The Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper 'Irrigation externalities: pricing and charges. by Gavan Dwyer, Robert Douglas, Deb Peterson, Jo Chong and Kate Maddern was released on 14 March 2006. The paper discusses the nature and causes of environmental change related to rural water use, and provides a taxonomy of the many diverse types. It also examines the issues surrounding possible charges on water use for water related externalities. There have been few attempts by water utilities to incorporate externalities into full cost pricing of irrigation water. The aim of this Staff Working Paper was to: examine the extent to which charges imposed by irrigation water utilities could address externalities from irrigation water supply and use; and to develop a framework to identify and characterise changes in environmental conditions from the supply and use of irrigation water that may lead to environmental externalities. The authors found that many factors influence the extent to which charging for water would change water use. These include the volume of water available to irrigators, the extent to which trade can occur, the size of the charge or tax, the price responsiveness for irrigation water and the existing mechanisms to address externalities. A tax on water use may increase economic efficiency where external costs are related only to the level of water use. However, such a tax is an unsuitable instrument if the Government's policy objective is to reduce environmental damage to a predetermined level or to raise a target level of revenue to address the externalities. The views expressed in this paper are those of the staff involved and do not necessarily reflect those of the Productivity Commission.


Reliability evaluation approaches exploit a variety of tools for system modeling and calculation of reliability indices. Most proposed approaches in the literature are in terms of minimal cuts (MCs) or minimal paths. Hence, finding all the MCs in a network is an attractive problem in network flow and reliability theory. Here, investigating some works related to the MC problem, we first point out a number of defects in certain proposed algorithms, and present certain new techniques to rectify the flaws in two algorithms. Moreover, we present some techniques to improve the algorithms. Using our results, we propose an improved algorithm for finding all the MCs in a flow network. A benchmark network example is used to illustrate the performance of the algorithm. The proposed algorithm is shown to be correct. Finally, after establishing the complexity results, we demonstrate the proposed algorithm to be more efficient than some existing algorithms.


Objective This study aimed to observe vascular and neuroretinal alterations in people with prediabetes [impaired fasting glucose (IFG) and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT)] and normal glucose metabolism. Methods A total of 21 patients with prediabetes (42 eyes) and 20 healthy controls (40 eyes) participated in our study. All patients underwent a complete eye examination [including fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA) and optical coherence tomography (OCT)] and a related general examination (complete biochemical analysis, routine blood tests, and glycosylated hemoglobin). Results On FFA, no patients in either group showed any microvascular alterations. The total peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) in the prediabetic group was significantly thinner than that in the healthy control group (p < 0.0001). Only the temporal pRNFL thickness was significantly less in patients with prediabetes compared to the normal people. There was no significant difference in the thickness of retina in the range of 1 mm diameter of macular fovea (p = 0.286), but in the prediabetic group, the macular retinal thickness within the diameter of 6 mm in nasal side (p < 0.0001), superior side (p < 0.0001), temporal side (p = 0.008), and inferior side (p = 0.001) were lower than that in the control group. Conclusion In the prediabetic group, there was no microvascular alterations, but the total pRNFL and the temporal pRNFL was significantly thinner, and the macular retinal thickness within the diameter of 6 mm in the nasal, temporal, and inferior side were lower than that in the healthy control group. These data confirm neuroretinal alterations in prediabetes prior to microvascular injury.


This paper provides a design rationale for a mechanism that enforces a correct mapping between a model of a nested agent organization and a model of a composite interaction-based business process. We use an example of a collaborative process to illustrate the features of this mechanism. The mapping is realized through an isomorphism between two formal belief structures. The main advantages of this approach are clarity and simplicity of the process and organizational models, and easy simulation due to the automatic assignment of agents to role-based interactions.


The author critically examines the 1987 census conducted in West Germany and proposes changes to the questionnaire the way it is administered and the tabulation and publication of census results. (ANNOTATION)


The radioactivity of different organs and tissues of laying hens injected with inactivated oil adjuvant vaccine containing [n-1-14C] octadecane was measured. It was shown that the hydrocarbons injected with the vaccination diffuse in relatively short periods of time to all the tissues, especially to those of the organs with greater blood supply, and that the hydrocarbons are largely eliminated by means of the eggs.


Purpose Patients who have undergone gastrectomy have unique symptoms that are not appropriately assessed using currently available tools. This study developed and validated a symptom-focused quality of life (QoL) questionnaire for patients who have received gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Materials and Methods Based on a literature review, patient interviews, and expert consultation by the KOrean QUality of life in Stomach cancer patients Study group (KOQUSS), the initial item pool was developed. Two large-scale developmental studies were then sequentially conducted for exploratory factor analyses for content validity and item reduction. The final item pool was validated in a separate cohort of patients and assessed for internal consistency, test-retest reliability, construct validity, and clinical validity. Results The initial questionnaire consisted of 46-items in 12 domains. Data from 465 patients at 11 institutions, followed by 499 patients at 13 institutions, were used to conduct item reduction and exploratory factor analyses. The final questionnaire (KOQUSS-40) comprised 40 items within 11 domains. Validation of KOQUSS-40 was conducted on 413 patients from 12 hospitals. KOQUSS-40 was found to have good model fit. The mean summary score of the KOQUSS-40 was correlated with the EORTC QLQ-C30 and STO22 (correlation coefficients, 0.821 and 0.778, respectively). The KOQUSS-40 score was also correlated with clinical factors, and had acceptable internal consistency (> 0.7). Test-retest reliability was greater than 0.8. Conclusion The KOQUSS-40 can be used to assess QoL of gastric cancer patients after gastrectomy and allows for a robust comparison of surgical techniques in clinical trials.


Abstract Archives have long been considered central to the work of historians, from nineteenth-century Europe to contemporary Australian practice. Rarely remarked upon is the recurring tendency for some historians to sacralise the process of archival research through the use of religious (usually Christian) symbolism, including temples and churches, sacred relics, pilgrimages, resurrection, rituals and communion. The cumulative effect of this language is to conceal archival labour, privilege the agency and authority of the historian, and undermine many of the public, social and methodological developments otherwise championed by the history discipline in recent decades. This article explores evocations of the 'temple of history' in Australia, placing these examples in the context of longer European and American traditions.


6 7 Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the practice of laparoscopic gastric plication (LGP) in Syria with particular emphasis on efficacy and complications, and to explore the concept of bariatric surgery in times of crisis with its related issues and concerns. Materials and Methods: A prospective cohort study included all patients who underwent LGP between February 2011 and September 2014. The main outcome was the percentage of excess weight loss (%EWL). Secondary outcomes included operative time, hospital stay, postoperative complications, and improvement of related comorbidities. Results: Of the 129 patients who underwent LGP in the study period, 96 patients were included in the final analysis. The mean body mass index was 39.5 kg/m (32–49 kg/m). No cases of conversion to laparotomy, leak, intraabdominal infection, or mortality were seen. Vomiting was the most common postoperative complaint, which was encountered in 91.6% of patients. Two patients required operation reversal because of protracted vomiting. Mean %EWL was 60%, 65%, 70%, 67%, 66% and 65% at 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36 months respectively. Obesity-related comorbidities were present in 33 patients (34.4%), and they showed considerable improvement or complete resolution in 57.1-100% of cases. Weight regain was seen in 7 patients (7.3%) after 36 months, three of whom (3.1%) requested reoperation. Conclusions: LGP is a feasible and safe operation for the treatment of morbid obesity, and it is comparable to other restrictive bariatric operations with fewer rates of serious complications. It is an appropriate technique in times of crisis due to low cost and ease of follow-up. 8


We show that transverse perturbations from structurally stable heteroclinic cycles can be destabilized by surprisingly small amounts of noise, even when each individual fixed point of the cycle is stable to transverse modes. A condition that favours this process is that the linearization of the dynamics in the transverse direction be characterized by a non–normal matrix. The phenomenon is illustrated by a simple two–dimensional switching model and by a simulation of a convectively driven dynamo.


Background and aim: Telomere elongation mechanisms have been proposed to be regulated by the epigenetic status of the telomeric chromatin. Telomere repeat-containing RNAs (TERRAs), which are RNAs that originate from telomeric DNA transcription, can associate with the telomeric chromatin, where they are proposed to function as negative regulators of telomere length based on their ability to act as potent inhibitors of telomerase in vitro. To elucidate the regulatory mechanism of telomere length in a chromatin-dependent manner, we analyzed factors that influence telomere/telomerase regulation in human leukemia cells treated with 5-azacytidine, a currently available demethylating agent. Methods: Reagents and cells: Human leukemia cell lines (U937, K562, and HL-60) were treated with 0.001 to 10 μM 5-azacytidine (Sigma) for 24, 48, and 72 h; 5-azacytidine was added every 24 h. The antiproliferative effect of 5-azacytidine was measured using the cell counting kit-8 (Wako Chemicals). Telomere, telomerase and TERRA: Telomere length and telomerase activity were measured as reported previously (Ohyashiki JH, Br J Cancer 2005; 92: 1942–1947). The telomeric localization of TERRA was determined by RNA-FISH with strand-specific telomeric DNA probes. Experiments were performed in denaturing conditions with or without RNase, and the number of TERRA signal-positive cells was measured. Methylation: Bisulfite genomic DNA sequencing was performed using primers designed to recognize both methylated and unmethylated forms of the p16/INK4a and p15/INK4b promoter regions. For the genome-wide screening of DNA methylation patterns, the Human Methylation27 BeadChip (Illumina) was used. Results: Demethylating effect of 5-azacytidine: The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 5-azacytidine was 3.4 μM in U937, 3.6 μM in K562, and 1 μM in HL-60. Bisulfite genomic DNA sequencing revealed that the p15/INK4b promoter region was markedly demethylated in U937 cells after 72 h treatment with the IC50 dose of 5-azacytidine. Similarly, we noted genome-wide hypomethylation in 5-azacytidine-treated U937 cells using the Human Methylation27 BeadChip, whereas we noted only modest hypomethylation in 5-azacytidine-treated K562 and HL-60 cells. Upregulation of TERRA and telomerase inhibition: Based on the results obtained from the methylation analysis, we identified the localization of TERRA in 5-azacytidine-treated U937 and K562 cells. We observed 0∼2 dots corresponding to TERRA per cell in untreated U937 or K562 cells, and the signals were not detected in RNaseA-treated samples. In U937 cells, TERRA signals significantly increased in accordance with the decrease in telomerase activity. In contrast, neither an increase in TERRA signals nor a decrease in telomerase activity was observed in K562 cells. This indicates that the upregulation of TERRA and telomerase inhibition were closely related to genome-wide hypomethylation. Conclusion: There is emerging evidence for the clinical utility of demethylating agents, such as 5-azacytidine in myelodysplastic syndrome; however, the molecular mechanism of 5-azacytidine has not been fully elucidated. Our results indicate that 5-azacytidine induces the upregulation of TERRA, thereby inhibiting telomerase in U937 cells. Although there is still a long way to go before realizing the diagnostic and therapeutic uses of TERRA in leukemia patients, our study provided novel information on TERRA in the telomere and the telomerase biology of human leukemia. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Second AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research; 2011 Sep 14-18; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(18 Suppl):Abstract nr C19.


Background and importance Deprescription is the revision of the therapeutic plan with the aim of simplifying it, taking into account the preferences of the patient, prognosis and the environment. This strategy acquires special relevance in elderly patients as they are exposed to numerous adverse effects and interactions. Aim and objectives To identify the deprescribing tools (DT) aimed at elderly patients available in the scientific literature and their main characteristics. Material and methods A systematic search was conducted in PubMed and EMBASE for relevant literature published up to April 2020, applying the PRISMA method. The search strategy included terms for deprescribing, study population (aged OR elderly) and deprescribing strategies (tool OR process OR criteria OR algorithm). Inclusion criteria were: observational/experimental studies which created or developed a DT in elderly patients. Exclusion criteria were: studies where the DT was aimed at a specific medication, pharmacological group or pathology. Tools identified were analysed according to whether they were criterion/algorithm type. Results 13/485 papers met the inclusion criteria, and 11 tools were identified: 5 'algorithm based tools' and 6 'criterion based tools' (2 of the articles developed the validation of 2 criterion based tools). All tools were aimed at elderly patients, with peculiarities regarding their design, population, setting of application and items that formed the tool. Algorithm based tools The methodology used for its development was not specified. Population: two of them focused specifically on patients with limited life expectancy. Settings of application: two algorithms were applied to institutionalised patients, one to hospitalised patients and the remaining two did not specify the scenario. Criterion based tools Five used the Delphi method for their design and development. Population: one was focused on patients with multimorbidity or similar characteristics and two were aimed at patients with limited life expectancy. Settings of application: three tools were aimed at institutionalised patients, two other tools were aimed at all healthcare settings and the other one to outpatients. It is important to emphasise that most of the tools agreed on the pharmacological groups that were likely to be deprescribed (statins, antipsychotics, proton pump inhibitors and antidepressants). Conclusion and relevance Knowing and being able to use DT aimed at hospitalised or multimorbidity patients could be very useful for hospital pharmacists, allowing them to carry out this activity as part of their healthcare activity. References and/or acknowledgements Conflict of interest No conflict of interest


Vascularization is the cornerstone of wound healing. We introduced human blood outgrowth endothelial cells (hBOEC) in a self‐assembled human dermal fibroblast sheet (hDFS), intended as a tissue‐engineered dermal substitute with inherent vascular potential. hBOEC were functionally and molecularly different from early endothelial progenitor cells and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). hBOEC alone, unlike HUVEC, efficiently revascularized and re‐oxygenated the wound bed, both by active incorporation into new vessels and by trophic stimulation of host angiogenesis in a dose‐dependent manner. Furthermore, hBOEC alone, but not HUVEC, accelerated epithelial coverage and matrix organization of the wound bed. In addition, integration of hBOEC in hDFS not only further improved vascularization, epithelial coverage and matrix organization but also prevented excessive wound contraction. In vitro analyses with hBOEC, fibroblasts and keratinocytes revealed that these effects were both due to growth factor crosstalk and to short cutting hypoxia. Among multiple growth factors secreted by hBOEC, placental growth factor mediated at least in part the beneficial effects on keratinocyte migration and proliferation. Overall, this combined tissue engineering approach paves the way for clinical development of a fully autologous vascularized dermal substitute for patients with large skin defects that do not heal properly. STEM CELLS 2010;28:1165–1177


A new drifting pulsar, PSR J0815+09, was discovered in the Arecibo drift-scan searches. An intriguing feature of this source is that within the four pulse components in the integrated pulse profile, the subpulse drifting direction in the two leading components is opposite from that in the two trailing components. In the view that the leading theoretical model for pulsar subpulse drifting can only interpret one-direction subpulse drifting, the observed bi-drifting phenomenon from PSR J0815+09 poses a great challenge to the pulsar theory. The inner annular gap (IAG), a new type of inner particle accelerator, was recently proposed to explain both γ-ray and radio emission from pulsars. Here we show that the coexistence of the IAG and the conventional inner core gap offers a natural interpretation to the bi-drifting phenomenon. In particular, the peculiar drifting behavior in PSR J0815+09 can be reproduced within the inverse Compton scattering model for pulsar radio emission.


This study aimed to produce sourdough bread using an encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter culture without the addition of baker's yeast. The bioactive metabolites of kombucha sourdough starter and sourdough starter without kombucha were identified using 1 H-NMR analysis with multivariate analysis. The physical properties, including loaf volume, specific loaf volume, firmness, and water activity were determined following standard methods. The shelf life and consumer acceptability of the bread were also being evaluated. The principal component analyses showed the presence of 15 metabolites in kombucha sourdough starter. The major compounds that contributed to the differences from sourdough starter without kombucha were alpha-aminobutyric acid, alanine, acetic acid, riboflavin, pyridoxine, anserine, tryptophan, gluconic acid, and trehalose. The encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter increased the loaf volume (976.7 ± 25.2 mL) and specific loaf volume (4.38 ± 0.12 mL/g) compared to yeast bread. Thus, significant (P < 0.05) reduction was observed in the crumb firmness (116.07 ± 6.28 g) compared to traditional sourdough bread and yeast bread. The encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter extended the shelf life of bread by 5 to 10 days at room temperature. The sourdough bread prepared using the encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter demonstrated significantly (P < 0.05) higher taste and overall acceptability scores compared to the other bread. The findings indicate that the encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter is promising to produce functional sourdough bread with extended shelf life and improved quality. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Encapsulated kombucha sourdough starter culture that appropriately refreshed can be used primarily as a dough leavening agent in the bread industry without the addition of baker's yeast. This starter culture applied in sourdough bread production extended the shelf life and improved the biological function of sourdough bread.


Physicochemical and sensory characteristics of pound cake prepared with various levels of Angelica gigas Nakai powder were investigated. The pH of batter prepared with Angelica gigas Nakai powder ranged between 7.17 and 7.30 and that of the control was 7.34. The moisture content and pH of pound cakes was found to decrease with increasing Angelica gigas Nakai powder content. The specific volume of the control cake was 1.793 ㎖/g, that of pound cakes prepared with Angelica gigas Nakai powder was 1.806∼2.026 ㎖/g. The baking loss rate of the control was 11.33% and that of pound cakes prepared by adding Angelica gigas Nakai powder was 10.29∼6.66%. DPPH radical scavenging activity of the control group was 23.58%, whereas pound cakes prepared by adding Angelica gigas Nakai powder ranged from 38.77∼77.60%. The a value of redness was increased, but L and b value were decreased significantly by the addition of Angelica gigas Nakai powder. The hardness and brittleness of the pound cakes were increased significantly by the addition of Angelica gigas Nakai powder. Sensory evaluation scores in terms of flavor, taste and overall preference for pound cakes were higher for the 2% substituted sample group than for any of the others. The results of this study suggest that the addition of 2% Angelica gigas Nakai powder was the best substitution ratio for pound cake.


In this study, we examined the discursive and social practices of a teacher educator (the first author) and her eight beginning science teachers in a course on the nature of science and issues of equity and diversity. We focused our investigation on beginning science teachers' views of science and science teaching, as well as the grounds they offered for their views. We organized our discussion of the nature of science, teacher learning, and grounds for views along three dimensions: personal, social, and political. We found that beginning teachers routinely drew from only one of these three dimensions to support their views of the nature of science and ways to represent science to all students. In our implications, we recommend that teacher educators encourage teacher learners to examine personal, social, and political grounds carefully and critically in the process of constructing or revising their views. We argue that attention to these three dimensions of grounds for views will assist beginning teachers in adopting nature of science positions that are broad and complex, that more clearly reflect the goals of equity and excellence, and thus, that hold greater promise for achieving a science education inclusive of all students. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 53–76, 2003


We study the minimum range assignment problem that consists in finding the range assignment that minimizes energy consumption in the network. We exhibit one bad behavior of classical graph reduction-based approaches: they only consider the sum of edges' weight as an optimization criterion. We then design a new graph reduction algorithm (the minimum power tree protocol) and its associated topology control algorithm (the incremental power topology control protocol). After proposing a local version of the protocol, we evaluate and compare their performance of these two protocols to the studied classical reduction-based approaches.


Examples are given of how the widespread learning processes of sexual imprinting, song learning and song preference learning may affect the evolutionary processes of sexual selection and speciation in birds. They show that sexual imprinting may occur together with perceptual biases, giving rise to preferences for mates with exaggerated traits. Sexual imprinting may also give rise to exaggeration of sexual dimorphism through "peak shift", a by-product of discrimination learning. Imprinting and song (preference) learning seem responsible for enabling or driving the rapid speciation of some avian brood parasites. The examples highlight the point that learning processes can have a profound impact on evolutionary processes and deserve prominent attention in evolutionary theory.


This study examines how relationship transitions affect subjective well-being (SWB) and how this effect changes over time. We used prospective data containing information about 18 years of young adults' lives (PSIN, N = 5,514). SWB was measured with the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Within-person multilevel regression analyses showed that dating, unmarried cohabitation, and marriage had additional well-being enhancing effects. After entry into a union, well-being slowly decreased. A large SWB decrease was found after union dissolution, but through adaptation or repartnering well-being increased again. Well-being of never-married and never cohabiting young adults decreased slowly over time. These effects were independent of parenthood and employment. Our results confirm expectations from the resources theory but contradict some assumptions of the set-point theory.


Team effectiveness is often explained on the basis of input-process-output (IPO) models. According to these models a relationship between organizational culture (input = I), interprofessional teamwork (process = P) and job satisfaction (output = O) is postulated. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between these three aspects using structural analysis. In this paper, with one model, the relationship between organizational culture, teamwork and job satisfaction to be addressed. The results showed that 35 percent of job satisfaction using structural equation model that includes corporate culture and teamwork is predicted. Compare this model to predict IPO ((organizational culture (I), inter-agency working group (P), job satisfaction (O)) and IO model to predict ((Organizational culture (I), job satisfaction (O)) showed that organizational culture has been completely modified by a working group within the organization. Organizational development through the promotion of a culture of teamwork that led to raising productivity and job satisfaction, and ultimately the development of society is to be institutionalized in the culture of the organization. The results underpin the importance of organizational teamwork within the show. In order to increase the efficiency of teamwork within the organization, interactions and side effects can be proposed and should be supported. While existing rules and regulations of employees in organizations to shape behaviour, organizational culture dictates the behaviour of informal workers.


In this study, sensor fault estimation and accommodation for discrete-time switched linear systems are investigated. By using descriptor observer method and switched Lyapunov function technique, efficient conditions to design the fault observer are obtained via a linear matrix inequality formulation. Then, based on the estimation of the sensor fault, an efficient fault-tolerant operation can be realised via sensor fault compensation. Finally, an example is given to illustrate the developed technique.


This paper reviews the modern aspects of grinding with regards to enhanced productivity and manufacturing quality demands. The basic mechanism of grinding and the applications for the state-of-the-art technology of high-speed grinding (HSG) with high-performance grinding wheels are presented. In addition to the improvements in the technology associated with HSG, the grinding machine-tool, the coolant system and the process monitoring also need to adapt to high-speed machining. In addition, the ground-surface integrity and the economic efficiency of HSG are also briefly discussed.


The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of rules changes in water polo on throws dynamics in numerical equality, counterattack and powerplay. The performance indicators observed in the Women's and Men's World Championships of 2003 and 2013 were compared. The observational design was nomothetic, multidimensional and follow-up. 8765 throws were analyzed, 4112 in the 2003 championship and 4372 in the 2013. In the women's competition, the rules changes influenced the following performance indicators of the numerical equality: frecuence (p <. 001) and technique (p =. 001); in counterattack: frecuence (p <. 001), distance (p <. 001) and efficacy (p =. 003); and in numerical desiquality: frecuence (p <. 001), distance (p <. 001), position (p =. 016) and technique (p =. 001). In the men's competition the indicators that showed dependence with the rules changes were the distance in counterattack (p =. 001) and powerplay (p <.001), and the technique in powerplay (p =. 036). In conclusion, the observational methodology allowed to verify the different effects in the throws dynamics caused by the new rules in both gender.


Background: Wide variation exists in the nutritional status of under 5 years children among districts/states and more focus is needed on less developed districts in order to allocate resources. Ranking of districts provide baseline information for allocating resources to poor ranking districts and can be considered for comparison of progress in future studies. Aims & Objectives: To rank the districts of Andhra Pradesh state using a multi-criteria decision making method based on the major nutritional and health indicators. Materials and Methods: Data provided by NFHS-4 on nutrition and health indicators of women and children in the state was used to rank the districts in the state. A multi-criteria decision making technique called TOPSIS is used for ranking of the districts in the state based on the selected health indicators. Results: It is observed that Krishna district ranked first and Vizianagaram holds the last rank. The better performing districts include Krishna, Chittoor, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam and Guntur, whereas poor performing districts include Vizianagaram, Kurnool, Srikakulam and Prakasham. Indicators such as per capita income, urbanization, sanitation, use of clean fuel and maternal education were observed high, while infant and maternal mortality was low in in good performing districts. Conclusion: It is concluded that the district with poor nutrition and health indicator ranked last while those with good indicators ranked first. The priority should be given for the development of poor performing districts to improve the above indicators by allocating more resources.


Flowering time of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a critical determinant of grain yield. Frost, drought and heat stresses from either overly early or overly late flowering can inflict significant yield penalties. The ability to predict time of flowering from different sowing dates for diverse cultivars across environments in Australia is important for maintaining yield as autumn rainfall events become less reliable. However, currently there are no models that can accurately do this when new cultivars are released. Two major Photoperiod1 and three Vernalisation1 development genes, with alleles identified by molecular markers, are known to be important in regulating phasic development and therefore time to anthesis, in response to the environmental factors of temperature and photoperiod. Allelic information from molecular markers has been used to parameterise models that could predict flowering time, but it is uncertain how much variation in flowering time can be explained by different alleles of the five major genes. This experiment used 13 elite commercial cultivars of wheat, selected for their variation in phenology and in turn allelic variation at the major development genes, and 13 near-isogenic lines (NILs) with matching multi-locus genotypes for the major development genes, to quantify how much response in time to flowering could be explained by alleles of the major genes. Genotypes were grown in four controlled environments at constant temperature of 22°C with factorial photoperiod (long or short day) and vernalisation (±) treatments applied. NILs were able to explain a large proportion of the variation of thermal time to flowering in elite cultivars in the long-day environment with no vernalisation (97%), a moderate amount in the short-day environment with no vernalisation (62%), and less in the short-day (51%) and long-day (47%) environments with vernalisation. Photoperiod was found to accelerate development, as observed in a reduction in phyllochron, thermal time to heading, thermal time to flowering, and decreased final leaf numbers. Vernalisation response was not as great, and rates of development in most genotypes were not significantly increased. The results indicate that the alleles of the five major development genes alone cannot explain enough variation in flowering time to be used to parameterise gene-based models that will be accurate in simulating flowering time under field conditions. Further understanding of the genetics of wheat development, particularly photoperiod response, is required before a model with genetically based parameter estimates can be deployed to assist growers to make sowing-time decisions for new cultivars.


The aim of this paper is to provide new insights on the French banking crisis of the1930's. This crisis is usually considered in the literature to have been relatively more limited in France than in other European countries. One feature of the French banking system at that time was the specialization of its activities: French banks were, for the most part, either deposit or business banks. The literature highlights the fact that business banks faced the greatest difficulties because they invested in foreignmarkets. The purpose of this article is to test this hypothesis with a new dataset of stock prices by estimating the risk on i) the aggregated banking sector; ii) on two subsamples, one including only deposit banks and the other one, only business banks and iii) on the individual series. We find that during the 1930's, business banks were indeed more risky than deposit banks, relative to the overall market.


Purpose This article describes common experiences of institutions that have pioneered the work of integrating nurse practitioners (NPs) into complex hospital environments and addresses effective strategies in achieving a centralized leadership model. Data sources We conducted an informal, written survey and focus group discussions comparing experiences of leaders who were first in the position of centralizing resources and providing leadership for NPs in a hospital‐based setting. Experiences were compared and common practices summarized. Conclusions The numbers of NPs required to provide patient care in an ever‐growing, complex hospital environment are increasing rapidly. To meet the professional needs of these hospital‐based NPs, a strong centralized leadership approach should be utilized. An organized and centralized approach to credentialing, program development, orientation, and evaluation processes will become necessary as hospitals continue to hire increased numbers of NPs. Implications for practice This article summarizes important considerations for formulating centralized leadership models for hospital‐based NPs and provides a guide for administrators and NPs who are attempting to build similar models.


Previously published methods for calculation of Abraham's polarity/polarizability and hydrogen bond acidity and basicity descriptors are validated for their ability to predict the various partition coefficients of 80 challenging molecules. As well as this indirect validation, accurate log P predictions are shown to be possible by using directly the fundamental molecular properties used in the calculation of descriptors. From a general point of view, the van der Waals and hydrogen bond interactions present between the solute and the water/solvent system can be represented by charge-based interactions, which are partitioned into a positive and a negative term (Sigma(T)V(Max) and Sigma(T)V(Min)), dipole-based interactions (mu) and induced dipole-based interactions (alpha); further stabilization is possible if solute and solvent densities come into contact and overlap (Sigma(T)E). A discussion is opened on the possibility to extend this set to describe systems with electron donor/acceptor interactions other than hydrogen bonding.


Introduction and Background: This paper presents a case study from Sally Mugabe Central Hospital; that examines the interactions of public health organisational leadership with its environment, within the context of Zimbabwe's unique social, economic and political circumstances.
Objective: To investigate how the local context and local environment of Zimbabwe's unique social, economic and political situation have interacted with the leadership of Sally Mugabe Central Hospital as a Zimbabwean public health institution.
Methods: A combination of semi-structured interviews and document analysis were used to conduct the research. Purposive sampling and expert sampling were used to select respondents for interviews. Content analysis of relevant administrative and management documents kept at the participating institution was carried out. This research is located within the theoretical framework of Health Policy and Systems Research (HPSR); and examines the institutional level or meso-level of the healthcare system.
Results and Discussion: Research findings are discussed under subheadings that correspond to the interactions of social, economic and political factors with public health institutional leadership.
Recommendations: Based on the research findings of this case study, recommendations are made on relevant and effective changes to practice, for the leadership of Zimbabwean public health institutions, recommendations that may have someapplicability elsewhere as well, on the basis of lessons learnt.
Conclusion: The problem of chronic underfunding; as well as the social, economic and political challenges that have been experienced at the institutional level in the Zimbabwean public health system; require innovative and adaptive public health leadership that can confront adversity in a complex environment.


An anticline three miles west of Loveland, Colorado, exposes Precambrian basement rock, and permits a study of fold mechanisms within the en echelon fold belt of the Colorado Front Range. The contrast in mechanical properties between basement rock and superjacent sediments has resulted in two entirely different mechanisms of folding in this area. Studies of fold geometry, jointing, and stratigraphic thickness indicate that the sedimentary rocks yielded to Laramide stresses by concentric folding, up to a limiting curvature. Thereafter, additional displacements took place by faulting across the steeper limb of the anticline. The relationships of Precambrian structures to the fold geometry indicate that basement adjustments to Laramide stresses took place by differential movement along pre-existing fractures, within a zone adjacent to the unconformity that separates the basement from the sedimentary cover. In the lower basement zone, displacement along high angle reverse faults is virtually the only recognizable feature of Laramide deformation.


Clear agricultural policies and strategies are very crucial for influencing the performance of agricultural extension and advisory services (AEAS). Malawi has implemented its agricultural extension policy titled "agricultural extension in the new millennium: towards pluralistic and demand driven services in Malawi" for a period of seventeen years. The policy specified seven guiding principles which include provision of demand-driven extension services, ensuring accountability, promoting user participation in extension financing, ensuring resource sustainability, ensuring equal access to extension and advisory services, promotion of pluralism and provision of decentralised but well-coordinated AEAS. The study assessed the effectiveness of four of the seven principles in ensuring user access to quality AEAS. The study used a mixed methods approach which included action research, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and review of various documents. The results show that the four guiding principles which included pluralism, demand-driven services, decentralised coordination and user participation in extension financing had some potential for a positive influence on increasing access to quality AEAS. Pluralism helped in increasing number of service providers thereby increasing farmer access but did not influence the quality of extension. Most of the farmers are not demanding for services and most districts do not have functional District Agriculture Extension Services System (DAESS) structures. Most service providers are not using DAESS structures and this is resulting in poor coordination of services. Malawi should put more efforts in implementing the policy if its fruits are to be fully realised. Particularly, institutionalization of DAESS structures and ensuring their effective operationalization will help to ensure that the benefits of the principles of demand driven services and decentralised coordination are realized. The country also needs to train and engage more extension workers in order to increase farmer access to quality extension services.

 Key words:  Agricultural extension policy, accountability, coordination, decentralised extension, demand-driven services, extension financing, pluralism.


Data from the X-Ray Telescope (XRT) and the EUV Imaging Spectrometer (EIS) on the Japanese/USA/UK Hinode spacecraft were used to investigate the spatial and thermal properties of an isolated quiescent coronal loop. We constructed differential emission measure (DEM) curves using Monte Carlo based, iterative forward fitting algorithms. We studied the loop as a whole, in segments, in transverse cuts, and point-by-point, always with some form of background subtraction, and find that the loop DEM is neither isothermal nor extremely broad, with approximately 96% of the EM between 6.2 ⩽log T⩽ 6.7, and an EM-weighted temperature of log T = 6.48 ± 0.16. We find evidence for a gradual change in temperature along the loop, with log T increasing only by ≈0.1 from the footpoints to the peak. The combine XRT–EIS data set does a good job of constraining the temperature distribution for coronal loop plasma. Our studies show that the strong constraints at high and low temperatures provided by the combined data set are crucial for obtaining reasonable solutions. These results confirm that the observations of at least some loops are not consistent with isothermal plasma, and therefore cannot be modeled with a single flux tube and must be multi-stranded.


Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between daytime and night-time mean blood pressure (BP) on carotid artery stiffness (CAS) and wave intensity (WI) in 1) hypertensive patients (pts) and in 2) the subgroups formed according to the circadian patterns of BP. Design and method: We investigated 148 hypertensive pts, mean age 58 years. The subgroups were created according to the circadian patterns (64 dippers, 56 non-dippers, 14 extreme dippers, 14 reverse dippers). Measurements of CAS and WI were performed on right common carotid artery (CCA) using ultrasound combined with echo-tracking. We analysed stiffness parameters: stiffness index (beta), pressure-strain elasticity modulus (Ep), arterial compliance (AC), augmentation index (AIx) and one-point pulse wave velocity (PWV). Parameters of WI: W1- correlates with the maximum rate of left ventricular pressure; W2 - occurs towards the end of ejection; negative area (NA) - indicates the effects of reflected waves, pre-ejection period (r-W1), ejection period (W1–2), provide the information about ventricular-arterial coupling. Results: Systolic daytime and night-time mean BP correlated with AIx (r = -0.32, p < 0.0001; r = -0.32, p < 0.0001), with mean CCA diameter (r = 0.30, p < 0.0001; r = 0.37, p < 0.0001) and with mean W1 (r = 0.31, p < 0.0001; r = 0.32, p < 0.0001). Daytime and night-time diastolic BP significantly correlated with AIx. Compared with dippers the stiffness values were higher in non-dippers, but highest in reverse dippers (PWVdipper = 7.2m/s, reverse dipper = 7.9m/s, p = 0.03). Similarly mean diameter was larger in non-dippers and largest in reverse dippers. On the other hand AIx was lower in non-dippers and lowest in reverse dippers. Value r-W1 was lowest in reverse group (r-W1 dipper = 98ms, reverse dipper = 80.5ms, p < 0.01). Differences between the stiffness values in dippers and extreme dippers were statistically not significant. Conclusions: Relationship between systolic daytime and night-time BP with AIx and W1 may provide information about the impact of BP on wave reflection and ventricular-arterial coupling. The stiffness values were significantly elevated in non-dippers and mainly in reverse dippers.


In this study, a new thermochemical route to produce lignocellulosic ethanol based on DME (dimethyl ether) hydrocarbonylation is proposed and economically assessed. The process is designed and evaluated using current kinetic laboratory data for hydrocarbonylation reactions. Only available technologies or those expected to be available in the short term are considered for the process design, which involves biomass pretreatment and gasification (indirect circulating fluidized bed), gas clean-up and conditioning, methanol synthesis, DME production by methanol dehydration and DME hydrocarbonylation. The process is designed to be both energy self-sufficient and electrical energy neutral. For a plant size of 2140 dry tonnes/day of wood chip (500 MW HHV) the minimum selling price of ethanol (for a 10% rate of return and a biomass price of 66 $/dry tonne) ranges from 0.555 to 0.592 USD 2010/L of automotive grade ethanol with fixed capital costs between 333 and 352 M USD 2010. Energy efficiency of biomass to ethanol ranges from 44.35 to 45.53% (high heating value basis). These results compare favorably with the "state of the art" production of ethanol via biochemical pathway from lignocellulosic biomass, revealing that the DME hydrocarbonylation route is a promising one that could be cost-competitive in the near future.


On December 26, 2004, a massive tsunami resulted to recode extensive damages in the Indian Ocean. The recorded death toll was more than 35,000, and approximately one million people were affected in Sri Lanka. Lack of awareness was the main reason for massive damage. After this tsunami incident, Sri Lanka was also categorized as a tsunami-vulnerable country. Several past studies have contributed to introducing proper mechanisms that would minimize the damages from the next tsunami incident. Most tsunami-vulnerable areas have been covered by horizontal tsunami evacuation after 2004, and people need to travel great distances to reach tsunami evacuation centers due to the lower elevation profile of the coastal area. The purpose of this study was to spatially evaluate the potential for tsunami vertical evacuation in the western coastal belt in Sri Lanka. The western coastal belt selected by considering the existing urban structure and tsunami vulnerability. Several criteria and assumptions have been computed to achieve the goal of the study. In this analysis, three tsunami scenarios 4 m, 8 m, and 12 m were used to identify potential vertical evacuation sites. According to the results of the inundation ratio, the category of critical buildings can be increased to 1.7% and 67.0% in 4 m and 12 m scenarios, respectively. It was indicated that the 12 m scenario consisted of more damage than the other two scenarios. Tsunami evacuation sites were selected based on the three tsunami scenarios and 220, 232 and 122 sites were selected for the 4 m, 8 m and 12 m tsunami scenarios, respectively. According to the calculations of the capacity of each site, the selected 220 sites will facilitate 17,594 people during the 4 m tsunami scenario. The selected 232 sites will accommodate 25,677 people during the 8 m scenarios. All selected sites are capable of accommodating the affected population in both the 4 m and the 8 m scenarios. However, the selected evacuation sites are not sufficient for accommodating the affected population in the 12 m scenario. In the 12 m scenario, 12,221 people are affected. However, the evacuation sites can only accommodate 10,165 people. The finding of


Since 1998, US schools and libraries have received $2.25 billion annually to provide internet access. The average estimated effect on educational outcomes for Texas high school outcomes are modest both for measures related to college preparedness and for subject area standardized test scores. Educational outcome improvements were greater at the low-income schools targeted by the program, but the difference in impacts are also small.


As a kind of green and sustainable technology, electric vehicles are continuously highlighted for solving the significant problems of energy and air pollution. In this paper, fault tolerance optimization of an air-cooled lithium battery pack having a damaged unit was considered to improve the heat dissipation performance. For constructing the relationship between the objective function and the design variables, a quadratic polynomial response function was set up based on the experimental points, which were selected by the Latin-hypercube design of experiment method. Then, a multi-island genetic algorithm-based optimization of the battery pack having a damaged unit was performed under the condition of adjusting the flow velocity of each inlet. The results show that the acceptable temperature differences were obtained under the condition of fixing the total mass flow rate of the inlets. The simulation and fault tolerance optimization methods recommended in this study can be widely used to improve the real safety level of the systems.


This paper presents a methodology in order to evaluate the security of electrical industrial systems considering security, quality, reliability and availability factors and the system response to sudden disturbances such as short circuit and harmonics.The models proposed using the probabilistic networks theory: Bayesian Networks and Generalized Stochastic Petri Nets. The obtained results allow the identification of hidden failures and erroneus coordination of protection. The models are tested on the IEEE 493 system proposed by the IEEE Gold Book.


: Controllable synthesis of MoS 2 with desired number of layers via chemical vapor deposition (CVD) remains challenging. Hence, it is highly desirable to develop a theoretical model that can be used to predict the single- and multilayer growth of MoS 2 quantitatively, and provide guidelines for experimental fabrication. Herein we have established a kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) model to predict the CVD growth of mono- and bilayer MoS 2 . First, we proposed that the growth rates of layer 1 and layer 2 were governed by the distribution of the adatom concentration, and the growth kinetics of compact triangular MoS 2 followed the kink nucleation-propagation mechanism. The adatom concentration was formulated in terms of adatom flux, effective lifetime of adatoms, growth temperature, binding energies, edge energies, and nucleation criterion. The kink nucleation and propagation were determined by energy barriers of the adatom attachments to the zigzag and armchair edges. We then employed an analytic thermodynamic criterion to extract these parameters. Using the calibrated model, we found that the growth rate of layer 2 strongly depended on the size of layer 1 and decreased monotonically with increasing size of layer 1, and might even become prohibited at the maximum size of layer 1. Furthermore, we analyzed the size and morphology evolutions of bilayer MoS 2 at different growth temperatures and adatom fluxes. Throughout the growth processes of bilayer MoS 2 , the morphologies of layers 1 and 2 maintained triangular shapes with compact edges, consistent with the kink nucleation-propagation growth mechanism. Our simulations revealed that the growth of bilayer MoS 2 was promoted by increasing the growth temperature or decreasing the adatom flux, which corroborated the experimental observations. The increase in growth temperature led to reduced adatom concentration at the edge of layer 2 in accordance with the adatom concentration far from the edge of layer 2, resulting in a consistent difference in the adatom concentration to promote the growth of bilayer MoS 2 . Similarly, the decrease in adatom flux lowered the difference between the adatom concentrations far from the edge and at the edge of layer 1, decelerating the growth of layer 1. The decelerated growth of layer 1 reduced the difference between the adatom concentrations far from the edge and at the edge of layer 2 to zero, permitting the growth of bilayer MoS 2 . To guide the experimental synthesis, we constructed a phase diagram to delineate the permitted or prohibited growth of bilayer MoS 2 at different growth temperatures and adatom fluxes. Hence, this work not only unveils the conditions for the growth of mono- and bi-layer MoS 2 , but also provides guidelines for controllable synthesis of MoS 2 with the desired number of layers.


Developments in information technology very rapidly in recent years a positive impact on many aspects of life, including in the business world. One concept that is assessed that the new business is E-Commerce or Commonly called Online Business. There are many sites that do Transactions of Goods or Services through E-Commerce, for example, the Sale and Purchase at online shopping sites in Tokopedia which emphasizes the Transaction Customer to Customer (C2C). C2C is one model of e-commerce in this case consumers sell directly to consumers who want to buy, or may be called as a transaction between the consumer. Activity C2C can be done in many ways over the internet. Auksi is one example of the best known C2C activities. Many people make purchases and sales on eBay and hundreds of auction website. Other examples of C2C activities are classification advertising, personal services, exchange, sale of virtual properties and supporting services. In the online shopping site that emphasizes C2C Transactions Transactions Using Transactions Rekber piggybank so as to secure for consumers. Rekber piggybank principle similar to that occurred in Escrow Payment System, the system Rekber piggybank an agreement between the seller and the buyer or producer and the consumer to use the services of a third person as the place of payment and the payee. Therefore Rekber piggybank exists to support and secure the sale and purchase of Online Transactions on the site piggybank. So that the transaction using the system Rekber piggybank can be used as a system that can promise Consumers and sellers can trust each other.


The Hunterian at the University of Glasgow are holding an exhibition "Scottish Gold" (14.3.14 - 15.6.14)and also publishing a book of the same name to accompany the exhibition.
This book is the first comprehensive look at the use of gold in Scotland from prehistoric times to the present day. It guides the reader through the natural history of gold to how we have used gold in the past and use it now in the present, as well as looking at the history of gold use in Scotland from the earliest recorded discovery of gold in Scotland in 1245 and the first use of gold coinage in Scotland to pay a king's ransom in about 1357, to the Darien disaster of the late 1600s and beyond.


Sarcopenia in end-stage kidney disease patients requiring dialysis is a frequent complication but remains an under-recognized problem. This meta-analysis was conducted to determine the prevalence of sarcopenia and explored its impacts on clinical outcomes, especially cardiovascular events, and mortality in dialysis patients. The eligible studies were searched from PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled trials up to 31 March 2022. We included studies that reported the interested outcomes, and the random-effects model was used for analysis. Forty-one studies with 7576 patients were included. The pooled prevalence of sarcopenia in dialysis patients was 25.6% (95% CI 22.1 to 29.4%). Sarcopenia was significantly associated with higher mortality risk (adjusted OR 1.83 (95% CI 1.40 to 2.39)) and cardiovascular events (adjusted OR 3.80 (95% CI 1.79 to 8.09)). Additionally, both low muscle mass and low muscle strength were independently related to increased mortality risk in dialysis patients (OR 1.71; 95% CI (1.20 to 2.44), OR 2.15 (95% CI 1.51 to 3.07)), respectively. This meta-analysis revealed that sarcopenia was highly prevalent among dialysis patients and shown to be an important predictor of cardiovascular events and mortality. Future intervention research to alleviate this disease burden in dialysis patients is needed.


Beginning in November 2012, New Haven, Connecticut, served as the pilot site for Project Longevity, a statewide focused deterrence gun violence reduction strategy. The intervention brings law enforcement, social services, and community members together to meet with members of violent street groups at program call-ins. Using autoregressive integrated moving average models and controlling for the possibility of a non-New Haven–specific decline in gun violence, a decrease in group offending patterns, and the limitations of police-defined group member involved (GMI) categorization of shootings and homicides, the results of our analysis show that Longevity is associated with a reduction of almost five GMI incidents per month. These findings bolster research confirming the efficacy of focused deterrence approaches to reducing gun violence.


OBJECTIVES
Data concerning the complications of TVT are rare, incomplete and discordant. We therefore decided to record all intraoperative and postoperative complications of TVT observed in our experience and to evaluate these complications as a function of the patients and operators.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
This was a single-centre retrospective study of 157 patients with a mean follow-up of 24 months (range: 5 to 50 months). We performed TVT either alone (76%) or associated with another pelvic surgical procedure (24%), especially simple vaginal hysterectomy (10%), and surgical repair of prolapse (14%). Some TVTs were performed in the presence of sphincter incompetence (32%) or mixed urinary incontinence (7%). The patient's history of pelvic surgery, vaginal surgery associated with TVT, the operator's experience, and the type of anaesthesia performed were assessed as risk factors for complications of TVT.

RESULTS
The following complications were observed: bladder perforation (4.5%), urethral injury (0.6%), haemorrhagic dissection (5%), pelvic haematoma (0.6%), obturator nerve lesion (0.6%), suprapubic abscess (2%), urinary tract infection (7%), complete and lasting urinary retention (4%), expulsion of the TVT (2%), migration of the TVT (0.6%), de novo detrusor instability (1.5%). TVT was ineffective in 3% of patients.

CONCLUSION
Although a global TVT complication rate of 28.4% in our series may seem high, it should be noted that these complications have a limited morbidity and usually have no consequences. Bladder perforation, haemorrhagic dissection, and urinary retention are the complications most frequently reported (4% to 5%). In this series, a history of pelvic surgery, an associated vaginal surgical procedure, and the operator's experience did not constitute risk factors for complication except in the case of haemorrhagic dissections; a history of pelvic surgery appeared to be a risk factor for intraoperative bleeding. In our experience, it is difficult to evaluate whether or not the type of anaesthesia performed for TVT increases the complication rate.


Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) is a C11 PET tracer designed to bind to amyloid plaques, one of the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The potential of PiB as an early marker of Alzheimer's disease has lead to an increasing use of PiB and the development of several F18 equivalents. Quantitative analysis of PiB images requires an accurate normalisation, parcellation and estimation of retention in the brain's gray matter. Typically this relies on co-registered MRI to extract the cerebellum, compute the standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) and provide parcellation and segmentation for quantification of neocortical SUVR. However, not all subjects undergo MRI. In this paper we propose a highly accurate MR-less parcellation, SUVR normalisation and quantification method for PiB images. This involves rigidly registering the raw PiB images to a PiB atlas, computing pair-wise normalised mutual information, and constructing a 2D manifold. Each new scan is mapped on the manifold and its k nearest neighbours are selected as atlases in a segmentation propagation scheme with their associated MRI segmentations and parcellation used as priors to estimate the SUVR normalisation and quantification. Comparison of our MRless approach to an MR-based approach showed a coefficient of correlation of neocortical PiB SUVR of R2=0.94 and an absolute mean error of 5.9%.


Cloud providers, like Amazon and Microsoft, must guarantee high availability for a large fraction of their workloads. For this reason, they build datacenters with redundant infrastructures for power delivery and cooling. Typically, the redundant resources are reserved for use only during infrastructure failure or maintenance events, so that workload performance and availability do not suffer. Unfortunately, the reserved resources also produce lower power utilization and, consequently, require more datacenters to be built. To address these problems, in this paper we propose "zero-reserved-power" datacenters and the Flex system to ensure that workloads still receive their desired performance and availability. Flex leverages the existence of software-redundant workloads that can tolerate lower infrastructure availability, while imposing minimal (if any) performance degradation for those that require high infrastructure availability. Flex mainly comprises (1) a new offline workload placement policy that reduces stranded power while ensuring safety during failure or maintenance events, and (2) a distributed system that monitors for failures and quickly reduces the power draw while respecting the workloads' requirements, when it detects a failure. Our evaluation shows that Flex produces less than 5% stranded power and increases the number of deployed servers by up to 33%, which translates to hundreds of millions of dollars in construction cost savings per datacenter site. We end the paper with lessons from our experience bringing Flex to production in Microsoft's datacenters.


Apart from pelvic infections in women, complications of gonorrhoea have come to be regarded as uncommon to the point of rarity. Prompt treatment is usually sought by men and seems virtually to have eliminated both acute and chronic complications. Women have been less fortunate, however, owing to delay in treatment resulting from absence ofsymptoms or misinterpretation of the early trivial ill effects. Metastatic gonorrhoea is still described in the textbooks, but many experienced venereologists have never seen it. Nevertheless there have been occasional reports, chiefly from North America, of an apparently mild condition resulting from invasion of the blood stream by the gonococcus. Two such cases were reported in Britain by E. P. O'Sullivan' in 1964, and C. B. Wolff, H. V. Goodman, and J. Vahrman2 described four more cases in the B.M.J. earlier this year. The condition is more common in women than men, and is characterized by mild systemic reaciion with pyrexia, polyarthritis which tends to be migratory but may localize in a single joint, and lesions of the skin occurring in crops. These lesions, papular with a scanty peripheral distribution, are surrounded by erythema and tend to evolve into pustules. Some of the pustules are likely to be haemorrhagic, and the occurrence of haemorrhagic bullae has been described by H. Keil3 and by A. B. Ackerman.4 Large or small joints may be affected, and the skin overlying the joints may show erythema and even lymphangitis. Wolff and his colleagues grew gonococci from the cervix uteri and from the blood stream in their first case, from joint fluid and the urethra in the second, from the blood in the third, and from the cervix and blood in the fourth. The condition responded well to penicillin. The fact that all four cases were diagnosed in one group of hospitals within a year (and in the same group in which two cases had been detected five years previously) suggests that these cases may be more common than is supposed and that lack of awareness may be a barrier to correct diagnosis. In differential diagnosis Reiter's disease has to be considered, and other possibilities are chronic meningococcal septicaemia and low-grade staphylococcal septicaemia. The increase in the spread of gonorrhoea is such that more of these cases are likely to occur. Another complication which was always rare and is now practically forgotten is gonorrhoea perihepatitis. In the past it has been described only in women and usually as a sequel to pelvic infection. It may present with sudden onset of pain in the right hypochondrium, which may be referred to the right shoulder. The patient may be moderately or acutely ill with variable fever and signs suggesting peritonitis in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. The symptoms and signs may suggest cholecystitis, pneumonia, or pleurisy. M. W. Kimball and S. Knee5 have recently described such a case in a man; the organism was recovered from the liver by biopsy. Presumably the condition remains rare, but it presents another possible diagnostic pitfall.


During the past decades, software engineering has changed due to the growing number of available components and the pressure to produce software systems of larger complexity in ever shorter periods of time. The task of integrating components has thus become equally important as developing those components. Unfortunately, components typically do not come with fitting screws and bolts that make such an integration an easy task. Especially when it comes to the integration of user interface (UI) components, current approaches still lack mechanisms for seamlessly integrating components and allowing cross-component interactions, most notably when heterogeneous components, developed with different technologies and programming languages, are involved. UI integration typically involves the acquisition of knowledge about the applications' internal functionality as well as many hacks and workarounds, which in the end lead to code-tangling and a monolithic architecture that is hard to maintain. This paper discusses an approach employing formal ontologies and rules for overcoming these problems and simplifying UI integration.


This paper seeks to give an overview of the current status of multilingualism and interpreting in the EU institutions at a time when English is increasingly used as a lingua franca. It examines the use of English in the different EU bodies and the extent to which ELF (English as a lingua franca) has an impact on the use of other languages. After evaluating the advantages and disadvantages of an English-only EU, the reactions of interpreters and interpreting services to the rise of ELF are analysed. In closing, the article reviews possible strategic actions the interpreting services could endorse in order to facilitate a more realistic and less resentful response to an inevitable phenomenon.


Abraham Lincoln's 1842 Temperance Address can be understood as an act of cultural criticism delivered in epideictic form in which the young politician demonstrated his leadership ability by presenting his political philosophy. Lincoln exploited the capacious indeterminacy of meaning afforded by the discourse of the flourishing temperance movement to address indirectly problems plaguing the American republic, namely incivility and slavery. Offering only hushed praise for Washington, Lincoln silenced the slaveholding founders so that the sensibilities of a new generation of men could be heard. Lincoln constructed a Whig manhood grounded in ideals of entrepreneurialism and restraint that demonstrated his fitness to lead his party and the Second American Revolution.


Process mining is a body of methods to analyze event logs produced during the execution of business processes in order to extract insights for their improvement. A family of process mining methods, known as automated process discovery, allows analysts to extract business process models from event logs. Traditional automated process discovery methods are intended to be used in an offline setting, meaning that the process model is extracted from a snapshot of an event log stored in its entirety. In some scenarios however, events keep coming with a high arrival rate to the extent that it is impractical to store the entire event log and to continuously re-discover a process model from scratch. Such scenarios require online automated process discovery approaches. Given an event stream produced by the execution of a business process, the goal of an online automated process discovery method is to maintain a continuously updated model of the process with a bounded amount of memory while at the same time achieving similar accuracy as offline methods. Existing automated discovery approaches require relatively large amounts of memory to achieve levels of accuracy comparable to that of offline methods. This thesis proposes a online process discovery framework that addresses this limitation by mapping the problem of online process discovery to that of cache memory management, and applying well-known cache replacement policies to the problem of online process discovery. The proposed framework has been implemented in .NET, integrated with the Minit process mining tool and comparatively evaluated against an existing baseline, using real-life datasets.


Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g.)-induced TNF-α can be affected by muramyl dipeptide (MDP) in a biphasic concentration-dependent manner. We found that in P.g.-exposed macrophages, treatment with 10 μg/mL of MDP (MDP-low) up-regulated TNF-α by 29%, while 100 μg/mL or higher (MDP-high) significantly decreased it (16% to 38%). MDP-high was found to affect the ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 and activator protein 1 (AP1). An AP1 binding site was found in the promoter region of A20. A20 promoter activity was up-regulated after transfection of AP1 cDNA in cells. Four analogues of MDP (3-6) were prepared through a convergent strategy involving the synthesis of two unique carbohydrate fragments, 7a and 7b, using the peptide coupling reagents, EDCI and HOAt. Analogue 4 improved MDP function and P.g.-induced activities. We propose a new signaling pathway for TNF-α induction activated after exposing macrophages to both P.g. and MDP-high or analogue 4.


The occurrence of U-shaped dose-response relationships (often termed hormesis) has been documented in numerous biological, toxicological, and pharmacological investigations. Many of the endpoints studied are of considerable significance to public health (e.g. body weight, cholesterol levels, ethanol consumption, longevity, cancer incidence, etc). Despite the fact that U-shaped dose-responses are widely and independently observed, little attempt has been made to assess this phenomenon in an integrative manner. This review provides an overview of the historical foundations of hormesis and a discussion of its definition within a mechanistic framework. The occurrence, generalizability, and biological significance of U-shaped dose-response relationships along with the concept of biological optimality are addressed.


Abstract Defects of the central face can pose significant reconstructive challenges and are some of the most frequently encountered defects in facial reconstructive surgery. Familiarity with the repair of such defects is essential. At our institution, we have found that a systematic approach to central facial defects allows for superior results. We present that approach here using several cases to demonstrate the intraoperative planning involved. The cosmetic units and subunits within the defect must be identified. The defect must then be assessed for structural defects and deep soft tissue defects, which can be repaired utilizing cartilage grafts and hinge flaps respectively. Superficial defects of the cheek, lip, and nasal sidewall can then be assessed and repaired, taking advantage of the available tissue reservoirs using adjacent sliding flaps. The remaining distal nasal defect can then be repaired, depending on size, with a full-thickness skin graft, a cheek interpolation flap, or if necessary, a paramedian forehead flap. This systematic approach to reconstructing central facial defects simplifies seemingly complex reconstructive challenges and optimizes results.


Two-dimensional oscillatory neural networks for energy efficient neuromorphic computing The 4 th and 5 th of February 2020, in Montpellier (France), at the premises of LIRMM, CNRS the Kick-off meeting of NeurONN took place. All the Partners of the NeurONN Consortium met and set the ground for the activities along the three-year duration of the EU Project. NeurONN 1 is a research project funded by H2020 EU's research and innovation programme with core subject "Energy-efficient bio-inspired devices accelerate route to brain-like computing". The project with duration of 36 months (1 January 2020-31 December 2022) brings together leading European research and academic institutions. Neuro-inspired computing employs technologies that enable brain-inspired computing hardware for more efficient and adaptive intelligent systems. Mimicking the human brain and nervous system, these computing architectures are excellent candidates for solving complex and large-scale associative learning problems. The EU-funded NeurONN project will showcase a novel and alternative neuromorphic computing paradigm based on energy-efficient devices and architectures. In the proposed neuro-inspired computing architecture, information will be encoded in the phase of coupled oscillating neurons or oscillatory neural networks (ONN).


In this paper, we investigate a divide and conquer approach to Kernel Ridge Regression (KRR). Given n samples, the division step involves separating the points based on some underlying disjoint partition of the input space (possibly via clustering), and then computing a KRR estimate for each partition. The conquering step is simple: for each partition, we only consider its own local estimate for prediction. We establish conditions under which we can give generalization bounds for this estimator, as well as achieve optimal minimax rates. We also show that the approximation error component of the generalization error is lesser than when a single KRR estimate is fit on the data: thus providing both statistical and computational advantages over a single KRR estimate over the entire data (or an averaging over random partitions as in other recent work, [30]). Lastly, we provide experimental validation for our proposed estimator and our assumptions.


Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs) are a group of chronic inflammatory conditions mainly of the colon and small intestine. Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) are the most frequent types of IBD. IBD is a complex disease which arises as a result of the interaction of environmental, genetic and immunological factors. It is increasingly thought that alterations of immunological reactions of the patients to their own enterable bacteria (microfilm) may contribute to inflammation. It is characterized by mucosal and sub mucosal inflammation, perpetuated by infiltration of activated leukocytes. CD may affect the whole gastrointestinal tract while UC only attacks the large intestine. The therapeutic goal is to achieve a steroid-free long lasting remission in both entities. UC has the possibility to be cured by a total colectomy, while CD never can be cured by any operation. A lifelong intake of drugs is mostly necessary and essential. Medical treatment of IBD has to be individualized to each patient and usually starts with anti-inflammatory drugs. The choice what kind of drugs and what route administered (oral, rectal, intravenous) depends on factors including the type, the localization, and severity of the patient's disease. IBD may require immune-suppression to control symptoms such as prednisolone, thiopurines, calcineurin or sometimes folic acid inhibitors or biologics like TNF-α inhibitors or anti-integrin antibodies. For both types of disease (CD, UC) the same drugs are available but they differ in their preference in efficacy between CD and UC as 5-aminosalicylic acid for UC or budesonide for ileocecal CD. As therapeutic alternative the main mediators of the disease, namely the activated pro-inflammatory cytokine producing leukocytes can be selectively removed via two apheresis systems (Adacolumn and Cellsorba) in steroid-refractory or dependent cases. Extracorporeal photopheresis results in an increase of regulatory B cells, regulatory CD8(+) T cells and T-regs Type 1. Both types of apheresis were able to induce clinical remission and mucosal healing accompanied by tapering of steroids.


Nudging is a behavioral strategy aimed at influencing people's thoughts and actions. Nudging techniques can be found in many situations in our daily lives, and these nudging techniques can targeted at human fast and unconscious thinking, e.g., by using images to generate fear or the more careful and effortful slow thinking, e.g., by releasing information that makes us reflect on our choices. In this paper, we propose and discuss a value-based AI-human collaborative framework where AI systems nudge humans by proposing decision recommendations. Three different nudging modalities, based on when recommendations are presented to the human, are intended to stimulate human fast thinking, slow thinking, or meta-cognition. Values that are relevant to a specific decision scenario are used to decide when and how to use each of these nudging modalities. Examples of values are decision quality, speed, human upskilling and learning, human agency, and privacy. Several values can be present at the same time, and their priorities can vary over time. The framework treats values as parameters to be instantiated in a specific decision environment.


Dr. Anant R. Kukreti, Ph.D., is Director for Engineering Outreach and Professor in the School of Energy, Environmental, Biological and Medical Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Cincinnati Ohio, USA. He joined UC on 8/15/00 and before that worked 22 years at University of Oklahoma. He teaches structural mechanics, with research in steel structures, seismic analysis and design, and engineering education. He has won five major university teaching awards, two Professorships, two national ASEE teaching awards, and is internationally recognized in his primary research field.


Abstrack—This article porpuse to explain the notion of educational supervision, the function of education supervision, education supervision lingkupspace adn role and behavior of supervisors.


The article devoted to specific features of relations of the Russian Empire with the Emirate of Bukhara and the Khanate of Khiva on the base of treaties signed in 1873, which are considered to fix the status of these Central Asian polities as Russian protectorates. The author examined preconditions of signing of these treaties, analyses the treaties of Russia with Khiva and Bukhara, gives a formal legal characterization of their form and content. The article is an attempt to explain the reasons of including by Russian authors in these treaties of specific statements which were to provide the control of the Russian Empire under the policy of the khanates in different areas as well as further practical implementation of these statements. Sometimes these reasons are not so obvious and it makes the author analyze not only literal sense of treaties, but also their "spirit", i. e. implication within the context of Russo-Bukharan and Russo-Khivan relations before and after the establishment of the protectorate. The analysis of historical sources (legal acts, another official documents, contemporary testimonies, periodicals) and the results of previously made research allows the author to conclude that relations of the Russian Empire with authorities of Bukhara and Khiva were a complex of activities within the policy of the frontier modernization with due regard for specific features of political-legal and social-economical position of the khanates and intricate international situation as well as contradictions of different authorities in the Russian Empire itself.


Paraffin is a low-temperature phase change material, which is often used to recover and store heat in a solar thermal utilization system. This study aims to reveal the development and migration law of paraffin melting interface with time under the influence of a finned heating plate, as well as the heat transfer mechanism, and obtain the ways and methods to enhance the heat transfer in phase change material through visual experiments and numerical simulation. The research shows that once the paraffin with a high liquid fraction connects the mushy zone between the fin and the top wall, the vortexes in the mushy zone increases rapidly, which enhances the natural convective heat transfer in it, resulting in the rapid increase of liquid fraction. The lower the position of the fin, the longer the time required to form a mushy zone with a high liquid fraction between the fin and the top wall, and the later the phenomenon of rapid increase of liquid fraction occurs. Compared with changing the fin position, increasing the fin length has a greater effect on the paraffin melting rate. When other conditions remain unchanged, the inclination of fin and the effective length of fin in the horizontal direction jointly determine the melting rate of paraffin. The melting effect of paraffin is the best when the fin is inclined upward by 15°.


This study examines demographic and psychosocial factors associated with drug use of fifth through eighth grade students (N = 873). Nearly 28 percent of the students surveyed reported using cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana in the preceding four months. Associations with drug using peers had twice as much influence on drug use as the adolescent's own favorable drug use attitude. Both variables together explained 55 percent of the variance. Involvement in problem behaviors, beliefs about personal consequences of drug-taking, and adult and peer reinforcement and expectations were statistically significant and accounted for an additional 8 percent of the variance.


On the basis of fieldwork conducted in Shanghai, this article explores how Chinese rural-to-urban migrant women cope with the stigmatization they face as a result of conflicting gender norms regarding singlehood and marriage in their home communities and in Shanghai. We focus on how migrant women legitimate their relationship status as single, married or having a boyfriend in relation to these norms. Our findings reveal that migrant women, while not rejecting existing norms outright, actively pre-empt or counteract the stigmatization of their singlehood or of the fact that they live apart from their husband using coping strategies that exploit their position in between the urban context and their rural hometowns in intricate ways.


Nigeria has a high incidence of poverty among women and needs to create more employment to tackle the scourge. While women increased their access to non ‑ agricultural employment, their share of employment has remained relatively constant. This paper examines the constraints to full employment and decent work for women. Women are more affected by the contraction of formal employment and decent work, increase in non-typical work which often feature general precariousness, poor payments, and non- coverage by labour legislation or social protection. Women face several constraints in the labour market which are direct results of women's disadvantage in education; labour market mobility; relatively high involvement in part-time; concentration in employment where wages are down; and direct discrimination Access to decent work constitutes a major cause of poverty among women. An integrated approach to growth and development, focused on gender-responsive employment promotion and economic and social development is needed.


Efficiently exploiting servers in data centers requires performance analysis methods that account not only for the stochastic nature of demand but also for server heterogeneity. Although several recent works proved optimality results for heterogeneity-aware variants of classical load-balancing algorithms in the many-server regime, we still lack a fundamental understanding of the impact of heterogeneity on performance in finite-size systems. In this paper, we consider a load-balancing algorithm that leads to a product-form queueing model and can therefore be analyzed exactly even when the number of servers is finite. We develop new analytical methods that exploit its product-form stationary distribution to understand the joint impact of the speeds and buffer lengths of servers on performance. These analytical results are supported and complemented by numerical evaluations that cover a large variety of scenarios.


Organometal halide perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have witnessed rapid development in a short time span due to the promising electronic and optical properties of perovskite materials, which showed great potential in flexible display devices due to their ease of integration in fabrication process flows. However, simply integrating perovskite films with flexible electrodes for highly flexible LEDs has encountered obstacles, as traditionally used perovskite films show unrecoverable micrometer-sized cracks after bending. Herein, we report on highly flexible LEDs by utilizing silver nanowire based polymer electrodes as anodes, and CH3NH3PbBr3 quantum dots as the emissive layer. The resulting devices are highly flexible and mechanically robust, capable of being bent to a 2.5 mm radius and capable of undergoing 1000 cycles of repeated bending and unbending to a radius of 4 mm without discernible performance degradation. Moreover, these flexible LEDs also exhibit high performance metrics, due in part to efficient charge balance through hole-injection enhancement, with a current efficiency of 10.4 cd A−1, a luminous efficacy of 8.1 lm W−1, and an external quantum efficiency of 2.6% at a brightness of 1000 cd m−2.


Abstract Both liquorice and thiazide diuretics have hypokalaemic effects. In spite of their prevalent use, there are no studies on hypokalaemia caused by the combination of liquorice and thiazides. We recruited 10 healthy volunteers in order to study the effects of 32g liquorice alone or in combination with 25mg hydrochlorothiazide a day for 2 weeks. The trial had a randomized, open and crossover design. During the liquorice phase, there were no changes in plasma potassium, sodium, creatinine, renin activity, serum aldosterone, blood pressure or heart rate. Weight tended to increase by 0.4 kg (70.2 to 70.6kg; p=0.056). During the liquorice-hydrochlorothiazide phase, the plasma potassium decreased by 0.32mmol/l (p=0.0015), plasma renin activity increased by 1.6 µg/l/h (p=0.0064) and the weight decreased by 0.9kg (70.5 to 69.6kg, p=0.0065). Twenty per cent of the subjects (2/10) became hypokalaemic during the combined liquorice-hydrochlorothiazide treatment. Furthermore, both subjects developed hypokalaemia within the first week of the combined treatment leading to premature discontinuation. The evaluation of liquorice consumption habits is warranted when initiating thiazide medications to avoid the excessive risk of hypokalaemia associated with the combined use of low-dose liquorice and thiazide diuretics.


How individual nucleoporins (Nups) perform their role in nuclear pore structure and function is largely unknown. In this study, we examined the structure of purified Nup170 to obtain clues about its function. We show that Nup170 adopts a crescent moon shape with two structurally distinct and separable domains, a β-propeller N terminus and an α-solenoid C terminus. To address the individual roles of each domain, we expressed these domains separately in yeast. Notably, overexpression of the Nup170 C domain was toxic in nup170Δ cells and caused accumulation of several Nups in cytoplasmic foci. Further experiments indicated that the C-terminal domain anchors Nup170 to nuclear pores, whereas the N-terminal domain functions to recruit or retain a subset of Nups, including Nup159, Nup188, and Pom34, at nuclear pores. We conclude that Nup170 performs its role as a structural adapter between cytoplasmically oriented Nups and the nuclear pore membrane.


The scalar and vector leptoquark pair production cross sections for deep inelastic ep scattering are calculated. Estimates are presented for the search potential at HERA. Abstract: The scalar and vector leptoquark pair production cross sections for deep inelastic ep scattering are calculated. Estimates are presented for the search potential at HERA.


ABSTRACT The impacts of grazing were assessed in three community forests of Central Terai region.  Based on the changes in vegetation attributes and soil parameters, the impacts of grazing were quantified. The attributes of vegetation and soil physicochemical parameters were assessed and compared between ungrazed and grazed plots in all forests. Simple random sampling was applied for sampling of both vegetation and soil. Four plots of size 50*50 m 2 were laid in each forest, from which 25 quadrats per plots were taken for sampling of vegetation. The quadrat size of 1*1 m 2 was used for sampling seedlings (dbh<1.5 cm) and 2*2 m 2 was used for sampling saplings (dbh= 1.5-10 cm). Soil samples were collected diagonally along 50*50 m 2 from the depth of 0-15 cm. The associations between vegetation and soil were analyzed by using Redundancy Discriminant Analysis. In total, 59 species were observed in all three forests. The density, abundance and coverage of seedlings had declined in grazed plots of JCF. However, species number, Shannon diversity index and Pielou's evenness index of seedlings had increased in response to grazing. While in case of saplings, all vegetation attributes showed positive response to grazing. In MCF, all vegetation attributes of seedlings and saplings showed negative response to grazing except density, coverage and evenness of seedlings. The seedlings and saplings showed contrasting response in case of RCF. The attributes of seedlings showed positive and saplings showed negative to grazing. The soil parameters had showed varying response to grazing in the studied forests. Despite of all these inconsistency in responses, grazing was found to have positive impacts in JCF with grazing intensity 1.2 CU/ha and negative in MCF and RCF with grazing intensity of 2.5 CU/ha and 1.8 CU/ha respectively. Therefore, we concluded that low intensity of grazing had supported high diversity of forests while high intensity of grazing had detrimental effects on diversity of forest ecosystem. The forest with high intensity of grazing must adopt best management strategy to ensure balanced consumption of forest with sound functioning of ecosystem. Keywords: Community forests, grazing, species number, diversity, soil parameter


We have used 200 keV carbon ions to enhance the adhesion of 240-nm thick Be films to polished, vitreous carbon substrates. Adhesion of the as-deposited films was below that necessary to pass the scotch-tape test. Carbon ion fluences less than 1.6x10{sup 14} C/cm{sup 2} were sufficient to ensure the passage of the tape test without affecting the optical properties of the films. Adhesion failure of the as-deposited film was attributed to an inner oxide layer between the Be and the carbon. Because this oxide ({approximately}5 nm of BeO) was not measurably changed by the irradiation process, these results are consistent with adhesion enhancement occurring on the atomic scale at the interface between the inner oxide and the carbon substrate. This conclusion was supported by Rutherford backscattering (RBS) data, and potential adhesion mechanisms are discussed with consideration of relative contributions from electronic and nuclear stopping.


Ensconced in a structure suggesting an Aztec ceremonial temple, participants discover a richly detailed, interactively evolving map illustrating the rise and fall of civilizations in the Valley of Mexico over 3,000 years and the ensuing ecological transformation of the basin. Throughout the map, portals allow virtual visits to selected sites as they are believed to have looked at the heights of their development and as they appear today. Prehispanic music, performed on period instruments, provides an aural accompaniment to the visual experience, and the subtle scent of capal augments the sensation of presence in a different time and place.


This Spring 2021 issue of Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques is about cultural heritages and their transmission, focusing on the period from the middle of the eighteenth century to the present. An important stimulus for the creation of the issue was the European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) in 2018. There were four main themes for the EYCH: protection, engagement, sustainability, and innovation. National coordinators and local organizers of events and initiatives across the continent adopted the unifying slogan "Our Heritage. Where the past meets the future." The articles brought together here serve as an invitation to readers to continue reflecting on subjects and questions that were at the heart of planning for and supporting public participation in EYCH 2018. The European Year of Cultural Heritage provided myriad opportunities to discover the roles played by individuals and groups in the preservation and valorization of natural sites and landscapes, public monuments, cultural institutions, artifacts, digital resources, and intangible cultural heritage. It highlighted educational initiatives to raise awareness of multiple, diverse cultural heritages within communities and to promote intercultural dialogue. It pushed governments and nongovernmental organizations to address matters of financial investment, legal accountability, partnership management, and the shaping of policies on conservation and ownership rights. It challenged professional historians as well as archivists, librarians, archeologists, conservators, and curators to think hard about widening access and about ways of integrating local, national,
and international perspectives when communicating with audiences about surviving traces of the past.


This research describes and develops Knowledge Libraries , idealised systems for organising and presenting information. By providing a mathematical basis, the definition of information space establishes a formal foundation for Knowledge Libraries. The definition of information space builds on the new definitions of L -collections , which generalise sets by allowing a real valued grade to be associated with each element, and set space , which gen-eralises metric space to better model the relationships between information units . The multiple search tree method improves existing metric space range query algorithms. These algorithms are also generalised to work over set space. The sequential-hybrid algorithm enables efficient range queries over multi-dimensional spaces.


Two approximations, center-beam approximation and reference digital elevation model (DEM) approximation, are used in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) motion compensation procedures. They usually introduce residual motion compensation errors for airborne single-antenna SAR imaging and SAR interferometry. In this paper, we investigate the effects of residual uncompensated motion errors, which are caused by the above two approximations, on the performance of airborne along-track interferometric SAR (ATI-SAR). The residual uncompensated errors caused by center-beam approximation in the absence and in the presence of elevation errors are derived, respectively. Airborne simulation parameters are used to verify the correctness of the analysis and to show the impacts of residual uncompensated errors on the interferometric phase errors for ATI-SAR. It is shown that the interferometric phase errors caused by the center-beam approximation with an accurate DEM could be neglected, while the interferometric phase errors caused by the center-beam approximation with an inaccurate DEM cannot be neglected when the elevation errors exceed a threshold. This research provides theoretical bases for the error source analysis and signal processing of airborne ATI-SAR.