Abstract The aim of this study was to assess whether higher plasma formaldehyde concentration existed in women diagnosed with miscarriage and whether it contributed to higher risk of miscarriage in Chinese women. A case-control study was conducted in 118 women with a diagnosed miscarriage at the first trimester and 191 healthy women who delivered at term. Plasma levels of formaldehyde were measured by gas chromatography in conjunction with mass spectrometry after derivatization of the formaldehyde to the pentafluorophenylhydrazone and characteristics of the subjects including age, education level, occupation, family income, home decoration status, and exposure to second-hand smoke were recorded. Logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship between miscarriage and levels of formaldehyde. Women with miscarriage were comparable to controls in terms of age, education level, occupation, family income, and home decoration status. They were, however, more likely to be exposed to second-hand smoke. Plasma levels of formaldehyde were significantly higher in women with miscarriage (0.0944 ± 0.0105 vs. 0.0239 ± 0.0032 &mgr;g/mL, P < .001). Multivariate logistic regression showed that higher level of formaldehyde (odds ratio [OR]: 8.06, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.96–13.09) and exposure to second-hand smoke (OR: 3.60, 95% CI: 1.58–8.20) were independently and significantly associated with higher risk of miscarriage. Plasma levels of formaldehyde were significantly higher in women who were diagnosed with miscarriage than those who delivered at term and higher levels of formaldehyde was an independent risk factor for miscarriage, with higher levels being associated with higher risk of miscarriage.


A new GC-IRMS technique has been developed for isotopic and mixing ratio analysis of atmospheric CO2. The technique offers for the first time, N2O-free, high precision (<0.05 [per mil]) analysis of d13C and d18O from small whole-air samples. On-line GC separation of CO2 and N2O from these small samples is combined with IRMS under elevated ion source pressures. A specialised open split interface is an integral part of the inlet system and ensures a continuous flow of either sample gas or pure helium to the IRMS. The analysis, including all flushing, uses a total of 45 ml of an air sample collected at ambient pressure. Of this, three 0.5 ml aliquots are injected onto the GC column, each providing [approximately] 0.8 nmol CO2 in the IRMS source. At this sample size, d13C precision obtained is at the theoretical shot-noise limit. Demonstrated precisions for d13C, d18O, and CO2 mixing ratio (all measured simultaneously)are 0.02 [per mil], 0.04 [per mil] and 0.4 ppm respectively. The initial results from an inter calibration exercise with Atmospheric Research at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia achieved the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) target precision for d13C. During this exercise, agreement for d18O and CO2 mixing ratio was outside the IAEA and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) target precisions for these species, however, when the measurement uncertainties of the two laboratories were considered, the differences were not significant. An inter comparison program using air samples collected at Baring Head, New Zealand and Cape Grim, Australia was also established with CSIRO and d13C, d18O and CO2 mixing ratio showed excellent agreement when combined measurement uncertainties were considered. Further inter comparisons with the Carbon Cycle Group at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (NOAA CMDL), the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR), and Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) were also established. No significant differences for d13C were observed during these inter comparison programs. Therefore, these preliminary measurements suggest that the current situation between these laboratories for d13C comparisons from whole-air in glass flasks may be improved compared to the 1995 IAEA inter comparison from whole-air in high-pressure cylinders. Following these inter calibration and inter comparison exercises, temporal and spatial variations in the mixing ratio and isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 were determined over a large region of the Pacific Ocean to demonstrate the successful use of the GC-IRMS technique. Temporal variations were observed at long-term monitoring sites in the Southern Hemisphere (Baring Head, Cape Grim, and Arrival Heights, Ross Island, Antarctica). Seasonal cycles of CO2 mixing ratio and d13C, with amplitudes of [approximately] 1 ppm and [approximately] 0.05 [per mil] respectively, were measured at Baring Head. A decline in d13C of [approximately] -0.1 [per mil]/year was observed at Arrival Heights between 1997 and 1999. Spatial variations in the Pacific Ocean were investigated by shipboard sampling programs between [approximately] 62 degrees S and [approximately] 32 degrees N. These data were consistent with a Southern Ocean sink between [approximately] 43 degrees S and [approximately] 57 degrees S. In addition, inter hemispheric gradients of d13C and CO2 mixing ratio in March and September 1998 were determined and the position and intensity of the SPCZ and ITCZ were important for the strength of these inter hemispheric gradients. Measurements performed during an upper tropospheric flight from New Zealand, to Antarctica show elevated CO2 levels and depleted d13C compared to samples obtained in the marine boundary layer over this region. A small-scale application of the technique measured soil-respired CO2 in a New Zealand Mountain Beech forest from 150 ml sample flasks that were filled to ambient pressure. These measurements determined a difference between the d13C source signature from the young and old trees of [approximately] 0.3 [per mil], which was in the correct direction but of smaller magnitude than that expected. The small sample requirements of the GC-IRMS technique ease sample collection logistics for varied research. Since initial results from an inter calibration exercise with CSIRO obtain the IAEA target precision for d13C and the technique has demonstrated its ability to successfully monitor atmospheric CO2 species from small whole-air samples, without contamination by atmospheric N2O or the use of cryogen, the technique will be a powerful tool in global carbon cycle research.


Structure determination of thin polymer films using GIXRD and AFM Both atomic force microscopy (AFM) and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) are used to determine the structure of polymer thin films. To enable experiments using these techniques to be conducted experimental apparatus was designed and built. These apparatus' included an in-situ heater to allow investigations at elevated temperatures to be conducted as well as a chamber for the work conducted using GIXRD to minimise the background scattering incident on the detector. The structure of two polymers, F8 and PQT-12, have been investigated using GIXRD. Both of these polymers align in a layered geometry normal to the surface, and in an isotropic polycrystalline ordering in the plane of the surface. The F8 polymer, while in the a-crystalline phase, has a unit cell dimension of 27.3 0.3A normal to the surface and unit cell dimensions of 24.3 0.3A and 17.1 0.2A in the plane of the surface. As- spun PQT-12 of molecular weight of 5000amu has been found to form a metastable self- assembled crystalline phase with unit cell dimensions of 35.6 0.7A out-of-plane and 13.10 0.12A, 16.4 0.6A in-plane. The structure of PQT-12 has been shown to be dependent on molecular weight, annealing and physical preparation of the substrate. The rate and mechanisms of crystallisation of a third polymer, PET, have also been investigated as a function of anneal temperature. The crystallisation was followed at each given temperature to follow the growth of individual spherulites. As the thickness of the PET film was increased from 43nm to 120 nm the radial growth rate of the spherulites increased linearly from 8.0 0.9nm/min to 14.3 1.3nm/min.


In a recent issue of HEPATOLOGY, Karvellas et al. reported a study in which they investigated whether early (day 1) or late (day 3-5) elevations in levels of serum liver-type fatty acid binding protein (FABP1) are associated with 21-day mortality in the absence of liver transplantation. The authors concluded that in patients with acetaminophen (APAP)-induced acute liver failure (ALF), FABP1 may have good potential to discriminate survivors from nonsurvivors and may improve models currently used in clinical practice. We thank Karvellas et al. for their comprehensive contribution. FABP1, which is expressed in hepatocytes, enterocytes, and to a lesser degree in renal tubular cells, has been associated with liver injury. Karvellas et al. wisely noted that serum levels of FABP1 were significantly higher at early (admission) and late (day 3-5) time points in APAP-ALF nonsurvivors. After adjusting for significant covariates reflecting severity of illness, serum FABP1 was significantly associated with 21-day mortality measured at both early and late time points. Karvellas et al. did not have access to a control group with critical illness but not APAP-ALF as a comparator to elucidate the association between FABP1 and critical illness. We would like to know why the authors did not perform subgroup analysis according to a control group with critical illness. In addition, of the 99 APAP-ALF survivors, 19 and 10 patients underwent renal replacement therapy (RRT) at early and late time points, respectively, and of the 99 APAP-ALF nonsurvivors, 24 and 27 patients underwent RRT at early and late time points, respectively. Although no significance between these groups was reported, it is unclear whether RRT influenced the actual values of FABP1. Another limitation of the study by Karvellas et al. is that no comparison of FABP1 and other wellestablished prognostic biomarkers was made. As a result, it remains unclear whether FABP1 shows superior prognostic performance than bilirubin or blood coagulation function, which is a strong predictor of APAP-ALF. In addition to FABP1, there are several other useful biomarkers that can be used to predict the severity of APAP-ALF, such as total protein, alanine aminotransferase, and bilirubin. Therefore, FABP1 should be evaluated along with other important markers; only in this way can accurate information be obtained about the prognostic indication of patients with APAP-ALF. Finally, we believe the research by Karvellas et al. will promote further research of the relationship of FABP1 and mortality in patients with APAP-ALF.


Neurocysticercosis is a major public health problem in developing countries. Before computed tomography became available its diagnosis was very restricted and the conventional diagnostic methods were unreliable. It also was frequently necessary to submit patients to costly and dangerous surgical procedures to confirm the precise nature of the disease. One hundred and seventy-one patients with neurocysticercosis were evaluated by computed tomography. The diagnostic findings of the different types of lesions produced by the larva of the parasite (Taenia solium) in the central nervous system, and the advantages of CT in the diagnosis of this clinical entity are described, as well as the main signs and symptoms of the patients referred for examination. The effect of corticosteroids in the acute stages of the disease and the changes they provoke in the CT images are described.


This is a quantitative study that focuses on the lack of differentiation within the forecourt convenience store industry within Cape Town area and the use of an information system to build a differentiation strategy for major oil companies. A critical literature review was conducted to provide a theoretical framework for this study. The literature provided a foundation for the study and revealed that previous researchers have found that it is vital to differentiate within the retail industry due to the highly competitive nature of the industry. It was also made evident in the literature that companies need to become knowledgeable about the customer, the store attributes and products that can contribute to developing a differentiation strategy. Previous researchers recognized the value of having a robust information system that can provide key information required for the strategic planning process of retail companies. The literature review assisted in placing this study in context and preparing for the collection of primary data to answer the research questions. The Chevron retailers within the Cape Town area participated in the study and responded to a questionnaire that focused on the value of differentiation and information systems within the convenience store industry and the subsequent effect it has on the profitability and brand equity of a company. The survey strategy was chosen as the most applicable research method and the findings from the analysis of the data shows that the retailers are in strong agreement that differentiation will enable an oil company to rise above the competitors within the forecourt convenience store industry and also agreed that an information system is required to provide the critical information to assist in developing a differentiation strategy. There appears to be a strong positive correlation between differentiating and an information system from the responses received from the sample of retailers. From the synthesis of the results the most important factors that can be used to differentiate in the industry are store location and customer service. It was also found that the information system must contain data on customers, store attributes and products. Student No: 203507199 MBA Dissertation: University of KwaZulu-Natal ii The Use of an Information Management System to Enable Major Oil Companies to Build a Business Strategy to Allow for Differentiation within the Forecourt Convenience Store Industry within the Cape Town Area This is seen as important ingredients for the strategic planning process and this information will ultimately contribute to an increase in profitability and brand equity if used appropriately. The recommendations made to an oil company that operates within the forecourt convenience store industry are to focus on strategic store locations and customer service to increase profitability and brand equity. Additionally a back-office system must be implemented that enables the capture of pertinent customer, store and product information. It was also recommended that a further study be undertaken using qualitative datagathering techniques and the scope to include the entire convenience store industry in South Africa. Student No: 203507199 MBA Dissertation: University of KwaZulu-Natal The Use of an Information Management System to Enable Major Oil Companies to Build a Business Strategy to Allow for Differentiation within the Forecourt Convenience Store Industry within the Cape Town Area


Why you should read this article: • To enhance your knowledge of the beneficial effects of dance on health and well-being • To gain awareness of the potential of dance as a form of exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic • To reflect on the use of dance as a socially prescribed intervention in mental health services Background: Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in people having to find new ways to exercise One such way is dance, an activity that can be undertaken at home and adapted to suit most people's abilities Dance has been shown to have physical and psychological benefits, but little is known about the effect of dance on mood according to dance style Aim: To explore the effect of dance on mood in two groups of participants – one engaging in ballet and the other in tap – compared with a control group, and to assess whether the effect of dance on mood differs depending on dance style Methods: Eighty-two participants (78 females) recruited from three dance schools and clubs in the Midlands and the north-east of England completed the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) mood scale Participants in the intervention groups completed the PANAS before and after participating in a ballet class or a tap class Participants in the control group completed the PANAS before and after a one-hour wait in a similar environment to the two dance groups Results: Participating in a dance class, whether ballet or tap, resulted in greater improvements in mood than being in the control group Both age and dance class status predicted improved mood, but age was a stronger predictor than dance class status There was no statistically significant difference in mood improvements between those attending a ballet class and those attending a tap class Conclusion: Dance may offer a way of enhancing mood, particularly for those who are restricted to exercising at home Mental health nurses could consider using dance as a mental health intervention in addition to more traditional therapeutic approaches, potentially as a social prescription intervention


Japanese prefer odd numbers, whereas Westerners emphasize even numbers, an observation that is clear from the distribution of number-related words in Japanese and English dictionaries. In this article, the author explains why these two cultures differ by surveying the history of numbers, including yin-yang thought from ancient China, ancient Greek philosophy, and modern European mathematics. The author also mentions that oddness and evenness are only mathematical concepts, but understanding the cultures and histories of individual countries contributes to world peace.


As flexibility and generativity of digitized information continuously afford new possibilities, a significant challenge for organizations becomes pinpointing forms and kinds of practice that are befitting from various aspects. Two overarching digitization eras have so far determined the greatness of the challenge for organizations; 'computerization', and 'the Internet'. Today, a third era of digitization is marked by the emergence of digitized products. As an increasing number of code lines and software are being incorporated in previously physical products such as cars, they can be used as complete products on one layer, and simultaneously turn into platforms enabling other firms to develop and integrate new components, content, or services on another layer. As digital product platform's multiple design layers need to be open to various applications and agendas, their development requires new justifications and approaches for organizing work. By looking into the characteristics of digital product platforms, we discuss the shifts in the work of engineers as they engage in developing digitized products along three main courses of action. We illustrate how these courses of action are formed based on the requirements of developing digital product platforms rather than managerial presuppositions.


Background: While many settler allies are eager to help towards the goal of disrupting racism, a clearer understanding of how best to harness this eagerness is required within the field of Indigenous health, a field currently comprised mainly non-Indigenous scholars, researchers and educators. Purpose: Responding to this challenge, this article aims to identify ways of working towards disrupting settler colonialism and addressing racism in all of its manifestations by building settler allyship and adopting an anti-racist lens within the field of Indigenous health. The article describes how to approach building settler allyship by implementing anti-racist acts. Method: By using anti-racist scholarship and showcasing recent public examples of anti-Indigenous racism, the author describes how settler allies can approach developing unsettled, critical and anti-racist conversations with one another and in respectful ways with Indigenous peoples. As many Indigenous peoples continue to identify ongoing racism, there is a need for informed, unsettled, anti-racist allies willing to challenge their own complicity to then take action when anti-Indigenous racism occurs. Actions include critical self-reflection, confronting white supremacy and implementing demonstrably anti-racist acts. Conclusion: Findings provide the basis for amplifying unsettling conversations between engaged settler allies to develop anti-racist ways of fostering and extending relationships with Indigenous people and scholars.


Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are being used in many consumer products and devices. It is likely that as some of these products reach the end of their useful life, they will be discarded in municipal solid waste landfills. However, there has been little work evaluating the fate of nanomaterials in solid waste environments. The purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the influence of organic matter type and concentration in landfill-relevant conditions on SWNT transport through a packed-bed of mixed municipal solid waste collectors. The influence of individual waste materials on SWNT deposition is also evaluated. Transport experiments were conducted through saturated waste-containing columns over a range of simulated leachate conditions representing both mature and young leachates. Results indicate that SWNT transport may be significant in mature waste environments, with mobility decreasing with decreasing humic acid concentration. SWNT mobility in the presence of acetic acid was inhibited, suggesting their mobility in young waste environments may be small. SWNTs also exhibited collector media-dependent transport, with greatest transport in glass and least in paper. These results represent the first study evaluating how leachate age and changes in waste composition influence potential SWNT mobility in landfills.


Historically, this title ("Calvinism") is of little accuracy or worth; I use it to denote certain points of doctrine, because custom has made it familiar. Early in the seventeenth century the Presbyterian Church of Holland, whose doctrinal confession is the same in substance with ours, was much troubled by a species of new-school minority, headed by one of its preachers and professors, James Harmensen, in Latin, Arminius (hence, ever since, Arminians). Church and state have always been united in Holland; hence the civil government took up the quarrel. Professor Harmensen (Arminius) and his party were required to appear before the State's General (what we would call Federal Congress) and say what their objections were against the doctrines of their own church, which they had freely promised in their ordination vows to teach. Arminius handed in a writing in which he named five points of doctrine concerning which he and his friends either differed or doubted. These points were virtually: Original sin, unconditional predestination, invincible grace in conversion, particular redemption, and perseverance of saints. I may add, the result was: that the Federal legislature ordered the holding of a general council of all the Presbyterian churches then in the world, to discuss anew and settle these five doctrines. This was the famous Synod of Dort, or Dordrecht, where not only Holland ministers, but delegates from the French, German, Swiss, and British churches met in 1618. The Synod adopted the rule that every doctrine should be decided by the sole authority of the Word of God, leaving out all human philosophies and opinions on both sides. The result was a short set of articles which were made a part thenceforward of the Confession of Faith of the Holland Presbyterian Church. They are clear, sound, and moderate, exactly the same in substance with those of our Westminister Confession, enacted twenty-seven years afterward.


This paper describes the coupling of an oscillating U-shaped water tank, also called a U-tank, with a pitching floating Wave Energy Converter (WEC) to expand the response bandwidth. The performance of these energy converters strongly depends on their frequency response, and their resonance period is generally fixed once the geometric and inertial parameters of the system have been defined. The integration and appropriate control of dynamic inertial systems based on water ballast tanks enable slow tuning of the system's resonance with the incoming wave, maximizing energy extraction. The dynamic coupling of the hull with the water tank is then analyzed, and a passive control system is developed that acts on the air contained in the reservoirs of the U-tank by partitioning the volume within. Air expansion is then controlled by discretely adjusting the available, properly partitioned volume allowing the variation of the frequency response of the sloshing water tank and device. The resolution of the dynamics involves linear models based on the Boundary-Element-Method as far as hull hydrodynamics are concerned; a solution of the Euler equation describes the oscillating tank. Finally, the expansion and compression of the air contained in the reservoirs of the U-tank are assumed to be governed by a generic polytropic transformation law, and such a condition is linearized around the operating condition. The ISWEC device is adopted as a case study, and its energy harvesting working principle is based on the gyroscope technology. The results aim to confirm the ability to perform slow tuning of the device frequency response via regulation of the air volume of the sloshing water tanks.


This paper analyses the SA-SAMS school administration data that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation in partnership with the Department of Basic Education collects quarterly from schools in order to assess its usefulness for better understanding the school system. The disaggregated SA-SAMS data housed in the Data Driven Districts operational data store is typically provided in the form of data dashboards for analytical purposes to the education authorities. Although only non-random samples of the data are available in longitudinal form, the analysis shows that this can already be used to investigate important relationships and features of the education system. These include the relationship between performance in earlier grades and performance in matric, the relationship between performance, repetition and subsequent dropout, the choice between Mathematics and Mathematical Literacy, and the utility of using school-based assessments in investigating later educational outcomes. The SA-SAMS data also contains much better information on the number of disabled learners in schools than previous Annual Survey of Schools (ASS or EMIS) data. Expanding such analysis in the future with lengthened longitudinal data and larger samples as data collection improves should be very fruitful for an improved understanding of the school system.


Abstract Previous studies of the estrogen receptor-alpha knockout (αERKO) in the male mouse demonstrate that the rete testis and efferent ductules are targets of estrogen. Because the αERKO mouse lacks a functional estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) throughout development, it was not known whether the morphological and physiological abnormalities observed in the αERKO male were due to developmental defects or to dysfunctions concurrent with the lack of ERα in the tissue. This study was designed to determine if treatment of normal wild-type (WT) mice with the pure antiestrogen, ICI 182,780, (ICI) could reproduce the morphological characteristics seen in αERKO mice. Thirty-day-old male mice were treated for 35 days with either castor oil or ICI. Age-equivalent αERKO mice were used for comparison. Light microscopic examinations of the reproductive tracts revealed dramatic changes in the efferent ductules of treated mice: a 1.7-fold increase in luminal diameter, a 56% reduction in epithelial cell height, a 60% reduction in brush boarder height of nonciliated cells, and an apparent reduction of the number of observable lysosomes and endocytotic vesicles. Testes of ICI-treated mice showed swollen rete testes area (6.5 times larger than control) and a 65% reduction in rete testis epithelium height. However, there were no significant changes in body and testis weights. These results indicate that ER blockage with ICI in WT mice results in morphological changes of the efferent ductules resembling those seen in αERKO siblings of the same age. Based on this study, we conclude that ERα has a functional role in the mouse reproductive tract and the aberrant morphology observed in the efferent ductules of the αERKO mouse is likely the result of a concurrent response to the lack of functional ERα, and not solely due to the lack of ERα during early developmental times.


: The surgical findings observed in a series of 260 patients with craniovertebral anomaly are presented. There were 29 (11.1%) patients only with basilar impression, 18 (6.9%) cases of pure Arnold-Chiari malformation and 213 (81.9%) cases of basilar impression associated with Chiari malformation. The surgical findings on bone, dura-mater, nervous tissue and blood vessels of this region are reported.


BACKGROUND
Because of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic, many primary care practices have transitioned to telehealth visits to keep patients at home and decrease the transmission of the disease. Yet, little is known about the nationwide capacity for delivering primary care services via telehealth.

METHODS
Using the 2016 National Ambulatory Medical Survey we estimated the number and proportion of reported visits and services that could be provided via telehealth. We also performed cross-tabulations to calculate the number and proportion of physicians providing telephone visits and e-mail/internet encounters.

RESULTS
Of the total visits (nearly 400 million) to primary care physicians, 42% were amenable to telehealth and 73% of the total services rendered could be delivered through telehealth modalities. Of the primary care physicians, 44% provided telephone consults and 19% provided e-consults.

DISCUSSION
This study underscores how and where primary care services could be delivered. It provides the first estimates of the capacity of primary care to provide telehealth services for COVID-19 related illness, and for several other acute and chronic medical conditions. It also highlights the fact that, as of 2016, most outpatient telehealth visits were done via telephone.

CONCLUSIONS
This study provides an estimate of the primary care capacity to deliver telehealth and can guide practices and payers as care delivery models change in a post-COVID 19 environment.


This paper introduces an experimental procedure aiming at performing a consistent mechanical characterization of textile composites behavior, under static and dynamic loadings, and particularly their macroscopic strain rate‐dependent mechanisms. The procedure includes the design and validation of a reduced specimen adapted to dynamic testing, which guarantees the consistency of the identified macroscopic properties under a wide range of strain rates. An interrupted high speed tensile apparatus was also developed to investigate the strain rate sensitivity of the nonlinear constitutive behavior from ϵ̇ = 10 − 4 s − 1 to 102 s − 1. The originality of this experimental device lies in its ability to stop high speed loadings before ultimate failure, at adjustable, accurate strain levels. Finally, an extensive characterization campaign was performed. Results reveal a high strain rate dependency of the linear and nonlinear behavior. The procedure therefore generates consistent characterization data that may trustworthily be used for modeling purposes.


This paper describes the background and provides the rationale and the framework to embrace all feasible measures (passive/design and active/ operational – normal and emergencies) for improving the damage survivability of RoRo Passenger ships. The ideas elaborated in the paper are an attempt to elucidate and assess the impact on/options for new and existing ships of increasing the required subdivision index R. The former in response to the higher damage stability standards recommended following the conclusion of the EMSA III project and the latter in case IMO decided to apply higher damage stability requirements retrospectively, particularly in the aftermath of an accident. Such a framework would provide the motivation for instigating and establishing novel damage stability enhancing paradigms in line with IMO Circular 1455 on equivalents, for alternative compliance. This, in turn, would enable the industry to focus on all credible measures for damage stability enhancement in case of a flooding accident. This represents a step change both in the mind-set of naval architects and in safety legislation but the impact will be immense and mostly positive. This paper paves the way in this direction by providing the background and rationale for such a framework and by introducing an alternative system for damage stability enhancement that involves injecting highly expandable foam in the compartment(s) undergoing flooding during the initial post-accident flooding phase thus enhancing damage stability and survivability of RoPax vessels well beyond the design levels in the most cost-effective way currently available. This is a mind-set changing innovation that is likely to revolutionise design and operation of most ship types and RoPax, in particular. A number of applications are considered in the paper for a range of ship sizes with impressive results that will challenge the current established practice and open possibilities for novel and innovative design configurations.


Caught between the well-armed imaginations of paramilitary organisations competing for the hearts and minds of a divided population, and state engineering of a liberal peace, civil society's impact on Northern Ireland's identity politics was limited during the thirty-year conflict. Specifically, the community and voluntary sector itself has tended to replicate as much as it challenged patterns of segregation in many of its own structures. With plans set out in the Northern Ireland Executive's Programme for Government (2008–11) to engage civil society in opening a new era of 'good relations' work to counter sectarianism and racism, civil society organisations will face a complex terrain, facing scepticism about their contribution to peace-making before the Good Friday Agreement, and working in a post-Agreement environment marked by continuing elite and communal antagonism demonstrated by the crisis at the turn of 2009 over devolution of justice and policing powers to the Northern Ireland Executive. A significant aspect of the resolution was a belated agreement by Sinn Fein and the DUP on a new community relation strategy, Cohesion, Sharing and Integration. This article suggests that civil society has a significant role to play in encouraging communities to confront the contradictions and tensions that continue to haunt the political architects of the Good Friday Agreement by affirming a radical and contingent vision of democracy as democratisation at a distance from the identity-saturated politics of the state-region of Northern Ireland. It draws on the work of Simon Critchley, Emmanuel Levinas and Wendy Brown, to offer an approach to identity politics in post-conflict Northern Ireland, focusing on the future orientation of civil society.


Editor's column
 US crude oil production will reach a record level of 12.29 million B/D in 2019, increasing faster than expected both this year and in 2020, according to the latest US Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast. Output will rise to 13.29 million B/D next year.
 Similarly, the International Energy Agency predicted last month that US shale oil production will continue to reshape world energy markets, with the US accounting for 85% of the increase in global oil production to 2030. US output will rise to 19 million B/D over the next decade, wresting additional market share from OPEC producers and Russia, according to the agency's annual World Energy Outlook.
 But while shale will continue to affect global markets, some believe this predicted rate of growth may be optimistic. There are already signs that producers are curtailing spending and production in the major shale basins as they are under increasing pressure to focus more on capital discipline and returns rather than production growth. In contrast to the EIA and IEA, consultancy IHS Markit sees much slower growth in US shale next year, just a 440,000 B/D increase, with output flat in 2021.
 "Going from nearly 2 million B/D annual growth in 2018, an all-time global record, to essentially no growth by 2021 makes it pretty clear that this is a new era of moderation for shale producers," said Raoul LeBlanc, IHS Markit vice president for North American unconventionals. "This is a dramatic shift after several years where annual growth of more than 1 million B/D was the norm."
 IHS Markit predicts prices for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude to hover in the $50/bbl range and that capital spending will drop by 10% this year, 12% in 2021, and 8% in 2022, from $102 billion in 2019 to $83 billion in 2022. Prices need to be about $65/bbl for producers to be able to both increase production significantly while also satisfying shareholder expectations, it said.
 In the meantime, producers are focusing more on completing wells than drilling new ones, which is a more economical way of boosting output. There were 7,740 drilled but uncompleted wells in the seven major US shale regions at the end of September, according to the EIA, compared with 8,800 in January.
 After years of producing all out, pushing US oil and natural gas production to record levels, shale producers are pulling back. Although output has skyrocketed, particularly in places such as the Permian Basin, financial results have not. Mergers and bankruptcy filings are common, and investors have become reluctant to lend capital.
 Natural gas companies in particular are hurting, and they are promising more capital discipline and lower production going forward. During third-quarter earnings calls, Chesapeake Energy, EQT, Callon Petroleum, Cimarex, and Diamondback Energy all signaled flat to lower spending and production. Chesapeake's CEO had to re assure investors of the company's financial health a week after the company said in a third-quarter earnings filing that it had "substantial doubt" of its ability to continue as a going concern. "I don't think OPEC has to worry that much more about US•shale growth long term," Pioneer Natural Resources Scott Sheffield told investors last month.


In this paper, a unified framework is established to investigate both the quantized and the saturated control problems for a class of sampled-data systems under noisy sampling intervals. A random variable obeying the Erlang distribution is used to describe the noisy sampling intervals. In virtue of the matrix exponential, the sampled-data control system is transformed into an equivalent discrete-time stochastic system, and the aim of this paper is to design a quantized/saturated sampled-data controller such that the resulting discrete-time stochastic system is stochastically stable when the sampling error follows the Erlang distribution. In order to deal with the case of multiple control inputs, a confluent Vandermonde matrix approach is proposed in the design process. By using the Kronecker product operation and the matrix inequality techniques, the desired quantized/saturated controller gains are designed in terms of the solution to certain matrix inequalities. Finally, a simulation example is exploited to verify the effectiveness of the proposed design approach.


In Vision-and-Language Navigation (VLN), an embodied agent needs to reach a target destination with the only guidance of a natural language instruction. To explore the environment and progress towards the target location, the agent must perform a series of low-level actions, such as rotate, before stepping ahead. In this paper, we propose to exploit dynamic convolutional filters to encode the visual information and the lingual description in an efficient way. Differently from some previous works that abstract from the agent perspective and use high-level navigation spaces, we design a policy which decodes the information provided by dynamic convolution into a series of low-level, agent friendly actions. Results show that our model exploiting dynamic filters performs better than other architectures with traditional convolution, being the new state of the art for embodied VLN in the low-level action space. Additionally, we attempt to categorize recent work on VLN depending on their architectural choices and distinguish two main groups: we call them low-level actions and high-level actions models. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose this analysis and categorization for VLN.


Home computer users play a crucial role in securing the cyberspace, but the protection of home computers is left to the initiative of the users. In this study, we focus on the sociobehavioral perspective, as the behavior of home computer users on security issues is one of the most important factors in securing the cyberspace. The decomposed Theory of Planned Behavior is adapted to investigate the factors that influence a user's intention to practice home computer security. A survey instrument was developed and administered to 233 home computer users. The findings revealed that attitude and subjective norm determined intention to practice computer security, and perceived usefulness, family and peer influence, mass media influence and self-efficacy are important factors that influence a home computer user's intention to practice computer security. Findings also provide an impetus for researchers to conduct future studies in this domain.


In this paper, we develop and test through the extended simulation study the conditional constrained optimization-regularization approach to solving the problems of reconstructive/enhanced remote sensing (RS) imaging as required for environmental monitoring and resource management. The proposed aggregated conditional regularized filtering (ACRF) method for reconstructive environmental imaging employs the conditional iterative Lagrange optimization technique incorporating the system-level constraints imposed on the desired solution. The innovative contribution of the present study consists in developing and computational testing of the ACRF reconstructive imaging technique that admits an efficient numerical iterative implementation. The simulations were performed via designing the software package that utilizes the MATLAB 7.0 computational environment. The presented results of simulation study verify the efficiency of the developed and tested constrained regularized reconstructive RS imaging technique.


Introduction: A conference titled Bioterrorism and Food Security: Issues and Challenges was held on October 28 and 29, 2002 at the Ramada Plaza Suites and Conference Center in Fargo, North Dakota. The conference was organized by the Center for Agricultural Policy and Trade Studies and the Great Plains Institute of Food Safety, North Dakota State University. Sponsors of the conference were the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station, and the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics. Speakers included U.S. Senator Byron Dorgan, U.S. Representative Earl Pomeroy, Lieutenant Governor Jack Dalrymple, government officials, and members of academia and private industry. The purpose of this conference was to address emerging issues related to bioterrorism and food security affecting U.S. agricultural production, processing, and trade, and to discuss strategies to prevent intentional contamination and attacks on U.S. agriculture. This volume summarizes the major issues and findings discussed by each of the conference speakers.


Abstract : Using a spectrometer and high temperature fiber optics the relative intensities of the near-infrared, visible, and ultraviolet radiation emitted from the C2*, CH*, and OH* radicals were measured at eight discrete locations within the Ultra Compact Combustor test rig. Blackbody radiation in the near infrared also was observed. The tests were conducted at various g-loadings and overall equivalence ratios and with various air hole configurations. These measurements were compared to determine the effect of these changes on the radiation emitted. Local C2* intensities were used to estimate the flame location within the combustor and the local CH*/OH* ratio was used as a gauge of the local equivalence ratio within the cavity. Results indicate that the highest ratios of CH*/OH* occur in the outer radius of the cavity where the high g-loads transport the colder unreacted fuel and air. The highest C2* ratios also occur in the outer radius. A correlation between cavity equivalence ratio and C2*/OH* was determined for these experiments as well. Fuel droplet size characterization also was conducted using a laser diffraction particle size analyzer. The same pressure atomizer used in the Ultra Compact Combustor test rig was used. Fuel flow conditions simulated the same fuel flow conditions as the test rig. Experiments indicated poor atomization at the lower overall fuel-to-air ratio test conditions since the fuel flow pressure is relatively low at these conditions. Combustion efficiencies also were some of the lowest efficiencies measured for these test conditions, which is indicative of poor fuel atomization. All experiments were completed in the Air Force Research Laboratory's Atmospheric Combustion Research Facility at Wright-Patterson AFB. This research supports compact common core initiatives of the Versatile, Affordable, Advanced Turbine Engine (VAATE) program. (15 tables, 71 figures, 21 refs.)


Current statistics show that a significant number of road fatalities occur during night-time hours despite a smaller number of vehicles on the road. This number could be significantly reduced with the use of systems that automatically detect Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) and alert the driver of their presence. This thesis presents an efficient embedded Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) to detect pedestrians with a far-infrared sensor in real-time. The ADAS proposed in this thesis is implemented on a low power Intel Atom Central Processing Unit (CPU) and an Altera Arria GX II Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). The CPU and FPGA communicate over a PCI-express 2.0 bus using a Direct Memory Access engine on the FPGA. The pedestrian detection algorithm was partitioned between the FPGA and CPU to ensure real-time performance. Far-infrared images are first acquired with a microbolometer at a rate of 25fps, and a morphological closing operation is applied to remove distortion on the pedestrian's torso. The frames are sent to the FPGA to be processed using dedicated hardware. Regions of Interest (ROI) that could potentially contain pedestrians are isolated from the background using hardware accelerated Seeded Region Growing (SRG). The isolated ROI are classified using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) on the CPU. Histogram of Oriented Gradient (HOG) features and Local Binary Pattern (LBP) features are extracted from the ROI. These features are then concatenated to form a HOG-LBP feature vector and are passed to a classifier that determines if the ROI contains a pedestrian or non-pedestrian object. Successfully classified pedestrians are tracked between frames using a Kalman filter. The system runs in real-time at a rate of 25fps, the frame rate of the micro bolometer. The hardware accelerated SRG method obtained a 97.93% reduction in execution time compared to the software implementation than on the CPU alone. Detection rates of 98% have been achieved with HOG-LBP features on a database of 2,000 individual frames and video containing 15,000 frames. The total power consumption of the system is 3.12W. This results in a highly accurate, low power, low cost system suitable for the automotive sector.


An increased integration of the world economy over the last few decades has led to growing interest in its effects on different aspects of national economies. One aspect that has drawn particular attention is the effect on government spending. However, the relation between government size and economic growth is ambiguous. There are persuasive arguments for both positive and negative impacts on economic growth. This paper aims to test long run relation between government size and economic growth. Specifically, it test whether there is an "inverted U" shape relationship between public spending and economic growth or not and to find the optimal level of government size in Malaysia. It is important to measure the optimal level of government size to ensure its play an efficient role in the economy. Using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach, the result shows that government size in Malaysia is not exceed the optimal level. Based on the results of the study, an economic policy proposal may be that the share of public expenditure and the effectiveness of public expenditure programs should be increased to foster economic growth in Malaysia.


Summary The primary aim of the research project was to develop an efficient technology to control excessive water production in gas and oil wells. As a novelty, water sensitive petroleum-based solutions were developed, which spontaneously form extremely high viscosity barrier under reservoir conditions when contacting with water. Thus, application of that reservoir conformance control technique in fields becomes independent of placement methods even in case of bullhead treatments. After detailed fundamental and applied studies the technology was deemed matured to test under field conditions. Until now, more than 16 well treatments had been carried out including both oil and gas producers. The project is still running in a gas capped oil reservoirs of the largest stacked hydrocarbon field Algyő, Hungary. The detrimental (higher than 100 m3/d) water production was the primary factor selecting the target wells to be treated. Evaluating the field results, it was concluded that the treatments prove a multifunctional mechanism. The water production in some wells dropped significantly (from 120 m3/d to less than 30 m3/d); meanwhile the gas production remained unchained. In case of some wells, the water production remained unchained, however, the gas production tripled. Surprisingly, all treated gas producers operating in gas capped oil fields, which never produced liquid hydrocarbons started to produce substantial amount of oil (between 10% and 75% oil in net fluid rate). These positive results can be attributed to three different reasons: effective barrier formation against water influx, reducing skin factor caused by formation damage, and opening new flow paths from entrapped oil bodies existing below the gas cap. Thus, the treatment technology was qualified as a "multifunctional well stimulation" contrast to the original term of "water shutoff" method. Based on the encouraging field results the technology became one of the strategic projects of the company in the coming years until 2020.


In this paper, we analyze several neural network designs (and their variations) for sentence pair modeling and compare their performance extensively across eight datasets, including paraphrase identification, semantic textual similarity, natural language inference, and question answering tasks. Although most of these models have claimed state-of-the-art performance, the original papers often reported on only one or two selected datasets. We provide a systematic study and show that (i) encoding contextual information by LSTM and inter-sentence interactions are critical, (ii) Tree-LSTM does not help as much as previously claimed but surprisingly improves performance on Twitter datasets, (iii) the Enhanced Sequential Inference Model is the best so far for larger datasets, while the Pairwise Word Interaction Model achieves the best performance when less data is available. We release our implementations as an open-source toolkit.


ABSTRACT The Higher Education (HE) sector is currently faced with an unprecedented reorganisation of the current delivery of teaching and learning with technology playing an increasingly significant role in shifting traditional pedagogies to a more blended learning approach. This article investigates the challenges faced by academics responding to this new style of pedagogy and recognises the need for an operational framework to support this transition. The emergence of the 'digital lecturer' changes the role of the academic in designing, adapting and delivering educational products that are fit for purpose in a technology enabled learning environment. Underpinned by pedagogic theory, research based on participant observation over a three-year period of the staff experiences delivering a technology enabled blended learning approach, the article presents a solution of a framework supporting HE professionals transitioning module content towards a technology enabled blended learning approach.


The morphology of aggregates of calf-skin tropocollagen, precipitated by continuous injection into neutral phosphate buffers at 35 degrees , has been studied by electron microscopy. Although most of the collagen is precipitated as normal native fibrils, a small proportion forms closed toroidal structures having the usual native band-interband pattern. Theoretical considerations, based on elastic energies in a general microfibril model, predict that the toroids should have a simple super-helical structure, and this is not inconsistent with the observations. From the theoretical energies it was possible to estimate a crude lower limit of 3kcal./mole for the free energy of association of the tropocollagen macromolecules.


Objectives Surgery is the curative treatment for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA). Guidelines recommend utilizing a multidisciplinary pancreatic cancer conference (MDPC) in treatment; however, data are limited. The objective of this study was to assess the accuracy of an MDPC. Methods Patients with PDA presented at an MDPC were prospectively collected from April 2013 to August 2016. Patients were included if the MDPC predicted them to have resectable PDA and underwent upfront surgery. Secondary aims were to compare differences in tumor characteristics, time to surgery, and resection rates with patients prior to MDPC implementation (pre-MDPC). Results A total of 278 patients were presented at the MDPC. After excluding borderline and nonresectable cases, 91 patients were predicted as resectable on evaluation, and 70 were fit for surgery. The MDPC predicted resection in 91.4%. The MDPC had larger tumor size (32.6 vs 24.0 mm), greater proportion of stage II tumor, and a shorter time from diagnosis to resection (27.3 vs 35.5 days) compared with the pre-MDPC. Microscopically negative resections were similar between MDPC and pre-MDPC (85.9% vs 88.0%) despite advanced tumor size and stage. Conclusions The MDPC demonstrates a high resection rate. Compared with a pre-MDPC, MDPC provides shorter time to surgery and selects for advanced tumors.


The present study was designed to investigate the effect of pharmacological inhibition of endocannabinoid degradation on behavioural actions of the dopamine D2/D3 receptor agonist quinpirole in male C57Bl/6J mice. In addition, we studied the effects of endocannabinoid degradation inhibition on both cocaine-induced psychomotor activation and behavioural sensitization. We analysed the effects of inhibition of the two main endocannabinoid degradation enzymes: fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH), using inhibitor URB597 (1 mg/kg); monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL), using inhibitor URB602 (10 mg/kg). Administration of quinpirole (1 mg/kg) caused a temporal biphasic response characterized by a first phase of immobility (0-50 min), followed by enhanced locomotion (next 70 min) that was associated with the introduction of stereotyped behaviours (stereotyped jumping and rearing). Pretreatment with both endocannabinoid degradation inhibitors did not affect the hypoactivity actions of quinpirole. However, this pretreatment resulted in a marked decrease in quinpirole-induced locomotion and stereotyped behaviours. Administration of FAAH or MAGL inhibitors did not attenuate the acute effects of cocaine. Furthermore, these inhibitors did not impair the acquisition of cocaine-induced behavioural sensitization or the expression of cocaine-induced conditioned locomotion. Only MAGL inhibition attenuated the expression of an already acquired cocaine-induced behavioural sensitization. These results suggest that pharmacological inhibition of endocannabinoid degradation might exert a negative feedback on D2/D3 receptor-mediated hyperactivity. This finding might be relevant for therapeutic approaches for either psychomotor disorders (dyskinesia, corea) or disorganized behaviours associated with dopamine-mediated hyperactivity.


The clothes inventory balancing scheduling problem (CIBSP) among branch stores with the allowance of lateral transshipments has gained increasing attentions in fast-fashion apparel industry, especially for the trial sale of new products. To solve the CIBSP faced by a leading apparel company in China, a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model is first formulated, based on which a relax-and-fix (R&F) method is developed. Several heuristic cuts based on practical experience and observations are further integrated into the R&F method to speed up the searching. The effectiveness of the method is demonstrated through extensive computational experiments: it is able to provide near-optimal solutions with average optimality gap 1.15% with less computation time, compared to solving the MILP model directly in a commercial solver. Case studies also demonstrate that the developed R&F method can obtain high-quality solutions with average optimality gap 0.09% with much less computation time.


A slip model for wall bounded rarefied gas flows is derived from kinetic theory. A corresponding modified Reynolds lubrication equation is obtained from the slip velocity boundary conditions at walls for high Knudsen number gas flows. The slip model in a simplest form has predictions very close to the numerical solutions of linearized Boltzmann equation in the whole Knudsen number range, and is preferable to the widely applied 1st order (Maxwell slip model), 2nd order, and 1.5 order slip models.


Selection for twelve generations, by the speed of elaboration of a food-procuring motor conditioned reflex, produced an increased intensity of the synthesis of n and c fractions of the hippocampal RNA in rapidly learning animals as compared with those slowly learning. Electrophoretic analysis of the two fractions revealed similar series of RNA classes in the initial and the learning animals' groups. With high molecular RNA classes, insertion of the radioactive precursor was higher in the rapidly learning animals than in the slow learning ones. The learning process was attended with an increased insertion of the radioactive precursor in the area of high molecular n-RNA classes and in the area of 18S-4S RNA c-RNA. The percentage of radioactivity inserted in the poly-A RNA, as well as a change due to learning were significantly higher in the rapidly learning animals.


INScore is an open source framework for the design of interactive, augmented, live music scores. Augmented music scores are graphic spaces providing representation, composition and manipulation of heterogeneous and arbitrary music objects (music scores but also images, text, signals...), both in the graphic and time domains. INScore includes also a dynamic system for the representation of the music performance, considered as a specific sound or gesture instance of the score, and viewed as signals. It integrates an event based interaction mechanism that opens the door to original uses and designs, transforming a score as a user interface or allowing a score self-modification based on temporal events. This paper presents the system features, the underlying formalisms, and introduces the OSC based scripting language.


In this paper, I have argued that whatever might be said about his attack on other German philosophers, Santayana's attack on Kant, despite its subtlety, its force and its intelligence, is fundamentally misguided. Teasing out where Santayana's attack rests on misunderstandings of Kant's philosophy is a useful exercise: it is useful for Kantians, for it gives us a chance to show Kant at his best; it is useful for Santayana scholars, for it reminds us that Santayana, for all his brilliance, was not infallible; and it is useful more generally, for the mistakes Santayana makes about Kant are, perhaps in part because of Santayana's well-deservedly wide influence, still prevalent today.


The authors of this manuscript should be commended for undertaking this difficult work. Complex robotic reconstruction is no easy task and the collaboration at their institution and willingness to advance this technology should be positively recognized. Some of the key factors to examine critically with utilization of new surgical technology to established "historical" operative norms include success and complications, convalescence, cost and cosmesis. In that regard let's evaluate these individually.


Questions

Which environmental and management factors are the most important determinants of arable weed species composition in intensively farmed areas across an area of 93 000 km2? Does the relative importance of environmental and management factors depend on plot location within fields (centre or edge)?

Location

Hungary.

Methods

The abundance of late-summer weed flora and 25 environmental, management and site context factors were measured in 243 maize, sunflower and stubble fields representing the entire country. Data were analysed by redundancy analysis (RDA) after backward variable selection. The gross and net effect on weed species composition were calculated for each variable. Variation partitioning based on RDA was used to assess the relative effects of the three groups of explanatory variables.

Results

The net effects of 24 variables on species composition were significant, explaining 25% of the total variation in species data. Most variation in species composition was explained by plot location, which was followed by temperature, crop type, precipitation, soil texture, neighbouring habitat, altitude, soil pH, sodium and potassium content of the soil. Variation partitioning revealed that environmental variables accounted for twice more variance than management variables, but the relative impact of management variables was larger in field cores than in field edges.

Conclusions

Our results suggest that even for intensified agriculture the effects of environmental factors are of greater importance than management factors on summer arable weed composition in a country-wide context. The effects of intensive crop management decrease towards the field periphery.


This study concerns the political, economic and socio-psychological conditions for marketing and supply cooperatives in Russian agriculture. An analysis of secondary data indicates that neither political nor economic conditions inhibit the development of cooperatives. Therefore, the focus is directed towards the socio-psychological factors. The aim of the study is to empirically explore the extent to which socio-psychological factors explain the difficulties for agricultural cooperative development within the Kurgan region of the Russian Federation. Based on literature concerning cooperative members' attitudes, values, commitment and similar variables, four hypotheses are suggested. These are tested empirically on the basis of data from a total of 927 agricultural producers, both members and nonmembers of existing cooperatives. The findings reveal that especially the level of trust in others is crucial. Furthermore, the involvement is low among nonmembers, their attitudes to cooperatives are poor, and their belief and experience in democratic governance are weak.


Measuring accurately size‐resolved dust flux near the surface is crucial for better quantifying dust losses by semiarid soils. Dust fluxes have been usually estimated from the flux‐gradient approach, assuming similarity between dust and momentum turbulent transport. This similarity has, however, never been verified. Here we investigate the similarity between dust (0.3 to 6.0 μm in diameter), momentum, and heat fluxes during aeolian erosion events. These three fluxes were measured by the Eddy Covariance technique during the WIND‐O‐V (WIND erOsion in presence of sparse Vegetation's) 2017 field experiment over an isolated erodible bare plot in South Tunisia. Our measurements confirm the prevalence of ejection and sweep motions in transporting dust as for heat and momentum. However, our measurements also reveal a different partition of the dust flux between ejection and sweep motions and between eddy time scales compared to that of momentum and heat fluxes. This dissimilarity results from the intermittency of the dust emission compared to the more continuous emission (absorption) of heat (momentum) at the surface. Unlike heat emission and momentum absorption, dust release is conditioned by the wind intensity to initiate sandblasting. Consequently, ejection motions do not carry dust as often as heat and low momentum from the surface. This dissimilarity diminishes with increasing wind intensity as saltation patterns, and thus dust emission through sandblasting, become spatially more frequent. Overall, these findings may have implications on the evaluation of dust flux from techniques based on similarity with momentum or heat turbulent transport.


Abstract We assessed the reproductive success of the California Clapper Rail (Rallus longirostris obsoletus), an endangered subspecies restricted to San Francisco Bay, and the relative importance of predation, flooding, and contaminants as factors affecting that success. Our study was conducted in six tidal marshes in the northern and southern reaches of San Francisco Bay. This assessment, conducted in four breeding seasons (1991, 1992, 1998, 1999), determined that productivity of California Clapper Rails was much reduced over the natural potential. Only 69% of clapper rail eggs whose viability could be assessed were viable. Hatchability of eggs in North Bay and South Bay marshes was 65% and 70%, respectively. Only 45% of the nests successfully hatched at least one egg. Despite mean clutch sizes of 6.7 and 6.9 in the North and South bays, respectively, clapper rails produced only 1.9 and 2.5 young per nesting attempt. Flooding was a minor factor, reducing the number of eggs available to hatch by only 2.3%. Predation on eggs was a major factor affecting nest success, reducing productivity by a third. Failed eggs were examined for abnormal development and contaminant concentrations. Contamination appeared to adversely influence California Clapper Rail reproductive success, as evidenced by deformities; embryo hemorrhaging; embryo malpositions; a depressed rate of hatchability; excess concentrations of mercury, barium, and chromium over known avian embryotoxic thresholds; and a correlation of deformities with elevated concentrations of some trace elements in eggs that failed to hatch. Mercury was the only significant contaminant common to all marshes. Efectos de la Depredación, las Inundaciones y la Contaminación sobre el Éxito Reproductivo de Rallus longirostris obsoletus en la Bahía de San Francisco


This paper draws on almost two decades of US foreign policy documents on political Islam and relations with the Muslim world as well as interviews conducted with key representatives of Turkey's AKP, Malaysia's PKR, and Indonesia's PKS. It argues that both political Islam and US foreign policy have matured over time. The Obama administration has adopted a more accommodationist posture towards the development of Islamic democracy, which allows second generation Islamist parties the space to evolve and establish a more mature Islamic democracy. Simultaneously, the moderation and focus on higher, universal objectives among second generation Islamist parties allows the Obama administration the opportunity to support the development of this version of Islamic democracy. The acceptance of Islamist parties by the US depends on three central factors: strategic value to the US; acceptance of the US economic and strategic goals; and lastly, commitment to democracy, pluralism, rule of law, and human rights. A number of Islamist parties are moving in the direction of fulfilling the third criteria; the second may be difficult, however, particularly in the context of such issues as the Israel-Palestine conflict; while the first criteria may often be a matter out of their control. However, this paper contends that the trend of political Islam and US foreign policy is towards mutual accommodation rather than further confrontation.


: Sixty one patients with exercise-induced angina were examined. The development of sustac forte tolerance was found to be related to lower levels of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine in erythrocyte membranes. The changes in the phospholipid composition of cell membranes were demonstrated to be largely caused by the effects of prolonged nitrates themselves. Essential given to patients with exercise-induced angina who were tolerant to the nitrates elevated the levels of phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine in the erythrocyte membranes, which was accompanied in most cases by higher exercise tolerance as evidenced by a repeated bicycle ergometric test when the same dose of sustac forte was used. This allows the authors to recommend to use essential to abolish prolonged nitrate tolerance.


Why did the ""Bittereinders"" remain on commando during the Anglo-Boer War of1899-1902? Various reasons can be put forward for the decision of the ""Bittereinders"" to remain on commando ""until the bitter end"" and not to forsake the Republican war effort as did the ""Handsuppers"". In this article eight factors are singled out: patriotism and a desire for independence; religious beliefs; resistance to the British scorched-earth policy; the role played by the Boer leaders in encouraging their men; favourable but false rumours; fear of captivity; the hold that group feeling had on the burghers; and the phenomenon that their existence on commando had become such a way of life to some of the burghers, that they were not prepared to renounce it. It can be accepted that reasons such as these did not weigh equally with all ""Bittereinders"" and that a combination of factors influenced a burgher to remain on commando. In May 1902 the Boer delegates at Vereeniging were, however, of the opinion that circumstances were such that peace was desirable, even though this meant sacrificing the independence of the Boer Republics.


HAMILTON, W.D. 1987. Tree wounds: their cause and treatment. Arbor Age 6(10):36-39. Tree wounds are natural in the life of every tree. Scars left by fallen leaves, stubs left by fallen dead branches, and holes made by wildlife are part of tree life. A tree wound is any injury which damages living bark; cambium and wood may also be involved. Bacteria and non-decay fungi are the first to colonize the wood surface. Few of these can grow into wood: usually they are not wound invaders. Organisms that do grow into the wood are faced with chemical protective barriers (phenolic compounds) formed by the tree. Some surmount the barrier: most cannot. Upon examination of decay in tree wounds, it is evident that the whole cross section of a branch or trunk is rarely involved. Usually, there are limits to decay from a particular wound. The size of the wound may be large if pruning cuts are made flush with the trunk, and small but slow to heal if a long stub is left. So a compromise is made. The cut is made on the outside edge of the shoulder tissue, slightly away from the larger limb. Normally, this will be just outside the protective barrier formed by the tree. Late fall and early winter may be the worst time for wounding, due to the abundance of fungal spores. At present there is no proven means of increasing the rate of wound closure other than increasing tree vigor.


This paper examines leadership development in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors and assesses the extent that they constitute distinctive contexts for leadership approaches and practices. The results of an empirical survey issued in one country provides some evidence for sector differences whereby leadership is conceptualized and practised with a greater emphasis placed on normative, ethical considerations in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Leadership development in the private sector is more strongly motivated by instrumental economic concerns. Whilst this sector difference is not new or surprising, the potential for greater sectoral distinctiveness in leadership approaches and their development warrants more discussion by academics and practitioners in leadership development. This study of leadership development examines five leadership approaches (charismatic, transformational, authentic, servant and spiritual) and six common leadership development practices (360 degree feedback, mentoring, coaching, networks, job assignment and action learning). Leadership development practices are similar across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Furthermore, charismatic and transformational approaches do not appear to discriminate effectively between private and public sector leadership. However, interpretation of the data strongly suggests that leadership theories and practices should be more flexible to the sectoral contexts. Private sector models of leadership development superficially appear to be adequate in so far as they share substantial commonality with the public and not-for-profit sectors in their development practices. However, respondents from the public and not-for-profit sectors are less convinced by the importance of some of the private sector 's approaches and its dominant values such as preparedness to facilitate the leaders' confidence and power to create effective leadership. This distinction requires further investigation in future research on theories, practices and contexts for leadership development.


This article links profits from the rich literature in the fields of Reformation history and book-history in order to analyse the relation between printing and the Reformation in Geneva from 1478 to 1600 in a general historian's perspective. Although various genres of religious and literary (illustrated) books have been printed for a local market since 1478, texts with evangelical  tendency have not been produced in Geneva before 1536. Therefore, the ideas of Reformation were rather introduced by evangelical preachers than by the printing press. But after that Geneva became the centre of protestant or better: Calvinist printed propaganda in French (and Latin) until the early 1560s. Because of changing political contexts – French wars of Religion and the comeback of the Duke of Savoy as a neighbour – and the emerging of reformed printing in France forced Geneva to redirect their production towards more learned and non-religious books in Latin (humanism, classical authors, science). Nether the less, the production of (Genevan) Bibles and texts of Calvin and his followers and successors did not cease.


The pertinent literature on inherited corneal diseases is reviewed in terms of the chromosomal localization and identification of the responsible genes. Disorders affecting the cornea have been mapped to human chromosome 1 (central crystalline corneal dystrophy, familial subepithelial corneal amyloidosis, early onset Fuchs dystrophy, posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy), chromosome 4 (Bietti marginal crystalline dystrophy), chromosome 5 (lattice dystrophy types 1 and IIIA, granular corneal dystrophy types 1, 2 and 3, Thiel-Behnke corneal dystrophy), chromosome 9 (lattice dystrophy type II), chromosome 10 (Thiel-Behnke corneal dystrophy), chromosome 12 (Meesmann dystrophy), chromosome 16 (macular corneal dystrophy, fish eye disease, LCAT disease, tyrosinemia type II), chromosome 17 (Meesmann dystrophy, Stocker-Holt dystrophy), chromosome 20 (congenital hereditary endothelial corneal dystrophy types I and II, posterior polymorphous corneal dystrophy), chromosome 21 (autosomal dominant keratoconus) and the X chromosome (cornea verticillata, cornea farinata, deep filiform corneal dystrophy, keratosis follicularis spinulosa decalvans, Lisch corneal dystrophy). Mutations in nine genes (ARSC1, CHST6, COL8A2, GLA, GSN, KRT3, KRT12, M1S1and TGFBI [BIGH3]) account for some of the corneal diseases and three of them are associated with amyloid deposition in the cornea (GSN, M1S1, TGFBI) including most of the lattice corneal dystrophies (LCDs) [LCD types I, IA, II, IIIA, IIIB, IV, V, VI and VII] recognized by their lattice pattern of linear opacities. Genetic studies on inherited diseases affecting the cornea have provided insight into some of these disorders at a basic molecular level and it has become recognized that distinct clinicopathologic phenotypes can result from specific mutations in a particular gene, as well as some different mutations in the same gene. A molecular genetic understanding of inherited corneal diseases is leading to a better appreciation of the pathogenesis of these conditions and this knowledge has made it imperative to revise the classification of inherited corneal diseases.


To systematically review randomized controlled trials that compared the effectiveness of different types of exercise on the symptom of fatigue in individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). MEDLINE, EMBASE, EMcare, PsychINFO, and Cochrane library were searched from inception to October 2018. Studies were included if individuals with COPD were randomized into two or more physical exercise interventions that reported fatigue. Of the 395 full-texts reviewed, 17 studies were included. Fifteen studies reported the impact of exercise on health-related quality of life with fatigue as a subdomain. Reduction in fatigue was observed following endurance, resistance, or a combination of both exercises. There was no significant difference between continuous and interval training (n = 3 studies, pooled standardized mean difference (SMD) = −0.17, 95% CI = −0.47, 0.12, p = 0.25) or between endurance and resistance training (n = 3 studies, SMD = −0.35, 95% CI = −0.72, 0.01, p = 0.07) on fatigue in people with COPD. Fatigue reduction is not usually a primary outcome of exercise interventions, but it is frequently a secondary domain. The type of exercise did not influence the impact of exercise on fatigue, which was reduced in endurance, resistance, or a combination of both exercises, enabling clinicians to personalize training to match targeted outcomes.


The prevalence of handheld devices is changing the way people access and use information. Given the strong history of legal content available electronically in Australia, this paper examines the current state of play in providing content via mobile devices. Although there are proven applications for other practitioner based disciplines, such as medicine, can the same be said of law? This paper seeks to discover whether there is a desire, and indeed a possibility, for mobile content delivery in this discipline. By surveying academics and students, this paper seeks to assess the options of mobile legal scholars and where their access points, or 'content spaces', might be. Further, by examining existing standards and applications, the paper seeks to determine how useful current and future mobile applications are to the legal discipline. With the sheer amount of information and text involved in legal issues, what role will mobiles play in charting the future of legal content? Are current publisher models conducive to the mobile world, and will this result in a new generation of vendors selling applications as content?


This article contributes to the history of obstetrics as it was performed in the context of general practice during the 19th century. It focuses on the Swiss physician Cäsar Adolf Bloesch (1804–1863) from the town of Biel, Canton Bern. Drawing upon Bloesch's extensive practice records, it raises the question whether this physician participated in the local market for obstetrical activities. Furthermore, the paper tries to make an estimate about the importance this field of action took for Bloesch's practice. To achieve this, results of a smaller study about obstetrical cases within the practice records during the years 1832 to 1850 are being presented. I will argue that physicians like Bloesch were aware of the problems obstetrics brought with it, and as a consequence, he tried to limit it in favor of his general practice.


This paper is basis on previous studies, taking The main haulage roadway of the western district of Zhaogu No.1 mine ,which belongs to Jiaomei group, as the background of study. On the basis of understanding the mechanical properties and engineering characteristics of soft rock, proposing the stability control mechanism and supporting scheme design countermeasure of fractured soft rock roadway. Numerical analysis was made to the stability of roadway surroundings used the FLAC-3D finite element analysis software, and a set of reasonable supporting technology schemes and parameters were proposed.


In this study, the traffic state of a commercial vehicle was analyzed from a macroscopic viewpoint by using the probe data of a commercial vehicle in the Shikoku region during a period of heavy rain that occurred in western Japan in July, 2018. A method is proposed to calculate indexes, such as the detour rate and reduction in the number of trips, through an analysis of a trip at each origin-destination (OD) and extracting the route of a detouring vehicle during a disaster by using the results of the calculation. Finally, a method for the early detection of abnormalities, which involves paying attention to U-turn action during traffic disturbances is proposed. The influence of heavy rain on a commercial vehicle was evaluated quantitatively by analyzing the probe data of the vehicle during a disaster period caused by heavy rain. Specifically, analysis was performed on the number of passing commercial vehicles before and after the occurrence of a disaster, changes in running speed, route changes at each OD, and the vehicle trajectory around a regulated area. From the results of the analysis, it was possible to grasp the macroscopic traffic state, OD influenced by the traffic restriction, route in use for the OD during a normal time period, and an alternate route (detour action) during the disaster time period. With the method for the early detection of abnormalities at the time of a traffic disturbance, which pays close attention to U-turn action, a U-turn after the traffic regulation can be detected; however, it was confirmed that there is a problem in detecting timing and the application range.


This paper discusses the role of social pedagogy in the context of struggles for economic and political democracy, particularly regarding Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) programs, which are some of the most significant policy initiatives to combat social exclusion in modern Welfare States. The author argues that a more effective alternative to these programs, which are rooted in liberal thought, is a Basic Income (BI) model. Not to be confused with a charity instrument against poverty, BI is a tool in a broader anti-capitalist strategy. Whether it operates in the context of GMI or BI, social pedagogy will have different expressions, goals, approaches and practices. In the context of BI and its ideological roots in Anarchist and solidarity Marxism, social pedagogy can critically address issues such as social inequalities, banking education, the relationship between education and work, and direct democracy.


In strained graphene, lattice deformation can create pseudo-magnetic fields and result in zero-field Landau level-like quantization. In the presence of an external magnetic field, valley-polarized Landau levels are predicted to be observed because the pseudo-magnetic fields are of opposite directions in the K and K' valleys of graphene. Here, we present experimental spectroscopic measurements by scanning tunneling microscopy of strained graphene on Rh foil. We direct observed valley splitting of the Landau level induced by the coexistence of the pseudo-magnetic fields and external magnetic fields. The observed result paves the way to exploit novel electronic properties in graphene through the combination of the pseudo-magnetic fields and the external magnetic fields.


Despite the availability of weather radar data at high spatial (1 km2) and temporal (5–15 min) resolution, ground‐based rain gauges continue to be necessary for accurate estimation of storm rainfall input to catchments during flash flood events, especially in mountainous catchments. Given economical considerations, a long‐standing problem in catchment hydrology is to establish optimal placement of a small number of rain gauges to acquire data on both rainfall depth and spatiotemporal variability of intensity during extreme storm events. Using weather radar observations and a dense network of 40 tipping bucket rain gauges, this study examines whether it is possible to determine a reliable "best" set of rain gauge locations for the Sabino Canyon catchment near Tucson, Arizona, USA, given its complex topography and dominant storm track pattern. High‐quality rainfall data are used to evaluate all possible configurations of a "practical" network having from one to four rain gauges. A multicriteria design strategy is used to guide rain gauge placement, by simultaneously minimizing the residual percent bias and maximizing the coefficient of correlation between the estimated and true mean areal rainfall and minimizing the normalized spatial mean squared error between the estimated and true spatiotemporal rainfall distribution. The performance of the optimized rain gauge network was then compared against randomly designed network ensembles by evaluating the quality of streamflows predicted using the Kinematic Runoff and Erosion (KINEROS2) event‐based rainfall‐runoff model. Our results indicate that the multicriteria strategy provided a robust design by which a sparse but accurate network of rain gauges could be implemented for semiarid basins such as the one studied.


The Pathfinder mission demonstrated the potential for robotic Mars exploration but at the same time indicated the need for more robust rover autonomy. Future planned missions call for long traverses over unknown terrain, robust navigation and instrument placement, and reliable operations for extended periods of time. Ultimately, missions may visit multiple science sites in a single day and perform opportunistic science data collection, as well as complex scouting, construction, and maintenance tasks in preparation for an eventual human presence. Significant advances in robust autonomous operations are needed to enable these types of missions. Towards this end, we have designed an on-board executive architecture that incorporates robust flexible operation, resource utilization, and failure recovery. In addition, we have designed ground tools to produce and refine contingent schedules that take advantage of the on-board architecture's flexible execution characteristics. Together, the on-board executive and the ground tools constitute an integrated rover autonomy architecture.


Percivall Pott (1713–88) was a leading surgeon in eighteenth-century Britain. This work mines the rich biographical and bibliographical record Pott and his students left behind to add to the historical and intellectual understanding of pre-modern surgery. This was a time when surgery was becoming professionalized. Pott maintained a significant role in crafting the image of a professional surgeon as someone who is capable of treating a multitude of poor hospital patients while at the same time effectively teaching operative skills and manners to the next generation of young men and running a successful and wealth-producing private practice.

Pott had more medical conditions named after him during his lifetime than any other surgeon of his era or since; analyzing what conditions surgeons claimed were theirs to manage and what ailments patients sought surgical solutions for reveals the importance and power of rhetoric in crafting the increasingly rigid definition of medicine as a sophisticated scientific activity rather than a mundane lay experience of treating sickness. The practice of naming conditions after surgeons also helps lay bare the power to classify and own certain sites in the body.

An account of Pott's life and work challenges the prevailing view in historiographical works of surgery before the era of general anesthesia as a realm of screaming patients and larger than life eccentric medical men whose primary aims were to operate as fast as possible. Through an examination of the life and work of the man rated the best surgeon in England by his contemporaries, the whole field of surgery in history becomes humanized.


H9N2 avian influenza viruses are present in poultry worldwide. These viruses are considered to have pandemic potential, because recent isolates can recognize human-type receptor and several sporadic human infections have been reported. In this study, we aimed to identify mutations related to mammalian adaptation of H9N2 influenza virus. We found that mouse-adapted viruses had several mutations in hemagglutinin (HA), PB2, PA, and PB1. Among the detected mutations, PB1-K577E was a novel mutation that had not been previously reported to involve mammalian adaptation. A recombinant H9N2 virus bearing only the PB1-K577E mutation showed enhanced pathogenicity in mice, with increased virus titers in nasal turbinates compared to that in mice infected with the wild-type virus. In addition, the PB1-K577E mutation increased virus polymerase activity in human cell culture at a lower temperature. These data suggest that the PB1-K577E mutation is a novel pathogenicity determinant of H9N2 virus in mice and could be a signature for mammalian adaptation.


The prohibition of torture is one of the most emblematic norms of the modern human rights movement, and its prevalence in national constitution has increased steeply in the past three decades. Yet little is known about whether constitutional torture prohibitions actually reduce torture. In this paper, we explore the relationship between constitutional torture prohibitions and torture by utilizing new data that corrects for biases in previous measures of torture, and a recently developed method that mitigates selection bias by incorporating information on countries' constitutional commitments into our research design. Using this new data and method, as well as more conventional data sources and methods, we do not find any evidence that constitutional torture prohibitions have reduced rates of torture in a statistically significant or substantively meaningful way.


Allergic airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in OVA-sensitized and challenged mice, mediated by allergen-specific Th2 cells and Th2-like invariant NKT (iNKT) cells, develops under the influence of enhancing and inhibitory γδ T cells. The AHR-enhancing cells belong to the Vγ1+ γδ T cell subset, cells that are capable of increasing IL-5 and IL-13 levels in the airways in a manner like Th2 cells. They also synergize with iNKT cells in mediating AHR. However, unlike Th2 cells, the AHR enhancers arise in untreated mice, and we show here that they exhibit their functional bias already as thymocytes, at an HSAhigh maturational stage. In further contrast to Th2 cells and also unlike iNKT cells, they could not be stimulated to produce IL-4 and IL-13, consistent with their synergistic dependence on iNKT cells in mediating AHR. Mice deficient in IFN-γ, TNFRp75, or IL-4 did not produce these AHR-enhancing γδ T cells, but in the absence of IFN-γ, spontaneous development of these cells was restored by adoptive transfer of IFN-γ-competent dendritic cells from untreated donors. The i.p. injection of OVA/aluminum hydroxide restored development of the AHR enhancers in all of the mutant strains, indicating that the enhancers still can be induced when they fail to develop spontaneously, and that they themselves need not express TNFRp75, IFN-γ, or IL-4 to exert their function. We conclude that both the development and the cytokine potential of the AHR-enhancing γδ T cells differs critically from that of Th2 cells and NKT cells, despite similar influences of these cell populations on AHR.


The collapse of dust particle clouds directly to kilometer-sized planetesimals is a promising way to explain the formation of planetesimals, asteroids, and comets. In the past, this collapse has been studied in stratified shearing box simulations with super-solar dust-to-gas ratio ϵ, allowing for streaming instability (SI) and gravitational collapse. This paper studies the non-stratified SI under dust-to-gas ratios from up to without self-gravity. The study covers domain sizes of , , and in terms of the gas-disk scale height using the PencilCode. They are performed in radial-azimuthal (2D) and radial-vertical (2.5D) extents. The used particles of and 0.1 mark the upper end of the expected dust growth. SI activity is found up to very high dust-to-gas ratios, providing fluctuations in the local dust-to-gas ratios and turbulent particle diffusion δ. We find an SI-like instability that operates in r–φ, even when vertical modes are suppressed. This new azimuthal streaming instability (aSI) shows similar properties and appearance as the SI. Both, SI and aSI show diffusivity at only to be two orders of magnitude lower than at , suggesting a relation that is shallow around . The (a)SI ability to concentrate particles is found to be uncorrelated with its strength in particle turbulence. Finally, we performed a resolution study to test our findings of the aSI. This paper stresses the importance of properly resolving the (a)SI at high dust-to-gas ratios and planetesimal collapse simulations, leading otherwise to potentially incomplete results.


A contact-mechanics-based finite model for Cu/ low-k chemical mechanical polishing is presented. 2D axisymmetric quasi-static model for chemical mechanical polishing which includes four-layer structure: Si, low-k, Copper and polishing pad is established. The mechanical response at the interface between the silicon, low-k, copper, and pad is simulated under the loading of the chemical mechanical polishing. The effect of slurry is simplified as the friction force reacted onto both the copper and the polishing pad in the finite element model. Down pressure, status of slurry and the elastic modulus of polishing pad are treated as the parameter in the simulation. Using the model, the effects of applied down pressure, pad properties, status of slurry on the non-uniformity of the wafer surface can be readily evaluated. Simulation results show that the distribution of the Von Mises stresses across a wafer's surface correlates with experimental removal rate profiles.


Description: Introduction to Sustainability is the first major textbook to review major themes in the cutting–edge field of sustainability. The book is suitable for introductory interdisciplinary courses on sustainability, as well as those in the fields of geography, geology, sociology, planning, political science, and anthropology. Brinkmann s book allows students to see the world in new ways while also encouraging them to become part of the change needed to ensure the long–term sustainability of the planet. The text includes material on the development of the field of sustainability; environmental sustainability issues like water, food, and energy; social sustainability themes like environmental justice and transportation; and economic sustainability topics like green businesses and economic development. The book concludes with a chapter on sustainability issues in college and universities. Brinkmann intersperses many fascinating case studies and text boxes that encourage students to deeply explore the material. This is a book that not only organizes the complex field of sustainability, but also encourages students to take action to make the world a better place.


Over the past three decades, modelling packages for chemical processes have become
more advanced and widely used. For example, equation-oriented dynamic simulators,
such as gPROMS are useful for simulating plantwide processes as well as unit
operations, and are widely used by process engineers. Whereas, other types of
simulator (e.g. Simulink) are often used by control engineers to solve complex control
problems. However, both these types of simulator rely on the user being proficient in
modelling and familiar with their syntax beforehand. A useful development would be
the integration of some knowledge into the formation of the process models and
automatic syntax code generation. This would lead to the design engineers having a
library of knowledge to check on first, much as an expert engineer uses their past
experiences to help guide them through a design. If this could be incorporated into a
modelling interface this would greatly help the design engineer, especially when
tackling problems in areas that they have little, or no experience.
The thesis addresses this problem and describes the design of an intelligent modelling
interface that incorporates a knowledge base using some form of a priori case library
and recall facility. The interface also incorporates an automatic input file generation
stage. At present, the user can: specify a single unit operation problem to search for,
retrieve similar cases from the database, specify their solution in the database based
on past cases and experience, and then automatically generate an input file for either
gPROMS or Simulink. These features are demonstrated through four case studies.


The food-additive-free diet now occupies a definite spot on the American nutritional scene. Very few pediatricians remain who have not been asked by concerned parents about giving their child this special diet. The Feingold Association, a national organization with community-based chapters, bears the name of the physician who first claimed a causal association between certain substances added to foods and hyperkinesis and learning disabilities in children. The speed with which this organization has grown and the vocal activity in its individual chapters indicate the basic appeal of the notion of a simple dietary treatment for a common behavioral disorder. As physicians, we must keep an open mind to Dr Ben Feingold's claim, but we also have an obligation to demand that testable hypotheses be stated and then be subjected to careful scientific study. We are also obliged to keep abreast of those studies in order to function as informed consultants