Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a popular tool for evaluating environmental impacts of products and services. However, the methodological choices and framework to assess environmental impacts in LCA are still under discussion. Despite intensive development worldwide, few attempts have been made hitherto to systematically present the theoretical bases of life cycle impact assessment (LCIA). In this study, the decision analytic foundations for LCIA are illustrated. It is shown that the typical aggregation equation used in LCIA for calculating indicator results can be derived from multiattribute value theory (MAVT) if certain simple assumptions hold. The decision analysis framework presented in this work offers additional values for all the phases of LCIA. A value tree, a tool used for structuring multicriteria decision making problems, can be helpful for selection of impact categories and classification. MAVT can clarify the debate concerning marginal and average approaches in the determination of characterisation factors. On the basis of MAVT, normalisation is needed before weighting. The methods and experiences of preference elicitation derived from the field of decision analysis can be utilised in the determination of subjective characterisation factors and impact category weights. Furthermore, experiences and techniques for the sensitivity analysis of multi-criteria decision models can be utilised in LCIA. In addition, MAVT assists in the calculation of impact category indicator results and total impact indicator results according to the appropriate aggregation equations. The decision analysis framework presented in this work is flexible and suitable for different impact assessment approaches developed in LCIA and it can help the methodological development with which the non-linearity aspects of impact assessment are taken into account. It is shown in the work that site-dependent characterisation methods can easily be fitted into the framework. In a case study of the Finnish forest industry a Finlandspecific impact assessment model utilising the results of other tools, such as air quality and transport models and even expert judgements, was developed. In addition, the so-called ratio estimation method for the elicitation of impact category weights was applied and developed so that interval-valued ratio judgements could be used in the uncertainty analysis of the model. In the case of the Finnish metals industry, decision analysis impact assessment was applied to produce a solution in which global, regional and local environmental problems were assessed in the same framework. In both case studies, experts working with the environmental issues valuated impact category weights with the help of decision analysis techniques. In the work it was shown that MAVT provides a foundation for a logical and rational approach to impact assessment in LCA. In the future, there is a need to demonstrate quantitatively the differences between LCIA conducted according to MAVT and according to current practices. Furthermore, there is a need for research to study the strengths and weaknesses of the different decision analysis methods for LCIA purposes.


We provide novel evidence linking the level of creditor protection provided by law to the degree of usage of technologically older, vintage capital in the airline industry. Using a panel of aircraft-level data around the world, we find that better creditor rights are associated with both aircraft of a younger vintage and newer technology, as well as firms with larger aircraft fleets. We propose that by mitigating financial shortfalls, enhanced legal protection of creditors facilitates the ability of firms to make large capital investments, adapt advanced technologies, and foster productivity.


Abstract Elastic properties of Fe alloys are critical in constraining the compositions of planetary bodies by comparing to the planetary observations. The sound wave velocities and density of an Fe5Si (9 wt% Si) alloy in body-centered cubic (bcc) structure were measured by combining an ultrasonic technique with synchrotron X‑ray radiography at pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions of 2.6–7.5 GPa and 300–1173 K, respectively. At room temperature, it is observed that adding Si to bcc-Fe increases the compressional wave velocity (vP) but decreases the shear wave velocity (vS). At high temperatures, we observed a pronounced effect of pressure on the vS-T relations in the Fe5Si alloy. The vP-density (ρ) relationship of the Fe5Si alloy is found to follow the Birch's law in the P-T range of this study, whereas the vS-ρ relation exhibits complex behavior. Implications of these results to the lunar core and the Mercurian core are discussed. Our results imply that adding Si to a pure Fe lunar core would be invisible in terms of vP, but exhibit a decreased vS. Including Si in a sulfur-rich lunar core would display an increased vP and a decreased ρ. Our density and sound wave velocity model provide lower and upper limit for a Si-bearing lunar core if 1–3 wt% Si content of enstatite chondrite is taken as compositional analog. A Si-rich (>9 wt%) Mercurian core model is derived to satisfy newly observed moment of inertia values by Messenger spacecraft.


OBJECTIVE
To determine in patients with type 2 diabetes the effects on quality of life (QOL) of therapies for improving blood glucose control and for improving blood pressure (BP) control, diabetic complications, and hypoglycemic episodes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
We performed two cross-sectional studies of patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials of 1) an intensive blood glucose control policy compared with a conventional blood glucose control policy, and 2) a tight BP control policy compared with a less tight BP control policy. Also undertaken was a longitudinal study of patients in a randomized controlled trial of an intensive blood glucose control policy compared with a conventional blood glucose control policy. Subjects' QOL was assessed before or at the time of randomization and from 6 months to 6 years after randomization. Two cross-sectional samples of type 2 diabetic patients were randomized to therapies for blood glucose control: 1) 2,431 patients, mean age 60, duration from randomization 8.0 years, completed a "specific" questionnaire covering four aspects of QOL, and 2) 3,104 patients, mean age 62, duration from randomization 11 years, completed a "generic" QOL measure. Of these samples, 628 and 747 patients, respectively, were also randomized to therapies for BP control. A sample of 122 non-diabetic control subjects, average age 62, were also given the specific questionnaire. A longitudinal sample of 374 type 2 diabetic patients randomized to either intensive or conventional blood glucose policies, mean age at randomization 52, were given the specific questionnaire. Sample-sizes at 6 months and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 years after randomization were 322, 307, 280, 253, 225, 163, and 184, respectively. The specific questionnaire assessed specific domains of QOL, including mood disturbance (Profile of Mood State), cognitive mistakes (Cognitive Failures Questionnaire), symptoms, and work satisfaction; the generic questionnaire (EQ5D) assessed general health. Both questionnaires were self-administered.

RESULTS
The cross-sectional studies showed that allocated therapies were neutral in effect, with neither improvement nor deterioration in QOL scores for mood, cognitive mistakes, symptoms, work satisfaction, or general health. The longitudinal study also showed no difference in QOL scores for the specific domains assessed, other than showing marginally more symptoms in patients allocated to conventional than to intensive policy. In the cross-sectional studies, patients who had had a macrovascular complication in the last year had worse general health, as measured by the generic questionnaire, than those without complications, with scale scores median 60 and 78 respectively (P = 0.0006) and tariff scores median 0.73 and 0.83 respectively (P = 0.0012); more problems with mobility, 64 and 36%, respectively (P < 0.0001); and more problems with usual activities, 48 and 28% respectively (P = 0.0023). As measured by the specific questionnaire, they also showed reduced vigor (P = 0.0077). Patients who had had a microvascular complication in the last year reported more tension (P = 0.0082) and total mood disturbance (P = 0.0054), as measured by the specific questionnaire, than patients without complications. Patients treated with insulin who had had two or more hypoglycemic episodes during the previous year reported more tension (P = 0.0023), more overall mood disturbance (P = 0.0009), and less work satisfaction (P = 0.0042), as measured by the specific questionnaire, than those with no hypoglycemic attacks, after adjusting for age, duration from randomization, systolic BP, HbA1c, and sex in a multivariate polychotomous regression.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with type 2 diabetes, complications of the disease affected QOL, whereas therapeutic policies shown to reduce the risk of complications had no effect on QOL. It cannot be discerned whether frequent hypoglycemic episodes affect QOL, or whether patients with certain p


Creative activities, such as painting and music, are one source of satisfaction and fulfillment for people with disabilities. However, some individuals with disabilities cannot satisfactorily enjoy such activities due to involuntary movement. In this study, we developed a drawing assist system for patients with cerebral palsy of the tension athetosis type, who experience involuntary movement. It has been difficult for the assist system to distinguish involuntary movement from voluntary movement. We designed a variable filter to attenuate involuntary movement on the basis of characteristics of synthesized velocity with respect to involuntary movement. Our system enabled drawing based on the participant's own senses and motor control, even when experiencing involuntary movement.


The aim of this paper is to give an insight into the perspectives of Erasmus students. The focus is on their experience, in particular, and how and to what degree ELF speakers in the study became accustomed to a new educational environment, and whether any obstacles materialised in the process. The goal is to demonstrate the significance of ELF-awareness and the role of English in this particular speech community. Qualitative methods were deployed to obtain the research results i.e. semi-structured, informal ELF conversations between Erasmus exchange students at a university in Austria were tape-recorded and transcribed accordingly. During the interviews, students were asked questions about English as spoken at the university, and were instructed to compare and contrast the experiences gained at a university in Austria with those at their primary universities of instruction. The analysis will show the extent to which a new surrounding can influence the attitudes of Erasmus students.


During a survey of oomycetes in ornamental plants carried out at the University of Aberdeen in 2014–2015, Pythium kashmirense was isolated from a specimen of Viburnum plicatum 'Lanarth', the first report of this oomycete in the UK (and in Europe). Pathogenicity of a Py. kashmirense isolate was examined using a range of plant species. Inoculations were carried out under controlled conditions in the absence of other Pythium and Phytophthora species, on Glycine max (soya bean), Phaseolus vulgaris (common bean), Lupinus angustifolius (blue lupin), Cucumis sativa (cucumber) and Viburnum opulus. The majority of inoculations caused pre-emergence damping-off, as well as seed rot and root rot. In the in vitro assays, germination rates (%) of soya bean and blue lupin seeds were less than 50%; in the in vivo inoculations on plants, over 50% of soya bean, blue lupin and common bean plants died; in contrast, cucumber plants showed lower susceptibility in pathogenicity tests, with an approximately 80% germination rate in in vitro tests, and 25% dead plants in the in planta inoculations. Inoculations carried out on root systems of Viburnum opulus caused severe necrosis and root rot. Little research was previously conducted on pathogenicity of Py. kashmirense and its relationship with losses in crop yield and quality. The present study showed varying virulence on the different plant species tested after inoculation with Py. kashmirense. Despite the lack of clear host specialization, infection by Py. kashmirense decreased seedling survival and health of plants in a range of important agricultural and ornamental plant species.


Objective. Meningiomas are benign primary meningeal tumors and are seen rare in children and adolescents. Clinical Presentation and Intervention. A 15-year-old Turkish boy reported a 1-month history of headache and blurred vision in both eyes. His visual acuity was 0.3 in both eyes with papilledema. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a 77 × 97 × 77 mm intracranial-extra-axial frontal lesion which compresses the chiasm. He was diagnosed with intracranial meningioma and referred to neurosurgery clinic. Conclusion. Ophthalmologists should be aware of the fact that papilledema and low vision can be caused by an intracranial tumor which compresses optic chiasm.


Abstract Background: Virtual patients (VPs) are increasingly used to train clinical reasoning. So far, no validated evaluation instruments for VP design are available. Aims: We examined the validity of an instrument for assessing the perception of VP design by learners. Methods: Three sources of validity evidence were examined: (i) Content was examined based on theory of clinical reasoning and an international VP expert team. (ii) The response process was explored in think-aloud pilot studies with medical students and in content analyses of free text questions accompanying each item of the instrument. (iii) Internal structure was assessed by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and inter-rater reliability by generalizability analysis. Results: Content analysis was reasonably supported by the theoretical foundation and the VP expert team. The think-aloud studies and analysis of free text comments supported the validity of the instrument. In the EFA, using 2547 student evaluations of a total of 78 VPs, a three-factor model showed a reasonable fit with the data. At least 200 student responses are needed to obtain a reliable evaluation of a VP on all three factors. Conclusion: The instrument has the potential to provide valid information about VP design, provided that many responses per VP are available.


Okra stem biochar (OSBC) and black gram straw biochar (BGSBC) were prepared by slow pyrolysis at 500 and 600 °C, respectively. OSBC and BGSBC were characterized using SBET, Fourier transform infrared, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy, SEM–energy dispersive X-ray, and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. High carbon contents (dry basis) of 66.2 and 67.3% were recorded in OSBC and BGSBC, respectively. The OSBC surface area (23.52 m2/g) was higher than BGSBC (9.27 m2/g). The developed biochars successfully remediate fluoride contaminated water. Fluoride sorption experiments were accomplished at 25, 35, and 45 °C. Biochar-fluoride adsorption equilibrium data were fitted to Langmuir, Freundlich, Sips, Temkin, Koble–Corrigan, Radke and Prausnitz, Redlich–Peterson, and Toth isotherm models. The sorption dynamic data was better fitted to the pseudo-second order rate equation versus the pseudo-first order rate equation. The Langmuir sorption capacities of QOSBC0 = 20 mg/g and QBGSBC0 = 16 mg/g were obtained. Biochar fixed-bed dynamic studies were accomplished to ascertain the design parameters for developing an efficient and sustainable fluoride water treatment system. A column capacity of 6.0 mg/g for OSBC was achieved. OSBC and BGSBC satisfactorily remediated fluoride from contaminated ground water and may be considered as a sustainable solution for drinking water purification.


This study is an overview of the environmental and the socioeconomic constraints to sustainable development in the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin. The harsh physical environment characterizes a substantial portion of the basin. The elements of such unfavorable environment include; shallow, infertile and erodible soils, low erratic and intense rainfall, high evaporation rates and low ground water levels. The human factors on the other hand consists the ever increasing human population, poor infrastructure, overgrazing, tenure systems, poverty and apathy among developers and the community just but to mention a few. Most of the regions in the basin have harsh conditions for human inhabitation, but inspite of these, people still continue to live in these areas. In view of this fact, this work also examines how humans, animals and plants have responded to these situations. It addresses the reactions that have been put forward towards solving these problems, their degrees of success and failures. To crown it all, a number of suggested solutions and recommendations have been offered as a way head to sustainable development in the Upper Ewaso Ng'iro Basin.


This article is an exercise in comparative theology from a Buddhist perspective. Christian liberation theology and engaged Buddhism both seek to empower people by liberating them from causes of suffering that prevent them from realizing their deeper identity and fuller potential. Christian and Buddhist liberation theologies differ in what they identify as the main conditions of suffering, as well as in the epistemologies they use to disclose those suffering conditions and to address them. Through their differences, the author argues, each tradition points out an epistemological weakness in the other that would otherwise have remained unnoticed and, by exposing it, helps correct it.


This paper demonstrates a numerical study of heat transfer characteristics of laminar flow in oblique finned microchannel heat sink using nanofluid with nanoparticles added to various base fluids including water, ethylene glycol and turbine oil as coolant fluid. The width of the primary channel was 0.5 mm and the secondary channel was less than 0.15 mm in the oblique finned microchannel heat sink with an aspect ratio of 3. ANSYS Fluent was employed to model the flow in the geometry of microchannel. Single phase model and constant heat flux boundary condition were used in this numerical study. The modeling was validated by comparing the published data for conventional and enhanced microchannel heat sink. The base fluid acted as a comparison baseline to the nanofluid with volume fraction of 1.0% and 4.0%. Besides, the study was carried out in laminar flow regime, whereby the Reynold number ranged between 320 to 700. It was found that turbine oil based nanofluid had the highest Nusselt number among all fluids, followed by ethylene glycol and water to be the least. However, the heat transfer coefficient among all fluids were contrary to the Nusselt number where water achieved the highest heat transfer coefficient. The addition of nanoparticles increased the heat transfer coefficient of all fluids but it did not enhance their Nusselt number except water.


The ability to change illumination is a crucial factor in image-based modeling and rendering. Image-based relighting offers such capability. However, the trade-off is the enormous increase of storage requirement. In this paper, we propose a compression scheme that effectively reduces the data volume while maintaining the real-time relighting capability. The proposed method is based on principal component analysis (PCA). A block-wise PCA is used to practically process the huge input data. The output of PCA is a set of eigenimages and the corresponding relighting coefficients. By dropping those low-energy eigenimages, the data size is drastically reduced. To further compress the data, eigenimages left are compressed using transform coding and quantization while the relighting coefficients are compressed using uniform quantization. We also suggest the suitable target bit rate for each phase of the compression method in order to preserve the visual quality. Finally, we propose real-time engine that relights images from the compressed data.


The Multicast/Broadcast Service (MBS) feature of mobile WiMAX network is a promising technology for providing wireless multimedia, because it allows the delivery of multimedia content to large-scale user communities in a cost-efficient manner. In this paper, we consider WiMAX networks that transmit multiple video streams encoded in scalable manner to mobile receivers using the MBS feature. We focus on two research problems in such networks: 1) maximizing the video quality and 2) minimizing energy consumption for mobile receivers. We formulate and solve the substream selection problem to maximize the video quality, which arises when multiple scalable video streams are broadcast to mobile receivers with limited resources. We show that this problem is NP-Complete, and design a polynomial time approximation algorithm to solve it. We prove that the solutions computed by our algorithm are always within a small constant factor from the optimal solutions. In addition, we extend our algorithm to reduce the energy consumption of mobile receivers. This is done by transmitting the selected substreams in bursts, which allows mobile receivers to turn off their wireless interfaces to save energy. We show how our algorithm constructs burst transmission schedules that reduce energy consumption without sacrificing the video quality. Using extensive simulation and mathematical analysis, we show that the proposed algorithm: 1) is efficient in terms of execution time, 2) achieves high radio resource utilization, 3) maximizes the received video quality, and 4) minimizes the energy consumption for mobile receivers.


A new trans-disciplinary knowledge area, Edge Artificial Intelligence or Edge Intelligence, is beginning to receive a tremendous amount of interest from the machine learning community due to the ever increasing popularization of the Internet of Things (IoT). Unfortunately, the incorporation of AI characteristics to edge computing devices presents the drawbacks of being power and area hungry for typical machine learning techniques such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). In this work, we propose a new power-and-area-efficient architecture for implementing Articial Neural Networks (ANNs) in hardware, based on the exploitation of correlation phenomenon in Stochastic Computing (SC) systems. The architecture purposed can solve the difficult implementation challenges that SC presents for CNN applications, such as the high resources used in binary-tostochastic conversion, the inaccuracy produced by undesired correlation between signals, and the stochastic maximum function implementation. Compared with traditional binary logic implementations, experimental results showed an improvement of 19.6x and 6.3x in terms of speed performance and energy efficiency, for the FPGA implementation. We have also realized a full VLSI implementation of the proposed SC-CNN architecture demonstrating that our optimization achieve a 18x area reduction over previous SC-DNN architecture VLSI implementation in a comparable technological node. For the first time, a fully-parallel CNN as LENET-5 is embedded and tested in a single FPGA, showing the benefits of using stochastic computing for embedded applications, in contrast to traditional binary logic implementations.


Abstract:  In the practice of forensic science, sometimes, it is not easy to understand whether skin lesion is due to electrocution and to differentiate the thermal burns and abrasion‐type lesions, especially when electricity source cannot be revealed by death science investigation. Based on the causes of the lesions, cases were classified into three groups. Group 1 included 30 deaths from electrocution. Group 2 included 30 deaths with flame burns. Group 3 included 30 deaths from traffic accident cases, which had abrasions. In this study, epidermal nuclear area, perimeter, nuclear form factor, nuclear minimum axes, nuclear maximum axes, and minimum axes/maximum axes ratio were measured. As a result, we think that computerized image analysis beside light microscopic examination can be useful in the differentiation of the electrocution, flame burn, and abrasion type lesions.


textabstractSince the election of the left-leaning leaders Morales in Bolivia and Correa
in Ecuador, there have been highly contested changes regarding the role of the state in
the extractive industries of these countries. While the content of these changes differ
and have manifested themselves over different timescales and political approaches, they
fall within the context of the politically charged and equivocal rubric of 'nationalisation'.
In both countries the place of extractive industries in socioeconomic development
has been acknowledged as central to understanding the nature of the ongoing changes.
While the existing literature has made sweeping generalisations about the character
of these new regimes, this chapter aims to bring an empirically grounded analysis of
the transformation of property rights structures associated with nationalisation in the
extractive sectors of Bolivia and Ecuador. Focusing primarily on the minerals sector,
the chapter demonstrates that there have been shifts and swings in the property rights
regimes of both countries at the 'operational level'. While these changes have indeed
strengthened the role of the state, hence conforming to our definition of nationalisation,
the most significant changes relate to changes in property rights at the level of
'collective-choice' rights that concern the future shape of development in these two
countries.


Chitin, isolated from shrimp shell, was subjected t o acid and alkali treatment. The effect of alkali a nd acid pretreatment of chitin on phosphorylation of chitin was investigated. Also the effect of alkali and a cid pretreatment of chitin on the extent of phosphorylation in prese nce of cross-linker was illustrated. Acid pretreatm ent was found to be more efficient in increasing the reactivity of c hitin toward phosphorylation than alkali pretreatme nt. The prepared chitin derivatives were investigated for h eavy metal ions removal (Ni, Mg, Zn and Pb). Phosph orylated and also carboxylation of chitin (in presence of cr osslinker) have increased capability toward heavy m etal ions removal more than chitin. Also, phosphorylated cros s-linked chitin treated with acid showed the highes t heavy metal ion removal capability. Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR ) was used to follow the molecular structure of chi tin and its derivatives.


With increasing water demands, the impetus to use treated wastewater to augment nonpotable and potable water supplies is growing.

There is also increasing concern that recycled wastewater might contain contaminants harmful to human health or the aquatic environment. Contaminants of concern include endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs), compounds that can interfere with the proper functioning of hormone systems.

The goal of this research was to develop approaches combining bioassays with chemical analysis to study removal of EDCs by different reclamation treatment process. Hydraulic corresponding composite samples were collected for individual unit operation and analyzed using HPLC-ELIAS, GC-NCI-MS, and bioassays. Whereas estrogenic activity was accounted for by chemical components of primary effluents, more androgenic activity was found than could be explained by testosterone concentrations.

Generally. secondary treatment removed EDCs very efficiently. For effluents in which estrogenic activity remained, it was mainly comprised of 17-estradiol and estrone whereas androgen activity was caused by remaining testosterone. Secondary treatment employing nitrification/denitrification more efficiently removed EDCs than facilities employing no nitrification. Powered activated carbon, soil-aquifer treatment and integrated membrane systems (microfiltration/reverse osmosis) efficiently removed endocrine disrupting activity

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series

ISBN: 9781843397588 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780403939 (eBook)


UNLABELLED
In Brazil, every study involving human beings is required to produce an informed consent form that must be signed by study participants: this is stated in Resolution 196/96.(1) Consent must be obtained through a specific structured process.

OBJECTIVE
To present the opinions of women regarding how the process of obtaining informed consent should be conducted when women are invited to participate in studies on contraceptive methods.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Eight focus groups were conducted, involving a total of 51 women living in the metropolitan region of Campinas. The women involved in the study were either participating in a clinical trial in the area of women's health or had participated in such a trial in the previous 12 months. A thematic guide was used to conduct the focus group discussions; the discussions were recorded, transcribed and a thematic analysis performed.

RESULTS
In general, the person who invites a woman to participate in a study should be a member of the research team but not the principal investigator. Information relating to the study should be given orally and in writing, both individually and in the group setting. Study volunteers should be informed about, among other things, the risks, possible side effects and discomforts, including long-term effects. The use of audiovisual aids to provide information was suggested.

CONCLUSION
The process for obtaining informed consent was seen as a means of establishing a relationship between the volunteers and the investigator/research team. The information that the study participants expected to be given coincides with the requirements established under Resolution 196/96. The use of audiovisual aids would improve understanding of the information provided.


Three-dimensional electrodes (3DEs) offer great advantages for a variety of electrochemical applications. However, new emerging electrochemical technologies pose a great challenge for 3DEs in terms of their mechanical and chemical properties. Herein, we report the preparation of a 3D graphitic carbon/SiC conductive framework (3D G/SiC) using a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. We demonstrate that the deposited graphitic carbon layer can remarkably enhance the mechanical strength of the SiC framework (the compressive strength increased from 1.24 MPa to 2.75 MPa) and provide good conductivity (15.9 S m−1). Furthermore, 3D G/SiC can be used in a flow-through capacitive deionization (CDI) cell under high feed pressure by acting as a structural backbone for 3DEs. An electro-adsorption capacity of 0.5 mg cm−2 under high loading conditions was achieved using activated carbon granules as the active material. Besides this, 3D G/SiC can act as a robust electrode for current collecting in extremely acidic electrolyte in a direct biomass fuel cell, allowing the construction of a sucrose fuel cell with a maximum volumetric power density of 0.19 mW cm−3 that lights up a LED. This work opens up a feasible way to fabricate high-strength carbon based 3DEs for a wide range of applications in energy conversion and environmental treatment technologies.


Cardiomyocyte differentiation overall has been analyzed in vivo and in vitro at the molecular level by homologous recombination, gene mutation studies, and by transgenics; however, the roles of many signal transduction mechanisms that drive this differentiation process are still not fully understood. One set of signal transduction components that has been studied in detail in mature, differentiated cardiomyocytes is the PKC isotype superfamily. However, while the function of each isotype is slowly being uncovered in adult cardiomyocytes, limited information persists concerning their function in the differentiation process of cardiomyocytes. To begin analyzing the function of specific PKC isotypes in the differentiation process, we employed an established model for differentiating ES cells into cardiomyocyte-positive embryoid bodies (EBs) in vitro. RT-PCR, Western analyses, and confocal microscopy all showed that the expression of specific PKC isotypes was significantly changed as ES cells differentiated into cardiomyocytes. More importantly, by using antagonists specific for each isotype we found that this change was a final step in the differentiation process. PKC beta and zeta downregulation served to promote differentiation (beating), while upregulation of PKC epsilon appeared to amplify differentiation (beating). Finally, melding classical tools (i.e., ionic exchange glass beads) with recently developed methods for differentiating ES cells creates a possible novel technique for investigating differentiation of ES cells into cardiomyocytes as well as other cell types.


We have previously reported an antisense technology, 'snoMEN vectors', for targeted knock-down of protein coding mRNAs using human snoRNAs manipulated to contain short regions of sequence complementarity with the mRNA target. Here we characterise the use of snoMEN vectors to target the knock-down of micro RNA primary transcripts. We document the specific knock-down of miR21 in HeLa cells using plasmid vectors expressing miR21-targeted snoMEN RNAs and show this induces apoptosis. Knock-down is dependent on the presence of complementary sequences in the snoMEN vector and the induction of apoptosis can be suppressed by over-expression of miR21. Furthermore, we have also developed lentiviral vectors for delivery of snoMEN RNAs and show this increases the efficiency of vector transduction in many human cell lines that are difficult to transfect with plasmid vectors. Transduction of lentiviral vectors expressing snoMEN targeted to pri-miR21 induces apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma cells, which express high levels of miR21, but not in human primary cells. We show that snoMEN-mediated suppression of miRNA expression is prevented by siRNA knock-down of Ago2, but not by knock-down of Ago1 or Upf1. snoMEN RNAs colocalise with Ago2 in cell nuclei and nucleoli and can be co-immunoprecipitated from nuclear extracts by antibodies specific for Ago2.


In this paper, we propose the first key-recovery side-channel attack on Classic McEliece, a KEM finalist in the NIST Post-quantum Cryptography Standardization Project. Our novel idea is to design an attack algorithm where we submit special ciphertexts to the decryption oracle that correspond to cases of single errors. Decoding of such ciphertexts involves only a single entry in a large secret permutation, which is part of the secret key. Through an identified leakage in the additive FFT step used to evaluate the error locator polynomial, a single entry of the secret permutation can be determined. Iterating this for other entries leads to full secret key recovery. The attack is described using power analysis both on the FPGA reference implementation and a software implementation running on an ARM Cortex-M4. We use a machine-learning-based classification algorithm to determine the error locator polynomial from a single trace. The attack is fully implemented and evaluated in the Chipwhisperer framework and is successful in practice. For the smallest parameter set, it is using about 300 traces for partial key recovery and less than 800 traces for full key recovery, in the FPGA case. A similar number of traces are required for a successful attack on the ARM software implementation.


Modern board games are booming, exploring new design elements, and providing dynamics that can support unique experiences. Serious game approaches can benefit from these insights and novelty. With the appropriate adaptation, modern board games may become flexible and cheaper ways to use and prototype serious games. Exploring these games and player engagement can support digital game design. Digital game designers may learn from modern board games to playtest player engagement and build prototypes for their serious games. This paper describes an experience with several adapted modern board games aiming to create a "Light Collaborative Ideation Process", supported by the "Engagement Design" model and "The big five personality traits". The game session objectives concerned fostering collaboration and ideation among participants in an informal meeting. The session successfully supported the potential of using modern board games, although showing the limitations and future developments required to benefit from the modding approach.


The high level of resistance of yeast species of the genus Candida to antifungal agents used in the practice, defines the scientific interest to investigate the antifungal properties of newly synthesized hybrid materials. The research is directed to find a viable alternative for the treatment of infections caused by the highly resistant Candida species. The tested in the experiments nano-sized bimetallic polymer stabilized hibrid materials based on iron oxide and silver nanoparticles (γFe2O3/AgNps/PVA), were characterized by different techniques and for the first time tested onto six clinical Candida strains with a predetermined resistance to different antimycotics. The results showed the presence of very strong antifungal activity.


Family and friends are important resources for patients during cancer treatment and warrant an expanded review of not only what they contribute to patient care but also the support they need and the personal consequences of caregiving. A review of 14 randomized controlled trials published between 2009 and 2016 was completed utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. The results of this review expand the scope of what is known regarding relationships among supportive interventions for caregivers, activities performed to care for cancer patients, caregiver characteristics, and health outcomes of caregivers. Specific results include (a) updated synthesis of literature associated with variables important to caregiving, (b) attention to interventions designed to support caregivers, (c) classification of specific activities caregivers perform for cancer patients, (d) identification of caregiver characteristics associated with specific care activities, (e) inconsistencies in measurement of care activities, and (f) minimal reporting of outcome variables.


Currently, various hardware and software companies are developing augmented reality devices, most prominently Microsoft with its Hololens. Besides gaming, such devices can be used for serious pervasive applications, like interactive mobile simulations to support engineers in the field. Interactive simulations have high demands on resources, which the mobile device alone is unable to satisfy. Therefore, we propose a framework to support mobile simulations by distributing the computation between mobile device and a remote server. For the computation of parameter-dependent solutions of the simulation, we use the reduced basis method, which allows to drastically reduce the computation time and energy consumption. We present three approaches for the distributed execution of the reduced basis method between mobile device and server. Evaluations show that we can speed-up the numerical computation to over 131 times while using 73 times less energy compared to offloading everything to a server.


Evidence of inter-species pathogen transmission from managed to wild bees has sparked concern that emerging diseases could be causing or exacerbating wild bee declines. While some pathogens, like RNA viruses, have been found in pollen and wild bees, the threat these viruses pose to wild bees is largely unknown. Here, we tested 169 bees, representing 4 families and 8 genera, for five common honey bee (Apis mellifera) viruses, finding that more than 80% of wild bees harbored at least one virus. We also quantified virus titers in these bees, providing, for the first time, an assessment of viral load in a broad spectrum of wild bees. Although virus detection was very common, virus levels in the wild bees were minimal—similar to or lower than foraging honey bees and substantially lower than honey bees collected from hives. Furthermore, when we experimentally inoculated adults of two different bee species (Megachile rotundata and Colletes inaequalis) with a mixture of common viruses that is lethal to honey bees, we saw no effect on short term survival. Overall, we found that honey bee RNA viruses can be commonly detected at low levels in many wild bee species, but we found no evidence that these pathogens cause elevated short-term mortality effects. However, more work on these viruses is greatly needed to assess effects on additional bee species and life stages.


A classical result in phylogenetic trees is that a binary phylogenetic tree adhering to the molecular clock hypothesis exists if and only if the matrix of distances between taxa is ultrametric. The ultrametric condition is very restrictive. In this paper, we study phylogenetic networks that can be constructed assuming the molecular clock hypothesis. We characterize distance matrices that admit such networks for three and four taxa. We also design two algorithms for constructing networks optimizing the least-squares fit.


"The Wenchuan Earthquake of 2008: An anatomy of disaster" gives a detailed account of the damage, seismology and tectonics of the event and discusses earthquake prediction, seismic hazard and risk management, the creation and implementation of building codes, and new practices used in rescue, relief and reconstruction. It will be of significant interest to researchers and practitioners engaged in seismology, geophysics, engineering, the social sciences, and disaster management and recovery. It also offers a valuable new and uniquely Chinese perspective with many insights for future mitigation of earthquake risk. Professor Yong Chen works for the China Earthquake Administration; Dr David C. Booth works for the British Geological Survey.


The federal courts have been open to prisoners' constitutional claims for half a century, but to this day, the availability of federal litigation has not stopped prisoners from being tortured, maimed, killed, or otherwise made to suffer chilling abuse. The failure of litigation as a deterrent is due in part to a confluence of legal and situational factors—doctrinal deference, statutory hurdles, and the many difficulties associated with litigating a civil rights case against one's jailers—that make prison-conditions cases virtually impossible to win. We call this combination of factors "practical immunity." Practical immunity amounts to a formidable barrier against successful prison-conditions cases. When practical immunity is combined with the well-known doctrine of qualified immunity, it makes the threat of a money judgment against prison defendants almost empty. The Supreme Court's failure to take stock of practical immunity may help to explain why the landscape is so skewed against prisoners, and why prison officials enjoy a legal regime so forgiving that it borders on de facto absolute immunity.


For over 50 years, host-plant resistance has been regarded as an efficient method to reduce yield losses to rice caused by delphacid and cicadelid hoppers. Already a number of resistant rice varieties have been developed and deployed throughout Asia. To date, over 70 hopper resistance genes have been identified in rice; however, less than 10 genes have been deliberately introduced to commercial rice varieties. Currently, due to recent brown planthopper (Nilaparvata lugens [Stål]) and whitebacked planthopper (Sogatella furcifera [Horvath]) outbreaks occurring at an unprecedented scale, researchers are working toward a second generation of resistant varieties using newly identified gene loci and applying new molecular breeding methods. This paper reviews advances in the identification of resistance genes and QTLs against hoppers in rice. It collates all published information on resistance loci and QTLs against the major rice planthoppers and leafhoppers and presents information on gene locations, genetic markers, differential varieties, and wild rice species as sources of resistance. The review indicates that, whereas progress in the identification of genes has been rapid, considerable tidying of the information is required, especially regarding gene nomenclature and resistance spectra. Furthermore, sound information on gene functioning is almost completely lacking. However, hopper responses to resistance mechanisms are likely to be similar because a single phenotyping technique has been applied by most national and international breeding programs during germplasm screening. The review classifies genes occurring at two chromosome regions associated with several identified resistance loci and highlights these (Chr4S: BphR-R and Chr12L: BphR-R) as general stress response regions. The review calls for a greater diversity of phenotyping methods to enhance the durability of resistant varieties developed using marker-aided selection and emphasizes a need to anticipate the development of virulent hopper populations in response to the field deployment of genes.


Background. Psychosis is associated with a reasoning bias, which manifests as a tendency to 'jump to conclusions'. We examined this bias in people at clinical high-risk for psychosis (CHR) and investigated its relationship with their clinical outcomes. Methods. In total, 303 CHR subjects and 57 healthy controls (HC) were included. Both groups were assessed at baseline, and after 1 and 2 years. A 'beads' task was used to assess reasoning bias. Symptoms and level of functioning were assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States scale (CAARMS) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), respectively. During follow up, 58 (16.1%) of the CHR group developed psychosis (CHR-T), and 245 did not (CHR-NT). Logistic regressions, multilevel mixed models, and Cox regression were used to analyse the relationship between reasoning bias and transition to psychosis and level of functioning, at each time point. Results. There was no association between reasoning bias at baseline and the subsequent onset of psychosis. However, when assessed after the transition to psychosis, CHR-T participants showed a greater tendency to jump to conclusions than CHR-NT and HC participants (55, 17, 17%; χ2 = 8.13, p = 0.012). There was a significant association between jumping to conclusions (JTC) at baseline and a reduced level of functioning at 2-year follow-up in the CHR group after adjusting for transition, gender, ethnicity, age, and IQ. Conclusions. In CHR participants, JTC at baseline was associated with adverse functioning at the follow-up. Interventions designed to improve JTC could be beneficial in the CHR population.


The current study investigates the relation between prosodic structure and paralinguistic factors. Specifically, the number of pitch accents found in an intonation group is claimed to vary depending on an intonational style in which the speaker chooses to convey a message. It is shown that in formal speech, speakers tend to place three and four accents per intonation group more often than they do in informal speech. Also, the difference in prosodic organisation was noted between read speech and spontaneous speech. In general, it was found that in spontaneous speech, in about 50-60% of all the intonation groups speakers place only one accent per intonation group.


This applied thesis examines three albums created by US Army Air Force personnel Robert C. Kraut from 1945-46. The albums were donated by Toronto based artist Max Dean to the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), and serve as a case study for the process of cataloguing and contextualizing albums for future researchers and museum staff.

 This paper includes a literature survey examining care and handling, social and historical evolutions, and cataloguing practices related to both photographic albums and scrapbooks. An historical analysis of the photographic album as a medium, vernacular photography and the donation process of the albums into the AGO's collection follows. A detailed analysis of the narrative, material orientation, annotation, layout and materiality qualities for each album is included. A cataloguing methodology that both accounts for the albums' unique layouts and holds to the established conventions for cataloguing albums at the AGO is discussed and described in detail.


South Africa and other developing countries experience poverty and poor rural development due to poor extension services and other means of production. Agricultural activities have an ability to reduce rural poverty and generate livelihoods. Rural households' production has declined to some extent over years. Therefore, this paper investigates factors affecting food production in rural households of Libode. Primary data was purposively collected from 120 households. Multiple regression was used to estimate factors affecting food production. From the research, most households were male headed and 70% are above 60 years of age; as a result, mostly are dependent on social grant. Many households own gardens but are not cultivating due to financial and knowledge challenges. The study reveals that age, gender, household size, educational level, extension service, farm experience, income, employment status and income source have a significant influence on food production. Thus, the study recommends the government intervention through infrastructural development, innovation of agricultural cooperatives, increase extension services and training of household in regards to farming as well as improve access to information in the rural areas.


The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership(CPTPP)has officially entered into force and is in the expansion stage. It will have a profound impact on the Asia-Pacific economic and trade structure and global economic and trade investment rules in the future.Outside of CPTPP, China needs to take active measures to respond, build or join more regional trading systems, and expand the "friend circle" of economic and trade cooperation. China's measures to deal with the economic impact of CPTPP can be divided into three categories: One is China's policy choice for directly responding to CPTPP, the other is China's policy choice for joining CPTPP, and the third is China's policy choice for responding to the U.S. returning to CPTPP.This paper constructs a large-scale general equilibrium numerical model system to simulate the effects of different measures in China's response to CPTPP. The value chain and value-added trade are embedded in the model, and the imbalanced trade structure of "inside money" is introduced to optimize the stability of the model. In terms of data, the model parameters are calibrated and estimated using the latest 2018 data, a numerical model system is constructed, and the effects of the three types of response measures are quantitatively simulated.The simulation results find that the policy effects of China's unilateral measures to cope with the impact of CPTPP, from high to low, are in order: construction of a China-Japan-Korea free trade zone, implementation of RCEP, no measures, and further opening up. Under the two scenarios of China joining CPTPP, the measures to join the agreement together with the first batch of countries to expand the capacity will be more effective. After the U.S. returns to CPTPP, under the three scenarios of China's policy choices, the policy effects from high to low are optimizing the business environment, not taking measures, and joining CPTPP with the U.S. Among the three different options, the economic effect of actively joining CPTPP is the best; the effect of unilateral measures to deal with CPTPP is the second; and once the U.S. returns to CPTPP, it will have an adverse impact on China. The effective measure to deal with is to optimize the business environment to reduce trade costs.The results of the analysis enlighten China in terms of policies to accelerate the development of free trade agreement and expand the scope of the economic and trade "friend circle". At the same time, we should speed up domestic reform and opening up, optimize the business environment, and promote domestic system reform with new international economic and trade rules. In addition, we should actively consider joining CPTPP in an appropriate way to further promote domestic reforms and opening up to the outside world, and promote win-win cooperation and economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. The research of this paper will provide decision-making reference for China's policy choices in response to CPTPP.


In this work, we study the formation mechanisms of iron nanoparticles (Fe NPs) grown by magnetron sputtering inert gas condensation and emphasize the decisive kinetics effects that give rise specifically to cubic morphologies. Our experimental results, as well as computer simulations carried out by two different methods, indicate that the cubic shape of Fe NPs is explained by basic differences in the kinetic growth modes of {100} and {110} surfaces rather than surface formation energetics. Both our experimental and theoretical investigations show that the final shape is defined by the combination of the condensation temperature and the rate of atomic deposition onto the growing nanocluster. We, thus, construct a comprehensive deposition rate-temperature diagram of Fe NP shapes and develop an analytical model that predicts the temporal evolution of these properties. Combining the shape diagram and the analytical model, morphological control of Fe NPs during formation is feasible; as such, our method proposes a roadmap for experimentalists to engineer NPs of desired shapes for targeted applications.


Wearable cameras allow to collect images and videos of humans interacting with the world. While human-object interactions have been thoroughly investigated in third person vision, the problem has been understudied in egocentric settings and in industrial scenarios. To fill this gap, we introduce MECCANO, the first dataset of egocentric videos to study human-object interactions in industrial-like settings. MECCANO has been acquired by 20 participants who were asked to build a motorbike model, for which they had to interact with tiny objects and tools. The dataset has been explicitly labeled for the task of recognizing human-object interactions from an egocentric perspective. Specifically, each interaction has been labeled both temporally (with action segments) and spatially (with active object bounding boxes). With the proposed dataset, we investigate four different tasks including 1) action recognition, 2) active object detection, 3) active object recognition and 4) egocentric human-object interaction detection, which is a revisited version of the standard human-object interaction detection task. Baseline results show that the MECCANO dataset is a challenging benchmark to study egocentric human-object interactions in industrial-like scenarios. We publicy release the dataset at https://iplab.dmi.unict.it/MECCANO/.


Digital enterprise transformations refer to the shifts in digital technologies, market structures, and customer demands that are fundamentally reshaping organizational structures, strategies, cultures, and business models. As a result of the rapid technological changes over the past years, the focus of decision makers has moved increasingly from cost reductions and business-IT alignment to the usage of digital technologies for developing new revenue-generating opportunities. Despite the high relevance of digital technologies in practice, many organizations lack an understanding about the capabilities and the building blocks required for successful digital enterprise transformations.

This thesis identifies digital innovation management and IT project portfolio management as the two key building blocks for effective digital enterprise transformation capabilities. The objective of this thesis is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities required to perform successful digital enterprise transformations. In the introduction paper, the goal of this thesis is decomposed into three individual yet interrelated research papers, each addressing specific sub-objectives and research questions. First, this thesis develops a more comprehensive understanding of digital enterprise transformations using an exhaustive literature review on the role of internal and external forces that effect business strategies today. Second, the thesis identifies archetypes of effective digital innovation management using a quantitative study. Third, based on a case study, this thesis identifies issues that impede effective project-based organizations in practice; specifically, the thesis develops design goals and principles for an IT project portfolio management configuration that is aligned and efficient yet agile. Finally, this thesis concludes by discussing the overarching main findings as well as its limitations and future research opportunities.

Overall, this thesis deepens our understanding on the microfoundations required for effective digital enterprise transformation capabilities. This thesis contributes to research, since it provides novel theoretical and empirical accounts on a prevailing problem. Decision makers and IT managers may profit from this thesis's results in that they can provide insights and recommendations into how firms can design innovation management and project portfolio management structures that are attuned to the context of digital enterprise transformations.


The warm powder compaction process is simulated by the finite element analysis software which is MSC/MARC. The thermal mechanically coupled analysis method is applied based on the updated Lagrangian Method to study the influence of different velocities ratio of die and punch υdie/υup-punch on the properties of green under different frictional condition. The results indicate that for cylindrical powder metallurgic products, different velocity ratios have great influence on the distribution of relative density and equivalent stress. The frictional force can be converted to the favorable force through adjusting the velocity ratio, and this method can obtain higher uniform distribution of relative density and stress of green.


Aim: The objective of the present study was to evaluate the wound healing effect of a methanol extract of Allium cepa Linn. in vivo. Materials and Methods: The healing activity was studied using incision wound on diabetes suppressed wound healing rodent model. Results: Data recorded exhibited a significant improvement of the blood glucose level and scare breaking strength in diabetic mice at 300 and 400 mg/kg onion extract. Histological examination of the general morphology of wounds of extract treated group has shown a normal histological pattern of healthy skin at the same doses. Conclusion: This study illustrated an excellent potential of the onion consumption on dermal wound healing in diabetic patients, with a tentative mechanism of action related to tensile strength improvement and anti-hyperglycemic effect.


Drought frequency analysis, Diyala River, RDI, SPI, SDI. Drought is one of the most significant natural disasters in Iraq. It has a strong impact on the water resources in Iraq. Consequently, it causes massive environmental damage, economic deficiency, and social problems to the country. Therefore, more considerations towards the study and management of drought has become of vital importance in recent decades. In this paper, three drought indices (DIs) were computed for evaluation of the spatiotemporal of drought within Derbendikhan Dam Watershed (DDW) in the Diyala River Basin, Iraq. Based on the monthly weather data for the period (1984 – 2013) downloaded from the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) for eight stations located within DDW. The Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI), standardized precipitation index (SPI) and Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) at 12-month time scale were computed to assess droughts in the DDW. For each index, the temporal variations of the drought severity and Drought Frequency Patterns (DFPs) for the period (1984 – 2013) were computed and analyzed. In addition, spatial distributions of the drought severity for each index were mapped and investigated. Accordingly, the DFPs were compared to specify the dominant and/or more frequent DFPs. The results show that the performances of different DIs are strongly correlated with the dominant factors of droughts and drought duration. Also, the SPI and SDI are less accurate than the RDI when both precipitation and evaporation are the main factors controlling the drought events. However, the SPI and SDI indices are identical in the same proportions of the dry years which are less than the ratio of dry years to an RDI, but the severity of the drought from the SDI results is higher than the severity of the drought relative to the SPI and RDI. The three indices indicate that the Eastern region is drier than the Western region, which is somewhat wet. Engineering and Technology Journal Vol. 39, (2021), No. 06, Pages 893-914 894 How to cite this article: M. S. AlKhafaji, R. A. AlAmeri, "Indices-Based Evaluation of Spatiotemporal Distribution of Drought Within Derbendkhan Dam Watershed," Engineering and Technology Journal, Vol. 39, No. 06, pp. 893-914, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.30684/etj.v39i6.1802


A new problem in face matching is plastic surgery. Popularity of plastic surgery has increased over the past few years and its keeps growing. This work proposes a facial feature based system to determine the original image from a post-surgery image. The system generates facial components from three different feature extraction techniques. Uniform LBP serves as the classifier Dimensionality reduction techniques such as LDA and PCA are also used. The normalized values are compared and score fusion rule is applied to retrieve the results. On the plastic surgery image portraits, the proposed system yields high recognition accuracy.


On 24 August 2016, a tornado outbreak impacted Indiana, Ohio, and Ontario with 26 confirmed tornadoes. Elevated multicellular convection developed into surface-based supercells that produced several tornadoes, particularly near a differential heating boundary. This convective mode transition is of particular interest owing to its relatively rare occurrence. A WRF Model simulation accurately captures the environment and storm evolution during this outbreak. Trajectory analyses indicate that the multicellular updrafts were initially elevated. Since nearly all of the vertical wind shear was confined to the lowest 1 km, significant rotation did not develop via tilting of horizontal vorticity until the storms began ingesting near-surface air. Near-surface vertical wind shear decreased outside of cloud cover owing to vertical mixing, while it was preserved under the anvil, allowing for large values of 0–1-km storm-relative helicity to persist north of a differential heating boundary. Analysis of the perturbation pressure field from the WRF Model output indicates that the development of relatively large nonlinear vertical perturbation pressure gradients coincided with when near-surface air began to enter the updrafts, resulting in upward accelerations in the lowest 2 km, below the level of maximum rotation. In strengthening updrafts, upward-directed buoyancy perturbation pressure accelerations may have offset the downward-directed nonlinear perturbation pressure accelerations above the level of maximum rotation, allowing the updrafts to intensify further.


Steven Cohan. Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1997. 346 pp. $39.95 ($18.95 paper). Steven Cohan's comprehensive study of masculinity and star images adroitly debunks the image of the masculine conformist of the 1950s, that is, the masculine identity formed by a middle class sexual ideology polarizing heterosexual and homosexual. Drawing from Judith Butler's influential work on the performativity of gender and sexual roles, Cohan offers a more nuanced vision of the male star, and by extension the male, constituted by a range of social and personal influences. As such, the text presents a range of masculine representations for the male movie stars of the era. Often the contradictions and confusions inherent in a single star image reflect the larger social formation and possibilities for male identity during the period. As Cohan states, his historical analysis is sensitive to the fields obscured (homosexuality), included (class, ethnicity, age), and excluded (race) in the establishment of "normal" masculine identity. Rich in detail and exceedingly sensitive to the larger contextual factors at play in the creation of these male star images, Cohan's book is invaluable for understanding the social climate of the 1950s which served to create these star images and the conflicted roles for men during the period. The text develops as several case studies, falling across the fields of star studies, gender, and institutional analysis. Indeed, one of the greatest strengths in this compelling work is the method through which Cohan builds his argument, moving between the social, the institutional and the sexual in a series of interlocking analyses. Cohan starts by situating masculinity in crisis. The first chapter addresses the unstable masculine identity of North By Northwest's hero Roger Thornhill through close analysis of shifting identities and the theatrical star image of Cary Grant in the context of cold war ideologies. Similarly, crisis also defines the subject of the second chapter: the prototypical Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, a pivotal role that clearly splinters the male. As Cohan suggests, the role offers the "paradox" of hegemonic masculinity: while the breadwinner, the father, and professional-managerial class were being validated by Hollywood in the Gregory Peck film, the "traditional" masculine (read "aggressive", "stoic", "adventurous") roles were being subordinated in adjoining films. This dynamic was also evidenced in the '50s career of Humphrey Bogart. Bogart shifted from the 1940s film noir tough guy to a variety of "troubled" characters as evidenced by the homoerotic and misogynistic dynamic in Dead Reckoning, the sexual dysfunction of In a Lonely Place and the psychopath in The Desperate Hours. Cohan illustrates that the psychopathic and homosocial characters portrayed by Bogart served to regulate the heterosexual conformity of the era. The remainder of the book also engages masculinity in crisis, but more directly through the focus of the male body as spectacle. In a chapter that at times strays from its thesis by offering an account of the biblical cycle and religious boom of the 1950s, Cohan contrasts the stars of The Ten Commandments. Yul Brynner (under a section titled "baldness brings its own rewards") and Charlton Heston ("But size counts even more") are presented as cold war binaries, representing America and the exotic "alien" through body shape, size, costuming, and even body hair. Moving into the realm of beefcake from the era, Cohan illustrates how William Holden in Picnic was designed to visually exploit the male star for a range of gendered/sexed viewing positions, placing Holden as the object to be looked at. Other prominent stars-Montgomery Clift and Marlon Brando-are more disruptive in their postwar star images by appearing as softer "boys" rather than as men in melodramas, effectively allowing them to pass between the binarized categories of male/female, straight/gay, and young/mature. …


Enterprises face several obstacles in an interconnected world with dynamic and uncertain business climates. Volatility has become one of the greatest threats to the resiliency of companies but might also offer an opportunity. They must exert effort to be resilient by implementing proactive risk management. This study investigates the influence of Risk Management Practices (RMP) on Enterprise Resilience (ER) across state-owned companies (SOEs) in Indonesia, as well as the moderating role of alliance management capabilities (AMCs) on the relationship between RMP and ER. The Indonesian SOEs would be the units of analysis of the study due to their importance to the Indonesian economy and the scarcity of research on resilience and risk management in SOEs in emerging economies. The research utilized online surveys of SOE board members. Three hundred twenty-two valid responses are analyzed using PLS-SEM. The study indicated that RMP has a significant effect on ER. Leadership Capabilities (LC) mediates the link between RMP and ER. This research contributes to limited literature that integrates AMCs, RMPs, and ER through the perspective of dynamic capability theory and is done using a unique sample of SOEs from emerging countries. The results offer policymakers and SOE management recommendations for enhancing SOEs' sustainability.


A fluorescent assay for UDP-GlcNAc: Gal beta 1,3Gal-NAc-R beta 1,6-N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase (core 2 GlcNAc-T) activity has been developed involving dansylation of the enzyme reaction product. Core 2 GlcNAc-T detection was performed using unlabeled UDP-GlcNAc as the donor and Gal beta 1,3GalNAc alpha-pAp as the acceptor. The product, Gal beta 1,3(GlcNAc beta 1,6)-GalNAc alpha-pAp, was quantitatively derivatized with dansyl chloride at the NH2 moiety of the pAp group and the resultant fluorescent trisaccharide was separated on a Spherisorb ODS2 HPLC column. This method, rapid and economical, was found to be sensitive enough for the detection of 1 pmol of reaction product and therefore represents a reliable alternative to assays which use radiolabeled substrates. Additionally, the approach described here can be adapted for the assay of other glycosyltransferases, where the acceptor substrate has a pAp group as a hydrophobic aglycon linker.


For coastal regions on the margin of a subduction zone, near-field megathrust earthquakes are the source of the most extreme tsunami hazards, and are important to handle properly as one aspect of any Probabilistic Tsunami Hazard Assessment (PTHA). Typically, great variability in inundation depth at any point is possible due to the extreme variation in extent and pattern of slip over the fault surface. In this context, we present an approach to estimating inundation depth probabilities (in the form of hazard curves at a set of coastal locations) that consists of two components. The first component uses a Karhunen-Loève expansion to express the probability density function (PDF) for all possible events, with PDF parameters that are geophysically reasonable for the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ). It is then easy and computationally cheap to generate a large N number of samples from this PDF; doing so and performing a full tsunami inundation simulation for each provides a brute force approach to estimating probabilities of inundation. However, to obtain reasonable results, particularly for extreme flooding due to rare events, N would have to be so large as to make the tsunami simulations prohibitively expensive. The second component tackles this difficulty by using importance sampling techniques to adequately sample the tails of the distribution and properly re-weight the probability assigned to the resulting realizations, and by grouping the realizations into a small number of clusters that we believe will give similar inundation patterns in the region of interest. In this approach, only one fine-grid tsunami simulation need be computed from a representative member of each cluster. We discuss clustering based on proxy quantities that are cheap to compute over a large number of realizations, but that can identify a smaller number of clusters of realizations that will have similar inundation depths. The fine-grid simulations for each cluster representative can also be used to develop an improved strategy, in which these are combined with cheaper coarse-grid simulations of other members of the cluster. We illustrate the methodology by considering two coastal locations: Crescent City, CA and Westport, WA. Key word. probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment, clustering, stochastic earthquakes, Karhunen-Loève expansion, GeoClaw


To the Editor:—Morray et al. are to be congratulated in trying to sort out some of the issues regarding intraoperative cardiac arrest in children. However, I am concerned with the conclusions regarding cardiac arrests related to anesthetic agents. The authors freely admit that they do not know the numerator or denominator and therefore cannot say that sevoflurane is safer than halothane, but they have suggested that because sevoflurane is reported to be less cardiac depressant than halothane, perhaps this is a contributory factor. I suggest another mechanism, and that is a systems issue, i.e., the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) multiples that can be administered with most halothane vaporizers is approximately 5 in a newborn or infant, whereas the number of MAC multiples allowable with a sevoflurane vaporizer is only approximately 21⁄2. Thus, the potential to deliver twice as much drug with halothane sets up the potential for rapid cardiovascular depression because of greater overpressurization at the beginning of anesthesia. As one would expect, the majority of cardiac arrests reported occur during induction, and many of them occur only after control of respirations. It should be noted that the two patients who had arrests with sevoflurane also had controlled ventilation. Thus, the real culprit here may not be the drug but rather how the drug is used and the concentration of the drug that is used, i.e., high concentrations of halothane with controlled ventilation or even moderate concentrations of halothane or sevoflurane with controlled ventilation. It would be interesting to determine how many cardiac arrests occur with low doses of halothane while allowing the patient to breathe spontaneously. In my experience, most patients autoregulate their depth of anesthesia, and as long as the bag is not squeezed and the patient is allowed to breathe spontaneously, it is rare to see significant cardiovascular depression with halothane. However, as soon as one begins to control ventilation, rapid cardiac depression may follow. Examination of the original MAC studies of halothane and similar MAC studies of sevoflurane from Toronto shows that the incidence of hypotension was similar in both groups of neonates. In fact, there was a higher incidence of hypotension in the sevoflurane neonate group (8 of 12) compared with the halothane neonate group (4 of 12). Admittedly, these studies were performed many years apart, and perhaps there were some differences in patient population, but the degree of myocardial depression reported in the literature when comparing sevoflurane and halothane is quite minimal, especially in infants. These differences in cardiovascular effects are likely less in children younger than 3 yr of age, the most vulnerable group, because they tend not to have an increase in heart rate with sevoflurane compared with older children. My caution is to not condemn halothane at this time, particularly because this drug is the most widely used around the world, and sevoflurane is not affordable to many countries or hospitals. Instead of condemning the drug, perhaps we should teach people how to administer anesthesia more safely to infants. I was taught that it is difficult to "kill" a spontaneously breathing patient.


Ottone, Olivia Katherine M.S. EMGT Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology March 2018 Investigation of Gender Bias among Students and Faculty at a Small, Private STEM College Thesis Advisor: Dr. Craig Downing Current research on gender bias in STEM education indicates that non-male students are more likely to experience unfavorable gendered biases from their peers and faculty than male students. Much of this research primarily focuses on large, research institutions or data from national surveys. The intent of this research is to study gender bias, the perception of it among students, and its manifestations among students and faculty, in the context of a small, private STEM college. Additionally, this study examines possible strategies to minimize students' experiences with gender bias. Research was conducted at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) during the 2017-2018 academic year. It was hypothesized that non-male students would perceive gender bias at a heightened rate, compared to their male counterparts, and that student and faculty biases would favor male students. Results from this study indicate that non-male RHIT students are prone to perceiving gender bias at a significantly higher rate than their male peers, but could not conclusively assess the behaviors of students and faculty members. This study examines a niche area within STEM education, and, while it does address a gap in the literature, its implications may only be relevant for institutions with similar profiles to RHIT. These findings should enable RHIT and similar institutions to make informed modifications to their practices to foster a more inclusive educational environment.


The aim of the present work was to study the influence of altering glucocorticoid negative feedback on both basal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its response to acute stress (tail shock) in five inbred rat strains known to differ in some depression-like behaviors: Brown Norway (BN), Fischer 344 (F344), Lewis (Lew), spontaneously hypertensive (SHR), and Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Two complementary approaches were used: 1) enhancement of negative feedback by administration of 0.05 and 0.2 mg/kg dexamethasone (Dex) and 2) attenuation of negative feedback by pharmacological adrenalectomy (PhADX). The results indicate that 1) Lew rats consistently show adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone hyporesponsiveness to stress, 2) interstrain differences in the effect of Dex on the HPA axis were very weak and not related apparently to differences in the metabolism of the steroid, 3) the suppressive effect of the highest dose of Dex on basal corticosterone levels was lower in BN rats than in the other strains, and 4) after PhADX, an increase in ACTH levels was observed in response to acute stress in BN, F344, and WKY but not in Lew and SHR rats, suggesting possible interstrain differences in pituitary sensitivity to neural stimuli induced by stress. In summary, our results indicate that there are differences among the strains with regard to both 1) the suppressive effect of Dex on the HPA axis, BN rats showing a certain degree of resistance, and 2) the capability of PhADX rats to respond to acute stress, which suggests a defective release of ACTH in Lew and SHR rats. The biological meaning of these alterations of corticosteroid negative feedback among the five inbred strains studied remains to be established.


Aiming at improving the flexibility and reducing the cost of SOC system design, the design of configurable IP core is prerequisite. In this paper, we mainly design a scalable configurable IP core and its configurable interface circuit. We call it FDP (FuDan Programmable) Configurable IP Core. This IP Core meets the requirement of configuration and scalability. Based on FDP Configurable IP Core, we successfully embed it into SOC to realize the application of Evolvable Hardware. Meanwhile, in order to reduce the reconfiguration time and enhance the performance of the whole system, we adopt several methods such as pre-reading configuration and compression of configuration bit stream, to implement the hardware reconfiguration and realize the function effectively. Experimental results initially validate the feasibility and large potential of the embedded scalable Configurable IP Core.


Load sharing is one of the main factors that determine gear strength. In this paper, Tooth Contact Analysis (TCA) and Loaded Tooth Contact Analysis (LTCA) have been performed to investigate the effect of tooth surface modification on the contact ratio, load sharing and strength of an orthogonal offset face gear drive with spur involute pinion. The results indicate that the contact ratio of 2.0 or higher could be achieved. The maximum load carried by single tooth and bending stress are significantly reduced when appropriate tooth surface modification is applied to the orthogonal offset face gear drive.


PURPOSE
The aim of this study was to determine the types, prevalence rates, and clinical implications of portal vein (PV) variations using routine abdominal multidetector computed tomography (MDCT).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The study included 1384 retrospectively evaluated patients (721 males, 663 females) that had undergone routine abdominal MDCT. Portal phase CT scans (2.5 mm collimation, table speed/rotation time, 12.5 mm/0.5 s) were acquired 60 s after contrast material injection. Two radiologists interpreted the images and reached a consensus on all findings. Types and frequencies of PV variations were noted.

RESULTS
Normal PV branching patterns were observed in 1005 (72.6%) of the patients. PV variants and anomalies were identified in 379 patients (27.4%). Normal main PV branching patterns were noted in 1087 (78.5%) of the patients. Main PV branching variations were seen in 297 (21.5%) of the patients. The most frequent types of these variations were trifurcation (n = 154, 11.1%) and right posterior PV as the first branch of the main PV (n = 134, 9.7%). Right PV variation was identified in 42 (3.9%) of the 1087 patients with type 1 anatomy. Variation of the origin of the segmental PV that traversed the interlobar boundary was identified in 55 (4%) of the 1384 patients.

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of PV variations was high in patients that underwent abdominal CT, and routine abdominal MDCT demonstrated these abnormalities very well. Clinically relevant PV variants should be reported in routine CT evaluations.


Abstract Objectives: What are we teaching drivers about safely interacting with cyclists? This is the main objective of the Cycle Aware project. As part of the study, a teaching and learning package is being developed to fill this gap in Australia. Methods: Cycle Aware is a major national project that takes a mixed methods approach to investigate how cyclists are taught to share the road with cyclists when learning to drive. The project has five stages: (1) a national review of the driver licensing documentation; (2) interviews with key stakeholders (n = 35) involved with novice driver education; (3) analysis of cyclist-novice driver crash data to identify the most frequent crash types; (4) develop a teaching and learning package (Cycle Aware Package), and; trial and evaluate Cycle Aware Package. Results: Overall, drivers are taught little about sharing the road with cyclists. Representation of cyclists in government documentation is mixed and mostly negative and interviews identified driver-cyclist tensions related to attitudes and awareness of sharing the road. Crash types were similar among novice and experienced drivers. The Cycle Aware Package is being finalised and will be trialled in South Australia and Northern Territory in early 2019. Conclusions: Cycle Aware will provide new insights into the way drivers are taught to share the road with cyclists. The Cycle Aware Package with interactive online content and driver competencies will facilitate a new approach to addressing this gap among Australia drivers.


The article argues that closer attention to how solidarity is understood and expressed in different European contexts can shed light on the conditions for establishing a social and solidarity economy. Drawing on data collected within the H2020 SOLIDUS project, which explores current expressions of European solidarity, the comparative analysis covers three social economy initiatives, each representing a country with different political and economic context. The analysis focuses on solidarity as reciprocity and, in particular, how it is affected by such factors as actor motivations, internal participatory functioning, resource mix and political legitimacy. While further empirical work is needed, the findings suggest that solidarity as reciprocity produced by social and solidarity economy organisations thrives where political institutions are both supportive and trusted, where public funding is accessible, and where partnerships with relatively autonomous social and solidarity economy organisations are genuinely collaborative.


Although modulatory effects of neuropeptide Y (NPY) on ethanol consumption are well established, its role in ethanol reward, in the framework of mesolimbic dopaminergic system, has not been studied. We investigated the influence of nucleus accumbens shell (AcbSh) NPYergic system on ethanol self‐administration in posterior ventral tegmental area (p‐VTA) using intracranial self‐administration paradigm. Rats were stereotaxically implanted with cannulae targeted unilaterally at the right p‐VTA and trained to self‐administer ethanol (200 mg%) in standard two‐lever (active/inactive) operant chamber, an animal model with high predictive validity to test the rewarding mechanisms. Over a period of 7 days, these rats showed a significant increase in the number of lever presses for ethanol self‐administration suggesting reinforcement. While intra‐AcbSh NPY (1 or 2 ng/rat) or [Leu31, Pro34]‐NPY (0.5 or 1 ng/rat) dose‐dependently increased ethanol self‐administration, BIBP3226 (0.4 or 0.8 ng/rat) produced opposite effect. The rats conditioned to self‐administer ethanol showed significant increase in the population of NPY‐immunoreactive cells and fibres in the AcbSh, central nucleus of amygdala (CeA), hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) and lateral part of bed nucleus of stria terminalis as compared with that in the naïve rats. Neuronal tracing studies showed that NPY innervations in the AcbSh may derive from the neurons of ARC and CeA. As NPY and dopamine systems in reward areas are known to interact, we suggest that NPY inputs from ARC and CeA may play an important role in modulation of the dopaminergic system in the AcbSh and consequently influence the ethanol induced reward and addiction.


Maintaining operational safety and status of airport runways during snowfall events is a challenging issue that many airports are grappling with. Ice and snow impacts on transportation infrastructure systems add significant costs to the American economy in the form of snow removal, damaged pavement and lost productivity due to travel delays. Most transport category aircraft are prohibited from operating on runways covered by untreated ice or by more than ½ inch of snow or slush. Hence, it is imperative that both small and large airports maintain operational status during snowfall events to support the existing operations. Conventional ice and snow removal practices are labor intensive and have environmental concerns such as possible contamination of nearby water bodies for highway and airport pavements. This preliminary study aims at identifying and establishing cost parameters for an ongoing research project on energy and economic analyses of alternative ice and snow removal strategies. One such alternative approach is the use of a heated pavement system using either conventional or renewable energy as a heat source, to keep the surface temperature of concrete pavements above freezing so that any frozen precipitation melts upon contact. Based on the limited data available, the costs incurred due to melting snow by hydronic heated pavements were calculated and compared with the operating costs of conventional snow removal strategies under specific case scenarios. A case study is carried out using limited data from Des Moines International (DSM) airport in Iowa to demonstrate the methodology.


Dramatic shifts in intellectual property in recent years have created an intense debate over their potential impact on research and development. While some commentators believe that game-changing legal decisions will only carry limited impact on research and developments, others have argued that such legal shifts may increase the chilling effect of uncertainty on research. This Article adds to this debate by providing empirical evidence of a ripple effect of intellectual property policy changes. The Article focuses on stem cell research as a case study. This is a highly promising, yet controversial line of research, embedding ethical, legal, and financial dilemmas, leading to frequent policy changes and legal uncertainty. The Article tracks changes in U.S. and European policies pertaining to patent rights and public funding and examines their impact on research and development. We report the findings of a comprehensive empirical study of stem cell patent applications filed between 1990-2013 in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the European Patent Office, and through the Patent Cooperation Treaty. Our findings indicate that a 2004 European decision, holding that human embryonic stem cells are not patentable in the European Patent Office, had a broad effect on patent filing in the entire stem cell field, extending to non-embryonic stem cell inventions. At the same time, changes in American stem cell federal funding policies did not influence stem cell research as dramatically. These findings are particularly striking as they shows that game-changing decisions pertaining to intellectual property may cause an impact that is broader and wider than their intended scope. The findings indicate that local patent regulation may have a global effect on patent activity extending to research and development in other countries, and an extensive effect, exceeding its intended scope. The findings also suggest that legal uncertainty may cause a chilling effect on private investments in research and development, and that intellectual property policy has a differentiated impact, affecting the private and the public sectors differently. Collectively, we call these outcomes the ripple effect of intellectual property policy. The ripple effect of intellectual property policy calls for caution among judges and policymakers in making sharp policy shifts, since such shifts may involve some unintended consequences for research and development.


King Kong: Peter Jackson's Production Diaries (2005), a self-contained DVD package released at the same time as King Kong (2005) is an example of paratext and of what John Caldwell calls 'industrial reflexivity'. While cast as a direct act of communication with fans and as a means of revealing the behind-the-scene workings of Jackson and his crew, the Production Diaries work also as industrial discourse which seek to portray creative labour as a space of enjoyment, of affective investment and of individual fulfilment within a group of highly talented and motivated individuals. The diaries are both the production and the record of the creative labour and its transformation into a commodified media object through the process of affective labour. The Production Diaries provide an image of production for both external and internal purposes.


THIS book begins by describing the papyrus roll and the parchment codex, and proceeds to an account of the production, publishing, and selling of books in antiquity, ending with a chapter on 'Ancient Libraries and Bibliophiles'. Passages in classical authors referred to in the text are given in an appendix of Source References. There is much good material here, but the content of the book is marred by faulty scholarship and inaccuracy, and the exposition by defects in arrangement and style. P.'s worst defects are exposed by his principal merit, his extensive use of ancient sources. The appendix of Source References is incomplete, extremely inaccurate, inexact in its method of referring to the text, and sometimes inconsistent with the text. Classical works are often wrongly designated, and there are several misprints of proper names, both in text and appendix. Nor is the book free from misstatements of fact; on p. 28 we are told that Aeschylus is not represented at all on papyri, and on p. 21 P. seems unable to define a palimpsest. There is also a tendency to make exaggerated deductions from the ancient evidence. These defects are most conspicuous in the chapters on Greece; Rome is treated rather better. The exposition is vitiated by an inconsequence which borders at times on the ridiculous, as in the paragraph beginning at the bottom of p. 26, and the author often seems unaware of the function of the paragraph in English prose. The book cannot, therefore, be considered an adequate account of its subject, though it is not without merit.


In a number of countries, local tourism associations (LTAs) are being expected to adopt the destination marketing role formerly attributed to regional-level destination marketing organisations (DMOs), which are presently either being actively dissolved or targeted for closure. Destination marketing can, however, be understood to be a public good (or, more precisely, a public service), which would generally prevent its provision by a subscription-based organisation such as an LTA. This is due to the presence of a strong 'free-rider' incentive for non-subscribers. The findings of this study show that LTAs in the UK have been able to overcome this 'free rider' effect by creating bundles of private and public benefits, the former being the benefits offered by the LTA in its traditional role as a trade representative body and the latter being the benefits associated with its newly acquired role as a local DMO. A qualitative–interpretive approach is adopted, using data gathered from LTA websites. While the conclusions are based on the UK policy context, it can be argued that the UK is a good analogue for other contexts. As such, the efforts of LTAs based in the UK to adapt to their new role are instructive for LTAs more generally.


The introduction of new financial reporting standards in the European Union (EU) is having significant direct consequences for many of the preparers and users of financial information. These consequences are generally well documented and explored by many distinguished experts. However, less well documented are some of the indirect consequences of the implementation of new financial accounting standards in the EU. One such area is in the relationship between corporate financial accounting and corporate income tax accounting. In some EU Member States, a long-standing and complex relationship exists between financial accounting and tax accounting which may be significantly influenced by the introduction of new financial reporting standards such as International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs). In this paper the author reviews the effects of the introduction of new financial reporting standards on tax accounting within the EU. This paper also assesses the evolution of the relationship between tax accounting and financial accounting in the context of the growing influence of IFRSs. This paper recommends that consideration should be given to macro-economic implications of associating or disassociating financial accounting and tax accounting, noting that this decision should only be made after considering related policy issues at the highest level within relevant government agencies and a thorough consultative interaction between these agencies and relevant private sector advisers and interest groups.


This paper shows how from the start of the modern era to today, Jewish education always depended on the successive identity types to which the Jewish minority in France chose to belong. Following the heder of Jewish groups  under the Ancien Regime, the consistorial schools followed Emancipation in the face of a concomitant and difficult challenge, namely promoting Jewish individuals in the community while acknowledging each individual's religious specificity. Primarily a favorite means of regeneration for the poor and immigrants, this means of improvement reached the end of the 1930s in an unhappily weakened state as a result of the success of assimilation and the social secularization of society in general. Between the two world wars but mainly on the eve of World War Two, weaknesses began to appear in French Judaism as a whole along with yearnings for a more religious dimension of Jewish identity as well as a more favorable perspective on Zionism, even if many remained convinced Israelites. These yearnings were manifested in the emerging youth movements, mostly the French Israelite Boy Scouts, and the creation of the Maimonides College in Paris, which during the Occupation, experienced favorable conditions for their growth and the birth of new structures. However, this renewal was transient. Not until the 1960s and even more so in the 1970s did the development of Jewish educational opportunities flourish. The collapse of the French Israelite model was the fundamental cause of this new growth.


Manipulative experiments and observations along environmental gradients, the two most common approaches to evaluate the impacts of climate change on nutrient cycling, are generally assumed to produce similar results, but this assumption has rarely been tested. We did so by conducting a meta-analysis and found that soil nutrients responded differentially to drivers of climate change depending on the approach considered. Soil carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus concentrations generally decreased with water addition in manipulative experiments but increased with annual precipitation along environmental gradients. Different patterns were also observed between warming experiments and temperature gradients. Our findings provide evidence of inconsistent results and suggest that manipulative experiments may be better predictors of the causal impacts of short-term (months to years) climate change on soil nutrients but environmental gradients may provide better information for long-term correlations (centuries to millennia) between these nutrients and climatic features. Ecosystem models should consequently incorporate both experimental and observational data to properly assess the impacts of climate change on nutrient cycling. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23255.001