Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools encourage users to codify the speciication for the design of a system early in the development process. They often use graphical formalisms, simulation, and prototyping to help express ideas concisely and unambiguously. Some tools provide little more than syntax checking of the speciication but others can test the model for reachability of conditions, nondeterminism, or deadlock. Formal methods include powerful tools like automatic model checking to exhaustively check a model against certain requirements. Integrating formal techniques into the system development process is an eeective method of providing more thorough analysis of speciications than conventional approaches employed by Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools. In order to create this link, the formalism used by the CASE tool must have a precise formal semantics that can be understood by the veriication tool. The CASE tool STATEMATE makes use of an extended state transition notation called state-charts. We have formalized an operational semantics for statecharts by embedding them in the logical framework of an interactive proof-assistant system called HOL. A software interface is provided to extract a statechart directly from the STATEMATE database. Using HOL in combination with Voss, a binary decision diagram-based veriication tool, we have developed a model checker for statecharts which tests whether an operational speciication, given by a statechart, satisses a descriptive speciication of the system requirements. The model checking procedure is a simple higher-order logic function which executes the semantics of statecharts. In this thesis, we describe the formal semantics of statecharts and the model checking algorithm. Various examples, including an intersection with a traac light and an arbiter, are presented to illustrate the method.


The role of the Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release channel (ryanodine receptor) in MIN6 pancreatic β-cells was investigated. An endoplasmic reticulum (ER)-targeted "cameleon" was used to report lumenal free Ca2+. Depolarization of MIN6 cells with KCl led to release of Ca2+ from the ER. This ER Ca2+ release was mimicked by treatment with the ryanodine receptor agonists caffeine and 4-chloro-m-cresol, reversed by voltage-gated Ca2+ channel antagonists and blocked by treatment with antagonistic concentrations of ryanodine. The depolarization-induced rise in cytoplasmic Ca2+ was also inhibited by ryanodine, which did not alter voltage-gated Ca2+ channel activation. Both ER and cytoplasmic Ca2+ changes induced by depolarization occurred in a dose-dependent manner. Glucose caused a delayed rise in cytoplasmic Ca2+ but no detectable change in ER Ca2+. Carbamyl choline caused ER Ca2+ release, a response that was not altered by ryanodine. Taken together, these results provide strong evidence that Ca2+-induced Ca2+ release ...


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder very alive in today's society. One of the drugs tested in animals which has shown neuroprotective properties is LP226A1 (a DHA α-hydroxylated derivative).
The aim of this work was focused on the investigation of the mechanism of action of this drug. Specifically, our work was focused on searching for and isolating of LP226A1 binding proteins (LP226BPs) by separation of membrane proteins from mouse cortex by ion exchange (IEX) and hydrophobicity (HIC) chromatography using different sodium chloride (NaCl) concentrations as eluent. The resulting fractions from those techniques were tested in radio-binding assays to LP226A1 in order to test the presence of LP226BPs. Interestingly, our results showed two different protein fractions from IEX with evident binding to LP226A1. One of them was further separated by HIC in order to get LP226BP-enriched fractions. This additional analysis revealed other two fractions which showed binding to LP226A1 and that might be considered as semi-purified LP226BPs.
On the other hand, affinity chromatography was addressed to isolate LP226BPs from soluble protein fractions. For this purpose, the drug was anchored to nitrocellulose. Such anchorage was confirmed by gas chromatography. This LP226A1-bound nitrocellulose was used as stationary phase for affinity chromatography, and indeed, this was incubated with soluble protein from mouse cortex and treated under different conditions in order to promote interaction between anchored LP226A1 with soluble proteins from the medium. Captured proteins were eluted and the resulting samples were analysed by electrophoresis and coomassie blue staining. The results showed that binding of soluble proteins was not via LP226A1, and in fact, they were non-specifically bound to the nitrocellulose membrane.
Finally, western blot analysis was performed to analyse FA2H expression (enzyme in charge of fatty acid α-hydroxylation) in human brain samples from AD patients and healthy controls. These results showed a percentage of AD patients with up-regulated levels of FA2H as compared with healthy controls which might indicate a neuronal response to counteract the early onset of the neuropathology


Power systems are increasingly operated in corrective rather than preventive security mode, which means that appropriate control actions must be taken immediately after a contingency has occurred. This paper proposes an online algorithm for automatically alleviating contingencies such as voltage limit violations and line overloads. Unlike previously proposed approaches, the network itself serves as a natural solver of the power flow equations. This makes it possible to start the implementation immediately and avoids problems caused by modeling errors. Every time the controller receives measurements from the grid, it evaluates the presence of contingencies and computes the optimal corrective actions that can be implemented before the next sampling period, subject to ramping constraints of the generators. These corrective actions are implemented through the standard Automatic Generation Control. Finding the optimal incremental corrective actions is fast because this problem is linearized. The effectiveness of this algorithm at correcting both line overloads and voltage violations is demonstrated using the IEEE-118 Bus test system.


Introduction: Anemia is a common complication in end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients on regular hemodialysis (HD). There has been a lot of interest recently in the non-classical effects of 25(OH) vitamin D (calcidiol), including its association with erythropoiesis and anemia pathogenesis. Objectives: To study the relation between anemia and vitamin D status in patients on regular HD Results: This study is a cross-sectional study that included 90 patients on regular HD. Vitamin D status was classified into deficient (<20 ng/ mL), insufficient (20-30 ng/mL) and sufficient (>30 ng/mL). The level of vitamin D measured in the patients ranged between 3.5 to 66 ng/mL with median of 16.35 ng/mL. There were statistically significant positive correlations between vitamin D levels and the level of hemoglobin (P<0.001), serum calcium levels (P<0.001) and serum PO4 levels (P=0.023). Higher hemoglobin levels were statistically related to both higher vitamin D values (P<0.001) and higher serum calcium concentration P<0.001). Meanwhile, a significant negative correlation was found between hemoglobin levels and serum PTH values (P<0.001). Conclusion: There was a significant association between the status of vitamin D and the level of hemoglobin in dialysis population who were studied, independent from iron status. other associations with hemoglobin levels included PTH level and calcium.


'Hard' forensic evidence (eg DNA) may be the best means of linking crimes, but it is often absent at burglary crime scenes. Modus operandi information is always present to some degree, but little is known of its significance in matching burglaries. This paper evaluates the ability of three algorithms to match a target crime to the actual offender within a database of 966 offences. The first (RCPA) uses only MO information, the second (RPAL) only temporal and geographic data and a third (COMBIN) is a combination of the two. A score of one indicates a perfect match between the target crime and the case selected by the algorithm. The lowest possible rank is 965 showing that 965 cases were selected before the target offence. The RPAL and COMBIN each achieve a perfect match for 24 per cent of the crimes and succeed in matching over half of the crimes at a score of 10 or less. For prolific offenders, using MO information alone is better than temporal and geographic data, although the best performance is achieved when in combination. Behavioural, spatial and temporal information is collected by many Police Services. The value and means of utilising such data in linking crimes is clearly demonstrated.


To the Editor.— Had I been asleep for the past 30 or so years, I would have awakened with a strong sense of deja vu on reading the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program 1 and the accompanying editorial 2 that appeared in the November 1989 issue of theArchives. More or less by chance I was involved in probably the first attempt to measure the effects of psychotherapy 3 as well as in the first use of analysis of variance in psychopharmacologic studies. 4-6 In the latter group of studies (these were with schizophrenics and did not involve psychotherapy, which would partly explain why the NIMH study did not include them in its references), we did not begin therapy until the patients had responded fully to the new research environment and had thus achieved a modest amount of cognitive restructuring . 7 This initial


This paper describes a FPGA-based verification methodology for the image signal processor (ISP) of system-on-chip (SoC) type CMOS image sensor. To make a verification environment, the complete ASIC prototyping system, the ARM7 TDMI CoreTile board and external interface boards — the sensor board, the USB board and the switch board — are used. As a verification method, 4-step verification strategy comprised of ARM-core based platform verification, system verification, algorithm verification and performance verification is used. Through this method, the 2M-pixel/3M-pixel ARM-based ISP of CMOS image sensor is verified very effectively before tape-out.


In the history of electrode processes, intermediates are of extraordinary interest. In the lecture which follows, the most common types of intermediates in electrode processes are classified. Secondly, most of the methods which are available and have been used in finding intermediates are characterised. Thirdly, the principles of detection of intermediate and final products of electrode processes on the basis of kinetic information obtained by means of the rotating ring-disc electrode method are discussed. This approach is used for identification of the products of an organic electroreduction. In conclusion, it is demonstrated that the cathodic reduction of such organic compounds involves formation of stable and unstable intermediates.


Using a CO2 laser, a process of cladding Ni-base composite coating on Ti6Al4V with pre-placed B4C and NiCoCrAlY was studied. A good metallurgical bonding coating without cracks and pores was obtained in reasonable ratios of components and low energy laser process. Morphology and microstructure of the coating were analyzed with OM, XRD, SEM and EDS. It is certain that there was a reaction between B4C and Ti during in-situ producing TiB2 and TiC. The Ni-base composite coating is strengthened with TiB2 and TiC reinforcement phases. Vickers Hardness Tester measured that the average microhardness of the coating is HV1200 and it is 3.5 times of the Ti6Al4V substrate. The high hard coating containing several reinforcement phases greatly enhances wear resistance of titanium alloy.


Background: Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is an important program in tumor metastasis. Results: SMAR1 inhibits EMT by up-regulating E-cadherin in a dual manner via repression of Slug transcription and inhibition of E-cadherin degradation. Conclusion: SMAR1 functions as a critical protein in regulating EMT. Significance: This study provides a potential mechanism for the contribution of SMAR1 in inhibiting breast cancer metastasis. The evolution of the cancer cell into a metastatic entity is the major cause of death in patients with cancer. It has been acknowledged that aberrant activation of a latent embryonic program, known as the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), can endow cancer cells with the migratory and invasive capabilities associated with metastatic competence for which E-cadherin switch is a well-established hallmark. Discerning the molecular mechanisms that regulate E-cadherin expression is therefore critical for understanding tumor invasiveness and metastasis. Here we report that SMAR1 overexpression inhibits EMT and decelerates the migratory potential of breast cancer cells by up-regulating E-cadherin in a bidirectional manner. While SMAR1-dependent transcriptional repression of Slug by direct recruitment of SMAR1/HDAC1 complex to the matrix attachment region site present in the Slug promoter restores E-cadherin expression, SMAR1 also hinders E-cadherin-MDM2 interaction thereby reducing ubiquitination and degradation of E-cadherin protein. Consistently, siRNA knockdown of SMAR1 expression in these breast cancer cells results in a coordinative action of Slug-mediated repression of E-cadherin transcription, as well as degradation of E-cadherin protein through MDM2, up-regulating breast cancer cell migration. These results indicate a crucial role for SMAR1 in restraining breast cancer cell migration and suggest the candidature of this scaffold matrix-associated region-binding protein as a tumor suppressor.


Introduction— Observational studies show reduced incidence of Alzheimer's dementia (AD) in users of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). One hypothesis holds that the subset of NSAIDs known as "selective A β 42 -lowering agents" (SALAs) is responsible for this apparent reduction in AD risk. Methods— We pooled individual-level data from six prospective studies to obtain a sufficient sample to examine AD risk in users of SALA vs . non-SALA NSAIDs. Results— Of 13,499 initially dementia-free participants (70,863 person-years), 820 developed incident AD. Users of NSAIDs (29.6%) showed reduced risk of AD (adjusted hazard ratio or aHR 0.77, 95% confidence interval or CI 0.65–0.91). The point estimates were similar for SALAs (aHR 0.87, CI 0.72–1.04) and non-SALAs (aHR 0.75, CI 0.56–1.01). Because 573 (aHR 0.78, CI 0.66–0.92). By contrast, there was no association with use of acetaminophen (aHR 0.93, CI 0.76–1.13). Conclusions— In this pooled dataset, NSAID use reduced the risk of AD. However, there was no apparent advantage in AD risk reduction for the subset of NSAIDs shown to selectively lower A β 42 , suggesting that all conventional NSAIDs including aspirin have a similar protective effect in humans.


Specification is one of the most strategic areas in the supply chain. Research has supported the argument that a firm is as good as its products, to support this notion an organization without a competent specification, its competitive edge in the supply chain is hampered significantly (Lysons and Farrington, 2006). This abstract provides a preview of a paper which documents the assessment of the impact of specifications on procurement performance and show cases why procurement can act as a catalyst for economic development. Information about this is obtained from books, magazines and journals that report on impact of specification on procurement and most important on a case study of Kenya Power Company (KP). The later was chosen due to its high volumes of purchases for both goods and services. Kenya Power limited procurement department has been using various specifications so as to be able to source the right materials. Use of appropriate specifications has led to some improvements in procurement performance but they have not yet realized the full impact of specification on procurement performance. The key findings are presented based on respondents in two categories, category A and Category B. Category A been those directly involved in procurement. In regard to the impacts of specifications on procurement performance, 87% and 90%, of respondents in category A and B respectively advocated that performance specification led to quality improvement, supplier innovations, additional value adding services and short lead times hence improvement of procurement performance while 91% and 93% of respondents in category A and B respectively advocated that conformance specification discourages innovations, increases cost and causes difficulties in preparing specification documents thus affecting procurement performance negatively. Both categories concurred that hybrid specifications have a positive impact on procurement performance while brand specification has negative impact on the same.


Introduction: Using mathematical models for cancer treatment had excellent outcomes in recent years. Modeling of the tumor-immune interactions is possible by several mathematical models. Stochastic models such as Stochastic Petri Net (SPN) consider the random effects and uncertainty in the biological environments. Therefore, they are a good choice for simulation of biological systems, specially the complex dynamical network of tumor-immune interactions. Methods: In this paper we have modeled the interactions of the B16-F10 tumor cells, Cytotoxic T cells (CTL) and Myeloid Derived Suppressor cell (MDSC) by SPN. By systematic search on immunology resources, we identified the behaviors, characteristics, and effective interactions between these cells. We used SPN to construct the dynamics of these cells, therefore a dynamical network of tumor-immune interactions (DNTII) has been made. By considering these cells as places and all interactions as transitions of SPN, we can simulate this complex biological network. The model has control parameters that their regulation causes DNTII to mimic different behaviors of tumor-immune system. Results: The model can properly simulate dynamical complex network of tumor-immune interactions compared to biological reality. This model is capable to represent different behavior of tumor-immune system such as tumor escape from immune response, overcoming the immune system on the tumor cells and equilibrium of the tumor and immune system. Conclusion: By using this model, we can test different immunology hypothesis in a simulation environment without spending any time and cost.


Here we assume that a phonetic representation of spoken utterances is somehow available, and focus on the problem of identifying the exact words associated with the utterances. This problem may be viewed as explaining the given sequence of phonemes in the utterance using an intended sequence of words. The problem of finding the best explanation for some observed data has been called abductive inference in the artificial intelligence community. Human speech is rife with ambiguity. Ambiguity is a hallmark of abductive tasks. Homophones, or words that have different meanings but the same pronunciation, and continuous speech pose problems to automatic speech recognition. Parsimonious covering has been used to model abductive inference in a variety of task domains, including the problem of understanding written text. We have been studying if similar techniques may be applicable to resolving the ambiguities in high level speech recognition and present the work in progress here. When phonetic-lexical knowledge, such as what is available in a dictionary, is used as background knowledge, it appears that abductive techniques may be applicable to speech.<<ETX>>


Net neutrality has two aspects: how to efficiently allocate scarce network resources to each application, and how to discipline the dominant market power of Broadband Internet Access Service (BIAS) operators. These aspects are interrelated rather than independent. If the market is competitive enough, as the Japanese fixed broadband market is and as the FCC is attempting to ensure, market dynamism ensures efficient allocation of resources. However, direct intervention is required if the broadband market is not competitive. The Title II order implicitly assumed that the BIAS market is not competitive. One of the recently debated topics is "zero-rating," which allows subscribers to access certain content or applications without having that traffic count against their data cap. By offering zero-rating, BIAS providers can prioritize certain content/applications, and thus distort content and application (CAP) competition. This distortion may hurt the business prospects of CAP startups, and benefit giant CAPs with financial strength. However, zero-rating can change the competitive framework in the BIAS market by widening the dimensions along which firms can compete, and can thus ultimately help small players take over part of the market share of incumbents. While the former impact of zero-rating gives additional reasons for governmental intervention from the viewpoint of net neutrality, the latter, if fully realized, calls for the adoption of a market-based, or light-touch approach. To the best of the author's knowledge, most studies have hitherto focused on the former and ignored the latter. In order to analyze the latter impact of zero-rating, the author conducted two web-based questionnaire surveys, in May, 2016 and in January, 2018, and analyzed mobile broadband usage in Japan, in cases where mobile virtual network operators have not been able to compete well with incumbent mobile network operators. This paper focuses on how Internet users perceive "net neutrality," how consumers design their mobile broadband usage, how users behave when they hit data caps, and so on. In addition, the author used random utility theory to empirically estimate the competitive impact of the introduction of zero-rating in the mobile broadband market. The preliminary outcome suggests that consumers may treat zero-rating as a substitute for an increased monthly cap, and not perceive any benefit in quality-degraded video services even if traffic is not counted against their monthly cap. Interestingly, Japanese consumers value zero-rated music more than zero-rated "not-degraded" videos, perhaps due to their commuting style and the popularity of free TV programs. It is also clear that zero-rating does significantly attract consumers, especially video/music lovers, but, on its own, is not strong enough to threaten the dominance of incumbent players. These findings will have direct impacts on mobile operators' service configurations, and will help policymakers design a policy package to boost competitiveness in the mobile broadband market, which is crucial to maintain light-touch regulations for net neutrality. Although these findings are derived from the Japanese market, the author believes that stakeholders in other countries can also use this paper's methodology to analyze the impacts of offering zero-rating and/or increasing data caps.


1 Introduction: Global Social Economy, John B. Davis, I Capitalism, Development, and Knowledge, 2. Capitalism and human flourishing, Des Gasper, 3. The United Nations and democratic globalisation: A reconnaissance of the issues, Keith Cowling, Silvia Sacchetti, Roger Sugden, and James Wilson, 4. Knowledge development and coordination via market, hierarchy and gift exchange, Wilfred Dolfsma, II Time and Work, 5. "Time sovereignty": Its meaning and externalities, Francois-Xavier Devetter, 6 Age differences in the consequences of overwork, Beth A. Rubin and Charles J. Brody, 7. The implications of well being research for work time reform, Robert LaJeunesse, 8. Social time in international work environments, Esther Ruiz Ben, III Gender, Poverty Transmission, and Ageing, 9 The rise of the adult worker model: Actual policies and the implications for gender equality, Janneke Plantenga, 10. Redistribution, intergenerational inequality, and poverty transmission - Germany and the United States compared, Veronika V. Eberharter, 11 Pension reform and household financial position , GianDemetrio Marangoni, Chiara Marcomini, Stefano Solari, IV Ethics and Economics, 12 Market operation and distributive justice: An evaluation of the ACCRA confession, Johan Graafland, 13 The macro/social economics of corporate social responsibility: Informational abundance and collective action, Martha A. Starr, 14 A proper choice, Jan de Jonge, 15 Toward an ethical economics of planning horizons and complementarity, Frederic B. Jennings, Jr.


A pendulum-type tuned mass damper (TMD)-tuned sloshing damper (TSD) system is proposed as a cost-effective device to reduce wind-induced structural motion. Lagrange's principle is employed to develop an equivalent mechanical model for the system. The sloshing liquid provides additional gravitational restoring force to the pendulum TMD but does not provide a corresponding increase to its inertia. As a result, the natural frequency of the pendulum TMD is increased due to the TSD degree-of-freedom. Shake table testing is conducted on several pendulum TMD-TSD systems that are subjected to harmonic base excitation at discrete frequencies near the natural frequency of the pendulum TMD. The modeled and experimental results are in reasonable agreement when the liquid is not shallow or the response amplitude is not large. The pendulum TMD-TSD is coupled to a linear structure, and it is demonstrated through an analytical study that the device provides performance that is comparable to a traditional TMD. The proposed system is advantageous because it does not require a viscous damping system that is often one of the most costly components of traditional TMDs.


This paper examines into the relationship between devolution, accountability, and service delivery in Pakistan by examining the degree of accessibility of local policy-makers and the level of competition in local elections, the expenditure patterns of local governments to gauge their sectoral priorities, and the extent to which local governments are focused on patronage, or providing targeted benefits to a few as opposed to providing public goods. The main findings of the paper are threefold. First, the accessibility of policy-makers to citizens in Pakistan is unequivocally greater after devolution, and local government elections are, with some notable exceptions, as competitive as national and provincial elections. Second, local government sectoral priorities are heavily tilted towards the provision of physical infrastructure— specifically, roads, water and sanitation, and rural electrification—at the expense of education and health. Third, this sectoral prioritisation is in part a dutiful response to the relatively greater citizen demands for physical infrastructure; in part a reflection of the local government electoral structure that gives primacy to village and neighbourhood-specific issues; and in part a reaction to provincial initiatives in education and health that have taken the political space away from local governments in the social sectors, thereby encouraging them to focus more towards physical infrastructure.


We present high resolution records of atmospheric methane from the GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) ice core for four rapid climate transitions that occurred during the past 50 ka: the end of the Younger Dryas at 11.8 ka, the beginning of the Bølling‐Allerød period at 14.8 ka, the beginning of interstadial 8 at 38.2 ka, and the beginning of interstadial 12 at 45.5 ka. During these events, atmospheric methane concentrations increased by 200–300 ppb over time periods of 100–300 years, significantly more slowly than associated temperature and snow accumulation changes recorded in the ice core record. We suggest that the slower rise in methane concentration may reflect the timescale of terrestrial ecosystem response to rapid climate change. We find no evidence for rapid, massive methane emissions that might be associated with large‐scale decomposition of methane hydrates in sediments. With additional results from the Taylor Dome Ice Core (Antarctica) we also reconstruct changes in the interpolar methane gradient (an indicator of the geographical distribution of methane sources) associated with some of the rapid changes in atmospheric methane. The results indicate that the rise in methane at the beginning of the Bølling‐Allerød period and the later rise at the end of the Younger Dryas were driven by increases in both tropical and boreal methane sources. During the Younger Dryas (a 1.3 ka cold period during the last deglaciation) the relative contribution from boreal sources was reduced relative to the early and middle Holocene periods.


Studies in the US, the UK and Europe found children born close to the cut-off date for the start of school year face disadvantage in terms of educational attainment. This is attributed to the fact that pupils born shortly before the cut-off date are almost a year younger than many of their classmates. They are in an earlier stage of their intellectual, emotional and physical development and are thus relatively disadvantaged. Differences in growth and health outcomes by birth month have been found in other studies. This paper tests whether long-term educational and health disadvantages of individuals born just before the start of school year cut-off date of July 1st exist in Northern Ireland. The analysis is based on a c.28 per cent representative population sub-sample of young people aged 12-18 in 2001 in the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS) with linked 2001 and 2011 Census records. Findings indicate no educational or health disadvantages over a decade for individuals born in May and June.


The kinetics of mutator sweeps was followed in two independent populations of Escherichia coli grown for up to 350 generations in glucose-limited continuous culture. A rapid elevation of mutation rates was observed in both populations within 120-150 generations, as was apparent from major increases in the proportion of the populations with unselected mutations in fhuA. The increase in mutation rates was due to sweeps by mutY mutators. In both cultures, the enrichment of mutators resulted from hitchhiking with identified beneficial mutations increasing fitness under glucose limitation; mutY hitchhiked with mgl mutations in one culture and ptsG in the other. In both cases, mutators were enriched to constitute close to 100% of the population before a periodic selection event reduced the frequency of unselected mutations and mutators in the cultures. The high proportion of mutators persisted for 150 generations in one population but began to be eliminated within 50 generations in the other. The persistence of mutator, as well as experimental data showing that mutY bacteria were as fit as near-isogenic mutY(+) bacteria in competition experiments, suggest that mutator load by deleterious mutations did not explain the rapidly diminishing proportion of mutators in the populations. The nonmutators sweeping out mutators were also unlikely to have arisen by reversion or antimutator mutations; the mutY mutations were major deletions in each case and the bacteria sweeping out mutators contained intact mutY. By following mgl allele frequencies in one population, we discovered that mutators were outcompeted by bacteria that had rare mgl mutations previously as well as additional beneficial mutation(s). The pattern of appearance of mutY, but not its elimination, conforms to current models of mutator sweeps in bacterial populations. A mutator with a narrow mutational spectrum like mutY may be lost if the requirement for beneficial mutations is for changes other than GC --> TA transversions. Alternatively, epistatic interactions between mutator mutation and beneficial mutations need to be postulated to explain mutator elimination.


This paper presents the work done to date on a modeling study of the Non-Selective Catalytic Reduction (NSCR) system. Several recent experimental studies indicate that the voltage signal from the heated exhaust gas oxygen sensor commonly used to control these emission reduction systems may not be interpreted correctly because of the physical nature in the way the sensor senses the exhaust gas concentration. While the current signal interpretation may be satisfactory for modest NOX and CO reduction, an improved understanding of the signal is necessary to achieve consistently low NOX and CO emission levels. The increasingly strict emission regulations may require implementing NSCR as a promising emission control technology for stationary spark ignition engines. Many recent experimental investigations that used NSCR systems for stationary natural gas fueled engines showed that NSCR systems were unable to consistently control the emissions level below the compliance limits. Modeling of NSCR components to better understand, and then exploit, the underlying physical processes that occur in the lambda sensor and the catalyst media is now considered an essential step toward improving NSCR system performance. This paper focuses only on the lambda sensor that provides feedback to the air-to-fuel ratio controller. The goals of this modeling study are: • Improve the understanding of the transport phenomena and electrochemical processes that occur within the sensor. • Investigate the cross-sensitivity of exhaust gases from natural gas fueled engines on the sensor performance. • Serve as a tool for improving NSCR control strategies. This model simulates the output from a planar switch type lambda sensor. The model consists of three modules. The first module models the multi-component mass transport through the sensor protective layer. A one dimensional mass conservation equation is used for each exhaust gas species. Diffusion fluxes are calculated using the Maxwell-Stefan equation. The second module includes all the surface catalytic reactions that take place on the sensor platinum electrodes. All kinetic reactions are modeled based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic mechanism. The third module is responsible for simulating the reactions that occur on the electrolyte material and determining the sensor output voltage. The details of these three modules as well as a parametric study that investigates the sensitivity of the output voltage signal to various exhaust gas parameters is provided in the paper.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


The article presents information on the outcomes of the scientific and practical workshop on drilling and blasting operations in surface and underground mines and special blasting operations, which was organized by the Blasting Specialists of the Urals Association and held on May 26, 2022, at the Museum Complex of the Urals Mining and Metallurgical Company in the City of Verkhnyaya Pyshma with participation of the Institute of Mining of the Urals Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Urals Department of the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor). The workshop included presentations on the following topics: dedicated blasting operations in explosion bonding of metals and demolition of buildings; experience in working with non-explosive mixtures and devices, including ‒ pulse gas generators in restrained urban conditions; results of development and testing of a method to study the rock mass strength properties during roller-bit drilling of blast holes in open-pits; forthcoming innovations in Federal Law No.116 "On industrial safety of hazardous facilities"; relevance, specific features and conditions of blasting operations below the safety covers; mining and technical conditions of underground operations in the Donskoy GOK mine in Kazakhstan. A tour of the four exhibition centres of the Museum Complex, i.e. those of the military and automobile equipment, the "Wings of Victory" aviation exhibition, the "Ceremonial Regiment" exhibition centre, and the open exhibition site with railway and artillery equipment, was held upon completion of the theoretical part of the event.


Digital book publishing is developed in accordance with proven methodologies, the quality of digital books keeps getting better and is aligned to the needs of digital generation readers. All kinds of libraries are gradually getting involved in digital book publishing, but this kind of activity is still new and posing a variety of challenges. The aim of this article is to establish the activity of National libraries in EU member states in creating digital fiction and leisure books on the basis of their cultural heritage collections, and to evaluate the quality of these books from the user's perspective. The objectives are to investigate how many National libraries of EU member states are creating digital fiction books on the basis of their cultural heritage collections; to evaluate the quality of these digital books according to A. Gudinavicius (2012) quality criteria for digital books (navigation, technical aspects, information organization, privacy and security settings, etc.); to compare the quality of the books from different EU member states' National libraries and to measure the quality in 3 different devices: digital book reader, touchpad and personal computer. All 28 National libraries were questioned if they are creating digital books on the basis of their cultural heritage collections. Only Lithuanian, Hungarian and French National libraries create and provide free access to digital books in EPUB format. Six digital books (2 from each National library) were chosen for investigation. It was found that all 6 books meet the minimum quality requirements. Some sets of criteria, such as the pleasure to read, visual appearance, are rated not as good as navigation, privacy and security settings. Given the fact that these books are published for leisure reading, developers of digital books should pay more attention to visual solutions, so the book quality could be higher. Among the 3 EU member states (Lithuania, Hungary and France) French digital books have the highest quality. The visual appearance of these books almost equal commercial publishers' digital books. Meanwhile Lithuanian and Hungarian digital books lack the visual perfection, attention to details, which have a major impact on satisfaction and willingness to continue reading the book. It was found that the most proper device for reading digital books is Apple iPad, because it provides maximum functionality and aesthetics. Less functional is Nook digital book reader, although it also renders the book well enough. Reading books using personal computer is least comfortable, because Adobe Digital Editions 2.0 software provides the user with extremely limited functionality options. In summary it can be stated that the first steps taken by libraries in creating digital books in EPUB format are successful. If the weaknesses emphasized in this study were removed, the users could get a high-quality final product which would be attractive for members of digital generation.


Abstract. This paper documents coupled simulations of two developmental versions of the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) towards CAM6. The configuration called CAM5.4 introduces new microphysics, aerosol, and ice nucleation changes, among others to CAM. The CAM5.5 configuration represents a more radical departure, as it uses an assumed probability density function (PDF)-based unified cloud parameterization to replace the turbulence, shallow convection, and warm cloud macrophysics in CAM. This assumed PDF method has been widely used in the last decade in atmosphere-only climate simulations but has never been documented in coupled mode. Here, we compare the simulated coupled climates of CAM5.4 and CAM5.5 and compare them to the control coupled simulation produced by CAM5.3. We find that CAM5.5 has lower cloud forcing biases when compared to the control simulations. Improvements are also seen in the simulated amplitude of the Nino-3.4 index, an improved representation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation, subtropical surface wind stresses, and double Intertropical Convergence Zone biases. Degradations are seen in Amazon precipitation as well as slightly colder sea surface temperatures and thinner Arctic sea ice. Simulation of the 20th century results in a credible simulation that ends slightly colder than the control coupled simulation. The authors find this is due to aerosol indirect effects that are slightly stronger in the new version of the model and propose a solution to ameliorate this. Overall, in these early coupled simulations, CAM5.5 produces a credible climate that is appropriate for science applications and is ready for integration into the National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCAR's) next-generation climate model.


As documented in recent studies, developing countries (classified by the IMF as floaters or managed floaters) are extremely reluctant to allow for large nominal exchange rate fluctuations. This 'fear of floating' is reflected in the fact that, in spite of being subject to larger shocks, developing countries exhibit lower exchange rate variability and higher reserve variability than developed countries. Moreover, there is a positive correlation between changes in the exchange rate and interest rates and a negative correlation between both changes in reserves and the exchange rate and changes in interest rates and reserves. We build a simple model that rationalizes these key features as the outcome of an optimal policy response to monetary shocks. The model incorporates three key frictions: an output cost of nominal exchange rate fluctuations, an output cost of higher interest rates to defend the currency, and a fixed cost of intervention.


The printing of nanomaterials onto certain substrates is one of the key technologies behind high-speed interconnection and high-performance electronic devices. For the printing of next-generation electronic devices, a printing process which can be applied to a flexible substrate is needed. A printing process on a flexible substrate requires a lowtemperature, non-vacuum process due to the physical properties of the substrate. In this study, we obtained well-ordered Ag nanowires using modified gravure printing techniques. Ag nanowires are synthesized by a silver nitrate (AgNO3) reduction process in an ethylene glycol solution. Ag nanowires were well aligned by hydrodynamic force on a micro-engraved Si substrate. With the three-dimensional structure of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), which has an inverse morphology relative to the micro-engraved Si substrate, the sub-micron alignment of Ag nanowires is possible. This technique can solve the performance problems associated with conventional organic materials. Also, given that this technique enables large-area printing, it has great applicability not only as a next-generation printing technology but also in a range of other fields.


In this paper, aims to analyze the construction contracts and to determine their effectiveness by verbal methods. Contractors of international construction projects are often faced with complicated situations working in the conditions of uncertainty in construction. One of the potential risk factors is associated with the requirements of contract conditions. A simple quantitative method for evaluating the requirements defined in specifications of the contract is presented. One of the major aspects is project or contract management. Project developers need various models of managing large and complex projects. The suggested method for evaluating contract effectiveness may be widely applied at one of the stages of project management. A case study of practical use of verbal methods is presented.


This study investigated the effectiveness of screens as energy dissipaters in small hydraulic structures using physical experiments. In the experimental design, the Froude number, screen arrangements, and screen porosity were the major controlling parameters. The experiments covered a range of Froude numbers between 2.5 and 8.5, screen porosity of 40% and 50%, and gaps of double screens between 1 and 5 cm. The main goal of this study was investigation of the screens creating submerged hydraulic jumps. The flow depth was digitally measured in order to perceive the turbulences and validate the results of energy dissipation against those of the methods in the literature. The experimental results show the importance of each parameter on the screen performance. The screens with double arrangement with the imposed hydraulic jump dissipated more energy. The gaps of the double arrangement had an insignificant effect on energy dissipation. The double screen with porosity of 40% had the best performance. Since the Froude number was found to be the most effective parameter, quadratic equations as a function of this number were fitted to the experimental results with high R$^{2}$ and very low RMSE values. The quadratic equations can be employed as interpolators and/or extrapolators.


Linear regression is one of the most prevalent techniques in machine learning; however, it is also common to use linear regression for its explanatory capabilities rather than label prediction. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) is often used in statistics to establish a correlation between an attribute (e.g. gender) and a label (e.g. income) in the presence of other (potentially correlated) features. OLS assumes a particular model that randomly generates the data, and derives t-values - representing the likelihood of each real value to be the true correlation. Using t-values, OLS can release a confidence interval, which is an interval on the reals that is likely to contain the true correlation; and when this interval does not intersect the origin, we can reject the null hypothesis as it is likely that the true correlation is non-zero.Our work aims at achieving similar guarantees on data under differentially private estimators. First, we show that for well-spread data, the Gaussian Johnson-Lindenstrauss Transform (JLT) gives a very good approximation of t-values; secondly, when JLT approximates Ridge regression (linear regression with l2-regularization) we derive, under certain conditions, confidence intervals using the projected data; lastly, we derive, under different conditions, confidence intervals for the "Analyze Gauss" algorithm of Dwork et al (STOC 2014).


Neutral evolution theory predicts that genes specific to the development/function of eyes in subterranean animals will evolve under relaxed selection, ultimately becoming pseudogenes. Independently evolved (3-8 million years ago) subterranean beetle (Dytiscidae) species of Western Australia have converged on eye loss, providing a powerful system to explore changes to the genome with respect to troglomorphic characters. Using next generation sequence data, we investigated the molecular evolution of 'eye genes' of subterranean beetle species to test if they are evolving neutrally. We used transcriptome data from five beetle species (three subterranean and two surface) to design baits for hybrid enrichment of 60 pigmentation and phototransduction genes from 31 subterranean and surface species. The current talk focuses on the results from the study of 8 photoreceptor genes that showed evidence for a lack of transcription or possible pseudogenisation in stygobitic species when compared to surface species. The mutations found in these genes included multiple insertions or deletions, resulting in frameshifts which led to the introduction of stop codons. Our study provides evidence for the parallel loss of key phototransduction genes, lending support to the neutral theory of regressive evolution.


From specific heat measurements of Ta + Ti alloyed Bronze Route multifilamentary Nb3Sn wires, a wide, nearly symmetric overall distribution of T-c can be determined. This is apparently in contradiction with the almost linear decrease of the Sn content towards the centre of the A15 filaments, which suggests a rather sharp drop of the T-c distribution at the higher T-c side. In order to find an explanation to this problem, high resolution Auger spectroscopy measurements have been performed in filament bundles located at various positions of the wire cross section. It was found that the degree of reaction as well as the Sn gradient in each filament show substantial differences depending on its location, either in an innermost or outermost bundle. A model was established, assuming three different filament groups: 1) outer bundles: fully reacted filaments, almost constant Sn content, 2) intermediate bundles: partially reacted, shallow Sn gradient, and 3) inner bundles: partially reacted, steep Sn gradient. Summing together the contribution of the three groups, a total Sn distribution for the wire was obtained. Based on the relationship between T-c and the Sn content in alloyed Nb3Sn, a T-c distribution can be found which corresponds to that one measured by specific heat.


A leading US institute has asked for a review of the trial results published in 1995 that led to a change in the American Heart Association's guidelines on use of the thrombolytic agent alteplase. It follows a report in the BMJ earlier this year which showed that the majority of the association's experts on stroke had ties to the manufacturers of the drug.

The National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke (NINDS) has invited an independent committee to re-analyse the data from a five year, multisite trial, the results of which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 14 December 1995.

The results were cited by the American Heart Association as the main reason for changing their advice in 2000 on the use of alteplase (tPA, also known as rt-PA) for stroke, moving it up from "optional (class IIb)" to "definitely recommended (class I)," despite continuing controversy over the safety and efficacy of the treatment.

W Michael O'Fallon, professor of biostatistics and chairman of the independent committee, said the review was triggered …


This paper intends to analyse to what extent does a worker who, along with a job move undergoes a spatial move, gain a wage increase. For that matter, a sample of Quadros de Pessoal is used with information gathered regarding all the workers that are part of those tables, simultaneously for the years 1997 and 1998 as well as their working places. This information is initially used to carry out a bivariate analysis allowing characterizing the workers that change jobs, those who change working places and those who experience both changes. Afterwards, a wage equation is estimated, namely an Augmented Mincer Equation, taking into account both the hourly wage and the wage, making it possible to verify the influence of spatial mobility (through three levels of mobility, according to the distance between the old and new jobs) on the wage. In fact, the results of these estimations suggest that the longer the distance between the old and the new job, higher wage the moving worker will get. KEYWORDS Wage mobility, job mobility, spatial mobility, Portugal JEL Classification: J31, J61, J62, R23


Background: Leiomyomas are benign smooth muscle neoplasm that typically occurs from the myometrium. Most of the women with uterine leiomyoma remain asymptomatic. Various degeneration including hyaline, cystic, myxoid and red degeneration and dystrophic calcification occur in leiomyoma, among them myxoid degeneration occurs rarely. Here is a case report of 40 years with one living child and two abortions who came with complaints of feeling of heaviness and pain at lower abdomen for six months, palpable lower abdominal mass for four months and difficulty in passing urine since 15 days. Multiple fibroids with cystic degeneration were suspected in Computed Tomography scan report. The patient underwent Total Abdominal Hysterectomy with Bilateral Salphingectomy. On cut section there was a cystic area on the body of uterus containing 1. 1 liter of straw coloured fluid. Final histopathological findings concluded multiple leiomyoma with myxoid degeneration.


In this paper we describe the characteristics and performances of a monolithic sensor designed for low frequency motion measurement of spacecrafts and satellites, whose mechanics is based on the UNISA Folded Pendulum. The latter, developed for ground-based applications, exhibits unique features (compactness, lightness, scalability, low resonance frequency and high quality factor), consequence of the action of the gravitational force on its inertial mass. In this paper we introduce and discuss the general methodology used to extend the application of ground-based folded pendulums to space, also in total absence of gravity, still keeping all their peculiar features and characteristics.


Four prostaglandin (PG)E(2) receptors have been described, termed E-series prostaglandin receptors (EP(1)-EP(4)), that can be further subclassified as low-affinity (EP(1) and EP(2)) or high-affinity (EP(3) and EP(4)) receptors. Activation of the low-affinity PGE(2) receptors is likely to be important in mediating the actions of the high levels of PGE(2) found in various pathologic processes. The pattern of expression of these receptors in epidermis, however, is unknown. We therefore examined the immunolocalization of the EP(1) and EP(2) receptors in human epidermis. The EP(1) and EP(2) receptors demonstrated both plasma membrane and perinuclear or nuclear staining within the basal and spinous layers. Within the granular layer, both receptors were expressed in the cytoplasm with a grainy or granular appearance. The major differences were that the EP(2) receptor demonstrated a zone of decreased to absent plasma membrane staining in the superficial spinous layer and only scattered cellular staining within the granular layer. In contrast, the EP(1) receptor was prominently expressed throughout the stratum granulosum and the plasma membrane staining pattern was seen throughout the spinous layer. In cultured primary human keratinocytes, we also verified the presence of functional EP(1) receptor coupled to intracellular calcium mobilization and EP(2) receptor coupled to cAMP production.


The author takes the position that too many entering the profession of finance are incorrectly trained in valuation methods. The price/earnings multiple dominates the investments material, while EV/EBITDA goes largely ignored. In this survey of 1, 209 financial analysts, 41.7% use the price-to-earnings ratio as their primary metric, while 36.2% prefer EV/EBITDA. More importantly, the survey participants predict the latter metric will be the primary measuring tool for the future. All of this is going on in spite of the fact that of the 10 leading investment texts, only one has EV/EBITDA in the index or glossary. The survey also shows a resounding negative attitude toward new measures of income proposed by the International Accounting Standards Board (which would be used in valuation models in the future).


The optimal conditions of production of biopolymer by the culture of Pseudomonas fluorescens were examined, using brewery wastewater to replace glucose as carbon source and energy source in the culture medium. Results showed that the COD concentration in brewery wastewater favorable for the production of the biopolymer was 6000 mg•L-1, and an optimal culture condition of inoculum size of 5%(v/v), 28°C, initial pH 7.0 and shaking speed of 150 r•min-1, under the optimal culture conditions, the highest flocculating activity achieved for Kaolin suspension was 97.5% and 3.67 g biopolymer /L broth was obtained. The biopolymer was effective in flocculating some soluble reactive dyes in aqueous solution, reactive Light-Yellow K-4G and reactive Turquoise Blue KN-G with a decolorization efficiency of 95.8 and 96.2%, respectively,using 25 mL of the flocculant in 500 mL of 100 mg•L-1 dye solution.The decolorization efficiency was dependent on the flocculant dosage and solution pH.


SYNOPSIS Objective. Mothers who attribute child misbehaviors to children's intentions, and not to situational causes, show more hostile parenting behaviors. Why are some mothers more likely than others to make more hostile attributions (i.e., high intentional attributions and low situational attributions) when confronted with child challenging behaviors? We examined the relation between mothers' perception of child challenging behaviors and their hostile attributions of child misbehaviors, with an emphasis on how maternal negative affect and resting vagal activity moderated this relation. Design. One hundred sixty mothers of 3- to 7-year-old children reported their perceptions of child problem behaviors, their attributions regarding child misbehaviors, and their temperamental negative affect. Mothers' respiratory sinus arrhythmia was measured during resting state. Results. Maternal perceptions of child challenging behaviors were positively related to hostile maternal attributions, and this relation was strongest in mothers with high negative affect and low resting RSA. Conclusions. These findings indicate the importance of considering mothers' affective and physiological attributes when examining social-cognitive processes in parenting.


This study examined the effect of access to micro-credit on poverty status of rural households in Obafemi-Owode LGA in Ogun state, employing data collected from 94 randomly selected households in the study area. Data were analysed with the aid of FGT poverty index and the Logit regression model. The results of descriptive analysis reveal that majority of the poor households in the study area were large sized, male headed with no formal education and no access to credit. The head count poverty index also reveals that about 35 percent of households in the study area were poor, subsisting below the poverty line of 6,279.33 naira per capita per month. The econometric analysis shows that age, household size, secondary and tertiary education of household head, access to credit and sector of primary occupation of the household head were the significant factors that determine poverty status in the study area. The study concludes that poverty reduction in the rural areas requires effective targeting with educational programmes and most importantly, availability and accessibility of rural households to credit facilities in order to improve their income earning opportunities thereby enhancing their welfare.


Shramana Ghosh received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of California, Irvine in 2017, her Masters in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2013, and her Bachelors in Manufacturing Processes and Automation Engineering from University of Delhi in 2011. She is currently working as a postdoctoral associate at the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, NYU Tandon School of Engineering, NY, USA. In this role she supports and studies use of robotics in K-12 STEM education. Her other research interests include robotics, mechanical design, and biomechanics.


Ultra fine grained (UFG) Al5083 based hybrid composite reinforced by SiC and MoS2 particles was prepared by Friction Stir Processing (FSP). A constant tool travel speed of 50 mm/min and different rotation speeds from 630 up to 1600 rpm were used. The microstructure of the Al based composite were investigated and compared to base metal and FSPed samples. It was found that although FSP resulted in decreasing the mean grain size of the base metal to about 2 μm, the addition of reinforcing particles in microstructure led to the more decrease in grain size of the alloy. An ultra fine grained hybrid composite with 500 nm grain size was obtained through rotation speed of 1250 rpm. Moreover, this hybrid composite showed the highest wear resistance and hardness in comparison to all samples due to the modification of microstructure and the addition of particles.


Nature is rich with examples of the collective motion of animal groups, such as
flocks of birds or shoals of fish. The mechanisms of self-organization resulting in these spectacular phenomena have received wide attention. Individual-based models are a popular and promising approach to investigate and explain features of animal collective motion. The first part of this thesis gradually develops a novel modelling framework for the collective motion of animals and justifies it by comparison to empirical findings. Key aspects of the model are stochastic asynchronous updates and sensory zone sampling of individuals. Higher updating frequencies are related to increased levels of perceived threat and reduced stochastic effects leading to synchronisation
in moving groups. Sensory zone sampling, biased according to the distance between individuals, provides a possible mechanism for the empirical finding that animals on average only interact with a fixed number of nearest neighbours.
Many group-living animals show social preferences for relatives, familiar conspecifics or individuals of similar attributes, such as size. How such preferences could affect the collective motion of animal groups has been rather unexplored. The second part of this thesis reviews previous theoretical work that combines the concepts of social networks and collective motion. Although many of the models reviewed have not been explored with ecology in mind, they present a current context in which a biologically relevant theory can be developed. The modelling framework from the first part is extended to include social connections as preferential reactions between individuals. This is used to show that the structure of social networks could influence the cohesion of groups, the spatial position of individuals within groups and the
hierarchical dynamics within such groups.
This thesis aims to contribute possible mechanisms, testable hypotheses and an informed starting point for future research on how social networks could affect animal group movement.


ABSTRACT The Green Revolution exemplifies the capital-intensive modernization model of resource plunder and labor exploitation. This has provoked small-scale producers and civil society groups to counterpose an agroecology-based solidarity economy (EcoSol-agroecology), especially in Latin America. But their efforts encounter dominant models – of innovation, management, markets, nature, etc. – which limit alternatives. To clarify a transformative agenda, advocates have elaborated agroecological innovation through several complementary practices. Nature is framed as agri-biodiversity complementing socio-cultural diversity. Short food-supply chains (circuitos curtos) build consumer support for production methods enhancing producers' livelihoods, providing socio-economic equity and conserving natural resources. Through diálogos de saberes, i.e. knowledge exchange among farmers and with external experts, cultivation and water-management methods are designed or adapted as socio-environmental technologies. Capacities are built for collective self-management of those solidarity relationships. In such ways, agroecological innovation co-produces specific forms of nature, technoscientific knowledge and society; their practices construct a distinctive socionatural order. Such order arises through several instruments – making identities, institutions and discourses – as understood by STS co-production theory. Here this theory illuminates two Brazilian agroforestry initiatives whose cooperative practices seek to transform their own participants' lives and wider agri-food systems. By combining diverse sources, composite cultures deepen the social basis of territorial belonging.


Author(s): Cianos, Michael | Advisor(s): Mehta, Aashish | Abstract: There exists only a handful of empirical studies on B Corps, and even fewer on benefit corporations, yet understanding how social entrepreneurs wield these forms is an important area to continue investigating considering their rapid adoption. Though often used interchangeably, the two terms refer to different things: the benefit corporation is a legal entity (akin to a C Corp, LLC, etc.) designed to institutionalize a multi-stakeholder approach to business and more rigid transparency requirements, and B Corps are companies that have been certified by B Lab—the nonprofit behind the whole movement—as meeting certain social and environmental standards. Benefit corporations only explicitly exist in the U.S. and Italy, however there have been significant efforts to pass legislation in Australia, Argentina, Canada, Chile, and Colombia. B Corps, on the other hand, have spread all around the world, and B Lab now has an Asian headquarters in Taiwan, an East African headquarters in Kenya, and a European headquarters in Amsterdam. Both of these forms have arisen in response to the dominance of shareholder-value-driven capitalism, which was born in the U.S. but has since spread to many areas of the world by way of Washington Consensus-style economic reforms. Despite its prevalence, there is growing dissatisfaction with the model's inability to address non-commercial objectives. Previous efforts to reconstitute corporate models in order to serve multiple functions (e.g. CSR, ethical certifications, triple bottom line approaches) have tended to run afoul of market pressures whereby competition in product, capital, and labor markets—coupled with the primacy of shareholder value—relegate the non-commercial functions to a secondary status. The benefit corporation and the B Corp were conceived as a direct response to these problems. This study asks whether and how they help provide committed social entrepreneurs the space they require to pursue their social goals (the wider problem of preventing strictly commercial companies masquerading as socially conscious businesses is beyond the scope of this project). This research set out to explore the experiences of early adopters of the benefit corporation in order to understand how the legal form might impact a company "on the ground." However, since many of this study's participants were also B Corps, the findings that resulted have a great deal to do with B Corps, as well. The study consists of 12 semi-structured interviews with founders, CEOs, general counsels, and executives of benefit corporations over the course of 3 months. Interviews focused primarily on how being a benefit corporation impacts funding and how, if at all, it impacts a company's day-to-day operations. Two primary hypotheses resulted, which both can be better understood by applying the economic notions of signaling and screening: (1) being a benefit corporation acts as a screening mechanism to help founders find better alignment with "traditional" investors and (2) being a benefit corporation does not significantly change behavior or encourage internal and horizontal accountability, but being a B Corp does. The latter hypothesis is strengthened by explaining how being a B Corp acts as a signal during the hiring process, and how combining it with a screen may make the development of a strong internal accountability mechanism more likely. These findings have significant relevance for social entrepreneurs who are considering becoming either a benefit corporation or a B Corp (or both), as well as for legislators and investors.


Detection of deliberately buried objects in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data acquired along a path is a clutter-limited problem. Detection-false alarm rate performance can be improved by replacing the detection statistic with a change statistic that incorporates information from previous path traversals. A constellation matching approach is developed for buried-object change detection in GPR data. Network topologies of buried objects detected in GPR data from previous path traversals are maintained in a constellation database. Localized groups of buried objects newly detected on the latest path traversal are matched to the constellation. Buried objects from the latest path traversal whose locations or strengths cannot be reconciled with the constellation are identified as changes. The system has one component that generates constellation databases offline and another component suitable for change detection in real time. It can tolerate paths with significant translational misalignments. The system uses the following: 1) a customized translational relaxation algorithm for point pattern matching that incorporates detection strength and a probabilistic uncertainty model for buried-object location into the objective function and 2) a change statistic that accounts for the magnitude of change relative to predicted detection strength. A constellation database can typically be generated offline from a single path traversal roughly two orders of magnitude faster than the time typically required for a vehicle to travel the extent of the path. Database sizes are typically four to five orders of magnitude smaller than the data sets of GPR signal scans or focused 3-D GPR images that they were generated from. On bumpy dirt roads buried exclusively with nonmetallic objects at various depths, detection-false alarm rate performance is shown to be significantly better for our change statistics than for our detection statistics.


This programme of work has focused on developing ways of inducing
stereoselectivity into the Nicholas reaction towards the synthesis of natural products.
The first chapter of the thesis reviews the developments of the Nicholas reaction since
its discovery in 1972 as well as other applications of cobalt clusters. The following
chapter describes chirality and various approaches towards asymmetric synthesis.
Chapter 3 details our investigations as well as the results that we achieved in the two
areas we explored.

The first part of the project attempted to determine which oxazolidinone derivative
would provide optimum levels of selectivity in 1, 4-conjugate addition reactions, and
then investigate such derivatives in the Nicholas reaction. It was found that oxazolidinones bearing a phenyl group at the C4 position induced much higher levels
of stereo selectivity than those with benzyl or methyl groups at the C4 position.
Although 4-phenyl-2-oxazolidinone provided optimum levels of diastereoselectivity
in the asymmetric conjugate addition reaction of pentenyl organometallic reagents, it
less efficient when applied sequencially in an intermolecular Nicholas reaction.
In contrast, 4-methyl-2-oxazolidinone provided poor selectivity in an
conjugate addition reaction; however it was the auxiliary of choice for the corresponding Nicholas reaction
carried out upon optically active prop argyl alcohols derived from citronellal.
These were prepared from two different approaches. In the first approach, racemic
alcohols were prepared via a Grignard reaction, then oxidised to the corresponding ketone before being reduced to the optically pure alcohol via a stereoselective reduction using alpine borane.

In the second approach, optically active prop argyl alcohols were prepared via zinc
catalysed asymmetric alkynylation reactions. After complexation of these prop argyl
alcohols to cobalt octacarbonyl, the addition of a Lewis acid led to the intramolecular
Nicholas cyclisation reaction providing tri-substituted six membered rings in 55%
yield. The results show that the reactions carried out on opposite diastereoisomers or
racemic mixture provided the same mixture of diastereoisomers of the cyclised
products.
The final chapter describes all the experimental procedures that were carried out as
well as the characterisation of every compound presented in this document.


Background: The WHO has standard operating procedures for procurement, travel and logistics for use at country level. Some of the guidance is waived during public health emergencies of international concern. Practical acumen on using the standards for emergency settings is limited at country level. WHO Zambia was one of the countries that responded to the call by WHO HQ to support the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This paper aims to document lessons learnt by procurement staffs that were deployed to emergency settings.Methods: Desk review of documents on procurement during emergency settings, terms of reference of the mission, materials on prevention of getting infected by Ebola and general rules governing international deployment were analysed. The staff member was deployed for the duration of eight weeks in 2015 from where experiences gained were reviewed and systematically recorded.Results: Deployment and exposure to an emergency setting was the first such experience to WCO Zambia staff. During the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone there was the "no touch person" practice from inherent profound fear of contracting the deadly disease. While the job description was similar with what was prevailing in nonemergency setting in Zambia, the quantities and implementation speed on assignments on average were more than ten times on emergencies. In that environment the procedure for procurement involved Invitation to Bid and Request for Proposal to interested parties occurring at the same time which is done differently from normal situations where there is first a request for quotations and procurement committee deliberate before making selection. In the Ebola set-up, there is a waiver of the competitive bidding requirements.Discussion: The exposure of WCO staff to emergency setting allowed WCO staff to be more knowledgeable about preparation and award contract using additional procurement methods in compliance with WHO policies as adopted for emergencies.Conclusion: Secondment of staff to a setting of emergencies is beneficial to WCO staff in terms of capacity building and handling similar situations in future. Country Offices are encouraged in future to share human resources when situations dictate.


A discussion of the relative lack of research into e-leadership in educational technology in education is followed by an outline of selected prior literature in the field. The paper proposes that, as part of a natural evolution of educational technology research, considerably more attention needs to be focused on research and development in e-leadership. Building on selected prior literature, an updated framework of principles for effective "e-leadership" of educational technology is proposed, with specific reference to higher education, building on selected insights derived from e-leadership literature and on the author's experience of 30 years of professional practice, scholarship and research into educational technologies and leadership in education. The paper proposes the development of a new fifth "age" of educational technology research in which it is argued that more critical, selective, strategic e-leadership approaches to the adoption and use of educational technology need to be progressed through research, development and training as the field matures.


Horizon Scan reports provide brief summaries of information regarding new and emerging health technologies; Heath Technology Update articles typically focus on a single device or intervention.
These technologies are identified through the CADTH Horizon Scanning Service as topics of potential interest to health care decision-makers in Canada.
This Horizon Scan summarizes the available information regarding an emerging technology, the Jada System, for the management of postpartum hemorrhage.


This paper is aimed to describe and critically analyze the so-called "TEACHPOT" experience (POT: Provide Opportunities in Teaching) performed during the last few years at Politecnico di Torino. Due to career criteria, the effort and the time lecturers spend in teaching have currently undergone a significant reduction in quantity. In order to support and meet each lecturers' expectations towards an improvement in their ability to teach, a mix of training opportunities has been provided. This consists of an extremely wide variety of experiences, tools, relationships, from which everyone can feel inspired to increase the effectiveness of their teaching and the participation of their students. The provided activities are designed around three main components: methodological training, teaching technologies, methodological experiences. A discussion on the findings is included and presented basing on the data collected through a survey. The impact of the overall experience can be evaluated on two different levels: the real effect on redesigning lessons, and the discussion on the matter within the entire academic community.


This thesis documents one poet's coming to writing through the influence of Emily Dickinson. It is divided into three sections: the first is a correspondence between the poet and her muse---the character of Emily Dickinson; the second is a series of letters written by the female inmates of an asylum; the third is a series of poems that deal with Dickinson's ideas of circumference. The invocation involves the poet and the Emily-muse in a journey through New Brunswick's Bay du Vin, during which they witness a terrible storm that kills many of the town's fishermen. The storm introduces death into the world of art, the world created by the poet and her muse as a kind of placeless heaven. The second section is a series of letters written from the perspective of the fishermen's wives, now confined in an asylum. Titled "Much Madness is Divinest Sense/Letters from the Asylum," this section makes of its setting a significant symbol: a cage, a prison, the asylum figures finitude and limitation. In this milieu, distance, absence, death, pain and, indeed, madness become their opposites. The final section, "Circumference," deals with the Dickinsonian idea of limitation and expansion, the I and the not-I and how one negotiates the distance between self and other, self and God. The final poems of this section investigate the world of Bay du Vin as seen through the poet's eyes. There is a movement away from Emily and towards the poet's plotting of her own circumference


In this paper, we propose a new geodesic based algorithm for diffusion tensor fiber tracking. This technique is based on computing multi-valued solutions from the Euler-Lagrange form of the geodesic equations. Compared to other geodesic based approaches, multi-valued solutions at each grid point have been considered other than just computing the viscosity solution. This allows us to compute fibers in a region with sharp orientation, or when the correct physical solution is not the fiber computed from the first arrival time. Compared to the classical stream-line approach, our approach is less sensitive to noise, since the complete tensor is used. We also compare our algorithm with the PDE approach, using the Hamilton-Jacobi equation.We show that in the cases where the U-shaped bundles appear, our algorithm can capture the underlying fiber structure while other approaches may fail. The results for a realistic synthetic data field is shown for both methods.


Introduction: Approximately 40% of Irish people have a long term health condition (LTHC),and as our population ages, LTHC's are becoming a greater challenge for the Irish Healthcare Service Executive, (HSE) each year. Self-management programmes for people with conditions have been shown to improve participants health behaviours, health outcomes and reduce healthcare utilization.  The HSE framework for self-management support (2016) recommended adopting generic chronic disease self-management programmes (CDSMP) based on the Stanford model to help tackle the burden of chronic disease on both the individual and the health service. Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Stanford CDSMP on adults in County Donegal with LTHCs. The parameters evaluated were health statusand behaviours, self-efficacy and healthcare utilization. Methods: Adults in County Donegal with LTHCs (n=39) attended a six week generic Stanford CDSMP. A mixed quantitative and qualitative research design was used, with matched pre and post-testing to allow comparison between participant's health markers before and after participation in the programme. Validated measurement tools and wilcoxon signed ranks and paired t-tests were used to examine and analyse health status and behaviours, quality of life, self-eficacy and  healthcare utilization. Results: 39 participants with LTHC's were included in the study, the average age was 57 years and the majority (77%) was female. In line with previous studies in the area, this study showed improvements in many aspects of participant's health markers six months following completion of the programme. There were improvements in participant's self efficacy, evidenced by increased confidence to manage their condition (p=0.005) and to perform other self-management tasks in addition to taking medication (p=0.06).The impact of participant's LTHC on their mood and feelings of hopelessness lessened (p=0.03), with improved concentration levels (p=0.01), and reduced levels of restlessness (p=0.006). Socially, there were improvements in ability to work(p=0.04), socialise (p= 0.01), partake in hobbies/ recreational activities (p= 0.03) and carry out household chores (p=0.01). Adherence to medication protocol improved (p=0.0001) and there was a statistically significant reduction in the number of overnight hospital occurrences(p=0.03). Although there was a reduction in the number of GP and A&E visits, this reduction was not statistically significant (p=0.192). Conclusion: The findings of this current study are in line with previous research, and provide encouraging evidence that the CDSMP helps tackle the burden of chronic disease on individuals and the health service in County Donegal. This provides the background for further research in rural Ireland, particularly in view of the fact that the HIQA report (2015) has recommended that the HSE prioritise investment in self-management-programmes for patients with LTHC's. Recommendations for further research include follow-up beyond six months, the inclusion of greater numbers and more men in the programme, the use of simpler, shorter questionnaires, and increased engagement with HSE clinicians prior to the programme.


Multimedia data provides particular challenges for systems interconnect. Although high throughputs are required, e.g. for multiple video streams, low and predictable latency and round-trip times are also needed, e.g. for duplex voice communication. Most interconnects have high latency-bandwidth products, which forces a compromise. Interconnects based on IEEE 1355 have low inherent buffering, which translates to a low latency-bandwidth product, thus providing the basis for a variety of services for different categories of multimedia data. Serial wormhole routing chips of valency 32 have been available for several years, providing paths with implicit flow control with very low per path buffering. An extensive study of networks of these devices has been performed to characterise their latency, throughput and delay variation over many network topologies. Networks of up to 1024 100Mbits/s terminal nodes have been simulated, constructed and measured, demonstrating properties that are beneficial for the construction of scalable infrastructures for high performance multimedia switches, including a rapid indication of internal contention that can be used to effectively manage the quality of service across the switch. We will present the major results of the study and outline how they can be used to design low cost-per-port scalable switches with the potential for the modular addition of fault tolerance.


The Tiered Algorithm is presented for time-efficient and message-efficient detection of process termination. It employs a global invariant of equality between process production and consumption at each level of process nesting to detect termination, regardless of execution interleaving order and network transit time. Correctness is validated for arbitrary process launching hierarchies, including launch-in-transit hazards, where processes are created dynamically based on runtime conditions for remote execution. The performance of the Tiered Algorithm is compared to three existing schemes with comparable capabilities, namely, the Chandrasekaran and Venkatesan (CV), Lai, Tseng, and Dong (LTD), and Credit termination detection algorithms. For synchronization of X tasks terminating in E epochs of idle processing, the tiered algorithm is shown to incur O(E) message count complexity and O(T lg T) message bit complexity while incurring detection latency corresponding to only integer addition and comparison. The synchronization performance in terms of message overhead, detection operations, and storage requirements are evaluated and compared across numerous task creation and termination hierarchies.


Oil and gas exploration and production activities in deep and ultra deep waters in hostile environments necessitates the need to develop innovative riser systems capable of ensuring transfer of fluids from the seabed to a floating vessel and vice versa, with little or no issues with respect to influences of environmental loads and vessel motions. The design of the riser system must focus on different types of loading and load effects than for traditional water-depth. A variety of different riser concepts are proposed, both with respect to geometric shape and selection of materials. In the last few years, steel catenary risers have been a preferred riser solution for deep-water field developments due to its simple engineering concept, cost effective, flexibility in using different host platform and flexibility in geographical and environmental conditions. In this report, a case study considering a steel catenary riser operating in 1000 m water depth was conducted. The riser was subjected to extreme environmental conditions and static and dynamic response analyses were performed by the computer program RIFLEX. Last, parametric study is carried out to investigate the effects of parameter variation based on some parameters like current profiles, mesh density, wall thickness and so on. These parameters have significant effect on the structural response, especially in the touch down region.


Due to the existence and building of an important number of combined cycle plants throughout electric power systems around the world, there exists the growing need to have a more accurate and practical model to represent these type of power plants when solving the unit commitment problem. A commonly used optimization technique implemented to solve the unit commitment problem is dual programming. This work focuses on solving the subproblem of scheduling a combined cycle plant using dynamic programming under a dual optimization framework. The model used to represent the combined cycle plants is component based; this new way of modeling combined cycle plants takes into account such constraints as the feasible transitions between configurations, and the minimum and maximum time that a combined cycle plant must remain on a certain configuration. The advantage of the model presented in this paper is that it accurately models all the physical constraints of combined cycle plants. Also, this paper presents the modeling of hybrid combined cycle plants; these are the ones that use an auxiliary boiler in order to increase the production of steam used by the steam turbine.


In Australia there are two entry levels in nursing, Registered Nurse (RN) and Enrolled Nurse (EN). Whilst much of the focus of nursing education research is attentive to RN and postgraduate nursing students (higher education), the educational preferences of EN students has not been recognised or identified previously. EN students in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) setting as learners have unique educational needs. As learners, EN students are diverse in terms of learner characteristics and background. Despite these important considerations there does not appear to be the targeted attention in educational learning methodology to support learner preferences in the planning and delivery of nursing education for EN students. This research identifies specific learner preferences for teaching modalities among EN students in the Diploma of Nursing program. A qualitative research methodology using an explorative descriptive approach in the naturalistic setting has been adopted for this study. The study was set in a private Registered Training Organisation (RTO). Data was collected through focus group discussions with data analysis involving a thematic framework. Five main themes were identified through the thematic analysis; variety of teaching and assessment methods, educator directed or guided learning, practical application and simulated learning, face to face learning and closer integration of theory to clinical practicum. This research recognises specific learning needs of EN students from the learner's perspective. The knowledge generated from this study will help guide future planning strategies in teaching and learning education for the Diploma of Nursing (EN) program.


The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 established a clear global mandate for greater integrated policymaking. This concern for policy integration has forced practitioners and academics to rethink many underlying principles about this relatively old but poorly understood concept in the policy sciences. However, the notion of an integrated policymaking process is one that many governments have continuously aspired for, but there is little consensus on how to achieve it. A central unifying concept in theory and practice is the link of integration to policy capacity but this remains largely unexplored. This proposed paper seeks to address this gap through a conceptual analysis of the policy integration and capacity. Building on the literature on policy design, it defines policy integration as the process of reconciling incoherent policy goals and inconsistent policy instruments and offers a typology of policy integration projects based on the degree of goal and instrument consistency: policy harmonization, mainstreaming, coordination and institutionalization. These forms of policy integration dictate the kinds of strategies that governments should adopt to arrive at a more coherent policy mix. Following the dimensions of policy capacity by Wu, et al. (2015), policy capacities are identified that are critical to ensuring the success of policy integration. This paper hopes to contribute to both academic and policy-related debates on policy integration by advancing conceptual clarity on the different, and sometimes diverging concepts used related.


Divergence-conforming Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) functions are commonly used in integral-equation formulations to model the surface current distributions on planar triangulations. In this paper, a novel implementation of the magnetic-field integral equation (MFIE) employing the curl-conforming n~×RWG basis and testing functions is introduced for improved current modelling. Implementation details are outlined in the contexts of the method of moments, the fast multipole method, and the multilevel fast multipole algorithm. Based on the examples of electromagnetic modelling of conducting scatterers, it is demonstrated that significant improvement in the accuracy of the MFIE can be obtained by using the curl-conforming n~×RWG functions.


Difficult-to-treat severe asthma constitutes approximately 5–10% of the asthmatic population, and continues to present a considerable therapeutic challenge. Use of the pragmatic definitions over the past 10 years has led to an improved delineation of these patients. This monograph gathers expertise in the paediatric and adult severe asthma fields. Giving rise to a comprehensive edition that summarises what has been achieved in understanding the different phenotypes, their biomarkers and the reasons and mechanisms that underlie difficult-to-treat severe asthma as well as the refractoriness to its current treatments. This volume also provides a physician's guide to the management of severe asthma with the optimal use of the currently available therapies, while pointing to the potential approaches we need to take in order to discover more effective treatments.


Theoretical models are designed to be applied in hyperthermia treatment planning and to help optimize the surgical treatment procedures. However, it is difficult to obtain every physical parameter of the magnetic field in the living tissue in detail, which is necessary for the calculation. We therefore investigated the simulation of thermal distribution in arterial embolization hyperthermia (AEH) stimulated by the external ferrite-core applicator, and measured specific absorption rate (SAR) of magnetic nanoparticles in the maghemtite-gelled composite model. We used fiber optic temperature sensors (FOTS) to measure the values of SAR, which depend on the microstructure and sizes of particles and the intensity and frequency of external ac magnetic field. Detailed tests indicated that the attenuation of magnetic field was mainly focused on the vertical distance in the aperture of the apparatus. We built a simplified cylindrical phantom containing maghemite particles of 20 nm for thermal field simulation on the basis of SAR measurement. The results of simulation indicated that temperature elevation, induced by nanoparticles inside tumors under ac magnetic field, was dose-dependent. The temperature data acquired from the experiment were compatible with the theoretical results, which demonstrated that the current model considering the inhomogenous heat generation could provide accurate and reliable simulation results and a theoretical and technical basis for controlling temperature during AEH therapy


Although the debate over Affirmative Action is both high-profile and high-intensity, neither side's position is based on a well-established set of research findings. Economics provides an extensive, well-known literature on which to draw regarding the existence and extent of labor market discrimination against women and minorities, although views may often conflict, and a less extensive but also well-known literature on the effects of Affirmative Action on the employment of women or minorities. However, research by economists provides much less evidence and even less of a consensus on the question of whether Affirmative Action improves or impedes efficiency or performance, which is perhaps the key economic issue in the debate over Affirmative Action. This review focuses on all of these issues regarding Affirmative Action, but the major focus is on the efficiency/performance question. All in all, the evidence suggests to us that it may be possible to generate Affirmative Action programs that entail relatively little sacrifice of efficiency. Most importantly, there is at this juncture very little compelling evidence of deleterious efficiency effects of Affirmative Action. This does not imply that such costs do not exist, nor that the studies we review have captured the overall welfare effects of Affirmative Action. It does imply, though, that the empirical case against Affirmative Action on the grounds of efficiency is weak at best.


Abstract. We document the activation of transient polar arcs emanating from the cusp within a 15 min long intermediate phase during the transition from a standard two-cell convection pattern, representative of a strongly southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), to a "reverse" two-cell pattern, representative of strongly northward IMF conditions. During the 2–3 min lifetime of the arc, its base in the cusp, appearing as a bright spot, moved eastward toward noon by ~ 300 km. As the arc moved, it left in its "wake" enhanced cusp precipitation. The polar arc is a tracer of the activation of a lobe convection cell with clockwise vorticity, intruding into the previously established large-scale distorted two-cell pattern, due to an episode of localized lobe reconnection. The lobe cell gives rise to strong flow shear (converging electric field) and an associated sheet of outflowing field-aligned current, which is manifested by the polar arc. The enhanced cusp precipitation represents, in our view, the ionospheric footprint of the lobe reconnection process. Key words. Magnetospheric physics (auroral phenomena; magnetopause, cusp, and boundary layers; plasma convection)


. Aerosols are one of the most important pollutants in the atmosphere and have been monitored for the past few decades by both remote sensing and in situ observation platforms to assess the effectiveness of government-managed reduction emission policies and assess their impact on the radiative budget of the Earth's atmosphere. In fact, aerosols can directly modulate incoming short-wave solar radiation and outgoing long-wave radiation and indirectly influence cloud formation, lifetime, and precipitation. In this study, we quantitatively evaluated long-term temporal trends and seasonal variability from a climato- 5 logical point of view of the optical and microphysical properties of atmospheric particulate matter at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, over the past 17 years, through a synergy of lidar, sunphotometer, and in situ concentration measurements. Interannual temporal changes in aerosol optical and microphysical properties are evaluated through the seasonal Mann-Kendall test. Long-term trends in the optical depth of the recovered aerosol, the Ångström exponent (AE) and the concentrations of PM 10 , PM 2 . 5 and PM 1 reveal that emission reduction policies implemented in the last decades were effective 10 in improving air quality, with consistent drops in PM concentrations and optical depth of aerosols. The seasonal analysis of the 17-year average vertically resolved aerosol profiles obtained from lidar observations shows that during summer the aerosol layer can be found up to an altitude of 5 km, after a sharp decay in the first km. In contrast, during the other seasons, the backscatter profiles fit a pronounced exponential decay well with a well-defined scale height. Long-range transport, especially dust outbreaks from the Sahara Desert, is likely to occur throughout the year. During winter, the dust aerosol layers are floating 15 above the boundary layer, while during the other seasons they can penetrate the layer. This study sheds some light on meteorological processes and conditions that can lead to haze formation and helps decision makers adopt mitigation strategies to preserve large metropolitan areas in the Mediterranean basin.