There is growing concern over the loss of anatomical and physiological knowledge in medical, allied‐health & nursing students over time (Narnaware & Neumeier, 2020a, Narnaware, Y. 2021). Numerous studies have demonstrated the difficulty of the students in these disciplines to retain and apply anatomical knowledge as they progress through their programs of study (Narnaware and Neumeier, 2020a). However, physiological knowledge retention has not been studied as extensively as anatomical knowledge retention in health care disciplines, with very few studies focusing on nursing students (Aari et al., 2004). Of those studies, most are carried out after graduation (Aari et al., 2004) or are focused on a single or limited number of organ systems (Pourshanazari et al., 2013). We have previously shown that physiology students retained approximately 86.6% of their first‐year physiological knowledge over four months (Narnaware et al., 2020b). To improve the acquisition and retention of physiological knowledge, the present study aims to develop an interventional strategy that includes the repeated assessment of cardiovascular physiology and defenses knowledge over eight weeks. Nursing students were quizzed on two components of cardiovascular physiology (vascular system and blood) and defenses using the online quizzing system Kahoot. Each Kahoot quiz included 9‐11 knowledge and comprehension level multiple‐choice questions, and new sets of questions were used for each week's Kahoot quiz. Data were statistically analyzed using SPSS II, and means were compared using 2‐sample t‐tests. The scores are described as the mean and standard deviation (SD) and are presented in figure 1 and table 1. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05 for all tests. Compared to week 1, repeating knowledge of the vascular physiology and defenses yielded a significantly higher (P<0.05) knowledge retention at week 2 (8.4% & 11.7%). However, this retention was highest at weeks 3 (18.7% & 16.9%) and weeks 4 (21.6% & 14.3%), P<0.001) in both organ systems, with less significant improvement (P<0.05) at week 6 (13.3%) and no significant difference in defenses (4.6%). No significant differences in knowledge retention were found between vascular and defenses at week 8. However, compared to vascular physiology and defenses, content reinforcement of blood was highly significant at all weeks. Compared to week 1, knowledge retention of blood was highest at week 4 (69.5%), week 6 (55.2%), and week 8 (54.7%), P<0.0001), with less significant retention at week 2 (27.8%) and week 3 (31.2%), P<0.001). Although organ system‐specific improvements in knowledge retention were found, the study results show that repeated knowledge assessment can significantly improve knowledge retention of cardiovascular physiology and defenses in nursing students and agrees with previously reported studies in medical students (Pourshanazari et al., 2013). Therefore, content reinforcement should be used as one of the interventional strategies to improve knowledge retention in nursing students, and further research should be conducted to explore effective ways to maintain increased retention over more extended periods.


Code Defenders is a game that aims to engage students with software testing. Players compete over a Java class under test by producing tests and mutants, i.e., artificial faults, scoring points if tests reveal mutants, or mutants survive tests. While initially created as a fun way to introduce students to testing in one-off fun sessions, we have moved to integrating the game as an assessed core component of a software testing course. This has shown great potential in engaging students, but many challenges have been revealed as part of this integration. In this paper we describe how we integrated Code Defenders into a software testing course, and how we improved the game in order to address the resulting challenges.


Facial recognition has gained increasing interest in the recent decade. Over the years there have been several techniques being developed to achieve high success rate of accuracy in the identification and verification of individuals for authentication in security systems. This project experiments the concept of combining of multilevel wavelet decomposition transformation and neural network for facial recognition in a specific application with its own limitations, in that of vehicle security access control system. The approach of this project is to conceptualise by simulation of the various processes involved in developing an implementable system.


―Beyond the Battlefield: Direct and Prosthetic Memory of the American War in Viet Nam‖ examines shifts in American, Viet Namese, and Philippine memorial, literary, and cinematic remembrance of the war through the cultural lenses of later wars: the Gulf War (1990-1991) and the ―War on Terror‖ that began in 2001. As opposed to earlier portrayals of the American War in Viet Nam (1964-1975), turn-to-the-twenty-first-century representations engage in an ever-broadening collected cultural memory—a compilation of multifaceted, sometimes competing, individual and group memories—of the war. ―Beyond the Battlefield‖ begins with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1982) because it serves as the impetus for active participation in the reception and creation of memory. It traces a multifaceted collected cultural memory pattern through the stages of recognition for servicewomen, American women, Viet Namese Women, and reconciliation between soldiers and civilians as well as between Americans and the Viet Namese—veterans and civilians alike. Ultimately, a collected cultural memory of the war encourages prosthetic memory— memories of the war acquired via mediated representation by those with no direct experience in or hereditary connection to the war. Prosthetic memory permits an ongoing memory of the war that refuses to relegate the war to the forgotten past.


The work presented here describes the development of an ion source based on atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) that allows the direct mass spectrometric analysis of solid and liquid samples. The ion source makes use of a direct inlet probe (DIP)-system which automatically introduces the samples into the source region using a temperature-programmed push rod. The programmed heating of the push rod leads to a time-shifted vaporization of sample components as a result of their different vapor pressures.
The DIP-APCI ion source was coupled to a high-resolution Q-TOF-MS (Agilent Technologies) and an Ion Trap-MS (Bruker Daltonik) using two different source chambers manufactured at the machine shop of the University of Wuppertal. Gas-flows inside the ion source as well as the position of the probe tip in the ion source were optimized for both the DIP-APCI-Q-TOF-MS and the DIP-APCI-Ion Trap-MS coupling. In positive ionization mode all substances analyzed were detected as protonated molecules ([M+H]+). Ionization in negative ionization mode was made possible by supplying sufficient oxygen to the ion source. In negative ionization mode the formation of [M-H] -- and [M+O2] ∙--ions was observed. Using both couplings a linear concentration response was obtained with caffeine as test analyte. This shows the possibility to perform quantitative analyses using the DIP-APCI ion source.
Employing the Q-TOF-MS the reproducibility of DIP-APCI-MS analyses was shown by the repeated analysis of an extract from Radix Angelicae sinensis. The possibility to separate sample components by the programmed heating of the push rod was demonstrated by the analysis of hexanoic acid methyl ester and dodecanoic acid methyl ester. The two fatty acid methyl esters were separated almost completely as a result of their differing vapor pressures.
The DIP-APCI-Q-TOF-MS coupling was applied to the qualitative analysis of plants used in Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM). The Chinese Radix Angelicae sinensis and the Korean Radix Angelicae gigas could be differentiated by direct analysis of the powdered plants and augmented detection of coumarins in Radix Angelicae gigas. Processed in Xiao Yao pills, a preparation of several plants used in CHM, the application of the European Radix Angelicae archangelica instead of the Chinese Radix Angelicae sinensis could also be shown via the detection of coumarins. This demonstrates possible applications of DIP-APCI-MS analyses in authenticity tests and in the quality control of plants and preparations used in CHM.
The possibility of performing quantitative analyses using the DIP-APCI ion source was shown by the determination of coumarin in cinnamon employing the DIP-APCI-Q-TOF-MS coupling. The DIP-APCI-MS determination of coumarin in cinnamon following extraction was validated and showed satisfying linearity, recovery and reproducibility, both using deuterated coumarin as internal standard and without the use of an internal standard. When deuterated coumarin was used as internal standard, the coumarin contents determined in different cinnamon samples by DIP-APCI-MS were in good agreement with the results obtained by a complementary LC-MS analysis. When no internal standard was used high coumarin contents were overestimated in the LC-MS analysis and underestimated in the DIP-APCI-MS analysis. This shows that the use of deuterated coumarin as internal standard is advisable to obtain accurate data with both methods. The determination of coumarin in woodruff-flavored beverages showed that, using ambient ionization mass spectrometry, special attention has to be paid to possible spectral interferences. By means of LC-MS, coumarin could not be detected in the woodruff-flavored liquor analyzed. Due to the influence of the high temperature applied to the woodruff-flavored liquor during DIP-APCI-MS analysis an isobaric artefact was formed. The temperature-programmed vaporization in combination with the use of deuterated coumarin as internal standard helped in recognizing this spectral interference.
Using the DIP-APCI-Ion Trap-MS coupling a non-destructive analysis of phthalates and other plasticizers in plastic articles was performed. The identification of plasticizers was accomplished by MS/MS- and MS3-experiments and comparative analysis of plasticizer standards. In this way plasticizers could be identified in toys, plastic articles intended to come into contact with food and other plastic articles of daily use.
The DIP-APCI-Ion Trap-MS coupling was also applied to the analysis of active ingredients in analgesics and antibiotics. The active ingredients of analgesics (acetylsalicylic acid, diclofenac, ibuprofen, paracetamol and naproxen) and antibiotics (clarithromycin, rifampicin and ethambutol) could all be detected in the tablets and ointments analyzed. The identities of the active ingredients were confirmed by MS/MS-experiments.
In addition to the development of the DIP-APCI ion source a second focus of the work presented here was the analysis of phloem sap. By means of stylectomy phloem sap was gained from maize and rapeseed plants. The direct analysis of phloem sap using DIP-APCI-Q-TOF-MS enabled the detection of twelve components of maize phloem sap and twenty components of rapeseed phloem sap and the deduction of possible molecular formulae from the accurate m/z-values detected. By means of DIP-APCI-Ion Trap-MS, MS/MS-experiments were performed to elucidate the structures of the components detected in phloem sap. Due to the low molecular weight of substances detected in phloem sap as well as low signal intensities and nonspecific fragmentation it was only possible to identify the amino acids valine and leucine, which are known to be contained in phloem sap, by comparative analysis of their respective standards.


Evaluation of Gyp7 Protein Ability to Coordinate and Regulate Mitochondrial Genomes Stability: Cellular creation of adenosine triphosphate, A TP, is essential for eukaryotic cells to function properly. The ATP molecule drives most of the biochemical and metabolic pathways of the cell. The cell's ATP is produced in the mitochondria. Mutations within the genome of the mitochondria will alter the cell's ability to generate A TP. Preliminary work has shown that loss of the Gyp 7p in Saccharomyces cerevisiae blocks the ability of mitochondria to properly function. The Gyp 7 gene was isolated using a technique called two-hybrid analysis with a known mitochondrial protein called llvSp, which was used as 'bait'. We have shown that a deletion of the Gyp7 gene is not essential for cellular viability in S. cerevisiae. We observed that loss of Gyp 7 decreases both the occurrence of point mutations at microsatellite sequences as well as decreasing the rate at which recombination between direct-repeat DNA sequences occurs. This contributes to the effective that cellular respiration mutation rate increase when Gyp7p is removed. Gyp7 encodes for the production of the GTPase-activating protein (GAP) Gyp7p within the Ypt/Rab transport GTPase pathway. This pathway is involved in protein trafficking within the cell.


Abstract Recently, within the higher education system in the United Kingdom, there has been close examination of the way institutions teach and assess students. This scrutiny has been intensified by central government with the proposed introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). The anticipated TEF demands that higher education institutions evaluate their teaching and learning practices and think of new ways to develop excellent student experience. Self-determined learning has resurfaced as a popular approach in the higher education sector. At the centre of self-determined learning is the concept of heutagogy. This approach enables the student to apply what they have learned in an education setting and relate it to the workplace. The aim of this paper is to critically explore the theoretical framework behind the self-determined learning approach. The authors of this paper argue that, from a social science perspective, a determined learning approach is in the best place to provide a contemporary, exciting teaching and learning experience in a competitive higher education market.


This paper analyzes the effects of inflation variability on economic growth in a model where money is introduced via a cash-in-advance constraint. In this setting, we find that inflation adversely affects long-run growth, even when the cash-in-advance constraint applies only to consumption. At the same time, we find that inflation and growth are positively related in the short-run. In addition, variability tends to increase average growth through a precautionary savings motive. Since inflation and inflation variability tend to be highly correlated, this latter effect attenuates the negative long-run relationship between inflation and real growth. It also provides a partial rational for the notorious lack of robustness in cross-country regressions of growth and inflation.


Prosopis Africana can be found growing wild in Northern and the Middle Belt of Nigeria and it is the only known species of its genus found in Africa. In folk medicine, the stem bark is used as remedies for skin diseases, caries, fevers gonorrhoea, tooth and stomach-ache, dysentery and bronchitis. Chemical investigation of the stem bark resulted in isolation and characterisation of a friedelane type triterpene, compound J29. J29 was isolated by column chromatography from the chloroform fraction of ethylacetate extract. The J29 1 H-NMR 13 C-NMR and DEPT135 spectra matched the characteristic data of the proposed triterpene skeleton. The compound was finally identified as friedelin on the basis of spectroscopic evidence, including 2D NMR as well as its IR spectrum. Friedelin is being reported for the first time as a chemical constituent of P. africana . Keywords : Prosopis africana , friedelane type, phytochemical constituents, spectroscopy, chromatograph


Small changes in the pH gradient play a critical role in numerous biological and chemical pathways. Systems capable of monitoring and regulating these changes with high sensitivity and minimum photo-fatigue are in demand. Herein, we propose a visible light-triggered molecular system that allows for reversible regulation of acidity and fluorescence. This robust bi-functional system opens a new horizon towards novel studies that rely on small changes in acid-mediated controlled processes with high sensitivity. The two photosensitive compounds employed, a metastable-state photoacid (mPAH) and a boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) derivative, allow for consistent modulation of both fluorescence (based on the working principle of the inner filter effect) and pH (around a magnitude) over multiple cycles.


Abstract. Carbon (C) sequestration in soils plays a key role in the global C cycle. It is therefore crucial to adequately monitor dynamics in soil organic carbon (ΔSOC) stocks when aiming to reveal underlying processes and potential drivers. However, small-scale spatial (10–30 m) and temporal changes in SOC stocks, particularly pronounced in arable lands, are hard to assess. The main reasons for this are limitations of the well-established methods. On the one hand, repeated soil inventories, often used in long-term field trials, reveal spatial patterns and trends in ΔSOC but require a longer observation period and a sufficient number of repetitions. On the other hand, eddy covariance measurements of C fluxes towards a complete C budget of the soil–plant–atmosphere system may help to obtain temporal ΔSOC patterns but lack small-scale spatial resolution. To overcome these limitations, this study presents a reliable method to detect both short-term temporal dynamics as well as small-scale spatial differences of ΔSOC using measurements of the net ecosystem carbon balance (NECB) as a proxy. To estimate the NECB, a combination of automatic chamber (AC) measurements of CO2 exchange and empirically modeled aboveground biomass development (NPPshoot) were used. To verify our method, results were compared with ΔSOC observed by soil resampling. Soil resampling and AC measurements were performed from 2010 to 2014 at a colluvial depression located in the hummocky ground moraine landscape of northeastern Germany. The measurement site is characterized by a variable groundwater level (GWL) and pronounced small-scale spatial heterogeneity regarding SOC and nitrogen (Nt) stocks. Tendencies and magnitude of ΔSOC values derived by AC measurements and repeated soil inventories corresponded well. The period of maximum plant growth was identified as being most important for the development of spatial differences in annual ΔSOC. Hence, we were able to confirm that AC-based C budgets are able to reveal small-scale spatial differences and short-term temporal dynamics of ΔSOC.


Epicormic branches are defined as shoots arising from adventitious or dormant buds on the stem or branch of a woody plant, often following exposure to increased light levels or fire. They are a serious concern to hardwood forest managers because epicormic branches are considered defects and reduce the monetary value of logs and the lumber cut from them. The presence of epicormic branches is also considered a sign of stress in a tree. Recently, hardwood forest managers have considered genetics and tree health, in addition to exposure to sunlight, as causes of epicormic branching. A study was initiated to observe the effects of thinning (crown thinning, low thinning, and no thinning) and fertilizer application on the growth and development of designated red oak (Quercus spp.) crop trees in a minor creek flood plain in east Texas. Five years after treatment, there were no treatment differences in the number of epicormic branches on the butt log of crop trees. The mean number of epicormic branches on the butt log of red oak crop trees decreased 79 percent from 1999 to 2003, nearly 100 percent from branches = 1 foot in length. This large decrease coincided with the ending of a 3-year drought in east Texas. The prevailing weather conditions and normal stand development patterns in this pin oak flat probably contributed more to epicormic branch reduction than did the thinning and fertilizer treatments.


Subcellular location and cell cycle status determine whether a scaffold protein is degraded by the proteasome. In yeast cells that have not been exposed to pheromone, the majority of Ste5, a scaffold protein for mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs), is located in the nucleus. Pheromone stimulation promotes nuclear export of Ste5 into the cytoplasm, where it is subsequently recruited to the plasma membrane with associated MAPKs, causing amplification of MAPK signaling. The role of the nuclear pool of Ste5 in the pheromone response pathway has been unclear. Finding that pheromone exposure increased the stability of Ste5 tagged with green fluorescent protein (GFP-Ste5), Garrenton et al. surmised that the nuclear pool of Ste5 may be subject to degradation. They found that GFP-Ste5 was less stable in a cell line lacking the nuclear exportin Msn5, whereas Ste5 stability was increased in cells in which nuclear import had been blocked, such as through inhibition of Ran GTPases involved in nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of proteins. Degradation of Myc-tagged Ste5 occurred through the proteasome and required a nuclear Skp1-Cullin/Cdc53-F box protein (SCF) ubiquitin E3 complex that contained the substrate recognition factor Cdc4 (SCFCdc4). As with other substrates of SCFCdc4, proteasomal degradation of endogenous Ste5 was enhanced by its phosphorylation by the major G1 cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) in yeast. CDK activity increases as cells commit to the cell cycle and, as would be expected, the amount of GFP-Ste5 was highest in cells poised to enter the cell cycle (i.e., cells in G1) and decreased as cells progressed through the cell cycle. The authors proposed that the degradation of Ste5 in the nucleus may limit excess MAPK pathway activation and that CDK phosphorylation of Ste5 may function to inhibit the pheromone response pathway in actively dividing cells. L. S. Garrenton, A. Braunwarth, S. Irniger, E. Hurt, M. Künzler, J. Thorner, Nucleus-specific and cell cycle-regulated degradation of mitogen-activated protein kinase scaffold protein Ste5 contributes to the control of signaling competence. Mol. Cell. Biol. 29, 582–601 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


An Analysis of the Effectiveness of a Multi-Disciplinary Decision Support System on System-Level Decision Making Troy Mario Seletos Department of Mechanical Engineering, BYU Master of Science Decisions Support Systems (DSSs) are used to enhance decision maker speed and effectiveness. However, without a view of an entire system, any decision may have unanticipated effects such as sub-optimal outcomes. The purpose of this research is to show that with a system-level analysis, more informed decisions can be made that take into account a larger system or greater number of dimensions or objectives. This research also explores the benefits of using a DSS over analysis of unprocessed data and the effectiveness of integrating a product design generator (PDG) with a business DSS, creating a system DSS, where system-level effects can be analyzed. These are connected using software which allows them to be interactive, and dynamically updating. After this DSS was developed a variation was also made and decision makers evaluated these tools to identify how they performed in comparison to each other. In one variation, aspects of the tool were split up, guiding the decision maker through the analysis while the other did not. Using survey questions and recording decision makers' actions, it was found that decision makers are significantly faster and came to better conclusions when using the DSS over unprocessed data. However, it was also seen that the difference between the two variants of the System DSS tests was insignificant. This suggests that the limits in potential interactions in the one variant of a system DSS did not substantially reduce the ability of a decision maker to explore and make good design decisions. Overall this research showed that having a system-level tool is better than the unprocessed data, and that more extreme differences in a DSS are required for improved comparisons to establish which visualizations and elements are most effective in a System DSS. Future effort should be made to completely isolate different portions of the System DSS and see how well users are able to make decisions with it compared to the full system analysis.


Web Intelligence deals with intelligent methods and information & communication technologies that are integrated to enhance different web-based applications. Communities are popular, particularly on the World Wide Web, as a means for like-minded individuals to pursue common goals. Communities appear as a first-class object in the areas of web intelligence and agent technologies, as well as a crucial crossroads of several subdomains (i.e. user modelling, protocols, data management, data mining, content modelling, etc.). These sub-domains impact the nature of the communities and the applications which are related to them. In this editorial, the use of Web Intelligence and communities is discussed together with ways in which a wide range of research is benefiting this area for the long-term. Also the WI&C workshop's goal and structure are introduced.


This paper introduces a multimodal corpus in the political domain, which on top of transcribed face-to-face interviews presents the annotation of facial displays, hand gestures and body posture. While the fully annotated corpus consists of 3 interviews for a total of 90 minutes, it is extracted from a larger available corpus of 56 face-to-face interviews (14 hours) that has been manually annotated with information about metadata (i.e. tools used for the transcription, link to the interview etc.), pauses (used to mark a pause either between or within utterances), vocal expressions (marking non-lexical expressions such as burp and semi-lexical expressions such as primary interjections), deletions (false starts, repetitions and truncated words) and overlaps. In this work, we describe the additional level of annotation relating to nonverbal elements used by three Italian politicians belonging to three different political parties and who at the time of the talk-show were all candidates for the presidency of the Council of Minister. We also present the results of some analyses aimed at identifying existing relations between the proxemics phenomena and the linguistic structures in which they occur in order to capture recurring patterns and differences in the communication strategy.


Vertical matrix thermal conductivities of clays and claystones in onshore Denmark decrease with decreasing porosity, probably because of increasing orientation of highly anisotropic clay platelets during compaction. The relationship between vertical matrix conductivity λvm and porosity for this dataset can be expressed as either λvm=2.544exp(0.943φ) or λvm=2.749exp (0.637φ), depending upon the statistical methods used to analyse the data. Using the first equation the vertical matrix conductivity of the Danish clays and claystones is found to be about 4.9 W m−1 K−1 in highly porous sediments, decreasing to 2.54 W m−1 K−1 when porosity reaches zero. Using the second equation the vertical matrix conductivity of the Danish clays and claystones is about 4.3 W m−1 K−1 in highly porous sediments, decreasing to about 2.75 W m−1 K−1 at zero porosity. Anisotropy varies from an assumed value of 1.02 in highly porous clays to 2.44 at zero porosity using the first equation, and 1.87 at zero porosity using the second equation. These values agree well with measured data. This phenomenon is probably common or universal in fine-grained clay-rich sediments, and this method of data analysis could probably be applied to most or all claystone datasets. However, the equations derived in this study will be most appropriate for shales and claystones with comparatively high quartz contents similar to those of the samples analysed. Other specific relationships will probably exist for clay-rich shales and more-pure claystones.


Background: In adults, pelvic and femoral fractures have a known association with venous thromboembolic disease and, thus, thromboprophylaxis is the standard of care. However, similar data for children are scarce, and recommendations for pediatric prophylaxis are less clear. Our goals were to: (1) analyze the predisposing risk factors, prevalence, and outcome (including mortality) of clinically significant venous thromboembolism; (2) investigate the use of thromboprophylaxis in pediatric trauma patients and ages at which it was given; and (3) determine the impact that central venous catheters had on the occurrence of venous thromboembolism. Methods: We reviewed the records of all pediatric patients with pelvic or femoral fracture admitted to our hospital from 1990 through 2009 for occurrence of venous thromboembolism and related mortality, use and effect of central venous catheters, use of thromboprophylaxis (heparin, warfarin, enoxaparin, or factor-X inhibitors), and patient age at administration. Of the 1782 patients, 948 had electronically searchable medication (and device) records. Ninety-five percent confidence intervals were found for all proportions with sample sizes >100, and an unpaired t test was used to compare the average age at which thromboprophylaxis was given with the average age of the total population. Results: Of the 1782 patients, there were 3 (0.17%) diagnoses of deep vein thrombosis and no diagnoses of pulmonary embolism; there was no related mortality. Of the medication subset (948 patients) only 83 (8.8%) received some type of thromboprophylaxis. The average age of patients given thromboprophylaxis was 14.65 years (SD, 2.34). No central venous catheter was associated with any of the patients who had a venous thromboembolic event. Conclusions: Thromboprophylaxis was used only occasionally at our institution; >91% of patients did not receive such treatment. No morbidity or mortality was reported related to venous thromboembolism in pediatric patients with femur or pelvic fracture for whom thromboprophylaxis was used. Level of Evidence: Level II, retrospective study.


In medieval Sweden, many church bells were inscribed with texts, often formulated in the Latin language. These inscribed bells were then hung in remote places such as church towers or detached bell-towers and could therefore not easily be read. For whom were these words intended? The present article will discuss the function and purpose of these inscriptions in the Swedish medieval society, through the eyes of the terms 'rhetorical situation' and 'genre'. This discussion leads up to a definition of 'monumental rhetoric' or 'the rhetoric of durability', that is how rhetorical efficiency is achieved in inscriptions.


OBJECTIVES
High blood pressure (BP) or hypertension, a major risk factor for death and disease, is pervasive among older adults. While reducing BP to targeted levels can prevent adverse outcomes, rates of successful BP control remain suboptimal, and it is unclear whether older adults recognize its proven benefits. The current study sheds light on older adults' beliefs about the consequences of hypertension and benefits of BP control by examining how their self-reports of hypertension diagnosis and BP control, as well as measured BP, contribute to subjective life expectancy (SLE), their perceived probability of surviving to a target age.

METHODS
In a representative sample of U.S. adults ages 50-89 from the 2006-2014 Health and Retirement Study (n=18,979 respondents), we analyze SLE using generalized linear regression.

RESULTS
Diagnosed hypertension is associated with lower SLE, regardless of measured BP. Among diagnosed hypertensives, those who self-report controlled BP expect to live longer than those who do not. Finally, about one in ten older adults have high measured BP but have never been diagnosed with hypertension, and most diagnosed hypertensives with uncontrolled measured BP self-report their BP as controlled.

DISCUSSION
Older adults appear to recognize the harmful effects of hypertension and the benefits of BP control, but often lack knowledge of their own hypertension and BP control statuses. Health communications should continue to stress the value of BP control, although improvements may require increased hypertension awareness and BP monitoring.


This is a pre-analysis plan for The Reg SHO Reanalysis Project, in which we will reassess primary results from selected recent accounting and finance papers, which exploit the randomized trial conducted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from May 2, 2005 to July 6, 2007. As part of this trial, the SEC selected every third stock on the Russell 3000 index, based on trading volume during the year before the experiment was announced, and exempted these firms' shares from the short-sale uptick rule and the test. Early studies of the experiment found minor effects on trading markets (e.g., SEC Office of Economic Analysis (2007), Diether et al (2009)), and led the SEC to rescind these short-sale restrictions. However, more recently, a large body of research has documented evidence for a wide variety of outcomes from the experiment, including increased open short interest, negative returns, reduced investment, reduced earnings management, increased audit fees, and much more. We undertook this project because we viewed most of these outcomes as implausible, given the modest expected impact of the short-sale restrictions on trading markets, limited publicity about the experiment (with no opposition from the affected firms that we could find), and early research consistent with small effects. In this proposed project, we will reassess three prominent, recent studies: Fang, Huang and Karpoff (2016), Grullon, Michenaud and Weston (2015), and Hope, Hu, and Zhao (2017). This pre-analysis plan provides details on our sample selection and the specific analyses we plan to carry out for the main results found in these three papers.


A great deal of research over the past several years has been devoted to the development of methodologies to create reusable software components and component libraries. But the issue of how to find the contribution of the factor towards the successfulness of the reuse program is still in the naïve stage and very less work is done on the modeling of the success of the reuse. The success and failure factors are the key factors that predict the successful reuse of software. An algorithm has been proposed in which the inputs can be given to k-Means Clustering system in form of tuned values of the Data Factors and the developed model shows the high precision results, which describe the success of software reuse. Keywords— k-means, Reuse and Machine learning.


Periocular recognition has recently become an active topic in biometrics. Typically it uses 2D image data of the periocular region. This paper is the first description of combining 3D shape structure with 2D texture. A simple and effective technique using iterative closest point (ICP) was applied for 3D periocular region matching. It proved its strength for relatively unconstrained eye region capture, and does not require any training. Local binary patterns (LBP) were applied for 2D image based periocular matching. The two modalities were combined at the score-level. This approach was evaluated using the Bosphorus 3D face database, which contains large variations in facial expressions, head poses and occlusions. The rank-1 accuracy achieved from the 3D data (80%) was better than that for 2D (58%), and the best accuracy (83%) was achieved by fusing the two types of data. This suggests that significant improvements to periocular recognition systems could be achieved using the 3D structure information that is now available from small and inexpensive sensors.


Node placement in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is frequently redundant and massive. Massive and dense deployments require efficient and effective, topology control algorithms in order to reduce the number of active nodes and ease the transportation of data from sources to sinks. Tree-forming is a common strategy in topology control algorithms that can be employed for such purpose. The most common tree-forming scheme, is shared, core-based tree, which initiates from the sink. In this work, we study how tree-forming schemes that initiate from sources can affect the performance of congestion/overload control algorithms. Specifically, we study source-based routing trees in comparison with shared-, core-based trees, under traffic and resource congestion control algorithms.


The reluctance of the Administration and Congress to respond to the continuing federal budget deficit by raising income tax rates and/or reducing spending, combined with the shrinking number of tax loopholes and base broadeners, has prompted the consideration of alternative sources of federal revenue. An alternative revenue source that is receiving increasing study is a value-added tax. Both the General Accounting Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation have recently researched the effect of this tax. The introduction of a consumption-based value-added tax would represent a fundamental change in the United States federal tax system. The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the major issues concerning the value-added tax (hereafter referred to as VAT). Following a brief history of the VAT, the concept of value-added, the types of VAT, the methods of computation, and the rate structure of the VAT are identified. The advantages and disadvantages of the VAT will be enumerated and evaluated. Finally, some closing comments will be offered. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE VAT The VAT in Europe, Latin America, and Africa The VAT has become a major tax. No longer just a tax associated with Europe, the VAT is now levied in countries throughout the world. In Europe, the VAT "evolved through successive attempts to reduce the inequities of the cascade turnover tax which was the sales tax commonly used by the countries now forming the European Economic Committee' [18, p. 6]. Impetus for the adoption of a VAT by the European Economic Committee (ECC) came from the recommendations of the Neumark Report, which was issued in 1963 as a product of a study designed to develop uniform tax practices in the Common Market countries. At that time, the differing turnover taxes created barriers to the flow of goods and services in the ECC countries. "For example, the separate governments often granted arbitrary rebates to exporters to make home-produced goods more competitive in foreign markets and imposed discriminatory natory duties on imports to benefit domestic enterprises" [13, p. 8]. The United States and the VAT Proponents of the VAT in the U.S. are quick to point out that there has been much discussion about a VAT since 1922. In that year, T. S. Adams, a major force behind the income tax legislation of 1913, called for the adoption of a VAT as "the best approach to the taxation of business" [8, p. 42]. An unsuccessful bill was introduced in the Senate in 1940 that proposed adoption of a VAT. During the 1960s, interest in a VAT was supported by the belief that a VAT in partial substitution for the corporate income tax would improve the balance of payments. In 1970, President Richard M. Nixon's Task Force on Business Taxation rejected the immediate adoption of the VAT but did recommend that "should the need ever arise for substantial additional revenue, the government should turn to the value-added tax or some other form of indirect taxation rather than to an increase in rates of the corporate or personal income tax" [8, p.43]. In 1973 the Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations studied the VAT in connection with alternative sources of federal revenue. The study concluded that the limitations of the VAT were greater than the advantages of its implementation. The federal tax division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants issued a Statement of Tax Policy in 1975 concerning the value-added tax. This study acknowledged the need for additional tax revenues and decreasing reliance on traditional taxes such as income and social security taxes. The AICPA study determined that the "imposition of an indirect tax at the federal level merits serious consideration" [2, p.42]. However, the AICPA opted for a retail sales tax at the federal level. During 1979 and 1980, Senator Russell B Long, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and Representative Al Ullman, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, championed the adoption of a VAT. …


The Faith at Work Movement started in the 1980s to address the needs of Christians who felt like their life was being segmented between their work and faith (Miller, 2003). As Christians have been searching for meaning at work, they have accepted servant leadership as the ideal form of leadership because it has been taught as the leadership of Jesus (Niewold, 2007). In this paper, an ideological exegesis of Luke 9:57-62 reveals that the true leadership of Jesus does not fit into the construct of servant leadership. As a result of the ideological exegesis, this paper proposes a new theory of leadership needs to be developed for Christian leaders in secular organizations that could serve as a guide for Christian practitioners and advance the scholarly field of Christian leadership.


This report details work on the BioAcoustica project up to the end of March 2016. Functionality and datasets currently available are described and ongoing work is listed. Usage statistics are provided and future plans are presented. Outputs of the project are listed in appendices including a list of peer-reviewed papers generated by the project and peer-reviewed papers that have deposited their bioacoustic data in BioAcoustica. In addition a list of species which are represented in the BioAcoustica database is provided.


Introduction: Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV), involving the semicircular canals, is one of the most common diseases of the inner ear. The video head impulse test (vHIT) is a new test that examines the function of the canals. This study aimed to investigate the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) gain, gain asymmetry and saccades after stimulating all six canals in patients definitively diagnosed with posterior semicircular canal BPPV (PSC-BPPV). Materials and Methods: Twenty-nine unilateral PSC-BPPV patients with normal oculographic and caloric results were enrolled in this study. vHIT was performed on six canals, and VOR gain, gain asymmetry and saccades were measured. Results: Sixteen (55.17%) patients had abnormal posterior canal VOR gains in the ipsilesional ear. VOR gains in both horizontal canals were within normal limits. Superior canal VOR gains were mostly lower than normal and were not correlated to PSC abnormalities (P>0.05). No corrective saccades could be observed. Conclusion: VOR gain in the direction of the posterior semicircular canal may be reduced in PSC-BPPV patients. Evaluation of PSC-VOR parameters could be beneficial, although superior canal measurements should be interpreted with caution.


Glycation is the nonenzymatic attachment of a monosaccharide to amino groups of proteins. The reaction has been recognized for many years in the food industry, where it is known as browning (also termed the Maillard reaction) and is responsible for the formation of commonly ingested items, such as toast. In patients with diabetes, glucose accumulation results in enhanced glycation of many proteins, both in tissues (e.g., the lens) and in the blood. Of these, glycated hemoglobin (GHb) is by far the most frequently measured in patient care. Hemoglobin (Hb) in healthy adults consists predominantly of HbA, which has 2α- and 2β-chains. Glucose can attach to several amino acid residues in these chains. HbA1c is formed when glucose attaches specifically to the NH2-terminal valine of the β-chain. Formation of HbA1c is essentially irreversible, and its concentration in the blood depends on both the life span of the red blood cell (RBC), which averages ∼120 days, and the blood glucose concentration. Because the rate of formation of HbA1c is directly proportional to the concentration of glucose in the blood, HbA1c represents integrated values for glucose over the preceding 8 to 12 weeks (Table 1).

View this table:

TABLE 1
Selected attributes of HbA1c

Initially described 57 years ago (1), GHb was first reported to be increased in patients with diabetes in the late 1960s (2). The clinical value of GHb was soon realized and the American Diabetes Association (ADA) began encouraging the routine measurement of GHb in all patients with diabetes (3).

The fundamental role of GHb in diabetes was accentuated by the publication in 1993 of the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) (4). The study, which compared intensive to conventional insulin therapy in patients with type 1 diabetes, documented a direct relationship between blood glucose concentrations …


This paper considers the optimal plate fin design and control for central processing unit (CPU) heat sink processes. First, we apply a finite element method to investigate the heat transfer phenomena of a heat sink process. To have a better heat dispersion performance, a real-coded genetic algorithm is then utilized to search for an optimal set of plate-fin shape parameters. The objective function to be minimized is the entropy generation rate which can take simultaneously the two major factors, heat transfer rate and air resistance, into consideration in the design. The present optimization scheme is able to achieve a better design for heat dispersion than existing methods. To attenuate environmental and time-varying disturbances, a direct adaptive control scheme is then developed for the CPU heat sink process. It is based on using a bounded single neuron controller (SNC) along with a parameter tuning algorithm to regulate the temperature of a selected control point. Extensive comparisons of the SNC-based control performance with the on-off control as well as a PI controller show that the proposed scheme provides excellent control performance despite the existence of unexpected process uncertainties.


In a multidatabase system which consists of object databases, a global schema created by integrating schemas of the component databases provides a uniform interface and high level location transparency to help users retrieve data. The mapping between the global and component object schemas is complicated due to schema restructuring conducted to resolve various conflicts among component schemas before conducting schema integration. This mapping information is important for global query processing. In this paper, a mapping strategy is presented. A mapping equation is defined to denote the mappings for attributes and object instances between a virtual class and its constituent classes. In addition, a mapping graph is used to describe the mapping equation. Based on the mapping information, a mechanism for processing global queries in parallel is introduced. One processing unit is responsible for decomposing the global query into subqueries against the component databases. To handle the effects of schema restructuring, preprocessing and postprocessing units are also provided for each local DBMS. The results returned from component databases need to be integrated. The concept of object isomerism, where a real-world entity is represented by more than one object in different component databases, is considered for integrating query results.


By conditioning on natural language instructions, large language models (LLMs) have displayed impressive capabilities as general-purpose computers. However, task performance depends significantly on the quality of the prompt used to steer the model, and most effective prompts have been handcrafted by humans. Inspired by classical program synthesis and the human approach to prompt engineering, we propose Automatic Prompt Engineer (APE) for automatic instruction generation and selection. In our method, we treat the instruction as the"program,"optimized by searching over a pool of instruction candidates proposed by an LLM in order to maximize a chosen score function. To evaluate the quality of the selected instruction, we evaluate the zero-shot performance of another LLM following the selected instruction. Experiments on 24 NLP tasks show that our automatically generated instructions outperform the prior LLM baseline by a large margin and achieve better or comparable performance to the instructions generated by human annotators on 19/24 tasks. We conduct extensive qualitative and quantitative analyses to explore the performance of APE. We show that APE-engineered prompts can be applied to steer models toward truthfulness and/or informativeness, as well as to improve few-shot learning performance by simply prepending them to standard in-context learning prompts. Please check out our webpage at https://sites.google.com/view/automatic-prompt-engineer.


The occurrence of vasomotor symptoms in women is directly related to deficiency of estrogen, which occurs as a result of natural or surgical menopause. Hot flushes may also be a major problem for patients with a history of breast cancer, as they may result directly from cancer treatment (oophorectomy, chemotherapy-induced ovarian failure or adjuvant tamoxifen citrate therapy). Despite the lack of reliable data regarding their efficacy and safety, in recent years the usage of herbs among menopausal women has increased dynamically all over the world. The following paper reviews professional literature about Black Cohosh (Actaea/Cimicifuga racemosa), either used alone or in combination with other medicinal herbs administered in management of vasomotor symptoms. Extracts of the rootstock of Black cohosh contain such potentially biologically active constituents as triterpene glycosides (actein, cimicifugoside, deoxyacetein), isoferulic acid and alkaloids (n-methylcytisine). The mechanism of its action remains unclear. Some authors suggest that Black Cohosh contains substances with selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM) activity. Recent data has demonstrated that Black Cohosh may have an effect on dopaminergic and serotoninergic systems. Thirty-two papers formed the basis for this review. Open-label, noncomparative studies, as well as treatment-controlled, randomized, open trials, have proven that Black Cohosh significantly reduced frequency or severity of hot flashes. The results of randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trials were contradictory. Adverse symptoms have been rare (5,4%), mild and reversible. Most of them included gastrointestinal upsets, rashes, headaches, dizziness and mastalgia. Nevertheless, single cases of serious adverse events, including acute hepatocellular damage, have been reported, but without a clear causality relationship.


We have identified mutations in three genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, KEM1, KEM2 and KEM3, that enhance the nuclear fusion defect of kar1-1 yeast during conjugation. The KEM1 and KEM3 genes are located on the left arm of chromosome VII. Kem mutations reduce nuclear fusion whether the kem and the kar1-1 mutations are in the same or in different parents (i.e., in both kem kar1-1 X wild-type and kem X kar 1-1 crosses). kem 1 X kem 1 crosses show a defect in nuclear fusion, but kem 1 X wild-type crosses do not. Mutant kem 1 strains are hypersensitive to benomyl, lose chromosomes at a rate 10-20-fold higher than KEM+ strains, and lose viability upon nitrogen starvation. In addition, kem 1/kem 1 diploids are unable to sporulate. Cells containing a kem 1 null allele grow very poorly, have an elongated rod-shape and are defective in spindle pole body duplication and/or separation. The KEM 1 gene, which is expressed as a 5.5-kb mRNA transcript, contains a 4.6-kb open reading frame encoding a 175-kD protein.


ABSTRACT This manuscript is a reflection about existing relationships among the domination processes of capitalism/colonialism/patriarchy and two collective occupations that take place in the Bio Bio Region, Chile. The first of these occupations is artisanal fishing in Tumbes Cove and the second is the harvesting of medicinal plants in the locality of Manco. Specifically, an attempt is made to discuss the impacts of the coloniality of nature and the actual possibilities for resistance provided by these collective occupations. For this purpose, a desk research with a decolonial perspective was conducted, using as analytical axes the categories of extractivism, technologization, and scientification, which correspond to the domination mechanisms of nature. The findings suggest that collective occupations are versatile, as in some cases this capacity produces decomposition and, in others, a naïve re-existence. The powers and mechanisms triggered by these responses on different collective occupations is a field that needs further study in order to formulate critical and transformative knowledge in occupational science, as well as the possibility of creating counterhegemonic practices for communities to resist the power exerted by domination processes. This article aims to enhance the relationship among occupations and nature, as well as the idea that collective occupations are forms of resistance and re-existence facing patriarchal-colonial-capitalism, thus contributing to decolonizing practices informed by occupational science.


The introduction, via the Local Government Act 2000, of political executives held to account by influential overview and scrutiny committees challenges fundamentally the traditional operations of the party group system. This paper uses evidence from a variety of sources (including the experience of Parliamentary select committees) to explore how councillors are managing the tensions between party group loyalty and the expectation surrounding the operation of scrutiny. Four models of party group behaviour are identified with the group acting as partner, arbitrator, filter and Leviathan respectively. These typologies are then used (together with research evidence) to interpret the circumstances in which effective scrutiny may be aided or hindered by party group dynamics. Three alternative scenarios, which illustrate the impact of different political dynamics on the effectiveness of scrutiny, are identified and explored. It is concluded that the success of the overview and scrutiny experiment is by no means assured and faced with the intransigent nature of most party group behaviour, the future of effective scrutiny hangs in the balance.


Trame: A Contemporary Italian Reader brings together short stories, poems, interviews, excerpts from movie scripts and novels, and other works by 33 renowned authors. The readings cover familiar themes--youth, family, immigration, politics, women's voices, identity--from the fresh perspective of a new generation of Italian writers. By presenting a rich array of materials and many points of view, Trame highlights the cultural complexity of contemporary Italy. Each text is accompanied by a diverse selection of activities and exercises that help students read authentic texts and build their language skills. These include: * pre-reading activities that introduce important themes; * vocabulary lists with definitions in Italian; * writing exercises; * post-reading activities in discussion and analysis. With its range of readings and exercises, Trame is designed to be easily adaptable to instructors' different needs and class levels. It is ideally suited to high-intermediate and advanced Italian language and culture courses.


The lack of training data is a common challenge in many machine learning problems, which is often tackled by semi-supervised learning methods or transfer learning methods. The former requires unlabeled images from the same distribution as the labeled ones and the latter leverages labeled images from related homogenous tasks. However, these restrictions often cannot be satisfied. To address this, we propose a novel robust and discriminative self-taught learning approach to utilize any unlabeled data without the above restrictions. Our new approach employs a robust loss function to learn the dictionary, and enforces the structured sparse regularization to automatically select the optimal dictionary basis vectors and incorporate the supervision information contained in the labeled data. We derive an efficient iterative algorithm to solve the optimization problem and rigorously prove its convergence. Promising results in extensive experiments have validated the proposed approach.


A Bacillus subtilis ORF, ypul, 41% homologous to rsuA, the gene for the synthase which forms pseudouridine 516 in Escherichia coli 16S rRNA, was cloned and the protein expressed and affinity-purified by the His tag procedure. Reactions with E. coli 16S and 23S rRNA transcripts were performed in vitro. The protein did not form pseudouridine 516 as expected but did produce pseudouridine 552 in 16S rRNA and pseudouridines 1199, 2605, and 2833 in 23S rRNA. Of these, only pseudouridine 2605 is found naturally in either E. coli or B. subtilis rRNA. Kinetic experiments confirmed that pseudouridine 2605 was the primary target. Comparison of the four pseudouridine sites yielded a consensus recognition sequence for the synthase. This consensus sequence was not present at any other site in either E. coli or B. subtilis 16S or 23S RNA. We propose that YpuL is the B. subtilis pseudouridine 2633 (2605 in E. coli) synthase. Since the closest gene sequence homologue in E. coli is yciL, we suggest that its gene product is the corresponding E. coli pseudouridine 2605 synthase.


Introduction There is a trend in the field of Machine Discovery that has undertaken the task of approaching Scientific Discovery from a computational viewpoint. Such an approach is a very promising, and in some way fascinating, field of research in Artificial Intelligence. Its ultimate goal is to recognize and learn patterns of previous discovery, which can improve one's chances for future discovery significantly (Oliver 1991). Most studies have dealt with empirical laws of physics and chemistry but, so far, almost no theory driven discovery has been contemplated. The present paper deals with a computational approach to the real history of the genesis of a mathematical discovery: an abstractalgebraic method called "the method of separation of symbols", and its role in the creation of George Boole's logic. We have studied the different historical factors that influenced this creation. The real history of the discovery under consideration has suggested a computational model that provides the basis for a theory of this kind of discovery. The paper presents a sketch of the history of Boole's discovery as well as the influence of Duncan F. Gregory on it, and describes the system BOOLE2. This program embodies Boole's method of discovering, discovers Logic and Geometry as parts of Algebra, and is also ready to be used on a variety of sciences.


This biography written for young adults explores the life and art of Yoko Ono, from her childhood haikus to her involvement in Fluxus and experimental music. The focus remains on why Yoko is an important artist, not just the wife of one of the world's most legendary performers. An incredibly inspiring and moving story for young people who are interested in following their dreams to become an artist or who have ever contemplate "what is art" or "what is beauty." An outcast throughout most of her life and misunderstood by every group she was supposed to belong to, Yoko followed her own unique vision to create art and music that was ahead of its time and would later be celebrated. She continues to be an important voice for peace to this day.


Background—The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of stent-based delivery of sirolimus (SRL) alone or in combination with dexamethasone (DEX) to reduce in-stent neointimal hyperplasia. SRL is a potent immunosuppressive agent that inhibits SMC proliferation by blocking cell cycle progression. Methods and Results—Stents were coated with a nonerodable polymer containing 185 &mgr;g SRL, 350 &mgr;g DEX, or 185 &mgr;g SRL and 350 &mgr;g DEX. Polymer biocompatibility studies in the porcine and canine models showed acceptable tissue response at 60 days. Forty-seven stents (metal, n=13; SRL, n=13; DEX, n=13; SRL and DEX, n=8) were implanted in the coronary arteries of 16 pigs. The tissue level of SRL was 97±13 ng/artery, with a stent content of 71±10 &mgr;g at 3 days. At 7 days, proliferating cell nuclear antigen and retinoblastoma protein expression were reduced 60% and 50%, respectively, by the SRL stents. After 28 days, the mean neointimal area was 2.47±1.04 mm2 for the SRL alone and 2.42±1.04 mm2 for the combination of SRL and DEX compared with the metal (5.06±1.88 mm2, P <0.0001) or DEX-coated stents (4.31±3.21 mm2, P <0.001), resulting in a 50% reduction of percent in-stent stenosis. Conclusions—Stent-based delivery of SRL via a nonerodable polymer matrix is feasible and effectively reduces in-stent neointimal hyperplasia by inhibiting cellular proliferation.


To better inform advance care planning initiatives, we conducted a qualitative study of community dwelling people aged 80 or more to enrich our understanding of their perspectives about the use of life-sustaining technologies in relation to their future care. In a semi-structured interview, 14 participants were asked what kind of health care they would want if they became seriously ill, so ill that they might die. We specifically probed their preferences for life-sustaining technologies and circumstances in which they had shared these preferences. Transcripts and field notes were analysed to categorise data in themes and subthemes. Participants represented octogenarians with variable levels of decision preparedness and included people who preferred a range of involvement in decision-making from passive to active consumers. Three overarching themes included: (1) their faith in others to do the right thing, (2) their focus on managing certainties, and (3) the role that perception of prolonging agony or alleviating suffering played in their preference for life-sustaining technologies. Few participants had considered that decisions would need to be made about life-sustaining technologies during the dying process and therefore had never considered the need to discuss their preferences to facilitate decisions in future. A key barrier to engaging some octogenarians may be their perception that there was no decision to be made since "they'll take care of me". Insights gained from this study highlight the sort of "active engagement" strategies needed to improve advance care planning and end of life decision making.


The increasing trend over the last ten years to use waste water as a feed source for reverse osmosis membrane plant has resulted in an increase in calcium phosphate scaling on membrane surfaces. This is due to much higher levels of phosphate in waste water typically 10-30 mg/l as compared with a groundwater source which may have only 1-5 mg/l of phosphate. These higher phosphate levels resulting from effluent breakdown in primary sewage treatment causes calcium phosphate solubility to be exceeded in reverse osmosis membrane systems resulting in scale formation. Conventional antiscalant chemistry based on threshold inhibition and crystal distortion has had poor results in high phosphate high pH waters. Dosing large quantities of acid to lower the scaling tendency is no longer an acceptable approach. This paper investigates the complexities of multiple species of calcium phosphate with varying solubility's all contributing to an amorphous deposit. Research conducted by the medical community into calcium phosphate based cement for bone and teeth repair has been applied to theories of calcium phosphate precipitation and crystal growth. Highly active calcium phosphate threshold inhibitors were tested in the laboratory and a development product Genesys PHO (Antiscalant B) formulated which was then used in three waste water pilot plants and compared with conventional antiscalants. The results of this beta testing showed the new formulation out performed the conventional antiscalants and that calcium phosphate scaling could be controlled without the need for pH correction through acid dosing in once through RO plants. The third RO pilot plant was a recycled system where scale formation was not prevented. The results from another two high pH, high phosphate agricultural leachate waters are also presented. Understanding the mechanisms of calcium phosphate deposition and the lack of crystal growth has enabled a highly active threshold inhibitor antiscalant to be formulated which is effective at preventing calcium phosphate scale formation in high phosphate; high pH feed waters to RO membranes without the need for acid dosing.


The Hoffman Run bridge, located just outside Dahoga, Pennsylvania, was constructed in October 1990. The bridge is a simple-span, single-lane, stress-laminated deck superstructure that is approximately 26 ft long and 16 ft wide. It is the second stress-laminated timber bridge to be constructed of hardwood lumber in Pennsylvania. The performance of the bridge was monitored continually for approximately 32 months, beginning shortly after installation. Performance monitoring involved gathering and evaluating data relative to the moisture content of the wood deck, the force level of steel stressing bars, the deck vertical creep, and the behavior of the bridge under static-load conditions. Furthermore, comprehensive visual inspections were executed to assess the overall condition of the structure. Based on field evaluations, the bridge is performing properly with no structural deficiencies, although with respect to serviceability, the bridge has developed a slight sag at midspan.


The ventral fronto-parietal network has been considered to play a crucial role in
reorienting attention towards significant environmental events, while the dorsal system is
thought to be dominant in controlling goal-directed behaviour (Corbetta and Shulman
2002). I begin by reviewing literature which suggests this distinction may not be so clear
cut and suggest my own scheme which takes into account this evidence (Singh-Curry and
Husain 2009). Specifically, ventral areas, particularly the right inferior parietal lobe (IPL),
appear to be activated by tasks involving sustained attention, responding to salient taskrelevant
events, detecting novel stimuli and switching between tasks. Accordingly, I
hypothesise that the right IPL may play a crucial role in reconfiguring behaviour between
a task-engaged state and a more exploratory mode of functioning, which permits the
identification of potentially important novel events.
The first few chapters of my thesis aimed to test this hypothesis by examining attention
deficits in stroke patients with hemispatial neglect, the syndrome which frequently occurs
following damage to the right IPL. These patients were shown to have difficulty
sustaining attention over time, even when no spatial shifts of attention were required. This
deficit in sustained attention was particularly evident for stimuli of lower perceptual
salience. More importantly, however, these deficits were found to interact with each other,
as well as the direction of spatial attention, suggesting that these functions may be
dependent on an interrelated brain network. Consistent with this notion, the results of
lesion-symptom analysis indicated that the Right IPL and ventral attention network appears to be crucial in the mediation of all of these processes, including the processing of
novel stimuli, supporting my hypothesis.
The detection of novel events has also been found to activate the midbrain dopaminergic
system (Bunzeck and Duzel 2006), while the principal pathological feature of Parkinson's
disease (PD) is degeneration of these neurons (Hornykiewicz 1998). Although PD is
traditionally considered a disorder of movement, more recently it has been recognised that
there may be associated cognitive deficits, including disorders of impulse control
(Weintraub 2008). At present, however, the factors which predispose some individuals
with PD to develop such problems are unclear.
Accordingly, in the second part of my thesis, I examined novelty processing and risktaking
behaviour in PD in order to identify subgroups which may be particularly
vulnerable to developing impulse control problems. In addition to PD patients with
impulse control disorders (ICD), those who were classified as akinetic-rigid, as opposed to
tremor dominant – without ICD – were found to process novelty more quickly than nonnovel
perceptually salient stimuli, unlike tremor dominant PD patients. Novelty seeking
was found to be associated with relative preservation of the mesolimbic dopaminergic
system in patients without ICD, while increased risk-taking was associated with
preservation of the mesolimbic system in ICD patients. Mesolimbic sparing, in addition to
the akinetic-rigid motor phenotype of PD may therefore increase susceptibility to impulse
control problems in PD.


Electrical stimulation of carcasses is a mainstay processing technique within the sheep meat industry. A primary use is to accelerate tenderisation of meat and to reduce the variation observed in its end products. Technological advances have resulted in a new generation of medium voltage electrical stimulation (MVES) units, which offer superior outcomes to previous high- and low-voltage systems. These new units allow precisely controlled electrical inputs to individual carcasses, thus providing processors with greater control over end product outcomes. Yet even with these new systems, significant variation in meat quality still remains. This variation likely results from an unidentified interaction between the electrical input and the carcass, as previously used electrical parameters were empirically defined, based on processor experience rather than an integrated understanding of the applied parameters and the induced response in the post-mortem muscle. Thus a scientific understanding of how the electrical input interacts with post-mortem muscle to improve meat quality is required. Given the use of electrical stimulation stems from its ability to engage muscle activity, this thesis sought to examine the effect of MVES on post-mortem muscle function using contractile characteristics as a means to identify how this type of system imparts its beneficial effects.

The first experimental chapter (Chapter 2) examined the effect of various MVES parameters on dressed sheep carcasses (under commercial processing conditions), using the ΔpH of the M. longissimus thoracis et lumborum as a means by which to define carcass response and determine which electrical parameters were most effective. We observed that stimulation parameters incorporating longer pulse widths (i.e. 5ms) or those with a modulated (increasing) frequency across the electrodes produced the largest carcass response (i.e. largest ΔpH). Interestingly, the effect of this electrical stimulation on pH was influenced by hot carcass weight, with lighter carcasses (<23Kg) more responsive to all stimulation parameters tested, in contrast to heavier carcasses that did not distinguish between the different electrical inputs. As part of this study, we also determined that pre-stimulation pH is an adequate marker of carcass responsiveness to MVES stimulation, offering a way in which to determine how carcasses will respond to the applied current. In a concurrent study, we took advantage of the positioning of the stimulation system in order to compare the effect of MVES on muscle pH within the immediate stimulation period (i.e. within five minutes) compared to a time period more reflective of that in the literature, documenting a significant difference. This, in conjunction with showing a significant difference between pH measuring techniques, highlights the requirement for consideration of both the timing and methodology when comparing pH responses to MVES.

Having determined the parameters that produced the biggest effect on carcass pH, the second experimental chapter (Chapter 3) undertook a closer examination as to how these parameters affected the contractile properties of post-mortem muscle. This was achieved by establishing an isolated nerve-muscle electrophysiology rig to examine their influence on muscle in a controlled environment. The electrical parameters identified in the previous chapter were examined, with a particular interest in the effect of longer pulse widths and modulated frequency on muscle contraction given their positive effect on ΔpH. The contractile characteristics of two different types of sheep muscle [M. semitendinosus (ST) and M. semimembranosus (SM)], were examined. This study revealed that electrical stimulation with longer pulse widths produced a greater contractile response in terms of both peak tension and the overall amount of contraction. Muscle response to modulated frequency stimulation was similar to that elicited by longer pulse widths, but likely arose from enhanced activity of different contractile elements. Comparison of the different muscle responses to simulated MVES showed that overall, the oxidative-glycolytic SM muscle produced a larger contractile response than the glycolytic ST, but did not distinguish between the electrical parameters. This study also revealed a difference in the way in which the electrical impulse was transmitted through the muscle bundle, i.e., direct stimulation of muscle vs. nerve-mediated (stimulation of residual nerve activity). It appeared that more of each parameter was transmitted via the nerves in SM, but more directly transmitted in ST.

The last observations from Chapter 3 were particularly interesting, as it suggested that electrical stimulation transmitted via the nervous system may a viable option for use within the MVES set up. This possibility would provide another avenue for whole carcass stimulation, as electrical transmission via the nervous system generates a consistent and more homogenous decline of pH in all carcass muscles. Thus the last experimental chapter (Chapter 4) examined if, and to what extent, post-mortem muscle could respond to nerve-mediated electrical stimulation. This study showed that under a defined post-mortem environment (i.e., anoxic conditions), post-mortem sheep muscle does retain contractile activity in response to nerve-mediated electrical stimulation, but in a muscle-specific manner - both in the magnitude of contraction and the ability to distinguish between stimuli frequencies. We also investigated the role of several neuromodulators in muscle contraction under these conditions, specifically those that are known to mediate muscle contraction arising from nerve stimulation (ATP, NO and CGRP). The neuromodulators ATP and NO appear to affect muscle response to nerve stimulation at the level of neurotransmission in ST, in contrast to E-C coupling processes in SM. These results suggest that post-mortem SM muscle is better able to respond to nerve-mediated parameters, and this response is likely directed by the physiological properties that dictate normal muscle function (i.e., the type of innervation). Overall this study suggests that nerve-mediated electrical parameters may be a viable option for incorporation into commercial processing environment if optimised in a muscle-specific manner, with the most advantage likely gained for the processing of muscle groups containing oxidative-glycolytic fibre types.

In summary, this thesis has provided a number of insights into the mechanisms by which various MVES inputs influence post-mortem muscle function. Identification of the biological changes that occur within stimulated nerve and muscle in post-mortem tissue may be used to refine electrical stimulation parameters for specific carcass applications to enhance overall meat quality. Furthermore, we identified a potential role for nerve-mediated responses as part of the stimulation strategy. It is hoped that these findings contribute to a more sophisticated understanding of the use of electrical stimulation, and may provide the commercial sector further opportunities for refining this technology for the benefit of both the producer and consumer.


Abstract The fantastic, theorized as an expression of the anxieties, fears, and political beliefs of the generation of young French writers born in the decades directly following the Revolution and Terror, has long been viewed primarily as a literary genre. Observed in light of this artistic movement, Berlioz9s most famous work, Symphonie fantastique , emerges as a musical manifestation of fantastic techniques, and Berlioz himself as an important contributor to the Fantastic culture that swept nineteenth-century France. Using Tzvetan Todorov9s narrative theory, I identify two techniques fantastic authors exploit that are most useful in understanding Symphonie Fantastique : an intentional ambiguity of form, and a privileging of ambiguous ""thresholds"" over teleological plot resolution. In pursuing a new explanation of the symphony9s strange deviations from musical norms, I highlight the many different ways the symphony has been understood and analyzed by prominent musicologists over the past 180 years. By now, musicologists have effectively demonstrated that Berlioz was not the ""incompetent genius"" (in Charles Rosen9s wry formulation) he was long considered to be; however, the fact that there is still disagreement and debate over Symphonie Fantastique9s deviations from normative form and content, as well as what those deviations might mean, demonstrates the highly fraught signifying structure of the music. Locating the symphony9s use of fantastic tropes and techniques demonstrates that many of its strangest aspects——those ""failures"" that have been the subject of musicological debate since 1835——come into focus when we take its title seriously and regard the work as a symphony in the fantastic genre.


Recent general equilibrium models prescribe predictable dynamics in the volatility surfaces that are implied by observed option prices. In this paper, we investigate the predictability of surfaces, using extensive time series of implied volatilities from over-the-counter options on eight different currencies, quoted against the Euro. We examine implied volatility surfaces in the context of predictability through three different models, two that employ parametric specifications to describe the surface and one that decomposes it into latent statistical factors. All examined models are shown to (a) accurately describe the surfaces in-sample, and (b) produce forecasts that are superior to hard-to-beat benchmarks that ignore information about the shape of the surface, in medium- to long-term horizons. We show that these forecasts can support profitable volatility trading strategies in the absence of transaction costs. Comparing across competing models, our results suggest that parametric models, that allow for a more structured description of the surface, are more successful in terms of forecasts' accuracy and significance of trading profits.


The continuing growth in aviation has meant that the 35 largest airports in Europe reached saturation in 2005. The consequences have been increasing air traffic congestion, delays and associated costs. There is therefore a clear need to create more capacity. However, airports in particular and the air transport system in general are also subject to sudden fluctuations in demand and capacity. This research synthesizes the mechanisms of airport capacity fluctuations through the analytical formulation of concepts of capacity dynamics, capacity elasticities and capacity stability. It demonstrates the usability of these concepts through, firstly, a case study application to Brussels National Airport and, secondly, the development of a 'proof of concept' decision-support tool for strategic and tactical airport planning. Capacity dynamics and elasticities provide a performance indication as to how quickly capacity is able to change in response to fluctuations brought about by one or more capacity disrupters, whilst capacity stability provides airport planners with a measure of capacity robustness. These three concepts - capacity dynamics, elasticities and stability - contribute to a better a priori understanding of the airport system to be modelled. They demonstrate a better quantification of the impact and sensitivity of all the factors that affect runway capacity. It is also shown how the three concepts can assist in a better quantification of the risk of potential capacity fluctuation within the scope of airport planning. Based on this analytical formulation and quantification, mitigation should be an integral part of any effective airport plan in order to predict better the response to any given potential capacity degradation. It has been found that, from a capacity perspective, an airport becomes less stable the higher its level of performance. This capacity/stability paradox enables the ultimate goal of investment in capacity enhancement to be challenged, and it is legitimately questioned whether a similar investment would not be more worthwhile at secondary airports rather than at major airports.


The objective of this work is to show the operational applicability of a recently proposed model (S´ anchez et al., 2008) together with satellite images to monitor surface energy fluxes at a regional scale. In particular, we will focus on the retrieval of daily evapotranspiration because of the particular significance of this flux in the generation of precipitation or in agricultural water resource management. A detailed methodology to apply the Simplified Two- Source Energy Balance method to Landsat imagery is presented. The different surface cropland features are characterized from the CORINE Land Cover maps, and the required meteorological variables are obtained by interpolating the data of a network of agro-meteorological stations distributed within the region of interest. Finally, we show the application of the methodology to three different Landsat images covering the whole Basilicata region (Southern Italy). Maps of the different fluxes including the daily evapotranspiration are performed. Results are compared with some ground measurements, and an analysis is made taking the land use classification as a basis. An accuracy close to 30 W m 2 is obtained.


Engineered cysteine residues near the primary electron donor (P) of the reaction center from the purple photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides were covalently conjugated to each of several dye molecules in order to explore the geometric design and spectral requirements for energy transfer between an artificial antenna system and the reaction center. An average of 2.5 fluorescent dye molecules were attached at specific locations near P. The enhanced absorbance cross-section afforded by conjugation of Alexa Fluor 660 dyes resulted in a 2.2-fold increase in the formation of reaction center charge-separated state upon intensity-limited excitation at 650 nm. The effective increase in absorbance cross-section resulting from the conjugation of two other dyes, Alexa Fluor 647 and Alexa Fluor 750, was also investigated. The key parameters that dictate the efficiency of dye-to-reaction center energy transfer and subsequent charge separation were examined using both steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy as well as transient absorbance spectroscopy techniques. An understanding of these parameters is an important first step toward developing more complex model light-harvesting systems integrated with reaction centers.


In the United States, pest risk maps are used by the Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey for spatial and temporal targeting of exotic plant pest detection programs. Methods are described to create standardized host distribution, climate and pathway risk maps for the top nationally ranked exotic pest targets. Two examples are provided to illustrate the risk mapping process: late wilt of corn (Harpophora maydis) and the giant African land snail (Achatina fulica). Host risk maps were made from county-level crop census and USDA Forest Inventory and Analysis data, respectively. Climate risk maps were made using the North Carolina State University–USDA APHIS Plant Pest Forecasting System (NAPPFAST), which uses a web-based graphical user interface to link climatic and geographic databases with interactive templates for biological modelling. Pathway risk maps were made using freight flow allocation data sets to move commodities from 7 world regions to 3162 US urban areas. A new aggregation technique based on the Pareto dominance principle was used to integrate maps of host abundance, climate and pathway risks into a single decision support product. The maps are publicly available online (http://www.nappfast.org). Key recommendations to improve the risk maps and their delivery systems are discussed.


The dynamics of association-dissociation of the c-myc protooncogene-containing chromatin with the nuclear matrix (NM) were studied in rat liver cells during transient activation of the gene. The gene was activated by injection of cycloheximide (CHI) to animals. Two periods of the c-myc gene activation were found by RNA--DNA hybridization blotting during the first 12 h after the injection of CHI with the maxima at 3-4 and 9-10 h. The NM-associated chromatin was also found by DNA--DNA hybridization blotting to have two periods of an increase in the amount of the c-myc gene. The c-myc gene activation-inactivation dynamics during the first period were conjugated with the dynamics of its association-dissociation with the NM. During the second period the c-myc gene amount in the NM-associated chromatin was the same as during the first period but the transcriptional activity of the c-myc gene during the second period was significantly lower. The results suggest two activation stages of the gene(s): 1) the production of a topologically independent chromatin loop by the association to the NM; 2) the initiation of the gene transcription in the produced loop. Both stages seem to take place during the first period of the c-myc gene activation while during the second period only the first stage occurred and the second stage was only partially realized.


Under specular reflection, non-isotropic halftones such as line halftones printed on an ink-receiving plastic layer superposed with a metallic layer change their colors upon in-plane rotation of the print. This color change is due to the orientation-dependent optical dot gain
 of the halftone. A strong dot gain occurs when the incident light is perpendicular to the halftone line structure. A color prediction model is proposed which predicts under specular reflection the color of cyan, magenta and yellow line halftones as a function of the azimuthal rotation angle,
 the incident angle and the line frequency. The model is calibrated by measuring 17 reflectances at the (25° : 25°) measurement geometry, with the incident light parallel to the halftone lines. The model has been tested for several azimuthal rotation and incident viewing angles, each
 time for 125 different cyan, magenta and yellow ink surface coverages. The obtained prediction accuracies are between ΔE94 = 3.5 and ΔE94 = 7.


Many authors argue that conscious experience involves a sense of self or self-consciousness. According to the strongest version of this claim, there can be no selfless states of consciousness, namely states of consciousness that lack self-consciousness altogether. Disagreements about this claim are likely to remain merely verbal as long as the target notion of self-consciousness is not adequately specified. After distinguishing six notions of self-consciousness commonly discussed in the literature, I argue that none of the corresponding features is necessary for consciousness, because there are states of consciousness in which each of them is plausibly missing. Such states can be said to be at least partially selfless, since they lack at least one of the ways in which one could be self-conscious. Furthermore, I argue that there is also preliminary empirical evidence that some states of consciousness lack all of these six putative forms of self-consciousness. Such states might be totally selfless, insofar as they lack all the ways in which one could be self-conscious. I conclude by addressing four objections to the possibility and reportability of totally selfless states of consciousness.


We investigate the impact of multiple primary users (PUs) and fading on the spectrum sensing of a classical energy detector (ED). Specifically, we present the novel closed-form expressions for the false-alarm and detection probabilities in a multiple PUs environment, assuming the Nakagami-m fading and complex Gaussian PUs transmitted signals. The results reveal the importance of taking into consideration the wireless environment, when evaluating the ED spectrum sensing performance and selecting the ED threshold.


A noniterative method for superresolution is presented and analyzed. By exploiting the inherent structure of the discrete signal-processing environment, this algorithm reduces the problem of superresolution to that of solving a set of linear equations that relate known frequency samples to unknown time samples. It is shown that the algorithm always produces the correct solution if the known samples are error free and if the system is exactly determined or overdetermined. A technique to reduce the effect of measurement noise on the solution is presented also. It is shown that the noniterative algorithm will produce the same result as the Gerchberg–Papoulis algorithm [ Opt. Acta21, 709 ( 1974); IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst.CAS-22, 735 ( 1975)]. A simple, one-dimensional example is used to demonstrate the performance of both algorithms in the presence, and in the absence, of noise. The utility of the noniterative algorithm is demonstrated further with another one-dimensional example and then a two-dimensional example.


For both readers and critics, the nature of MacNeice's poetic work as a whole is a matter of importance, and the second posthumous "Collected Poems", entirely re-edited by Peter McDonald, attempts, for the first time, to print MacNeice's poetry in groupings corresponding closely to the collections published by Faber between 1935 and 1963. This makes it easier to read the poet in the published forms in which he was read by his contemporaries. In choosing to re-create the environments of MacNeice's individual volumes of poetry, moreover, this new "Collected Poems" reflects the opinion that MacNeice works best in and through those separate volumes, particularly so in the brilliant return to form - and unique kinds of return on lyric form itself - of the last three collections. The texts of the poems in the new edition are based on a comparison of all printed versions, as revised in the light of the poet's later thoughts. This has resulted in a large number of changes. It is hoped that the present edition presents MacNeice's poetry more accurately, as well as more fully, than all previous collections. The new "Collected Poems" also includes, as appendices, "The Last Ditch" - the short book of poems which MacNeice published with the Cuala Press in 1940 - and "The Revenant", a cycle of songs written for MacNeice's wife, the singer Hedli Anderson, a selection of uncollected early poems, and from "Blind Fireworks", MacNeice's first published book of verse.


The ability to obtain good neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest is often limited. Interventions during the acute phase of treatment post return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) are therefore critical.1 The primary goal of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is to optimize coronary perfusion pressure and maintain systemic perfusion in order to prevent neurologic and other end-organ damage while working to achieve ROSC. While the utility of therapeutic hypothermia for preservation of neurologic function post-cardiac arrest had been suggested in the early 1950s and 1960s,2-4 the studies were inconclusive, with high complication rates. It was not until the 1990s that studies showed possible benefits to mild hypothermia in animal models.5-10 The results of the 2002 trial by the Hypothermia after Cardiac Arrest Study Group were the basis for the inclusion of therapeutic hypothermia in the American Heart Association's post-cardiac arrest care guidelines.11 Subsequent trials have assessed the difference between therapeutic hypothermia to 33 degrees Celsius (oC) and "targeted temperature management" (TTM) aiming for 36oC, the duration of TTM, the method used to achieve and maintain it, and whether TTM confers a similar neurological benefit for cardiac arrests secondary to non-shockable rhythms; some of these trials will be discussed below and will help us answer the question at hand.


Cover crops are currently not widely used in annual crop production systems in California's semiarid Central Valley due to concerns about lost opportunity costs and uncertainties about water use. From 1999 through 2014, we quantified cover crop biomass production for a variety of mixtures under winter precipitation and limited supplemental irrigation. In a separate study, we also determined changes in soil water storage under three cover crop mixtures compared to fallowed plots during two (2013 and 2014) winter periods to investigate tradeoffs associated with water use by cover crops in this region. Over the 15 years of the project that were characterized by recurring drought, a total of 22.8 Mg ha−1 (20,360 lb ac−1) of aboveground cover crop biomass was produced with a total precipitation of 209 and 20 cm (82 and 8 in) of supplemental irrigation applied in 1999, 2012, and 2014. Cover crop biomass varied from 0.39 Mg ha−1 (348 lb ac−1) in the low precipitation period (winter of 2006 to 2007) to 9.34 Mg ha−1 (8,340 lb ac−1; winter of 2000 to 2001). Soil water storage in the sampled depth (0 to 90 cm [0 to 35 in]) for the fallow and each of the cover crop mixtures was compared each year from January to March, the primary growing period for cover crops in this region. Net soil water storage increased during this period by 4.8 and 4.3 cm (1.9 and 1.7 in) in 2013 and 2014, respectively, for the fallow system, but in the cover crop mixture plots, there was no additional water storage. Instead, water use by the cover crop mixes resulted in a negative water balance over the cover crop growth period on an average of 0.47 and 0.26 cm (0.19 and 0.10 in) in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Thus, compared to the fallow system, cover crops depleted 5.3 and 0.67 cm (2.1 and 0.26 in) and more water from the 0 to 90 cm (0 to 35 in) profile in 2013 and 2014, respectively. From this long-term systems research, we conclude that while vigorous growth of winter cover crops in the Central Valley of California may not be possible in all years due to low and erratic precipitation patterns, there may be benefits in terms of providing ground cover, residue, and photosynthetic energy capture in many years. However, cover crop biomass production may come at a cost of soil water depletion in this semiarid, drought-prone region.


MIGHTY BEAST: written by Sean Borodale, soundscape by Elizabeth Purnell, produced by Sara Davies, performed by Christopher Bianchi. BBC Radio 3, Between the Ears, 2013. 29mins10. Mighty Beast is a 'radio poem' that takes us into the cattle saleyard, and the lives of the auctioneers, animal handlers and farmers that are its denizens. Radio poems operate through feeling as much as intellect, and give scope for different interpretations. They are not so much about imparting information or telling a story, as creating an experience. They are more associative than expository, often proceeding in a non-linear way. Often radio poems use sounds as symbol or metaphor, and they can employ 'audio rhymes' – by this I mean placing sounds that have similar morphology, but come from different sources, next to each other, or merging them via cross-fades. Mighty Beast is structured around four elements: Borodale's poetic auctioneer; edited interviews with the market workers and farmers; beautifully composed music which echoes and expands rhythms within the spoken word and the location sounds of the market; and finally the sounds themselves, such as gates, cows bellowing, bells and winter wind. The auctioneering tradition is a perfect vehicle for Borodale, with its rapid delivery, clipped, compressed grammar, rhythmic repetitions, colourful asides and changes of vocal register. Another element of the radio poem is ellipsis, so that we feel and intuit the meaning instead of being told it directly. There is a strong sense of social history as the interviewees discuss the impact of the outbreak of footand-mouth disease in the area, quarantine and isolation, and the subsequent closure of the market which was always such an important social as well as economic gathering, an antidote to the loneliness of the farm. Mighty Beast sits within a long tradition of radio works that explore the poetic and musical elements of everyday speech, particularly the languages of labour. Examples include features by Jane Ulman, Chris Brookes and especially the seminal Radio Ballads (1957-1964) created by Parker, MacColl and Seeger. Never sentimentalising, musical, complex and evocative, Mighty Beast represents a fresh and inventive iteration of this tradition. The review includes an interview by the author with poet Sean Borodale. Full review (3,600 words) and audio link from DOWNLOAD tab.