These Guidelines aim to provide alcohol and other drug (AOD) workers with evidence-based information to assist with the management of co-occurring, or comorbid, AOD and mental health conditions. They represent an update and revision of the first edition of these Guidelines published in 2009. Population estimates indicate that more than one-third of individuals with an AOD use disorder have at least one comorbid mental health disorder; however, the rate is even higher among those in AOD treatment programs. Additionally, there are a large number of people who present to AOD treatment who display symptoms of disorders while not meeting criteria for a diagnosis of a disorder.

The high prevalence of comorbidity means that AOD workers are frequently faced with the need to manage complex psychiatric symptoms that may interfere with their ability to treat clients' AOD use. Furthermore, clients with comorbid mental health conditions often have a variety of other medical, family, and social problems (e.g., housing, employment, welfare, legal problems). As such, it is important that AOD workers adopt a holistic approach to the management and treatment of comorbidity that is based on treating the person, not the illness (see Chapter B1).

The first step in responding to comorbidity is being able to identify the person's needs (see Chapters B2 and B3). Despite high rates of comorbidity among clients of AOD services, it is not unusual for comorbid mental health conditions to go unnoticed. This is mostly because AOD workers are not routinely looking for them. It is a recommendation of these Guidelines that all clients of AOD treatment services should be screened and assessed for comorbidity as part of routine clinical care.

Once identified, symptoms of mental health conditions may be effectively managed while the person is undergoing AOD treatment (see Chapters B5 and B6). The goal of management is to allow AOD treatment to continue without mental health symptoms disrupting the treatment process, and to retain clients in treatment who might otherwise discontinue such treatment. Comorbidity is not an insurmountable barrier to treating people with AOD use disorders. Indeed, research has shown that clients with comorbid mental health conditions can benefit just as much as those without comorbid conditions from usual AOD treatment.

Some clients with comorbidity may require additional treatment for their mental health problems (see Chapter B6). Some interventions have been designed for the treatment of specific comorbidities; however, these interventions generally have not been well researched. Where there is an absence of specific research on comorbid disorders, it is recommended that best practice is to use the most effective treatments for each disorder. Both psychosocial and pharmacological interventions have been found to have some benefit in the treatment of many comorbidities. Consideration should also be given to the use of e-health interventions, physical activity, and complementary and alternative therapies, as an adjunct to traditional treatments.

In addition to mental health services, AOD workers may need to engage with a range of other services to meet clients' needs, including housing, employment, education, training, community, justice, and other support services. A broad, multifaceted, and co-ordinated approach is needed in order to address all of these issues effectively, and it is important that AOD services and workers develop links with a range of local services (see Chapter B4).


Low-flow simulation and forecasting remains a difficult issue for hydrological modellers, and intercomparisons can be extremely instructive for assessing existing lowflow prediction models and for developing more efficient operational tools. This research presents the results of a collaborative experiment conducted to compare low-flow simulation and forecasting models on 21 unregulated catchments in France. Five hydrological models (four lumped storagetype models - Gardenia, GR6J, Mordor and Presages - and one distributed physically oriented model - SIM) were applied within a common evaluation framework and assessed using a common set of criteria. Two simple benchmarks describing the average streamflow variability were used to set minimum levels of acceptability for model performance in simulation and forecasting modes. Results showed that, in simulation as well as in forecasting modes, all hydrological models performed almost systematically better than the benchmarks. Although no single model outperformed all the others for all catchments and criteria, a few models appeared to be more satisfactory than the others on average. In simulation mode, all attempts to relate model efficiency to catchment or streamflow characteristics remained inconclusive. In forecasting mode, we defined maximum useful forecasting lead times beyond which the model does not bring useful information compared to the benchmark. This maximum useful lead time logically varies between catchments, but also depends on the model used. Simple multi-model approaches that combine the outputs of the five hydrological models were tested to improve simulation and forecasting efficiency. We found that the multi-model approach was more robust and could provide better performance than individual models on average


Wildlife managers need chemical repellents that are effective at deterring damage by birds, but these repellents must be environmentally and toxicologically safe. The number of commercially available bird repellents has been reduced because of concerns about environmental safety. Currently, there are 2 categories of avian repellents. Chemicals that are reflexively avoided by birds because they irritate the peripheral chemical senses are referred to as primary repellents. Chemicals that cause gastrointestinal illness and learned avoidance of ancillary sensory cues that are paired with the illness are known as secondary repellents. Secondary repellents most often identified as the most effective avian repellents are derived from synthetic agrichemical pesticides and generally are regulated against because of their toxicity and concerns about the consequences of adding them to the environment. Primary repellents are usually derived from natural products and human food and flavor ingredients, and their use as bird repellents has been promoted as fulfilling the need for environmentally safe repellents. However, primary repellents are considered to be less potent than secondary repellents. We found that if the primary repellent, methyl anthranilate, was delivered enterically in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), we could achieve the same level of repellency as with the secondary repellent, methiocarb. Equal repellent effects for the 2 chemicals were found despite differences in their mode of action. Also, birds given an enteric delivery of the primary repellent methyl anthranilate showed fewer signs of behavioral distress (e.g., immobility and regurgitation) relative to those birds given the secondary repellent, methiocarb. By redirecting the site of action of a primary repellent, we have shown the feasibility to optimally combine the potency levels of secondary repellents with the biological and environmental safety attributes of primary repellents, without sacrificing efficacy. Primary repellents may he converted to secondary repellents via gastrointestinal delivery, thus potentially increasing efficacy and economic viability of these chemicals. Formulations that mask the irritating qualities of primary repellents are needed so that the chemical will be freely consumed by the target animal and exert its effect in the gastrointestinal tract.


In this paper, a novel Euclidean position estimation technique using a single uncalibrated camera mounted on a moving platform is developed to asymptotically recover the 3-D Euclidean position of static object features. The position of the moving platform is assumed to be measurable, and a second object with known 3-D Euclidean coordinates relative to the world frame is considered to be available a priori. To account for the unknown camera calibration parameters and to estimate the unknown 3-D Euclidean coordinates, an adaptive least squares estimation strategy is employed based on prediction error formulations and a Lyapunov-type stability analysis. The developed estimator is shown to recover the 3-D Euclidean position of the unknown object features despite the lack of knowledge of the camera calibration parameters. Numerical simulation results along with experimental results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


Abstract The Pn phase for crustal earthquakes refracts through the uppermost mantle to become the first seismic‐wave arrival at distances of ∼200 to ∼1500  km. The amplitude of Pn is particularly sensitive to the mantle lid radial velocity gradient, and the elastic geometric spreading is frequency dependent. Lateral variations in the radial velocity gradient and in the crustal thickness encountered by Pn phases that traverse boundaries of geological provinces further complicate the frequency‐dependent geometric spreading behavior. We use 2D finite‐difference (FD) calculations to explore the effects of smoothly varying lateral structures in the lid and crust on Pn phases in the 0.4–10 Hz frequency range. Pn geometric spreading for 1D structures with mantle lid gradients is calculated first to ensure that the FD calculations correctly capture the expected frequency dependence. Then, 2D models with smooth laterally varying radial lid gradients are computed to explore how the phase samples the structures to give the overall geometric spreading. The direction of propagation through the laterally varying structure affects the frequency dependence and the transition from source‐side to receiver‐side dominance in the spreading. Laterally varying crustal thickness is explored in the context of the North Korean nuclear test site, for which many observations of Pn are made by stations with paths either through continental structure or along paths with variation from continental to oceanic to arc structure (in Japan). Frequency‐dependent amplitude effects are observed on the paths through oceanic structure. 2D FD calculations for structures with a central region of thin oceanic crust reproduce the observed first‐order frequency dependence of Pn along corresponding paths, including rapid amplitude decay for frequencies above 6 Hz. These analyses demonstrate that even though Pn propagation is very complex, modeling approaches can guide interpretations of the behavior when constraints on the structure are available. Electronic Supplement: Figures of Pn ‐wave snapshots, first Pn arrival times, and frequency dependence of the Pn amplitudes.


Although we may try to keep it tucked at the back of our minds, most of us are aware of our own mortality. But few among us know what science, with the help of insights yielded from groundbreaking new research, has to say about death on a larger scale. Enter astronomer Chris Impey, who chronicles the death of the whole shebang: individual, species, biosphere, earth, sun, Milky Way, and, finally, the entire universe. With a healthy dose of humor, How It Ends illuminates everything from the technologies of human life extension and the evolutionary arms race between microbes and men to the inescapable dimming of the sun and the ultimate "big rip," giving us a rare glimpse into a universe without us.


The anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) incorporates anaerobic digestion and membrane filtration in one process to form an innovative technology for treating high-strength industrial wastewater. The first AnMBR installation in North America, also known as the largest AnMBR installation in the world, was built at Ken's Foods in Massachusetts, USA.

Ken's Foods existing anaerobic process was upgraded to AnMBR in July 2008 to treat raw wastewater from the production of salad dressings and barbeque sauces. The system was converted to AnMBR due to lack of space, positive economics, and the ability to provide additional capacity for flow and organic load beyond the original anaerobic system design parameters.

This AnMBR system has a design influent flow rate of 475 m3/d with 39,000 mg/l COD, 18,000 mg/l BOD, and 12,000 mg/l TSS. The AnMBR system consistently produces a high quality effluent with non-detectable TSS concentrations and average COD and BOD concentrations of 210 and 20 mg/l, with removals of 99.4 and 99.9 percent, respectively. The AnMBR system provides superior performance and a very low rate of membrane fouling with the aid of biogas scour across the membrane surface.

The first 20 months of AnMBR operating expenses were reduced by 50 compared to the prior 12-month fiscal period due to increased system capacity, ability to treat wastewater with higher biomass, and elimination of the need to dewater and dispose of dewatered solids.


This book presents contemporary case studies of land use, management practices, and innovation in Africa with a view to exploring how multifunctional land uses can alleviate food insecurity and poverty. Food security and livelihoods in Africa face multiple challenges in the form of feeding a growing population on declining land areas under the impacts of climate change. The overall question is what kind of farming systems can provide resilient livelihoods? This volume presents a selection of existing farming systems that demonstrate how more efficient use of land and natural resources, labour and other inputs can have positive effects on household food security and livelihoods. It examines how aquaculture, integrated water management, peri-urban farming systems, climate-smart agriculture practices and parkland agroforestry contribute multiple benefits. Drawing on case studies from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Burkina Faso, contributed by young African scientists, this book provides a unique perspective on multifunctional land use in Africa and illustrates how non-conventional uses can be profitable while promoting social and environmental sustainability. Tapping into the global discussion on land scarcity and linking food security to existing land use change processes, this volume will stimulate readers looking for diversified land uses that are compatible with both household and national food security ambitions. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of African development, agriculture, food security, land use and environmental management, as well as sustainable development more generally, in addition to policymakers and practitioners working in these areas.


There is a requirement for the characterisation of the metabolism of xenobiotics in zebrafish larvae, due to the application of this organism to toxicity testing and ecotoxicology. Genes similar to mammalian cytochrome P450 (CYP) 1A1, CYP2B6, CYP3A5 and UDP-lucuronosyl-transferase (UGT) 1A1 were demonstrated to be expressed during normal embryonic development, with increased expression post hatching in Wik strain zebrafish larvae (72 hours post fertilisation, hpf). Activities towards ethoxy-resorufin, 7-ethoxy-coumarin and octyloxymethylresorufin, using an in vivo larval assay, were also detected in 96 hpf Wik strain zebrafish larvae, indicative of oxidative and conjugative metabolism. The expression of the identified genes was modulated upon exposure to Aroclor 1254, and the metabolic activities towards ethoxy-resorufin, 7-ethoxy-coumarin and octyloxymethylresorufin were observed to be inducible by exposure to in vitro inhibitors of CYP activities. Wik strain zebrafish larvae (72 hpf) were also demonstrated to metabolise the pharmaceuticals acetaminophen and ibuprofen by oxidative and conjugative processes using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and scintillation counting. Finally, the organic solvents dimethyl-sulfoxide and methanol were observed to reduce the expression of CYP and UGT genes, and the metabolism of ethoxy-resorufin, after 24 hours exposure to \(\leq\)0.1% volume/volume concentrations of the two solvents. It is suggested that these inhibitory effects are in part due to a reduction in the expression of the aryl hydrocarbon receptors, which are known regulators of drug metabolism genes. Overall the expression of genes and enzymatic activities similar to the mammalian drug metabolism genes have been demonstrated in Wik strain zebrafish larvae (96 hpf), and the first examples of the metabolism of pharmaceuticals by zebrafish larvae are also demonstrated. The modulation of the metabolism of xenobiotics by organic solvents suggests that caution must be exercised when interpreting data from toxicity tests when high solvent concentrations are applied to zebrafish larvae. The continued use of zebrafish larvae as a toxicity testing model is strengthened by the findings of this work.


Vapor movement is often an important part in the total water flux in the vadose zone of arid or semiarid regions because the soil moisture is relatively low. The two major objectives of this study were to develop a numerical model in the HYDRUS‐1D code that (i) solves the coupled equations governing liquid water, water vapor, and heat transport, together with the surface water and energy balance, and (ii) provides flexibility in accommodating various types of meteorological information to solve the surface energy balance. The code considers the movement of liquid water and water vapor in the subsurface to be driven by both pressure head and temperature gradients. The heat transport module considers movement of soil heat by conduction, convection of sensible heat by liquid water flow, transfer of latent heat by diffusion of water vapor, and transfer of sensible heat by diffusion of water vapor. The modifications allow a very flexible way of using various types of meteorological information at the soil–atmosphere interface for evaluating the surface water and energy balance. The coupled model was evaluated using field soil temperature and water content data collected at a field site. We demonstrate the use of standard daily meteorological variables in generating diurnal changes in these variables and their subsequent use for calculating continuous changes in water contents and temperatures in the soil profile. Simulated temperatures and water contents were in good agreement with measured values. Analyses of the distributions of the liquid and vapor fluxes vs. depth showed that soil water dynamics are strongly associated with the soil temperature regime.


Empirical studies have consistently documented that while married men tend to lead more prosperous careers after moving than before, migration tends to be disruptive for the careers of married women. However, there has been little exploration of the interaction of non-economic outcomes of migration by gender and relationship-status. We explore whether migration is followed by a change in subjective wellbeing (SWB), and how this experience differs by individuals of different gender and relationship-status. These results are compared to wage differences following migration. We further analyse how outcomes differ according to the motivation for moving, including motivations for moving of both partners in a couple relationship. Our empirical estimates use longitudinal data on internal migrants in the Australian HILDA dataset. We show that females have a stronger tendency than males to reach higher levels of SWB after moving, while males have a stronger tendency than females to increase their earnings. These gender differences are mostly not significant for single individuals, but become quite pronounced for couples. Differences tend to narrow, but do not disappear, once we account for motivations for moving of individuals and, where relevant, of their partner. In particular, those who move for work-related reasons experience higher wage incomes after moving, regardless of gender or relationship-status.


Abstract Ramirez-Campillo, R, Gentil, P, Moran, J, Dalbo, VJ, and Scanlan, AT. Dribble Deficit enables measurement of dribbling speed independent of sprinting speed in collegiate, male, basketball players. J Strength Cond Res 35(7): 2040–2045, 2021—The aim of this study was to determine the relationships between sprinting and dribbling speed in basketball during linear and change-of-direction (COD) sprints using total dribbling time and Dribble Deficit. Collegiate, male, basketball players (n = 10; 21.0 ± 1.6 years) performed linear and COD sprints with and without dribbling a ball. Linear dribbling sprints were measured for the dominant and nondominant hands, whereas COD dribbling sprints involved bilateral use of hands. Dribble Deficit was determined as the difference between total time (second) during each dribbling trial and the equivalent nondribbling trial for linear and COD sprints. Simple linear regression analyses were performed during linear and COD sprints to determine the relationship (R) and shared variance (R2) between (a) sprinting times and total dribbling times and (b) sprinting times and Dribble Deficit. Large to very large, significant relationships were evident between linear sprinting and dribbling time for dominant (R = 0.86; R2 = 0.74, p = 0.001) and nondominant hands (R = 0.80; R2 = 0.65, p = 0.005). Trivial relationships were apparent between linear sprinting time and Dribble Deficit with dominant (R = 0.10; R2 = 0.01, p = 0.778) and nondominant hands (R = 0.03; R2 = 0.00, p = 0.940). A very large relationship was evident between COD sprinting and dribbling time (R = 0.91; R2 = 0.82, p < 0.001), whereas a trivial relationship was observed between COD sprinting time and COD Dribble Deficit (R = −0.23; R2 = 0.05, p = 0.530). Dribble Deficit eliminates the strong influence of sprinting speed on outcome measures typically seen when using tests predicated on total dribbling time. Consequently, Dribble Deficit may be of added use in basketball test batteries to measure dribbling speed across linear and multidirectional movement paths.


ABSTRACT Rhodotorula kratochvilovae strain LS11 is a biocontrol agent (BCA) selected for its antagonistic activity against several plant pathogens both in the field and postharvest. Genome assembly includes 62 contigs for a total of 22.56 Mbp and a G+C content of 66.6%. Genome annotation predicts 7,642 protein-encoding genes.


This paper challenges the traditional "modernist" view that incentive-centered patent protection is essential to meet the constitutional mandate of providing exclusive rights for limited times to inventors in order to "promote progress of the useful Arts." For a modernist society, industrial/economic growth is one of the key dimensions for measuring forward-moving progress. As modernists, we advocate that a robust exclusive rights scheme for inventors is necessary to incentivize research and development, which in turn stimulates economic growth and promotes progress. This is currently the "grand narrative" of patent law. Applying this narrative, Congress, the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), and the courts have elevated the goal of incentivizing research as synonymous with promoting progress. As a result, what constitutes Section 101 patent-eligible subject matter has expanded over time to include "anything under the sun made by man." The novelty, non-obvious and enablement/written description requirements are deemed adequate proxies for determining what is patentable and what remains in the public domain, without the need for specifically evaluating subject matter eligibility. The flaw in the modernist patent narrative however, is that by focusing the measure of societal progress on technological advancement and economic growth, we fail to adequately balance other equally important measures of progress such as improving public health, sustainability and access to basic research tools. A radicalized modern view of patent law allows us to challenge the incentive-centered narrative of promoting progress and consider this narrative's impact on future discoveries, humanism, morality and the environment. The Supreme Court recently took a step in this direction by restoring a balanced view of subject-matter eligibility and questioning whether Congress needs to explore other paradigms for protecting certain patent-ineligible subject matter.


The growth of pollution that crosses national borders represents a significant threat to human health and ecological sustainability. Various international agreements exist between countries to reduce risks to their populations, however there is often a mismatch between national territories of state responsibility and transboundary hazards. All too often, state priorities do not correspond to the priorities of the people affected by pollution, who often have little recourse against major polluters, particularly transnational corporations operating across national boundaries. Drawing on case studies, The New Accountability provides a fresh understanding of democratic accountability for transboundary and global harm and argues that environmental responsibility should be established in open public discussions about harm and risk. Most critically it makes the case that, regardless of nationality, affected parties should be able to demand that polluters and harm producers be held accountable for their actions and if necessary provide reparations.


Holocene climate proxies suggest substantial correlations between tropical meteorology and solar variations, but these have thus far not been explained. Using a coupled ocean‐atmosphere‐composition model forced by sustained multi‐decadal irradiance increases, we show that greater tropical temperatures alter the hydrologic cycle, enhancing the climatological precipitation maxima in the tropics while drying the subtropical subsidence regions. The shift is enhanced by tropopause region ozone increases, and the model captures the pattern inferred from paleoclimate records. The physical process we describe likely affected past civilizations, including the Maya, Moche, and Ancestral Puebloans who experienced drought coincident with increased irradiance during the late medieval (∼900–1250). Similarly, decreased irradiance may have affected cultures via a weakened monsoon during the Little Ice Age (∼1400–1750). Projections of 21st‐century climate change yield hydrologic cycle changes via similar processes, suggesting a strong likelihood of increased subtropical drought as climate warms.


The notions of Critical Thinking (CT) and Lifelong Learning (LL) are mutually inseparable as both are required in every domain of one's educational and professional life in order to survive and flourish in today's world of increased literacy and competition. CT is an important functional skill, needed for students to analyze concepts and ideas to get a clear understanding of them. Review of a host of definitions of CT, included in this paper, suggests that it basically involves a plethora of thinking abilities for the purposes of evaluating one's own thinking process that results in a meaningful learning experience. However, unlike ordinary thinking, which is an inborn human ability, CT needs to be inculcated through implicit and/or explicit instruction. Many researchers (e.g. Benesch, 1993; Atkinson, 1997; Oster, 1989; Brookfield, 1987; Shor & Freire, 1987; Fox, 1994; etc.) explain CT as a means to transform learning and society and they believe that social practice is one of the indispensable components of CT. In view of this, we need to orient our ESL / EFL students towards CT, along with the teaching of language skills, through interactive instructional practices. Considering the role(s) CT can play in developing information-based societies and the pedagogical gains that can be made through the use of visuals in teaching language skills and CT, this paper aims to discuss and demonstrate how certain schematic pictorial presentations can be exploited as stimuli to orient ESL / EFL learners towards CT. The significance of this paper also lies in encouraging researches which explicitly link CT with pictorial presentations of cartoons and caricatures.


Abstract. Quantifying urban expansion forms is important to understanding regional urbanization processes and urban planning. For this purpose, conventional landscape indices are commonly used for quantitative analysis of urban landscape patterns. However, these landscape indices only reflect information for one particular temporal phase of landscape patterns. This paper studies and quantifies the dynamic changes of urban landscape from 1993 to 2006 in Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan metropolitan areas in Hunan province of China using landscape expansion index (LEI), which contains information of the formation processes of landscape patterns. The results indicate that there are three types of urban expansions: infilling, edge-expansion and outlying in the study area. The change of proportion of the three urban expansion types reveals that urban expansion patterns have changed from a messy, dispersed early development phase to more compact and reasonable layout from 1993 to 2006. Moreover, the urban expansion modes varied in different periods. From 1993 to 1996, the edge-expansion and outlying were the main types of urban expansion forms, indicating an early stage of rapid urban developments. Comparing with the edge-expansion, the outlying expansion increased rapidly in this period, which indicates urban development is messy and dispersion. Overall, the edge-expansion was the major type of urban expansion form during the study period with outlying as the second and rapidly-increasing major form of expansion prior to 1998, which indicates urbanization is in the early stage of rapid urban developments, and infilling as the second and rapidly-increasing major form of expansion after 1998.


Subspace methods have been successfully applied to face recognition tasks. In this study we propose a face recognition algorithm based on a linear subspace projection. The subspace is found via utilizing a variant of the neighbourhood component analysis (NCA) algorithm which is a supervised dimensionality reduction method that has been recently introduced. Unlike previously suggested supervised subspace methods, the algorithm explicitly utilizes the classification performance criterion to obtain the optimal linear projection. In addition to its feature extraction capabilities, the algorithm also finds the optimal distance-metric that should be used for face-image retrieval in the transformed space. The proposed face-recognition technique significantly outperforms traditional subspace-based approaches particulary in very low-dimensional representations. The method performance is demonstrated across a range of standard face databases.


Every field of the decorative arts in colonial and early America is infused with Scottish culture - from furniture, textiles and weaponry to silver, jewellery, glass and ceramics. Making for America is a fascinating study of the transatlantic relationship between Scottish craftsmanship and the emigrant workers of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries who embraced a new life in America.
About the conference: In October 2009 scholars from both sides of the Atlantic gathered in the Winterthur Museum in Delaware to discuss themes of commerce, craftsmanship and immigration in an age of colonial expansion - from Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock to Charleston, Connecticut and Philadelphia. They examined the variety of goods made, desired and needed in the new world. Many of those goods are described and illustrated here for the first time, leading to a greater understanding of the material culture of Scotland and America in the early modern world.


Sodium stibogluconate has been associated with the reactivation of varicella zoster virus (VZV) in otherwise healthy adults who receive the drug as treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis. Ten patients receiving daily sodium stibogluconate underwent phlebotomy at baseline and at day 10. Flow cytometry-based immunophenotyping, VZV-specific IgG levels, and lymphocyte proliferative responses and intracellular cytokine secretion to VZV, cytomegalovirus, tetanus toxoid, superantigen, and mitogens were performed at both time points. The absolute number of total leukocytes, total lymphocytes, and lymphocyte subsets decreased overall without predilection for any particular subset of lymphocytes, such that the percentage of the total lymphocyte population for each lymphocyte subset did not change significantly (except for a marginal increase in percentage of cytotoxic T cells). Antibodies to VZV were measured in seven patients before and after treatment, and did not change. Lymphocyte proliferative responses to VZV and other antigens and mitogens did not change from baseline. The mechanism for the increased rate of VZV reactivation after treatment with sodium stibogluconate remains undefined.


Acoustic events produced in meeting environments may contain useful information for perceptually aware interfaces and multimodal behavior analysis. In this paper, a system to detect and recognize these events from a multimodal perspective is presented combining information from multiple cameras and microphones. First, spectral and temporal features are extracted from a single audio channel and spatial localization is achieved by exploiting cross-correlation among microphone arrays. Second, several video cues obtained from multiperson tracking, motion analysis, face recognition, and object detection provide the visual counterpart of the acoustic events to be detected. A multimodal data fusion at score level is carried out using two approaches: weighted mean average and fuzzy integral. Finally, a multimodal database containing a rich variety of acoustic events has been recorded including manual annotations of the data. A set of metrics allow assessing the performance of the presented algorithms. This dataset is made publicly available for research purposes.


Hypoxia results in adaptive changes in the transcription of a range of genes including erythropoietin. An important mediator is hypoxia-inducible factor-1 (HIF-1), a DNA binding complex shown to contain at least two basic helix-loop-helix PAS-domain (bHLH-PAS) proteins, HIF-1alpha and aryl hydrocarbon nuclear receptor translocator (ARNT). In response to hypoxia, HIF-1alpha is activated and accumulates rapidly in the cell. Endothelial PAS domain protein 1 (EPAS-1) is a recently identified bHLH-PAS protein with 48% identity to HIF-1alpha, raising the question of its role in responses to hypoxia. We developed specific antibodies and studied expression and regulation of EPAS-1 mRNA and protein across a range of human cell lines. EPAS-1 was widely expressed, and strongly induced by hypoxia at the level of protein but not mRNA. Comparison of the effect of a range of activating and inhibitory stimuli showed striking similarities in the EPAS-1 and HIF-1alpha responses. Although major differences were observed in the abundance of EPAS-1 and HIF-1alpha in different cell types, differences in the inducible response were subtle with EPAS-1 protein being slightly more evident in normoxic and mildly hypoxic cells. Functional studies in a mutant cell line (Ka13) expressing neither HIF-1alpha nor EPAS-1 confirmed that both proteins interact with hypoxically responsive targets, but suggest target specificity with greater EPAS-1 transactivation (relative to HIF-1alpha transactivation) of the VEGF promoter than the LDH-A promoter.


The implementation of a local correlation (LC) treatment of multireference (MR) configuration interaction approaches within the COLUMBUS program system is reported. The LC treatment is based on the weak pairs approximation of Sæbø and Pulay (Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 1993, 44, 213) and a geometrical analysis of Walter et al. (Chem. Phys. Lett. 2001, 346, 177). The removal of simultaneous single excitations out of the weak pairs is based on the reference doubly occupied space only, leading to a straightforward program implementation and a conceptual simplicity in terms of well-defined localized orbitals. Reductions of up to an order of magnitude in the configuration space expansion and in computer time for the Davidson diagonalization step are found. The selection of the active and the virtual orbital spaces is not affected by this procedure. This treatment is successfully applied to the singlet biradical heptazethrene and its different acceptor-donor substituents: 4,12-dicyanoheptazethrene, 4,12-diaminoheptazethrene, and 4-amino-12-cyanoheptazethrene. Simultaneous insertion of pairs of donor and acceptor groups increases the biradical character; for push-pull substitution, this effect is significantly smaller. In addition, results obtained from spin-corrected unrestricted density functional theory calculations are supported by our MR calculations.


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The use of online-communication applications including messengers (e.g. WhatsApp) or social networking services (e.g. Facebook) on the smartphone has turned into daily practice for billions of people, for example during waiting times. An increasing number of individuals show diminished control over their usage of these applications despite negative consequences in everyday life. This can be referred to as Internet-communication disorder (ICD). The current study investigated the effect of boredom proneness on symptoms of an ICD. It further examined the mediating role of cognitive and affective mechanisms, namely expectancies to avoid negative feelings online and cue-induced craving. The results of a structural equation model (N = 148) illustrate that boredom proneness is a risk factor for the development and maintenance of an ICD as it had a significant direct effect on ICD symptoms. Furthermore, boredom proneness predicted avoidance expectancies as well as cue-induced craving. Both in turn enhanced the risk of developing ICD tendencies. Moreover, both variables mediated the effect of boredom proneness on ICD and interacted among each other. In summary, the results demonstrate that people who have a higher susceptibility to experience boredom show higher expectancies to avoid negative emotions online, which promotes higher craving reactions when being confronted with specific cues (e.g. an incoming message), and could result in ICD tendencies.


Non-mammalian vertebrates such as teleosts have the ability to regenerate brain parts after injury. Previously, we identified significant up-regulation of metallothionein (MT) in the zebrafish brain after brain injury. MT is a relatively small molecular weight peptide rich in cysteine (Cys), and is thought to maintain essential metal homeostasis, heavy metal detoxification and provides protection against oxidative stress. Studies in mammalian models have demonstrated changes of MT expression in several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Hence, this study was designed to investigate the distribution of MT and its possible neuroprotective effect in mechanical and neurotoxin-induced brain injury in the adult zebrafish. The thesis has three experimental chapters with three main objectives as described in below. In objective 1, we localized two MT homologous genes (mt2 and smtb) and their receptor gene (lrp2a) in the brain of zebrafish to investigate their functions by in situ hybridization (ISH). ISH showed mt2, smtb and lrp2a are expressed in different parts of the brain, especially near to the ventricular surface of the brain, most of which are cell proliferating regions. Double-labelling staining further confirmed that mt2-, smtb- and lrp2a-mRNA are expressed in neurons and not in astrocytes, and some cells are co-localized with a cell proliferating marker protein. These results suggest possible role of MTs in neurogenesis, or protection of new born cells in the brain of zebrafish. In objective 2, we assessed the expression of mt2, smtb and lrp2a, and the effect of exogenous MT (human MT2 peptide, hMT2) in the zebrafish following mechanical brain injury to the telencephalon. Upon brain injury, mt2 and smtb expression were up-regulated and remained high until 4 day post-injury (dpi), however, lrp2a expression were down-regulated. ISH revealed increased number of mt2 and smtb mRNA expressing cells in the injured telencephalon at 4-dpi. Exogenous administration of hMT2 up-regulated mt2 expression and increased the number of proliferating cells but reduced apoptotic cells. This effect was blocked by administration of antibody against hMT2. These results demonstrated neuroprotective effect of MT following mechanical brain injury in the zebrafish. In objective 3, we examined the role of MT in a neurotoxin-induced brain injury. Fish were treated with 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) to induce degeneration and death of the dopaminergic cell. MPTP administration reduced the total numbers of dopaminergic neurons and the locomotor activity as seen in Parkinson's disease. Intracranial MPTP administration up-regulated mt2, smtb, lrp2a and dopamine related genes (th1 and th2) expression at day 14 post-injection, which were attenuated by hMT2 treatment. Furthermore, hMT2 treatment induced reduction of dopaminergic neuronal loss and recovery of locomotor activity, suggesting the protective effect of MT against MPTP-induced brain injury. In conclusion, I have presented the possible role of zebrafish MTs in neuronal proliferation in the brain. The up-regulation of mt2 and smtb genes following mechanical and neurotoxin-induced brain injury suggest neuroprotective roles of MTs. Furthermore, administration of exogenous MT successfully promoted recovery of brain injury. Our findings suggest that MT plays an important role in strong neuroregenerative capability of non-mammalian vertebrate brain, which provides a novel insight into the MT as a novel therapeutic target for human brain injury.


By the end of the First World War the Ottoman Empire had been defeated and was in a state of disintegration. The Mudros Armistice which ended the war between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies in October 1918 was the final stage of this process; the Treaty of Sevres which followed the Armistice confirmed it. However, the National Independence Movement which emerged in Anatolia from the ruins of the Empire rejected the proposed peace terms and set itself up as an alternative government based at Ankara. It drew up the National Pact which set out the desiderata of the Nationalists, and it won a decisive victory over the Greeks who landed in Anatolia in 1919. This military victory made a peace conference imperative and enabled the Turks to negotiate peace terms with the Allies on an equal footing. The peace treaty which was signed at Lausanne on July 24, 1923 finalised the Turkish Peace Settlement, putting an end to the centuries-old Eastern Question. The object of this dissertation is to examine the motives and strategies of Britain and Turkey at the Lausanne Conference in their efforts to obtain the peace terms best suited to their interests. The focus throughout is on the factors influencing the attitude of the delegations, the instructions they received from their respective foreign ministries and the formulation of their strategies. The thesis consists of six chapters. The introductory chapter presents a brief account of events prior to the Conference. Chapter II deals with the historical background by giving a summary of the political and military events leading up to the Conference. Chapter III gives an account of the strategies of Britain and Turkey and aims to assess the respective strength and weakness of the two parties prior to the Conference. Chapter IV examines the negotiations between Britain and Turkey during the first phase of the Conference. The central axis of this examination is the Turco- British strategy which shows the critical shift in the policy of the Turks following their realisation that peace could not be made unless they came to terms with Britain. Chapter V investigates the events following the breakdown of the Conference to the re-opening with the second phase. It covers the measures taken by both sides to be in a stronger position vis-a-vis each other in preparation for the second phase of the negotiations. Chapter VI discusses the negotiations and the final settlement, concentrating mainly on the strategies of both sides in the second phase of the Conference.


IMPORTANCE
Despite the growing literature on the association of functional, physical, and quality-of-life (QOL) deficits with poor postoperative outcomes, there is a gap in the literature identifying women's occupational performance needs after ovarian cancer surgery.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the experiences of women hospitalized after ovarian cancer surgery to identify potential areas for intervention. Goals were to (1) identify functional needs and limitations at time of discharge as measured by the typical acute care occupational therapy evaluation and semistructured interview and (2) understand the women's perspectives of their needs for occupational therapy and a safe return to home.

DESIGN
Single-arm, cross-sectional descriptive study. Mixed-methods data collection and analysis.

SETTING
Academic cancer center.

PARTICIPANTS
Women with ovarian cancer (N = 11) who had completed surgery.

INTERVENTION
Semistructured interviews and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) completed postsurgery.

OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
PROMs included the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Distress Thermometer and Problem List, the PROMIS® Global Physical Health (GPH) and Global Mental Health (GMH) scales, and the Possibilities for Activity Scale-Women (PActS-W).

RESULTS
The mean NCCN Distress score was 6.0 (standard deviation [SD] = 3.1, with the top three concerns being pain (80%), worry (80%), and fatigue (78%). Mean GPH and GMH T scores were 38.0 (SD = 8.8) and 48.2 (SD = 8.4), respectively. Women scored a mean of 39.2 (SD = 11.2, range = 26-58) on the PActS-W. Thematic analyses found that the women were uncertain about potential functional limitations and significantly distressed.

CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE
Women with ovarian cancer experienced high levels of uncertainty and distress after surgery. Integrating in-home or community-based occupational therapy into routine care could decrease functional distress and uncertainty and help women manage concerns related to pain, worry, and fatigue.

WHAT THIS ARTICLE ADDS
This study suggests that occupational therapy evaluation and intervention are needed to decrease distress and improve QOL of women upon discharge after ovarian cancer surgery.


In this note, we discuss technology use for professional dementia care in China. Caregiving for people with dementia is particularly stressful, and research has shown that technology could alleviate some of the stresses by facilitating the communication and information management around people with dementia. There are several problem points in the communication channels between the main stakeholders – seniors with dementia, professional caregivers, family members and the medical administration. We argue that research on this topic is particularly timely in developing countries like China because they face an aging general population and limited availability of caregivers and technologies. We present preliminary findings from a study on care facilities in Beijing.


The goal of the project was to realize an infrastructure of a car in 20-SIM using (screw) bond graphs. Bond graph description is an energy based means of modeling physical systems. This model can be used for investigation of the X-bywire concept and independent wheel steering. Enquiry into the basic features of a car provided for the necessary insight in the course of development of the car. Rigid bodies have been used to describe the most signicant masses of the car. These are interconnected as so-called kinematic pairs. Within these kinematic pair connections, constraints are used to restrict the separate elements of the car to specic motions only.
Setting the steering angle has been realized with the use of the Ackermann algorithm, which distinguishes between the track (and thus also the radius of curving) of the two front wheels. For more realistic steering behavior, the steering axes of both front wheels have been canted slightly, according to the Kingpin and Caster angles in genuine cars. The resulting model is a realistic reaction
of a car is obtained.
With the use of Gauss-maps on the surfaces of the tire and the ground, a contact determining algorithm has been developed. The velocity of the contact point of the wheel relative to the contact point of the surface is fed to a buffer returning an oppositely oriented force. Thus a forward propulsion is accomplished. Monitoring the force in the contact point and switching to coulomb friction behavior in case the force exceeds a set threshold value, enables the modeling of slip behavior. The slip in the horizontal plain has been coupled. Slip in one direction results in a loss of grip in the perpendicular direction as well.
It can be concluded that with the use of 20-SIM a physically correct, energy based model of a car has been realized. All basic functionality of a car is comprised. The model has been parameterized for easy customizing to specific desires. It is recommended that the (rear or front wheel) torque-based, PID controlled drive is replaced by a velocity driven system. A rear wheel version of the Ackermann algorithm has then to be implemented as well. Thus removing the correctional in uence of the PID controller might seriously diminish simulation time. Moreover an investigation to minimizing the number of rigid bodies or kinematic connections in the model can prove to be worthwhile. This could also significantly reduce the simulation time of the model. Furthermore the center of mass of the car needs some looking into. It is currently situated in the middle of the car body. In real cars the engine and car framework are most weighty and they are predominantly in the lower part of the car body. Hence the center of mass should be shifted downwards and to the front of the car.


The purpose of this research is to describe the historical context and systemic structure of the Western agrarian estate model to locate opportunities for strategic solutions to environmental degradation in a way that balances cultivated and conserved natural resources. In part 1, landholders are identified as a point of leverage in the agrarian system. Part 2 goes over the historical development of the Western estate and state traditions, which support landholders by having instituted land administration and information systems to enfranchise their activity. The systemic theory that underlies the Western model is outlined in part 3, describing how social and ecological arrangements are within a biophysical context. Part 4 discusses how information about interactive social and biophysical contexts can be applied to support environmental management as a cultural activity. Such an understanding focuses attention to natural resources and community as a singular system. To illustrate, part 5 is a case study that profiles a unique company, Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust, whose activities and way of thinking are reflective of the need suggested by the research: their activities enfranchise land managers in a way that balances the needs of natural resource ecosystems, specifically soil, and the needs of the communities who rely on the productivity of those resources, specifically agricultural produce. As a whole, the thesis engages in a pragmatic inquiry to describe the fundamental and reciprocal interconnectedness of human society, culture, and the natural environment in an effort to show the foundational importance of considering these as a complete system, an understanding which can guide refinement and evolution of economic and livelihood managerial practices in an effective, respectful, and generative way.


Interwar British retailing has been characterized as having lower productivity, less developed managerial hierarchies and methods, and weaker scale economies than its US counterpart. This article examines comparative productivity for one major segment of large-scale retailing in both countries—the department store sector. Drawing on exceptionally detailed contemporary survey data, we show that British department stores in fact achieved superior performance in terms of operating costs, margins, profits, and stock-turn. While smaller British stores had lower labour productivity than US stores of equivalent size, TFP was generally higher for British stores, which also enjoyed stronger scale economies. We also examine the reasons behind Britain's surprisingly strong relative performance, using surviving original returns from the British surveys. Contrary to arguments that British retailers faced major barriers to the development of large-scale enterprises, that could reap economies of scale and scope and invest in machinery and marketing to support the growth of their primary sales functions, we find that British department stores enthusiastically embraced the retail 'managerial revolution'—and reaped substantial benefits from this investment.


Colleges today see extra-curricular activities as ways to improve student retention and enhance the collegiate experience. This study examines student involvement, including participation in college activities, using campus facilities, communication patterns and campus friendships. Key predictors of involvement are identified from demographics, individual constraints and student values. Involvement is positively related to academic values and negatively correlated with personal constraints. Campus communication patterns and using university facilities are key predictors of institutional assessments and attitude in multiple regressions conducted.


Species distribution models (SDMs) have been widely applied to predict geographic ranges of species across space and time under the assumption of niche conservatism (i.e., species niches change very slowly). However, an increasing number of studies have reported evidence of rapid niche changes across space and time, which has sparked a widespread debate on whether SDMs can be transferred to new areas or time periods. Understanding how niche changes affect SDM transferability is thus crucial for the future application and improvement of SDMs. Biological invasions provide an opportunity to address this question due to the geographically independent distributions and diverse patterns of niche changes between species' native and introduced ranges. Here, we synthesized findings about 217 species from 50 studies to elucidate the effects of niche change on the spatial transferability of SDMs. When niche change was considered as a categorical classification (conserved vs. shifted niches) in tests of the niche conservatism hypothesis, SDM transferability was markedly lower for species with a shifted niche in their introduced range. When niche change was measured as numerical dynamics between native and introduced niches, SDM transferability was high for species occupying similar environmental conditions in both ranges and low for species with more environmental space remaining unoccupied in the introduced range. Surprisingly, the number of presence points used for developing SDMs turned out to have an even stronger effect on transferability. Our results thus reveal detrimental effects of both niche change and lack of presence points on SDM transferability. It is necessary to consider both niche change and data quality for improving the transferability of SDMs, so that they can better support conservation management and policy decisions.


To Virginia Woolf, London was a source of creative inspiration, a setting for many of her works, and a symbol of the culture in which she lived and wrote. In a 1928 diary entry, she observed, "London itself perpetually attracts, stimulates, gives me a play & a story & a poem, without any trouble, save that of moving my legs through the streets." The city fascinated Woolf, yet her relationship with it was problematic. In her attempts to resolve her developmental struggles as a woman write in a patriarchal society, Woolf shaped and reshaped the image and meaning of London. Using psychoanalytic, feminist, and social theories, Susan Squier explores the transformed meaning of the city in Woolf's essays, memoirs, and novels as it functions in the creation of a mature feminist vision. Squier shows that Woolf's earlier works depict London as a competitive patriarchal environment that excluded her, but her mature works portray the city as beginning to accept the force of female energy. Squier argues that this transformation was made possible by Woolf's creative ability to appropriate and revise the masculine literary and cultural forms of her society. The act of writing, or "scene making," allowed Woolf to break from her familial and cultural heritage and recreate London in her own literary voice and vision. Virginia Woolf and London is based on analyses of Woolf's memoirs, her little-known early and mature London essays, Night and Day, Mrs. Dalloway, Flush, and The Years. By focusing on Woolf's changing attitudes about the city, Squier is able to define Woolf's evolving belief that women could "reframe" the city-scape and use it to imagine and create a more egalitarian world. Squier's study offers significant new insights into the interplay between self and society as it shapes the work of a woman writer. A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.


Whether self-concept predicts college freshman academic adjustment was investigated measuring self-perception of 12 self-concept domains and 5 social support domains. Self-perception of intellectual ability and Instructors' support were positive predictors. Self-perception of creativity and the importance to men of close friendships were negative predictors. Implications for at-risk students were discussed. ********** Successful adjustment to college during the first year is an area of increasing concern for most institutions of higher education (McGrath & Braunstein, 1997, Tinto, 1993). Studies show that more students leave their college or university without completing a degree program than will stay to graduate. According to the American College Testing Program (ACT) data files, institutional attrition across the nation has remained relatively stable since 1983. This and other reports indicate that, of the nearly 2.8 million students who enter higher education for the first time, over 1.6 million leave their first institution prior to graduation. Of these "leavers", approximately 1.2 million will leave higher education without ever earning their degree. In general, only 44% of 4-year higher education institution students complete their degree program (Tinto, 1993; Youn, 1992). Since 75% of students who drop out of college do so within the first two years and the greatest proportion of these drop out after the first year (Tinto, 1993), it is critically important to understand the complex forces that influence successful academic adjustment during the first year. Most research investigations on retention attempt to identify the individual factors that predict academic adjustment. Baker and Siryk (1984) define academic adjustment as having a positive attitude toward setting academic goals, completing academic requirements, the effectiveness of their efforts to meet these requirements, and their academic environment. Theories of retention and academic success (Ratcliff, 1991; Tinto, 1993) propose two types of factors relating to whether or not a student remains in college: (1) individual factors or dispositions students have upon entering the institution, and (2) interactional factors that relate to experiences the students have after entering the institution. One important individual disposition is the student's intentions for going to college, including the extent to which the student has set educational and occupational goals and made some career decisions. A number of studies support the influence of these individual characteristics on academic persistence. Student attitudes about going to college, values, sense of purpose and sense of independence have a direct influence on academic achievement (Ratcliff, 1991). A review of studies by Tinto (1993) indicates that the higher the level of educational or occupational goals, the greater the probability the student will complete college. A student may be initially undecided about career and/or major and still pursue a college education (Lewallen, 1993). Another important disposition is the student's commitment to meet individual goals and the willingness to comply with the academic and social demands of the institution. Recent surveys report a number of recent trends that suggest freshmen are experiencing increasingly more stress. Between 1987 and 1997, the percent of freshmen who reported being overwhelmed by "everything I have to do" increased steadily from 16.4% to 29.4%, and the percent who sought personal counseling after entering college increased from 34.7% to 41.11% (Austin, Parrott, Korn, & Sax, 1997). Studies have shown that students overcame these feelings of pressure and persisted in their education if they made a commitment to their educational goals and committed to the belief that attending their institution was the right decision (Sanders & Burton, 1996; Ratcliff, 1991). …


Multicopy routing strategies have been considered the most applicable approaches to achieve message delivery in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs). Epidemic routing and two-hop forwarding routing are two well-reported approaches for delay tolerant networks routing which allow multiple message replicas to be launched in order to increase message delivery ratio and/or reduce message delivery delay. This advantage, nonetheless, is at the expense of additional buffer space and bandwidth overhead. Thus, to achieve efficient utilization of network resources, it is important to come up with an effective message scheduling strategy to determine which messages should be forwarded and which should be dropped in case of buffer is full. This paper investigates a new message scheduling framework for epidemic and two-hop forwarding routing in DTNs, such that the forwarding/dropping decision can be made at a node during each contact for either optimal message delivery ratio or message delivery delay. Extensive simulation results show that the proposed message scheduling framework can achieve better performance than its counterparts.


Agriculture, one of the main economic pillars in Europe, plays a growing important role towards the environmental sustainability of the extra-urban land, in which the agricultural activities may proactively contribute to control and regulate the whole ecological conditions. Modern agriculture currently needs big quantities of agrochemicals, which are necessary for the growth and protection of crops and animals. These agrochemicals are commercially distributed to consumers in many types of containers. The most widely used packaging solutions usually employ plastic materials (e.g., containers for liquid pesticide; sacks for granular fertiliser; etc.). These materials, after the use of the agrochemical, need to be decontaminated, before being entrained in a recycling process, in the framework of a circular economy. In the present paper the main results coming from a EU-funded international project are reported, with specific reference to a pilot station that was realised in Italy with the aim to implement and test a codified system for the decontamination of these plastic containers for agrochemicals. The experimental tests were supported by relevant laboratory analysis, which have confirmed that the triple-rinsing decontamination procedure - traditionally employed by farmers for washing and decontaminating these containers - may be effective only under some well-defined conditions. Triple rinsing by farmers has indeed led to an only partial decontamination of the plastic containers, if farmers did not follow an appropriate triple-rinsing protocol, or did not triple-rinse the containers immediately after their emptying.


Working at the nexus of medical anthropology and the anthropology of childhood, this article challenges three assumptions oft en embedded in child health policy: (1) children are the passive recipients of healthcare; (2) children's knowledge of illness and their body can be assumed based on adult understandings; and (3) children's healthcare can be isolated from their social relations. I explore these themes through the case study of a 2011 New Zealand government initiative to reduce the rates of rheumatic fever aff ecting low-income Māori and Pasifi ka children. Drawing on fi eldwork with around 80 children at an Auckland primary school, I show how the 'sore throat' programme does not merely treat streptococcus A infections, but plays an active role in constituting children's experiences and understandings of their bodies and illness, and in shaping healthcare practices in ways unintended by policy-makers.


Justice is as much an issue for the EU as it is for any state or social institution. According to John Rawls: 'Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is to thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust.' While I do not argue for the application of Rawls' actual theory of justice to EU law, I do argue that justice, or perhaps rather injustice, raises especially salient issues for the contemporary EU. In some recent actions dealing with particularly pressing issues, the EU has not added value but caused injustice. This chapter will give some particular examples. Unfortunately, however, the resolution of these injustices is not readily apparent. In particular it may be that some of these states of affairs are specifically attributable to the sui generis nature of the EU - to its complex actuality as neither purely sovereign state, creature of international law, nor federal or confederal body. The inchoate status of the EU presents singular challenges for justice.The earlier sections of this chapter are mainly descriptive in nature, and set out some examples of injustices caused by EU actions. Later in the chapter, however, I consider the concept of justice in greater detail. In that context, I argue that some limited solution to the problem of justice may be found in the specific relation of justice to law, in a concept I name Critical Legal Justice.However, I also argue that justice should not be conceived only as legal justice. In the concluding parts of the chapter I argue that, while, on broader reflection the concept of justice may appear to be so elusive as to be an ideal or utopian, that it is the diagnosis of injustice that is itself crucial. Indeed, justice is more likely to move people in its absence, in its antithesis of injustice, rather than as an academic, abstract exercise that ultimately fails to convince. I analyse the notion of injustice in some detail, drawing on philosophical literature, more specifically the works of Adam Smith, David Hume and Amartya Sen, arguing that it is injustice that motivates and propels action, and the highlighting of injustice does its own work. Such an approach is of relevance to the EU and its present predicaments.


Women Beware Women Presented by the Red Bull Theater at Theatre at St. Clement's, December 9, 2008--January 18, 2009. Directed by Jesse Berger. Set design David Barber. Masks & Headgear Emily DeCola. Hair & Makeup Erin Kennedy Lunsford. Props Sean McArdle. Sound Jessica Paz. Costumes Clint Ramos. Aerial Effects Patti Rubin. Lighting Peter West. Casting Stuart Howard. Music Scott Killian. Choreography Tracy Bersley. Stage Violence Rick Sordelet. With Jeff Biehl (Sordido), Geraint Wyn Davies (Duke), Al Espinosa (Hippolito), Jacob Fishel (Leantio), Jonathan Fried (Cardinal), Jennifer Ikeda (Bianca), Roberta Maxwell (Mother), Kathryn Meisle (Livia), Alex Morf (Ward), Everett Quinton (Fabrito), Liv Rooth (Isabella), John Douglas Thompson (Guardiano), and others. The Winter's Tale Presented by The Bridge Project at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Februrary 10-March 8, 2009. Directed by Sam Mendes. Set design AnthonyWard. Costume design Catherine Zuber. Lighting design Paul Pyant. Sound design Paul Arditti. Hair & wig design Tom Watson. Music Mark Bennet. Music direction Dan Lipton. Casting Nancy Piccione and Maggie Lum. Choreography Josh Prince. Featuring Simon Russell Beale (Leontes), Rebecca Hall (Hermione), Morven Christie (Mamillius), Paul Jesson (Camillo), Dakin Matthews (Antigonus), Sinbad Cusak (Paulina), Hannah Stokely (Emilia), Josh Hamilton (Polixenes), Michael Braun (Florizel), Morven Christie (Perdita), Richard Easton (Shepherd), Tobias Segal (Clown), Ethan Hawke (Autolycus), Mark Nelson (Time), Gary Powell (Bear), and others. The Merchant of Venice Presented by Propeller at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, May 6-17, 2009. Directed by Edward Hall. Set design Michael Pavelka. Lighting design Ben Ormerod. Music Propeller and Jon Trenchard. Text adaptation Edward Hall and Roger Warren. Relights on Tour Richard Howell. Production Manager Nick Ferguson. Company Stage Manager Nick Chesterfield. Deputy Stage Manager Claim Henders. Assistant Stage Managers Dawn Maxfield, Bryony Rutter. Costume Supervisor Hannah Lobelson. Wardrobe Mistress Bridget Fell. Production Photographer Nobby Clark. Assistant Director Paul Hart. Sets Built and Painted by Factory Settings. Lighting Equipment supplied by Stage Electrics. With Bob Barrett (Antonio), Sam Swainsbury (Salerio),Jack Tarlton (Bassanio), Richard Frame (Gratiano), Richard Dempsey (Lorenzo), Kelsey Brookfield (Portia), Chris Myles (Nerissa), Richard Clothier (Shylock), Jonathan Livingstone (Morocco), Thomas Padden (Tubal, Aragon), John Dougall (Lancelot Gobbo), Jon Trenchard (Jessica), and others. Who fills the seats? Whose name sells the most tickets? Who really occupies the center of today's early modern productions in New York City? For many of us, of course, the relevant name is William Shakespeare (or Thomas Middleton), but looking back at major Shakespeare productions over the past few years suggests that having a Big Star may be necessary to secure an audience (and a theatrical venue). That star comes to define the production, and his or her name becomes the most common shorthand for the entire show. Some top-flight directors have marketable names, and surely Trevor Nunn, Rupert Goold, and Robert Falls each provided good publicity for their respective recent productions in New York and Washington, D.C. But most of the publicity (and most reviewers) gave top billing to the lead actors: Ian McKellen's Lear (RSC, 2007-8), Patrick Stewart's Macbeth (Chichester Festival, 2007-8), and Stacy Keach's Lear (Shakespeare Theatre, 2009). These shows and others like them--New Yorkers might recall Denzel Washington as Brutus in Julius Caesar, or Ewan Macgregor's Iago in London, or most recently the "Dr. Who Hamlet" in Stratford--represent one mainstream project in current Shakespeare productions, in which a company leverages a star's power to promote the production, and that decision largely shapes what we see on stage. …


Pine weevils cause major damage to newly planted conifer seedlings in reforestation areas. However, recent findings indicate that small ("mini") seedlings, planted at the age of 7-10 weeks, are gnawed less by pine weevils than the larger, conventionally planted seedlings. Thus, it has been proposed that planting young conifer seedlings in clear-cut areas may reduce the damage caused by pine weevils. In attempts to determine why mini seedlings appear to be less damaged by pine weevils than "conventional" seedlings, the volatiles released by Norway spruce and Scots pine mini seedlings were investigated, since such chemicals are of great importance in herbivore-plant communication, inter alia acting as repellents, attractants or antifeedants. Volatiles from the seedlings were collected, separated and identified by solid phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results show that there are high levels of chemodiversity among both spruce and pine seedlings. Between-tissue and age-related variations in their emissions were also found. Norway spruce clones infested by mites were also examined to assess genotype- and pest-specific stress reactions of Norway spruce. Finally, the effects of certain spruce defense compounds on the behavior of the large pine weevil Hylobius abietis were examined.


Abstract Little has contributed more to the emergence of today's world of financial globalization than the setup of the international monetary system. In its current shape, it has a hierarchical structure with the US-Dollar (USD) at the top and various other monetary areas forming a multilayered periphery to it. A key feature of the system is the creation of USD offshore – a feature that in the 1950s and 60s developed in co-evolution with the Bretton Woods System and in the 1970s replaced it. Since the 2007–9 Financial Crisis, this 'Offshore US-Dollar System' has been backstopped by the Federal Reserve's network of swap lines which are extended to other key central banks. This systemic evolution may continue in the decades to come, but other systemic arrangements are possible as well and have historical precedents. This article discusses four trajectories that would lead to different setups of the international monetary system by 2040, taking into account how its hierarchical structure and the role of offshore credit money creation may evolve. In addition to a continuation of USD hegemony, we present the emergence of competing monetary blocs, the formation of an international monetary federation and the disintegration into an international monetary anarchy.


While emotions themselves are beneficial for our survival, they are also the targets to be regulated appropriately to adapt to social environments. Previous studies have demonstrated that cognitive strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression can effectively enhance and attenuate emotions. Such cognitive strategies of emotion regulation are based on cortical modulation of sub-cortical emotion-related brain regions. Though in the prior studies emotion regulation was conducted in parallel with or after the emotion elicitation, a series of our studies showed that prior cognitive activities can automatically and unintentionally attenuate subsequent emotional responses. In this article, after reviewing the previous findings about emotion regulation, we introduce our empirical findings showing that cognitive activities where the neural system of emotion regulation would be recruited can unintentionally and automatically dampen psychological and physiological emotional responses. Finally, we propose possible neural mechanisms underlying modulation of emotion by cognitive activity.


Background: Post-translational modifications of histones constitute a dynamic process impacting gene expression. A well-studied modification is lysine methylation. Among the lysine histone methyltransferases, DOT1L is implicated in various diseases, making it a very interesting target for drug discovery. DOT1L has two substrates, the SAM cofactor that gives the methyl group and the lysine H3K79 substrate. Results: Using molecular docking, the authors explored new bisubstrate analogs to enlarge the chemical landscape of DOT1L inhibitors. The authors showed that quinazoline can successfully replace the adenine in the design of bisubstrate inhibitors of DOT1L, showing similar activity compared with the adenine derivative but with diminished cytotoxicity. Conclusion: The docking model is validated together with the use of quinazoline in the design of bisubstrate inhibitors.


This paper focuses on fresh produce marketing in the U.S. The realities of and industry trends for each marketing stage─from production areas to wholesale, all the way up to the retail stage─were examined by analyzing research reports and statistical data, and by reviewing material such as academic papers in the related agricultural economics fields. The paper then considers these results and views future trends in Japan in terms of the agricultural economics research in related fields. Over the past 30 years, the consumer market for the fresh produce in the U.S. has grown threefold at the consumer level and almost doubled at the farm gate level. Meanwhile, however, the fresh produce industry is facing issues such as the retail concentration and the decline of small-sized suppliers in retailing. Going forward, agricultural economics research issues that need to be studied in Japan include the effects of retail concentration on consumers, the effects that advancing concentration and vertical coordination of retail corporations will have on agriculture and wholesale businesses, changes in agricultural management, and changes in the organizational structure and function of cooperatives as a result of responding to changes in their business relationships with retail companies.


We investigate theoretically and experimentally the nonlinear dynamics of a synchronously pumped all-fiber passive ring cavity. Our study is based on the use of a specially designed stabilization system that allows for interferometric control of the cavity length. With this system we can achieve stable operation and we are able to perform systematic and reproducible measurements for the characterization of the fundamental nonlinear behaviors of the cavity such as optical bistability, period doubling instabilities, and dissipative modulational instabilities. Through the analysis of the output pulse spectra we show that modulational instability plays a crucial role in the dynamics of the cavity (in particular, in the period-doubling route to chaos) even with normal group-velocity dispersion. A theoretical study of modulational instability in the cavity is presented and is successfully compared with experimental results.


In recent months, US officials in the White House and the Treasury Department have been harshly criticized in Europe for their tepid response to the Euro Crisis. As Greece dangled over the abyss of default and nations across southern Europe fell victim to crippling sovereign debt crises, the US response ranged from mild vocal support to statements that financial aid will not be provided. Most notably, top Treasury Department officials have made it clear that no additional funding will be given to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to augment European financial commitments. This strikes many European leaders as both wildly hypocritical given the massive bailouts the United States doled out to similarly situated US companies in 2008, and oddly masochistic given the inextricability of US and European financial fortunes. Despite the obvious benefits of a bailout for Europe, however, an examination of the political forces at work on Capitol Hill and the different options facing the Obama administration--whether or not they choose to bail out Europe--reveal the logic behind the White House's stance. Given the low political payoffs to aiding Europe and the high electoral costs of being portrayed as a big spender, the Obama administration's decision to avoid an expensive bailout is the only sensible choice. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dangerous Games The argument in favor of a US bailout is fairly straight-forward. Many commentators argue that just as the financial contagion spread from the United States to Europe in 2008 and 2009, particularly after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fallout from a European default could send shock waves through the international financial system and into US markets. While many US citizens, especially those in strong opposition to a US bailout of Europe, see the problem as one of sovereign debts and government deficits, the risks facing the United States have far more to do with the integrated nature of the financial system. Just as thousands of businesses across Europe regularly receive financing for new capital investments from US banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, US businesses often receive the same sort of financing from European banks like Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. Gaming the System These banks, however, have hundreds of billions of dollars of exposure to risky European sovereign debt; in other words, they are holding bonds issued by financially questionable nations like Greece and Portugal. A default by one of these nations would bring the value of these bonds to near-zero levels, wiping out significant portions of the real wealth of these banks. Such declines in the values of assets held by these banks restrict their ability and desire to lend because their financial positions become more precarious; when banks have little wealth, they are less willing to take on risk and thus less likely to lend. The problem for the United States is that a credit crunch precipitated by a European default would not be contained within European markets. The integrated nature of the international financial system means that such losses would reverberate through US markets by reducing US firms' access to credit, inhibiting their ability to invest and slowing the recovery. Not only would the loss of European lending reduce the quantity of credit available to US firms, the loss of this competition would allow US banks to lend at higher interest rates, increasing the cost of borrowing and giving firms good reason to hold off on their investments. This is the last thing the still stumbling US economy needs as it attempts to boost job creation and aggregate demand. Given these risks, it comes as no surprise that both European economists and US commentators have criticized the decision by the Obama administration officials not to provide additional funds for a European bailout. Despite the risks posed by a sovereign default across the Atlantic, the political factors at work in the United States have essentially tied Obama's hands and made any large-scale bailout infeasible. …


Concussions have been shown to have damaging effects to multiple functions of the brain, including memory. One of the key components of memory is the ability to determine the original source of a memory, a concept called source monitoring. The current study was designed to explore how individuals with a history of concussions would compare with individuals without a concussion history when their source monitoring ability was tested. The researchers investigated the influence a concussion history would have on the susceptibility to the effects of misinformation. Twenty individuals with a concussion history and twenty-two individuals without a concussion history participated in the study. It was expected that individuals without a concussion history would perform better on tests evaluating their ability to correctly monitor the source of information. Statistical analysis revealed that both the concussed and non-concussed group performed similarly in their ability to source monitor. The contradictory results this study exhibits, when compared to previous research, suggests that further exploration into this particular portion of memory may be useful when understanding how concussions affect memory performance. The results of this study suggest that concussions may not always produce negative longterm memory related cognitive effects.


Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF2) is a potent mitogen with a prominent role in tumor-induced angiogenesis. In addition, FGF2 exerts both direct and indirect effects at the interface between angiogenesis and inflammatory processes as well as functions as a survival factor of tumor cells by inhibiting apoptosis. These biological activities of FGF2 are mediated by a ternary complex consisting of FGF high affinity receptors, heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) and FGF2, a signaling module that is formed on the surface of target cells. Despite these defined extracellular functions, FGF2 does not contain a signal peptide for translocation into the ER and, therefore, is exported by an unconventional mechanism of protein secretion from cells. This process depends on phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphosphate-mediated recruitment and oligomerization of FGF2 at the inner leaflet of the plasma membrane concomitant with the formation of a lipidic membrane pore. Subsequently, cell surface HSPGs act as an extracellular trap mediating translocation of FGF2 into the extracellular space.
This thesis started from the previous observation that Tec kinase, a gene product identified in a genome-wide RNAi screen, supports efficient secretion of FGF2 from cells. It aimed at i.) the validation of the role of Tec kinase in unconventional secretion of FGF2 using independent tools and a physiologically relevant read-out system and ii.) to obtain insight into the mechanism by which Tec kinase supports secretion of FGF2 from cells.
Employing a pharmacological inhibitor of Tec kinase in combination with a cell proliferation assay as a read-out of FGF2 secretion, a requirement for the enzymatic activity of Tec kinase in unconventional secretion of FGF2 could be established. These experiments confirmed the results from the RNAi screening procedure and, along with other findings from our laboratory, led to discovery of FGF2 being a substrate for tyrosine phosphorylation catalyzed by Tec kinase. In the second part of this thesis, oligomerization-dependent membrane pore formation was found stimulated by tyrosine phosphorylation of FGF2, providing a potential mechanism by which Tec kinase may increase the efficiency of FGF2 secretion from cells. Furthermore, cell-based assays analyzing the tyrosine-phosphorylated pools of FGF2 inside cells and following secretion suggest that tyrosine phosphorylation of FGF2 occurs transiently during membrane translocation as FGF2 did not accumulate on cell surfaces in a phosphorylated form. In order to investigate the localization of a metabolically stable, phosphomimetic FGF2 variant form in cells, microinjection experiments were conducted using a recombinant FGF2 variant that contains the phosphomimetic unnatural amino acid pCMF in the position of the naturally occurring phospho-tyrosine residue. Employing both immuno-electron microscopy and fluorescence microscopy, phosphomimetic FGF2 was found to accumulate in the cell periphery. This localization depended on microtubules as treatment of cells with nocodazole caused perinuclear localization of phosphomimetic FGF2. Finally, to test the relevance of these observations for the overall process of FGF2 export from cells, secretion assays in the absence and presence of nocodazole were performed suggesting a role for microtubules in intracellular transport of FGF2 into the cell periphery and, therefore, for efficient secretion of FGF2 into the extracellular space.
Taken together, in this thesis, i.) a role for Tec kinase in the overall process of FGF2 secretion could be validated based on pharmacological evidence, ii.) a role of tyrosine phosphorylation of FGF2 in membrane pore formation was supported by reconstitution experiments, iii.) evidence for transient phosphorylation of FGF2 during membrane translocation was provided by cell-based experiments and iv.) a role for microtubules in FGF2 transport into the cell periphery as part of the overall process of FGF2 secretion was supported by a combination of microinjection and cell imaging.


The objective of this study was to determine the best effect of giving interval coconut water and rice water dosage on the growth of rubber seeds sleeping eyes stum. The experiment was carried out in the greenhouse of Agriculture Faculty University of Riau, from February to May 2014. The study arranged experimentally using Completely Randomized Design(CRD) factorial two factor, factor I is an interval giving coconut water consists of 3 levels: 3 days, 6 days and 9 days. Factor II is rice water dosage consists of 3 levels: 0.75 l/plant, 1 l/plant and 1.25 l/plant and there are 9 combinations of treatments and treatments was repeated 3 times then obtained 27 experimental units, with each unit 3 seeds population. Parameters measured were the time of buds growth, trunk height, trunk diameter,number of leaves and leaf width. Data were analyzed statistically using ANOVA and followed by DNMRT at level of 5%. The results showed that the combination of intervals and coconut water 9 days and a dose of rice water 1,25 l/plant is the best result for trunk diameter, number of leaves and leaf width.


The beginning of the twentieth century saw human civilization at its most enlightened, well-educated, globalized and wealthy. What turned it into a bloodbath? Niall Ferguson re-tells the story of history's most savage century as a continual war that raged for 100 years. From the plains of Poland to the killing fields of Cambodia, he reveals how economic boom-and-bust, decaying empires and, above all, poisonous ideas of race led men to treat each other as aliens. It was an age of hatred that ended with the twilight, not the triumph, of the West. And, he shows, it could happen all over again. "A heartbreaking, serious and thoughtful survey of human evil that is utterly fascinating and dramatic." (Simon Sebag Montefiore, The New York Times). "Unputdownable, controversial, compelling." (Independent on Sunday). "The grenade lobbed into the cosy tea party of received wisdom." (Max Hastings). "A big, bold and brilliantly belligerent book." (Sunday Telegraph). "History at its most controversial...no one can afford to overlook it' Allan Mallinson 'Hums with energy, quotable insights and pithy summaries." (Observer). "Gripping." (Tristram Hunt).


Because of the complexity of cancer, an ideal anticancer strategy is better to target both cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment. In this study, for the first time, we demonstrated that zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were able to target multiple cell types of cancer, including cancer cells, cancer stem cells (CSCs), and macrophages, and simultaneously perform several key functions, including inhibition of cancer proliferation, sensitization of drug-resistant cancer, prevention of cancer recurrence and metastasis, and resuscitation of cancer immunosurveillance. As a nanocarrier, the chemotherapy drug, doxorubicin (Dox), could be loaded to ZnO NPs and the Dox-loaded ZnO NPs (ZnO/Dox) possessed excellent physicochemical and pH-responsive drug release properties. ZnO/Dox could be effectively internalized by both drug-sensitive and multidrug resistant (MDR) cancer cells and penetrate more efficiently through three-dimensional (3D) cancer cell spheroids compared with free Dox. As a cytotoxic agent, ZnO NPs were more efficient to kill MDR cancer cells. Interestingly, neither ZnO nor Dox showed high cytotoxicity in the 3D cancer cell spheroids, whereas ZnO/Dox showed remarkable synergistic anticancer effects. More importantly, we demonstrated that ZnO NPs could effectively downregulate CD44, a key CSC surface marker, and decrease the stemness of CSCs, leading to the sensitization of the Dox treatment, inhibition of the cancer cell adhesion and migration, and prevention of the tumor (3D cancer cell spheroid) formation. As an immunomodulator, ZnO NPs could protect macrophages from the Dox-induced toxicity and boost the Dox-induced macrophage polarization toward an M1-like phenotype. The macrophage-conditioned medium could promote the cancer cell apoptosis in both cancer cell monolayers and 3D spheroids. The findings in this study indicated that ZnO NPs were a multifunctional and multitarget nanocarrier and nanomedicine that would have more profound effects on cancer treatment.


BACKGROUND
 Work engagement is important for employee well-being and work performance. However, no intervention study has investigated the effect of an eMental Health intervention on work engagement among workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

 OBJECTIVE
 The aim of the study was to examine the effects of a newly developed smartphone-based stress management program (ABC Stress Management) on improving work engagement among hospital nurses in Vietnam, an LMIC.

 METHODS
 Full-time registered nurses (n=949) were randomly assigned to one of 2 intervention groups or a control group. The intervention groups were a 6-week, 6-lesson program offering basic cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT-based stress management skills), provided in either free-choice (program A) or fixed order (program B). Work engagement was assessed at baseline and 3-month and 7-month follow-ups in each of the 3 groups.

 RESULTS
 The scores of work engagement in both intervention groups improved from baseline to 3-month follow-up, and then decreased at the 7-month follow-up, while the score steadily increased from baseline to 7-month follow-up in the control group. Program B showed a significant intervention effect on improving work engagement at the 3-month follow-up (P=.049) with a small effect size (Cohen d= 0.16; 95% CI 0.001 to 0.43]). Program A showed nonsignificant trend (d=0.13; 95% CI –0.014 to 0.41; P=.07) toward improved engagement at 3 months. Neither program achieved effectiveness at the 7-month follow-up.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The study demonstrated that a fixed order (program B) delivery of a smartphone-based stress management program was effective in improving work engagement in nurses in Vietnam. However, the effect was small and only temporary. Further improvement of this program is required to achieve a greater effect size and more sustained, longer lasting impact on work engagement.

 CLINICALTRIAL
 University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry UMIN000033139; tinyurl.com/55gxo253

 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT
 RR2-10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025138


In the following pages, I will guide the reader through a tour of a post-Chernobyl social imaginary, a theater of images let loose after an invisible catastrophe, summoning the social body to experience it as a turning point in history. I document a series of encounters with multigenerational Ukrainian informants to explore their experiences of the Chernobyl disaster within perceptions of historical truth. How did they experience history and Soviet state power before and after Chernobyl? How did they settle back into their bodies? What does it mean to be alive in a heavily contaminated environment controlled by science and the sovereign power of the state? These questions are the underlying basis for comprehending how individuals navigate the shock of a nuclear disaster. As an ethnographer of Ukrainian-American background, I come face-to-face with the strangeness of the disaster in light of my family's migration from Ukraine.


In this work, we introduce and evaluate a data assimilation framework for gauged and radar altimetry-based discharge and water levels applied to a large scale hydrologic-hydrodynamic model for stream flow forecasts over the Amazon River basin. We used the process-based hydrological model called MGB-IPH coupled with a river hydrodynamic module using a storage model for floodplains. The Ensemble Kalman Filter technique was used to assimilate information from hundreds of gauging and altimetry stations based on ENVISAT satellite data. Model state variables errors were generated by corrupting precipitation forcing, considering log-normally distributed, time and spatially correlated errors. The EnKF performed well when assimilating in situ discharge, by improving model estimates at the assimilation sites (change in root-mean-squared error Delta rms = -49 %) and also transferring information to ungauged rivers reaches (Delta rms = -16 %). Altimetry data assimilation improves results, in terms of water levels (Delta rms = -44 %) and discharges (Delta rms = -15 %) to a minor degree, mostly close to altimetry sites and at a daily basis, even though radar altimetry data has a low temporal resolution. Sensitivity tests highlighted the importance of the magnitude of the precipitation errors and that of their spatial correlation, while temporal correlation showed to be dispensable. The deterioration of model performance at some unmonitored reaches indicates the need for proper characterisation of model errors and spatial localisation techniques for hydrological applications. Finally, we evaluated stream flow forecasts for the Amazon basin based on initial conditions produced by the data assimilation scheme and using the ensemble stream flow prediction approach where the model is forced by past meteorological forcings. The resulting forecasts agreed well with the observations and maintained meaningful skill at large rivers even for long lead times, e.g. > 90 days at the Solimoes/Amazon main stem. Results encourage the potential of hydrological forecasts at large rivers and/or poorly monitored regions by combining models and remote-sensing information.


We build a frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) setup based on the second harmonic generation (SHG) FROG to characterize the mid-infrared (MIR) few-cycle laser pulse in single shot basis. Considering the extremely wide bandwidth, we use 20-μm-thick BBO crystal as the nonlinear medium, and correct the spectral response with the frequency summing efficiency. Spatial splitting is adopted to avoid additional material dispersion. In combination with a 4f imaging, this configuration enables the setup to run in single shot. With the central wavelength of 1.8 μm, the measured pulse has a duration of 9.3 fs, which corresponds to about 1.5 cycles.