The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assumes that the inclining atmospheric CO2 concentration over recent years was almost exclusively determined by anthropogenic emissions, and this increase is made responsible for the rising temperature over the Industrial Era. Due to the far reaching consequences of this assertion, in this contribution we critically scrutinize different carbon cycle models and compare them with observations. We further contrast them with an alternative concept, which also includes temperature dependent natural emission and absorption with an uptake rate scaling proportional with the CO2 concentration. We show that this approach is in agreement with all observations, and under this premise not really human activities are responsible for the observed CO2 increase and the expected temperature rise in the atmosphere, but just opposite the temperature itself dominantly controls the CO2 increase. Therefore, not CO2 but primarily native impacts are responsible for any observed climate changes.


Today, technology is increasingly being viewed as a key resource for enabling innovation within teaching and learning approaches. Social media platforms and applications such as Facebook and Twitter, WhatsApp, Skype and Viber have emerged as one of the most popular mechanisms for developing the social perspective in learning. Some recent studies even refer to this phenomenon as the development of a 'parallel infrastructure' to institutional offerings such as Moodle. However, when any artefact (such as technology), is introduced into a learning environment, there is a possibility that it will be responded to and utilised in different ways. This paper presents the initial analysis from MBA students' experiences of using learning technology within their studies in a Pakistani business school, to see if technology has any impact on the learning approaches, in terms of the way and the purpose for which it is being used. Phenomenographic analysis revealed some initial categories of description, which include 'access to learning materials and other information sources', 'organisation of course-related activities', 'improved communication and connectivity', 'developing cooperation and collaboration' and 'means of overcoming socio-cultural barriers'. The degree of variation within these categories can be related to the established concepts of deep and surface level approach. For example, there were students who preferred to use technology 'as and when required' by their teachers, and within the same environment there were others, who appeared to take a 'deep level' approach that involved some critical thinking about the use of technology and its subsequent influence on learning approaches. Our analysis highlights that students in relatively less developed regions are also making efforts to change themselves from 'passive recipients' of knowledge to active participants, who can support the learning activities of each other, using diverse forms of technology. We argue that while students may be developing an 'alternative or parallel infrastructure to their institutional offerings', there is no disconnect between them. It is this blend in using different forms of technology, which is encouraging the students to develop 'informal networks' among themselves – in an environment, which is majorly instructor-led. However, for addressing a possible 'dis(connect)' in students' use of various forms of technology, there is still a need for educators to 'temper' the enthusiasm of students, to develop a better understanding of how they should interact with technology, as this may provide some new insights for networked learning.


Letter-writing instruction grew in importance as a learning tool in the Late Modern period because of its practical application to real-life situations. The vernacular had become the language of the educated, and the rising middle classes needed literacy skills to prepare for their vocations. The British Empire was growing and changing. Industrial centers were forming and trade to foreign ports increased, both of which demanded language competence. Letter writing reinforced grammar and composition skills in order for students to be successful. This study will investigate how schoolmasters used letter-writing assignments to improve literacy, teach grammar rules, and develop writing strategies, paying special attention to the earliest stages of this process, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.


The building façade not only provides the aesthetic signature of a building, but also important functions, such as daylight provision, glare protection, solar gain management and visual contact with the outside, which make the building usable and energy efficient. These functions often oppose each other, so the selection and design of façade systems and their control for a certain building application should depend on those functions that the designer wants to promote to the detriment of the other functions. In the context of the H2020 RenoZEB project, this paper presents a workflow for the conceptual planning of façade systems as applied to building retrofitting. The proposed workflow consists of analysing the space from the point of view of the functions of its façade. In a first step, the analysis of the case study leads to the definition of the design requirements, i.e. the relevance of the different façade functions and their priorities. The second step involves the selection of a suitable fenestration system and control strategy for the retrofit solution. In this step, an optimization process for the control strategy is proposed based on state-of-the-art thermal and daylighting simulations. In a third step, the annual performance of the retrofit solution is evaluated in order to check if the requirements are fulfilled. The proposed workflow is illustrated with a case study, in which the automation strategy of a retrofitted façade system is optimized for two different applications: a residential and an office building in Bilbao (Spain).


Spatone Iron-Plus is a naturally occurring mineral water from Trefriw Wells Spa in Conwy County, North Wales, UK. It contains approximately 0.20 mg of iron per millilitre as ferrous sulphate and has been shown to provide iron in a highly bio-available form. A 24 ml sachet contains approximately 5 mg of iron. Iron deficiency is common in the obstetric population. However, compliance with traditional iron supplements is poor because of gastrointestinal side-effects. We designed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. A total of 102 low-risk antenatal patients, who were noncompliant with routinely prescribed ferrous sulphate tablets, were randomized to receive 48 ml of Spatone water or placebo. The study was conducted between 22 and 28 weeks gestation. Primary outcome measures were compliance, gastrointestinal side-effects and changes in ferritin levels during the trial period. Compliance in the intervention group was 57% compared with 67% in the control group, P = 0.22. Dyspepsia scores, as determined by a recognized and well-validated questionnaire, did not differ between the two groups. During the trial period, mean ferritin levels fell by 24% in the Spatone Iron-Plus group compared with a mean fall of 51% in ferritin levels among the control group, P = 0.016.


Effects of the competition between two South locations (Mexico and China) in a Northern market (US) are analyzed. By employing a plant-level data set that covers the universe of Mexican export processing plants (maquiladoras) from 1990 to 2006 and relying on an instrumental variable strategy that exploits exogenous intensification of Chinese imports in the world in conjunction with the WTO accession of China, the empirical analysis reveals a substantial effect of intensified Chinese competition on maquiladoras. In particular, competition from China has a negative and significant impact on employment and plant growth, both through the intensive and the extensive margin. As the negative impact is stronger on the most unskilled labor intensive sectors, it triggers significant sectoral reallocation. Suggestive evidence on industrial upgrading among maquiladoras in response to competition with China is also provided. Overall the results provide additional insight into the way low-wage competition shapes the evolution of industries.


Trichotillomania is categorized as an Impulse-Control Disorder. The following article brings to light that this disorder man not be as rare as some clinicians think. The following discussion delineates Trichotillomania in terms of its descriptive characteristics, onset and course, associated disorders, relationship to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and treatment. Research indicates a combination of psychopharmacology and cognitive-behavioral therapy as the choice of treatment for this disorder. Following the content discussion of Trichotillomania is a transcript of an interview with one of the authors (K. A.) who was previously diagnosed with Trichotillomania. INTRODUCTION Trichotillomania is categorized as an Impulse-Control Disorder and is defined by the following five criteria listed in the DSM-IV (1994): a) recurrent pulling of one's hair resulting in noticeable hair loss, b) an increasing sense of tension immediately before pulling out the hair or when attempting to resist the behavior, c) pleasure, gratification, or relief when pulling out the hair, d) the disturbance is not better accounted for by another mental disorder and is not due to a general medical condition, e) the disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. (p. 621) This article seeks to provide an overview of Trichotillomania in terms of its history and descriptive characteristics, onset and course of illness, associated disorders, its relationship to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and the treatment of choice for Trichotillomania. HISTORY AND DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERISTICS History In 1889 a French dermatologist, Hallopeau, described a man who pulled out his hair in large amounts (Swedo, 1993). Hallopeau used the term "trichotillomania" to describe this behavior. Before Hallopeau's encounter with his client, references to hair-pulling had already been documented. In 1779, Baudament reported on a 16-year-old boy who pulled out his hair and actually ate it. Eventually, this ingestion of hair led to gastrointestinal problems because the boy developed hair balls in his stomach (Christenson & Mackenzie, 1994). Once thought to be rare, this disorder is far from uncommon. It has been estimated that approximately eight million Americans are afflicted with this disorder (Azrin & Nunn, 1978). A survey conducted by Rothbaum, Shaw, Morris, and Ninan (1993) revealed that of the 490 college freshman respondents, 10% reported compulsive hair-pulling. Despite these statistics, the literature is very scarce regarding this disorder. Characteristics Trichotillomania is predominately found in the female population. Christenson, Mackenzie, and Mitchell (1991) found that 93% of 60 adult chronic hair-pullers were women. Likewise, Swedo and Leonard (1992) found that 70% of 43 sampled children, adolescents, and adults who were chronic hair-pullers were female. Christenson and Mackenzie (1994) found a more equal sex ratio in children under the age of six. Hair-pulling can occur from many different body locations. A study done by Swedo and Leonard (1992) found that the most common area from which hair is pulled is the scalp, followed by eyelashes, eyebrows, pubis, body (arm/leg), and face (beard). Most individuals pluck hair from at least two sites, with sites varying over time. Those diagnosed with this disorder typically think that the hair that is pulled is somehow "different" from other hair. For example, chronic hair-pullers may pluck kinky or course hair so that they may "feel right" about their hair, thus reducing anxiety (Swedo & Rapoport, 1991.). After the hair is pulled, other ritualistic acts can follow. For instance, some individuals will play with or twirl their extracted hair, while others may brush it against their cheeks or lips. Some individuals will even go as far as ingesting their hair (trichophagia), possibly leading to gastrointestinal difficulties or even death (Swedo & Leonard, 1992). …


Traditional acupuncture is a growing modality of treatment worldwide. However, various acupuncture-related adverse effects had been reported. We report a case of deep neck abscess involving mediastinum following acupuncture. A 56 years old immunocompromised gentleman developed extensive neck abscess with mediastinum involvement and inflammatory aortitis following acupuncture for shoulder pain. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the abscess culture. Surgical drainage with systemic antibiotic admission resulted in a good clinical recovery and resolution of infection.


The popularization of cloud computing has raised concerns over the energy consumption that takes place in data centers. In addition to the energy consumed by servers, the energy consumed by large numbers of network devices emerges as a significant problem. Existing work on energy-efficient data center networking primarily focuses on traffic engineering, which is usually adapted from traditional networks. We propose a new framework to embrace the new opportunities brought by combining some special features of data centers with traffic engineering. Based on this framework, we characterize the problem of achieving energy efficiency with a time-aware model, and we prove its NP-hardness with a solution that has two steps. First, we solve the problem of assigning virtual machines (VM) to servers to reduce the amount of traffic and to generate favorable conditions for traffic engineering. The solution reached for this problem is based on three essential principles that we propose. Second, we reduce the number of active switches and balance traffic flows, depending on the relation between power consumption and routing, to achieve energy conservation. Experimental results confirm that, by using this framework, we can achieve up to 50 percent energy savings. We also provide a comprehensive discussion on the scalability and practicability of the framework.


We justify the concept of metapatterns as functional patterns or functional principles that are common to a large set of systems that encompass both biology and culture, by starting with the fact that evolved systems, whether biological or cultural, are produced from any iterative sequence of replication, variation, and selection. Therefore the systems that result, with specific functional parts, are formed as wholes that fit particular contexts. The principle of convergence in biological evolution, in which similar structures are independently evolved, is the model that can be extended even beyond biology. If the contexts of evolved systems across widely separated scales are similar, the resulting evolved systems can exhibit convergences that themselves occur at diverse scales. These grand convergences are the metapatterns. For example, the functional advantage of dynamically separating systems from their environments sets the context for the evolution of the metapattern of borders across various scales. We outline fifteen additional examples of metapatterns. We also examine the correspondences and differences between metapatterns as a multi-scale approach to systems and the approach from complexity science. We suggest that metapatterns could serve as tools for thinking about a diverse range of topics, and could thereby motivate the transference of generalizations. Finally, we propose that because metapatterns are employed in human thought, they will be useful in formulating new questions for education research, which is the subject of the companion paper.


Investigations of radon in natural water and its relation to physical and chemical parameters are outlined in this thesis. In particular, a method for measuring 222Rn in water at low concentrations (~20 mBq.l-1) is described, followed by discussions concerning the design and its application to study both radon and parameters influencing radon levels in natural waters. A topic considered is the impact of fluoride and other aquatic parameters on radon in water. Moreover, variables such as uranium series radionuclides and stable elements in water, bedrock and sediment radioactivity and geology are investigated in two case studies. This was performed by employing radiometric-, chemical-, statistical- and GIS & geostatistical- analyses. The general water chemistry and presence of some elements such as fluoride was observed to influence radon levels in water. Health aspects of radon in drinking water are discussed based on radiation dose assessments. The radiation doses are compared with and added to doses incurred from ingestion of uranium, radium and polonium isotopes in drinking water and inhalation of radon in air in order to estimate total exposures for different age categories. The results may have a potential for future epidemiological studies.


This paper reports ab intio, DFT and transition state theory (TST) calculations on HF, HCl and ClF elimination reactions from CH2Cl–CH2F molecule. Both the ground state and the transition state for HX elimination reactions have been optimized at HF, MP2 and DFT calculations with 6-31G*, 6-31G** and 6-311++G** basis sets. In addition, CCSD(T) single point calculations were carried out with MP2/6-311++G** optimized geometry for more accurate determination of the energies of the minima and transition state, compared to the other methods employed here. Classical barriers are converted to Arrhenius activation energy by TST calculations for comparisons with experimental results. The pre-exponential factors, A, calculated at all levels of theory are significantly larger than the experimental values. For activation energy, Ea, DFT gives good results for HF elimination, within 4–8 kJ mol−1 from experimental values. None of the methods employed, including CCSD(T), give comparable results for HCl elimination reactions. However, rate constants calculated by CCSD(T) method are in very good agreement with experiment for HCl elimination and they are in reasonable agreement for HF elimination reactions. Due to the strong correlation between A and Ea, the rate constants could be fit to a lower A and Ea
(as given by experimental fitting, corresponding to a tight TS) or to larger A and Ea
(as given by high level ab initio calculations, corresponding to a loose TS). The barrier for ClF elimination is determined to be 607 kJ mol−1 at HF level and it is unlikely to be important for CH2FCH2Cl. Results for other CH2X–CH2Y (X,Y = F/Cl) are included for comparison.


Threefoil is a small engineered protein of 141 amino acids which is a member of the beta-trefoil superfamily, with three-fold symmetry and high thermal and kinetic stability. Its primary sequence was designed based on a predicted beta-trefoil glycosidase from the halophilic Archaeon Haloarcula marismortui. Threefoil predominantly forms inclusion bodies when over-expressed in Escherichia coli at 37°C, with little to no protein soluble in the cytoplasm. Nevertheless, Threefoil is capable of adopting a native beta-trefoil structure when refolded from solubilized inclusion bodies. The focus of this thesis is on characterization of the folding and stability of Threefoil through thermodynamic and kinetic experiments for wild-type Threefoil, in addition to sugarand metal-binding studies and characterization of Threefoil inclusion bodies. Various Threefoil mutants, designed to increase protein stability, are also characterized to probe the origins of, as well as to give insight into, the mechanism of inclusion body formation. The thermodynamic and kinetic stability of wild-type Threefoil was studied using spectral probes, mainly fluorescence, circular dichroism (CD) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The major observed spectral changes in kinetic and thermodynamic experiments can be fit to a 2-state transition between the folded state and a denatured state containing extensive residual secondary structure. At high protein concentrations, the folding of wild-type Threefoil is complicated by protein misfolding and aggregation. As Threefoil is remarkably resistant to denaturation even at high concentrations of urea and guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl), studies were also conducted in guanidine isothiocyanate (GuSCN), which is a much stronger denaturant than urea and GuHCl. Remarkably, the time that is required for Threefoil samples to reach equilibrium in renaturation curves is approximately 100 days, while equilibrium by denaturation in the stronger denaturant, GuSCN, requires more than two years. The expression levels of Threefoil mutants A62V, Q78I, D85P and D93P were also studied. None of the four mutants studied exhibited any pronounced increase in solubility compared to wild-type when expressed in E. coli.


Imagine a grandmother who wants to testify in a criminal trial that her husband confessed to her that he molested their two-year old grandson, but she is prevented from doing so. This is a true example of how a defendant can invoke the confidential martial communications privilege. Federal courts and half of the state legislatures have created exceptions to the confidential martial communications privilege in narrow situations. If a defendant has committed a crime against "the child of either" spouse, or against a "child residing in the home," then the defendant cannot bar testimony based on the confidential marital communications privilege. However, if the defendant has molested a neighbor's child or child unrelated to the family at the neighborhood park, and confessed that crime to the spouse, then the confession is privileged. This article sets forth reasons why limiting the marital privilege exception to "the child of either" spouse or to the "child residing in the home" is unreasonable. All children, regardless of their connection to the family, should be protected, particularly in child molestation cases which are often difficult to prosecute given the lack of witnesses and physical evidence. Jurisprudence, public policy, and legal theory all lead to the same conclusion: that courts and state legislatures should adopt an exception to the confidential marital communications privilege in cases involving the molestation of "any child." The first half of the article sets forth the legal history of the marital privilege and the current landscape of exceptions to it in child abuse cases. The Appendix to the article groups the exceptions of all federal and state jurisdictions into three categories. The second half of the article sets forth reasons why the "any child" exception should be adopted and also how federal courts and state legislatures can do so. As part of this analysis, I have drafted proposed legislation.


New measures for estimating the efficiency of transient ventilation flows are proposed. These measures are developed by considering how effectively a ventilation system removes buoyancy from a space. This approach is distinct from standard efficiency measures which are, in general, based on the removal of a neutrally-buoyant passive tracer. Our new measures, based on (active) buoyancy removal, allow both the instantaneous and time-averaged efficiency of the entire space, or of any region within it, to be determined. In addition, expressions for determining vertical profiles of efficiency are proposed. These new measures enable the effectiveness of different flows to be compared directly and are applicable providing density (temperature) differences exist between the interior environment and the replacement air. Thus, they may be used to contrast the effectiveness of a broad range of building ventilation flows including natural, hybrid and forced ventilation.


This review volume introduces the novel intelligent Web theory called computational Web intelligence (CWI) based on computational intelligence (CI) and Web technology (WT). It takes an in-depth look at hybrid Web intelligence (HWI), which is based on artificial biological and computational intelligence with Web technology and is used to build hybrid intelligent Web systems that serve wired and wireless users more efficiently. The basic principles of CWI and various e-applications of CWI and HWI are discussed. For completeness, six major CWI techniques - fuzzy Web intelligence, neural Web intelligence, evolutionary Web intelligence, granular Web intelligence, rough Web Intelligence and probabilistic Web intelligence - are described. With the huge potential for intelligent e-business applications of CWI and HWI, these techniques represent the future of intelligent Web applications.


This paper seeks to estimate the distributive impact of the taxes and other fiscal contributions that finance social security in Brazil. Making a certain number of strong hypotheses relative to the fiscal incidence of social security financing, we compute a measure of incidence that aggregates the distributive effect of the different taxes that compose tax revenues. For this, we use concentration coefficients computed by Silveira and Passos (2017) weighted by the importance of each tax in funding social security (basically by distinguishing individual social security contributions from taxes collected by the states and the Union). Our results indicate that the financing of social security in Brazil is only slightly progressive, given that the concentration coefficient of these taxes is not much lower than the Gini coefficient nor than the concentration coefficient of social security benefits.


The substantive issue of development is addressing poverty. Therefore, this paper examines what are the linkages between gender, household energy and moving people out poverty. The first section looks at the gender-energy-poverty nexus in general and then how household energy can contribute to reducing vulnerability and empowering women. Women are the specific focus since they generally have the responsibility for providing household energy. The section finishes with a review of how international development agencies address gender and household energy issues. The second section discusses in more detail the subject that is emerging high on development agencies agenda related to household: gender and health. Two issues within the energy sector that are driven at the international level are the privatisation of the energy sector and the impacts of fossil fuel combustion. Both of these issues are examined in relation to gender and household energy. The paper is aimed at researchers and practioners in the energy sector, as well as those involved in social development.


The History of Gothic Fiction debates the rise of the genre from its origins in the late eighteenth-century novel through nineteenth-century fictions of tyrants, monsters, conspirators and vampires to the twentieth-century zombie film. Approaching key novels by authors such as Walpole (The Castle of Otranto), Radcliffe (The Romance of the Forest and The Mysteries of Udolpho), Austen (Northanger Abbey), Wollstonecraft (The Wrongs of Woman), Lewis (The Monk), Shelley (Frankenstein), Stoker (Dracula) and Halperin (White Zombie), the argument proceeds on historicist principles, analysing the peculiar tone of these fictions and uncovering themes of credulity and reason, secrecy and enlightenment, tyranny and libertinism, sexuality and gender, race and miscegenation. The final chapters on the vampire and the zombie examine how the un-dead of gothic terror are embedded in an argument from history. Written with an undergraduate audience in mind, this text offers a synthesis of the main topics of Gothic interest and clearly argued summaries of critical debate. It signals its difference from popular psychoanalytic readings of Gothic and argues instead for a more complex, multilayered approach via an historicist reading of Gothic fiction. Illustrated with ten black and white plates and including up-to-date bibliographies, this will be an ideal text for all those with an interest in the Gothic. Key Features: * written with an undergraduate audience in mind * covers topics such as vampires, zombies, tyrants, banditti and demon-lovers * offers clearly argued summaries of critical debate


Besides conventional flaps, intercostal artery perforator flaps have been reported to cover trunk defects. In this report the use of anterior intercostal artery perforator (AICAP) flap, lateral intercostal artery perforator (LICAP) flap and dorsal intercostal artery perforator (DICAP) flap for thoracic, abdominal, cervical, lumbar and sacral defects with larger dimensions and extended indications beyond the reported literature were reevaluated. Thirty‐nine patients underwent surgery between August 2012 and August 2014. The age of the patients ranged between 16 and 79 with a mean of 49 years. The distribution of defects were as follows; 12 thoracic, 8 parascapular, 3 cervical, 8 abdominal, 4 sacral and 4 lumbar. AICAP, LICAP and DICAP flaps were used for reconstruction. Fifty‐two ICAP flaps were performed on 39 patients. Flap dimensions ranged between 6 × 9 cm and 14 × 35 cm. Twenty‐six patients had single flap coverage and 13 patients had double flap coverage. Forty‐six flaps have been transferred as propeller flaps and 6 flaps have been transferred as perforator plus flap. Forty flaps (75%) went through transient venous congestion. In one DICAP flap, 30% of flap was lost. No infection, hematoma or seroma were observed in any patient. Follow‐up period ranged between 3 and 32 months with a mean of 9 months. The ICAP flaps provide reliable and versatile options in reconstructive surgery and can be used for challenging defects in trunk.


As was known to H. Poincare, an orientation preserving circle homeomorphism without periodic points is either minimal or has no dense orbits, and every orbit accumulates on the unique minimal set. In the first case the minimal set is the circle, in the latter case a Cantor set. In this paper we study a two-dimensional analogue of this classical result: we classify the minimal sets of non-resonant torus homeomorphisms, that is, torus homeomorphisms isotopic to the identity for which the rotation set is a point with rationally independent irrational coordinates.


Biological information can be explored at many different levels, with the most basic information encoded in patterns within the DNA sequence. Through molecular level processes, these patterns are capable of controlling the states of genes, resulting in a complex network of interactions between genes. Key features of biological systems can be determined by evaluating properties of this gene regulatory network. More specifically, a network-based approach helps us to understand how the collective behavior of genes corresponds to patterns in genetic function.
We combine Chromatin-Immunoprecipitation microarray (ChIP-chip) data with genomic sequence data to determine how DNA sequence works to recruit various proteins. We quantify this information using a value termed "nmer-association." "Nmer-association" measures how strongly individual DNA sequences are associated with a protein in a given ChIP-chip experiment. We also develop the "split-motif" algorithm to study the underlying structural properties of DNA sequence independent of wet-lab data. The "split-motif" algorithm finds pairs of DNA motifs which preferentially localize relative to one another. These pairs are primarily composed of known transcription factor binding sites and their co-occurrence is indicative of higher-order structure. This kind of structure has largely been missed in standard motif-finding algorithms despite emerging evidence of the importance of complex regulation.
In both simple and complex regulation, two genes that are connected in a regulatory fashion are likely to have shared functions. The Gene Ontology (GO) provides biologists with a controlled terminology with which to describe how genes are associated with function and how those functional terms are related to each other. We introduce a method for processing functional information in GO to produce a gene network. We find that the edges in this network are correlated with known regulatory interactions and that the strength of the functional relationship between two genes can be used as an indicator of how informationally important that link is in the regulatory network. We also investigate the network structure of gene-term annotations found in GO and use these associations to establish an alternate natural way to group the functional terms. These groups of terms are drastically different from the hierarchical structure established by the Gene Ontology and provide an alternative framework with which to describe and predict the functions of experimentally identified groups of genes.


Some case reports and case series suggest that protein C concentrates may improve the outcome in patients with congenital or acquired protein C deficiency (not only in those with sepsis induced purpura fulminans). We reviewed the published literature on the use of protein C concentrates in adult septic patients and found that it is limited to less than 70 patients reported in observational studies with a 70% survival, and added our personal experience (two adult patients with sepsis and contraindications to recombinant activated protein C).


Living space is a fundamental resource for the growth and survival of plants, marine, and terrestrial animals and even human beings. Of the variety of life that covert space, hermit crabs are unique in their motivation to find, defend and maintain gastropod shells as portable homes. The limited supply of empty shells in the environment, as well as a constant need to upgrade these resources as they grow, means that these charismatic crabs are always on the lookout for bigger, better and newer homes. We present the curious case of an intertidal hermit crab (Isocheles sawayai) that was found dead, tucked away behind the body of an injured gastropod (Olivancillaria vesica) whose shell it was presumably trying to occupy. This unusual observation highlights the extremes to which some crabs may go to beat potential rivals and be the first to access limiting resources.


A fixed beam (FB) system that uses a beam specific secondary-common pilot channel (S-CPICH) as a phase reference for channel estimation and demodulation in WCDMA is evaluated in a dynamic radio network simulator. The impact of the angular spread on the downlink (DL) system performance is analyzed. Furthermore, various scrambling code allocation strategies and an adaptive load-dependent power tuning algorithm of the common channels are proposed and evaluated. Extensive simulation results have verified that increasing the number of FB from 1 to 2 or 4 beams per sector in a typical urban radio channel yields significant DL capacity gains


This article discusses two multidisciplinary courses created at the Colorado School of Mines that were developed to integrate ethics into the first-year engineering curriculum: "Nature and Human Values" (NHV) and "Innovation and Discovery in Engineering, Arts, and Sciences" (IDEAS). In both NHV and IDEAS, our objectives are to meaningfully integrate personal and professional ethics within a larger context of integrating humanities and social sciences with engineering curricula. We teach students how to apply ethical reasoning in support of engineering solutions through user empathy, problem definition, stakeholder engagement, communication of outcomes, and analysis of contexts and impacts. In the process, we emphasize personal morals, professional ethics, and environmental ethics via literary readings and case studies that have a strong central narrative of engineering and / or environmental impacts. Students practice close reading and analysis, communication in many rhetorical modes, and evaluation of and reflection about the wider contexts and effects of design solutions. These practices, as well as course assessments, enable a focus on synthesis across learning outcomes. Collaboration between faculty from many disciplinary areas as well as student teamwork and group projects also supports this synthesis, and reflective portfolios encourage students to explore their ideas at different learning stages and to review their own perceptions and decisions over time. Our overall theory of change is to simultaneously infuse engineering problem solving with values-sensitive analysis and design, requiring communication skills and ethical reasoning at every step.


Lipid droplets (LD) provide a source of energy, and their importance during embryogenesis has been increasingly recognized. In particular, pig embryos have larger amounts of intercellular lipid bilayers than other mammalian species, suggesting that porcine embryos are more dependent on lipid metabolic pathways. The objective of the present study was to detect the effect of stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase 1 (SCD1) on LD formation and to associate these effects with the mRNA abundance of LD formation-related genes ( SREBP , ARF1 , COPG2 , PLD1 and ERK2 ) in in vitro -produced porcine embryos. To determine the effect of SCD1 on LD formation and related genes, we examined the effects of SCD1 inhibition using CAY10566 (an SCD1 inhibitor, 50 μ M) on parthenogenetic embryos. SCD1 inhibition downregulated the mRNA levels of LD formation-related genes and embryo development. Our results revealed that SCD1 functions in the regulation of LD formation via phospholipid formation and embryo development. In addition, we treated parthenogenetic embryos with oleic acid (100 μ M), which led to a significant increase in the blastocyst formation rate, LD size and number compared to controls. Remarkably, the adverse effects of the SCD1 inhibitor could be counteracted by oleic acid. These data suggest that porcine embryos can use exogenous oleic acid as a metabolic energy source. Reproduction (2019)


Abstract: The Minimizing Error, Maximizing Outcome (MEMO) study of clinics in New York City, Chicago, and Wisconsin linked primary care work experiences to physician stress. We analyzed MEMO data to determine how chaos in the clinic was associated with work conditions and quality of care measures. Surveys and medical record audits determined practice characteristics and medical errors, respectively. Physicians rated clinic atmosphere on a scale of 1 (calm) to 5 (chaotic). Chaotic clinics were defined as practices rated either 4 or 5 by greater than 50% of clinic physicians. Forty of 112 MEMO clinics (36%) were chaotic. Compared with nonchaotic practices, these clinics served more minority and Medicaid patients and had a greater likelihood of clinic bottlenecks such as phone access (both p < .01). Physicians in chaotic clinics reported lower work control and job satisfaction, less emphasis on teamwork and professionalism, more stress and burnout, and a higher likelihood of leaving the practice within 2 years (all p < .05). Chaotic clinics had higher rates of medical errors and more missed opportunities to provide preventative services (both p < .05). More research should examine the effectiveness of organizational interventions to decrease chaos in the clinic and to mitigate its effects on patient safety.


The cause of low back pain in populations of professional drivers is uncertain. A literature review
revealed factors that seem to be associated with low back pain (e.g. physical factors: exposure to
whole body-vibration, prolonged sitting posture, frequent lifting, pushing and pulling, lack of physical
fitness; psychosocial factors: job satisfaction or stress; individual factors: age, gender,
anthropometrics, tobacco, alcohol consumption, etc.).
This thesis investigates the occurrence of back pain in professional car drivers – a group found to
be not focussed upon in previous epidemiological studies. The thesis seeks to advance
understanding of response relationships between risk factors and low back pain in populations of
car drivers (209 taxi drivers and 365 police drivers) and 485 non-drivers. A longitudinal study with
cross-sectional baseline combined with field measurement of driving in selected vehicles was
performed to investigate the occurrence of musculoskeletal problems (mainly low back pain) and
the relationship between risk factors and low back pain experienced for at least one day during the
past 12 months in the two populations of professional drivers (taxi drivers and police drivers) and
professional non-drivers.
The cross-sectional baseline of the longitudinal study revealed that 45% (38.3-51.7%) of taxi
drivers, 53% (48-58.6%)of police drivers and 46% (41-50.1%) of police non-drivers reported low
back pain for at least one day during the past 12-months (p = 0.09). The prevalence of low back
pain in the non-driving population of police employees fell within prevalence range reported by
professional car drivers in this study and in previous epidemiological studies. The cross-sectional
study revealed risk factors associated with the prevalence of low back pain (i.e., stature, previous
physical demands, increased psychosomatic distress, daily and cumulative driving in taxi drivers;
age, lifting, bending, increase psychosomatic distress in police drivers; stature, bending, increased
psychosomatic distress in police non-drivers).
Measurements of whole-body vibration in selected taxi and police vehicles revealed frequencyweighted
accelerations in the dominant vibration direction (i.e., z-axis) to be 0.47 ms-2 r.m.s. in taxi
vehicles and 0.58 ms-2 r.m.s. in police vehicles.
A study of cumulative exposure to whole-body vibration in a group of taxi drivers pointed to a
possible overestimation of their self-estimated duration of vibration exposure by 31% on average.
The longitudinal study revealed a lower incidence of low back pain in taxi drivers than in both
police drivers and police non-drivers (p = 0.02). The difference might be attributed to a different
approach to low back pain in taxi drivers who lose income if unable to work. An alternative
explanation for increased low back pain among police employees could be that taxi drivers with low
back pain leave their profession and were excluded from the follow-up study – a healthy worker
effect.
The longitudinal study revealed that increased psychosomatic distress was a risk factor
associated with the development of new episodes of low back pain in all three of the studied
populations (i.e. taxi drivers and police drivers and non-drivers).
In police drivers, increased daily duration of driving was a risk factor for the development of low
back pain. Although the results point to increased incidence of low back pain with increasing
duration of daily driving, non-drivers were at a similar risk of developing of low back pain. Plausible
explanations for this finding include ergonomic factors that were present for both the drivers and the
non-drivers (e.g., the duration of sitting or duration in a constrained posture) and the presence of
other risk factors not investigated in the study but associated with increased incidence of low back
pain in non-drivers.


Nutrition is a mature science with well established principles for energy, protein and mineral metabolism based on known metabolic pathways. The quantitative requirements are summarised within various international feeding standards and models. However, when these are applied to specific circumstances, especially in northern Australia, the response of the animal to nutrient supply does not always agree with that predicted from the feeding standards or the error of prediction is not sufficiently accurate for practical use. There is a need for the continual testing of these relationships within production systems. Molecular methods have the potential to discover new metabolic relationships within tissues and characterise the microbial ecology and its relationship to rumen function. Suitable problem models based on growth, meat quality, reproduction, milk and fibre production, and environmental consequences need to be identified. We suggest that production systems designed to meet market weight for age specifications, growth paths and compensatory growth, skeletal growth, parasites, fatty acid isomers, adaptation to low crude protein diets, rumen microbial ecology, epigenetics, remote data acquisition and animal management, greenhouse gas emission, and C balance of various production systems are important problem models, the research of which will benefit the future of the livestock industries in Australia.


The objective of this study was to obtain information on the the state of oral health as well as the need of dental treatment of children which were treated between the first of January 2002 and the 31th December of 2011 by dentists either by sedation, mask anesthesia or general anesthesia in the Department of Preventive Dentistry, Perio-dontology and Cariology of the University of Gottingen.
The present investigation is a retrospective study based on patients' records. The target parameters included the caries-index (DMF-Index), the body mass index (BMI), and the place of residence of the patients based on the indicated postcode. The inclusion criteria were that the children were under the age of 12 years and were dentally treated between the above-named period either by sedation, mask anesthe-sia or general anesthesia. As exclusion criteria were considered any physical or cog-nitive impairments, as well as serious mental illness. The clinical examination of pa-tients and the documentation of the diagnostic findings were undertaken by dentists. The general anesthesia (ITN) surgery book was used to capture patients' data.
Information such as age, body weight, BMI, gender etc. from 704 patient were grasped in data collection sheets.
The number of male subjects (59 %) were surpassing females (41 %). The overall average age was 3.6±1.9 years, the overall mean body weight was 17.4±6.2 kg and the average BMI was 16±2.8. On overall average, 17.3 % of the patients were un-derweight, 67.4 % had normal weight and 15.3 % were overweight. Overall, 26.3 % of the patients were from Gottingen, with 9,1 % lived in Grone. The dental treatment was performed to 81.8 % of patients in general anesthesia. Professional tooth clean-ing was carried out in 21.5 % of the children. The most common treatment measure was the tooth extraction with 4.8±3.6 extracted teeth per patient, followed by 3.8±2.9 one-surface, 3.1±2.6 four-surface , 2.1±1,5 two-surface and 1.8±1.4 three-surface fillings. Only 0.36±2.58 Stainless Crowns and 0.18 ± 0.65 Frasaco Strip Crowns were used on average per patient. Moreover, 0.18±0. 65 pulpotomies and 0.01±0.12 root canal treatments were carried out.
The mean dmf-t index of the children was 10±4.1 during the observation period of which 9.7 ± 4.1 teeth were carious (decayed), 2.6±1.9 teeth were missing and 2±1.2 teeth were filled. In addition, with 32.2±17.1 (36.5 % of the tooth surfaces) the dmf-s index proved to be very high. In this regard 31±16.6 tooth surfaces were decayed, 9.5±8.9 were missing and 3.9±4.8 were filled. In context with the relationship be-tween the degree of destruction of the primary dentition and the weight of the chil-dren, it could be shown that underweight children had a significantly higher m-s value (p=0.0362) than normal and overweight children.
To sum up, this study shows a correlation between underweight children and early childhood caries. Moreover, this study clearly confirmed that early dental prevention and also timely dental treatment continues to be of great importance in children. Pre-vention and education should also be promoted in recognized risk groups with high caries polarization (such as socially less advantaged population).
In addition, the dental treatment of children which are subjected to general anesthe-sia should be standardized to minimize inadequate treatment or error in treatment on the part of the dentist as well as to avoid additional intervention under general anes-thesia.


Detailed studies over the past decade have significantly extended and revised our knowledge of the geologic history of the well-known White Pine mining district of northern Michigan, and indicate that the location of faults exerted a strong control on copper mineralization in this part of the Midcontinent rift system. At White Pine there is evidence for three episodes of faulting: (1) synsedimentary faulting, (2) subsequent high-angle, dominantly normal faulting, and (3) thrusting. Two stages of copper mineralization are present at White Pine and in the nearby Presque Isle syncline. The first, main-stage mineralization, formed a classic sediment-hosted stratiform copper deposit during early diagenesis. Synsedimentary faults may have provided important conduits for cupriferous brines flowing from underlying red beds of the Copper Harbor Conglomerate into the reduced silts and shales of the Nonesuch Formation, where main-stage copper sulfides and native copper were precipitated. The second stage of copper mineralization was synchronous with thrusting and introduced additional copper to the White Pine ore body and the Presque Isle syndine. Thrust faults and cogenetic tear faults provided conduits for second-stage mineralizing fluids. Collectively, these observations indicate strong control by regional deformation on fluid migration and mineralization in the rocks of the Midcontinent rift, similar to proposed relations between deformation and mineralization in other tectonic settings.


Among the various psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia is considered to be associated with high level of stigma. The stigmatizing experience is not only limited to the patients but is also experienced by their close relatives. This article reviews the conceptual issues in understanding stigma, mainly in relation to schizophrenia. Further, this article reviews the existing literature in terms of extent and correlates of stigma experienced by patients with schizophrenia and their close relatives. Stigma experienced by the patients can be categorized as public stigma and personal stigma. The personal stigma is further understood as perceived stigma, experienced stigma, and self-stigma. Stigma experienced by caregivers of patients with mental illness is called associative or courtesy stigma and affiliate stigma. A number of tools have been developed for assessment of stigma among patients with mental illnesses and their close relatives. Depending on the type of instrument used to assess stigma, the prevalence of stigma among patients with schizophrenia varied from 6% to 87%. Much of the literature on stigma in the patients with schizophrenia is from developed countries. There is limited literature from India and majority from Southern and Central part of the country. Stigma associated with schizophrenia is highly prevalent across regions and varies according to different sociodemographic and clinical correlates. The experience of stigma among patients of schizophrenia is influenced by the type and severity of psychopathology, insight, coping, causal beliefs, depression, social support, self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-directness. Stigma influences medication compliance, quality of life, and social functioning. Research is scanty with regard to stigma perceived by caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Besides the caregiver variables, different patient variables uniquely modify the stigma experienced by the caregivers. Different interventions may reduce the stigma experienced by patients and their caregivers. Studies evaluating stigma experienced by patients with schizophrenia and their caregivers suggest that stigma is highly prevalent among patients and their relatives. Data on correlates of stigma are limited. There is a need for further research on stigma for a better understanding of the concept so as to find ways to reduce it and prevent its adverse consequences.


During the past 25 years, research in the field of business process management as well as the practical adoption of corresponding methods and tools have made substantial progress. In particular, this development was driven by the insight that well-managed business processes enable organizations to better serve their stakeholders, save costs and, ultimately, realize competitive advantage. It is therefore not surprising that improving business processes ranks high on the list of priorities of organizations. In practice, this challenge is currently being addressed through approaches such as benchmarking, industry-specific best practice reference models or process reengineering heuristics. However, no systematic and generic proposition towards managing business process quality has achieved broad acceptance yet.

To address this gap, this thesis contributes to the field of business process quality management with the results lined out in the following. First, it defines a concise notion of business process quality based on organizational targets, and applies it to a sample real-world case. This definition is not specific to any particular application field, and thus constitutes a vital first step towards systematic and generic business process quality management. On that basis, an approach is developed to model business objectives in the sense of the requirements that shall be fulfilled by the results of a business process. In turn, this approach enables appraising if a business process achieves its business objective as one of the core criteria relevant to business process quality. Further, this thesis proposes extensions to common business process meta-models which enable quality-aware business process modeling, and demonstrates how fundamental quality characteristics can be derived from corresponding models.

At this stage, the results achieved have enabled an advanced understanding of business process quality. By means of these insights, a model of business process quality attributes with corresponding quality criteria is developed. This model complements and exceeds preceding approaches since, for the first time, it systematically derives relevant quality attributes from a business process management perspective instead of adopting these from related fields. It enables appraising business process quality independently of a particular field of application,
and deriving recommendations to improve the processes assessed. To enable practical adoption of the concepts developed, the integration of procedures and functionality relevant to quality in business process management lifecycles and system landscapes is discussed next. To establish the contribution of this thesis beyond the previous state of the art, the proposed quality model is then compared to existing business process reengineering practices as well as propositions in the area of business process quality. Further, quality attributes are employed to improve a substantial real-world business process. This experience report demonstrates how quality management practices can be applied even if quality-aware system landscapes are not in place yet. It thus contributes to bridging the gap between the research results proposed in this thesis and the conditions present in practice today. Finally, remaining limitations with regard to the research objectives pursued are discussed, and challenges for future research are lined out. Addressing the latter will enable further leveraging the potentials of business process quality management.


Sentinel-1A (S1A) is an Earth observation satellite carrying a state-of-the-art Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging instrument. It was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on 3 April 2014. With the end of the in-orbit commissioning phase having been completed at the end of September 2014, S1A data products are already consistently providing highly accurate geolocation. StripMap (SM) mode products were acquired regularly and tested for geolocation accuracy and consistency during dedicated corner reflector (CR) campaigns. At the completion of this phase, small geometric inconsistencies had been understood and mitigated, with the high quality of the final product geolocation estimates reflecting the mission's success thus far. This paper describes the measurement campaign, the methods used during geolocation estimation, and presents best estimates of the product Absolute Location Error (ALE) available at the beginning of S1A's operational phase.


'Doctrine', from the legal point of view, is often understood, in France at least, as a collection of works. For example, Le Petit Robert defines it as 'the entirety of legal works whose aim is to expound or interpret the law (as opposed to legislation and judicial decisions)'. This definition is not erroneous, but it only captures one aspect of the matter. If doctrine were only a collection of works, it would be nothing more than a university or law court library. However, it is clearly much more than that. Likewise, it is clear that poetry cannot simply be reduced to a huge collection comprising the works of all French poets. Beyond the production of doctrine (or poetry) lie the workings of doctrine (or poetry), that is to say the persons who devote themselves to it. It is at this point that one encounters other meanings of the term.


Carbon-based nanomaterials (CNMs) have attracted great attention in biomedical applications such as cancer imaging and therapy. CNMs, which are currently used in a wide range of applications, suffer from drawbacks of toxicity and low biocompatibility. Either noncovalent or covalent functionalization of CNMs with hydrophilic and biocompatible polymers which help to block hydrophobic interactivity between CNMs and cells can greatly increase their biocompatibility by eliminating their probable toxicity towards living organisms. In this report, we present a comparison of both noncovalent and covalent functionalization approaches in order to introduce a biocompatible glycoblock copolymer onto multi-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in order to enhance their potential in therapies. An anticancer drug (doxorubicin, Dox) was conjugated with two different end functionalized poly(1-O-methacryloyl-β-d-fructopyranose-b-(2-methacryloxyethoxy))benzaldehyde glycoblock copolymers, which were synthesized via reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization, by either noncovalent or covalent tethering. CNTs were coated separately with the synthesized drug-conjugated glycoblock copolymers and folic acid (FA) to obtain an efficient drug delivery platform for dual-targeting of glucose transporter protein (GLUT5) and folic acid receptors (FR) in breast cancer. A library of synthesized monomers, polymers and prepared glycoblock copolymer coated CNTs (hybrid-CNTs) using both approaches were comprehensively characterized by various techniques. Transmission electron microscopy measurements showed the homogeneous, smooth morphology of the prepared Dox-conjugated glycoblock copolymer coating of CNTs and confocal laser scanning microscopy images displayed successful cellular internalization of hybrid-CNTs in the MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cell lines. This research demonstrates the potential of hybrid-CNTs as a biocompatible drug delivery system as well as in vitro use of Dox-conjugated vehicles for dual receptor mediated breast cancer therapy.


Emotion exerts great impacts on memory. For instance, negative emotions can enhance memory encoding or reduce retrieval-induced forgetting. In addition, congruent mood states between encoding and retrieval (e.g., negative emotions at both stages) can also improve memory performance relative to incongruent mood states (e.g., negative emotion in encoding, but positive encoding in retrieval). However, it is unclear whether mood congruency between memory retrieval and encoding increases the probability of successful retrieval or enhance the quality of retrieved memory representations. The current study directly tested these two hypotheses using a visual long-term memory recall task. In the study phase, participants remembered a sequence of colorful objects. Each object was presented on top of a gray-scale negative image from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS). Participants gave a valence rating for each IAPS image for emotion induction. In the test phase, participants reconstructed the colors of the previously studied objects by continuously adjusting their colors under negative or positive emotional contexts using the same emotion induction procedure as that from the study phase. Negative IAPS images used for the negative emotional context were different from, but with matched valence as, those in the study phase. Positive images for the positive emotional context had comparable arousal levels as negative images. We found that memories encoded in negative context but retrieved in positive context (the incongruent condition) were less precise than memories encoded and retrieved both in negative context (the congruent condition). In contrast, no significant difference in the probability of successful retrieval was found between the two conditions. Follow-up experiments ruled out alternative interpretations that either negative emotion or positive emotion at the retrieval alone could account for the memory quality effects observed in the first experiment. Taken together, the present results support a resolution account for mood-congruency memory effect. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2015.


I have attempted to find out what was of significance in the sphere of religion in Charlotte Bronte's life and thought. For information on this I have concentrated on a study of her better known novels, her letters and the contacts she had through family and friends.

Naturally of importance was her up-bringing in an Evangelical Anglican household. But at the same time, she had a father, who though orthodox in his theology was unorthodox in his views on child-rearing. The mental freedom this gave her was important. Her education, though far from conventional, was such as stimulated and invigorated her imagination. Her natural inclination and independence of thought, , enabled her to use this freedom.

Her letters are revealing of a person capable of passionate feelings and strong emotions. But these she was only able to give open expression to in her novels. This was undoubtedly what contributed to their lasting appeal.

In delving into these personal responses it has been possible to throw an interesting light on religious thinking in sections of nineteenth-century church life, particularly on the contentions and divergencies within the EvangeIical and Catholic wings of the Anglican church

This has in turn shown how, leading an isolated life in an isolated part of the world does not exclude Charlotte Bronte from absorbing and reflecting currents of religious thought that were strong at that time. To give background to all this, it seemed helpful to introduce the whole subject by a brief outline of what those main strands of thought were, both Protestant and Catholic. This, in turn, led to a consideration of the changes that had taken place during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries not only in Anglicanism, but in Catholicism and Methodism.

In summing up, it was interesting to trace Charlotte Bronte's changmg attitudes; how she responded to new ideas and controversies as her literary reputation grew and her horizons expanded.

What remains after all this sifting of ideas is the conviction that over and above all the outside influences there is always the indefinable factor, the spark of genius.


To survive in a world of change (which is always changing), we must develop our intelligence, to quickly learn to construct models to understand processes and their effects, long or short term, close or distant to us in space, and if possible, to dominate them, that is, predict and control them. Accepting the hypothesis that intelligence is the capacity to construct, and rapidly modify, a coherent system of effective models which contain meaning for understanding the world's dynamics and developing effective behavior aimed at survival, this theoretical study will suggest the guidelines for learning and quickly constructing graphic models to understand, and to a certain sense dominate, the dynamics that characterize our existence. This paper will present the main ideas of Senge (2006) on Systems Thinking, which is considered not only as a technique but primarily as a discipline for efficient and effective thinking, learning, communicating and explaining with regard to the dynamics of our world. The title of the paper reveals that the proposed models derive from the logic and techniques of Systems Thinking, which provides Senge's personal interpretation—and one that, in many respects, is innovative—refining not only the concepts but also the techniques for constructing models of systems dynamics (that is, the Causal Loop Diagrams) utilizing the graphical tool of "arrows" to connect the variables to be represented and to identify their direction and sense of variation. There is no limit to the complexity that can be represented with the graphic models of Systems Thinking, which is why Senge was able to state that: "Give me an arrow (a causal relationship and a sufficient power of variation) and I will construct a 'world' for you; not a real world, of course, but a structural map of part of it" (Senge, 2006: 3).


A general family of scalar structured Gaussian beams naturally emerges from a consideration of families of rays. These ray families, with the property that their transverse profile is invariant upon propagation (except for a global rescaling), have two parameters, the first giving a position on an ellipse naturally represented by a point on a ray-family analog of the Poincaré sphere (familiar from polarization optics), and the other determining the position of a curve traced out on this Poincaré sphere. This construction naturally accounts for the well-known families of Gaussian beams, including Hermite – Gaussian, Laguerre – Gaussian, and generalized Hermite – Laguerre – Gaussian beams, but is far more general, opening the door for the design of a large variety of propagation-invariant beams. This ray-based description also provides a simple explanation for many aspects of these beams, such as " self-healing " and the Gouy and Pancharatnam – Berry phases. Further, through a conformal mapping between a projection of the Poincaré sphere and the physical space of the transverse plane of a Gaussian beam, the otherwise hidden geometric rules behind the beam ' s intensity distribution are revealed. While the treatment is based on rays, a simple prescription is given for recovering exact solutions to the paraxial wave equation corresponding to these rays.


A system of formal private property rights is a network of offices through which states can allocate responsibility to individuals on a mass scale for a wide variety of tasks, including some of the state's core governance functions. A system of property rights do not straightforwardly constrain the state; in some contexts, they enhance state power, too. Because many of the state's core governance functions are territorially defined (such as the maintenance of peace and order within the territory, defense of the territory from external threats, and the provision of infrastructure), this phenomenon appears most clearly in the case of private property rights in land. A network of landowners is a useful (and sometimes crucial) tool that enables a state to govern locally in the farthest reaches of its territory, even when it lacks the capacity or will to use other more formal tools for governance, such as governing by bureaucracy or licence. Thus, it is useful to think of the state's power to define property rights in a manner that includes the obligation to carry out core state governance functions as itself a mode of governance. I call this "governing through owners." This model of state-owner relations emerges from two important conceptual starting points: first, the nature of ownership as an office through which the state assigns burdens; and second, what I call the "survival conditions" of a territorially defined state, namely, the establishment of basic governmental functions throughout its territory.


George Orwell was an inveterate keeper of diaries. "The Orwell Diaries" presents eleven of them, covering the period 1931-1949, and follows Orwell from his early years as a writer to his last literary notebook. An entry from 1931 tells of a communal shave in the Trafalgar Square fountains, while notes from his travels through industrial England show the development of the impassioned social commentator. This same acute power of observation is evident in his diaries from Morocco, as well as at home, where his domestic diaries chart the progress of his garden and animals with a keen eye; the wartime diaries, from descriptions of events overseas to the daily violence closer to home, describe astutely his perspective on the politics of both, and provide a new and entirely refreshing insight into Orwell's character and his great works.


The GISP deep drill became stuck in 1981, but was free the following year. The NGRIP/EPICA deep drill has suffered from two big setbacks: The drill is stuck both at NGRIP in Greenland and at Dome C in Antarctica. Both events occured in a period with routine drilling and high productivity. The two reasons for the two events are believed to be different, but the chosen bore-hole liquid seems to be problematic. The densifier can adhere to the surface of the ice cuttings, making fine cuttings to sink in the liquid, in spite of a liquid density of 935 kg/m**3. In spite of changed procedures and modified constructions, the drill became stuck again at NGRIP. It was freed using glycol, making use of both the temperature and temparature gradient in the hole.


Ord/Fildes PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING, 1E gives users the tools and insight to make the most effective forecasts drawing on the latest research ideas. Ord and Fildes have designed PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS FORECASTING for users who have taken a first course in applied statistics or who have an equivalent background. Whether used by students or current practitioners, this book provides an introduction to both standard and advanced forecasting methods and their underlying models, and also includes general principles to guide and simplify forecasting practice. A key strength of the book is its emphasis on real data sets, taken from government and business sources and used in each chapter's examples. Forecasting techniques are demonstrated using a variety of software platforms and the companion website provides easy-to-use Excel macros to support the basic methods. After the introductory chapters, the focus shifts to using extrapolative methods (exponential smoothing and ARIMA) and then to statistical model-building using multiple regression. In later chapters, the authors cover more novel techniques such as data mining and judgmental methods, and also examine organizational issues of implementation and the development of a forecasting support system within an organization.


The development of a specific antibody for cancer therapy could enable a potent strategy for overcoming cancer. As ideal immunotherapy, a human monoclonal antibody (HuMoAb) might have a useful antitumor effect without any lethal toxicities. Thirty-six unique clones producing HuMoAbs were successfully developed using tumor infiltrating lymphocytes collected from 28 patients with several malignant solid tumors. The 36 tumor-specific immunoglobins were found among 9,450 clones after 43 fusions by the conventional hybridoma method. Among these 36 HuMoAbs, 9 had a remarkable tumor-specific reaction and no reaction with normal tissues, as determined with quantum dots-streptavidin and a fluorescence microscope. The inhibition of cell proliferation by the HuMoAbs was evaluated with the MTT assay. Over 40% cell growth inhibition was confirmed with 4 of the 36 HuMoAbs. Two of the antibodies had highly-specific reactivity to carcinomatous lesions with strong growth inhibition and up to 94.3% inhibition of the control growth. In conclusion, 36 clones with HuMoAbs that have specific reactions with cancer cells were successfully established. These HuMoAbs might be utilized as either anticancer or drug delivery agents.


There is a growing need for compact, efficient integrated waveguide optical amplifiers for use in optoelectronic communication. Zn/sub 2/Si/sub 0.5/Ge/sub 0.5/O/sub 4/ (ZSG) doped with Er (ZSG-Er) is a promising new host material due to the high concentration of Er that can be incorporated and the high optical activity of the incorporated Er. In this paper, the absorption and emission cross sections of Er in ZSG-Er (to the authors' knowledge, for the first time) are measured both through photoluminescence spectra and direct gain and absorption measurements. Peak absorption and emission cross sections are about 3/spl times/10/sup -24/ m/sup 2/ from a Landenburg-Fuchtbauer analysis of the photoluminescence spectra, comparable to measurements on other oxide-based glass amplifiers. The population statistics of the excited Er level, along with the excited-state lifetime, are determined through a novel frequency-domain method in which the spontaneous emission power at 1550 nm is measured as a function of frequency under a modulated 980-nm input. The determined lifetime of 2 ms is comparable to the 2.3 ms measured using a conventional pump-probe technique. The novel analysis technique yields the population statistics of the excited Er atoms and the lifetime of the excited Er state under given pumping conditions independent of the unknown and variable coupling in and out of the waveguide. This method predicts zero net gain at 70 mW, about what is observed. Comparison of calculated gain and absorption based on Er density and measured cross sections with measured gains suggest that only about 20%-30% of the Er in the material is optically active. A 4.7-cm-long sample demonstrated a signal enhancement of /spl sim/13dB. Cavity characteristics were measured using an analysis of coherent reflection under no pumping. The facet reflectivity was determined to be 0.27, and the scattering/absorption loss was 1.05/cm, for a total distributed loss of 1.65/cm in a 4-cm cavity. These losses, compared with an estimated achievable gain of 0.25/cm under full inversion, suggest that optically pumped lasing at this concentration is not possible. Measurements of both the cross sections and population statistics, compared with actual gain and absorption properties, give insight into the contribution of the Er dopant under different conditions and can be used to model and improve rare-earth-based amplifiers.


Managing semester-long project assignments is not always an easy task since teachers need to keep track of many elements of the project that will reflect in a proper assessment of the students' work. Integrating an LMS into the educational process and therefore to assign, track, and assess the project may add to the complication, this can be very challenging and especially when students work in groups. Students expect support and guidance from teachers in all stages of the project. In turn, teachers should have access to vital information. Only then, the support will be effective and timely at these critical decision-making points. Learning Management Systems (LMS) tools support effective teaching and learning using various features. In this paper, an approach is proposed to help teachers manage the project assignment by taking advantage of existing tool features provided by a commercial LMS. From the start of the project till the end, the approach fully supports the teacher's decision-making and the support students by helping them keep up with schedule, timeline, deliverables and important instructions related to their collaborative work. This approach has been implemented for many semesters and it has received very positive feedback from teachers and students as well. This approach can save time, increase the evaluation process e and can streamline the various processes involved in a typical project assignment.


(01/01/2019)  Evaluation of wind flow with a nacelle-mounted, continuous wave wind lidar Nacelle-mounted lidar is becoming widely recognized as a tool with potential for assessing power curves, understanding wind flow characteristics, and controlling turbines. As rotor diameters continue to increase, and the deployment of turbines in complex terrain becomes more widespread, knowledge of the characteristics of the incident wind field beyond the mean speed and direction at hub height become essential, for example, in the calculation of rotor-equivalent power curves. A scanned, continuous wave lidar can provide a wealth of such information. This paper evaluates data collected from a ZephIR DM lidar mounted on the nacelle of a 550 kW turbine at the Risø campus of the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Lidar measurements of wind speed and turbulence were compared against those made by anemometers on a high-quality traditional mast. Analysis showed excellent correlation between mast and ZephIR, increasing the confidence in the ZephIR for measuring wind parameters in this configuration. SCADA data from the turbine was combined with measured wind speeds and directions to derive power curves from the mast data (hub-height) and from ZephIR data (hub-height and rotor-equivalent). The rotor-equivalent power curves were derived in accordance with the procedure detailed in the February 2013 draft of the IEC Guidelines and accounted for the effects of varying air density, shear, veer and turbulence. Once again, the ZephIR and the mast were shown to give very similar results. It is believed that this is the first time that a commercially available nacelle-mounted lidar has been used to evaluate such rotor-equivalent power curves.


INTRODUCTION: Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways punctuated by acute exacerbations. Coagulation and fibrinolysis pathways are increasingly recognised in the asthmatic inflammatory milieu and markers of fibrin turnover represent potential asthma biomarkers targets. A biomarker in plasma or urine predicting exacerbation could enable early intervention to attenuate or prevent exacerbation.

STUDY DESIGN: A study in 2 parts comparing exacerbation and stable asthma was performed. Part 1 compared adults with exacerbations requiring hospital treatment to clinical recovery. Part 2 prospectively followed a cohort of adult moderate to severe asthmatics when well until exacerbation and through to clinical recovery.

METHODS: Plasma was analysed by ELISA for markers of fibrin turnover alongside inflammatory and cellular markers, and comparison was made between exacerbation and recovery. Urine was analysed by latex agglutination for fibrin(ogen) degradation products (FDPs). Symptoms were recorded and a score was derived to distinguish asthma exacerbation from baseline and recovery states. Comparison was made between exacerbation and recovery using multivariate statistical analysis.

KEY FINDINGS: Prospectively, the detection of FDP in urine significantly increased the likelihood of subsequent asthma exacerbation in the following 7-14 days between 4 and 6 times that of a negative urine FDP test. FDP +7 days (OR 4.35 (95% CI 1.12, 16.9) p=0.03), FDP +10 days (OR 5.50 (95% CI 1.38, 21.9) p=0.02), FDP +14 days (OR 6.07 (95% CI 1.43, 25.8) p=0.02). Plasma D-dimer was significantly increased from baseline to exacerbation (median 0.07 μgFEU/ml (95% CI -0.01, 0.15) p=0.02). Plasma eosinophils (median 10*9/l (95% CI 0.10, 0.29) p=0.02) and eotaxin (median 12 pg/ml (95% CI 3, 22) p<0.001) increased significantly from exacerbation to recovery, and PF4 significantly increased from exacerbation to follow up (median 9 μg/ml (95 % CI 2, 17), p=0.002). Positive correlations were observed at exacerbation between eosinophils and eotaxin (p<0.001), platelets and PF4 (p=0.02) and platelets and eosinophils (p=0.01). Clinical symptoms and reliever use increased in the 10 days preceding exacerbation and reduced during recovery (p<0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest study to date examining coagulation and fibrinolysis in acute exacerbation of asthma. Detection of urine FDP in moderate to severe asthma suggests up to 6-fold increased exacerbation risk in the subsequent 14 days. The potential to translate these findings into a point-of-care test for use by patients at home warrants further study. Positive correlations between eosinophils, eotaxin, platelets and platelet factor 4 (PF4) alongside increased PF4, eosinophils and eotaxin in plasma after a period of recovery and treatment support eosinophil and platelet migration into the lung during asthma exacerbation. The symptom score used in this study provides a simple objective measure of asthma exacerbation for use in future research or clinical practice but requires prospective validation.


A revised key to the subfamilies, tribes and subtribes of the Cetoniidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) is presented. Comments are given on the classification implied by the key, which includes several redefinitions. All the known genera (ca. 510) are listed under their tribe or subtribe, the position of several being different from that in Schenkling's catalogues (1921, 1922). References to recent synoptic literature are given. Eighteen new subtribes are proposed, the majority in the tribe Cremastocheilini. One new tribe is proposed, the Platygeniini. Attention is drawn to various new and neglected synonymies, original spellings, and other nomenclatural matters regarding family-group and genus-group names. The position of many genera is briefly discussed. Some striking features of the biogeography of the Cetoniidae are discussed, such as the high generic endemicity for the major biogeographical regions (for the Madagascan, Afrotropical and Australasian regions ca. 90% or more).


Processes of socio-economic restructuring result in reshaping cities and affect all aspects of urban life all over the world. One effect of such processes is urban decline which may be defined as "the relative under-performance of many local urban economies and the resulting mix of economic, social, physical, and environmental exclusion, which often appears to be self-sustaining in the absence of external intervention". The urban decline, because of spatial concentration, leads to the creation, continuation, and intensification of deteriorated neighbourhoods. In Iran, deterioration of some urban neighbourhoods can be considered as the consequence of contemporary socio-economic transitions. The consequences of urban deterioration are the disequilibrium of main functions in the neighbourhood, the concentration of unstable buildings, lack of public services, and unbalance between driving paths and pavements. The result is the lack of equilibrium, balance, and sustainability in the deteriorated neighbourhoods. The issue of neighbourhood sustainability can be considered from physical, functional, environmental, and social aspects. This paper put an emphasis on the equilibrium and balance between different functions and defines the criteria and indices of a sustainable neighbourhood from functional aspect. To this end, the content of literature is reviewed; then, the status quo of the deteriorated neighbourhoods of Tehran (in relation to the defined indices) is analysed; and finally, the required policy readjustments to enhance functional sustainability in these neighbourhoods is proposed.


The lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in the cells varies according to the metabolism. Increased levels of serum LDH is due to necrosis of cells and can be used as a biochemical marker in diagnosis of various cancers. Similarly increased LDH levels in saliva may be due to death of epithelium lining the oral cavity. We measured and compared the serum LDH levels with salivary LDH in patients with oral leukoplakia and oral squamous cell carcinoma. We also correlated the levels of salivary LDH with the histological differentiation of the tumor and compared there levels before and after surgery. In oral leukoplakia the increased in serum LDH levels is almost double compared to salivary LD. However, serum and salivary LDH levels are almost same in oral squamous cell carcinoma. Poorer the differentiation of OSCC higher the salivary LDH levels. These values were seen to revert back to almost normal levels after surgical excision of the tumor. Salivary LDH estimation is simple and non invasive can be used as a biochemical marker in diagnosis and prognosis of SCC.


ORGANIZATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS IN ENTREPRENEURIAL AND PROFESSIONALLY MANAGED FIRMS Entrepreneurs, professional managers, and business researchers have paid a great deal of attention to the issue of organizational effectiveness, particularly in recent years. The popularity of books such as In Search of Excellence, A Passion for Excellence, and Theory Z attests to the widespread interest in this topic. A recurring theme of these books is the notion that organizations can improve their effectiveness by becoming more "entrepreneurial.' Rarely, however, do these books recognize that the criteria for organizational effectiveness in entrepreneurial firms may not be applicable to larger firms at subsequent states of development. A growing body of literature indicates quite clearly that the criteria for organizational effectiveness do vary with different states of organizational growth.1 1 For example, see F. E. Quinn and K. Cameron, "Organizational Life Cycles and Shifting Criteria of Effectiveness: Some Preliminary Evidence,' Management Science (February 1983), pp. 33-51. Also see K. S. Cameron and D. A. Whetton, "Perceptions of Organizational Effectiveness over Organizational Life Cycles,' Administrative Science Quarterly (December 1981), pp. 525-544; and R. B. Robinson, et al., "The Relationship Between Stage of Development and Small Firm Planning and Performance,' Journal of Small Business Management (April 1984), pp. 45-52. This article reports the results of an exploratory study of how the criteria for organizational effectiveness vary with different stages of organizational growth and development. This subject should be of interest to both entrepreneurs attempting to plan for the growth of their organizations and professional managers seeking to make their organizations more entrepreneurial. In this study, the effectiveness criteria employed by entrepreneurs from small start-up firms in their initial stages of growth are compared to those employed by professional managers from both high-growth firms and more mature firms experiencing decline. The criteria for effectiveness were operationalized by gathering information from entrepreneurs and professional managers on their ten key prescriptions for effective management. SAMPLE AND METHOD Management researchers have long recognized the importance of the stages of organizational growth.2 In 1959, Mason Haire, an organizational psychologist, developed the hypothesis that an organization follows a definite and predictable pattern of growth similar to that followed by individuals.3 Since then, a large number of stage models of organizational growth have been constructed and tested. 2 James Mooney and Alan Reilly, Onward Industry! (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1931). 3 Mason Haire, "Biological Models and Empirical History of the Growth of Organizations,' in Modern Organizational Theory, ed. M. Haire (New York: Wiley, 1959). The most common model describes three stages of organizational growth: the start-up, or initial entrepreneurial stage; high growth; and maturity. All of the well-known stage models were reviewed for this study and a three-stage model was operationalized in order to classify each participating firm by growth stage (see table 1). The method underlying this classification system has been reported elsewhere.4 4 K. G. Smith, T. R. Mitchell, and C. E. Summer, "Top Level Management Priorities in Different Stages of the Organizational Life Cycle,' Academy of Management Journal (December 1985), p. 799-820. Thirty-one entrepreneurs and professional managers from 27 firms participated in this study. The subjects were interviewed and completed a questionnaire (in the presence of the first author) which was designed to assess each organization's stage of growth and the "ten commandments' or prescriptions for effectiveness used by each entrepreneur/professional manager. …


—A new algorithm called Rapid Association Rule Mining (RARM) is proposed to further push the speed barrier so that association rule mining can be performed more efficiently in electronic commerce. To achieve large speed-ups even at low support, thresholds, RARM constructs a new data structure called Support-Ordered Trie Item set (SOTrieIT). This trie-like tree structure stores the support counts of all 1-itemsets and 2-itemsets in the database. RARM uses SOTrieIT to quickly discover large 1-itemsets and 2-itemsets without scanning the database. The need to generate candidate 1-itemsets and 2-itemsets constitutes the main bottleneck in large item set generation. Therefore, by eliminating this step, RARM achieves significant speed-ups even though subsequently, it also applies the Apriori algorithm to obtain larger-sized item sets.


Habitat loss and degradation of wetland ecosystems, principally through large-scale drainage and conversion to arable farmland, have been implicated in the widespread, dramatic declines of breeding waders across Europe. Managing the remaining wetlands to reverse these declines will require a detailed understanding of their habitat requirements. In the UK, grazing marshes are key components of the remaining wetlands in both coastal and inland sites, and the structure of grazing marsh habitat can differ between these locations. Redshank Tringa totanus is a declining wader species that breeds in both marsh types. We quantified the habitat features that influence redshank selection of breeding and nest site locations, across coastal and inland marshes, in eastern England. On both marsh types, breeding location and breeding densities within fields were positively related to the lengths of pool edge and all wet features, respectively. Nest site location was principally influenced by vegetation characteristics, with soil penetrability also important on inland sites but proximity to wet features and vegetation type at the nest important on coastal sites. Hatching probability was higher when the surrounding soils were more penetrable. Synthesis and applications. The wet features of critical importance for breeding redshank are common on coastal marshes and can be deliberately established on inland sites. Coastal marshes are often rare and frequently threatened by dynamic coastal processes, whereas inland marshes are more abundant but largely unsuitable for breeding waders at present. These analyses highlight the scope for improving the management of inland marshes for breeding redshank. As habitat suitable for breeding redshank frequently supports a range of other wader species, this information can also direct management efforts to improve breeding wader populations in the wider countryside.


The benefits of microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are addressed, including increased power density, rapid start-up, and cycling performance. Several international developments are discussed, especially small portable applications, which demand fast start and multiple cycles. Extrusion is the main method for making microtubular SOFCs because improved structure and properties can result from better mixing of the component particles and coextrusion can integrate several cell components in one process step. When the tubes are <3 mm in diameter, it is shown that the power density and thermal shock resistance are much increased, with start-up in a few seconds rather than hours for planar designs, as demonstrated in a single-cell hand-held system running on butane. The problems of cycling, both thermal and redox, are then considered in detail. Thermal cycling degradation follows a fatigue curve whereas redox damage is linear with the number of cycles. New results are presented on thermal and redox cycling performance.


We analyse how strategic competition between a green firm and a brown competitor develops when their products are differentiated along two dimensions: hedonic quality and environmental quality. The former dimension refers to the pure (intrinsic) performance of the good, whereas the latter dimension has a positional content: buying green goods satisfies the consumers' desire to be socially worthy citizens. Product variants thus comply at different levels with "green" social norms. Consumer preferences depend on a combination of hedonic quality and compliance with social norms. Assuming that the high hedonic quality variant complies less with these norms than the low hedonic quality variant, we characterize different equilibrium configurations which appear as a result of both the intensity of such norms and the willingness to pay for the hedonic quality. Afterwards, we discuss the policy implications of our analysis.


Background : Milk thistle ecotypes have drug and nutritional value. Ecological and agronomical needs should be recognized and were selected for cultivation. The aim of this study was comparison of Milk thistle ecotypes for feeding and pharmacy value in order to selection and cultivation in Bushehr province. Materials and Methods: Field study was carried out in a randomized complete design with three ecotype (in four replication) in growing season of 2012-13 at the research farm of Persian Gulf University (Borazjan campus). Morphological and phytochemical traits were measured. Oil content and methanol extract were prepared by Soxhelt extraction and maceration method respectively; Fatty acid profile and total Sylimarin were analyzed by GC and rotary evaporator devices. Data was analyzed by ANOVA and DMRT test methods. Results: Morphological and yield related traits, fatty acids and total Sylimarin had statistically significant different, but oil content was not significant (P≤ 0.01). Highest seed yields, total sylimarin (6.5 %) and oil content (25.5 %), were related to Ecotype no. 2, selected population and ecotype no. 1 and 2 ecotypes respectively. Saturated fatty acid: Unsaturated Fatty acid ratio in selected population and ecotypes were measured 3.32 % and 3.99 % respectively. Conclusion: Results showed significant differences between Morphological and phytochemical traits in three ecotypes. Maximum yield (1417 kg ha -1 ), oil percentage (354 kg ha -1 ) and lowest total sylimarin were related to Ecotype no. 2. These ecotypes can be selected and cultivated for commercial propose in Bushehr province.


Abstract : This thesis is a study of the technology adoption chain on implementing LED lights on Navy ships and to determine if there is any disparity between stakeholders' Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) perspectives. It also analyzes the soft sell items that were not considered in the first CBA conducted for the Navy. The full-time equivalent sailor was determined to provide another perspective of how many sailors it actually takes to change a light bulb given a set of variables through the course of a year. The number of full-time equivalent sailors provides an opportunity cost of how many sailors a year each ship will employ only changing one type of light bulb in a given year.


We report on the first search for atmospheric and for diffuse astrophysical neutrino-induced showers (cascades) in the IceCube detector using 257 days of data collected in the year 2007-2008 with 22 strings active. A total of 14 events with energies above 16 TeV remained after event selections in the diffuse analysis, with an expected total background contribution of 8.3 +/- 3.6. At 90% confidence we set an upper limit of E-2 Phi(90%CL) < 3.6 x 10(-7) GeV.cm(-2).s(-1).sr(-1) on the diffuse flux of neutrinos of all flavors in the energy range between 24 TeV and 6.6 PeV assuming that Phi proportional to E-2 and the flavor composition of the nu(e):nu(mu):nu(tau) flux is 1:1:1 at the Earth. The atmospheric neutrino analysis was optimized for lower energies. A total of 12 events were observed with energies above 5 TeV. The observed number of events is consistent with the expected background, within the uncertainties.


With the growth in geographic scale of land seismic exploration, increasingly complex near-surface modeling capabilities are being employed for static corrections in data processing. Variations in subsurface properties can be detected by gravity and electromagnetic measurements. The principles of complementarity and of noncontradiction are employed to integrate the diverse sources of information in a cooperative or simultaneous joint inversion formalism. In common practice, geophysical methods are subject to equivalency in solution. Also, inversions of first breaks are based on the user's interpretation of early arrivals, and, therefore, they are exposed to systematic errors, especially if picking is automated as for large 3D data sets. In such circumstances, it is desirable to avoid overfitting of observations in inversion. Velocity models developed through a multiphysics approach do not suffer from velocity-depth ambiguity and provide a shallow model that is well protected from the influence of inaccura...