Lithium ion batteries are widely used in portable electronic devices and electric vehicles. Although battery technology has been significantly improved, it does not fully meet the energy requirements of electric vehicles. Electric vehicle batteries are built by serial and parallel connections of many cells to provide sufficient power. Differences between cells during battery usage can shorten the battery life and even worse can cause fire and explosion. Therefore, there is a need for a battery management system to ensure that the voltage, temperature and current information of the battery cells are used as optimum conditions. Cell balancing should be used to ensure that the battery cells are charging simultaneously. Cell voltage and temperature are measured by connecting auxiliary slave board to each series battery pack. This information is controlled by a master board. In this application, the excess energy is converted to heat by the load resistor on the utility boards. Fuzzy logic control is used to control the load resistor with the switching element. The charge status of the battery was estimated using the main battery current and the mains voltage with the master board. This application has been tested on an electric vehicle. A low cost modular battery management system has been developed that can control the safe charging and discharging of the vehicle battery.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eie.24.3.20975


Abstract. In this paper, we present a HARMonized dataset of OZone profiles (HARMOZ) based on limb and occultation measurements from Envisat (GOMOS, MIPAS and SCIAMACHY), Odin (OSIRIS, SMR) and SCISAT (ACE-FTS) satellite instruments. These measurements provide high-vertical-resolution ozone profiles covering the altitude range from the upper troposphere up to the mesosphere in years 2001–2012. HARMOZ has been created in the framework of the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative project. The harmonized dataset consists of original retrieved ozone profiles from each instrument, which are screened for invalid data by the instrument teams. While the original ozone profiles are presented in different units and on different vertical grids, the harmonized dataset is given on a common pressure grid in netCDF (network common data form)-4 format. The pressure grid corresponds to vertical sampling of ~ 1 km below 20 km and 2–3 km above 20 km. The vertical range of the ozone profiles is specific for each instrument, thus all information contained in the original data is preserved. Provided altitude and temperature profiles allow the representation of ozone profiles in number density or mixing ratio on a pressure or altitude vertical grid. Geolocation, uncertainty estimates and vertical resolution are provided for each profile. For each instrument, optional parameters, which are related to the data quality, are also included. For convenience of users, tables of biases between each pair of instruments for each month, as well as bias uncertainties, are provided. These tables characterize the data consistency and can be used in various bias and drift analyses, which are needed, for instance, for combining several datasets to obtain a long-term climate dataset. This user-friendly dataset can be interesting and useful for various analyses and applications, such as data merging, data validation, assimilation and scientific research. The dataset is available at http://www.esa-ozone-cci.org/?q=node/161 or at doi:10.5270/esa-ozone_cci-limb_occultation_profiles-2001_2012-v_1-201308 .


As the local and national clamor for foreign energy independent United States continues to grow unabated; renewable energy has been receiving increased focus and it's widely believed that it's not only the answer to ever increasing demand for energy in this country, but also the environmentally friendly means of meeting such demand. During the spring of 2010, I was involved with a 5KW solar power system design project; the project involved designing and building solar panels and associated accessories like the solar array mounts and Solar Inverter system. One of the key issues we ran into during the initial stage of the project was how to select efficient solar cells for panel building at a reasonable cost. While we were able to purchase good solar cells within our allocated budget, the issue of design for efficiency was not fully understood , not just in the contest of solar cells performance , but also in the overall system efficiency of the whole solar power system, hence the door was opened for this thesis. My thesis explored and expanded beyond the scope of the aforementioned project to research different avenues for improving the efficiency of solar photovoltaic power system from the solar cell level to the solar array mounting, array tracking and DC-AC inversion system techniques.


WHAT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL CAN LEARN FROM ITS INTERNATIONAL COUNTERPARTS: BUILDING A MODEL COLLECTIVE-BARGAINING AGREEMENT FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALLt I. INTRODUCTION For the past ninety years, through wars abroad and domestic turmoil, the month of October always belonged to baseball in the United States. Every autumn as children returned to school, baseball's several pennant races absorbed the nation as fans urged their teams towards a World Series berth. Undoubtedly, this tradition of the "Fall Classic" lent a certain stability to the lives of millions of people throughout the United States. Nevertheless, in 1994, baseball fans were deprived of the World Series for the first time since 1903 due to a midseason strike that canceled the remainder of the season. In the past decade alone, Major League Baseball (MLB) endured two major player strikes and a spring-training lockout by the owners. These labor problems resulted from the unwillingness of the parties involved to systematically address all of the major issues of contention. Instead, the parties applied a temporary bandaid remedy in place of a desperately needed long-term settlement. In the past, U.S. baseball negotiators looked to other sports leagues within the United States-such as the National Football Leaguefor answers to their labor problems. If MLB has realistic hopes for permanence in the twenty-first century, it should seriously consider the innovative view of international sports leagues towards similar labor-relations conflicts. This Note presents a model collective-bargaining agreement that resolves the major issues-still lingering from the 1994 MLB strike-that separate the players and owners. Although the players have returned to work, there is no negotiated settlement as of the middle of the 1996 baseball season. A second, and potentially more damaging, work stoppage is inevitable without a new collective-bargaining agreement. This Note proposes that to resolve internal labor problems, MLB should consider two international labor-relations schemes that reflect different political cultures and values. This Note first provides some basic information on three distinct sports leagues: MLB in the United States, the Japanese Baseball League, and the Football Association of England.l This information provides the background to the Note's subsequent discussion of the labor laws in each country and the histories of union representation in the three sports leagues. Next, this Note addresses the strengths and weaknesses of bargaining and labor agreements between players and owners in each league. In the analysis section of this Note, the characteristics of the Japanese and English leagues serve as the basis for a model collective-bargaining agreement to stabilize MLB. By utilizing the strengths offered by the English and Japanese leagues, MLB may achieve a compromise model collective-bargaining agreement that resolves the present labor dispute and secures MLB well into the next century. A. United States: Major League Baseball Baseball in the United States arguably converted to its modern form in 1839 when "Abner Doubleday stepped out the measurements for a [baseball] diamond in Cooperstown, New York."2 The National League was established in 1876; the American League in 1900.3 The two leagues merged in 1903-the year of the first World Series-to create MLB.4 Several other leagues rose to challenge MLB, most notably the Federal and Mexican Leagues, but none were able to sustain their efforts.5 Since 1969 MLB has been separated into the traditional National and American Leagues, each containing two regional divisions.6 In the 1994 season, in order to add an extra playoff round to generate additional television revenues, the two leagues were divided into three regional divisions.7 Due to the 1994 MLB strike, however, the public did not have the opportunity to witness the new playoff format until 1995.8 In fact, the 1994 MLB strike marked the first time in the ninety-year history of the World Series that the winners of each league did not meet to determine the world championship. …


Material belonging to a new fossil genus and species of caddisfly, Pulchercylindratus punctatus n. gen., n. sp., was collected from the Daohugou locality (Middle Jurassic, Jiulongshan Formation; Inner Mongolia, China). The new species is assigned to the Hydrobiosidae according to subcylindrical shape of the 2nd segment of maxillary palp, the forked R1 (in the forewing, located near apex), and long anal cells (in the forewing). In addition, we propose to transfer the genus Juraphilopotamus Wang, Zhao & Ren 2009, known from the same locality, to the family Hydrobiosidae, based on the 1st and 2nd segments of the maxillary palp being cylindrical, shorter than the 3rd segment. A Middle Jurassic origination of family Hydrobiosidae can be established based on the new discovery.


OBJECTIVE
This study aims to develop and pilot test a dental word recognition instrument.

METHODS
The development of our instrument was based on the Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Medicine (REALM), an efficient word recognition instrument used to assess health literacy in the medical arena. Our instrument, Rapid Estimate of Adult Literacy in Dentistry (REALD-30), consisted of 30 common dental words with various degrees of difficulty. It was administered to 202 English-speaking adults recruited from outpatient medical clinics. We examined the instrument's internal reliability using Cronbach's alpha and its validity by correlating the REALD-30 score to two dental outcomes (perceived dental health status and oral health-related quality of life) and medical health literacy.

RESULTS
REALD-30 scores were significantly correlated with REALM scores. REALD-30 was significantly related to perceived dental health status in the bivariate analysis. It also was significantly related to oral health-related quality of life in a multivariate analysis. In contrast, medical health literacy was not related to either of the dental outcome measures.

CONCLUSIONS
The new REALD-30 instrument displays good reliability but only partial validity. Results suggest that dental health literacy may be distinct from medical health literacy and may have an independent effect on dental health outcomes.


ABSTRACT The presence of water in coal presents a technological challenge for its industrial use in energetic processes. Water tends to negatively affect the coal quality and its net heating value (NHV), in addition to affecting its transportation costs. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of glycerol and temperature on water adsorption onto systematically modified coals. A Colombian bituminous coal sample was used as support for being modified with glycerol. The virgin coal and modified coal were characterized by nitrogen adsorption at 77 K (SBET), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, elemental analysis (C–H–N elemental), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results showed that the water uptake decreased as the amount of glycerol on the coal surface increased. The optimum concentration of 8 wt% of glycerol impregnated on the coal minimized water adsorption. Over a range of water activity evaluations, this amount of glycerol (C8) reduced water adsorption by approximately 60% compared with nonimpregnated coal (C0). As expected, water uptake decreased with increasing temperature. These results are reflected in the NHV with an increase of 17% for the C8 sample compared with the other samples evaluated. The Talu and Meunier model was used to fit the experimental adsorption isotherms, and the mean square root error (MSRE%) was lower than 10%. The isosteric heat of sorption (IHS) for coal tends to decrease as the amount of adsorbed water increases. In addition, the value of IHS decreases as the concentration of glycerol increases due to the blocking of polar adsorption sites present on the coal surface, which are the main regions of low uptake of adsorbed water. Additionally, the Gibbs free energy was found to have negative values, which corroborates the spontaneous adsorption process.


During the last two decades, time management and decision-making have become well-established topics in modern working life. However, little research attention has been given to the link between the two. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between time management factors and decision-making processes. This research was specifically focused on identifying which aspects of decision-making processes are related to time management factors. It was predicted that decision-making processes will be more efficient\effective when employees have time management related competencies and work in an environment that supports time management. A research model was built based on previous research in this field and tested using bivariate correlations, t-tests, and multiple-regression analyses. Five organizations in New Zealand and three in Russia participated in the research, contributing a total of 164 employees. Results indicated, as predicted, that the effectiveness of decision-making processes partially depends on time management factors. Implications of the findings are discussed and future directions for research on the relationship between time management factors and decision-making processes are suggested. The Relationship between Time Management Factors and Decision-Making Processes 6


This paper presents a self-consistent model for the evolution of gas produced in the debris disc of β Pictoris. Our model proposes that atomic carbon and oxygen are created from the photodissociation of CO, which is itself released from volatile-rich bodies in the debris disc due to grain–grain collisions or photodesorption. While the CO lasts less than one orbit, the atomic gas evolves by viscous spreading resulting in an accretion disc inside the parent belt and a decretion disc outside. The temperature, ionization fraction and population levels of carbon and oxygen are followed with the photodissociation region model CLOUDY, which is coupled to a dynamical viscous α model. We present new gas observations of β Pic, of C I observed with Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment and O I observed with Herschel, and show that these along with published C II and CO observations can all be explained with this new model. Our model requires a viscosity α > 0.1, similar to that found in sufficiently ionized discs of other astronomical objects; we propose that the magnetorotational instability is at play in this highly ionized and dilute medium. This new model can be tested from its predictions for high-resolution ALMA observations of C I. We also constrain the water content of the planetesimals in β Pic. The scenario proposed here might be at play in all debris discs and this model could be used more generally on all discs with C, O or CO detections.


Abstract The effects of environmental factors on germination and emergence of Campsis radicans seeds were examined in laboratory and greenhouse experiments. Campsis radicans pods produced numerous, papery, and small seeds (696 seeds/pod; 4 mg/seed). Seeds exhibited dormancy that was relieved (74% germination) after 2 wk of prechilling. Fluctuating temperatures and a 12-h photoperiod were required for maximum germination. Optimum conditions for C. radicans seed germination (74%) were 35/25 C (day/night, 12/12 h) with a 12-h photoperiod. Temperatures below 25/15 C or above 40/30 C were unfavorable for germination. Germination in constant temperatures or in continuous darkness was less than 15%. More than 59% of C. radicans seeds germinated at pH 5 to 9, but at pH 4 or 10 seed germination was totally inhibited. Germination was totally inhibited at osmotic stress higher than −0.2 MPa. Germination was 60% at 40 mM NaCl and 20% at 160 mM NaCl. Emergence was maximum (68%) for seeds that were placed on the soil surface, but no seedlings emerged from a soil depth at 4 cm. About 10% of seeds were still viable even after 20 wk of prechilling. Each pod contained about 700 seeds and each plant produced 20 to 40 pods. These results suggest that the spread potential of C. radicans by seeds would be at least 1,400 to 2,800 seeds plant−1. However, only seeds near the soil surface would be able to germinate. Nomenclature: Trumpetcreeper; Campsis radicans (L.) Seem. ex Bureau CMIRA.


The main problem of head and neck cancer is the consequence of a devastating tumor and the impaired functional and esthetics outcome due to its treatment, sometimes surgery, radiation, chemotherapy or a combination of them. It usually affects quality of life. Reconstruction when necessary is vital to allow the tissues a proper scarring while interposing healthy tissue also promoting start adjutancy earlier and also improving rehabilitation, function, esthetics and quality of life. For more than a century reconstruction has been developing trying to achieve such goal, starting from ingenious techniques to rotate or transplant a new and healthy tissue, up to the use of technology to improve the microvascular free flaps results. In the millennium of technologies, a rational approach must be considered to avoid falling in the sometimes unnecessary trend of insetting free flaps and instead offer the best and fair to guarantee a cure or control of cancer with the best quality of life, taking into special consideration the rational use of economical and scientific resources.


J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the outstanding physicists of his generation. He was also an immensely gifted writer and speaker, who thought deeply about the way that scientific discoveries have changed the way people live and think. Displaying his subtlety of thought and expression as do few other documents, this book of his lectures discusses the moral and cultural implications of developments in modern physics.Originally published in 1989.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Software technology is gaining prominence in national information technology (IT) strategies due to its huge potential for socioeconomic development, particularly through the support it provides in the productive sectors of the economy, delivery of public services and engagement of citizens. In growing numbers of developing countries, software technology is also being leveraged for income generation from digital services and products. For instance, in recent years, India, Chile, the Philippines, Brazil, China, and Indonesia have emerged as important global players in the offshore software services industry, with India and China standing out as leaders. Cooperation between developing countries (south-south) in the area of software technology has also been growing; particularly in the application of software technology to agriculture, public administration and governance (e-governance), transportation and the society (knowledge society). The paper presents the current state of software technology in the south and specifically, the maturity of the software industries in China, India, Brazil, and South Africa (CIBS). It establishes profiles of different regions based on the level of education, quality of research and availability of e-infrastructure and e-applications for determining the potential of these regions in terms of growth and competitiveness in the global software industry. Further complementary analysis of country profiles produced country clusters, helping to identify potential collaboration scenarios for advancing software capacity in the south. Finally, the paper discusses how CIBS can pivot regional or inter-regional cooperation in software technology in the south.


Jonathan Nkhoma, in this scholarly collection of essays, enriches the reader with different interesting windows on how one can unearth the riches contained in some of the New Testament writings. The first two essays underscore the importance of placing the New Testament in a proper context and attempt to construct this context by discussing the historical background and the theological understanding of the Qumran Covenanters as derived from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jonathan Nkhoma treats many aspects touching the proper interpretation of the New Testament writings. For example, he shows how the sacramental rituals of washing and eating together in the Qumran Community add meaning to the same rituals carried over to the New Testament. The significance of table fellowship is treated in greater depth in a subsequent essay. Throughout the various essays the question of the historicity of the various texts is treated in a succinct way and the author is able to come to some helpful conclusions drawing on the previous work of many well know scholars. The later essays tackle the very difficult question of martyrdom and Jonathan Nkhoma delves into the history of two particular cases in order to shed light on this difficult subject. All essays are written in impeccable English which flows in an easy style. This collection of essays would be invaluable to anyone who would wish to make a serious study of the New Testament writings.


The use of biological responses in environmental modelling, also referred to as biomonitoring, mainly involves indicator species or communities those accumulate pollutants in their tissues from the surrounding environment, thus reflect the environmental conditions. Despite the progress made through research activities in detecting biological changes in these organisms at various levels i.e. macromolecular, cellular within individual organisms and in communities, constraints with conventional data analysis methods in exactly assessing an environmental pollution and its real cause led ecologists to experiment with emerging technologies. The recent use of artificial neural networks (ANNs), especially self-organising map (SOM) and evolving SOM techniques to analyse multi dimensional data sets provide a means to analyse community dynamics and is elaborated upon with a case study from northern New Zealand.


OBJECTIVES
While a number of studies have documented a notable decline in age-standardized prevalence in dementia in the U.S. population, relatively little is known about how dementia has declined for specific age and race groups, and the importance of changing educational attainment on the downward trend. We assess 1) how the trends in dementia prevalence may have differed across age and race groups and 2) the role of changing educational attainment in understanding these trends.

METHOD
This paper estimates a series of logistic regression models using data from the Health and Retirement Study (2000-2014) to assess the relative annual decline in dementia prevalence and the importance of improving educational attainment for non-Hispanic Whites and non-Hispanic Blacks.

RESULTS
Consistent with other studies, we found significant declines in dementia for non-Hispanic Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites across this period. Nonetheless, these declines were not uniform across age and race groups. Non-Hispanic Blacks aged 65-74 had the steepest decline in this period. We also found that improved educational attainment in the population was fundamentally important in understanding declining dementia prevalence in the United States.

DISCUSSION
This study shows the importance of improvement in educational attainment in the early part of the 20 th century to understand the downward trend in dementia prevalence in the United States from 2000 to 2014.


This paper presents the results of a participative psycho‐biographical study that investigated the effect of spirituality on career behavior. This study shows that spirituality influences career purpose, sense‐making and coherence. Spirituality was found to inspire four purposes of "developing and becoming self", "unity with others", "expressing self", and "serving others". Spirituality was also found to influence an ongoing process of sense‐making through discovering, prioritizing and balancing the four purposes over a lifespan, in response to ongoing tensions between "being" and "doing" as well as "self‐ versus other‐orientation". Spirituality furthermore influences perceived career‐coherence as individuals align their careers with perceived spiritual orderings outside of themselves. The paper concludes with suggestions for practice and future research.


Water meters are necessary for tracking leaks, using prices to encourage conservation, and allocating costs in proportion to use. They are not necessary when water is abundant or costs are covered by taxes or transfers. This paper discusses the move to residential water metering in England and Wales. The basic impacts of the move --- lower metered demand and higher charges for heavy water users --- are predictable, but other impacts are controversial. An increase in "water poverty" among poorer families has attracted criticism and half-hearted solutions. Incomplete information on abstractions and leakage has cast doubt on environmental benefits. The paper ends with recommendations for improvement.


Volunteers are becoming increasingly prolific within special event workforces, and a significant proportion of contemporary volunteer workforces are comprised of young people. With such a young, diverse workforce, effective and efficient human resources (HR) management is essential in facilitating successful events. Management of volunteers is grounded within the field of human resource development (HRD) where training, developing and educating HR are key considerations. Effective HRD is critical to the survival and success of events such as the Australian Northern University Games addressed in this paper. All volunteers at this event, predominantly Generation Y, undertook pre-event induction training and training for their roles. This paper critically examines the induction and training delivered to NUG volunteers. It is argued that although boundaries between induction and training were blurred, more distinct processes and better alignment with the needs of Generation Y volunteers could have benefited the overall outcome of volunteer training at the NUG. Implications for the future management and training of Generation Y volunteers are discussed.


We are all at our most effective when we can be ourselves at work, but more than half of LGBT teachers hide their sexual identity within their school workplace. For LGBT teachers, vigilance, concealment and assimilation, take a great deal of energy, on top of what is already a very demanding job. This book is essential reading for any LGBT teacher aspiring to succeed as their authentic self. It will also be of interest to Headteachers and other education leaders seeking to make their schools safe and inclusive workplaces for their LGBT staff and LGBT families. Based around the inspirational work of the Courageous Leaders programme, this book turns on its head the notion that it can be difficult to be a leader in school and be LGBT. Through personal testimonies, advice and a rousing call to arms, this book shows how LGBT School Leaders are often amongst the most inclusive, creative, adaptable and intuitive colleagues, when they are able to flourish and be their authentic selves.


The current knowledge is reviewed of the diet and predator–prey relationships of the feral cat (Felis catus), fox (Vulpes vulpes) and dingo (Canis familiaris dingo) (including wild dogs). The effect of forest fragmentation by roads on the use of native forest ecosystems by these species and the significance of this for native fauna is considered. The cat, fox and dingo are significant predators in Australia that interact with native fauna in various ways, including predation, competition for resources, and transmission of disease. On the basis of current knowledge, it is clear that the nature and impact of predation by the cat, fox and dingo on native fauna are primarily determined by prey availability, although there are exceptions to this rule. Generally, dingoes prey upon large to medium-sized prey species (e.g. wallabies, common wombats, and possums), foxes prey upon medium-sized to small prey (e.g. possums and rats) and consume a significant component of scavenged material and vegetation, while cats also prey upon medium-sized to small prey, but may have a greater proportion of reptiles and birds in their diet. The cat is generally considered to be an opportunistic predator and to have contributed to the demise of a number of mammals. The fox is considered more of a threat to small native mammals and it has been asserted that all species of mammals that fall within the critical weight range (CWR) of 120–5000 g are at risk of local extinction when the fox is present. The severity of the impact of the dingo upon the native fauna is considered to be minimal, at least in comparison with the impact that the cat and fox can have on populations. The dingo is not considered a threat to CWR mammals in undisturbed environments. The fox, feral cat and dingo are all considered to have the ability to selectivity prey upon species and, to some extent, individual sexes and age-classes of a number of larger prey species. Although many of Australia's forested areas are relatively heavily fragmented by roads, there are no published studies specifically investigating the use of roads by feral predators. Information on the distribution and abundance of foxes, cats and dingoes in these ecosystems, their ecology and their impact on native fauna is particularly limited. Further, the extent to which roads influence the distribution and abundance of these species and the consequences of these for native fauna are poorly known. One of the most important research needs is to establish the relative impact that exotic predators may have on native fauna under varying degrees of road construction within native forests. For example, are areas with and without roads in forests used differently by exotic predators and what is the significance of this in terms of the potential impact on fauna? The extent to which feral predators forage away from roads needs further investigation, as does the rates of predation within edges, because this may have several consequences for the design, location and size of retained strips and wildlife corridors as well as restoration programmes. Further observations on regional differences influencing predator–prey interactions are required, as is research on the potential impacts on native fauna resulting from prey selection in forests subjected to various degrees of fragmentation and modification.


Background Participant non-adherence and loss to follow-up can compromise the validity of clinical trial results. An assessment of these issues was made in a 3-year tuberculosis prevention trial among HIV-infected adults in Botswana. Methods and Findings Between 11/2004–07/2006, 1995 participants were enrolled at eight public health clinics. They returned monthly to receive bottles of medication and were expected to take daily tablets of isoniazid or placebo for three years. Non-adherence was defined as refusing tablet ingestion but agreeing to quarterly physical examinations. Loss to follow-up was defined as not having returned for appointments in ≥60 days. Between 10/2008–04/2009, survey interviews were conducted with 83 participants identified as lost to follow-up and 127 identified as non-adherent. As a comparison, 252 randomly selected adherent participants were also surveyed. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify associations with selected risk factors. Men had higher odds of being non-adherent (adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 2.24; 95% confidence interval [95%CI] 1.24–4.04) and lost to follow-up (AOR 3.08; 95%CI 1.50–6.33). Non-adherent participants had higher odds of reporting difficulties taking the regimen or not knowing if they had difficulties (AOR 3.40; 95%CI 1.75–6.60) and lower odds associated with each year of age (AOR 0.95; 95%CI 0.91–0.98), but other variables such as employment, distance from clinic, alcohol use, and understanding study requirements were not significantly different than controls. Among participants who were non-adherent or lost to follow-up, 40/210 (19.0%) reported that they stopped the medication because of work commitments and 33/210 (15.7%) said they thought they had completed the study. Conclusions Men had higher odds of non-adherence and loss to follow-up than women. Potential interventions that might improve adherence in trial participants may include:targeting health education for men, reducing barriers, clarifying study expectations, educating employers about HIV/AIDS to help reduce stigma in the workplace, and encouraging employers to support employee health. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00164281


ENCHEVA, J., M. CHRISTOV and P. SHINDROVA, 2008. Developing mutant sunflower line (Helianthus annuus L.) by combined used of classical method with induced mutagenesis and embryo culture method. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 397-404 The isolated immature zygotic F1 embryos, produced with pollycross method were treated with ultrasound before plating on nutrition medium in vitro. Some mutant plants were isolated and self-pollinated for several generations. New sunflower form with inherited morphological, biochemical and phytopatological changes were obtained through selection and self-pollination. The genetic changes included 15 morphological and biochemical agronomic traits. In comparison to the mother line in the cross 2568 R, decreasing in the mean value of the indexes was registered for 73.3 %. of the total number of characters and vice verse, significant increasing for oil content in seed, seed length, seed width and seed thickness i.e. 26.7 %. Increasing oil content in seed, very good combining ability, resistance to Plasmopara halstedii (Farl.) and to the parasite Orobanche cumana of the new mutant line is desire combination at breeding program of sunflower. Hybrid No 61 developed with the participation of line 35 RM considerably exceeded the standard (commercial hybrids San Luka) by seed and oil yield. Polycross method in combination with induced mutagenesis in sunflower can be successfully used to develop new mutant line useful for heterosis breeding.


This paper addresses relations between lexico-grammatical patterns and texts. Our focus is on a specific linguistic unit, the 'suspended quotation' (or 'suspension'), which has received particular attention in Dickens studies. The suspended quotation refers to an interruption of a fictional character's speech by the narrator with a sequence of at least five words. We show how corpus linguistic methods can help to systematically study suspensions in a corpus of Dickens's novels: we investigate relationships between patterns of body language presentation and suspensions; we consider the distribution of suspensions across novels; and we illustrate how patterns in suspensions relate to meanings of reporting verbs. Overall, we argue that suspensions are discernible units that contribute to meaningful patterns in narrative prose.


This chapter aims to evaluate the microalgae species' removal efficiency, using Moringa oleifera powder seeds as a natural coagulant with subsequent lipid profile characterization. For the tests were used deionized water artificially contaminated with cell cultures of Anabaena flos-aquae and Chlorella vulgaris , with a cell density in the order of 10 4 and 10 6 cells mL –1 , respectively. Coagulation/flocculation/dissolved air flotation (C/F/DAF) tests were conducted using 'Flotest' equipment, using M. oleifera powder seeds in the dosage range of 50–1000 mg L −1 . For fatty acid profile analyses, a gas chromatograph equipped with a flame ionization detector was used. Variations of the coagulant dosages showed that there was a difference between dosages and that 100 mg L –1 provided the best removal efficiency for A. flos-aquae (96.5, 80.5 and 78.1%) and 140 mg L −1 for C. vulgaris (90.5, 78.34 and 70%) of the tested parameters of chlorophyll, color and turbidity, respectively. In rela - tion to the produced sludge, it was observed that the use of this coagulant in the treatment of water contaminated with microalgae produces a biodegradable sludge, rich in lipids, especially oleic acid (>60%). Thus, these results indicate that the sludge's reutilization could be a good alternative to biodiesel production, as it represents an environmentally viable method for reusing residual biomass produced in the water treatment process.


The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a cell-surface receptor with a single transmembrane domain and tyrosine kinase activity carried by the intracellular domain. This receptor is one of the four members of the ErbB family including ErbB2, ErbB3, and ErbB4. Ligand binding, like EGF binding, induces a conformational rearrangement of the receptor and induces a homo/hetero dimerization essentially with ErbB family receptors that leads to the phosphorylation of the kinase domain, triggering a signaling cascade. EGFR can also form inactive dimers in a ligand-independent way through interactions between cytoplasmic domains. To date, the conformation of EGFR extracellular domain engaged in these inactive dimers remains unclear. In this study, we describe the successful selection and characterization of llama anti-EGFR nanobodies and their use as innovative conformational sensors. We isolated three different specific anti-EGFR clones binding to three distinct epitopes. Interestingly, the binding of all three nanobodies was found highly sensitive to ligand stimulation. Two nanobodies, D10 and E10, can only bind the ligand-free EGFR conformation characterized by an intramolecular tether between domains II and IV, whereas nanobody G10 binds both ligand-free and ligand activated EGFR, with an 8-fold higher affinity for the extended conformation in the presence of ligand. Here we took advantage of these conformational probes to reveal the existence of tethered EGFR in EGFR/ErbB2 predimers. These biosensors represent important tools allowing the determination of EGFR conformations and should help the design of relevant inhibitors.


For the first time ever, Bruce A. Pasternack and Albert J. Viscio, the founding partners of the Strategic Leadership Practice at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, one of the world's top management and technology consulting firms, offer a comprehensive strategy for business survival and success. At the heart of this landmark work is a new model for the 21st-century corporation that will bring growth and prosperity. "The Centerless Corporation" goes beyond the lines and boxes of today's rigid organizations. It defines new relationships which make traditional corporate center, command-and-control models obsolete. Pasternack and Viscio, two of the most respected and gifted thinkers in today's business world, believe that the principles and organizational models used in most companies, which have evolved for well over one hundred years, are now outmoded. In today's double-speed, highly complex world the conventional model does not deliver. Technology is tying the world more closely together; markets are becoming more global, competition is based more and more on capabilities and knowledge, and demographics are altering the composition and preferences of the work force. The upheaval in the corporate world is costly in both human and financial terms as firms try to cope with change. In response to greater complexity, many of the world's most prominent companies, such as AT&T and Westinghouse, have streamlined their portfolios, and most have undergone significant downsizing and restructuring programs. Increasingly, disappointing company performance results in a highly publicized replacement of the CEO. The basic corporate model needs an overhaul. "The Centerless Corporation" is a compelling model that presents practical solutions for how to build a more effective global organization, develop capabilities for growth, formulate a New People Partnership with employees, implement a learning organization, and cultivate leaders at every level in the organization. The foundation of many of this book's concepts was developed by a Booz-Allen & Hamilton task force charged with studying emerging trends and alternatives for large corporations to cope with the new business environment. The authors convincingly demonstrate that successful firms will build leadership models based on vision, values, and identity. They will establish coherent business processes within their organizations, leverage knowledge, share best practices, and develop highly motivated work forces. They will redefine their organizations, establishing new roles for what the authors characterize as the Global Core, a value-contributing, next-generation corporate center. "The Centerless Corporation" was born of upheaval. It is rooted in the authors' experiences working with top executives in large corporations around the world who are grappling with the turmoil in their business environments and are anxiously searching for better ways to lead their companies in turbulent times. It is a guide to transform your organization into the model that Pastemack and Viscio believe must be adopted for survival and growth in the coming decade.


Significance DNA epigenetic modifications in the forms of 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxylmethylcytosine (5hmC) play crucial regulatory functions in the mammalian genome. Here we developed an ultrasensitive single-molecule epigenetic imaging technology for detecting and quantifying 5hmC and 5mC. By conducting single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer experiments, we discovered high levels of adjacent and opposing methylated and hydroxymethylated CpG sites in the mouse genome, a previously unappreciated structure which may play an important role in gene regulation. The modifications 5-methylcytosine (5mC) and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) are the two major DNA epigenetic modifications in mammalian genomes and play crucial roles in development and pathogenesis. Little is known about the colocalization or potential correlation of these two modifications. Here we present an ultrasensitive single-molecule imaging technology capable of detecting and quantifying 5hmC and 5mC from trace amounts of DNA. We used this approach to perform single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET) experiments which measure the proximity between 5mC and 5hmC in the same DNA molecule. Our results reveal high levels of adjacent and opposing methylated and hydroxymethylated CpG sites (5hmC/5mCpGs) in mouse genomic DNA across multiple tissues. This identifies the previously undetectable and unappreciated 5hmC/5mCpGs as one of the major states for 5hmC in the mammalian genome and suggest that they could function in promoting gene expression.


In a representative national sample of 1,601 adults aged 18-59, parents with children younger than age 18 living in the household reported higher levels of psychological distress than other adults. Mothers reported the highest distress levels. I hypothesized that children provide tradeoffs for their parents' distress. Social and economic burdens associated with parenting increase psychological distress for people with children. The model was supported for both men and women and was not moderated by the number of children in the household. I found that children were associated with lower psychological distress levels. Key Words: child care, depression, gender, marital quality, parenthood; social support. It is an interesting paradox that although Americans place a high value on having children and parents speak of loving their children and enjoying the time they spend with them, most studies show minimal positive effects of children younger than 18 years old on parents' physical well-being and insignificant or small, inconsistent effects on parents' psychological well-being (Gore & Mangione, 1983; Gove & Geerken, 1977; Kessler & McRae, 1982; Lovell-Troy, 1983; McLanahan & Adams, 1987; McLanahan & Adams, 1989; Ross, Mirowsky, & Goldsteen, 1990; Umberson, 1989). For example, compared with persons without children, parents of children under 18 report lower levels of life happiness and higher levels of agitation; yet, parents also report higher levels of life meaning (Umberson & Gove, 1989). Time-use studies offer a partial explanation of these paradoxical findings. They indicate that parents experience a trade-off between enjoyable time spent with their children and an increase (particularly for mothers) in the amount of time spent doing things that they do not enjoy, such as housework (Berk & Berk, 1979). Thus, there is a trade-off between the positive experiences of parenting and the burdens and responsibilities that come with it. Such a trade-off between the positive and negative effects of children and parenting results in the apparent near-zero association if, on average, the positive and negative effects cancel each other out. A thorough examination of the structural burdens associated with childrearing and their impact on parents' psychological distress may reveal an underlying, positive effect of parenthood on distress. If this is the case, then structural burdens of parenting potentially could be reduced, thereby improving parents' psychological well-being. Moreover, such an examination will shed light on whether gender differences in the social and economic burdens of parenting produce greater psychological distress in mothers than in fathers. I examine parenting stressors and their implications for mothers and fathers, compared with persons without children under age 18 living at home. First, I examine how parenting affects adults' exposure to particular social and economic resources and stressors and whether this exposure is likely to differ for men and women. Second, I examine whether these positive and negative aspects of parenting differentially affect men's and women's psychological distress. I focus on two aspects of parenting-social and economic burdens as measured by economic hardship, responsibility for child care, and difficulty arranging child care-and on two social resources-marital happiness and emotional social support, both of which are affected by the presence of children and may buffer parents from the social and psychological consequences of parenting burdens. EFFECTS OF PARENTING ON ADULTS LIVES Having children increases parents' exposure to particular stressors, such as economic hardship, and creates new stressors, such as responsibility for caring for children and, for employed parents, arranging for child care for the time that they are at work. In addition, raising children affects parents' social resources. The demands of parenting may decrease resources for coping with stress by lowering marital happiness, which, in turn, increases distress. …


Knowing how the effects of directed actions generalise to new situations (e.g. moving North, South, East and West, or turning left, right, etc.) is key to rapid generalisation across new situations. Markovian tasks can be characterised by a state space and a transition matrix and recent work has proposed that neural grid codes provide an efficient representation of the state space, as eigenvectors of a transition matrix reflecting diffusion across states, that allows efficient prediction of future state distributions. Here we extend the eigenbasis prediction model, utilising tools from Fourier analysis, to prediction over arbitrary translation-invariant directed transition structures (i.e. displacement and diffusion), showing that a single set of eigenvectors can support predictions over arbitrary directed actions via action-specific eigenvalues. We show how to define a "sense of direction" to combine actions to reach a target state (ignoring task-specific deviations from translation-invariance), and demonstrate that adding the Fourier representations to a deep Q network aids policy learning in continuous control tasks. We show the equivalence between the generalised prediction framework and traditional models of grid cell firing driven by self-motion to perform path integration, either using oscillatory interference (via Fourier components as velocity-controlled oscillators) or continuous attractor networks (via analysis of the update dynamics). We thus provide a unifying framework for the role of the grid system in predictive planning, sense of direction and path integration: supporting generalisable inference over directed actions across different tasks.


Constructing highly realistic agents is essential if agents are to be employed in virtual training systems. In training for collaboration based on face-to-face interaction, the generation of emotional expressions is one key. In training for guidance based on one-to-many interaction such as direction giving for evacuations, emotional expressions must be supplemented by diverse agent behaviors to make the training realistic. To reproduce diverse behavior, we characterize agents by using a various combinations of operation rules instantiated by the user operating the agent. To accomplish this goal, we introduce a user modeling method based on participatory simulations. These simulations enable us to acquire information observed by each user in the simulation and the operating history. Using these data and the domain knowledge including known operation rules, we can generate an explanation for each behavior. Moreover, the application of hypothetical reasoning, which offers consistent selection of hypotheses, to the generation of explanations allows us to use otherwise incompatible operation rules as domain knowledge. In order to validate the proposed modeling method, we apply it to the acquisition of an evacuee's model in a fire-drill experiment. We successfully acquire a subject's model corresponding to the results of an interview with the subject.


Introduction: Head and neck cancer include lesions at several subsites within the oral cavity, oropharynx, larynx, hypopharynx. The major known risk factors for the oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) are smoking and alcohol. Recent reports have indicated Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) as a possible causal organism. HPV appears to be an independent risk factor for OSCC irrespective of tobacco or alcohol consumption. Material and methods: A detailed search of the Medline and Cochrane data base was made. Title and abstract of each article was reviewed by two authors independently. Relevant articles were identified and reviewed systematically for route of transmission of HPV to the oral cavity, and its relationship with tobacco, alcohol and other risk factors. Results: The most common site observed for the oral HPV infection is tonsil. The association is found in upto 50% of the cases and in most HPV-16 is identified. The chief oncoprotein of HPV-16 encoded by E6 and E7 genes have been reported to play a major role in HPV carcinogenesis by targeting tumor suppressor gene p53 and pRB respectively. Reports suggest oro-genital contact as one of the suspected mode of transmission, beside autoinfection from unwashed infected hands and deep mouth kissing. The perinatal vertical transmission is also reported. Conclusions: There is not enough evidence to suggest s to what could be the mode of transmission of HPV to oral cavity and its relationship with other risk factors. Further researches on oral sexual behaviors in oral HPV transmission are required.


Examining the phenomenon of post-conflict reconstruction, the research challenges the appropriateness of the uniform application of general policies and practices to any particular environment. As a context- and conflict-dependant practice, a post-conflict reconstruction that aims at achieving lasting peace and sustainable development should address specific needs through relevant mechanisms. This is especially relevant for post-ethnic-conflict cases. The thesis argues that post-conflict reconstruction after an ethnic conflict should address as a matter of priority the problems related to the recovery or construction of societal micro-frameworks with respect to the macro-unit in focus. Based on the explored concepts of social capital, a model outlining its specific fragmentation after an ethnic conflict is elaborated and the research discusses the mechanisms that have the potential to contribute to the achievement of planned and desired reconstruction outcomes and levels of success. To test the theory against empirical findings, the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina is examined, as it provides good examples for the negative impact of ethnic conflict on macro and micro socio-political levels and for the discrepancies between expected and achieved results. The reconstruction practice in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered in the context of policies and programmes designed and implemented by representatives of the international and local community, with a focus on the efforts directed towards social capital rebuilding.


Distingiishing "spot" versus "contract" views of the labor market is of critical importance to a host of economic issues ranging from wage flexibility over the business cycle to firm financial valuation. The structural features of U.S. private pension plans permit surprisingly strong inferences concerning the incentive effects of private pension plan provisions and the contractual nature of the U.S. labor market. This paper examines the accrual of vested pension benefits of a nation-wide sample of pension plans. We find strikingly larged is continuities in the profile by age of the ratio of annual accrued pension benefits to the standard wage. These discontinuities primarily occur at the ages of full vesting and early retirement. Representative plans often exhibit absolute changes in accrual ratios of 20 to 30 percentage points at these ages.The provisions of many plans imply large negative accruals after the age of early retirement. Job change typically involves a large loss in pension wealth as well. Since the average worker's marginal product presumably changes smoothly as he or she ages, these pension data can only be reconciled with spotmarket clearing if age wage profiles within a firm exhibit exactly offsetting discontinuities at key ages. Casual inspection of firm wage setting behavior rules out this requirement of spot market clearing. In our view the magnitude,patterns, and variations in pension accrual ratios are strikingly at odds with spot market equilibrium. While market clearing in longer term contracts seems the only equilibrium theory consistent with these findings, it also strains our credulity to ascribe optimizing behavior to the pension accrual profiles chosen by a vast array of U.S. businesses. In the process of presenting these profiles we also consider the following questions concerning U.S. pensions. What are the incentive effects of private pension plans? What is the cost in pension benefits of job turnover? How important is vesting? Is there a cost in pension benefits of foregoing the early retirement option? Do pension stipulations encourage early retirement? While the considerable heterogeneity of pension plan provisions permits no simple or single answer to these questions, the data suggest that pensions can have major incentive effects on job turnover and retirement. In general pensions represent a very significant factor, and at certain ages, a dominant factor in employee compensation.


The classic theory describing the change in soundspeed and attenuation for waves propagating in bubbly fluids (i.e., the 1st moment of the multiple scattering solution) can be viewed as a statement about the average pressure observed over all possible configurations of bubble position and size. The 2nd moment can also be predicted using the multiple scattering formulation, and both moments can be found independent of any knowledge of the fluid dynamic conditions controlling the mixing of bubbles. Characteristics of the fluid dynamics do appear in the time scales associated with this mixing, however, and this should be reflected in the time scales associated with convergence to the 1st and 2nd moments. This was explored by conducting propagation experiments in a tank filled with bubble‐laden water that was subjected to varying flow conditions. Frequency dependent attenuation measurements were made and inverted for the bubble size distribution so that predictions of the 2nd moment could be compared to the o...


Plague, a devastating and recurring affliction throughout the Renaissance, had a major impact on European life. Not only was pestilence a biological problem, but it was also read as a symptom of spiritual degeneracy, and it caused widespread social disorder. Assembling a picture of the complex and sometimes contradictory responses to plague from medical, spiritual, and civic perspectives, this book uncovers the place of music – whether regarded as an indispensable medicine or a moral poison that exacerbated outbreaks – in the management of the disease. This original musicological approach further reveals how composers responded, in their works, to the discourses and practices surrounding one of the greatest medical crises in the premodern age. Addressing topics such as music as therapy, public rituals and performance, and music in religion, the volume also provides detailed musical analysis throughout to illustrate how pestilence affected societal attitudes toward music.


Escaping saddle points is a central research topic in nonconvex optimization. In this paper, we propose a simple gradient-based algorithm such that for a smooth function $f\colon\mathbb{R}^n\to\mathbb{R}$, it outputs an $\epsilon$-approximate second-order stationary point in $\tilde{O}(\log n/\epsilon^{1.75})$ iterations. Compared to the previous state-of-the-art algorithms by Jin et al. with $\tilde{O}((\log n)^{4}/\epsilon^{2})$ or $\tilde{O}((\log n)^{6}/\epsilon^{1.75})$ iterations, our algorithm is polynomially better in terms of $\log n$ and matches their complexities in terms of $1/\epsilon$. For the stochastic setting, our algorithm outputs an $\epsilon$-approximate second-order stationary point in $\tilde{O}((\log n)^{2}/\epsilon^{4})$ iterations. Technically, our main contribution is an idea of implementing a robust Hessian power method using only gradients, which can find negative curvature near saddle points and achieve the polynomial speedup in $\log n$ compared to the perturbed gradient descent methods. Finally, we also perform numerical experiments that support our results.


Probabilistic databases have received considerable attention recently due to the need for storing uncertain data produced by many real world applications. The widespread use of probabilistic databases is hampered by two limitations: (1) current probabilistic databases make simplistic assumptions about the data (e.g., complete independence among tuples) that make it difficult to use them in applications that naturally produce correlated data, and (2) most probabilistic databases can only answer a restricted subset of the queries that can be expressed using traditional query languages. We address both these limitations by proposing a framework that can represent not only probabilistic tuples, but also correlations that may be present among them. Our proposed framework naturally lends itself to the possible world semantics thus preserving the precise query semantics extant in current probabilistic databases. We develop an efficient strategy for query evaluation over such probabilistic databases by casting the query processing problem as an inference problem in an appropriately constructed probabilistic graphical model. We present several optimizations specific to probabilistic databases that enable efficient query evaluation. We validate our approach by presenting an experimental evaluation that illustrates the effectiveness of our techniques at answering various queries using real and synthetic datasets.


Recent measurements by electric capacitance tomography reveal that, under certain operating conditions, the solids concentration distribution in the dense and acceleration regimes of gas–solid riser flows exhibits a strong heterogeneous structure, with the solids concentration near the centerline much higher than that in the annular surrounding flows (except in the wall region) within the same cross-section. This core–annulus–wall heterogeneous structure, significantly different from the commonly known "core–annulus (wall)" two-zone structure in riser flows, becomes unstable with the increase in solids loading, which eventually leads to the occurrence of choking. In this study, we propose a mechanistic model to investigate the formation and distribution of these interesting heterogeneous structures in riser flows. The intrinsic mechanisms include (1) counterflow between back mixing solids and upward moving solids from entrance, (2) the radial migration of solid flow from the wall toward the centerline of riser, and (3) the nonuniform acceleration of solids across the cross-section in the dense and acceleration regimes. The model, assuming one-dimensional two-phase flow in each zone along the riser, consists of a set of coupled ordinary-differential equations developed from the conservation laws of mass, momentum, and energy of both gas and solids phases. The solving algorithm is based on the Runge-Kutta method. Our model calculations show that the commonly known "core–annulus (wall)" flow structure occurs at low solids loadings and/or high gas velocities, whereas the core–annulus–wall flow structure is formed at moderate solids loading and/or at low gas velocities. With a high solids loading at low gas velocity, severe backflow results in a solid concentration peak formed in the core, which not only causes the flow instability but also possibly triggers the choking. Model simulations are validated by direct comparisons against measurements in solids concentrations as well as in the pressure drop along the riser, which shows a fairly good agreement. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008


For decades experiments conducted on space stations like MIR and the ISS have been gathering data in many fields of research in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering. The EU-sponsored Ulisse Internet Portal provides metadata from space experiments of all kinds and links to the data. Complementary to the portal, this book will serve as handbook listing space experiments by type of infrastructure, area of research in the life and physical sciences, data type, what their mission was, what kind of data they have collected and how one can access this data through Ulisse for further research. The book will provide an overview of the wealth of space experiment data that can be used for research, and will inspire academics (e.g. those looking for topics for their PhD thesis) and research departments in companies for their continued development.


Background:
Antimicrobial drug resistance is one of the major threats due to widespread use of antimicrobial drugs in general population. Also, it is known that the common infecting organism and pattern of resistance changes over time. The present study highlights the trend of organism and their resistance patterns in the current scenario.
Methods:
A total number of 6350 samples were analysed in various hospitals at Tumkur and Bangalore during the study period. The study analysed resistance pattern of most common uropathogens in 30 antimicrobials of different classes. Culture positive cases of urinary tract infections (UTI) were included for the analysis.
Results:
About 12 different species of uropathogens were identified from 6350 cases {in the present study}. Among them E.coli was the most common uropathogen which constituted 59.2% of the total samples followed by Klebsiella spp (12.1%), Enterococcus spp (10.1%) and Pseudomonas spp (9.3%). Also female patients (58.5%) were more vulnerable to UTI than male patients (41.5%). Out of 30 antimicrobials tested, Ampicillin has shown the highest resistance by different uropathogens i.e. 80.4% followed by ciprofloxacin (73%), amoxicillin (70.4%), norfloxacin (53.3%) while Penicillin, Furomycin, Azithromycin, Doxycycline, Linezolid and Novobiocin offered least resistance.
Conclusion:
The present study identifies the changing etiologic trends of UTI and also a steady increase in development of antimicrobial resistance especially against drugs which were highly effective.


Systems for structural health monitoring in aeronautical structures use methods of measuring the elongation that normally require too heavy setups or difficult assembly jobs, such as those based on traditional strain gauges. Alternative methods based on fiber Bragg gratings tend to be very expensive. We analyze the possibility of improving the existing designs with the aid of low-cost plastic optical fiber sensors. For this purpose we test these sensors in a rudder flap subjected to different types of bending forces. The results show that they offer good stability and repeatability, and the measured values are very similar to those obtained with Bragg sensors.


Safer Journeys, New Zealand's road safety strategy to 2020, adopted the Safe System approach. The Safe System in Practice training course was designed in 2011-12 to improve understanding of the approach, and build the skills, confidence and relationships across the sector to implement it. The course, aimed at planners, engineers, roading operations and maintenance managers, educators, enforcers, and other system designers who influence road safety, outlines the Safe System approach and principles, and best practice treatments to strengthen every element of the system. The cross-disciplinary content is developed and presented by experts and is reinforced by an action learning approach using New Zealand case studies that are worked on by small groups. In the first 12 months the course has been delivered to more than 500 people, and initial evaluations show it has been extremely successful. The course designers aim to train 500 more over the next year. This intensive programme gives the sector the best chance of changing the road safety conversation, and developing a shared understanding of how to reduce deaths and serious injuries, in the shortest possible time. The paper outlines the course design, results and lessons learned, with particular reference to how the course could be replicated elsewhere.


This paper will be presented at a special event, hosted by the Victoria Legal Aid Society and RMIT University School of Law (Melbourne, Australia), on March 31, 2017. It traces the development of therapeutic jurisprudence (TJ) over the past three decades, and explains its impact on legal education, legal scholarship and legal practice. In it, I explain the initial insights of David Wexler and the late Bruce Winick, consider these insights in the context of the state of mental disability law in the late 1980s and early 1990s (when TJ first emerged), with a focus on their early essay collections and the initial TJ conference that I ran at New York Law School (where I taught for 30 years) in 1993.
I then discuss how TJ expanded beyond the relatively-narrow framework of "just mental disability law", and the significance of that expansion, TJ's internationalization, and its expansion from law to psychology, criminology, social work, and other disciplines (though interestingly, not, to any significant extent, psychiatry).
After this, I consider the impact it has had on traditional trial courts and case law, and the, focus on its significant impact on "problem-solving courts" – mental health courts, drug courts, and others. I then consider my own work from the past few years, and how I approach the full range of substantive topics in my writing from a TJ perspective.
Next, I look at what David Wexler has been thinking about lately – about what he calls the "vineyards of the law," and about his metaphor of "wines and bottles" – and the impact that will likely have on TJ's future. I then share some ideas about how TJ-focused lawyers need to start thinking more seriously about how TJ should inspire them in dialogues they have with their clients, and conclude by speculating about what must be done in the future to insure that TJ continues to reinforce dignity in all aspects of the entire legal process.


Background/Context Although there is a growing body of literature on the characteristics of effective professional development, there is little direct evidence on the extent to which these characteristics influence teacher learning and practice. In particular, few studies exist to date that demonstrate the impact of technology-focused professional development on teacher learning and practice. Even fewer studies have examined teacher learning for more than a year to understand the sustainability and growth of professional development gains. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the long-term impact of research-based professional development on teacher learning and practice with respect to technology. Analysis is based on data collected from 7 urban teachers 2 years after their participation in a yearlong, technology-focused professional development program. Follow-up data are compared with data collected by the author during the teachers' participation in professional development to (1) investigate the sustainability and growth of teachers' learning, (2) identify the conditions that facilitated or hindered teachers' capacity to further develop their thinking, knowledge, and practice with regard to technology, and (3) map the trajectory of teachers' learning over a 3-year period. Research Design The study employed a qualitative multiple case study design. Data were collected from multiple sources that included teacher interviews, surveys, classroom observations, and collection of artifacts. Two outcomes were defined as critical measures of long-term learning: sustainability and growth. Findings/Results Results indicated that participation in research-based professional development fostered sustained changes in teachers' educational technology knowledge, ability to design and implement technology-supported experiences for students, and beliefs toward teaching and learning with technology. In two cases, these changes became the basis for continual learning and led to ongoing professional growth. Further, findings revealed three factors that influenced teacher learning over time: (1) student characteristics, (2) access to resources, and (3) social support and opportunities for collaboration with peers. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings of the study suggest that participation in professional development that is grounded in the currently accepted best practices can impact teacher learning and practice. They also offer insights into the process by which teachers modify their knowledge, practices, and beliefs and the conditions that influence learning over time. Further, they provide new lenses for analyzing teacher learning that suggest looking more closely into the interactive relationship between practices and beliefs, as well as the ways in which classroom experience influences continual learning and change.


The plain of Lleida is a farming area with about 200,000 ha of crops. On 17 September 2007 a hailstorm hit 889 ha of fruit crops, especially the area of the Pla d'Urgell (Urgell Plain). That hailstorm was the largest since 1990, according to the data collected by the Agrupació de Defensa Vegetal de les Terres de Ponent (ADV-TP) (Group for the protection of plants in the Terres de Ponent): hailstones larger than 5 cm in diameter and 81 hailpads hit (the average in the Lleida area in September is 7 hailpads affected). A mesoscale convective system originating in the Iberian Range was reactivated when arriving to Catalonia, resulting in a hailstorm that was particularly virulent and affected a wide area (the second part of the study focuses on the synoptic and mesoscalar study). This first part presents the analysis of the data from the network of hailpads managed by the ADV-TP and the information obtained from observers in the affected area. The conclusion drawn from this analysis is that the location of the largest hailstones does not match with the more heavily impacted area. Regarding the qualitative information obtained from the contributors, the affected area is similar to that obtained from the hailpads. However, it should be noted from the comparative study between both sources of information that observers tend to perceive only the larger hailstones when there is a mixture of diameters. To conclude, a number of recommendations are presented in order to maximize the objectivity of the reports presented by the observers.


In many landscapes, an important fire management objective is to reduce the negative impacts from unplanned fires on people, property and ecological values. In Australia, there exists an inherent assumption that high spatial variability in fire ages and hence fuel loads will have negative effects on both the incidence and spread of subsequent fires, and will enhance ecological values. A recent study using the process-based computer simulation model FIRESCAPE-SWTAS predicted several relationships between prescribed burn treatment levels and spatial patterning and management objectives in south-west Tasmania, Australia. The present study extended this investigation to additionally explore the effects of prescribed burning treatment unit size on unplanned fire incidence and area burned both in the general landscape and specifically in fire-intolerant vegetation. Simulation results suggest that treatment level had the greatest influence on modifying fire effects, whereas treatment unit size had the least effect. The model predicted that all three parameters interacted to determine the mean annual area burnt by unplanned fires. In fire-intolerant vegetation, treatment unit size did not influence the incidence of unplanned fires and the area burnt by unplanned fires in these communities. Where significant differences were evident, fire risk was reduced by higher treatment levels, deterministic spatial patterns of burning units, and smaller burning unit sizes.


After nearly fifty years of stability and stagnation of dairy market regulations in Israel, a dramatic policy reform has been enacted in 1999. The reform enabled farm households, for the first time, to trade production quotas. In addition, the reform signaled to farmers that milk prices will gradually go down in real terms, and therefore only producers who expand and become more efficient will prevail. The reform allowed for generous financial support for investment in expansion, but also required the adoption of environmental regulations which could be costly to many farm families. This paper uses data from a census of small family-operated dairy enterprises that was conducted in 2001, in order to analyze the response of farm households to the reform. The results imply that the reform was particularly attractive for already strong producers. Weaker producers are less attracted by the reform and will likely fade away by default in the long run. Another finding is that intergenerational succession is an important element of decision making of milk producers. Hence, the response of farm households to changes in the economic environment cannot be disentangled from the occupational decisions of their offspring. These findings imply that the desired structural change in the family-farm milk production sector will take much longer than expected, essentially as long as the current generation of producers is around. This requires, perhaps, an extension of the reform period or a change in incentives in favor of the smaller and older producers.


Title of Dissertation: THERMO-STRUCTURAL INFLUENCES ON OPTICAL CHARACTERISTICS of POLYMER BRAGG GRATINGS Kyoung Joon Kim, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Avram Bar-Cohen Professor Bongtae Han Department of Mechanical Engineering The objective of this study is to investigate thermo-optical issues in polymer Bragg gratings. The first order thermo-optical model of a polymer Bragg grating is provided. The model was applied to investigate the thermo-optical behavior of the PMMA Bragg grating. The development of a thermo-optical model of an illuminated polymer fiber Bragg grating (PFBG), combining use of the coupled-mode theory with thermal conduction theory and the Transfer Matrix Method (TMM), is presented. The model is verified comparing predicted results with the measured values of the thermo-optical experiment. This model is applied to the prediction of the thermo-optical behavior of an intrinsically-heated and passively-cooled PMMA Fiber Bragg Grating illuminated by a LED and SMLDs and operating over a range of ambient temperatures. Parametric influences on the thermo-optic characteristics and the predictive accuracy of several simplifications in the Bragg Grating relations are also explored.


The UK government aims at achieving 80% CO2 emission reduction by 2050 which requires collective efforts across all the UK industry sectors. In particular, the housing sector has a large potential to contribute to achieving the aim because the housing sector alone accounts for 27% of the total UK CO2 emission, and furthermore, 87% of the housing which is responsible for current 27% CO2 emission will still stand in 2050. Therefore, it is essential to improve energy efficiency of existing housing stock built with low energy efficiency standard. In order for this, a whole‐house needs to be refurbished in a sustainable way by considering the life time financial and environmental impacts of a refurbished house. However, the current refurbishment process seems to be challenging to generate a financially and environmentally affordable refurbishment solution due to the highly fragmented nature of refurbishment practice and a lack of knowledge and skills about whole‐house refurbishment in the construction industry. In order to generate an affordable refurbishment solution, diverse information regarding costs and environmental impacts of refurbishment measures and materials should be collected and integrated in right sequences throughout the refurbishment project life cycle among key project stakeholders. Consequently, various researchers increasingly study a way of utilizing Building Information Modelling (BIM) to tackle current problems in the construction industry because BIM can support construction professionals to manage construction projects in a collaborative manner by integrating diverse information, and to determine the best refurbishment solution among various alternatives by calculating the life cycle costs and lifetime CO2 performance of a refurbishment solution. Despite the capability of BIM, the BIM adoption rate is low with 25% in the housing sector and it has been rarely studied about a way of using BIM for housing refurbishment projects. Therefore, this research aims to develop a BIM framework to formulate a financially and environmentally affordable whole‐house refurbishment solution based on the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methods simultaneously. In order to achieve the aim, a BIM feasibility study was conducted as a pilot study to examine whether BIM is suitable for housing refurbishment, and a BIM framework was developed based on the grounded theory because there was no precedent research. After the development of a BIM framework, this framework was examined by a hypothetical case study using BIM input data collected from questionnaire survey regarding homeowners' preferences for housing refurbishment. Finally, validation of the BIM framework was conducted among academics and professionals by providing the BIM framework and a formulated refurbishment solution based on the LCC and LCA studies through the framework. As a result, BIM was identified as suitable for housing refurbishment as a management tool, and it is timely for developing the BIM framework. The BIM framework with seven project stages was developed to formulate an affordable refurbishment solution. Through the case study, the Building Regulation is identified as the most affordable energy efficiency standard which renders the best LCC and LCA results when it is applied for whole‐house refurbishment solution. In addition, the Fabric Energy Efficiency Standard (FEES) is recommended when customers are willing to adopt high energy standard, and the maximum 60% of CO2 emissions can be reduced through whole‐house fabric refurbishment with the FEES. Furthermore, limitations and challenges to fully utilize BIM framework for housing refurbishment were revealed such as a lack of BIM objects with proper cost and environmental information, limited interoperability between different BIM software and limited information of LCC and LCA datasets in BIM system. Finally, the BIM framework was validated as suitable for housing refurbishment projects, and reviewers commented that the framework can be more practical if a specific BIM library for housing refurbishment with proper LCC and LCA datasets is developed. This research is expected to provide a systematic way of formulating a refurbishment solution using BIM, and to become a basis for further research on BIM for the housing sector to resolve the current limitations and challenges. Future research should enhance the BIM framework by developing more detailed process map and develop BIM objects with proper LCC and LCA Information.


To evaluate the Maracajau reef ecosystem (Northeastern Brazil), observations, sampling and measurements were performed monthly during spring low tides from February to June 2000, covering the transition from dry to rainy season. In this area, there is an extensive (approximately 10 km x 4 km), but to date poorly investigated, offshore coral reef formation, where a Marine Protected Area was established recently. The reef area presented chlorophyll a concentrations varying from 1.1 mg m to 9.3 mg m, with higher values registered during the rainy season. Average zooplankton biomass values were 117.0 mg m (microzooplankton) and 15.7 mg m (mesozooplankton). A total of 136 phytoplankton taxa were identified. Diatoms were the most abundant and diverse group, with 102 species. Average phytoplankton density was 3,125 10 cells 1. It was identified that there were 61 zooplankton taxa, with copepods showing the highest diversity (23 species) and abundance. Seasonal forcing determined the microand mesozooplankton community structure, rather than the coastal-offshore gradient. In spite of the distance from the coast (5 to 7 km offshore), this area is intensively used by local populations, mainly for artisan fishery and diving tourism. The area is exposed to seasonally varying negative impacts due to freshwater runoff, mangrove degradation and tourism, being also menaced by coastal eutrophication.


This paper will introduce readers to the field of sports in theRepublic of Ireland with specific reference to changing power relationsbetween the sexes. It will situate a present-day social phenomenon, that is,Irish females' increasing involvement in what are seen traditionally as maleassociatedsports such as Gaelic football, rugby and soccer, within the contextof social processes in which more or less independent groups of people(that is, male and female sportspeople) are becoming more interdependent.Qualitative data including 12 in-depth interviews with high performance(elite) female athletes (conducted between 1999 and 2002), three in-depthinterviews with leading Irish sports officials (1999–2003) and participantobservation notes (from the author's involvement in the field of sports sincethe early 1990s) will be used to examine aspects of the sport–gender nexusin Ireland. These will be situated within a sociological analysis of the emergenceand development of sports for women since the 1970s, and they willbe used to argue that the relatively slight shift in the balance of power infavour of females since the 1970s has led to feelings of emancipation amongstfemales and resistance amongst males, though this resistance is graduallybecoming weaker. Elias's theory of 'established–outsider' relations will beapplied to suggest that females who participate in sports such as rugby,soccer and Gaelic football to a lesser extent, can be described as an 'outsider'group, that is, as one that has lacked the organisational resources and networksof mutual assistance to significantly shift the uneven balance of powerbetween the sexes. Moreover, typical of outsiders in their relations with theestablished, dominant stereotypical views of females remain embedded inthe personality structures of 'outsiders'.


For many years, the dominant view among American election law scholars has been that the Supreme Court's constitutional jurisprudence of democratic practice got off to a promising start during the mid-twentieth century, but has since then slowly deteriorated into incoherence. In light of the United States' recent turn toward populist authoritarianism, that view needs to be substantially revised. With the benefit of hindsight, it now appears that the U.S. Supreme Court has functioned, in its management of the constitutional jurisprudence of democracy, as a vector of infection – a kind of superspreader of populist authoritarianism.

There is, sadly, nothing unusual these days about an apex court reinterpreting a formerly liberal constitutional jurisprudence to support a populist authoritarian regime. Typically, however, constitutional courts pivot toward authoritarianism suddenly, after they have been captured through aggressive court-packing or coercive threats and intimidation. In the United States, however, federal courts retain real independence, and the process of illiberalization has been correspondingly slower and less immediate. In particular, the U.S. Supreme Court has slowly illiberalized American election law in a two-stage process: first, by deconsolidating a liberal jurisprudence into incoherence; and then by reconsolidating it into a form more conducive to authoritarianism. The main strategy by which this has occurred has been an increasingly aggressive deployment of an ever narrower palette of individual rights, gradually narrowing a complex and conceptually rich jurisprudence to a single dimension – a judicial strategy that, in its radical anti-pluralism, is deeply populist, fundamentally illiberal, and profoundly destructive of the inherited liberal democratic settlement of the late twentieth century.


Pathological fractures affecting lower limbs in patients with myelomeningocele have a high prevalence and need to be suspected though mild symptoms such as swelling, local redness, or local hyperthermia without pain, due to the lack of sensation of these patients or other systemic factors are presented. These fractures can affect different parts of the bone: metaphysis, diaphysis, or physis. It has been described different details in mechanism of injury, clinical presentation, treatment, and possible complications, depending on the affected site. In this case report, we present a 3-year-old female who has suffered 3 femur fractures in a period of 13 months. We analyze retrospectively the management of this case for formulating recommendations regarding her clinical evolution and the current published data.


On 4 November 2014, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) launched the worldwide campaign to put an end to statelessness within the time frame of the next ten years. Therefore, according to the UNHCR reasoning no persons should be affected by statelessness in 2024. The launch of the campaign followed the Global Forum on Statelessness in September 2014 that aimed at highlighting the implications of statelessness of concerned persons and to simultaneously raise awareness (Guardian, 2014). In an era when nation states have been in existence for over 300 years and citizenship being granted to nationals by states either by Right of the Soil (jus soli) or by Right of the Blood (jus sanguinis), the condition of statelessness comes as a surprise to many persons disposing of citizenship. The legal status of possessing citizenship is generally taken for granted. In my view, the existence of stateless people points to weaknesses in current national legal rights regimes and bears great risks of both affected persons and society.


The original New-Federalism agenda that emerged with the Reagan administration weakened federal programs and transferred power to states and localities. While Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush's years were characterized by block grants and dismantling public assistance, the Clinton years will be remembered for the dismantling of AFDC. Recruiting faith-based organizations to provide social services epitomized the second Bush presidency. In this article, we demonstrate how the seeds for recruiting faith-based groups were planted before and during the Reagan years, and how two waves of devolution chipped away at our national commitment to welfare. These first two waves provided both the ideological and practical means for faith-based social service delivery, which epitomizes the third wave of devolution. We also briefly review the incorporation of religion in social services as part of the neo-federalist trend of the Reagan legacy.


3-Hydroxybenzylaminobenzoic acid synthesized in the laboratory as a reagent for the determination of zinc in various water samples. Zinc(II) reacts with 3-hydroxybenzylaminobenzoic acid and forms a light yellow colored complex at pH 5.0. The complex has a maximum absorbance at 460 nm. The complex is stable for more than twelve hours. Hence, a detailed study of the extraction of zinc(II) with 3-hydroxybenzylaminobenzoic acid has been studied. Other parameters like effect of pH, choice of solvent, interference of electrolytes has also been investigated.


A nonlinear multiple logistic model and multiple regression analysis are described as a method for determining the weights for two-layer networks and are compared to error backpropagation. We also provide a method for constructing a three-layer network whose semilinear middle units are primarily provided to discriminate two categories. Experimental results on speaker-independent vowel recognition show that both multivariate methods provide stable weights with fewer iterations than backpropagation training started with random initial weights, but with slightly inferior performance. Backpropagation training with initial weights determined by a multiple logistic model after introduction of data distribution information gives a recognition rate of 98.2%, which is significantly better than average backpropagation with random initial weights.


In many developed countries, the share of wage employment out of the total agricultural labour force has been increasing for the last ten years. Using data from French agricultural censuses, we present an analysis of the factors that influence households' decisions about whether to work on the family farm or to work outside, and about the use of wage labour. Studying how the effects of these factors have varied between 1988 and 2000 enables us to highlight the different mechanisms that have led to an increase in permanent wage employment during that period. In particular, we show that family labour and permanent wage labour have become nearly equivalent in 2000, whereas that was not the case in 1988.


Domestic roofwater harvesting is a centuries-old technique. In the latter half of this century, domestic rain-water, or roof-water harvesting (DRWH) has been promoted mainly in arid areas, where the alternative water sources are
scarce and/or prohibitively expensive. It is a technology that is now employed primarily when other conventional
options have been discarded due to complexities or cost, or where subsidies are applied for specific promotion of
DRWH. In this paper we will consider the use of domestic roofwater harvesting in humid tropical areas of the world.
It is demonstrated that the uptake of this technology in areas with favourable climatic conditions, and where users
are willing to modify their behaviour, can bring sufficient quantities of clean water to large numbers of people for a
large part of the year, without the usual prohibitive initial costs. Firstly, we will consider the climatic implications on DRWH and see what effect preferential rainfall patterns can have on the cost of the DRWH system, especially the cost of water storage. Secondly, we will consider user patterns and show how suitable user behaviour (consumption pattern) can again improve the desirability of a DRWH
system. Finally we will look at the work being done at Warwick University (and by other members of the Roofwater Harvesting Research Group) on reducing costs of roofwater collection systems and improving the quality of stored rainwater for use in high rainfall areas.


Abstract. We present global upper tropospheric HCN and C 2 H 6 amounts derived from MIPAS/ENVISAT limb emission spectra. HCN and C 2 H 6 are retrieved in the spectral regions 715.5–782.7 cm −1 and 811.5–835.7 cm −1 , respectively. The datasets consist of 54 days between September 2003 and March 2004. This period covers the peak and decline of the southern hemispheric biomass burning period and some months thereafter. HCN is a nearly unambiguous tracer of biomass burning with an assumed tropospheric lifetime of several months. Indeed, the most significant feature in the MIPAS HCN dataset is an upper tropospheric plume of enhanced values caused by southern hemispheric biomass burning, which in September and October 2003 extended from tropical South America over Africa, Australia to the Southern Pacific. The spatial extent of this plume agrees well with the MOPITT CO distribution of September 2003. Further there is good agreement with the shapes and mixing ratios of the southern hemispheric HCN and C 2 H 6 fields measured by the ACE experiment between September and November 2005. The MIPAS HCN plume extended from the lowermost observation height of 8 km up to about 16 km altitude, with maximum values of 500–600 pptv in October 2003. It was still clearly visible in December 2003, but had strongly decreased by March 2004, confirming the assumed tropospheric lifetime. The main sources of C 2 H 6 are production and transmission of fossil fuels, followed by biofuel use and biomass burning. The C 2 H 6 distribution also clearly reflected the southern hemispheric biomass burning plume and its seasonal variation, with maximum amounts of 600–700 pptv. Generally there was good spatial overlap between the southern hemispheric distributions of both pollution tracers, except for the region between Peru and the mid-Pacific. Here C 2 H 6 was considerably enhanced, whereas the HCN amounts were low. Backward trajectory calculations suggested that industrial pollution was responsible for the elevated C 2 H 6 concentration in these particular air masses. Except for the Asian monsoon anticyclone in September 2003, there were only comparably small regions of enhanced HCN in the Northern Hemisphere. However, C 2 H 6 showed an equally strong northern hemispheric signal between the equator and low midlatitudes, persisting over the whole observation period. Backward trajectory calculations for air masses from this region also point to industrial sources of this pollution. Generally, C 2 H 6 /HCN ratios between 1 and 1.5 indicate biomass burning and ratios larger than 1.5 industrial pollution. However, in March 2004 ratios of up to 2 were also found in some regions of the former southern biomass burning plume.


We introduce an adaptive search technique that speeds up state space search by learning heuristic censors while searching. The censors speed up search by pruning away moTe and more of the space until a solution is found in the pruned space. Censors are learned by explaining dead ends and other search failures. To learn quickly, the technique over-generalizes by assuming that certain constraints aTe preservable, i.e., remain true on at least one solution path. A recovery mechanism detects violations of this assumption and selectively relaxes learned censors. The technique, implemented in an adaptive problem solver named FAILSAFE-g, learns useful heuristics that cannot be learned by other reported methods. Its effectiveness is indicated by a preliminary complexity analysis and by experimental results in three domains, including one in which PRODIGY failed to learn eflective search control rules.


The energy conversion efficiency of solar cells based on multicrystalline silicon is greatly deteriorated by dislocations. However, an in-depth understanding on the dislocation motion dynamics down to atomic scale is still lacking. In this paper, we propose a novel atomistic approach to simulate the kink migration and kink-pair formation which govern dislocation motion in silicon, namely the kinetic activation-relax technique (k-ART). With this method, long timescale events can be simulated and complex energy landscapes can be explored. Four mechanisms for kink migration are observed, with total activation energy of 0.16, 0.25, 0.32, and 0.25 eV. New nontrivial kink structures that participate in kink migration are identified due to the open-ended search algorithm for saddle points in k-ART. In addition, a new pathway for kink-pair formation, with a minimum activation energy of 1.11 eV is discovered. The effect of shear stress on kink migration is also investigated. It shows that shear stress shifts the energy barriers of available events to lower energies, resulting in a change of the preferred kink-migration mechanism and a reduction of kink-pair formation energy.