SMILES
randomization, a form of data augmentation, has previously been shown to
increase the performance of deep learning models compared to non-augmented
baselines. Here, we propose a novel data augmentation method we call "Levenshtein
augmentation" which considers local SMILES sub-sequence similarity between
reactants and their respective products when creating training pairs. The performance
of Levenshtein augmentation was tested using two state of the art models -
transformer and sequence-to-sequence based recurrent neural networks with
attention. Levenshtein augmentation demonstrated an increase performance over non-augmented, and
conventionally SMILES randomization augmented data when used for training of
baseline models. Furthermore, Levenshtein augmentation seemingly results in
what we define as attentional gain – an
enhancement in the pattern recognition capabilities of the underlying network
to molecular motifs.


Aeromonas is one the gram – negative , non spor – formating rod shaping , facultatively anaerobic and opportunistic bactria that can cause systematic infections, leision and diarrhoea in human. Fairly high bactrial population in distribution system is not only of concern because of affecting consumer health but also it makes it difficult to enumerate coliform bacterium indicator. So, the relationships between aeromonas and heterotrophic bacteria growth with pH, temperature, turbidity, free residual cholornie and DO were determined in this study. ADAV media was used in presumptive stage to count aeromonas bacteria for the first time in Iran on the basis of 1605 EPA (2001) method and used oxidase tests, trehalose fermentation and indol test in confirmative stage. R2A media was used to count HPC bacteria and other factors measured on the basis of standards. The results showed that positive cases of aeromonas bacteria and HPC increase in higher temperature and turbidity and lower pH. In contrast, positive cases of aeromonas bacteria and HPC decrease while free residual cholorine and DO increase. In addition,no positive case of aeromonas was observed in more than 0.2 mg/L concentration of free residual cholorine.


For many years the EPFL Laboratory for Electrical Machines develops SIMSEN, a numerical software package for the simulation in transient and steady-state conditions of electrical power systems and adjustable speed drives, having an arbitrary topology. SIMSEN is based on a collection of modules, each corresponding to one system component (machines, converters, transformers, control devices, etc.). This contribution presents the extension of SIMSEN to the hydraulic components of a hydroelectric power plant including pump-turbine, valve, penstock, surge tank, gallery, reservoir, etc. The basic idea is to define for each hydraulic component an equivalent electric component which can be introduced in the existing electric version of SIMSEN. Doing this, it becomes possible to use the modularity of the electric version to define the complete topology of the hydroelectric power plant and the connected electrical network. This extension enables numerical simulations taking precisely into account the interactions between the hydraulic and the electric parts of the system during transients. It is therefore useful for transient and stability analyses as well as for the design optimization.


Good quality and perfectly stoichiometric GeO2 layers are promising interlayers to be implemented in alternative devices based on high dielectric constant oxide/Ge(100). In this work, the authors report on the growth by atomic layer deposition of GeO2 films using a divalent Ge precursor combined with O3. The films are composed of smooth and perfectly stoichiometric GeO2. The contamination level is extremely low. The deposited GeO2 films have a band gap of 5.81±0.04eV. The conduction and valence band offsets at the GeO2∕Ge heterojunction are found to be 0.6±0.1 and 4.5±0.1eV, respectively.


QUANTIFICATION OF REGULARITY IN RR-INTERVAL TIME SERIES USING APPROXIMATE ENTROPY, SAMPLE ENTROPY, AND MULTI-SCALE ENTROPY by Nirvish Shah Heart rate variability (HRV) has proven to be a useful noninvasive tool to study the neuronal control of the heart. Recently, nonlinear dynamic methods based on chaos theory and fractal dynamics have been developed to uncover the nonlinear fluctuations in heart rate. Approximate Entropy (ApEn), Sample Entropy (SampEn) and Multi-scale Entropy (MSE) are measures based on chaos theory that quantify the regularity in time series. This study has been designed to examine the ability of these measures to distinguish the RR-interval time series of normal subjects (NSR) from subjects with congestive heart failure (CHF). The study was conducted on the RR-interval data of 44 NSR subjects and 18 CHF subjects. In addition to this, entropy measures of three apparently healthy subjects were calculated during sitting, standing, exercise and paced breathing to determine the change in entropy measures during these conditions. The results showed that ApEn and SampEn measures for 1000 RR-intervals were significantly (P < 0.005) higher for the NSR group than the CHF group. However, no significant difference was observed for these measures calculated for 40,000 RRintervals. MSE analysis revealed that the complexity of the RR-interval time series was significantly higher for the NSR group than the CHF group at all scales but one. SampEn was significantly lower during exercise while there was no significant difference in SampEn for other activities. The results reproduced the findings of others. This study suggests a general decrease in entropy in subjects with congestive heart failure. QUANTIFICATION OF REGULARITY IN RR-INTERVAL TIME SERIES USING APPROXIMATE ENTROPY, SAMPLE ENTROPY, AND MULTI-SCALE ENTROPY


Through a detailed analysis of medieval Spain's best known literary works, this book examines two common images of woman--the sexually attractive matron of the Christian upper classes, and the beautiful, pure, and sexually ripe upper-class Muslim or Jewish woman who is submissive to Christians. Suggesting a link between these images and the issues of political and military power, religious difference, and language in the context of reconquest Castile, the book argues that female representation in the literature provides a resolution of Christian-Muslim military conflict.This volume is the first in the field of medieval Hispanic studies to reexamine the canon in the light of recent critical work on language, gender, power, and the effects of domination. It shows how the texts imaginarily liberate Christian women from the authority of their husbands, in order to demonstrate how women's access to the discourses of power leads to tragedy and ruin for the men who fail to silence them."Women, Jews, and Muslims in the Texts of Reconquest Castile "makes the argument that dominant-"other" struggle, waged on the terrains of gender, religion, and war, is the most appropriate paradigm for discussing literary texts produced in the last centuries of reconquest. More than any other culture, medieval Spain reminds us of the provisional nature of national, religious, and sexual identity.Exploring the gendering of subjects in society, the volume will be of interest to those in cultural and gender studies, Hispanic studies, medieval studies, and Middle Eastern studies. All texts are translated, and maps and illustrations help orient the reader.Louise Mirrer is Professor and Chair, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Minnesota.


EXAMINING LOWER EXTREMITY MOTOR ACTIVITY USING MAGNETOENCEPHALOGRAPHY Ruth M. Swedler, B.S. Marquette University, 2012 The role of the cortex during locomotion remains unclear, but recent advances in neural imaging technologies have aided in developing ways to measure brain activity during motor tasks. One method is by measuring activations produced by neural oscillations which have been associated with a variety of human behaviors, from sleep and rest to cognitive actions and movement. The physiological and functional methods in which oscillations contribute to cortical control are still largely unknown. In this study, we aim to expand that knowledge by examining human cortical activity in the sensory and motor cortices during pedaling using magnetoencephalography (MEG). We hypothesized that, if the sensory and motor cortices are important for controlling locomotion, then the MEG signal would differ during pedaling as compared to rest and would be modulated with the phase of the pedaling cycle. Moreover, if locomotorrelated brain activity is solely caused by sensory feedback, then the MEG signal would be the same during active and passive pedaling. We scanned eight healthy subjects using MEG while they pedaled a custom-made pedaling device. The subjects' magnetocortical activity was measured in two minute recordings during rest, continuous, self-paced active pedaling, and passive pedaling. The passive condition consisted of the subject relaxing their leg muscles while the experimenter pedaled the device for them at a velocity matching that subject's active pedaling bout. Task-dependent magnetocortical activity was examined in the primary sensorimotor cortex (M1 and S1), supplemental motor area (SMA), and premotor area (PMA). The power spectrum of the MEG signal during the different tasks was extracted using a Welch periodogram to examine the frequency content throughout each task. The power in the alpha and beta bands of all regions of interest decreased significantly during active and passive pedaling as compared to rest. No significant difference was found between any of the tasks in the gamma band. The temporal pattern of the beta frequency band was also examined across the pedaling cycle by performing a time-frequency decomposition using a Morlet wavelet. Both pedaling conditions demonstrated modulation of the beta band at twice the pedaling frequency. These fluctuations were not found in the rest condition. Our results showed that the brain becomes engaged during pedaling as compared to rest. The magnetocortical activity is different across the movement cycle, suggesting that the brain has input into the regulation of locomotor-like movement. There is also a strong sensory component during movement since the active and passive pedaling conditions are similar.


The author aims to develop a framework to explain local-level implementation of post-socialist environmental policies, and provides some case study evidence from Hungary. He starts by examining the evidence on environmental policy implementation in advanced capitalist North America and Western Europe as an indication of the possibilities compatible with certain forms of capitalism, and on the patterns under state socialism as a possible source of 'legacy' effects. A number of similarities are shown to exist despite the very different socioeconomic systems involved. He goes on to outline a set of hypotheses concerning the interrelation between local level actors—enterprises, local governments, branches of national ministries, and the public (organised and unorganised)—and the local power structures thus created, as the immediate determinants of local-level environmental policy in postsocialist conditions. Recent studies on this subject are summarised, and the author concludes by examining evidence from a case study of Dunaujvaros, a 'steel town' in Hungary. Although the emphasis is on the openness of the possibilities and forces which are likely to shape the actual pattern of implementation, it is suggested that the patterns likely to be found in post-socialist Eastern Europe may not be dissimilar from those in advanced capitalist conditions because of the similarity between legacy effects of the old system and emergent effects of the new system.


It is empirically established that order flow in the financial markets is positively auto-correlated and can serve as an example of a social system with long-range memory. Nevertheless, widely used long-range memory estimators give varying values of the Hurst exponent. We propose the burst and inter-burst duration statistical analysis as one more test of long-range memory and implement it with the limit order book data comparing it with other widely used estimators. This method gives a more reliable evaluation of the Hurst exponent independent of the stock in consideration or time definition used. Results strengthen the expectation that burst and inter-burst duration analysis can serve as a better method to investigate the property of long-range memory.


Abstract This paper investigated the influence of selected social background characteristics on high school band students' perceptions of effective teaching skills and behaviors. Specific questions were 1) Does gender affect how high school students perceive effective teaching skills and behaviors? 2) Does high school grade level affect the perception of effective teaching skills and behaviors? 3) Is the perception of teacher effectiveness affected by the school's demographic description? 4) Does having previous conducting and teaching experience affect students' perceptions of effective teaching? and 5) What teaching skills and behaviors are perceived to be the most effective by high school band students? A survey consisting of social background characteristics and forty-five teaching skills and behaviors was administered to high school band students. After responding to questions regarding selected background data, the subjects used a five-point Likert-type scale to rate each teacher skill and behavior from 1 (not very effective) to 5 (very effective). Data analysis then compared the responses to the subjects' background information. The results indicated that the items, "Maintains high music standards" and "Is knowledgeable of subject knowledge," received the highest mean scores. Further analysis found that gender had no effect on the perceived effectiveness of any teaching skill or behavior. However, the perceived effectiveness of some skills and behaviors was affected by the subjects' grade level, high school location, previous ensemble conducting, and having taught private lessons. Further analysis and implications are presented. There appears to be a fundamental assumption in performance-based classes that success or failure can be attributed to the effectiveness of the teacher. Teachers are trained to use specific skills and behaviors thought to be effective, yet a clear understanding of the multitude of variables affecting this knowledge remains elusive. Effective teaching has been defined as the degree of effect that observed teacher behaviors have on student behavior (Yarborough & Price, 1981). Despite the apparent importance of the teaching process on student learning, the perception of what specific skills and behaviors constitute effective teaching remains imprecise (Madsen & Duke, 1993). Furthermore, a clear understanding of the variables affecting the perception of effective teaching remains ambiguous. Not surprisingly, researchers caution that it is easy to recognize effective teachers, but hard to define specific characteristics or why these perceptions exist (Madsen, Stanley, & Cassidy, 1989). Much has been written on the many variables that constitute and affect teaching. Research trends demonstrate that social attributes of the teacher are being increasingly recognized as effective teaching skills that contribute to the perception of what characteristics are considered effective (Lortie, 2002; Waller, 1965). Indeed, Robinson (2000) and Waller (1965) found that many social characteristics such as a teacher's age, maturity, dress, and student-teacher interactions contribute to a student's first impressions, including the perceptions of effectiveness. Furthermore, these impressions tend to be long-term, and thus difficult for teachers to change quickly. Previously investigated social variables related to teacher effectiveness can be categorized as personal characteristics, visual characteristics, and teacher classroom behaviors. Personal characteristics shown to affect teacher effectiveness include a teacher's age, voice pitch, and the volume of a teacher's voice (Waller, 1965), a charismatic and enthusiastic personality (Gordon & Hamann, 2001; Madsen, Stanley, Byo, & Cassidy, 1989; Rohwer & Henry, 2004; Teachout, 1997, 2001; Yarbrough, 1975), maturity, a positive attitude (Rohwer & Henry, 2004; Waller, 1965), and a strong desire to help others (Gordon and Hamann, 2001). …


We report on an experimental study of the effect of atmospheric turbulence on laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) measurements. The characteristics of the atmosphere dictate specific performance constraints to this technology. Unlike classical laboratory LIBS systems where the distance to the sample is well known and characterized, LIBS systems working at several tens of meters to the target have specific atmospheric propagation conditions that cause the quality of the LIBS signals to be affected to a significant extent. Using a new LIBS based sensor system fitted with a nanosecond laser emitting at 1064 nm, propagation effects at distances of up to 120 m were investigated. The effects observed include wander and scintillation in the outgoing laser beam and in the return atomic emission signal. Plasmas were formed on aluminium targets. Average signal levels and signal fluctuations are measured so the effect of atmospheric turbulence on LIBS measurements is quantified.


Elliptic curve cryptosystems (ECCs) are utilised as an alternative to traditional public-key cryptosystems, and are more suitable for resource-limited environments because of smaller parameter size. In this study, the authors carry out a thorough investigation of side-channel attack aware ECC implementations over finite fields of prime characteristic including the recently introduced Edwards formulation of elliptic curves. The Edwards formulation of elliptic curves is promising in performance with built-in resiliency against simple side-channel attacks. To our knowledge the authors present the first hardware implementation for the Edwards formulation of elliptic curves. The authors also propose a technique to apply non-adjacent form (NAF) scalar multiplication algorithm with side-channel security using the Edwards formulation. In addition, the authors implement Joye's highly regular add-always scalar multiplication algorithm both with the Weierstrass and Edwards formulation of elliptic curves. Our results show that the Edwards formulation allows increased area-time performance with projective coordinates. However, the Weierstrass formulation with affine coordinates results in the simplest architecture, and therefore has the best area-time performance as long as an efficient modular divider is available.


[Extract] Health professionals may be experts about disease, but patients are experts about their lives. That's because patients live with their illness and disease every day. The best health care providers know that the factors that influence people's lives also influences their health outcomes. They treat the patient and not just the disease. This is called patient-centered care. Aboriginal peoples started delivering patient-centred care 45years ago when they established Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs). These services gave patients a voice in their health care decisions when this had been historically denied to them 2.Through these services, and there are now more than 150 of them. Aboriginal peoples can meaningfully participate in the healthcare system. ACCHSs now form part of a national system of primary health care services that specialise in providing comprehensive and quality care to Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders. So, what is it about these services that demonstrate consumer engagement or participation? First, let's explore what this means.


Migraine, particularly migraine with aura, and increased body weight are independent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). The association of weight change and clinical markers of CVD risk was evaluated in subjects participating in a randomized double-blind, parallel-group study of migraine-preventive treatment comparing 100 mg/day of topiramate and amitriptyline. Individuals from both treatment groups were pooled and stratified into three groups. The 'major weight gain' group gained ≥ 5% of their baseline body weight at the conclusion of the study; the 'major weight loss' group lost ≥ 5% of their baseline body weight. The third group had < 5% of weight change. The influence of weight change in headache outcomes, as well as in markers of CVD (blood pressure, cholesterol, C-reactive protein), was assessed using analysis of covariance. Of 331 subjects, 52 (16%) experienced major weight gain and 56 (17%) experienced major weight loss. Weight change was not associated with differential efficacy for the treatment of headache. However, contrasted with those with major weight loss, those who gained weight experienced elevations in mean diastolic blood pressure (+2.5 vs. -1.2 mmHg), heart rate (+7.6 vs. -1.3 beats per minute), glycosylated haemoglobin (+0.09% vs. -0.04%), total cholesterol (+6.4 vs. -6.3 mg/dl), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (+7.0 vs. -4.4 mg/ dl) and triglycerides (+15.3 vs. -10.4 mg/dl) and an increase in high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (+1.8 vs. -1.9 mg/l). Both groups experienced decreases in systolic blood pressure (-4.0 vs. -1.3 mmHg) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (-3.7 vs. -0.8 mg/dl). Increased weight during migraine treatment is not associated with poor headache treatment outcomes, but is associated with deterioration of CVD risk markers.


In some applications, the performance of multichannel Bragg cells is compromised by the spreading of the acoustic waves as they propagate; the spreading causes the signals in the channels to overlap. The overlapping can be significantly reduced by a spatial filter in a Fourier–image plane. The spatial filter is shown to be a cylindrical lens whose power is a function of the distance from the transducer. The effects of changes in the drive frequency as well as those of displacements of the filter are calculated. The reduction in the modulation transfer function as a function of propagation distance is calculated, and some bounds on the time–bandwidth product and the number of channels are dserived. In general, the overall performance can be improved by increasing the center frequency of the Bragg cell while keeping the bandwidth fixed.


Previous studies have shown that viewing others in pain activates cortical somatosensory processing areas and facilitates the detection of tactile targets. It has been suggested that such shared representations have evolved to enable us to better understand the actions and intentions of others. If this is the case, the effects of observing others in pain should be obtained from a range of viewing perspectives. Therefore, the current study examined the behavioral effects of observed grasps of painful and nonpainful objects from both a first- and third-person perspective. In the first-person perspective, a participant was faster to detect a tactile target delivered to their own hand when viewing painful grasping actions, compared with all nonpainful actions. However, this effect was not revealed in the third-person perspective. The combination of action and object information to predict the painful consequences of another person's actions when viewed from the first-person perspective, but not the third-person perspective, argues against a mechanism ostensibly evolved to understand the actions of others.


Purpose: An Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) must be able to predict traffic speed for short time intervals into the future along the branches between the many nodes in a traffic network in near real time using as few observed and stored speed values as possible.  Such predictions support timely ITS reactions to changing traffic conditions such as accidents or volume-induced slowdowns and include re-routing advice and time-to-destination estimations. Design/methodology/approach: Traffic sensors are embedded in the interstate highway system in Detroit, Michigan, USA, and metropolitan area.  The set of sensors used in this project is along interstate highway 75 (I-75) southbound from the intersection with interstate highway 696 (I-696). Data from the sensors including speed, volume, and percent of sensor occupancy, were supplied in one minute intervals by the Michigan Intelligent Transportation Systems Center (MITSC).  Hierarchical linear regression was used to develop a speed prediction model that requires only the current and one previous speed value to predict speed up to 30 minutes in the future.  The model was validated by comparison to collected data with the mean relative error and the median error as the primary metrics. Findings and Originality/value: The model was a better predicator of speed than the minute by minute averages alone.  The relative error between the observed and predicted values was found to range from 5.9% for 1 minute into the future predictions to 10.9% for 30 minutes into the future predictions for the 2006 data set.  The corresponding median errors were 4.0% to 5.4%.  Thus, the predictive capability of the model was deemed sufficient for application. Research limitations/implications: The model has not yet been embedded in an ITS, so a final test of its effectiveness has not been accomplished. Social implications: Travel delays due to traffic incidents, volume induced congestion or other reasons are annoying to vehicle occupants as well as costly in term of fuel waste and unneeded emissions among other items.  One goal of an ITS is to improve the social impact of transportation by reducing such negative consequences.  Traffic speed prediction is one factor in enabling an ITS to accomplish such goals. Originality/value: Numerous data intensive and very sophisticated approaches have been used to develop traffic flow models.  As such, these models aren't designed or well suited for embedding in an ITS for near real-time computations.  Such an application requires a model capable of quickly forecasting traffic speed for numerous branches of a traffic network using only a few data points captured and stored in real time per branch.  The model developed and validated in this study meets these requirements.


In the United States, the national policy for foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccination lacks clarity. To better understand what potential Incident Commanders see as important 'triggers' or factors to consider for implementing vaccination as a control strategy, the authors presented seven such individuals with an FMD outbreak scenario that started in north-western Illinois and spread across state lines by the end of the fifth week. The scenario had four infected premises at the end of week one, 13 at the end of week two, and 60 (including both infected and previously depopulated premises) by the end of week five. Two individuals favoured vaccination the first week of the outbreak scenario, one did not want to vaccinate during the scenario, and the remainder wanted vaccination at some time during the scenario. Respondents ranked nine specific factors to take into consideration when deciding whether or not to vaccinate. Of these, the capability to manage the outbreak by stamping out ranked first. Many of the issues raised in this report are applicable to other countries that are currently FMD-free without vaccination.


The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated devices that are connected to a network and/or to each other, exchanging data without necessarily requiring human-to-machine interaction. In other words, IoT is a collection of electronic devices that can share information among themselves. Examples include smart factories, smart home devices, medical monitoring devices, wearable fitness trackers, smart city infrastructures, and vehicular telematics. Potential issues for Congress include regulation, digital privacy, and data security as discussed below.


A newly developed prophylaxis paste that contains perlite as an abrasive medium (Cleanic) was compared to conventional prophylaxis pastes with regard to relative dentin and enamel abrasion, cleaning ability, and polishing power. Rubber cups and nylon brushes were used as paste carriers. Water, flour of pumice, and the dentin-polishing paste CCS 40 served as controls. The tested prophylaxis pastes, selected according to their popularity among clinicians, were CCS 250, Détartrine Z, Nupro Coarse, and Zircate. The Prophylaxis Paste Index was created to assess the clinical potential of the various prophylaxis pastes more accurately. The Index was computed for dentin as cleaning ability dended by relative dentin abrasion x surface roughness (in Ra) x 10, and for enamel as cleaning ability dended by relative enamel abrasion x surface abrasion (in Ra). On dentin and enamel, Cleanic consistently yielded low relative dentin and enamel abrasion values, a good cleaning ability, and low surface roughness scores with both rubber cups and nylon brushes. Of all tested prophylaxis pastes, Cleanic excelled in the Prophylaxis Paste Index on dentin and enamel and with both rubber cup and nylon brush applications. Therefore, a perlite-containing prophylaxis paste has broad professional therapeutic indications and may be used universally as a single paste to clean and polish both dentin and enamel.


BACKGROUND
We examined the strategy of T-cell depletion of HLA-identical sibling grafts for the prevention of GvHD, as well as disease control and overall survival.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The myeloablative conditioning was radiation based. The source of stem cells was BM in 62, and cytokine-mobilized PBPC in 68 patients. GvHD prophylaxis was by ex vivo incubation of the stem-cell concentrates with Campath-1G (anti-CD52; n=76) or Campath-1H (n=54).

RESULTS
Patients receiving PBPC grafts were older (median 38.5) than those undergoing BMT (median 31; P=0.002). More patients in the PBPC group developed chronic GvHD (p<0.01). While no post-transplant GvHD prophylaxis was given to BMT recipients, prednisone 30 mg daily was prescribed to 12 and CYA for 90 days to a further 32 patients who had received PBPC grafts. Median follow-up was 1055 (range 28-4867) days. Although there was no difference in the survival between patients who received BMT or PBPC, death was from disease recurrence in 16 and nine (p=0.03; chi(2) test) subjects, respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that outcome was particularly favorable in those who were given<20 mg Campath-1 (survival: 28/39 versus 12/29; P=0.01), and in the subgroup of 30 patients who received Campath-1H and post-transplantation CYA.

DISCUSSION
In patients receiving BMT, Campath-1 Abs effectively prevent GvHD. For those treated with PBPC grafts, the combination of T-cell depletion and post-transplantation CYA is equally effective, without an obvious increase in disease recurrence.


1 Scale formation in the digester during kraft pulping represents a great problem in pulp mills. Scaling reduces pulping control and efficiency, increasing energy costs and leading to cleaning breakdowns, with subsequent losses in productivity. The kraft process promotes CaCO3 scaling due to high calcium ion and carbonate concentrations, as well as high alkalinity and temperature levels, which increase the speed with which liquors reach a state of supersaturation. This work examines the action of diethylene triamine penta(methylene phosphonic acid) (DTPMPA), either alone or combined with commercial anti-scaling agents, as an inhibitor of calcium carbonate precipitation in the kraft pulping of Pinus taeda. The theoretical amount of calcium deposited in the digester was obtained by mass balance. Soluble calcium was stable throughout cooking when using the phosphonates alone or combined with anti-scaling agents. When adding only DTPMPA, calcium stays in the pulp, rather than forming deposits.


Fiduciary law is both celebrated as unbound by rules and deplored as unprincipled. Moralists see in fiduciary law a fixed and mandatory system, even as legal economists and contractarians have cast fiduciary law as the ultimate set of defaults to fill in incomplete contracts. Like general equity, out of which it grew, modern fiduciary law suffers from the hard times the theory of equity has fallen into, and for the same reasons. This chapter argues that a functional theory of equity – of equity as a safety valve aimed at countering opportunism – captures the character of fiduciary law. Fiduciary relationships, in which someone undertakes to act on another's behalf by using discretion, carry more than the usual potential for opportunism. In the equitable solutions to opportunism based on proxies and presumptions, fiduciary law gets its main features. Like equity but in a more sweeping and often more categorical way, fiduciary law sets the presumption against the fiduciary when certain proxies are triggered. Thus, in situations of undisclosed conflict of interest the presumption of opportunism arises even without regard to the substance of the deal. For self-dealing likewise the presumption arises in an almost indefeasible way. Like equity generally, fiduciary law features a constrained residuum of open-endedness to deal with new and creative ways of being opportunistic. The theory of equity as targeting potential opportunism unifies the best aspects of traditional and modern theories of fiduciary law, and helps explain why fiduciary law has become so disparate and contested after the fusion of law and equity. Cut off from the special rationales of equity, fiduciary law itself threatens to become too expansive or too narrow and hidebound – like equity generally. Finally, the functional theory of equity as anti-opportunism helps explain the similarity of fiduciary law to another much misunderstood area of private law – unjust enrichment – and the relation between the two. The chapter concludes with some remarks about fiduciary law within the overall architecture of private law.


Graphene is found in charred roasted meat and also in plant charcoal, which is present in the infant's gripe water. Graphene as graphene oxide (GO) is produced on charring the surface of meat on a barbecue forming nitrogen doped GO originating from the pyrolysis of protein in air. The unintentional intake of such nano carbon stained cooked meat is a traditional delicacy. The presence of graphene and nano carbon particles in plant charcoal, used in the branded formulation of gripe water applied for stomach ailments in infants as a medicine, strongly refutes the toxicity of such nano carbons in humans. The isolation of graphene and nano particulates from both the sources is described here. These are characterized by elemental analysis, Raman spectroscopy, PXRD and by FESEM, TEM and SADP image analysis. The intake of nano carbon contaminated roasted food since the discovery of fire possibly trails mutation to evolve resistance in humans. This work suggests that graphene and other nano carbon particles produced by the pyrolysis of bio-products in air are non-toxic to humans.


The study of human reproductive ecology represents an important new development in human evolutionary biology. Its focus is on the physiology of human reproduction and evidence of adaptation, and hence the action of natural selection, in that domain. But at the same time the study of human reproductive ecology provides an important perspective on the historical process of human evolution, a lens through which we may view the forces that have shaped us as a species. In the end, all actions of natural selection can be reduced to variation in the reproductive success of individuals. Peter Ellison is one of the pioneers in the fast growing area of reproductive ecology. He has collected for this volume the research of thirty-one of the most active and influential scientists in the field. Thanks to recent noninvasive techniques, these contributors can present direct empirical data on the effect of a broad array of ecological, behavioral, and constitutional variables on the reproductive processes of humans as well as wild primates. Because biological evolution is cumulative, however, organisms in the present must be viewed as products of the selective forces of past environments. The study of adaptation thus often involves inferences about formative ecological relationships that may no longer exist, or not in the same form. Making such inferences depends on carefully weighing a broad range of evidence drawn from studies of contemporary ecological variation, comparative studies of related taxonomies, and paleontological and genetic evidence of evolutionary history. The result of this inquiry sheds light not only on the functional aspects of an organism's contemporary biology but also on its evolutionary history and the selective forces that have shaped it through time. Encompassing a range of viewpoints--controversy along with consensus--this far-ranging collection offers an indispensable guide for courses in biological anthropology, human biology, and primatology, along with demography, medicine, social anthropology, and public health.


Since the September 11 attacks, a new security agenda has swept aside much of the old sensitivity and apathy about intervening in "failing" states. The war on terror has redefined "governance" from concentrating on issues of economic viability and popular rights to a focus on the capacity of states to generate sufficient "order" to deter or capture the agents of the new transnational security threats: terrorists, smugglers, money launderers, the carriers of zoonotic disease. As part of this process, the governance standards of other states became part of Western states' own security agendas, generating new, self-interested incentives for aid and intervention. In this article, I explore the possibilities for developing a realist-informed normative framework for humanitarian intervention in the context of the post–September 11international concern with transnational threats.


Content analyses of large and internationally influential American newspapers show that today only 35% of the front-page articles are traditional, event-centered news articles, down from 69% 25 years ago. Of the event-centered news, only 47% mentioned the main development in the first paragraph. This study argues that newspapers have transformed in functions and style such that they no longer deliver first-instance news reporting, but serve as an analytical and/or in-depth complement to the more immediate, instantaneous online news outlets. Broader implications of the findings including theoretical connections to comparative media systems, medium theory, and professional role conceptions of journalists are discussed.


This Guide for Small Community Water Suppliers and Local Health Officials is one of a series produced by the International Water Association9s (IWA) Specialist Group on Metals and Related Substances in Drinking Water. It is an abbreviated compilation of the wide range of scientific, engineering, health and operational issues concerned with the control of lead in drinking water in small water supply systems. The IWA Specialist Group is supported by members from 26 European countries, Canada and the United States. It is an active research network and has regularly convened international conferences and seminars. It has close working links with the World Health Organization, the European Commission9s Joint Research Centre, Health Canada and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The IWA Specialist Group developed out of COST Action 637 (www.cost.esf.org), a European research network. The Guide is supported by a two-day technical training course and a more comprehensive Best Practice Guide on the Control of Lead in Drinking Water (IWA, 2010). Information about training, the Best Practice Guide and the research network in general is available from www.meteau.org. This Guide for Small Community Water Suppliers and Local Health Officials explains why lead in drinking water may still be a threat to public health in small communities. It is aimed at Local Health Officials and the operators of drinking water supply systems that serve small communities. Its objectives are to raise awareness, to provide a basis for assessing the extent of problems, and to identify control options. ISBN: 9781843393801 (eBook)


Demographic household surveys frequently seek the same set of information from all adult household members. An issue for questionnaire designers is how best to collect data about each person without compromising data quality or lengthening the survey. One design strategy is the person-level approach, in which all questions are asked person by person. An alternative approach uses household-level screening questions to identify whether anyone in the household has the characteristic of interest, and then identifies specific individuals. Common wisdom holds that the person-level approach is more thorough. Household-level screening questions offer important efficiencies, since they often present a question only once per household, but may be suspect with regard to data quality. Little research exists comparing these two design strategies. This paper presents results from Census Bureau's 1999 Questionnaire Design Experimental Research Survey, which included a split-ballot test comparing person-level questions to household-level questions. We find some evidence that the use of a household screener entails an increased risk of under-reporting relative to a person-level design for some topic areas. We also find evidence, however, that the household-level approach produces more reliable data than the person-level approach for most topic areas. Item nonresponse is generally trivial in both treatments. Behavior coding results showed no inherent superiority of one or the other design. We do find the expected increase in interview efficiency with the household-level design, and some evidence that interviewers preferred it. We conclude with a brief discussion of the implications of these findings, and suggestions for further research.


In Switzerland, the calculation method of road traffic noise is specified in the Ordonnance sur la protection contre le bruit (OPB) (Noise Protection Ordonnance (NPO)). This method is mainly based on observations that were realized in the 80s, and that are not satisfactory many situations anymore. Since the 80s, the traffic volumes have increased, new developments in car and road technologies have occurred, behaviors of users have changed. All these parameters contribute to lower reliability of the initial method. Even if the model is still correct in some case such as for fluid traffic, the obtained levels in different types of traffic are hardly reliable. In collaboration with the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), a research program has been setup to update the method according to those observations. The objective was to give new guidelines to evaluate emission levels of roads. An important collect of data from cantons and others acoustics partners has been performed as well as measurements in real traffic conditions. That made it possible to gather about 7500 points of measurement through all Switzerland for several types of road and traffic conditions.


Background. This real-world study aimed to provide insights on the characteristics, drug utilization, and economic burden of chronic kidney disease non-dialysis-dependent (NDD-CKD) patients with anemia prescribed Erythropoiesis Stimulating Agents (ESA) in Italian clinical practice settings. Methods. A retrospective analysis was performed based on administrative and laboratory databases covering around 1.5 million subjects across Italy. Adult patients with a record for NDD-CKD stage 3a-5 and anemia during 2014-2016 were identified. Eligibility to ESA was defined as the presence of ≥ 2 records of Hb < 11 g/dL over 6 months, and patients eligible and currently treated with ESA were included. Results. Overall, 101,143 NDD-CKD patients were screened for inclusion, of which 40,020 were anemic. A total of 25,360 anemic patients were eligible to ESA treatment and 3,238 (12.8%) were prescribed ESA and included. The mean age was 76.9 years and 51.1% was male. More frequently observed comorbidities were hypertension (over 90% in each stage), followed by diabetes (37.8-43.2%) and cardiovascular condition (20.5-28.9%). Adherence to ESA was observed in 47.9% of patients, with a downward trend while progressing across stages (from 65.8% stage 3a to 35% stage 5). A consistent proportion of patients did not have nephrology visits during the 2 years of follow-up. Costs were mainly due to all drugs (€4,391) followed by all-cause hospitalization (€3,591) and laboratory tests (€1,460). Conclusions. Findings from the study highlight an under-use of ESA in the management of anemia in NDD-CKD as well as a sub-optimal adherence to ESA and showed a great economic burden for anemic NDD-CKD patients.


The Big Data concept provides a new way to understand and change the world, thus greatly changing people's way of thinking and way of living. With the rapid development of Internet and technology, people are interacting with the world and sharing themselves in everyday life, during which massive personal information is revealed willingly or unwillingly. From Internet of Things (IoT) to Internet of Everything (IoE), from 4G to 5G, unimaginable amount of data will be produced in coming decades. How to ensure the security of our personal data has arisen the concern of government and big enterprises. This paper is an overall analysis of the challenges we faced on personal data protection during the era of big data, which also provides relative solutions depending on different contexts of personal data.


The limited nature of the current agriculture system inevitably is unsustainable and is in desperate need of reform; there is a rising need to downscale and decentralize agricultural production methods in order to avoid impending future disasters that are inherent to a fossil fuel dependent system. This paper will examine the localized food economy as a potential alternative agricultural system and present the case studies of Waterloo, Canada and Tucson, Arizona. It will conclude with a proposal to facilitate a shift to a reflexively localized food economy in Raleigh, North Carolina. This paper will show the critical need to explore alternative systems that can reduce structural inequalities, environmental degradation and detrimental health effects caused by today's dominant food system and how collaboration between farmers, researchers, community groups and local governments can facilitate an inclusive shift from the current global, productivist agricultural model to a sustainable, socially conscious and resilient local food economy.


We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to study the function of the dorsolateral frontal cortex in a delayed response task in 10 normal volunteers. Unilateral stimulation of right or left prefrontal cortex during the delay period between instruction and execution cues led to a significantly greater number of response errors than stimulation of motor cortex or in unstimulated trials. Repetitive transcranial stimulation of appropriate intensity and frequency seems to disrupt the function of mnemonic cells in the prefrontal cortex and is useful for the study of the role of the prefrontal cortex in short-term motor memory.


In the title molecule, C11H10O3, the fused dihydropyran ring is in a half-chair conformation with the O atom and the methylene C atom positioned 0.1318 (13) and 0.143 (2) Å, respectively, on either side of the mean plane formed by the other four atoms. In the crystal, weak C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link molecules along [001].


The deployment of wireless communication technologies has led to significant research in the area of mobile data management. The prior research is dominated by the client-proxy-server model. In this model, mobile devices are able to connect to the Internet and serve as clients, initiating actions and receiving information from servers on the network. The primary focus of prior research is on the development of techniques and protocols that deal with disconnection management, low bandwidth and device resource constraints. Their aim is to allow applications built for the wired world to run in wireless domains using proxy based approaches.
In environments based on the cellular infrastructure or wireless local area networks, the traditional client-proxy-server interaction is perhaps an appropriate model. The widespread use of short-range ad-hoc networking technologies, however, introduces different type of environments—the pervasive computing environments—that require novel data management mechanisms. A pervasive computing environment represents a resource-rich, data-intensive environment where users and devices, including handhelds, wearables, computers in vehicles, computers embedded in the physical infrastructure, and (nano)sensors, are mobile and continuously exchange data. In order to exploit the available resources, mobile devices must act as semi-autonomous, self-describing, highly interactive and adaptive peers that employ cross-layer interaction between their data management and communication layers for inferring and expressing information they need, and for obtaining and storing such information by pro-actively interacting with other devices in their vicinity using available short-range ad-hoc networking technologies.
In order to address the data management challenges introduced by these data-intensive, highly dynamic, pervasive computing environments, this dissertation focuses on three questions: (i) What is the necessary model that will allow a device to infer and express what information its user needs based on the current context? (ii) How should a device determine when a user will need the information? (iii) How should a device effectively obtain and store such information from other devices in its vicinity?
The contribution of this dissertation is the design of a conceptual model for data management in pervasive computing environments. The conceptual model includes novel protocols relying on cross-layer interaction between data management and communication layers. The dissertation also defines a novel data-based query routing algorithm, semantic-driven data caching and replication algorithms employing user's and device's profiles, a collaborative query processing protocol, a neighborhood-consistent transaction model, and a reputation-driven belief model.
The second contribution of this dissertation is the design and implementation of a prototype of the conceptual model—the MoGATU framework. Through experimental validation of the implementation prototype, the dissertation demonstrates that the conceptual model and its implementation are superior to existing data management techniques. The dissertation shows that the conceptual model improves the process of discovering and routing data across wireless ad-hoc networks. The dissertation also shows that the conceptual model increases data availability and transaction success rates. Additionally, the dissertation shows that the conceptual model enables devices to evaluate the integrity of their peers and the accuracy of peer provided information.


Forensic anthropology is playing an increasingly important role facing violence and impunity in many countries. A research performed at police stations of Civil Police and Forensic Institutes of six Brazilian capitals demonstrated that the practice of recover and positive identification of human remains has been neglected in different levels. The main problem is the lack of specific training of the professionals that accomplish the expertise in field and laboratory, but also the fact that no anthropological database of disappeared people is available. As a result of this situation, an expressive number of human remains leave the forensic institutes without positive identification, and criminal inquiries of homicides stay without resolution, contributing to the aggravation of the violence and impunity scenery that devastates the country.


ZTA ceramics was prepared by liquid infiltration of alumina matrix with two different organic precursors of zirconia. The infiltration procedure, precursor pyrolysis and the phase development during the crystallisation of precipitated zirconia is described. Optimisation of the heating schedule during the precursor pyrolysis as well as optimisation of the maximal heating temperature with respect to the maximal content oftetragonal zirconia is also performed. Dense Al 2 O 3 with high volume fraction of tetragonal zirconia (up to 50 vol.% of ZrO 2 in the matrix) homogeneously distributed in the bulk of the alumina body was prepared.


Artificial selection has produced varieties of domesticated maize that thrive in temperate climates around the world. However, the direct progenitor of maize, teosinte, is indigenous only to a relatively small range of tropical and subtropical latitudes and grows poorly or not at all outside of this region. Tripsacum, a sister genus to maize and teosinte, is naturally endemic to the majority of areas in the western hemisphere where maize is cultivated. A full-length reference transcriptome for Tripsacum dactyloides generated using long-read Iso-Seq data was used to characterize independent adaptation to temperate climates in this clade. Genes related to phospholipid biosynthesis, a critical component of cold acclimation in other cold-adapted plant lineages, were enriched among those genes experiencing more rapid rates of protein sequence evolution in T. dactyloides. In contrast with previous studies of parallel selection, we find that there is a significant overlap between the genes that were targets of artificial selection during the adaptation of maize to temperate climates and those that were targets of natural selection in temperate-adapted T. dactyloides. Genes related to growth, development, response to stimulus, signaling, and organelles were enriched in the set of genes identified as both targets of natural and artificial selection.


Abstract. Glacially induced intraplate faults are conspicuous in Fennoscandia where they reach trace lengths of up to 155 km with estimated magnitudes up to 8 for the associated earthquakes. While they are typically found in northern parts of Fennoscandia, there are a number of published accounts claiming their existence further south and even in northern central Europe. This study focuses on a prominent scarp discovered recently in lidar (light detection and ranging) imagery hypothesized to be from a post-glacial fault and located about 250 km north of Stockholm near the town of Bollnas. The Bollnas scarp strikes approximately north–south for about 12 km. The maximum vertical offset in the sediments across the scarp is 4–5 m with the western block being elevated relative to the eastern block. To investigate potential displacement in the bedrock and identify structures in it that are related to the scarp, we conducted a multidisciplinary geophysical investigation that included gravity and magnetic measurements, high-resolution seismics, radio-magnetotellurics (RMT), electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) and ground-penetrating radar (GPR). Results of the investigations suggest a zone of low-velocity and high-conductivity in the bedrock associated with a magnetic lineament that is offset horizontally about 50 m to the west of the scarp. The top of the bedrock is found  ∼  10 m below the surface on the eastern side of the scarp and about  ∼  20 m below on its western side. This difference is due to the different thicknesses of the overlying sediments accounting for the surface topography, while the bedrock surface is likely to be more or less at the same topographic level on both sides of the scarp; else the difference is not resolvable by the methods used. To explain the difference in the sediment covers, we suggest that the Bollnas scarp is associated with an earlier deformation zone, within a wide (> 150 m), highly fractured, water-bearing zone that became active as a reverse fault after the latest Weichselian deglaciation.


The hypothesis that the Late Devonian (Frasnian-Famennian) mass extinction was triggered by an asteroidal impact has received renewed attention with the discovery of a Late Devonian Ir anomaly in Australia. In Europe, the mass-extinction event corresponds stratigraphically to the geographically widespread Kellwasser black-shale and bituminous limestone units, and the biological crisis itself has been alternatively designated the Kellwasser Event. The authors report here the results of an extensive geochemical analysis of the Kellwasser stratigraphic interval in a section with exceptional conodont zonal control in the Federal Republic of Germany. No Ir anomaly was found, neither at the biological crisis horizon recognized in Europe nor at the conodont horizon that corresponds to the Ir anomaly zone reported in Australia. No shock-metamorphosed quartz, sanidine spherules, or siderophile-rich magnetic spherules were found, which might have been indicative of a cometary impact. Oxygen-isotope ratios show little variation across the mass-extinction horizon, though carbon-isotope data suggest a sudden increase in phytoplankton activity. They further note that the Australian Ir anomaly (1) is most likely not associated with a large-body impact because no equivalent Ir signature occurs in Europe and (2) is stratigraphically above the European biological crisis horizon, thus postdating the Kellwasser mass-extinction event.


To test the hypothesis that copepods are able to regulate their buoyancy via altering their ionic content, we analyzed both the cation concentration in the hemolymph of Antarctic pelagic copepod species in late winter and the vertical distribution pattern and population structure. High concentrations of ammonia/ammonium (NH3/ NH4+) were measured only in the hemolymph of Calanoides acutus, an Antarctic copepod definitely known to undergo vertical ontogenetic migrations and diapause at great depth, and in Rhincalanus gigas, in which a vertical ontogenetic migration pattern associated with diapause is still under debate. None of the other investigated species showed elevated ammonium concentrations in their hemolymph. We suggest that ion replacement by ammonium contributes to neutral buoyancy in diapausing calanoid copepods in the Southern Ocean. We hypothesize that ammonium buoyancy changes with season and is associated with shifts in extracellular pH and, therefore, most likely mediates metabolic depression during diapause.


In this study the Brazilian Amazonian species of Acanthoscurria Ausserer, 1871 are redescribed: A. geniculata (C.L. Koch, 1841), A. tarda Pocock, 1903, A. juruenicola Mello-Leitao, 1923, A. theraphosoides (Doleschall, 1871). Acanthoscurria simoensi Vol, 2000 and A. insubtilis Simon, 1892, previously known from French Guyana and Bolivia, respectively, are recorded for Brazil by the first time. The females of these two species are described for the first time and a new species, A. belterrensis sp. nov., is described from Belterra, Para, Brazil. In addition, four synonymies are established: A. transamazonica Piza, 1972 as junior synonym of A. geniculata; A. ferina Simon, 1892 and A. brocklehursti F.O.P.-Cambridge, 1896 of A. theraphosoides; and A. xinguensis Timotheo da Costa, 1960 of A. juruenicola. Acanthoscurria belterrensis sp. nov. resembles A. gomesiana Mello-Leitao, 1923 by the color pattern and structure of sexual organs. The male can be distinguished by the less curved embolus and the very projected prolateral superior and prolateral inferior keels, giving a triangular aspect to the basis of embolus, and the female seminal receptacles presenting a larger and narrower basis.


Neoliberalism's influence in higher education is broad and deep. We focus on three interrelated dynamics, all manifestations of neoliberalization in higher education: labor flexibilization, bureaucratization, and corporatization. Through these channels, neoliberalization is impacting the nature and quality of the education that our students receive, as well as the academic freedom, professional respect, and quality of life we enjoy as professors. Giving flesh to this analysis, we pepper the discussion with personal insights based on our own experiences teaching together at a public higher education institution. We three authors perform different duties and roles in the same department. One of us demoted herself from the tenure-track two decades ago in order to focus on teaching, and finds herself just as distracted from her students today as she was then. Following many years of contingent appointments and sporadic unemployment, one of us just recently obtained a tenure-track position, a "promotion" that has actually undermined her teaching and her research in unexpected ways. Finally, one of us is a reluctant manager, a department chair who longs to support the creative innovations of department faculty, but who labors constantly under an increasingly heavy burden of administrative oversight and reporting.


OBJECTIVE
To compare osteoarthritis scores assigned through radiographic evaluation of 18 anatomic regions in the elbow joint with scores assigned through evaluation of 3-D maximum intensity projection (MIP), 3-D surface rendering (TSR), and multiplanar reconstructed (MPR) CT images, and to evaluate intraobserver and interobserver agreement of radiographic and CT scoring.

SAMPLE
Radiographic and CT images of 39 elbow joints in 20 dogs.

PROCEDURES
Images were anonymized and graded independently by 5 observers. One observer graded 12 elbow joints 3 times. Intraobserver consistency and repeatability, interobserver agreement, consistency among methods, and bias between methods were calculated.

RESULTS
The most severe changes were observed at the proximal aspect of the anconeal process, and the medial and cranial aspects of the medial coronoid process. Intraobserver consistency was moderate or better for 11/16 regions with MIP images, 11/16 regions with TSR images, 17/18 regions with MPR images, and 14/18 regions with radiographic images. Interobserver agreement was moderate or better for 5/16 regions with MIP images, 9/16 regions with TSR images, 12/18 regions with MPR images, and 6/18 regions with radiographic images. Mean scores from CT-based methods were higher than mean radiographic scores.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Assessments of osteoarthritis severity in the elbow joints of dogs obtained by examining radiographic images were generally consistent with assessments obtained by examining CT scans. MPR scores were more consistent and more comparable to radiographic scores than were MIP or TSR scores.


A technically convenient signature of localization, exhibited by discrete operators with random potentials, is exponential decay of the fractional moments of the Green function within the appropriate energy ranges. Known implications include: spectral localization, absence of level repulsion, strong form of dynamical localization, and a related condition which plays a signiicant role in the quantiza-tion of the Hall conductance in two-dimensional Fermi gases. We present a family of nite-volume criteria which, under some mild restrictions on the distribution of the potential, cover the regime where the fractional moment decay condition holds. The constructive criteria permit to establish this condition at spectral band edges, provided there are suucient`Lifshitz tail estimates' on the density of states. They are also used here to conclude that the fractional moment condition, and thus the other manifestations of localization, are valid throughout the regime covered by the \multiscale analysis". In the converse direction, the analysis rules out fast power-law decay of the Green functions at mobility edges.


Abstract The Palaeozoic motion of the future Arctic continents is presented in the animation found in the accompanying CD-ROM. The animation shows snapshots of the motion of the tectonic blocks from 550 to 250 Ma in 3 million year steps. The locations of the blocks are controlled mainly by palaeomagnetic pole values for the blocks tied to known geological events, particularly the three main Arctic orogenies: the Scandian Caledonian which began in the Silurian, the Ellesmerian in the Late Devonian and the Uralian that began in the Late Pennsylvanian. Perhaps the most significant observation to come out of the animation is that the future Arctic continents were never very far from one another during the Palaeozoic. The maximum distance from Baltica to Laurentia may have reached 6000 km during the Middle Cambrian but the Arctic continents all surrounded the same eastern Iapetus Ocean and, by Silurian, they were quite close. Reliance on the 'Y-loop' palaeomagnetic data causes extremely rapid motion of Gondwana during the Silurian. Consequently the 'X-path' for that period is used. The palaeomagnetic poles for 422 and 406 Ma have been eliminated so that Gondwana motion is within the bounds of present day plate motion. Supplementary material: A Quicktime™ movie of palaeogeographic and tectonic evolution of the Arctic region during the Palaeozoic is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18472.


It is well known that air quality is an important and worrying issue nowadays, affecting not only human health but also many other aspects such as climate change or the survival of the biosphere. In recent years, many public institutions have been adapted to the restrictive normative about environmental pollution imposed by European regulations, being Spain one of the countries that must comply with these regulations. Both in Spain and in other countries there are various air-quality networks and stations for the continuous acquisition of meteorological parameters. These networks are not only present in big cities, but also in peripheral and industrial areas, as well as in places where the preservation of nature is fundamental key issue. Furthermore, they are constantly rearranged to improve their function. In present PhD Thesis, different intelligent techniques (more specifically, Soft Computing techniques) have been applied to publicly available databases with air quality and/or meteorological information. The applied techniques perform two fundamental tasks: dimensionality reduction and clustering. They have been applied in isolation and in conjunction in order to improve the results in the analysis of environmental conditions. The applied dimensionality reductions techniques are: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as the technique firstly applied to obtain an approximation to the dataset structure, Locally Linear Embedding (LLE) as a non-linear local technique, Maximum Likelihood Hebbian Learning (MLHL) and Cooperative Maximum Likelihood Hebbian Learning (CMLHL) as neural models which implement Exploratory Projection Pursuit, Curvilinear Component Analysis (CCA) as a non-linear technique which tries to preserve the interpoint distance in the output space, Multidimensional Scalling (MDS) as a non-linear global technique operating with the distance matrix, Isometric Mapping (ISOMAP) as a technique derived from MDS and Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), as a competitive learning neural model. The applied clustering techniques are, on the one hand partitional techniques: k-means as the clustering technique firstly applied, which assigns samples to groups using distance metrics, SOM k-means which use the SOM algorithm for the weight updating process, k-medoids as a k-means derived technique which assigns the centroid of each cluster to one of the belonging samples, and fuzzy c-means as a fuzzy-logic based technique for grouping samples. On the other hand, hierarchical agglomerative techniques have also been applied (where groups are formed in an ascending way) together with different clustering evaluation indexes, used to determine the possible number of existing groups in a dataset, and finally dendrograms for a tree-form graphical representation of clustering. Case studies have been carefully selected and range from local, regional to national contexts. Similarly, the selected periods of time have also been a priority. In some of the studies, the analyzed period of time is one day long, considered for the analysis of meteorological / air quality in a short time interval in a certain place, while in other cases, long periods of time (close to a decade), are used to analyze some of the most climatological representative places in Spain. From one or more public datasets comprising all the information about environmental conditions (weather, air quality, or both), but always analyzing key variables in the characterization of environmental conditions, the goal is to extract the meaningfully information in the datasets by applying intelligent techniques. This leads to an analysis of the environmental conditions in the selected case studies. In each case study, an analysis of the weather or air quality conditions is carried out in the selected places and periods of time, searching for similarities and differences in the analyzed data samples, emphasizing those detected anomalous situations and trying to give an explanation to these phenomena's. A comparative analysis of the results obtained with the different techniques applied is also performed, considering the advantages and disadvantages of using each of them in each case study Dimensionality reduction techniques are useful for graphically analyzing high-dimensional data sets, find relationships in datasets and detect anomalous situations. Complementarily, clustering techniques reveal the structure of datasets by assigning the data samples to different clusters depending on the applied distance and similarity measures. This is useful in present work to understand the similarities and differences in the meteorological and / or air quality conditions of the different locations selected in each case study.


Narcolepsy is a neurological disorder characterized, in its classical form, by excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) with irresistible episodes of sleep, cataplexy, disrupted nocturnal sleep, hypnagogic/hypnopompic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. It is often under-diagnosed, however, if it is suitably diagnosed, symptoms can be well treated by means of targeted drugs, such as modafinil to treat EDS, sodium oxybate for cataplexy, as well as EDS and disrupted nocturnal sleep, and tricyclic and newer antidepressants for cataplexy. Hallucinations and sleep paralysis can be treated with the same drugs used for cataplexy. Amphetamines and amphetamine-like stimulants are used less nowadays. Behavioral measures are also important and useful. The discovery of hypocretin deficiency in narcoleptic patients opens new perspectives for the development of newer therapeutic approaches for both EDS and cataplexy. Therapy for narcolepsy is chronic, hence symptomatic. However, the correct use of available drugs enables patients to gain a better quality of life, keeping the symptoms under control, which, mainly from a social point of view, are heavily disabling.


This article considers whether states are obliged or permitted to arrest Sudanese President Omar al Bashir pursuant to a warrant of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The article considers the extent to which the ICC Statute removes immunities which would ordinarily be available to state officials. It is argued that the removal of the immunity by Article 27 of the ICC Statute applies also at the national level, when national authorities act in support of the ICC. The article examines the application of Article 98 of the ICC Statute and considers the legal nature of Security Council referrals to the ICC. It is argued that the effect of the Security Council referral is that Sudan is to be regarded as bound by the ICC Statute and thus by Article 27. Given that the Statute operates in this case not as a treaty but by virtue of being a Security Council resolution, the removal of immunity operates even with regard to non-parties. However, since any (implicit) removal of immunity by the Security Council would conflict with customary international law and treaty rules according immunity to a serving head of state, the article considers the application of Article 103 of the United Nations (UN) Charter in this case.


The assumption on the mass error distribution of fragment ions plays a crucial role in peptide identification by tandem mass spectra. Previous mass error models are the simplistic uniform or normal distribution with empirically set parameter values. In this paper, we propose a more accurate mass error model, namely conditional normal model, and an iterative parameter learning algorithm. The new model is based on two important observations on the mass error distribution, i.e. the linearity between the mean of mass error and the ion mass, and the log-log linearity between the standard deviation of mass error and the peak intensity. To our knowledge, the latter quantitative relationship has never been reported before. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in accurately quantifying the mass error distribution and the ability of the new model to improve the accuracy of peptide identification.


Whilst Environmental Cross Compliance may be one way of reducing environmental disbenefits or negative externalities, it is argued that a better way of providing environmental benefits or positive externalities is to clarify the objectives of environmental policy and to link payments more directly to the achievement of those objectives. Experience at Elmley shows how this has been achieved in the UK. The 1200 ha Elmley Estate is managed both as a working farm and for wildlife as the Elmley National Nature Reserve. The whole estate falls within the North Kent Marshes Environmentally Sensitive Area. The Estate now supports a greater number of breeding waders than any other lowland wet grassland site in England. This growth in wildlife has been achieved through the positive management of water levels and the grazing of sheep and cattle together with other land management techniques. It provides a successful example of practical and integrated farm management producing prime quality store livestock and greatly increased wildlife.


For band-limited optical systems, necessary and sufficient conditions have been obtained that enable us to characterize the mutual coherence functions of all partially coherent quasi-monochromatic sources that generate the same intensity at the output. Throughout this work, two different cases have been considered: In the first one, the general equation that links the output intensity with the mutual coherence function at the input plane has been assumed to be valid over the entire output plane, whereas in the second case its validity has been restricted to a finite region of this plane. The common characteristics of the sources may be directly calculated from the output-intensity data. Comparison with other previously reported results has been done. To elucidate whether a function really represents a true mutual coherence function, a general criterion has been established. Finally, from any given intensity distribution at the output plane, we have determined the explicit analytical expression of the mutual coherence function of a source that can reproduce the same output-intensity data.


Abstract. A dataset of particle optical properties of the highly polluted atmosphere over the Pearl River Delta (PRD), Guangzhou, China, is presented in this paper. The data were derived from the measurements of a multi-wavelength Raman and depolarization lidar PollyXT and a co-located AERONET sun photometer. The measurement campaign was conducted from November 2011 to mid-June 2012. These are the first Raman lidar measurements in the PRD that lasted for several months. A mean value of aerosol optical depth (AOD) of 0.54 ± 0.33 was observed by the sun photometer at 500 nm in the polluted atmosphere over this megacity for the whole measurement period. The lidar profiles frequently show lofted aerosol layers, which reach altitudes of up to 2 to 3 km and, especially during the spring season, up to 5 km. These layers contain between 12 and 56 % of the total AOD, with the highest values in spring. The aerosol types in these lofted layers are classified by their optical properties. The observed lidar ratio values range from 30 to 80 sr with a mean value of 48.0 ± 10.7 sr at 532 nm. The linear particle depolarization ratio at 532 nm lies mostly below 5 %, with a mean value of 3.6 ± 3.7 %. The majority of the Angstrom exponents lie between 0.5 and 1.5, indicating a mixture of fine- and coarse-mode aerosols. These results reveal that mostly urban pollution particles mixed with particles produced from biomass and industrial burning are present in the atmosphere above the Pearl River Delta. Trajectory analyses show that these pollution mixtures arise mainly from local and regional sources.


The Pacific Northwest is expected to witness changes in temperature and precipitation due to climate change. In this study, we enhance the Snake River Planning Model (SRPM) by modeling the feedback loop between incidental recharge and surface water supply resulting from surface water and groundwater extraction for irrigation and provide a case study involving climate change impacts and management scenarios. The new System Dynamics‐Snake River Planning Model (SD‐SRPM) is calibrated to flow at Box Canyon Springs located along a major outlet of the East Snake Plain Aquifer. A calibration of the model to flow at Box Canyon Springs, based on historic diversions (1950‐1995) resulted in an r2 value of 0.74 and a validation (1996‐2005) r2 value of 0.60. After adding irrigation entities to the model an r2 value of 0.91, 0.88, and 0.87 were maintained for modeled vs. observed (1991‐2005) end‐of‐month reservoir content in Jackson Lake, Palisades, and American Falls, the three largest irrigation reservoirs in the system. The scenarios that compared the impacts of climate change were based on ensemble mean precipitation change scenarios and estimated changes to crop evapotranspiration (ET). Increased ET, despite increased precipitation, generally increased surface water shortages and discharge of springs. This study highlights the need to develop and implement models that integrate the human‐natural system to understand the impacts of climate change.


Coastal upwelling occurs under the combined effect of wind stress and Earth's rotation. The nutrients carried up by upwelling have great impact on primary production and fisheries. For using autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to investigate complex coastal upwelling ecosystems, we have developed algorithms for an AUV to autonomously distinguish between upwelling and stratified water columns based on the vertical temperature difference between shallow and deep depths, and to accurately detect an upwelling front based on the horizontal gradient of the vertical temperature difference in the water column. During a June 2011 experiment in Monterey Bay, California, the Dorado AUV flew on a transect from an upwelling shadow region (stratified water column), through an upwelling front, and into an upwelling water column. Running our algorithms, the AUV successfully classified the three distinct water types, accurately located the narrow front, and acquired targeted water samples from the three water types. Molecular analysis of the AUV‐acquired water samples shows that mussels, calanoid copepods, and podoplean copepods were most abundant in the upwelling shadow region and nonexistent in the upwelling water column. Calanoid copepods were moderately abundant in the water samples collected from the upwelling front. These results are largely consistent with previous findings from zooplankton population surveys conducted with the Dorado AUV in Monterey Bay in 2009. The novel detecting and targeted sampling capabilities permit an AUV to autonomously conduct "surgical sampling" of a complex marine ecosystem.


We study to what extent the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) is representative of all income groups, but with a particular emphasis on low-income groups. To focus on the HRS sample composition and abstract from potential measurement issues associated with measures of income and program participation, we exploit the SSA administrative data matched to the HRS sample and compare their distribution against the distribution of the same variables for the same population in the SSA databases. We find that overall, for cohorts and years that can be most reliably compared, the distributions are very similar and conclude that the HRS is representative for the population it covers. However, for some subgroups in the low-income population (e.g., recipients of Supplemental Security Income, Medicaid beneficiaries), there are some differences and thus we caution against estimating population totals for such small subpopulations. The HRS samples for which restricted matched administrative data are available are often not representative of a broad population of interest, because not all HRS respondents were asked permission to match in any given year. Therefore, the restricted HRS datafiles are generally not suitable for estimating population distributions, although they are still very useful for modeling purposes.


Abstract Steam injection is widely used for heavy oil and bitumen recovery. The advantage of this process is its high recovery factor and its high oil production rate. However, the high production rate is associated with excessive energy consumption, carbon dioxide generation, and expensive post-production water treatment. Some of these disadvantages are overcome or reduced by the addition of solvent mixtures to steam. The steam-solvent processes are complex oil displacement methods involving simultaneous heat, mass, and fluid transport. These processes are not clearly understood despite their apparent importance to the oil industry. Systematic studies are essential in the design, analysis, and evaluation of the steam-solvent processes as well as in mathematical simulation. These studies provide valuable insights for petroleum engineers to improve the oil recovery efficiency when applied in a reservoir. Results of these processes are scattered in many publications over more than 40 years and are not readily available for most petroleum engineers. The purpose of the paper is to present a review of current knowledge and available data, and to delineate the steam-solvent processes.


The violent criminal who was a victim of severe childhood abuse frequently appears in the responsibility literature because he presents a difficulty for theorists who maintain the compatibility of causal determinism and our practices of holding persons responsible. The challenge is based on the fact that learning about an offender's horrific childhood mitigates the indignation that many persons feel towards him, possibly indicating that they hold him less than fully responsible. Many capital defendants present evidence of suffering childhood abuse, and many jurors find this evidence to count against imposing death. The most obvious explanation for a response like this is that the abuse was a cause of the crime, andso rendered the offender less than fully responsible for it. But this intuitive explanation theatens the claim that responsibility is compatible with causation. Indeed, if causation is a basis for excuse (even a partial one), the fairness of holding persons responsible is threatened given that all our behavior is caused by factors, such as our upbringing, outside our control. A common compatibilist response to this challenge is that abuse is relevant to responsibility if the abuse caused a diminished capacity for practical reasoning. This response, however, cannot account for all cases in which abuse evidence appears relevant to the punishment determination, and thus I confront the challenge more directly. I argue that there are cases in which it is appropriate for jurors to consider abuse evidence independently of whether the capital defendant's reasoning capacities were diminished and offer an account to justify the consideration of that evidence as mitigating, even when we should resist concluding that the offender was less than fully responsible. My argument rests on distinguishing the capacities required for responsibility from other considerations that militate against punishment and which help justify the criminal law. A minimally decent moral education, which some forms of abuse preclude, is one of those considerations that helps justify the criminal law's harsh penalties. I argue that it is more difficult to justify the death penalty for a defendant who was deprived of a minimally decent moral education compared with others who were not, regardless of whether that defendant's reasoning capacities were sufficient for full responsibility.


Numerous laboratory and field experiments have found that rain gardens exhibit excellent heavy metal retention (>88%). However, none examined the impact of macropore flow on this retention; this was established to be a key factor in heavy metal capture by previous landfill leachate experiments. Therefore, the aim of the experiments detailed in this paper was to investigate the effect of a single artificial macropore on heavy metal retention in a layered soil column (with a similar configuration to a rain garden). The findings of these experiments suggest that macropore flow does not impact the hydraulic performance or heavy metal retention of the columns with 99% of copper, lead and zinc captured. This indicates that macropores are not detrimental to heavy metal retention in rain garden systems with highly conductive soils; this was attributed to the high hydraulic conductivity of the media used and the depth of the system. However, in shallower systems, such as green roofs, the retention of heavy metals and other pollutants may be impacted by the existence of preferential flow, and more research into this area is needed.


Parkinson disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder particularly characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Pesticide exposure has been associated with PD occurrence, and we previously reported that the fungicide benomyl interferes with several cellular processes potentially relevant to PD pathogenesis. Here we propose that benomyl, via its bioactivated thiocarbamate sulfoxide metabolite, inhibits aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH), leading to accumulation of the reactive dopamine metabolite 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetaldehyde (DOPAL), preferential degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, and development of PD. This hypothesis is supported by multiple lines of evidence. (i) We previously showed in mice the metabolism of benomyl to S-methyl N-butylthiocarbamate sulfoxide, which inhibits ALDH at nanomolar levels. We report here that benomyl exposure in primary mesencephalic neurons (ii) inhibits ALDH and (iii) alters dopamine homeostasis. It induces selective dopaminergic neuronal damage (iv) in vitro in primary mesencephalic cultures and (v) in vivo in a zebrafish system. (vi) In vitro cell loss was attenuated by reducing DOPAL formation. (vii) In our epidemiology study, higher exposure to benomyl was associated with increased PD risk. This ALDH model for PD etiology may help explain the selective vulnerability of dopaminergic neurons in PD and provide a potential mechanism through which environmental toxicants contribute to PD pathogenesis.


Essays in International Economics Jing Zhou The three chapters of my dissertation study the macroeconomics and firm dynamics under financial frictions and institutional frictions. They contain both theoretical and empirical analysis with a special emphasis on the scope of open economy and the implications on policy. Chapter 1 presents a theoretical framework to study the debt portfolio choice and optimal capital control policy in an open economy with financial frictions. I extend the model of international borrowing with collateral constraint to allow for multiple debt maturities. As in the single-maturity version of the model, the equilibrium exhibits overborrowing because, due to a pecuniary externality, private agents undervalue the cost of financial liabilities that demand repayment in future constrained states. I show that in the multiple-maturity model overborrowing in short-term debt is especially severe because the repayment of short-term liabilities is larger than that of long-term liabilities in future constrained states, resulting in greater cost undervaluation of shortterm financial obligations. To counteract these inefficiencies, the model justifies a set of maturity-dependent capital controls. The model predicts a tightening of capital controls tilted toward short maturities during financial crises. When calibrated to Argentine data, the model reproduces the observed dynamics of debt portfolios, and the short-term targeting of capital controls during crises. The optimal capitalcontrol policy reduces the frequency of crises by half and generates sizable welfare improvements. Motivated by the policy implications of Chapter 1, the second chapter of my dissertation presents an empirical study of how capital control policies are implemented in financial crises. I construct a novel measure of capital control stringency and establish three stylized facts about the capital control changes around financial crisis. First, capital control policies do not show significant changes until the onset of financial crisis (procyclicality). Second, not only outflow controls but also inflow controls are strengthened upon the arrival of financial crisis (dual tightening). Third, inflow controls show strong emphasis towards curbing short-term flows, while outflow controls are generally enhanced with respect to a wide range of flows regardless of their maturities (short-term maturity targeting). These patterns are robust to countries with different economy stances, external indebtedness, exchange-rate regimes and capital control levels. Besides the financial frictions, the institutional frictions also play important roles in the external finance. Therefore, the third chapter of my dissertation examines the role of public governance quality in determining the composition of a country's external liabilities and the capital structure of firms. In this joint work with Shang-Jin Wei, we first build a model with firm heterogeneity to show that better institutional quality tends to promote a higher share of foreign direct investment and equity investment in total foreign liabilities, and a higher share of long-term debt within the debt/loan category. Similar prediction holds for the capital structure of firms. We then conduct extensive empirical investigation by exploring both firm level data and country level data and find supportive evidence for these predictions.


Upland streams and lakes in the UK are, with few exceptions, located in areas of natural beauty, they contribute immensely to the recreational attraction of the uplands, they provide unique habitats for wildlife and are the source of water needed to sustain ecosystems and centres of human population downstream. Protecting and improving biodiversity and water quality in the uplands is or should be a national priority. Until the the acid rain controversy of the 1980s there had been little concern over the ecological condition of upland waters in the UK. The intensive research campaigns that followed quickly demonstrated not only that many upland waters were acidified but that all were contaminated to a greater or lesser degree by atmospherically transported pollutants. Acidification caused the decline or loss of many salmonid fish populations and the replacement of acid sensitive invertebrate, plant macrophyte and algal populations by acid tolerant ones, resulting in an overall decline in biodiversity. Today, after over 20 years of reductions in the emissions and deposition of sulphur and nitrogen compounds from fossil fuel combustion in the UK (and more generally across Europe) acidified waters are beginning to recover. Evidence from the 22 lakes and streams in the UK's Acid Waters Monitoring Network (http://awmn.defra.gov.uk/index.php) shows an improvement in some fish populations and the appearance in recent years of a number of plant and invertebrate taxa thought to have been lost as a result of acidification. The extent of recovery, however, is still limited. This is clearly indicated at the lake sites in the AWMN where present day diatom floras still contain a greater proportion of acid tolerant taxa when compared to fossil assemblages preserved in pre-acidification sediments. Further recovery from acidification is expected to occur but it is unlikely that the composition of plant and animal communities in future will return to match those of the past as the biodiversity of upland waters faces new threats from eutrophication and climate change. The continuance of high quality, long-term ecological monitoring designed to track the response of water quality and biodiversity to projected changes in air quality, land-use and climate remains the central priority for upland water research. The AWMN is the principle instrument that needs developing for this purpose. Although it was principally designed as a national research network to assess recovery from acidification it is increasingly providing information on the impact of additional pressures. Our priority is to enhance the network by instrumenting the sites to monitor water temperature, stream flow and lake level, enabling biodiversity responses to projected climate change to be tracked alongside changes in other pressures.


The work of American Sign Language (ASL)/English interpreters is filled with complex interpersonal, linguistic and cultural challenges. The decisions and ethical dilemmas interpreters face on a daily basis are countless and the potential for disagreement regarding those decisions is great. Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution (TMDR) processes can be particularly helpful when misunderstandings and conflicts arise. Technology Mediated Dispute Resolution is a more inclusive phrase than Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) and includes cellular telephones, radio frequency devices, and satellite communication systems. The Deaf Community has learned to adapt and rely upon a variety of technologies and, because many Deaf individuals already are comfortable with technology, it makes sense to further integrate technology into dispute resolution processes. And while the Deaf Community can benefit from a greater reliance on technology, conversely, the communication skills that the Deaf community and interpreters employ routinely can provide valuable insights for everyone who uses new technologies to communicate and resolve disputes. David Allen Larson previously has addressed the opportunities and dangers inherent in technology. He believes that Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) practitioners and theorists must study how individuals increasingly are using technology to communicate. Those practitioners and theorists then must determine how those technologies can be integrated into dispute resolution processes most productively. He offers three distinct reasons why we need to approach technology in this manner: 1) teens and preteens, who soon will be adults, rely heavily on technology to communicate and we need to become competent in those technologies; 2) fuel prices continue to rise and technology allows us to communicate effectively without incurring travel expenses; and 3) security concerns have made physical travel less convenient and potentially less safe. This article examines the mediation process within the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Ethical Practices System and suggests when and how technology may be utilized to enhance that process. Background information regarding the interpreting profession, the Deaf Community and the process for filing and reviewing grievances provides a context for this discussion. An overview of the technologies already being used within the Deaf Community and interpreting field assists in determining where new technologies can be introduced most effectively. Each of the three steps in the EPS is analyzed to assess how additional technologies can be integrated productively. Finally, peripheral activities surrounding the EPS and mediation process are identified, highlighting elements in which technology may be used.


The Indian mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta (Cuvier) occur in good numbers
along the east and west coast of India and is one of the most important
commercial fishes in Indian waters. Much of the research was done on the
west coast, where there is a considerable fishery for the mackerel. As in most
pelagic fishes there have been tremendous variations in yield. Catch in one
area of the coast has often differed markedly from that in other areas in the
same season, and periods of abundance have been followed by periods of
scarcity. This report presents a comprehensive picture of the seasonal abundance
and general biology of small sized juvenile mackerel based on observations
made at Vizhingam, the southern most centre in the 'mackerel zone' of the
west coast of India during 1960-63. The study serves as a basis for fixing
the spawning season and spawning periodicity of the Indian mackerel. Appearance
of shoals of juvenile mackerel in the inshore fishing grounds is discussed
in relation to the prevailing water temperature. Quantitative data on seasonal
abundance of juveniles may help in understanding the success or failure of
particular year classes and thus in finding reasons for fluctuations in abundance
and in developing ways to control the fluctuations. Fishable stocks of mackerel
during certain years have become depleted by the fishery to a point where
the annual production is well below what it could be, had the small sized
juveniles been allowed to grow. An attempt is made to evaluate the detrimental
effect of large scale fishing of small sized juveniles when they enter
into the fishing grounds. Brief observations on older fish sampled throughout
the year are also included.