We take the nomination of Best Paper and honourable mention very seriously, so the selection process is a bit elaborate. A short list of candidate papers is drawn up by the Editors of Water International, reviewed by the International Water Resources Association (IWRA) Publications Committee and forwarded to the journal's Editorial Board, which selects a candidate or candidates. These are then forwarded to the IWRA Awards Committee and from there to the President and the Executive Board for final approval. Selection of best papers is based on relevance, rigor, impact and any other factors deemed important by members of the Editorial Board 'jury'.


While rates of disengagement from mental health services remain high, the Housing First program has succeeded in engaging those who are hardest-to-reach, people who have experienced long-term homelessness and co-occurring disorders. This study uses ethnographic methods to explore service engagement within Housing First, focusing on how social processes contribute to program effectiveness. Conducting participant observation and interviews, researchers followed 10 clients and 14 case managers from two treatment teams, over the course of a year. The study used symbolic interactionism as its theoretical framework. In data analysis, therefore, the researchers explored meaning-making within social exchanges. The sites and activities of the program provided a context that made it possible for case managers and residents to create shared narratives about residents' experiences related to housing. The variation of these sites and activities led case managers to permeate many aspects of clients' lives, playing roles similar to those of friends and family. The quality of the interaction became apparent from how case managers paid attention, listened, and communicated while engaging in these shared activities. This study illustrates that while the structural aspects of Housing First provided the context and opportunities for engagement, the quality of the interaction between the case managers and residents played a key role in engagement.


A guide to all aspects of ProQuest Agricultural Science Collection including content, searching, and viewing results on the ProQuest platform.


An odd cycle of a logic program is a simple cycle that has an odd number of negative edges in the dependency graph of the program. Similarly, an even cycle is one that has an even number of negative edges. For a normal logic program that has no odd cycles, while it is known that such a program always has a stable model, and such a stable model can be computed in polynomial time, we show in this paper that checking whether an atom is in a stable model is NP-complete, and checking whether an atom is in all stable models is co-NP complete, both are the same as in the general case for normal logic programs. Furthermore, we show that if a normal logic program has exactly one odd cycle, then checking whether it has a stable model is NP-complete, again the same as in the general case. For normal logic programs with a fixed number of even cycles, we show that there is a polynomial time algorithm for computing all stable models. Furthermore, this polynomial time algorithm can be improved significantly if the number of odd cycles is also fixed.


Age of Information (AoI) is an emerging metric measuring the freshness of a flow at its destination, which is critical for time-sensitive applications. We consider multiple flows served by a single server. To minimize the average AoI over all flows, we formulate preemptive and non-preemptive Maximum Age Difference (MAD) algorithms, and experimentally observe their superior performance with respect to various other scheduling algorithms for multi-flow networks. We also observe that both MAD and MAF (Maximum Age First) respond favorably to flow diversity, with a reduction in AoI.


The Project Management Institute has commissioned the authors to conduct research into whether the project manager's leadership style is a success factor on projects, and whether its impact is different on different types of projects. In this paper, we review the literature on the topic. Surprisingly, the literature on project success factors does not typically mention the project manager and his or her leadership style or competence as a success factor on projects. This is in direct contrast to the general management literature, which views effective leadership as a critical success factor in the management of organizations, and has shown that an appropriate leadership style can lead to better performance. Since, unlike most literature on project success factors, project management literature does consider the role of the project manager, we also review what it says about his or her leadership style and competence.


The paper is an account of TEM based automatic orientation mapping summarizing more than two years of using the system. Following a brief introduction of the system elements, some representative applications are described. We focus on the characterization of fine-grain materials, mapping of low symmetry materials (metastable chromium carbide) and semi-automatic analysis of misorientations in a fully lamellar polycrystalline (g+a2) TiAl alloy. Moreover, the current state of the TEM based system is discussed and compared to EBSD systems. In particular, the issues of spatial resolution, accuracy, map acquisition time, reliability are considered.


This paper investigates advanced energy-efficient wireless systems in orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) downlink networks using coordinated multipoint (CoMP) transmissions between the base stations (BSs) in a heterogeneous network (HetNet), which is adopted by Third-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long-Term Evolution (LTE)-Advanced to meet International Mobile Telecommunications-Advanced targets. HetNet CoMP has received significant attention as a way of achieving spectral efficiency (SE) and energy efficiency (EE). Usually, in the literature, the total network power consumption is restricted to the sum of the power consumption of all BSs. The significance of the power consumption of the backhaul links in wireless networks is normally omitted for its trivial effect with respect to that of the radio BSs. For SE and EE analysis of HetNet CoMP, the energy and bandwidth consumption of the backhaul is considered, without which, the investigation remains incomplete. However, SE and EE are design criteria in conflict with each other, and a careful study of their tradeoff is mandatory for designing future wireless communication systems. The EE is measured as "throughput (bits) per joule," whereas the power consumption model includes RF transmit (radiated), circuit, and backhaul power. Furthermore, a nonideal backhaul model such as a microwave link is also investigated within intra-HetNet-CoMP (inside one cell), where an implementing fiber is not feasible. An intercell interference (ICI) coordination method is also studied to mitigate ICI. At the end, a novel resource allocation algorithm is proposed-modeled as an optimization problem - which takes into account the total power consumption, including radiated, circuit, and backhaul power, and the minimum required data rate to maximize EE. Given an SE requirement, the EE optimization problem is formulated as a constrained optimization problem. The considered optimization problem is transformed into a convex optimization problem by redefining the constraint using cubic inequality, which results in an efficient iterative resource allocation algorithm. In each iteration, the transformed problem is solved by using dual decomposition with a projected gradient method. Simulations results demonstrate how backhaul has a significant impact on total power consumption and the effectiveness of the studied schemes. In addition, the results demonstrate that the proposed iterative resource allocation algorithm converges within a small number of iterations and illustrate the fundamental tradeoffs between SE and EE. Our analytical results shed light on future "green" network planning in advanced OFDMA wireless systems like those envisioned for a fifth-generation (5G) system.


The rapid rise in demand for training large neural network architectures has brought into focus the need for partitioning strategies, for example by using data, model, or pipeline parallelism. Implementing these methods is increasingly supported through program primitives, but identifying efficient partitioning strategies requires expensive experimentation and expertise. We present the prototype of an automated partitioner that seamlessly integrates into existing compilers and existing user workflows. Our partitioner enables SPMD-style parallelism that encompasses data parallelism and parameter/activation sharding. Through a combination of inductive tactics and search in a platform-independent partitioning IR, automap can recover expert partitioning strategies such as Megatron sharding for transformer layers.


A multi-pack of packages of individually packaged products wherein there is a plurality of products packaged in individual paperboard cartons, the paperboard cartons being devoid of applied indicia like printing or coloration applied to the paperboard prior to carton forming. There is no printing of logos, trademarks or other product information prior forming the carton. The cartons do have a product identification that is embossed or debossed into the paperboard material of the cartons. The individual cartons are placed in a stack of two to twenty or more cartons and wrapped with a thermoplastic film material. The thermoplastic film material contains the required product indicia like colors and other decoration and product logos and trademarks.


The objective of this study was to review recent findings about the prevalence of substance use (SU) and substance use disorders (SUD), and to discuss the related impact on health in spinal cord injury (SCI) population. For this purpose, computer-aided searches of MEDLINE (PubMed) and the Cochrane Library were conducted. From an initial pool of 59 articles, 52 met the inclusion criteria. Most of the studies referred to alcohol and tobacco and only a few studies reported on other substances. Study designs were mainly cross-sectional and descriptive, with scarce intervention and longitudinal studies.  Although a high prevalence of post-injury SU has been documented among SCI patients, limited research exists on pre-injury SU and on longitudinal studies. Moreover, when exploring SUD, it has not been systematically studied in accordance with CIE or DSM criteria. Alcohol appears to be the most consumed substance among this population. Additionally, those patients with SU have shown poorer outcomes in different health indicators. Therefore, more insight is required to increase scientific knowledge in this field and to recommend tailored preventive interventions and research priorities in relation to this population.


Abstract In the decade since Al-Qaeda, led by the late Osama Bin Laden, attacked America, there has been a resurgence in the debate about the relationship between religion and politics. The global Islamic terrorist networks and their successful operations against various targets around the globe increasingly draw attention to what constitutes the core values of Islamic extremism: the logic of evangelistic strategy, the import and relevance of its spiritual message and consideration of the composite view of life that does not distinguish between sacred and temporal mandates. Suspicions have been fuelled that Islam is incompatible with modern democratic systems and pluralist outlooks. The real cause of Islamic militancy is at once universal and particular. The Nigerian experience of this radical Islamism-Boko Haram-brings home the once "distant" threat to global peaceful co-existence. While there exist arguments regarding the raison d'etre and means or methods of the operations of Boko Haram, the end has been normative; to achieve a purely religious nationalistic system on the basis of the sharia code of ethics. This paper, therefore, critically analyses the historical and philosophical interpretations of Islamic history constructed as an infallible corpus, and how it has been impacted by the democratic vision in Nigeria. It concludes with a consideration of the possibility and practicability of a liberal system at once free and religious in a pluralist and global society.


Firearms appearance can have psychological import in legal proceedings by keying aggressive ideations, impacting sentencing and gender-based attributions. We presented mock jurors with a homeowner's defensive gun use. Reasonable arguments were for shooting or not in the scenario by the defendant. The firearm varied in type. Assault rifle use led to harsher legal outcomes than did other firearms. A female defendant was at more risk than a male. In the last experiment, a police shooting scenario was tested. In that case, the male officer was at more risk than the female officer when wielding the assault rifle. Weapons and gender interactions were, for the most part, congruent with social cognitive theories of attribution and weapons priming of aggressive ideation.


The oxidation of binary Co-5Al alloys in 1 atm of pure O2 at 700 and 800°C was investigated. Oxide scales generally showed good adherence to alloys during oxidation process, although scale spallation on cooling was observed inevitably due to difference in the thermal expansion coefficients between oxides and alloys. It indicated that oxidation of the two alloys approximately obeyed parabolic rate law (n=2). The parabolic rate constants as functions of temperature at 700 and 800°C were 8.38×10-11, 3.45×10-10 g2cm-4s-1, respectively. The binary Co-5Al alloys presented a non-protective oxidation behavior because the Al content was not enough to support the growth of a dense, stable Al2O3 layer. The scales were mainly composed of oxides of cobalt, coupled with a little Al2O3 present at the inner part of the scales.


In this study three different ways of applying ultrasound for the production of nanocellulose from native cellulose were explored. In the first option bleached hardwood kraft pulp was oxidized with the ultrasound (US) assisted TEMPO/NaBr/NaOCl-system (US-TEMPO-system) followed by mechanical separation of nanocellulose. The pulp oxidized by the US-TEMPO-system had higher carboxyls content and ca. 10% increase in nanocellulose yield when compared to the TEMPO-system without sono catalysis. In the second option ultrasound pretreated pulp was oxidized using the TEMPO-system. Although there was no gain in carboxyls content in this process versus the oxidation with TEMPO-system without ultrasound treatment, a higher degree of fibrillation was obtained after ultrasound treatment. In the third case the TEMPO oxidized pulp was subjected to mechanical and ultrasound treatments for nanocellulose production. Under similar treatment time the subsequent ultrasound treatment achieved higher nanocellulose yield than the subsequent mechanical treatment. However, in comparison, the ultrasound treated nanocellulose had lower Rheometer Stresstech viscosity. Furthermore, it was observed that cellulose nanofibrils produced by ultrasound treatment were slightly thinner compared to those produced using the mechanical method.


By going through the work of the German writer Arno Schmidt (1914-1979), this paper highlights the specific relationship between literature, story writing, and memory. Schmidt's work reflects the historical and literary claims of its author: write literature but also at the same time contribute to occidental written tradition as the founding and heritage of people's cultural and collective memory. The paper analyzes two of Schmidt's works, the novella Leviathan as well as the biography of the romantic poet Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué - both of them being authentic testimonies and narrations of memory (ies). The study of the narrative perspective, the enunciative instance of "I", allows us to single out its significance and implication for the reader and Schmidt's concept of objectivity in the presentation of historical events and facts.


BACKGROUND AIMS
The thymidine analog bromodeoxyuridine (5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine; BrdU) has been used widely to label cells in culture and in tissue. The labeled cells can also be tracked when transplanted into a suitable host. In the present study we tested a new thymidine analog, 5-ethynyl-2-deoxyuridine (EdU), for labeling and tracking of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC), specifically adipose tissue-derived stem cells (ADSC).

METHODS
Labeling of ADSC was examined for the dosage effect of EdU and stability of label by Alexa-594 staining followed by fluorescence microscopy. Labeling of various organs/tissues was done by intraperitoneal injection of EdU and examined by histology and fluorescence microscopy. Tracking of ADSC was done by intratissue or intravenous transplantation of EdU-labeled ADSC into various tissues and examined by histology and fluorescence microscopy.

RESULTS
EdU was incorporated specifically into the nucleus in approximately 50% of ADSC and the percentage of cells that remained fully labeled declined with time. Peritoneal injection of EdU resulted in the appearance of EdU-positive cells in most organs and tissues. In the intestine, EdU-positive cells were found in both the epithelium and connective tissues 7 h after injection. Long-term (2-6 week) follow-ups found EdU-positive cells only in the connective tissue. Tracking of ADSC was successful in tissues 10 weeks after intratissue or intravenous transplantation.

CONCLUSIONS
Cell labeling with EdU in culture or living animals can be performed easily. The detection of EdU label requires no harsh treatment or immunologic reaction, as detection of BrdU label does. EdU can be used for long-term tracking of ADSC.


BACKGROUND
The use of photodynamic therapy (PDT) to treat malignant tumors involves a photosensitizing drug, light, and oxygen. Since PDT requires oxygen, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether increased oxygen tension increases cell death compared with normoxic conditions (21 kPa oxygen).

MATERIAL/METHODS
The effect of hyperoxia on PDT and lipid peroxidation was investigated in two human colon carcinoma cell lines, SW480 and WiDr, and one rat bladder cell carcinoma, AY-27. The cells were incubated with 2 mM 5-aminolaevulinic acid (5-ALA) for 3.5 h at 37 degrees C. This treatment induces the accumulation of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which is a potent photosensitizer. PpIX absorbs light energy and produces singlet oxygen in the presence of molecular oxygen, which then destroys the cancer cells. The cells were illuminated (0.5-30 min) at room temperature by blue light (435 nm) prior to hyperoxia exposure. This treatment was performed in a small, temperature-controlled (37 degrees C) hyperbaric chamber using oxygen at a pressure of 100, 200, 300, or 400 kPa.

RESULTS
PDT performed under normoxia induced lipid peroxidation and caused a considerable decrease in cell survival. However, this decrease was not influenced by the presence of hyperoxia (P>0.05). Furthermore, hyperoxic exposure (400 kPa O2) alone caused no increase in lipid peroxidation compared with untreated control cells.

CONCLUSIONS
These data indicate that a normoxic environment is sufficient to produce the optimal effect of PDT.


The Sustainable Development Goals have been criticized for not providing sufficient balance between human well-being and environmental well-being. By contrast, joint agent-environment systems theory is focused on reciprocal synchronous generative development. The purpose of this paper is to extend this theory towards practical application in sustainable development projects. This purpose is fulfilled through three interrelated contributions. First, a practitioner description of the theory is provided. Then, the theory is extended through reference to research concerned with multilevel pragmatics, competing signals, commitment processes, technological mediation, and psychomotor functioning. In addition, the theory is related to human-driven biosocial-technical innovation through the example of digital twins for agroecological urban farming. Digital twins being digital models that mirror physical processes; that are connected to physical processes through, for example, sensors and actuators; and which carry out analyses of physical processes in order to improve their performance. Together, these contributions extend extant theory towards application for synchronous generative development that balances human well-being and environmental well-being. However, the practical examples in the paper indicate that counterproductive complexity can arise from situated entropy amidst biosocial-technical innovations: even when those innovations are compatible with synchronous generative development.


For energy production and also for the glass industry, finding new refractory alloys which could permit to increase the process temperatures to 1200°C or more is a permanent challenge. Chromium base alloys can be good candidates, considering the melting point of Cr itself, and also its low corrosion rate in molten glass. Two families of alloys have been studied for this purpose, Cr-Mo-W and Cr-Ta-X alloys (X= Mo, Si..). A finer selection of compositions has been done, to optimize their chemical and mechanical properties. Kinetics of HT oxidation by air, of corrosion by molten glass and also creep properties of several alloys have been measured up to 1250°C. The results obtained with the best alloys (Cr-Ta base) give positive indications as regards the possibility of their industrial use.


Delivering a fault-free software to the client requires exhaustive testing, which in today's evergrowing software systems, can be expensive and often impossible. Software fault prediction aims to improve software quality while reducing the testing effort by identifying fault-prone modules in the early stages of development process. However, software fault prediction activities are yet to be implemented in the daily work routine of practitioners as a result of a lack of automation of this process. This thesis presents an Eclipse plug-in as a fault prediction automation tool that can predict fault-prone modules using two prediction methods, Naive Bayes and Logistic Regression, while also reflecting on the performance of these prediction methods compared to each other. Evaluating the prediction methods on open source projects concluded that Logistic Regression performed better than Naive Bayes. As part of the prediction process, this thesis also reflects on the easiest metrics to automatically gather for fault prediction concluding that LOC, McCabe Complexity and CK suite metrics are the easiest to automatically gather.


The risk for current operational spacecraft or future market induced by large space debris, dead satellites or rocket bodies, in Low Earth Orbit has been identified several years ago. Many potential solutions and architectures are traded with a main objective of reducing cost per debris. Based on cost consideration, specially driven by launch cost, solutions constructed on multi debris capture capacities seem to be much affordable The recent technologic evolutions in electric propulsion and solar power generation can be used to combine high potential vehicles for debris removal. The present paper reports the first results of a study funded by CNES that addresses full electric solutions for large debris removal. Some analysis are currently in progress as the study will end in August. It compares the efficiency of in-orbit Active Removal of typical debris using electric propulsion The electric engine performances used in this analysis are demonstrated through a 2012/2013 PPS 5000 on-ground tests campaign. The traded missions are based on a launch in LEO, the possible vehicle architectures with capture means or contact less, the selection of deorbiting or reorbiting strategy. For contact less strategy, the ion-beam shepherd effect towards the debris problematic will be addressed. Vehicle architecture and performance of the overall system will be stated, showing the adequacy and the limits of each solution.


This paper argues that whether estimates of the welfare cost of natural or artificial trade barriers that do not discriminate by quality are subject to positive or negative specification bias when using models which do not explicitly recognize quality variation depends on the reference point used in counterfactual equilibrium analysis. We use numerical general equilibrium techniques to generate counter examples to the widely held view that (in the competitive case) incorporating quality upgrading will tend to reduce the welfare costs of quality invariant trade barriers. To do this, we use a trade-distorted equilibrium as the reference point, rather than free trade.


Based on the modified Sawada—Kotera equation, we introduce a 3 × 3 matrix spectral problem with two potentials and derive a hierarchy of new nonlinear evolution equations. The second member in the hierarchy is a generalization of the modified Sawada—Kotera equation, by which a Lax pair of the modified Sawada—Kotera equation is obtained. With the help of the Miura transformation, explicit solutions of the Sawada—Kotera equation, the Kaup—Kupershmidt equation, and the modified Sawada—Kotera equation are given. Moreover, infinite sequences of conserved quantities of the first two nonlinear evolution equations in the hierarchy and the modified Sawada—Kotera equation are constructed with the aid of their Lax pairs.


Executive summary
When it becomes necessary to use mechanical energy in buildings, it would be expected that the amount used should not only correspond to the density of spatial utilisation but also the occupancy patterns, or vice versa – that vacancy patterns should produce corresponding reductions in energy use. Empirical evidence suggests that this is not always the case. This research aimed to find out if patterns of interior space organisation and/or utilisation have corresponding patterns of energy consumption, and if planning and/or utilisation programming strategies can enable energy savings. Although this study acknowledges that space planning is related to user organisations, it is not about such relationships.

Previous research alludes to the following factors as potential determinants of energy use, but their quantitative degree of influence is not well understood: properties of interior construction elements; environmental interaction/autonomy between spaces; circulation configuration; layout density; activity relationships; and temporal factors of space use. The influence of these factors on energy is examined by quantitative analysis, which matches different plan regimes and environmental systems against different occupancy regimes.

The wider target is buildings that experience varied patterns of occupancy, but the focus here is on office, laboratory, and library building typologies, by way of examples. The quantification is by computer simulation using established software packages (TAS, Lightscape, and Flovent) and Excel spreadsheets developed for this work. Further investigations in selected case study buildings involve first monitoring spatial utilisation and the corresponding running environmental systems. The data are then used to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the existing layout against hypothetical options on the existing 'shell and core' of each building. A conceptual approach for energy saving, which is partly based on the findings of the parametric and empirical studies, is then formulated and tested in some of the case study buildings.

The thesis demonstrates that: different patterns of spatial, activity, and systems organisation have corresponding patterns of energy use; and that significant energy savings can be achieved in a best practice 'shell and core' through the right match of space plans with space use patterns – with potentially higher savings in a wasteful shell. It also demonstrates that adopting approaches that dynamically adjust to the temporal diversity of space use can also enable significant savings. One such approach is proposed and promising directions for further research are suggested.


Precipitation deficit is traditionally considered as the main driver of drought events, however the evolution of drought conditions is also influenced by other variables such as temperature, wind speed and evapotranspiration. In view of global warming, the effect of rising temperatures may lead to increased socio-economic drought impacts, particularly in vulnerable developing countries. In this work, we used two drought indices to analyze the impacts of precipitation and temperature on the frequency, severity and duration of
Chilean droughts (25°S-56°S) during the XXI century, using multi-model climate projections consistent with the high-end RCP 8.5 scenario.

An ensemble of seven global CMIP5 simulations were used to drive the Earth System Model EC-EARTH3-HR v3.1 over the 1976-2100 period, in order to increase the spatial resolution from the original grid to 0.35°. The Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) was used to describe the impact of precipitation on drought conditions, while the Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) was used to assess the effect of temperature -throughout changes in potential evapotranspiration- on drought characteristics at different time scales. Drought indices along with duration, severity and frequency of drought events were computed for a 30-year baseline period (1976-2005) and then compared to three 30-year periods representing short, medium and long-term scenarios (2011–2040, 2041-2070 and 2071–2100). Indices obtained from climate simulations during the baseline period were compared against the corresponding values derived from ground observations.

Results obtained with SPI-12 reveal a progressive decrease in precipitation in Chile, which is consistent through all climate models, though each of them shows a different spatial pattern. Simulations based on SPEI-12 show that the expected increase in evaporative demand (driven by the temperature increase) for the region is likely to exacerbate the severity and duration of drought events. Findings of this work are an important support for timely preparation of drought adaptation and mitigation plans to improve water
management strategies and resilience during the XXI century.


The accounting major provides a student with the analytical foundation to excel as a certified public accountant, internal auditor, financial manager, controller, tax advisor and consultant. Databases that are good sources of scholarly or general interestarticles for this course


In this paper, we present a novel two-path channel model for wireless terahertz (THz) systems operating in the range of 275 to 400 GHz, which accommodates both the channel particularities and the transceivers parameters. The channel particularities include the frequency selectivity, path-loss, as well as the atmospheric conditions, namely temperature, relative humidity and pressure, while the transceiver parameters, which are taken into account, are the antenna gains as well as the power of the transmitted signal. Finally, we evaluated the THz system performance in terms of average signal to noise ratio and ergodic capacity.


We investigate tradeoffs associated with delegating authority over multiple interrelated decisions in a complex task structure. The empirical setting is a business process of a global Fortune 50 firm. The firm decentralized its organization and redefined decision authority across organizational hierarchies between 2008 and 2011. We employ regression analysis of micro-level data on the allocation of decision authority between formal and real authority and further on the organization design of 761 decision tasks within a hierarchy. Our findings show how the specialization of decision-relevant knowledge, the matching of required knowledge and managers' expertise, and information processing intensity affect (a) the occurrence of delegation, and (b), if delegation occurs, how far down the organizational hierarchy authority is delegated. We discuss how these findings complement existing theories on delegation by providing insights into how multiple interrelated decisions are delegated within a complex task structure.


In the real environment, organisms are simultaneously exposed to different types of chemicals. Different types of chemicals usually have different time-dependent toxicity characteristics, however, people know little about the time-dependent toxicities of mixtures. Hence, the time-dependent toxicity of one pesticide, two ionic liquids (ILs), two antibiotics 20 ternary mixture rays and ten quaternary mixture rays to Vibrio qinghaiensis sp.-Q67 (V. qinghaiensis) were determined by the time-dependent microplate toxicity analysis. The results showed that the toxicity of pesticide (imidacloprid, IMI) to V. qinghaiensis does not change with time, the toxicities of two ILs (1-hexyl-3-methyl-imidazolium bromide, [hmim]Br, and 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, [hmim]Cl) decrease with time, and those of two antibiotics (chloramphenicol, CHL, and polymyxin B sulfate, POL) increase with time. The mixture toxicity almost doesn't change with time. Taking the concentration addition model as an additive reference, the combined toxicities of chemicals are assessed. It is shown that the mixture toxicities of most rays in two ternary mixture systems, [hmim]Br–IMI–CHL and [hmim]Cl–IMI–CHL, are additive at any time, while those in [hmim]Br–IMI–POL and [hmim]Cl–IMI–POL systems are antagonistic at some time, which implies that the POL may be a key component inducing the antagonism. To further validate the antagonism induced by POL, the POL is respectively merged into two ternary [hmim]Br–IMI–CHL and [hmim]Cl–IMI–CHL systems having no antagonism to form two quaternary mixture systems. It is found that many rays in the two new quaternary mixture systems have antagonistic action at some times, which validates that POL is indeed a key component. These findings indicate that the mixture toxicity of pesticide, ILs and antibiotics is complicated and prone to generate interaction, and doing risk assessment should take this type of mixtures into consideration.


1. 1. In tethered flying locusts, the pleuroalar (or pleuroaxillary) muscle of the forewing (M85) was stimulated via its efferent nerve. The effect on the angular setting of the wing was observed using photogrammetry. Maximal tetanic contraction of the muscle reduced downstroke pronation and upstroke supination by more than 25°. A more physiological stimulus regime resulted in angular changes of about 7°, which is near the range observed during steering manoeuvres. This confirms that the pleuroalar muscle plays an important role in adjusting the wing's aerodynamic angle of attack, as proposed in anatomical studies by Pfau (1978).

2. 2. Unit a of the pleuroalar muscle was found to be innervated by the common inhibitor neurone 1 (CI) of the segmental ganglion. IJPs with amplitudes between 2 and 10mV were elicited by action potentials in CI.

3. 3. A basic tonus was observed in the pleuroalar muscle in the absence of activity in excitatory motoneurones. CI input reduced this basic contracture but did not affect EJPs or muscle twitches elicited by excitatory input.

4. 4. Activity of the common inhibitor was recorded intracellularly and with nerve electrodes in tethered flying locusts. Tonic discharges were observed with spike frequencies ranging from 5 to 35 Hz, 25 Hz being a typical value.

5. 5. EMG recordings from the two units of the pleuroalar muscle showed that only unit a was active during most horizontal flight sequences. While its discharge was modulated in response to imposed roll movements, unit b was recruited primarily during ipsilateral roll.

These results indicate functional specialization between pleuroalar muscle units a and b and suggest that the inhibitory innervation of unit a functions in the fine adjustment of wing pronation.


Introduction: Mole hydatiforme is the most common type of gestational trophoblast disease (GTD) and the aim of this study, is evaluation the frequency of changes in thyroid function tests in mole hydatidiform patients. Materials and Methods: In this retrospective study, 63 patients with mole hydatidiform who reffering to gynecology ward of Ali ibn Abitaleb Hospital in Zahedan from April 20 16 to March 20 17, were studied. Information such as age, gravidity and laboratory findings including thyroid function tests (TFT) and the presence or absence of clinical symptoms were recorded in the information forms and analyzed by SPSS software. Results: In this study, 63 patients with mole hydatidiform were studied. The mean age of the patients was 26.6 ± 7.7 years. The most common clinical manifestation of hyperthyroidism in patients with mole hydatiforme was tachycardia (39.7%). There was no relationship between age and gravidity with the hyperthyroid symptoms and thyroid function tests. Conclusion: Overall, the results of this study showed that 67% of patients with mole hydatidiform had reduced TSH and more than 50% of cases had increased free T3 and T4. There was no relationship between maternal age and gravidity with changes in thyroid functional test.


Rheological material properties are examples of function-valued quantities that depend on frequency (linear viscoelasticity), input amplitude (nonlinear material behavior), or both. This dependence complicates the process of utilizing these systems in engineering design. In this article, we present a methodology to model and optimize design targets for such rheological material functions. We show that for linear viscoelastic systems simple engineering design assumptions can be relaxed from a conventional spring-dashpot model to a more general linear viscoelastic relaxation kernel, K(t). While this approach expands the design space and connects system-level performance with optimal material design functions, it entails significant numerical difficulties. Namely, the associated governing equations involve a convolution integral, thus forming a system of integro-differential equations. This complication has two important consequences: 1) the equations representing the dynamic system cannot be written in a standard state space form as the time derivative function depends on the entire past state history, and 2) the dependence on prior time-history increases time derivative function computational expense. Previous studies simplified this process by incorporating parameterizations of K(t) using viscoelastic models such as Maxwell or critical gel models. While these simplifications support efficient solution, they limit the type of viscoelastic materials that can be designed. This article introduces a more general approach that can explore arbitrary K(t) designs using direct optimal control methods. In this study, we analyze a nested direct optimal control approach to optimize linear viscoelastic systems with no restrictions on K(t). The study provides new insights into efficient optimization of systems modeled using integro-differential equations. The case study is based on a passive vibration isolator design problem. The resulting optimal K(t) functions can be viewed as early-stage design targets that are material agnostic and allow for creative material design solutions. These targets may be used for either material-specific selection or as targets for later-stage design of novel materials.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


The physical and mechanical properties of agricultural products have an effective role in determining the quality of the products, reducing the potential damage caused by transportation and eventually designing the equipment used in the processing of the products. In this study, some physical and mechanical properties of snake melon were measured under standard conditions. Physical properties included length, width, thickness; mean diameter (geometric and arithmetic), sphericity, surface area, aspect ratio, mass, volume and density. The mechanical properties of the samples and their lengths were measured under the conditions of pressure (bruise), bending (break) and cutting of the snake melons in halves using a Zwick/Roell Instron testing machine based on the necessary standards and through three replications. Length, width, thickness, volume, surface area and density are some of the physical properties that are important considerations while designing a special machine or analyzing the consequences of transferring materials. In the investigation of the mechanical properties, the maximum forces required for pressure, bending and cutting of the snake melon were 309.66, 44.4 and 36.5 N, respectively. The results of this study can contribute to the design and optimization of the equipment used for processing, transportation, separation and packaging of the snake melon.


The purpose of the present study was to compare alcohol habits in a forensic psychiatric sample to those of a normal representative one with respect to alcohol-related symptoms. Two male samples were compared with respect to self-reported alcohol-related symptoms, a forensic psychiatric sample (n=60; mean age 27 years) and a control sample (n=106; mean age 36 years). As expected, there was a higher proportion of alcohol-related symptoms in the forensic psychiatric sample. The frequencies of specific symptoms were compared between the samples.


Extracted from text ... An integral part of the fight against money
laundering is to have access to financial information
in order to assist in investigations. The
primary goal of financial investigations is to
identify, trace and document the movement
of funds; to identify and locate assests that are
subject to law enforcement measures; and to
support the prosecution of criminal activity.
Financial intelligence units (FIUs) have an
increasingly important role to play in the international
effort to detect and combat money
laundering. They are defined as agencies that
receive reports of suspicious transactions from
financial institutions and other persons and
entities, analyse them, ..


Increasing numbers of students of Thai history and culture are turning to varieties of critical theory to respond to the limitations of the empiricist methodologies of classical Thai area studies. These diverse theoretical appropriations constitute a critical project of Thai cultural studies that seeks to deconstruct essentialist readings of Thai culture, Thai identity and Thai nation by revealing the genealogical origins of these notions as contingent products of historical projects of power. Thai cultural studies resists narratives of Thai uniqueness, drawing on comparative theoretical frames such as post-structuralism and post-colonial analysis in order to read Thai history alongside rather than in isolation from the histories of other countries. While these critical methodologies have the potential to open up exciting new lines of inquiry in Thai history and culture, there is nevertheless a risk that unreflective applications of theory may perpetuate Euro–Amerocentric analyses. Thai cultural studies needs to be built upon a practice of translation that takes into account the ways that power imbalances between Western analytical discourses and Thai cultural logics may systematically distort forms of knowledge. Insufficient attention to the technical requirements of translating between Thai and Western languages and discourses, respectively, may lead to theory erasing the specificity of Thai cultural logics. A case study is provided of the analytical tensions that may result from a deficient practice of translation in Thai studies. It is concluded that accounts of Thailand's supposed 'excessiveness' point to the limits of current theory in fully accounting for modern Thai cultural logics and indicate the need for further theoretical development.


Growing human populations and higher demands for water impose increasing impacts and stresses upon freshwater biodiversity. Their combined effects have made these animals more endangered than their terrestrial and marine counterparts. Overuse and contamination of water, overexploitation and overfishing, introduction of alien species, and alteration of natural flow regimes have led to a 'great thinning' and declines in abundance of freshwater animals, a 'great shrinking' in body size with reductions in large species, and a 'great mixing' whereby the spread of introduced species has tended to homogenize previously dissimilar communities in different parts of the world. Climate change and warming temperatures will alter global water availability, and exacerbate the other threat factors. What conservation action is needed to halt or reverse these trends, and preserve freshwater biodiversity in a rapidly changing world? This book offers the tools and approaches that can be deployed to help conserve freshwater biodiversity.


This work reports on model-independent lifetime measurements of the first 2+ states in 62,64,66Fe at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. While confirming the known value for 62Fe, the experiment on 64Fe could reduce the experimental error on 64Fe significantly. The lifetime of the first 2+ state in 66Fe was not known beforehand. Excited states were populated by inverse kinematics Coulomb excitation after projectile fragmentation.

To account for Doppler shift attenuation in target and degrader, relativistic Lorentz Boost and solid angle related effects, a dedicated simulation tool was written. The program reproduces the line-shape of detected gamma-rays using a discretisation approach.

Collectivity around N = 40 is discussed based on the new and on older B(E2) data. The new values confirm the rising collectivity in iron isotopes at N = 38, that was recently reported. More so, the drastic reduction of the experimental
error puts this statement on a sound footing. The present data on 66Fe were the first to show the persistence of enhanced collectivity in the iron chain at N = 40.

While numerical calculations for this region of the nuclear chart were not successful in the past, the purely phenomenological approach of the modified Valence
Proton Symmetry yields a rather good description of collective nuclei around N = 40.

The state-of-the-art effective LNPS interaction is basis for a beautiful shellmodel description of the new data set. Improvements on the interaction and on the computational power side allow for a very detailed description of collective nuclei far from the valley of stability.


Climate change studies in the last decades have been based on Global Climate Models (GCM), and the distribution of climatic regions over time extracted from these models can be represented using the Köppen climatic classification. The Köppen approach predicts the distribution of biomes worldwide on the basis of monthly precipitation and average temperature. This study aims to use the Köppen classification to evaluate the impact of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets melting on GCM simulation results at the regional and global scale. To assess the impact of accelerated ice-sheet melting, our approach is based on numerical simulations from the IPSL-CM5A-LR GCM with the introduction of freshwater near the ice sheets superimposed on the RCP8.5 scenario, leading to a global warming of +5°C. Static mapping of distribution changes in Köppen climatic regions under various scenarios (historical run from observations, RCP 8.5, and various cases of polar sheets melting) and comparisons between them reveal that major changes occur at the global scale for the period 2041-2060. A first level of analysis revealed that, when the input of freshwater originates from Greenland or Antarctica, the inter-tropical belt undergoes greater change than under the RCP8.5 scenario. A second level of analysis showed that changes in precipitation have major impacts on the southern hemisphere, with more drastic changes if the freshwater came from the Greenland ice sheet than if it came from Antarctica or from the combination of both. Changes in temperature, however, strongly impact the northern hemisphere, and are significantly affected by the melting of the Greenland ice sheet. This study highlights the importance of considering ice sheets melting in the modelling of future global climate.


Crystal morphologies are predicted for vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) using attachment energy methods. The significant differences between predicted and observed morphologies when vitamin C is grown from water, isopropyl alcohol, acetone-water solution, and isopropyl alcohol-methanol solution are attributed to the effect of solvent on the growth rate of the various crystal habit faces. This effect, particularly the role of hydrogen bonding between solvent and crystal surface, is examined. Molecular modeling is combined with the results of simple experiments charting the habit shift of vitamin C as a function of the hydrogen bonding tendency of the solvent or solvent mixture. Attachment and slice energies can be determined from periodic bond chain (PBC) analysis or calculated directly from the crystal structure by partitioning the lattice energy calculated from each symmetrically independent molecule in the unit cell into slice and attachment energies. First in the PBC analysis of vitamin C the Cerius2 molecular modeling package was used to search for connected nets in a given range of orientations (hkl).


Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) has been identified as the best way forward to contribute to mitigating climate change for enhanced agriculture. The study was conducted in Asokwa Municipal in the Ashanti region of Ghana as a case study with the following objectives; to identify existing CSA practices adopted by vegetable farmers; to evaluate existing institutions and their role in facilitating the adoption of CSA practices and to establish the likely factors that may promote or inhibit adoption of CSA practices. Purposive sampling was used to select twenty-seven participants due to restrictions on COVID-19 and limited resources. The significance of this method is that participants are selected by virtue of their capacity to provide rich-textured information relevant to the phenomenon under study. Results from the field showed that the commonly adopted CSA practices were improved crop varieties, irrigation and manure management scoring 100% each followed by crop rotation (66.7%). The least adopted practices, from the highest to the lowest were agroforestry (12.5%), mulching and rain harvesting (8.3%) each and compost application with 4.2%. The key factors inhibiting the adoption of CSA consist of insufficient information, water scarcities and financial constraints. The conclusion drawn was that the Agricultural sector must become climate-smart to successfully tackle current food security and climate change challenges. Beyond doubt, it will require management and governance practices based on ecosystem approaches that involve multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral coordination and cooperation.


Phenytoin is normally used in epilepsy treatment. One of the side effect affecting a significative part of the treated patients is the gingival overgrowth. It could surely be a correlation between this stimulatory effect and the assessment of phenytoin in wound healing. In fact, some studies of the literature have shown that topical phenytoin promotes healing of traumatic wounds, burns and ulcers by decubitus or stasis (diabetic or venous) and we emphasize, in vitiligo, a particular attention into repigmentation. The related mechanism of action seems to be multifactorial. In the present paper topical phenytoin has been used as wound-healing agent in 19 documented cases of bedsores, divided in treated and placebo group. The used concentration of phenytoin was 5 mg/L dissolved in a water solution of 9 g NaCl/L (0.9% P/V of NaCl). Patches soaked with phenytoin solution were applied over the bedsores along 3 hours every 12 hours. Results showed that phenytoin treated patients healed their wounds significantly before (p<0.001) with respect to controls. (www.actabiomedica.it)


Over the years the ECJ has consistently held that the five freedoms do not apply in "purely internal situations", that is, situations where all the facts are confined within one Member State and where there is no "cross-border element" and therefore no connection with EC law. This has led to what is known as "reverse discrimination". Reverse discrimination arises when nationals/products of a Member State are disadvantaged because they are subject to a national measure, while foreign (EU) nationals/products are protected from that national measure by virtue of EC law. In the Guimont judgment of 2000, the ECJ ruled that it will reply to preliminary questions about purely internal situations because a reply "might be useful" to the national court "if" its national law were to prohibit reverse discrimination. The purpose of this paper is to show that (a) the Guimont principle is (i) misguided and (ii) unnecessary, because it overlaps with the Dzodzi principle; and (b) reverse discrimination is a necessary evil.


The rotating motion of a helical flagellum enables a bacterium to swim toward positive stimuli and away from danger. But how is the flagellum, composed of many different proteins, assembled? In a Perspective,
 Macnab
 explains how subunits of the protein flagellin flow down a channel inside the flagellum and are then added to its tip through the action of a rotating pentameric cap complex (
 Yonekura
 et al. ).


The complexity and natural variability of ecosystems present a challenge for reliable detection of change due to anthropogenic influences. This issue is exacerbated by necessary trade-offs that reduce the quality and resolution of survey data for assessments at large-scales. The Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD) is a large inland wetland complex in northern Alberta, Canada. Despite its geographic isolation, the PAD is threatened by encroachment of oil sands mining in the Athabasca watershed, and hydroelectric dams in the Peace watershed. Methods capable of reliably detecting changes in ecosystem health are needed to evaluate and manage risks. Between 2011 and 2016, aquatic macroinvertebrates were sampled across a gradient of wetland flood frequency, applying both microscope-based morphological identification, and DNA metabarcoding. By using multi-species occupancy models, we demonstrate that DNA metabarcoding detected a much broader range of taxa and more taxa per sample compared to traditional morphological identification, and was essential to identifying significant responses to flood and thermal regimes. We show that family-level occupancy masks high variation among genera, and for the first time, quantify the bias of barcoding primers on the probability of detection in a natural community. Interestingly, patterns of community assembly were near random, suggesting a strong role of stochasticity in the dynamics of the metacommunity. This variability seriously compromises effective monitoring at local scales, but also reflects resilience to hydrological and thermal variability. Nevertheless, simulations showed the greater efficiency of metabarcoding, particularly at a finer taxonomic resolution, provided the statistical power needed to detect change at the landscape scale.


AIMS
To propose a hierarchy of methodological criteria to consider when determining whether a study provides sufficient information to answer the question of whether e-cigarettes can facilitate cigarette smoking cessation or reduction.

DESIGN
A PubMed search to 1 February 2017 was conducted of all studies related to e-cigarettes and smoking cessation or reduction.

SETTINGS
Australia, Europe, Iran, Korea, New Zealand and the United States.

PARTICIPANTS AND STUDIES
91 articles.

MEASUREMENTS
Coders organized studies according to six proposed methodological criteria: (1) examines outcome of interest (cigarette abstinence or reduction), (2) assesses e-cigarette use for cessation as exposure of interest, (3) employs appropriate control/comparison groups, (4) ensures that measurement of exposure precedes the outcome, (5) evaluates dose and duration of the exposure and (6) evaluates the type and quality of the e-cigarette used.

FINDINGS
Twenty-four papers did not examine the outcomes of interest. Forty did not assess the specific reason for e-cigarette use as an exposure of interest. Twenty papers did not employ prospective study designs with appropriate comparison groups. The few observational studies meeting some of the criteria (duration, type, use for cessation) triangulated with findings from three randomized trials to suggest that e-cigarettes can help adult smokers quit or reduce cigarette smoking.

CONCLUSIONS
Only a small proportion of studies seeking to address the effect of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation or reduction meet a set of proposed quality standards. Those that do are consistent with randomized controlled trial evidence in suggesting that e-cigarettes can help with smoking cessation or reduction.


This article proposes a new preceding vehicle detection framework for challenging lighting environments using a novel feature fusion technique based on an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system. A combination of two feature descriptors, the histogram of oriented gradients and local binary patterns, is adopted to improve the vehicle detection accuracy of the proposed framework, and the performance of the combination in image transformations is evaluated. Furthermore, we tested the detection performance of the proposed framework in three challenging driving conditions and filmed the test image sequences for each categorized environment of the experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms the conventional framework under specific driving environments with harsh lighting conditions.


Poly (4-vinyl pyridine) particles produced by dispersion polymerization were suspended in a hydrogel membrane and used for remote measurements employing fiber optic sensors. The refractive index of poly(4-vinyl pyridine) particles is higher than the refractive index of the hydrogel. At low pH, protonation of the poly(vinyl pyridine) causes the particles to swell reducing their refractive index and lowering membrane turbidity. The membrane response to pH was monitored using instrumentation originally that was constructed by Michael Civiello and was further developed in this work. A new hydrogel, HYPAN, was evaluated as the medium in which the particles are suspended. Methods for attaching a polymer layer to the distal end of an optical fiber were also examined. A 1310 nm wavelength source and an InGaAs detector were installed in the remote sensing instrument to improve signal quality by lowering the noise associated with the signal. The noise associated with the instrument response results from two sources, one being Rayleigh scattering of the laser pulse as it travels down the optical fiber. The other contribution to the background is the reflection from the optical fiber connector/polymer interface at the distal end of the optical fiber. The use of longer wavelength source compared to 834 nm reduced the background signal. The noise associated with the signal at the longer wavelength, however, is increased compared to the original, 834 nm. The use of angled connectors in the instrument reduced the background of the signal and enhanced the turbidity signal by a factor of three. Using and improving the instrumentation designed for remote optical sensing, it was possible to detect pH changes through 500 meters of optical fiber. The particles produced from 4-vinyl pyridine showed quick response times and relatively large changes in response when placed in a HYPAN membrane. The pKa of these particles was determined to be approximately 4.6 through 500 meters of fiber. Sensors were constructed on the top of an optical fiber connector, because we could not develop a convenient method for attaching a polymer layer on the distal end of an unconnectorized optical fiber.


BACKGROUND
Data on the various aspects of brucellosis in children living in southern Israel are missing.

OBJECTIVES
Our aim was to study the epidemiological, microbiological, diagnostic, clinical, therapeutic and outcome features of brucellosis in children <19 years of age in southern Israel during 2005-2011.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The study population included all patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of brucellosis, established according to a clinical presentation compatible with brucellosis+presence of Brucella bacteremia (BB).

RESULTS
A total of 128 (50.8%) of 252 patients admitted with a diagnosis of brucellosis had BB (all with Brucella melitensis). All patients were of Muslim Bedouin ethnicity. The mean incidence of BB in southern Israel was 16 cases/100,000 Bedouin, with no significant changes during the study period. Overall duration of symptoms before diagnosis was 10.1±10.9 days. Fever at diagnosis was recorded in <20% of the patients. The most frequent symptoms were arthralgia (61.7%), weakness (32.8%), gastrointestinal disturbances (27.3%), myalgia (25%), and headache (18.8%). The main clinical findings included monoarthritis (36.7%), hepatosplenomegaly (25%), lymphadenopathy (17.2%), heart murmur (11.7%), and skin rash (9.4%), respectively. Anemia, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, and pancytopenia were reported in 17.6%, 29.6%, 12.8%, and 2.3% of the patients, respectively. Twenty-nine (30.5%) patients with BB had serum agglutinin titers ≤1/160 (13, 13.7%%, had titers <1/160). Twenty-seven (93%) of the 29 patients aged 0-4 years were treated with gentamicin and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole; a total of 77 (60.2%) patients received gentamicin and doxycycline.

CONCLUSIONS
Childhood brucellosis remains an important public health problem in southern Israel. BB was diagnosed in >50% of the children with brucellosis, and B. melitensis was identified in all cases. Arthralgia, weakness, and gastrointestinal complaints were the most common symptoms, and monoarthritis, hepatosplenomegaly, and lymphadenopathy were the most common clinical findings. A considerable number of patients with BB had undetectable/low serum agglutinin titers, suggesting insufficient reliability on serology alone in diagnosis of brucellosis.


CCompanies all around the world are looking to be successful ones. This is a basic and simple business principle followed by shareholders, companies' boards, companies' managers and, also, the entire work force should be aware that the ultimate goal of any company is to move the planned profit from paper to reality. Among all conditions which a company has to fulfil in order to be successful is one which is extremely important and which is called human resources competence. The 21st century has brought a keen competition in all sectors so there is not an easy task for any of the parties involved ensuring that the necessary competence level is reached. Different training models have been designed, named and implemented during the past three decades, a period characterized by a tremendous development of the information and communication technologies. E-learning, E-training, E-instruction etc. are just some of the newest concepts which are in use today by almost all sectors of activities, by education organizations of various levels and which can be applied within all disciplines without exception. But, when talking about "E-education" in all forms taken the requirements are very high. A new frontier has been revealed and among all developments acquired during past years, a new concept and consequently, new educational program got some room around. During year 2005, the European Commission has started a new project called E-xcellence, a project having as support the eLearning Programme of the same commission. This article is looking to the E-xcellence as a concept and as a educational process aimed to achieved the performance excellence at institutional and individual levels and which can be used within higher education organizations for the development of the competence for both, teachers and students. Also, this article is providing an overview of the advantages and disadvantages offered by E-xcellence.


In recent years, thousands of cancer biomarkers have been discovered and described in scientific literature. The promise of personalized medicine, where diseases such as cancer are accurately diagnosed and treatments tailored specifically for individuals, is becoming a reality. Significant advances in biomarker-based research methodologies such as Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) are at the cusp of ushering in a new era of personal medicine. However, unlike the spectacular advances in research technologies for disease biomarker discovery, biomarker-based technologies that can effectively be used in the clinic (or point-of-care) to enable personalized medicine are still lacking. In this book, we feature a selection of emerging technologies which are aimed at enabling clinical applications of personalised medicine. Each of the eight chapters is written by a leading group at the intersection of microfluidics, biology, and nanotechnology. For instance, to accelerate a major bottleneck in the development of clinically useful protein diagnostics, we discuss the application of yeast-derived single chain Fragment variable (scFv) antibody-like molecules as a potential low cost alternative to traditional antibody-based diagnostics. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are an emerging class of cancer biomarkers and a potential resource for understanding cancer progression; we explore various strategies combining microfluidics with nanotechnology for capturing CTCs. The book includes an evaluation of some current and emerging technologies for detecting clinical DNA methylation, another potential cancer biomarker. As personalized medicine may involve tracking a patient's response to treatment, the application of microfluidics to detect metabolites in biological fluids is also discussed. Finally, the ultimate goal of personalized medicine is targeted therapy. One promising approach is RNAi technology which uses short nucleotides to disrupt cancer pathways. In this book, nanoparticle approaches to deliver these short nucleotides are discussed. [summary from publisher website]


With the transition of teaching environment of college English, the listening of the College English Test Band 4 or the CET4 gradually gives priority to the teaching measure based on multi-media. While during the operation of multi-media teaching measure, how to improve the accuracy of listening of the CET4 is a common question to every English teacher in the college. This thesis combines the listening reverse training to research and analyze. And through regulating the data, the thesis explains listening reverse training's positive effects in the improvement the accuracy of listening of the CET4.


Recent estimations indicate that Pakistan is currently host to approximately 3.28 million migrants, comprising roughly 1.5 percent of the nation's total population. While Pakistan possesses an extensive national registration database, the National Database and Registration Authority, encompassing both citizens and individuals of Pakistani origin, it is noteworthy that the country lacks a comprehensive migration-sensitive infrastructure. Consequently, there exists a pressing need for in-depth analytical approaches to elucidate the complexities of migration governance and data management within the Pakistani context. Despite the undeniable significance of migration in driving macroeconomic and socioeconomic development within Pakistan, this sector remains notably marginalized in terms of policy prioritization. At present, Pakistan lacks a dedicated migration policy, a centralized coordinating body responsible for managing migration-related data, and a cohesive framework for analytical or advisory efforts regarding the collection and validation of migration data across diverse stakeholders. Consequently, Pakistan's approach to migration governance is characterized by fragmentation, with numerous government entities engaged in the handling and reporting of migration data and service provision. In light of these circumstances, this country report serves as a diagnostic tool, shedding light on salient governance, and data-related challenges. Its overarching objective is to advocate for the elevation of migration governance to a prominent position on Pakistan's policy agenda, thereby addressing the pressing issues outlined herein.


Assessment is an issue that is central to the lives of educators and students alike. At all levels, from programmatic to course-specific, instructors strive to assess in a way that accurately measures achievement or progress relative to one's goals. This paper reports on students' experiences with alternative assessments in our undergraduate mathematics course for non-STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) majors. The course, Creative Thinking in Mathematics, designed to fulfil the university's general education requirement for mathematics, was recently revised and renamed to highlight the role of creativity in mathematics. In the course, students engage in mathematics using creative approaches and consider how these approaches connect to other disciplines, their career aspirations, and important mathematical discoveries throughout history. This shift in course emphasis necessitated revisions to assessments in ways that mirrored the course's instructional approach. This article describes the alternative assessments, outlines the research study, and reports on the results relative to students' experiences with these assessments, both prior to and during the course, highlighting a need for instructors to reconsider traditional assessments.


Purpose. Most past research on detecting deception has relied on the assumption that liars often fabricate a story to account for their whereabouts, whereas truth tellers simply recall an autobiographical memory. However, little research has examined whether liars, when free to choose the topic of their own reports, will actually choose to fabricate information rather than use a different strategy for constructing their lies. We describe two studies that evaluated liars' strategies for selecting the content of their lies when given the freedom to choose whatever content they desired.

Method. In Studies 1 (N= 35) and 2 (N= 22) participants (a) described a truthful story in order to identify a salient event, then (b) lied about the event, and finally (c) described their strategies for choosing the content of the reported lies.

Results. Liars overwhelmingly chose to report a previously experienced event for the time period they were to be deceptive about (67% and 86% in Studies 1 and 2, respectively). The majority of discrete details reported were experienced, occurred relatively frequently, occurred relatively recently, and were typical or routine.

Conclusions. These findings have significant implications for the development of cognitive-based interventions for detecting deception. In particular, some methods of deception that rely on content analysis may be ineffective if liars choose to report previous experiences rather than outright fabrications.


Until the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, the constitutional status of the former kaiserlich freie Reichsstift Thorn in the present Dutch province of Limburg was disputed. After the Emperor Charles VI had established its constitutional position as a member of the Holy Roman Empire in 1718, a Court of Appeal was established to symbolise Thorn's sovereignty and serve as an intermediary court between the local lower jurisdictions and the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat. The organisation and jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal were laid down in ordinances by the sovereign abbess Francisca Christina of Paltz-Sulzbach (1717–1776). Since the Court's judges did not reside in Thorn – they lived predominantly in the free imperial town of Aachen – complaints about undue delay in civil proceedings and the high cost involved urged the sovereign abbess to directly intervene in the Court's jurisdiction. The ensuing conflicts negatively affected the Court's credibility, as is evidenced by the number of revision petitions and appeals lodged with the Reichskammergericht from ca. 1775 onwards. Reform efforts undertaken by the sovereign abbess Maria Cunegonda of Saxony (1776–1795) arrived too late to restore the credibility and authority of the Court of Appeal.


Abstract In the present work we intend to discuss groundwater contamination and its susceptibility in Serra Geral Aquifer, in Brazil. For this purpose, a list of data concerning the wells located in the study region was elaborated, obtained from the Groundwater Information System (GIS) of the Geological Survey of Brazil. Moreover, data on land use occupancy from United States Geological Survey (USGS) images was constructed. In order to determine local susceptibility to contamination, cross-referencing data was obtained based on the susceptibility index (SI) as well as from methodologies and the pollutant origin and surcharge hydraulically (POSH) system. The results pointed that the SI of the municipality of Sarandi (Brazil, RS) ranged from very low (37%) to high (76%) contamination susceptibility. Included on these, 12% is in the very low range, 17,6% in low, 13% in moderate to low, 13,2% in moderate to high, and 44% in high contamination susceptibility. Furthermore, potential sources of pollutant load are concentrated in areas where the contamination SI has scored from moderate to high. It is concluded that the methodologies used are important tools that benefits and facilitate environmental impact assessments, enabling management for the purpose of protecting and preserving water resources in general.


Improved versions of therapeutic glycoproteins may be produced by manipulation of their glycosylation patterns. Engineering of glycoform biosynthesis in CHO cells is studied here as a route to produce new variants of a recombinant, therapeutic protein and to maximize the proportion of beneficial glycoforms within the glycoform population. An anti-neuroblastoma monoclonal antibody (chCE7) was used as a model therapeutic glycoprotein, and the target glycoforms were those carrying bi-antennary complex Nlinked oligosaccharides modified with a bisecting N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc).

A mathematical model of N-linked glycoform biosynthesis was constructed and used to simulate the qualitative effects of overexpression of GlcNAc-transferase III (GnTIII), the enzyme catalyzing the transfer of a bisecting GlcNAc to various oligosaccharide substrates. These simulations indicated a maximum level for bisected complex oligosaccharides, and accumulation of hybrid bisected oligosaccharides.

To investigate the effects of GnTIII overexpression experimentally, a CHO cell line with tetracycline-regulated overexpression of a rat GnTIII cDNA was established. Expressed GnTIII was localized in the Goigi complex of CHO cells by means of immunoelectron microscopy using an antibody against a peptide epitope tag added to the carboxy-terminus of the enzyme. The enzyme concentrated on one side of the Golgi, mainly in cisternal compartments.

Using the experimental system, it was found that overexpression of GnTIII to high levels led to growth inhibition and was toxic to the cells. Another CHO cell line with tetracycline-regulated overexpression of GnTV, a distinct glycosyltransferase, showed the same inhibitory effect, indicating that this may be a general feature of glycosyltransferase overexpression. The growth effect set an upper limit to glycosyltransferase overexpression and may therefore also limit the extent to which poorly accessible glycosylation sites can be modified by engineering of glycosylation pathways.

A set of chCE7 mAb samples differing in their glycoform distributions was produced by controlling GnTIII expression in a range between basal and toxic levels. Measurement of the ADCC activity of these samples showed an optimal range of GnTIII expression for maximal chCE7 in vitro biological activity. The activity correlated with the level of Fc-associated bisected, complex oligosaccharides. Expression of GnTIII within the biotechnologically practical range, i.e., where no significant growth inhibition and toxicity are observed, led to a consumption of more than 90% of non-bisected, non-galactosylated bi-antennary complex oligosaccharides, but, at most, 50% was converted to the target bisected, complex structures for this set of chCE7 samples. The pattern of oligosaccharide peaks in MALDUTOF-mass spectrometric analysis of samples produced at high levels of GnTIII, indicate that a significant proportion of potential GnTIII substrates is diverted to bisected hybrid oligosaccharide by-products. Minimization of these by-products by further engineering of the pathway could therefore be valuable.

The new optimized variants of chCE7 are promising candidate reagents for the treatment of neuroblastoma. The strategy presented here may also be applicable to other therapeutic IgGs.


Wildland fires in the United States are not always confined to wilderness areas. The growth of population centers and housing developments in wilderness areas has blurred the boundaries between rural and urban. This merger of human development and natural landscape is known in the wildland fire community as the wildland urban interface or WUI, and it is within this interface that many wildland fires increasingly occur. As wildland fire intrusions in the WUI increase so too does the need for tools to assess potential impact to valuable assets contained within the interface. This study presents a methodology that combines real-time weather data, a wildland fire behavior model, satellite remote sensing and geospatial data in a geographic information system to assess potential risk to human developments and natural resources within the Austin metropolitan area and surrounding ten counties of central, Texas. The methodology uses readily available digital databases and satellite images within Texas, in combination with an industry standard fire behavior model to assist emergency and natural resource managers assess potential impacts from wildland fire. Results of the study will promote prevention of WUI fire disasters, facilitate watershed and habitat protection, and help direct efforts in post wildland fire mitigation and restoration.


Abstract Celebrating nurses and nursing is a necessary undertaking for nurses. Not only does it allow them to take stock of their accomplishments, but it also provides a perspective on what has remained static and what has changed both inside and outside nursing. A celebration of nurses and nursing is particularly relevant today, as nurses have weathered a decade of change as well as tempered it, and grown professionally through preserving and building upon their foundation of caring. This paper highlights that important developments have been occurring. One of the most significant developments is an increase in the need for orthopaedic nursing research, nursing knowledge, and nursing practice skills.


An element-free Galerkin method is developed using radial basis interpolation functions to evaluate static and dynamic mixed-mode stress intensity factors. For dynamic problems, the Laplace transform technique is used to transform the time domain problem to frequency domain. The so-called enriched radial basis functions are introduced to accurately capture the singularity of stress at crack tip. The accuracy and convergence of mesh free Galerkin method with enriched radial basis functions for the two-dimensional static and dynamic fracture mechanics are demonstrated through several benchmark examples. Comparisons have been made with benchmarks and solutions obtained by the boundary element method.


This paper describes user-related aspects in the deployment of a live broadcasting service. Four user studies were conducted, addressing different user groups and different research questions. Participating user groups were the production team that generated content for live broadcasts and the viewers of the broadcasts. The aim of the studies was to investigate to which extent quality affects the experience and which functionality is needed to convey a feeling of presence. Technology and functionality needs were studied regarding the production team. The results showed the importance of a production environment that is easy to use, and providing the opportunity for producers to use the technology in their own creative way. The results related to the viewers supported the assumption that it was important to create a feeling of presence for those watching the matches via the service. Finally, the user groups also had several suggestions for functionalities that could increase the social interaction and feeling of presence.


Scalable atomic and parallel access to noncontiguous regions of a file is essential to exploit high performance I/O as required by large-scale applications. Parallel I/O frameworks such as MPI I/O conceptually allow I/O to be defined on regions of a file using derived datatypes. Access to regions of a file can be automatically computed on a perprocessor basis using the datatype, resulting in a list of (offset, length) pairs. We describe three approaches for implementing lock serving (whole file, region locking, and byterange locking) and compare the various approaches using three noncontiguous I/O benchmarks. We present the details of the lock server architecture and describe the implementation of a fully-functional prototype that makes use of a lightweight message passing library and red/black trees.


The Fisher discriminant analysis (FDA) is a common technique for binary classication. A parametrized extension, which we call the extended FDA, has been introduced from the viewpoint of robust optimization. In this work, werst give a new probabilistic inter- pretation of the extended FDA. We then de- velop algorithms for solving an optimization problem that arises from the extended FDA: computing the distance between a point and the surface of an ellipsoid. We solve this problem via the KKT points, which we show are obtained by solving a generalized eigen- value problem. We speed up the algorithm by taking advantage of the matrix structure and proving that a globally optimal solution is a KKT point with the smallest Lagrange multiplier, which can be computed efficiently as the leftmost eigenvalue. Numerical exper- iments illustrate the efficiency and effective- ness of the extended FDA model combined with our algorithm.


: The infecting ability of the fleas Citellophilus tesquorum altaicus loff, 1936, the main plague vectors in the Tuva natural focus, was experimentally studied in different periods of the epizootic season. Seasonal dynamics in the efficiency of infecting the long-tailed Siberian souslik with the plague causative agent through flea bites was noticed. Seasonal differences in infectivity of the "blocked" flea bites are revealed. An increase of infected experimental animals with a generalization of infection process in the period of epizooty activation in the natural focus was observed. A resistance of the long-tailed Siberian souslik to the plague agent infection through flea bites in the spring season was registered.


The Properties of natural shear strength for municipal solid waste are studied by applying a new developed direct shear testing instrument. The municipal solid waste is divided into three parts: incompressible solid waste, reinforced material that is difficult to be biodegraded and the material that is easy to be biodegraded. The properties of these three parts are 15%, 5% and 80%, respectively. A series of laboratory tests have been conducted for different initial void ratio, and different pressure applied on the test specimen. The testing results show that the initial void ratio is a key factor for the natural shear strength of the municipal solid waste, the relationship between the shear stress and the shear strain is a strain hardening curve, the shear stress gradually increases with the shear strain. Besides, the natural shear strength shows a linear relationship to the pressure applied on the test specimen, and it is in accordance with the law of coulomb. According to the fitted lines, the shear strength parameters are obtained. The cohesion varies from 4.7 to 12.6kPa, and the internal friction angle varies from 14.5 to 18.3 degree for the shear strain is equal to 5%. When the shear strain is equal to 20%, the cohesion varies from 8.5 to 17.2kPa, and the internal friction angle varies from 25.5 to 30.7 degree.


Milk intake suppression after intraperitoneal glucagon and epinephrine injections was studied in liver-denervated [hepatic vagal branch transection (VAG-B), hepatic artery-portal vein denervations (H-ART), or total denervation (TOTAL)] and sham-operated rats (SHAM). In experiment 1, glucagon (500 micrograms/kg, Sigma) had no effect on 30 min of milk intake but produced hyperglycemia in all groups. Glucagon (750 micrograms/kg, Sigma; 400 micrograms/kg, Lilly) decreased intake in all groups, as did epinephrine (30 micrograms/kg). In experiment 2, TOTAL and SHAM were tested with 50, 100, and 400 micrograms/kg of glucagon (Lilly). Only the two larger doses suppressed milk intake of both groups, whereas all doses caused hyperglycemia. Epinephrine (30 micrograms/kg) decreased food intake more than glucagon but caused less hyperglycemia than any glucagon dose. In experiment 3, VAG-B and SHAM groups were given glucagon (400 micrograms/kg, Lilly), which reduced their intake. Under these test conditions, liver innervation is not required for glucagon and epinephrine to suppress milk intake. The ability of the two hormones to suppress ingestion appears to be dissociated from their hyperglycemic actions.


Ternary content-addressable memories (TCAMs) are increasingly used for high-speed packet classification. TCAMs compare packet headers against all rules in a classification database in parallel and thus provide high throughput. TCAMs are not well-suited, however, for representing rules that contain range fields and prior art algorithms typically represent each such rule by multiple TCAM entries. The resulting range expansion can dramatically reduce TCAM utilization because it introduces a large number of redundant TCAM entries. This redundancy can be mitigated by making use of extra bits, available in each TCAM entry. We present a scheme for constructing efficient representations of range rules, based on the simple observation that sets of disjoint ranges may be encoded much more efficiently than sets of overlapping ranges. Since the ranges in real-world classification databases are, in general, non-disjoint, the algorithms we present split ranges between multiple layers each of which consists of mutually disjoint ranges. Each layer is then coded independently and assigned its own set of extra bits. Our layering algorithms are based on approximations for specific variants of interval-graph coloring. We evaluate these algorithms by performing extensive comparative analysis on real-life classification databases. Our analysis establishes that our algorithms reduce the number of redundant TCAM entries caused by range rules by more than 60% as compared with best range-encoding prior art.


2,5-disubstituted-1,3,4-thiadiazole derivatives have been synthesized with different substituted aromatic acid. Esterification of aromatic acid with ethanol followed by hydrazination, salt formation and cyclization to formed 5-(2-chlorophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-thiol, 5-(3-chlorophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2- thiol, 5-(2-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-thiol and 5-(4-nitrophenyl)-1,3,4-thiadiazole-2-thiol. All the new compounds were confirmed by IR, NMR and mass spectral analysis. These compounds were evaluated for their antibacterial and anti-inflammatory activity.


Service-based systems (SBS) have a complex layered structure where the service-based application (SBA) is implemented through a composition of services, which run on top of service oriented infrastructures. Taking into account the heterogeneous and dynamic execution context of such complex systems, adaptation is not straightforward. While several state-of-the-art adaptation approaches, unaware of each other, target different problems at specific parts of the system, the isolated enactment of those adaptations results in ignoring the overall impact of the adaptation on the whole SBS. In this work, we propose an approach that introduces a cross-layer adaptation manager (CLAM) to tackle this issue. The approach relies on a cross-layer meta model of the SBS and a set of predefined domain specific rules to integrate and coordinate existing analysis and adaptation tools. It assesses the impact of an initial adaptation trigger at different system levels, and if needed, proposes additional adaptations, consistent with the overall system. The paper introduces the proposed approach and presents preliminary results on its first implementation with concrete analysis and adaptation tools.


When the reliability analysis of in-service RC flexural member is carried on, an expert evaluation or AHP (analytical hierarchy process) for evaluation is commonly used, but human factors are big. This paper presents a comprehensive evaluation method of a existing RC flexural member's reliability on the basis of attribute mathematics. According to the actual measured values of each index in the evaluation system, using a mathematical method to calculate weight, and build a comprehensive quantitative analysis model. Example analysis shows that this method can effectively identify and finely distinguish the reliability of in-service RC flexural members, which be much more objective and scientific compared with other previous methods.


The key ingredient of high critical currents in a type-II superconductor is defect sites that pin vortices. Contrary to earlier understanding on nanopatterned artificial pinning, here we show unequivocally the advantages of a random pinscape over an ordered array in a wide magnetic field range. We reveal that the better performance of a random pinscape is due to the variation of its local density of pinning sites (LDOPS), which mitigates the motion of vortices. This is confirmed by achieving even higher enhancement of the critical current through a conformally mapped random pinscape, where the distribution of the LDOPS is further enlarged. The demonstrated key role of LDOPS in enhancing superconducting critical currents gets at the heart of random versus commensurate pinning. Our findings highlight the importance of random pinscapes in enhancing the superconducting critical currents of applied superconductors.


"Advanced Technologies for Microfinance: Solutions and Challenges" is the first book to systematically address technology's impact on microfinance. It discusses a wide variety of technology applications that will define the next generation of the microfinance movement and it addresses the tough questions surrounding technology in microfinance. For instance, what are the disadvantages of technology-enabled microfinance and what will it mean for the inclusiveness and empowerment of the service? This dynamic collection is a must-have for anyone interested in microfinance, whether you are a donor, lender, or investor.


Low friction surfaces such as ice are challenging for drivers to navigate safely because the limited tire force capability drastically alters the vehicle dynamics compared to dry roads. Experiments on real or emulated low friction surfaces are important for testing control systems, understanding driver-vehicle interactions, and training drivers. As a way of enabling these experiments with the added flexibility of a tunable friction coefficient, this paper presents a force-based approach to emulating the lateral dynamics of a vehicle on a low friction surface using four-wheel steer-by-wire. The steer angle commands are computed with a combination of feedforward and state feedback, and the controller explicitly handles rear wheel actuator limitations. Experimental results from an asphalt surface confirm this controller successfully tracks the lateral dynamics of the low friction reference model.


Patiently nurturing a bonsai and watching it come to resemble a venerable old tree is what bonsai growers love best. Most bonsai hobbyists will be content simply to raise such a tree, but bonsai's greatest satisfaction actually lies one step beyond: in displaying the tree indoors to be viewed and appreciated. Bonsai are trees were originally found in the wild and cultivated in compact form for indoor display. However, only when a tree is complete, combined with a suitable container, displayed in the tokonoma (alcove) at the right time of year and viewed by others does it truly become a bonsai. Needless to say, merely putting a bonsai in the tokonoma does not make a display. The host (sekishu) arranges the bonsai in the style of a majestic landscape painting. This is achieved with the aid of props such as accent plantings, suiseki viewing stones, scrolls and tiny models or ornaments known as tenpai. These props possess specific meanings in terms of such variables as season, climate, location and time of day, and positioned effectively bring a vivid clarity to the envisaged landscape. Too overtly representative and they will look childish, but anything too abstract is also to be avoided. The sekishu's vision of a landscape is one thing, but the choice of a single prop of this sort can speak volumes about his or her aesthetic sensibilities.


Magnetohydrodynamic simulation results related to the capillary discharge dynamics are presented. The main physical process that should be taken into account is the ablation of the capillary wall material evaporated by the heat flux from the capillary plasma. The possible applications of the capillary discharges related to the physics of the X-ray lasers and the use of the capillary plasma to provide a guiding for ultrashort high-intensity laser pulses over a distance greater than the defocusing length are discussed.


Charles C. Zoller (1856-1934) was prolific photographer and native of Rochester, New York. His archive is held at George Eastman International Museum of Photography and Film and consist of over 8,000 photographic objects, just under 4,000 of which are autochrome plates. This thesis focuses on the approximately 317 Zoller autoochromes of Florida that make up a small fraction of the fonds

This thesis furthermore considers the visual representatin of Florida in color in the early twentieth century and compares tropes in this imagery to Zoller's representation of the Sunshine State. Traveling and photographing extensively in North America and Europe, Zoller produced both color images with Lunière Autochrome plates and black-and-white images with various photographic products. Upon return to Upstate New york, Zoller gave lectures on a variety of topics, illustrating these lectures with projected autochromes and lantern slides. Since there are few know autochromes of Florida, Zoller's series are some of the earliest examples of color photographs of the state. While Zoller's images are often predictable representations of Florida, they nevertheless provide a window into how Florida was presented in the early part of the last century. This thesis compares Zoller's autochromes to other popular images of Florida in that time.


In the modern manufacturing mode, product is often manufactured by multi-enterprise, so effective and dynamic tracking for process quality information is the precondition to realize product quality control in distributed enterprises. Aiming at these demands, a dynamic tracking method for inter-enterprise quality information based on process quality BOM (PQ-BOM) was put forward in this paper. PQ-BOM was employed as the carrier and organization form of process quality information. With the formal definition of PQ-BOM, structure information and process information included in PQ-BOM were mapped to three-layer process model. The process BOM is dynamically updated with the process change, thus the in-time and history quality information tracking is achieved by dynamically reconfigured PQ-BOM. Finally, the application of proposed method has been described in detail.


Hyperparameter tuning is critical to the success of federated learning applications. Unfortunately, appropriately selecting hyperparameters is challenging in federated networks. Issues of scale, privacy, and heterogeneity introduce noise in the tuning process and make it difficult to evaluate the performance of various hyperparameters. In this work, we perform the first systematic study on the effect of noisy evaluation in federated hyperparameter tuning. We first identify and rigorously explore key sources of noise, including client subsampling, data and systems heterogeneity, and data privacy. Surprisingly, our results indicate that even small amounts of noise can significantly impact tuning methods-reducing the performance of state-of-the-art approaches to that of naive baselines. To address noisy evaluation in such scenarios, we propose a simple and effective approach that leverages public proxy data to boost the evaluation signal. Our work establishes general challenges, baselines, and best practices for future work in federated hyperparameter tuning.