ABSTRACT Background: Biak Regency is one of regencies in Papua with high rate in malaria incidences, average clinical malaria rate is 48,677 cases in a year, with its Annual Malaria Incidence (AMI) average of 395,88 0 / 00 per year. The working Area of Bosnik Community Health Centre constitutes endemic region as the highest HIA (High Incidence Area), its average AMI's rate of 395,88 0 / 00 , which is far above national rate (31,09 0 / 00 ). This research has purpose to analyze malaria incidences on Working Area Bosnik Community Health Centre, Biak Numfor regency of Papua Province. Methods: Type of this research was on observational with case control approach. Case group were people whom positively suffer tropical malaria, which signed by results of  blood examination positive with contain Plasmodium falciparum, while control group are they who were not suffer malaria disease signed by such results on his blood  examination negative with contain Plasmodium falciparum. Control selected according to several criteria such sex, age, or no more three years in difference. Result: Results showed, the risk factor upon malaria incidences were the lower education with OR value = 4,28(95%CI=0,981 - 18,721), impermanent floor construction, OR value = 5,182 (95%CI = 1,183 - 22,238), ceiling house existed (protective factor) ) OR value = 0,696 (95%CI = 0,531-0,912), water puddle around their residences OR value = 3,683(95%CI=1,062-12,711), custom to take no mosquito-net OR value = 5,182 (95%CI=1,339-20,058), custom to take hang clothes insides home OR value = 16,923 (95%CI=1,938-147,767), disobedience to take administer his or her medicines OR value = 5,182 (95%CI=1,339-20,058), go outside in night time custom OR value = 4,680(95%CI=1,290-16,983). Conclusion: It requires such monitoring and evaluating about spraying and mosquito-net distribution. Monitoring requires take places to inform the necessity for using the mosquito-net, obediences to take medicine, their residences environment sanitation particularly about water puddle, and avoiding stay outside at night. Keywords : risk factor, malaria incidence, Plasmodium falciparum


via depressing pyruvate metabolism, and finally led to SM. This provides new perspective for the diag-nosis and treatment of decidualization deficiency-related SM via regulating the growth factor-PKM axis.


Bacteria with the ability to tolerate, remove, and/or degrade several xenobiotics simultaneously are urgently needed for remediation of polluted sites. A previously isolated bacterium with sodium dodecyl sulfate- (SDS-) degrading capacity was found to be able to reduce molybdenum to the nontoxic molybdenum blue. The optimal pH, carbon source, molybdate concentration, and temperature supporting molybdate reduction were pH 7.0, glucose at 1.5% (w/v), between 25 and 30 mM, and 25°C, respectively. The optimum phosphate concentration for molybdate reduction was 5 mM. The Mo-blue produced exhibits an absorption spectrum with a maximum peak at 865 nm and a shoulder at 700 nm. None of the respiratory inhibitors tested showed any inhibition to the molybdenum-reducing activity suggesting that the electron transport system of this bacterium is not the site of molybdenum reduction. Chromium, cadmium, silver, copper, mercury, and lead caused approximately 77, 65, 77, 89, 80, and 80% inhibition of the molybdenum-reducing activity, respectively. Ferrous and stannous ions markedly increased the activity of molybdenum-reducing activity in this bacterium. The maximum tolerable concentration of SDS as a cocontaminant was 3 g/L. The characteristics of this bacterium make it a suitable candidate for molybdenum bioremediation of sites cocontaminated with detergent pollutant.


spective Randomized Study&dquo; (Kowall et al., January/February 1996, pages 61-66). I commend the authors for designing, performing, and reporting a controlled study on the efficacy of this intervention that has become so popular. Clearly, we need good data to support or refute the belief that specific interventions are beneficial for specific problems. However, I fear the interpretation of the data from this study may be throwing out the proverbial baby with the bath water, a type II error. In the introductory section of that article, the authors list five possible causes of patellofemoral pain, only one of which is patellofemoral malalignment. They then explain that patellar taping is used for passive correction of patellar malalignment to decrease pain during quadriceps muscle rehabilitation, and thus enable more effective


Determining minimum break point set (MBPS) is necessary before setting distance protection relays or zero-sequence protection relays in multiloop extremely high voltage power networks. Determining directional simple loops (DSLs) and relative sequence groups (RSGs) is the prerequisite of traditional algorithms which are used to determine MBPS. In order to reduce the CPU time and complexity of calculating MBPS, a new concept named as protection relay dependency dimension (PRDD) is presented for the first time in this paper. By comparison of PRDD in a multiloop network, the MBPS can be determined, and the process of comparisons will not stop until the MBPS of the multiloop networks is discovered. In the meantime, the RSG could be easily determined by means of judging whether the primary protection relay set of a protection relay is null or not. The new algorithm leaves out those laborious steps, such as determining all of the DSLs and RSGs. Some examples are given to illuminate the novel algorithm presented in the paper to be simple and effective.


This article examines recent developments in household balance sheets using disaggregated data from an annual survey carried out by NMG Consulting on behalf of the Bank. The survey indicates that household debt levels remain well above historical averages, but are little changed since last year. While debt servicing costs were also broadly unchanged, a significant increase in interest rates at current incomes may increase financial pressure on households with a mortgage – but the extent to which this is the case will depend crucially on how much incomes pick up before any rise in rates. This issue is explored by considering a number of scenarios for interest rate rises based on survey responses and some simple assumptions that are set out in the article.


Recently, the inspection of huge traffic log is imposing a great burden on security analysts. Unfortunately, there have been few research efforts focusing on scalability in analyzing very large PCAP file with reasonable computing resources. Asura is a portable and scalable PCAP file analyzer for detecting anomaly packets using massive multithreading. Asura's parallel packet dump inspection is based on task-based decomposition and therefore can handle massive threads for large PCAP file without considering tidy parameter selection in adopting data decomposition. Asura is designed to scale out in processing large PCAP file by taking as many threads as possible. Asura takes two steps. First, Asura extracts feature vector represented by associative containers of < sourceIP, destIP > pair. By doing this, the feature vector can be drastically small compared with the size of original PCAP files. In other words, Asura can reduce packet dump data into the size of unique ¡sourceIP, destIP¿ pairs (for example, in experiment, Asura's output which is reduced in first step is about 2a parallel clustering algorithm is applied for the feature vector which is represented as < sourceIP, destIP >, V [i] where V [i] is aggregated flow vector. In second step, Asura adopts an enhanced Kmeans algorithm. Concretely, two functions of Kmeans which are (1)calculating distance and (2)relabeling points are improved for parallel processing. In experiment, in processing public PCAP datasets, Asura can detect 750 packets which are labeled as malicious from among 70 million (about 18GB) normal packets. In a nutshell, Asura successfully found 750 malicious packets in about 18GB packet dump. For Asura to inspect 70 million packets, it took reasonable computing time of around 350-450 minutes with 10005000 multithreading by running commodity workstation. Asura will be released under MIT license and available at author's GitHub site on the first day of DEF CON 26.


Given the pharmacological properti es and the potential role of kynurenic acid (KYNA) in human physiology and the pleiotropic activity of the neurohormone melatonin (MEL) involved in physiological and immunological functions and as regulator of antioxidant enzymes, this study aimed at evaluating the capability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae EC1118 to release tryptophan derivatives (dTRPs) from the kynurenine (KYN) and melatonin pathways. The setting up of the spectroscopic and chromatographic conditions for the quantification of the dTRPs in LC-MS/MS system, the optimization of dTRPs' production in fermentative and whole-cell biotransformation approaches and the production of dTRPs in a soybean-based cultural medium naturally enriched in tryptophan, as a case of study, were included in the experimental plan. Variable amounts of dTRPs, with a prevalence of metabolites of the KYN pathway, were detected. The LC-MS/MS analysis showed that the compound synthesized at highest concentration is KYNA that reached 9.146 ± 0.585 mg/L in fermentation trials in a chemically defined medium at 400 mg/L TRP. Further experiments in a soybean-based medium confirm KYNA as the main dTRPs, whereas the other dTRPs reached very lower concentrations. While detectable quantities of melatonin were never observed, two MEL isomers were successfully measured in laboratory media.


Background: Situational factors influence learners' approaches to learning and determine learning outcomes. The study determined issues in the learning environments of medical and pharmacy students at the University of Zambia with a view to providing information for improvement.
Methods: A quantitative observational design based on the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measurement (DREEM) inventory was used to survey undergraduate students' perceptions of their learning environments. A total of 270 students – 135 in years 3 to 7 of medical school and 135 in years 3 to 5 of pharmacy school – at the University of Zambia participated. Total, subscale, and single item DREEM scores were analysed and compared.
Results: Mean total DREEM score for all participants was 119/200 (±20.4). Scores for the subscales varied from 15/28 (±3.6) for social self-perception to 21/32 (±3.9) for academic self perception.The total and subscale scores were not significantly different between Medicine and Pharmacy at P > 0.05. Six areas of concern were observed in both programmes: lack of a social support system for stressed students, dictatorial staff, overemphasis on factual learning, tense teaching atmosphere, curriculum issues, and unpleasant accommodations. Medical students were particularly about tense classrooms and lack of feedback; pharmacy students were more likely to be concerned about curriculum issues.
Conclusion: The study showed that although the educational climates of healthcare programmes in medical schools may be comparable, specific programme concerns can be significantly different. Strategic planning to improve schools should consider both general perceptions and specific issues in individual programmes.


This is a comprehensive essential guide to WordPress security written in a light style, which converts learning a really serious topic to an enjoyable read. It is packed with copy-paste solutions to security to suit all levels of security know-how. Just as WordPress is used by a broad spectrum of website owners, with varying degrees of security know-how, so WordPress 3 Ultimate Security is written to be understood by security novices and web professionals alike. From site and server owners and administrators to members of their contributing team, this essential A to Z reference takes a complex and, let's face it, frankly dull subject and makes it accessible, encouraging, and sometimes even fun. Even if you are a total newbie to security, you can transform an insecure site into an iron-clad fortress, safeguarding your site users, your content and, sooner or later, your stress level.


The research work was performed in the experimental sheds and virology laboratory of the Department of Microbiology and Hygiene, Faculty of Veterinary Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), Mymensingh during the period from January to November 2006 for the detection of persistence of maternallyderived antibody (MDA) against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) in Fayoumi chicks as well as evaluation of antibody production in chicks after vaccination. Five experimental groups of 110-day-old Fayoumi chicks were vaccinated for comparative study. Group A was vaccinated with baby chick ranikhet disease vaccine (BCRDV, F-strain), group B with Izovac B 1 Hitchner® (B1 strain), group C with Cevac New L® (LaSota strain) and group D with Avinew® (VG/GA strain) through intraocular (i/o) route while group E was kept as unvaccinated control. Serum samples obtained from 10 randomly selected birds from each group on the occasion of 7, 13, 15, 17, 19 and 21 days post-vaccination (DPV) were subjected to haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. It was found that persistence of MDA against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) retained until the age of day 20 in Fayoumi chicks and among the four commercial vaccines, Avinew® (VG/GA strain) appeared to be slightly superior compared to those of BCRDV (F-strain), Izovac B 1 Hitchner® (B 1 strain) and Cevac New L® (LaSota strain) in respect of HI antibody response. The F-values of HI titre among four vaccines were significantly different ( p <0.01). Keywords: Newcastle disease virus (NDV); Fayoumi chicks; Maternally-derived antibody (MDA); Haemagglutination inhibition (HI); Newcastle disease (ND) vaccines DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjm.v25i1.4852 Bangladesh J Microbiol , Volume 25, Number 1, June 2008, pp 31-35


Anthropogenic withdraw of groundwater and climatic drought results in
the decline of groundwater depth that, in turn, severely limits the
water availability for phreatophytic vegetation in arid regions. In this
study, a small xeric, phreatophytic tree Haloxylon ammodendron (C.A.
Mey.) was investigated to understand the influence of depth to
groundwater (DGW) on hydraulic traits and on the trade-off between
drought tolerance and leaf area increment. A suite of traits including
leaf water potential, pressure–volume (P–V) curves, Huber value,
assimilation branch growth, and osmotic regulation substance were
measured across five sites with DGW ranges from 3.45 to 15.91 m. Our
results indicate that H. ammodendron was subject to greater water stress
with increasing DGW, as indicated by decreased predawn (Ψpd) & midday
(Ψmd) branch water potential. We also found that growth rate declined as
Huber value increased with increasing DGW in the early growing season
(EGS). Solute sugar, as a major osmotic substance, drives decreases in
osmotic potential at full turgor, and thus constrains assimilation
branch growth with increasing DGW in EGS. Therefore, osmotic adjustment
accompanied with water potential regulation (Ψpd-Ψmd) and plasticity of
Huber value allows this phreatophyte to absorb water from deeper soil
layers and tolerate drought. However, these adaptive adjustments cannot
fully compensate for nonoptimal water conditions as growth rate
continued to decrease as DGW increased in EGS and even became negative
in the late growing season (LGS) at almost all sites. Our results
provide an insight into how H. ammodendron responds and adapts to
changes DGW in a region experiencing hydrological and climatic drought.
Greater depth of groundwater had a significant effect on H. ammodendron
and may have similar effects for other non-riparian phreatophytic plants
in arid regions.


Carbon-in-silica composite films have been fabricated using sol-gel synthesis of
silica and carbon precursor materials, followed by carbonization in an inert
atmosphere. Four categories of samples were fabricated and investigated. These
were the tetraethyl orthosilicate-only (TEOS-only), methyl-triethoxysilane (MTES),
acetic acid anhydride (Ac2O) and soot (SOOT) samples. The carbon-in-silica films,
spin-coated on aluminium and steel substrates, have been investigated for selective
solar absorber functionality. Optical measurements were performed on these
samples to determine solar absorptance and thermal emittance of each. The
morphology of the films was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The
fine structure of the samples was studied by cross-section high-resolution
transmission electron microscopy (X-HRTEM). Electron energy-loss spectroscopy
(EELS) mapping was used to determine the carbon distribution. The highest solar
absorptance attained with these coatings is 0.95 and the least emittance obtained is
0.1. An optimum performance of 0.88 for solar absorptance and 0.41 for thermal
emittance has been achieved in a single sample. The sol-gel technique produced
films with very flat surfaces and uniform thicknesses of the order of 1 I¼m. The fine
structure showed homogeneous mixing of the carbon and silica in the TEOS-only
samples while the separate additions of MTES and Ac2O resulted in segregation of
composition of the silica and carbon at nano-scale level. The addition of 20 wt.%
MTES or 15 wt.% Ac2O to the TEOS-only sols also helped to reduce the cracks in
the TEOS-only samples, although Ac2O seemed to be a better choice of the two. The
addition of soot in place of the carbon precursor did not yield a net advantage. This
technique of production of selective solar surfaces is promising to compete
favourably with other techniques, especially for its low cost of running and of initial
investment.,Swedish International Development Aid/Swedish
Agency for Research Cooperation (SIDA/SAREC)


Experimental data have shown that synapses are heterogeneous: different synapses respond with different sequences of amplitudes of postsynaptic responses to the same spike train. Neither the role of synaptic dynamics itself nor the role of the heterogeneity of synaptic dynamics for computations in neural circuits is well understood. We present in this article methods that make it feasible to compute for a given synapse with known synaptic parameters the spike train that is optimally fitted to the synapse, for example in the sense that it produces the largest sum of postsynaptic responses. To our surprise we find that most of these optimally fitted spike trains match common firing patterns of specific types of neurons that are discussed in the literature.


Abstract The practice of teaching a foreign language in primary schools in Italy was first officially provided for by a decree in 1985, but it was only in 1991 that the figure of the Foreign Language (FL) teacher was actually defined. The issue at that stage was how to select and train the prospective L2 teachers, and so in-service courses were organised to provide these teachers with the linguistic and methodological know-how needed for the new professional role they were to play. At the time, the autonomy of single schools was encouraged and courses were managed locally by several education institutions cooperating on the project. Since then English has become the compulsory language to be taught in primary schools and the final objective of the teacher training courses has been identified as level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). This has led to the need for a different kind of assessment, which has evolved from tests devised by the teacher trainers themselves in the early courses, to internationally recognised certificates (Cambridge ESOL Preliminary English Test PET), and finally to a more specific certificate devised by test designers at Italian University Language Centres, now involved in the project. This article aims to describe how teacher training and assessment have changed in Parma, and illustrate how the current Certificate of English for Primary school Teachers (CEPT), devised by the Language Centre of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and the Language Centre of the University of Parma, has developed into a regional project, on the basis of a Teacher Profile which takes into account the CEFR, the European Language Portfolio (ELP), the Italian school system and its requirements, the needs of children learning English as a foreign language, and the needs of future teachers of English attending an in-service course.


We study properties of (bi-infinite) arrays having all adjacent $k\times k$ adjacent minors equal to one. If we further add the condition that all adjacent $(k-1)\times(k-1)$ minors be nonzero, then these arrays are necessarily of rank $k$. It follows that we can explicit construct all of them. Several nice properties are made apparent. In particular, we revisit, with this perspective, the notion of frieze patterns of Coxeter. This shed new light on their properties. A connexion is also established with the notion of $T$-systems of Statistical Physics.


Chiari networks are remnants of embryologic structures whose incomplete involution creates a net-like membrane in the right atrium. When discovered it is normally of little clinical significance and is found in 2-10% of the population. Nevertheless, there are reported cases of this formation having causation in atrial arrhythmias, thrombus formation, tumor development, tricuspid regurgitation, embolus and catheter entrapment/entanglement during invasive procedures. We present a case of a patient with an incidental finding of Chiari network on echocardiography and discuss the importance of detecting these formations before certain cardiac procedures. J Med Cases. 2016;7(7):291-293 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jmc2424w


Sir .—We found the article by Sly et al 1 to be very important. In a similar study that was carried out a few months ago in Greece, we checked the reliability of diary cards compared with peak expiratory flow rates (PEFR) measured at home by 33 asthmatic children aged 6 to 11 years (mean, 8.2 years). In 26 cases (78.7%) of the studied group, no correlation was found between the scale recorded in the diary and the PEFR. In each of 17 cases (51.5%), the recorded symptoms were moderate or severe while the PEFR was normal or slightly low. In nine cases (27.2%), the patients reported mild symptoms or no symptoms at all while the PEFR was significantly low. We also found that, in all but one case, the values of the PEFR measured at home were not significantly different from those recorded in the clinic (Figure). Our results


In this article, I identify challenges to the loss distribution approach in modeling operational risk. I propose a scenario-based methodology for operational risk assessment, which recognizes that each risk can occur under a number of wide-ranging scenarios and that association between risks may behave differently for different scenarios. The model that is developed internally in the company provides a practical quantitative assessment of risk exposure that reflects a deep understanding of the company and its environment, making the risk calculation more responsive to the actual state, ensuring that the company is attending to its key operational risks. In this model qualitative and quantitative approaches are combined to build a loss distribution for individual and aggregate operational risk exposure. The model helps to portray the company's internal control systems and aspects of business environment. These features can help the company increase its operational efficiency, reduce loss from undesirable incidents, and maintain the integrity of internal control.


Purpose to investigate the effect of Kinesio® Tex Taping on pain and physical tolerance post laporoscopic abdominal surgery. Subjects& Methods: 65 Patients with recent abdominal surgeries were recruited and randomly divided into 2 groups: the study group (n= 32), received kinesiology taping applied immediately postoperatively and changed every 48 hours until the 8th day postoperatively in addition to the standard postoperative care. While the control group (n= 33) received the standard postoperative care only. The measurements of pain numerical rating scale, visual analogue scale, and 2 minutes' walk test were taken after the first, third and eighth days. While, patient's global impression of change was taken only at the eighth day. Results: both study and control groups revealed a highly significant differences of the first 3 parameters between the first& third and third & eight days (P< 0.05). Between groups, the first day showed that there was non-significant difference. The third and eighth days showed highly significant differences (P< 0.05). Patient's global impression of change showed a highly significant difference between the study and control groups on the eight's day (P< 0.005). Conclusion: the data suggest that the kinesio taping is very effective in treating postoperative abdominal pain.


The latest pre-production vehicles on the market show that the major technical challenges posed by integrating a fuel cell system (FCS) within a vehicle—compactness, safety, autonomy, reliability, cold starting—have been met. Regarding the ongoing maturity of fuel cell systems dedicated to road transport, the present article examines the advances still needed to move from a functional but niche product to a mainstream consumer product. It seeks to address difficulties not covered by more traditional innovation approaches. At least in long-distance heavy-duty vehicles, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are going to play a key role in the path to zero-emissions in one or two decades. Hence the present study also addresses the structuring elements of the complete chain: the latter includes the production, storage and distribution of hydrogen. Green hydrogen appears to be one of the potential uses of renewable energies. The greener the electricity is, the greater the advantage for hydrogen since it permits to economically store large energy quantities on seasonal rhythms. Moreover, natural hydrogen might also become an economic reality pushing the fuel cell vehicle to be a competitive and environmentally friendly alternative to the battery electric vehicle. Based on its own functional benefits for on board systems, hydrogen in combination with the fuel cell will achieve a large-scale use of hydrogen in road transport, as soon as renewable energies become more widespread. Its market will expand from large driving range and heavy load vehicles.


Hydrocarbon-reservoir-performance forecasting is an integral component of the resource-development chain and is typically accomplished using reservoir modeling, by means of either numerical or analytical methods. Although complex numerical models provide rigorous means of capturing and predicting reservoir behavior, reservoir engineers also rely on simpler analytical models to analyze well performance and estimate reserves when uncertainties exist. Arps (1945) empirically demonstrated that certain reservoirs might decline according to simple, exponential, hyperbolic, or harmonic relationships; such behavior, however, does not extend to more-complex scenarios, such as multiphase-reservoir depletion. Because of this limitation, an important research area for many years has been to transform the equations governing flow through porous media in such a way as to express complex reservoir performance in terms of closed analytical forms. In this work, we demonstrate that rigorous compositional analysis can be coupled with analytical well-performance estimations for reservoirs with complex fluid systems, and that the molar decline of individual hydrocarbon-fluid fractions can be expressed in terms of rescaled exponential equations for well-performance analysis. This work demonstrates that, by the introduction of a new partial-pseudopressure variable, it is possible to predict the decline behavior of individual fluid constituents of a variety of gas/condensate-reservoir systems characterized by widely varying richness and complex multiphase-flow scenarios. A new four-region-flow model is proposed and validated to implement gas/condensate-deliverability calculations at late times during variable-bottomhole-pressure (BHP) production. Five case studies are presented to support each of the model capabilities stated previously and to validate the use of liquid-analog rescaled exponentials for the prediction of production-decline behavior for each of the hydrocarbon species.


Gouty tophi is a disease characterized by the long-term deposition of monosodium urate crystals in joints or cartilages. The most commonly affected site is the first metatarsophalangeal joint, and gouty tophi in the head and neck region are relatively rare. This article reports a case involving an elderly male with asymptomatic gouty tophi in the thyroid cartilage. The patient had a history of gout for over 10 years and presented with a painless thyroid mass that had been present for at least 3 years. He had not received systemic treatment. Preoperative contrast-enhanced cervical CT results indicated a high likelihood of gouty tophi. Postoperative pathology confirmed the mass to be consistent with gouty nodules. Following the procedure, the patient was treated symptomatically with non-busulfan tablets and colchicine. No recurrence was observed at the 1-year follow-up. This report highlights the need to consider gouty tophi in cases of prolonged gout history and abnormal imaging findings in the head and neck region. Appropriate management, including urate-lowering therapy and surgery, if necessary, can lead to optimal outcomes and prevent recurrences. Further research is warranted to enhance understanding and clinical management of this uncommon regional manifestation of gout.


Steelmaking Refractories. Secondary Metallurgy. Carbon Containing. Steel Ladles. Operations. Continuous Casting. Blast Furnaces & Coke Ovens. Castable Technology. Installed Properties. Installation Essentials. Carbon Containing. Curing & Dewatering. Molten Liquid Interactions. Robert E. Moore Memorial Symposium. In Situ and Ex Situ Characterization. Worldwide Raw Materials. Ultra High Temperataure Ceramics. Environmental Sustainability. Refractories for Primary Aluminum. Foundry Applications. Glass Production. New Development and Test Methods. Hydrocarbon Processing. Fracture of Refractories.


In recent years, there has been much attention paid to the ability of U.S. industries, and manufacturers in particular, to compete with foreign imports. With that attention has come the corresponding need for additional data to provide further insights into globalization. For the past 20 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has provided price indexes for imports from a limited set of countries and regions. Until now, however, the usefulness of the data as a potential measure of competitiveness has been limited by the lack of any locality of origin data by industry sector. To help fill this data gap, the International Price Program of BLS has expanded the existing import price indexes by locality of origin to include more detail below the "all import" level of aggregation. Beginning on August 10, 2012, there will be 249 new indexes, in addition to the locality of origin indexes previously published. These indexes cover select industry sectors across the 15 currently published localities, including 31 new price indexes covering imports from China and 20 for imports from the European Union. Prior to the expansion, the only price indexes published below the all import level were the broad groupings for manufactured and non-manufactured goods. The new Locality of Origin price indexes are published using the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), the same classification system used to aggregate the Producer Price Indexes (PPI). Having more detailed price data available for imports from different countries and regions will improve the analysis of price trends between domestic and imported goods.


We review the applications of photoemission electron microscopy for real and reciprocal space multidimensional microscopy and spectroscopy of the collective and single particle excitations at clean and adsorbate covered surfaces. Specific examples are given for ultrafast imaging of surface plasmon modes of nanostructured silver surfaces, and clean and adsorbate modified noble metal single crystal surfaces. The examples given illustrate how ultrafast multidimensional multiphoton photoelectron techniques can probe interfacial charge transfer dynamics.


In this paper we present a data-flow system which supports comparative analysis of time-dependent data and interactive simulation steering. In such a system data is created on-the-fly and the user can introduce branching events to investi-gate multiple scenarios. The novel data-flow model automatically generates the required data for user requests without further interaction. In particular, we gener-alize the notion of capabilities, jobs and settings of a node which steer the data-flow execution. Based on a notion of scope and validity it becomes straightforward for the user to specify settings which vary over time or scenarios. Intuitive navigation concepts let the user select what he wants to see, the decision which data is required throughout the data-flow is then handled automatically. The approach is based on a graph-based model of a topologically sorted data-flow. Based on that we show that the notion of a scope allows to describe the computation of jobs and validity using set intersections and set unions. We demonstrate the approach by discussing two small case studies.


The performance of multiimage alignment, bringing different images into one coordinate system, is critical in many applications with varied signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. A great amount of effort is being invested into developing methods to solve this problem. Several important questions thus arise, including: Which are the fundamental limits in multiimage alignment performance? Does having access to more images improve the alignment? Theoretical bounds provide a fundamental benchmark to compare methods and can help establish whether improvements can be made. In this work, we tackle the problem of finding the performance limits in image registration when multiple shifted and noisy observations are available. We derive and analyze the Cramér-Rao and Ziv-Zakai lower bounds under different statistical models for the underlying image. We show the existence of different behavior zones depending on the difficulty level of the problem, given by the SNR conditions of the input images. The analysis we present here brings further insight into the fundamental limitations of the multiimage alignment problem.


Doctors and managers have different cultures, which opens up possibilities not only of fruitless fighting but also of rich learning. I've belonged to both cultures. In 1989 I went to the Stanford Business School in California with a typical doctor's view of management: boring, uncreative, and best left to those incapable of doing anything better. I came back thinking the opposite. To be able to mix together ideas, people, and resources to makes things happen is creative, difficult, and a privilege. Generally, there is even more uncertainty in management than medicine. Having now inhabited both cultures it's clear that they have much to learn from each other—and where better to do that than within healthcare systems, where they work alongside each other?

Not everything is different between the two cultures. Both professions are full of highly committed people who work extremely hard—often to the point of damaging themselves and their families. The training of both is long, hard, and never ends. Contrary to what doctors may believe, managers think about ethics. Shocked by the scandals of the 1980s, business schools have been teaching ethics for as long as medical schools. This is not to say that all managers behave ethically any more than all doctors do.

Both professions respond to financial incentives. Doctors like to fool themselves that they don't, but there is overwhelming evidence that they do—just like everybody …


This study departs from earlier analyses of the effects of taxes on capital income in several respects. Probably the most important difference between this treatment and most preceding ones lies in the assumptions about the interest elasticity of saving. It is shown below that the common two-period formulation of saving decisions yields quite misleading results. A more realistic model of life cycle savings demonstrates that, for a wide variety of plausible parameter values, savings are very interest elastic. This implies that shifting away from capital income taxation would significantly increase capital formation, making possible long-run increases in consumption.


INTRODUCTION Scores of volcanic necks, dikes, and lava-capped mesas rise from the high plateau of northeast Arizona and the adjacent parts of Utah and New Mexico. These are the remnants of a volcanic field that formerly covered many thousands of square miles. Erosion has so far dissected this field that the original cones have disappeared, the sheets of lava have been dismembered, and the old volcanic conduits now rise as giant towers, revealing their inner structure with singular clarity. The objects of this paper are to discuss the features of these denuded volcanoes, the character of their ejecta, and the age of their eruptions. To petrologists, the region is one of unusual interest, because of the similarity of its igneous rocks to certain of those in the classic regions of alkaline rocks in Montana and Wyoming. So extensive is the Navajo-Hopi volcanic province, that the present survey is to be . . .


Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria (Xcv) recovered from Commelina benghalensis L., caused bacterial spot disease in cultivars of pepper and tomato susceptible to the pathogen. This is the first reported case of a dicot-infecting Xc pathovar infecting a monocot plant, represented here by a member of the Family Commelinaceae. Labora- tory strains of the pathogen that included 81-23, 81-23M13, 82:4, 2595, and P6AD4, known to be pathogenic to pepper and tomato, promoted bacterial spot symptoms on leaves of C. benghalensis L. Of the 63 field isolates recovered from infected C. benghalensis L., 30 gave biochemical and physiological reactions consistent with Xcv pathogens, whereas 10 of the latter promoted bacterial spot disease in the test cultivars resulting in the identification of seven pathogenic races, including P2, P5, P6, P5T1, P5T2, P6T2, and P6T3. Bacterial spot disease symptoms developed on stems only when C. benghalensis L. was spray-inoculated with strains 81-23, 81-23M13, and P6AD4. Bacterial concentration increased in planta by as much as 10 3 per lesion of the leaf, whereas growth of the same strains was restricted in the stem of this weed. Growth of these three strains was, however, significantly (P ≤ 0.05) lower on NYGA amended with C. benghalensis L. stem extract than on NYGA amended with leaf extract. The ability of the bacterial spot pathogen to infect the stem of C. benghalensis L. has serious implications for management of bacterial spot disease in fields populated with this weed since stems of this plant infected with the pathogen continue to grow vegetatively and disperse throughout all fields in which it is found.


Stationary plasma discharges have been investigated in a high vacuum ambient (background gas pressure <10/sup -2/ Pa), with an externally heated cathode and a consumable hot evaporating anode. With various anode materials like chromium or copper, and electrode separations between 0.5 and 3 mm, the nonself-sustained discharge operates with DC arc currents in the range of 220 A. The waveform of the arc voltage is strongly influenced by the magnetic field of the cathode heating current, and arc voltages between a minimum of 3 V and a maximum exceeding 100 V have been observed. The voltage-current characteristics (V/sub CC/) and the influence of the electrode separation have been measured separately for the minimum and the maximum of the arc voltages and show a different behavior. The metal plasma expands into the ambient vacuum toward the walls of the vacuum vessel and offers a macroparticle free deposition source of thin films. The arc voltage can be varied by external manipulations of the arc discharge, and the mean ion energy of the expanding metal plasma shows a linear dependence of the mean arc voltage.


The high specific strength and tailorable properties have made advanced composites structures to find increased use in the aircraft industry. Impact damages due to events such as tool drops, runway debris etc. can reduce the load carrying capacity of composite structures and impair safe operation of the aircraft. Often they result in barely visible external damage and as such they may get missed during visual inspection of large aircraft structures. Impact events are random in nature, in both time domain (uncertain when it will occur) and spatial domain (where it will occur), hence, the challenge is to develop a smart impact monitoring system, which will remain active to report the impact event on the structure. This paper describes the experimental studies carried out towards the development of an online impact monitoring system, which can estimate the impact location and severity of impact in terms of impact energy/force. Such a system can assist in carrying out inspection only in the identified locations instead of inspecting the whole structure. An impact test setup developed in-house is used to carry out impact tests on composite structures. The portable impact tower comprises of a drop weight and a tup instrumented with a force sensor to measure the force response during impact. Sensor sensitivity studies are carried out to determine the optimum sensor locations on the structure. Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) and Resistance Strain Gauges (RSG) sensors are used in this study to measure strains in the structure during impact. A comprehensive method based on a building block approach is followed. Several laminates of different thicknesses are tested first before moving on to more complex configurations such as skin-stringer panels and wing-box like structures. These studies allow us to understand the complexities in the structural response towards impact and help in design of sensor networks as well as algorithms for estimation of impact location and severity. In order to determine the impact location using strain data acquired during the impact event, various algorithms are developed, validated and implemented in LabVIEW platform. Support vector regression and system identification techniques based algorithms are used to determine the impact severity. Comparative results of the algorithms will also be discussed through Probability of Detection/Confidence.


This study examines the preconditioning of events in which the Arctic stratospheric polar vortex shifts toward Eurasia (EUR events), North America (NA events), and the Atlantic (ATL events) using composite analysis. An increase in blocking days over northern Europe and a decrease in blocking days over the Bering Strait favor the movement of the vortex toward Eurasia, while the opposite changes in blocking days over those regions favor the movement of the vortex toward North America. An increase in blocking days over the eastern North Atlantic and a decrease in blocking days over the Bering Strait are conducive to movement of the stratospheric polar vortex toward the Atlantic. These anomalous precursor blocking patterns are interpreted in terms of the anomalous zonal wave-1 or wave-2 planetary wave fluxes into the stratosphere that are known to influence the vortex position and strength. In addition, the polar vortex shift events are further classified into events with small and large polar vortex deformation, since the two types of events are likely to have a different impact at the surface. A significant difference in the zonal wave-2 heat flux into the lower stratosphere exists prior to the two types of events and this is linked to anomalous blocking patterns. This study further defines three types of tropospheric blocking events in which the spatial patterns of blocking frequency anomalies are similar to the blocking patterns prior to EUR, NA, and ATL events, respectively, and our reanalysis reveals that the polar vortex is indeed more likely to shift toward Eurasia, North America, and the Atlantic in the presence of the above three defined tropospheric blocking events. These shifts of the polar vortex toward Eurasia, North America, and the Atlantic lead to statistically significant negative height anomalies near the tropopause and corresponding surface cooling anomalies over these three regions.


refer themselves to the genitourinarv clinic. Attendance is easy as little travelling is necessary; a high rate of attendance is therefore likely. It might be that in the Cambridge clinic with a larger catchment area women would be less likelv to attend a department of genitourinary medicine unless other factors (such as recent change of partner) made them more concerned that they might harbour other diseases. Local policies for referral, screening, and treatment of patients with genital warts need to be tailored to local conditions; such policies need to be based on audit such as that carried out by Dr Carne and Mr Dockerty and ourselves. In their introduction Dr Carne and Mr Dockerty mention "the link between the aetiological agent of warts, human papillomavirus, and the development of cervical cancer." The causative agent in genital warts is human papillomavirus type 6 or II." Types 16 and 18 have been implicated in the aetiology of cervical cancerbut types 6 and 11 have not. There is therefore no reason to anticipate an association between genital warts and cervical cancer. Despite this it seems to be a widespread policy to advise women with genital warts that they have an increased risk of this malignancy and to carry out more frequent cytological screening in them. No study has shown any increased risk of cervical cancer in women with vulval warts. On the contrary, there have been three reports of case-control studies"' that have shown that warts do not represent a risk factor for cervical cancer. It is time to stop telling women with warts that they have an increased risk of cervical cancer and to stop the wasteful overscreening of these women.


A risk of small defined-benefit pension schemes is that there are too few members to eliminate idiosyncratic mortality risk, that is, there are too few members to effectively pool mortality risk. This means that when there are few members in the scheme, there is an increased risk of the liability value deviating significantly from the expected liability value, as compared to a large scheme. We quantify this risk through examining the coefficient of variation of a scheme's liability value relative to its expected value. We examine how the coefficient of variation varies with the number of members and find that, even with a few hundred members in the scheme, idiosyncratic mortality risk may still be significant. Next we quantify the amount of the mortality risk concentrated in the executive section of the scheme, where the executives receive a benefit that is higher than the non-executive benefit. We use the Euler capital allocation principle to allocate the total standard deviation of the liability value between the executive and non-executive sections. The results suggest that the mortality risk of the scheme should be monitored and managed within the sections of a scheme and not only on a scheme-wide basis.


We studied the effect of muscle acylphosphatase on the Ca2+ pumping ATPase of heart sarcolemma. Acylphosphatase addition to calmodulin-depleted sarcolemmal vesicles produced a significant increase in the rate of Ca(2+)-dependent ATP hydrolysis, even higher than obtained with exogenously added calmodulin. Maximal stimulation (about four fold over basal value) was obtained with 550 units/mg vesicle protein, a concentration that fall within the physiological range. Conversely, similar amounts of acylphosphatase decreased the rate of ATP-dependent Ca2+ transport into the sarcolemmal vesicles. The maximal statistically significant inhibition of Ca2+ uptake was observed with the same acylphosphatase concentration that gave the maximal stimulation of Ca(2+)-ATPase activity. From these findings acylphosphatase appears to reduce the efficiency of heart sarcolemmal Ca2+ pump with an impairment of the coupling between ATP hydrolysis and Ca2+ transport. A possible mechanism of this effect is discussed.


In most developing countries especially in Africa, physical and anthropogenic activities, as well as population growth and climate change have caused pressures on basic infrastructures such as potable water supply. The rapid increase in migration and population growth threatens these infrastructures which reinforces the poverty cycle and undercuts economic growth. Abuja as the capital of Nigeria is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa and is faced with these challenges. However, limited statistical data about water and sanitation provides little information about the spatial distribution of water access in Abuja communities. Over the years, conventional methods of obtaining data have been complex and labour intensive. With the advent of Geospatial technology, spatial deliveries of numerical data and maps have supported the search for other relevant data, as well as improved data management. This paper aims to highlight the importance of adopting Geospatial technology for potable water access and management. Data was generated through household questionnaire survey tool administered to 200 residents of four (4) Peri-Urban areas of Abuja. The findings indicated that most residents rely on borehole water supply as their source of potable water supply. Overall, most people chose the quality of water over the cost of accessing water. In conclusion, the study discovered that despite water availability, access to a reliable source remained a challenge, especially as most residents relied on vendors for water supply. Hence, the need to embrace Geospatial technology is essential for its usefulness in national development and economic development.


Biodegradation is an important mechanism determining the fate of chemicals in the aquatic environment. In this paper, experimental data, determined from electrolytic respirometry, for 27 compounds were analyzed using first order and Monod kinetics. Additional data from the literature were also used in our analysis. A method based on group contribution to predict first-order and Monod kinetic rate constants was developed and validated. The group contribution approach gave reasonable results for a variety of compounds. More kinetic data are required to extend the group contribution approach.


The three hole, wedge-type pneumatic pressure probe represents a robust traverse probe design which is widely used for total and static pressure and yaw angle measurements in turbomachinery. However, unsteady flows are incorrectly averaged due to pneumatic meaning errors in the pressure pipes. Wedge probes also fail to measure the correct static pressure when operating in close proximity to a wall through which the probe is inserted. Thirdly, the aerodynamic calibration obtained for a wedge-type probe in a closed wind tunnel differs appreciably from that obtained in an open jet. If not corrected, these errors will corrupt any calculation of turbomachinery blade row performance. In this investigation, the second and third effects described above have been addressed. A factorial experiment was completed in which the influence of seven variables on the wall proximity effect was quantified. Flow visualisation studies were performed to understand the responsible flow mechanisms. Two regions of re-circulating flow were identified in the probe wake, the structure of which depended on the probe immersion. Similar re-circulatory flows were resolved from three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations of the flow over a wedge probe. A link between the probe wake re-circulations and flow over the wedge faces was established. Based on this understanding of the flow structures, a model was developed from which the wall proximity effect could be predicted for a given set of conditions. Wedge probe calibrations were completed in a closed wind tunnel and in two open jets. Discrepancies in the static pressure coefficient and yaw angle sensitivity results were found. These were partially explained in terms of modifications to the probe wake structure which occurred when the probes were calibrated in the open jet facilities. Procedures for correcting the wall proximity effect and for avoiding the facility dependence of wedge probe calibrations were developed from this understanding of the flow mechanisms involved. Based on the findings of this investigation, a novel wedge probe was designed to minimise the wall proximity effect. This probe demonstrated a reduction in the wall proximity effect, from 20% dynamic head with current designs, to 3% dynamic head at flows typical of high speed turbomachinery.


Traditional radio systems are strictly co-designed on the lower levels of the OSI stack for compatibility and efficiency. Although this has enabled the success of radio communications, it has also introduced lengthy standardization processes and imposed static allocation of the radio spectrum. Various initiatives have been undertaken by the research community to tackle the problem of artificial spectrum scarcity by both making frequency allocation more dynamic and building flexible radios to replace the static ones. There is reason to believe that just as computer vision and control have been overhauled by the introduction of machine learning, wireless communication can also be improved by utilizing similar techniques to increase the flexibility of wireless networks. In this work, we pose the problem of discovering low-level wireless communication schemes ex-nihilo between two agents in a fully decentralized fashion as a reinforcement learning problem. Our proposed approach uses policy gradients to learn an optimal bi-directional communication scheme and shows surprisingly sophisticated and intelligent learning behavior. We present the results of extensive experiments and an analysis of the fidelity of our approach.


The development of autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) has seen great progress in the last few years, and are on the verge of becoming a reality. Sensing the environment in a reliable way is a key element in making a ship fully autonomous. The sensors needed to make a ship fully autonomous exist today, but the challenge remains to find the optimal way to combine them. An ASV operating in a urban environment might need different exteroceptive sensors than a vessel operating at sea. Optical cameras and lidars (light detection and ranging) are suitable candidates for close-range sensing of the environment. Different sensors have different strengths and weaknesses, and in order to build a coherent world image on which e.g. sense-and-avoid decisions can be based on, information from the different sensors need to be fused and included into the state estimation of surrounding vessels. This is done using a target tracking system. In this thesis, a target tracking framework based on the JIPDA filter is implemented and tested on real data gathered during a series of experiments in a harbour environment. Measurement models for both the lidar and the camera are formulated, and the sensors are geometrically calibrated and integrated with the navigation system onboard the ReVolt model ship. The data from the lidar are clustered using a slightly modified version of the DBSCAN algorithm. Sensor measurements from a number of different scenarios with two maneuvering targets are recorded, and the targets are tracked with the JIPDA filter using the lidar sensor as the primary sensor. The results show that wakes behind the targets lead to many false tracks in close vicinity to the ReVolt model ship. The results also show that the detection probability of targets at range is reduced due to the spread of the laser beams. The presence of wakes did not lead to track loss for the true targets. At ranges where the targets were steadily detected, the targets were successfully tracked with few false tracks. It was also found that tracks can be lost due to occlusions, where one of the targets block the other target from being detected. The implemented Faster R-CNN detector showed limited range, where the detections at ranges over 20 meters are few and far between. At close ranges however, it shows the potential to be used in mitigating false tracks due to wakes or clutter, and could be used to aid in track formation and confirmation.


A windthrow refers to the uprooting and overthrowing of trees by the wind. Typhoons are a major cause of windthrows in Japan and are predicted to intensify under global warming. This study aimed to estimate the impact of climate change on windthrows and evaluate possible adaptation measures for sustainable forest management. We incorporated Typhoon Songda (2004) simulation experiments under current and pseudo-global warming (2075–2099, RCP 8.5 scenario) conditions with windthrow modelling in four natural and four artificial (Abies sachalinensis, Pinaceae) forests of Hokkaido. Unexpectedly, pseudo-global warming conditions decreased windthrow probabilities compared with current conditions for both forest types, presumably because wind speeds of the simulated typhoon weakened in Japan's high-latitude regions. Our results indicate that reconversion of artificial forests into natural forests largely decreased windthrow probability, providing a potential adaptation measure for improved forest management. To fully understand the range of climate-change effects on windthrow in Japan, future studies should use different climate scenarios and data from other typhoons, geographical regions, and forest types.


In Reply. —It appears that Dr Swift and colleagues misunderstood our use of matching on time since certification in our study of breast cancer among 105 385 US radiologic technologists. 1 While the possibility of overmatching on a correlate of exposure may be a concern, matching on year of certification was not equivalent to matching on years of work. In fact, the distribution of years worked was quite varied within intervals of year of certification, reflecting independent decisions by women to cease active work following certification for various reasons such as raising a family. Even before matching, this pattern, shown here in the Table for all female questionnaire respondents certified between 1940 and 1959, 2 was fairly uniform across 5-year intervals of year of certification. That is, women were equally likely to work fewer than 5 years (10%-14%) as to work 30 to 34 years (9%-15%) within categories of certification year. Thus,


To solve the problem of the uneven density data of DBSCAN algorithm, this paper proposes a density detection DBSCAN algorithm, which is named as DDBSCAN. Firstly, the density detection functions are designed as the evaluation standard of data density; secondly, high-dimensional data are classified into several partitions based on different density values; thirdly, Eps and MinPts parameters are set up in these partitions automatically; finally, the DBSCAN algorithm is applied to each partition respectively. Experimental results show that the proposed DDBSCAN algorithm is superior to the original DBSCAN in uneven density data clustering perspective.


Practices of Muslim female veiling are a frequent object of concern in the political debate in Austria and Germany. Reviewing current empirical and theoretical literature on the issue, I will try to trace relevant positions of the current debate employing a theoretical framework based on poststructuralist discourse theory. As I want to show, dominant discursive positions frequently refer to the oppressive element of the headscarf, understand it as opposed to shared 'Western' values or interpret it as an element of a process of Islamisation. Other, often marginalised speakers try to constitute veiling as a matter of freedom of religion, as a spiritual endeavour or as an act of resistance. Many of the positions represented in the public discourse, I argue, tend to overlook the variety of experiences Muslim women face at the intersection of various forms of dominance, and make invisible some of the multiple layers of meaning the practice of veiling is imbued with.


The recently completed ISO/IEC, International Standard 15938, formally called the Multimedia Content Description Interface (but better known as MPEG-7), provides a rich set of tools for completely describing multimedia content. The standard wasn't just designed from a content management viewpoint (classical archival information). It includes an innovative description of the media's content, which we can extract via content analysis and processing. MPEG-7 also isn't aimed at any one application; rather, the elements that MPEG-7 standardizes support as broad a range of applications as possible. This is one of the key differences between MPEG-7 and other metadata standards; it aims to be generic, not targeted to a specific application or application domain. The article provides a comprehensive overview of MPEG-7's motivation, objectives, scope, and components.


The presence of a low-dose envelope, or 'halo', in the fluence profile of a proton spot can increase the output of a pencil beam scanning field by over 10%. This study evaluated whether the Monte Carlo simulation code, TOPAS 1.0-beta 8, based on Geant4.9.6 with its default physics list, can predict the spot halo at depth in phantom by incorporating a halo model within the proton source distribution. Proton sources were modelled using three 2D Gaussian functions, and optimized until simulated spot profiles matched measurements at the phantom surface out to a radius of 100 mm. Simulations were subsequently compared with profiles measured using EBT3 film in Solidwater® phantoms at various depths for 100, 115, 150, 180, 210 and 225 MeV proton beams. Simulations predict measured profiles within a 1 mm distance to agreement for 2D profiles extending to the 0.1% isodose, and within 1 mm/1% Gamma criteria over the integrated curve of spot profile as a function of radius. For isodose lines beyond 0.1% of the central spot dose, the simulated primary spot sigma is smaller than the measurement by up to 15%, and can differ by over 1 mm. The choice of particle interaction algorithm and phantom material were found to cause ~1 mm range uncertainty, a maximal 5% (0.3 mm) difference in spot sigma, and maximal 1 mm and ~2 mm distance to agreement in isodoses above and below the 0.1% level, respectively. Based on these observations, therefore, the selection of physics model and the application of Solidwater® as water replacement material in simulation and measurement should be used with caution.


Consumption of vegetables, fruit and dietary fiber is closely associated with cancer incidence and mortality in the population, especially under conditions of insufficient consumption. We estimated the fraction of cancer incidence and mortality in 2015 attributable to insufficient consumption of vegetables, fruit and dietary fiber in the Japanese population. Consumption of vegetables, fruit and dietary fiber in grams per day, by sex and age group, is available for 2005 from the Japanese National Health and Nutrition Survey. Optimal consumption of vegetables and fruits for this study was assumed to be over 350g and 100g/day, respectively. Optimal consumption of dietary fiber was defined by age group according to the Dietary Reference consumption for Japanese. Population attributable fractions (PAFs) were estimated for each sex and age group according to a standard formula, and aggregated to obtain the PAF among total cancer incidence and mortality. Insufficient consumption of vegetables, fruit, and dietary fiber contributed 0.2%, 0.1% and 1.0% of all cancer incidence, and 0.2%, 0.1% and 0.9% of cancer mortality, respectively. The results of this study may provide useful evidence in reducing the cancer burden attributable to insufficient consumption of vegetables, fruit and dietary fiber in Japan.


We propose a dynamic faceted search system for discovery-driven analysis on data with both textual content and structured attributes. From a keyword query, we want to dynamically select a small set of "interesting" attributes and present aggregates on them to a user. Similar to work in OLAP exploration, we define "interestingness" as how surprising an aggregated value is, based on a given expectation. We make two new contributions by proposing a novel "navigational" expectation that's particularly useful in the context of faceted search, and a novel interestingness measure through judicious application of p-values. Through a user survey, we find the new expectation and interestingness metric quite effective. We develop an efficient dynamic faceted search system by improving a popular open source engine, Solr. Our system exploits compressed bitmaps for caching the posting lists in an inverted index, and a novel directory structure called a bitset tree for fast bitset intersection. We conduct a comprehensive experimental study on large real data sets and show that our engine performs 2 to 3 times faster than Solr.


Recent work by the authors enabled a hierarchical modeling solution to the general change of support problem (COSP), where they seek to make inferences about the values of a variable at either points or regions different from those at which it has been observed. The approach presumes an underlying continuous stationary spatial process X (s) for locations s ∈ D, a region of interest. It is straightforwardly extended to the spatio‐temporal setting by assuming a space–time separable covariance function for the X (s, t) process, t ∈ T and again s ∈ D. In this article they take up the associated misaligned regression problem, where, for example, the explanatory variable is envisioned from the X (s, t) process, while the response is available only as areal summaries over a particular grid at particular times. They illustrate using a dataset relating several air quality indicators (ozone, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, etc.) and a range of sociodemographic variables (age, gender, race, and a socioeconomic status surrogate) to the response, pediatric emergency room (ER) visit counts for asthma in Atlanta, Georgia. Here the air quality data is collected at fixed monitoring stations (point locations) while the sociodemographic covariates and response variable is collected by zip code (areal summaries). In fact, the air quality data are available as daily averages at each monitoring station, and the response is available as daily counts of visits in each zip code. As is now common in hierarchical Bayesian spatial applications, computing is implemented via a carefully tailored Metropolis–Hastings algorithm, with map summaries created using a geographic information system (GIS). Like many recent investigations of the ozone–asthma link, our results suggest a small positive association, though our data can permit this conclusion only for those children living in the city of Atlanta who use the ER to manage their asthma. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background:The current trend in postoperative nutrition is to promote a normal oral diet as early as possible. However, postoperative ileus is a frequent and common problem after major abdominal surgery. This study was designed to investigate whether early enteral nutrition (EEN), as a bridge to a normal diet, can reduce postoperative ileus. Methods:Patients undergoing major rectal surgery for locally advanced primary or recurrent rectal carcinoma (after neoadjuvant (chemo)-radiation, with or without intraoperative radiotherapy) were randomly assigned to EEN (n = 61) or early parenteral nutrition (EPN, n = 62) in addition to an oral diet. Early nutrition was started 8 hours after surgery. Early parenteral nutrition was given as control nutrition to obtain caloric equivalence and minimize confounding. The primary endpoint was time to first defecation; secondary outcomes were morbidity, other ileus symptoms, and length of hospital stay. Results:Baseline characteristics were similar for both groups. In intention-to-treat analysis, the time to first defecation was significantly shorter in the enteral nutrition arm than in the control arm (P = 0.04). Moreover, anastomotic leakage occurred significantly less frequently in the enteral group (1 patient) compared with parenteral supplementation (9 patients, P = 0.009). Mean length of stay in the enteral group was 13.4 ± 2.2 days versus 16.7 ± 2.3 days in the parenteral group (P = 0.007). Conclusions:Early enteral nutrition is safe and associated with significantly less ileus. Early enteral nutrition is associated with less anastomotic leakage in patients undergoing extensive rectal surgery.


Significance Molecular mechanisms mediating negative emotion and contributing to major depression remain elusive: here, we present evidence implicating fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9) as a key mediator. We use whole-transcriptome studies of postmortem human tissue to demonstrate that FGF9 is elevated in depression. Reverse translation animal studies demonstrate that both endogenous and exogenous FGF9 promotes anxiety- and depression-like behavior. Conversely, localized blockade of endogenous FGF9 expression decreases anxiety behavior. To our knowledge, this paper is the first description of hippocampal FGF9 function and the first evidence implicating FGF9 in negative affect. Thus, FGF9 represents a novel target for treating affective disorders. Moreover, our findings suggest that FGF2 and FGF9 work in functional opposition; we hypothesize that the balance between FGF factors may prove critical for optimal regulation of mood. Both gene expression profiling in postmortem human brain and studies using animal models have implicated the fibroblast growth factor (FGF) family in affect regulation and suggest a potential role in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD). FGF2, the most widely characterized family member, is down-regulated in the depressed brain and plays a protective role in rodent models of affective disorders. By contrast, using three microarray analyses followed by quantitative RT-PCR confirmation, we show that FGF9 expression is up-regulated in the hippocampus of individuals with MDD, and that FGF9 expression is inversely related to the expression of FGF2. Because little is known about FGF9's function in emotion regulation, we used animal models to shed light on its potential role in affective function. We found that chronic social defeat stress, an animal model recapitulating some aspects of MDD, leads to a significant increase in hippocampal FGF9 expression, paralleling the elevations seen in postmortem human brain tissue. Chronic intracerebroventricular administration of FGF9 increased both anxiety- and depression-like behaviors. In contrast, knocking down FGF9 expression in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus using a lentiviral vector produced a decrease in FGF9 expression and ameliorated anxiety-like behavior. Collectively, these results suggest that high levels of hippocampal FGF9 play an important role in the development or expression of mood and anxiety disorders. We propose that the relative levels of FGF9 in relation to other members of the FGF family may prove key to understanding vulnerability or resilience in affective disorders.


The dominant hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease initiation and progression is known as the amyloid cascade hypothesis. The core of this hypothesis is that the amyloid precursor protein (APP) is cleaved by two proteases (the b- and g-secretases) to produce a small peptide known as b-amyloid, which aggregates and serves as a disease causing agent. One of the strongest arguments supporting the amyloid cascade hypothesis is that mutations in either APP or the g-secretase are fully penetrant disease genes that lead to aggressive, early-onset forms of Alzheimer's disease. While the genetics identify APP, not b-amyloid per se, the field has nonetheless accepted the amyloid connection. We have preliminary evidence that offers a much more direct connection to APP that does not involve b-amyloid. We propose a cross-disciplinary set of experiments to test one aspect of this new idea. Specifically, we find that APP interacts with the two main structural proteins of the axon initial segment (AIS) – bIV-spectrin and AnkyrinG. The AIS is the specialized part of the axon where voltage sensitive ion channels are concentrated, allowing the generation of an action potential, the unit of neuronal activity. When APP levels rise the AIS is shifted away from the cell body and shortens, thus reducing neuronal excitability, potentially mimicking the condition of the AD brain. We propose to use state of the art network analysis hardware and software to analyse the functioning of neural networks in dissociated cortical cell cultures. We will then transfect APP-expressing plasmids into the cells of the culture and monitor the changing network dynamics. This will allow the altered AIS geometry to be directly linked to altered network function. With these preliminary data in hand we will be in a strong position to submit and R01 application to the NIH for enhanced funding.


Disseminated neonatal herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection is one of the most severe neonatal infections, and can have devastating consequences without early proper treatment. However, the administration of acyclovir can often be delayed because the symptoms and signs of HSV infection are non-specific and because HSV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results may be negative early in the course of HSV infection. We report a case of disseminated neonatal HSV infection that was diagnosed by type 1 HSV PCR on day 8 of admission. Despite delayed administration of acyclovir, the patient was cured and subsequently discharged after 30 days of admission. Fortunately, this patient was treated successfully, but delayed administration of acyclovir has the potential to lead to significant problems. Considering the seriousness of neonatal HSV infection, empirical acyclovir therapy should be considered if HSV infection is suspected.


Following the publication of the Government's White Paper on Integrated Transport in July 1998, and a shift in emphasis by Local Authorities away from road building to demand management techniques, the current trend is to a more balanced approach, whereby the use of road-space may be charged to vehicle drivers, i.e. road users pay to use (at least some) roads, just as public transport passengers pay each time they travel. Key to this is the introduction of some form of road user charging or vehicle access control. In urban areas, this may be achieved using paper licences (as in Singapore, 1975–1998), electronic (microwave) tags and transponders (as in Trondheim and Oslo, Norway and in Singapore since 1998) or by the use of automatic video-based licence-plate recognition (ALPR). The use of video-based registration to check whether a vehicle has purchased (or been granted) some form of licence rights to use a particular road or cordoned area on a particular day seems both logical and attractive. However, this form of urban road use pricing has not been operated in anything other than small-scale pilot schemes, and there are a significant number of technical, organisational and operational issues that need to be researched before such a system could safely be implemented for everyday use. This paper is specifically aimed at addressing such key issues, to determine whether in the short term (next 5 years) ALPR could deliver a practical tool for use by local authorities, whether in isolation or as part of a package of applications, to reduce traffic congestion within urban areas.


This book charts the life of Andrew Carnegie, from Dunfermline bobbin boy to Steel King of America. The empire he forged in the steel furnaces of Pittsburgh was sold in 1901 for $480 million and Andrew Carnegie retired from business life as the richest man in the world. Carnegie was born in Dunfermline in 1835, but poverty forced the Carnegies to immigrate to Pittsburgh. Andrew was taken under the wing of Thomas A Scott, at Pennsylvania Railroad. Carnegie worked his way up and, after the Civil War, saw the potential in the iron industry and resigned from the Railroad. It was one of many bold moves that would typify Carnegie's life in industry and earn him his fortune. His steel juggernaut became unstoppable, and by 1900 Carnegie Steel produced more steel than Great Britain. After selling his company Carnegie, with his wife and daughter, returned to Scotland. He bought Skibo Castle in 1898 and here entertained King Edward VII, the Rockefellers, Rudyard Kipling, Lloyd George, and Helen Keller. He was one of the first to call for a 'league of nations' and he gave away 350 million dollars in charitable schemes.


Cyclooxygenase (COX), the primary enzyme responsible for the synthesis of prostanoids, exists in at least 2 isoforms. COX-2 has been suggested to be the isoform primarily responsible for synthesis of prostaglandins (PGs) in the context of inflammation. Thus, selective inhibitors of COX-2 were developed with the aim that they would be as effective as traditional nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) but would not be as damaging to the gastrointestinal tract by virtue of not inhibiting the primarily COX-1-dependent PG synthesis in those tissues. To investigate whether selective COX 2 inhibitors would play a role in a model of inflammation. The received results testify to ability of COX 2 inhibitors to increase adhesion and modulation of apoptosis and PMN free oxygen radicals production. The drugs' effect on PMN free oxygen radicals production, apoptosis and adhesion may constitute an additional mechanism of their activity. These data characterize the potential mechanism to explain effects immunomodulatory agents of pathway and therapy for inflammation, cardiovascular diseases and bronchial asthma; beta-adrenergic receptors are functionally coupled to signalling cascades in human neutrophils These results clearly confirmed that COX-2 plays a critical role in the development of the inflammatory response by altering key components of the inflammatory cascade. Therefore, selective inhibitor of COX-2 such as celecoxib, offers a therapeutic approach for the management of various inflammatory diseases.


The main goals of this research are: i) to understand if a further change in management accounting (MA) is required by changes in the contemporary extra-organisational environment, highlighting the main direction of this change, with particular attention to the integration with the enterprise risk management (ERM) as a new organisational institution; ii) to investigate if the management accountants' role should coherently evolve toward a deeper integration and coordination with that of risk managers, as an intra-organisational condition of success. The research method used is a qualitative mixed method, as it integrates inductive and deductive perspectives. In particular, we firstly used an empirical and comparative analysis based on explorative case studies. These case studies included seven companies listed in the Italian "public utilities" market sector and ten large sized unlisted companies, operating in the same sector. The choice of the companies is due to the fact that they have undergone extensive changes, which have had significant effects on both their strategic planning and management control systems, as well as on their ERM. The case studies method excels especially when it is necessary to understand a complex issue (Yin, 1984) and it can develop expertise and strengthen what is already known through previous research and this is the reason we define our case studies as explorative (Ryan et al., 2002). The tool adopted is the interview and the interviews are semi-structured to be kept within the main question area but still open the possibility to get the interviewees own ideas and feelings. Secondly, our research adopted institutional theory, not with the intention of formally testing it, but rather to support our theoretical model of the successful directions of change. Institutional theory is assumed in our article to explain the hypothetical dynamics of change in MA and in management accountants' roles, considering the dynamics both in terms of extra-organisational institutions and in terms of power relations, as they complement the exogenous drivers that create successful change.


Measurements of particle production from polarized-proton collisions at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) give insight into proton spin structure. One way that spin effects are analyzed in these collisions is through the calculation of spin-dependent asymmetries in the final-state particles. The large angular acceptance of the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) allows the reconstruction of full jets in addition to inclusive hadron production. Analyzing spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in p + p → jet + X and p + p → jet + π + X allows one to isolate contributions from the Sivers and Collins effects. Understanding the resolutions of the relevant azimuthal angles is critical to quantifying the systematic uncertainties of the asymmetry measurements. A useful means to study the resolutions and response of the STAR detector in light of pile-up backgrounds is to embed Monte Carlo data into real zerobias data. In 2009 and 2011 STAR collected data from polarized-proton collisions at √s = 500 GeV. These samples include zero bias events as well as those triggered on jets, providing an opportunity to compare inclusive jets at 500 GeV reconstructed from real data to those from embedded Monte Carlo data. Progress toward understanding these comparisons and reconstructed jet angular resolutions will be shown.


As offshore wind turbines increase in size and output, the support structures are also growing. More sophisticated assessment of the hydrodynamic loads is needed, particularly for the ultimate limit state design. For higher-order phenomena related to rare steep wave events such as ringing, a better understanding of the stochastic loads is needed. As an innovative step forward to reduce the cost of extensive model tests with irregular waves, a larger number of investigations can be carried out using high-performance high-fidelity numerical simulations after an initial stochastic validation with model test data.
 In this paper, the open-source hydrodynamic model REEF3D::FNPF (Fully Nonlinear Potential Flow) is used to carry out three-hour long simulations with the JONSWAP spectrum in intermediate water depth conditions. Statistical properties of the free surface elevation in the numerical wave tank are validated using the available data from model tests carried out at SINTEF Ocean/NTNU. The spectral shape, significant wave height, peak period, skewness, kurtosis, and wave crest height statistics are compared. The results are analyzed and it is found that the numerical model provides reasonably good agreement with the model test data.


Arrays designed for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems must provide good performance in terms of information theoretic and microwave theoretic performance measures for a large number of channel scenarios. Consequently, the general MIMO array design problem is challenging. This paper proposes a novel optimization methodology for designing circular patch arrays (CPAs), under a clustered MIMO channel model assumption. Based on the ergodic capacity, it is found that the single-cluster scenario can approximate CPA performance in clustered channels, reducing the number of channel scenarios that need to be considered. Using a new definition of channel spatial correlation that allows for pattern diversity, metrics are derived for evaluating average and outage capacity performance of CPAs, which can be expressed as a function of only the antenna parameters. With this expression, an optimization is formulated and solved numerically for optimizing the parameters of a 2-CPA on a capacity based objective function and microwave theory performance constraints. An example design is given corresponding to a 2-CPA in the 2.4 GHz unlicensed frequency band.


Rectal and oral ozone-O2 gas insufflations prevented a fatal c1indamycin-induced enterocolitis in Djungarian dwarf hamsters. In spite of no gross lesions in the colon of these species, the term 'colitis' is justified because of intracellular degenerative changes of colon epithelial cells. Dwarf hamsters are omnivores and are, therefore, more relevant to man than other animal species as an animal model for studying colitis.


Bacteria in the water-saturated sand of a relatively unpolluted sand beach were enumerated by direct microscope and viable counting. The number of interstitial bacteria was estimated to be a significant fraction of the total number of bacteria present. Three hundred sixty-two strains were isolated and submitted to cultural and biochemical tests. Fermentational abilities and the production of indole suggested that a significant number of these bacteria were symbiotically associated with resident metazoans.


Anthropologists have been studying the relationship between mining and the local forms of community that it has created or impacted since at least the 1930s. While the focus of these inquiries has moved with the times, reflecting different political, theoretical, and methodological priorities, much of this work has concentrated on local manifestations of the so-called resource curse or the paradox of plenty. Anthropologists are not the only social scientists who have tried to understand the social, cultural, political, and economic processes that accompany mining and other forms of resource development, including oil and gas extraction. Geographers, economists, and political scientists are among the many different disciplines involved in this field of research. Nor have anthropologists maintained an exclusive claim over the use of ethnographic methods to study the effects of large- or small-scale resource extraction. But anthropologists have generally had a lot more to say about mining and the extractives in general when it has involved people of non-European descent, especially exploited subalterns—peasants, workers, and Indigenous peoples.
 The relationship between mining and Indigenous people has always been complex. At the most basic level, this stems from the conflicting relationship that miners and Indigenous people have to the land and resources that are the focus of extractive activities, or what Marx would call the different relations to the means of production. Where miners see ore bodies and development opportunities that render landscapes productive, civilized, and familiar, local Indigenous communities see places of ancestral connection and subsistence provision. This simple binary is frequently reinforced—and somewhat overdrawn—in the popular characterization of the relationship between Indigenous people and mining companies, where untrammeled capital devastates hapless tribal people, or what has been aptly described as the "Avatar narrative" after the 2009 film of the same name.
 By the early 21st century, many anthropologists were producing ethnographic works that sought to debunk popular narratives that obscure the more complex sets of relationships existing between the cast of different actors who are present in contemporary mining encounters and the range of contradictory interests and identities that these actors may hold at any one point in time. Resource extraction has a way of surfacing the "politics of indigeneity," and anthropologists have paid particular attention to the range of identities, entities, and relationships that emerge in response to new economic opportunities, or what can be called the "social relations of compensation." That some Indigenous communities deliberately court resource developers as a pathway to economic development does not, of course, deny the asymmetries of power inherent to these settings: even when Indigenous communities voluntarily agree to resource extraction, they are seldom signing up to absorb the full range of social and ecological costs that extractive companies so frequently externalize. These imposed costs are rarely balanced by the opportunities to share in the wealth created by mineral development, and for most Indigenous people, their experience of large-scale resource extraction has been frustrating and often highly destructive. It is for good reason that analogies are regularly drawn between these deals and the vast store of mythology concerning the person who sells their soul to the devil for wealth that is not only fleeting, but also the harbinger of despair, destruction, and death. This is no easy terrain for ethnographers, and engagement is fraught with difficult ethical, methodological, and ontological challenges.
 Anthropologists are involved in these encounters in a variety of ways—as engaged or activist anthropologists, applied researchers and consultants, and independent ethnographers. The focus of these engagements includes environmental transformation and social disintegration, questions surrounding sustainable development (or the uneven distribution of the costs and benefits of mining), company–community agreement making, corporate forms and the social responsibilities of corporations (or "CSR"), labor and livelihoods, conflict and resistance movements, gendered impacts, cultural heritage management, questions of indigeneity, and displacement effects, to name but a few. These different forms of engagement raise important questions concerning positionality and how this influences the production of knowledge—an issue that has divided anthropologists working in this contested field. Anthropologists must also grapple with questions concerning good ethnography, or what constitutes a "good enough" account of the relations between Indigenous people and the multiple actors assembled in resource extraction contexts.


Finnish and Estonian have several types of split noun phrases where a noun phrase is separated from the modifying quantifier or numeral. This paper provides a preliminary classification of split noun phrases in both languages and proposes a syntactic analysis of a specific type of split NP, the partitive split, where the noun phrase is in the partitive case. We propose that the partitive split is derived by discourse-related movement of the partitive NP. Particular attention is paid on contexts where the partitive noun phrase does not reconstruct to its position prior to movement. For example, numerals higher than one induce morphological mismatches in partitive split in both languages. A solution is proposed, where the partitive split involves an optionally pronounced classifier head, which facilitates the semantic selection and morphology. This analysis is shown to apply to Finnish, but the evidence for Estonian is not conclusive.


The genesis of a catalytically active model Pt/Al2O3/NiAl{110} oxidation catalyst is described. An ultrathin, crystalline γ-Al2O3 film was prepared via direct oxidation of a NiAl{110} single-crystal substrate. The room-temperature deposition of Pt clusters over the γ-Al2O3 film was characterised by LEED, AES and CO titration and follows a Stranski–Krastanov growth mode. Surface sulfation was attempted via SO2/O2 adsorption and thermal processing over bare and Pt promoted Al2O3/NiAl{110}. Platinum greatly enhances the saturation SOx coverage over that of bare alumina. Over clean Pt/γ-Al2O3 surfaces some adsorbed propene desorbs molecularly [similar]250 K while the remainder decomposes liberating hydrogen. Coadsorbed oxygen or sulfate promote propene combustion, with adsorbed sulfoxy species the most efficient oxidant. The chemistry of these alumina-supported Pt clusters shows a general evolution from small polycrystalline clusters to larger clusters with properties akin to low-index, Pt single-crystal surfaces.


Severely increasing environmental pollution with an unhealthy pattern of life in the community can increase the source of exposure of carcinogenic substances that can cause cancer. Benzo[a]pyrene and Cobalt (II) are some examples of carcinogenic substances commonly found in the environment. Both materials can simultaneously enter the body through food or polluted air and damage the DNA. In this study, we studied the effect of B[a]P and Co(II) exposure in-vitro on 2'-deoxyguanosine. An increase in the amount of the 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosin compound is used as an indicator of the occurrence of DNA damage and a cancer risk biomarker. It was found that the synergistic effect on the combination of B[a]P and Co (II) through Fenton-like reaction is influenced by the concentration of H2O2. The amount of 8-OHdG that formed with the combination of B[a]P and Co (II) is 126.23 ppb. It does not vary much with the amount that resulted from B[a]P exposure alone at 136.53 ppb. Exposure of Co(II) through Fenton-like reaction alone gives the highest yield of 8-OHdG formation at 282.67 ppb. Followed by B[a]P and Co(II) at 258.98 ppb, B[a]P and H2O2 at 153.16 ppb.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the long-term effects of two different rehabilitation programmes for patients on long-term sick leave for burnout.

DESIGN
Three-year follow-up of a randomized controlled trial with two 1-year group programmes: (A) cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation in combination with Qigong; and (B) Qigong alone.

PATIENTS
A total of 107 patients with burnout (78 women and 29 men), who all completed the 1-year rehabilitation programme per-protocol, were asked to participate in the follow-up.

METHODS
At the 3-year follow-up, data on psychological measures, sick leave and use of medication were compared between the programmes.

RESULTS
Patients in programme A reported being significantly more recovered from their burnout (p = 0.02), reported lower levels of burnout (p = 0.035), used more cognitive tools learned from the programme (p < 0.001), and had reduced their use of medication for depression (p = 0.002). No significant differences were found between the groups in terms of sick leave rates; both groups had improved.

CONCLUSION
A multimodal rehabilitation including cognitively oriented behavioural rehabilitation and Qigong showed positive effects 3 years after the end of intervention. The results indicate that, for many burnout patients on sick-leave, it takes time to implement cognitive tools and to establish new behaviours.


The strong magnetic field B-y component (in GSM coordinates) has been increasingly noticed to play an important role in the dynamics of tail current sheet (CS). The distribution profile of strong B-y components in the tail CS (i.e., those with guide field), however, is not well known. In the present work, by using the simultaneous multipoint observations of Cluster satellites, the profile of a strong B-y component in tail current sheets is explored, through detailed case studies, as well as in a statistical study. It is discovered that around the midnight meridian, the strength of the strong B-y component, i.e., |B-y|, is basically enhanced at the center of the CS relative to that in the CS boundaries and lobes and forms a north-south symmetric distribution about the center of CS. Generally, however, for strong guide field cases in the non-midnight meridian, the profile of B-y strength basically becomes north-south asymmetric, the strength of the B-y component in the northern side of the CS is found to be either stronger or weaker than that in the counterpart southern side. By considering the modulation of the tail flaring magnetic field with magnetic local time, we propose an interpretation to account for the variation of the B-y-profile, which is supported by the statistical survey. These results offer an observation basis for further studies.


The 'mid-domain effect' (MDE) has received much attention recently as a candidate explanation for patterns in species richness over large geographic areas. Mid-domain models generate a central peak in richness when species ranges are randomly placed within a bounded geographic area (i.e. the domain). The most common terrestrial mid-domain models published to date have been 1-D latitude or elevation models and 2-D latitude-longitude models. Here, we test 1-D, 2-D and 3-D mid-domain models incorporating latitude, longitude and elevation, and assess independent and concurrent effects of geometric constraints and climatic variables on species richness of North American trees. We use both the traditional 'global' regression models as well as geographically weighted regressions ('local' models) to examine local variation in the contribution of MDE and climatic variables to species richness across the domain. Our results show that in some dimensions the contribution of MDE to patterns of species richness can be quite substantial, and we show that in most cases a combination of MDE and climate predicted empirical species richness best in both local and global models. For the North American domain, MDE in the elevation dimension is clearly important in describing patterns of empirical species richness. We also show that the assumption of stationarity in global models is not met in the North American domain and that results of these models mask complex patterns in both the effect of MDE on richness and the response of species richness to climate. In particular we show the increased explanatory role of MDE in predicting species richness as domain edges are approached. Our results support the hypothesis that geometric constraints contribute to species richness patterns and we suggest the mid-domain effect should be considered alongside more traditional environmental correlates in understanding patterns of species diversity.