The main focus of the dissertation is the reaction of ozone with vinyl compounds, nucleic acids, aliphatic and aromatic carbonic acids.
In product studies, material balance with respect to ozone consumption has been obtained. Rate constants of the reaction of ozonone with the investigated compounds and other kinetic studies were determined with conventional methods as well as with the Stopped-Flow method and with the competition technique. The Stopped-Flow apparatus can be used with optical and also with conductometric detection.
Especially, while the ozonolysis of vinyl compounds mixed anhydrides of the formic acid are build. Except HC(O)PO32-, the hydrolysis of the investigated anhydrides is faster than the decay. The kinetics of the hydrolysis are very different. Also, different hydroperoxides could be detected. Their pseudo-first-order kinetics with molybdate-activated iodide allows to characterise a given peroxide. The halftimes of the peroxides can differ up to seven orders of magnitude.
Besides this the ozonolysis of aliphatic unsaturated acids is described. The rate constant of this kind of acid is pH dependent. A particularity of the ozonolysis of fumaric and maleic acid is a marked isomerisation of these two acids occurs. This phenomenon is unknown in the ozone chemistry so fare. The yield of the isomerisation is pH dependent and increases with temperature.
From its high rate of reaction one has to assume that ozone reacts with the conjugated double bond rather than with the aromatic ring. This kinetic result could be confirmed with the result of the product analysis.
The ozonolysis of thymine and thymidine has been investigated by a product study complemented by kinetic studies using spectrophotometry, conductometry and stopped-flow with optical and conductometric detection. Material balance has been obtained.


Abstract Introduction: The potential for disasters exists in all communities. To mitigate the potential catastrophes that confront humanity in the new millennium, an evidence-based approach to disaster management is required urgently. This study moves toward such an evidence-based approach by identifying peer-reviewed publications following a range of disasters and events over the past three decades. Methods: Peer-reviewed, event-specific literature was identified using a comprehensive search of the electronically indexed database, MEDLINE (1956–January 2009). An extended comprehensive search was conducted for one event to compare the event-specific literature indexed in MEDLINE to other electronic databases (EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED, CENTRAL, Psych Info, Maternity and Infant Care, EBM Reviews). Results: Following 25 individual disasters or overwhelming crises, a total of 2,098 peer-reviewed, event-specific publications were published in 789 journals (652 publications following disasters/events caused by natural hazards, 966 following human-made/technological disasters/events, and 480 following conflict/complex humanitarian events).The event with the greatest number of peer-reviewed, event-specific publications was the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks (686 publications). Prehospital and Disaster Medicine published the greatest number of peer-reviewed, event-specific publications (54), followed by Journal of Traumatic Stress (42), Military Medicine (40), and Psychiatric Services (40). The primary topics of event-specific publications were mental health, medical health, and response. When an extended, comprehensive search was conducted for one event, 75% of all peer-reviewed, event-specific publications were indexed in MEDLINE. Conclusions: A broad range of multi-disciplinary journals publish peer-reviewed, event-specific publications. While the majority of peer-reviewed, event-specific literature is indexed in MEDLINE, comprehensive search strategies should include EMBASE to increase yield.


Fractures are a common acute presentation to the emergency departments worldwide. Fractures can be associated with severe long-term morbidity, increased mortality, a huge burden on the healthcare system, and may be intentional or accidental. Abuse, conflicts between people, falls, and motor vehicle accidents are the most common causes of fractures. The number of fractured bones tends to be higher in motor vehicle accidents and falls compared to fractures caused by other causes.


Cardiovascular toxicity is defined as a severe and potentially fatal adverse reaction to certain drugs. It is one of the leading causes of attrition in drug development. Cardiovascular toxicity research has primarily focused on the role of cardiomyocytes in functional and structural cardiovascular toxicity. However, there is a growing awareness that non-myocyte cells may contribute to cardiovascular toxicity.
The heart is a highly vascularised organ. Endothelial cells from the heart were compared between rat and human, as well as between different vascular beds with the use of human cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (HCMECs) and human dermal microvascular endothelial cells (HDMECs). This data demonstrated ligand induced activation of EGFR-1 in HCMEC indicating the presence of functional EGFR1. Analysis of mRNA expression of EGFR1-4 revealed higher expression of both EGFR1 and EGFR2 in HCMEC compared with HDMEC.
The role of EGFR-2 (Her2) in drug-induced cardiovascular toxicity was analysed with use of Herceptin® and doxorubicin treatment. Herceptin® and doxorubicin are known to induce cardiovascular toxicity in the clinic. The effect of these drugs on the endothelial tight junction barrier was tested, revealing that Herceptin® and doxorubicin are able to induce barrier perturbment and decreased barrier function in HCMEC. Herceptin® treatment had no effect on the tight junction barrier function in HDMECs.
Previous work in the group has identified a role for extracellular-signal-regulated kinase 5 (ERK5) in regulation of endothelial cell survival. The role of ERK5 in endothelial tight junction regulation was investigated using small molecule inhibitors, siRNA transient gene silencing and adenoviral–mediated overexpression of ERK5 to reveal that ERK5 plays an important role in tight junction regulation and endothelial barrier function. Statins are clinically used to lower plasma LDL-cholesterol levels in patients via inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA reductase (HMG-CoA reductase). Simvastatin activated ERK5 in endothelial cells via a pathway requiring MEKK3 and MEK5 leading to increased tight junction formation and increased barrier function, providing a possible mechanism for the pleiotropic effects of statins on endothelial cells.
Analysis of the effects of a range of anti-cancer drugs with known cardiovascular toxicity liability revealed these drugs could disrupt tight junctions and decrease barrier function. Pre-incubation with simvastatin protected the endothelial cells from drug induced perturbment of endothelial tight junction formation and the associated decrease in barrier function.
The data shows the importance of drug-induced endothelial injury in cardiovascular toxicity and highlights potential for therapeutically targeting vasculature to protect against drug-induced vascular injury.


We show that standard ResNet architectures can be made invertible, allowing the same model to be used for classification, density estimation, and generation. Typically, enforcing invertibility requires partitioning dimensions or restricting network architectures. In contrast, our approach only requires adding a simple normalization step during training, already available in standard frameworks. Invertible ResNets define a generative model which can be trained by maximum likelihood on unlabeled data. To compute likelihoods, we introduce a tractable approximation to the Jacobian log-determinant of a residual block. Our empirical evaluation shows that invertible ResNets perform competitively with both state-of-the-art image classifiers and flow-based generative models, something that has not been previously achieved with a single architecture.


The problem of learning the solution space of an unknown formula has been studied in multiple embodiments in computational learning theory. In this article, we study a family of such learning problems; this family contains, for each relational structure, the problem of learning the solution space of an unknown conjunctive query evaluated on the structure. A progression of results aimed to classify the learnability of each of the problems in this family, and thus far a culmination thereof was a positive learnability result generalizing all previous ones. This article completes the classification program towards which this progression of results strived, by presenting a negative learnability result that complements the mentioned positive learnability result. In addition, a further negative learnability result is exhibited, which indicates a dichotomy within the problems to which the first negative result applies. In order to obtain our negative results, we make use of universal-algebraic concepts.


We present the design philosophy of a proof checker based on a notion of foundational proof certificates. At the heart of this design is a semantics of proof evidence that arises from recent advances in the theory of proofs for classical and intuitionistic logic. That semantics is then performed by a (higher-order) logic program: successful performance means that a formal proof of a theorem has been found. We describe how the lambda Prolog programming language provides several features that help guarantee such a soundness claim. Some of these features (such as strong typing, abstract datatypes, and higher-order programming) were features of the ML programming language when it was first proposed as a proof checker for LCF. Other features of lambda Prolog (such as support for bindings, substitution, and backtracking search) turn out to be equally important for describing and checking the proof evidence encoded in proof certificates. Since trusting our proof checker requires trusting a programming language implementation, we discuss various avenues for enhancing one's trust of such a checker.


The depiction of the image of the Prophet and the Imams (pbuh) and their excellence in iconography is one of the themes of the pictorial decoration of religious narratives that has always been of interest to artists. The manuscript of Habib al-Siar, a historical book written by a Shiite historian, contains images of historical events of the Shiite legitimacy. These paintings contain Shiite themes, maps and symbols, as well as iconography of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) and the Imams of the Infallibles (AS), and depict Shiite historical events based on Shiite narrations. Among these, the religious and Islamic book of Bahar-al-Anvar is one of the most important comprehensive books of Shiite hadith and events that includes a collection of Shiite instructions and teachings; Therefore, this study attempts to depict the clear aspects of their inner appearance by examining the image of the Prophet and the Imams in the manuscript of Habib al-Sir in connection with the narrations mentioned in Bahar-al-Anvar; moreover, the images are analyzed and scrutinized by the use of Shiite concepts and symbol. The research method carried out in this research is descriptive-analytical and the method of data collection is accomplished via library resources. Research shows that until the Safavid period, religious figures depicted the faces of prophets and saints due to a lack of opposition, but later, due to the disagreement from religious scholars, faces were covered and artists tried to show an extraordinary appearance by using religious symbols. Also, by applying the narrations of the Shiite events of Bahar-al-Anvar in the illustrations and iconography of Habib al-Siar's paintings, it is possible to obtain a visual and symbolic image of the artist from the Shiite events. Research objectives 1. To study the image and iconography of the Prophet and the Shiite Imams in the manuscript of Habibal-Siar 2. To analyze the application of Shiite concepts and symbols related to the themes of Bahar-al-Anvar in the drawings. Research questions 1. What are the general themes of Habib al-Siar's paintings? 2. How can the principles governing the visual narration of the Prophet and the Shiite Imams (pbuh) in the painting of Habib al-Siar be scrutinized by examining the the Bahar-al-Anvar?


The conventional analysis of surface plasmon modes on dielectric-metal interfaces requires clearly defining the permittivity discontinuity at the interface. A pivotal assumption of such an analysis is that the formation of the dielectric-metal interface does not change the material properties and the materials forming the interface have identical permittivities before and after the formation of the interface. However, this assumption breaks down if an interface is made between a metal and a semiconductor which is commonly known as a Schottky junction. Under certain conditions, such an interface can sustain a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) mode. It is also possible to change the properties of the media surrounding the Schottky junction interface by applying an external potential difference across the junction. Central to the understanding of the SPP mode behaviour in such a complex morphological interface is the dispersion relation which defines the feasible SPP modes and their characteristics. Here, we carry out a detailed analysis to derive an analytical expression for the dispersion relation for a Schottky junction. Our analysis takes into account the space charge layer formed due to the charge distribution across the Schottky junction and resulting new boundary conditions.


Humans need morality and ethics to get along constructively as members of the same society. As we face the prospect of robots taking a larger role in society, we need to consider how they, too, should behave toward other members of society. To the extent that robots will be able to act as agents in their own right, as opposed to being simply tools controlled by humans, they will need to behave according to some moral and ethical principles. Inspired by recent research on the cognitive science of human morality, we take steps toward an architecture for morality and ethics in robots. As in humans, there is a rapid intuitive response to the current situation. Reasoned reflection takes place at a slower time-scale, and is focused more on constructing a justification than on revising the reaction. However, there is a yet slower process of social interaction, in which examples of moral judgments and their justifications influence the moral development both of individuals and of the society as a whole. This moral architecture is illustrated by several examples, including identifying research results that will be necessary for the architecture to be implemented.


Biomedical informatics (BMI) is an umbrella scientific field that covers many domains, as defined several years ago by the International Medical Informatics Association and the American Medical Informatics Association, two leading players in the field. For example, one of the domains of BMI is clinical informatics, which has been formally recognised as a medical subspecialty by the American Board of Medical Specialty since 2011. Most OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries offer very strong curricula in the field of BMI, strong research and development funding with clear tracks and, for most of them, inclusion of BMI in the curricula of health professionals, but BMI remains only marginally recognised in Switzerland. Recent major changes, however, such as the future federal law on electronic patient records, the personalised health initiative or the growing empowerment of citizens towards their health data, are adding much weight to the need for BMI capacity-building in Switzerland.


This paper explores the contemporary reader´s fascination with the Victorian period focusing on Michel Faber´s neo-Victorian novel The Crimson Petal and the White (2002). By comparing and contrasting various literary elements that link the Victorian novel to contemporary neo-Victorian fiction it simultaneously shows the similarities and differences between the nineteenth-century Victorian sensorium and that of the present day. It puts particular emphasis on the sensory perceptions of vision and smell, since those two senses are the most prominent ones in Victorian and neo-Victorian fiction and they are also regarded as extremes on the sensory scale. The nineteenth-century urban hygiene campaign transformed, in particular, the perception of olfaction. This study concludes that our contemporary society bears many similarities to the Victorian period as a society of great change. The renewed interest in the Victorian signifies the twenty-first century reader´s desire for an idealized world set in another time, which yet appears familiar and recognizable. Neo-Victorian fiction thus functions as a means of knowing both your heritage and finding your own place in the present day. The sensory perception of foremost smell is part of our cultural heritage and thus the neo-Victorian novel mirrors the deo-Victorian concept.


We present a passive optical remote sensing technique for recovering shape information about a water surface, in the form of a two-dimensional slope map. The method, known as polarimetric slope sensing (PSS), uses the relationship between surface orientation and the change in polarization of reflected light to infer the instantaneous two-dimensional slope across the field-of-view of an imaging polarimeter. For unpolarized skylight, the polarization orientation and degree of linear polarization of the reflected skylight provide sufficient information to determine the local surface slope vectors. A controlled laboratory experiment was carried out in a wave tank with mechanically generated gravity waves. A second study was performed from a pier on the Hudson River, near Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. We demonstrated that the two-dimensional slope field of short gravity waves could be recovered accurately without interfering with the fluid dynamics of the air or water, and water surface features appear remarkably realistic. The combined field and laboratory results demonstrate that the polarimetric camera gives a robust characterization of the fine-scale surface wave features that are intrinsic to wind-driven air–sea interaction processes.


Vv. 5-6 mark a turning point in Psalm 3, both structurally and thematically, probably reflecting a significant personal experience. Due to the mention of sleeping and waking (v. 6a) this experience is sometimes interpreted as a dream in which the psalmist got word of his imminent deliverance. Recently supported by a Qumran parallel that mentions dreaming explicitly (11QPs a xxiv 16-17; B. Schroeder, Biblica 81 [2000] 243-251), this argument nevertheless seems questionable, given e.g. the tendency of later Judaism to attribute dreams also to biblical figures that are not characterized in such terms in the Bible. The main thrust of this article is to examine the psalm in comparison with theophanic reports elsewhere in the Bible and in ANE literature. This analysis shows the language of Psalm 3 to be compatible with an incubatory ritual that culminates in a real experience of presence with a divine gesture of support. These findings are related to the proximity to God that finds expression in the psalms.


Bayesian nonparametric models provide a principled way to automatically adapt the complexity of a model to the amount of the data available, but computation in such models is difficult. Amortized variational approximations are appealing because of their computational efficiency, but current methods rely on a fixed finite truncation of the infinite model. This truncation level can be difficult to set, and also interacts poorly with amortized methods due to the over-pruning problem. Instead, we propose a new variational approximation, based on a method from statistical physics called Russian roulette sampling. This allows the variational distribution to adapt its complexity during inference, without relying on a fixed truncation level, and while still obtaining an unbiased estimate of the gradient of the original variational objective. We demonstrate this method on infinite sized variational auto-encoders using a Beta-Bernoulli (Indian buffet process) prior.


Sponge communities form an important component of marine ecosystems. However, very little is known on the distribution of sponge species, and variations in sponge communities within south eastern Australia. This problem is compounded by inherent difficulties in sponge taxonomy. Previous studies have shown that sponge morphological diversity is a good proxy for sponge species diversity.
This study investigated the capacity of close range photogrammetry to provide measurements of sponge morphology for classification of sponge functional groupings. A stereo camera system was designed and constructed. Calibration and accuracy assessment on the system showed it to provide measures within the predicted accuracy range.
The system was subsequently deployed at two sites, one a soft sediment sponge community, and the other a rocky reef sponge community. 100 sponges were measured at each site, with 21 morphometric measurements made for each sponge. Of nine pre existing functional groupings (Bell and Barnes 2001), seven were observed across the two study sites. Discriminant analysis showed varying degrees of separation between these functional groupings based on the morphometric measurements. Between the two sites there was a difference in the makeup of the sponge community based on these functional groups. No differences were observed in the gross morphometric measurements for the common functional groups between the two sites.


The term 'poetic licence' is developed as a 'searchlight concept', for the purpose of exploring the relationship between poetry performances from the 1970s, and the poetic tradition. I take Marjorie Perloff's reflections on 'poetic licence' in her book of this title as a point of departure, and then extend these reflections through the analysis of poetry performances by Linton Kwesi Johnson and Urs M. Fiechtner & Sergio Vesely. 'Poetic licence' is developed as a useful concept to understand the diverse types of relationality that are developed in the poetry performance (Johnson: affirmation of the collective experience of his generation in explicit defiance of the poetic conventions of white Britain; Fiechtner & Vesely: the performance as a platform where poetry critiques society in an Adornian manner). Both performance practices are connected through their positing of poetry as a force autonomous from, and opposed to the establishment; and the performance is turned into the platform for such a critique.


Criminal investigation is one of the key objectives of law enforcement. Whenever a criminal violation takes place, it becomes necessary to restore social order through the process of criminal investigation. The underlying premise of investigating a crime is to gather evidence and then to decide if there is sufficient evidence to indicate the suspects guilt and to institute prosecution. A criminal investigation docket is therefore opened for the obtaining of statements, documents and other information relating to the investigation. It is also important that investigating officers bear in mind rules of the law of evidence during their investigation, because not all information and exhibits are admissible as evidence. Each step in the investigation process is recorded in the investigation diary of the docket. When the investigation is completed, the docket is submitted to the prosecutor who must decide whether there is sufficient evidence to prosecute the person suspected of having committed the crime. If the prosecutor has decided to prosecute the suspect, he/she will formulate the charge and decide when and in which court the trial will be heard. These documents will be sent to the investigating officer. The investigating officer is responsible for serving the summons/indictment/warrant on the accused and for ensuring that all the witnesses are also subpoenaed to be at the court on the particular day for the trial to take place. The docket is sent to the court a few days before the court date to enable the prosecutor to prepare the case for trial.


In the deoxidation producing the MnO-SiO 2 -Al 2 O 3 inclusions, the significant ununiformity in the temperature dependence of equilibrium constant among the deoxidation reactions may cause the inclusions to change in their composition in cooling processes till solidification of steel melt. The present work concerns the compositional variation of the inclusions formed in the Mn-Si deoxidation of steel, focused on alumina content in the cooling process from 1 848 to 1 773 K. In order to take the mass balances of the components involved in a reaction system, a reaction region was introduced which consisted of liquid steel bath and a certain amount of the oxides belonging to added flux and refractory of refining vessels. The compositional variation of the inclusions was estimated on the basis of the deoxidation equilibria and the mass balances. The thermodynamic analysis has revealed that the composition of inclusions has such a temperature dependence as to be considerably influenced by the initial total contents of reactants involved in the deoxidation system. It is suggested that high total contents of aluminum and oxygen in the initial state reduce the temperature dependence and thereby will facilitate the composition control in the cooling process till solidification. In Mn-Si deoxidation, there may be two approaches to control alumina content of inclusions; one is to leave the target composition once attained at an appropriate temperature till solidification intact, and the other is to form inclusions stable on temperature falling through regulating the initial total contents of aluminum and oxygen to adequately high levels.


Although widows constitute a quarter of the adult female population in many African societies, they have not been the focus of detailed, cross-cultural research. This is the first comparative anthropological study of widowhood in Africa, comprising ten case studies that cover a broad spectrum of societies in different parts of the continent. This volume shows clearly that widows are not passive objects of male transactions; they have interests and options, and make choices affecting their own lives. Ties to children, access to productive sources, and rights to housing are shown to have particular importance for widows' residential and marital decisions. This book provides a needed corrective both to the male perspective on kinship and to women's studies that deal almost exclusively with the adult married woman. In contrast to the traditional anthropological emphasis on widow remarriage and the functions such marriages have for the maintenance of marriage alliances, these papers deal with the women themselves and the quality of their lives. The introduction surveys the literature, examines the factors affecting the widows' strategies, and shows how accepted anthropological concepts of marriage, affinity, and community look different when considered from the perspective of widows. There is a foreword by Mariam K. Slater.


Rather than crystal ball gazing into the future of science journalism, this essay invites critical discussion over how much, if at all, has the web changed the way science is discussed in public? The short answer is no, or only slightly. Drawing on basic tenants of the social studies of technology, I argue there have always been more options than action when it comes to innovation in science writing. This essay takes three stories of the impact of the web on science journalism which I believe to be overstated, as well as three areas where I do think we can see change. None are clear-cut, as my chief aim here is to argue that our future is up for debate.


This paper presents a teaching method for contemporary Chinese studies at the master level. It is based on a seminar taught by the first author at the Unit of Chinese studies in the University of Geneva since 2004, where social sciences theoretical frameworks have been applied experimentally to materials traditionally studied by humanities scholars. The text discusses in detail the procedures used in two kinds of courses: one seminar on methodology in Asian studies, and a research seminar.


Intellectual property law has developed a variety of doctrines to police the boundaries between various forms of protection. Courts and scholars alike overwhelmingly conceive of these doctrines in terms of the nature of the objects of protection. The functionality doctrine in trademark law, for example, defines the boundary between trademark and patent law by identifying and refusing trademark protection to features that play a functional role in a product's performance. Likewise, the useful article doctrine works at the boundary of copyright and patent law to identify elements of an article's design that are dictated by function and to channel protection of those features to the patent system. These are important doctrinal tools, and they play valuable roles in the overall intellectual property system. These channeling doctrines, however, reflect an incomplete sense of the interplay between various modes of intellectual property protection. Because they focus on subject matter, the existing channeling doctrines only prevent parties from claiming multiple forms of protection for particular features. They therefore ignore firms'ability to use various intellectual property rights as alternative appropriation mechanisms even when those rights apply to different aspects of a product or service. This Article considers how, if at all, this use of intellectual property rights as alternative appropriation mechanisms ought to inform the boundaries of the various intellectual property regimes. In particular, it considers whether alternative channeling doctrines-ones that would force claimants to elect among types of protection even when those forms apply to different features-are appropriate. * Associate Professor, Notre Dame Law School. Thanks to Mark Lemley and Mike Meurer for feedback on this Article, and to Erin Czerney and Dwight King for valuable research assistance.


Point cloud segmentation is a fundamental problem in point processing. Segmenting a point cloud fully automatically is very challenging due to the property of point cloud as well as different requirements of distinct users. In this paper, an interactive segmentation method for point clouds is proposed. Only two strokes need to be drawn intuitively to indicate the target object and the background respectively. The draw strokes are sparse and don't necessarily cover the whole object. Given the strokes, a weighted graph is built and the segmentation is formulated as a minimization problem. The problem is solved efficiently by using the Max Flow Min Cut algorithm. In the experiments, the mobile mapping data of a city area is utilized. The resulting segmentations demonstrate the efficiency of the method that can be potentially applied for general point clouds.


Approximately 200 studies that examined the relationship between fruit and vegetable intake and cancers of the lung, colon, breast, cervix, esophagus, oral cavity, stomach, bladder, pancreas, and ovary are reviewed. A statistically significant protective effect of fruit and vegetable consumption was found in 128 of 156 dietary studies in which results were expressed in terms of relative risk. For most cancer sites, persons with low fruit and vegetable intake (at least the lower one-fourth of the population) experience about twice the risk of cancer compared with those with high intake, even after control for potentially confounding factors. For lung cancer, significant protection was found in 24 of 25 studies after control for smoking in most instances. Fruits, in particular, were significantly protective in cancers of the esophagus, oral cavity, and larynx, for which 28 of 29 studies were significant. Strong evidence of a protective effect of fruit and vegetable consumption was seen in cancers of the pancreas and stomach (26 of 30 studies), as well as in colorectal and bladder cancers (23 of 38 studies). For cancers of the cervix, ovary, and endometrium, a significant protective effect was shown in 11 of 13 studies, and for breast cancer a protective effect was found to be strong and consistent in a meta analysis. It would appear that major public health benefits could be achieved by substantially increasing consumption of these foods.


The morphologic development of soils on marine terraces is a function of terrace age and geomorphic evolution. In this study, interrelationships between terrace landscape evolution and pedogenic silica cementation were investigated. Soil morphology, micromorphology, selective dissolution, penetration resistance, and hydraulic conductivity were used to determine the nature and extent of the cementation and evaluate the effect of cementation on soil properties. Soils on the interior part of the terrace (coarse-loamy, mixed, thermic Typic Epiaquolls) contain plinthite, continuous throughout the entire terrace, cemented to the extent that it is only slowly permeable. A seasonally perched water table develops above the plinthite, and water seeps out of soils at the terrace edges. Some of these soils are cemented by opaline silica, in both channels and interstitial voids. The silica cementation extends inward into the terrace soils only 4 m, but at the terrace edge is strong enough to result in block fall as the predominant mechanism of scarp retreat. Redoximorphic Fe depletions are prominent in deeper horizons at the edge, but are absent from the interior. These depletions are formed through seasonal saturation and Fe reduction, by water seeping laterally through preferential flow paths in and adjacent to shrinkage cracks above the regolith-bedrock contact. Contrasting morphology and chemistry between terrace interior and edge both result from, and cause, the interaction of pedogenic processes and landscape evolution. Contrasts between interior and edge soils suggest that caution is essential in using edge exposures as representative of soils under a geomorphic surface.


Public procurement and competition law are both important fields of EU law and policy, intimately intertwined in the creation of the internal market. Hitherto their close connection has been noted, but not closely examined. Th is work is the most comprehensive attempt to date to explain the many ways in which these fields, oft en considered independent of one another, interact and overlap in the creation of the internal market. This process of convergence between competition and public procurement law is particularly apparent in the new 2014 Directives on public procurement that, in a novel way, consolidate the principle of competition in terms very close to those advanced by the author in the first edition. This second edition of the book builds upon this principled approach and continues to ask how competition law principles inform and condition public procurement rules, and whether the latter (in their revised form) are adequate to ensure that competition is not distorted in markets where public procurement is particularly significant. The second edition of the book also deepens the analysis of the market behaviour of the public buyer from a competition perspective. The analysis remains both legal and economic.Proceeding through a careful assessment of the general rules of competition and public procurement, the book constantly tests the efficacy of the rules in competition and public procurement against a standard of the proper functioning of undistorted competition in the market for public procurement. It also traces the increasing relevance of competition considerations in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union and sets out criteria and recommendations to continue influencing that line of development of EU Economic Law.


Pre-equilibrium helion emission induced by protons This thesis is devoted to a study of the Nb( p r ,He) and Co( p r ,He) reactions at incident energies of 100 MeV, 130 MeV and 160 MeV. Double differential cross sections and analysing power distributions were measured from a threshold of ~30 MeV up to the kinematic maximum and at scattering angles between 15o and 120o. The experimental data were compared with theoretical calculations done by combining a statistical multistep theory with a deuteron pickup mechanism in the final stage. The contribution of the first three steps towards the total double differential cross section and analysing power was assessed. The theory described the experimental double differential cross section and analysing power data reasonably well over all incident and scattered energies and for both target nuclei. As the incident energy was increased, the characteristics of the reaction mechanism also remained consistent. Thus the results supported the underlying multistep-pickup theory. The two target nuclei demonstrated similar responses, suggesting these two share the same basic reaction mechanism. The total double differential cross section for the reaction dropped with an increase in incident energy. At a fixed emission energy, near the maximum allowed value, the slope of the double differential cross section increased with an increase in incident energy, resulting in the dominance of forward peaked reactions at higher incident energies. The sensitivity of analysing power to the multistep part of the reaction was valuable to the study. Forward-peaked contributions that were associated with single step direct reactions resulted in large analysing power values at small scattering angles, and values dropped to around zero at large angles. The analysing power also appeared to decrease to values approximating zero as the incident energy was increased to 160 MeV. Furthermore, this study also confirmed the dominance of higher step mechanisms at high excitation energies, irrespective of incident energy. In general the results were in agreement with the predicted properties of the assumed reaction mechanism at all incident and emission energies, which inspires confidence that the theoretical interpretation is likely to be correct. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


[The Law of the Sea Convention: US Accession and Globalization, provides valuable insight into a number of contemporary and pressing issues concerning the world's oceans and their management . Brought together at the 34th Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law (COLP), Part l reports on the work of international experts which considers the impact of the lack of US participation in UNCLOS, evaluating topics such as energy and economic development as well as ramifications for U.S. national security and navigational rights. The second section examines key trends in commercial shipping, piracy and terrorism, islands and rocks, safety and navigational freedom, marine scientific research, and emerging global oceans policy issues. Presented by a diverse group of leading academics and policy makers, the work included in Part ll brings together the results of an international meeting co-sponsored by the Korea Maritime Institute, the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea and COLP. Collectively, the work included in this important volume contributes to the existing literature and will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and the policy community. , The Law of the Sea Convention: US Accession and Globalization, provides valuable insight into a number of contemporary and pressing issues concerning the world's oceans and their management . Brought together at the 34th Annual Conference of the Center for Oceans Law and Policy, University of Virginia School of Law (COLP), Part l reports on the work of international experts which considers the impact of the lack of US participation in UNCLOS, evaluating topics such as energy and economic development as well as ramifications for U.S. national security and navigational rights. The second section examines key trends in commercial shipping, piracy and terrorism, islands and rocks, safety and navigational freedom, marine scientific research, and emerging global oceans policy issues. Presented by a diverse group of leading academics and policy makers, the work included in Part ll brings together the results of an international meeting co-sponsored by the Korea Maritime Institute, the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea and COLP. Collectively, the work included in this important volume contributes to the existing literature and will be of interest to scholars, practitioners and the policy community.]


Elongate calcite concretions in Upper Miocene dolomitic, shallow-marine grainstones and packstones of Menorca document fluid flow through heterogeneous systems. These post-dolomitization concretions are thought to have grown with elongation axes parallel to groundwater flow direction, and to reflect the hydraulic gradient and the anisotropy of the hydraulic conductivity. Differences in shape, size and orientation of concretions, as well as the spatial and crosscutting relationships reflect two phases of calcite-cementing fluids. This is in contrast to most examples in the literature that distinguish just one phase of precipitating fluids. The first phase of cementing fluids flowed horizontally, most likely in the phreatic zone, across hydraulic high-conductivity layers that resulted from sediment-packing heterogeneities and preferential dissolution during dolomitization. These first-phase fluids were most likely injected into the host rock through fracture zones and probably originated in deeper settings. The second phase of cementing fluids was downward directed and possibly of meteoric origin. First-generation concretions, acting as permeability barriers, partly controlled the fluid pathways, precipitation patterns, and concretion type and loci.


Abstract. Dynamics, distribution and quality of water has a direct impact on environment and its dependent human activities. Regular monitoring of these hydrological processes help in understanding water cycle and better management policy making. Recent increase in remote sensing satellites offer multiple observations with high spatial and temporal resolution, thus calling for extensive use of high end computational resources. Google Earth Engine(GEE) is an open Application Programing Interface (API), which offers free computational resources and satellite data on cloud computational platform minimising the users need for computational resources and data availability. Five year Landsat-8 imagery (2013–18) from GEE database has been used to study the surface water extent of large inland water bodies (surface area greater than 6000 ha) of India. We have used a pixel based classification system to delineate water and non-water pixels. A knowledge based Decision Tree (DT) model has been employed to cluster the classes according to Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) distribution. We report an anomalous departure from the 5-year trend line suggesting that the maximum decrease of water extent was found in year 2015–2016. Analysis of the decay pattern of reservoirs can provide timely inputs for better policy making and management of water resources. To understand the decay pattern, a Modified Gaussian model fit on time series of surface extent helps to determine maximum water extent, peak extent day and storage cycle of the water body.


Female family caregivers consistently report higher levels of stress and burden compared to male caregivers. Explanations for the apparently higher psychological vulnerability of female caregivers are largely missing to date. This study assesses the correlates and determinants of caregiver burden in family caregivers of advanced cancer patients with a specific focus on gender differences.


The appreciation of the Australian dollar has been a concern as Australia has become less competitive compared to neighbouring countries. This paper investigates to what extent exchange rates could adversely affect Australia's inbound tourism and whether volatility in exchange rates could increase the uncertainty in international tourist arrivals to Australia. The study is based on nine countries of origin, namely China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, the UK and the USA for the period January 1991 to January 2011. It uses multivariate conditional volatility regressions to model the time-varying conditional variances of international tourism growth and exchange rates. Empirical findings show that tourists from Malaysia and New Zealand are relatively more sensitive to currency shocks than the others. Nevertheless, tourists' memories of the shocks could diminish in the long-run, suggesting that the sudden appreciation of the Australian dollar will not have long-term negative impacts on Australia's inbound tourism.


This paper describes the optical analysis, construction, testing, and application of a cell for measuring in situ IR reflection spectra in the C-H stretching region of monolayer films of long-chain alkanethiolates on evaporated Au films beneath a thin overlayer (∼1 µm) of aqueous solution. The cell facilitates the interchange of sample (monolayer-coated) and reference substrates—a major improvement over previous designs. This allows the acquisition of an IR reflection spectrum of a monolayer without the application of electrochemical or polarization-modulation methods. The optical properties of the cell are analyzed within the context of classical electromagnetic theory; the effects of angle of incidence, solution layer thickness, and solution composition (H2O and D2O) and the refractive indices of the IR-transparent window material on the observed spectrum are specifically examined. Calculations of both the mean-square electric fields and the reflection spectra for a monolayer of octadecanethiolate on Au are presented. From these results, conditions to achieve high surface detectability are identified, and optically induced alterations in the intensities and shapes of the monolayer spectrum are delineated. Spectra for the same monolayer are measured to test these predictions as well as to assess the practical limitations of the experimental technique.


Reducing vehicle weight is critical to improving fuel economy and addressing range, performance, size, and cost challenges associated with fuel-cell and hybrid propulsion systems. This paper describes the design, fabrication, and assembly approach used for the carbon-fiber composite body structure in Hypercar, Inc.'s Revolution concept vehicle. The Revolution's 187-kg body structure is 57% lighter than a conventional steel body structure of the same size, while providing superior crash protection, improved stiffness, and favorable thermal and acoustic properties. The design balances several competing requirements, including surface finish, reparability, crash performance, weight, packaging constraints, and cost. A large part of the Revolution's body structure is an advanced-composite passenger safety cell. Its design permits a novel highvolume manufacturing process under development by Hypercar. Applied together, the design and production method result in a lightweight, affordable advanced-composite body structure consistent with competitive vehicle cost at production volumes of 50,000 vehicles per year or greater. This paper describes the design and production method of the composite body, explains how the body is integrated with the rest of the vehicle, and analyzes the benefit of lightweighting on overall fuel-cell vehicle cost. Copyright 2002 EVS19


Finding digital forensic artifacts in the ever changing and complex digital world can be a daunting task for any digital forensic investigator. Familiar tools, such as Sandboxie and Symantec Workspace virtualization used as an aid in forensic investigations may significantly decrease the learning curve. The value of sandboxing for digital forensic investigations is demonstrated here through the research via the appropriate comparative analysis.


Background Documented pregnancy outcomes in kidney transplant recipients are critical to inform future clinical practice. Method Retrospective notes survey of nine pregnancies between September 2007 and December 2010 in six kidney transplant recipients and two kidney-pancreas (KP) recipients. Results Mean age was 34 years (range 28–43). Primary renal diagnoses included Type 1 diabetes, hypertension, reflux nephropathy and glomerulonephritis. One woman had posttransplant diabetes prepregnancy. Six women had livebirths, one woman had both a spontaneous abortion and a medically advised therapeutic abortion. One KP recipient had a spontaneous abortion. Five women with livebirths had pre-existing hypertension, three of these requiring additional antihypertensive therapy. One KP recipient required insulin treatment during pregnancy and postpartum. Mean (range) serum creatinine at booking, 20 weeks gestation and early postpartum was 126 µmol/l (97–185), 114 µmol/l (85–205) and 129 µmol/l (101–185), respectively. Five women had more than one urinary tract infection during pregnancy; three were treated with prophylactic cephalexin. There were no episodes of graft rejection. Five women developed preeclampsia and in these, birthweight and gestation were 2070 g (1020–2600) and 33.6 weeks (29.7–36.0) respectively. In the absence of preeclampsia, birthweight and gestation were 3000 g (2900–3100) and 38.2 weeks (38.1–38.3) respectively. Mean gestation overall was 35.2 weeks (29.6–38.3). Five babies were delivered by caesarean section. Three babies whose mothers had preeclampsia were admitted to SCBU. Conclusion Even with good graft function, and optimal pregnancy care pregnancy following kidney and kidney/pancreas transplantation remain at high risk of pregnancy complications.


Automatic 3D building reconstruction from laser scanning or photogrammetric point clouds has gained increasing attention in the past two decades. Although many efforts have been made, the complexity of buildings and incompletion of point clouds, i.e., data missing, still make it a challenging task for automatic 3D reconstruction of buildings in large-scale urban scenes with various architectural styles. This paper presents an innovative approach for automatic generation of 3D models of complex buildings from even incomplete point clouds. The approach first decomposes the 3D space into multiple space units, including 3D polyhedral cells, facets and edges, where the facets and edges are also encoded with topological-relation constraints. Then, the units and constraints are used together to approximate the buildings. On one hand, by extracting facets from 3D cells and further extracting edges from facets, this approach simplifies complicated topological computations. On the other hand, because this approach models buildings on the basis of polyhedral cells, it can guarantee that the models are manifold and watertight and avoid correcting topological errors. A challenging dataset containing 105 buildings acquired in Central, Hong Kong, was used to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach. The results were compared with two previous methods and the comparisons suggested that the proposed approach outperforms other methods in terms of robustness, regularity, and accuracy of the models, with an average root-mean-square error of less than 0.9 m. The proposed approach is of significance for automatic 3D modelling of buildings for urban applications. * Corresponding author


The study examined the contribution of the Cocoa Disease and Pest Control Programme (CODAPEC), which is a cocoa production-enhancing government policy, to reducing poverty and raising the living standards of cocoa farmers in Ghana. One hundred and fifty (150) cocoa farmers were randomly selected from five communities in the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai district of the Western Region of Ghana and interviewed using structured questionnaires. Just over half of the farmers (53%) perceived the CODAPEC programme as being effective in controlling pests and diseases, whilst 56.6% felt that their yields and hence livelihoods had improved. In some cases pesticides or fungicides were applied later in the season than recommended and this had a detrimental effect on yields. To determine the level of poverty amongst farmers, annual household consumption expenditure was used as a proxy indicator. The study found that 4.7% of cocoa farmers were extremely poor having a total annual household consumption expenditure of less than GH¢ 623.10 ($310.00) while 8.0% were poor with less than GH¢ 801.62 ($398.81). An amount of money ranging from GH¢ 20.00 ($9.95) to GH¢ 89.04 ($44.29) per annum was needed to lift the 4.7% of cocoa farmers out of extreme poverty, which could be achieved through modest increases in productivity. The study highlighted how agricultural intervention programmes, such as CODAPEC, have the potential to contribute to improved farmer livelihoods.


The population density of the aphid Melanaphis donacis (Passerini) was studied in experimental plots of Arundo donax (L.) at the Antumapu Campus of the University of Chile, La Pintana (33° 34' 08'' S 70° 38' 40'' W) and on wild populations at Rinconada de Maipu (33° 30' 0.17" S and 70° 49' 12.25" W), both in the Mediterranean zone of Chile. Sampling started upon the first colonization of the plants by the aphid on December 14, 2012, and continued every 15 days through December 14, 2013. Samples were taken from the 3 rd leaf from the apex, and a total of 36 samples were collected per sampling date. The aphid occurred throughout the growing season of A. donax , especially in summer, with higher densities in the experimental plots than in the wild populations and means of 243 and 147 aphids leaf -1 , respectively. The main natural enemies observed were the coccinellids Eriopis connexa (Germar) and Hippodamia convergens (Guerin-Meneville) and the syrphid Allograpta pulchra (Shannon). The predator populations followed the growth curves of the aphid population and of A. donax .


ABSTRACT Expression of the latency-associated transcript (LAT) gene is a hallmark of alphaherpesvirus latency, and yet its control and function remain an enigma. Resolution of this problem will require verification and subsequent elimination or disabling of elements regulating LAT gene transcription so that the influence of the resultant RNA can be evaluated. Toward this end, we generated a novel pseudorabies virus (PrV) recombinant in which a 282-bp region containing the LAP1 (first latency-active promoter) consensus sequence was replaced by a reporter cassette. Despite this substitution, replication of the recombinant was comparable to that of the parental and rescuant viruses both in cultured mammalian cells and in the natural host, swine. Furthermore, production of the LAT gene-associated 2.0- and 8.0-kb RNAs during an in vitro lytic infection of cultured neuronal cells was unaffected. However, the otherwise constitutively produced and processed 8.4-kb LAT was not detected in porcine trigeminal ganglia latently infected with this novel recombinant, although the viral genome was shown to be present. Therefore, LAP1 is apparently the basal promoter for PrV LAT gene expression during viral latency but is not required for such activity during an in vitro lytic infection of neuronal cells. More importantly, the ability of PrV to persist in a latent state in the absence of LAT suggests that other factors are responsible for this event in the natural host.


Xenarthra is the group of mammals that reunites anteaters, armadillos and sloths. According to the most recent phylogenetic schemes, Xenarthra is considered one of the four main supraordinal eutherian clades. This group, found in Central and South America, is considered especially important as it may be at the base of the eutherian tree. Although most cytogenetic studies in Xenarthra have been restricted to a few specimens and poor resolution techniques, recent chromosome painting analyses in some Xenarthra species resulted in important data regarding mammalian karyotypic evolution. An ancestral karyotype with 2n=48 chromosomes has been recently proposed as ancestral to all Xenarthra. This complement is very similar to the 2n=46 proposed as ancestral to all eutherian mammals, which may be a further indication of the basal phylogenetic position of Xenarthra in the eutherian tree.

Key Concepts:

Xenarthra is a Central and South American group of mammals represented by anteaters, armadillos and sloths.

Xenarthra is phylogenetically important because of its likely basal position in the tree of eutherian mammals.

In general, cytogenetic data on Xenarthra are restricted to a few specimens and to low resolution techniques.

However, the recent use of molecular cytogenetics, namely chromosome painting, in Xenarthra has provided data that allowed the reconstruction of a hypothetical Xenarthra ancestral karyotype (XAK) with 2n=48.

The 2n=48 XAK closely resembles the proposed ancestral eutherian karyotype (AEK) with 2n=46, which further supports the idea that Xenarthra is basal to all eutherians.

Keywords:

ancestral karyotypes;
Eutheria;
Xenarthra;
mammals;
chromosome evolution;
chromosome painting


GATA-6 and GATA-4 are members of a family of transcription factors (GATA 1-6) that share conserved zinc-finger DNA binding domains. Using semiquantitative RT-PCR, we found that the human adrenal expresses mRNA for GATA-6 but not GATA-4. A recent study showed GATA-6 expression in the adrenal reticularis, the source of adrenal androgens. To investigate the role of GATA-6 in regulation of adrenal cell steroidogenesis, luciferase reporter constructs containing the 5'-flanking DNA from steroidogenic acute regulatory protein, cholesterol side-chain cleavage (CYP11A), 17alpha-hydroxylase (CYP17), and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfotransferase (SULT2A1) were cotransfected with an expression vector containing GATA-6 into adrenal NCI-H295R cells and nonsteroidogenic HEK293 cells. All promoter/reporter constructs were increased by GATA-6 in the adrenal model. However, in the HEK293 cells only SULT2A1 reporter activity was increased by GATA-6. One key difference between H295R and HEK293 cell lines is the differential expression of steroidogenic factor 1 (SF1). Transfection of HEK293 cells with both GATA-6 and SF1 significantly increased transcriptional activation of all reporter constructs above the effect of GATA-6 or SF1 alone. To determine whether the action of GATA-6 required SF1, we transfected HEK293 cells with each promoter construct plus and minus GATA-6, SF1, and/or the orphan nuclear repressor DAX1. DAX1 opposed SF1-activated transcription of many genes and abolished the GATA-6/SF1 ability to increase reporter activity. These results suggest that the adrenal uses GATA-6 to enhance transcription of steroid-metabolizing enzymes needed to produce dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. Additionally, GATA-6 works in synergy with SF1 to maximally increase expression of enzymes needed to produce adrenal androgens.


Objective: Poor behavioral self-regulation in the first 2 decades of life has been identified as an important precursor of disease risk in adulthood. However, physiological regulation has not been well studied as a disease risk factor before adulthood. We tested whether physiological regulation at the age of 2 years, in the form of vagal regulation of cardiac function (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] change), would predict three indicators of cardiovascular risk at the age of 16 years (diastolic and systolic blood pressure and body mass index). Methods: Data came from 229 children who participated in a community-based longitudinal study. At the age of 2 years, children were assessed for RSA baseline and RSA change (ln(ms)2) in response to a series of challenge tasks. These same children were assessed again at the age of 16 years for diastolic and systolic blood pressure (millimeters of mercury), height (meters), and weight (kilogram). Results: Regression analyses revealed that less RSA withdrawal at the age of 2 years predicted higher diastolic blood pressure at the age of 16 years, adjusting for demographic characteristics (B = -3.07, M [S E] = 1.12, p = .006). Follow-up analyses demonstrated that these predictions extended to clinically significant levels of diastolic prehypertension (odds ratio = 0.43, 95% confidence interval = 0.22–0.89). RSA withdrawal did not significantly predict adolescent body mass index or systolic blood pressure. Conclusions: Vagal regulation of cardiac function in early childhood predicts select indicators of cardiovascular risk 14 years later. Early signs of attenuated vagal regulation could indicate an increased risk for elevated blood pressure before adulthood. Future research should test biological, behavioral, and psychological mechanisms underlying these long-term predictions.


This paper deals with the convergence of a remote iterative learning control system subject to data dropouts. The system is composed by a set of discrete-time multiple input-multiple output linear models, each one with its corresponding actuator device and its sensor. Each actuator applies the input signals vector to its corresponding model at the sampling instants and the sensor measures the output signals vector. The iterative learning law is processed in a controller located far away of the models so the control signals vector has to be transmitted from the controller to the actuators through transmission channels. Such a law uses the measurements of each model to generate the input vector to be applied to its subsequent model so the measurements of the models have to be transmitted from the sensors to the controller. All transmissions are subject to failures which are described as a binary sequence taking value 1 or 0. A compensation dropout technique is used to replace the lost data in the transmission processes. The convergence to zero of the errors between the output signals vector and a reference one is achieved as the number of models tends to infinity.


of a dissertation at the University of Miami. Dissertation supervised by Professor Kenneth Muller. No. of pages in text. (108) ATP released upon nerve injury is an important chemotactic activator of microglia; however, the source of the extracellular ATP is uncertain. In large glial cells such as astrocytes, chemical or mechanical stimulation or injury causes an intracellular calcium wave that moves from cell to cell propagated by extracellular ATP through a regenerative ATP-induced ATP-release mechanism. In mammals a prime candidate for the ATP release channel is the pannexon, a hexamer of the invertebrate gap junction homologue pannexin1, although the pharmacologically similar protein connexin is also a candidate. I hypothesized that upon nerve injury, ATP released through pannexon channels activates microglia and initiates their movement. My experiments were done on leeches (Hirudo sp.) in part because they lack connexins, their microglia are regulated by ATP, and their glia are especially large and produce calcium signals. I found that in the giant glia of leeches the 2 homologues of pannexin1, innexins2 and 3 (HmINX2 and HmINX3), formed innexons with similar properties to pannexons. Innexons opened and released ATP upon depolarization or in elevated extracellular potassium solution, were permeable to dye molecules, and were blocked by carbenoxolone (10 to 30 μM) or saturated CO2. Pharmacological experiments showed these channels were essential for the migration of microglia to nerve lesions, but calcium waves in single leech glia did not require innexons or exogenous ATP. In addition, nerve injury typically produces arachidonic acid, which closed the innexons and thereby blocked microglia migration. The results were consistent with those in the leech showing that ATP activates microglia and NO is important for their directed movement. The contribution of these findings to a general understanding of the molecular signals regulating the activation of microglia is discussed.


Abstract Iron- and aluminum-bearing MgSiO3 bridgmanite is the most abundant mineral in the Earth's interior; hence its crystal chemistry is fundamental to expanding our knowledge of the deep Earth and its evolution. In this study, the valence and spin state of iron in well-characterized Al-free Fe3+-rich bridgmanite were investigated by means of Mössbauer spectroscopy to understand the effect of ferric iron on the spin state. We found that a minor amount of Fe3+ is in the low-spin state above 36 GPa and that its proportion does not increase substantially with pressure up to 83 GPa. This observation is consistent with recent experimental studies that used Mössbauer and X-ray emission spectroscopy. In the Earth's deep lower mantle, Fe3+ spin crossover may take place at depths below 900 and 1200 km in pyrolite and MORB, respectively. However, the effect of spin crossover on physical properties may be small due to the limited amount of Fe3+ in the low-spin state.


The TransMilenio of Bogotá, Colombia, is the highest-capacity bus rapid transit (BRT) system in the world and one of the best examples of a high-level BRT system. It demonstrates what BRT can achieve if high-capacity design features and operating characteristics are provided. This paper highlights the different capabilities of BRT as demonstrated by the TransMilenio and assesses the extent to which these capabilities are applicable to BRT operations in the United States. A series of observations is made in relation to the topics of passenger capacity, capital cost-effectiveness, achievement of modal shift objectives, urban renewal, business and institutional models, and politics. The paper concludes by discussing the various issues related to the replication of the Bogotá model in the United States. Perhaps the central lesson to be learned from Bogotá is that BRT is capable of playing a role in the achievement of much wider objectives, such as sustainable mobility and urban renewal, when implemented as part of a holistic package of integrated strategies. Committing to the provision of a network of BRT routes gives the city the opportunity to magnify the mobility and urban renewal benefits from corridor level to the citywide level. The relatively low capital costs that have made this possible, within a relatively short time frame, should also be of interest to U.S. cities.


Camera trapping surveys frequently capture individuals whose identity is only known from a single flank. The most widely used methods for incorporating these partial identity individuals into density analyses discard some of the partial identity capture histories, reducing precision, and while not previously recognized, introducing bias. Here, we present the spatial partial identity model (SPIM), which uses the spatial location where partial identity samples are captured to probabilistically resolve their complete identities, allowing all partial identity samples to be used in the analysis. We show that the SPIM out-performs other analytical alternatives. We then apply the SPIM to an ocelot data set collected on a trapping array with double-camera stations and a bobcat data set collected on a trapping array with single-camera stations. The SPIM improves inference in both cases and in the ocelot example, individual sex determined from photographs is used to further resolve partial identities, one of which is resolved to near certainty. The SPIM opens the door for the investigation of trapping designs that deviate from the standard 2 camera design, the combination of other data types between which identities cannot be deterministically linked, and can be extended to the problem of partial genotypes.


This is the gripping, atmospheric true story of the "duel to end all duels" in medieval France: a trial by combat pitting a knight against a squire accused of violating the knight's beautiful young wife. In 1386, a few days after Christmas, a massive crowd gathered at a Paris monastery to watch the two men fight a duel to the death - a trial by combat meant to 'prove' which man's cause was right in God's sight. The dramatic true story of the knight, the squire, and the lady unfolds during the tumultuous fourteenth century, a time of war, plague, and anarchy, as well as of honour, chivalry, and courtly love. The notorious quarrel appears in many histories of France, but no writer has recounted it in full, until now.


: The widespread loss of stony reef-building coral populations has been compounded by the low settlement and survival of coral juveniles. To rebuild coral communities, restoration practitioners have developed work fl ows to settle vulnerable coral larvae in the laboratory and outplant settled juveniles back to natural and arti fi cial reefs. These work fl ows often make use of natural biochemical settlement cues, which are presented to swimming larvae to induce settlement. This paper establishes the potential for inorganic cues to complement these known biochemical e ff ects. Settlement substrates were fabricated from calcium carbonate, a material present naturally on reefs, and modi fi ed with additives including sands, glasses, and alkaline earth carbonates. Experiments with larvae of two Caribbean coral species revealed additive-speci fi c settlement preferences that were independent of bulk surface properties such as mean roughness and wettability. Instead, analyses of the substrates suggest that settling coral larvae can detect localized topographical features more than an order of magnitude smaller than their body width and can sense and positively respond to soluble inorganic minerals such as silica (SiO 2 ) and strontianite (SrCO 3 ). These fi ndings open a new area of research in coral reef restoration, in which composite substrates can be designed with a combination of natural organic and inorganic additives to increase larval settlement and perhaps also improve post-settlement growth, mineralization, and defense. of the lime mortar fabrication process and the fabrication of additional substrate types are provided in the Supporting Information along with details on substrate characterization methods. Larval Settlement Experiments. Test substrates with di ff erent compositions were placed together in replicate 1 L polystyrene bins, each containing 800 mL of fi ltered seawater (FSW), to evaluate larval settlement choices. FSW was prepared using a succession of stacked sediment fi lters with pore sizes of 50, 20, 5, and 0.5 μ m (H 2 O Distributors, Marietta, GA). Settlement experiments were initiated by pipetting 200 larvae ( ± 5%) into each bin and ended after 7 days by recording settlement locations on the top and bottom of each substrate. Data were evaluated by one-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey testing to determine signi fi cance di ff erences; more detailed statistical methods are provided in the Supporting Information.


Abstract
Smallpox has been known as a disease of man since the earliest times. However, its severity increased greatly during the eighteenth century, stimulating physicians and others to find methods of protection against it. Variolation (the inoculation of smallpox material into the skin) was tried, and for a while found general approval, although its practice was not without danger. In 1796, Edward Jenner began his investigations into the use of cow-pox material (vaccination) as a prophylactic against smallpox, and later showed that vaccination could confer protection. Although vaccination centres were first set up in Canada early in the nineteenth century, the disease on occasion assumed epidemic proportions, such as occurred in Montreal in 1885. Sporadic outbreaks have occurred since then, including the recent case in Toronto. From the public health point of view, maintenance of a high level of immunity to smallpox throughout the general population is necessary if serious epidemics are to be avoided.


Hashing is a basic tool for dimensionality reduction employed in several aspects of machine learning. However, the perfomance analysis is often carried out under the abstract assumption that a truly random unit cost hash function is used, without concern for which concrete hash function is employed. The concrete hash function may work fine on sufficiently random input. The question is if it can be trusted in the real world when faced with more structured input.
In this paper we focus on two prominent applications of hashing, namely similarity estimation with the one permutation hashing (OPH) scheme of Li et al. [NIPS'12] and feature hashing (FH) of Weinberger et al. [ICML'09], both of which have found numerous applications, i.e. in approximate near-neighbour search with LSH and large-scale classification with SVM.
We consider mixed tabulation hashing of Dahlgaard et al.[FOCS'15] which was proved to perform like a truly random hash function in many applications, including OPH. Here we first show improved concentration bounds for FH with truly random hashing and then argue that mixed tabulation performs similar for sparse input. Our main contribution, however, is an experimental comparison of different hashing schemes when used inside FH, OPH, and LSH.
We find that mixed tabulation hashing is almost as fast as the multiply-mod-prime scheme ax+b mod p. Mutiply-mod-prime is guaranteed to work well on sufficiently random data, but we demonstrate that in the above applications, it can lead to bias and poor concentration on both real-world and synthetic data. We also compare with the popular MurmurHash3, which has no proven guarantees. Mixed tabulation and MurmurHash3 both perform similar to truly random hashing in our experiments. However, mixed tabulation is 40% faster than MurmurHash3, and it has the proven guarantee of good performance on all possible input.


The use of corpora in translation studies, both as a tool for translators and as a way of analyzing the process of translation, is growing. This book provides a much-needed assessment of how the analysis of corpus data can make a contribution to the study of translation.

Introducing Corpora in Translation Studies:

 * traces the development of corpus methods within translation studies
 * defines the types of corpora used for translation research, discussing their design and application and presenting tools for extracting and analyzing data
 * examines research potential and methodological limitations
 * considers some uses of corpora by translators and in translator training
 * features research questions, case studies and discussion points to provide a practical guide to using corpora in translation studies.

Offering a comprehensive account of the use of corpora by today's translators and researchers, Introducing Corpora in Translation Studies is the definitive guide to a fast-developing area of study.


There is an increasingly vociferous debate about whether population growth is relevant to climate mitigation policy. The production of scientific knowledge about this relationship, its use in policy and public arenas, and its interpretation by numerous third parties thereafter present a political and ethical conundrum in which normative values are easily hidden. Rather than assess the evidence for the contribution population growth might make to future greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and the implicit or explicit population policy implications therein, this paper engages with a sociological analysis of the process of knowledge production to reveal why the controversy persists. This paper seeks to equip policy makers with a theoretical framework through which to navigate such values and thus overcome the apparent policy bind on the issue.


Background Stakeholder engagement efforts in the Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) program initially focused on defining opportunities and developing materials to involve stakeholders in systematic reviews. Over time, the basic mechanics of working with stakeholders have become a routine part of the systematic review process, allowing the program to begin to explore how to improve stakeholder engagement and make it more effective Purpose The purpose of this research paper is to examine the benefits and challenges of engaging stakeholders in the process of developing and performing systematic reviews, drawing upon findings from the literature and Key Informant (KI) interviews with program leaders, systematic reviewers and stakeholders from within the EPC program and other international evidence-based programs. Methods We searched a range of databases, including Ovid MEDLINE, EBM Reviews, and Scopus. A gray literature search identified relevant guidance issued by internationally recognized organizations, and additional citations were identified both via research team members and by pearling of relevant article bibliographies. Abstracts and full text articles were reviewed for relevance by three investigators. In addition to the literature search we conducted a series of interviews with those who know the most about this process: 60 KIs were invited and one investigator facilitated all of the interviews. With permission from all participants we recorded and transcribed all calls; two investigators and two research assistants conducted analysis using NVivo to identify and synthesize recurring themes. In addition to identifying overarching themes, we conducted a more detailed exploratory analysis of the KI interviews with an eye towards articulating the benefits of engaging specific types of stakeholders at each phase of the systematic review. Results Of the 299 abstracts and 80 full-text articles reviewed, 24 addressed in some fashion the benefits, challenges, measurement or evaluation of stakeholder engagement. Benefits cited included identifying and prioritizing topics for research; providing pragmatic feedback on the research protocol; aiding in recruitment of research participants; helping the researchers understand the research subject's perspective; ensuring that findings are interpreted with the end user in mind and that final products are readable and accessible; and facilitating wider dissemination and uptake of research findings. There was almost no discussion of measurement or evaluation of the impact of stakeholder engagement. Of the 60 KIs we invited, 34 agreed to participate, we conducted 12 discussion sessions (60 to 90 minutes per session) with between one and four participants each. Indeed, it was not uncommon for stakeholders to represent more than one perspective. Overarching themes from our KI interviews were organized according to the three guiding questions of this white paper: (1) What are the potential or expected benefits of involving stakeholders in systematic reviews? (2) What are the challenges of involving stakeholders in systematic reviews? (3) How can we measure the impact of stakeholder engagement in systematic reviews? Conclusions/Recommendations Although it is recognized by many as an important next step, to date there have been few efforts to measure the benefits/tradeoffs of specific stakeholder engagement processes or differing approaches to selecting and engaging differing stakeholder types. In order to refine our processes for efficiently and effectively engaging stakeholders, we need to develop methods to evaluate the impact of stakeholder engagement based on a more concrete understanding of the specific benefits we are hoping to achieve. Toward this end, we reviewed the existing literature and conducted a series of KI interviews in an effort to more explicitly define the expected benefits of engaging stakeholders in systematic reviews.


Private information is no longer stored only in homes or other areas traditionally protected from warrantless intrusion. The private lives of many citizens are contained in a digital device no larger than the palm of their hand — and carried in public places. But that does not make the data within a cell phone any less private, just as the dialing of a phone number does not voluntarily waive an individual's right to keep their call log or location private. We are not talking about individuals suspected of committing violent crimes. The Government is recording the calls and locations of citizens who have done nothing wrong, who are driving to work while talking to their spouses, or who are using their cell phones to call a loved one in the hospital. And the Government has the power to know where you are — and record the numbers you are calling. Unless it has a good reason for doing so — often referred to as probable cause or reasonable suspicion — this practice should have no place in a society that values civil liberties. Do the Government's surveillance practices make us safer? Maybe. Should that matter? No. Assurances that we are 'safer' come at too high a price if the cost is to our personal freedom. That may make us safer, but it also makes every citizen less secure — and a little hesitant before dialing a number or downloading a YouTube video. If the Court were permit these and other warrantless intrusions into a person's private life, the Fourth Amendment's place on the constitutional hierarchy might be just a notch above the Third Amendment's prohibition against the quartering of soldiers, or slightly below the often discussed but never-used Privileges and Immunities Clause. Simply put, Riley came at the right time, and hopefully is the beginning of enhanced protections for privacy rights.


Both visual and verbal impairments have been reported in two independent streams of research into the etiology of dyslexia or reading-disability. To address the question of the presence of either abnormality in reading-disabled children, visuospatial and phonological ability were assessed and contrasted in 39 Normal and 26 Reading-disabled children. To assess whether these deficits are unique to dyslexia, scores were also compared to those of a group of 12 Poor Readers ("garden-variety" backward readers with low IQs). The Benton Judgement of Line Orientation Test was used for its simplicity and clinical reliability: Reading-disabled subjects performed significantly worse than Normal readers (but similar to Poor Readers). Reading-disabled subjects performed worse for lines in the left-hemifield compared to Normal subjects and also had a greater tendency to scan the task in reverse order (left-to-right) from the usual right-to-left scanning pattern observed in the Normal group when performing this test. When both verbal and visuospatial variables were combined in a multiple regression analysis, 71% of reading variance could be accounted for. These results suggest that Reading-disabled children not only have poor phonological awareness, but they also show visuospatial deficits. However, poor performance on both these tasks was also observed in the group of Poor Readers, suggesting that these deficits are not unique to children with specific reading disability. The results lend further evidence to the hypothesis that reading disability cannot solely be attributed to left-hemisphere dysfunction resulting in phonological impairment. There are other behavioral deficits, possibly caused by a common mechanism, some of which, like visuospatial ability, can be measured by simple behavioral tests such as the Judgement of Line Orientation Test.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of Myasthenia gravis (MG) on the course of pregnancy, labor and delivery, and the condition of neonate.

DESIGN AND SETTINGS
Retrospective chart review of pregnant patients with MG hospitalized in tertiary care center over 12 year period was performed. Course of MG before and during pregnancy, mode of delivery, and condition of the newborn were analyzed.

RESULTS
There was 42 913 deliveries in the Polish Mother's Research Institute in Lodz during analyzed period. Thirteen patients with MG were identified, giving the incidence of 3/10 000 live births. Mean age of the patients was 28 years, range 18 - 36 years. Average time since diagnosis was 9 years. Eleven women with MG delivered at term (one twin pregnancy), and two babies were born prematurely. In seven patients pregnancy was ended via normal spontaneous vaginal delivery (NSVD), one was forceps extraction, four patients had elective Cesarean Section (CS), and two had emergency CS. Indications for CS were purely obstetrical. Spontaneous vaginal deliveries were speedy. None of the patients had exacerbation of MG during current pregnancy. Mean birth weight of the newborns was 3014,3 g, range 1730 g to 3700 g. Mean Apgar score was 8,7 at 1 minute and 8,9 at 5 minutes. Only one neonate (second twin) developed Transient Neonatal Myasthenia Gravis (TNMG).

CONCLUSIONS
Myasthenia gravis did not have significant effect on the course of pregnancy or mode of delivery. In the twin pregnancies it is possible that only one twin will present with the symptoms of TNMG.


"Women's rights" and "gender equality" are not straightforward or neutral terms. Competing political projects define them in different ways. The articles in this Special Section show how the struggle to define gender equality and women's rights has played out in different moments and in different types of media during the past hundred years in Turkey. The articles cover a range of historical and contemporary issues about women's rights and gender equality. This Special Section contributes to our understanding of institutional structures, actors and relationships, and media texts that shape the landscape of women's rights and gender equality in Turkey. In this introduction, I present the contributions and provide a summary of debates on gender and media in Turkey today.


Objectives. We determined the influence of "water jets" on observed water and milk taking and self-reported fluid consumption in New York City public schools. Methods. From 2010 to 2011, before and 3 months after water jet installation in 9 schools, we observed water and milk taking in cafeterias (mean 1000 students per school) and surveyed students in grades 5, 8, and 11 (n = 2899) in the 9 schools that received water jets and 10 schools that did not. We performed an observation 1 year after implementation (2011‐2012) with a subset of schools. We also interviewed cafeteria workers regarding the intervention. Results. Three months after implementation we observed a 3-fold increase in water taking (increase of 21.63 events per 100 students; P< .001) and a much smaller decline in milk taking (-6.73 events per 100 students; P= .012), relative to comparison schools. At 1 year, relative to baseline, there was a similar increase in water taking and no decrease in milk taking. Cafeteria workers reported that the water jets were simple to clean and operate. Conclusions. An environmental intervention in New York City public schools increased water taking and was simple to implement. ( Am JP ublic Health.2015;105: 365‐372. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302221)


This paper presents evidence about the impact on school enrollment of a program in Ecuador that gives cash transfers to the 40 percent poorest families. The evaluation design consists of a randomized experiment for families around the first quintile of the poverty index and of a regression discontinuity design for families around the second quintile of this index, which is the program's eligibility threshold. This allows us to compare results from two different credible identification methods, and to investigate whether the impact varies with families' poverty level. Around the first quintile of the poverty index the impact is positive while it is equal to zero around the second quintile. This suggests that for the poorest families the program lifts a credit constraint while this is not the case for families close to the eligibility threshold. JEL-codes: I38, I28


Objective: To correlate the size and site of perforation with hearing loss in chronic suppurative otitis media. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional prospective study was carried out in a Tertiary Care Hospital in Western Uttar Pradesh. One hundred consecutive patients fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the study. In all the patients, a detailed history and a thorough ENT examination was followed by hearing assessment and measurement of the size of the perforation. Results: Infection was the most common etiology of tympanic membrane perforation in 92 (92%) cases and trauma in 08 (08%) with otorrhea as the most common presenting complaint. Half of the cases were in the age group of 20-30 years. Seventy-nine percentage cases had mild hearing loss whereas 19% had moderate hearing loss. Anterior quadrant perforations on an average had 31.4 dB hearing loss, whereas there was 43.9 dB average hearing loss in posterior quadrant perforations. Conclusions: It was observed that there is direct relationship between size and site of perforation and loss of hearing. There was less hearing loss in small sized perforations. Posterior quadrant perforations and malleolar perforations (MLs) had a greater hearing loss than anterior, multiple quadrant, or non-MLs.


: The structure of bus network is very significant for bus system. To evaluate the performance of the structure of bus network, indicators basing on graph theory and complex network theory are proposed. Three forms of matrices comprising line-station matrix, weighted adjacency matrix and adjacency matrix under space P are used to represent the bus network. The paper proposes a shift power law distribution which is related average degree of network to fit the degree distribution and a method to calculate the average transfer time between any two stations using adjacency matrix under P space. Moreover, this paper proposes weighted average shortest path distance and transfer efficiency to evaluate the bus network. The results show that the indicators that we introduce, effectively reflect properties of bus network.


There are many instances where fluid and particles traveling through a narrow passage, such as a crack in a window or door, have large but sometimes unseen effects on our daily lives. For instance, in the cold months of the year a pressure gradient can exists between the inside and outside of a building which causes cold, outdoor air to flow inside through any cracks; significantly decreasing heating efficiency. This inflow of atmospheric air can bring with it dangerous contaminant particles to the inside of a building. Pollution can also occur inside a structure from internal sources of contamination, such as smoke generation from a fire. This thesis represents a two-fold examination of these phenomena. The first part of the thesis showcases a method for local measurement of air leakage flow rate, which can be used to quickly assess leakage rates across a surface, such as a window. The method uses a small local enclosure with constant volume placed about a region on the structure under investigation, which is depressurized and injected with a small concentration of carbon dioxide as a tracer gas. The time variation of the pressure and carbon dioxide concentration inside the enclosure are monitored and used to quantify the leakage flow rate as a function of pressure difference. Because of the small size of the enclosure, advanced data processing techniques are necessary to reduce uncertainty in determination of the rate of change of the carbon dioxide concentration that arises from sensor variability. Results of a laboratory demonstration of the proposed leakage detection and characterization device are reported for the problem of leakage through a circular hole in a plate with prescribed pressure differences. Experimental results from the laboratory tests are found to be in excellent agreement with results of a numerical simulation of leakage flow through a hole, as well as predictions from a number of empirical equations for this problem found in the literature. The second part of the thesis is a numerical study of particle capture in the entrance region of a crack, which is a phenomenon previously not well understood or accounted for in empirical correlations. The computational domain for laminar flow through a crack consists of the crack channel and both inlet and exit reservoirs that are much larger than the channel width. The simulations examined different mechanisms for particle capture within the channel entrance region, including collision on the inlet reservoir wall just outside the crack channel, collision within the crack channel due to cross-stream inertia imparted by the entrance flow, collision induced by Brownian diffusion both on the inlet reservoir wall outside of the channel and within the channel, and gravitational collision within the channel. A detailed study of the variation of the entrance penetration factor with parameters such as the Stokes, Peclet, and Froude numbers was performed, and comparison of the numerical predictions with different theoretical expressions were made when the latter were available. Validity of the assumption of penetration factor independence was also examined for cases where both entrance region inertia and gravitational settling are significant.


ECONOMICS OF ILLICIT BEHAVIORS: EXCHANGE IN THE INTERNET WILD WEST Julia R. Norgaard, Ph.D. George Mason University, 2017 Dissertation Director: Dr. Thomas Stratmann The first paper is an analysis of the role reputation plays in the Deep Web using data from the Internet black market site, The Silk Road. This encrypted online marketplace employed crypto currency and functioned over the Tor network. Utilizing a modeling technique, informed by trade auction theory, we investigate the effect of seller reputation. Analysis of the seller's reputation gives us insights into the factors that determine the prices of goods and services in this black marketplace. Data on cannabis listings is parsed from the Silk Road website and covers an 11-month time period, from November 2013 to October 2014. This data demonstrates that reputation acts as a sufficient selfenforcement mechanism to allow transactions. These findings exemplify the robustness of spontaneous order with respect to the Deep Web as an emergent marketplace. The second paper examines how the platform providers in the Internet Black Market, one of the world's largest international markets for illicit goods and services, allow buyers and sellers to overcome the problems anonymity poses to exchange. These online markets enable users to repeatedly exchange in an environment with no third party enforcement while keeping their identify concealed from law enforcement. The third paper analyzes the determinants of network structure, as measured by hierarchy and monopolization, by examining various black market networks. We examine structures of networks in the Internet Dark Net (virtual) and compare it to network structures of traditional black markets (ground), using agent-based modeling. The purpose of modeling these two different types of illicit markets is to understand the network structure that emerges from the interactions of the agents in each environment. Traditional black markets are relatively hierarchical, with high degree and high betweenness. We compare the density and average length of shortest path of the simulated ground black market networks with our simulated virtual network. We find that hierarchy and monopolization tendencies in networks are products of differences in transaction costs and information asymmetries. The Internet is an effective way to lower both of these aspects of network structure. We observe that the network structure surrounding the interactions in the virtual black market is less hierarchical and slightly more monopolistic than the network structure of the ground market.


In this work we investigate, analytically and numerically, the effect on the diffracted field produced by typical fabrication errors in sawtooth gratings. The analysis is carried out for the near and far field, showing the effects on the intensity and on the diffraction orders efficiency. When the grating profile is not perfect but presents a curved profile or overdevelopment error, some different diffraction orders appear, changing the intensity and the efficiency of each order. In addition, when roughness is present, a decreasing of efficiency is produced, but without generating different diffraction orders than the first one. We show the analytical dependence of these modifications in terms of the profile of the grating, corroborating the results with numerical methods.


Upper Barremian and lower Aptian dinoflagellate cyst assemblages have been documented for the first time from five ammonite-controlled sections in Central and Northeast Bulgaria. They include important biostratigraphical markers, such as Rhynchodiniopsis aptiana, Prolixosphaeridium parvispinum, Cerbia tabulata, Lithodinia stoveri and Ctenidodinium elegantulum. The distribution of taxa is generally consistent with published palynostratigraphical schemes, but some differences are noted in this study. The best global markers for the lowermost Aptian interval are represented by the LOs of R. aptiana and C. elegantulum; however, in the sections studied, these taxa consistently occur only within the upper Barremian. The recorded overwhelming dominance of the Classopollis group, together with persistent records of pteridophyte spores, is interpreted as indicative of extremely hot and humid climate, which caused and accompanied the deposition of the OAE 1a in this part of the Tethyan Realm. Pavlishina, P. 2017. Palynology of the upper Barremian and lower Aptian interval in parts of North Bulgaria. Geologica Balcanica 46 (2), 41–45.