High-speed electric multiple units have numerous advantages. However, a number of critical maintenance issues arise in the operation of high-speed electric multiple units. The previous researches about rail profile design usually take only a single type of wheel profile into account, which would cause some other problems such as severe increase of hollow wear on the wheels. This study systematically investigates the influence of rail grinding on running stability and wear development in high-speed electric multiple units and designs a new rail profile as reference for grinding that takes all types of vehicle wheels running on a specific line into account, in order to design a ground rail which could match the wheel profile and thus improve the running stability of electric multiple units. All types of wheel profiles used on the Wuhan–Guangzhou railway line are taken as the design reference. A wheel–rail wear simulation program is constructed based on CONTACT numerical simulation software and SIMPACK vehicle system dynamics software. The simulation results show that both the wheel–rail contact relationship and the running stability of high-speed electric multiple units improved after rail grinding. The results of the wheel wear analysis show that when the rail is ground to the target profile, after a running mileage of 200,000 km, the wear area of the new wheel profile LMA and the greatest hollow wear wheel profile LMA-25 decreases by 1.13 mm2 and 9.86 mm2, respectively. In addition, this method can prolong the wheel reprofiling interval. For the Wuhan–Guangzhou railway line, normally the grinding interval for the tangent track and large-radius curve is 2–3 years, and for the entering and exiting tunnel sections, the grinding interval should be set for 1–2 years, which could remove the damaged layer of the rail surface and could restore the designed profile of the rail and prolong the rail service life.


This study was conducted to determine the relationship of modular learning modality on students' mathematics performance in the new normal environment in the secondary schools in Governor Generoso North District. The study applied a quantitative and descriptive causal-correlational research design. Complete enumeration was employed which comprised of 322 grade 11 students. Adapted and modified survey–questionnaire was utilized to gather information which was validated by the experts and had undergone pilot testing to assure validity and reliability. Results revealed that the respondents agreed to the extent of usage of the modular learning modality while their mathematics performance was described as satisfactory. Findings also revealed that there are differences in the usage level of modular learning modality across the demographic profiles of the respondents. Learning outcomes, capturing students' interest in learning and perceived solutions to learning difficulties were found to have a significant relationship to students' mathematics performance and modular learning modality is positively and significantly related to the students' mathematics performance. Furthermore, content format and optimal course to learn were the factors that can best predict students' mathematics performance. It is recommended to look for and study the best strategies that will answer the relationship presented in this study. It is also suggested to conduct comprehensive review of the modular learning materials, venture on the implementation of other learning modalities, and to do additional intervention activities in the learning process during this new normal environment.


Britain's proactive policy on the Armenian Question and the standpoints of the British public and political and civic organizations on the massacres of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire in 1894-1896 were widely reflected in the contemporary British press and other media accounts. This volume, which contains more than fifty articles published in major British periodicals in the 1890s, including "Contemporary Review", "Nineteenth Century", "Fortnightly Review", "Blackwood's Magazine", and "Spectator", presents a snapshot of British public opinion during the height of the Armenian Crisis of the 1890s, as well as detailed factual evidence of anti-Armenian policies carried out by the Sultan's government in the Ottoman Empire and the response of the Great Powers - including Britain - to the massacres.The Armenian Massacres, 1894-1896 deliberately omits day-to-day reports from British newspapers covering the events and instead includes analytical reviews and opinions by leading British public figures, travelers, scientists, political, religious, and civic activists, journalists, and members of Parliament that were published in periodicals of differing political and social affiliations. Reprinted more than a century after their original publication, the articles are characteristic of the public attitudes in late nineteenth century Britain, including positions and perceptions of the period that are absolutely different from the principles and values applied to modern international affairs.Therefore, the articles should be considered in their historical context, which explains the negative and even insulting remarks about Muslims or Turks present in some of the articles. At the same time, this edition includes several articles that do not reflect the general positions and trends prevalent in British society, presenting different viewpoints to reflect the historical realities of the late nineteenth century in a comprehensive, objective, and impartial manner for scholars of British and Armenian history. As a result, this book is an extremely valuable resource for scholars of Armenian and European history.


The histocompatibility loci of the MHC can be separated into two functionally distinct types. One, loci first defined by lymphocyte reactivity in MLC, LD loci, the phenotypic expression of which leads to proliferation of allogeneic T cells, and two, serologically defined, SD loci, products of which act as targets for cytotoxic lymphocytes. Although the SD loci may be definable by both serological techniques and by lymphocyte reactions in CML, and it may well be that the LD loci products will be defined serologically, the functional difference between them is documented by the apparently converse roles in MLC and CML. The LD loci are most effective in leading to MLC stimulation and do not function as targets in CML for reasons discussed elsewhere; the SD loci function poorly it at all in stimulating proliferation in MLC but are excellent targets in CML. A cellular dichotomy may exist in reaction to these different genetic components of the MHC.


It is shown that in the extreme limit with zero surface gravity but non-zero local temperature the limiting metric of a generic static black hole is determined by a metric induced on a horizon and one function of two coordinates, the stress-energy tensor of a source picking up its values from a horizon. The limiting procedure is extended to rotating black holes. If the extreme limit is due to merging a black hole horizon and a cosmological one, both horizons are always in thermal equilibrium in this limit. This is proved for a generic case of static or axially symmetrical rotating spacetimes.


Background Primary brain tumor grading is crucial to rapidly determine the therapeutic impact and prognosis of a brain tumor as well as the tumors' aggressiveness profile. On magnetic resonance imaging, high-grade tumors are usually responsible for blood -brain barrier breakdowns, which result in tumor enhancement. However, this is not always the case. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of FDOPA PET in the assessment of primary brain tumor aggressiveness with no contrast enhancement on MRI. Methods Fifty-three patients were prospectively included: 35 low-grade and 18 high-grade histologically proven gliomas, with no contrast enhancement. Each patient underwent static PET acquisitions at 30 minutes. All patients had MRSI with measurements of different metabolites ratio. Results FDOPA was useful in the subgroup of low-grade gliomas, discriminating between dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor and grade II oligodendroglioma (P < 0.01). An optimal threshold of the maximum standardized uptake value at 30 minutes (SUVmax (T/N)30) = 2.16 to discriminated low- from high-grade gliomas with a sensitivity of 60%, specificity of 100%, PPV of 100%, and NPV of 83.33% (P < 0.01). The nCho/Cr and nCho/NAA ratios were significantly higher in high- than in low-grade gliomas (P < 0.03 and P < 0.04, respectively). A significant positive correlation between MRSI ratios and SUVmax was found. Conclusion Including data from amino acid metabolism used alone or in association with MRSI allows us to discriminate between dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor and grade II oligodendroglioma and between low- and high-grade gliomas with no contrast enhancement on MRI.


Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) has critical importance for a broad range of processes in nature and technology, from supernovae to plasma fusion. In most instances RTI is driven by variable acceleration whereas the bulk of existing studies have considered constant acceleration. This work focuses on RTI driven by acceleration with power-law time-dependence, and applies group theory to solve the classical problem. For early time dynamics, we find dependence of RTI growth-rate on acceleration parameters and initial conditions. For late time dynamics, we directly link interface dynamics to interfacial shear, find continuous family of regular asymptotic solutions, and discover invariance properties of nonlinear RTI. Our results reveal the interfacial and multi-scale character of RTI with variable acceleration. The former is exhibited in structure of flow fields with intense fluid motion near the interface and effectively no motion in the bulk; the latter follows from the invariance properties of nonlinear dynamics defined by the interplay of two macroscopic length-scales - the wavelength and the amplitude. Our theory resolves the long-standing problem of RTI nonlinear dynamics, achieves excellent agreement with observations, and elaborates diagnostic benchmarks for future experiments and simulations.


ABSTRACT This paper studies how courts in India have dealt with consumer disputes in the financial sector. It reviews the most cited cases to study the position that courts have taken in banking and insurance disputes. For the cases studied, it finds that courts have generally granted relief to consumers in banking disputes. In the case of insurance cases, courts have emphasized contractual compliance. This is so even when the contracts themselves were opaque or had unfair terms. The paper also finds that courts award low compensation and take a long time for adjudication. These issues are compounded by the shortcomings in the framework of courts – they tend to award low compensation in banking and insurance cases, take a long time for adjudication, do not have systems for class action suits, and lack specialization to deal with consumer disputes in the financial sector.


In a current issue of The Library of Christian Classics1 the present reporter distinguished between a "radical Reformation" and the "magisterial Reformation" of the normative Protestant Reformers, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Cranmer, and their associates. Common to all groupings within this Radical Reformation was the unwillingness to depend upon or tarry for the magistracy to reform the Church in root and branch, be the magistrate emperor, king, prince, or collectively the town council.


Mouse embryos were transferred to allogeneic pseudopregnant foster mothers and the cells of the resultant neonates were analyzed for the expression of maternal major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens to elucidate maternal cell transmission to the fetus during pregnancy. Expression of maternal-type MHC antigens was detected in the spleen but not in the liver or thymus of the neonates in analyses by immunofluorescence flow cytometry and polymerase chain reaction. These findings provide evidence, on the molecular basis, that maternal blood cells are transmitted to the fetus through the placenta.


We analyse the factors used for assessing groundwater intrinsic vulnerability to pollution in the mean residence time estimation method, providing a final vulnerability evaluation. The following factors were analysed: depth to shallow groundwater, effective precipitation infiltration coefficient, terrain inclination, volumetric water content of soils and rocks in the unsaturated zone and volumetric water content of the topsoil. GIS surveys were performed for two geomorphologically diverse regions: a highland piedmont and a lowland plain in Poland (Central Europe). In both cases, groundwater had spatially diverse vulnerability to contamination. The research method used relied on determining the percentage participation of the area with particular values of the parameters analysed in areas of different degrees of vulnerability. Knowledge of the extent and distribution of variability of the parameters analysed in areas of particular degrees of vulnerability helps explain the causes of spatial variation in groundwater intrinsic vulnerability to contamination in given areas.


This book presents, above all, a study of the establishment and development of the Soviet organization and system of fashion industry and design as it gradually evolved in the years after the Second World War in the Soviet Union, which was, in the understanding of its leaders, reaching the mature or last stage of socialism when the country was firmly set on the straight trajectory to its final goal, Communism. What was typical of this complex and extensive system of fashion was that it was always loyally subservient to the principles of the planned socialist economy. This did not by any means indicate that everything the designers and other fashion professionals did was dictated entirely from above by the central planning agencies. Neither did it mean that their professional judgment would have been only secondary to ideological and political standards set by the Communist Party and the government of the Soviet Union. On the contrary, as our study shows, the Soviet fashion professionals had a lot of autonomy. They were eager and willing to exercise their own judgment in matters of taste and to set the agenda of beauty and style for Soviet citizens. The present book is the first comprehensive and systematic history of the development of fashion and fashion institutions in the Soviet Union after the Second World War. Our study makes use of rich empirical and historical material that has been made available for the first time for scientific analysis and discussion. The main sources for our study came from the state, party and departmental archives of the former Soviet Union. We also make extensive use of oral history and the writings published in Soviet popular and professional press.


Node similarity measures quantify how similar a pair of nodes are in a network. These similarity measures turn out to be an important fundamental tool for many real world applications such as link prediction in networks, recommender systems etc. An important class of similarity measures are local similarity measures. Two nodes are considered similar under local similarity measures if they have large overlap between their neighboring set of nodes. Manipulating node similarity measures via removing edges is an important problem. This type of manipulation, for example, hinders effectiveness of link prediction in terrorists networks. Fortunately, all the popular computational problems formulated around manipulating similarity measures turn out to be NP-hard. We, in this paper, provide fine grained complexity results of these problems through the lens of parameterized complexity. In particular, we show that some of these problems are fixed parameter tractable (FPT) with respect to various natural parameters whereas other problems remain intractable (W[1]-hard and W[2]-hard in particular). Finally we show the effectiveness of our proposed FPT algorithms on real world datasets as well as synthetic networks generated using Barabasi-Albert and Erdos-Renyi models.


In this paper, we present a multi-objective genetic fuzzy system for anomaly intrusion detection. The proposed system extracts accurate and interpret able fuzzy rule-based knowledge from network data using an agent-based evolutionary computation framework. The experimental results on KDD-Cup99 intrusion detection benchmark data demonstrate that our system can achieve high detection rate for intrusion attacks and low false positive rate for normal network traffic.


Mixed-integer programming (MIP) technology offers a generic way of formulating and solving combinatorial optimization problems. While generally reliable, state-of-the-art MIP solvers base many crucial decisions on hand-crafted heuristics, largely ignoring common patterns within a given instance distribution of the problem of interest. Here, we propose MIP-GNN, a general framework for enhancing such solvers with data-driven insights. By encoding the variable-constraint interactions of a given mixed-integer linear program (MILP) as a bipartite graph, we leverage state-of-the-art graph neural network architectures to predict variable biases, i.e., component-wise averages of (near) optimal solutions, indicating how likely a variable will be set to 0 or 1 in (near) optimal solutions of binary MILPs. In turn, the predicted biases stemming from a single, once-trained model are used to guide the solver, replacing heuristic components. We integrate MIP-GNN into a state-of-the-art MIP solver, applying it to tasks such as node selection and warm-starting, showing significant improvements compared to the default setting of the solver on two classes of challenging binary MILPs. Our code and appendix are publicly available at https://github.com/lyeskhalil/mipGNN.


The evolution of natural ecosystems is controled by a high level of biodiversity, In sharp contrast, intensive agricultural systems involve monocultures associated with high input of chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Intensive agricultural systems have clearly negative impacts on soil and water quality and on biodiversity conservation. Alternatively, cropping systems based on carefully designed species mixtures reveal many potential advantages under various conditions, both in temperate and tropical agriculture. This article reviews those potential advantages by addressing the reasons for mixing plant species; the concepts and tools required for understanding and designing cropping systems with mixed species; and the ways of simulating multispecies cropping systems with models. Multispecies systems are diverse and may include annual and perennial crops on a gradient of complexity from 2 to n species. A literature survey shows potential advantages such as (1) higher overall productivity, (2) better control of pests and diseases, (3) enhanced ecological services and (4) greater economic profitability. Agronomic and ecological conceptual frameworks are examined for a clearer understanding of cropping systems, including the concepts of competition and facilitation, above- and belowground interactions and the types of biological interactions between species that enable better pest management in the system. After a review of existing models, future directions in modelling plant mixtures are proposed. We conclude on the need to enhance agricultural research on these multispecies systems, combining both agronomic and ecological concepts and tools.


When the claimant serves on the defendant a notice in connection with the initiation of arbitral proceedings pursuant to an arbitration agreement, there is a legitimate expectation that both parties will actively participate in those proceedings and forcefully argue against one another in order to persuade the arbitral tribunal of the merits of the case in question. This expectation is generally met. However, there are cases in which the respondent decides not to take part in the proceedings, with the result that the arbitral tribunal is left with no option but to proceed on an ex parte basis. These types of cases have received relatively scant attention within the international arbitration literature. Nonetheless, the problem of default proceedings remains a matter of practical importance. This article is intended to fill this gap. It provides a practical insight into the arbitral tribunal's powers in these kinds of proceedings (whether ad hoc or institutional), particularly, in the context of an international arbitration seated in London


This study concerns with the teaching learning based on Bloom Taxonomy at SMA
Muhammadyah 03 Batu. Hence, the purpose of this study are to know the components of
cognitive domain covered in teaching writing used by the English teacher; to know the
components of affective domain covered in teaching writing used by the English teacher and to
know the components of psychomotor domain covered in teaching writing used by the English
teacher.
This design of this study was descriptive research because the writer wanted to describe the
activities that focus on structure, attitudes or behavior. The activities in this study were the
applying of Bloom Taxonomy in teaching writing. In this research, the writer took two English
teachers in the second year students as research subjects. The instrument were used in this study
were unstructured interview and an observation non participant.
The result of this study showed that Bloom Taxonomy was not implemented maximally at SMA
Muhammadyah 03 Batu. In cognitive domain, the teacher applied knowledge, comprehension,
application and analysis component; in affective domain, the teacher applied responding and
organization component; in psychomotor domain, the teacher applied mechanism component.
The teachers did not apply the whole components, it was caused by many factors such as limited
facilities for example, there was no books about Bloom Taxonomy, the differences thinking each
student and the teacher's knowledge about Bloom Taxonomy was still low so they couldn't
applied it maximally. The facilities given by the school did not support the teacher to apply the
entire components. The differences thinking each student also became the reason, they weren't
active in teaching learning process. And also the teacher's knowledge about Bloom Taxonomy
was still low, but it could cope by asking the other teacher who applied the whole component.


Abstract We study the effectiveness of nonexperimental strategies in adjusting for comparison group differences when using data from several programs, each implemented at a different location, to compare their effect if implemented at alternative locations. First, we adjust for individual characteristics differences simultaneously across all groups using unconfoundedness-based and conditional difference-in-difference methods for multiple treatments. Second, we adjust for differences in local economic conditions and stress their role after program participation. Our results show that it is critical to have sufficient overlap across locations in both dimensions and illustrate the difficulty of adjusting for local economic conditions that differ greatly across locations.


This paper examines the presence of two competing views—"competition-fragility" and "competition-stability"—in analyzing the impact of competition on bank stability. The approach is to first construct measures of bank competition from a unique dataset of balance sheet and income statements for 542 banks operating in the Philippines from March 2010 to December 2020. The paper then estimates the impact of these competition measures on solvency risk or the risk of being unable to absorb losses with the available capital across universal/commercial banks (U/KBs), thrift banks (TBs) and rural/cooperative banks (R/CBs) industries. Using panel quantile regression, the results reveal that, at the industry level, bank competition reduces solvency risk and that it enhances bank stability. Looking at the risk distribution, the study shows the presence of the competition-fragility and competition-stability hypotheses holding simultaneously for U/KBs suggesting that the effect of competition depends crucially on the underlying individual bank risk. Importantly, the results highlight that the relationship between competition and bank risk is sensitive to other bank-specific characteristics and macro-financial factors related to extent of diversification strategy, cost-to-income ratio, deposit growth, capitalization, changes in the physical banking networks, and growth of real Gross Domestic Product.


Therapeutic results of remote lithotripsy have been analyzed for 1016 patients with urolithiasis. The authors also focus on specific features of remote lithotripsy in anomalous stones, in nephroliths on the single and transplanted kidney, in location of the stone in the ureter. The efficacy of the procedure is reviewed in pediatric patients. Satisfactory results were achieved in 962 patients (95%). Remote lithotripsy is considered to be a valuable component of combined treatment of urolithiasis replacing successfully open surgery in 95% of the cases.


A detailed description of the use of ion implantation to create optical waveguides in laser crystals is given. Calculated mode profiles and lasing thresholds are shown to be in good agreement with experimental results in a monolithic planar waveguide Nd:YAG laser. The first fabrication and characterization of ion implanted channel waveguides in Nd:YAG is also reported. >


This research aims to present a bibliographical review of the research related to the Technogene / Anthropocene in Brazil. The methodology consisted of bibliographic search in academic Google and in university library sites. The research was categorized according to environment and the geomorphological process: alluvial deposits and accelerated erosion; mining; dam siltation; urban and coastal environments. Of more than 200 publications pertinent to the theme, twenty-nine were selected to be synthesized. The research highlighted the heterogeneity of the knowledge that has already been produced on the Technogene / Anthropocene in Brazil. They corroborate the idea of humans as geological agents, but each study situates the geologic agency of humans in an environment with intrinsic geographic characteristics that provide the technogenic variations in the surface and sub-surface.


A method to improve the performance of multiple-input-multiple-output systems is to employ a large number of antennas and select the optimal subset depending on the specific channel realization. A simple antenna-selection criterion is to choose the antenna subset that maximizes the mutual information. However, when the receiver has finite complexity decoders, this criterion does not necessarily minimize the error rate (ER). Therefore, different selection criteria should be tailored to the specific receiver implementation. In this paper, we develop new antenna-selection criteria to minimize the ER in spatial multiplexing systems with lattice-reduction-aided receivers. We also adapt other known selection criteria, such as maximum mutual information, to this specific receiver. Moreover, we consider adaptive antenna-selection algorithms when the channel is not perfectly known at the receiver but can only be estimated. We present simulation examples to show the ER of the different selection criteria and the convergence of the adaptive algorithms. We also discuss the difference in complexity and performance among them.


The problems of using models in planing tests are addressed. If one passes from the model to a hull of linear dimensions n times greater, the speeds are connected by the law of mechanical similitude. The normal forces given by the hydrodynamic equations (perfect fluid) also follow the law of dynamic similitude (Reech's method) and are multiplied by n(exp 3). A series of tests were performed and the actual results were compared to theoretical results.


This paper argues that under the proprietary logics of the contemporary web, the 'algorithmic identities' (Cheney-Lippold, 2017) created by platforms like Google and Facebook function as value-generating constellations that unequally distribute the burdens of being made in data. The paper focuses on a particular identity demographic: that of the algorithmically inferred 'female', based in the 'UK', 'aged 25-34', and therefore deemed to be interested in 'fertility'. Though other algorithmic profiles certainly exist (and generate their own critical problems), I will use this particular template of subjectivity to explore issues of representation, black-boxing and user trust from a gendered perspective.
Combining online audience reception with political economy, I analyse two ad campaigns - for Clearblue Pregnancy Tests and the Natural Cycles Contraceptive app - to understand how the algorithmically fertile female comes to exist, both at the level of the database and at the level of ad representation. I argue that black-boxing occurs at two stages in this process: firstly when the subject is computationally constituted as female (ie in the database) and secondly when the user herself is delivered the ads informed by her algorithmic identity (ie at the interface). This black-boxing creates 'algorithmic imaginaries' (Bucher, 2016) for the user wherein the burden of being made a fertile female in data is experienced as a form of immaterial and emotional labour. Some algorithmic constitutions can therefore be considered a form of algorithmic women's work; work that potentially generates distrust in targeted advertising.


OBJECTIVE
The uterus is a target for prostaglandins, especially at the end of gestation. Whether potassium channels are involved in the effect of prostaglandins is not clear. The aim of this study was to find out.

STUDY DESIGN
Concentration-response relationships to prostaglandins (prostaglandin F2alpha, prostaglandin E2, and prostaglandin I2 [carbacyclin]; 10(-10) mol/L-10(-4) mol/L) were studied in isolated uterine rings from mid pregnancy (day 14) and late pregnancy (day 21) rats (Krebs solution, 5% CO2 in air, 37 degrees C; pH, 7.4). Rings were incubated for 30 minutes with either solvent or adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium channel inhibitor or opener glibenclamide and levcromakalim or with calcium-sensitive potassium channel inhibitor or opener NS1619 and iberiotoxin, respectively. The changes in integral activity were compared after each concentration of the agent and were expressed as a percent of the basal integral activity.

RESULTS
The increases in spontaneous contractile activity induced by prostaglandin E2 and carbacyclin, but not prostaglandin F2alpha, were statistically significantly higher in tissues from late pregnancy versus mid pregnancy rats and were not affected by any of the K-channel openers or inhibitors.

CONCLUSION
Adenosine triphosphate-sensitive and calcium-sensitive potassium channels are not involved in the effect of prostaglandin F2alpha, prostaglandin E2, and prostaglandin I2 on pregnant rat uterus.


Margin squeeze is a strategic behaviour of vertically integrated dominant firms in liberalized markets, where they have incentives to discriminate against new entrants in the downstream market. The discrimination that they perform is either in the form of refusals to grant access to the essential facilities, excessive prices for essential inputs, or as margin squeezes. The telecommunications industry, in which neighbouring (liberalized) markets are vertically linked, meets the suitable economic conditions for the ex-State owned incumbents to squeeze their rivals in the downstream market, as they control the essential input (access to networks), and simultaneously have an important presence in the retail market.Detecting a margin squeeze requires the application of a complex imputation test, which may not be straightforward and which may determine the final decision on the alleged existence of this abusive practice.The general purpose of this study is to carry out an economic overview of margin squeeze in the telecommunications sector, focusing on the conditions for its existence, the regulatory constraints, and to establish the adequate economic test to determine the existence of a margin squeeze. This article has been shortlisted for the 1st World Competition Young Writer Award.


Abstract As outlined in compression therapy literature, the performance of a compression textile can be characterized by its stiffness and interface pressure. In this study, an indirect approach for measuring pressure from a set of compression bandages and hosiery was developed, from which rigidity (EI) values were determined, and tension–elongation curves and pressure-elongation data were calculated. The calculated pressure values were compared against PicoPress sensor readings measured on 10 participants. Results showed that the correlation between both approaches varied among bandage and hosiery samples.


This historical review and detailed analysis of the evolution of post-excavation policy and practice within British professional archaeology employs Grounded Theory methodology for the collection and analysis of qualitative data from interviews with individual archaeologists who had completed post-excavation projects and written archaeological reports and archaeological publications over the last fifty years in an attempt to gain a new perspective upon the interpretation of data from archaeological excavations.

The researcher's analysis demonstrates significant changes in both the process of archaeological interpretation and the quality of the archaeological reports and the archaeological publications produced over the last fifty years, particularly since the emergence of commercial archaeology in the late 1980's and significantly since 1990. The thesis proposes that published and unpublished reports must be subject to a more critical approach, a form of 'source criticism', to re-evaluate the quality of data and interpretation and ensure that conclusions drawn from their findings are based on valid assumptions. It argues that there has been a shift from a 'bottom up' approach, grounded in evidence based interpretation of site records, to a 'top down' approach which imposes an archaeological interpretation upon site records, what the author describes as 'preservation by interpretation'.

In a larger view the researcher proposes that the quality and reliability of archaeological interpretation and reporting is a product, at a macro-level, of heritage policy and market economics and, at a micro-level, of distinctive local institutional and personal variation in methodology and preference.

A future framework is proposed for integrating archaeological archiving and area base interpretation of excavation data, designed principally to respond to the complexity of urban archaeology.


[1] This study investigates the Atlantic inflow to the North Sea and its variability, pathways and destination. Results from a numerical model show that the variability of Atlantic inflow is dependent on the inflow location. The inflow between Orkneys and Shetland and in the Shetland shelf area show a strong connection to the strength in westerly winds in winter and spring on a weekly timescale, while the inflow in the Norwegian Trench has a longer response time to the large-scale wind pattern. About 50% of the Atlantic water that enters the North Sea is mixed with fresher water before it leaves the North Sea as the Norwegian Coastal Current. This illustrates the important role of estuarine processes within the North Sea and Skagerrak area, and their interaction with the Atlantic water.


SUMMARY

The rain tower/wind tunnel complex at Rothamsted consists of a rain tower (height 11 m, cross-section 1 m2) linked to the upwind end of a wind tunnel (length 12 m, cross-section 1 m2), which may be operated in either an open or a closed configuration. At the top of the rain tower, water drops with diameters of 2.5 to 5 mm are produced by a drop generator, which can be fitted with different nozzles. Simulated rain with a drop diameter of 1 to 3 mm is produced at a rate of 8 to 12 mm h-1 by a rain generator with an area of 52 × 67 cm. The rain tower may be operated in conjunction with the wind tunnel in an open configuration. The windspeed can be decreased from a maximum of 8 m s-1 by decreasing the speed of the fan. The wind tunnel has its own internal lighting. When the wind tunnel is in a closed configuration, temperature and humidity can be controlled in the range 12 oC (62–80% r.h.) to 35 oC (22–50% r.h.). Data presented illustrate the use of this rain tower/wind tunnel complex to study dispersal of plant pathogen spores by rain-splash or wind.


We study permutation patterns from an algebraic combinatorics point of view. Using analogues of the classical shuffle and infiltration products for word, we define two new Hopf algebras of permutations related to the notion of permutation pattern. We show several remarkable properties of permutation patterns functions, as well their occurrence in other domains.


Lagerstatten —deposits of exceptionally preserved fossils—offer
vital insights into evolutionary history. To date, only three Konservat-Lagerstatten
are known from Early Jurassic marine rocks (Osteno,
Posidonia Shale, and Strawberry Bank), all located in Europe. We
report a new assemblage of exceptionally preserved fossils from
Alberta, Canada, the first marine Konservat-Lagerstatte described
from the Jurassic of North America. The Ya Ha Tinda assemblage
includes articulated vertebrates (fish, ichthyosaurs), crinoids, crustaceans,
brachiopods, abundant mollusks (coleoids with soft tissues,
ammonites, gastropods, bivalves), wood, and microfossils. Paired bioand
chemostratigraphies show that Lagerstatte deposition occurred
during the late Pliensbachian through early Toarcian, capturing the
carbon isotope excursion associated with the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic
Event. Therefore, the Panthalassan Ya Ha Tinda biota is coeval with
Toarcian Lagerstatten from the Tethys Ocean (Posidonia Shale and
Strawberry Bank). Comparisons among these deposits permit new
insights into the diversity, ecology, and biogeography of Jurassic
marine communities during a time of pronounced biological and
environmental change (e.g., expanded subsurface anoxia, warming,
and extinctions). They also highlight the possibility that Mesozoic Oceanic Anoxic Events are temporal foci of exceptional preservation.


With the opening in the fall of 2003 of the 20th Century Fox motion picture Master and CommanderThe Far Side of the World, starring Russell Crowe as Captain Jack Aubrey and Paul Belany as Jack's friend and colleague Stephen Maturin, a new generation will be introduced to the maritime novels of the late Patrick O'Brian. Here we explore some possibilities of using parts of these stories to foster student interest in astronomy and to introduce some of the astronomical and other resources on the Internet. This material consists of three major sections. The first describes a number of scenes in the O'Brian books that contain astronomical references, and provides links to sites that contain additional information about the topics mentioned briefly in the novels. These links cover a wide range of topics: definitions of astronomical terms, certain mathematical expressions, geography, historical background, and more. The links are suitable for readers with differing levels of astronomical and general knowledge, though for certain groups, a teacher's support will be necessary. Brief quotations from the novels illustrate that O'Brian was attuned to the state of astronomy in the early 1800s. The astronomy in O'Brian's books enters in a number of ways: off-hand remarks, discussions among the characters, mentions of lunar phases, and descriptions of the night sky, including planetary appearances. The second section of the paper shows, through examples based on the novels, how to use freeware to analyze some descriptions of the sky to see if such a configuration actually occurred at the time mentioned, and to determine a possible range of dates during which a particular incident might have taken place. Was Patrick O'Brian writing about a real or fictional world when he created these descriptions? The third section of the text gives several problems drawn from situations in the novels that can be worked out with the techniques described in the second section of this paper. Answers are provided. These problems are best suited to more advanced students who already have a good understanding of such basic astronomical concepts as coordinates and time.


With the rapid development of online wholesale platform, and its urgent need to build up the online rating system, text comments have attracted high attention. With the adoption of the content analysis, the text comments of aliexpress.com are coded into nine categories, and 29 sub-elements, covering contents of transaction process, quality, pricing, service, logistics, seller trustworthiness, subjective favorites and behavioral intentions. Simple frequency analysis and regression analysis are adopted to further dig out the inherent implications. It is indicated that online wholesalers use objective comments as well as subject sentences, and tell about the average and also the details. The most important is that dimensions like product quality, transaction process, overall service, overall logistics and product favorites are those that can arouse positive and negative emotions. Consequently, component rating systems are suggested to be designed, and with certain revisions. Opportunities to open up the evaluation of detailed elements and subjective feelings are also appealed.


The present study was conducted to determine the effects of supplemented juniper berry (Juniperus communis) on fattening performance and some carcass traits of quails. A total of 150 one-day-old Japanese quail chicks were randomly divided into five groups (one control and four treated groups) with three replicates. Four different juniper berry levels (0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2%) and a control treatment (0%) were added to the diet. Juniper berry supplementation to the diets initiated at the end of the 1st week and sustained for seven weeks. Live weight, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio during the trial and some carcass traits after slaughter were determined. Juniper berry supplementation in the diet during seven weeks of growing period significantly increased body weight, cumulative feed intake, and feed conversion ratio of the treated groups. Carcass weight, carcass yield, and breast yield were also significantly increased by supplemented juniper berry. No significant difference was observed between viability of different groups. Supplementation of 0.5-1% juniper berry in quail diets has positive impacts on fattening performance and carcass traits.


Abstract Techniques enabling in situ elemental and mineralogical analysis on extraterrestrial planets are strongly required for upcoming missions and are being continuously developed. There is ample need for quantitative and high-sensitivity analysis of elemental as well as isotopic composition of heterogeneous materials. Here we present in situ spatial and depth elemental profiles of a heterogeneous rock sample on a depth-scale of nanometres using a miniaturized laser ablation mass spectrometer (LMS) designed for planetary space missions. We show that the LMS spectra alone could provide highly detailed compositional, three-dimensional information and oxidation properties of a natural, heterogeneous rock sample. We also show that a combination of the LMS and Raman spectroscopy provide comprehensive mineralogical details of the investigated sample. These findings are of great importance for future space missions where quick, in situ determination of the mineralogy could play a role in the process of selecting a suitable spot for drilling.


Abstract. In this paper we develop analytical and numerical methods for finding special hyperbolic trajectories that govern geometry of Lagrangian structures in time-dependent vector fields. The vector fields (or velocity fields) may have arbitrary time dependence and be realized only as data sets over finite time intervals, where space and time are discretized. While the notion of a hyperbolic trajectory is central to dynamical systems theory, much of the theoretical developments for Lagrangian transport proceed under the assumption that such a special hyperbolic trajectory exists. This brings in new mathematical issues that must be addressed in order for Lagrangian transport theory to be applicable in practice, i.e. how to determine whether or not such a trajectory exists and, if it does exist, how to identify it in a sequence of instantaneous velocity fields. We address these issues by developing the notion of a distinguished hyperbolic trajectory (DHT). We develop an existence criteria for certain classes of DHTs in general time-dependent velocity fields, based on the time evolution of Eulerian structures that are observed in individual instantaneous fields over the entire time interval of the data set. We demonstrate the concept of DHTs in inhomogeneous (or "forced") time-dependent linear systems and develop a theory and analytical formula for computing DHTs. Throughout this work the notion of linearization is very important. This is not surprising since hyperbolicity is a "linearized" notion. To extend the analytical formula to more general nonlinear time-dependent velocity fields, we develop a series of coordinate transforms including a type of linearization that is not typically used in dynamical systems theory. We refer to it as Eulerian linearization, which is related to the frame independence of DHTs, as opposed to the Lagrangian linearization, which is typical in dynamical systems theory, which is used in the computation of Lyapunov exponents. We present the numerical implementation of our method which can be applied to the velocity field given as a data set. The main innovation of our method is that it provides an approximation to the DHT for the entire time-interval of the data set. This offers a great advantage over the conventional methods that require certain regions to converge to the DHT in the appropriate direction of time and hence much of the data at the beginning and end of the time interval is lost.


Humans and non-human animals must navigate their environments to survive. A recent question of interest is whether humans have the ability to combine multiple cues to navigation in a Bayesian optimal manner. The current experiments build on previous research examining the combination of cues in adult humans. These experiments further the theoretical understanding of cue combination as well as its application to real-world tasks. Experiment 1 determined that idiothetic path integration cues are not necessary for the optimal combination of path integration and piloting cues. Instead, optic flow, an allothetic path integration cue, was sufficient for the optimal combination of path integration and a geometric cue to navigation. Experiment 2 examined cue combination for two piloting cues to navigation, rather than for a piloting and path integration cue, and found that two piloting cues to navigation are not always combined in a Bayesian optimal manner. Finally, Bayesian cue combination was examined in a two-dimensional desktop environment to determine whether optimal cue integration occurs in the desktop and webpage environments we interact with on a daily basis. Results indicate further study is needed, but illustrate the importance of testing a variety of stimuli when examining cue integration. Together, the following experiments expand the current knowledge regarding how multiple cues to navigation are used together to improve spatial memory and illustrate that small differences in stimuli may have a great impact on the ability to detect optimal cue integration.


Whites in the United States are often startlingly ignorant about the existence and importance of both contemporary and historical racism. People in many different fields work to make maintaining this ignorance possible. In some of these cases, at least, because of the research commitments of the people actively promoting ignorance about racism in the United States, the work done to make this ignorance possible cannot be the result of "mere" culpable ignorance, but is itself a racist act, and is some evidence of racist intent. I argue that the casual dismissals of the importance of racism in the writings of contemporary defenders of the "hereditarian" hypothesis with respect to differences in average IQ scores between populations identified on the basis of "race" take this form. Current hereditarians are therefore, I argue, properly regarded as racist not because they support a politically unpopular scientific hypothesis, nor even (just) because they are guilty of culpable ignorance, but rather because their work reveals a deliberate and systematic attempt to minimize and ignore both the continued existence of racism, and the contemporary and historical effects of racism. It is this kind of work, I argue, that makes the maintenance of more widespread (and damaging) ignorance possible.


Chronicling the Race for Central Asia Ten years have passed since the publication of Peter Hopkirk's ground-breaking The Great Game, still considered the Holy Grail for Great Game aficionados. Hopkirk introduced a new generation of readers to the 19th-century game of espionage and great-power maneuverings between tsarist Russia and the British Empire in the "High Himalayas." Since then, several books have fleshed out the details of that Great Game, but none has broken new ground. However, a new book by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, two retired American journalists, will almost certainly put them in the pantheon of Great Game writers. While Hopkirk concentrated on British secret service exploits in tsarist Central Asia and Tibet, Meyer and Brysac have added a vital new dimension by researching and writing about the lesser, but equally glamorous, role played by Americans. They write insightfully, spinning an intricate, deeply human yarn, with enormous strategic understanding and wisdom, often summing up entire historical eras in a few elegiac but deeply insightful paragraphs. Moreover, Meyer and Brysac describe the significance and popularity of the explorations by westerners in Central Asia among the populations of Russia, America, and Europe at the time. Such descriptions bring the last century to life. The explorers, mapmakers, and spies whose books were 19th century best-sellers were the astronauts of their time as they travelled through the darkened spaces of the earth. While Washington had neither a strategic role, nor much interest in Central Asia in the 19th century, American explorers, mapmakers, big game hunters, and East Coast rich kids, were just as fascinated by the lands of Central Asia and Tibet as their British counterparts. In fact, the United States' fascination with Tibet, which culminated in the CIA's abortive arming of Tibetan rebels fighting China's invading forces between 1956 and 1969, began half a century earlier when American diplomats and big-game hunters first arrived in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The explorer-diplomat William Woodville Rockville (1854-1914), who travelled throughout Central Asia, Mongolia, China, and Tibet was the original American "China Hand," the principal advocate of Washington's "Open Door" policy and the first American to befriend and advise a Dalai Lama. US President Theodore Roosevelt was one of Rockville's closest friends and called him one of the two greatest living diplomats. By the 1920s the Americans played a role as important as that of the British in Lhasa, together countering Chinese influence and incursions. The authors also tell the fascinating story of the Pundits, Indians trained by the British secret service as mapmakers who were the first to penetrate into Kashmir, Tibet and beyond--where white men could not go. In the 1930s, Nazi Germany became a significant player in Tibet. In the 1940s, Tajiks, Uzbeks, and Kazakhs held as prisoners of war by the Soviet army were disemboweled at the Auschwitz death camp in medical experiments undertaken to test Nazi racial theories. All the Germans involved with Tibet, even the famous Austrian, Heinrich Harrer, who published his bestseller Seven Years in Tibet in 1952, were associated with the Nazis. …


A study of plane, underexpanded, condensing vapor jets was undertaken using flash photography and a ventilated pressure probe. This study examined horizontal jets with much lower condensation driving potentials than have been previously studied. Photographic measurements of jet expansion angles, spread angles, cavity lengths, and cavity shapes were recorded and compared with numerical predictions using a parabolic, locally homogeneous flow model that had been modified to incorporate entrainment and condensation effects. When rendered dimensionless by the nozzle width rather than diameter, the plane condensation length agreed well with previously published round jet correlations for higher condensation driving potentials. At lower condensation driving potentials, the jets began to disperse, showing behavior similar to submerged air and energetic reacting vapor jets. Numerical predictions of condensation length were in good agreement over the entire range of measurement. Numerical predictions of vapor cavity shape were in reasonable agreement at higher condensation potentials but underpredicted the width of the vapor cavity at lower potentials. Pressure measurements showed the existence of periodic expansion/compression cells associated with underexpanded noncondensing gas jets. When these measurements were compared with similar measurements of air jets into quiescent water baths, the lengths of the initial steam vapor expansion/compression cells were substantially greater than those of the air jets, and the degree of pressure recovery over the cell length was substantially less.


Late bloomers are massive (M∗ > 1010 M ) galaxies at z < 1 that formed the majority of their stars within ∼2 Gyr of the epoch of observation. Our improved methodology for deriving star formation histories (SFHs) of galaxies at redshifts 0.45 < z < 0.75 from the Carnegie-Spitzer-IMACS Survey includes confidence intervals that robustly distinguish late bloomers from "old" galaxies. We use simulated SFHs to test for "false positives" and contamination from old galaxies to demonstrate that the late bloomer population is not an artifact of our template modeling technique. We show that late bloomers account for ∼20% of z ∼ 0.6 galaxies with masses of the modern Milky Way, with a moderate dependence on mass. We take advantage of a 1% overlap of our sample with HST (CANDELS) imaging to construct a "gold standard" catalog of 74 galaxies with highconfidence SFHs, SEDs, basic data, and HST images to facilitate comparison with future studies by others. This small subset suggests that galaxies with both old and young SFHs cover the full range of morphology and environment (excluding rich groups or clusters), albeit with a mild but suggestive correlation with local environment. We begin the investigation of whether late bloomers of sufficient mass and frequency are produced in current-generation ΛCDM-based semi-analytic models of galaxy formation. In terms of halo growth, we find a late-assembling halo fraction within a factor-of-two of our late bloomer fraction. However, sufficiently delaying star formation in such halos may be a challenge for the baryon component of such models.


The paper proposes a new calibrated adaptive frequency domain beamformer for speech enhancement. The beamformer is based on the principle of a soft constraint formed from calibration data, rather than precalculated from free-field assumptions. The benefit is that the real room acoustical properties are taken into account. The proposed algorithm continuously estimates the spatial information for each frequency band, based on weighting of the received data. The update of the beamforming weights is done recursively where the initial precalculated correlation estimates of the speech constitute a soft constraint. The soft constraint secures the spatial-temporal passage of the desired source signal, without the need of any speech detection. The performance is evaluated in real world scenarios, in both car and restaurant environments. Interference and noise suppression of more than 15 dB is accomplished, while very small distortion is measured for the source signal.


Cultural policies have developed in Galicia significantly since the establishment of the 1981 Statute of Galician Autonomy. The Galician government has played a key role in the Galician cultural scene. However, the civil and, especially, private sectors have made a substantial contribution to the promotion of different areas of Galician culture. This article presents an overview of Galician cultural policies focusing on the area of cultural heritage management in the global era, particularly on the uses of new information and communication technologies and digitization.


A growing body of work examines market and firm responses to specific tax benefits. We extend this literature by examining market and firm reactions to an economically significant targeted tax refund granted to a few large, but poorly performing, steel firms by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86). We find, relative to steel firms not receiving the refund, qualifying firms experience either a negative or insignificant market reaction around each of three key dates in the TRA86 legislative process. Using difference-in-differences analyses to test a variety of refund uses, we find that refund recipients use the proceeds to pay down debt rather than to increase capital assets, payouts to shareholders, acquisitions, or employment. Overall, we find targeted tax benefits granted to significant but struggling firms, while potentially politically appealing, appear to generate limited economic benefits to those targeted firms.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical and radiographic outcomes of stabilization of the lateral ligament combined with joint debridement in patients with ligamentous moderate neutral ankle osteoarthritis with those achieved for patients with varus ankle osteoarthritis.

METHODS
We reviewed integrated data from 40 patients (40 ankles) with ligamentous moderate ankle osteoarthritis. Matched for age, gender, and follow-up duration, they were divided into two groups by preoperative coronal plane hindfoot moment arm values (HMAV): neutral (20 ankles, ≤15 mm) and varus (20 ankles, >15 mm) deformity. Stabilization of lateral ligament combined with joint debridement was performed. American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) ankle-hind foot score, hindfood moment arm values, and classification of Takakura were used to compare clinical and radiographic outcomes after a mean follow-up period of 64.2 months (range, 60-84 months).

RESULTS
Mean post-operative AOFAS was 86.0 and 72.6 in the neutral and varus groups, respectively. The post-operative AOFAS of both groups improved significantly, although the outcome improvement of the neutral group was better than that of the varus group (P = 0.0006). There was obvious improvement in HMAV of the neutral group (P = 0.0469) and less improvement in HMAV of the varus group (P = 0.8509). The mean postoperative HMAV was 4.60 mm (0-10 mm) and 17.85 mm (8-23 mm) in the neutral and varus groups, respectively. The radiographic classification of Takakura was unchanged in the neutral group, whereas four cases in the varus group had a worse classification.

CONCLUSIONS
Stabilization of the lateral ligament combined with joint debridement for ligamentous moderate ankle osteoarthritis showed better clinical and radiographic outcomes in patients with neutral alignment than that achieved for patients with varus malalignment.


This thesis is concerned with the synthesis and polymerisation of isotopically labelled methacrylate based monomers. Chapter 2 describes the preparation of methyl [2-(^13)C]-and [3-(^13)C]-methacrylate via a Wittig-Homer type reaction and a diethyl malonate route respectively. The results of the free radical polymerisation of these monomers are discussed in Chapter 4. The presence of (^13)C-isotope in the resultant polymer enhanced the low intensity signals from the end groups in the (^13)C-NMR. However, more importantly, this study allowed us to investigate the presence of head to head links by observing for the first order (^13)C-(^13)C coupling from the two quaternary carbons in the polymer of methyl [2-(^13)C]- methacrylate. The findings of this study are reported in Chapter 4, Part 1.Chapter 3 describes the preparation of methyl [a-(^13)C]-(hydroxymethyl)-[3-(^13)C]-acrylate, [(^13)C(_2)]-MHMA and methyl [a-(^2)H(^2)-(hydroxymethyl).[3-(^13)C]-acrylate, [(^2)H(_4)]- MHMA monomers. The copolymeristion with methyl methacrylate and subsequent lactonisation are reported in Chapter 4, Part 2. In the (^13)C-NMR spectrum of lactonised MMA/[(^13)C(_2)]-MHMA copolymer, the signals from any residual (^13)CH(_2)OH groups were absent, indicating that lactonisation was complete under the conditions described. Chapter 5 describes the preparation of fluorinated and non-fluorinated phosphonate based methacrylate monomers to study their potential as ionic materials and extend their application as a fire retarding material. However, attempts to polymerise these monomers by either free radical or anionic methods met with little success. The successful preparation of a polymer from a non-phosphonate based methacrylate monomer indicates that perhaps the phosphonate moiety inhibits the polymerisation by being a radical acceptor.


Encrypted control systems allow to evaluate feedback laws on external servers without revealing private information about state and input data, the control law, or the plant. While there are a number of encrypted control schemes available for linear feedback laws, only few results exist for the evaluation of more general control laws. Recently, an approach to encrypted polynomial control was presented, relying on two-party secret sharing and an inter-server communication protocol using homomorphic encryption. As homomorphic encryptions are much more computationally demanding than secret sharing, they make up for a tremendous amount of the overall computational demand of this scheme. For this reason, in this paper, we demonstrate that multi-party computation enables secure polynomial control based solely on secret sharing. We introduce a novel secure three-party control scheme based on three-party computation. Further, we propose a novel n-party control scheme to securely evaluate polynomial feedback laws of arbitrary degree without inter-server communication. The latter property makes it easier to realize the necessary requirement regarding non-collusion of the servers, with which perfect security can be guaranteed. Simulations suggest that the presented control schemes are many times less computationally demanding than the two-party scheme mentioned above.


The Hieroglyphs f and f GRIFFITH (1898, Hieros., p. 26) wrote that the f sign 'seems to represent the first sprout from a root or seed with a bud at the side' and 'the special form r (BH. I, pl. 8) apparently indicating the succession of years by an artificial multiplication of buds upon the shoot'. Gardiner (1927, Eg. Gramm., p. 469, M4) describes the sign as a 'budding sprout'.' I believe that a better explanation was given by R. S. Poole (1851, Horae Aegyptiaeae, pp. 9-10) who said that it represents a palmbranch stripped of its leaves and with one notch. Poole wrote 'it is worthy of remark that the Arabs make use of a palm-branch stripped of its leaves as a tally by which they keep accounts; and they use the term '..ll...r:jereedeh, the name ofsucha palm-branch, to signify a register; and the Persians and Turks make use of that word in a similar manner'. Horapollo (edn. Cory., pp. 9-10) refers to the palm hieroglyph in connexion with the year. Freytag (Lex. 1830, I, 264) gives ~~ 'Ramus palmae longus viridis, aut aridus aut foliis nudatus', Lane has under~.;:'taille, bois pour marquer par des entailles ce que l'on fournit ou recoit', See also Dozy, Supplement aux Diet. Arabes, znd edn., I, 184. PERCY E. NEWBERRY


How can we learn a classifier that is "fair" for a protected or sensitive group, when we do not know if the input to the classifier belongs to the protected group? How can we train such a classifier when data on the protected group is difficult to attain? In many settings, finding out the sensitive input attribute can be prohibitively expensive even during model training, and sometimes impossible during model serving. For example, in recommender systems, if we want to predict if a user will click on a given recommendation, we often do not know many attributes of the user, e.g., race or age, and many attributes of the content are hard to determine, e.g., the language or topic. Thus, it is not feasible to use a different classifier calibrated based on knowledge of the sensitive attribute.
Here, we use an adversarial training procedure to remove information about the sensitive attribute from the latent representation learned by a neural network. In particular, we study how the choice of data for the adversarial training effects the resulting fairness properties. We find two interesting results: a small amount of data is needed to train these adversarial models, and the data distribution empirically drives the adversary's notion of fairness.


Transforming growth factor beta (TGFbeta) superfamily members are closely associated with tissue remodelling events and reproductive processes. This review summarises the current state of knowledge regarding the expression and actions of TGFbeta superfamily members in the uterus, during the menstrual cycle and establishment of pregnancy. TGFbetas and activin beta subunits are abundantly expressed in the endometrium, where roles in preparation events for implantation have been delineated, particularly in promoting decidualisation of endometrial stroma. These growth factors are also expressed by epithelial glands and secreted into uterine fluid, where interactions with preimplantation embryos are anticipated. Knockout models and embryo culture experiments implicate activins, TGFbetas, nodal and bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) in promoting pre- and post-implantation embryo development. TGFbeta superfamily members may therefore be important in the maternal support of embryo development. Following implantation, invasion of the decidua by fetal trophoblasts is tightly modulated. Activin promotes, whilst TGFbeta and macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1) inhibit, trophoblast migration in vitro, suggesting the relative balance of TGFbeta superfamily members participate in modulating the extent of decidual invasion. Activins and TGFbetas have similar opposing actions in regulating placental hormone production. Inhibins and activins are produced by the placenta throughout pregnancy, and have explored as a potential markers in maternal serum for pregnancy and placental pathologies, including miscarriage, Down's syndrome and pre-eclampsia. Finally, additional roles in immunomodulation at the materno-fetal interface, and in endometrial inflammatory events associated with menstruation and repair, are discussed.


We introduce a framework for calibrating machine learning models so that their predictions satisfy explicit, finite-sample statistical guarantees. Our calibration algorithms work with any underlying model and (unknown) data-generating distribution and do not require model refitting. The framework addresses, among other examples, false discovery rate control in multi-label classification, intersection-over-union control in instance segmentation, and the simultaneous control of the type-1 error of outlier detection and confidence set coverage in classification or regression. Our main insight is to reframe the risk-control problem as multiple hypothesis testing, enabling techniques and mathematical arguments different from those in the previous literature. We use the framework to provide new calibration methods for several core machine learning tasks, with detailed worked examples in computer vision and tabular medical data.


This research is a case study, which seeks to determine whether the fundamental analysis can contribute to understanding the behavior of share prices of dotcoms Brazil. Trying to answer whether a relation between the stock prices of a company "dot" and its main Brazilian accounting indicators? This study made use of the deductive method with literature search and exploratory, with the completion of a case study focused on a technology company in Brazil. We calculated the correlation between stock prices and company values such losses, the indicators of liquidity and debt, as well as Tobin's Q. It is concluded that fundamental analysis can contribute to understanding the behavior of the stock price of dotcoms in Brazil, considering that there is significant relationship between those prices with various indicators studied the company's accounting.


Purpose

Play occupation has been identified as an essential part of children's lives, and it subsequently features in paediatric occupational therapy. However, few studies address the current place of play and play occupation in occupational therapy practice. This study aims to address this gap in knowledge by exploring paediatric occupational therapists' perspectives on the place of play and play occupation in occupational therapy practice in Ireland.

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to gather data about the current use of play in the occupational therapy for children under 12 years. Convenience sampling and snowball recruitment techniques were used to recruit paediatric occupational therapists. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis.

Findings

In total, 65 therapists responded to the survey (estimated response rate, 32%). Results are organised into four sections: demographics and practice context, play assessment practices, use of play in practice and perceived barriers to play-centred practice. Respondents reported that they valued play as a childhood occupation. However, the survey findings identified that the primary focus was on play as a means to an end. Lack of education on play (research, theory and interventions) and pressures in the workplace have been identified as barriers to play-centred practice.

Research limitations/implications

Findings indicate that there is a mismatch between therapists valuing play as an occupation and how play is used in occupational therapy practice. Unless clarifications are made about play occupation as being different to skills acquisition in childhood, play occupation will continue to get overlooked as an authentic concern of occupation-centred practice. Thus, play as occupation deserves further attention from educators, researchers and practitioners as a means of strengthening occupation-centred practice, in particular play-centred practice in the paediatric context.

Originality/value

Play has been described as an important occupation in childhood, and consequently, it features in paediatric occupational therapy. However, little is known about the current place of play in occupational therapy practice. This study addresses this gap by considering the current place of play in occupational therapy practice in Ireland.


This paper continues earlier investigations of the decay of Burgers turbulence in one dimension from Gaussian random initial conditions of the power-law spectral type E0(k) approximately |k|(n). Depending on the power n , different characteristic regions are distinguished. The main focus of this paper is to delineate the regions in wave number k and time t in which self-similarity can (and cannot) be observed, taking into account small-k and large-k cutoffs. The evolution of the spectrum can be inferred using physical arguments describing the competition between the initial spectrum and the new frequencies generated by the dynamics. For large wave numbers, we always have a k(-2) region, associated with the shocks. When n is less than 1, the large-scale part of the spectrum is preserved in time and the global evolution is self-similar, so that scaling arguments perfectly predict the behavior in time of the energy and integral scale. If n is larger than 2, the spectrum tends for long times to a universal scaling form independent of the initial conditions, with universal behavior k(2) at small wave numbers. In the interval 2<n the leading behavior is self-similar, independent of n and with universal behavior k(2) at small wave number. When 1<n<2, the spectrum has three scaling regions: first, a |k|(n) region at very small k's with a time-independent constant; second, a k(2) region at intermediate wave numbers; finally, the usual k(-2) region. In the remaining interval n<-3 the small-k cutoff dominates and n also plays no role. We find also (numerically) the subleading term approximately k(2) in the evolution of the spectrum in the interval -3<n<1. High-resolution numerical simulations have been performed confirming both scaling predictions and analytical asymptotic theory.


A sound fiscal position is an essential pre-requisite for achieving macroeconomic stability and is a critical ingredient of sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction. Better fiscal management helps mobilize domestic savings, increase efficiency of resource allocation and achieve other worthwhile development goals. On the other hand, lax fiscal policy limits options open to the government for economic recovery, sustainable growth and poverty alleviation. The present study evaluates the fiscal situation in Pakistan and sheds light on its implications for Economic Growth and poverty reduction. Study finds that Pakistan economy have shown great resilience over the years against disastrous events. However, situation of poverty reduction is not satisfactory; Pakistan's health and education indicators depict a dismal picture when compared with the countries with same level of development. As revenue generation efforts was only partially successful and Pakistan was unable to generate adequate revenues to meet expenditure. Consequently, successive governments have tried to reduce the deficit by reducing the development expenditure which hampered the growth process and resulted in a decline in human development indicators and increased the incidence of poverty.


Supporters of net neutrality have often argued that more competition among Internet service providers (ISPs) is beneficial for an open Internet and that the market power of the ISPs lies at the heart of the net neutrality debate. However, the joint effects of the competition among ISPs and among content providers (CPs) have yet to be examined. We study the critical linkage between ISP competition and CP competition, as well as its policy implications. We find that even under competitive pressure from a rival ISP, an ISP always has the incentive and the ability to enforce charging CPs for priority delivery of content. Upending the commonly held belief that when facing direct competition CPs will always support the preservation of net neutrality, we find that, under certain conditions, it is economically beneficial for the dominant CP to reverse its stance on net neutrality.


Nanostructured lead-free ferroelectric Na(0.5)Bi(0.5)TiO(3)-BaTiO(3) (NBTBT) whiskers with a high aspect ratio were synthesized topochemically using Na(2)Ti(6)O(13) (NTO) as a host structure for the first time. High energy X-ray diffraction coupled with an atomic pair distribution function (PDF) and Raman scattering analyses were used to confirm the average structure of the lead-free NBTBT whiskers, which was found to be rhombohedral, i.e. a ferroelectric enabling type. High resolution transmission electron microscopic (HRTEM) analysis revealed local monoclinic-type structural distortions, indicating a modulated structure at the nanoscale in the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) composition of the lead-free NBTBT whiskers. The structural rearrangement during the synthesis of the lead-free NBTBT whiskers was found to occur via translation of the edge shared octahedra of NTO into a corner sharing coordination. High temperature morphological changes that depict the disintegration of the isolated whiskers into their individual grains due to the higher grain boundary energy have been found to occur in close analogy with Rayleigh-type instability.


This annotated bibliography prepared by the USAID-funded Health Policy Project is a collection of hundreds of articles reports books and tools for communicating the available knowledge evidence and best practices for health policy. Health-related policy is the critical first step along the way to strengthening health systems and improving health outcomes so it is important for policymakers to understand the processes and complexities involved in health policy. This bibliography contains the necessary knowledge for understanding the various components of the policy process including policy development implementation and evaluation.


Information, particularly environmental information, constitutes a valuable asset which is fundamental in formulating, implementing and controlling environmental policy and management aimed at environmental sustainability. The systemic parameterisation of the so-called "environmental dimension" will lead to having enough, top-quality environmental information which has been duly collected, processed and prepared for developing any anthropic activity. The present article synthesizes the results of a research project entitled, "A Systemic Parameterisation of the Environmental Dimension- Phase I," carried out by the Policy, Information and Environmental Management (PIGA) research group; its main objective consisted of producing and proposing a theoretical basis and conceptual and methodological framework for developing such parameterisation.


The present study investigated the transesterification process used in the production of canola oil methyl ester from canola oil and methanol over synthesized KF/Al2O3 catalysts. Different amounts of KF solution (15-65 wt. %) were impregnated into alumina. Loading 35 wt. % of KF into an alumina (35% KF/Al2O3) catalyst gave the maximum yield of 99.6% under the following reaction conditions: 60 °C, 8-h reaction time, 15:1 molar ratio of methanol/canola oil, and 3 wt. % of catalyst. The fuel properties of canola oil methyl ester were tested, including ester content, density, viscosity, flash point, copper strip corrosion, total and free glycerol, acid value, distillation temperatures, pour point, freezing point, and calculated cetane index. The calculated cetane index was 62.8. The pour point (-10 °C) and freezing point (-12.9 °C) were lower than those of No. 2 diesel fuel. The results show that the produced canola oil methyl ester can safely be used as an alternative diesel fuel.


Background A prolonged air leak (PAL) is the most frequent complication after pulmonary resection. This study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of autologous blood patch pleurodesis (ABPP) to treat PAL. Methods A prospectively maintained database identified patients with a PAL after pulmonary resection for lung cancer between 2015–2019. In this observational cohort study, clinical data were collected to retrospectively compare patients undergoing ABPP to no ABPP in a propensity-matched analysis. Kaplan Meier estimates and Cox models accounting for inverse probability weighting (IPTW) were used to assess the association of ABPP with each outcome. Results Of the 740 patients undergoing lung resection, 110 (15%) were identified as having a PAL at postoperative day (POD) 5. There was no difference between baseline characteristics among those undergoing ABPP (n=34) versus no ABPP (n=76). Propensity-weighted analysis did not reveal a significant association of ABPP treatment with in-hospital complication (P=0.18), hospital length of stay (LOS) (P=0.13), or post-discharge complication (P=0.13). However, ABPP treatment was associated with a lower risk of hospital readmission [P=0.02, hazard ratio (HR) 0.16] and reoperation for air leak or empyema (P=0.05, HR 0.11). Although not statistically significant, the mean chest tube (CT) removal of 11 days for the ABPP group was less than the no ABPP group (16 days) (P=0.14, HR 1.5–2). Those treated with ABPP were less likely to be discharged with a CT (ABPP 7/34, 21% vs. no ABPP 40/76, 53%). There was no statistical difference in empyema development between groups (ABPP 0/34, 0% vs. no ABPP 4/76, 5%, P=0.39, HR 0.24). Conclusions ABPP administration is safe compared to traditional PAL management. In a retrospective propensity-matched analysis, postoperative patients treated with ABPP required less readmission and reoperation for PAL. Larger powered randomized trials may demonstrate the magnitude of benefit from treatment with ABPP.


Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a global health threat and current therapies warrant the need for novel HCV therapies. Several synthetic analogs targeting HCV serine protease and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase have entered clinical development. To investigate the novel HCV NS5B RdRp polymerase inhibitor, screening of a designed data set consisting of benzimidazole analogs by the FlexX docking approach was performed. Binding interactions at the active sites (PDB ID: 2DXS) were evaluated leading to the rationalization of further synthesis and evaluation procedures.


Rational design and fabrication of well-defined upconversion phosphors are of great significance for anti-counterfeiting and security applications. Here, we present hydrothermal synthesis of novel upconversion hollow microtubes (UCHMs) composed of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) functionalized hexagonal-phase NaYF4: Ln3+. The resulting UCHMs possess not only well-defined structures and uniform sizes, but also strong upconversion luminescence emission at room temperature. The structure–property relationship of the NaYF4: Ln3+ crystal between the phase transition from cubic to hexagonal and morphological changes from nanospheres to hollow microtubes is obtained by detailed time-dependent experiments, which help to derive a possible growth mechanism of the UCHMs. Furthermore, by doping different lanthanide ions and tailoring the molar ratio of the doped lanthanide ions in the UCHMs, three-primary-color (RGB) UCHMs are successfully produced. The RGB UCHMs are fabricated into fluorescent inks by dispersal in a solvent mixture of ethanol, water, and glycerol. The resulting RGB UCHMs inks are inkjet printed on common paper to produce hidden images under ambient conditions. However, the hidden images can be read out with red-green-blue luminescence under 980 nm light excitation. The UCHMs-based inks enable the creation of light-responsive smart encryption patterns in a secure way, and such image encryption can be spatially and selectively printed on documents for anti-counterfeiting applications.


The tissue distribution of BCAT and BCKDH is largely responsible for the unique metabolism of branched-chain amino acids in rat tissues. Because BCKDH is a mitochondrial enzyme, tissue capacity for branched-chain amino acid oxidation will be a function of mitochondrial specific activity and tissue mitochondrial content, as well as the activity state of the BCKDH complex. In muscle tissues, the activity of the BCKDH appears to restrict branched-chain amino acid oxidation. Therefore, in muscle, transamination exceeds oxidation. Depending on muscle fiber type, the branched-chain alpha-keto acid transporter operates primarily as either an efflux or an exchange pathway and keto acids are released from the tissue. The liver contains very low cytosolic BCAT activity and no mitochondrial BCAT. Since the BCKDH is largely in the active state in hepatic tissue, the liver is a major site of branched-chain amino acid oxidation. Thus, control of the metabolism of these essential amino acids in vivo is achieved through distribution and regulation of the activity of the first two enzymes in the catabolic pathway.


Quantitative structure-activity relationships (Q.S.A.R.'s) rationalize interrelation between molecular structure and biological response in terms of either physicochemical parameters, as in linear free energy relationships (L.F.E.R.'s), or via purely empirical parameters, as is the case for De Novo schemes. In L.F.E.R.'s the leading process is often the partitioning of a compound between two solvent phases, taken to represent the transfer of a drug molecule across a biological membrane. This study has investigated the partitioning behaviour of three series of hydroxybenzoate esters, viz. 0-, mand predominantly pesters, the latter being preservatives in pharmaceutical formulations. The thermodynamic parameters AH, AG and AS for the transfer process were derived in an attempt to establish a Q.S.A.R. on a fundamental thermodynamic basis. Such parameters have identifiable physicochemical meaning and lend themselves more readily to interpretation. This facilitates application to alternative systems. A new Gibbs function factor analysis was developed and utilized to obtain thermodynamic contributions for parent and incremental methylene group portions of the study molecules. The empirical Collander equation for interrelation of various solute/solvent systems was also rationalized on a thermodynamic basis. Further extension of the Gibbs function factor analysis allowed scaling of "solvent" systems including chromatographic packings, solvents and liposomes. The scheme indicated capacity for optimized selection of bulk solvent systems to mimic biological membranes. A novel analytical procedure for direct measurement of biological response was developed. The bioassay appeared capable of discrimination i) between the closely related structural homologues, ii) between gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, and further, iii) between certain cell batches of the same bacteria type. Also, the bioassay demonstrated a Collander interrelation between the two bacteria types. Flow microcalorimetry was the technique employed to measure thermal response of respiring E . col i and Staph, aur. bacteria. The modification of biological response with drug concentration was quantitated and a log dose^ax term was derived for each homologue. The results indicated potential for a predictive, additive structure-activity scheme based on assessment of biological response (B.R.) direct rather than through f (B .R via physicochemical or empirical parameters. LIST OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE 1 ABSTRACT 2 LIST OF CONTENTS 4 LIST OF FIGURES 14 LIST OF TABLES 22 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 28 Chapter One: INTRODUCTION 29


Though solid modeling becomes essential to research present CAD systems, a great many small companies still use 2D CAD systems. So, automatic conversion systems between them have been desired for many years. Most of proposed methods could apply to only correct 2D drawings in geometry. However, simplified drawings are usually used in actual design. In our method, the relationships of lines in 2D drawings could be acquired as properties. So, when a user operates broken lines to make correct lines, the processes of operations can be learned and generalized by using the properties, and generalized processes can be applied to new broken lines of 2D drawings.


Several studies have found maternal exposure to particulate matter pollution was associated with adverse birth outcomes, including infant mortality and preterm birth. In this context, our study aims to quantify the air pollution burden of disease due to preterm birth complications and infant death in Paris, with particular attention to people living in the most deprived census blocks. Data on infant death and preterm birth was available from the birth and death certificates. The postal address of mother's newborn was converted in census block number. A socioeconomic deprivation index was built at the census block level. Average annual ambient concentrations of PM10 were modelled at census block level using the ESMERALDA atmospheric modelling system. The number of infant deaths attributed to PM10 exposure is expressed in years of life lost. We used a three-step compartmental model to appraise neurodevelopmental impairment among survivors of preterm birth. We estimated that 12.8 infant deaths per 100,000 live births may be attributable to PM10 exposure, and about one third of these infants lived in deprived census blocks. In addition, we found that approximately 4.8% of preterm births could be attributable to PM10 exposure, and approximately 1.9% of these infants died (corresponding to about 5.75 deaths per 100,000 live birth). Quantification of environmental hazard-related health impacts for children at local level is essential to prioritizing interventions. Our study suggests that additional effort is needed to reduce the risk of complications and deaths related to air pollution exposure, especially among preterm births. Because of widespread exposure to air pollution, significant health benefits could be achieved through regulatory interventions aimed at reducing exposure of the population as a whole, and particularly of the most vulnerable, such as children and pregnant women.


This study of data services librarians is part of a series of studies examining the current roles and perspectives on Research Data Management (RDM) services in higher education. Reviewing current best practices provides insights into the role-based responsibilities for RDM services that data services librarians perform, as well as ways to improve and create new services to meet the needs of their respective university communities.

Objectives: The objectives of this article are to provide the context of research data services through a review of past studies, explain how they informed this qualitative study, and provide the methods and results of the current study. This study provides an in-depth overview of the overall job responsibilities of data services librarians and as well as their perspectives on RDM through job analyses.

Methods: Job analysis interviews provide insight and context to the tasks employees do as described in their own words. Interviews with 10 data services librarians recruited from the top 10 public and top 10 private universities according to the 2020 Best National University Rankings in the US News and World Reports were asked 30 questions concerning their overall job tasks and perspectives on RDM. Five public and five private data services librarians were interviewed. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were analyzed in NVivo using a grounded theory application of open, axial, and selective coding to generate categories and broad themes based on the responses using synonymous meanings.

Results: The results presented here provide the typical job tasks of data services librarians that include locating secondary data, reviewing data management plans (DMPs), conducting outreach, collaborating, and offering RDM training. Fewer data services librarians assisted with data curation or manage an institutional repository.

Discussion: The results indicate that there may be different types of data services librarians depending on the mix of responsibilities. Academic librarianship will benefit from further delineation of job titles using tasks while planning, advertising, hiring, and evaluating workers in this emerging area. There remain many other explorations needed to understand the challenges and opportunities for data services librarians related to RDM.

Conclusions: This article concludes with a proposed matrix of job tasks that indicates different types of data services librarians to inform further study. Future job descriptions, training, and education will all benefit from differentiating between the many associated research data services roles and with increased focus on research data greater specializations will emerge.


The pressure-dependent behaviour of NaMn7O12 (up to 40 GPa) is studied and discussed by means of single-crystal X-ray diffraction and resistance measurements carried out on powdered samples. A transition from thermally activated transport mechanism to semimetal takes place above 18 GPa, accompanied by a change in the compressibility of the system. On the other hand, the crystallographic determinations rule out a symmetry change to be at the origin of the transition, despite all the structural parameters pointing to a symmetrizing effect of pressure. Bond valence sum calculations indicate a charge transfer from the octahedrally coordinated manganese ions to the square planar ones, likely favouring the delocalization of the carriers.


Kelps beds are distributed along polar and temperate coastlines worldwide and are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth. In recent years there have been increasing reports on changing kelps beds worlwide: either losses along whole coastlines, decrease or increase in biomass or also structural changes were documented and attributed to global change. During the current talk I will present evidence how an increase in summer and winter sea-surface temperatures may affect kelp beds through differential processes and how these abiotic changes may exert differential effects on either temperate or polar kelp beds. Two case studies will be in the focus of the talk. I will present evidence for the first time that sporophyte reproduction of kelps is the most sensitive life cycle process with respect to the factor temperature which conforms to ecological theory. In the summer reproducing kelp Laminaria digitata from the North Sea sporophyte recruitment became already affected in prevailing, sub-lethal summer temperatures which may increase in future. In the second example from the Kongsford, western Spitsbergen, I will demonstrate how a series of warmer ice free winters changed biomass and structural biodiversity of the local kelp bed system and thereby possibly overall productivity. Additional multi-factorial experiments on kelp spores provide first evidence how increased sedimentation rates and summer temperatures may affect kelp recruitment in future. Finally I will present some evidence about possible ecotypic adaptation of kelps along their distribution gradient and model expectations for the future.


ABSTRACT Rac proteins are members of the Rho family of GTPases involved in the regulation of actin dynamics. The three highly homologous Rac proteins in mammals are the ubiquitous Rac1, the hematopoiesis-specific Rac2, and the least-characterized Rac3. We show here that Rac3 mRNA is widely and specifically expressed in the developing nervous system, with highest concentration at embryonic day 13 in the dorsal root ganglia and ventral spinal cord. At postnatal day 7 Rac3 appears particularly abundant in populations of projection neurons in several regions of the brain, including the fifth layer of the cortex and the CA1-CA3 region of the hippocampus. We generated mice deleted for the Rac3 gene with the aim of analyzing the function of this GTPase in vivo. Rac3 knockout animals survive embryogenesis and show no obvious developmental defects. Interestingly, specific behavioral differences were detected in the Rac3-deficient animals, since motor coordination and motor learning on the rotarod was superior to that of their wild-type littermates. No obvious histological or immunohistological differences were observed at major sites of Rac3 expression. Our results indicate that, in vivo, Rac3 activity is not strictly required for normal development in utero but may be relevant to later events in the development of a functional nervous system.


The current research work presents a low cost, efficient and innovative active aerostatic thrust bearing which is controlled through a combination of the Arduino board, feedback transducers and high-speed valves. The purpose is to make low cost, compact active aerostatic thrust bearing with overall small dimensions and compact size. A prototype design is done in solid works with small dimensions and components are produced with the help of the high precision machining process. There are two high-speed electropneumatic valves which  are controlled through pulse width modulation techniques. These high-speed electro-pneumatic valves modify the supply pressure of aerostatic bearing to achieve desired air height gap. There are two novel pressure sensors which provide a feedback signal for control. The test bench to perform experiments has been explained. The performance of the proposed aerostatic bearing is checked both in open loop and closed loop configuration with respect to static and dynamic conditions.