Context. High-contrast imaging (HCI) observations of exoplanets can be limited by the island effect (IE). The IE occurs when the main wavefront sensor (WFS) cannot measure sharp phase discontinuities across the telescope's secondary mirror support structures (also known as spiders). On the current generation of telescopes, the IE becomes a severe problem when the ground wind speed is below a few meters per second. During these conditions, the air that is in close contact with the spiders cools down and is not blown away. This can create a sharp optical path length difference between light passing on opposite sides of the spiders. Such an IE aberration is not measured by the WFS and is therefore left uncorrected. This is referred to as the low-wind effect (LWE). The LWE severely distorts the point spread function (PSF), significantly lowering the Strehl ratio and degrading the contrast.
Aims. In this article, we aim to show that the focal-plane wavefront sensing (FPWFS) algorithm, Fast and Furious (F&F), can be used to measure and correct the IE/LWE. The F&F algorithm is a sequential phase diversity algorithm and a software-only solution to FPWFS that only requires access to images of non-coronagraphic PSFs and control of the deformable mirror.
Methods. We deployed the algorithm on the SCExAO HCI instrument at the Subaru Telescope using the internal near-infrared camera in H-band. We tested with the internal source to verify that F&F can correct a wide variety of LWE phase screens. Subsequently, F&F was deployed on-sky to test its performance with the full end-to-end system and atmospheric turbulence. The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by two metrics based on the PSF quality: (1) the Strehl ratio approximation (SRA), and (2) variance of the normalized first Airy ring (VAR). The VAR measures the distortion of the first Airy ring, and is used to quantify PSF improvements that do not or barely affect the PSF core (e.g., during challenging atmospheric conditions).
Results. The internal source results show that F&F can correct a wide range of LWE phase screens. Random LWE phase screens with a peak-to-valley wavefront error between 0.4 μm and 2 μm were all corrected to a SRA > 90% and an VAR  ⪅  0.05. Furthermore, the on-sky results show that F&F is able to improve the PSF quality during very challenging atmospheric conditions (1.3–1.4″seeing at 500 nm). Closed-loop tests show that F&F is able to improve the VAR from 0.27–0.03 and therefore significantly improve the symmetry of the PSF. Simultaneous observations of the PSF in the optical (λ = 750 nm, Δλ = 50 nm) show that during these tests we were correcting aberrations common to the optical and NIR paths within SCExAO. We could not conclusively determine if we were correcting the LWE and/or (quasi-)static aberrations upstream of SCExAO.
Conclusions. The F&F algorithm is a promising focal-plane wavefront sensing technique that has now been successfully tested on-sky. Going forward, the algorithm is suitable for incorporation into observing modes, which will enable PSFs of higher quality and stability during science observations.


In regional anesthesia sudden and severe complications occur from time to time and may rapidly turn into life threatening situations. Their rarity might well be their most vicious characteristic. Therefore, awareness of the possible complications, careful preparation to cope with them, vigilance enabling prompt recognition of their occurrence and quick administration of the appropriate treatment are all essential for a safe practice of regional anesthesia. The routine use of pulse oximetry is now strongly recommended.


CO2CRC is undertaking a feasibility study for a planned CO2 controlled release and monitoring experiment on a shallow fault at the CO2CRC Otway Research Facility. In the first phase of the project, a series of geophysical surveys and groundwater permeability assessments were conducted at the Otway Research Facility to characterise the prospective experimental site and confirm the presence of a shallow fault. The data from the surveys have been integrated into a 3D model of the upper faulted shallow geology of the CO2CRC Otway site. Five properties (hydrostratigraphic unit, horizontal permeability, vertical permeability, fault permeability and P-velocity from refraction tomography) were populated in the 3D grid to produce the final static model. The model has been developed to assist with designing the experiment and conceptualising the shallow stratigraphy and fault structure at the Otway site. Dynamic modelling simulations based on the static model suggest that under certain scenarios it is possible that CO2 could migrate up the fault to the base of the Hanson Plain Sand if injected at approximately 30 m depth. This suggests that the planned fault injection experiment is feasible but additional data is required to validate the geological model and better constrain the modelling simulations.


The objective of this paper is to examine the short and the long-run interrelationshipsbetween sectoral savings and investment, foreign capital inflows and their roles in thegrowth process for India for the period 1950 to 2005. This paper uses theAutoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) procedure to test for both the long-run andshort-run effects between the eight variables, along with any endogenously detectedstructural breaks. This is in response to shortcomings relating to previous studies whichpredominantly analyse savings and investment aggregates only, over long time periodswhich contain structural changes, using bivariate estimation techniques, which areshort-run in nature. The analysis firstly tests for the short-run dynamic effects of savingsand investment on growth (consistent with the Solow-Swan model) and the long-runeffects of savings and investment on growth (in line with the endogenous AK models ofgrowth).The empirical estimations indicate that none of the three sectoral measures of savingsand investment have any positive impact on GDP growth in India. This result is robustin the short-run and the long-run, providing no evidence for both the short-run dynamicaffect of savings and investment on growth (the Solow model) and the longrun(permanent) affect of savings and investment on growth (the AK model of growth) inIndia.Foreign capital inflows is the only variable found to affect GDP growth, in the both theshort and long-run. A feedback effect exists between foreign capital inflows and GDPgrowth, although it is much smaller than from GDP growth to foreign capital inflows.The Carroll-Weil hypothesis and a strong accelerator effect of GDP are supported in theIndian context. GDP growth is affecting household and private savings in the long-run;and GDP has a large effect on household investment in the long-run and publicinvestment in the short-run.There is also evidence that household savings has a positive effect on private sectorinvestment in the long-run; and public sector investment in both the long and short-run.While the direction of these relationships from savings to investment is consistent withthe growth models, there is the serious missing link from investment to economicgrowth.Overall, the findings do not support policies designed to increase household, private orpublic savings and investment in order to promote economic growth in India. This isfurther strengthened by the findings that GDP has large elastic affects on householdinvestment in the long-run and public investment in the short-run. Further to this, publicinvestment has a negative impact on GDP growth in the long-run; however it is onlysignificant at the ten percent level. There is therefore, no statistical evidence of thepopular endogenous explanation that investment is the driver of long-run economicgrowth in India.


Abstract The question of whether grammar learning and correction is effective for second language writing development depends on students' needs and tendency to study grammar. While the extent of the influence of grammar learning, grammar correction, and learner beliefs on second language writing for English as a second language settings and learners has been heavily debated, little of the research has considered the backgrounds and beliefs of English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. To explore factors that have influenced EFL students' writing, the current study investigated beliefs regarding grammar learning and correction of 306 EFL students studying at universities of science and technology. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on questionnaire data gathered from the Taiwanese EFL student writers. The analysis uncovered four significant factors including (1) emphasis on the connection between grammar learning and writing, (2) positive attitude towards analyses of grammar rules, (3) positive attitude towards written correction, and (4) negative attitude towards oral correction. Qualitative data gathered through ten open-ended questions further indicated that EFL student writers welcomed teachers' written correction of grammar errors especially when grammar correction was received for writing produced during writing tasks tailored to students' future work-related needs. Pedagogical implications and future materials development for university of science and technology EFL student writers were discussed.


Experimental realizations of two-dimensional (2D) electronic spectroscopy in the ultraviolet (UV) must so far contend with a limited bandwidth in both the excitation and particularly the probe frequency. The pump bandwidth is at best 1500 cm−1 (full width at half maximum) at a fixed wavelength of 267 nm or 400 cm−1 for tunable pulses. The use of a replica of the pump pulse as a probe limits the observation of photochemical processes to the excitation region and makes the disentanglement of overlapping signal contributions difficult. We show that 2D Fourier transform spectroscopy can be conducted in a shaper-assisted collinear setup comprising fully tunable UV pulse pairs and supercontinuum probe spanning 250–720 nm. The pump pulses are broadened up to a useable spectral coverage of 2000 cm−1 (25 nm at 316 nm) by self-phase modulation in bulk CaF2 and compressed to 18 fs. By referencing the white light probe and eliminating pump stray light contributions, high signal-to-noise ratios even for weak probe intensities are achieved. Data acquisition times as short as 4 min for a selected population time allow the rapid recording of 2D spectra for photolabile biological samples even with the employed 1 kHz laser system. The potential of the setup is demonstrated on two representative molecules: pyrene and 2,2-diphenyl-5,6-benzo(2H)chromene. Well-resolved cross-peaks are observed and the excitation energy dependence of the relaxation processes is revealed.


Background
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is an established treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD), but its clinical efficacy remains rather modest. One reason for this could be that the propagation of rTMS effects via structural connections from the stimulated area to deeper brain structures (such as the cingulate cortices) is suboptimal.

Methods
We investigated whether structural connectivity — derived from diffusion MRI data — could serve as a biomarker to predict treatment response. We hypothesized that stronger structural connections between the patient-specific stimulation position in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the cingulate cortices would predict better clinical outcomes. We applied accelerated intermittent theta burst stimulation (aiTBS) to the left dlPFC in 40 patients with MDD. We correlated baseline structural connectivity, quantified using various metrics (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, tract density, tract volume and number of tracts), with changes in depression severity scores
after aiTBS.

Results
Exploratory results (p < 0.05) showed that structural connectivity between the patient-specific stimulation site and the caudal and posterior parts of the cingulate cortex had predictive potential for clinical response to aiTBS.

Limitations
We used the diffusion tensor to perform tractography. A main limitation was that multiple fibre directions within voxels could not be resolved, which might have led to missing connections in some patients.

Conclusion
Stronger structural frontocingular connections may be of essence to optimally benefit from left dlPFC rTMS treatment in MDD. Even though the results are promising, further investigation with larger numbers of patients, more advanced tractography algorithms and classic daily rTMS treatment paradigms is warranted.

Clinical trial registration
http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01832805


In this lively account of Arizona's Rim Country War of the 1880s - what others have called "The Pleasant Valley War" - historian Daniel Justin Herman explores a web of conflict involving Mormons, Texas cowboys, New Mexican sheepherders, Jewish merchants, and mixed-blood ranchers. Their story, contends Herman, offers a fresh perspective on Western violence, Western identity, and American cultural history. At the heart of Arizona's range war, argues Herman, was a conflict between cowboys' code of honour and Mormons' code of conscience. He investigates the sources of these attitudes, tracks them into the early twentieth century, and offers rich insights into the roots of American violence and peace. It is published in cooperation with the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies, Southern Methodist University.


The metropolitan region of Perth, Western Australia is home to around 1.6 million people with the population expected to grow to 3.5 million by 2050. Perth is characterised by very large, detached dwellings which make up around 80% of the overall housing stock. This contributes to a population density of around 1,000 people per square kilometre, around half that of Sydney. If the region continues with the current pattern of development Perth will need 3,000km2 to accommodate the population in 2050, doubling the size of the existing area. Perth already experiences significant traffic congestion and infrastructure capacity issues due to the narrow spread of development along the coast. Strategic planning documents highlight the need to increase the density of the region by doubling the current rate of infill development. Achieving this target presents a number of significant challenges, largely because the region is not familiar with the construction of medium and high density dwellings and the widespread public opposition to intensification within existing suburbs. This paper discusses the findings of a series of investigative panels held in Sydney and Perth which evaluated ways to overcome the barriers to infill development, particularly the challenges of delivering diverse and affordable housing in Perth, vital given the median house price in Perth is around $500,000 (£340,000). Framed within the context of the development process, the paper examines a series of recommendations at each stage of the process which could stimulate infill development. Analysis of Sydney, a city with a long history of successful infill development, offers a contrast. However, the paper describes how Sydney currently faces significant barriers to residential development, barriers very different from those present in Perth, many of which were caused by the global finance crisis with potentially long lasting implications for the housing market.


A hyperventilation test, rationed with respect to respiratory rate and duration, was performed in 140 athletes under electrocardiographic control. During the test, one athlete developed an episode of sino-auricular block, and four showed a temporary second-degree Wenkebach--Samoilov A--V block. In three of those, resting ECG demonstrated decelerated atrioventricular conductivity which was combined with signs of myocardial dystrophy in two cases and with periodically recorded coronary sinus rhythm in one. Two athletes were under long-term dispensary observation. When repeated tests were negative, the block developed in response to hyperventilation preceded by obsidan administration.


Over fifty years of research on freshwater macroinvertebrates has been driven largely by the state of the taxonomy of these organisms. Significant advances have been and continue to be made in developing ever more refined keys to macroinvertebrate groups. When advances in macroinvertebrate ecological research are restricted by the level of detail in identifications, then analysis by function is a viable alternative. The focus on function, namely adaptations of macroinvertebrates to habitats and the utilization of food resources, has facilitated ecological evaluation of freshwater ecosystems. This classification is based not on what insects eat, but how they obtain their food. These categories are called 'functional feeding groups', as the name implies, denoting their functional role when describing how and where they feed. This is the basis for the functional feeding group (FFG) method that was initially developed in the early 1960s. Taxonomy is applied only to the level of detail that allows assignment to one of five functional feeding group categories: detrital shredders, scrapers, filtering collectors, gatherers, and predators. The aim of this short communication, originating from the presentation of R.W. Merritt at the Biomonitoring Symposium in Rome, 2015 , is to promote the use of a functional approach in biomonitoring, especially in Italian and European lotic systems. Here, we present two case studies and we discuss the advantages of the method, especially considering the great availability of quantitative data on macroinvertebrates after the implementation of the WFD 2000/60. We are confident that the increase of functional assessment of ecosystem attributes could have important and direct repercussions in the understanding and management of running waters.


Mediational analysis is used to explain how a predictor affects the outcome through an intervening variable called a mediator. In a cross-sectional study, the predictor, the mediator, and the outcome are measured at single time points and these time points need to be chronologically in the same order. In longitudinal mediational models, the outcome and the mediator are measured over the follow-up period also in the chronological order while the predictor is measured at a single time point.The role of a mediator in cross-sectional mediational models with single outcomes is mostly assessed by two parametric tests, Sobel test and Clogg test. We have extended these tests to multiple outcomes. The extensions also include two bootstrap approaches. Simulation results show that in the presence of moderate correlation between the predictor and the mediator, the extended Clogg test has the most reliable Type I error rate and the highest power. For longitudinal mediational models, we have discussed one scenario where the outcome process and the mediational process are described by linear growth curves. The total indirect effect of the predictor is defined as the effect of the predictor on the initial status and the growth rate of the outcome after accounting for the mediating effect of the initial status and the growth rate of the mediator. Inferential methods for the total indirect effect are proposed, using a formulation by random coefficient models. Results indicate the reliability of the proposed methods with large samples. An illustrative example using University of Pittsburgh Physical Activity Study (PittPAS) is given. The study seeks to investigate an important question about the differential effect of gender, if any, on the exercise behavior in young adulthood in relation to the exercise behavior in adolescence. Using the mediational model, we found the differential effect of gender on physical activity in young adulthood was mediated by the previous physical activities experience in adolescence. The public health significance of the present work lies in the development of statistical procedures using cutting-edge methodologies to handle irregularly observed data, small samples and a finer characterization of the longitudinal outcome and mediational processes.


Facilitated by the latest advances of information technologies, online human computing resources provide researchers unprecedented opportunities to resolve a class of real-world problems that are challenging even to the computer algorithms, and yet manageable to human intelligence if working units are well organized. A problem in this category is image labeling, recognizing and categorizing targets in the images. In this paper, we describe an online platform that leverages human computation resources to resolve an image labeling task - classifying damage patterns in post-disaster photos. The underlying information valuable to us is not only the existence of damage in the image, but also its patterns and severity. We hope this study can provide new perspectives to enhance the design of crowdsourcing projects in future.


Understanding how uncertainty manifests itself in complex experiments is important for developing the testing protocol and interpreting the experimental results. This paper describes experimental and measurement uncertainties, and how they can depend on the order of performing experimental tests. Experiments with pulse-jet mixers in tanks at three scales were conducted to characterize the performance of transient-developing periodic flows in Newtonian slurries. Other test parameters included the simulant, solids concentration, and nozzle exit velocity. Critical suspension velocity and cloud height were the metrics used to characterize Newtonian slurry flow associated with mobilization and mixing. During testing, near-replicate and near-repeat tests were conducted. The experimental results were used to quantify the combined experimental and measurement uncertainties using standard deviations and percent relative standard deviations (%RSD) The uncertainties in critical suspension velocity and cloud height tend to increase with the values of these responses. Hence, the %RSD values are the more appropriate summary measure of near-replicate testing and measurement uncertainty.


Currently there are insufficient data to recommend routine supplementation of infant formula with probiotics and/or prebiotics. However, administration of either food components in isolation or in combination early or follow-on or toddler infant formulas has been associated with clinical benefit beyond the first months of life. Thus, among them, a reduced risk of gastrointestinal infections and their treatment, control of atopy manifestations, decreased antibiotic use and a lower frequency of colic or irritability can be included. Furthermore, different studies have shown no harmful consequences of its consumption. From a review of the most relevant studies, this paper aims to provide a quick overview of the main clinical issues this topic brings up today.


Abstract Given a growing demand of peanut-based products in the developed countries, investing in peanuts production and marketing may provide a way to address the needs for both food and foreign exchange in the developing countries. It is, however, important to consider ever changing preferences and tastes for food products among the consumers in the developed countries while designing such marketing program. This paper examined the attitudes toward reduced fat peanut butter among consumers in the United States for peanut butter. The results showed that consumers' attitudes toward reduced fat peanut butter differed across gender, race, and income groups. Female respondents were more likely to favor reduced fat peanut butter than their male counterpart. Perceptions about peanut butter regarding its nutrition content played a role in formulating consumer attitude. Those who considered peanut butter as a "nutritious" food were less likely to favor reduced fat peanut butter. Single adults and married couples trying to develop a healthy lifestyle with regular exercise habit were likely to be the prime target group for reduced fat peanut butter.


In this paper, we are interested in the long-time behaviour of stochastic systems of n interacting vortices: the position in R2 of each vortex evolves according to a Brownian motion and a drift summing the influences of the other vortices computed through the Biot and Savart kernel and multiplied by their respective vorticities. For fixed n, we perform the rescalings of time and space used successfully by Gallay and Wayne [5] to study the long-time behaviour of the vorticity formulation of the two dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation, which is the limit as n $\rightarrow$ $\infty$ of the weighted empirical measure of the system under mean-field interaction. When all the vorticities share the same sign, the 2n-dimensional process of the rescaled positions of the vortices is shown to converge exponentially fast as time goes to infinity to some invariant measure which turns out to be Gaussian if all the vorticities are equal. In the particular case n = 2 of two vortices, we prove exponential convergence in law of the 4-dimensional process to an explicit random variable, whatever the choice of the two vorticities. We show that this limit law is not Gaussian when the two vorticities are not equal.


Purpose: The purpose of this study is to verify factors affecting initial use intention of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) by adopting aspects of drivers' safety and convenience. Design/methodology/approach: As ADAS is developed for safety protection of driver, our study considers adopting not only models of technology acceptance but also models regarding safety protection. To achieve this research goal, a research model that integrates the protection motivation theory (PMT) and the extended unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT2) is used to approach the technology acceptance process with an integrated perspective. We survey over two hundred people who had an experience of ADAS to verify our research model. Findings: By analysing the research model with structural equation modelling, we could identify which factors are influential on initial use intention of ADAS. There are some distinguished factors of success such as response efficacy, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and hedonic motivation. Originality/value: This study is expected to have a theoretical implication in terms of presenting a new research model and identifying the factors that affect the initial acceptance intention of ADAS and empirically analysing it. By analysing how users' diversified needs have impacts on initial use intention of ADAS, it is possible to predict the direction of the ADAS market for establishing a diffusion strategy and marketing strategy for the automobile market.


We study high-fidelity image compression with a given tight bound on the maximum error magnitude. We propose a weighted finite automata (WFA) recursive encoding scheme on the adaptive context modelling based quantizing prediction residue images. By incorporating the proposed recursive WFA encoding techniques into the context modelling based nearly-lossless CALIC (context based adaptive lossless image codec), we were able to increase its PSNR by 1.5 dB or more and get compression rates 15 per cent or better than the original CALIC. By combining wavelet methods and WFA encoding, we were able to obtain competitive PSNR results against the best wavelet coders in both L/sub 2/ and L/spl infin/ metrics, while obtaining much smaller maximum error magnitude than the latter.


The paper is aimed at exploring the opportunities given by the exploitation of different technologies for energy storage in the development of a trigeneration (trigen) and district energy project. In particular, the paper will be devoted to find the best cooling energy storage solution for the on-going San Paolo Power Park project in the City of Bari, Italy. The Power Park is a project that aims at producing energy and energy services through an optimal mix of renewables, CHP/DHC, hydrogen and other forms of energy. The energy produced in the central plant will be distributed in a suburban degraded area devoted to social housing, but also close to some significant energy users (airport, hospital and other major facilities). The optimization problem is solved by means of a two-step multiperiod algorithm. Test results are presented.


This paper describes the development and use of objective and subjective evaluation criteria for hydrostatic pressure tests of oil pipelines at marine terminal facilities by a California state agency. Many regulatory agencies require a periodic hydrostatic pressure test (hydrotest or static liquid pressure test) to re-validate the integrity of a pipeline. Performance variables for a typical test include: test duration, test pressure, test medium temperature, ambient environment temperature, and volumetric changes. At California State Lands Commission, Marine Facilities Division, an Excel spreadsheet is used to evaluate test results. The spreadsheet is also used by many marine oil terminals and contracted testing companies. The spreadsheet aids the user to: perform pretest checks, record input, quantify numerical output, and plot graphical output. The pretest checks include calculating fill volume and determining significant trapped air. The graphical output provides a visual presentation for the test variables of time, test medium temperature, ambient environment temperature, actual test pressure, theoretical test pressure, and allowable pressure variance. Acceptable pressure range is shown as a plus or minus bandwidth around the theoretical test pressure, and is based upon the thermal expansion sensitivity of the test medium. For those test results that fall partially outside the acceptable pressure range, interpretive criteria are used involving data trends and correlations. The spreadsheet software is the property of the State; however, it is freely distributed to anyone who requests a copy. An acceptable hydrostatic pressure test is achieved by adequate test preparation, quality data collection, and quantitative, and often times, interpretive results evaluation.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The prevalence of obesity among the population is increasing, including in many elderly people. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether lumbar spinal surgery in elderly patients with different body mass indices influences pain, satisfaction rate, and activities of daily living. Two hundred ninety-eight elderly patients (older than 65 years), 153 women and 145 men, who had decompressive laminectomy, discectomy, or combinations of these procedures during 1990 to 2000 were followed up. Indications for surgery included limitation in doing activities of daily living, severe pain, or both. The patients were classified into one of four categories in terms of their body mass index. The operative parameters, pain reduction, satisfaction rate, and activities of daily living using the Barthel index were assessed. The more obese patients were younger, tended to be female, and were more symptomatic. All four groups of patients had reduction in pain, improvement in activities of daily living, and were satisfied with the operation. Our data suggest that it is reasonable to operate on patients who are elderly and obese and who have lumbar symptoms, with the appropriate indications.


LONERGAN ON THE HISTORICAL CAUSALITY OF CHRIST: AN INTERPRETATION OF THE REDEMPTION: A SUPPLEMENT TO DE VERBO INCARNATO John Volk, B.S., MBA, M.Div. Marquette University, 2012 In 1958, the Canadian Jesuit theologian Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) completed a draft of a major text on redemption. He stated that the text was to be an addition to his book De Verbo Incarnato, with the purpose of explaining the historical causality of Christ. The Lonergan Research Institute, Toronto, has produced a preliminary English translation titled The Redemption: A Supplement to De Verbo Incarnato. To date, there has been no interpretation of this text. This dissertation aims at making a contribution towards the remedy of this lacuna in Lonergan studies. The dissertation interprets Lonergan's understanding of the historical causality of Christ, through an interpretation of his text. The dissertation employs the methodology of what Lonergan named the "hermeneutical circle:" the meaning of the whole is grasped through the parts, and the parts through the whole. In this dissertation, each chapter is interpreted in the wider context of the whole. Each chapter is also interpreted in the order presented in Lonergan's text, since that text is organized according to what Lonergan, following Aquinas, calls the ordo disciplinae or ordo doctrinae, the order of learning and teaching, the ideal mode of explaining systematic understanding. Lonergan's understanding of the historical causality of Christ follows from his understanding of history itself, where the fundamental unit is culture and the fundamental nature of human causality is social. Lonergan understands culture through a set of terms and relations he names the "human good of order." This order is an expression of cultural meanings and values, whether for good or evil. The historical causality of Christ involves a proper causal series in which God's redemptive agency is mediated into human history, through Christ and his members, to transform cultural evil into good by transforming cultural meanings and values. The principal meaning and value is the "Law of the Cross." According to the divine plan, this law is the governing principle of salvation history. Since human causality is fundamentally social, the historical causality of Christ is mediated through others who understand this law and judge it as worthy to be chosen.


Microglia are the resident macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS). Like other tissue macrophages, microglia have many different functions under physiological as well as pathological conditions. Microglia can contribute to the initiation, progression and resolution of disease processes and microglia activation is a common hallmark of many CNS diseases. By consequence modulation of microglial activation represents an interesting therapeutic strategy. In this thesis, we studied the modulation of microglia activation via different mechanisms and agents. The research presented in this thesis focuses on microglia activation by receptors of the innate immune system known as Toll-like receptors (TLR). TLR-mediated activation can be caused by cellular encounters with microbial ligands (pathogen-associated molecular patterns) as well as by encounters with damaged cell-derived ligands (danger-associated molecular patterns). This broad array of ligands renders it likely that TLR-mediated microglial activation has relevance to various situations where CNS homeostasis is disturbed.

The studies in this thesis have been performed at the Alternatives Unit of the Biomedical Primate Research Centre (BPRC). Our group focuses on the development of in vitro methodology that can be used to reduce, refine or replace in vivo animal experiments. For the research presented in this thesis, we used primary microglia cultures derived from healthy adult rhesus monkeys (macaca mulatta) as a model for adult human microglia. This model has important advantages in terms of genetic and donor age similarities over the use of microglia derived from embryonic, neonatal or adult in bred rodents. Additionally, advantage over the use of adult human microglia is the total control over ante mortem (disease history, process of dying) and post mortem (post mortem time) conditions. Importantly, no monkeys are sacrificed for the exclusive purpose of initiating primary cell cultures. We use brain tissue that comes available when rhesus monkeys are euthanized e.g. at the end of other experiments to isolate microglia. This procedure is part of the active alternatives program within the BPRC aimed at replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experiments.

The research presented in this thesis describes the modulation of TLR-mediated activation of microglia via a variety of mechanisms and agents. In summary, we characterized the effect of different differentiation regimes and anti-inflammatory cytokines on microglia function and TLR-responses. Next to this, we describe new mechanisms that play a role in the initiation and termination of microglia activation via adenosine receptors, which may represent interesting targets in the modulation of microglia activation in CNS disease. Additionally, we demonstrate unanticipated effects of statins on innate immune responses of microglia, by which we may have identified potential adverse effects of statins in their use in CNS disorders with an inflammatory component such as multiple sclerosis. In conclusion, the studies in this thesis contribute to fundamental knowledge on microglia activation and TLR-mediated activation in general, and have resulted in several interesting new leads for future development of human therapeutic strategies.


"Making the Human Mind" is an attack on the widespread assumption that the mind has parts and that it is the interaction between these parts which accounts for some of the most characteristic human behaviour, the sorts of irrational behaviour displayed in self-deception and weakness of will. The implications of this attack are considerable: Professor Sharpe contests a realism about the mind, the belief that there is an inventory which an all-seeing deity could compile and which could contain answers to all the questions we could ask about people. With this goes a hermeneutic approach to the understanding of human behaviour: these forms of understanding are markedly different from that suggested by the scientific model and favoured by those who partition the mind. Finally, the author undermines eliminative materialism and the idea that the way we talk about the mind constitutes a "folk psychology", arguing that what is distinctively human about the human mind has been created by self-consciousness and is self-created.


In this theoretical work, we treat behavioral and perceptual issues on an equal footing and examine the emergence of mutually exclusive behavioral patterns and perceptual variables during infant development from the perspective of multistable competitive dynamic systems. Accordingly, behavioral modes and modes of perception compete with each other for activation. One and only one mode survives the mode-mode competition, which accounts for the incompatibility of modes being considered. However, the winning behavioral or perceptual state is not predefined. Rather, we argue that during particular stages of maturation multiple modes coexist for the same set of developmental, body-scaled, and environmental parameters or constraints. The winning behavioral or perceptual state depends on these parameters as well as on initial conditions as operationalized in terms of previously performed behaviors or utilized perceptual stimuli. We give explicit examples of our approach and address the emergence of two-handed grasping and catching movements and the emergence of monocular and binocular vision during infant development. In particular, we propose that the emergence of midline crossing movements in 3- to 6-month-old infants involves two independent but interaction control parameters: a body-scaled and a developmental one. Likewise, we argue that the onset of binocularity in infants involves two independent but interaction control parameters: a developmental and an environmental one.


Many macrocyclic lactones, including avermectins, are known to be used as a veterinary drug, agricultural pesticides, and insecticides. Lactoperoxidase (EC 18.104.22.168) is one of the peroxidases found in milk. Lactoperoxidase has a natural host defense system against micro-organisms and a natural antimicrobial system. In this study, some macrocyclic lactones, including emamectin-benzoate, doramectin, eprinomectin, abamectin, moxidectin-vetranal, and ivermectin were investigated for in vitro inhibitory effects on the bovine lactoperoxidase enzyme, which was purified using amberlite CG-50 H+ resin and sepharose 4B-L-tyrosine-sulphanamide affinity chromatography 344.6-fold, with a yield of 61.1% and a specific activity of 39.11 EU/mg protein. Emamectin-benzoate, doramectin, eprinomectin, abamectin, moxidectin-vetranal, and ivermectin are also known strong antiparasitary properties. In this study, we demonstrated that avermectins have strong lactoperoxidase inhibitory effects. Of these, the emamectin-benzoate was shown to have the most inhibiting effect against lactoperoxidase with Ki value of 6.82 ± 2.60 µM.


Initial observations of the coastal oceanography on the east Coromandel inner shelf, northeast New Zealand, were examined using the combined results of sea-bed drifter experiments and Aanderaa continuous recording current meter records. The inner shelf at this location is fairly narrow, ranging from 20-30 km out to the 200 m bathymetric contour. Near bottom currents in the study area are characterized by two shore-parallel flows. During calm weather, a relatively weak current flows to the south at speeds of between 0.10-0.20 ms -1 . This appears to be a remotely forced bottom current possibly associated with the southward directed East Auckland Current. Episodic storm events associated with cyclonic depressions result in the generation of a strong northerly flowing current, with speeds of up to 0.40 ms -1 recorded. This is a local wind-generated bottom current, and probably represents part of a more complex 3-dimensional circulation associated with downwelling conditions. From consideration of current and combined wave-current dynamics, potential long-shelf sediment transport pathways were found to be directed to the north during episodic storm events. Such high magnitude wind events are concentrated during winter and spring each year and occurred relatively infrequently (0.5%-6% p.a.) during the study.


Filamentation is an important biological mechanism that aids in the survival, pathogenesis, and antibiotic resistance of bacteria within different environments, including pathogenic bacteria such as uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Here, we have identified a bacteriophage-encoded cell division inhibitor which contributes to the filamentation that occurs during the SOS response. ABSTRACT Rod-shaped bacteria such as Escherichia coli can regulate cell division in response to stress, leading to filamentation, a process where cell growth and DNA replication continue in the absence of division, resulting in elongated cells. The classic example of stress is DNA damage, which results in the activation of the SOS response. While the inhibition of cell division during SOS has traditionally been attributed to SulA in E. coli, a previous report suggests that the e14 prophage may also encode an SOS-inducible cell division inhibitor, previously named SfiC. However, the exact gene responsible for this division inhibition has remained unknown for over 35 years. A recent high-throughput overexpression screen in E. coli identified the e14 prophage gene, ymfM, as a potential cell division inhibitor. In this study, we show that the inducible expression of ymfM from a plasmid causes filamentation. We show that this expression of ymfM results in the inhibition of Z ring formation and is independent of the well-characterized inhibitors of FtsZ ring assembly in E. coli, SulA, SlmA, and MinC. We confirm that ymfM is the gene responsible for the SfiC phenotype, as it contributes to the filamentation observed during the SOS response. This function is independent of SulA, highlighting that multiple alternative division inhibition pathways exist during the SOS response. Our data also highlight that our current understanding of cell division regulation during the SOS response is incomplete and raises many questions regarding how many inhibitors there actually are and their purpose for the survival of the organism. IMPORTANCE Filamentation is an important biological mechanism that aids in the survival, pathogenesis, and antibiotic resistance of bacteria within different environments, including pathogenic bacteria such as uropathogenic Escherichia coli. Here, we have identified a bacteriophage-encoded cell division inhibitor which contributes to the filamentation that occurs during the SOS response. Our work highlights that there are multiple pathways that inhibit cell division during stress. Identifying and characterizing these pathways are critical steps in understanding survival tactics of bacteria, which become important when combating the development of bacterial resistance to antibiotics and their pathogenicity.


We investigated the relationship between ventilation rates and work performance in a call center. We randomized the ventilation controls and measured ventilation rate, differential carbon dioxide ({Delta}CO{sub 2}) concentration, temperature, humidity, occupant density, degree of under-staffing, shift length, time of day, and time required to complete two different work performance tasks (talk and wrap-up). {Delta}CO{sub 2} concentrations ranged from 13 to 611 ppm. We used multi-variable regression to model the association between the predictors and the responses. We found that agents performed talk tasks fastest when the ventilation rate was highest, but that the relationship between talk performance and ventilation was not monotone. We did not find a statistically significant association between wrap-up performance and ventilation. At high temperatures agents were slower at both the talk and wrap-up tasks. Agents were slower at wrap-up during long shifts and when the call center was under-staffed.


Introduction The management of benign oesophageal strictures is classically via repeated endoscopic dilatations (ED). These require recurrent sessions over a short period of time. With each ED, there is a risk of perforation, and recurrent dilatations require frequent endoscopies, affecting the quality of life of patients. Self-expanding metal stents (SEMS) are another option but can result in stent migration, tissue in-growth and almost always require endoscopic removal after a period of time. We present a retrospective cohort study to assess if biodegradable (BD) stents (ELLA ltd) reduce the number of dilatations in patients with benign oesophageal strictures and to assess the length of time to next intervention following BD stent insertion. Method All patients who had BD stents placed for benign strictures in our department between 2010–2016 were included. Following the insertion of the stents we analysed the time to next intervention (defined as ED or further stent insertion). We compared the number of EDs in the 12 weeks prior to stent insertion to the 12 weeks after. We noted any complications from the stents recorded on electronic patient records. Results 34 BD stents were placed in our unit over 6 years in 16 patients. The mean age of patients was 56 years+/-16.9 years. 7 patients had peptic strictures, 4 patients had caustic strictures, 3 had radiation induced strictures and 2 had post-surgical anastomotic strictures. The mean length of stricture was 4.9 cm (+/-2.5). When a BD stent was inserted for the first time in a patient there was a significant reduction in the mean number of dilatations in the 12 weeks before BD stent insertion vs the 12 weeks after stent insertion. 3.16+/-1.8 dilatations vs 0.38+/-0.5 dilatations, p<0.005. The median time to intervention was 12 weeks (IQR:8–16.5). Kaplan-Meier statistics predict that at 12 weeks 55% of patients did not require re-intervention and at 18 weeks 22% of patients did not require intervention. Of the 34 stents, 2 (6.3%) developed oesophagitis, there were 2 (6.3%) blocked stents which were endoscopically resolved, and 2 (6.3%) patients developed severe pain. 1 patient developed an aorto-oeosphageal fistula requiring surgery 3 weeks post stent insertion. There was 1 stent migration. Conclusion In our series the use of BD stents in well-selected non-malignant oesophageal strictures appears to reduce the number of EDs patients require in the 12 weeks after insertion compared to the 12 weeks prior. The time to next intervention would appear to be acceptable for most patients. However, some patients do not tolerate the stents, and one patient had the severe complication of an aorto-oeosphageal fistula. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


In this essay, Crispin Wright's various attempts at solving the so-called McKinsey paradox are reconstructed and criticized. In the first section, I argue against Anthony Brueckner that Wright's solution does require that there is a failure of warrant transmission in McKinsey's argument. To this end, a variant of the McKinsey paradox for earned a priori warrant is reconstructed, and it is claimed that Wright's putative solution of this paradox is best understood as drawing on the contention that there is a transmission failure in the argument in question. In section II, I focus on Wright's views in the second part of his pivotal article on the McKinsey paradox (published in 2003). It is argued that the solution to the paradox proposed there by Wright is convincing if his theory of entitlements is accepted. In the third section, however, I raise an objection against Wright's account of entitlements. Finally, in section IV, Wright's views in his most recent essay on the McKinsey paradox are examined. It is shown that his new solution to this problem does not work any better than his earlier attempts at solving it.


Publisher Rights Statement: This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Educational Review, 2011. Copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00131911.2011.571762 Thorburn, M. (2011). 'Still Game': An analysis of the life history and career disappointments of one veteran male teacher of physical education in Scotland'. Educational Review , 63 (3), 329-343


The Large Area Telescope (LAT), one of two instruments on the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, scheduled for launch by NASA in 2007, is an imaging, wide field-of-view, high-energy gamma-ray telescope, covering the approximate energy range from 20 MeV to more than 300 GeV. Annihilation of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP), predicted in many extensions of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, may give rise to a signal in gamma-ray spectra from many cosmic sources. In this contribution we give an overview of the searches for WIMP Dark Matter performed by the GLAST-LAT collaboration.


We estimated natal and breeding philopatry and dispersal probabilities for a metapopulation of Black Brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) based on observations of marked birds at six breeding colonies in Alaska, 1986–1994. Both adult females and males exhibited high (>0.90) probability of philopatry to breeding colonies. Probability of natal philopatry was significantly higher for females than males. Natal dispersal of males was recorded between every pair of colonies, whereas natal dispersal of females was observed between only half of the colony pairs. We suggest that female-biased philopatry was the result of timing of pair formation and characteristics of the mating system of brant, rather than factors related to inbreeding avoidance or optimal discrepancy. Probability of natal philopatry of females increased with age but declined with year of banding. Age-related increase in natal philopatry was positively related to higher breeding probability of older females. Declines in natal philopatry with year of banding corresponded negatively to a period of increasing population density; therefore, local population density may influence the probability of nonbreeding and gene flow among colonies.


This study was carried out at AL-Qadisiya Governorate/ AL-Shinafia district during a period from July- September 2010  to evaluate the effect of age of dam and sex of birth on physico-chemical composition of milk in some farm animals(cows ,sheep and goats). by using ultra-sonic milk Analyzer to analysis of physico-chemical composition of milk. A total of (153) samples of milk were used in this study distributed in to (54) samples for cows, (53) samples for sheep and (46) samples for goats. These samples were collected from animals directly and kept in ice box during transportation to the laboratory to analysis. Results of this study showed that milk of sheep and goats didn't differ significantly as compared with cows milk in (PH, Density, Solid not fat).But differed significantly (P˂0.05) in other components. The study revealed that sheep milk contain the highest Ash(0.74%) while cow milk had lactose (4.25%) , but goat milk had the highest solid not fat (8.27%) and protein (3.37%). The study showed that there was no significant effect of sex of birth on physico-chemical composition of milk of cows, sheep and goats with exception the effect of it on lactose percentage in sheep. Age of dam didn't effect on most physico-chemical composition of milk of cow and goat and some chemical composition of sheep milk (Ash and Fat).


Anthropogenic contamination of the environment by engineered nanomaterials (ENM) is an emerging environmental problem; therefore, it is important to develop efficient technologies for contaminated water treatment. Chitosan was used as a flocculant for the co-precipitation and removal of water-dispersed carbon nanomaterials (hydroxylated carbon nanotubes (CNT-OH) and fullerenes (C60-OH)) by changing the solution pH, which affects chitosan solubility. The precipitation of chitosan was accompanied by efficient entrapment of water-dispersed ENM into an insoluble precipitate which resulted in >90% ENM removal during single treatment. Factors controlling the efficiency of ENM removal by the chitosan-assisted co-precipitation method, such as the molecular weight of chitosan, the presence of low-molecular-weight electrolytes, the separation method, etc., are discussed.


Several phosphaquinolinone derivatives have been synthesized and characterized to explore their usefulness in the realm of cell imaging. Solution-state photophysical properties in both aqueous and organic solutions were collected for these derivatives. Additionally, CCK-8 cell viability assays and fluorescent imaging in HeLa cells incubated with the new heterocyclic derivatives show evidence of favorable cell permeability, cell viability, and moderate intracellular localization when appended with the well-known morpholine targeting motif.


As effort to raise the service quality of Executive train, PT. KAI had initiative to erase the food & beverage allocation which judged lack of quality. The food & beverage allocation abolition seemed as practical strategy for PT. KAI than raised the quality which much more complex and related with many aspect. The program communicating needs to do in details to form exact image for PT. KAI, also raised the using of Executive train service by society. The writer tried to reveal the communication strategy done by Stasiun Besar Malang in socializing the food & beverage allocation abolition in Executive train.
The research type was qualitative descriptive. The research was done at PT. KAI DAOP VIII Surabaya at Stasiun Besar Kota Malang. Data collection was done by interview and
documentation, while data validation used triangulation.
From the research, there could be found that communication strategy of food & beverage allocation abolition at executive train included planning, action, and evaluation. Planning procedure was good, where all the procedure fit with communication theory perspective, they were problem identification, purpose, target, and communication form decision. Action procedure was concrete steps done by PT. KAI DAOP VIII Surabaya at Malang to communicate the food & beverage allocation abolition. The steps done in socialization were time decision, media usage to state the policy, then socialization application through various media consisted of brochure, policy announcement through magazine, announcement through KATV, policy announcement through PT. KAI official website and verbal policy statement to society. From the research, there stated that the research purpose was said as "for the customer's goods". That's why the program communicating should create the exact image in supporting the policy application. But according to the writer opinion, the policy was one of the practical solution to avoid critic came to PT. KAI about food & beverage allocation's quality which said as under
rate. Evaluation procedure included feedback acceptance to the message of food & beverage allocation, then evaluation to the food & beverage allocation abolition. Here the chief of PT. KAI DAOP VIII Surabaya at Stasiun Besar Malang did evaluation to the statistic of passenger after food & beverage allocatio abolition, also collected people opinion about food & beverage allocation abolition and tariff rate decreasing of Gajayana Executive train to be landscape for the policy consideration. The evalution would be consideration for further policy from PT. KAI DAOP VIII Surabaya at Malang.


Acrylic manifolds are a great way to reduce complexity of your fluidic circuit. The design of these manifolds are only limited by your imagination as we can design single or multi-layered.


ABSTRACT On 1 July 2015, a magnitude ( M N , M w ) 3.8 earthquake occurred north of Yarmouth in southwestern Nova Scotia, a region of extremely low seismicity. Prior to this event, only five earthquakes had been recorded within 50 km of its epicenter since 2000. The earthquake caused no damage but was widely felt in southwestern Nova Scotia with nearly 600 people filling out the Geological Survey of Canada's online "Did You Feel It?" form. Good‐quality regional seismograms enabled us to determine the source parameters of the earthquake. The focal mechanism determined by a regional centroid moment tensor inversion is indicative of oblique‐thrust faulting. We believe this to be the first focal mechanism solution for a Nova Scotian earthquake. It is consistent with those of earthquakes in the neighboring regions of New Brunswick and Maine and with the regional stress field. Depths were obtained by the moment tensor inversion and by regional depth phase modeling, with consistent results indicative of a focal depth of 9–10 km. The M w  3.8 is larger than average based on the M N value but within the range of previous observations for eastern Canada. A magnitude ( M N ) 2.2 aftershock occurred ∼7  min after the mainshock but was not reported as felt. A focal depth of 8 km was obtained via the regional depth phase method. The focal mechanism of the aftershock was not determined directly, but a comparison of the waveforms to those of the mainshock suggests a similar source.


Although the East Old Turkic runiform inscriptions were deciphered already in 1893 by Thomsen (1896), the East European runiform fragments still present a mystery: we do not exactly know whom they belong to, which language(s) they represent, etc. During the last hundred years several attempts have been made to decipher them but nobody could provide a widely acceptable interpretation. This is because of the very nature of the findings: they are few in number and short in length. Accordingly, there is a consensus among the competent scholars that the decipherment raises serious difficulties which cannot be solved for the time being.It is, however, our primary task to document and catalogue every new finding as precisely as possible in the hope that the decipherment will one day be possible.The present article will document and analyse hitherto unknown runiform inscriptions carved into two bone plates for the grip of a bow found in a late Avar cemetery at Kiskundorozsma in South-East Hungary. The article is ...


Abstract : This paper is a history of the Israeli nuclear weapons program drawn from a review of unclassified sources. Israel began its search for nuclear weapons at the inception of the state in 1948. As payment for Israeli participation in the Suez Crisis of 1956, France provided nuclear expertise and constructed a reactor complex for Israel at Dimona capable of large-scale plutonium production and reprocessing. The United States discovered the facility by 1958 and it was a subject of continual discussions between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers. Israel used delay and deception to at first keep the United States at bay, and later used the nuclear option as a bargaining chip for a consistent American conventional arms supply. After French disengagement in the early 1960s, Israel progressed on its own, including through several covert operations, to project completion. Before the 1967 Six-Day War, they felt their nuclear facility threatened and reportedly assembled several nuclear devices. By the 1973 Yom Kippur War Israel had a number of sophisticated nuclear bombs, deployed them, and considered using them. The Arabs may have limited their war aims because of their knowledge of the Israeli nuclear weapons. Israel has most probably conducted several nuclear bomb tests. They have continued to modernize and vertically proliferate and are now one of the world's larger nuclear powers. Using "bomb in the basement" nuclear opacity, Israel has been able to use its arsenal as a deterrent to the Arab world while not technically violating American nonproliferation requirements.


This project seeks to examine feminism through the widely accessible means of comedic performance. I have written, created, and acted in a web series that I established for several reasons: namely, to diffuse information about the oppressions that female-identifying individuals face in their everyday life as well as in the larger scheme of existence, but also to attempt to create a community of intersectional communication and collaboration where women can go to express their grievances and inspirations as well as seek comfort for the issues that plague them by nature of their gender identification. The show, Femiliar, is a sketch comedy web series consisting of one-minute episodes, released weekly, that satirize problematic ideologies pervasive throughout modern society. I have been able to garner hundreds of views on the various videos I have released and hope to continue to inspire a change of thought in people who are not affected directly by these issues, and to foster a sense of hope for those who are. I have addressed common issues such as catcalling and pop culture's portrayal of women, but also less-recognized problems like oppressive female clothing and the perceived ownership of women by their spouses and fathers.


Disease mapping utilizes disease maps as visual representations of sophisticated geographic data that provide a general overview of the disease situation in a defined geographic area. Epidemiology is concerned with investigating the causes of diseases, and often, these causes vary in frequency and in space. This variation in space gave a niche to remote sensing to find its way into the public health domain as disease researchers sought to investigate the explaining environmental and climatic factors. Studies have demonstrated the potential offered by remote sensing application to disease mapping and epidemiology and to support surveillance and control efforts. We used some examples from a case study conducted in Eswatini in Southern Africa. Remote sensing imagery when combined with GIS spatial analyses techniques could support and guide existing disease surveillance and control programs at local, regional, and even continental scales. Researchers have also studied factors influencing the patterns and distributions of vector-borne diseases at a variety of landscape scales. However, successful application of remote sensing technology depends on the ability of nonexperts' remotely sensed data and end users to access, retrieve, and analyze the data captured from satellites. The exploration of some of the opportunities presented by remote sensing to disease mapping and epidemiology is still unfolding as new opportunities are being presented.


AbstractWith increasing population and increasing demands for comfort and thus an increase in energy demand, it is necessary to examine various energy-efficiency measures. This work deals with the ability to control the flow through the heating system to achieve the desired comfort with as little energy as possibleA heating system contains of different parts, roughly speaking, you can divide it to three main components: Heat source, Distribution and Heat emitters. All components are working together to bring heat to the building. What is examined in this report are different ways of adjusting the flow and supply temperature and how it affects comfort and energy use in a building.At today s date the conventional method is to use a high flow through the heating system, which affects pressure drop and cooling of the fluid. In the mid 1960 s there was an engineer named Osten Sandberg that started to use a lower flow rate with a higher supply temperature as a result. The upside of that was that you could neglect the pressure drop that the fluid in motion contributed with and that it helped to reach the desired comfort.The purpose of this study was to determine if a low flow adjustment is a viable option and to see its advantages or disadvantages.The author of this work has made use of the software IDA ICE 4.0, which is a simulation tool for indoor climate and energy usage, to a build a residential building and then applies different scenarios such as extreme thermal bridges and internal heat. After that used different supply temperature to simulate a low/high flow.A general conclusion of the work when using a simulation of this kind is that a low flow with high supply temperature is better to adapt to different circumstances and is able to keep the desired temperature at the expense of a negligible increase of energy. The adjustment of heating system seems to be an easier task at low flow than at high flow because of the dynamic pressure drop that occurs with fluids in motion becomes negligible.


Stop or Go on Oxide Surfaces Direct studies of surface diffusion with instruments such as the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) have often focused on species on metal surfaces, but surface diffusion can play an important role for reactions on metal oxide surfaces. Li et al. (p. 882) used STM and density functional theory calculations to study how catechol (a benzene ring bearing two −OH groups) diffuses on the surface of the rutile phase of titanium dioxide. Both mobile and immobile species were observed on the time scale of minutes while making repeated STM scans. Hydrogen atom transfers between surface OH groups and the molecule changed the interaction energy between the molecule and the surface, and hence the barrier for diffusion. The diffusion barrier for an organic molecule on a hydroxylated metal oxide surface depends on hydrogen bond formation. Direct studies of how organic molecules diffuse on metal oxide surfaces can provide insights into catalysis and molecular assembly processes. We studied individual catechol molecules, C6H4(OH)2, on a rutile TiO2(110) surface with scanning tunneling microscopy. Surface hydroxyls enhanced the diffusivity of adsorbed catecholates. The capture and release of a proton caused individual molecules to switch between mobile and immobile states within a measurement period of minutes. Density functional theory calculations showed that the transfer of hydrogen from surface hydroxyls to the molecule and its interaction with surface hydroxyls substantially lowered the activation barrier for rotational motion across the surface. Hydrogen bonding can play an essential role in the initial stages of the dynamics of molecular assembly.


The mission of the power system operator has become more difficult than before due to the increasing of load demand which cause power systems to operate closer to its
security limits. In addition, the control actions depend on the operating status of the power system whether it is operating in secure or insecure condition. Once an
insecure condition occurs, new actions must be considered to restore the system to secure operation.
The objective of this work is to introduce new algorithms that can enhance power system security inclusive of the remedial action (generation re-dispatch/load shedding) for any scale of power system operation as well as improving the existing ANN to solve the problem faced by power system security assessment. Furthermore,an AANN for power system security assessment was developed for steady state and
dynamic security assessments. This study also investigates the reliability of ANN application in power system security assessment in terms of accuracy and computational time as well as developing a new method that can be included in security assessment tools. This is particularly important for giving a possible control action to mitigate an insecure situation during disturbance using AANN. This
technique is used to improve the performance and to develop a software tool which is integrated with PSS™E software for contingency analysis. An essential part of the work was conducted to generalise the tool with the automatic data knowledge generation system and data selection and extraction for AANN inputs. Finally, a software tool based on an adaptive neural network for power system security
assessment was developed.
The idea of the AANN approach presented in this thesis is to generalise the security assessment method with the consideration of remedial action for any operating point.
However, the AANN approach does not replace traditional analysis methods, while these methods are still needed at the initial step of the approach. The computation of
the security assessment and control are time-consuming, hence these methods cannot achieve the target of EMS for robust management system.
The proposed algorithm has been successfully tested on IEEE 9-bus test system,IEEE 39-bus test system and Peninsular Malaysia Grid 275kV for the steady-statesecurity assessment and control. The results show that the AANN can provide the
required amount of generation re-dispatch and load shedding accurately and instantaneously. In addition, the developed AANN has been successfully implemented to dynamic security assessment for predicting the security status of the
IEEE 9-bus test system.


In this paper it is shown how to map a data manifold into a simpler form by progressively discarding small degrees of freedom. This is the key to self-organising data fusion, where the raw data is embedded in a very high-dimensional space (e.g. the pixel values of one or more images), and the requirement is to isolate the important degrees of freedom which lie on a low-dimensional manifold. A useful advantage of the approach used in this paper is that the computations are arranged as a feed-forward processing chain, where all the details of the processing in each stage of the chain are learnt by self-organisation. This approach is demonstrated using hierarchically correlated data, which causes the processing chain to split the data into separate processing channels, and then to progressively merge these channels wherever they are correlated with each other. This is the key to self-organising data fusion.


Abstract. Urban areas are characterized by a complex topography of buildings, terrain, vegetation and temporary structures, which, depending on their extent, geometry, geographic location and daytime, cast shadow on their surroundings. Given the importance of sunlight for various groups of interest and tasks, we argue that a comprehensive, accessible, usable and intuitive way of predicting its availability for specific usage contexts is surprisingly lacking. In our research, we are investigating how to improve the visual communication of urban solar conditions for various real-world usage scenarios like having a coffee in the sun, parking a car in the shade, or taking a photograph of a particular building in a favorable light. All of these activities take place over a period of time, not in a temporal instant, causing solar shadows to move. Hence, a static representation of the light situation at a distinct point in time, such as offered by available 3D urban maps or GIS systems, is often not sufficient for planning above mentioned recreational or professional activities.This factor is incorporated in our system by integrating shadow motion into a shadow map that covers arbitrary timeframes within a given day (Figure 1). Shadows are accumulated by projecting shadow maps from astronomically precise sun positions spanning over the defined timeframe. The number of sampling points directly influences the quality and speed of the rendering. All provided figures currently sample and integrate nine different sun positions.Using our system, questions in a manner of "Given a specific point in space, at which time will this point be in sun/shade again" can be answered. E.g., one would like to spend time in the sun at a specific Viennese "Kaffeehaus" (coffee place), from which time on (and for how long) will this space be sunlit (Figure 2). In the future, this process might even be automated.


Sequential categorization of perceptual stimuli typically shows contrast from one trial to the next. Using familiar categories of animals and faces, contrast effects were dissociated from assimilation effects. Two independent main effects were observed: contrast to the preceding stimulus, and assimilation to the previous response. It is argued that contrast and assimilation may reflect different processes in categorization.


Conjugated GNPs were synthesized by one step reaction of AuCl4 with cefotaxim (CFX) and its Schiff base derivative with 4-N,N-dimethylamino benzaldehyde [sodium 3-(acetoxymethyl)-7-((2Z)-2-(2-(4-dimethylamino) benzylideneamino) thiazol-4-yl)-2-(methoxyimino) acetamido)-8-oxo-5-thia-1-azabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-2-ene-2-carboxylate] (SCFX)without the need of reducing and functionalizing agents. The reduction process was monitored by uv-visible spectrophotometry and the synthesized GNPs were characterized by TEM, SEM, AFM and XRD analysis. The conjugation of GNPs with the two ligands was characterized by FTIR spectrophotometry. The size, morphology, and stability of GNPs were varied with concentration ratio of ligand/Au(III), pH medium and reaction temperature


The strategic use of discourse facilitates transboundary connections between states and their diasporas. Discourses are especially important where remittances from diasporas can influence conflicts and unstable geopolitical grey zones, like de facto states. Nagorno-Karabakh is an ethnically Armenian de facto state that has claimed independence from Azerbaijan but is not recognized by the international community. The Vardenis-Martakert infrastructure project is just the second highway connection between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and has economic and military implications in this volatile region. The media reporting about this project is illustrative of how home state-diaspora communication securitizes fear and (re)imagines geographies in the absence of spatial contiguity. Whereas the study of media discourses has predominately focused on western mainstream news outlets and their representations), this study focuses on Armenian ethnic media and their particular narratives and rhetoric used to describe imagined geographies and ontological insecurities for extra-territorial ethnic communities. Based upon this analysis it can be concluded that ethnic media sources reimagine the geopolitical landscape, use post-conflict discursive strategies that highlight economic development as a path towards recognition, and avoid well documented aggressive "othering" strategies.


In this work, a two-step method is developed to synthesize both symmetrical and anisotropic magnetic composite particles. First of all, magnetic-polymer seed particles are synthesized from iron oxide, styrene and methyl methacrylate by emulsion polymerization. Then magnetic composite particles are produced from synthesized seeds and styrene by seeded dispersion polymerization. The anisotropy of the magnetic composite particles could be achieved by the addition of a small amount of tetrahydrofuran (THF) into the alcohol-based polymerization medium. Moreover, two solvent compositions were found to be effective to swell the synthesized magnetic composite particles and enable the migration of magnetic cores inside the polymer spheres. The structure of magnetic core or the morphology and monodispersity of the composite particles were not destroyed during this swelling process. One mixture solvent contains THF, ethylene glycol (ETG), ethanol and water, with particles protected by a suitable amount of poly vinyl pyrrolidone-40 (PVP-40), and the other is a mixture of ETG and THF.


: According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death globally. Early diagnosis and treatment of many of these patients depend on ambulatory electrocardiography recordings. Therefore a novel wireless patch technology has been designed for easy, reliable long-term ECG recordings. The device is designed for high compliance and low patient burden. This novel patch technology is CE approved for ambulatory ECG recording of two ECG channels on the sternum. This paper describes a clinical pilot study regarding the usefulness of these ECG signals for heart rhythm analysis. A clinical technician with experience in ECG interpretation selected 200 noise-free 7 seconds ECG segments from 25 different patients. These 200 ECG segments were evaluated by two medical doctors according to their usefulness for heart rhythm analysis. The first doctor considered 98.5% of the segments useful for rhythm analysis, whereas the second doctor considered 99.5% of the segments useful for rhythm analysis. The conclusion of this pilot study indicates that two channel ECG recorded on the sternum is useful for rhythm analysis and could be used as input to diagnosis together with other clinical tests and medical history.


The autumn 2017 special issue of Huntington Library Quarterly, edited by Mark Crosby, is devoted to manuscript studies of the works of William Blake. Several of these studies were originally presented at a 2013 symposium at the Huntington Library, which, as Blake scholars know, houses one of the world's finest Blake collections. Taken together, the essays demonstrate the variety of ways in which the close study of Blake's manuscripts and prints can yield significant new discoveries about his engraving techniques, his working habits, and his influences. Or, as Crosby puts it in his introduction, "the eight essays … range in methodological approach from considering the materiality of Blake's manuscripts to more conceptual concerns, with particular attention given to discussing the instability of long-term preservation" (363).


Background: Chronic myeloid leukemia is a clonal myeloproliferative disease which is characterized by bcr/abl translocation. With the emergence of tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as imatinib mesylate, significant improvement has been made in treatment of this disease. However, drug resistance against this medicine is still an obstacle. SIRT1 is a gene with deacetylase activity which has been detected to have increased expression in many cancers. We aimed to determine if SIRT1 expression could play a role in the emergence of drug resistance in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia being treated with imatinib mesylate. Methods: 48 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia referred to Dr. Shariati Hospital, Tehran, Iran, were studied. A venous blood sample of patients was collected, RNA was extracted and then cDNA were synthesized. SIRT1 gene expression was done by real-time PCR. The ratio of SIRT1 expression to ABL control gene was calculated. After calculation of CT for target gene and control gene, ΔCT was calculated. The results of SIRT1 expression levels in patients with chronic phase of CML were compared with that of the control group. Results: 48 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia aged 15-64 years (mean: 40 years) were enrolled. 59% of the participants were men. The highest and lowest mean BCR-ABL expressions in drug-resistant patients were 1% and 57%, respectively. The results of analyzing the value of ΔCT for SIRT1 gene revealed that patients who were drug-resistant to imatinib mesylate had a lower value of ΔCT for SIRT1 than those who were not drug-resistant (P<0.05). Conclusion: SIRT1 gene expression in patients resistant to imatinib mesylate was significantly higher than patients who were not drug-resistant.


On average, one person dies by suicide every 40 s. However, extant studies have largely focused on the risk factors for suicidal behaviors, not so much on the formation of suicidal thoughts. Therefore, we attempt to explain how suicidal thoughts arise and persist inside one's mind using a multifiltering information mechanism called Mindsponge. Bayesian analysis with Hamiltonian Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) technique was run on a dataset of multinational students (N = 268) of an international university in Japan. Item 9 in the PHQ-9 was used to survey suicidal ideation. The associations among four main variables, namely, (i) suicidal ideation, (ii) help-seeking willingness (informal and formal sources), (iii) sense of connectedness, and (iv) information inaccessibility (represented by being international students), were tested in four models. Sense of connectedness is negatively associated with suicidal ideation, but its effect becomes less impactful when interacting with international students. The impact of a sense of connectedness on informal help-seeking willingness (toward family members) among international students is also lessened. Informal help-seeking is negatively associated with suicidal ideation, whereas formal help is positive. The findings support our assumption on three fundamental conditions for preventing suicidal thoughts: (i) a high degree of belongingness, (ii) accessibility to help-related information, and (iii) healthy perceived cultural responses towards mental health. Therefore, systematically coordinated programs are necessary to effectively tackle suicidal ideation.


Cultural theory has attracted considerable interest in the study of risk regulation. There has, however, been a lack of a systematic interest in its claims and in methodological issues. In this paper, we present seven claims that are either directly drawn from central claims of cultural theory or from complementary theories and assess them in the light of one single case, failure in meat inspections in Germany. These claims are assessed through the analysis of argumentation in newspapers.


I n their study of the effects of cuff elevation on measured blood pressure (BP), Gavish and Gavish [1] measured BP nine times on a randomly selected arm of 37 volunteers. Measurements on each volunteer were all made in the same order: cuff held first at approximately the level of the heart, then raised in sequence approximately 15, 28 and 32 cm above the heart. Although the average rates of decrease of systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) with elevation were not statistically different from values predicted theoretically, the average rate of decrease of SBP was significantly greater than the average rate of decrease of DBP. Rates of decrease were significantly different from theoretical values in some individuals [1]. It is well known that even when the first measurement is ignored, measured BP usually decreases with consecutive measurements [2–5] and the decrease in SBP tends to be greater than the decrease in DBP [2,4,5]. In some individuals the decrease may be substantial, depending on the state of and changes in anxiety [6]. The approximately constant average heart rate reported by Gavish suggests that sympathetic nerve activity and hence SBP may not have changed during the measurements. I suggest, however, that if the order of the BP measurements had been randomized [7] and the first measurement repeated at the end of the sequence, the average rate of change of SBP with height may have been lower.


The present research investigates cultural variation in conceptual frameworks for interpreting agency. A mind perception measure (Gray, Gray, & Wegner, 2007) was adapted for interviews with Indigenous Ngöbe adults in Panama and US college students. Participants ranked the agency capacities of various entities and provided explanations. Rankings varied systematically, with Ngöbe more likely to ascribe agency to nonhuman natural kinds than US participants. Analysis of explanations indicated that agency concepts are organized under different folktheories: US participants construed agency as a hierarchical, prototypically human capacity requiring consciousness, whereas Ngöbe construed agency as a multidimensional relational capacity expressed in directed interactions. An emphasis on psychological agency as distinct from other (biological, physical) forms of agency is widely assumed to be a conceptual prior, but these findings suggest it may instead be a feature of Western cultural epistemologies.


Defending one's systems and networks is an arduous task since computing systems are vulnerable to unauthorized access. Most organizations and companies rely totally on firewalls for network security. Support of firewall installations requires a firewall and network environment audit that is governed by the organization's security policy. The paper describes a security audit procedure based on network posture vulnerabilities. The scope of the work covers some discussion on network perimeter defence and suggestions for the audit procedure.


PURPOSE
The characteristics and natural history of the paclitaxel-acute pain syndrome (P-APS) and paclitaxel's more chronic neuropathy have not been well delineated.

METHODS
Patients receiving weekly paclitaxel (70 to 90 mg/m(2)) completed daily questionnaires and weekly European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN) -20 instruments during the entire course of therapy.

RESULTS
P-APS symptoms peaked 3 days after chemotherapy. Twenty percent of patients had pain scores of 5 to 10 of 10 with the first dose of paclitaxel. Sensory neuropathy symptoms were more prominent than were motor or autonomic neuropathy symptoms. Of the sensory neuropathy symptoms, numbness and tingling were more prominent than was shooting or burning pain. Patients with higher P-APS pain scores with the first dose of paclitaxel appeared to have more chronic neuropathy.

CONCLUSION
These data support that the P-APS is related to nerve pathology as opposed to being arthralgias and/or myalgias. Numbness and tingling are more prominent chronic neuropathic symptoms than is shooting or burning pain.


Network virtualization is a method of providing virtual instances of physical networks. Virtualized networks are widely used with virtualized servers, forming a powerful dynamically reconfigurable platform. In this paper we discuss the impact of network virtualization on the overall system availability. We describe a system reflecting the network architecture usually deployed in today's data centres. The proposed system is modelled using Markov chains and fault trees. We compare the availability of virtualized system using standard physique network with the availability of virtualized system using virtualized network. Network virtualization introduces a new software layer to the network architecture. The proposed availability model integrates software failures in addition to the hardware failures. Based on the estimated numerical failure rates, we analyse system's availability.


Unlike other rat strains, the sodium-replete Fischer-344 (F344) strain shows no innate preference for NaCl and displays more aversive and fewer ingestive oral motor responses to orally infused NaCl when tested in sodium balance. Despite these differences, F344 rats show an increase in preference for NaCl in response to sodium depletion. The present study was designed to determine whether the salt appetite of sodium-depleted F344 rats is cation specific and whether such selectivity is mediated in part by an intact chorda tympani nerve. Sodium-depleted (10 mg furosemide) F344 (n = 13) and Wistar (n = 16) rats were permitted repeated access to nine stimuli (water, and 0.05 and 0.3 M NaCl, KCl, NH4Cl, and CaCl2), presented randomly in 10-s trials. One-half of the rats had their chorda tympani nerve sectioned (CTX). Under conditions of sodium depletion, both strains discriminated NaCl from other chloride salts. CTX significantly impaired the selectivity of the licking behavior in both strains, suggesting that sodium-specific licking is partially mediated by anterior tongue taste receptors. These findings suggest that both sodium-depleted F344 and Wistar rats are comparable in their abilities to recognize NaCl, to distinguish it from other salts, and to respond selectively to it, despite the fact that sodium-replete F344 and Wistar rats differ greatly in their NaCl preference.


Public Participation in the Environmental Permitting Process: Development of a Public Involvement Plan (PIP) for Stakeholders in Northern New Mexico By: Kathryn Roberts May 2011 In recent years the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) has tried to provide more opportunities for public participation related to permitting activities beyond what the regulations currently require. Those efforts were mostly unsuccessful and created more animosity between stakeholders and the NMED. In an effort to mitigate stakeholders" dissatisfaction with regard to opportunities for public involvement under current Federal regulations, the purpose of this research is to develop a Public Involvement Plan (PIP) that details the steps the NMED should take to involve and educate the public in the permitting process. Using Los Alamos National Laboratory"s (LANL) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit as a test case, this research assessed the attitudes of local communities affected by activities at RCRA-permitted facilities. An online survey was distributed to a target group of NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) known to be actively involved in RCRA-permitting issues at LANL. The survey requested information about current opportunities for public participation, satisfaction or dissatisfaction with those opportunities, and potential methods for improving communication. Individual interviews were conducted with leaders of targeted NGOs to help identify how stakeholders prefer to be informed and when they should be afforded opportunities to participate in the permitting process. These NGOs were also asked to make recommendations for the PIP and identify methods and opportunities to educate the public on the permitting processes under RCRA. The two significant conclusions of this research are: 1) there is a severe lack of communication between NMED and local communities affected by LANL and 2) many local stakeholders need a better understanding of how the permitting process functions so they can be more efficient and successful participants in permitting activities at LANL. A PIP is a vehicle for addressing both of these issues. Although stakeholders agreed that a PIP was critical for improving public participation, public recommendations about how to inform and involve the public through the PIP varied considerably. Development of a final PIP will require cooperation, participation, and input from both the NMED and the public.


The micro, small and medium enterprises, known by its acronym as MiPymes, are defined by the world's economies based on specific characteristics such as those referring to the number of employees, the level of assets and amount in sales; but its greatest contributions to Latin America, especially Colombia, is its contribution to the economic and social development experienced by the region.
In this sense, they are organizations that according to Lizarazo (2010: 13), have their own historical evolution whose origin dates back to the Industrial Revolution, reaching Latin American countries in the first decades of the 19th century; Since then, humanity has experienced a constant development of knowledge that, together with globalizing processes, industrial innovation, as well as technological ones in terms of information and communication, promote the massive birth of new MSMEs as an option for entrepreneurs.


Emulating spiking neural networks on analog neuromorphic hardware offers several advantages over simulating them on conventional computers, particularly in terms of speed and energy consumption. However, this usually comes at the cost of reduced control over the dynamics of the emulated networks. In this paper, we demonstrate how iterative training of a hardware-emulated network can compensate for anomalies induced by the analog substrate. We first convert a deep neural network trained in software to a spiking network on the BrainScaleS wafer-scale neuromorphic system, thereby enabling an acceleration factor of 10000 compared to the biological time domain. This mapping is followed by the in-the-loop training, where in each training step, the network activity is first recorded in hardware and then used to compute the parameter updates in software via backpropagation. An essential finding is that the parameter updates do not have to be precise, but only need to approximately follow the correct gradient, which simplifies the computation of updates. Using this approach, after only several tens of iterations, the spiking network shows an accuracy close to the ideal software-emulated prototype. The presented techniques show that deep spiking networks emulated on analog neuromorphic devices can attain good computational performance despite the inherent variations of the analog substrate.


Medium-chain odd carbon fats have been reported to be ketogenic as have medium-chain triglycerides (MCT). Such an odd carbon fat, tripelargonin, was compared to MCT for its effect on ketogenic and glucogenic intermediates when fed as a part of a complete diet to meal-eating rats. Isonitrogenous diets containing, as 68% of the calories, soy oil (SO), MCT, tripelargonin (C9TG) were fed 2 hours twice a day. After 4 weeks, the C9TG rats during meals had blood and liver beta-hydroxybutyrate levels approximately 300 and 125%, respectively, of the fasting levels and similar to the prandial SO-fed levels. These levels were significantly less than the 1,000 and 500% elevations observed in the MCT-fed rats. Prandial blood glucose and liver glycogen levels were similar in the C9TG and SO-fed rats; whereas, these intermediates appeared to remain at or drop below the fasting levels in the MCT-fed animals. Levels of plasma non-esterified fatty acids and liver glucose-6-phosphate in the MCT and C9TG were similar and different from the SO-fed values. The results point to the uniqueness of C9TG when compared to even-numbered triglycerides under these dietary conditions.


Olives (Olea europaea ssp. europaea), dispersed from 19th century orchards in the Adelaide area, have become established in remnant bushland as a major environmental weed. Recent expansion of the Australian olive industry has resulted in the widespread planting of olive orchards in South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and parts of Tasmania. This paper reviews the literature on the activity of vertebrate (principally avian) olive predators and their potential as vectors for spreading this plant into Australian remnant bushland. The effects of feralisation on the olive plant, which enhances its capacity for dispersal as a weed, place wider areas of south-eastern Australia at risk. A number of approaches for the control of olives as woody weeds are addressed. Proponents of new agricultural crops have moral and environmental obligations to assess the weed potential of these crops.


Abstract The monadic second-order theory of trees allows quantification over elements and over arbitrary subsets. We classify the class of trees with respect to the question: does a tree T have a definable choice function (by a monadic formula with parameters)? A natural dichotomy arises where the trees that fall in the first class don't have a definable choice function and the trees in the second class have even a definable well ordering of their elements. This has a close connection to the uniformization problem.


OBJECTIVES. This study evaluated seizure, patient characteristics, and neurodevelopmental outcome of term newborns with amplitude-integrated electroencephalography–detected status epilepticus. METHODS. Fifty-six term infants with status epilepticus were identified during a 12.5-year period. The time of onset of status epilepticus, background pattern before and after status epilepticus, success of controlling status epilepticus with antiepileptic drugs, and neurodevelopmental outcome were studied. RESULTS. The incidence of status epilepticus in our population was 18%. Forty-two infants (75%) had a poor outcome and 14 were normal at follow-up. When all infants were studied as a single group, we found that not the duration, but the background pattern was correlated with neurodevelopmental outcome. In 50% of the infants with a poor outcome, the background pattern was abnormal before the status epilepticus and in 71% after the status epilepticus. Among infants with a good outcome, background pattern was normal in 14% before and 7% after the status epilepticus. In a subgroup of 48 infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, there was a significant difference in background pattern, as well as in duration of the status epilepticus between infants with a poor outcome, compared with those with a good outcome. In 48% of the infants with a poor outcome, the background pattern was abnormal before, and in 75% after the status epilepticus, compared with 25% and 13%, respectively, for those with a good outcome. In 57% of the infants with a hemorrhage or perinatal arterial stroke, the status epilepticus was not controlled with antiepileptic drugs, compared with 21% in infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (not significant). CONCLUSIONS. The background pattern at the onset of status epilepticus was the main predictor of neurodevelopmental outcome. The duration of the status epilepticus was only of predictive value in the infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. No association was found between the ability to control status epilepticus and subsequent neurodevelopmental outcome.