Abstract. Reconstructing the opening of the Labrador Sea and Baffin Bay between Greenland and North America remains controversial. Recent seismic data suggest that magnetic lineations along the margins of the Labrador Sea, originally interpreted as seafloor spreading anomalies, may lie within the crust of the continent–ocean transition. These data also suggest a more seaward extent of continental crust within the Greenland margin near Davis Strait than assumed in previous full-fit reconstructions. Our study focuses on reconstructing the full-fit configuration of Greenland and North America using an approach that considers continental deformation in a quantitative manner. We use gravity inversion to map crustal thickness across the conjugate margins, and assimilate observations from available seismic profiles and potential field data to constrain the likely extent of different crustal types. We derive end-member continental margin restorations following alternative interpretations of published seismic profiles. The boundaries between continental and oceanic crust (COB) are restored to their pre-stretching locations along small circle motion paths across the region of Cretaceous extension. Restored COBs are fitted quantitatively to compute alternative total-fit reconstructions. A preferred full-fit model is chosen based on the strongest compatibility with geological and geophysical data. Our preferred model suggests that (i) the COB lies oceanward of magnetic lineations interpreted as magnetic anomaly 31 (70 Ma) in the Labrador Sea, (ii) all previously identified magnetic lineations landward of anomaly 27 reflect intrusions into continental crust and (iii) the Ungava fault zone in Davis Strait acted as a leaky transform fault during rifting. This robust plate reconstruction reduces gaps and overlaps in Davis Strait and suggests that there is no need for alternative models proposed for reconstructions of this area including additional plate boundaries in North America or Greenland. Our favoured model implies that break-up and formation of continent–ocean transition (COT) first started in the southern Labrador Sea and Davis Strait around 88 Ma and then propagated north and southwards up to the onset of real seafloor spreading at 63 Ma in the Labrador Sea. In Baffin Bay, continental stretching lasted longer and actual break-up and seafloor spreading started around 61 Ma (chron 26).


Equal access to resources is fundamental to meaningful legal representation, yet for decades, equality arguments have been ignored in litigating indigent defense reform. At a time when underfunded indigent defense systems across the country are failing to provide indigent defendants with adequate representation, the question of resources is even more critical. Traditionally, advocates seeking indigent defense reform have relied on Sixth Amendment arguments to protect the rights of indigents in this context; however, the Sixth Amendment approach suffers from a number of shortcomings that have made it a poor tool for systemic reform, including its exclusive focus on attorney performance and its inability to directly address issues of underfunding or to prospectively set substantive standards for indigent defense representation. This Article argues that the reincorporation of equality principles - rooted in the fundamental right of access to the courts - into indigent defense reform can address some of the doctrinal gaps left by the more traditional Sixth Amendment approach and provide a conceptual framework that targets the root causes of systemic indigent defense failures. An approach grounded in equal access and not solely on the vindication of the right to counsel allows reformers to: attack issues of resource allocation directly without filtering them through the lens of attorney conduct, reach resource inequities beyond the provision of counsel, prospectively define substantive elements of a meaningful defense, and clear a more direct path to necessary normative judgments about what those elements must be. The choice to reclaim equality as a basis for indigent defense reform recognizes that unequal access to resources precludes the enforcement of substantive rights and forces a decision between the commitment to access for justice to all or only for those who can afford it.


The therapeutic goal for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is HBs antigen (HBsAg) seroclearance, which is achieved through 48-week pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) therapy. This study aimed to identify predictive biomarkers for sustained HBsAg reduction by analyzing serum microRNAs. Twenty-two consecutive chronic HBV infection patients negative for HBe antigen (HBeAg) with HBV-DNA levels <5 log copies/mL, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) <100 U/L, and compensated liver functions, were enrolled. The patients were subcutaneously injected with Peg-IFNα-2a weekly for 48 weeks (treatment period), followed by the 48-week observation period. HBsAg 1-log drop relative to baseline levels recorded at the end of the observation period was considered effective. Sera were obtained at weeks 0 and 24 during the treatment period analyzed for microRNAs. The microRNA (miRNA) antiviral activity was evaluated in vitro using Huh7/sodium taurocholate cotransporting polypeptide (NTCP) cells. As a result, six patients achieved the HBsAg 1-log drop after the observation periods. Comparison of serum microRNA levels demonstrated that high miR-6126 levels at week 24 predicted HBsAg 1-log drop. Furthermore, miR-6126 reduced HBsAg in culture medium supernatants and intracellular HBV-DNA quantities in Huh7/NTCP cells. In conclusion, high serum miR-6126 levels during Peg-IFN therapy predicted the HBsAg 1-log drop 48 weeks after the completion of therapy. In vitro assays revealed that miR-6126 was able to suppress HBsAg production and HBV replication.


The NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA is a new generation of vector processing architectures that combines a standard Intel Xeon host with the newly developed NEC Vector Engine coprocessor cards. One way to use these coprocessors is offloading suitable parts of the program from the host to the Vector Engines. Currently, the only vendor-provided offloading solutions are the low-level Vector Engine Offloading (VEO) library, and a builtin reverse-offloading mechanism named VHcall. In this work, we extend the portable Heterogeneous Active Messages (HAM) based HAM-Offload framework with support for the NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA. Therefore, we design, implement, and evaluate two messaging protocols aimed at minimising offloading cost. This sheds some light on how to achieve fast communication between host CPU and the Vector Engines of the NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA. Compared with VEO, the DMA-based protocol reduces offloading overhead by a factor of 13×. The resulting framework enables users to write portable offload applications with low overhead, that do neither require a language extension like OpenMP, nor a special language like OpenCL. Existing HAM-Offload applications are now ready to run on the NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA.


Thank you for downloading on the kabbalah and its symbolism. As you may know, people have look hundreds times for their chosen readings like this on the kabbalah and its symbolism, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they cope with some infectious bugs inside their laptop. on the kabbalah and its symbolism is available in our book collection an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our digital library spans in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the on the kabbalah and its symbolism is universally compatible with any devices to read.


The article analyses the public policy of vaccination against the human papilloma virus (HPV) according to the three classical criteria of need, efficacy and safety as an exemplary case of how the big transnational corporations operate and how the governments serve their interests. It discusses the changes in policy in Japan and the recent developments in France and the grass-roots movements in Spain that are organizing to change this policy. The four Lacanian discourses are applied to the analysis of the rhetoric of public health authorities.


Has income tax become voluntary in Australia? It appears that for some, nil or very low tax bills are a very real prospect. Those with flexibility over how they earn income can use a range of legal means of 'tax arbitrage' to pay a lower marginal tax rate. Those highly motivated to achieve the lowest possible tax bill can structure their financial affairs so as to stream income through a mix of companies, trusts, property assets, superannuation funds and adult family members over time. This paper presents some of the simpler strategies that are part of the 'Tax Planning Playbook'. In doing so, it shows how tax planning is available to people across the income distribution. It is not surprising that taxpayers make use of the opportunities available to them and respond to the incentives they face. However, a system that encourages tax planning is an affront to the commonly-held core principles of good tax design of fairness, efficiency and simplicity. It also raises questions about the longer-term sustainability of Australia's tax system. Addressing tax planning requires a wholesale rethink about the design and role of income in Australia's tax system.


ABSTRACT This article discusses how Norwegian foreign policy toward the Arctic is closely linked to the often vague but central concept of national identity, and the crucial role Russia plays as a 'significant other' to Norway in the North. The author draws on an extensive empirical analysis of Norwegian foreign policy in the Arctic since 2005, and combines this with a discussion of discourse and national identity in light of elements from post-structuralist International Relations (IR) theory. The article contributes to a better understanding of how post-structuralist IR theory and the concept of national identity can be understood and operationalized when analyzing Arctic foreign policy, in particular, and International Relations generally.


The purpose of this integrative literature review was to synthesize current knowledge about the role transition from new graduate Nurse Practitioner (NP) to novice NP to increase our understanding of how to better support NP entry into practice. The NP role was implemented in the United States over fifty years ago and has proven to contribute to patient outcomes and reduced health care costs. Proper transition experience to advanced practice nursing is fundamental to these improved patient outcomes in the hospital setting. The transition from Registered Nurse to professional NP is an important and difficult adjustment to make and may affect ongoing NP practice. The following topics were reviewed: graduate NP to novice NP transition, NP perception of preparedness, and perceived challenges encountered during role transition. A search for relevant literature was conducted in the EBSCO Host and ProQuest databases and in the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), PubMed, and MEDLINE specialty databases. Ten articles were identified and 3 major topic areas were revealed in the analysis: role transition, perception of preparedness, and perceived challenges. Establishing role identity as an NP, developing professional relationships, and having effective mentorship emerged as key issues influencing the transition process. Training programs are rare. A need exists for additional support and education for new hospital based NPs as they transition from students to practicing clinicians. Future studies that focus on the transition experience after internships programs may provide insight into how to develop or modify educational programs for NPs that will improve or enhance their transition to expert practitioner practice.


What are the consequences of staying in or moving out of a socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhood? In European urban sociology, research has mostly focused either on lower class ethnic minorities, or on white ethnic majority middle classes. By contrast, studies on upwardly mobile ethnic minorities are scarce, a gap that this book fills by looking at upwardly mobile Turkish-Germans living in Berlin. Those Turkish-Germans in Berlin, who decide to move out of a low status neighbourhood, mostly in order to find a better educational infrastructure for their children, show various strategies to keep ties back to their old neighbourhood. Moreover, the movers now living in neighbourhoods with a high share of native-German residents, where they stand out as the other, keep ties to other people with a Turkish background, not only through socializing with co-ethnics, but also through various forms of voluntary involvement. Hence, a move presents a spatial withdrawal from a socioeconomically weak and ethnically diverse neighbourhood, but it does not imply that this neighbourhood no longer plays a role in Turkish-Germans' daily practices or as somewhere with which to continuously identify. Barwick's sophisticated study shows that moving and staying are both active decisions and they both have positive and negative consequences. Thus, movers and stayers alike develop coping strategies for their respective situation, and develop particular daily practices and forms of identification with place.


Dietary strategies that can help reduce hunger and promote fullness are beneficial for weight control, since these are major limiting factors for success. High-protein (HP) diets, specifically those that maintain the absolute number of grams ingested, while reducing energy, are a popular strategy for weight loss (WL) due to the effects of protein-induced satiety to control hunger. Nonetheless, both the safety and efficacy of HP WL diets have been questioned, particularly in combination with low-carbohydrate advice. Nonetheless, for short-to-medium-term intervention studies (over several months), increasing the energetic contribution of protein does appear effective. The effects of HP diets on appetite, bone health, renal function, blood pressure, cardiovascular bio-markers, antioxidant status, gut health and psychological function are discussed. Further research is warranted to validate the physiological effects of HP diets over longer periods of time, including studies that modify the quality of macronutrients (i.e. the type of carbohydrate, fat and protein) and the interaction with other interventions (e.g. exercise and dietary supplements). Weight loss: Body composition: Metabolic profile: High-protein diet: Appetite


The selection and weighting of ground-motion models (GMMs) introduces a significant source of uncertainty in U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Seismic Hazard Modeling Project (NSHMP) forecasts. In this study, we evaluate 18 candidate GMMs using instrumental ground-motion observations of horizontal peak ground acceleration (PGA) and 5%-damped pseudospectral acceleration (0.02–10 s) for tectonic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, to inform logic-tree weights for the update of the USGS seismic hazard model for Hawaii. GMMs are evaluated using two methods. The first is a total residual visualization approach that compares the probability density function (PDF), mean and standard deviations σ, of the observed and predicted ground motion. The second GMM evaluation method we use is the common total residual probabilistic scoring method (log likelihood [LLH]). The LLH method provides a single score that can be used to weight GMMs in the Hawaii seismic hazard model logic trees. The total residual PDF approach provides additional information by preserving GMM over- and underprediction across a broad spectrum of periods that is not available from a single value LLH score. We apply these GMM evaluation methods to two different data sets: (1) a database of instrumental ground motions from historic earthquakes in Hawaii from 1973 to 2007 (Mw 4–7.3) and (2) available ground motions from recent earthquakes (Mw 4–6.9) associated with 2018 Kilauea eruptions. The 2018 Kilauea sequence contains both volcanic eruptions and tectonic earthquakes allowing for statistically significant GMM comparisons of the two event classes. The Kilauea ground observations provide an independent data set allowing us to evaluate the predictive power of GMMs implemented in the new USGS nshmp-haz software system. We evaluate GMM performance as a function of earthquake depth and we demonstrate that short-period volcanic eruption ground motions are not well predicted by any candidate GMMs. Nine of the initial 18 candidate GMMs fit the observed ground motions and meet established criteria for inclusion in the update of the Hawaii seismic hazard model. A weighted mean of four top performing GMMs in this study (NGAsubslab, NGAsubinter, ASK14, A10) is 50% lower for PGA than for GMMS used in the previous USGS seismic hazard model for Hawaii.


Human rights in relation to sexual orientation and gender identity are at last reaching the heart of global debates. Yet 78 states worldwide continue to criminalise same-sex sexual behaviour, and due to the legal legacies of the British Empire, 42 of these – more than half – are in the Commonwealth of Nations. In recent years many states have seen the emergence of new sexual nationalisms, leading to increased enforcement of colonial sodomy laws against men, new criminalisations of sex between women and discrimination against transgender people.

"Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in The Commonwealth: Struggles for Decriminalisation and Change" challenges these developments as the first book to focus on experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) and all non-heterosexual people in the Commonwealth. The volume offers the most internationally extensive analysis to date of the global struggle for decriminalisation of same-sex sexual behaviour and relationships


Institutional theory has become one of the dominant organizational approaches in recent decades. Its roots can be traced to Europe, and an important intellectual objective of this book is to examine North American theory strands and reconnect them with European research traditions. In addition, this book focuses on how organizations and individuals handle heterogeneous and challenging social conditions which are subsequently reflected in various forms of change.


Background By introducing new technologies in the production processes, manufacturing is going digital. 3D printing is a technology that will change the way goods are produced. Entire supply networks have to adapt to changes that will arise by the implementation of additive manufacturing. Hence, the existing relationships between supply chain actors will alter. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship changes between automotive original equipment manufacturers and logistics service providers in Germany by investigating the possibility of outsourcing the production via 3D printing. Method A multimethod qualitative research strategy is used to explore the topic. Through two cases – original equipment manufacturers and third party logistics providers – data were gathered by semistructured interviews. Additionally, archival research as well as observations took place to strengthen the findings by triangulation. Findings Original equipment manufacturers and third party logistics providers see a bright future for 3D printing and anticipate that their supply chain relationships will be affected. Considerations to outsource the production via 3D printing play a major role in both types of companies. But to whom it should be outsourced cannot be assessed today as the technology has to be developed further. Third party logistics providers are suitable candidates as they already have a global distribution network at strategic locations. Furthermore, they could add 3D printing to their value added services portfolio and combine several tasks. Conclusion 3D printing will change entire supply chains. Even today, all companies need to be aware of these changes and take all possibilities into consideration. These changes will not occur in the short run as 3D printing needs further development. Outsourcing 3D printing and offering it as value added service are topics that will alter the connections between original equipment manufacturers and third party logistics providers.


We describe a collection of acoustic and language modeling techniques that lowered the word error rate of our English conversational telephone LVCSR system to a record 6.6% on the Switchboard subset of the Hub5 2000 evaluation testset. On the acoustic side, we use a score fusion of three strong models: recurrent nets with maxout activations, very deep convolutional nets with 3x3 kernels, and bidirectional long short-term memory nets which operate on FMLLR and i-vector features. On the language modeling side, we use an updated model "M" and hierarchical neural network LMs.


The influence of aggregates and rhizosphere on nutrient availability of degraded tropical soils is not yet well understood. The study evaluated differences in the nutrient characteristics between rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soils, aggregated and homogenized soil samples, and inner and outer portions of aggregates. Soil samples were collected from a degraded upland soil in Pinabacdao, Samar, Philippines, and analyzed for selected soil properties. Results revealed that rhizosphere soil had higher organic matter (OM), available P contents, and exchangeable Ca and Mg contents than the non-rhizosphere soil but with no considerable variation in soil pH. Results also showed no differences in the chemical properties between the outer and inner portions of aggregates and that the aggregated samples slightly differed from the homogenized soil samples in terms of some chemical characteristics. Findings suggest that the standard practice of homogenizing soil sample for analysis may have limitations for fertility evaluation of degraded soils.


We develop nested variational inference (NVI), a family of methods that learn proposals for nested importance samplers by minimizing an forward or reverse KL divergence at each level of nesting. NVI is applicable to many commonly-used importance sampling strategies and provides a mechanism for learning intermediate densities, which can serve as heuristics to guide the sampler. Our experiments apply NVI to (a) sample from a multimodal distribution using a learned annealing path (b) learn heuristics that approximate the likelihood of future observations in a hidden Markov model and (c) to perform amortized inference in hierarchical deep generative models. We observe that optimizing nested objectives leads to improved sample quality in terms of log average weight and effective sample size.


1. In a compound apposition eye the acuity may be limited by the inter-ommatidial angle or by the optical performance of each ommatidium. In the honeybee the performance of the ommatidia must approach the theoretical limit set by diffraction if the whole eye resolves points separated by twice the inter-ommatidial angle.

2. The eyes of twenty-seven other species of Hymenoptera were measured, and the results show that in eyes of different sizes the number of ommatidia is adjusted so that inter-ommatidial angle is just below the limiting resolving power of the ommatidia; this is the condition for optimum acuity in a compound apposition eye.

3. When this condition is fulfilled the minimum resolvable angle is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear dimensions of the eye. Acuity increases with size more rapidly in the simple type of eye.


multiprocessor, shared memory, high availability In this report, we discuss the recovery of memory and processes on the platform of a shared-memory DSM system. We divide the problem into recovery of unaffected memory (RUM), and recovery of affected processes (RAP). We point out that specially designed faulttolerant, non-volatile memory is neither sufficient nor necessary to solve the problem of RUM. It is not sufficient that the system can go down when one node goes away, which can be a result of many types of faults: power failure is but one of them. It is not necessary either, because the system is distributed in nature; information redundancy across fault units can be realized, therefore, without using special memory. We discuss several ways of implementing a fault-tolerant memory system using plain memory by modifying the write-back protocols in DSM systems. The proposed techniques include mirroring and RAIM, which stands for Redundant Array of Independent Memory. The fault-tolerant memory system lays the foundation for other HA solutions, in addition to attack the problem of RUM. We use a novel approach to survey the space of transparent rollback recovery alternatives as our means to target RAP. There are two axes that constitute our space. The first axis is the fraction of fault-tolerant memory system which is part of the reliable storage. This, in many ways determines the cost of the system as well as the checkpoint bandwidth. The second axis is how and when the checkpoint image is established and committed. The three options, built-on-the-fly, stop-and-forward and copy-on-write, have different system complexity and performance implications.


Billie Allen has been intimately associated with one of the most significant plays in African American literature, Adrienne Kennedy's Funnyhouse of a Negro. In 1964, she created the lead role of Sarah the Negro in the Off-Broadway premiere of Funnyhouse, directed by Michael Kahn, for which Kennedy received her first Obie. In 1984, Allen directed a spirited student production of Funnyhouse at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. Then in 2006 she was invited by the Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH), co-founded in 1999 by Christopher McElroen and Alfred Preisser, to direct a major revival of Funnyhouse, which ran to full houses from January 11 through February 12 (see Fig. 1). The production starred Suzette Azariah Gunn as Sarah, Trish McCall as Queen Victoria, Monica Stitch as the Duchess of Hapsburg, Lincoln Brown as Jesus, and Willie Teacher as Patrice Lumumba. From her unique perspective as a member of the original cast and as a director, Allen's insights about the origins and continuing importance of Funnyhouse form a valuable chapter in the history of African American literature and culture. Not surprisingly, she was nominated for the Lucille Lortel award for outstanding director for her production of the play. Funnyhouse was a profoundly provocative work in 1964 and has become a highly influential one today. Scott Mendelsohn, who reviewed Allen's 2006 Funnyhouse for nytheatre.com (19 Jan. 2006), declared: "Rarely have I felt the complexities of racial identity so compellingly articulated as by Funnyhouse of a Negro." Though Funnyhouse is read and taught at numerous universities around the world, it is, unfortunately, seldom performed. One reason is that Kennedy's highly experimental play radically departs from traditional, sequential plots and realistic characterization, disturbingly transporting audiences into the surrealistic, nightmarish world of the protagonist's subconscious. Sarah desperately tries to escape her own blackness by projecting various selves from both the white world--Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Hapsburg--and her African one as well--Patrice Lumumba. Kennedy's play is a challenging work to study, to teach, to perform. But Allen's CTH production opened new ways of reading, staging, and interpreting Funnyhouse. According to a review in Off Offline Review, Allen's Funnyhouse "unearths the stark racial torment characteristic of the '60s, civil rights era." In my interview with her, conducted in March and in May 2006, Allen explained why she chose to direct Funnyhouse and also how she interpreted Kennedy's haunting script for the CTH. As a significant part of "Revisiting Funnyhouse," Allen perceptively describes how Kennedy's play has changed over the decades; she contrasts audiences' and critics' responses to it in 1964 with those elicited by the play today. Focusing on individual and collective identities, Allen also revealingly discusses how and why Funnyhouse reflects her own racial heritage. Her interpretation of Kennedy's imagery, characters, and sets gives us a fresh contribution to Funnyhouse criticism. Allen's passionate, long-standing involvement with Funnyhouse should be seen as a vital part of her distinguished career as an actress, director, and producer. Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1925, Allen attended public schools before attending Hampton University. In 1947, she went to New York to begin her professional career in the theatre. As a dancer classically trained at the American School of Ballet, she performed in many concerts at the YWCA and at dozens of events and fundraisers with various dance groups, which lead her to her first Broadway musical and a national tour of On the Town with Jerome Robbins. After Allen had performed in several musicals, Elia Kazan saw her dance and auditioned her for the role of Esmeralda in Tennessee Williams's Camino Real (1953). He became interested in her work and arranged a scholarship with Lee Strasberg. …


Over the past few years, a consensus has emerged among scientists and engineers that net-centric technology can provide unprecedented levels of performance, robustness, and efficiency. Success stories such as the Internet, distributed sensor networks, and multi-agent networks of mobile robots are only a few examples that support this view. The important role played by complex networks has been widely observed in various physical, natural, and social systems. Given the complexity of many of these systems, it is important to understand the fundamental rules that govern them and introduce appropriate models that capture such principles, while abstracting away the redundant details. The main goal of this thesis is to contribute to the emerging field of "network science'' in two ways. The first part of the thesis focuses on the question of information aggregation over complex networks. The problem under study is the asymptotic behavior of agents in a network when they are willing to share information with their neighbors. We start by focusing on conditions under which all agents in the network will asymptotically agree on some quantity of interest, what is known as the consensus problem. We present conditions that guarantee asymptotic agreement when inter-agent communication links change randomly over time. We then propose a distributed (non-Bayesian) algorithm that enables agents to not only agree, but also learn the true underlying state of the world. We prove that our proposed learning rule results in successful information aggregation, in the sense that all agents asymptotically learn the truth as if they were completely informed of all signals and updated their beliefs rationally. Moreover, the simplicity of our local update rule guarantees that agents eventually achieve full learning, while at the same time, avoiding highly complex computations that are essential for full Bayesian learning over networks. The second part of this thesis focuses on presenting a new modeling paradigm that greatly expands the tool set for mathematical modeling of networks, beyond graphs. The approach taken is based on using simplicial complexes, which are objects of study in algebraic topology, as generalizations of graphs to higher dimensions. We show how simplicial complexes serve as more faithful models of the network and are able to capture many of its global topological properties. Furthermore, we develop distributed algorithms for computing various topological invariants of the network. These concepts and algorithms are further explored in the context of a specific application: coverage verification in coordinate-free sensor networks, where sensor nodes have no access to location, distance, or orientation information. We propose real-time, scalable, and decentralized schemes for detection of coverage holes, as well as computation of a minimal set of sensors required to monitor a given region of interest. The presented algorithms clarify the benefits of using simplicial complexes and simplicial homology, instead of applying tools from graph theory, in modeling and analyzing complex networks. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Electrical & Systems Engineering This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/84 First Advisor Ali Jadbabaie


A mer‐lux bioreporter was used to study uptake of inorganic mercury, Hg(II), at trace concentrations by two facultatively anaerobic bacterial species, Vibrio anguillarum and Escherichia coli. Uptake of Hg(II) by these bacteria appeared to be facilitated, rather than by passive diffusion. Three lines of evidence support this conclusion. First, under anaerobic conditions Hg(II) uptake was greatly decreased compared with aerobic conditions, even though the chemical composition of the medium was identical except for the lack of oxygen (i.e., no reducing agents were used). Second, the uptake of Hg(II) under anaerobic conditions was not proportional to the abundance of lipophilic Hg species but was dependent on the total concentration of Hg in the samples. Third, at trace Hg(II) concentrations and under anaerobic conditions, Hg(II) uptake was enhanced by the addition of yeast extract and a variety of low molecular weight organic acids. In addition to demonstrating that Hg(II) uptake by these bacteria had the characteristics of facilitated transport, these lines of evidence also support the conclusion that processes under regulatory control of the cell affected Hg(II) uptake. If these findings apply to other bacteria as well, they mean that current models of Hg(II) uptake by microorganisms in aquatic systems, which are based solely on the role of lipophilic Hg species and passive diffusion, will need to be reconsidered.


Alignment of 3D human body scans is a challenging problem in computer vision with various applications. While being extensively studied for the mesh-based case, it is still involved if scans lack topology. In this paper, we propose a practical solution to the point cloud based registration of 3D human scans and a 3D human template. We adopt recent advances in point set registration with prior matches and design a fully automated registration framework. Our framework consists of several steps including establishment of prior matches, alignment of point clouds into a common reference frame, global non-rigid registration, partial non-rigid registration, and a post-processing step. We can handle large point clouds with significant variations in appearance automatically and achieve high registration accuracy which is shown experimentally. Finally, we demonstrate a pipeline for treatment of social pathologies with animatable virtual avatars as an exemplary real-world application of the new framework.


Abstract In response to the recent expansion of piñon and juniper woodlands into sagebrush-steppe communities in the northern Great Basin region, numerous conifer-removal projects have been implemented, primarily to release understory vegetation at sites having a wide range of environmental conditions. Responses to these treatments have varied from successful restoration of native plant communities to complete conversion to nonnative invasive species. To evaluate the general response of understory vegetation to tree canopy removal in conifer-encroached shrublands, we set up a region-wide study that measured treatment-induced changes in understory cover and density. Eleven study sites located across four states in the Great Basin were established as statistical replicate blocks, each containing fire, mechanical, and control treatments. Different cover groups were measured prior to and during the first 3 yr following treatment. There was a general pattern of response across the wide range of site conditions. There was an immediate increase in bare ground and decrease in tall perennial grasses following the fire treatment, but both recovered by the second or third growing season after treatment. Tall perennial grass cover increased in the mechanical treatment in the second and third year, and in the fire treatment cover was higher than the control by year 3. Nonnative grass and forb cover did not increase in the fire and mechanical treatments in the first year but increased in the second and third years. Perennial forb cover increased in both the fire and mechanical treatments. The recovery of herbaceous cover groups was from increased growth of residual vegetation, not density. Sagebrush declined in the fire treatment, but seedling density increased in both treatments. Biological soil crust declined in the fire treatment, with no indications of recovery. Differences in plant response that occurred between mechanical and fire treatments should be considered when selecting management options.


A response function for image transmission in a medium containing discrete, isotropic scatterers is derived in a form analogous to the point-spread function of media with continuous variations of refractive index. A primary-scattering approximation is used with a geometry similar to that employed in determining telephotometry error. The analysis is substantiated by means of an experiment involving a dispersion of an acrylic sol in water.


The subject of research in this doctoral dissertation is an overview of a
complex interactive functioning system of society and economy in time and space, more
precisely - the understanding of the effects of regional development policy on socio-economic
developments in the Republic of Serbia. The wide range of inherited cultural and historical,
demographic, economic, infrastructural, social and political parameters, considering natural
and geostrategic position of certain areas, have a crucial impact to the unequal regional
development of our country, which for decades was not regarded as an integral part of the
overall socio-economic development, but it is analyzed as a separate and not particularly
important aspect of the overall development. The most important aspect of this work is to
highlight the need for formulating the appropriate strategic, dynamic and programmed
approach to reduce regional imbalances in the Republic of Serbia, based on the analysis and
considering all specificities and development needs of the region, as well as complex and
living systems. Rational guided regional development policy today should be based on
comparative advantages and valorization of unused or underused development opportunities
and resources, where, in this study, we especially highlight the development potential of
migration and diaspora as a resource for local and regional development. Achieving positive
effects and mitigate the demographic disorders, as well as the correction of a lot of regional
disparities requires time. Any delay of changes makes the situation even worse, and the
demographic future of Serbia remains uncertain. In order to support the country to be
effective, it is necessary to ensure its continuity and keep the intensity for a longer period, all
this for the purpose of making balanced regional development, as well as long-term strategic
orientation. In this sense, the main objective of this doctoral thesis is proposing such a
regional development policy that would ensure a coordinated and integrated sectoral and
territorial sustainable access to the socio-economic development of Republic of Serbia.


Background Cannabis use is decreasing in England and Wales, while demand for cannabis treatment in addiction services continues to rise. This could be partly due to an increased availability of high-potency cannabis. Method Adults residing in the UK were questioned about their drug use, including three types of cannabis (high potency: skunk; low potency: other grass, resin). Cannabis types were profiled and examined for possible associations between frequency of use and (i) cannabis dependence, (ii) cannabis-related concerns. Results Frequent use of high-potency cannabis predicted a greater severity of dependence [days of skunk use per month: b = 0.254, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.161–0.357, p < 0.001] and this effect became stronger as age decreased (b = −0.006, 95% CI −0.010 to −0.002, p = 0.004). By contrast, use of low-potency cannabis was not associated with dependence (days of other grass use per month: b = 0.020, 95% CI −0.029 to 0.070, p = 0.436; days of resin use per month: b = 0.025, 95% CI −0.019 to 0.067, p = 0.245). Frequency of cannabis use (all types) did not predict severity of cannabis-related concerns. High-potency cannabis was clearly distinct from low-potency varieties by its marked effects on memory and paranoia. It also produced the best high, was preferred, and most available. Conclusions High-potency cannabis use is associated with an increased severity of dependence, especially in young people. Its profile is strongly defined by negative effects (memory, paranoia), but also positive characteristics (best high, preferred type), which may be important when considering clinical or public health interventions focusing on cannabis potency.


Static analysis tools are widely used for vulnerability detection as they understand programs with complex behavior and millions of lines of code. Despite their popularity, static analysis tools are known to generate an excess of false positives. The recent ability of Machine Learning models to understand programming languages opens new possibilities when applied to static analysis. However, existing datasets to train models for vulnerability identification suffer from multiple limitations such as limited bug context, limited size, and synthetic and unrealistic source code. We propose D2A, a differential analysis based approach to label issues reported by static analysis tools. The D2A dataset is built by analyzing version pairs from multiple open source projects. From each project, we select bug fixing commits and we run static analysis on the versions before and after such commits. If some issues detected in a before-commit version disappear in the corresponding after-commit version, they are very likely to be real bugs that got fixed by the commit. We use D2A to generate a large labeled dataset to train models for vulnerability identification. We show that the dataset can be used to build a classifier to identify possible false alarms among the issues reported by static analysis, hence helping developers prioritize and investigate potential true positives first.


Studying the temporal variability of BL Lac objects at the highest energies provides unique insights into the extreme physical processes occurring in relativistic jets and in the vicinity of super-massive black holes. To this end, the long-term variability of the BL Lac object PKS 2155-304 is analyzed in the high (HE, 100 MeV 200 GeV) gamma-ray domain. Over the course of ~9 yr of H.E.S.S observations the VHE light curve in the quiescent state is consistent with a log-normal behavior. The VHE variability in this state is well described by flicker noise (power-spectral-density index {\ss}_VHE = 1.10 +0.10 -0.13) on time scales larger than one day. An analysis of 5.5 yr of HE Fermi LAT data gives consistent results ({\ss}_HE = 1.20 +0.21 -0.23, on time scales larger than 10 days) compatible with the VHE findings. The HE and VHE power spectral densities show a scale invariance across the probed time ranges. A direct linear correlation between the VHE and HE fluxes could neither be excluded nor firmly established. These long-term-variability properties are discussed and compared to the red noise behavior ({\ss} ~ 2) seen on shorter time scales during VHE-flaring states. The difference in power spectral noise behavior at VHE energies during quiescent and flaring states provides evidence that these states are influenced by different physical processes, while the compatibility of the HE and VHE long-term results is suggestive of a common physical link as it might be introduced by an underlying jet-disk connection.


The concept of crime reduction through product design (CRPD) has recently evolved to provide security of physical objects and data against criminal activity. It is argued that protective measures incorporated into products (for example, vehicle immobilisers, tracking systems and even simple locking devices) can prevent these items from becoming targets or instruments of crime. This paper explores CRPD principles, technologies and issues. It examines crimes which can be reduced, current and future designs for crime control, and considerations such as user acceptance, design effectiveness and crime displacement. The potential for increasingly widespread use of CRPD is also discussed. Crime reduction through product design offers a new way of thinking about crime prevention. Technological developments will only enhance the capacity of protective designs to act as successful crime reduction tools in the future. Adam Graycar Director Principles of Crime Reduction through Product Design Crime reduction through product design (CRPD) involves integrating protective features into products in order to reduce their potential to become targets of criminal activity (such as theft, fraud and damage), as well as preventing their use as instruments of crime. The term "product" encompasses any physical property and forms of currency, as well as electronic information and computer software. Grabosky (1998) has previously examined applications of technological crime control in a number of fields. This paper focuses specifically on measures incorporated into products for security, regardless of the environment in which they are placed and of the persons by whom they can be accessed. In most cases, the design features are distinct from the core product and are not required for it to perform its intended function (s). As such, security technology may either be combined with goods at their time of production (such as digital watermarks embedded in computer software) or obtained separately and added at a later time (such as encryption methods for data protection). In either case, CRPD emphasises integration between a product and its protective features, which is a more effective and efficient approach than later relying on standard target-hardening measures for security (Clarke 1999, p. 35). Depending on the particular product and its design features, CRPD is instrumental in either or both of the following: * prevention of offences; and * facilitation of an effective and efficient response following an offence. Most desirably, emphasis is placed upon the first aim, although the second may have a significant role in the deterrence of crime and the apprehension of offenders. Reduction in the Potential of Products as Targets of Crime In terms of products becoming targets of crime, CRPD primarily provides counter-measures against the following offences: * theft; * fraud, counterfeiting and copyright infringements; * tampering; and * graffiti and vandalism. This facet of CRPD is largely limited to offences against property, although designs reducing the attractiveness of items may indirectly avert violent confrontations such as robbery or home invasions. Reduction in the Use of Products as Instruments of Crime Protection against products becoming instruments of crime can impact considerably on offences both against the person and against property, as demonstrated by the following examples. Technology that renders firearms inoperable by anyone other than their intended user(s) can reduce instances of homicide, robbery, hostage-taking, sieges, gang warfare, suicide and criminal operations such as dealing in drugs or even arms themselves. Additionally, this can prevent police officers' weapons being used against them (Grabosky 1998) as well as linking firearms used in offences to a small number of possible operators. …


Exploring Gold Nanoparticles, the IBI Prize–winning module, guides students' construction and evidence-based refinement of their personal models of gold nanoparticles. The President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology stresses the importance of adoption of empirically validated instructional practices, such as inquiry-based laboratory experiences, in higher education (1). The Exploring Gold Nanoparticles laboratory module employs an inquiry-based instructional tool called the Model-Observe-Reflect-Explain (MORE) Thinking Frame (2) to support student construction of evidence-based models of nanoparticles in introductory chemistry courses. Using MORE has been shown to enhance students' understanding of the nature of science and of scientific models compared with traditional teaching methods (3, 4).


Vendor sets of bibliographic records are readily available and must be loaded into our catalogs to provide patron access to the items used most. However, batch-load authority control can be an arduous process because bibliographic standards vary between sets. Librarians at Virginia Tech have implemented a process that includes authority control cleanup before batched bibliographic records are loaded into the catalog. This article describes the process used.


In this article, we present novel reduplication data from Tanjung Raden Malay (henceforth TR Malay) and provide a formal analysis of all reduplication patterns in TR Malay within Precedence Based Phonology (Raimy 2000, 2009). TR Malay exhibits three patterns of reduplication previously documented in other Malay dialects, such as Standard Indonesian and Riau Indonesian: full reduplication, CV reduplication, and C[6] reduplication. However, Tanjung Raden Malay exhibits six additional patterns. We claim that TR Malay has innovated the additional six patterns, and the three reduplication patterns attested in all varieties of Malay discussed here are the basic patterns. Our analysis puts forth a theory that explains the connections between the six innovated and three common reduplication patterns in Tanjung Raden Malay.


The topic of this dissertation discusses the effect that the Green Belt classification is having upon the housing crisis in the United Kingdom. There has been a massive deficit in the number of homes constructed, when compared to the populations demand for homes. This has been the case for a number of decades and has prompted the government to commit to help the industry build more homes to meet this demand. The freeing up of Green Belt land is seen by some as a possible solution to aiding this construction of new homes on the perimeters of towns. By supplying good quality accessible land for development. This research attempts to consider obstacles to this and focuses on what effect public opinion to protect these areas, has upon the construction of new homes. The research adopted a quantitative research methodology which took the form of a questionnaire survey. This was distributed using an online based survey service. The surveys were distributed to Local Authorities, contractors and the general public sample groups in the North West of England. The questionnaire survey was chosen to ask closed ended questions to allow statistical data analysis of the results which could be discussed for the purpose of this dissertation. The data was analysed using descriptive statistic in the form of the range, mean and standard deviation. The use of cross tabulation was also incorporated to allow the comparison of different sample groups, choices and opinions. The research concludes by highlighting that 240,000 homes are anticipated to be built to meet the growing population and more if the decades of under supply is to be addressed. It identifies the five purposes of Green Belt determined by the National Planning Policy Framework. The public objection investigated further
through the two hypotheses. The research analysis rejects the first, which states that public option is limiting development. The second, referring to better informed public giving more support for development in Green Belt land, is accepted as the
research supports this.


"Bottom‐up" field‐based, crop‐hydrological models are used to estimate food production and irrigation water extractions under multiple scenarios of water and nitrogen use and crop yield increases from 2010 to 2050 for 19 countries. The results show: (1) a food deficit before 2050 under a worst case climate change scenario in terms of annual crop yield improvement; (2) substantial water deficits, as a result of irrigation, for major food‐producing countries that will prevent these nations from meeting their domestic food requirements in the absence of investments in water infrastructure or food imports; and (3) a plateau in terms of crop food production associated with increased water extractions given no further increase in the current area of irrigated agriculture. Possible pathways to respond to the tensions in the food–water nexus are evaluated and include: (1) higher water productivity; (2) food trade; (3) improvements in both crop yield and "sustainable" total factor productivity; (4) greater investment in water infrastructure; and (5) integrative policies and decision processes. Without a combination of some, or all, of these possible pathways, appropriately adapted to bio‐physical and socio‐economic circumstances, the world faces grave risks in food and water security out to 2050.


The ability to impart topspin to the ball when playing forehand and backhand groundstrokes can give a tennis player a tactical advantage in a rally. Recent developments in racket technology and tactical approaches to the game have increased the prevalence of topspin strokes. However, there is a limited scientific knowledge base for players and coaches to draw upon when seeking to improve this aspect of the game. Many of the kinematic analyses into tennis groundstrokes were conducted more than ten years ago, with measurement techniques that may not have accurately measured the anatomical rotations important for generating racket velocity. It has only recently been possible to measure the spin rate of a ball, and this has not been investigated in relation to the kinematics of a player. This study aimed to make an important contribution to the knowledge of tennis professionals by establishing which kinematic variables are related to the production of high ball spin rates resulting from topspin strokes.
In order to achieve this aim, consideration was given to the accurate measurement of the joint rotations of the player in all planes of movement and the quantification of the ball spin rate. This information was used to answer three further questions; what are the kinematic differences between flat and topspin groundstrokes, how do these differences relate to the spin rate of the ball and how do these findings relate to individual players?
Joint rotations were calculated based on three-dimensional data captured from twenty participants playing flat and topspin forehand and backhand strokes. The resulting ball spin rate was captured using a high-speed camera.
The participants produced larger ball spin rates when playing the topspin strokes, indicating that they were able to produce spin if required. Analysis of the joint rotations revealed that there were adaptations in the stroke in order to achieve the higher spin rates. The adaptations were not uniform among participants, but did produce similar alterations in racket trajectory, inclination and velocity for the topspin strokes. It was these measures that were found to be the strongest predictors of ball spin rates, accounting for over 60 % of the variation in ball spin rate in the forehand stroke and over 70% in the backhand. Case study analyses confirmed the importance of the optimal racket kinematics at impact and provided models of technique throughout the forward swing of each stroke.
This study has made a contribution to the knowledge of generating topspin in the tennis groundstrokes by establishing the parameters that predict high spin rates and applying them to analyses of individual players. In doing so, this investigation has also demonstrated methodology that is capable of accurately measuring the joint rotations associated with tennis strokes, and suggested a method by which the spin rate of the ball can be calculated.


A computational analysis of heat transfer enhancement due to artificial roughness in the form of rectangular ribs has been carried out. A turbulence model is selected by comparing the predictions of different turbulence models with experimental results available in the literature. A detailed analysis of heat transfer variation within inter rib region is done by using the selected turbulence model. The analysis shows that peak in local heat transfer coefficient occurs at the point of reattachment of the separated flow as observed experimentally. The results predict a significant enhancement of heat transfer in comparison to that for a smooth surface. There is a good matching between the predictions by SST k-ω and experimental results.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Experiments suggesting the existence of mind-matter interaction (MMI) effects on the outputs of random number generators (RNG) have been criticized based on the questionable assumption that MMI effects operate uniformly on each random bit, independent of the number of bits used per sample, the rate at which bits are generated, or the psychological conditions of the task. This ''influence-per-bit'' assumption invariably leads to the conclusion that the significant cumulative results of these experiments, as demonstrated in meta-analyses, are due not to MMI effects but rather to publication biases. We discuss why this assumption is doubtful, and why publication bias and other common criticisms of MMI-RNG studies are implausible.


Traditionally software qualities as e.g. performance have been considered important to implement early in the software system architecture. The usability quality implementation has been done late or, if considered early in the software architecture, then often as a separation between presentation and execution layers. However there are usability concerns requiring early implementation in the software architecture not solved merely by separation. Usability supporting architecture patterns (USAPs) have been shown to provide developers with useful guidance for producing an architectural design that supports usability for these concerns, [1]. This experience report introduces the USAPs in an industrial context.


This online compilation of papers from the ASME 2016 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE2016) represents the archival version of the Conference Proceedings. According to ASME's conference presenter attendance policy, if a paper is not presented at the Conference by an author of the paper, the paper will not be published in the official archival Proceedings, which are registered with the Library of Congress and are submitted for abstracting and indexing. The paper also will not be published in The ASME Digital Collection and may not be cited as a published paper.


Uncertainty, mobility, and opportunity are some of the concepts used to describe work in today's society. Greater economic energy and flexibility have certainly created conditions that enable organizations to be more competitive, but these changes have also given rise to greater uncertainty, instability, and risk for workers, with a subsequent increase in their levels of stress and anxiety. This study aims to investigate the effects of temporary job contracts on the well-being of individuals and organizations, on the basis of an empirical survey on a sample of 106 Italian workers in the tertiary sector. Results show that the type of contract, as well as the possibility of choosing, have effects on personal and organizational variables, such as climate, conflict, perceived organizational support (POS), commitment, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), strain, burnout, and turnover intention. Results are also reported for gender and some organizational well-being/malaise dimensions. Such findings may be useful in developing some management guidelines to foster the sustainability of different forms of employment.


Sustainability of materials and processes are commonly assessed by calculating the carbon emissions (CO 2 ) generated. This is a simplification but the ease of calculation encourages comparisons of solutions, makes outputs of assessments accessible, transparent and repeatable, and CO 2 savings can readily be counted towards industry, national and international targets. This chapter describes a framework for calculating embodied carbon of construction solutions that incorporate geotextiles. It outlines carbon footprinting techniques and common definitions, presents examples of embodied carbon for geotextile materials, defines life cycle boundaries and presents example calculations for common construction case studies: Protection, working platform and landfill capping. All three examples demonstrate the significant CO 2 savings that can result from employing geotextiles. These savings are realised through reducing the amount of imported fill material used and this minimises the transport related carbon emissions. The approach introduced can be used to undertake site specific calculations that inform decisions on selection of construction approaches that contribute to sustainable practice.


Multi-professional teams are now common when organising healthcare. Such teams are considered to resolve fragmentation issues amongst units and their functions, facilitate efficient and high quality care and are also deemed to enable different professions to meet and exchange experience and knowledge. The expected consequence is superior decisions and improved care. However, research suggests that the deployment of multi-professional teams within healthcare organisations is problematic with regard to knowledge sharing and integration between different professional groups. While often recognised, the reason for this shortcoming has rarely been explored in depth. This study consequently elaborates on the factors hindering knowledge sharing through illustrating and discussing the logics of different professional groups and the ensuing consequences when multi-professional teams interact. The finding is that the teams are being utilised by the medical professions in accordance with their professional logic. This results in the coordination of activities, incorporating the patient flow logistics amongst the different professions; making the impact of multi-professional teams concrete in practice and illustrating their potential positive outcomes for professionals and patients, even though they are not operating as forums for overt knowledge integration for the different professions.


Originally published in 1813, James Cowles Prichard's Researches into the "Physical History of Man "was perhaps the most important anthropological work in English of the pre-Darwinian nineteenth century. Attacking the heterodox speculations of "polygenist" writers, Prichard defended the biblically based argument that all mankind was one species. He advanced interesting hypotheses concerning the processes of racial differentiation, and suggested the then daring possibility that the original men were black-skinned. In his extensive introductory essay, "From Chronology to Ethnology: Prichard and British Anthropology, 1800-1850," George W. Stocking, Jr., uses Prichard's career to illuminate this previously neglected period the "dark age" between the Victorian evolutionists and their eighteenth-century Scottish precursors. Focusing on the heritage of Christian chronological writing as a source of nineteenth-century anthropological speculation, Professor Stocking shows how Prichard's work gradually transformed this tradition into "ethnology." Prichard's central problem was to trace to a single source all the races of men from the earliest historical records to the dispersion of mankind after the Deluge. It was in the attempt to solve this "ethnological problem" that the "embracive" tradition of late nineteenth-century English and American anthropology had its roots. As Prichard's work illustrates, every type of evidence linguistic, cultural, and physical was brought forth to establish affinities between different human groups. Expanded in subsequent editions to five volumes, Prichard's "Researches" was to remain the major compendium of ethnological knowledge in the English language until the second half of the nineteenth century. The present reprinting of the 1813 edition in its entirety should help to reestablish Prichard's reputation as one of the "fathers" of anthropology."


We analyze throughput-delay scaling laws of mobile ad hoc networks under a content-centric traffic scenario, where users are mainly interested in retrieving contents cached by other nodes. We assume limited buffer size available at each node and Zipf-like content popularity. We consider nodes uniformly visiting the network area according to a random-walk mobility model, whose flight size varies from the typical distance among the nodes (quasi-static case) up to the edge length of the network area (reshuffling mobility model). Our main findings are: (1) the best throughput-delay tradeoffs are achieved in the quasi-static case: increasing the mobility degree of nodes leads to worse and worse performance; (ii) the best throughput-delay tradeoffs can be recovered by power control (i.e., by adapting the transmission range to the content) even in the complete reshuffling case.


The world is increasingly depending on remotely sensed data. The data is regularly used for monitoring the earth resources and also for solving problems of the world like disasters, climate degradation, etc. Remotely sensed data has changed our perspective of understanding of other planets. With innovative approaches in data utilization, the demands of remote sensing data are ever increasing. More and more research and developments are taken up for data utilization. The satellite resources are scarce and each launch costs heavily. Each launch is also associated with large effort for developing the hardware prior to launch. It is also associated with large number of software elements and mathematical algorithms post-launch. The proliferation of low-earth and geostationary satellites has led to increased scarcity in the available orbital slots for the newer satellites. Indian Space Research Organization has always tried to maximize the utility of satellites. Multiple sensors are flown on each satellite. In each of the satellites, sensors are designed to cater to various spectral bands/frequencies, spatial and temporal resolutions. Bhaskara-1, the first experimental satellite started with 2 bands in electro-optical spectrum and 3 bands in microwave spectrum. The recent Resourcesat-2 incorporates very efficient image acquisition approach with multi-resolution (3 types of spatial resolution) multi-band (4 spectral bands) electro-optical sensors (LISS-4, LISS-3* and AWiFS). The system has been designed to provide data globally with various data reception stations and onboard data storage capabilities. Oceansat-2 satellite has unique sensor combination with 8 band electro-optical high sensitive ocean colour monitor (catering to ocean and land) along with Ku band scatterometer to acquire information on ocean winds. INSAT- 3D launched recently provides high resolution 6 band image data in visible, short-wave, mid-wave and long-wave infrared spectrum. It also has 19 band sounder for providing vertical profile of water vapour, temperature, etc. The same system has data relay transponders for acquiring data from weather stations. The payload configurations have gone through significant changes over the years to increase data rate per kilogram of payload. Future Indian remote sensing systems are planned with very high efficient ways of image acquisition. This paper analyses the strides taken by ISRO (Indian Space research Organisation) in achieving high efficiency in remote sensing image data acquisition. Parameters related to efficiency of image data acquisition are defined and a methodology is worked out to compute the same. Some of the Indian payloads are analysed with respect to some of the system/ subsystem parameters that decide the configuration of payload. Based on the analysis, possible configuration approaches that can provide high efficiency are identified. A case study is carried out with improved configuration and the results of efficiency improvements are reported. This methodology may be used for assessing other electro-optical payloads or missions and can be extended to other types of payloads and missions.


This paper provides evidence on ethnic differences in bank debt financing among small Swedish firms at the start-up stage. The empirical analysis is carried out on a sample of small firms consisting of 2,814 native- and immigrant-owned firms for year 2008. The method of binary logistic regression analysis was mainly performed to analyse the data. The empirical results suggest that immigrant-owned firms tend to use less bank debt than their native counterparts. Moreover, the variables related to human capital, previous experience of starting a business, university education and an additional job beside the business have a positive impact on the use of bank debt. There is also a positive influence of personal start capital and the size of firm in terms of number of employees on access to debt capital. However, firm characteristics, legal form and industry affiliation affect the debt funding negatively, indicating that firms with less formalised legal status operating in less developed market segments and with less physical capital are less likely to have access to debt capital.


The integration of medical information from various sources is gaining in importance as hospitals and medical research centers attempt to gain new insights into existing data. The Health Level Seven® (HL7®) organization has developed an abstract information model for health-care data, the HL7 Reference Information Model (RIM). We describe in this paper our approach to implementing a physical data model based on RIM. Our approach, which combines elements of entity-relationship data modeling and entity-attribute-value data modeling, involves the modeling of base RIM classes, RIM inheritance, and RIM data types. We incorporated the resulting data model into IBM Clinical Genomics, a product that integrates clinical and genomic data in a way that enables medical researchers to carry out clinical research.


We introduce stressed liquid crystals as new ultra fast light modulating materials that provide large shift of phase retardation in a submillisecond time frame. Performance of these materials in a number of applications, including those that work in the IR region, is discussed.


Polar oceans are poorly monitored despite the important role they play in regulating Earth's climate system. Marine mammals equipped with biologging devices are now being used to fill the data gaps in these logistically difficult to sample regions. Since 2002, instrumented animals have been generating exceptionally large data sets of oceanographic CTD casts (>500,000 profiles), which are now freely available to the scientific community through the MEOP data portal (http://meop.net). MEOP (Marine Mammals Exploring the Oceans Pole to Pole) is a consortium of international researchers dedicated to sharing animal-derived data and knowledge about the polar oceans. Collectively, MEOP demonstrates the power and cost-effectiveness of using marine mammals as data-collection platforms that can dramatically improve the ocean observing system for biological and physical oceanographers. Here, we review the MEOP program and database to bring it to the attention of the international community.


This article tries to increase public awareness of a crucial but rarely discussed global challenge by introducing a novel economic analysis: drawing on insights from various disciplines, it studies policies regulating sand extraction and trade. While sand is essential for construction and land reclamation worldwide, its extraction causes severe ecological damage in oceans, in rivers and on beaches and thus has high social costs. To derive solutions to this paramount global challenge, this article focuses on sand exports from developing countries in Southeast Asian to Singapore as a prominent example. It evaluates output, export and import taxes as the means to reduce sand extraction and trade. To this end, it utilizes an Eaton and Kortum type trade model within a general equilibrium framework. Overall, an output tax can reduce sand extraction to a large extent, while the economic costs are small for Singapore and slightly positive for the Southeast Asian sand exporters. As a novel policy, the sand tax can be implemented as a Sand Extraction Allowances Trading Scheme (SEATS). This policy can help sustainably balance Singapore's economic growth with Southeast Asia's economic development.


While Russia's military involvement in the war in Syria has received great attention, less focus has been directed at the foreign fighters from Russia and other post-Soviet states who have joined the Islamic State and other Jihadist groups. The emergence of these Jihadists has been a gradual process, which began in the 1990s, and it has now led to a situation where an estimated 7,000 Russians and 3,000 Central Asians are fighting in Syria. These figures present a challenge for the various states fighting the Jihadist groups, but they pose a much greater problem for the Russian and other national authorities, who will have to handle the fighters, when they return home.


An experimental test of the descriptive adequacy of the restated diversification principle is presented. The principle postulates that risk-averse utility maximizers will pool risks for their mutual benefit, even if information is missing about the probabilities of losses. It is enough for people to assume that they face equal risks when they pool risks. The results of the experiment support the principle.


In this dissertation I investigated the role of tree species for the structure and functioning of soil animal food webs in temperate forests. In the field, the role of tree species diversity as compared to tree species identity for the structure of oribatid mite communities was investigated. Two laboratory studies focused on the role of two important tree species of deciduous forests (beech and ash) as determinants of the flux of C and N through the soil animal food web.
In Chapter 2 results of a field experiment investigating the density, community structure and diversity of oribatid mites (Oribatida) conducted in Hainich National Park are presented. Due to the small scale approach with beech, ash and lime stands (clusters) effects of tree diversity were separated from effects of tree identity. While tree diversity effects on oribatid mites were of minor importance, tree identity effects were strong. Oribatid mite densities were highest in beech clusters, highlighting the importance of thick organic layers formed by recalcitrant beech litter providing habitable space and food resources. The results underline the dominance of fungal feeders and high importance of animal prey for abundant oribatid mite groups such as Oppioidea. The results supported the view that oribatid mite communities are fuelled predominantly by belowground rather than aboveground resources. Ash and lime stands were colonized by few mainly large and strongly sclerotized oribatid mite species able to withstand harsh environmental conditions in shallow humus layers.
In the dual labeling experiment presented in Chapter 3, the incorporation of carbon from beech and ash seedlings exposed to 13CO2 enriched atmosphere into the soil animal food web was investigated. In parallel, the incorporation of nitrogen from 15N enriched nutrient solution into the soil animal food web via fungi was studied. 13C and 15N signals were similar in beech and ash rhizosphere suggesting that belowground tree species traits, such as fine root architecture and mycorrhiza type (ectomycorrhiza in beech vs. arbuscular mycorrhiza in ash), had minor effects on the channeling of C and N into the soil animal food web. Incorporation of labelled C and N into secondary decomposers exceeded that of primary decomposers suggesting that fungi are of major importance for C and N fluxes into the soil animal food web. Notably, incorporation of labelled C and N was highest in predators suggesting that they heavily rely on rhizosphere associated prey, such as Collembola, but likely also on Nematoda, Enchytraeidae and Lumbricidae.
The experiment presented in Chapter 4 investigated the role of structural compounds for incorporation of litter C and N into the soil animal food web. Dual labeled leaf litter of beech and ash, similar in N concentrations but differing in structural compounds, was used. Soil animals preferentially incorporated C from litter low in structural compound highlighting the importance of litter low in structural compounds, such as ash, for fuelling soil animal food webs. Soil animals incorporated similar amounts of N from both ash and beech indicating that structural compounds of litter little affect the availability of litter N. Incorporation of litter C and N into secondary decomposers exceeded that of primary decomposers. Further, mixing of litter differing in concentrations of structural compounds was of minor importance for incorporation of litter resources into the soil animal food web. Both results stress the importance of the fungal energy channel for incorporation of litter resources into the soil animal food web.


Members of the 70-kDa family of cellular stress proteins assit in protein folding by preventing inappropriate intra- and intermolecular interactions during normal protein synthesis and transport and when cells are exposed to a variety of environmental stresses. During infection of A31 mouse fibroblasts with polyomavirus, the constitutive form of hsp70, hsc70, coimmunoprecipitated with all three viral capsid proteins (VP1, VP2, and VP3). In addition, the subcellular location of hsc70 changed from cytoplasmic to nuclear late in polyomavirus infection, coincident with the nuclear localization of the viral capsid proteins. VP1 and VP2 expressed in Sf9 insect cells with recombinant baculovirus vectors also coimmunoprecipitated with an hsp70-like protein, and VP1 expressed in Escherichia coli coimmunoprecipitated with the hsp70 homolog DnaK. Capsid proteins expressed by in vitro translation coimmunoprecipitated with the hsc70 protein present in the reticulocyte translation extract. Therefore, the polyomavirus capsid proteins associate with hsc70 during virus infection as well as in recombinant protein expression systems. This association may play a role in preventing the premature assembly of capsids in the cytosol and/or in facilitating the nuclear transport of capsid protein complexes.


Background and purpose: Anopheles mosquitoes are of particular importance because they transmit malaria. Implementing the malaria elimination program reduced its incidence in recent years in Iran. However, in the last decade, almost an annual average of 15 thousand cases was recorded. So far 24 species of Anopheles are collected in Iran of which 8 species are confirmed as malaria vectors. Despite the implementation of programs to combat malaria, it is still endemic in Iran due to various reasons including insecticide resistance among Anopheles. Materials and methods: A review of published literature (1921-2015) was performed in electronic databases including Google Scholar, PubMed, SID, Ovid Medline, Web of Science, Irandoc, and the World Health Organization (WHO) web site. The search keywords were Anopheles, malaria, resistance, vectors, and mechanisms. A total of 160 articles and thesis were found from which 60 met the inclusion criteria. Results: Anopheles stephensi was found resistant to DDT, Dieldrin and Malathion and becoming resistant against deltamethrin. However, no reports have been found on resistance in An. Fluviatilis, An. Superpictus, and An. Sacharovi against DDT, Dieldrin, Malathion, and Deltamethrin. Different studies indicated that An. Maculipennis, An. Dthali, and An. culicifacies are resistant to DDT. Conclusion: Insecticide resistance is becoming a serious thtreat to the effectiveness of malaria control measures, this is specially crucial as the country embarked on the malaria elimination programme, therefore, monitoring insecticide resistance in the main malaria vectors in Iran is of paramound importance.


Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the causative agent of the sexually transmitted infection, gonorrhoea. In a standard infection, N. gonorrhoeae invade epithelial cells lining the urogenital tract and exit into the sub-epithelial layer. This triggers an immune response that causes the noticeable symptoms of gonorrhoea. Asymptomatic infection occurs when the bacteria persist inside epithelial cells, avoiding detection by the human immune system. Bacterial persistence has been linked to the development of antibiotic resistance, and as such, is a major contributing factor to the success of the pathogen. Mechanisms of adherence and invasion by N. gonorrhoeae have been well researched, but little is known about the intracellular lifecycle of the bacteria during infection and persistence.

Toxin-antitoxin (TA) systems have been linked to the formation of persistent populations in bacteria however the role of TA systems in N. gonorrhoeae is yet to be investigated. In this thesis, the role of a VapBC TA system in intracellular replication of N. gonorrhoeae is investigated and activity of the toxic VapC protein is characterised. The TA system, FitAB, is a protein-protein complex comprised of an antitoxin, FitA, and a toxin, FitB. Activity of FitB is inhibited when in complex with FitA, and the complex is auto-regulatory. Biochemical activity screens using RNA pentaprobe substrates to characterise the activity of FitB show FitB cleaves single-stranded RNA pentaprobes. However, FitB does not cleave short RNA oligonucleotides of the same sequence(s). These results indicate FitB is a magnesium-dependent sequence-specific ribonuclease that cleaves RNA based on sequence and secondary structure.

The potential role of FitAB in persistence of N. gonorrhoeae was investigated using intracellular replication experiments. Intracellular replication of a N. gonorrhoeae fitAB gene deletion strain showed the most pronounced phenotype seen for a single TA deletion. Intracellular replication of the fitAB gene deletion strain is considerably faster than the wild-type within epithelial cells. However, a sudden cell death event occurs in the gene deletion strain suggesting the TA system is essential for sustainable, long-term growth during infection. An understanding of how FitAB regulates intracellular growth will provide insight into the intracellular lifecycle of N. gonorrhoeae and the formation of persistent populations.


We have numerically investigated the long term dynamical behavior of known Centaurs. This class of objects is thought to constitute the transitional population between the Kuiper Belt and the Jupiter-family comets (JFCs). In our study, we find that over their dynamical lifetimes, these objects diffuse into the JFCs and other sinks, and also make excursions into the Scattered Disk, but (not surprisingly) do not diffuse into the parameter space representing the main Kuiper Belt. These Centaurs spend most of their dynamical lifetimes in orbits of eccentricity 0.2-to-0.6 and perihelion distance 12-to-30 AU. Their orbital evolution is characterized by frequent close encounters with the giant planets. Most of these Centaurs will escape from the solar system (or enter the Oort Cloud), while a fraction will enter the JFC population and a few percent will impact a giant planet. Their median dynamical lifetime is 9 Myr, although there is a wide dispersion in lifetimes, ranging from less than 1 Myr to more than 100 Myr. We find the dynamical evolution of this sample of Centaurs to be less orderly than the planet-to-planet "hand-off" described in previous investigations. We discuss the implications of our study for the spatial distribution of the Centaurs as a whole.


It is the aim of this paper to notice as simply as possible the changes produced by the War conditions in the revenue and expenditure of Ireland: as these are exhibited in the annual returns popularly known as the " Treasury White Paper." There are always, of course, two White Papers; but one of them is a preliminary computation which leads up to the other. The principal White Paper is that entitled " Revenue and Expenditure (England, Scotland, and Ireland)," of which the latest issue is for the financial year ended March 31, 1919. (H.C. No. 163 of 1919, price 2d.) The other carries the clumsy title, " Imperial Revenue (Collection and Expenditure) (Great Britain and Ireland)"; it is mainly a computation by which the Revenues as actually " collected " in Great Britain and Ireland are adjusted so as to estimate the " true " Revenues really paid by the inhabitants of ithose two islands; but it also prints a retrospect of the figures for both Revenue and Expenditure over past years back as far as 1819. (Latest issue is H.C. No, 162 of 1919, price 3d.)


This study seeks to investigate the global circulation and re-emergence of Subantarctic Mode Water (SAMW), which is thought to be important in providing the source of nutrients to drive biological production over large proportions of the world ocean. For this purpose, the HYbrid isopycnic-cartesian Coordinate Ocean general circulation Model (HYCOM) is configured to simulate the global ocean circulation for timescales of up to centuries. After development and validation of the model, a control run of 120 years is undertaken in order to reach a near-equilibrium. A tracer is then injected into the SAMW formation regions and used to track the global circulation of SAMW for a further 150 years. The upwelling regions in which SAMW is returned to the upper-ocean mixed layer are identified, and the importance of different mechanisms of SAMW/nutrient re-emergence north of the Southern Ocean is assessed. It is found that for the global ocean north of 30S, entrainment driven by surface buoyancy loss and/or wind stirring is the most important mechanism for SAMW re-emergence in the model (accounting for 33% of the total SAMW upwelling). Substantial regional variation in upwelling mechanisms exists though. Regridding mixing driven by the Ekman pumping effect and shear-induced mixing dominate SAMW upwelling in the equatorial oceans. Induction at isopycnal outcrops is critical to SAMW upwelling in the high-latitude North Atlantic. It is found that SAMW has little influence in the North Pacific when compared with the North Atlantic and the different circulation and upwelling patterns of SAMW in the Northern Hemisphere are investigated in the model. The confined penetration distance of SAMW to the North Pacific is found to be associated with the relatively lighter density levels that the SAMW core resides at in the Pacific Ocean, and the different vertical extensions of the Equatorial Under Current (EUC) and Kuroshio Current (KC) there. The mechanisms of nutrient supply into the North Atlantic Ocean in association with the SAMW has been studied in more detail with a set of perturbation experiments. Intercomparison shows that the relatively high nutrient concentrations and primary production in the upper thermocline isopycnals and surface within the Gulf Stream (GS) are likely to be associated with the imported nutrients through isopycnal transport, and diapycnal mixing need not to be invoked to explain the Gulf Stream's high nutrient concentrations. Based on the tracer experiment, a new nutrient circulation and upwelling model is proposed for the North Atlantic Ocean, which comprises four steps following the seasonal cycle of the thermocline.


Expert PHP 5 programming techniques, direct from PHP 5 co-creator and key developers Definitive coverage of the PHP object model, design patterns, XML/SOAP integration, and more Solid introduction and expert insights into performance tuning, PEAR, extensions, and database access The definitive introduction to PHP 5's advanced features! The definitive introduction for today's most powerful PHP 5 techniquesIn this book, PHP 5's co-creator and two leading PHP developers show you how to make the most of PHP 5's industrial-strength enhancements in any project-no matter how large or complex. Their unique insights and realistic examples illuminate PHP 5's new object model, powerful design patterns, improved XML Web services support, and much more. Whether you're creating web applications, extensions, packages, or shell scripts-or migrating PHP 4 code-here are high-powered solutions you won't find anywhere else.Review PHP's syntax and master its object-oriented capabilities-from properties and methods to polymorphism, interfaces, and reflection Master the four most important design patterns for PHP development Write powerful web applications: handle input, cookies, session extension, and more Integrate with MySQL, SQLite, and other database engines Provide efficient error handling that's transparent to your users Leverage PHP 5's improved XML support-including parsing, XSLT conversions, and more Build XML-based web services with XML-RPC and SOAP Make the most of PEAR: work with the repository, use key packages, and create your own Upgrade PHP 4 code to PHP 5-compatibility issues, techniques, and practical workarounds Improve script performance: tips and tools for PHP optimization Use PHP extensions to handle files/streams, regular expressions, dates/times, and graphics Create original extensions and shell scriptsIf you're a software developer new to PHP, you'll leap quickly into PHP and its new object-oriented capabilities. If you're an experienced PHP programmer, you already recognize PHP's convenience and simplicity. Now, discover all of its extraordinary power!


Capsidiol is a bicyclic sesquiterpene, which accumulates extracellularly in plants, and has been isolated from many types of Solanaceae. It acts as a phytoalexin produced by Nicotiana tabacum in response to pathogens. Capsidiol has antifungal activity and is formed first in tobacco and pepper plants after infestation. The amount of capsidiol in tobacco cell suspension culture has been previously determined by solid-phase extraction and organic solvent extraction with thin-layer chromatography or gas chromatography analysis. A high-performance liquid chromatography method with UV detection at 210 nm on a C(8) column utilizing both extraction methods was developed to analyze capsidiol in suspension cell culture. The HPLC method was linear in the concentration range of 0.1-2.0 mg/L. The lower limit of quantitation was 0.1 mg/L. Organic solvent extraction and solid-phase extraction methods were compared. Both methods are generally similar in their overall efficiency (82% and 75%, respectively), but eliminations of interfering compounds are different. The relative standard deviation across five extractions of known amounts of capsidiol from plant sample was less than 5.1%. The relative standard deviation across five elicitations of cell cultures was less than 5.9%. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of capsidiol was performed, and corresponding mass spectra are presented.


In October and November 1964, after attending the Second Pan African Ornithological Congress at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, I spent some six weeks at Rhodes Inyanga Orchards in the Inyanga National Park, Rhodesia, at the kind invitation of Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Payne. During my stay I observed and collected birds in the Park and its immediate surroundings. In this paper the ornithological results of my stay are recorded. A collecting permit had been obtained for me in advance by Mrs. Payne, and by kind permission of the Chief Warden I was allowed to collect in the National Park. Authorities of the Umtali Museum placed a shotgun and dustshot at my disposal. Mrs. Payne was greatly interested in my activities; she also presented to me several bird-skins, including a specimen of the rare Sarothrura affinis antonii. Recently she has contributed to ornithological knowledge by the discovery of an even rarer rail, Sarothrura lugens lynesi (cf. Benson & Irwin, 1966). To the authorities of the British Museum (Natural History) I am indebted for the loan of material and for help with the identification of Cisticola species and an immature Ploceus velatus. Loans were further received from the South African Museum, Cape Town, the Durban Museum, and the Koninklijk Museum voor Midden-Afrika, Tervuren. To Mr. A. de Roo of the last-mentioned institute I owe the identification of some specimens of Euplectes in off-season plumage. Mr. J. Hull of the University Museum, Oxford, sent information on specimens of Ploceus velatus in the Burchell collection. Financially, my visit to Africa was made possible by grants from the Jan Joost ter Pelkwijk Fonds and the Nederlandsche Organisatie voor


The specific binding of oligonucleotide-tagged 100 nm magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to rolling circle products (RCPs) is investigated using our newly developed differential homogenous magnetic assay (DHMA). The DHMA measures ac magnetic susceptibility from a test and a control samples simultaneously and eliminates magnetic background signal. Therefore, the DHMA can reveal details of binding kinetics of magnetic nanoparticles at very low concentrations of RCPs. From the analysis of the imaginary part of the DHMA signal, we find that smaller MNPs in the particle ensemble bind first to the RCPs. When the RCP concentration increases, we observe the formation of agglomerates, which leads to lower number of MNPs per RCP at higher concentrations of RCPs. The results thus indicate that a full frequency range of ac susceptibility observation is necessary to detect low concentrations of target RCPs and a long amplification time is not required as it does not significantly increase the number of MNPs per RCP. The findings are critical for understanding the underlying microscopic binding process for improving the assay performance. They furthermore suggest DHMA is a powerful technique for dynamically characterizing the binding interactions between MNPs and biomolecules in fluid volumes.


Mothers with untreated phenylketonuria (PKU) have an increased risk of bearing children with congenital malformations. PKU causes accumulation of phenylalanine (PHE) and its metabolites in urine and blood, and this condition may contribute to the developmental problems. In the present study we investigated the embryotoxicity of these compounds in the rat postimplantation embryo culture system. Whereas PHE was ineffective, phenylpyruvic acid and phenylacetic acid induced general growth retardation. Phenylacetic acid and O-hydroxyphenylacetic acid were also growth retarding and in addition affected yolk sac circulation. Phenylethylamine was the most embryotoxic compound tested, with a lowest effective concentration of 0.03 g/l. It induced various anomalies including incomplete flexion and neural tube defects. The effects of a mixture of phenylketones in culture did not reveal synergism between compounds. In the presence of maternal hepatocytes PHE was metabolized in culture without leading to embryotoxic effects. Extending culture duration from 26 to 48 hours did not increase sensitivity to phenylpyruvic acid. No changes in osmolarity or pH of media were observed that might have been responsible for the embryotoxicity observed. Analysis with HPLC of media after culture revealed no biotransformation of added compounds into other metabolites, except for phenylpyruvic acid. In addition, in the presence of maternal hepatocytes, metabolism was observed that was not accompanied with embryotoxic effects. Embryo culture in human PKU sera, either or not supplemented with 5% (v/v) rat serum, was not detrimental to development. Rather, embryo's tended to thrive better on PKU sera versus control sera. Analysis of human PKU sera revaled lower glucose levels and increased levels of PHE and PKU-related metabolites. The results suggest that the embryotoxicity of PKU-related phenylketones may contribute to teratogenicity of maternal PKU in man. However, in view of the relatively high concentrations necessary for embryotoxicity to occur in vitro, other factors yet unknown may play a significant role. Alternatively, the absence of embryotoxicity of human PKU sera in culture may be interpreted to suggest that the rat postimplantation embryo culture technique may not contain the developmental en points that are most vulnerable in maternal PKU.


It is often recommended that asset allocation, in particular the proportion of stocks in a portfolio, should be influenced by the time for which the portfolio is expected to be held. Short investment horizons are seen as unsuitable for stocks. Long-term portfolios are regarded as suitable for high proportions of stocks. This is partly because long investment periods are seen as moderating the relative risk of stocks without distracting from the relatively high expected returns of stocks. Time diversification is one factor that ameliorates the long-run risk of stocks. Over the long term there will be periods of relatively good returns and periods of relatively poor returns; good periods and bad periods have a tendency to offset each other over long time spans. In consequence, risk increases less than proportionately with time, whereas returns have a compounding effect over time. Some academics have suggested that stock market risk increases as the investment horizon lengthens, thus refuting the concept of time diversification. That argument has been based on an apparent increase in the cost of hedging stock price risk, as indicated by theoretical put option prices, which appear to increase when the investment horizon extends. This article argues that those views are based on a restrictive use of the Black-Scholes option pricing model. When the model is used less restrictively, put option prices are found to decrease as the investment horizon lengthens when investment growth exceeds a particular rate. Risk, as measured by the cost of hedging, may decline as the holding period lengthens. Depending on expected investment growth, option theory supports time diversification rather than refuting it.