The establishment of the principal control points required for the Columbia River Bridge construction using present day electronic distance measuring equipment is reviewed. Selection of the survey equipment was based on the distances at the bridge site to be measured and simplicity of operation. Familiarization and confidence were gained by traversing the river and verifying existing points set earlier by the location survey. The bridge site was studied and five locations were selected for permanent monuments. Shelters for protection of the instrument were constructed, distances measured and angles turned. Closure was made and coordinates determined with the aid of a computer terminal and the Highway Division COGO program. To date the bridge piers and some of the superstructure have been successfully positioned with a minimum effort utilizing the five control points. The electronic distance measuring equipment and computer terminal have proven to be a time and labor saving combination for establishing survey control of this type.


The water absorption of ceramic tiles is a basic parameter for its classification. In this paper the water absorption was studied in red clays of the Corumbataí Formation to verify the influence of the particle size distribution and mineralogical composition in four different samples of clays through the evolution of the sintering with the increase of the temperature. Mixtures of raw materials were prepared by the contribution of each one. It was based on the individual absorption of water to get prefixed water absorption for the mixture. The causes of the experimental variations were analyzed in relation to the expected value, to make corrections in the composition or temperature, allowing larger control on the products. The acquired packing for a constant compaction density of the test specimens and the mineralogical composition, responsible for the content of fluxing compounds, were effective to justify the observed ceramic behavior.


Lupinosis, a mycotoxicosis caused by phomopsins produced on lupin plants (Lupinus spp.) by Phomopsis leptostromiformis, is a disease of economic importance in W estem Australia. Preliminary studies and anecdotal reports indicated detrimental effects of lupinosis on reproduction and wool growth of ewes. The research described in this thesis was conducted to confirm experimentally the existence and magnitude of these effects on production, and to determine the stages of the reproductive cycle sensitive to phomopsin intoxication.

Mice were used to assess the effects of phomopsins on ovulation rate and on the early preimplantation embryo. Administration of phomopsins to female mice before ovulation reduced the number of mice mating and the number of embryos recovered. Culture of two-cell mouse embryos in medium containing phomopsins reduced the number developing to the blastocyst stage, with the embryos most sensitive to the effects of phomopsins before compaction and formation of the blastocoele.

Ovulation rate was depressed and wastage of ova was increased by the administration of phomopsins to ewes for 14 days before and 14 days after oestrus, resulting in 39 less lambs produced per 100 ewes than in the control groups.

The survival and growth of embryos/foetuses was reduced in ewes injected with phomopsins from approximately day 8 to 58 of pregnancy. Lamb marking rates were 10-20% less from phomopsin-treated ewes than from control ewes.

The wool production of ewes was significantly depressed by lupinosis. Length growth rate and mean fibre diameter were reduced after administration of phomopsins, and took up to 69 days to recover. The annual wool growth of the ewes was variable, and pregnancy and lactation reduced the quality and quantity of wool grown. There were reductions in clean fleece weight, yield, mean fibre diameter and staple strength, and changes in position of break attributable to administration of phomopsins.

Phomopsin intoxication significantly depressed the reproductive performances of ewes at all stages of the reproductive cycle examined, and reduced the quantity and quality of wool grown by the ewes.


OBJECT
Neurogenesis, which is upregulated by neural injury in the adult mammalian brain, may be involved in the repair of the injured brain and functional recovery. Therefore, the authors sought to identify agents that can enhance neurogenesis after brain injury, and they report that (Z)-1-[N-(2-aminoethyl)-N-(2-ammonioethyl)amino]diazen-1-ium-1,2-diolate (DETA/NONOate), a nitric oxide donor, upregulates neurogenesis and reduces functional deficits after traumatic brain injury (TBI) in rats.

METHODS
The agent DETA/NONOate (0.4 mg/kg) was injected intraperitoneally into 16 rats daily for 7 days, starting 1 day after TBI induced by controlled cortical impact. Bromodeoxyuridine (100 mg/kg) was also injected intraperitoneally daily for 14 days after TBI to label the newly generated cells in the brain. A neurological functional evaluation was performed in all rats and the animals were killed at 14 or 42 days postinjury. Immunohistochemical staining was used to identify proliferating cells.

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with control rats, the proliferation, survival, migration and differentiation of neural progenitor cells were all significantly enhanced in the hippocampus, subventricular zone, striatum, corpus callosum, and the boundary zone of the injured cortex, as well as in the contralateral hemisphere in rats with TBI that received DETA/ NONOate treatment. Neurological functional outcomes in the DETA/NONOate-treated group were also significantly improved compared with the untreated group. These data indicate that DETA/NONOate may be useful in the treatment of TBI.


The haemoglobinopathies are a relatively common, heterogeneous group of inherited conditions that are the result of either a quantitative abnormality (e.g. thalassaemia) or structural [e.g. sickle cell anaemia (SCA)] of the globin part of the haemoglobin molecule. Musculoskeletal (MSK) complications are common in patients with haemoglobinopathies and may affect the whole of the MSK system, in addition to bone, which is the primary site of the disease. Typical MSK complications include painful vaso-occlusive disease and osteomyelitis in SCA and reduced BMD in thalassaemia. Patients may also develop a number of related (e.g. gout) or unrelated rheumatic diseases (e.g. inflammatory arthritis and autoimmune CTDs). Treatment of MSK conditions in patients with haemoglobinopathies may be challenging (e.g. bone marrow suppression from disease-modifying agents) and in particular in SCA, steroid therapy (by any route) may precipitate potentially severe vaso-occlusive complications. Rheumatologists need to be aware of the range of MSK complications, treatment challenges and the need for such patients to be managed as part of a dedicated multidisciplinary team alongside haematology.


Coastal wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems in the world. One such example is the Teesmouth and Cleveland European Marine Site (EMS) which is recognised under Article 4.1 and 4.2 of the Birds Directive (79/409/EEC) for supporting waterbird populations of European importance.

Until recently the major negative impact on waterbirds was industry which saw the loss of over 90% of the intertidal mudflats and sandbanks since 1850. As land reclamation has ceased and industry has started to behave responsibly the dominant negative impact on waterbirds are now recreational activities.

The research undertaken for this thesis was embedded within the Ecosystem Approach framework. This approach aims to maintain, and increase the benefits humans gain from ecosystems by recognising the social, cultural and economic benefits ecosystems have to offer, as well as the biodiversity benefits.

Mapping the ecosystem service provision throughout the EMS showed that recreation has the highest level of provision; however sites along the Tees Estuary encompassed a wider range of services due to the greater variety of habitats.

The social dimensions of the EMS were examined through on-site visitor surveys, whilst the ecological impacts of recreation were explored through a waterbird disturbance survey. Jointly these surveys allowed the identification of those which factors contribute to a negative site condition assessment, visitors understanding of the conservation importance of the EMS and which management measures visitors prefer.

Interviewing the relevant authorities highlighted the difficulties in managing an EMS for recreation, conservation and economic development. The plethora of policies from Europe, through to local government would make it very difficult for the management group to wholly adopt the Ecosystem Approach. Instead it is recommended that a programme for inclusion and action for the local users is developed by the management group focussing on voluntary management measures.


Background: Choice of antihypertensive drugs is also based on the expected burden of adverse events associated with each class of agents, and we have recently identified treatment discontinuation for adverse events as a measure of treatment tolerability frequently reported in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Objectives: To investigate whether all classes of blood pressure (BP) lowering drugs increase discontinuations for adverse events when compared with placebo and whether risk of discontinuation is similar for all classes when compared in head-to-head RCTs. Methods: RCTs of BP-lowering treatment were subdivided in groups according to class of drug compared with placebo or with other classes. Risk ratios and 95% confidence intervals of major cardiovascular events and of treatment discontinuations for adverse events were calculated (random-effects model). Results: Thirty-eight placebo-controlled RCTs (147 788 patients) and 37 head-to-head RCTs (242 481 patients) provided comparative information on discontinuations for adverse events. All classes of drugs significantly increased discontinuations for adverse events over those occurring on placebo: risk ratio diuretics 2.23 (1.32–3.76), beta-blockers 2.88 (1.58–5.28), calcium antagonists 2.03 (1.17–3.56), angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors 2.78 (1.37–5.47), central agents 1.74 (1.24–2.45), with the single exception of angiotensin receptor blockers, which did not significantly increase adverse events over placebo [risk ratio 1.13 (0.78–1.62)]. Similarly, in head-to-head comparison RCTs with other classes, angiotensin receptor blockers were the only class associated with a significantly lower risk of adverse events [risk ratio 0.71 (0.58–0.87)] when head-to-head compared with other classes. Regression analysis also shows that incidence of discontinuations for adverse events is proportional to the number of antihypertensive and other cardiovascular drugs, which accounts for the high incidence of this outcome often found in groups randomized to placebo. Conclusion: Reduction of cardiovascular events by all classes of BP-lowering drugs is accompanied by increased treatment discontinuations for adverse events, except when angiotensin receptor blockers are used. Treatment discontinuations are also related to treatment often accompanying antihypertensive agents.


Simple cosmic ray diffusion in magnetic fields is often discussed in terms of a characteristic scattering mean free path or equivalent diffusion coefficient. This assumes very simple properties of the structure of astrophysical magnetic fields. A better approximation is to assume that the magnetic structure has fractal properties and there is then the possibility of including very short and very long interaction lengths when modelling the propagation. Results of modelling such propagation in a fractal medium are discussed. Values of the propagation parameter (α) less than 2 were obtained and confirm the plausibility of the hypothesis that supernova are the origin of galactic cosmic rays in the energy range below the knee in the spectrum.


Introduction Generic preparations of drugs are often cheaper than brand names and offers significant cost benefits. For many medicines, a switch between preparations can be done with little or no monitoring. Tacrolimus prescription, however, provides an interesting challenge due to its narrow therapeutic window and requires careful medical supervision and therapeutic monitoring while switching. Adoport1 is a generic tacrolimus preparation introduced to the market after the exclusivity period for Prograf2 ended. At present there is limited evidence to show the effects of the switch between formulations in paediatric patients. In 2015, Nottingham Children's Renal Unit undertook to switch all existing paediatric kidney transplant and nephrotic patients on Prograf to Adoport and we herewith present the effects on patients and their Tacrolimus levels. Method Prescriptions for tacrolimus are dispensed and delivered by a homecare provider on a three monthly basis. Patients were given written and verbal advice to switch from Prograf to the same dose of Adoport two weeks before their next clinical appointment. After taking a stock of their existing Prograf supply, a prescription was given to ensure the patient did not run out of Prograf until their switch date and had enough Adoport until the following prescription was due. The Tacrolimus level was then reviewed by the patient's doctor at their clinic appointment and dose adjustments were made if necessary as per standard of care. We reviewed data for Tacrolimus levels in the 3 months before and after the switch and assessed for any clinical variation in immunosuppression. Results 36 patients were switched from Prograf to Adoport. One patient developed hair loss and requested to go back onto Prograf, all other patients tolerated the switch well. There was no significant change in the tacrolimus levels of the population following the switch (p=0.02). There was no significant change in creatinine of the population following the switch (p=0.02). One patient required a dose adjustment following the switch. Conclusion This study assessed the clinical outcomes for paediatric patients switching from Prograf to Adoport. We noted stable Tacrolimus levels in most patients following the switch and similar therapeutic effectiveness. The majority of patients tolerated the switch well. This resulted in a cost saving for NHS England from which a gain share was negotiated to benefit Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Our outcome data therefore support the use of Adoport in place of Prograf as a potential cost-saving measure. References Summary of Product characteristics Astella Pharma Ltd. Prograf 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 5 mg Hard capsules 2 November 2015. www.medicines.org.uk [Accessed: 30 April 2016]. Summary of Product characteristics Sandoz Ltd. Adoport 1 mg capsules 18 August 2015. www.medicines.org.uk [Accessed: 30 April 2016].


The Endangered Turks and Caicos rock iguana, Cyclura carinata, is found only on the islands and cays of Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), and on Booby Cay in The Bahamas, northwest of Providenciales. These iguanas now occupy less than 10 percent of their historic range largely due to the impact of invasive mammalian predators. Although conservation efforts have led to stabilisation of the population resulting in the 2020 down-listing of this species from Critically Endangered to Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, threats persist and management efforts are needed. This document presents a comprehensive four-year plan for the conservation and management actions considered essential to ensuring the long-term survival of Cyclura carinata in the wild. This document combines knowledge and expertise from local government, local and international NGOs, the tourism industry, educators, homeowners, private island managers, civil society, and members of the IUCN SSC Iguana Specialist Group working in the TCI.


The processes and feedbacks associated with the mass flux of shallow cumulus clouds over land are studied by analyzing the results from large-eddy simulations and a mixed-layer model. The primary focus is to study the development of the (well mixed) subcloud layer and understand the four primary feedbacks between the subcloud-layer dynamics and cumulus mass flux. Guided by numerical experiments in large-eddy simulations that show the transition from clear to cloudy boundary layers at midlatitudes over land, the feedbacks introduced by shallow cumuli are first conceptually described. To study the complex interplay between the subcloud and cloud layer, a mixed-layer model is proposed and validated with large-eddy simulations for the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Southern Great Plains case. The mixed-layer model is shown to identify and reproduce the most relevant feedbacks in the transition from clear to cloudy boundary layers: a reduced mixed-layer growth and drying of the subcloud layer by enhanced entrainment and mass flux transport of moisture to the cloud layer. To complete the study, the strength of the different feedbacks is further quantified by an analysis of the individual contributions to the tendency of the relative humidity at the top of the mixed layer.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the adhesion and basic properties of kenaf stem, and its physical and mechanical properties on particleboard panels. In this study, rubberwood (RW) was used as a control. Single-layer experimental panels were produced from whole stem, core, and bast particles of kenaf. Findings revealed that the core part resulted in higher wettability and lower contact angle than the bast. Kenaf bast (KB) gave the highest buffering capacity, while kenaf core (KC) gave the lowest buffering capacity towards acid. The lowest specific gravity was shown by KC followed by kenaf whole stem (KWS) and KB. For particle analysis, KWS gave the highest acceptable particle distribution (73.9%), whilst KC, KB, and RW had particle distributions of 62.5, 68.1, and 56.8%, respectively. Particleboard panels produced from KWS had the highest average values of modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity with good compaction under scanning electron microscopic. Panels made from bast particles had the lowest mechanical properties among the three types of panels. The internal bonding strengths and dimensional stability of the specimens followed the similar trend above. The results of this study indicate that the specific gravity and adhesion properties of the starting material play a role in determining the physical and mechanical properties of the particleboard panels.


A fingerprint detection technology that supports navigation, pointer and fingerprint acquisition is described. The hybrid system consists of a silicon sensor substrate flip-chipped onto a mixed signal ASIC. The sensor is linear and the finger is swept over to scan the fingerprint. To achieve 500 dpi accuracy, separate process optimization for both the ASIC and the sensor substrate gives a alternative solution compared to all silicon sensor approaches. The ASIC is 18 mm/sup 2/ in 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS and the sensor is 105 mm/sup 2/.


The control and the improvement of the ductility of nano-structured structural steels is one of the key challenges in assessing the technological viability of this metallurgical strategy. In the present paper, it is shown that more rigorous definitions of the ductility are required in order to avoid possible confusions. After this preliminary work, a more transparent analysis is done concerning the effect of the microstructural scale showing clearly the weaknesses and the strengths of ultra-fine single phase steels. Finally, possible ways to overcome the main limitations are presented.


Carnosine (beta-alanyl-L-histidine) is an endogenously synthesised dipeptide which is present in different human tissues e.g. in the kidney. Carnosine is degraded by enzyme serum carnosinase, encoding by CNDP1 gene. Carnosine is engaged in different metabolic pathways in the kidney. It reduces the level of proinflammatory and profibrotic cytokines, inhibits advanced glycation end products formation and moreover it decreases the mesangial cell proliferation. Carnosine may also serve as a scavenger of peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals and a natural angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. This review summarizes the results of experimental and human studies concerning the role of carnosine in kidney diseases, particularly in chronic kidney disease, ischemia/reperfusion induced acute renal failure, diabetic nephropathy and also drug-induced nephrotoxicity. The interplay between serum carnosine concentration and serum carnosinase activity and polymorphism in the CNDP1 gene is discussed. Carnosine has renoprotective properties. It has a promising potential for the treatment and prevention of different kidney diseases, particularly chronic kidney disease which is a global public health issue. Further studies of carnosine role in kidney may offer innovative and effective strategies for management of kidney diseases.


Abstract This paper deals with the politics of memory in contemporary Georgia's public space. It explores the relations between official and vernacular commemorations of the Soviet past in Tbilisi. In this paper, I have studied the forms of materialization of vernacular memories in the public space and provided a frame in which they exist, including the ideological background of decommunization in Georgia and peculiarities of the Soviet era museumizing in state museums. The official discourse demonizes the previous epoque and neglects all its benefits, whereas the ordinary people are quite nuanced in their memories of their past – this contradiction leads to manifestations of vernacular memories. Therefore, this paper focuses mostly on Tbilisi's Dry Bridge, a famous flea market where the memory of the recent Soviet past is negotiated. The main argument is that this particular flea market and its artifacts might be regarded as a "vernacular memorial" and "lieu de memoire" where nostalgia for an officially demonized era can be expressed and materialized. This paper explores the items that are on sale, explaining their meaning for the post-Soviet people, and describes the intangible practices that can be observed there. In addition, this paper unpacks that these nostalgic practices should not be considered as "unhealthy" or "retrospective" as it helps people to adapt to modernity and develop by considering more than one hegemonic version of their past.


BACKGROUND
"Quality of life" has become a main focus of interest in medicine. The Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL) was developed in order to measure the Thai mental illness both in a clinical setting and community.

OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to develop the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life (PTQL), having adequate and sufficient construct validity, discriminant power, concurrent validity, and reliability.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
To develop the Pictorial Thai Quality of Life Test, two samples groups were used in the present study: (1) pilot study samples: 30 samples and (2) survey samples were 672 samples consisting of normal, and psychiatric patients. The developing tests items were collected from a review of the literature in which all the items were based on the WHO definition of Quality of Life. Then, experts judgment by the Delphi technique was used in the first stage. After that a pilot study was used to evaluate the testing administration, and wording of the tests items. The final stage was collected data from the survey samples.

RESULTS
The results of the present study showed that the final test was composed 25 items. The construct validity of this test consists of six domains: Physical, Cognitive, Affective, Social Function, Economic and Self-Esteem. All the PTQL items have sufficient discriminant power It was found to be statistically significant different at the. 001 level between those people with mental disorders and normal people. There was a high level of concurrent validity association with WHOQOL-BREF, Pearson correlation coefficient and Area under ROC curve were 0.92 and 0.97 respectively. The reliability coefficients for the Alpha coefficients of the PTQL total test was 0.88. The values of the six scales were from 0.81 to 0:91.

CONCLUSIONS
The present study was directed at developing an effective psychometric properties pictorial quality of life questionnaire. The result will be a more direct and meaningful application of an instrument to detect the mental health illness poor quality of life in Thai communities.


Purpose: To investigate the musculus uvulae morphology in vivo in adults with normal velopharyngeal anatomy and to examine sex and race effects on the muscle morphology. We also sought to provide a preliminary comparison of musculus uvulae morphology in adults with normal velopharyngeal anatomy to adults with repaired cleft palate. Methods: Three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging data and Amira 5.5 Visualization Modeling software were used to evaluate the musculus uvulae in 70 participants without cleft palate and 6 participants with cleft palate. Muscle length, thickness, width, and volume were compared among participant groups. Results: Analysis of covariance analysis did not yield statistically significant differences in musculus uvulae length, thickness, width, or volume by race or sex among participants without cleft palate when the effect of body size was accounted for. Two-sample t test revealed that the musculus uvulae in participants with repaired cleft palate is significantly shorter (P = .008, 13.65 mm vs 16.07 mm) and has less volume (P = .002, 51.08 mm3 vs 97.62 mm3) than participants without cleft palate. Conclusion: In adults with normal velopharyngeal anatomy, the musculus uvulae is a cylindrical oblong-shaped muscle lying on the nasal surface of the soft palate, with its greatest bulk located just nasal to the levator veli palatini muscle sling. In participants with repaired cleft palate, the musculus uvulae is substantially reduced in volume. This diminished muscle bulk located just at the point where the palate contacts the posterior pharyngeal wall may contribute to velopharyngeal insufficiency in children with repaired cleft palate.


New firms created by students are a clear proof of the positive impact of universities in society. These new small firms, also known as start-ups, begin with an original idea from a student (or a team of them) triggered by many factors and mechanisms. Most universities have considerably focused in fostering the proper type of mechanisms to ignite an entrepreneurial attitude in students during the last years. Nevertheless, from the vast range of available options a university might consider, it is very difficult to encompass several of them under one concept that can be promoted amongst students. This problem implies, on one side, that more efforts and projects from universities would need to be implemented, and on the other side, that students may not have a clear direction on how to focalize their novel and entrepreneurial ideas. This paper attempts to provide a solution to this gap by suggesting the use of an open innovation perspective to support students not only to innovate technologically and create a start-up with it, but also to go beyond new firm creation and achieve on creating a new market. To do this, the paper briefly analyzes the successful case of the company Stu:Drive, a student start-up originated by Serbian students operating without competitors throughout the Balkans. Stu:Drive provides a platform for car-sharing that allows people to reduce their transportation costs and has become a very popular way of travelling during the last months. Through the example of this firm, the paper discusses the innovative business model of Stu:Drive and how the start-up created a successful disruptive innovation in the transportation industry in a large region of Eastern Europe. The paper concludes with recommendations for universities, students and policy-makers in education systems from developing economies, as well as some suggestions for future directions on research on the phenomenon of student start-ups.


The author proposes that in a democratic society, education serves to establish fundamental relationships of fraternity, generating the "social capital" that bonds citizens together. Against this perspective, he examines the cultural values transmitted in the educational systems of six Latin American countries. He finds that following world-wide trends, the curricula have shifted from privileging nation as symbolic reference of community to human rights. He proposes fraternity, as presented in the Focolare charism of unity, as a fundamental value in national curricula by which greater social cohesion among students and therefore society as a whole can be generated.


Summary

1. Temperate regions with fish communities dominated by cold-water species (physiological optima 28 °C) that are able to establish and invade as the thermal constraints on the expression of their life history traits diminish.

2. England and Wales is a temperate region into which at least 38 freshwater fishes have been introduced, although 14 of these are no longer present. Of the remaining 24 species, some have persisted but failed to establish, some have established populations without becoming invasive and some have become invasive. The aim of the study was to predict the responses of these 24 non-native fishes to the warming temperatures of England and Wales predicted under climate change in 2050.

3. The predictive use of climate-matching models and an air and water temperature regression model suggested that there are six non-native fishes currently persistent but not established in England and Wales whose establishment and subsequent invasion would benefit substantially from the predicted warming temperatures. These included the common carp Cyprinus carpio and European catfish Silurus glanis, fishes that also exert a relatively high propagule pressure through stocking to support angling and whose spatial distribution is currently increasing significantly, including in open systems.

4. The potential ecological impacts of the combined effects of warming temperatures, current spatial distribution and propagule pressure on the establishment and invasion of C. carpio and S. glanis were assessed. The ecological consequences of C. carpio invasion were assessed as potentially severe in England and Wales, with impacts likely to relate to habitat destruction, macrophyte loss and increased water turbidity. However, evidence of ecological impacts of S. glanis elsewhere in their introduced range was less clear and so their potential impacts in England and Wales remain uncertain.


This study attempts to firstly explore the verbal and visual representations and secondly to investigate textual cohesive devices between the two different semiotic resources, language and image, in Iranian English textbooks for the Middle school students.
To fulfil the aim of this study, three analytical frameworks were adopted to examine the texts. Using Halliday's (1994, 2004) Transitivity System, verbal texts of the data were analysed in order to find out the experiential meaning of the linguistic texts. In the next
stage, Kress and van Leeuwen's (1996, 2006) model of Representation Analysis was applied to identify the experiential meaning of the visual imageries in the texts. Finally, textual cohesion of the texts was analysed based on Liu and O'Halloran's (2009) Textual Cohesive Devices. The corpus of the study consists of 24 dialogue sections of
all three Iranian English Textbooks which are provided for Middle school students who begin learning English language at this level.
The analysis of the dialogue sections reveals that the sequence of the processes identified in the three textbooks mirror the level of language proficiency to be acquired
across the textbooks. Concrete and tangible clauses such as Relational and Material are presented in the first textbook to interact with beginners in learning the English
language. Mental process that expresses the inner feelings and deals with more abstract matters and is not about concreteness like the Material process is exclusively found in the third textbook, the book used with the more proficient students of the English language as they would already have undergone two years of learning the language.
The visual narrative analysis of the data discovers that Action process is the most frequently found process in all the dialogues of the three English textbooks. This is
justifiable as Action process illustrates what is going on and what is happening in the speakers' stories or in whatever the speakers are doing while speaking. This contributes towards the English learners' understanding of what is expressed in the verbal texts of the dialogues. The verbal texts of the dialogues are very short and their clauses are obviously simple; therefore, visual imageries take the role of complementing the verbal texts to provide the details though through the visual form. This study would like to introduce what it labels as communication process whereby this process is realized by two processes that exist simultaneously. This is unlike previous processes proposed in Kress and van Leeuwen's (2006) framework.
The textual cohesion analysis of the dialogues shows that images and verbal texts are not strongly cohesive. Primarily, all images of the dialogues are only drawings with low colour contrast that remove the reality of the images. Therefore, although the images are identified as providing the details of the dialogues, they could not clearly illustrate the details. This fact somewhat erodes the cohesion between image and the verbal text especially when analysing cohesion in terms of referencing is concerned. Furthermore, most of the images consist of two main participants who are speakers of the dialogues and the topic of their talk is found not saliently illustrated in the image. This shows that the visual structure and the verbal structure are not in complete parallelism. Finally, the analysis reveals that all images and verbal texts are strongly disconnected through solid framing or space between the two modes, and this further decreases cohesion between image and language in the textbooks. In conclusion, this study hopes to provide valuable information for textbook designers and Iranian teachers using the textbooks
and to contribute towards research in the field of multimodality.


A novel configuration for a Brillouin distributed sensor using a phase modulated probe is presented. It offers the combined advantages of a direct implementation using simple devices and a large immunity to noise, shifting the information from the baseband to a higher frequency, which substantially strengthens the robustness to perturbations, interferences and other optical coherent noises. It naturally facilitates the possibility to perform frequency-coding on the probe to realise dynamic and fast measurements, since all frequency tunings are realised at sub-GHz frequencies.


A probabilistic methodology is discussed for the evaluation of maintenance requirements and expected costs for large‐scale logistics systems. A multitude of identical system components that are used to support operations characterise large‐scale systems. These identical components can be grouped together, and "representative" maintenance characteristics used in lieu of individual component tracking to perform a strategic analysis. The combination of these component "groupings" forms a population. The benchmark results are presented from a previous study of a population of US Navy tugs. Benchmark parameters are then varied in ten different maintenance scenarios to demonstrate the use of population models to analyse strategically the trade‐off between expected population costs and system availability.


We investigate both theoretically and experimentally a self-pumped phase-conjugate resonator with two-pass four-wave mixing in a diode-pumped Nd:YAG amplifier. A transient model is presented to fit the energy and temporal results of the experiment. The influence of the input energy in the injected configuration and the influence of the output coupler reflectivity and diode pump energy in the self-starting configuration are analyzed. In the injected case a maximum phase-conjugate reflectivity of 32 is obtained. In the self-starting case a TEM00 mode of 5.5 mJ in a 20-ns single-longitudinal-mode pulse is produced with a 10% reflectivity output coupler.


Quality assurance policies have been introduced in the higher education systems of many countries. These developments have occurred against the backdrop of globalisation, the internationalisation of higher education, and the knowledge economy. We shall show how, as a conceptual tool, the idea of quality assurance is problematic and that there is no commonly accepted definition of quality assurance. We discuss the relevant literature and argue that in future comparative studies of South African and Nigerian higher education could contribute to current understandings of quality assurance. Such studies, based upon the perspectives of local constituents, have to date not been carried out in Africa.


A novel strain of p-xylene-degrading sulfate reducer was isolated in pure culture. Strain PP31 was obtained from a p-xylene-degrading enrichment culture established from polluted marine sediment. Analyses of the 16S rRNA gene and two functional genes involved in sulfate respiration and anaerobic degradation of aromatic compounds revealed that the isolate was closely related to members of the genus Desulfosarcina. Strain PP31 was capable of growing on p-xylene under sulfate-reducing conditions, and the ratio of generated sulfide and consumed p-xylene suggested complete oxidation by the novel isolate. The strain could not grow on benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene o-xylene, or n-hexane as an electron donor. Strain PP31 is the first isolated bacterium that degrades p-xylene anaerobically, and will be useful to understanding the mechanism of anaerobic degradation of p-xylene.


From the second half of the 10th century, mathematicians developed a new chapter in the geometry of conic sections, dealing with the theory and practice of their continuous drawing. In this article, we propose to sketch the history of this chapter in the writings of al-Qūhī and al-Sijzī. A hitherto unknown treatise by al-Sijzī - established, translated, and commented - has enabled us better to situate and understand the themes of this new research, and how it eventually approached the problem of the classification of curves in previously unknown terms.


Broken rice is an underutilized by-product of milling. Proteins prepared from broken rice by treatments with alkaline protease and papain have been characterized with regard to nutritional and functional properties. The protein content and the protein recovery were 56.45 and 75.45 % for alkaline protease treatment, and 65.45 and 46.32 % for papain treatment, respectively. Protease treatment increased the lysine and valine content, leading to a more balanced amino acid profile. Broken rice proteins had high emulsifying capacity, 58.3–71.6 % at neutral pH, and adequate water holding capacity, ranging from 1.96 to 2.93 g/g of proteins. At pH=7.0, the broken rice protein had the highest water holding capacity and the best interfacial activities (emulsifying capacity, emulsifying stability, foaming capacity and foaming stability), which may be the result of the higher solubility at pH=7.0. The interfacial activities increased with the increase in the mass fraction of broken rice proteins. The proteins prepared by the papain treatment had higher water holding capacity (p>0.05), emulsifying capacity (p<0.05) and foaming capacity (p>0.05) than alkaline protease treatment at the same pH or mass fraction. To test the fortification of food products with broken rice proteins, pork sausages containing the proteins were prepared. Higher yield of the sausages was obtained with the increased content of broken rice proteins, in the range of 2.0–9.0 %. The results indicate that broken rice proteins have potential to be used as the protein fortification ingredient for food products.


A novel stimulus embedded in a sequence of repeated stimuli is often perceived to be longer in duration. Studies have indicated the involvement of repetition suppression in this duration distortion, but it remains unclear which processing stages are important. The present study examined whether high-level visual category processing contributes to the oddball's duration distortion. In Experiment 1, we presented a novel face image in either human, monkey, or cat category after a repetition of an identical human face image in the temporal oddball paradigm. We found that the duration distortion of the last stimulus increased when the face changed across different categories, than when it changed within the same category. However, the effect of category change disappeared when globally scrambled and locally scrambled face images were used in Experiments 2 and 3, respectively, suggesting that the difference in duration distortion cannot be attributed to low-level visual properties of the images. Furthermore, in Experiment 4, we again used intact face images and found that category changes can influence the duration distortion even when a series of different human faces was presented before the last stimulus. These findings indicate that high-level visual category processing plays an important role in the duration distortion of oddballs. This study supports the idea that visual processing at higher visual stages is involved in duration perception. (219 words).


Arum palaestinum Boiss, a wild edible plant in Palestine, is one of about 26 species of the arum genus which are flowering plants belonging to Araceae. The plant is widely used in Traditional Arabic Palestinian Herbal Medicine (TAPHM) in the treatment of several human diseases mainly cancer. This investigation reports the separation and identification of phthalate compounds such as dipropyl phthalate, diisobutyl phthalate and di-n-octyl phthalate for the first time from the extract of Arum palaestinum, using HPLC and GCMS techniques. In addition to these finding the amounts of phenolics, flavonoids and phthalate contents were evaluated in the whole plant. Total phenolics were found to be 3.9µg/mg pyrocatechol equivalent, and total flavonoids were found to be 270µg/mg as quercetin equivalent. One of the interesting results of this study also was the evaluation of phthalates in different parts of the plant. Average values of phthalates in the fresh plant parts were (36.3, 26.1, 5.6, 7.0µg/g) in leaves, inflorescence, stem and inflorescence base respectively. In addition, the average values of phthalates in different areas of Nablus region for whole plant were 48.3, 53.0, 50.9 µg/g. The findings of this study is discussed with relation to medicinal and food uses of the plant in Palestinian communities.


Joseph Henry Woodger (1894–1981) was one of the foremost theoretical biologists of the twentieth century. Starting out his career as an experimental embryologist and cytologist, Woodger became increasingly interested in the conceptual foundations of biology. Eventually, he abandoned all empirical research so that he could devote himself fully to studying the structure of biological theories. Perhaps his major accomplishment was the 500-page treatise Biological Principles: A Critical Study (1929), which systematically investigated the epistemological basis of biological knowledge through an analysis of its central concepts. Today, he is mostly remembered for his audacious monograph The Axiomatic Method in Biology (1937), which remains the most ambitious attempt to reformulate the propositions of biology (especially genetics, embryology, and taxonomy) using the tools of symbolic logic and pure mathematics. Woodger is also known for establishing the Theoretical Biology Club, and for introducing the 'Bauplan' concept into Anglophone biology. The insect Terpandrus Woodgeri (Woodger's Gumleaf Katydid) is named in his honour.

Keywords:

theoretical biology;
philosophy of the life sciences;
Bauplan;
organisation;
axiomatisation;
Ludwig von Bertalanffy;
Joseph Needham;
Conrad Hal Waddington;
Willi Hennig;
Karl Popper


Parsing is an important problem in computer science and yet surprisingly little attention has been devoted to its formal verification. In this paper, we present TRX: a parser interpreter formally developed in the proof assistant Coq, capable of producing formally correct parsers. We are using parsing expression grammars (PEGs), a formalism essentially representing recursive descent parsing, which we consider an attractive alternative to context-free grammars (CFGs). From this formalization we can extract a parser for an arbitrary PEG grammar with the warranty of total correctness, i.e., the resulting parser is terminating and correct with respect to its grammar and the semantics of PEGs; both properties formally proven in Coq.


Contemporary techniques to identify a good variable order for SAT rely on identifying minimum tree-width decompositions. However, the problem of finding a minimal width tree decomposition for an arbitrary graph is NP complete. The available tools and methods are impractical, as they cannot handle large and hard-to-solve CNF-SAT instances. This work proposes a hypergraph partitioning based constraint decomposition technique as an alternative to contemporary methods. We model the CNF-SAT problem on a hypergraph and apply min-cut based bi-partitioning. Clause-variable statistics across the partitions are analyzed to further decompose the problem, iteratively. The resulting tree-like decomposition provides a variable order for guiding CNF-SAT search. Experiments demonstrate that our partitioning procedure is fast, scalable and the derived variable order results in significant increase in performance of the SAT engine.


Abstract
 This paper presents a dynamic structural equation model (SEM) that explicitly addresses complicated causal relationships among socio-demographics, activity participation, and travel behavior. The model assumes that activity participation and travel patterns in the current year are affected by those in previous years. Using the longitudinal dataset collected from Puget sound transportation panel 'wave 3' and 'wave 4,' these assumptions are tested with suggested SEMs. Within each wave, the model is structured to have a three-level causal relationship that describes interactions among endogenous variables under time-budget constraints. The resulting coefficients representing the activity durations indicate that people tend to allocate their time according to the importance and the obligation of the activity level. Results from the dynamic SEM confirm the fact that people's current activity and travel behavior do have effects on those in the future. The resulting model also shows that activity participation and travel behavior in 'wave 3' are closely related to those in 'wave 4.' These explicit explanations of relationships among variables could provide important perspectives in the activity-based approach which becomes recognized as a better analytical tool for the transportation planning and policy making process.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
The retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor is functionally inactivated in most hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC), although the mechanisms by which RB suppresses liver tumorigenesis are poorly defined. We investigated the impact of RB loss on carcinogen-induced liver tumorigenesis.

METHODS
Mice harboring liver-specific RB ablation and normal littermates were exposed to the hepatocarcinogen diethylnitrosamine (DEN). The influence of RB loss on liver tumorigenesis was assessed by evaluating tumor multiplicity, proliferation, and genome integrity within tumors arising in RB-deficient and wild-type livers. In silico analyses were used to probe the association between gene expression signatures for RB loss and chromosomal instability and the ability of genes up-regulated by RB loss to predict the survival of human HCC patients.

RESULTS
RB deficiency significantly increased tumor multiplicity in livers exposed to DEN. Although hepatocytes in nontumor regions of DEN-exposed livers were quiescent regardless of RB status, tumors arising in RB-deficient livers were significantly more proliferative than those in normal livers and expressed high levels of RB/E2F target genes. Analysis of genes up-regulated by RB loss demonstrated significant overlap with a gene expression signature associated with chromosomal instability. Correspondingly, tumors arising in RB-deficient livers were significantly more likely to harbor hepatocytes exhibiting altered ploidy. Finally, gene expression analysis of human HCCs demonstrated that elevated expression of RB-regulated genes independently predicts poor survival.

CONCLUSIONS
RB deletion in the mouse liver enhances DEN-induced tumorigenesis, associated with increased hepatocyte proliferation and compromised genome integrity. Evaluation of RB status may be a useful prognostic factor in human HCC.


The present study is concerned with the total ozone variation in Ankara, Turkey (39°57′ N; 32°53′ E) and developing a total ozone prediction model by Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and single-site aerological data (1984–2006). The daily averages of the total column ozone over Ankara show a seasonal variation, with larger values in spring/winter and lower in autumn/summer and a large day-to-day variability. In this study, in order to forecast the total column ozone over Ankara, a multi-linear regression equation was performed. Predictors are selected by stepwise regression method. The ozone value on the previous day, temperature at the 100 hPa pressure level, previous day's temperature for the 700 hPa pressure level and temperature difference for 50 hPa and 500 hPa are the most important predictors. The success of monthly prognostic total column ozone models built up for Ankara is tested by using Brewer MK III Spectrophotometer data and satellite (OMI) data with the upper-air data in 2007. The Brewer MKIII has been in operation since November 2006 in Ankara. The ground-based one-year data show good agreement with the satellite OMI data.


As well as providing financial services, BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) offers members of its Rural Development Programme wishing to start businesses in a range of sectors a package of skills training, input supply and technical assistance. This paper examines two issues: the impact of skills development training and other BDS on women's income growth, and the costeffectiveness of BDS from both the service providers'as well as the service recipients'point of view. Results show that, as well as benefiting from credit, those who received skills training in their chosen activities earned significantly higher income than those who did not. Regarding cost-effectiveness, case study results show that, for the service recipients, the additional amount gained through their new business exceeds by many times the amount paid to BRAC as a service fee, so for the service recipients BRAC is highly cost-effective. On the other hand, for BRAC, the amount it charges covers only 47 per cent of its total cost.


The relationship between foreign capital inflows and economic growth has received great attention among research community. This is since foreign capital inflows tend to contribute to the national economy in both, developed and developing countries. On the other hand, financial development tends to promote the accumulation of capital especially in developing countries. Hence, there is a necessity to analyze a moderating role of financial development on the relationship between foreign capital inflows and economic growth. Previous research on the matter is limited. Therefore, this study aims to fill in this gap in literature by collecting annual panel data over the period 1993-2015. The relevance of foreign capital inflows (FDI) on economic growth (GDP) is explored in three panels. The first overall panel contains 75countries; the second contains 35 developed countries, while the third panel contains 40 developing countries. Models are initially estimated using linear static panel data estimators. Moreover, dynamic panel data estimators are applied in order to control for possible estimation issues of linear static panel data estimators. Models estimated using linear static panel data estimators are not reported to be significant. Linear dynamic panel data estimators suggest a significant positive effect of foreign capital inflows on economic growth in the models that do not control for moderating impact of financial development. The strongest impact is reported for developing countries. In addition, the empirical findings of this paper suggest a significant positive moderating effect of financial development on the relationship between foreign capital inflows and economic growth suggesting that developed financial systems are recognized as an important determinant of economic growth and foreign capital inflows.


Bessel beams have gained prominence due to their diffraction-free propagation and self-healing properties [1] . The zeroth-order Bessel beam has maximum intensity at its center and has found many applications, including optical trapping and bio-imaging. On the other hand, higher-order Bessel beams have a node due to a phase singularity and carry orbital angular momentum (OAM). Over the past years, Bessel beams have been generated by using different approaches, namely by Fourier transforming a narrow circular beam with a lens, by using axicons and with holographic beam shaping techniques. The need to miniaturize optics has led to efforts towards the on-fiber generation of Bessel beams. The successful attempts include the fabrication of a customized annular-core fiber along with a polymer lens [2] , or modifying the end of the fiber to an axicon profile with chemical or lithographic methods [3] . These techniques have limited capability on generating Bessel beams with on-demand optical parameters and are only focused on creating zeroth-order Bessel beams from optical fibers.


The development of hydrogen energy is an effective solution to the energy and environmental crisis. Hydrogen fuel cells and energy storage cells as hybrid power have broad application prospects in the field of vehicle power. Energy management strategies are key technologies for fuel cell hybrid systems. The traditional optimization strategy is generally based on optimization under the global operating conditions. The purpose of this project is to develop a power allocation optimization method based on real-time load forecasting for fuel cell/lithium battery hybrid electric vehicles, which does not depend on specific working conditions or causal control methods. This paper presents an energy-management algorithm based on real-time load forecasting using GRU neural networks to predict load requirements in the short time domain, and then the local optimization problem for each predictive domain is solved using a method based on Pontryagin's minimum principle (PMP). The algorithm adopts the idea of model prediction control (MPC) to transform the global optimization problem into a series of local optimization problems. The simulation results show that the proposed strategy can achieve a good fuel-saving control effect. Compared with the rule-based strategy and equivalent hydrogen consumption strategy (ECMS), the fuel consumption is lower under two typical urban conditions. In the 1800 s driving cycle, under WTCL conditions, the fuel consumption under the MPC-PMP strategy is 22.4% lower than that based on the ECMS strategy, and 10.3% lower than the rules-based strategy. Under CTLT conditions, the fuel consumption of the MPC-PMP strategy is 13.12% lower than that of the rule-based strategy, and 3.01% lower than the ECMS strategy.


Abstract Objective: Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are common following radical prostatectomy (RP) or intended curative radiotherapy in prostate cancer patients. One-quarter of those treated with RP experience biochemical failure and are subsequently offered salvage radiotherapy (SRT) to the prostatic bed. The aim of this study was to elucidate long-term LUTS after surgery and SRT. Materials and methods: Urodynamic parameters from 16 patients treated with RP and subsequent SRT in the period 2000–2010 were evaluated with uroflowmetry, filling cystometry, pressure–flow and urethral pressure profile (UPP). In conjunction with the urodynamic examination, all patients completed the Danish Prostatic Symptom Score (DAN-PSS) questionnaire, which evaluates the grade of LUTS. Results: Median time from SRT to urodynamic examination was 7.7 years (range 5.8–10.0 years). The following urodynamic parameters were affected: bladder volume at maximal cystometric capacity, bladder compliance, bladder function, bladder outlet obstruction and UPP. The total DAN-PSS index combining all symptoms and their corresponding impact on patients was mild in six patients (≤ 7 points), moderate in seven patients (8–19 points) and severe in three patients (≥ 20 points). Conclusions: This urodynamic study is one of the first to evaluate long-term urodynamic characteristics in patients treated with SRT. Several urodynamic parameters were affected. This indicates that SRT primarily affects bladder compliance, maximal cystometric capacity and bladder outlet obstruction. LUTS were proven to be strongly related to urodynamic parameters.


Background: Prison populations are at high risk for hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, incidence, HBV associated factors and circulating genotypes/subtypes. Methods: A total of 3,368 prisoners from 12 closed prisons were randomly recruited for a cross-sectional study. In addition, a cohort study was conducted 12 months later and included 1,656 individuals. Participants underwent an interview and blood collection for the detection of HBV serological markers and HBV-DNA phylogenetic analysis. Results: HBV exposure (anti-HBc + ) was 9.8% (95% CI: 8.8-10.8); 11.2% were female and 9.6% were male. HBsAg+ was 0.6%. Only 31.4% of the participants had HBV vaccination-like pro fi le (anti-HBs+ alone; 30.4% male vs. 36.8% female; p = 0.004). Most individuals were susceptible to HBV (60.2% female vs. 52.2% male, p = 0.001). HBV isolates were classi fi ed as genotypes A (45.4%), D (27.3%) and F (27.3%). In males, HBV exposure was associated with increased age. Male prisoners had more evidence of HCV/HBV co-infection (10.7%) than females (3.4%) and the frequency of Treponema pallidum infection among prisoners who had been exposed to HBV was higher in female prisoners when compared with male (39.7% vs.19.1%). The incidence of HBV was 0.18/100 person-years (95% CI: 0.12% – 0.25%). Conclusions: Our results indicate a high prevalence of HBV exposure in prisoners. Despite the low incidence of this infection, the occurrence of new cases indicates the need to implement preventive measures. © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of International Society for Infectious Diseases. nd/4.0/).


: Due to significant cultural and religious changes in the West ern world, a significant theological debate has recently taken place. As Western societies are becoming increasingly pluralistic, an increasing number of theologians debate the consequences of this for the Christian church and for Christian theology. Against this background, the article demonstrates the existence of a monolithic unity of church and society in Denmark, Norway and Sweden from the sixteenth century up until the early twentieth century. Next, the article presents some empirical and theological arguments for the need for a stronger articulation of the church as a distinct social entity within latemodern pluralistic Nordic societies. Finally, the article discusses the notion of the embodiment of the church , suggesting that this idea should be central in a development of a Nordic folk church ecclesiology that points to the future.


Author(s): Hameed, Sameed | Advisor(s): Pamarti, Sudhakar | Abstract: Wide programmability is increasingly desirable in transceiver designs. Due to the proliferation of frequency bands that need to be supported in wireless standards, such as LTE, WiFi, etc., the continued reliance on bulky off-chip SAW/BAW filters and on-chip inductors in current receiver designs is increasingly untenable. Hence, more integrated approaches are necessary, especially for future radio concepts, such as cognitive radios (CRs), where the channel bandwidth and center frequency are dynamic and not known a-priori. Current state-of-the-art on-chip receiver designs rely on techniques such as discrete-time analog signal processing, N-path filtering, and the mixer-first receiver topology. Nevertheless, on-chip filtering still does not approach the selectivity or linearity of their off-chip counterparts. Hence, new approaches are necessary.This work presents a programmable receiver front-end that uses the recently developed concept of Filtering-by-Aliasing (FA). By utilizing a linear, periodically time-varying (LPTV) circuit with a sampled output, sharp baseband filtering is achieved that can be upconverted to any desired LO frequency with an integrated passive mixer. Further, to achieve impedance matching with the antenna, an S11 constraint is added to the design of the FA filters, while time-interleaving is applied to further increase filter sharpness. Measurements on a fabricated prototype achieved a wide LO tuning-range of 0.1-1GHz, wide filter bandwidth (BW) tunability, a filter stop-band suppression of 70dB with a transition band only 4xBW, high close-in blocker tolerance with g21dBm IIP3 at only 1.2xBW offset frequency, and a wideband S11 better than -9dB throughout the LO range. Further, an analysis technique for general LPTV circuits is developed utilizing the concept of conversion matrices. By deriving conversion matrix-based frequency-domain equivalent circuits, LPTV circuits can be analyzed just like LTI circuits. Circuit laws, such as KVL and KCL can be easily applied to derive frequency responses. Example applications to mixer-first receivers, N-path filters, and the problem of impedance matching in LPTV circuits are highlighted to showcase the utility of the analysis technique.


Although crude petroleum supplies may tighten between now and 1985, no disruptive shortage is forseen. World production will be able to satisfy world demand. Under these circumstances crude petroleum prices will not rise above the rate of general inflation. Although the world crude petroleum market will remain in balance and thus experience no drastic price increase through 1985, OPEC exports will continue to balance supply with demand in most of the world's petroleum consuming nations. Therefore, in the absence of price controls, the world price for all crude petroleum will move toward the OPEC price. Since no critical shortage of crude petroleum is expected, OPEC will not be able to increase prices arbitrarily; however prices will increase relative to the rate of inflation. The desire of the OPEC nations to maximize their export revenues is limited by their need to avoid disrupting the world economy, by the cost of alternative energy souces, and by the availability of crude petroleum in other markets as the price increases. World crude petroleum production is expected to increase, especially in the period after 1980. The more exotic energy forms, such as oil shale and tar sands, are not expected to contribute significantly to the total energy supply by 1985. It is noted that coal, nuclear, hydroelectric, and geothermal sources are expected to reduce the future demand for crude petroleum and natural gas. The average annual energy demand for the world is expected to grow at a rate of 4.5% for 1975-1980, and 4.4% for 1975-1985. For the United States, future energy growth rates are expected to be 2.8% per year from 1975 to 1980 and 2.5% per year from 1975 to 1985.


Coronary artery disease is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Its underlying histopathology is the atherosclerotic plaque, which comprises lipid, fibrous and—when chronic—calcium components. Intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and intravascular optical coherence tomography (IVOCT) performed during invasive coronary angiography are reference standards for characterizing the atherosclerotic plaque. Fine image spatial resolution attainable with contemporary coronary computed tomographic angiography (CCTA) has enabled noninvasive plaque assessment, including identifying features associated with vulnerable plaques known to presage acute coronary events. Manual interpretation of IVUS, IVOCT and CCTA images demands scarce physician expertise and high time cost. This has motivated recent research into and development of artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted methods for image processing, feature extraction, plaque identification and characterization. We performed parallel searches of the medical and technical literature from 1995 to 2021 focusing respectively on human plaque characterization using various imaging modalities and the use of AI-assisted computer aided diagnosis (CAD) to detect and classify atherosclerotic plaques, including their composition and the presence of high-risk features denoting vulnerable plaques. A total of 122 publications were selected for evaluation and the analysis was summarized in terms of data sources, methods—machine versus deep learning—and performance metrics. Trends in AI-assisted plaque characterization are detailed and prospective research challenges discussed. Future directions for the development of accurate and efficient CAD systems to characterize plaque noninvasively using CCTA are proposed.


The large helical device (LHD) is the world largest helical system having all superconducting coils. After completion of LHD in 1998, six experimental campaigns have been carried out successfully. The maximum stored energy, central electron temperature, and volume averaged beta value are 1.16 MJ, 10 keV, and 3.2%, respectively. The confinement time of the LHD plasma appears to be equivalent to that of tokamaks. One of the most important missions for LHD is to prove steady-state operation, which is also significant to international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER) and to future fusion reactors. LHD is quite appropriate for this purpose based upon the beneficial feature of a helical system, that is, no necessity of the plasma current. So far, the plasma discharge duration was achieved up to 150 s. The plasma density was kept constant by feedback control of gas puffing with real time information of the line density. The issue for demonstrating steady-state operation is whether divertor function to control particle and heat flux is effective enough. Relevant to this, LHD diagnostics should be consistent with the following: 1) continuous operation of main diagnostics during long-pulse operation for feedback control and physics understanding; 2) measurement of fraction of H, He, and impurities in the plasma; 3) heat removal and measure against possible damage or surface erosion of diagnostic components inside of the vacuum chamber; 4) data acquisition system for handling real time data display and a huge amount of data. Although there are already some achievements on the above subjects, there remain still several issues to be resolved. On the other hand, the long-pulse operation of the plasma gives benefits to the diagnostics. For example, the polarizing angle of ECE emission can be changed during the discharge, and the intensity dependence on the polarizing angle has been obtained. The spatial scanning of the neutral particle analyzer and the spectrometer can supply the spatial profiles of the fast neutral particle flux and the specific impurity lines. In this paper, the present status of these issues and future plans are described.


Teleoperation systems are subject to different types of disturbances. Such disturbances, when unaccounted for, may cause poor performance and even instability of the teleoperation system. This paper presents a novel nonlinear bilateral control scheme using the concept of disturbance observer based control for nonlinear teleoperation systems. Lumping the effects of dynamic uncertainties and external disturbances into a single disturbance term enables us to design a disturbance observer in order to suppress these disturbances and alleviate their adverse effects on the teleoperation system. A disturbance observer based control law is proposed for nonlinear teleoperation systems which will guarantee global asymptotic force tracking and global exponential position and disturbance tracking when the bilateral teleoperation system is experiencing slow-varying disturbances. In the case of fastvarying disturbances, the tracking errors are shown to be globally uniformly ultimately bounded, with an ultimate bound that can be made as small as desired using the design parameters. Simulations are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Socio-economic differences in health appear to be universal but the precise pathways that link socio-economic status and health remain unclear. Differential exposure to specific risk and protective factors are often cited as, at least, partial explanations of socio-economic differences in health. However, risk factors are culturally specific and risk factor-specific models of socio-economic differences in health may be inadequate: as soon as prevailing risk factors change, so too must associated explanations of socio-economic differences in health. An alternative, risk factor-independent, model of socio-economic differences in health proposes that fundamental pathways to health and disease exist and that risk and protective factors act by feeding into these pathways. We propose that biological ageing is one such fundamental pathway to health, disease and, thus, socio-economic differences in health. Biological ageing is the progressive decline in physiological ability to meet demands, that occurs over time. It is due to the accumulation of damage at the cellular level and the rate of biological ageing is determined by both environmental and genetic factors. There is increasing evidence that many known disease risk and protective factors influence the rate of cellular damage accumulation and hence biological ageing and that the pathogenesis of some important diseases is related to biological ageing. We discuss these issues and hypothesize that socio-economic differences in health are partly a result of poor people ageing faster than rich people due to the unhealthy environments to which they are exposed.


Abstract A theoretical model is constructed and tested for the analysis and prediction of radioactive concentration in the troposphere. It is found that turbulent motion near the jet core plays the major role in the transport of radioactive debris from the stratosphere into the troposphere, whereas the mean motion of the jet core contributes to the spring maximum and autumn minimum of the concentration. A semiannual period in the variation of concentration exists, resulting from the interaction between the meridional gradient of the mean concentration and the mean motion of the jet core. It is also found that the average value of the vertical component of the eddy diffusivity in the troposphere is about 107 cm2 sec−1, and that the time required for diffusing radioactive particles from the tropopause level to the surface of the earth is about 11 hours.


Chronic ankle instability has defined as recurrent ankle sprain, so that 40% of injured athletes after acute injury despite of receiving of adequate rehabilitation, suffering from this instability. The purpose of this study is investigate of postural sway's risk factors proportion in jump-landing and lateral hopping tasks, in prediction of chronic ankle sprain occurrence. 25 ankle sprain injured athletes and 25 healthy athletes participated in this descriptive-analytic study. Six variables (area of sways, path length and velocity of sways in jump-landing and lateral hoping tasks) were measured as predictor variables, and we used to Logistic Regression test for predicting. The results of study showed that path length and velocity of sways in jump-landing, area and path length of sways in lateral hopping had statistical significant proportion in classification of injured and healthy groups, and the model classified about 77% cases correctly. Therefore, athletes with ankle sprain history have less control of posture than healthy subjects in jumplanding and hopping tasks and have higher risk to getting recurrent ankle sprain. Also subjects with chronic ankle sprain have less control of posture in frontal plan.


It is very well understood how to evaluate and find, in different senses, optimal linear projections of measurements on linear systems. The solution to the linear least squares problem, the principal component analysis and partial least squares are all examples of well known techniques that work very well as long as the dependencies in data are fairly linear. When the measurements are due to nonlinear systems or due to measurements on a finite number of objects (classification), it is much more difficult not only to find an optimal projection, but also to asses a general quality measure to a particular projection. The dimension of the measurement is often high, so the search for projections is motivated by the desire to visualize in 2-dimensional diagrams, the need to reduce data with minimal loss (data compression) and to efficiently parameterize nonlinear models.For classication of measurements on a finite number of objects, the projection quality is naturally connected to how accurate the classification can be conducted despite the data reduction due to the projection. In this work, methods to estimate this accuracy as well as numerical methods to find the optimal projection with respect to this estimated accuracy are investigated. It is found that the nonlinear conjugate gradient method on the Grassmann manifold is one of the most time efficient numerical optimization methods to use with this type of problems.For nonlinear dynamical systems modeled by nonlinear ARX model structures, the challenge is to find projections of the regression vector that isolate a nonlinear curve or surface. It is not obvious that such low-dimensional projections that well fit the system always exist. When they do exist, for instance when the nonlinearities enter the system additively, we show that the projection can rather efficiently be estimated by using multi-index models fitted by least squares criteria.There is also an interesting hybrid case where a continuous system is analyzed by measurements on a nite number of calibration classes. We show how the resulting measurement classes can be used by techniques borrowed from discriminant analysis in order to find good projections where a continuous regression can be performed.


Circulatory parameters in a lizard (Varanus exanthematicus) were determined using the microsphere method. Microspheres (MS) (slightly larger than the erythrocytes and labelled with different gamma-emitting isotopes) were injected into a pulmonary vein or the left atrium for determination of the left-to-right (L-R) shunt and the regional distribution of the ventricular systemic output. Injections were also made into the sinus venosus for determination of the right-to-left (R-L) shunt. The relative blood flow was obtained as the ratio of the MS activity found in the various tissues over the total activity injected. Absolute calibration of the method was performed by introduction of an 'artificial organ' into the circulatory system (Hales, 1973). Ventricular systemic output (VSO), in five animals, averaged 121 ml/ (min.kg) and ventricular pulmonary output 119 ml/(min. kg). The value of VSO was significantly higher than those observed in other lizard species. In all experimental animals both R-L as well as L-R shunting of various extent occurred. The reliability of the microsphere method as applied in lizards is discussed and is considered to be relatively accurate even under conditions of incomplete mixing of shunted and unshunted blood in systemic heart output.


The Excessive Deficit Procedure (EDP) is a political mechanism that aims at 'multilevel governance' of state indebtedness in the European Union. As such, it has become the concern of research that asks how sovereignty becomes articulated in this process. This article approaches this question through the conceptualization of a modular notion of sovereignty elaborated through a discussion of work on the finance-security nexus. The article argues that existing accounts of the formation of sovereign power in relation to state debt can be combined into a notion of modular sovereignty when seen through the prism of critiques of contractualism that take issue with liberal notions of state sovereignty and credit security. This way, the indebted state becomes visible as the referent object of multiple, and potentially contradictory, invocations of sovereignty as exercised in the EDP. First, it figures as the seat of budget sovereignty, holding its social substrate liable for its debts while ignoring inequalities in that substrate. Second, it is appealed to, within a biopolitical rationality, as the sovereign guarantor of the financial wellbeing of its population. Third, it is seen as the executor of financial wisdom that is mobilized in struggles between different levels of financial governance in the EDP.


Background and methods
This report is derived from a review of the research evidence on physical activity interventions
and initiatives, interventions to support self-management/ self-care of long-term conditions and
digitally enabled care services and technologies. The aim was to use existing evidence to
envision future services and associated infrastructure.
The Evidence Review involved scoping the literature for topics researched and to determine the
nature of that research. Rapid-scoping review methods were applied to trusted sources, and
searches for specific key texts were conducted. A separate search was conducted to identify
literature relevant to each domain. A narrative was then produced from the review findings.
Review findings
The evidence base for physical activity interventions is growing. There has been significant
recent investment in the development and evaluation of interventions to promote activity and
reduce sedentary behaviour at the individual, community and population levels. The evidence to
link higher levels of physical activity to positive health outcomes and disease prevention is
convincing, both in 'well' populations and in those with long-term health conditions.
Self-management interventions are heterogeneous in nature but common elements exist across
the majority of them. The consensus in the literature is that self-management will become
increasingly important due to unsustainable demands upon services. Evaluation of selfmanagement
interventions reveals a small but varying effect across a wide range of outcomes.
However, little is known about the mechanisms by which these interventions work and how
these might vary across differing conditions and populations.
Technology is being increasingly used to support service delivery in a wide range of contexts,
and for the delivery of a variety of interventions including fitness and self-management. There is
strong evidence supporting the use of technology for remote monitoring of people with longterm
conditions, but further research is required.
Implications
Digital applications are already altering established patterns of service delivery. The findings
presented here reveal varying results of efficacy which do not accord with the optimistic future
described in various envisaging reports. Research has yet to consider unwanted and
unforeseen effects of moving towards technology-enabled services. It is also important to
consider how to effectively harness new health data emerging from the use of eHealth systems,
technology-enabled services and health-tracking devices.
There is an ongoing requirement to evaluate new technologies and technology-enabled
services in ways that provide both timely and robust answers, particularly as technology
development is a continually moving target. These considerations are discussed in this report.


This article reports on a study exploring a distributed perspective on school leadership through three headteacher case studies conducted in Scottish primary schools. Drawing from a sequence of in-depth, semi-structured and narrative style interviews conducted with each headteacher, as well as from a semi-structured questionnaire and sociometric analysis conducted with staff, the article analyses the experiences and perceptions of headteachers. The paper finds that in practice, distributed leadership is more complex and challenging than often represented, challenging five generally held assumptions in the theoretical, policy and practice frames. Implications are drawn for educational leadership at both school and system levels.


In recent decades, criminal records have proliferated and come to be more consequential than ever. James B. Jacobs's new book, THE ETERNAL CRIMINAL RECORD (2015), documents their broad scope, wide availability, and the long, devastating shadow that criminal records cast. In this Review, I organize the material in this challenging book into three different claims about American criminal record policy: that in the United States, criminal records are exceptionally public, exceptionally punitive, and exceptionally permanent. I explain how this results in an inexpensive means of sorting and inflicting punishment by devolving a great portion of the work to private actors and the general public. It also presents a public policy conundrum for American criminal justice: the more information we collect and share about suspected criminals and actual offenders, the easier it is to identify and discriminate against those marked individuals. This, it turns out, increases recidivism, therefore undermining the public safety goal at the heart of comprehensive, accessible criminal records. To counter this perverse outcome, I marshal evidence and optimism for reforms that Jacobs considers either unattainable or unwarranted, including the possibility of juvenile justice policy serving as a blueprint for a more redemptive criminal record policy for all.


OBJECTIVES
To study the hematologic and immunophenotypic profile of 260 cases of acute myeloid leukemia at diagnosis.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This is a retrospective analysis of 260 cases of AML diagnosed at our institution between 1998 and 2000. Diagnosis was based on peripheral blood and bone marrow examination for morphology cytochemistry and immunophenotypic studies. SPSS software package, version 10, was used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS
Seventy-six percent of our cases were adults. The age of the patients ranged from one year to 78 years with a median age of 27.2 years. There were 187 males and 73 females. The commonest FAB subtype, in both children and adults, was AML-M2. The highest WBC counts were seen in AML-M1 and the lowest in AML-M3 (10-97 x 10(9)/L, mean 53.8 x 10(9)/L). The mean values and range for hemoglobin was 6.8 gm/l (1.8 gm/l to 9.2 gm/l), platelet count 63.3 x 10(9)/L (32-83 x 10(9)/L), peripheral blood blasts 41.4% (5 to 77%) and bone marrow blasts 57.6% (34-96%). Myeloperoxidase positivity was highest in the M1, M2 and M3 subtypes. CD13 and CD33 were the most useful markers in the diagnosis of AML. CD14 and CD36 were most often seen in monocytic (38%) and myelomonocytic (44%) leukemias. Lymphoid antigen expression was seen in 15% of cases. CD7 expression was the commonest (11%).

CONCLUSION
AML accounted for 39.8% of all acute leukemias at this institution. The most common subtype was AML-M2. Myeloperoxidase stain was a useful tool in the diagnosis of myeloid leukemias. CD13 and CD33 were the most diagnostic myeloid markers.


In a consensus protocol an agreement among agents is achieved thanks to the collaborative efforts of all agents, expresses by a communication graph with nonnegative weights. The question we ask in this paper is the following: is it possible to achieve a form of agreement also in presence of antagonistic interactions, modeled as negative weights on the communication graph? The answer to this question is affirmative: on signed networks all agents can converge to a consensus value which is the same for all agents except for the sign. Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained to describe cases in which this is possible. These conditions have strong analogies with the theory of monotone systems. Linear and nonlinear Laplacian feedback designs are proposed.


This article analyzes 1955 data on gross farm income, production expenditures, net income, and marketing charges, by major commodity groups. This piece of research is largely a byproduct of the Agricultural Industrial Relations Study of 1955 which provided some insights into the impact of purchases and sales of the farm economy. The framework of analysis is the same as that used in an earlier article published in the January 1952 issue of Agricultural Economics Research, "Some Relationships Between Agriculture and the General Economy," by Karl A. Fox and the author of the present paper. In the earlier article, data for the year 1947 were analyzed. The analysis in the article that follows shows the way each of seven major groups of expenditures is distributed among the commodity categories, and the percentage use that each commodity group makes of each expenditure group in its total production expenses.


Author(s): Pettler, Amy; Erickson, Gregg; Quinn, James F.; Meese, Robert J; Shilling, Fraser | Abstract: This abstract reports on the results of a California joint DOT-university project to develop database, modeling, and GIS tools and to publish an electronic manual and digital library to address animal-vehicle collision reduction and connectivity issues in the state.Despite the potentially large impacts of roads on wildlife movements and mortality, California has historically lacked standardized information tools to enable wildlife and transportation planners and managers to best identify and mitigate those impacts. These issues are being addressed by several California Department of Transportation research and development initiatives, including Animal Vehicle Collision Reduction and Connectivity Issues, Fish Passage, and Advanced Mitigation, much in collaboration with the University of California. Goals include addressing:• Developing Useful Metrics, Standardizing Data Collection Techniques and Data Analysis Models/Tools for Assessment• Improving Safety and Delivery in the Caltrans Planning and Project Development Process• Strategic Outreach and Engagement• Development of Guidance Documents and Support Tools for Analysis based on the developed Metrics, Standards, and models• Working at a program level to optimize and leverage funding opportunities for collision reduction and connectivity issuesElements of a new analytic framework to address this need include integrative GIS tools to identify, on both local and regional scales, locations of core wildlife populations, mapping of least-cost-path movement corridors to identify locations posing high risks of crossing mortality, a library of species-specific information on movement patterns and models, tools to develop more systematic documentation of road-related wildlife mortality, and a clearinghouse for evaluating structures, technologies and networking approaches to remotely detecting the presence of wildlife around transportation facilities, evaluating impacts, and mitigating the effects. Improved data from remote sensing and GIS clearinghouses, new methods and sensors for detecting animals and movement, emerging technologies for networking distributed and heterogeneous data, new data standards and models, and better integration with other information sources can all contribute to decreasing road impacts on animal populations and movements. Results of this project include a newly published California manual for managing wildlife crossing issues and GIS, database, and supporting digital library tools on-line at the Information Center for the Environment (http://ice.ucdavis.edu).


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to verify the influence of prebrushing mouthwashes on dental plaque removal in children.

METHODS
This study had a double-blind, randomized, controlled, crossover, 25-day experimental design, including 38 12- to 14-year-olds. Four solutions were used as prebrushing mouthwashes (Colgate Plax Magic, Listerine Cool Blue Agent, water and dye, and water) by each participant with seven days' washout. The plaque index was evaluated before and after tooth-brushing during the experimental period.

RESULTS
Intergroup comparisons showed no significant differences in plaque reduction among evaluated solutions (Friedman test, P>.78). Significantly more plaque was present before vs. after tooth-brushing (Wilcoxon rank test, P<.001), independent of the surface (buccal or lingual/palatal).

CONCLUSION
Use of prebrushing mouthwashes by children does not influence plaque removal by tooth-brushing.


We have developed a linearly-polarized Ytterbium-doped fiber ring laser with single longitudinal-mode output at 1064nm for LISA and other space applications. Single longitudinal-mode selection was achieved by using a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) and a fiber Fabry-Perot (FFP). The FFP also serves as a frequency-reference within our ring laser. Our laser exhibits comparable low frequency and intensity noise to Non-Planar Ring Oscillator (NPRO). By using a fiber-coupled phase modulator as a frequency actuator, the laser frequency can be electro-optically tuned at a rate of 100kHz. It appears that our fiber ring laser is promising for space applications where robustness of fiber optics is desirable.


The specimens collected by Dr. Hicks during his late visit to Pembrokeshire have a most important bearing on the question of the existence or non-existence in that region of a considerable group of Pre-Cambrian rocks. In addition to these, the slides described by Mr. T. Davies in the 'Quarterly Journal' for 1884 were placed in my hands for purposes of comparison. I also possess a small series cut from specimens either collected by myself on occasion of a short visit in 1882 or given to me by Dr. Hicks. The main points at issue in regard to the geology of the district are these: Do we find here an important group of rocks anterior to a well-defined base of the Cambrian series? or are certain granitoid and felsitic rocks (the so-called Dimetian and Arvonian)only intrusive masses of later date than the lower Cambrian? and is the socalled Pebidian merely a record of volcanic eruptions which occurred in the earliest days of the Cambrian period, no more deserving of separation from it than are the volcanic rocks of the Arcnig or Bala from the other members of those formations? Subordinate and highly interesting questions are: What is the true nature of the granitoid (Dimetian) and of the felsitie (Arvonian) rocks? Are they metamorphic rocks in the ordinary sense, or are they igneous? If the former view can be established, the controversy is practically at an end ; but if the matter must remain in uncertainty, or even if the rocks be


We revisit a pioneer unsupervised learning technique called archetypal analysis, [5] which is related to successful data analysis methods such as sparse coding [18] and non-negative matrix factorization [19]. Since it was proposed, archetypal analysis did not gain a lot of popularity even though it produces more interpretable models than other alternatives. Because no efficient implementation has ever been made publicly available, its application to important scientific problems may have been severely limited. Our goal is to bring back into favour archetypal analysis. We propose a fast optimization scheme using an active-set strategy, and provide an efficient open-source implementation interfaced with Matlab, R, and Python. Then, we demonstrate the usefulness of archetypal analysis for computer vision tasks, such as codebook learning, signal classification, and large image collection visualization.


This paper proposes an approach to extract focused objects (i.e., attention objects) from low depth-of-field images. To recognize the focused object, we decompose the image into multiple regions, which are described by using three types of visual descriptors. Each descriptor is extracted from a representation of some aspects of local appearance, e.g., a spatially localized texture, color, or geometrical property. Therefore, the focus detection of a region can be achieved by the classification of extracted visual descriptors based on a binary classifier. We employ a boosting algorithm to learn the classifier with a cascade of decision structure. Given a test image, initial segmentation can be achieved using obtained classification results. Finally, we apply a post-processing technique to improve the results by incorporating region grouping and pixel-level segmentation. Experimental evaluation on a number of images demonstrates the performance advantages of the proposed method, when compared with state-of-the-art methods.


Planar electrodes are increasingly used in a variety of neural stimulation techniques such as epidural spinal cord stimulation, epidural cortical stimulation, transcranial direct current stimulation and functional electric stimulation. Recently, optimized electrode geometries have been shown to increase the efficiency of neural stimulation by maximizing the variation of current density on the electrode surface. In the present work, a new family of modified fractal electrode geometries is developed to increase the neural activation function and enhance the efficiency of neural stimulation. It is hypothesized that the key factor in increasing the activation function in the tissue adjacent to the electrode is to increase the "edginess" of the electrode surface, a concept that is explained and quantified by fractal mathematics. Rigorous finite element simulations were performed to compute the distribution of electric potential produced by proposed geometries, demonstrating that the neural activation function was significantly enhanced in the tissue. The activation of 800 model axons positioned around the electrodes was also quantified, showing that modified fractal geometries yielded a 22% reduction in input power consumption while maintaining the same level of neural activation. The results demonstrate the feasibility of increasing stimulation efficiency using modified fractal geometries beyond the levels already reported in the literature.


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A deeper understanding of the influence of fine-scale fuel patterns on fire behavior is essential to the design of forest treatments that aim to reduce fire hazard, enhance structural complexity, and increase ecosystem function and resilience. Of particular relevance is the impact of horizontal and vertical forest structure on potential tree torching and large-tree mortality. It may be the case that fire behavior in spatially complex stands differs from predictions based on stand-level descriptors of the fuel distribution and structure. In this work, we used a spatially explicit fire behavior model to evaluate how the vertical and horizontal distribution of fuels influences the potential for fire to travel from the surface into overstory tree crowns. Our results support the understanding that crown fuels (e.g., needles and small-diameter branchwood) close to the surface can aid in this transition; however, we add important nuance by showing the interactive effect of overstory horizontal fuel connectivity. The influence of fuels low in the canopy space was overridden by the effect of horizontal connectivity at surface fire-line intensities greater than 1415 kW/m. For example, tree groups with vertically continuous fuels and limited horizontal connectivity sustained less large-tree consumption than tree groups with a significant vertical gap between the surface and canopy but high-canopy horizontal connectivity. This effect was likely the result of reduced net vertical heat transfer as well as decreased horizontal heat transfer, or crown-to-crown spread, in the upper canopy. These results suggest that the crown fire hazard represented by vertically complex tree groups is strongly mediated by the density, or horizontal connectivity, of the tree crowns within the group, and therefore, managers may be able to mitigate some of the torching hazard associated with vertically heterogenous tree groups.


Variable selection in Gaussian processes (GPs) is typically undertaken by thresholding the inverse lengthscales of automatic relevance determination kernels, but in high-dimensional datasets this approach can be unreliable. A more probabilistically principled alternative is to use spike and slab priors and infer a posterior probability of variable inclusion. However, existing implementations in GPs are very costly to run in both high-dimensional and large-$n$ datasets, or are only suitable for unsupervised settings with specific kernels. As such, we develop a fast and scalable variational inference algorithm for the spike and slab GP that is tractable with arbitrary differentiable kernels. We improve our algorithm's ability to adapt to the sparsity of relevant variables by Bayesian model averaging over hyperparameters, and achieve substantial speed ups using zero temperature posterior restrictions, dropout pruning and nearest neighbour minibatching. In experiments our method consistently outperforms vanilla and sparse variational GPs whilst retaining similar runtimes (even when $n=10^6$) and performs competitively with a spike and slab GP using MCMC but runs up to $1000$ times faster.