This study investigates whether or not there is a distinct relationship between a coastline's configuration (concavity/convexity) and its tendency toward either erosion or accretion. Empirical erosion/accretion data from Guyana's Demerara coast are analyzed using coastal classification averages and linear regression. The results show no systematic linear relationship between a coast's angular measure of concavity and convexity and its tendency to either erode or accrete. The findings of the study suggest that convex coasts on the whole may have a greater tendency toward accretion than either straight or concave coasts. Various reasons can be given as to why Guyana's coast does not conform to the established idea of increased accretion at concave-shaped sites and greater erosion at convex-shaped sites. One possible explanation lies with the occurrence of repeated patterns of mud hank evolution, migration and stabilization which affect the time when and the locations where the Guyana coast is being eroded or aggraded.


Abundance and occupancy of populations at high- and low-latitude geographic range edges will be critically important in determining a species' response to climate change. Low abundance and occupancy at expanding (high latitude) edges of the range may limit a species capacity to migrate, and at trailing (low latitude) edges, may result in range erosion and regional extinction. We examined abundance-occupancy distributions across the geographic ranges of 102 eastern North American trees and looked for signatures reflecting capacity to respond to climate change. We found that 62% of species display a signature consistent with higher climatic suitability in the northern latitudes of their range. However, our results suggest that the most common response is likely to involve range erosion in the south and limited range expansion in the north, possibly leading to an overall reduction in range size for many species. In particular, species with smaller ranges centred at lower latitudes may not have the capacity to successfully track the current rate of climate change.


In general, nanofibres can be formed using the electrospinning technique, which has been known for a long time in literature. However, there are still some problems related to this technique such as low production rate, capillary clogging, etc. In recent years, several new electrospinning methods have been developed to solve such problems. The main aim of this paper is to present the possibility of nanofibre formation by three various electrospinning methods. In this study nanofibres were produced from PAN/DMSO solution using three different electrospinning methods: a conventional method with one capillary, Jirsak's method and Yarin & Zussman's method. The properties of these nanofibres as well as the processing conditions were compared. It was observed that using the last two methods it is possible to increase the production rate because of the multiple jets. In the conventional method a single capillary should be replaced by a spinning head system with many capillaries. Using Jirsak's method, the nanofibre diameter decreases and a higher amount of fibre is obtained by increasing the rotary speed of the cylinder. Production at 10 wt % polymer concentration by Yarin & Zussman's method leads to much finer fibres than by other methods.


In a typical application storing some data, if the memory representations of the internal data structures are inspected, they may leave significant clues to the past use of the application. For example, a data structure with lazy deletions might retain an object that the user believes was deleted long ago; this is problematic in environments requiring high security or strict privacy guarantees. We can eliminate such problems entirely by demanding that a data structure implementation store exactly the information specified by an abstract data type (ADT), and nothing more. This property is sometimes called strong history independence. To attain it, it is often necessary and always sufficient to ensure the data structure is uniquely represented. That is, any two sequences of operations which bring the ADT to the same logical state will cause the implementation to generate the same memory representation. This observation begs the following question. For each abstract data type, what is the added cost for uniquely represented implementations over their conventional counterparts, in terms of time, space, and randomness?
In this dissertation, we will answer this question for several important abstract data types, and argue that the overhead for unique representation is sufficiently low to warrant its widespread use in high security and high privacy environments. Towards this end, we provide the theoretical foundation for the development of efficient uniquely represented systems that provably store exactly the information their designs specify, and nothing more.


Atmospheric CO2 concentrations are predicted to double within the next century. Despite this trend, the extent and mechanisms through which elevated CO2 affects plant diseases remain uncertain. In this study, we assessed how elevated CO2 affects a foliar fungal pathogen, Phyllosticta minima, of Acer rubrum growing in the understory at the Duke Forest free‐air CO2 enrichment experiment in Durham, North Carolina. Surveys of A. rubrum saplings in the 6th, 7th, and 8th years of the CO2 exposure revealed that elevated CO2 significantly reduced disease incidence, with 22%, 27%, and 8% fewer saplings and 14%, 4%, and 5% fewer leaves infected per plant in the three consecutive years, respectively. Elevated CO2 also significantly reduced disease severity in infected plants in all years (e.g. mean lesion area reduced 35%, 50%, and 10% in 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively). To assess the mechanisms underlying these changes, we combined leaf structural, physiological and chemical analyses with growth chamber studies of P. minima growth and host infection. In vitro exponential growth rates of P. minima were enhanced by 17% under elevated CO2, discounting the possibility that disease reductions were because of direct negative effects of elevated CO2 on fungal performance. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) verified that conidia germ tubes of P. minima infect A. rubrum leaves by entering through the stomata. While stomatal size and density were unchanged, stomatal conductance was reduced by 21–36% under elevated CO2, providing smaller openings for infecting germ tubes. Reduced disease severity under elevated CO2 was likely due to altered leaf chemistry and reduced nutritive quality; elevated CO2 reduced leaf N by 20% and increased the C : N ratio by 20%, total phenolics by 15%, and tannins by 14% (P<0.05 for each factor). The potential dual mechanism we describe here of reduced stomatal opening and altered leaf chemistry that results in reduced disease incidence and severity under elevated CO2 may be prevalent in many plant pathosystems where the pathogen targets the stomata.


Current methods of assessment in clinical psychopharmacology have several serious disadvantages, particularly for the study of social functioning. We aimed to review the strengths and weaknesses of current methods used in clinical psychopharmacology and to compare them with a group of methods, developed by personality/social psychologists, termed ecological momentary assessment (EMA), which permit the research participant to report on symptoms, affect and behaviour close in time to experience and which sample many events or time periods. EMA has a number of advantages over more traditional methods for the assessment of patients in clinical psychopharmacological studies. It can both complement and, in part, replace existing methods. EMA methods will permit more sensitive assessments and will enable more wide-ranging and detailed measurements of mood and behaviour. These types of methods should be adopted more widely by clinical psychopharmacology researchers.


Background: Information regarding the specific characteristics of bilateral acute otitis media (BAOM) versus unilateral acute otitis media (UAOM) is lacking. Objectives: To compare the epidemiologic, microbiologic, and clinical characteristics of BAOM with UAOM in children. Patients and Methods: 1026 children aged 3–36 months (61%, <1 year of age) with AOM were enrolled during 1995–2003. All patients had tympanocentesis and middle ear fluid (MEF) culture at enrollment. Clinical status was determined by a clinical/otologic score evaluating severity (0 = absent to 3 = severe, maximal score 12) of patient's fever and irritability and tympanic membrane redness and bulging. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to estimate the risk of BAOM and UAOM presenting with a high severity score (≥8). Results: Six-hundred twenty-three (61%) patients had BAOM. Positive MEF cultures were recorded in 786 (77%) patients. More patients with BAOM had positive MEF cultures than patients with UAOM (517 of 623, 83% versus 269 of 403, 67%; P < 0.01). Nontypable Haemophilus influenzae was more common in BAOM than in UAOM (390 of 623, 63% versus 170 of 430, 42%; P < 0.01). Overall, the clinical/otologic score showed higher severity in culture-positive than in culture-negative patients (8.2 ± 2.0 versus 7.7 ± 2.2; P < 0.001) and in BAOM than in UAOM (8.3 ± 2.1 versus 7.8 ± 2.1; P = 0.001). Clinical/otologic score of ≥8 was more frequent in BAOM than in UAOM patients (371, 61.8% versus 200, 51.3%; P = 0.001). The estimated risk for BAOM patients (compared with UAOM patients) to present with a score ≥8 was 1.5. The association between BAOM and clinical/otologic score ≥ 8 was maintained after adjustment for age, previous AOM history, and culture results at enrollment. Conclusions: (1) BAOM is frequent; (2) Nontypable H. influenzae is more frequently involved in the etiology of BAOM than of UAOM; (3) The clinical picture of BAOM is frequently more severe than that of UAOM, but overlap of clinical symptoms is common.


The burden of periprosthetic fractures is increasing with increasing volumes of total hip arthroplasty. These injuries often occur in older patients with more significant co-morbidity and osteopenia. Management of these injuries is often resource intensive and can present significant socioeconomic challenges. Understanding the principles of surgical management these cases and recognising when fixation or replacement is required is critical. The aim of this article is to present a contemporary evidence-based review of the surgical fixation options for management of periprosthetic fractures in the presence of well-fixed or loose components.


The objectives of the research presented in this thesis were: (1) optimise the processing conditions for the production of water-in-cocoa butter emulsions; (2) understand the role of water droplets on the large deformation behaviour and crystallisation properties of emulsified systems. Results showed that a scraped surface heat exchanger could be used to produce tempered emulsions with a small average droplet size (~3 µm). In all systems stability was provided by the emulsifier and fat crystals forming a network both in the bulk and at the interface of the water droplets.

Characterisation of the large deformation properties of emulsions showed that the elastic behaviour remained constant at low aqueous phase percentages while the strength at fracture decreased. This result suggests that water droplets act as stress-concentrator elements, which is probably due to their partial sintering with the bulk network.

Results of crystallisation experiments have shown that the effect of droplets on kinetics of crystallisation depends on the degree of supercooling: only at relatively high temperatures (15, 20 °C) the dispersed droplets increased the kinetics of crystallisation compared to bulk cocoa butter (CB). With respect to polymorphic evolution, emulsified systems evolved faster toward more stable forms than bulk CB at all temperatures.


Since 2007 input subsidies given out by the government in support to field crop and vegetable production has had the greatest share in the agricultural budget of Serbia. The principal goal of input subsidy programs, as measures of agricultural support, is primarily the promotion of productivity and competitiveness of field crop production. The employment of optimal agricultural practices stimulated an increase in the use of mineral fertilizers, declared seeds, etc. At the same time these measures were noted to raise both output and quality of agricultural products including farmers' income. The implementation and importance of these measures has so far not been attracting sufficient attention and therefore the objective of the study was to analyze the effects of input subsidies on the economic position of production of some major field crops (wheat, corn, sunflower, soybean, sugar beet) on family farms owning 6-20 hectares of arable land and focused on field crop production in 2007-2011 in the plain regions of Serbia.


Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, economies in transition are eligible for both emissions trading (Article 17) and joint implementation (Article 6). Guiding rules for implementing these mechanisms were decided through the Marrakech Accords in November 2001. These countries may benefit substantially from those mechanisms if they are implemented appropriately. However, with the departure of the USA from the Kyoto Protocol, the likely revenues from international emissions trading for the economies in transition are likely to be limited at least during the first commitment period. A key criterion on whether countries should undertake emissions trading is the comparison of projections of emissions until 2012 with the target under the Kyoto Protocol. For joint implementation, the investment climate and the emission reductions potential of a specific project are more important. Countries that are bound by the Kyoto Protocol need to implement a clear institutional structure, which includes a JI office or a position solely in charge of JI. Even if a country decides not to engage in JI, such an office could help guide possible foreign investors.


Semi-static bioassay experiment was conducted to ascertain Butrylacetycholinesterase enzyme activity in liver and plasma, liver glycogen and plasma glucose content, haematology as well as behaviour of Clarias gariepinus (mean weight 24.52±1.64 g) to varying concentrations (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.6 mg L -1 ) of Dichlorvos for 96 hours. Butrylacetycholinesterase activity in liver was significantly (P <0.05) inhibited all through the exposure duration to 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mg L -1 of DDVP compared with control group of fish. Similarly, plasma BuChE activity was inhibited all through the exposure duration to 1.6 mg L -1 DDVP compared to control. There was a significant (P <0.05) inhibition in HB, RBC and MCV of exposed fish after 24,48, 72 and 96h to 1.6 mg L -1 DDVP compared to the control but PCV and WBC were significantly elevated after 72 and 96h to 1.6 mg L -1 DDVP compared to the control. Plasma cortisol and liver glycogen were significantly inhibited after 72 and 96 h to 0.8 and 1.6 mg L -1 compared to the control but plasma glucose was elevated after 24, 48, 72 and 96 h exposure to 0.4, 0.8 and 1.6 mg L -1 compared to the control group of fish. The 96 h LC 50 of DDVP to the exposed fish was found to be 0.66 mg L − 1 with safety value estimated to be 0.01 mg L -1 while lower and upper confidence limits gave 0.29 and 1.49 mg L − 1 , respectively. The 96 h LT 50 values for 0.8 and 1.6 mg L -1 was shown to be 79.23 and 60.26 hours with safety values of 3.98 and 3.01 hours respectively. WBC value was inversely related to HB (r=-0.997, p <0.05, RBC (r=-0.999, p <0.05) and PCV (r=-0.953, p <0.05). RBC related positively to HB (r=0.998 and PCV (r=0.959), and inversely to MCH (r=-0.996) and MCHC (r=0.995). Plasma BuChE activity related positively to PCV (r=0.979) and inversely to MCHC (r=-0.995 and TBF (r=984). Liver BuChE related positively with plasma BuChE (r=0.978), plasma cortisol (r= 0.970) and liver glycogen (r= 0.975) and inversely to TBF (r=-0.998). Changes in BuChE activity may serve as surrogate information for projecting potential hazards in the health status of C. gariepinus.


Periodontitis (PD) is a chronic disease caused by the host inflammatory response to bacteria colonizing the oral cavity. In addition to tolerance to oral microbiome, a fine-tuned balance of IL-10 levels is critical to efficiently mount antimicrobial resistance without causing immunopathology. Clinical and animal studies support that adaptive T-helper (Th) cytokines are involved in the pathogenesis of alveolar bone destruction in PD. However, it remains unclear what type of Th response is related to human PD progression and what role IL10 has on this process. We addressed the contribution of IL-10 in limiting Th1 and Th17 inflammatory response in murine and human PD. Through a combination of basic and translational approaches involving selected cytokine-deficient mice as well as human genetic epidemiology, our results demonstrate the requirement for IL-10 in fine-tuning the levels of Th17 (IL-17A and IL-17F) cytokines in experimental and human PD. Of novelty, we found that IL-17F correlated with protection in murine and human PD and was positively regulated by IL-10. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of the protective role for IL-17F in PD, its positive regulation by IL-10, and the potential differential role for IL-17A and IL-17F in periodontal disease.


Code reviews are a very effective, but effortful quality assurance technique. A major problem is to read and understand source-code that was produced by someone else. With different programming styles and complex interactions, understanding the code under review is the most expensive sub-task of a code review. As with many other modern software engineering practices, code reviews may be applied as a continuous process to reduce the effort and support the concept of collective ownership. This study evaluates the effect of a continuous code review process on the understandability and collective ownership of the code base. A group of 8 subjects performed a total of 114 code reviews within 18 months in an industrial context and conducted an expert evaluation according to this research question. This study concludes that there is a clear positive effect on the understandability and collective ownership of the code base with continuous code reviews, but also limiting factors and drawbacks for complex review tasks.


Abstract As more firms adopt big data analytics to better understand their customers and differentiate their offerings from competitors, it becomes increasingly difficult to generate strategic value from isolated and unfocused ad hoc initiatives. To attain sustainable competitive advantage from big data, firms must achieve agility in combining rich data across the organization to deploy analytics that sense and respond to customers in a dynamic environment. A key challenge in achieving this agility lies in the identification, collection, and integration of data across functional silos both within and outside the organization. Because it is infeasible to systematically integrate all available data, managers need guidance in finding which data can provide valuable and actionable insights about customers. Leveraging relationship marketing theory, we develop a framework for identifying and evaluating various sources of big data in order to create a value-justified data infrastructure that enables focused and agile deployment of advanced customer analytics. Such analytics move beyond siloed transactional customer analytics approaches of the past and incorporate a variety of rich, relationship-oriented constructs to provide actionable and valuable insights. We develop a customized kernel-based learning method to take advantage of these rich constructs and instantiate the framework in a novel prototype system that accurately predicts a variety of customer behaviors in a challenging environment, demonstrating the framework's ability to drive significant value.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the toxicity and efficacy of a modification of a previously evaluated combination of lomustine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone (LOPP) as a rescue protocol for refractory lymphoma in dogs.

DESIGN
Retrospective case series. Animals-33 dogs with a cytologic or histologic diagnosis of lymphoma that developed resistance to their induction chemotherapy protocol.

PROCEDURES
Lomustine was administered on day 0 of the protocol. Vincristine was administered on day 0 and again 1 time on day 14. Procarbazine and prednisone were administered on days 0 through 13 of the protocol. This cycle was repeated every 28 days.

RESULTS
Median time from initiation to discontinuation of the University of Florida LOPP protocol was 84 days (range, 10 to 308 days). Overall median survival time was 290 days (range, 51 to 762 days). Overall response rate with this protocol was 61% (20/33), with 36% (12) having a complete response and 24% (8) having a partial response. Toxicosis rates were lower than for the previously published LOPP protocol.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
The University of Florida LOPP protocol may be an acceptable alternative to the mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine, and prednisone protocol as a rescue protocol for dogs with lymphoma.


In order to study the dynamic response of power transmission lines under mechanical fault, the structural dynamic response monitoring indexes based on the requirement of field measurement were determined according to the structural characteristics of steel towers. The monitoring program was put forward in terms of the monitoring principle and basis of the sensors. The vibration characteristic, dynamic alignment and stress/strain are chosen to be the monitoring indexes. Considering the synchronization function of GPS system, the three monitoring indexes of the large span high voltage tower can be simultaneously monitored by using vibration sensor, GPS and strain sensor. The monitoring scheme can provide the theoretical base for the establishment of early warning system and the collection of dynamic response of steel tower during line break or tower collapse.


The gold standard endpoint to evaluate the effect of treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is overall survival (OS), but it requires a longer follow-up period to observe. This study aimed to identify whether disease-free survival (DFS) could be used as a surrogate endpoint for OS to assess the efficacy of adjuvant therapies after curative treatment (surgical resection and ablation) for HCC patients. A systematic review was conducted to identify trials about curative treatment combined with or without adjuvant therapies (interferon, IFN; or transarterial chemoembolization, TACE) for HCC. Total of 2211 patients' data from 17 trials were analyzed. At the individual study level, DFS was strongly correlated to OS (ρ = 0.988 and 0.930, 95% CI: 0.965-0.996 and 0.806-0.976 for the studies comparing Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) + TACE to RFA alone; and for the studies comparing curative treatment + IFN to curative treatment alone, respectively). At the trial level, the effects of treatment on DFS and OS were also strongly correlated to each other (R = 0.815 and 0.854, 95% CI: 0.536-0.934 and 0.621-0.948, respectively). In conclusion, DFS could be used as a potential surrogate endpoint for OS to assess the effect of adjuvant therapies after curative treatment for HCC.


While deep neural networks have become the go-to approach in computer vision, the vast majority of these models fail to properly capture the uncertainty inherent in their predictions. Estimating this predictive uncertainty can be crucial, for example in automotive applications. In Bayesian deep learning, predictive uncertainty is commonly decomposed into the distinct types of aleatoric and epistemic uncertainty. The former can be estimated by letting a neural network output the parameters of a certain probability distribution. Epistemic uncertainty estimation is a more challenging problem, and while different scalable methods recently have emerged, no extensive comparison has been performed in a real-world setting. We therefore accept this task and propose a comprehensive evaluation framework for scalable epistemic uncertainty estimation methods in deep learning. Our proposed framework is specifically designed to test the robustness required in real-world computer vision applications. We also apply this framework to provide the first properly extensive and conclusive comparison of the two current state-of-the- art scalable methods: ensembling and MC-dropout. Our comparison demonstrates that ensembling consistently provides more reliable and practically useful uncertainty estimates. Code is available at https://github.com/fregu856/evaluating_bdl.


This paper extends Routhian reduction to a hybrid setting, i.e., to systems that display both continuous and discrete behavior. We begin by considering a Lagrangian together with a configuration space with unilateral constraints on the set of admissible configurations. This naturally yields the notion of a hybrid Lagrangian, from which we obtain a Lagrangian hybrid system in a way analogous to the association of a Lagrangian vector field to a Lagrangian. We first give general conditions on when it is possible to reduce a cyclic Lagrangian hybrid system, and explicitly compute the reduced Lagrangian hybrid system in the case when it is obtained from a cyclic hybrid Lagrangian


Land has two major utilities: its value of use and its value of exchange. The right to housing, as recognised in a number of international human rights instruments, can be effectively provided by ensuring the use value of land. In the case of housing, this type of use is made up of two constituents: the generic residential condition as derived from the planning use given to land and its specific use as a family home. As housing affordability depends on the changing relationships between house prices and rent, and between house prices and income, one of the main alternatives that has been used to balance the equation, is the financing of the purchase price through the mortgage market. The real estate collapse that began in 2008 is attributable to many factors but two basic issues seem to be at the root of the problem: the mixture of credits of very different qualities in financial products and the lack of reliable information with regard to both the origin of the mortgage and the real estate that guaranteed it. Therefore, in order to maintain the efficiency of the mortgage market as a mechanism to provide affordable housing in conditions of sustainability, it is necessary, with a peremptory nature, to restructure the territorial information systems in such a manner so that they rely on real estate understood not just as the object of rights but also as physical objects that form part of the territory. At the same time, one of the details that must necessarily be included in the content of land information should be the use of a property as a family home, maintaining the circuit with regard to the mortgage chain of family homes permanently identified and isolated within the primary and secondary mortgage markets, both at the time of their constitution and later when the MBSs are issued.


Deep neural network models of sensory systems are often proposed to learn representational transformations with invariances like those in the brain. To reveal these invariances we generated "model metamers" – stimuli whose activations within a model stage are matched to those of a natural stimulus. Metamers for state-of-the-art supervised and unsupervised neural network models of vision and audition were often completely unrecognizable to humans when generated from deep model stages, suggesting differences between model and human invariances. Targeted model changes improved human-recognizability of model metamers, but did not eliminate the overall human-model discrepancy. The human-recognizability of a model's metamers was well predicted by their recognizability by other models, suggesting that models learn idiosyncratic invariances in addition to those required by the task. Metamer recognition dissociated from both traditional brain-based benchmarks and adversarial vulnerability, revealing a distinct failure mode of existing sensory models and providing a complementary benchmark for model assessment.


A thorough analysis of the photophysical properties involved in electronic transitions in excitation–emission spectra of xylene isomers has been carried out using the time-dependent density functional theory (PBEPBE/6-31 + G(d,p)) method. For the first time a structural and spectroscopic investigation to distinguish isomers of xylene, a widespread priority pollutant, was conducted experimentally and theoretically. The fluorescence properties of xylene isomers (sole and mixture (binary and ternary)) in water were studied. The fluorescence peak intensities of xylenes were linearly correlated to concentration, in the order of p-xylene > o-xylene > m-xylene at an excitation/emission wavelength (ex/em) of 260 nm/285 nm for o-, m-xylene and ex/em 265 nm/290 nm for p-xylene at the same concentration. The theoretical excitation/emission wavelengths were at ex/em 247 nm/267 nm, 248 nm/269 nm and 251 nm/307 nm for o-, m- and p-xylene, respectively. The vertical excitation and emission state energies of p-xylene (ex/em 4.94 eV/4.03 eV) were lower and the internal conversion energy difference (0.90 eV) was higher than those of m-xylene (ex/em 5.00 eV/4.60 eV) (0.4 eV) and o-xylene (ex/em 5.02 eV/4.64 eV) (0.377 eV). The order of theoretical emission and oscillator strength (0.0187 > 0.0175 > 0.0339) for p-xylene > o-xylene > m-xylene was observed to be in agreement with the experimental fluorescence intensities. These findings provide a novel fast method to distinguish isomers based on their photophysical properties.


This paper presents the results of an experimental research dealing with bond strength as a parameter for concrete quality control. To this end, a low‐cost testing technique has been developed: the Bottle Bond Test (BBT). Specimens for the BBT are produced by casting concrete into empty plastic bottles (used as moulds) with a reinforcing bar longitudinally centred. The result is a bottle‐shaped concrete specimen with an embedded rebar, which is pulled out to determine bond strength. Different parameters related to this test setup modify bond strength: their effect has been analyzed. An equation to relate the obtained bond strength values to concrete compressive strength is presented. This equation has been validated with real production data from a readymix concrete plant. Its accuracy and therefore the feasibility of BBT for concrete quality control have been verified. Therefore, the BBT can be an alternative to conventional concrete quality based on uniaxial compression tests.


I propose to consider the question, "Can machines think?" This should begin with definitions of the meaning of the terms "machine" and "think." The definitions might be framed so as to reflect so far as possible the normal use of the words, but this attitude is dangerous, If the meaning of the words "machine" and "think" are to be found by examining how they are commonly used it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the meaning and the answer to the question, "Can machines think? " is to be sought in a statistical survey such as a Gallup poll. But this is absurd. Instead of attempting such a definition I shall replace the question by another, which is closely related to it and is expressed in relatively unambiguous words.


Over the last ten years, the Finite Element Exterior Calculus (FEEC) has been developed as a general framework for linear mixed variational problems, their numerical approximation by mixed methods, and their error analysis. The basic approach in FEEC, pioneered by Arnold, Falk, and Winther in two seminal articles in 2006 and 2010, interprets these problems in the setting of Hilbert complexes, leading to a more general and complete understanding. Over the last five years, the FEEC framework has been extended to a broader set of problems. One such extension, due to Holst and Stern in 2012, was to problems with variational crimes, allowing for the analysis and numerical approximation of linear and geometric elliptic partial differential equations on Riemannian manifolds of arbitrary spatial dimension. Their results substantially generalize the existing surface finite element approximation theory in several respects. In 2014, Gillette, Holst, and Zhu extended the FEEC in another direction, namely to parabolic and hyperbolic evolution systems by combining the FEEC framework for elliptic operators with classical approaches for parabolic and hyperbolic operators, by viewing solutions to the evolution problem as lying in Bochner spaces (spaces of Banach-space valued parametrized curves). Related work on developing an FEEC theory for parabolic evolution problems has also been done independently by Arnold and Chen. In this article, we extend the work of Gillette-Holst-Zhu and Arnold-Chen to evolution problems on Riemannian manifolds, through the use of framework developed by Holst and Stern for analyzing variational crimes. We establish a priori error estimates that reduce to the results from earlier work in the flat (non-criminal) setting. Some numerical examples are also presented.


Internet topologies discovered by standard traceroute-based probing schemes are limited by many factors. One of the main factors is the ambiguity of the returned interfaces, where multiple unique interface IP addresses belong to the same physical router. The unknown assignment of interface IPs to physical routers can result in grossly inflated estimated topologies compared with the true underlying physical infrastructure of the network. The ability to determine which interfaces belong to which router would aid in the ability to accurately reconstruct the underlying topology of the Internet. In this paper, we present ALIASCLUSTER, a lightweight learning-based methodology that disambiguates router aliases using only observed traceroute measurements and requires no additional load on the network. Compared with existing techniques, we find that ALIASCLUSTER can resolve the same number of true router alias pairs with 50% fewer false alarms.


Summary
A portable clinical centrifuge has been modified so that it can be used as a continuous-flow centrifuge. An adapter fitted to the head of the instrument delivers the test liquid through four flexible tubes inserted into centrifuge shields used as collecting vessels. The waste liquid overflows the vessels and is discharged through a drain in the centrifuge bowl.
Cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni were successfully recovered alive from 1 to 20 liters of water. The centrifuge is suitable for field studies and, since a large proportion of the cercariae was recovered from test runs, the instrument may be useful for study of natural cercaria populations.
The centrifuge may also be useful for concentration of other microorganisms from water and so may be of value to oceanographers and limnologists.


Summary
At 23 °C, infections with alfalfa mosaic virus can be initiated with the three genomic RNA species in combination either with coat protein or with the messenger for coat protein (RNA 4). At 30 °C the combination of the three genomic RNA species with coat protein is still infectious to tobacco, whereas the infectivity of the combination with RNA 4 is almost nil. The combination of the four RNA species is infectious to bean at both temperatures. Tobacco leaf discs inoculated with the four AMV RNA species were incubated for short periods at 30 °C followed by 4 days at 23 °C. Infectivity could only be recovered when the shift-down occurred within 10 min after inoculation. Longer exposure to 30 °C probably leads to the degradation of one or more of the AMV RNA species. Translation of RNA 4 into coat protein at 23 °C in the inoculated cells presumably will render the RNA infection resistant to 30 °C. To measure the minimum time required for the penetration and translation of RNA 4, tobacco leaf discs inoculated with the four AMV RNA species were incubated for different periods at 23 °C and then for 4 days at 30 °C. From the results it was estimated that 15 to 30 min is sufficient for the penetration and translation of RNA 4.


We report the spontaneous formation of multilayer structures with nanometric periodicity during Ti–C thin-film growth by reactive magnetron sputtering. Their characterization was performed by transmission electron microscopy, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and secondary ion mass spectrometry. We discuss film structure and morphology as a function of metal content, and propose surface-directed spinodal decomposition as the mechanism responsible for the segregation of species in separated layers by up-hill diffusion.


There is sufficient evidence for pulmonary carcinogenicity of inhaled Cd compounds in rats whereas no such evidence was found in mice and hamsters; the evidence in humans has been termed limited, indicating significant species differences in pulmonary response to inhaled Cd. We hypothesized that expression of metallothionein (MT) protein in the lung after inhalation of Cd differs between species thereby providing different degrees of sequestration of Cd and protection from its effects. Rats and mice were exposed to 100 micrograms CdCl2 aerosols/m3 for 4 weeks, and the presence of MT was determined in lung and free lung cell homogenates as well as by immunocytochemistry in lung sections up to 28 days postexposure. In addition, pulmonary inflammatory, and cell proliferative responses were determined. Cd exposure significantly increased MT in homogenates of total lung in both species; however, no significant increase of MT in rat lung tissue after removal of free lung cells by lavage was found whereas MT was still significantly increased in lavaged mouse lung tissue throughout the postexposure time. In contrast, exposed rats showed significant increases in MT in the lavageable lung cells and mice did not. Histochemical analysis of lung sections revealed that mainly the epithelial cells of the bronchi, bronchioli, and alveoli of Cd-exposed mice expressed MT. Mice also exhibited a marked and sustained pulmonary inflammatory and cell proliferative response upon CdCl2 exposure which was not observed in rats. The retained Cd dose per gram lung was about 2-fold greater in mice, which is consistent with a greater deposition efficiency of inhaled Cd-aerosols in mice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS) ImagesFigure 2.Figure 5.


The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between breathlessness and the ventilatory response to hypercapnia or hypoxia in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Fifteen male patients (mean forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1): 1.13 L) underwent tests to determine hyperoxic hypercapnic ventilatory response (HCVR) and isocapnic hypoxic ventilatory response (HVR) with simultaneous quantification of breathlessness by modified Borg scale. The ventilatory output was evaluated by the ratio of minute ventilation (V'E) divided by measured maximal voluntary ventilation (MVV). The magnitude of HCVR or HVR was assessed as the slope value of the V'E/MVV-end-tidal carbon dioxide pressure (PET,CO2) or arterial oxygen saturation (Sa,O2) regression line, respectively. The breathlessness during the tests was evaluated not only linearly in relation to V'E/MVV, but also at given levels of PET,CO2 or Sa,O2. The mean value of the breathlessness at two different levels of ventilation was greater during HVR than during HCVR, suggesting that hypoxia is dyspnogenic independently of ventilatory stimulation. The HCVR was inversely correlated with the breathlessness response to ventilation, while similar correlation was partly present for HVR. The HVR was positively correlated with the breathlessness at an Sa,O2 of 80%, whilst there was no such correlation between the HCVR and the breathlessness related to PET,CO2. Therefore, patients with a higher breathlessness related to increased ventilation had a lower HCVR and HVR, whilst those with a higher breathlessness with desaturation, which might include a direct influence of hypoxia, had a higher HVR. These findings suggest an interaction between ventilatory response and breathlessness during the test, which may partly include behavioural modulation of HCVR and HVR through the breathlessness in various ways, depending on the origin and nature of the sensation.


The effect of strain rate on the mechanical behavior of thermoplastic polymers (Polymethyl methacrylate, Polycarbonate and Polyamide 66) has been studied. Deformation tests in tension were conducted over the range of strain rate varying between 2.6 10-4s-1 to 1.3 10-1s-1. The Young's Modulus E and Yield stress σST evolutions have been identified and modelled as a function of the strain rate. It has been established that, in the range of the considered strain rates, the yielding behavior of PMMA and PC is well described by the Eyring theory while for PA66 the Ree-Eyring theory is successfully used to illustrate the yielding behavior. During tensile tests the specimen surface temperatures were monitored using an infrared camera. Results reveal a significant temperature rise at large deformations for PA66 and PC. As the strain rate increases the temperature is steadily increased with deformation due to plastic work. Hence, for PC and PA66, a significant thermal softening is observed after yielding which affects the stress-strain behavior. Thermo-mechanical coupling during polymer deformation can be considered in the modeling of the mechanical behavior of polymers. No self-heating has been detected for PMMA.


We present a dimension measurement visualization technique using a consumer tablet device. A user is able to control the position and size of a virtual dimension image and confirm the specified dimension on the camera view. The system utilizes speaker and microphone sensor as distance detector to extract information needed for correct sizing of the visualized measurement. Our technique does not require the use of a physical marker or a view of the ground. We implemented a module that could cope with a noisy environment. We also implemented a guide mark module that enables use of the system when multiple objects are presented in the camera view.


Introduction: Psycho-education may positively impact the family caregivers of clients with severe mental disorders and promote in them such positive psychological states as resilience. The purpose of the present study is to examine the effect of virtual social network based psycho-education on resilience of the family caregivers of clients with severe mental disorders. Methods: The present research is a semi-experimental study in the form of a pre-test and two post-test with two control and test groups conducted in Iran Psychiatric Center in Tehran in 2017. 72 family caregivers of clients with severe mental disorders, with the age of 18 to 65, participated in the present study. To avoid the spread of the information, the control group was first studied and the test group was studied later. Sampling was conducted in a continuous and non-probable form. Data collection was conducted through demographic questionnaire and Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-2003) before the study, immediately after the training, and 4 weeks after that. The virtual training (Psycho-education) was conducted through a telegram channel for four weeks. The data were analyzed by means of SPSS-24 software, and the independent T tests, couple T, and variances were analyzed by repetitive values. Results: The results of the study of the demographic features of samples showed that both groups were homogeneous. Based on the independent T test, the results showed that the change average of resilience score in both test and control groups had meaningful difference statistically, and that the average increased in the test group (P<0.001). Also, the results of the couple T test showed that the changes in resilience score in the test group had a meaningful difference statistically, and that the changes in post-test stage were greater than the pre-test stage; they were greater in the second post-test compared to the first post-test and pre-test


Large-scale language models have been reducing the gap between machines and humans in understanding the real world, yet understanding an individual's theory of mind and behavior from text is far from being resolved. This research proposes a neural model -- Subjective Ground Attention -- that learns subjective grounds of individuals and accounts for their judgments on situations of others posted on social media. Using simple attention modules as well as taking one's previous activities into consideration, we empirically show that our model provides human-readable explanations of an individual's subjective preference in judging social situations. We further qualitatively evaluate the explanations generated by the model and claim that our model learns an individual's subjective orientation towards abstract moral concepts


We study the behavior of charged spherical Au nanoparticles in a nanofluidic slit as a function of the separation of the symmetrically charged confining surfaces. A dedicated setup called the nano-fluidic confinement apparatus (NCA) allows us to parallelize the two confining surfaces and to continuously approach them down to direct contact. Interferometric scattering (iSCAT) detection is used to measure the particle contrast with 2 ms temporal resolution. We obtain the confinement gap distance from the interference signal of the glass and the oxide-covered silicon wafer surface with nanometer accuracy. We present a three parameter model that describes the optical signal of the particles as a function of particle height and gap distance. The model is verified using nanoparticles immobilized at the glass and the substrate surface. For freely diffusing particles, the envelope of the particle signal as a function of gap distance and the known particle height at tight confinement is used to calibrate the particle signal in-situ and obtain all free model parameters. Due to the periodic contrast variation for large gap distances we obtain a set of possible particle heights for a given contrast value. For a range of small gap distances this assignment is unique and the particle height can be measured directly with high accuracy. The high temporal resolution allows us to measure the height occupation probability which provides a direct link to the free energy landscape the particles are probing via the Boltzmann distribution. Accordingly by fitting the results to a physical model based on the linear superposition approximation (LSA), the physical parameters governing the particle-glass interaction are quantified.


The observed distribution of non-zero rainfall totals for a given month is often modelled using a maximum likelihood estimate for the Gamma distribution. In this paper we show that a Gamma distribution can be regarded as a zero order approximation to a density distribution constructed by a series of associated Laguerre polynomials. The coefficients of the series are easily calculated and used to improve the shape of the initial approximation by adjusting higher order moments. We show that this more general method models joint probability distributions for two or more months and in particular that the series model does not require an assumption of independence between months. Finally we explore how the series method generates simulated data that is statistically indistinguishable from the observed data. We illustrate our methods on a case study at Mawson Lakes and although monthly correlations may not be significant we note that the rainfall records at Koonamore Station show many significant correlations for successive months.


This paper proposes a new Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium (DSGE) model with credit frictions and a banking sector, which endogenizes loan-to-value (LTV) ratios of households and banks by expressing them as a function of systemic and idiosyncratic proxies for risk. Moreover, the model features endogenous balance sheet choices and a novel formulation of the targeted leverage ratio, in which assets are risk-weighted by risk-sensitivity measures. The results highlighted in this paper are important along two dimensions. First of all, the presence of endogenous LTV ratios exacerbates the procyclicality of lending conditions. Second, the model contributes to deeper understand the role of prudential regulatory frameworks in affecting business cycle fluctuations and in restoring macroeconomic and financial stability. The results suggest that when the economy is severely stressed by shocks originating in the financial sector, prudential regimes such as Basel II and Basel III are capable of downsizing substantially aggregate volatility, with Basel III found to be significantly more effective than Basel II.


Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve (GRSA, Colorado) lies along the eastern margin of the San Luis Basin and the tectonically active Sangre de Cristo fault system that are part of the northern Rio Grande rift. GRSA lies within a prominent embayment in the range front where two separate sections of the Sangre de Cristo fault system intersect. Fault scarps are observed along both intersecting fault zones within older basin-fill alluvium, but have been obscured by the actively migrating dunefield. The dune sand is also strongly magnetic, locally limiting the usefulness of aeromagnetic methods for mapping concealed structure. This study uses airborne geophysical methods, primarily airborne gravity gradient data, along with constraints from geologic mapping and limited subsurface data and groundwater modeling, to interpret the subsurface basin geometry and range-front structure of the embayment. Using forward modeling of the gravity gradient data and locations of faults inferred from gravity gradient and aeromagnetic lineaments, several previously unrecognized tectonic elements are interpreted adjacent to the range front. Some of the largest rift-related fault offsets are demonstrated to be basinward of the normal fault zones mapped at the surface along the range front of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, along faults concealed under the dunefield and subparallel to the two fault sections. A fault-bounded structural bench, likely composed of Proterozoic rocks, underlies most of the high dunefield at depths of 500 m to 1 km. The bench is truncated on its southwest margin by a northwest-trending, southwest-dipping normal fault. A northeast-trending, northwest-dipping normal fault with ∼600 m of estimated relief lies under the southern margin of the dunefield and bounds a structurally higher bench of Proterozoic rocks concealed at <400 m depth near the range front. The northwest- and northeast-trending geophysical lineaments generally correspond well with the trends of faults mapped at the surface, and with both pre- and syn-rift structures in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Aeromagnetic anomalies are explained by variations in the magnetization of pre-rift rocks, and the strongly magnetic dune sand.


The second half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of organizations that reflected the mobilization of civil society for more effective participation in questions in the public interest and of a social nature. These became known as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and they assumed their place as partners with public and private sectors to develop actions in different areas, including healthcare. Based on a review of the literature, the scope of this paper was to assess the status of scientific knowledge on the participation of NGOs in child healthcare and, by identifying and classifying their activities, establish if they are in line with the agenda of the field. Analysis of the publications took into consideration where the authors were from, the journal in question, the origins and area of activity of the NGOs and the source of the funds applied to the projects implemented. The nature of activities varied with the degree of development of the region where the NGOs operated and the themes, partnership between government and private sector agencies, sustainability and impact of actions on the favored communities were the main topics highlighted by the authors. The conclusion reached was that the performance of NGOs in child health is in the early stages and is a knowledge field to be explored.


There is no "international bar" that regulates the practice of forensic advocacy before international courts and tribunals. The lack of common ethical standards for representatives before international courts and tribunals has become increasingly topical, particularly in the field of investment arbitration. Initiatives by such professional organizations as the International Law Association and the International Bar Association to identify universal ethical principles suggest that there is a body of opinion amongst practitioners who believe that common ethical standards are necessary. However, the topic remains virgin territory in relation to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. This article examines the historical evolution of the representation before the Courts and the procedural and ethical problems concerning representatives that have arisen in practice. It concludes that, far from being a topic of only theoretical interest, there have been considerable problems in practice arising from questionable professional conduct by representatives and conflicting national standards. It suggests that the absence of a prescribed code of conduct setting out the Courts' precise standard for representatives is a threat to the Courts' procedural integrity and legitimacy. It proposes that the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe take the lead in drafting a code of conduct for the European Courts, in consultation with their judiciaries, which could subsequently be adopted by the Courts and integrated into national codes of conduct.


Purpose To identify tissue metabolomic profiles in biopsy specimens with IgG4-related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD) and mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma and investigate their potential implication in the disease pathogenesis and biomarkers. Methods We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the metabolomes and lipidomes of biopsy-proven IgG4-ROD (n = 22) and orbital MALT lymphoma (n = 21) specimens and matched adjacent microscopically normal adipose tissues using liquid chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The altered metabolomic profiles were visualized by heat map and principal component analysis. Metabolic pathway analysis was performed by Metabo Analyst 4.0 using differentially expressed metabolites. The diagnostic performance of the metabolic markers was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic curves. Machine learning algorithms were implemented by random forest using the R environment. Finally, an independent set of 18 IgG4-ROD and 17 orbital MALT lymphoma specimens were used to validate the identified biomarkers. Results The principal component analysis showed a significant difference of both IgG4-ROD and orbital MALT lymphoma for biopsy specimens and controls. Interestingly, lesions in IgG4-ROD were uniquely enriched in arachidonic metabolism, whereas those in orbital MALT lymphoma were enriched in tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolism. We identified spermine as the best discriminator between IgG4-ROD and orbital MALT lymphoma, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the spermine to discriminate between the two diseases was 0.89 (95% confidence interval, 0.803–0.984). A random forest model incorporating a panel of five metabolites showed a high area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value of 0.983 (95% confidence interval, 0.981–0.984). The results of validation revealed that four tissue metabolites: N1,N12-diacetylspermine, spermine, malate, and glycolate, had statistically significant differences between IgG4-ROD and orbital MALT lymphoma with receiver operating characteristic values from 0.708 to 0.863. Conclusions These data revealed the characteristic differences in metabolomic profiles between IgG4-ROD and orbital MALT lymphoma, which may be useful for developing new diagnostic biomarkers and elucidating the pathogenic mechanisms of these common orbital lymphoproliferative disorders.


Giant cell tumor (GCT) of bone is generally a benign tumor composed of mononuclear stromal cells and characteristic multinucleated giant cells that exhibit osteoclastic activity. It usually develops in long bones but can occur in unusual locations. The typical appearance is a lytic lesion with a well-defined but nonsclerotic margin that is eccentric in location, extends near the articular surface, and occurs in patients with closed physes. However, GCT may have aggressive features, including cortical expansion or destruction with a soft-tissue component. Fluid-fluid levels, consistent with secondary formation of aneurysmal bone cysts, are seen in 14% of cases. GCT can mimic or be mimicked by other benign or malignant lesions at both radiologic evaluation and histologic analysis. Rarely, GCT is associated with histologically benign lung metastases or undergoes malignant degeneration. In the past, the mainstay of treatment was surgical, primarily consisting of curettage with cement placement, with recurrence rates of 15%-25%. Recurrence is suggested by development of progressive lucency at the cement-bone interface. Other complications include pathologic fracture and postoperative infection. Denosumab, a monoclonal antibody that targets the osteoclastic activity of GCT, has produced 90% tumor necrosis in early studies, results indicative of promise as a potential adjuvant therapy.


Objectives: In this paper we focus on governance and the added value of regionalization in the context of health policy implementation. • What are regional boards' patterns of action in the governance process? • How do these patterns favour policy implementation? Analytical framework: To enhance our understanding of the role of regional boards in governance processes, we relied on four conceptual constructs that corresponded to models of collective action: political, technocratic, democratic and cognitive. Alongside the four models, we analyzed the impact of governance on health policy implementation using Mazmanian and Sabatier's general analytical framework, which identifies three types of variables that affect public policy implementation: (1) variables related to the complexity of the problem, (2) statutory variables that structure the implementation of the policy and (3) non-statutory variables related to the context. Methods: We conducted a qualitative, longitudinal case study of the regional implemention of the Program to Combat Cancer in Quebec. Findings: This research stresses the added value of a clinico-administrative governance of change, whereby regional boards, in synergy with clinical leaders, participate in the orientation of collective action. Analysis of the regional board's patterns of action reveals the utility of combined technocratic, democratic, political and cognitive actions.


Background and aim. Hip fracture is one of the major causes of loss of self-sufficiency in older patients. The associated caregiving rehabilitation task often falls to the lot of a member of the patient's family. Our study aims at assessing the relationship between the psychological well-being of patients with hip fracture and their caregivers. Methods. The study was carried-out on 53 elderly patients with hip fracture and their primary caregivers. The Mini Mental State Examination (patient), Activities of Daily Living (patient), Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (patient), Geriatric Depression Scale (patient), Psychological General Well-Being Index (patient/caregiver) and the Caregiver Burden Inventory (caregiver) were administered to each participant. Results. The results revealed significant correlations between stress levels and the psychological well-being of hip-fracture patients and relative caregivers. In particular, the Caregiver Burden Inventory's total score was negatively related to the patient's Psychological General Well-Being Index score (p < 0.05) and with Anxiety (p < 0.05), Depressed Mood (p < 0.01), Positive Well-being (p < 0.05) and General Health (p < 0.05) subscale scores, as well as with the patient's Activities of Daily Living (p < 0.05) score. Patients' Psychological General Well-Being Index scores were related to the caregivers' General Health subscale (p < 0.01), and negatively related to Caregiver Burden Inventory Time Dependence (p < 0.05) and Social Burden (p < 0.05) subscales, as well as with the Geriatric Depression Scale score (p < 0.05). Conclusion. A mutual relationship seems to exist between a patient's psychological well-being and his/her caregiver's burden. These findings highlight the importance of a bio-psychosocial approach to both patients and caregivers.


We study the tracking problem, namely, estimating the hidden state of an object over time, from unreliable and noisy measurements. The standard framework for the tracking problem is the generative framework, which is the basis of solutions such as the Bayesian algorithm and its approximation, the particle filters. However, the problem with these solutions is that they are very sensitive to model mismatches. In this paper, motivated by online learning, we introduce a new framework – an explanatory framework – for tracking. We provide an efficient tracking algorithm for this framework. We provide experimental results comparing our algorithm to the Bayesian algorithm on simulated data. Our experiments show that when there are slight model mismatches, our algorithm vastly outperforms the Bayesian algorithm.


Abstract
Mast cells were examined from various sites in the normal human stomach and in the stomachs of patients with gastric ulceration. The distribution of the different types of mast cell granules was determined in the subepithelial region of the normal human stomach. There was a significant difference in this respect between the mast cells at the incisura angularis as compared with those high on the lesser curve or high on the greater curve. Mast cell degranulation (i.e. the shedding of intact granules) and vacuolation were examined with the electron microscope. Degranulation and vacuolation were observed in subepithelial mast cells, whereas only vacuolation was seen in intraepithelial mast cells. The significance of degranulation and vacuolation is discussed.


I provide new evidence on the house price elasticity of consumption by exploiting micro-level consumption data from the Nielsen consumer panel for 2004 through 2016. I estimate elasticity as a non-parametric function of household characteristics, locations and time using Generalized Random Forest (GRF), a causal machine learning model. At the county-level, the average elasticity ranges from 0.04 to 0.16 with some neighboring counties being up to eight standard deviations apart, while household elasticities range from 0.01 to 0.2. Among all characteristics, having a child, household size, and the age of a household head create substantial disparities. I find that locations with volatile housing markets are less elastic. This means that failing to account for local heterogeneities overestimates the magnitude of total consumption responses in booms and busts. Moreover, local heterogeneities in elasticity camouflage the existing asymmetry in responses. Looking within a county reveals that households, especially more financially-constrained households, are more elastic in busts than in booms. Policymakers should account for this individual and geographic heterogeneity in consumption responses to house price changes when formulating policy.


Macroscopic deformable multiphase porous media models have been successful in describing many complex food processes. However, the properties needed for such detailed physics-based models are scarce and consist of primarily empirical models obtained from experiment. Likewise, driving forces such as swelling pressure have also been approached empirically, without physics-based explanations or prediction capabilities. Soft matter based prediction of properties will provide an additional avenue to obtaining properties and also provide a deeper and critical understanding of how these properties change with composition, temperature and other process variables.


[Abstract] Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) is thymidine analogue and can incorporated into the newly synthezised DNA of S-phase cells, the antibody specific for BrdU can then be used to detect the incorporated BrdU, thus indicating cells that were actively replicating their DNA and estimating for the percentage of cells in S-phase. The immunocytochemical detection of BrdU incorporated into DNA is a powerful tool to study the cytokinetics of normal and tumor cells. In vitro or in vivo labeling of tumor cells with BrdU and the subsequent detection of incorporated BrdU with specific anti-BrdU monoclonal antibodies is an accurate and comprehensive method to quantitate the degree of DNA-synthesis.


The method is described which enables to determine the microtexture that is the orientation distribution within individual grains of a polycrystal. The microtexture is evaluated on the base of X-ray pole distributions measured for separate reflections, referred to as microscopic pole figures (MPF). The procedure for treatment of experimental MPF and the following computation of orientation distribution function is described in detail. Precision of the microtexture evaluation and possible ways of its improvement are discussed. As an example of the method application, orientation distribution within a single grain of aluminum polycrystal deformed by uniaxial compression up to 50% has been examined.


ABSTRACT Atkins, R.J.; Tidd, M., and Ruffo, G., 2016. Sturgeon Bank, Fraser River Delta, BC, Canada: 150 Years of Human Influence on Salt Marsh Sedimentation. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 790–794. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The Fraser River Delta in south western British Columbia, Canada, is a relatively recent geologic feature being only approximately 10,000 years old. The delta environment, and the intertidal banks, are the cumulative effect of flood and sediment discharges over the post-glacial interval. The salt marsh of Sturgeon Bank, on the northwest side of the delta, has been identified as under threat from erosion. The occurrence, cause and extent of erosion have been a subject of speculation, investigation and conclusion for several decades; however, dissenting opinions on the persistence of erosion over the last fifty years are numerous. To explore potential causes of the erosion further, publically available historical datasets of natural phenomena were re-examined relative to records of human activities to enable development of a conceptual model. Historical datasets of natural phenomena included sedimentary geology, post-glacial history, bathymetry, flood discharge records, sediment discharge/basin sediment yield, sediment grain size data, wind-waves, and tides. Human activity, stretching back to the late 1800's, included navigation dredging, aggregate resource dredging, river training, river diversion, flood protection dyking, land-use changes, and ongoing habitat management activities. From this review, a conceptual model of physical constraints on deltaic environments was developed. The various phenomena are discussed, the integration of those phenomena as processes affecting deltaic habitat explored, and potential management strategies identified to address the sedimentary consequences of the last 150 years of human influence on the salt marshes of Sturgeon Bank.


Irreversible and reversible chromatic transitions during heating and cooling cycles were investigated in polydiacetylene poly-PCDA (poly-10,12-pentacosadiynoic acid) composites with nanocrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO), titanium oxide (TiO2), zirconium oxide (ZrO2) and ZnO and ZrO2 alloys. In contrast to pure poly-PCDA, poly-PCDA composites with nanocrystalline ZnO displayed rapid reversibility on thermal cycling, whereas the corresponding composites with nanocrystalline TiO2 and ZrO2 were irreversible, and poly-PCDA composites with thermally prepared ZnO and ZrO2 alloys displayed slower reversibility. The mechanism of reversible and irreversible thermochromism in these materials was explored using Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) spectroscopy. In pure poly-PCDA, heating leads to an irreversible strain on the polymer backbone to form a red phase, which is not released on cooling. In the presence of ZnO evidence is provided for chelation involving the side chain head groups which can release strain on cooling to rapidly form the blue phase. Chemical interaction coupled with reversible behavior was however observed only when the composites were prepared with ZnO having an average crystallite size of 300 nm and below with a fraction of an amorphous grain boundary phase. Poly-PCDA composites with ZnO/ZrO2 alloys showing slower thermochromic reversibility can be used both as temperature and elapsed time-temperature sensors.


Elasticity of the various driveline components and backlash originating from gear reduction mechanisms and fasteners may cause torsional vibrations resulting in unintended shunt and shuffle behaviours, when a vehicle is subjected to an acceleration change request. As a result of recent improvements to engine control structures and computational capability developments during the last few decades, the idea of using generated brake torque control has been considered a state of the art research topic among academic researchers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). In order to improve transient vehicle response to an acceleration change manoeuvre, a novel engine generated brake torque based model predictive control (MPC) algorithm with an additional anti-shuffle control element has been developed to manipulate the pedal map oriented torque demand signal in an automotive powertrain application. A four mass powertrain model was built and model validation considering longitudinal vehicle dynamics was performed with vehicle level tests using a tip-in followed by a tip out acceleration pedal signal input manoeuvre. Comparison of simulation results and vehicle test data shows that the proposed model is capable of capturing the vehicle acceleration profile revealing unintended error states for the specified input signals. MPC structures based on three mass vehicle models (derived from the four mass model via subtracting tyre dynamics due to high order nonlinearities at the tyre model) was developed in a "MATLAB/Simulink" environment to obtain a smooth and responsive acceleration profile. The MPC controller delivers signal states with the expected performance metrics without error states such as excessive jerks and shuffles. An additional engine to wheel speed difference based proportional controller is employed in order to further reduce powertrain oscillations without compromising from overall system response speed resulting in a comfortable drive.


In this work, nitrogen doped resorcinol–melamine–formaldehyde (RMF) resins were synthesized, pyrolyzed and physically activated with CO2. The influence of the activation time on the physicochemical properties and the water sorption behavior produced in this way was investigated. Furthermore, a comparison between physical activation with CO2 and chemical activation with KOH is presented. Materials performance was validated in an adsorption chiller test setup with a temperature step from 90 °C → 50 °C. The CO2 activated RMF carbon exhibits a maximal specific cooling power which is a factor of 1.7 higher in comparison to a commonly used, commercial silica gel reference material (430 W kg−1 compared to 255 W kg−1). This is surprising considering that the hydrophilicity of the CO2 activated carbon is rather low. The superior performance of carbon based sorbents is attributed to originate from the superior thermal transport properties of monolithic carbons over commercial silica gels. At a more feasible temperature swing 60 °C → 30 °C, the RMF derived carbon yields a specific cooling power 3.2 times greater than that of the silica gel reference.


We demonstrate the growth of dendritic magnesium deposits with fractal morphologies exhibiting shear moduli in excess of values for polymeric separators upon the galvanostatic electrodeposition of metallic Mg from Grignard reagents in symmetric Mg–Mg cells. Dendritic growth is understood on the basis of the competing influences of reaction rate, electrolyte transport rate, and self-diffusion barrier.


The object of this research work is to address some of the issues affecting vision
based human action recognition. The subjects gait characteristics, appearance, execution speed, capturing conditions, and modality of the observations affect the spatial
and temporal visual information captured in an observation used for action recognition.
To address these distortions in subject's visual information, deep learning approaches
are used to learn discriminative features for human action recognition.
The thesis begins with an action recognition approach that is unaffected by visual
factors due to the use of visual markers for obtaining accurate motion information.
The motion characteristics of human actions are considered in computing a new motion capture (MOCAP) action representation, which is in turn used by a stacked
autoencoder for action recognition. This representation is computed from the skeletal
information in MOCAP observation after it is normalized by the corresponding subject's t-pose (i.e., reference pose). This work addresses the inconsistency in speed and
motion of limbs across observations by considering the subject independent representation of actions and tolerance of stacked autoencoder to noise/distortions in input
representation.
As obtaining accurate motion information by tracking visual markers may not be
feasible in many scenarios, the next approach considers motion information captured
by depth camera to recognize fall action. A new temporal template capturing subject's
pose over a given period of time is us
(CNN) for the detection of fall action. The illumination invariance of depth information and the ability of the CNN to learn the local patterns associated with each action,
minimize the impact of subjects gait characteristics and execution speed on the overall
performance.
Since the existing and the earlier temporal templates cannot assign higher significance to motion in the beginning and middle frames of the observation, we propose new
motion history images emphasizing motion in these temporal regions. The convolutional neural network (ConvNet) features extracted from these motion history images
computed from depth and RGB video streams are used to recognize the human actions.
By considering multi-modal features, the illumination invariance of depth and the precise subject's pose information from RGB video are utilized for action recognition.
Finally, evidence across classifiers using different temporal templates are combined for
efficient recognition of human actions irrespective of the location of their key poses in
the temporal regions.
Even though the earlier approaches are real-time and have high performance, the
sensitivity of temporal templates to angle-of-view limits its application to observations captured in an unconstrained environment. So, we propose a view-independent
approach to action recognition for videos captured by a regular digital camera using
convolutional neural network. The action bank representation of videos containing
similar local patterns for videos of the same actions are given as input to CNN to
learn the linear patterns associated with each class for action recognition. Since the
initial weights of a CNN affects its performance after training with a back propagation
algorithm (BPA), we combine evidences across multiple CNN classifiers to minimize
the impact of the solution being stuck in a local minimum. We consider the outputs
of the binary coded classifier as the evidence value associated with the prediction,
thereby assigning high confidence (≈ 1) to accurate predictions and low confidence (≈
0) to incorrect predictions. As a result, combining evidences across classifiers leads to
selecting predictions with high confidence, thereby resulting in the improvement of the
overall performance.
iv
Since the effectiveness of the above technique depends on the complementary information obtained from the implicit diversity of the CNN classifiers, we propose an
approach to initialize the weights using genetic algorithms (GA) that can optimize
the convolutional neural network after training with back-propagation algorithm. The
convolution masks in CNN architecture are considered as the GA-string, whose fitness
is computed as the accuracy of CNN classifier after training with back-propagation
algorithm for a fixed number of epochs. As a result, the CNN training algorithm
which combines the global and local search capabilities of GA and back-propagation
algorithm, respectively, is proposed to identify the initial weights to achieve better
performance. A near ideal performance is achieved when evidence across the classifiers (of candidate solutions) is combined using fusion rules for action recognition, due
to the high mean and low standard deviation of the CNN classifiers in comparison to
random weight initialization.
In summary, this thesis proposes new methods to human action recognition by using domain specific action representation as input to deep learning models for action
detection. A MOCAP action representation generated from the characteristics of recognized actions is used by a stacked autoencoder to recognize human actions. The new
temporal template of depth video, capturing subject's pose over a given time period
is used to detect fall event and recognize human actions by the CNN from the local
patterns associated with each action. The convolutional neural network (ConvNet)
features extracted from the RGB and depth temporal templates emphasizing motion
in the beginning and middle frames of video observations are used for human action
recognition. Finally, a view-independent action recognition model using action bank
features is optimized by a) increasing the complementary information across multiple CNN classifiers through unique weight initialization and b) combining the global
and local search capabilities of GA and back-propagation algorithm, respectively, to
identify the initial weights in order to achieve better performance


SUMMARY Partially euryhaline elasmobranchs may tolerate physiologically challenging, variable salinity conditions in estuaries as a trade-off to reduce predation risk or to gain access to abundant food resources. To further understand these trade-offs and to evaluate the underlying mechanisms, we examined the responses of juvenile leopard sharks to salinity changes using a suite of measurements at multiple organizational levels: gill and rectal gland proteomes (using 2-D gel electrophoresis and tandem mass spectrometry), tissue biochemistry (Na+/K+-ATPase, caspase 3/7 and chymotrypsin-like proteasome activities), organismal physiology (hematology, plasma composition, muscle moisture) and individual behavior. Our proteomics results reveal coordinated molecular responses to low salinity – several of which are common to both rectal gland and gill – including changes in amino acid and inositol (i.e. osmolyte) metabolism, energy metabolism and proteins related to transcription, translation and protein degradation. Overall, leopard sharks employ a strategy of maintaining plasma urea, ion concentrations and Na+/K+-ATPase activities in the short-term, possibly because they rarely spend extended periods in low salinity conditions in the wild, but the sharks osmoconform to the surrounding conditions by 3 weeks. We found no evidence of apoptosis at the time points tested, while both tissues exhibited proteomic changes related to the cytoskeleton, suggesting that leopard sharks remodel existing osmoregulatory epithelial cells and activate physiological acclimatory responses to solve the problems posed by low salinity exposure. The behavioral measurements reveal increased activity in the lowest salinity in the short-term, while activity decreased in the lowest salinity in the long-term. Our data suggest that physiological/behavioral trade-offs are involved in using estuarine habitats, and pathway modeling implicates tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα) as a key node of the elasmobranch hyposmotic response network.


Processor instruction set architectures (ISAs) are typically specified using a mixture of prose and pseudocode. We present ongoing work on expressing such specifications rigorously and automatically translating them to interactive theorem prover definitions, making them amenable to mechanised proof. Our ISA descriptions are written in Sail—a custom ISA specification language designed to support idioms from various processor vendor's pseudocode, with lightweight dependent typing for bitvectors, targeting a variety of use cases including sequential and concurrent ISA semantics. From Sail we aim to portably generate usable theorem prover definitions for multiple provers, including Isabelle, HOL4, and Coq. We are focusing on the full ARMv8.3-A specification, CHERI-MIPS, and RISC-V, together with fragments of IBM POWER and x86.


Computational studies have been carried out on the LiNi1-xCoxO2 compounds based on density-functional theory. Quantum-mechanical calculations are performed using a total-energy pseudopotential code. Density of states and partial density of states are calculated with the considering the spin state of Ni and Co. Electronic structure calculations suggest that the exchange splitting is controlled by Co content. As the Co content increased, the exchange splitting decreased. Electronic structure calculations show that the crystal field splitting is controlled by the second content. With Co contents increasing, the crystal field splitting decreased for LiNi1-xCoxO2 with x=0, 1/3 and 2/3. The study also shows that the interaction of Ni ion with surrounding O ions and Li ions will be changed and prevents Li ions from leaving LiNiO2 with the increasing substitution Co for Ni in LiNiO2.


The history for the development of chiral phosphorus ligands in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation is briefly highlighted. This review focuses on the recent advances in the synthesis of the monodentate phosphorus ligands and their applications in catalytic asymmetric hydrogenation. The examples highlighted in this article clearly demonstrated the importance and advantages of monodentate phosphorus ligands, which had been ignored for 30 a and experienced a renaissance at the very beginning of this millennium, particularly in the area of asymmetric hydrogenation.


The purpose of this preliminary survey has been to review the current status of innovation activities of art and design institutions in the Nordic and Baltic region. First of all, the survey aims to highlight the innovation supporting services provided by the most important art and design universities in Nordic and Baltic countries. Secondly, the fact how design is integrated to the national innovation systems is analysed from each country's point of view.


Optimal control of harvested population at the edge of extinction in an unprotected area, is considered. The underlying population dynamics is governed by a Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov equation with a harvesting term and space-dependent coefficients while the control consists of transporting individuals from a natural reserve. The nonlinear optimal control problem is approximated by means of a Galerkin scheme. Convergence result about the optimal controlled solutions and error estimates between the corresponding optimal controls, are derived. For certain parameter regimes, nearly optimal solutions are calculated from a simple logistic ordinary differential equation (ODE) with a harvesting term, obtained as a Galerkin approximation of the original partial differential equation (PDE) model. A critical allowable fraction $\underline{\alpha}$ of the reserve's population is inferred from the reduced logistic ODE with a harvesting term. This estimate obtained from the reduced model allows us to distinguish sharply between survival and extinction for the full PDE itself, and thus to declare whether a control strategy leads to success or failure for the corresponding rescue operation while ensuring survival in the reserve's population. In dynamical terms, this result illustrates that although continuous dependence on the forcing may hold on finite-time intervals, a high sensitivity in the system's response may occur in the asymptotic time. We believe that this work, by its generality, establishes bridges interesting to explore between optimal control problems of ODEs with a harvesting term and their PDE counterpart.


Scanned handwritten historical documents are often not well accessible due to the limited feasibility of automatic full transcriptions. Thus, Keyword Spotting (KWS) has been proposed as an alternative to retrieve arbitrary query words from this kind of documents. In the present paper, word images are represented by means of graphs. That is, a graph is used to represent the inherent topological characteristics of handwriting. The actual keyword spotting is then based on matching a query graph with all document graphs. In particular, we make use of a fast graph matching algorithm that considers the contextual substructure of nodes. The motivation for this inclusion of node context is to increase the overall KWS accuracy. In an experimental evaluation on four historical documents, we show that the proposed procedure clearly outperforms diverse other template-based reference systems. Moreover, our novel framework keeps up or even outperforms many state-of-the-art learning-based KWS approaches.


Heme oxygenase (HO)-1, which catalyzes heme breakdown, is induced by oxidative stress and may protect against oxidative injury. We hypothesized that induction of HO-1 by hemoglobin (Hb) in the lung would protect the rat from pulmonary O2 toxicity. Rats given intratracheal (IT) Hb showed lung-specific induction of HO-1 by 8 h by Western analysis. Rats were then pretreated for 8 h before 60 h of exposure to 100% O2 with either IT normal saline, Hb, or Hb plus the HO-1 inhibitor tin-protoporphyrin (SnPP). Both the Hb+O2 and Hb+O2+ SnPP animals had less lung injury than normal saline controls as indicated by lower pleural fluid volumes and wet-to-dry weight ratios ( P < 0.01). The improvement in injury in the two Hb-treated groups was the same despite a 61% decrease in HO enzyme activity in the Hb+SnPP group after 60 h of O2. In addition, inhibition of HO activity with SnPP alone before O2exposure did not augment the extent of hyperoxic lung injury. These results demonstrate that IT Hb induces lung HO-1 in the rat and protects against hyperoxia; however, the protection is not mediated by increased HO enzyme activity.


In the present day business environment, customers expect fmns to increasingly customize their products and services to meet their demands that keep on changing on the day-to-day basis. At the same time, finns need to produce superior products and understand the markets as a whole, but the ability of firms to orient themselves to interact successfully with their individual customers will differentiate them in the future . Advances in technology have resulted in increasing opportunities for interactions between firms and customers, between customers, and between firms . The research objective was to establish the customer interaction practices employed by Banks in Kenya and also determine relationship between innovation and a firms' financial perfonnance. The research design adopted was descriptive research design. Data was collected using a questionnaire which consisted of both open and closed ended questions. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics and also an inferential analysis involving a regression was performed. The study found out that customer involvement in the product development is important in the service industry in establishing a relationship that will be beneficial to the customer and the bank. A bankcustomer interaction can be accomplished by adopting different modes of interaction and the method chosen by a bank should be one that will lead to more customers being incorporated in the process and at the same time result in greater benefit in a firm's product development. In addition, a bank interaction facilitates customer connection and collaboration with each other through sharing of information which help create businesses among themselves. The findings from the research conclude that :finns must adopt customer-based perfonnance metrics and institute employee rewards and incentives based on these metrics, instead of using aggregate-level measures, such as sales and market share growth, to evaluate marketing perfonnance.


Purpose
Several review articles have been published within the Artificial Intelligence (AI) literature that have explored a range of applications within the tourism and hospitality sectors. However, how efficiently the applied AI methods and algorithms have performed with respect to the type of applications and the multimodal sets of data domains have not yet been reviewed. Therefore, this paper aims to review and analyse the established AI methods in hospitality/tourism, ranging from data modelling for demand forecasting, tourism destination and behaviour pattern to enhanced customer service and experience.

Design/methodology/approach
The approach was to systematically review the relationship between AI methods and hospitality/tourism through a comprehensive literature review of papers published between 2010 and 2021. In total, 146 articles were identified and then critically analysed through content analysis into themes, including "AI methods" and "AI applications".

Findings
The review discovered new knowledge in identifying AI methods concerning the settings and available multimodal data sets in hospitality and tourism. Moreover, AI applications fostering the tourism/hospitality industries were identified. It also proposes novel personalised AI modelling development for smart tourism platforms to precisely predict tourism choice behaviour patterns.

Practical implications
This review paper offers researchers and practitioners a broad understanding of the proper selection of AI methods that can potentially improve decision-making and decision-support in the tourism/hospitality industries.

Originality/value
This paper contributes to the tourism/hospitality literature with an interdisciplinary approach that reflects on theoretical/practical developments for data collection, data analysis and data modelling using AI-driven technology.


Abstract The introduction of all day-schools in Germany was due in part to the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study 2000, which revealed a striking social inequality in the German education system. It was expected that in all-day schools especially "at risk" groups would be supported and thus the gap in achievement based on socioeconomic status (SES) would be narrowed; however, few studies have explored this. In this paper the potential of all-day secondary schools is investigated through analysis of data from a nationwide study on the development of all-day schools (StEG [Studie zur Entwicklung von Ganztagsschulen]). The findings support the idea that all-day schools could help to narrow the gap between low and high SES students in several ways. Keywords: all-day schools, extracurricular activities, social inequality ----- Bibl iography: Fischer, Natalie/Theis, Desiree/Zucher, Ivo: Narrowing the Gap? The Role of All-Day Schools in Reducing Educational Inequality in Germany, IJREE, Vol. 2, Issue 1-2014, pp. 79-96. https://doi.org/10.3224/ijree.v2i1.19535


The concept of teaching and learning is changing since the use of internet in learning as an e-learning. E-learning or electronic learning is an innovative type of education technology that is appropriate to adopt in teaching primary to higher levels of education. In the area of English language teaching and learning, teachers and lecturers can use e-learning as a media to transfer the English knowledge to the learners. The aim of this study is revealing the challenges in implementing e-learning, especially at reading class in Business English study program Politeknik Ubaya, Surabaya. This study uses qualitative descriptive method by distributing questionnaire. The writer distributes the questionnaire to semester 1 students of Business English study program as target population, since they will be in touch with reading e-class. The questionnaire will be used as a tool to analyze the challenges in reading e-class. Previous researches from similar issue are analyzed to reveal the obstacle and solution to overcome the challenges in reading e-class implementation. The major findings reveal the challenges that the students have in reading e-class. This can be used to determine whether the implementation of reading e-class is effective in English language learning and teaching process. The other pedagogical implication of this study is whether some sessions of face to face traditional class is needed to support reading e-class to develop students' reading skills. This preliminary study will be beneficial for Politeknik Ubaya as guidance whether English language e-learning, especially in reading should be continued to implement by the institution or not. Since this study is only a preliminary research, a further study could be developed in order to compare which one is better to develop students' reading skills; e-learning or traditional learning.


Planar two-dimensional (2D) solid-state lithium-ion batteries exhibit an undesirable energy versus power balance, which can be dramatically improved by the application of three-dimensional (3D) geometries. Current ceramics-based nanocomposites exhibit limited control of the distribution and orientation of the nanoparticles within the matrix material. However, the tailoring of functionalities by the strong coupling between the two phases and their interfaces, present in epitaxial 3D vertically aligned nanocomposites (VANs), show promising advantages over the conventional 2D planar multilayers. Although a range of epitaxial VANs have been studied in the last decade, lithium-based VANs toward battery applications have remained mostly unexplored. Interestingly, two recent studies by Qi et al. and Cunha et al. demonstrate the unique potential of lithium-based VANs toward the realization of 3D solid-state batteries with enhanced energy storage performance. In this article, we will discuss these promising results as an enhanced current collector within the cathode or as an integrated solid-state cathode-electrolyte composite. Furthermore, we will describe different design configurations that can be applied to realize self-assembled VAN-based complete 3D battery devices.


This book contains selected papers delivered during the 22nd Congress of L'Union Europeenne des Arabisants et Islamisants, held in Poland, from 29th September to 4th October 2004. The proceedings have been arranged into four thematic sections: (1) Theology and Philosophy, (2) Literature, (3) History of State and Society, and (4) Philology and Linguistics, though quite a number of the papers were of an interdisciplinary character. The authors of the 37 publications presented in this volume represent the international academic community and present in their articles the results of the latest research and studies into the areas touching on history, culture, literature, religion and art to mention a few. They constitute various attempts to answer the following questions: What is the meaning of Authority? and What is the place of the individual in Society? The book is essential source reading for specialists and students. This book is also recommended to all those who wish to become better acquainted with the problems and issues of the Arab-Muslim world.


Abstract The Ockley discovery is a gas condensate accumulation contained within tight chalks of the Hod Formation. The observed faults and fractures are a combination of features radial to the main periclinal structure and parallel to the local structural grain 100° from north. Most natural fractures appear to be healed or cemented. The pore pressure gradient at Ockley is c. 0.199 bar/m. The in situ stresses are estimated to all be within c. 46 bar of each other, indicating a near-isotropic in situ stress system. Therefore the orientation of SHmax is hard to define and drilling optimally oriented wells to create transverse hydraulic fractures is difficult. The estimated intact rock fracture initiation pressure in a horizontal well would exceed all the in situ stress gradients. Therefore, even if a vertical planar induced fracture were created at the wellbore wall, it would probably exploit natural fractures and bedding planes, leading to complex fracture geometries. Acid fracture stimulations are plugged by the insoluble clay residue within the clay-rich Hod chalk, so this is not an optimal strategy. Proppant fracturing has more merit, but complex fracture geometries present significant challenges for successful treatment design while trying to avoid or minimize extremely costly early screen-outs.


Bose atoms in optical lattices are considered at low temperatures and weak interactions, when Bose-Einstein condensate is formed. A self-consistent approach, based on the use of a representative statistical ensemble, is employed, ensuring a gapless spectrum of collective excitations and the validity of conservation laws. In order to show that the approach is applicable to both weak and tight binding, the problem is treated in the Bloch as well as in the Wannier representations. Both these ways result in similar expressions that are compared for the self-consistent Hartree-Fock-Bogolubov approximation. A convenient general formula for the superfluid fraction of atoms in an optical lattice is derived.