting point for the development of further repair strategies.


Although Antarctic krill live in a relatively harsh and variable environment, they are extremely abundant and occur across a wide geographic range. Krill are also the dominant prey item for a variety of predators ranging from fish to whales. Thus, krill life histories and survival strategies represent an interesting and biologically relevant theoretical question: How do krill survive and what makes them so successful? The factors that influence krill size and spatial distributions and life- history patterns are not generally understood. We present a conceptual framework for studying krill life histories and patterns of distribution. This approach uses what is known about krill physiology and environmental conditions within an evolutionary framework to increase our understanding of krill distributions and abundance. Using a dynamic state-variable model, we determined the factors predicted to affect the distribution of krill among habitats and feeding behavior of krill. Habitats vary in their associated survival, predation risk, food availability, and metabolic costs. Existing data on variation in temperature, phytoplankton abundance, metabolic costs, growth rates and predator behavior are used to parameterize the model. The model predicts that krill will shrink when experi- encing extreme temperatures or food deprivation (under negative energy budgets), but we also pre- dict that krill may shrink due to predation risk (under positive energy budgets). Furthermore, preda- tion patterns are predicted to strongly influence krill size and spatial distributions. If predation risk is size-dependent, krill are predicted to shrink between reproductive events which reduces predation. Differences between habitats in predation risk may cause krill to shift away from risky habitats even if this slows growth. In the presence of predation risk when feeding, krill are predicted to experience a tradeoff between growth and survival and shift their feeding behavior and habitat distribution accordingly. Differences between habitats in water temperature and travel costs are also predicted to cause size-dependent shifts in habitat use and migration behavior. Our results reinforce the impor- tance of predator behavior on krill life histories, growth, and distributions. Patterns of predation risk may be the key to understanding krill distribution in space, time and size.


The efficacy of phytoextraction strategies were tested by pot and field trials on soil contaminated with heavy metals, including Cd, derived from long-term disposal of sewage sludge. The strategies investigated were: i) the use of hyperaccumulators; ii) chemically-enhanced uptake using arable species and iii) the use of short rotation coppice (SRC). Chemical interventions including EDTA, chloride salts, HCl and herbicide were used to enhance uptake by arable and SRC species.
Tissue Cd concentrations in the Ganges population of Thlaspi caerulescens were lower than reported in other studies; the mean Cd concentration was 265 mg kg". It was deduced that Cd uptake was limited by a low Cd2+ concentration in soil and the rate at which solution Cd was replenished. High rates of plant mortality were observed, raising questions over the successful husbandry of T. caerulescens for phytoextraction. Chemical interventions produced significant increases in metal uptake by arable and SRC species. For example, Cd uptake by Z. mays following application of 10 mmol EDTA kg'' and by Salix caprea x cineria x viminalis following combined application of EDTA and HCI. However, concentrations were still well below those required for successful remediation. Furthermore downward migration of metal was observed through the soil profile following EDTA application. For example, the soil Cd concentration in the 0- 10 cm profile was reduced from 32.0 to 25.5 mg kg' seven months after application of 10 mmol EDTA kg'', yet only 1% of this reduction could be accounted for by Z. mays Cd off-take.
Realistic estimates for phytoextraction timescales and costs were made in line with legislative thresholds. Overall the time required to reduce total soil Cd concentrations below 3 mg kg-1 was large and the costs were prohibitive. For example, although Cd off-take by Ganges was greater than for any of the other species tested, it was estimated that well over one century would be required to reach target metal concentrations.


Aging is one of the most critical risk factors for the development of metabolic syndromes1. Prominent metabolic diseases, namely type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, have a strong association with endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress2. Upon ER stress, the unfolded protein response (UPR) is activated to limit cellular damage by adapting to stress conditions and restoring ER homeostasis3,4. However, adaptive genes upregulated from the UPR tend to decrease with age5. Although stress resistance correlates with increased longevity in a variety of model organisms, the links between the UPR, ER stress resistance, and longevity remain poorly understood. Here, we show that supplementing bacteria diet with 2% glucose (high glucose diet, HGD) in post-reproductive 7-day-old (7DO) C. elegans significantly extend their lifespan in contrast to shortening the lifespan of reproductive 3-day-old (3DO) animals. The insulin-IGF receptor DAF-2 and its immediate downstream target, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) AGE-1, were found to be critical factors in extending the lifespan of 7DO worms on HGD. The downstream transcription factor forkhead box O (FOXO) DAF-16 did not extend the lifespan of 7DO worms on HGD in contrast of its previously reported role in modulating lifespan of 3DO worms6. Furthermore, we identified that UPR activation through the highly conserved ATF-6 and PEK-1 sensors significantly extended the longevity of 7DO worms on HGD but not through the IRE-1 sensor. Our results demonstrate that HGD extends lifespan of post-reproductive worms in a UPR-dependent manner but independently of FOXO. Based on these observations, we hypothesise that HGD activates the otherwise quiescent UPR in aged worms to overcome age-related stress and to restore ER homeostasis. In contrast, young adult animals subjected to HGD leads to unresolved ER stress, conversely leading to a deleterious stress response.


The exclusionary rule generally bars the use of illegally obtained evidence in a criminal case, regardless of the defendant's crime. However, using a combination of doctrinal analysis, social psychology theory, and original experimental data, this Article proposes a more cognitively complicated picture of how the rule may actually operate. In cases of egregious crime that people are highly motivated to punish, the exclusionary rule and its continually expanding exceptions present a fertile entry point for "motivated cognition," a psychological process through which decision makers unknowingly reason toward their desired outcomes, seemingly within the constraints of the law.In this series of experiments, when research participants acting as judges were faced with pivotal but illegally obtained evidence of a morally repugnant crime, they unknowingly construed the circumstances of the case in a manner that enabled them to invoke an exception to the exclusionary rule — thereby "cognitively cleansing" the tainted evidence to admit it and achieve their punishment goals without flouting the law. By contrast, when an identical illegal search uncovered evidence of a less reprehensible crime, participants were significantly more likely to suppress the evidence, construing the circumstances of the case to support the use of the exclusionary rule without exception. Even people's judgments about the investigating police officers, who conducted exactly the same illegal search in both scenarios, depended on the egregiousness of the crime that the search happened to uncover. Critically, however, introducing awareness-generating instructions that alerted participants to the possibility that criminal egregiousness could drive their suppression judgments significantly curtailed the influence of this doctrinally irrelevant factor.Contributing to a growing body of empirical research on cognitive pitfalls in legal decision making, the results of these studies highlight why the justice system should not turn a blind eye to covertly motivated applications of the exclusionary rule, or any legal doctrine that is susceptible to the motivated cognition effect. Aside from the benefits of stability and legitimacy that arise from applying legal rules in a predictable and transparent manner, the finding that decision makers set aside their personal punishment goals to more objectively adhere to the law when an instructional intervention cognitively equipped them to do so reflects a conscious choice worth recognizing. Illustrating how the tools of social psychology can be mobilized to reveal new normative dimensions of longstanding doctrinal debates and stimulate data-driven prescriptions for reform, this Article proposes a path toward more informed, consistent, and cognitively realistic applications of the law.


Analogue gravity is based on a mathematical identity between quantum field theory in curved space-time and the propagation of perturbations in certain condensed matter systems. But not every curved space-time can be simulated in such a way. For analogue gravity to work, one needs not only a condensed matter system that generates the desired metric tensor, but this system then also has to obey its own equations of motion. However, the relation to the metric tensor usually overdetermines the equations of the underlying condensed matter system, such that they in general cannot be fulfilled. In this case the desired metric does not have an analogue. Here, we show that the class of metrics that have an analogue is larger than previously thought. The reason is that the analogue metric is only defined up to a choice of parametrization of the perturbation in the underlying condensed matter system. In this way, the class of analogue gravity models can be vastly expanded.


Macrourid fish are abundantly found on the continental slope of the lonian Sea (eastern Central Mediterranean), but the knowledge on their biology is still rather scanty. The reproductive stragegy of Hymenocephalus italicus, Nezumia sclerorhynchus and Coelorhynchus coelorhynchus was studied through data collected during 8 seasonal trawl surveys carried out between April 1996 and March 1998. Ripe females of H. italicus and N. sclerorhynchus were found all year round, with a small increase during summer and autumn in the former and without any seasonal component in the latter. Few ripe females of C. coelorhynchus were collected over the study period, with the exception of October 1996 when an increase was recorded, indicating that autumn could be included in the breeding season of this grenadier The many different sizes of eggs and postovulatory follicles found in the ovaries indicate that all 3 species reproduce serially as multiple batch spawners. Maximum egg sizes were 1.5 mm in H. italicus and N. sclerorhynchus and 1.6 mm in C. coelorhynchus. The highest gonadosomatic index values were found in H. italicus, and the lowest in C. coelorhynchus. All 3 species seem to delay reproduction The size at first maturity (50% of the population) was 27 mm pre-anal length in H. italicus, 37 mm in N. sclerorhynchus and 61 mm in C. coelorhynchus. Aseasonal continuous spawning can be assumed for N. sclerorhynchus while the low frequency of the early maturity stages in H. italicus makes it difficult to state whether or not this macrourid spawns throughout the year without a seasonal component. Further study is necessary to define the reproductive cycle of C. coelorhynchus.


The objectives of this study were to determine effects of cyfluthrin and pyrethrin spray products, used in combination with cyfluthrin topical and ear tag applications, on bull reproductive parameters over 18 weeks. Angus or Angus x Simmental bulls were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (i) no exposure to pyrethrins/cyfluthrin (CONT; n = 10), (ii) cyfluthrin ear tag and topical applications (ET; n = 10), or (iii) cyfluthrin ear tag, topical, premise spray and pyrethrin fog spray applications (ET+S; n = 8). Bull body weight was measured every 3 week, and body condition score and scrotal circumference were recorded on weeks 0, 9 and 18. Semen and serum were collected every 3 weeks for sperm evaluation and testosterone measurement, respectively. There was a treatment × week interaction (p < 0.01) for sperm with primary defects; bulls in CONT group had a greater (p = 0.01) percentage of sperm with primary defects than bulls treated with insecticides at week 18. Overall and progressive sperm motility, normal sperm morphology, secondary sperm defects and serum testosterone concentrations changed (p < 0.01) over time in all bulls; however, treatment did not affect (p ≥ 0.13) any of these parameters. There were also no treatment effects (p ≥ 0.08) on bull body weight, body condition score or scrotal circumference. The use of pyrethrin- and cyfluthrin-based insecticides, regardless of application, did not negatively affect reproductive parameters in beef bulls when administered over 18 weeks.


This Article introduces compensating commitment bonds, which make it more affordable for a government, entity, or individual to commit to some course of action. These bonds, like traditional government or corporate bonds, can generate revenue for committing parties. A bond seller makes a commitment and promises to pay a forfeit if the seller fails to meet the bond conditions. The bond buyer pays the seller to be contractually designated as the recipient of any amounts the bond seller forfeits. This approach has potential application in a range of legal situations. Governments and other parties may use such bonds to facilitate commitments to principles from which they later may face temptation to deviate. Such bonds also can facilitate legislative compromise or the settlement of private legal disputes. The Article identifies a variety of incentive-equivalent commitment bond structures as well as the circumstances under which a particular implementation is likely to be most effective. It also explores hurdles to the use of such bonds, including concerns that the courts might find a legislature's use of such bonds to entrench its preferences unconstitutional and that a legislature might issue such bonds but cancel them after failing to maintain a commitment.


We analyze the impacts of adopting advanced weather forecasting systems at different levels of the decision-making hierarchy of the power grid. Using case studies, we show that state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction (NWP) models can provide high-precision forecasts and uncertainty information that can significantly enhance the performance of planning, scheduling, energy management, and feedback control systems. In addition, we assess the forecasting capabilities of the Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model in several application domains.


Ancillary federal district court powers embody more than adjudicatory authority over "factually interdependent" civil claims initially presented within cases or controversies. Ancillary powers are used to facilitate civil case settlement agreements encompassing claims never presented for adjudication, as well as to adjudicate some disputes over settlement agreements long after final judgments. While certain ancillary powers are now recognized in the "supplemental jurisdiction" statute, 28 U.S.C. ý 1367, the range of the statute is quite limited. It chiefly codifies earlier precedents on pendent and ancillary jurisdiction that primarily address initial ancillary adjudicatory authority over state law civil claims without independent jurisdictional bases that arise from the same "common nucleus of operative facts" as the civil claims having independent subject matter jurisdictional bases. Section 1367 should provide clarity for all federal court ancillary powers, eliminating much uncertainty and confusion. Section 1367 should be amended to encompass more fully ancillary adjudicatory and nonadjudicatory federal court authority. This task is facilitated by the 1994 decision in Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Insurance Company of America. A reformulated statute should speak for the first time to the ancillary nonadjudicatory powers necessary for courts to function successfully, including management, vindication, and certain enforcement powers. And, it should better recognize the differences between initial and later ancillary adjudicatory powers over nonfederal civil claims that are factually related to federal civil claims. In the absence of Congressional action, judicial decisions should better recognize and differentiate the varying forms of ancillary federal district court powers.


The thesis work is divided to two phases. Phase I focus on Challenge Lab process based on the methodology of backcasting, from an outside in and an inside out approach. The outside in approach is related to knowledge input while the inside out approach is to research oneself. Challenge Lab students use design thinking to combine the learning of both approaches for the purpose to decide the project topic in Phase II. In the project, a new business model is created to transit the current transport system in Gothenburg and lead to a sustainable future. The main composition of the project are:  A system consists of a virtual mapping platform and GPS smart lock. The platform gets the signal of the locks and record the moving patterns. An APP is connected to the platform to show real-time vehicle location.  Co-shared transport (e.g. bike sharing and car sharing) provides private vehicles to the sharing market  Urban goods are delivered on people's commute way with the support of smart boxes The project proposes a new way to integrate the existing transport capacity for both personal transport and freight transport in the urban area and a new way to think business model with regard with sustainability.


Background Neonatal mortality remains high in Ethiopia at 35/1000, despite improvements in reducing the overall child mortality. Through the RCPCH VSO Fellowship a Paediatric trainee was placed in Arba Minch Hospital, in the south of Ethiopia, alongside a GP VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) volunteer. The placements were funded by UNICEF, with the aim of implementing measures to reduce neonatal mortality in the region. Needs assessment Initial assessment revealed there was a lack of knowledge and skills in neonatal resuscitation and newborn care. Local neonatal mortality rate in Arba Minch Hospital over an 8 month period was significantly higher than the national average at 175.4/1000. Following discussion with relevant staff a two-pronged approach was adopted: Establish a basic neonatal unit. Provide basic training in neonatal care and resuscitation. Methods A successful grant application led to funding for training from UNICEF and equipment from Irish Aid. A total of 89 relevant staff received training in neonatal care and resuscitation. 75 out of 89 participants completed feedback forms and 80 candidates completed pre and post course tests. Data on admissions and mortality were collected prior to the unit opening and over a 6 month period after the unit was opened. Results Admission of neonates increased 3 fold, from 4.8% to 15% of total paediatric admissions, following the establishment of the neonatal unit. Mortality reduced from 17.5% to 15%. Following the course 81.25% of participants improved their score from pre to post course tests. Feedback showed 81.3% of people felt their confidence in neonatal resuscitation was 10/10 following the course. Conclusion The increase in neonatal admissions highlighted a previously unmet need. Early figures indicate the mortality is reducing, in spite of the 3 fold increase in admission of sick babies. The training led to receiving appropriate referrals coupled with improved confidence in newborn care and resuscitation. Arba Minch Neonatal Unit has become a centre of training and a model for future neonatal units developing in neighbouring hospitals. The project also met the requirements for an example of best practice in VSO Ethiopia and therefore a prototype for future VSO partnerships to adopt.


Regulation of messenger RNA (mRNA) stability is one mechanism by which cells can alter their protein constituents rapidly. The AU-rich element (ARE) in the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) of mRNAs promotes degradation. Laroia et al. investigated the role that ubiquitination and the proteasome play in controlling ARE-mediated RNA instability. Cells were transfected with a reporter gene containing a functional ARE or a mutated ARE, the so-called GC reporter, and either the ubiquitin-specific processing protease (UBP) UBPY or UNP. UBPY promotes proteasome-mediated degradation by recycling ubiquitin from degraded peptide fragments; UNP inhibits degradation by removing ubiquitin from native or insufficiently denatured proteins. In addition to monitoring the expression of the reporter genes, the amount of p53 (a ubiquitinated, unstable protein) and eIF4 (a stable, nonubiquitinated protein) were also monitored. Coexpression of the reporter with UBPY promoted degradation of the ARE reporter transcript and inhibited expression of the reporter protein, and coexpression of UNP inhibited ARE-mediated mRNA degradation and increased expression of the reporter protein. Neither UNP nor UBPY affected expression from or stability of the GC reporter transcript. Overwhelming the cell with ARE-containing transcripts can inhibit ARE-mediated degradation. Overexpression of UBPY can overcome this inhibition, suggesting that ubiquitination may be limiting in this situation. Stimulation of ARE-mediated degradation by UBPY was blocked if the cells were treated with a drug to inhibit the proteasome; thus, it is ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation that is important for ARE-mediated mRNA instability. These results were all obtained in transfected cells with reporter constructs; it will be interesting to see if the deubiquitinating proteins (many of which are encoded by ARE-containing transcripts) regulate mRNA stability in vivo. G. Laroia, B. Sarkar, R. J. Schneider, Ubiquitin-dependent mechanism regulates rapid turnover of AU-rich cytokine mRNAs. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 99, 1842-1846 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Background Although it was estimated that 20% of the population in Australia were mobile-only phone users in 2010, the inclusion of mobile numbers into computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) behavioural risk factor surveys did not occur until 2012. Methods Three papers have been published describing the methods, weighting strategy and the impact in detail of including mobile numbers into the NSW Population Health Survey (NSWPHS). This paper identifies the important components of those papers and summarises them for a broader audience. Results In the 2012 NSWPHS, 15,214 (15,149 with weights) interviews were completed (64% landline frame; 36% mobile frame). Response, cooperation and contact rates were 37%, 65% and 69% respectively. The inclusion of mobile phone numbers resulted in a sample that was closer to the NSW population profile and impacted on the time series of estimates for alcohol drinking, recommended fruit consumption, current smoking, and overweight or obesity. Conclusions The papers found that including mobile phone numbers into NSWPHS did not impact negatively on response rates or data collection, but it did cost more and affect the time series for some behavioural risk factors, in that it corrected the estimates that had been produced from a sample frame that was progressively getting less representative of the population.


Although defined by the ability to activate heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding proteins (G proteins), G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) can also signal through G protein-independent pathways. Sun et al. used mouse embryo fibroblasts lacking various proteins to investigate the mechanistic relation between G protein-dependent and -independent activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in response to stimulation of the β2-adrenergic receptor (β2-AR). Analysis of ERK activation in response to various concentrations of the β2-AR agonist isoproterenol revealed a biphasic response. ERK activation in response to low concentrations of isoproterenol was lost in cells lacking Gαs, whereas ERK activation in response to high concentrations was maintained (both required expression of the β2-AR). Moreover, ERK activation in response to high concentrations of agonist did not depend on other heterotrimeric G proteins or on β-arrestins. In contrast, low concentrations of isoproterenol stimulated ERK activation in cells lacking Src-family tyrosine kinases, but high concentrations failed to increase the response. Isoproterenol activated Src even in cells lacking both Gαs and β-arrestins. In vitro analysis indicated that Src bound to and phosphorylated the C-terminal tail of the β2-AR; further, c-Src coimmunoprecipitated with the β2-AR from human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells. When expressed in cells lacking the β2-AR, a β2-AR mutant that could not bind Src activated Gαs and ERK in response to low concentrations of isoproterenol but failed to elicit enhanced activation of ERK in response to high concentrations. Thus, the authors conclude that low concentrations of agonist activate ERK through a Gαs-mediated pathway, whereas high concentrations turn on a second, Src-dependent, pathway to ERK activation; they speculate that coupling to these two pathways depends on distinct conformations of the β2-AR . Y. Sun, J. Huang, Y. Xiang, M. Bastepe, H. Jüppner, B. K. Kobilka, J. J. Zhang, X.-Y. Huang, Dosage-dependent switch from G protein-coupled to G protein-independent signaling by a GPCR. EMBO J. 26, 53–64 (2007). [PubMed]


The public's demand for heightened accountability of corporations and consumer claim psychology have made risk management paramount THE MANAGEMENT of product liability risk by United Kingdom companies selling or supplying products has developed over the last 20 years into an integral part of their operations. The perception of the scope of that risk is continually evolving as a result of trends that have fuelled a number of legal developments, among them the intensification of companies' accountability to the public, the desire for public and corporate bodies to be more transparent in their dealings with the public, the e-commerce revolution and an increasingly pervasive consumer claim psychology. Those trends are reflected in the legal environment facing product-producing companies. U.K. manufacturing or distributing companies do business in many different countries and in a multiplicity of markets, a situation that creates a multitude of risks. The effective management of product liability risk depends on an understanding of the different legal systems across the jurisdictions in which these companies operate and on the idiosyncrasies of laws relevant to the chosen markets in each of those jurisdictions. While those national differences and idiosyncrasies because vary and are rooted in the laws of the various jurisdictions, there are some principles of general application to U.K. companies and to their directors that affect the management of product liability risk in the U.K. THE LAW Companies and their directors are exposed to the risk of two categories of liability for the products they produce or distribute--civil and criminal. Civil liability arises from the breach of obligations or duties in contract or in negligence under the so-called "strict liability" provisions of Part I of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 (1987 Act) and for breach of statutory duty, where a product is supplied which does not meet specific obligations imposed by statute. One of the principles behind the 1987 Act, which implemented the 1985 European Product Liability Directive, was to provide a compensatory regime for consumers in respect of defective products that, unlike negligence, did not require proof of fault by the producer. Under the 1987 Act, consumers still have to prove damage and that the damage was caused by the defect. In practice claimants usually pursue product liability claims alleging both negligence and liability under the 1987 Act. The terminology of risk in a civil liability context reflects whether the product is the subject of a business sale, in which case the issue is whether the product is of satisfactory quality, or a consumer sale, in which case the issue is whether the product is defective. The concept of a defect in consumer sales is further defined by reference to its nature and level of safety. The concept of level of safety is enshrined in the 1987 Act: by level of safety is meant the level that persons generally are entitled to expect, taking into account a number of factors, which are set out in Section 3, such as the labeling and information supplied with the product. In the case of a business sale, managing the risk of an unsatisfactory quality of product is an adjunct of contract management and can be catered for in negotiations of limitation clauses in the contract or, absent negotiation, in terms that prevail. The element of negotiation is absent from the case of a sale to a consumer, and liability for defective products cannot be excluded. Insurance also is an obvious component of managing such risks, whether in a business or consumer context, and is bound up with the nature of the quality control procedures in place and the manufacturer's adherence to good manufacturing practices. Criminal liability arises under Part II of the 1987 Act, under the General Product Safety Regulations 1994 (1994 Regulations), the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSAW Act), and under many other specific statutory provisions regulating the manufacture and supply of particular products --for instance, food. …


The metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and excretion of a potent and selective substance P receptor antagonist, CP-122,721 [(+)-(2S,3S)-3-(2-methoxy-5-trifluoromethoxybenzylamino)-2-phenylpiperidine], have been studied in six healthy male human subjects [four extensive metabolizers (EMs) and two poor metabolizers (PMs) of CYP2D6) following oral administration of a single 30-mg dose of [14C]CP-122,721. Approximately 84% of the administered radioactivity was recovered from the urine and feces of the subjects over a period of 312 h. Approximately 80% of the dose for EM subjects was recovered within 48 h. PM subjects, however, excreted only about 45% of the dose in 48 h and required the full 312 h to achieve nearly 80% recovery. Absorption of CP-122,721 was rapid in both extensive and poor metabolizers, as indicated by the rapid appearance of radioactivity in serum. The serum concentrations of total radioactivity were always much greater than those of unchanged drug indicating early formation of metabolites. The average CP-122,721 t½ was 6.7 h and 45.0 h for EM and PM subjects, respectively. The serum concentrations of CP-122,721 reached a peak of 7.4 and 69.8 ng/ml for extensive and poor metabolizers, respectively. The major metabolic pathways of CP-122,721 were due to O-demethylation, aromatic hydroxylation, and indirect glucuronidation. The minor metabolic pathways included aliphatic oxidation at the piperidine moiety, O-dealkylation of the trifluoromethoxy group, N-dealkylation, and oxidative deamination. In addition to the major human circulating metabolite 5-trifluoromethoxy salicylic acid (TFMSA), all other circulating metabolites of CP-122,721 were glucuronide conjugates of oxidized metabolites. TFMSA was identified using high pressure liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry and NMR and mechanisms were proposed for its formation. There are no known circulating active metabolites of CP-122,721.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the reliability of SLE patients' disease activity measurements.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study conducted (August 2016-December 2017) at 2 main public Peruvian hospitals, 1 with a comprehensive lupus care program. Patients assessed their disease activity with a visual analog scale (VAS) (0-100 mm) or a numerical rating scale (NRS) (0-4) before and after their physician's (MD's) assessment. Demographic and disease-related characteristics were recorded. Reliability of patients' disease activity before and after MD's assessment was determined using Spearman rank correlation. Factors possibly associated with this variability were examined with Spearman rank correlation and Mann-Whitney U test.

RESULTS
Two hundred forty, mostly Mestizo, SLE patients were included; mean (SD) age and disease duration (diagnosis) were 34.9 (12.9) years and 10.1 (7.0) years, respectively. The Mexican version of the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index was 1.9 (2.7), and the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index was 1.2 (1.5). The correlations between NRS and VAS before and after the MD's assessment were ρ = 0.839; p < 0.001; and ρ = 0.872; p < 0.001, respectively. Visual analog scale and NRS were higher before than after the MD's assessment (VAS 29.3 [26.5] and 26.5 [24.9], p = 0.052; and NRS (1.5 [1.2] and 1.3 [1.1], p = 0.003); only the comprehensive program explained this variability (p = 0.043). The reliability of VAS and NRS was ρ = 0.917 and ρ = 0.861, p < 0.001, before and after for the comprehensive program and ρ = 0.710 and ρ = 0.785, p < 0.001, for before and after for the regular program.

CONCLUSIONS
Both VAS an NRS are highly reliable. Patients scored higher before than after their physicians' assessment but that these differences were smaller for the patients in the comprehensive care program than in the regular one.


Super Media World has been an exploration of the spaces that exist around, within, and between screen technologies. Investigating the physical locations inhabited by screen and viewer, illusory time-spaces constructed by the spectacles of cinema and TV, and the online site-spaces created by digital media, I have collected and produced imagery, footage, and objects from these spaces, using them to create artworks that explore potential interactions and points of convergence between these realms.
With reference to modes of collection, manipulation, archiving, and reproduction, this project has examined the flexible, convergent nature of screen spaces past and present. Following a method of production based on the media archaeologies of Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka, I researched the layers of technological history that have shaped the current media environment, at once identifying, expanding, and augmenting these strata through my intervention. This central process became a way of tracing, crafting, and subverting moments of intersection between physical and digital spaces of the screen, generating new layers, new archaeologies.
With reference to the philosophies and practices of Walter Benjamin, Michel Foucault, and Soda_Jerk, amongst others, this project has considered the fluidity of spaces, reflecting on the relationship between advances in techniques of viewing and fluctuations in perception. With an awareness that any concept of the relationship between spaces is in a state of constant flux, the aim, and outcome, of this project has been to mediate, recreate, and reflect on the potential alteration of visible spaces through artistic intervention using screen-based media.


The thesis of this article is that contemporary people are increasingly ousting death from their consciousness and focussing instead on the complexities of life in a context of horizontal transcendence. This replaces the Pauline notion that death is the fruit of sin and will be overcome if its real cause, sin, is vanquished through the death and resurrection of Christ. The article shows how religions, the state and civil society have abused human fear of death in the course of history. It examines the way science has 'biologised' death and the impact this has on concepts such as soul, the hereafter and identity. Reflection on the hereafter tends to make light of death. The article deals with some philosophical models (especially those of Hegel and Heidegger) that incorporate the negative (non-being, death) into life (the subject). I then outline a model incorporating death into life at a horizontal transcendental level in order to make death plausible. The example cited is Solle's work. The article concludes with a discussion of some theological implications of an immanent approach to death.


Six-month and lifetime rates of DSM-III major depressive disorder (MDD) and characteristics of the disorder were compared in mothers of children with disabilities (chronic stress sample, n = 310) and in a geographically based probability sample (controls, n = 357). The presence of DSM-III MDD was ascertained by the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule. Although mothers in the chronic stress sample had significantly more depressive symptoms, rates of MDD were not significantly different in the two samples. The women with MDD in the chronic stress sample reported a lower age of onset and more episodes in lifetime than diagnostically comparable controls, but the two samples did not differ in symptomatology of worst episode. The data do not support an etiologic role for chronic stress in MDD, nor do they support the hypothesis that chronic stress is associated with a unique symptom profile or more severe episodes. They suggest a role for chronic stress in precipitating episodes, although the evidence on this point must be interpreted with caution.


Abstract. The atmospheric chemistry general circulation model EMAC has been used to estimate the impact of anthropogenic emission changes on global and regional air quality in recent and future years (2005, 2010, 2025 and 2050). The emission scenario assumes that population and economic growth largely determine energy and food consumption and consequent pollution sources with the current technologies ("business as usual"). This scenario is chosen to show the effects of not implementing legislation to prevent additional climate change and growing air pollution, other than what is in place for the base year 2005, representing a pessimistic (but plausible) future. By comparing with recent observations, it is shown that the model reproduces the main features of regional air pollution distributions though with some imprecisions inherent to the coarse horizontal resolution (~100 km) and simplified bottom-up emission input. To identify possible future hot spots of poor air quality, a multi pollutant index (MPI), suited for global model output, has been applied. It appears that East and South Asia and the Middle East represent such hotspots due to very high pollutant concentrations, while a general increase of MPIs is observed in all populated regions in the Northern Hemisphere. In East Asia a range of pollutant gases and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ) is projected to reach very high levels from 2005 onward, while in South Asia air pollution, including ozone, will grow rapidly towards the middle of the century. Around the Persian Gulf, where natural PM 2.5 concentrations are already high (desert dust), ozone levels are expected to increase strongly. The population weighted MPI (PW-MPI), which combines demographic and pollutant concentration projections, shows that a rapidly increasing number of people worldwide will experience reduced air quality during the first half of the 21st century. Following this business as usual scenario, it is projected that air quality for the global average citizen in 2050 would be almost comparable to that for the average citizen in East Asia in the year 2005, which underscores the need to pursue emission reductions.


Hidden (indirect) taxes were a major theme in the Republican Party's attempt to defeat Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election. Republicans argued that New Deal programs were not free, but rather, were funded by the very people they were supposed to help — the common or "forgotten" men and women — who paid in the form of increasingly heavy hidden taxes on everything from bread to electricity. By stressing the issue of hidden taxes, Republicans hoped to reveal Roosevelt's hypocrisy, raise the average voter's 'tax consciousness,' and thereby undermine support for Roosevelt. Once sensitized to taxes, the masses would — Republicans believed — vote for Landon because he would provide the necessary relief and economic stimulants in a less costly manner and would reform the tax system to rely more on direct taxes such as the income tax.Experts versed in public relations — including advertising professionals and journalists — ran the campaign using modern advertising techniques and media to "sell" Landon to the public, just as they would sell any product. Although the hidden tax campaign was aimed at all the forgotten people, women were both major targets and active participants in their traditional private roles as wives and mothers and in their public roles as voters, workers, and investors.Despite its ultimate failure to defeat Roosevelt or to initiate the tax reform which many contemporaries hoped would follow the exposure of hidden taxes, the hidden tax campaign did successfully gain media attention and engage many voters in political action. Its tactics remain in use today. Modern anti-tax campaigns, using populist rhetoric and exploiting modern media, are remarkably similar to those used in the 1936 campaign: partisan attacks that confuse more than they illuminate (estate tax effects and burdens), catchy phrases (the death tax), attention getting gimmicks (reenacting the Boston Tea Party), and the same strident rhetoric about soaking the rich and burdening the forgotten (middle class) taxpayer. The end results also appear to be the same today as they were in 1936. The masses do not achieve any better understanding of the true tax burdens and establishing the foundations of a better tax system through tax reform remains a dream.


The common practice for training commonsense models has gone from–human–to–corpus–to–machine: humans author commonsense knowledge graphs in order to train commonsense models. In this work, we investigate an alternative, from–machine–to–corpus–to–machine: general language models author these commonsense knowledge graphs to train commonsense models. Our study leads to a new framework, Symbolic Knowledge Distillation. As with prior art in Knowledge Distillation (Hinton et al. 2015), our approach uses larger models to teach smaller models. A key difference is that we distill knowledge symbolically–as text–in addition to the neural model. We distill only one aspect–the commonsense of a general language model teacher, allowing the student to be a different type, a commonsense model. Altogether, we show that careful prompt engineering and a separately trained critic model allow us to selectively distill high-quality causal commonsense from GPT-3, a general language model. Empirical results demonstrate that, for the first time, a human-authored commonsense knowledge graph is surpassed by our automatically distilled variant in all three criteria: quantity, quality, and diversity. In addition, it results in a neural commonsense model that surpasses the teacher model's commonsense capabilities despite its 100x smaller size. We apply this to the ATOMIC resource, and will share our new symbolic knowledge graph and commonsense models.


We present a methodology for automatic synthesis of embedded control software that incorporates a class of linear temporal logic (LTL) specifications sufficient to describe a wide range of properties including safety, stability, progress, obligation, response and guarantee. To alleviate the associated computational complexity of LTL synthesis, we propose a receding horizon framework that effectively reduces the synthesis problem into a set of smaller problems. The proposed control structure consists of a goal generator, a trajectory planner, and a continuous controller. The goal generator reduces the trajectory generation problem into a sequence of smaller problems of short horizon while preserving the desired system-level temporal properties. Subsequently, in each iteration, the trajectory planner solves the corresponding short-horizon problem with the currently observed state as the initial state and generates a feasible trajectory to be implemented by the continuous controller. Based on the simulation property, we show that the composition of the goal generator, trajectory planner and continuous controller and the corresponding receding horizon framework guarantee the correctness of the system with respect to its specification regardless of the environment in which the system operates. In addition, we present a response mechanism to handle failures that may occur due to a mismatch between the actual system and its model. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is demonstrated through an example of an autonomous vehicle navigating an urban environment. This example also illustrates that the system is not only robust with respect to exogenous disturbances but is also capable of properly handling violation of the environment assumption that is explicitly stated as part of the system specification.


Occupancy grid mapping algorithms assume that grid block values are independently distributed. However, most environments of interest contain spatial patterns that are better characterized by models that capture dependencies among grid blocks. To account for such dependencies, we model the environment as a pairwise Markov random field. We specify a belief propagation-based mapping algorithm that takes these dependencies into account when estimating a map. To demonstrate the potential benefits of this approach, we simulate a simple multi-robot minefield mapping scenario. Minefields contain spatial dependencies since some landmine configurations are more likely than others, and since clutter, which causes false alarms, can be concentrated in certain regions and completely absent in others. Our belief propagation-based approach outperforms conventional occupancy grid mapping algorithms in the sense that better maps can be obtained with significantly fewer robot measurements. The belief propagation algorithm requires a modest amount of increased computation, but we contend that in applications where significant energy and time expenditure is associated with robot movement and active sensing, the reduction in the required number of samples justified the increased computation.


Progress in medical science is intimately linked with understanding and advancing the limits of human survival: increases in adult life expectancy and incremental reductions in minimal fetal viable age bear testimony to this relationship. Exploration of human physiology under extreme environmental conditions is another facet of this association. Understanding physiology at the limits of human tolerance to environmental conditions is a worthy goal in itself but may in addition lead to developments in both knowledge and treatments in clinical settings. Recently, larger systematic studies of human responses to extreme environments have used the tools of modern molecular medicine, in combination with detailed physiological phenotyping, in order to identify and explore cellular mechanisms underlying beneficial adaptive processes and detrimental responses.

A robust definition of extreme environment is difficult to frame and is always contextually dependent on the object or person exposed to the environment and the subject of study. Most definitions with respect to the study of human medicine and biology incorporate the requirement for either physiological adaptation or technological innovation in order to survive. Simple stress does not define an extreme environment; there must be a risk of illness or death in some, if not all, exposed individuals in order to justify the requirement for adaptation or innovation in order to survive. Whilst some definitions incorporate the psychological and sociological characteristics of an environment, this can result in difficulty in distinguishing the unpleasant from the dangerous (where survival is at stake).

There is a long tradition of human experimentation (often …


Soybean (Glycine max L.) is an important grain legume cultivated on approximately 1.24 million ha in Africa (1). Malawi ranks fourth in area of production in Africa, with 75,000 ha in 2009 (1). Soybean is also gaining importance in Mozambique and several other southern African countries due to diversification programs. During a field survey conducted in March 2010, soybean plants with phyllody and witches'-broom disorders typical of phytoplasma infection were observed in three of five fields surveyed in Lilongwe (Chitedze Research Station) and Salima (Channa, Chitala) districts in Malawi and three of four fields surveyed in Zambezia Province in Mozambique. Symptoms consisted of shoot proliferation, reduced leaflets, shortened internodes, proliferated auxiliary shoots producing witches'-brooms, virescence, and phyllody. Incidence of symptomatic plants was <1% in Malawi and 10 to 15% in Mozambique. Yield loss was 100% in affected plants. Five leaf samples each from symptomatic and asymptomatic plants were collected from six fields; total genomic DNAs were isolated and used as templates in PCR using phytoplasma-universal primer pair P1 and P7 for 16S-23S ribosomal RNA encoding region (3). PCR amplicons (1,709 bp) were produced from only templates derived from symptomatic plants. Amplicons from a symptomatic plant each from Malawi (Channa, Salima District) and Mozambique (Mutequelse, Zambezia Province) were directly sequenced in both directions and submitted to the GenBank (Accession Nos. HQ840717 and HQ845208). Nucleotide sequences of the two African soybean witches'-broom (SoyWB) phytoplasma strains were 100% identical. The virtual restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) pattern derived from these sequences using iPhyClassifier software (4) was similar to the reference pattern of the 16Sr group II, subgroup C (cactus phytoplasma, Accession No. AJ293216), with a pattern similarity coefficient of 0.99. A BLASTn search revealed that the African SoyWB phytoplasma sequences had a nucleotide sequence identity of 99% with those of soybean phytoplasma from Thailand (Accession No. EF193353), cactus phytoplasma from China (Accession No. EU099561), and several other members of 16SrII group. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the clustering of these strains with members of 16SrII group. In 1984, the occurrence of phyllody and witches'-broom symptoms in soybean in Mozambique was reported (2), however, no comprehensive details on the pathogen are available. To our knowledge, this is the first report of phyllody and witches'-broom disease in soybean in Malawi and the first molecular evidence of association of a 16SrII-C group 'Candidatus phytoplasma' with the disease in Malawi and Mozambique. Phyllody and witches'-broom is a destructive disease, and its widespread occurrence can adversely affect soybean production in sub-Saharan Africa. Identification of alternative hosts and vector species would improve our understanding of the disease's epidemiology and contribute to development of appropriate tactics to prevent escalation of this problem into a major disease. References: (1) FAOSTAT. http://faostat.fao.org/site/567/default.aspx . Retrieved 28 December 2010. (2) P. Plumb-Dhindsa and A. M. Mondjane. Trop. Pest Manage. 30:407, 1984. (3) L. B. Sharmila et al. J. Plant Biochem. Biotech. 13:1, 2004. (4) Y. Zhao et al. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 59:2582, 2009.


Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is emerging as the third largest cause of human mortality worldwide, killing over more than 3 million people annually. It is a defined as a chronic inflammatory lung disease characterized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. Tobacco smoking is the single most important causative factor for the development of COPD, especially in developed countries. Colonization/infection of the lower respiratory tract with microorganisms in COPD is likely to be one of the important factors driving inflammatory processes in the airways, possibly leading to long-term progression and exacerbations of the disease. Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) and Streptococcus pneumonia (S. pneumoniae) are the most important pulmonary bacteria during both stable phase of disease and exacerbations of COPD, but the underlying mechanisms for their prominence in these conditions remain elusive. Exposure to cigarette smoke has been shown to significantly increase pulmonary tissue bacterial infections (with both NTHi and S. pneumoniae) in cell culture and animal models, as well as human lung samples. Bacterial adherence to lung epithelium and subsequent tissue invasion is known to be a crucial step in the pathogenesis of respiratory infections. Notably, platelet activating factor receptor (PAFr) has been established as the primary attachment molecule for both NTHi and S. pneumoniae. Moreover, intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) serves as an entry receptor for not only the majority (~60%) of human rhinoviruses (HRVs), but also for NTHi. Although the expression of these microbial receptors have been investigated in smokers, the expression pattern of these adhesion molecules in COPD has not been reported till date.
Aims: I have investigated the expression pattern of airway epithelial PAFr and ICAM-1 in both the large and small airways, as well as lung parenchyma in tissues from: smoker with normal spirometry, COPD subjects (smokers and ex-smokers), and a group with small dysfunction only. I have also investigated whether blocking PAFr reduces the bacterial adherence to bronchial cells pretreated with cigarette smoke.
Methodology: I evaluated the expression of PAFr and ICAM-1 crosssectionally in both large (bronchial biopsies, EBB and resected lung tissue, RT) and small airways (RT) from: 16 EBB/8 RT smokers with normal lung function (NLFS); 10 with smoking-related small airway narrowing only; 15 EBB/8 RT COPD smokers; 12 EBB/10 RT COPD ex-smokers, and compared these with 15 EBB/9 RT control tissues (NC). Anti-PAFr/ICAM-1 immunostaining on paraffin-embedded tissue was quantified using computeraided image analysis. Moreover, human cultures bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells were exposed to cigarette smoke extract (CSE). PAFr and ICAM- 1 expression levels were determined using immunocytochemistry and qPCR. The epithelial cells were challenged with either NTHi or S. pneumoniae labeled with FITC, and bacterial adhesion was measured using immunofluorescence. The effect of a well-evaluated antagonist of PAFr, WEB- 2086, on binding of the bacterial pathogens to BEAS-2B cells was then assessed. With collaborators, I also carried out in-silico studies of the tertiary structure of PAFr and the binding pocket for PAF and its antagonist WEB- 2086.
Results: Large airway epithelium showed markedly enhanced expression of PAFr in COPD-smokers especially (p<0.005) and also COPD-ex-smokers (p<0.002) compared to smokers with normal lung function. Moreover, significantly increased PAFr expression in small airway epithelium of all clinical groups was found compared with controls (p<0.01), but with no difference between smokers with or without COPD. Smoking history (packyear) correlated significantly with PAFr expression in the currently smoking individuals, especially in NLFS (r=0.9; p<0.002). An increase above normal in PAFr-expressing cells in the airway sub-epithelial Rbm was only significant in COPD smokers (p<0.007). A lesser increase in PAFr-expressing cell in alveolar epithelium (compared to airway epithelium) was uniformly found in all clinical groups compared with normal controls (p<0.01). In vitro analyses showed that PAFr expression by bronchial epithelial cells was upregulated by CSE, and significantly associated with increased bacterial (both NTHi and S. pneumoniae) adhesion. WEB-2086, a known PAFr-antagonist, reduced the epithelial adhesion by both NTHi and S pneumoniae to levels observed for non-CSE exposed control cells. Furthermore, WEB-2086 was non-toxic towards the bronchial epithelial cells. Moreover, in silico analyses allowed identification of the binding pocket for PAF/WEB-2086 in the predicted PAFr tertiary structure.
Significantly increased ICAM-1-positive cells were found in the epithelium of the both large (p<0.006) and small airways (p<0.004) of all clinical groups, compared to control tissue. Moreover, epithelial ICAM-1 expression was especially upregulated in the airway obstruction (CAL) group compared to smokers with normal lung function (p<0.007, for large airway expression; p<0.02, for small airway expression). Smoking history (pack-year) correlated significantly with ICAM-1 expression in both the large and small airway epithelium in the currently smoking individuals (r=0.49; p<0.03). In the subepithelial Rbm, increase in ICAM-1 expressing cells was only significant in small airways in the CAL group (p<0.02). The staining patterns were quite intriguing: in the CAL group especially, both basal and luminal areas of epithelial cells stained heavily for ICAM-1, but so did goblet cells and submucosal glands. These features were little evident in either normal controls or NLFS subjects.
Conclusion: The expression of epithelial PAFr and ICAM-1 is upregulated in both the large and small airways in smokers, but markedly so in COPD. Increased expression of these microbial receptors in the respiratory tract could be crucial in viral and bacterial infections known to be important duringthe course of the disease.


This book covers the most recent scientific and technological developments (state-of-the-art) in the field of chemical oxidation processes applicable for the efficient treatment of biologically-difficult-to-degrade, toxic and/or recalcitrant effluents originating from different manufacturing processes. It is a comprehensive review of process and pollution profiles as well as conventional, advanced and emerging treatment processes & technologies developed for the most relevant and pollution (wet processing)-intensive industrial sectors.

It addresses chemical/photochemical oxidative treatment processes, case-specific treatability problems of major industrial sectors, emerging (novel) as well as pilot/full-scale applications, process integration, treatment system design & sizing criteria (figure-of-merits), cost evaluation and success stories in the application of chemical oxidative treatment processes.

Chemical Oxidation Applications for Industrial Wastewaters is an essential reference for lecturers, researchers, industrial and environmental engineers and practitioners working in the field of environmental science and engineering.

ISBN: 9781843393078 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780401416 (eBook)


By altering gene expression and creating paralogs, genomic amplifications represent a key component of short-term adaptive processes. In insects, the use of insecticides can select gene amplifications causing an increased expression of detoxification enzymes, supporting the usefulness of these DNA markers for monitoring the dynamics of resistance alleles in the field. In this context, the present study aims to characterise a genomic amplification event associated with resistance to organophosphate insecticides in the mosquito Aedes aegypti and to develop a molecular assay to monitor the associated resistance alleles in the field. An experimental evolution experiment using a composite population from Laos supported the association between the over-transcription of multiple contiguous carboxylesterase genes on chromosome 2 and resistance to multiple organophosphate insecticides. Combining whole genome sequencing and qPCR on specific genes confirmed the presence of a ~100 Kb amplification spanning at least five carboxylesterase genes at this locus with the co-existence of multiple structural duplication haplotypes. Field data confirmed their circulation in South-East Asia and revealed high copy number polymorphism among and within populations suggesting a trade-off between this resistance mechanism and associated fitness costs. A dual-colour multiplex TaqMan assay allowing the rapid detection and copy number quantification of this amplification event in Ae. aegypti was developed and validated on field populations. The routine use of this novel assay will improve the tracking of resistance alleles in this major arbovirus vector.


To increase our understanding of cells, there is a need for specific markers to identify biomolecules, cellular structures and compartments. One type of markers comprises genetically encoded fluorescent probes that are linked with protein domains, peptides and/or signal sequences. These markers are encoded on a plasmid and they allow straightforward, convenient labeling of cultured mammalian cells by introducing the plasmid into the cells. Ideally, the fluorescent marker combines favorable spectroscopic properties (brightness, photostability) with specific labeling of the structure or compartment of interest. Here, we report on our ongoing efforts to generate robust and bright genetically encoded fluorescent markers for highlighting structures and compartments in living cells.


We conduct a hybrid experimental-observational study on college students to investigate whether the exposure to institutions of significantly heterogeneous quality affects their behavior and their stereotypes about others' behavior in a corruption experiment. The 2x2 between-subject experimental design varies:

(i) the availability of information on the geographic origin of the participants; and

(ii) whether participants are matched with others from the same macro-region.

Experimental results show that:

(i) knowing the other's region of origin significantly increases the probability of engaging in corruption, but mostly when briber and bribee belong to different macro-regions;

(ii) coming from municipalities with a lower contemporary and historical level of civic capital significantly increases the probability of engaging in corruption.

Our findings suggest that the quality of institutions has a persistent effect on an individuals' internalized prosocial norms, and that these effects are evident even in a highly controlled laboratory setting.


How is the modern world shaping young people and youth crime? What impact is this having on the latest policies and practice? Are current youth justice services working? With contributions from leading researchers in the field, this book offers an insightful, scholarly and critical analysis of such key issues. Youth Offending and Youth Justice engages constructively with current policy and practice debates, tackling issues such as the criminalisation and penalisation of youth, sentencer decision-making, the incarceration of young people and the role of public opinion. It also features an applied focus on professional practice. Drawing on a wide range of high-quality research, this book will enrich the work of practitioners, managers, policy-makers, students and academics in social work, youth work, criminal justice and youth justice in the UK and beyond.


Geographic information has spawned many novel Web applications where global positioning system (GPS) plays important roles in bridging the applications and end users. Learning knowledge from users' raw GPS data can provide rich context information for both geographic and mobile applications. However, so far, raw GPS data are still used directly without much understanding. In this paper, an approach based on supervised learning is proposed to automatically infer transportation mode from raw GPS data. The transportation mode, such as walking, driving, etc., implied in a user's GPS data can provide us valuable knowledge to understand the user. It also enables context-aware computing based on user's present transportation mode and design of an innovative user interface for Web users. Our approach consists of three parts: a change point-based segmentation method, an inference model and a post-processing algorithm based on conditional probability. The change point-based segmentation method was compared with two baselines including uniform duration based and uniform length based methods. Meanwhile, four different inference models including Decision Tree, Bayesian Net, Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Conditional Random Field (CRF) are studied in the experiments. We evaluated the approach using the GPS data collected by 45 users over six months period. As a result, beyond other two segmentation methods, the change point based method achieved a higher degree of accuracy in predicting transportation modes and detecting transitions between them. Decision Tree outperformed other inference models over the change point based segmentation method.


Abstract Patients undergoing surgery and taking angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) or angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB) are susceptible to complications related to intraoperative hypotension. Perioperative continuation of such medications in patients undergoing colorectal surgery may be associated with more harm than benefit, as these patients are often exposed to other risk factors which may contribute to intraoperative hypotension. Our objectives were to assess the incidence and severity of postinduction hypotension as well as the rates of acute kidney injury (AKI), 30-day all-cause mortality, 30-day readmission, and hospital length of stay in adult patients undergoing colorectal surgery who take ACEi/ARB. We performed a retrospective chart review of patients undergoing colorectal surgery of ≥4 hour duration at a tertiary care academic medical center between January 2011 and November 2016. The preoperative and intraoperative characteristics as well as postoperative outcomes were compared between patients taking ACEi/ARB and patients not taking these medications. Of the 1020 patients meeting inclusion criteria, 174 (17%) were taking either ACEi or ARB before surgery. Patients taking these medications were more likely to receive both postinduction and intraoperative phenylephrine and ephedrine. The incidences of postoperative AKI (P = .35), 30-day all-cause mortality (P = .36), 30-day hospital readmission (P = .45), and hospital length of stay (P = .25), were not significantly different between the 2 groups. Our results support the current recommendation that ACEi/ARB use is probably safe within the colorectal surgery population during the perioperative period. Intraoperative hypotension should be expected and treated with vasopressors.


Flexure joints are frequently used in precision-motion stages and microrobotic mechanisms due to their monolithic construction. The joint compliance, however, can affect the static and dynamic performance of the overall mechanism. In this paper, we consider the analysis and design of general platform-type parallel mechanisms containing flexure joints. Based on static performance measures such as task-space stiffness and manipulability, and constraints such as joint stress, mechanism size, and workspace volume, we pose the design problem as a multiobjective optimization. We first calculate the Pareto frontier, which can then be used to select the desired design parameters based on secondary criteria, such as performance sensitivity and dynamic characteristics. To facilitate design iteration, we apply the pseudo rigid-body approach with a lumped approximation of the flexure joints. A planar mechanism is used to illustrate the analysis and design techniques.


Turbidity currents generated from sediment-carrying freshwater discharges into the sea contain a fluid that is less dense than ambient seawater. From experiments it is known that such currents will eventually lift from their substrate either in part or as a whole through buoyancy reversal. This ascent will happen when their density is lowered below that of seawater through settling of suspended sediment from the top or deposition from the bottom of the flows. Evidence for large-scale lofting of suspended sediment from the top of giant sand- and gravel-carrying turbidity currents in the Labrador Sea comes from two independent lines of observations: (1) The first is a distinct sedimentary facies consisting of stacked, centimeter-thick graded mud layers that contain grains of ice-rafted debris (IRD) supported by the mud. Deposition of these unusual layers requires a gradedlayer‐forming process that is slow enough to allow the incorporation of IRD; this is not possible with normal mud-carrying turbidity currents. (2) The second observation is the presence of a huge abyssal sand and gravel plain in the central Labrador Sea that received its sediment from bed-load‐rich meltwater discharges from the Hudson Strait outlet of the Pleistocene Laurentide Ice Sheet. These discharges turned into turbidity currents that released rising columns of freshwater that carried fine-grained suspended sediment and spread out at a water level where their density equaled that of ambient seawater. Deposition from these slow turbid interflows would allow the incorporation of IRD in the accumulating graded mud deposits. The IRD-spiked graded mud facies is restricted to Heinrich layers within 300 km radius of the Hudson Strait ice-stream terminus, tying the sand-carrying turbidity currents via fine-grained sediment lofting to Heinrich events. Estimated total discharge volumes of individual currents are on the order of 10 3 km 3 , supporting the notion that Heinrich ice-rafting events were times of maximum meltwater generation.


The aim of this study was to determine the selection of bedding material by broiler chickens during the rearing period and whether the choice was determinant to their performing a specific behavior. To achieve this objective, a choice test was designed. A choice pen was constructed where birds could move freely around the four selected materials (straw, wood shavings, rice hulls and sand). Chickens were introduced in this pen in four groups of eight birds, three days a week for one hour per day and group, for four weeks. The location and the activity performed by each broiler were recorded every five minutes. Results showed a preference for sand compared with the other three substrates. However, differences between the behaviors performed in each bedding material were shown mainly for resting (preferably performed on wood shavings and straw), dust bathing (on sand), pecking and scratching (on rice hulls). Other factors, such as the time of day, were also found to have effects on fighting and drinking, and changes in behavioral patterns (resting, preening, eating, standing and pecking) were also detected as broilers grew older.


Digitalisation is transforming the economy and redefining trade. Recently, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have started to discuss how trade policies and rules should be adapted to address this transformation. For example, in January 2019, 76 WTO members announced the launch of "negotiations on trade-related aspects of electronic commerce". The scope of these e-commerce negotiations is yet to be defined, but to ban tariffs on electronic transmissions will certainly be on the priority list of WTO members such as the United States (US) and the European Union (EU). The idea of banning tariffs on electronic transmission originated at the WTO's Ministerial Conference (MC) in 1998, when Members declared that they would "continue their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions". This temporary moratorium on e-commerce tariffs needs to be regularly extended, requiring a decision made "by consensus". Members have repeatedly extended the moratorium on tariffs on "electronic transmissions", most recently at the latest WTO MC in 2017. But the WTO e-commerce moratorium is increasingly disputed: First, while net exporters of digital products and services, typically industrialised countries, understand the tariff ban to apply to digital content, net importers interpret it as referring only to electronic carriers (e.g. CDs, electronic bits), which means that they regard themselves as permitted to impose customs duties on the content of online trade. Second, while net exporters like the US and the EU propose a permanent ban on e-commerce tariffs in order to provide greater certainty to consumers and business, arguing that the resulting revenue losses are small, net importers like India and South Africa underline that they suffer much greater revenue losses than industrialised countries and have to bear the brunt of the moratorium. Third, while industrialised countries argue that the ban on tariffs on electronic transmissions would reduce market distortions, developing countries are concerned that a permanent moratorium would limit their options to protect domestic products and services traded online. Fourth, the moratorium has stirred a debate about how to create a level playing field between domestic and foreign suppliers of digital products and services. We argue that WTO members should take the ongoing debate as an opportunity for the WTO to play an important role in redefining trade in a digitalised economy. To take up this challenge, we recommend the following: (a) WTO Members should seek agreement on what the e-commerce tariff moratorium covers and what it does not. (b) Concerns about who wins and who loses in the wake of the moratorium require deep-dive reflections. WTO members should thus not rush to make the moratorium permanent. They should consider extending it for (at least) another two years at MC12 and use this time to prepare a fully fledged agreement to replace the temporary decision and which could be called the Agreement on Digital Products and Other Services (ADPOS). (c) The WTO secretariat should actively engage in the ongoing broader discussions about taxation in the digitalised economy. New evolutions of international and national tax reforms and data-driven digital trade offer unprecedented opportunities for the WTO to reshape the trade agenda. But the WTO may be left behind in addressing the future of trade in a digitalised economy if it does not respond strategically.


Modern authoritarianism relies on a combination of patriotism and performance-based legitimacy rather than ideology. As such, a modern authoritarian government has to allow for some forms of political discussion and participation from which popular consent to authoritarian rule is derived. With 420 million Internet users, 200 million bloggers, and 277 million netizens able to access the Internet through their mobile phones (CNNIC, 2010), China presents an interesting case to examine public deliberation online. Adapting the concept of authoritarian deliberation (He, 2006a) from an offline environment to an online one, the article proposes four types of online spaces of authoritarian deliberation extending from the core to the peripheries of authoritarian rule: central propaganda spaces, government-regulated commercial spaces, emergent civic spaces, and international deliberative spaces. The paper discusses their characteristics and implications for political participation in China and argues that democracy need not be a precursor to public deliberation. Instead, public deliberation may present a viable alternative to the radical electoral democracy in authoritarian countries like China.


Balking and reneging are two ways through which customer impatience finds reflection. In the analysis of stochastic reneging, it has traditionally been assumed that the distribution of patience time is state independent. However in many queuing systems, the customer is aware of its position in the system state. Hence in this paper, we assume that a customer who arrives at the queuing system gets to know the state of the system. Consequently, both balking and reneging are taken as function of system state. Both types of reneging are considered. Explicit closed form expressions of a number of performance measures are presented. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate the results derived rounds off the paper.