The primordial confrontation underlying the existence of our Universe can be conceived as the battle between entropy and complexity. The law of ever-increasing entropy (Boltzmann H-theorem) evokes an irreversible, one-directional evolution (or rather involution) going uniformly and monotonically from birth to death. Since the 19th century, this concept is one of the cornerstones and in the same time puzzles of statistical mechanics. On the other hand, there is the empirical experience where one witnesses the emergence, growth and diversification of new self-organized objects with ever-increasing complexity. When modeling them in terms of simple discrete elements one finds that the emergence of collective complex adaptive objects is a rather generic phenomenon governed by a new type of laws. These "emergence" laws, not connected directly with the fundamental laws of the physical reality, nor acting "in addition" to them but acting through them were called "More is Different" by Phil Anderson, "das Maass" by Hegel etc. Even though the "emergence laws" act through the intermediary of the fundamental laws that govern the individual elementary agents, it turns out that different systems apparently governed by very different fundamental laws: gravity, chemistry, biology, economics, social psychology, end up often with similar emergence laws and outcomes. In particular the emergence of adaptive collective objects endows the system with a granular structure which in turn causes specific macroscopic cycles of intermittent fluctuations.


Taking to the Streets critically examines the conventional wisdom that the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings happened spontaneously and were directed by tech-savvy young revolutionaries. Pairing first-hand observations from activists with the critical perspectives of scholars, the book illuminates the concept of activism as an ongoing process, rather than a sudden burst of defiance. The contributors examine case studies from uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria, Bahrain, Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, evaluating the various manifestations of political activism within the context of each country's distinct sociopolitical landscape. The chapters include a country-specific timeline of the first year following the uprisings and conclude with lessons learned. First-hand observations include those of Libyan activist Rihab Elhaj, who reflects on how the revolution gave birth to Libyan civil society, as well as Syrian writer and human rights activist Khawla Dunia, who discusses how Syrians have tried to remain steadfast in their commitment to nonviolent resistance. A foreword by Prince Hicham Ben Abdallah El Alaoui-third in succession to the Moroccan throne and consulting professor at Stanford University's Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law (CDDRL)-provides a historical overview of activism in the Middle East and North Africa. A postscript from CDDRL director Larry Diamond distinguishes the study of activism from that of democratization. Taking to the Streets will be used in courses on Middle East politics and will be relevant to scholars and the general public interested in democratization, political change, and activism.


CRITICAL DISCOURSES ON THE FANTASTIC, 1712-1831. David Sandner. London: Ashgate, 2011. $99.95. 191 pp. 9781409428626. IT IS A COMMONPLACE OF LITERARY CRITICISM that the modern fantastic emerged during the Romantic period. The truism is that the rationalism, empiricism and modernity of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment jarred with the literary imaginations of the Romantics, who abandoned such mindsets in their own work and set out in pursuit of the sublime rather than the intelligible. Certainly, many modern and contemporary fantasists owe a great ideological debt to the Romantics in their use of literature to portray and interrogate emotional and spiritual ideals; writers such as Tolkien and MacDonald come to mind here. In an academic context, however, truisms are there to be investigated and overturned. Sandner offers an interesting and, so to speak, enlightening reappraisal of the fantastic as a matter of both literary history and literary theory. This reappraisal emerges chiefly from a fairly simple--but ingenious--shift of perspective on the fantastic. Rather than discussing it as a reaction to the component ideologies of the Enlightenment, Sandner examines its history as a plank in the intellectual self-image of a number of Enlightenment thinkers. In doing so he demonstrates that the fantastic, if out of sight for much of the eighteenth century, was by no means out of mind. Enlightenment thinkers and writers variously saw the literary fantastic as pleasurable, worrying, annoying, useful or pathetic, and much of Sandner's book is devoted to assessing these attitudes and locating very precise shades of meaning in the writings in which these ideas were expressed. The bulk of Critical Discourses on the Fantastic is composed of a series of essays, each of which either examines a single writer's contribution to the debate, or compares the contributions of two such writers. In attempting to cover more than a century of crowded intellectual culture, Sandner casts his net wide, analysing the thoughts both of practitioners of the fantastic (James Hogg, Mary Shelley) and of thinkers who found themselves commenting on it such as Joseph Addison and Samuel Johnson. He tends to assume some specialist knowledge of his subject literature. This will occasionally leave those who study later manifestations of the fantastic with a faint feeling of being out of their depth, or of having saddled themselves with unhelpful reading. Sandner's investigation of the moral framework of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, for example, appears for much of its length to be of scant interest to those not specifically studying that poem. Those studying authors such as Coleridge, Keats and Radcliffe will presumably find much of interest here; those who are not would be well-advised to persevere. Sandner's conclusions are based on careful, well-informed examinations of specific pieces of literature, and he can hardly be faulted for showing his working. Apart from anything else, such discursions obviously indicate his firm grasp on his material. The chapter comparing the attitudes and works of Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg serves as an exemplar of Sandner's approach. Both writers are, of course, Scottish, both present complicated ideas about Scotland and Scottish society's place in the contemporary world, and both were prepared to use the fantastic in order to make their respective points. Where they part company is on their positioning of the fantastic in relation to their own time and place. Scott, Sandner notes, relegates the fantastic to pastoral Scottish history, deeming it "ill-timed and disgusting" when used outside the context of narratives intended to be read as stories of a historical "popular tradition." (108) The fantastic must be treated with such caution because modern skeptical audiences simply will not believe it unless it is part of what is consciously set up as a historical tale. It therefore becomes a toy, albeit a potentially powerful one, of the antiquarian. …


The successful LL.B. (Hons) programme via Blended delivery (Bachelor of Arts Law QQI level 8) at Griffith College has been running since 2014. Our Digital Learning Department (DLD) followed up that first Blended programme with a Business Studies under graduate offering – the BABS (Hons) via Blended programme, which commenced Sept 2016. The DLD staff were instrumental in proposing, designing and rolling out this blended programme as an extension of our Part-time (P/T) and Full-time (F/T) BA Honours Business Faculty offering (BABSH). Currently students are completing the final year of their degree and we have a staggered intake in September and again in February.
The model we employ for these programme consists of a blend of synchronous and asynchronous elements and activities delivered via the Moodle (3.4) platform, recently redesigned in-house, for better user experience (UX) in 2018. Weekly 20 min e-lectures are created by subject specialists, in bespoke, e-Learning labs, using Camtasia software; then quality reviewed and posted to the VLE in the high quality Ubicast format. Use of this highend technology makes flexibility of delivery and engagement possible and a variety of student pathways are facilitated on the Blended programme as a result. The Ubicast system provides value added functionality, which is appreciated by our learners in their student survey comments. Resources (including e-Lectures) and Moodle activities are revealed to students weekly, including blogs, discussion forums, YouTube clips, academic papers, online quizzes etc. This delivery mode is supplemented by monthly online classroom (Zoom Pro) etutorials, where break-out rooms, screen-sharing and use of white board graphics make for dynamic interactive Q&A sessions. Lecturers also make themselves available for 1:2:1 office hours using their own Zoom online classrooms via their Moodle module pages.
One of the corner stones of this blended delivery continues to be live face-to-face days scheduled monthly, where learners join their peers on Saturdays, on campus, for 3 hour "flipped" classroom workshops. Continuous formative assessment is facilitated via Moodle submission points, using Turn-it-in anti-plagiarism software, where a variety of online feedback options, are made easily available to the learners. This presentation will showcase our delivery methods, use of learning analytics and strong results.


This annual publication contains summaries of the Mycenaean Seminar convened by the Institute of Classical Studies. The seminar series has been running since the 1950s, when it focused largely on the exciting new research enabled by the decipherment of Linear B. The series has now evolved to cover Aegean Prehistory in general, and is well known among subject specialists throughout the world. Taken together, the summaries provide a rich resource for Aegean Prehistory, and often provide the only citable instance of new research projects, until their fuller publication becomes possible.
The summaries of the seminars have been published as part of BICS since 1963. Starting with the 2015–16 series, the Mycenaean summaries will be published separately online, retaining their original character and their close connection with BICS, and becoming far more widely available as Open Access publications via the Humanities Digital Library.


This study was conducted to investigate the anti-diabetic activity of Kocat-D1, which is widely used in traditional medicine to treat diabetes in Shandong, China. Sprague Dawley rats (8 weeks of age) were separated into 4 groups: a normal control, streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rat group (DM control), Kocat-D1-1 (diabetic rat treated with 0.25 g/㎏/day hot water extract), and Kocat-D1-2 (diabetic rat treated with 1 g/㎏/day hot water extract). After eight weeks of treatment, the fasting blood glucose levels of the Kocat-D1-1 (334.3±32.9 ㎎/㎗) and Kocat-D1-2 group (259.5±35.0 ㎎/㎗) were significantly lower when compared to the DM control group (451±42.6 ㎎/㎗). Furthermore, the levels of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT), albumin and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol in the serum of the Kocat-D1-2 group were significantly normalized when compared to the DM control group. However, significant differences were not observed between the Kocat-D1-1 group and the DM control group. Histochemical staining of the liver of the Kocat-D1-2 group revealed no fat accumulation. The insulin level was significantly upregulated in the Kocat-D1-2 group (0.13±0.02 ng/㎖) when compared to the DM control group (0.05±0.04 ng/㎖). The relative volume of β-cells in the pancreas of the Kocat-D1-2 group (49.4±4.2%) also increased significantly when compared to the DM control group (12.9±7.9%). These results suggest that Kocat-D1 exerts an anti-hyperglycemic effect through the enhancement of insulin secretion.


This dissertation details three studies which utilize nontraditional applications of electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The first study explores and discusses the limitations of identifying unknown drug metabolites using ion-molecule reactions performed inside a mass spectrometer and coupled with high performance liquid chromatography. Ultimately, it was concluded that some highly-efficient, MS2 ion-molecule reactions coupled with some drug metabolites would be sufficiently sensitive for in vivo drug metabolism studies. However, this study also concluded that the rate of false-positives and false-negatives may be higher than previous publications suggest.The next study analyzed sulfur-containing compounds under atypical negative mode electrospray ionization mass spectrometry conditions. After noting that low analyte flow rates during electrospray ionization experiments on ethanethiol resulted in significant oxygen incorporation, the aim of this study was to understand the chemistry behind the oxygen incorporation and search for ways to experimentally limit the degree of oxygen inclusion. The atypical conditions were ultimately shown to induce significant ozonolysis and other oxidation reactions. Ultimately, only the use of high flow rates or switching to a different ionization technique were successful in mitigating the oxidation product formation. A new reaction mechanism for the oxidation of ethanethiol with ozone was proposed. Quantum chemical calculations were used to support the mechanism.Finally, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry was used to analyze mixtures of selenium and/or tellurium in amine-thiol solvent systems. Selenium and tellurium are essential components in many thin film solar cells and other photovoltaics and amine-thiol solvent systems have been identified as a key solution processing strategy for synthesizing selenium and tellurium thin films. However, the reaction between selenium/tellurium and the amine-thiol solvent system is poorly understood and requires detailed study before large-scale industrial synthesis can be achieved. In this study, the dissolution mechanisms for selenium and tellurium in two different amine-thiol solvent systems were explored and discussed. The role of the basicity of the amine, the relative concentrations of the thiol, and the presence of co-dissolved chalcogens were all studied and used to propose dissolution mechanisms. The results of the experiments were used to control the synthesis of lead-selenium-tellurium alloy nanoparticles and could inform further studies on controlling metal chalcogenide synthesis through the appropriate choice of amine-thiol solvents.


Sound is an invisible but powerful force that is central to everyday life. Studies in the neurobiology of everyday communication seek to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying sound processing, their stability, their plasticity, and their links to language abilities and disabilities. This sound processing lies at the nexus of cognitive, sensorimotor, and reward networks. Music provides a powerful experimental model to understand these biological foundations of communication, especially with regard to auditory learning. We review studies of music training that employ a biological approach to reveal the integrity of sound processing in the brain, the bearing these mechanisms have on everyday communication, and how these processes are shaped by experience. Together, these experiments illustrate that music works in synergistic partnerships with language skills and the ability to make sense of speech in complex, everyday listening environments. The active, repeated engagement with sound demanded by music making augments the neural processing of speech, eventually cascading to listening and language. This generalization from music to everyday communications illustrates both that these auditory brain mechanisms have a profound potential for plasticity and that sound processing is biologically intertwined with listening and language skills. A new wave of studies has pushed neuroscience beyond the traditional laboratory by revealing the effects of community music training in underserved populations. These community-based studies reinforce laboratory work highlight how the auditory system achieves a remarkable balance between stability and flexibility in processing speech. Moreover, these community studies have the potential to inform health care, education, and social policy by lending a neurobiological perspective to their efficacy.


augmented reality, pervasive computing, location awareness, ubiquitous computing, CoolTown In the CoolTown research program at Hewlett Packard Laboratories, we are building Ubiquitous Computing systems by embedding and embodying web technologies into physical environments. One of the newer components of this research is Websign. By using a simple form of augmented reality, the system allows users to visualize services related to physical objects of interest. The websign system provides infrastructure not just for detecting websigns but also for creating and deploying them. In this paper we present the concept, an overview of the prototype and the algorithms used in the implementation.


Recently Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is emerged as a new solution to secure computers and other systems. It is a small microchip that enables encryption and stores authentication information in computer motherboard. This paper presents the initiative of trust computing and an overview of TPM along with architecture and security features. We also discuss the applications and future of TPM. In summary, the TPM is becoming a viable and recognized approach for implementing security controls for embedded systems. With strong vendor adoption, the potential of TPM is tremendous and the continued development of TPM is


BACKGROUND A nationwide governmentally founded breast cancer screening program for women aged 50 - 69 years was gradually implemented in all Norwegian counties between November 1995 and February 2004 (the Norwegian Breast Cancer Screening Program, NBCSP). Such an implementation is expected to give an initial increased incidence followed by a decrease. We here present general and stage-specific incidences of breast cancer by age groups, in the first 9 counties that implemented the NBCSP. MATERIAL AND METHOD The incidence of invasive breast cancer is shown for the counties Akershus, Hordaland, Oslo and Rogaland (AHOR), and Agder (east and west), Telemark, Troms and Finnmark (AgTmTF) for the period 1990-2003. AHOR started the NBCSP in 1995/1996, and AgTmTF started in 1999/2000. The incidence is based on recordings in the main database at the Cancer Registry, and is shown in rates per 100,000 women years. RESULTS The incidence of breast cancer in women aged 50-69 years increased from 200 to 350 per 100,000 women years at start-up of the NBCSP and subsequently decreased to approximately 250. Before starting the program, the incidence was higher in women aged 70-74 years than in those aged 50 - 69. This changed in the subsequent period. During 1990-2003, the incidence of breast cancer was stable in women aged 20-49 and in those older than 74 years. At start-up of the NBCSP, a higher proportion of breast cancers in Stadium I were diagnosed as compared to the period before, especially among women aged 50-69 years. INTERPRETATION Introduction of the NBCSP has changed the incidence of breast cancer in women aged 50-69 and in those aged 70-74 years.


Despite the perennial claims of politicians that our courts are coddling hardened criminals, the fact is that America already sends a higher proportion of its citizens to prison-and for longer terms-than any other western nation. To quote the Canadian House of Commons's Committee on Justice, "If locking up those who violate the law contributed to safer societies, then the United States should be the safest country in the world." Yet despite well-documented and mounting evidence that increased penalties alone cannot reduce crime, the Reagan and Bush administrations repeatedly lobbied for tougher mandatory sentences and more prisons. Although black crime rates have been stable for twenty years, the number and percentages of blacks in jail and prison have skyrocketed since Ronald Reagan took office. The trend continues with President Clinton, who recently called for "three strikes you're out" legislation dictating mandatory life sentences for third felony convictions. In Malign Neglect, Michael Tonry addresses these paradoxes with passion and lucidity. Drawing on a vast compendium of the latest statistical, legal and social science research, he takes on the explosive issues of race, crime and punishment. As unconventional as he is committed, Tonry confronts uncomfortable truths head-on. On the one hand, he is outraged by politicians' talk of Willy Horton and Welfare Queens. The texts may be crime and welfare, Tonry writes, but the subtext is race. While he recognizes that the disadvantaged have no license to attack, rape or steal, and that the absolution of disadvantaged offenders would require a cynical acceptance of the suffering of victims, he argues powerfully that crime control policies can be recast so that, without diminishing public safety, they do less harm to disadvantaged black Americans. Tonry presents devastating evidence that our current policies are decimating black communities, and impeding the movement of disadvantaged black Americans into the social and economic mainstream of modern America. A blistering attack on worn-out misconceptions about race, poverty, crime and punishment and a fearless prescription for change, Malign Neglect is an indispensable briefing paper on a topic which goes to the heart and soul of the nation.


Synthetic cathinones are components of "bath salts" and have physical and psychologic side effects, including hypertension, paranoia, and hallucinations. Here, we report interactions of 20 "bath salt" components with human dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine transporters [human dopamine transporter (hDAT), human serotonin transporter (hSERT), and human norepinephrine transporter (hNET), respectively] heterologously expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 cells. Transporter inhibitors had nanomolar to micromolar affinities (Ki values) at radioligand binding sites, with relative affinities of hDAT>hNET>hSERT for α-pyrrolidinopropiophenone (α-PPP), α-pyrrolidinobutiophenone, α-pyrrolidinohexiophenone, 1-phenyl-2-(1-pyrrolidinyl)-1-heptanone, 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-pyrrolidinopropiophenone, 3,4-methylenedioxy-α-pyrrolidinobutiophenone, 4-methyl-α-pyrrolidinopropiophenone, α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, 4-methoxy-α-pyrrolidinovalerophenone, α-pyrrolidinopentiothiophenone (alpha-PVT), and α-methylaminovalerophenone, and hDAT>hSERT>hNET for methylenedioxypentedrone. Increasing the α-carbon chain length increased the affinity and potency of the α-pyrrolidinophenones. Uptake inhibitors had relative potencies of hDAT>hNET>hSERT except α-PPP and α-PVT, which had highest potencies at hNET. They did not induce [3H]neurotransmitter release. Substrates can enter presynaptic neurons via transporters, and the substrates methamphetamine and 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine are neurotoxic. We determined that 3-fluoro-, 4-bromo-, 4-chloro-methcathinone, and 4-fluoroamphetamine were substrates at all three transporters; 5,6-methylenedioxy-2-aminoindane (MDAI) and 4-methylethcathinone (4-MEC) were substrates primarily at hSERT and hNET; and 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-ethylcathinone (ethylone) and 5-methoxy-methylone were substrates only at hSERT and induced [3H]neurotransmitter release. Significant correlations between potencies for inhibition of uptake and for inducing release were observed for these and additional substrates. The excellent correlation of efficacy at stimulating release versus Ki/IC50 ratios suggested thresholds of binding/uptake ratios above which compounds were likely to be substrates. Based on their potencies at hDAT, most of these compounds have potential for abuse and addiction. 4-Bromomethcathinone, 4-MEC, 5-methoxy-methylone, ethylone, and MDAI, which have higher potencies at hSERT than hDAT, may have empathogen psychoactivity.


A combination of regionally focussed case studies and thematic essays, this volume seeks to explain the emergence of World Christianity as a new academic sub-discipline over the last two decades.


Digital libraries are quickly being adopted by the masses. Technological developments now allow community groups, clubs, and even ordinary individuals to create their own, publicly accessible collections. However, users may not be fully aware of the potential privacy implications of submitting their documents to a digital library, and may hold misconceptions of the technological support for preserving their privacy. We present results from 18 autoethnographic investigations and 19 observations / interviews into privacy issues that arise when people make their personal photo collections available online. The Adams' privacy model is used to discuss the findings according to information receiver, information sensitivity, and information usage. Further issues of trust and ad hoc poorly supported protection strategies are presented. Ultimately while photographic data is potentially highly sensitive, the privacy risks are often hidden and the protection mechanisms are limited.


In this paper, we show how beacon-based indoor localization and additional environmental fingerprints like magnetic field data can be used to both accelerate and increase the robustness of Augmented Reality (AR) relocalization. We show how the combination of Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) and beacons can be used to construct a dense indoor magnetic field map that can act as a fine-grained calibration for compasses to quickly determine a mobile device's orientation. Unique to our approach is that we leverage accurate VIO trajectories to provide full vector magnetic field mapping that can be collected and used with devices placed in any orientation. We demonstrate a system running on an iPhone that can acquire location with 80th percentile 3D accuracy of 27cm in LOS and 46cm in NLOS, and our magnetic field mapping approach can instantly estimate orientation with 80th percentile accuracy of 11.7 degrees. We demonstrate an end-to-end system for generating a magnetic field map and subsequently localizing and tracking mobile users using beacons and VIO. This has the side effect of enabling multi-user (even cross-platform) AR applications, as all users can now be localized with respect to a common global reference without any sharing of visual feature maps.


Policy evolution was characterized by Charles Lindblom three decades ago as "fragmented, disjointed incrementalism. " He argued incrementalism made the best use of very limited theory and data upon which to base decisions. This was a maj or intellectual challenge to the advocates of comprehensive planning based upon scientific principles and analysis. The result has been further research on how to achieve effective strategic policy innovations. Of special relevance to the Great Lakes has been recent research stimulated by the prospect of global climate change. We combine it with the results of a seminar that has simulated the application of ecosystem planning to the Great Lakes, and use the synthesis to illustrate that the prerequisites for nonincremental decision making are slowly being achieved. Suggestions are made to speed that process. KEY TERMS: Environmental Management, Great Lakes, policy Development, Comprehensive planning, Intergovernmental Relations.


Abstract
This chapter describes how researchers and developers may improve the design of technical innovations for crisis communicators by testing how user-friendly the innovation is for its intended end users. In the RESCUE project, a tool for social media information gathering was developed. During this process, tool usability was thoroughly tested. Good usability allows the user to complete tasks and achieve goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. The purpose of the usability testing was to strive for a tool that is easy to use during demanding circumstances and contributes to a high level of situation awareness (SA) among users. SA is about being aware of what is happening around you – during, for example, emergency assignments – and what this means for your on-going work tasks. The main focus of this chapter is to describe how usability testing was applied throughout the tool development process, from the pre-production planning phase to the final phase. As a part of this, the tool features are described.


Adaptive e-learning systems are able to automatically generate personalized learning paths from the students' profile. Generally, the student profile is updated with information about knowledge the student has acquired, courses the student has passed and previous work experience. Unfortunately, dealing with courses that students passed in other learning environments is very difficult, error prone and requires a lot of manual intervention. In addition, the recognition of external courses is a process that all institutions, on-site and online learning organization, must perform during the access of new students, since it can be greatly useful not only for personalization but also for recognizing the courses the students attended. In this paper, we propose an intelligent system that analyzes the academic record of students in textual format to identify what subjects the students studied in the past and therefore are potentially recognizable. In addition, the proposed system is able to enrich the information the institution has about the students' background, facilitating the identification of personalized learning paths.


*42 Law in Latin America is routinely the target of systemic criticism by U.S. commentators. Marked by underdevelopment and corruption in the region, national legal systems are considered part of the problem and not the solution. As a result, numerous reform proposals advocate the internationalization of traditionally national legal domains. International competence in the form of the Inter-American system, NAFTA, a free trade area of the Americas or World Bank intervention in national judiciaries will not, however, supplant most of the hemisphere's law. Whatever expectations the global arena may hold, local law will continue to play a substantial role. In addition, internationalizing reforms may actually undermine the general goal of expanding democratic participation. Distancing the operation of law from local reach is likely to reinforce the very anomalies already perceived in the region. In this light, we should reexamine our settled understandings of "Latin American law" and the latter's widelynoted limitations. This Essay advances the task of re-thinking some of the basic background beliefs.


Abstract. Over the past decade, great progress has been made to develop national extent land cover mapping products to address natural resource issues. One of the core products of the GAP Program is range-wide species distribution models for nearly 2000 terrestrial vertebrate species in the U.S. We rely on deductive modeling of habitat affinities using these products to create models of habitat availability. That approach requires that we have a thematically rich and ecologically meaningful map legend to support the modeling effort. In this work, we tested the integration of the Multi-Resolution Landscape Characterization Consortium's National Land Cover Database 2011 and LANDFIRE's Disturbance Products to update the 2001 National GAP Vegetation Dataset to reflect 2011 conditions. The revised product can then be used to update the species models. We tested the update approach in three geographic areas (Northeast, Southeast, and Interior Northwest). We used the NLCD product to identify areas where the cover type mapped in 2011 was different from what was in the 2001 land cover map. We used Google Earth and ArcGIS base maps as reference imagery in order to label areas identified as "changed" to the appropriate class from our map legend. Areas mapped as urban or water in the 2011 NLCD map that were mapped differently in the 2001 GAP map were accepted without further validation and recoded to the corresponding GAP class. We used LANDFIRE's Disturbance products to identify changes that are the result of recent disturbance and to inform the reassignment of areas to their updated thematic label. We ran species habitat models for three species including Lewis's Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis) and the White-tailed Jack Rabbit (Lepus townsendii) and Brown Headed nuthatch (Sitta pusilla). For each of three vertebrate species we found important differences in the amount and location of suitable habitat between the 2001 and 2011 habitat maps. Specifically, Brown headed nuthatch habitat in 2011 was −14% of the 2001 modeled habitat, whereas Lewis's Woodpecker increased by 4%. The white-tailed jack rabbit (Lepus townsendii) had a net change of −1% (11% decline, 10% gain). For that species we found the updates related to opening of forest due to burning and regenerating shrubs following harvest to be the locally important main transitions. In the Southeast updates related to timber management and urbanization are locally important.


Visualization tools allow scientists to comprehend very large data sets and to discover relationships which are otherwise difficult to detect. Unfortunately, not all types of data can be visualized easily using existing tools. In particular, long sequences of nonnumeric data cannot be visualized adequately. Examples of this type of data include trace files of computer performance information, the nucleotides in a genetic sequence, a record of stocks traded over a period of years, and the sequence of words in this document. The term categorical time series is defined and used to describe this family of data.
When visualizations designed for numerical time series are applied to categorical time series, the distortions which result from the arbitrary conversion of unordered categorical values to totally ordered numerical values can be profound. Examples of this phenomenon are presented and explained.
Several new, general purpose techniques for visualizing categorical time series data have been developed as part of this work and have been incorporated into the C scHITRA performance analysis and visualization system. All of these new visualizations can be produced in $O(n)$ time. The new visualizations for categorical time series provide general purpose techniques for visualizing aspects of categorical data which are commonly of interest. These include periodicity, stationarity, cross-correlation, autocorrelation, and the detection of recurring patterns.
The effective use of these visualizations is demonstrated in a number of application domains, including performance analysis, World Wide Web traffic analysis, network routing simulations, document comparison, pattern detection, and the analysis of the performance of genetic algorithms.


OBJECTIVE
This study was performed to determine the rates and causes of disagreements in interpretation between full-field digital mammography and film-screen mammography in a diagnostic setting.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Patients undergoing diagnostic mammography were invited to participate in the digital mammography study. Three views, selected by the radiologist interpreting the film-screen mammography, were obtained in both film-screen mammography and digital mammography. Radiologists independently assigned a Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) category to the film-screen mammography and the digital mammography images. The BI-RADS categories were grouped into the general categories of agreement, partial agreement, or disagreement. A third and different radiologist reviewed all cases of disagreement, reached a decision as to management, and determined the primary cause of disagreement.

RESULTS
Six radiologists reviewed digital mammography and film-screen mammography diagnostic images in a total of 1147 breasts in 692 patients. Agreement between digital mammography and final film-screen mammography assessment was present in 937 breasts (82%), partial agreement in 159 (14%), and disagreement in 51 (4%), for a kappa value of 0.29. The primary causes of disagreement were differences in management approach of the radiologists (52%), information derived from sonography or additional film-screen mammograms (34%), and technical differences between the two mammographic techniques (10%).

CONCLUSION
Significant disagreement between film-screen mammography and digital mammography affecting follow-up management was present in only 4% of breasts. The most frequent cause of disagreement in interpretation was a difference in management approach between radiologists (interobserver variability). This source of variability was larger than that due to differences in lesion visibility between film-screen mammography and digital mammography.


MatchIt implements the suggestions of Ho, Imai, King, and Stuart (2007) for improving parametric statistical models by preprocessing data with nonparametric matching methods. MatchIt implements a wide range of sophisticated matching methods, making it possible to greatly reduce the dependence of causal inferences on hard-to-justify, but commonly made, statistical modeling assumptions. The software also easily fits into existing research practices since, after preprocessing data with MatchIt , researchers can use whatever parametric model they would have used without MatchIt , but produce inferences with substantially more robustness and less sensitivity to modeling assumptions. MatchIt is an R program, and also works seamlessly with Zelig .


This thesis focuses on outcomes in hypertension in pregnancy, and the role of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM). Overviews of blood pressure measurement and hypertension in pregnancy are followed by discussion of ABPM in non-pregnant and pregnant individuals. A literature review of research in ABPM in pregnancy is presented, revealing good prediction of certain outcomes. ABPM is recommended in chronic hypertension, identifying white coat hypertension and targeting intervention appropriately in pregnancy. An extensive database of hypertensive pregnancies is then analysed to assess outcomes in a local multi-ethnic population. Women with chronic hypertension are examined separately. Very high rates of stillbirth are evident, especially in women of Asian and Black ethnicity with growth-restricted babies. ABPM is then compared with sphygmomanometer measurements in 100 women using regression analysis, assessing prediction of perinatal outcomes. ABPM is superior in predicting low birth weight, prematurity and proteinuria. Finally, the first randomized controlled trial (RCT) of ABPM in pregnancy is presented. Hypertensive pregnant women were randomized to revealed or concealed ABPM results. Fewer women in the 'revealed' group underwent induction of labour for hypertension. However, the reduction in overall rates of induction did not reach significance. Patient satisfaction was high. Randomized trials of ABPM in pregnancy are viable. Further RCTs particularly in chronic hypertensives are recommended.


This paper summarizes some observations and reflections on how cultural differences bedeviled my interactions with my students in Universidad de Lima, Peru. Culture is not an abstract force that floats around in space and settles upon us—though given the seemingly subliminal ways it influences us, it can feel like a disembodied, ubiquitous entity. In fact, culture is mediated through a social structure. In general, culture refers to the ways in which different groups of people organize their daily lives within national or ethnic groups, urban neighborhoods, companies and professions, and other settings. Culture includes what people actually do and what they believe. Culture influences greatly how we see the world, how we try to understand it and how we communicate with each other. Therefore, culture determines, to a great extent, learning and teaching styles. When we compare cultures we should not look for differences that make us better or worse than each other. No culture is better than another and no communication style is intrinsically wrong. My teaching and communication styles are deeply rooted in the way I have been socialized and a year of teaching at college reminded me that my students' communication and learning styles were different from mine. Perhaps the most important lesson I learned is that I must adapt to this new environment and change the way I communicate if I wish to be an effective teacher.


Background: Studies have linked some bacterial infections with an increased likelihood for development of dementia. However, there is a paucity of data on the relationship between dementia and leptospirosis. In view of this, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to determine whether leptospirosis is a risk factor for dementia. Methods: Data were collected from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Databases (2000–2010) to investigate the incidence of and risk factors for dementia in patients with leptospirosis. Patients with leptospirosis who did not have a history of dementia were enrolled in the study. For each leptospirosis patient, four controls were randomly selected after frequency matching of age, sex, and index date. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used for the analyses of dementia risk. Results: A greater risk of dementia was observed in the leptospirosis cohort than in the non-leptospirosis cohort both in patients without any comorbidity (adjusted HR (aHR) = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.06–1.43) and with a comorbidity (aHR = 2.06, 95% CI = 1.7–2.5). Compared with the non-leptospirosis cohort without these comorbidities, the leptospirosis cohort with ≥2 comorbidities exhibited a significantly increased risk of dementia (aHR = 6.11, 95% CI = 3.15–11.9), followed by those with any one comorbidity (adjusted HR = 3.62, 95% CI = 1.76–7.46). Conclusions: Patients with leptospirosis were at a 1.89-fold greater risk of subsequent dementia, but potential genetic susceptibility bias in the study group is a major confound.


Copyright © 2021 Phcog.Net. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. ABSTRACT Many skin diseases such as sunburn, pigmentation, wrinkles, dermatitis, urticaria, ageing, skin cancers and immune suppression are due to the extreme exposure to harmful sun radiations. The mere covering of skin through sunglasses, clothes or other external agents is not adequate protection method. Therefore, application of sunscreen is considered as one of the trendiest methods to get rid of the skin aging, sunburn and other related problem arises due to the exposure of ultraviolet radiation (UV) radiations. Sunscreen agents protect from the sun by absorbing the UV and visible sun rays. Herbs have been used in medicines and cosmetics from centuries and their potential to treat different skin diseases, to adorn and improve the skin appearance is well-known. The presented review article is concern with discussion on various plant derived chemicals acting as sunscreen agents such as squalene, peptides, and nucleotides etc and protecting mammalian skin. Herbs and herbal preparations have a high potential due to their antioxidant activity. Antioxidants such as vitamins (Vitamin C, Vitamin E), flavonoids, and phenolic acids play the main role in fighting against free radical species that are the main cause of numerous negative skin changes. Effective botanical antioxidant compounds are widely used in traditional medicine and include tocopherols, flavonoids, phenolic acids, nitrogen containing compounds (indoles, alkaloids, amines, and amino acids), and monoterpenes. Anthocyanin's, Proanthocyanidin, Quercetin, Anthranilate, Resveratrol, Apigenin, Silymarin, Curcumin, Carotenoids are well known plant derived active chemicals that have potential to absorb radiations. This review covers all essential aspects of potential of herbs as radioprotective agents and its prospects.


We propose a new process by which patterns produced by nanostencil lithography can be reversed, so that the final pattern on the substrate has the same contrast (filled or empty) as that of the stencil. In this process, the stencil pattern is first formed on an intermediate sacrificial layer, and then transferred onto the underlying substrate in a reverse manner. Using this process, we can form various pattern structures that cannot be produced by the normal stencil process, such as an array of pores or multiple parallel bridges. Because a bridge in the stencil is transferred also as a bridge on the substrate, we can not only avoid the widening of a narrow bridge pattern by the stress-induced bending of the membrane, but also reduce the width of the bridge even further using the pattern blurring. Using SiO2 as an intermediate layer, we have fabricated various reversed Cr patterns on Si, including an array of 800nm circular pores and a 100-nm-wide and 150-nm-long nanobridge.


This fascinating interdisciplinary book is about land, belonging, and the mortgage--and how people of different cultural backgrounds understand them in Africa. Drawing on years of ethnographic observation, Parker Shipton discusses how people in Africa's interior feel about their attachment to family, to clan land, and to ancestral graves on the land. He goes on to explain why systems of property, finance, and mortgaging imposed by outsiders threaten Africa's rural people. The book looks briefly at European and North American theories on private property and the mortgage, then shows how these theories have played out as attempted economic reforms in Africa. They affect not just personal ownership and possession, he suggests, but also the complex relationships that add up to civil order and episodic disorder over a longer history. Focusing particular attention on the Luo people of Kenya, Shipton challenges assumptions about rural economic development and calls for a broader understanding of local realities in Africa and beyond.


Using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) 2014 and the Consumption and Activities Mail Survey (CAMS) 2015, we examine total spending and its components based on marital and retirement status. We also closely analyze the gap between total spending and total income as defined in the HRS. Overall, 59 percent of the sample spent less than their income; 41 percent spent more than their income in 2015. For single and retired individuals in 2015, average spending was $5,000 lower than income; however, median spending was higher than median income by $3,000. Coupled households where both spouses were retired on average spent 80 percent of their income in 2015; married couples with at least one spouse in the labor force had the lowest spending-to-income ratio with an average of 45 percent. The single, retired cohort had the highest spending-to-income ratio, with an average of 86 percent. However, their median spending-to-income ratio was very high at 112 percent. As many income replacement approaches assume, our findings support a reduction in housing and transportation expenses for retirees relative to those in the labor force. However, food costs and health expenses were higher for retirees. These observations could merit a different approach for measuring retirement income adequacy as well as further research where a longitudinal analysis is used to assess the changes in spending allocations before and after retirement. For a single and retired individual in 2015, average income was $21,000 higher for those with regular pension/annuity income compared with those without a pension, while the average total expenditure was $9,000 greater, which was largely driven by a higher share of entertainment and other (gifts and contributions) expenses in total spending. Married and retired households with pension income, on average, had $16,000 more income than those without pension income; total expenditure was $10,000 more, largely driven by higher dollar-amount spending on the housing, entertainment, and other (gifts and contributions) categories. While almost 34 percent of households with regular pension/annuity income spent more than their income, 46 percent of households without regular pension/annuity income spent more than their total income in 2015. Having an IRA or pension account is correlated with surpluses: 71 percent of households with a surplus had IRAs or pension accounts, vs. 52 percent with a deficit. In addition, account holders with a surplus were less likely to make irregular withdrawals from their account (28 percent) vs. those with a deficit (42 percent). The probability of having a deficit has a positive correlation with catastrophic medical expenses. For instance, of those who spent 20 percent or more of their income on medical expenses, 85 percent experienced a budget deficit. In comparison, of those who spent 5 percent or less of their income on health-related costs, only 20 percent experienced a deficit.


In the paper, the author mainly focuses the genealogical relationship between the USSR constitutions and PRC constitutions. On the basis of the shared Marx-Leninism ideology, Chinese constitutional drafters generally abandoned the liberal constitutionalism principles established in the Republic China era, and they borrowed the 1936 Stalin constitutional model to construct the Party-State regime. 1982 PRC constitution, though few borrowings the concrete constitution provisions, was still greatly influenced by the 1977 Soviet constitution, incorporating the principles "of supreme power of constitution in state political and legal system" and "the activities of communism party should be limited in the framework of constitution" into Chinese constitution. Moreover, since USSR communism regime has added some liberal rights to their new constitution code, 1982 PRC constitution drafters followed this USSR model to add the rights to remedy and the rights to cultural into Chinese constitution code. USSR came to the dissolution in winter 1991. In contrast, Chinese Communist Party continues handling the state power with basic constitutional system borrowed from the former Soviet Union. However, for compliance with the tendency of globalization, Chinese government has to promote a new-round reform in her domestic legal affairs. In this paper, I focus my research on two areas: (1) the model to build legal (constitutional) review mechanism; (2) human rights issues. The first issue is the discuss on how to build Chinese constitutional review mechanism compatible with Chinese basic constitutional regime. I propose a new solution compatible with USSR legacy that the representatives who could be elected or appointed from the National Political Consultative Conference (NPCC) organize a new constitutional court under the frame work of National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) working independently in reviewing constitutionality and legality of legislation or administrative regulations and interpreting constitution. Secondly, I mainly refer to human rights issues in the relationship between the international human rights system and domestic human rights system. Though few signs has demonstrated that PRC would subject itself to the international human rights regime, Beijing more or less has recognized the legitimacy of its ratified international human rights treaties in its domestic human rights legislation and is willing to sponsor human rights dialogue with Western experts. To our surprise, Chinese legal scholar and more young educated generation know international human rights standard from international human rights training program, human rights dialogue with US and EU experts and college legal course that encourage them deeply considering the shortcomings of Chinese legal system in the field of human rights protection.


Most entities studied by archaeologists share the same basic necessary conditions. They are limited spatiotemporal units which are continuous within a human frame of sensorial reference. These en tities cannot dissolve into their constituent parts without affecting their function, capacity, and mor phology. Further, they usually occupy one phys ical state at a time. The hyperfact, on the other hand, is vastly distributed, it can dissolve into most of its parts without affecting its "essence", and it can be in several physical states at the same time. Water is a typical hyperfact, existing on multiple scales, from molecules to the hydrological cycle. In this text I show how local manifestations of this hyperfact can be found in ceramics, architectural features, agriculture, water management systems, and regional settlements of the Cochuah region in southern Mexico.


1. The concordance of low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor activity of blood mononuclear cells was examined in 26 pairs of monozygotic and 17 pairs of dizygotic normolipidaemic young adult male twins. 2. Receptor activity was quantified as the degradation of 125I-labelled LDL during a 6 h incubation, after derepression of the cells for 72 h in lipoprotein-deficient medium. 3. The total variance of receptor activity was similar in the two groups of twins. In contrast, within-pair variance was five times greater in dizygotic twins than in monozygotic twins (P less than 0.001). 4. Estimates of heritability, mostly based on the intra-class correlation coefficients (monozygotic, r = 0.83; dizygotic, r = 0.39), ranged from 0.72 to 1.05. 5. These results suggest that the maximal LDL receptor activity of peripheral cells in normolipidaemic subjects is largely genetically determined.


We review the theoretical and empirical economic literature upon income inequality in emerging countries. We firstly describe the main observed developments and show that these are rather diverse across countries and developing regions. We subsequently expose the main theoretical mechanisms. We make a distinction between the traditional approaches (Kuznets, Lewis, Stolper-Samuelson) and the new explanations. In the latter, globalization and globalization-driven technological changes are at the core of the analyses. Both approaches bring out several opposite mechanisms. Finally, the empirical estimates display rather conflicting results. Most cross-country studies find a weak impact of globalization on income inequality. In contrast, several longitudinal studies concerning countries taken separately or small groups of countries reveal a positive correlation between openness and the relative demand for skill and inequality. These apparently conflicting findings reflect the opposite mechanisms linked to globalisation and the differences in countries' experiences.


Our project first explored the patterns of disempowerment within 113 Italian families facing the problem of a heavy alcohol or drug user in the family. It then provided therapeutic interventions for the members of a further fifty-two families, and thirdly, as a part of the diffusion of the results, it provided brief training for 1,011 professionals supplying services for those suffering from alcohol and drug addiction. Research undertaken in the UK, Mexico and Australia (Copello, Templeton, & Velleman, 2006; Orford et al., 2005a; Orford, Templeton, Velleman, & Copello, 2005b; Velleman & Templeton, 2003) on the impact of substance misuse on families, and on the development of effective interventions to assist those families, supplied the models for this participatory research in Italy. This article discusses the mobilization of health professionals in developing a participatory project within a cross-cultural framework, focusing on research that involved more than 70 researchers and other professionals all over Italy. Research team discussions, peer validation of gathered data and reflexivity all had a significant role. The paper illustrates various issues, which are often not explicitly mentioned in research reports, related to recruitment, cooperation between researchers, interactions between researchers and participants, information about decision-making and the actual modalities of execution of the project. Moreover, the careful descriptions of qualitative research principles within the action research approach and a mixed methods design should enhance the research competencies of psychologists and social scientists involved in the community.


How are we able to understand and anticipate each other in everyday life, in our daily interactions? Through the use of such "folk" concepts as belief, desire, intention, and expectation, asserts Daniel Dennett in this first full-scale presentation of a theory of intentionality that he has been developing for almost twenty years. We adopt a stance, he argues, a predictive strategy of interpretation that presupposes the rationality of the people - or other entities - we are hoping to understand and predict.These principles of radical interpretation have far-reaching implications for the metaphysical and scientific status of the processes referred to by the everday terms of folk psychology and their corresponding terms in cognitive science.While Dennett's philosophical stance has been steadfast over the years, his views have undergone successive enrichments, refinements, and extensions. "The Intentional Stance" brings together both previously published and original material: four of the book's ten chapters - its first and the final three - appear here for the first time and push the theory into surprising new territory. The remaining six were published earlier in the 1980s but were not easily accessible; each is followed by a reflection - an essay reconsidering and extending the claims of the earlier work. These reflections and the new chapters represent the vanguard of Dennett's thought. They reveal fresh lines of inquiry into fundamental issues in psychology, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary theory as well as traditional issues in the philosophy of mind.Daniel C. Dennett is Distinguished Arts and Sciences Professor at Tufts University and the author of "Brainstorms" and "Elbow Room." "The Intentional Stance," along with these works, is a Bradford Book.


Bisphenol S (BPS), a structural analogue of bisphenol A (BPA), has been increasingly used as a common replacement of BPA due to health concerns regarding the former. However, mounting evidence suggests that BPS has similar endocrine-disrupting effects as BPA, and likewise, its presence in the environment may pose considerable risks to ecosystems and human health. Using fish primary macrophages (fpMQs), we here evaluated the immunomodulatory effects of BPS and its mechanisms of action associated with estrogen receptors (ERs). Following BPS exposure at environmentally relevant concentrations from 0.1 to 1000 μg/L, we observed approximate concentration-dependent increases in nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species generation and total antioxidant capacity as well as the gene expression of inflammatory cytokines in fpMQs. BPS impaired phagocytic capability but enhanced fpMQ activation levels in response to lipopolysaccharide stimulation and promoted apoptosis, indicating an impact on cell functions. At a concentration of 100 μg/L, BPS and BPA showed comparable pro-inflammatory potential with both up-regulating the production of free radicals and cytokine expression; however, BPS had no significant potency with regards to inducing lipid peroxidation and apoptosis, different from BPA's effects. Moreover, BPS induced both erα and erβ2 expression in fpMQs, whereas BPA induced only erα expression. This study demonstrates that, similarly to BPA, exposure to low doses of BPS significantly disturbs the immune response of fpMQs in vitro and first reveals overlapping but different roles of ERs in response to BPS and BPA.


Distribution of volcanic reservoirs in Xujiaweizi half graben is controlled by both faults and sealing layers where their integrity could have been compromised. This paper documents the distribution of sealing units of the Denglouku and Yingcheng Formations based on seismic and well-log data to delineate all of the reservoirs with proper caprocks within the volcanic Yincheng Formation via the relationship between the fault system and reservoir rocks. Based on the regional sealing effect of Denglouku Formation, two hydrocarbon traps are identified: the lower primary and upper secondary gas reservoirs where the formation with a mudstone percentage of more than 50% within the second member seals the primary reservoirs. The upper secondary trap is controlled by faults that have been activated during the structural reversal phase, causing the regional sealing layers in the Denglouku Formation to get displaced with a caprock juxtaposition thickness of less than 35 m. This has created series of "fault-seal" dual-control reservoir. The local seals within the Yingcheng Formation consist of mudstone, tight volcanic rock and clayey breccia covering each volcanic eruption cycle. These local seals separate the volcanic gas reservoirs with a minimum thickness of 20 m. The local top seals in this tectonically active zone were placed on the hanging wall via the juxtaposition of the reservoir and overlying mudstone and/or clayey breccia. It was concluded that gas has migrated vertically through the faults and accumulated in the fault-controlled traps where sharp changes in the lithology (juxtaposition) forms the seal, while the gas-water contact is controlled by the depth of the reservoir rock. Finally, this study concludes that the primary reservoirs are distributed in a "sinusoidal" configuration around the fault zone due to the "dolphin effect" of the Xuzhong strike-slip fault system which has connected the source and reservoir rocks.


A new mechanism of catalysis is discussed, which is based on the rate-promoting effect of large-amplitude anharmonic
lattice vibrations, a.k.a. intrinsic localized modes or 'discrete breathers' (DBs), which can excite atoms at specific 'active sites'
rather strongly, giving them energy far exceeding the energy of thermal vibrations for hundreds of oscillation periods. The
DB-induced modulation of activation energies (free energy barriers between reactants and products) results in a drastic
amplification of the reaction rates, which can be described by a simple analytical expression in the adiabatic limit. The striking
site selectiveness of DB excitation dynamics in the presence of spatial (quenched) disorder makes these nonlinear vibrations
viable candidates to play the role of 'active modes' in the catalytic process in various physical, chemical and biological systems.


More people today report feeling anxious than ever before-even while living in relatively safe and prosperous modern societies. Almost one in five people experiences an anxiety disorder each year, and more than a quarter of the population admits to an anxiety condition at some point in their lives. Here Allan V. Horwitz, a sociologist of mental illness and mental health, narrates how this condition has been experienced, understood, and treated through the ages-from Hippocrates, through Freud, to today. Anxiety is rooted in an ancient part of the brain, and our ability to be anxious is inherited from species far more ancient than humans. Anxiety is often adaptive: it enables us to respond to threats. But when normal fear yields to what psychiatry categorizes as anxiety disorders, it becomes maladaptive. As Horwitz explores the history and multiple identities of anxiety-melancholia, nerves, neuroses, phobias, and so on-it becomes clear that every age has had its own anxieties and that culture plays a role in shaping how anxiety is expressed.


Leptospirosis is an important but neglected zoonotic disease that is often overlooked in Africa. Although comprehensive data on the incidence of human disease are lacking, robust evidence of infection has been demonstrated in people and animals from all regions of the continent. However, to date, there are few examples of direct epidemiological linkages between human disease and animal infection. In East Africa, awareness of the importance of human leptospirosis as a cause of non-malarial febrile illness is growing. In northern Tanzania, acute leptospirosis has been diagnosed in 9% of patients with severe febrile illness compared to only 2% with malaria. However, little is known about the relative importance of different potential animal hosts as sources of human infection in this area. This project was established to investigate the roles of rodents and ruminant livestock, important hosts of Leptospira in other settings, in the epidemiology of leptospirosis in northern Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey of rodents living in and around human settlements was performed alongside an abattoir survey of ruminant livestock. Unusual patterns of animal infection were detected by real-time PCR detection. Renal Leptospira infection was absent from rodents but was detected in cattle from several geographic areas. Infection was demonstrated for the first time in small ruminants sub-Saharan Africa. Two major Leptospira species and a novel Leptospira genotype were detected in livestock. L. borgpetersenii was seen only in cattle but L. kirschneri infection was detected in multiple livestock species (cattle, sheep and goats), suggesting that at least two distinct patterns of Leptospira infection occur in livestock in northern Tanzania. Analysis of samples from acute leptospirosis in febrile human patients could not detect Leptospira DNA by real-time PCR but identified social and behavioural factors that may limit the utility of acute-phase diagnostic tests in this community. Analysis of serological data revealed considerable overlap between serogroups detected in cattle and human leptospirosis cases. Human disease was most commonly attributed to the serogroups Mini and Australis, which were also predominant reactive serogroups in cattle. Collectively, the results of this study led to the hypothesis that livestock are an important reservoir of Leptospira infection for people in northern Tanzania. These results also challenge our understanding of the relationship between Leptospira and common invasive rodent species, which do not appear to maintain infection in this setting. Livestock Leptospira infection has substantial potential to affect the well-being of people in East Africa, through direct transmission of infection or through indirect effects on food production and economic security. Further research is needed to quantify the impact of livestock leptospirosis in Africa and to develop effective interventions for the control of human and animal disease.


This paper describes efforts to optimize the parameters for a platoon identification and accommodation algorithm that minimizes vehicle emissions. The algorithm was developed and implemented in the AnyLogic framework, and was validated by comparing it to the results of prior research. A four-module flowchart was developed to analyze the traffic data and to identify platoons. The platoon end time was obtained from the simulation and used to calculate the offset of the downstream intersection. The simulation calculates vehicle emissions with the aid of the VT-Micro microscopic emission model. Optimization experiments were run to determine the relationship between platoon parameters and minimumand maximum-emission scenarios. Optimal platoon identification parameters were found from these experiments, and the simulation was run with these parameters. The total time of all vehicles in the simulation was also found for minimum and maximum emissions scenarios. Time-space diagrams obtained from the simulations demonstrate that optimized parameters allow all cars to travel through the downstream intersection without waiting, and therefore cause a decrease in emissions by as much as 15.5%. This paper also discusses the outcome of efforts to leverage high resolution data obtained from WV-705 corridor in Morgantown, WV. The proposed model was developed for that purpose and implemented in the AnyLogic framework to simulate this particular road network with four coordinated signal-controlled intersections. The simulation was also used to calculate vehicle CO, HC, NOx emissions with the aid of the VT-Micro microscopic emission model. Offset variation was run to determine the optimal offsets for this particular road network with traffic volume, signal phase diagram and vehicle characteristics. A classifier was developed by discriminant analysis based on significant attributes of HRD. Equation of this classifier was developed to distinguish between set of timing plans that produce maximum emission from set of timing plans that produce maximum emission. Also, current work investigates the potential use of the GPSbased and similar priority systems by giving preemption through signalized intersections. Two flowcharts are developed to consider presence of emergency vehicle (EV) in the system so called EV life cycle and EV preemption (EVP). Three scenarios are implemented, namely base case scenario when no EV is involved, EV scenario when EV gets EVP only, and EV scenario when EV gets preemption by signals and right-of-way by other vehicles. Research makes an attempt to compare emission results of these scenarios to find out whether EV effects vehicle emission in the road network and what is the level of this influence if any.


In this work, we introduce a framework for constructing light-weight neural network approximations to the solution operators for partial differential equations (PDEs). Using a data-driven offline training procedure, the resulting operator network models are able to effectively reduce the computational demands of traditional numerical methods into a single forward-pass of a neural network. Importantly, the network models can be calibrated to specific distributions of input data in order to reflect properties of real-world data encountered in practice. The networks thus provide specialized solvers tailored to specific use-cases, and while being more restrictive in scope when compared to more generally-applicable numerical methods (e.g. procedures valid for entire function spaces), the operator networks are capable of producing approximations significantly faster as a result of their specialization.In addition, the network architectures are designed to place pointwise posterior distributions over the observed solutions; this setup facilitates simultaneous training and uncertainty quantification for the network solutions, allowing the models to provide pointwise uncertainties along with their predictions. An analysis of the predictive uncertainties is presented with experimental evidence establishing the validity of the uncertainty quantification schema for a collection of linear and nonlinear PDE systems. The reliability of the uncertainty estimates is also validated in the context of both in-distribution and out-of-distribution test data.The proposed neural network training procedure is assessed using a novel convolutional encoder-decoder model, ConvPDE-UQ, in addition to an existing fully-connected approach, DeepONet. The convolutional framework is shown to provide accurate approximations to PDE solutions on varying domains, but is restricted by assumptions of uniform observation data and homogeneous boundary conditions. The fully-connected DeepONet framework provides a method for handling unstructured observation data and is also shown to provide accurate approximations for PDE systems with inhomogeneous boundary conditions; however, the resulting networks are constrained to a fixed domain due to the unstructured nature of the observation data which they accommodate. These two approaches thus provide complementary frameworks for constructing PDE-based operator networks which facilitate the real-time approximation of solutions to PDE systems for a broad range of target applications.


Since 2013, the H7N9 avian influenza A virus (AIV) has caused human infections and to the extent of now surpassing H5N1. This raises an alarm about the potential of H7N9 to become a pandemic problem. Our compilation of the amino acid changes required for AIVs to cross the species-barrier discovers 58 that have very high proportions in both the human- and avian-isolated H7N9 viruses. These changes correspond with sporadic human infections that continue to occur in regions of avian infections. Among the six internal viral genes, amino acid changes do not differ significantly between H9N2 and H7N9, except for V100A in PA, and K526R, D627K, and D701N in PB2. H9N2 AIVs provide internal genes to H7N9. Most of the amino acid changes in H7N9 appear to come directly from H9N2. Seventeen amino acid substitutions appear to have fixed quickly by the 5th wave. Among these, six amino acid sites in HA1 are receptor binding sites, and PB2-A588V was shown to promote the adaptation of AIVs to mammals. The accelerated fixation of mutations may promote the adaptation of H7N9 to human, but need further functional evidence. Although H7N9 AIVs still cannot efficiently transmit between humans, they have the genetic makeup associated with human infections. These viruses must be controlled in poultry to remove the threat of it becoming a human pandemic event.


This study investigated the roles of three types of conflict at work – task, relationship and non-task organizational – in predicting employee strain. These conflict types refer to disputes over issues that are, respectively, work-task specific, driven by emotionally charged interpersonal animosity or rooted in more broad organizationally relevant issues. Findings from a sample of 260 working adults from various organizations in the United States supported the notion that the three types of conflict function as social stressors and are related to a variety of psychological, behavioural and physical strains. They extend previous research based primarily on relationship conflict. Non-task organizational conflict emerged as a key predictor across strain criteria, thus highlighting the importance of including a more complete conceptualization of the conflict construct in social stress research. The results for task conflict are at variance with findings that it can be beneficial, and suggest that its negative relationship with well-being may be due to its co-occurrence with the other forms of conflict. These findings provide support for an expanded typology of conflict.


The article has a dual aim. The first is to contribute to the study of criminalisation at the border in Europe by outlining some ways in which Greek law organises the normative exclusion of at least one class of immigrants. Secondly, it tackles the theoretical question of whether such practices are justifiable. No sooner is a non-citizen involved in the criminal law that a web of duties and rights is activated marking the gradual inclusion of the non-citizen in the political community as its proper subject. This renders the differential treatment of noncitizens incoherent. The article also argues that it is both permissible and necessary for a state to treat non-citizens as the proper subject of the criminal law. The former because of the implicit consent provided by non-citizens; the latter out of the respect owed to citizens, whose normative position is impacted upon by their criminal law related interactions with noncitizens.


According to Lawrence Livermore Labs 36% of the country's energy use is attributable to buildings and two thirds of that is in the residential sector.This research combines building energy modeling with energy consumption data in transportation and infrastructure sectors to examine energy use implications of habitation patterns.We compared CO2 footprints of three different patterns of typical American habitation: post-Second World War non-urban, 19th century urban, and highly urban. From drawings, utility bills, and occupant data, we used TREAT (Targeted Retrofit Energy Analysis Tool) to model the energy use of three buildings of very different constructions, comparing in the process the impact on energy use of envelope and size.Because buildings don't exist as isolated energy-using entities, we added the CO2 footprint contributions of location/density, reflected by infrastructure: numbers of miles of paving required to place a building in the landscape, miles of pipe for water and waste and the energy required by pumps to make it work.Finally, people move between buildings, so we added a transportation component to account for occupants' daily travel. Since buildings don't use energy (people do) we divided total CO2 footprints by number of occupants for per capita CO2.The final analysis quantifies the impact on an individual's CO2 production of habitation (dense urban, historic urban, or non-urban) and how much impact energy conservation measures can have once the selection of a dwelling location is made.Our analyses demonstrate that reduction of building energy use through improved construction affects only a small percentage of total energy usage.Instead, choice of where to live determines individual CO2 footprints far more than building-related components. We found nearly a threefold difference in individual energy consumption from a New York City apartment dweller to a "close-in" suburban ranch house occupant with only minor differences between building-associated energy use. The bulk of the difference is attributable to differences in transportation utilization and infrastructure-related energy consumption.Even as technical and legislative advances continue, our work demonstrates a broader societal dialogue about fundamental big picture issues, including sustainable densities, is critical.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


In a 1907 paper, L. Rogers used two methods to obtain continued fractions for certain Laplace transforms of Jacobi elliptic functions. His first method employed repeated integration by parts, while his second method recalled an 1889 technique of T. Stieltjes. In 1996, S. Milne used these expansions and others obtained by modular transformations to derive results about sums of squares and triangular numbers. Working independently in the 1820's, C. Jacobi and N. Abel both introduced elliptic functions to advance the study of elliptic integrals. In 1981, D. Dumont introduced symmetric variants of the elliptic functions of Jacobi and Abel to facilitate the study of certain combinatorial problems related to coefficients in Maclaurin expansions of Jacobi elliptic functions. In this thesis, we use Dumont's elliptic functions to rederive the continued fraction expansions of Rogers. In the classical approach used by Rogers and Milne, four families of continued fractions are obtained. In our approach, members of the same four families are derived directly by specializing parameters instead of employing modular transformations. To these four families, we add a new set of continued fractions based on certain elliptic functions that were studied in an 1890 paper by A. Dixon. These new continued fractions were discovered in 1999 in the course of work with D. Dumont.


We have studied the relationship between the initial glass composition and the structural changes associated with laser-induced refractive index modification in a series of Er-Yb doped and undoped zinc phosphate glasses. White light microscopy and waveguide experiments are used together with Raman and fluorescence spectroscopy to characterize the structural changes. The correlation between Raman peak shifts and fluorescence from phosphorus–oxygen hole center (POHC) defects indicates that fs-laser writing results in a depolymerization of the phosphate glass network. The results also show that the exact glass composition should be taken into account when fabricating waveguide devices in phosphate glasses, in order to both expand the fs-laser processing conditions and maximize favorable morphological changes for 3-D photonic devices.


Cyanobacteral circadian clock components are directly coupled to the metabolic status of the cell through interactions with adenine nucleotides. Biological clocks have periods of about 24 hours but rely on entrainment from exposure to light to stay in synch with day length. Rust et al. show that, in cyanobacteria, such entrainment is coupled, at least in part, by the effect of light on photosynthesis increasing the relative concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) to adenosine diphosphate. The cyanobacterial clock can be reconstituted in vitro from just three proteins that are regulated through phosphorylation reactions in which ATP is a substrate. One of the proteins, KaiC, can integrate the status of the endogenous clock through its interaction with the KaiA component, and with the metabolic state of the cell, through competitive inhibition of KaiC's binding to its substrate ATP. A mathematical model was developed that could reproduce the entrainment of the clock by light. M. J. Rust, S. S. Golden, E. K. O'Shea, Light-driven changes in energy metabolism directly entrain the cyanobacterial circadian oscillator. Science 331, 220–223 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Background. Brain is one of the common sites of distant metastasis in patients of lung cancer, and incidens of brain metastasis in lung cancer is considered high. In Non-small Cell lung cancer guide line, brain CT done if the neurological symptoms occured. Therefore analysis of diagnostic approach related to brain metastases is needed. Methods. Prospective analysis of 35 patients newly diagnosed cases of brain metastases in NSCLC. Cross sectional study with additional analysis to find relationship of clinical symptom to result of CT brain over periode July 2008-August 2009 in Persahabatan Hospital. Data were analysed as regards to the presence/absence of neurogical symtomps. Prognostic approach was applied to analyze survival rate. Results. We found that 85,7% patients brain metastases with neurological symptomatic and 14,3% asymptomatic. Five (14,3%) patients with more than one neurologycal symptoms. Depend on stage and cell type of which 27 (77,1%) with adenocarcinoma, 21 (62,9%) with T4, 17 (48,6%) N0 and patients with soliter nodule 8 (22,9%). There's no correlation between neurologycal symptom and brain metastases. Median survival time of lung cancer patients with brain metastases are 11 month. Conclusion. The majority lung cancer patients with brain metastasis have neurological symptoms. The most brain metatases found in patient with adenocarcinoma, T4 and N0. Median survival was increased in treated patients Keywords : Lung cancer, NSCLC, Brain metastases, Neurological symptoms.


This thesis addresses the topic of nonlinear estimation and its applications. Particular emphasis is given to downhole pressure estimation for Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD), but due to the mathematical similarities of the two problems, velocity estimation for mechanical systems is also considered. The thesis consists of the following three parts:Part I of this thesis addresses the problem of pressure estimation for MPD systems. Over the last decade MPD has emerged as a tool for drilling offshore wells with tight pressure margins. Several technologies for MPD have been developed and this thesis focuses on the so called constant bottomhole pressure variation. This version of MPD aims at keeping the pressure at one location in the annulus section of a well constant by applying back-pressure through the use of a choke manifold at the rig. As the pressure profile in the well is not measured, a key element of any control system (manual or automatic) is some sort of estimation scheme for the pressure in the well. To aid in control design for MPD systems, and to solve the pressure estimation problem, a fit for purpose low order model has been developed. Using data from offshore wells, and dedicated experiments onshore, it is demonstrated that the model captures the dominant pressure dynamics. It is also demonstrated that a newly developed adaptive observer, combined with a recursive least squares parameter identification scheme, is able to predict the downhole pressure in the presence of significant parametric uncertainties. Part II of this thesis addresses the problem of adaptive observer design for a class of nonlinear systems including the drilling model. To estimate unmeasured states, in dynamical systems with parametric uncertainties, one can use adaptive observers. Furthermore, if the system is sufficiently (persistently) excited, adaptive observers can be used to identify uncertain parameters. The current state of the art in adaptive observer design does not cover the class of systems to which the drilling model belongs. Motivated by this, a method for adaptive observer design for this class of systems is developed. The method guarantees stability and convergence of the state estimate without requiring persistent excitation. Another weakness with the current state of the art is that existing Lyapunov based adaptive laws have poor parameter identification properties, and can be very hard to tune, when estimating more than one parameter. This motivated the developement of an adaptive observer design that uses multiple delayed observers to improve the convergence rate of the estimation scheme, at the cost of an increased computational burden. In particular, explicit lower bounds on the convergence rate of the state and parameter estimation error are given, and, if the original non-adaptive observer has tunable convergence rate, the redesigned adaptive observer will have tunable convergence rate as well. Part III of this thesis addresses the topic of observer-based output feedback control of general Euler-Lagrange systems. The design of a globally stabilizing output (position) feedback tracking controller for general Euler-Lagrange systems has been an active field of research for at least two decades. Still, it was not until recently that a globally convergent velocity observer was developed. In part III of this thesis a significant obstacle in the development of a constructive observer design is removed yielding a constructive speed observer design with global performance guarantees. In addition, a separation principle is proven, guaranteeing global stability and convergence when the observer is used in conjunction with certain types of certainty equivalence controllers. To the best of the authors knowledge this represents the first observer-based output feedback tracking control solution that guarantees a global region of attraction for general Euler-Lagrange systems.


Build remarkable publication-quality plots the easy way Create high quality 2D plots by using Matplotlib productivelyIncremental introduction to Matplotlib, from the ground up to advanced levelsEmbed Matplotlib in GTK+, Qt, and wxWidgets applications as well as web sites to utilize them in Python applicationsDeploy Matplotlib in web applications and expose it on the Web using popular web frameworks such as Pylons and DjangoGet to grips with hands-on code and complete realistic case study examples along with highly informative plot screenshots In Detail Providing appealing plots and graphs is an essential part of various fields such as scientific research, data analysis, and so on. Matplotlib, the Python 2D plotting library, is used to produce publication-quality figures in a variety of hardcopy formats and interactive environments across platforms. This book explains creating various plots, histograms, power spectra, bar charts, error charts, scatter-plots and much more using the powerful Matplotlib library to get impressive out-of-the-box results.This book gives you a comprehensive tour of the key features of the Matplotlib Python 2D plotting library, right from the simplest concepts to the most advanced topics. You will discover how easy it is to produce professional-quality plots when you have this book to hand.The book introduces the library in steps. First come the basics: introducing what the library is, its important prerequisites (and terminology), installing and configuring Matplotlib, and going through simple plots such as lines, grids, axes, and charts. Then we start with some introductory examples, and move ahead by discussing the various programming styles that Matplotlib allows, and several key features.Further, the book presents an important section on embedding applications. You will be introduced to three of the best known GUI libraries--GTK+, Qt, and wxWidgets--and presented with the steps to implement to include Matplotlib in an application written using each of them. You will learn through an incremental approach: from a simple example that presents the peculiarities of the GUI library, to more complex ones, using GUI designer tools.Because the Web permeates all of our activities, a part of the book is dedicated to showing how Matplotlib can be used in a web environment, and another section focuses on using Matplotlib with common Python web frameworks, namely, Pylons and Django. Last, but not least, you will go through real-world examples, where you will see some real situations in which you can use Matplotlib. What you will learn from this book? Exploit the interactive computing environment of IPython to its fullest in collaboration with MatplotlibLearn line and point styles and master their customization, customization of axis ticks, and develop several plot types available in Matplotlib, such as histograms, bars, pie charts, polar charts, and so onExplore Object Oriented Matplotlib and learn how to add subplots, multiple figures, additional and shared axes, logarithmic scaled axes, data plotting with tick formatting and locators, text properties, fonts, LaTeX typewriting, and contour plotsGet comfortable with Glade--a RAD tool--to quickly design a GUI for GTK+ and embed Matplotlib into itMake the most of Matplotlib within the wxWidgets framework, in particular using the wxPython bindings and design a GUI with wxGladeUse the Qt Designer to draw a simple GUI and refer it to your Python code to fit your needsExpose Matplotlib on the Web using CGI (through Apache mod_cgi), mod_python, Django, and Pylons in no time at allProfit from the real-world examples by simply following the stream--identify the data source, elaborate the data and generate the resulting plot Approach This is a practical, hands-on book, with a lot of code and images. It presents the real code that generates every image and describes almost every single line of it, so that you know exactly what's going on.Introductory, descriptive, and theoretical parts are mixed with examples, so that reading and understanding them is easy. All of the examples build gradually with code snippets, their explanations, and plot images where necessary with the complete code and output presented at the end. Who this book is written for? This book is essentially for Python developers who have a good knowledge of Python; no knowledge of Matplotlib is required. You will be creating 2D plots using Matplotlib in no time at all.


The Predictive Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) is an expert elicitation tool designed to characterize and communicate completeness of the approaches used for computational model definition, verification, validation, and uncertainty quantification associated for an intended application. The primary application of this tool at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) has been for physics-based computational simulations in support of nuclear weapons applications. The two main goals of a PCMM evaluation are 1) the communication of computational simulation capability, accurately and transparently, and 2) the development of input for effective planning. As a result of the increasing importance of computational simulation to SNL's mission, the PCMM has evolved through multiple generations with the goal to provide more clarity, rigor, and completeness in its application. This report describes the approach used to develop the fourth generation of the PCMM.


Clinical Early Warning Scores are tools intended to alert clinical staff to possible future clinical deterioration, often related to the onset of sepsis. Since their introduction, they have increased greatly in popularity. Their operation is conceptually simple: an elevated early warning score triggers a formal assessment by the responsible clinician. While the best-known system is the Royal College of Physicians National Early Warning Score (NEWS), a number of other scores are in use, such as an adaptation known as the Modified Early Warning System (MEWS) or warning systems for pediatric patients (PEWS). However, while promising, such instruments need to be studied in more detail to better characterize their eventual role in monitoring hospital patients. In particular, a central question concerns the identification of the best system (NEWS, MEWS, PEWS etc.) for a given clinical population (pediatric, trauma, prehospital etc.).


We give the first Õ(1 over √ T)-error online algorithm for reconstructing noisy statistical databases, where T is the number of (online) sample queries received. The algorithm is optimal up to the poly(log(T)) factor in terms of the error and requires only O(log T) memory. It aims to learn a hidden database-vector w* Ε in ℜ D in order to accurately answer a stream of queries regarding the hidden database, which arrive in an online fashion from some unknown distribution D. We assume the distribution D is defined on the neighborhood of a low-dimensional manifold. The presented algorithm runs in O(dD)-time per query, where d is the dimensionality of the query-space. Contrary to the classical setting, there is no separate training set that is used by the algorithm to learn the database --- the stream on which the algorithm will be evaluated must also be used to learn the database-vector. The algorithm only has access to a binary oracle Ο that answers whether a particular linear function of the database-vector plus random noise is larger than a threshold, which is specified by the algorithm. We note that we allow for a significant O(D) amount of noise to be added while other works focused on the low noise o(√D)-setting. For a stream of T queries our algorithm achieves an average error Õ(1 over √T) by filtering out random noise, adapting threshold values given to the oracle based on its previous answers and, as a consequence, recovering with high precision a projection of a database-vector w* onto the manifold defining the query-space. Our algorithm may be also applied in the adversarial machine learning context to compromise machine learning engines by heavily exploiting the vulnerabilities of the systems that output only binary signal and in the presence of significant noise.


Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS), a rare disease that results in what appears to be premature aging, is caused by the production of a mutant form of prelamin A known as progerin. Progerin retains a farnesyl lipid anchor at its carboxyl terminus, a modification that is thought to be important in disease pathogenesis. Inhibition of protein farnesylation improves the hallmark nuclear shape abnormalities in HGPS cells and ameliorates disease phenotypes in mice harboring a knockin HGPS mutation (LmnaHG/+). The amelioration of disease, however, is incomplete, leading us to hypothesize that nonfarnesylated progerin also might be capable of eliciting disease. To test this hypothesis, we created knockin mice expressing nonfarnesylated progerin (LmnanHG/+). LmnanHG/+ mice developed the same disease phenotypes observed in LmnaHG/+ mice, although the phenotypes were milder, and mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from these mice contained fewer misshapen nuclei. The steady-state levels of progerin in LmnanHG/+ MEFs and tissues were lower, suggesting a possible explanation for the milder phenotypes. These data support the concept that inhibition of protein farnesylation in progeria could be therapeutically useful but also suggest that this approach may be limited, as progerin elicits disease phenotypes whether or not it is farnesylated.


We report results of cold-cavity numerical investigations of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with two-dimensional photonic crystals positioned in the laser cavity. The methodology of mode analysis is based on the computation of a normalized propagation constant that directly defines the number of guided modes in comparison with computation of B–V diagrams for the structure investigated. It is theoretically shown that the microcavity made by removing one hole is single mode for larger holes than a cavity made by removing several holes. A map obtained for single-mode conditions in the microcavity made by removing one hole for wavelengths 0.98-μm and 1.3 μm is presented, and it is shown that such lasers are easily accessible to modern fabrication processes. The optimum number of holes in the photonic crystal region and the spot size of the fundamental mode have been identified and are discussed.


Recent achievements in robotics and automation technology has opened the door towards different machining methodologies based on material removal. Considering the non force feedback nature of non-contact machining methods, careful attention on motion control design is a primary requirement for successful achievement of precise cutting both in machining and in surgery processes. This thesis is concerned with the design of pre-processing methods and motion control techniques to provide both automated and human-assistive non-contact machining of random and complex shaped contours. In that sense, the first part of the thesis focuses on extraction of contours and generation of reference trajectories or constraints for the machining system. Based on generated trajectories, two different control schemes are utilized for high precision automated machining. In the first scheme, preview control is adopted for enhancing the tracking performance. In the second scheme, control action is generated based on direct computation of contouring error in the operational space by introducing a new coordinate frame moving with the reference contour. Further, non-contact machining is extended for realization in a master/slave telerobotic framework to enable manual remote cutting by a human operator. With the proposed approach, the human operator (i.e. a surgeon) is limited to conduct motion within a desired virtual constraint and is equipped with the ability of adjusting the cutting depth over a that contour providing advantage for laser surgery applications. The proposed framework is experimentally tested and results of the experiments prove the applicability of proposed motion control schemes and show the validity of contributions made in the context of thesis.