Serotonin (5-HT) is not only a neurotransmitter but also a mediator of developmental processes in vertebrates. In this study, we analyzed the importance of 5-HT during zebrafish development. The expression patterns of three zebrafish tryptophan hydroxylase isoforms (Tph1A, Tph1B, Tph2), the rate-limiting enzymes in 5-HT synthesis, were analyzed and compared to the appearance and distribution of 5-HT. 5-HT was found in the raphe nuclei correlating with tph2 expression and in the pineal gland correlating with tph1a and tph2 expression. tph2 deficient fish generated with antisense morpholino oligonucleotides exhibited morphogenesis defects during pharyngeal arch development. The correct specification of neural crest cells was not affected in tph2 morphants as shown by the expression of early markers, but the survival and differentiation of pharyngeal arch progenitor cells were impaired. An organizing role of 5-HT in pharyngeal arch morphogenesis was suggested by a highly regular pattern of 5-HT positive cells in this tissue. Moreover, the 5-HT2B receptor was expressed in the pharyngeal arches and its pharmacological inhibition also induced defects in pharyngeal arch morphogenesis. These results support an important role of Tph2-derived serotonin as a morphogenetic factor in the development of neural crest derived tissues.


Empirically based studies of glacier meteorology, especially for the Southern Hemisphere, are relatively sparse in the literature. Here, we use an innovative network of highly portable, low-cost thermometers to report on high-frequency (1-min time resolution) surface air temperature fluctuations and lapse rates (LR) in a ~800-m elevational range (from 3,675 to 4,492 m a.s.l.) across the glacier Olivares Gamma in the central Andes, Chile. Temperatures were measured during an intense field campaign in late Southern summer, 19–27 March 2015, under varying weather conditions. We found a complex dependence of high-frequency LR on time of day, topography, and wider meteorological conditions, with hourly temperature variations during this week that were probably mainly associated with short- and long-wave radiation changes and not with wind speed/direction changes. Using various pairs of sites within our station network, we also analyze spatial variations in LR. Uniquely in this study, we compare temperatures measured at heights of 1-m and 2-m above the glacier surface for the network of five sites and found that temperatures at these two heights occasionally differed by more than ±4°C during the early afternoons, although the mean temperature difference is much smaller (~0.3°C). An implication of our results is that daily, hourly, or even monthly averaged LR may be insufficient for feeding into accurate melt models of glacier change, with the adoption of subhourly (ideally 1–10-min) resolution LR likely to prove fruitful in developing new innovative high-time-resolution melt modelling. Our results are potentially useful as input LR for local glacier melt models and for improving the understanding of lapse rate fluctuations and glacier response to climate change.


In finance, arbitrage is an essential framework to understand asset pricing. However, the study of anomalies also called as premiums, which are not arbitrageable has led to a debate regarding whether markets are efficient in correcting price imbalances or is inefficiency a reality. This is why the Economics Nobel prize 2013 was awarded to both the behavioral and fundamental school. This paper explains the circular argument between the three schools of thought. The Fama school which uses factors to explain asset performance, the behavioral school which is focused on psychological biases and the old Beta school which thinks the arguments of value vs. growth are all fleeting.


In everyday settings in the UK the self-determination of identity has been taken for granted. In the decennial census and the bureaucratic practices of modern governance, the ascription of ethnicity is in the hands of the subject who is the final arbiter, even if this sometimes breaks down by default. However, for some minority ethnic groups, notably 'black Africans', a group 'created' by the decennial census, observer-led approaches to determining identity have insinuated themselves into some policy contexts in the UK. The targeting by HIV/AIDS workers of 'black Africans' in mundane public settings based on such signalling devices as appearance and language or accent has been endorsed as a modus operandi in preventative care. For around a decade the UK Border Agency has made use of linguistic analysis and other forensic methods to establish the nationality of Somali-origin asylum seekers as against claims from other East Africans. Its latest Human Provenance Pilot Project – the use of isotope analysis and DNA ancestry testing to establish nationality – again places 'black Africans' on the front line. These external processes of identification raise important ethical challenges, given the potential for harm when assignment is incorrect.


BACKGROUND
 Skin cancer is the most common cancer; survival of the most serious skin cancers and malignant melanomas depends on early detection. Early detection relies on accessibility to clinical skin examination (CSE). Primary care nurse practitioners (PCNPs) are well-positioned to conduct CSEs; however, they require further education on CSE and have time constraints for continuing education. A digitally delivered intervention grounded in microlearning is a promising approach to deliver new information over a brief period.

 OBJECTIVE
 Our objective was to develop and explore the feasibility of implementing a 1-week digital video intervention with content on CSE skills, defined as melanoma risk assessment, head-to-toe skin examination, and pigmented lesion assessment, for PCNPs. Specific aims were as follows: (1) Aim 1: to develop three microlearning-based melanoma videos with content on CSE that are suitable for digital delivery to PCNPs in various formats and (2) Aim 2: to assess the feasibility of the video intervention, including enrollment and retention rates, adherence, and acceptability and usability of the video intervention.

 METHODS
 For Aim 1, the research team created storyboards for videos that addressed each CSE skill. An expert panel of three dermatologists reviewed the storyboards and videos for relevance, comprehension, and clarity using the content validity index (CVI). The panel evaluated the usability of the video intervention delivery by Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) and Vimeo using the System Usability Scale (SUS) and technical video production using Beaudin and Quick's Quality Evaluation of Video (QEV). Aim 2 evaluated enrollment and retention rates of PCNPs, based on metrics from previous studies of CSE in the literature, and video intervention adherence. SUS and the Attitudes toward Web-based Continuing Learning Survey (AWCL) assessed usability and acceptability.

 RESULTS
 CVI scores indicated relevance and clarity for each video: mean scores ranged from 3.79 to 4, where 4 indicated the video was highly relevant and very clear. The integration of REDCap and Vimeo was usable: the SUS score was 96, where 0 was the worst and 100 was the best. The digital delivery of the videos was rated as exceptional on all five technical items: the mean score was 5, where scores ranged from 1 (poor) to 5 (exceptional). Of the 32 PCNPs who were sent emails, 12 enrolled (38%) and, out of these 12, 10 (83%) completed the intervention and the surveys. Video intervention adherence was ≤50%. Participants rated the usability as better (mean 85.8, SD 10.6; better=70-90) and favorably ranked the acceptability of the AWCL's constructs of perceived usefulness (mean 5.26, SD 0.08), perceived ease of use (mean 5.40, SD 0.41), behavior (mean 5.53, SD 0.12), and affection (mean 5.77, SD 0.04), where scores ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

 CONCLUSIONS
 The video intervention was feasible to deliver to PCNPs using a digital, microlearning approach. The findings provide support for using the videos as an intervention in a future pilot randomized trial targeting behavioral CSE outcomes among PCNPs and other primary care providers.


Performing a fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) analysis, which contains important information about the status of a fetal, can help to detect fetus health even before birth. Since the fetal ECG extracted from the ECG signal recorded from the mother's abdomen, this extraction problem can be seen as a source separation problem, of recovering source signals from signal mixtures. In this paper, a method for separation of fetal ECG from abdominal ECG using activation scaled non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is proposed. The performance of the proposed method is also compared with independent component analysis. The proposed method is tested under three different scenarios. First, the original abdominal ECG signal is used for fetal separation. Second, the recovered abdominal ECG after compression is used for separation. Third, the fetal ECG is extracted from the compressed domain of the abdominal ECG. We applied scaling on the activation matrix obtained using NMF for emphasizing the fetal ECG present in abdominal ECG. The improved-regularized least-squares $(l_p-\text{RLS})$ algorithm is used for signal reconstruction, which provides better reconstruction quality and less processing time in comparison with other existing methods. The proposed algorithm is evaluated and tested on real abdominal recordings obtained from two different datasets from Physionet. The first dataset used for this paper is Silesia dataset for abdominal and direct f-ECG, and the second dataset we considered is Set-A of the Physionet challenge. The obtained outcomes reveal that it is possible to separate fetal ECG from single-channel abdominal ECG signal, which can help us to achieve energy-efficient transmission, and cost-effective fetal ECG remote monitoring for Internet-of-Things applications, where device battery and computational capacity are limited.


Expression of hepcidin, a key regulator of intestinal iron absorption, can be induced in vitro by several bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), including BMP2, BMP4 and BMP9 (refs. 1,2). However, in contrast to BMP6, expression of other BMPs is not regulated at the mRNA level by iron in vivo3, and their relevance to iron homeostasis is unclear. We show here that targeted disruption of Bmp6 in mice causes a rapid and massive accumulation of iron in the liver, the acinar cells of the exocrine pancreas, the heart and the renal convoluted tubules. Despite their severe iron overload, the livers of Bmp6-deficient mice have low levels of phosphorylated Smad1, Smad5 and Smad8, and these Smads are not significantly translocated to the nucleus. In addition, hepcidin synthesis is markedly reduced. This indicates that Bmp6 is critical for iron homeostasis and that it is functionally nonredundant with other members of the Bmp subfamily. Notably, Bmp6-deficient mice retain their capacity to induce hepcidin in response to inflammation. The iron burden in Bmp6 mutant mice is significantly greater than that in mice deficient in the gene associated with classical hemochromatosis (Hfe), suggesting that mutations in BMP6 might cause iron overload in humans with severe juvenile hemochromatosis for which the genetic basis has not yet been characterized. Andriopoulos Jr B, Corradini E, Xia Y, Faasse SA, Chen S, Grgurevic L, et al. BMP6 is a key endogenous regulator of hepcidin expression and iron metabolism. Nat Genet 2009;41:482-487. (Reprinted with permission.)


Accomplishing selective lignin degradation in a controlled manner by breaking C–O and C–C bonds is of great scientific interest although technically challenging. The structural modification of two different types of lignin (milled and Kraft) subjected to four sources of radicals (superoxide, sulfate, hydroperoxide, and hydroxyl radicals) was studied for achieving such a purpose. The treatments with superoxide and hydroperoxide radicals increased the number of alkyl group substituents and H lignin subunits while sulfate and hydroxyl radicals preferentially reacted via lignin side-chain oxidation. The efficiency of lignin cleavage, based on reduced molecular weight (Mw) as a result of oxidation, was found to be generally in the order of superoxide, sulfate, hydroperoxide, and hydroxyl radicals initiators. Characterizing the radical degradation products revealed that C–C cleavage of phenyl coumarin and resinol substructures was the predominant mechanism in superoxide radical oxidation, whereas β-O-4 cleavage and side-chain oxidation were the main pathways in the sulfate radical treatment. Moreover, superoxide and hydroperoxide radical treatments shifted lignin thermolysis peaks to lower temperature. However, in sulfate and hydroxyl radicals methods, due to condensation reactions, some stable lignin-like polymers were generated which required higher degradation temperatures. Collectively, the results demonstrated the different ways of lignin structure alteration by different radical oxidation sources and highlighted the reaction features of each radical tested.


OBJECTIVES
This study estimated hip fracture incidence for elderly Hispanics in the United States.

METHODS
A cohort of Spanish-surnamed 1992 Medicare enrollees was followed for 2 years. Hip fractures were identified by inpatient diagnostic code.

RESULTS
For Hispanic women, the national age-adjusted hip fracture rate was 7.3 per 1000 person-years; for men, the rate was 3.3. Rates varied markedly, with higher rates for the predominantly Mexican-American southwestern states than for Puerto Ricans.

CONCLUSIONS
Nationally, the Hispanic population is at intermediate risk of hip fracture between Blacks and Whites, but geographic variation suggests that Mexican Americans are at higher risk than Puerto Ricans.


This paper discusses the use of a real-time digital control environment with a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) magnetic levitation (Maglev) device for modeling and controls education, with emphasis on neural network (NN) feedforward control. Many educational advantages are realized for the students if a single environment is used for simulation, hardware implementation, and verification as compared with multienvironment settings. This real-time environment requires two personal computers (host and target) employed to control an HIL system. It requires software tools by MathWorks, Inc., a C++ compiler, an off-the-shelf data acquisition card, and the HIL (a nonlinear, open-loop, unstable, and time-varying, custom-built Maglev device) to be controlled. This environment provides for experimentation, such as data collection for system identification using NNs and their implementation as static nonlinear feedforward controllers. In addition, this environment was used to implement and demonstrate NNs with real-time dynamic weight tuning and controller performance comparison under various inputs or changes in the HIL device dynamics, as shown in the presented examples. The educational features of this environment were verified in a classroom setting in a graduate-level NN class. The presented environment is applicable to senior or graduate level (introductory intelligent and digital control) or a general introductory course on NNs with applications.


Utilizing solar energy to drive cooling systems is an attractive idea since the need for cooling is nearly in phase with solar energy availability. It is particularly true in the region of Northern Sudan where solar resources are among the highest in the world. In this study, the cooling production, energetic performance (COP) and exergy efficiency (EE) of a solar-driven absorption refrigeration system in Northern Sudan have been investigated. The proposed system is a 100 kW (cooling capacity) NH 3 /H 2 O absorption system driven by high efficiency flat-plate solar collectors instead of the evacuated tube collectors in vogue which are much expensive. The results showed that the system yields maximum power during May and it is minimum in December. The system can produce 591.2 kWh in 8 hours during May with daily average COP and EE equal to 0.4481 and 0.2999, respectively. While production is declined to 490 kWh in 7 hours per day with average COP and EE values of 0.446 and 0.3335 in December. These results demonstrated that the NH 3 /H 2 O absorption refrigeration systems can be driven by flat-plate collectors in Northern Sudan, throughout the year, with relatively good performance. This can effectively decrease the system's initial cost here and at other places to that possess similar solar resources.


PURPOSE: To describe transesophageal echocardiographic findings in patients presenting with flail mitral valve and to obtain their clinical follow-up. METHODS: From January/93 to March/97, 1675 patients were submitted to transesophageal echocardiogram at our institution; 35 of them were diagnosed as having flail mitral valve and their clinical follow-up was obtained. RESULTS: Thirty-five patients with the diagnosis of flail mitral valve were studied. Mean age was 65±15 years (12-87) and 27 (77%) were male. The posterior leaflet was involved in 25 (71%) patients. Ruptured chordae tendineae was present in all but one patient in whom flail mitral valve was due to a very elongated and redundant chordae. The etiology was prolapse and/or mixomatous degeneration in 16 patients, degenerative in 10, ischemic in 5, rheumatic in 4 and endocarditis in 3. Mitral regurgitation was severe in 25 (71%) patients and moderate in 10 (29%). The mean follow-up was 375±395 days (1 to 1380). Nineteen patients were followed clinically and 16 were submitted to surgery (transesophageal echocardiogram findings were confirmed in all 16). Overall mortality was high (34%). Among the survivors, 17 are in NYHA class I and 6 in class II. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of flail mitral valve by transesophageal echocardiography is accurate, allowing for the definition of its mechanism and etiology, as well as the evaluation of hemodynamic compromise. The observed high mortality at the time of diagnosis may be related to the severity of the disease causing the flail mitral valve. Although non-operated survivors are doing well, the observed low functional class in these patients may be related to the short period of follow-up.


Black-footed Penguins, Spheniscus demersus, have been living in an open air enclosure in Artiszoo since 1961. Their numbers varied from 7 to 103 in the period under study extending from 1961 to 1982. The information used in this survey is derived from records made by the zoo keepers and from a study of the behaviour of the penguins that was performed in 1979-1980. The pair bond between breeding birds appears to be very strong, the only bird that ever disassociated itself returned to her first partner after one year. However, the penguins seem to find a new partner in a very short time if they happen to forfeit their first partner. The couples have a strong tendency to breed each season in the same burrow. The occasional shifting to other burrows seems not to be related to the fate of the first clutch. The partners stayed together in nearly all cases in which breeding birds changed burrows. A burrow seems to get new owners only when the previous couple vacates it. This has had the consequence that, in some years, young couples could not install themselves because there was a lack of nesting places. The clutch size is two and the number of clutches per season is one or two, three is less common. The birds are probably encouraged to lay a second or third clutch when the previous one fails visibly in an early stage. The frequency of laying second and third clutches might decrease if the penguins in Artiszoo were allowed to revert to their natural cycle of guarding their young for 80 days instead of the enforced period of only 42 days. The breeding season runs from August to May and has two peak periods of egg-laying, one in August/September and one, less extreme, in December. The timing of breeding varied from year to year, in some years the first egg-production peak appeared in July/August and in others it appeared only in October. The penguins in Artiszoo start breeding for the first time when they are two years or older, just like the penguins in South Africa. Since 1965 the population growth has been caused entirely by the reproductive qualities of 19 birds and their descendants. The hatching success of eggs decreased spectacularly in the years after 1971 when the number of available adults exceeded the figure 25, and since that time relatively more eggs disappeared or were found to be broken. This study shows that the decline of the hatching success is caused both by a lack of nesting places and the increase of the number of penguins living in the enclosure.


Algorithmic decision-making is neither a recent phenomenon nor one necessarily associated with artificial intelligence (AI), though advances in AI are increasingly resulting in what were heretofore human decisions being taken over by, or becoming dependent on, algorithms and technologies like machine learning. Such developments promise many potential benefits, but are not without certain risks. These risks are not always well understood. It is not just a question of machines making mistakes; it is the embedding of values, biases and prejudices in software which can discriminate against both individuals and groups in society. Such biases are often hard either to detect or prove, particularly where there are problems with transparency and accountability and where such systems are outsourced to the private sector. Consequently, being able to detect and categorise these risks is essential in order to develop a systematic and calibrated response. This paper proposes a simple taxonomy of decision-making algorithms in the public sector and uses this to build a risk management framework with a number of components including an accountability structure and regulatory governance. This framework is designed to assist scholars and practitioners interested in ensuring structured accountability and legal regulation of AI in the public sphere.


It's been long time, more than two decades, since public management can not find its own identity, and lives hanging in between public and private, skills and politics, impartiality and trust. This situation has produced an almost uninterrupted flow of rules, caracterized by rapid accelerations, sudden stops and abrupt reversals. The results, however, are not at all positive: to date, public management does not have any certainty about its legal status, which remains suspended somewhere between common and public law; it is not able to determine whether the role assigned to it by the Law corresponds to that of an entrepreneur or to an high-level employee; it does not know how to relate to politicians, who gives to public managers temporary assignments and arrange for their possible renewal; it has not clear if the choices and responsibilities assigned to it by Law should be measured on a purely technical parameters, or according to the will of the community and to the logic of representative democracy. The hope is that, through the balance and the measure, we may get a Legislation more aimed at concrete solutions and less bound to ideological visions of bureaucracy. It must be built up a regulatory apparatus for public management that is able to distinguish the individual skills in function of individual responsibilities, without succumbing to preconceived and stereotyped models.


This paper presents a glass molding press (GMP) method to fabricate microgroove array and micropyramid array on the glass plate by replicating the shape of the mold to the glass surface. The differences between microgroove forming and micropyramid forming were investigated by experiments and finite element method (FEM) simulations. Microgroove arrays and micropyramid arrays were generated on the flat glass plate in the GMP process by using an electroless-plated Nickel Phosphorus (Ni-P) mold, on which the microstructures are fabricated by micro cutting. Furthermore, FEM simulations were used to trace the stress distribution and the strain distribution during the glass deformation, which illustrates the glass material flow in the microgrooves and the micropyramids on the mold during pressing. By comparing the processes between microgroove forming and micropyramid forming, the differences between them observed in the experiments were explained by the simulation results. Finally, some techniques to improve the forming accuracy were proposed.


Midhills, foot hills and river basin areas of are generally under spring maize cultivation. These areas along with the areas from Terai and Inner Terai where spring and early summer maize are grown are the most affected from heat stress. Identification and selection of suitable varieties and traits for high temperature tolerance is vital to produce heat resilient genotypes.With a view to identify high yielding heat stress resilient maize hybrids, genotypes received from International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) were evaluated in alpha lattice design with two to three replications at Rampur, Nepalgunj and Surkhet in 2013/014, 2014/015 and 2015/016. Total 57 trials consisting of 7764 maize hyrbids were evaluated under heat stress conditions. At Nepalgunj and Surkhet, trials were planted in March/April. Out of the tested genotypes, 24 hybrids were found promising based on grain yield, plant and ear height. These 24 hybrids along with four National Maize Research Program (NMRP) developed and two multi-national companies' hybrids as checks were tested in multilocation trials at Dumarwana, Nijgadh, Nawalparasi and Rampur in 2014/015. Out of these 24 hybrids, eight were selected and tested during 2015/016 in Dumarwana, Nijgadh, Nawalparasi, Anandapur and Rampur. Based on results combined over years and locations CAH-151 (8629 kg ha-1) and CAH-153 (8955 kg ha-1) were registered for general cultivation as Rampur Hybrid-8 and Rampur Hybrid-10, respectively. Other promising hybrids were CAH-1511 (8800 kg ha-1) followed by CAH-1515 (8678 kg ha-1), RML-95/RML-96 (8486 kg ha-1), CAH-1513 (8258 kg ha-1) and RML-86/RML-96 (7544 kg ha-1), respectively. Stability analysis revealed that CAH-151, CAH-153, CAH-1515, CAH-1511 and RML-95/RML-96 are stable hybrids having good performance.


INTRODUCTION:
I start with a definition. A "nativist" element of a legal system is one which preserves some benefit for, all or some of, the nation's citizens or its indigenous inhabitants, as opposed to granting that benefit neutrally to citizens and immigrants alike.

Not so long ago the essential morality of such a distinction was considered so obvious that no defense was thought to be necessary. Indeed, in many traditional societies there is no distinction between the indigenous inhabitants (that is, the people) and the nation. Any attempt by a government to treat newcomers equally in all respects would have been akin to incomprehensible.

Today, in the West, there is a growing view that all such distinctions are actual or tantamount to invidious racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination. Still such distinctions have long-standing bona fides — even in Western societies. For example, under the United States Constitution (1787), all elected federal officials in the national government must be held by citizens. Members of the diet's lower chamber must be 25 years old, be an inhabitant of the state in which they are elected, and have held citizenship for at least 7 years. Similarly, members of the upper chamber must be 30 years old, be an inhabitant of the state in which they are elected, and have held citizenship for at least 9 years. Like holding a congressional seat, eligibility to hold the presidency and vice presidency requires that the candidate meets an age requirement (at least 35 years old) and a residency requirement (at least 14 years in the United States). However, unlike holding a congressional seat, eligibility to hold the presidency and vice presidency is limited to natives, or more properly, using the language of the United States Constitution, to "natural born citizen[s]" — a person who is born in the United States and a citizen since birth.

This essay asks two related questions: Is a society justified in distinguishing citizens and immigrants? Is a society justified in distinguishing citizens from birth from those who become citizens subsequently through naturalization?

CONCLUSION:
The efforts of the modern commentators to explain the Natural Born Citizen Clause as one rooted in bigotry and prejudice directed at naturalized citizens is the product of an intellectual milieu of large, powerful countries, where there is no memory of bombs falling on the nation's core territory or any existential fear of conquest by foreign powers. The concern of these authors is merely the fair distribution of society's benefits and opportunities, between citizens and immigrants. The "other," to the extent he exists at all, is just a person who has not yet become or who has not yet been allowed to become an American.

Modern theories of separation of powers and constitutional design have little or nothing to do with the Framers' and Founders' world of revolutions and imperial wars—where oceans and frontiers pose dangers—as you yourself pose dangers to others—where others may burn down your capital as you may burn down theirs. The Natural Born Citizen Clause was the limited policy response of a People who believed that beyond one's national frontier was a dangerous world. That the clause's purpose is no longer widely understood indicates that much has changed since 1787.


The current study examines the effectiveness of a group-based adaptive skills training program in improving the perceived quality of life (QoL) of adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Adolescent and Young Adult Treatment Program (AYATP) is implemented by a specialized Autism outpatient treatment facility, with a focus on improving the personal independence and daily living skills of its participants. With the use of archival data from the specialized Autism outpatient treatment a study was conducted utilizing a mixed factorial design by analyzing preand post-measures of the participants' perceived quality of life, as measured by a research-based self-report questionnaire. The study also examined the relationship between quality of life ratings and lengths of treatment participation. The results supported the program's ability to improve overall participant quality of life ratings over the course of time. However, the hypothesized impact of program treatment experience on perceived quality of life ratings was not reinforced. Limitations in the amount of available outcome data for analysis may have impacted the generalizability of study findings to other racial, gender and disability groups with ASD. Overall, this study can be conceptualized as an initial examination of a unique treatment model, as well as a catalyst for future program evaluation aimed at improving treatment efficacy.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) is a critical non-cellular component of multicellular organisms containing a variety of proteins, glycoproteins, and proteoglycans which have been implicated in a wide variety of essential biological processes, including development, wound healing, and aging. Due to low solubility, many ECM proteins have been underrepresented in previous proteomic datasets. Using an optimized three-step decellularization and ECM extraction method involving chaotrope extraction and digestion via hydroxylamine hydrochloride, we have generated coverage of the matrisome across 25 organs. We observe that the top 100 most abundant proteins from the ECM fractions of all tissues are generally present in all tissues, indicating that tissue matrices are principally composed of a shared set of ECM proteins. However, these proteins vary up to 4000-fold between tissues, resulting in highly unique matrix profiles even with the same primary set of proteins. A data reduction approach was used to reveal related networks of expressed ECM proteins across varying tissues, including basement membrane and collagen subtypes.


In this letter, a new method is proposed for stability analysis of neural networks (NNs) with a time-varying delay. Some less conservative delay-dependent stability criteria are established by considering the additional useful terms, which were ignored in previous methods, when estimating the upper bound of the derivative of Lyapunov functionals and introducing the new free-weighting matrices. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the effectiveness and the benefits of the proposed method


This special issue of ToDiGRA collects some of the best articles presented at the British DiGRA conference which took place at The University of Salford at MediaCityUK in May 2017. For this issue we invited the authors of the full papers presented at the conference to submit a revised document. The manuscripts were then sent to a group of selected peer-reviewers, three for each submission. The reviewers, experts in the field of study of the assigned papers, provided their feedback and evaluation. The five accepted papers were then sent back to their authors who implemented the required changes and re-submitted their final work. Each one of the articles in this issue is the result of a process of research and revision that took almost one year of work from the time of their original presentation at the 2017 British DiGRA conference.


Background In 2012 a study to explore hospice nursing and medical staff knowledge of, and attitudes towards, organ and tissue donation was undertaken. The study identified that the barriers to discussing tissue and organ donation were multiple and the results highlighted several recommendations: ▸ Increase staff awareness and knowledge ▸ Introduce guidelines on who can donate what and how ▸ Increase patient awareness of the option of tissue donation ▸ Explore when is the right time to ask a patient about their wishes relating to organ and tissue donation Putting research findings into practice To address these, key links have been established with the National and local acute Trust Organ and Tissue Donation Teams. This has enabled the facilitation of a teaching and awareness session for clinical staff to enhance their knowledge about who can donate, which tissues can be donated, the process of donation, and what to do if a patient expresses a wish to be a donor. Exploring when to ask a patient about their wishes was also discussed at the Patient and Carer Participation Group. The general consensus was that it is acceptable to ask patients, but the timing of this needs to be sensitively considered. Ideally, the outpatient setting was seen as the most favourable environment as part of the patient's holistic assessment acknowledging that it is also acceptable to ask patients in discussions about dying. A simple question "Do you carry a donor card?" may provide a good opening to discussion. The next steps The implementation of change is ongoing. Currently we are considering written information for patients and carers, reviewing the most appropriate place to record the patient's wishes within the patient's electronic record and formulating clear guidelines for clinical staff to refer to.


The influence of sample annum and the distribution of sample component on NIR veracity was studied with homemade grating diffuse NIR instrument using Yunnan flue-cured tobacco. Results showed that sample annum had an obvious influence on the total sugar and nicotine models, but had an unconspicuous influence on the total-nitrogen model. Models set up by samples, whose component content distribution was normal school, was better than those set up by even distribution. The conclusion in this study has a significant referenced value for the method and principle to select representative samples to modeling from a large amount of specimens.


Methane is a "greenhouse effect" gas produced in wetland soils, yet factors controlling its production and emission are not well understood. Often, methane pore water concentration and atmospheric flux are positively correlated. If correlations can be found among wetland plant biomass, reflectance, and methane concentrations or flux, it may be possible to study the global methane cycle using remote sensing. Our study had two objectives: (1) to determine if remote sensing could be used to estimate biomass of Typha angustifolia plants in a Delaware (U.S.A.) brackish marsh, and (2) to determine if Typha plants influence dissolved pore water methane concentrations throughout a year. Canopy reflectance was correlated (r = 0.887) with live aerial biomass, which was correlated with live belowground biomass (r = 0.809). Dissolved pore water methane concentrations were generally lower in vegetated than in unvegetated areas. In vegetated areas only, concentrations were much lower in the top 10 cm of sediments than at greater depths. Since over 60% of the live root/rhizome biomass is in the top 10 cm, it is likely that an oxygenated rhizosphere and methane transport through roots kept the methane concentration low near the soil surface. Substantial growing season increases in methane at depths of 10-20 cm, where the remaining live tissue is, suggest the release of enough methanogenic substrates to cause methane production to exceed methane emission/oxidation. Overall, methane concentrations diminished in winter and increased in late spring, but lagged changes in soil temperature and in live aerial biomass by two months, and were not significantly correlated with substrate salinity. Since remote sensing can be used to estimate Typha biomass, and since live root biomass influences the sedimentary methane reservoir, it might be possible to estimate methane concentrations indirectly based on remote sensing measurements.


Taking the water–diamond paradox as a time-honored challenge, at first the structural value theorem is derived from the set of structural axioms. This enables a reevaluation of classical and neoclassical conceptions. Ricardo realized that there are two entirely different kinds of markets but excluded the secondary markets by defining commodity in a restricted sense. Walras's markets are secondary markets by construction. Primary markets thereby drop from sight. Since secondary markets presuppose primary markets the marginalistic approach is hanging in the air. The structural axiomatic approach demonstrates that the pricing in primary and secondary markets depends on different principles.


We have investigated the formation of poly(γ- benzyl L-glutamate) (PBLG) crystals from semidilute thin film solutions. Crystallization was initiated by adding methanol, a nonsolvent. After drying, each PBLG crystal possessed an internal domain structure exhibiting a zigzag pattern consisting of parallel stripes of alternating orientations between domains. X-ray scattering and electron diffraction revealed within these crystals a pseudohexagonal packing of the PBLG α-helices with their axis oriented parallel to the plane of the substrate. On the basis of optical anisotropy studies, it could be shown that the orientation of the helix axis was parallel to the stripes. While forming in solution, the objects are assumed to consist of a hexagonal columnar liquid crystalline phase. Upon drying, lateral packing density of the helices increased and resulted in a net dilative strain perpendicular to the columns, which is supposed to cause the formation of zigzag patterns.


Edema of the upper extremity is a condition frequently encountered by those interested in hand rehabilitation. It frequently accompanies other problems associated with functional restrictions of the upper extremities. Its control and prevention are a part of the total rehabilitation of these extremities. Persistent edema becomes painful, disfiguring, and disabling. Fibrosis develops in the edematous tissue leading to contractures. The susceptibility for infection increases and the functional ability of the limb decreases. Treatment is based upon an understanding of the pathophysiology of edema. Edema occurs when there is an imbalance of effective pressures across the capillary membrane or when there is an obstruction to venous and lymphatic flow. The conservative treatment program consists of elevation, massage, use of external compression devices, exercises, and instructions to avoid contributing factors. This paper will discuss the physiologic rationale for the effectiveness of these treatment methods.


Early Oligocene siliceous microfossils were recovered in the upper c. 193 m of the CRP-3 drillcore. Although abundance and preservation are highly variable through this section, approximately 130 siliceous microfossil taxa were identified, including diatoms, silicoflagellates, ebridians, chrysophycean cysts, and endoskeletal dinoflagellates. Well-preserved and abundant assemblages characterize samples in the upper c. 70 m and indicate deposition in a coastal setting with water depths between 50 and 200 m. Abundance fluctuations over narrow intervals in the upper c. 70 mbsf are interpreted to reflect environmental changes that were either conducive or deleterious to growth and preservation of siliceous microfossils. Only poorly-preserved (dissolved, replaced, and/or fragmented) siliceous microfossils are present from c. 70 to 193 mbsf. Diatom biostratigraphy indicates that the CRP-3 section down to c. 193 mbsf is early Oligocene in age. The lack of significant changes in composition of the siliceous microfossil assemblage suggests that no major hiatuses are present in this interval. The first occurrence (FO) of Cavitatus jouseanus at 48.44 mbsf marks the base of the Cavitatus jouseanus Zone. This datum is inferred to be near the base of Subchron C12n at c. 30.9 Ma. The FO of Rhizosolenia antarctica at 68.60 mbsf marks the base of the Rhizosolenia antarctica Zone. The FO of this taxon is correlated in deep-sea sections to Chron C13 (33.1 to 33.6 Ma). However, the lower range of R. antarctica is interpreted as incomplete in the CRP-3 drillcore, as it is truncated at an underlying interval of poor preservation; therefore, an age of c. 33.1 to 30.9 Ma is inferred for interval between c. 70 and 50 mbsf. The absence of Hemiaulus caracteristicus from diatombearing interval of CRP-3 further indicates an age younger than c. 33 Ma (Subchron C13n) for strata above c. 193 mbsf. Siliceous microfossil assemblages in CRP-3 are significantly different from the late Eocene assemblages reported CIROS-1 drillcore. The absence of H. caracteristicus, Stephanopyxis splendidus, and Pterotheca danica, and the ebridians Ebriopsis crenulata, Parebriopsis fallax, and Pseudammodochium dictyoides in CRP-3 indicates that the upper 200 m of the CRP-3 drillcore is equivalent to part of the stratigraphic interval missing within the unconformity at c. 366 mbsf in CIROS-1.


A. phagocytophilum is the causative agent for granulocytic anaplasmosis, which is a tick-transmitted emerging disease in humans and domestic animals. Genetic diversity in its genome could be a reason for a diverging pathogenicity in Europe compared to the USA. In order to maintain in nature, the bacterium has developed a survival strategy of different enzootic life cycles by circulating between hosts potentially developing clinical symptoms, reservoir hosts and ticks as vectors. In order to enhance the knowledge of possible endemic life cycles of A. phagocytophilum and its host-pathogen-associations, strains of A. phagocytophilum from different animal species were genetically characterized and phylogenetically classified on the basis of four partial genes (16S rRNA, groEL, msp4, msp2) within the present study. In total, 781 samples of 17 different animal species (dog, horse, cat, cattle, goat, hedgehog, red fox, roe deer, red deer, sika deer, fallow deer, mouflon, chamois, ibex, wild boar, bank vole, wood mouse), which were screened positive for A. phagocytophilum by real-time PCR, were considered in the present study. The animal samples included 425 samples already tested positive available from previous studies. Subsequently, all positive samples were investigated using conventional PCR and nested PCR protocols targeting the partial 16S rRNA, msp4, groEL and msp2 gene. Forward and reverse sequencing was performed with all amplified samples. The obtained nucleotide sequences were compared to each other and to corresponding sequences from the GenBank, including a phylogenetic analysis (neighbor joining method; bootstrap value: 1.000 repeats) of the groEL and the msp genes. Statistical analysis concentrated on the evaluation of diversity occurring in A. phagocytophilum of different animal species including the empirical variance of special animal groups, a trend analysis of the four analyzed genes and the odd`s ratio of common 16S rRNA variants. Altogether, 327 16S rRNA sequences, 172 groEL sequences, 174 msp4 sequences and 71 msp2 sequences from the present and previous studies were taken into consideration. The amplification of the partial 16S rRNA gene resulted in 23 variants, the groEL gene in 33 variants, the msp4 gene in 50 variants and the msp2 gene in 22 variants. A. phagocytophilum from wild cervids revealed a statistically higher mean and empirical variance of the analyzed genes in comparison to strains from domestic animals. Accordingly, domestic animals, red foxes and hedgehogs showed rather uniform nucleotide sequences of A. phagocytophilum. The calculation of the odd`s ratio of the most common 16S rRNA strains confirmed the preference of special variants in wild ruminants and domestic animal species, respectively. A preliminary genetic classification of the A. phagocytophilum strains into ruminant and non-ruminant variants was possible based on the partial 16S rRNA variants. The phylogenetic analysis of the groEL and the msp2 gene showed a clustering according to the three continents Europe, USA and Asia. On the contrary, the msp4 gene rather clustered strains according to host animal species of A. phagocytophilum, discriminating clusters with wild and domestic ruminant variants from clusters with human, dog and horse variants. Based on the genetic classification two endemic life cycles of A. phagocytophilum were proposed in the present study. The first life cycle includes hedgehogs, red foxes and red deer as reservoir hosts and domestic animals and humans as potential hosts developing clinical symptoms of the disease. The second endemic cycle of A. phagocytophilum possibly involves wild cervids and rodents as reservoir hosts and domestic ruminants as hosts. Since roe deer showed a high number of different variants of A. phagocytophilum, it might play a role in both suggested life cycles as reservoir host. However, the existence of an own subcycle of roe deer specific A. phagocytophilum strains is also possible.


© 2016, Marine Technology Society Journal. All rights reserved. The euRathlon project was an FP7-funded Coordination and Support Action (2013–2015). Itsmain aim was to organize outdoor robotics competitions in realistic search and rescue response scenarios for cooperative land, sea, and air robots. Participant teams were requested to test the intelligence and autonomy of their robots in scenarios inspired by the 2011 Fukushima accident. In the project's third year euRathlon culminated with the organization of the first outdoor multi-domain search and rescue robotics competition in the world: the euRathlon 2015 Grand Challenge. Sea, air, and land robots were asked to cooperate acting as a robotic intervention team in a scenario simulating an industrial area ravaged by a tsunami. The Grand Challenge was held in Piombino, Italy, in the surroundings of the Tor del Sale power plant, from September 17 to 25. To prepare the teams for the Grand Challenge, two competitions, dedicated to land and marine robots, respectively, took place in 2013 and 2014. In all the competitions, a strong effort was made in benchmarking what led tomeaningful and reasonable scoring principles.Workshops and educational activities complemented the competitions. In this paper, we will focus on the marine robotics competitions of euRathlon with a particular focus on the Grand Challenge. Both technical achievements and general results are presented. The results in terms of team participation and the fruitful effort in dissemination led to establish euRathlon Grand Challenge as the de facto leading search and rescue outdoor robotics competition in Europe.


If the first few central moments of a pulse-like function applied to the input of a filter are equated to the corresponding moments of the pulse-like output function, or if the input and output are expressed as power series in time and the first few coefficients of the two time series are equated (allowing for a constant multiplier and either a positive or negative delay), the general quasi-distortionless filter network function is specified. Such filter functions are derived and described in this paper. The simpler functions turn out to be easily realizable, practical, and minimum phase. They sometimes justify the maximally flat function as optimum in the quasi-distortionless sense and in other cases yield functions which are even better when compared on the basis of the gain-bandwidth product of an amplifier interstage system. Also, these functions make the mechanism of delay or prediction and operations (such as that of taking the derivative of an input signal) quite clear. The general approach of this of low frequency paper can be extended to arrive at end generalize the problem of low frequency compensation in low-pass amplifiers.


Simultaneous in situ measurements of the absorption and scattering by aerosols were made in ambient room air and in air with large amounts of added aerosols, such as cigarette smoke. For room aerosols, the extinction contribution due to absorption was typically one half that from scattering. The absorption measurements were made with an acoustically resonant spectrophone powered with a 0.5-W argon laser.


It is commonly assumed that an assignable cause may shift a process mean persistently to an unknown but constant value. However, there are situations such that a mean change is not persistently constant but time varying, which is known as the signature of a fault. Different forms of fault signatures may arise, especially when a residuals control chart is used to monitor an autocorrelated or closed‐loop controlled process. Incorporating a priori knowledge of a fault signature, fault‐sensitized control charts may be developed. In this paper, we investigate two control charts of this kind: generalized likelihood ratio (GLR) and cumulative score (Cuscore) charts. A sine wave representing a bounded signal and a linear trend representing an unbounded signal are used as fault signatures for investigation purposes. Two different cases are analyzed, a known fault signature and parameter and a known fault signature but unknown parameter. Both the initial performances and steady‐state performances of these charts are analyzed. The former case is somewhat artificial since it is synchronizing the control statistic and the fault signature; the latter one is more realistic since time of the occurrence of a fault is unknown. Simulation results show that GLR charts are robust to unknown signal start times and perform better than the alternatives for the cases compared. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We investigated the in vitro ultrasound-triggered delivery of paclitaxel, a well known anti-cancerous drug, encapsulated in an emulsion and in the presence of CT26 tumor cells. The emulsion was made of nanodroplets, whose volume comprised 95% perfluoro-octyl bromide and 5% tributyl O-acetylcitrate, in which paclitaxel was solubilized. These nanodroplets, prepared using a high-pressure microfluidizer, were stabilized by a tailor-made and recently patented biocompatible fluorinated surfactant. The delivery investigations were performed at 37 °C using a high intensity focused ultrasound transducer at a frequency of 1.1 MHz. The ultrasonic pulse was made of 275 sinusoidal periods and the pulse repetition frequency was 200 Hz with a duty cycle of 5%. The measured viabilities of CT26 cells showed that paclitaxel delivery was achievable for peak-to-peak pressures of 0.4 and 3.5 MPa, without having to vaporize the perfluorocarbon part of the droplet or to induce inertial cavitation.


A new ionomer of sulfonated ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, EVOH-g-SO3H was synthesized and the ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) based on EVOH-g-SO3H polymer has been produced through electroless deposition of platinum on the bare polymer membranes. The actuation performance for IPMC actuator was tested in order to set up a relationship between the structure and the behavior. The morphology of deposited platinum on the surface of the bare polymer membranes was studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The actuation testing showed the IPMC have an apparent actuation under the electric strength of 30-180V/mm and the influence of the polymer chemical construction, the ion-exchange capacity (IEC) and the average effective electrode thickness (AEET) on the actuation performance of IPMC actuator were discussed in detail. Results showed the starting response voltage and the displacement of IPMC actuator increases with IEC or AEET increasing at certain extent and the EVOH-g-SO3H based IPMC could be used as a candidate material for soft actuators, sensors and artificial muscles


The purpose of this research is to understand the perceived roles of secondary special educators, how they developed their role perceptions, and how their role perceptions determine their job functions. This study examines how secondary special educators, who primarily serve students with high incidence or mild disabilities, perceive their professional role across six public high schools in a southeastern state. Individual perspectives regarding their professional duties, job descriptions, schedules, and other artifacts were reviewed to examine how this group of teachers constructed their professional roles.The theoretical framework guiding this research is social constructionism. Exploring the influence of the social dynamics within the educational institution and the impact of these dynamic on how this group of teachers defined and performed their professional work was paramount to this study.A qualitative multiple case study approach was used to explore the meaning secondary special educators serving students with high incidence disabilities in public schools in three geographic areas of one state in the southeastern part of the United States placed on their roles and ensuing work. These cases were bounded by similar work assignments, time, and governing policies within one state. The resulting data suggests these teachers' daily duties may vary, yet they share common role perceptions that manifested in four themes: (1) thinking about inclusion as a service, not a philosophy; (2) recognizing a disconnect between instructional practices and Individual Education Program (IEP) goals; (3) performing the job as if they are a "Jack of all trades, but master of none"; and (4) feeling subordinate to general education colleagues. Several implications for practice were identified.


The mass weighted average storage temperature is a useful parameter for evaluating the performance of thermal storage systems. It is commonly used in system simulations since detailed temperature data in the storage medium are not known (or even considered). However, it is rarely used in the evaluation of operating systems because of the difficulty in determining it, especially in potentially multidimensional storage configurations, like a horizontal tank. This paper examines the issue of the evaluation of the average storage temperature, specifically from the point of view of reproducibility and how much data is required for a confident calculation. Unfortunately, this issue was not completely resolved and was shown to be strongly dependent on the locations of the measurements. Two examples are presented that demonstrate the usefulness of knowing the average storage temperature. The examples also give a quantitative demonstration of the effect of withdrawal flow rate on the amount of thermal energy that can be withdrawn from a given system. A reduction in flow rate by a factor of four increased the delivered energy by 70 percent.


This paper aims at analysing the effects of FDI that mostly originate from the EU country partners, on economic growth in Morocco. Using yearly time series data from 1973 to 2014, the Vector Autoregressive Regression (VAR) modelling has been used to study the different relations that link FDI, GDP and international trade (imports and exports). Furthermore, Granger causality model has also been implemented to capture causality relationships between the macroeconomic variables. Given that agriculture is a key sector within the structure of the Moroccan economy, both models are performed likewise. Results show that there is a unidirectional relationship between FDI and economic growth in Morocco; meaning that GDP causes FDI, while FDI does not cause GDP growth. Similarly, the agricultural GDP seems to be significantly co-integrated only with its own lagged values, stressing that no role of agricultural FDI is econometrically noted. Surely, these results have to be linked to the relative weakness of inflowing FDI during the considered period, as it theoretically would be expected. However, policy makers would have to review the whole policy that aims at encouraging FDI as an economic growth promoter in Morocco, including the diversification of FDI origin.


Abstract A brief review of studies into the psychology of melody perception leads to the conclusion that melodies are represented in long-term memory as sequences of specific items, either intervals or scale notes; the latter representation is preferred. Previous connectionist models of musical-sequence learning are discussed and criticized as models of perception. The Cohen— Grossberg masking field (Cohen & Grossberg, 1987) is described and it is shown how it can be used to generate melodic expectations when incorporated within an adaptive resonance architecture. An improved formulation, the SONNET 1 network (Nigrin, 1990, 1992), is described in detail and modifications are suggested. The network is tested on its ability to learn short melodic phrases taken from a set of simple melodies, before being applied to the learning of the melodies themselves. Mechanisms are suggested for sequence recognition and sequence recall. The advantages of this approach to sequence learning are discussed.


There has been a great deal of attention to the development of heterogeneous non-noble metal catalysts for the selective and mild hydrogenation of nitro compounds into primary amines. Herein, a biomass-derived carbon material supported Ni catalyst (Ni/C) was facilely prepared by a one-pot pyrolysis process, and the as-prepared Ni/C catalyst demonstrated a high catalytic activity for the hydrogenation of nitro compounds into primary amines at room temperature. The Ni/C catalyst not only demonstrated a high catalytic activity but also showed a good tolerance to other functional groups. Structurally diverse primary amines were achieved in yields from 92% to 99% within a few hours at room temperature under 5 bar H2. Furthermore, the Ni/C catalyst showed good reusability without the loss of its activity.


The data acquisition in high energy physics experiments is typically started by a pulse from a fast coincidence-based trigger system. It is essential that such a system can identify an event in a shortest possible time and with as good selectivity as possible. In order to meet these requirements, several new techniques and developments in the domain of signal discrimination and rapid hit-topology analysis are presented. Two digital rise-time compensation methods were developed to improve the time resolution of the comparatively slow signals from inorganic scintillators. Both methods utilize double threshold analog comparators and digital processing logic.A unique adaptive threshold discrimination method was developed to reject after-pulses. The method was found to give the best timing, the smallest dead time and a complete rejection of noise pulses without missing physically significant pulses. Algorithms for fast multiplicity calculations of clusters of hits in two-dimensional matrices, in strings and in planar detector configurations were evaluated.All techniques described in this thesis were implemented and verified in the trigger systems built for the experiments WASA (Wide Angle Shower Apparatus) at TSL, Uppsala, Sweden and the AMANDA (Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array) at the South Pole.


As many as two-thirds of newly-released inmates will be arrested for a new offense within three years. This study evaluates the impact of job assistance on recidivism rates among ex-offenders. The job assistance program, run though the private company America Works, uses a network of employers to place clients. Ex-offenders were randomly assigned to intensive job assistance (treatment group) or the standard program (control group). The intensive program is meant to improve average work readiness for ex-offenders. It reduces the likelihood of subsequent arrest among non-violent ex-offenders, but has little effect on violent ex-offenders. The re-arrest rate for non-violent ex-offenders in the treatment group was 19 percentage points lower than those in the control group. The re-arrest rate for violent ex-offenders in the treatment group was indistinguishable from those in the control group. We estimate benefits from intensive job assistance from averted crimes and find that they outweigh the $5,000 up-front cost for non-violent ex-offenders.


To study the fatigue microcrack initiation and propagation behaviors of cast magnesium alloys, the small fatigue crack propagation tests were carried out using the in-situ observation with scanning electron microscope (SEM). All initiations and propagations of fatigue small cracks focused on effects of the interaction of artificial two small holes, which there are the different distances and alignments of two small holes. The results indicate that the fatigue small cracks of cast magnesium alloys occurred mainly at the defects or root of notch but the early stage crack propagations were influenced on the distance and alignment between two small holes. For cast AM50 and AM60B alloys, the fatigue small cracking prior to occurred at the weak dendrite boundary and had some concomitances such as the plastic deformation on surface of α-Mg phase. For AZ91 alloy, the fatigue cracking characterization depended mainly on the brittle properties of β-Mg17Al12 phase, which the multi cracks occurred at the boundaries of β-Mg17Al12 phase. The effect of notch on the fatigue cracking behavior becomes weaker when the radius of notch is over 3-4 times than that of average α-Mg grain size. The fatigue crack propagation behaviors varied with the different arrangements of two small holes. The effects of distance and alignment of two small holes on the fatigue crack propagation behaviors are also obvious.


: Despite the common occurrence of trauma to the hand, arterial aneurysms in this area are rare. The authors describe the symptoms, signs and microvascular treatment of a true aneurysm of the ulnar artery in the palm of an 18-year-old youth. Although there is no clear evidence that vascular restoration is needed after resection of the aneurysm, the authors believe that reconstruction of the ulnar artery using microvascular techniques will ensure that blood supply to the digits is adequate.


Ficellomycin, produced by Streptomyces ficellus, is a naturally occurring secondary metabolite that exhibits antibacterial activity against multidrug resistant Gram-positive bacteria in vitro , but shows poor efficacy in vivo due to the instability of its azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane ring core. The effectiveness of ficellomycin against Gram-positive bacteria regardless of resistant strain indicates the possibility of a unique mechanism of action due to the azabicyclo[3.1.0]hexane ring core, compared to currently available antibiotics. To improve ficellomycin's stability and antibacterial activity, a simplified derivative of the azabicylco[3.1.0] ring core was synthesized in a scheme modeled after Shipman et al. by a convergent synthetic pathway characterized by a Lewis Acid promoted double cyclization. Beginning with glyoxylic acid monohydrate undergoing a dehydration and subsequent esterification reaction with benzyl carbamate, methyl 2-(((benzyloxy)carbonyl)amino)-2-methoxyacetate was produced in an 80% overall yield. The methoxyacetate was chlorinated and phosphorylated in a one-pot reaction to produce methyl 2-(((benzyloxy)carbonyl)amino)-2-(dimethoxyphosphoryl)acetate in an average overall yield of 56%. The phosphorylacetate was reacted with pent-4-enal in a basic environment to produce methyl (E)-2-(((benzyloxy)carbonyl)amino)hepta-2,6-dienoate in an average yield of 46%. Epoxidation of the dienoate averaged a 53% yield and subsequent azide addition completed at a 30% yield to afford methyl (E)-7-azido-2-(((benzyloxy)carbonyl)amino)-6-hydroxyhept-2-enoate. The final azide alcohol was reacted with triphenylphosphine in toluene to produce the aziridine and further promote the aziridine to cyclize the alkene chain creating the azabicycle in a single reaction. NMR analysis shows characteristic peaks of the azabicycle product in an impure solution of stereoisomers and reactant contaminants. Purification techniques are being developed. Cyclization trials and synthesis of ficellomycin amino acid derivatives are on going.


A new shrinkage-based construction is developed for a compressible vector $\boldsymbol{x}\in\mathbb{R}^n$, for cases in which the components of $\xv$ are naturally associated with a tree structure. Important examples are when $\xv$ corresponds to the coefficients of a wavelet or block-DCT representation of data. The method we consider in detail, and for which numerical results are presented, is based on increments of a gamma process. However, we demonstrate that the general framework is appropriate for many other types of shrinkage priors, all within the L\'{e}vy process family, with the gamma process a special case. Bayesian inference is carried out by approximating the posterior with samples from an MCMC algorithm, as well as by constructing a heuristic variational approximation to the posterior. We also consider expectation-maximization (EM) for a MAP (point) solution. State-of-the-art results are manifested for compressive sensing and denoising applications, the latter with spiky (non-Gaussian) noise.


The paper presents the results of electrical characterization of the interface and bulk properties of high-k Gd2O3 and Nd2O3 dielectrics epitaxially grown on silicon substrates. The limitations of the conductance technique for correct determination of the interface state density due to the presence of leakage currents through the dielectric are discussed. The charge carrier transport through the dielectric film was found to occur via the variable-range hopping conductance mechanism. The density of the interface states and their energy distribution for (100) and (111) Si orientation and the Gd2O3/Si and Nd2O3/Si interfaces were determined. The density and energy location of the bulk localized states in the band gap of the Gd2O3 and Nd2O3 dielectrics were estimated and a plausible nature of the observed defects was suggested.


Summary form only given. In non-sinusoidal situations, power components definitions contained in the IEEE Standard 1459-2000 are based on a frequency-domain approach using Fourier transform (FT). The frequency-domain approach can provide amplitude-frequency spectrum while loosing time-related information. Moreover, the FT carries a heavier computational burden. To overcome these limitations, definitions of power components are reformulated in the Wavelet domain using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Using the DWT preserves the information concerning time and frequency and also reduces the computational time and effort by dividing the frequency spectrum into bands or levels. The results of applying the reformulated definitions show that the problem of spectral leakage between wavelet levels can be minimized by suitably choosing the wavelet family along with suitable mother wavelet. The reformulated definitions could be useful for setting tariff and evaluating the quality of the electric energy supply especially when considering non-stationary waveforms where the Fourier transform based power components definitions fail.


The chirality of molecules expresses itself, for example, in the fact that a solution of a chiral molecule rotates the plane of linear polarised light. The underlying molecular property is the optical rotatory power (ORP) tensor, which according to time-dependent perturbation theory can be calculated as mixed linear response functions of the electric and magnetic dipole moment operators. Applying a canonical transformation of the Hamiltonian, which reformulates the magnetic dipole moment operator in terms of the operator for the torque acting on the electrons, the ORP of a molecule can be partitioned into atomic and group contributions. In the present work, we investigate the transferability of such individual contributions in a series of small, chiral molecules: hydrogen peroxide, methyl hydroperoxide and dimethyl peroxide. The isotropic atomic or group contributions have been evaluated for the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon atoms as well as for the methyl group at the level of time-dependent density functional theory with the B3LYP exchange-correlation functional employing a large Gaussian basis set. We find that the atomic or group contributions are not transferable among these three molecules.


Dexterous hands, used to manipulate food, tools, and other objects, are one of the hallmarks of primate evolution. However, the neural substrate of fine manual control necessary for these behaviors remains unclear. Here, we describe the functional organization of parietal cortical areas 2 and 5 in the cebus monkey. Whereas other New World monkeys can be quite dexterous, and possess a poorly developed area 5, cebus monkeys are the only New World primate known to use a precision grip, and thus have an extended repertoire of manual behaviors. Unlike other New World Monkeys, but much like the macaque monkey, cebus monkeys possess a proprioceptive cortical area 2 and a well developed area 5, which is associated with motor planning and the generation of internal body coordinates necessary for visually guided reaching, grasping, and manipulation. The similarity of these fields in cebus monkeys and distantly related macaque monkeys with similar manual abilities indicates that the range of cortical organizations that can emerge in primates is constrained, and those that emerge are the result of highly conserved developmental mechanisms that shape the boundaries and topographic organizations of cortical areas.


Aspect-oriented software development is an emerging software engineering paradigm. It provides new constructs and tools to improve separation of crosscutting concerns into single units called aspects. The aspect paradigm introduces, in fact, new abstractions in software development. AspectJ is an aspect-oriented extension for Java. Actually, existing object-oriented programming languages suffer from a serious limitation in modularizing adequately crosscutting concerns. Many concerns crosscut several classes in an object-oriented system. However, the aspect paradigm introduces new dimensions in terms of control and complexity. New dependencies between aspects and classes result in new testing challenges. In fact, aspects can interact with any class in a program. Interactions between aspects and classes are new sources for program faults. Object-oriented testing techniques do not cover the new dimensions introduced by aspects. Thus, new aspect-oriented testing techniques must be developed. We propose, in this paper, a new technique to generate test sequences based on the dynamic interactions between aspects and classes. We focus, in particular, on the integration of one or more aspects in a collaboration between a group of objects. The paper also introduces associated testing criteria. The proposed approach follows an iterative process.


In this article, we investigate characteristics associated with highly cited journal articles in Public Administration, especially the extent to which high impact contributions are theoretical. Using citations as a measure of scholarly influence, we used a mixed qualitative and bibliometric approach to understand the factors associated with the most highly cited articles in Public Administration in the last 20 years. Specifically, we assessed the extent to which each article was theoretical or empirical in nature, the role of the journal in which each article was published, and the extent to which the article's impact spanned disciplines. Results indicate that theoretical development, the journal in which an article is published, and strategic placement with regard to the intended audience matter for scholarly impact. We also identify that theoretical versus empirical approach of subdisciplines is aligned with the maturity of that subdiscipline, consistent with Kuhn's ideas of scientific evolution.


With the development of innovative nuclear systems and new generation neutron sources, the nuclear instrumentation should be adapted. Since several years, we developed microscopic fission chambers to study the transmutation of minor actinides in high thermal-neutron fluxes. The recent developments done to fulfill the drastic conditions of irradiations are described in this paper together with the feedback from the measurements. Two installations were used: the HFR of the ILL for its high thermal neutron flux and the MEGAPIE target which was the first liquid Pb-Bi spallation target in the MW range.


Forest conservation is of particular concern in tropical regions where a large refuge of biodiversity is still existing. These areas are threatened by deforestation, forest degradation and fragmentation. Especially, pressures of anthropogenic activities adjacent to these areas significantly influence conservation effectiveness. Ecuador was chosen as study area since it is a globally relevant center of forest ecosystems and biodiversity. We identified hotspots of deforestation on the national level of continental Ecuador between 1990 and 2018, analyzed the most significant drivers of deforestation on national and biome level (the Coast, the Andes, The Amazon) as well as inside protected areas in Ecuador by using multiple regression analysis. We separated the national system of protected areas (SNAP) into higher and lower protection levels. Besides SNAP, we also considered Biosphere Reserves (BRs) and Ramsar sites. In addition, we investigated the rates and spatial patterns of deforestation in protected areas and buffer zones (5 km and 10 km outwards the protected area boundaries) using landscape metrics. Between 1990 and 2018, approximately 4% of the accumulated deforestation occurred within the boundaries of SNAP, and up to 25.5% in buffer zones. The highest rates of deforestation have been found in the 5 km buffer zone around the protected areas with the highest protection level. Protected areas and their buffer zones with higher protection status were identified as the most deforested areas among SNAP. BRs had the highest deforestation rates among all protected areas but most of these areas just became BRs after the year 2000. The most important driver of deforestation is agriculture. Other relevant drivers differ between the biomes. The results suggest that the SNAP is generally effective to prevent deforestation within their protection boundaries. However, deforestation around protected areas can undermine conservation strategies to sustain biodiversity. Actions to address such dynamics and patterns of deforestation and forest fragmentation, and developing conservation strategies of their landscape context are urgently needed especially in the buffer zones of areas with the highest protection status.


Whilst recognizing important distinctions between different types of intelligence agency, and a range of possible contradictions between the imperatives governing the two types of agency, it is necessary to overcome the one-side quality of much existing literature, whose critique of the subversion of the rule of law by intelligence agencies tends to preclude any appreciation that such agencies can play a supportive role for war crimes prosecutors. This article challenges the assumption that analysis of the histories of Western intelligence agencies and the study of war crimes trials must be studied as entirely separate and sharply demarcated fields of inquiry; it advocates an interdisciplinary research programme, informed by a series of indepth historical case studies, capable of addressing issues arising from the interaction between these two institutional fields. The proposed research agenda could illuminate aspects of the contemporary role – and future potential of both intelligence agencies and war crimes prosecution bodies. It would investigate tensions between the prosecutors need to employ intelligence agencies to gather trial credible evidence and detain indicted defendants, often by covert and legally questionable means, and the constitutional justifications for holding war crimes trials by reference to the need to reassert the rule of law in the wake of lawless genocide.


New observations at Erebus crater (Olympia outcrop) by the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity between sols 671 and 735 (a sol is a martian day) indicate that a diverse suite of primary and penecontemporaneous sedimentary structures is preserved in sulfate-rich bedrock. Centimeter-scale trough (festoon) cross-lamination is abundant, and is better expressed and thicker than previously described examples. Postdepositional shrinkage cracks in the same outcrop are interpreted to have formed in response to desiccation. Considered collectively, this suite of sedimentary structures provides strong support for the involvement of liquid water during accumulation of sedimentary rocks at Meridiani Planum.


Agricultural land use commonly exerts multiple stressors on the functioning of stream ecosystems, including leaf litter decomposition and the utilization of this resource in stream food webs. If stressors interact, their cumulative effects on biotic responses cannot be predicted from knowledge of individual stressor effects, posing challenges for management and restoration of ecosystems. We examined the individual and interactive effects of four common agricultural stressors and the role of litter quality on leaf litter decomposition and fungal decomposers. In 128 outdoor, flow-through mesocosms, we manipulated levels of nutrients, a nitrification inhibitor (dicyandiamide), deposited fine sediment and flow velocity. Interactions among these stressors can ensue because, for instance, they jointly affect physicochemical conditions around leaf litter colonized by fungi such as concentrations of dissolved oxygen and nutrients. The two litter species used, deciduous birch and evergreen mahoe, showed contrasting decomposition dynamics, and these differences influenced their response to stressors. Fungi were important for birch litter decomposition but played a minor role for mahoe. Overall, flow velocity reduction and deposited fine sediment had the strongest, mainly negative effects on fungi and litter decomposition, probably as a consequence of reductions in dissolved oxygen available to fungi. However, fine sediment substantially increased mahoe litter mass loss, pointing at fungi-independent processes being relevant for its decomposition. Although interactions among stressors were uncommon, they showed effects of the same magnitude as stressor main effects. Potential mechanisms underlying interactions included reductions in dissolved oxygen and changes in microbial community composition. Knowledge of the effects of multiple agricultural stressors and of litter quality on litter decomposition and litter-associated fungi is crucial for management of forested riparian corridors, which have been shown to efficiently mitigate impacts of agricultural stressors on streams. The contrasting responses of the litter species used in our study warrant consideration of species composition of the riparian vegetation. (Less)


It is shown that in two-way Bernoulli classification problems deterministic machines can perform as well as optimal randomized machines if their memory is increased by less than one bit. This is accomplished by allowing the algorithm to observe samples from both classes, thus in effect using the data source itself to provide the necessary randomization. An application to a simple communication problem is indicated.


The construction industry is notorious for having one of the worst safety records among all industries in the private sector (Bentil, 1990; and Behm, 2005). In the United States, the industry accounts for up to 18% of work-related deaths and 15% of all worker compensation cases with approximately 1,000 construction workers killed annually (BLS, 2000-2009).
Towards minimizing safety hazards and incidents, construction companies employ several strategies including safety planning, staffing and training among many others (CII, 2003). Different strategies apply to different project phases. However, as the early identification and elimination of potential safety hazards is not only more effective but cheaper (Behm 2005; and Anumba, 1999), those strategies applicable to the earlier project phases are likely to have a more significant impact in improving construction worker safety. One of such strategies, Design for Construction Safety (DFCS), has the ability to function effectively in the current Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry environment without requiring any major changes in procedure or contractual structure. DFCS is the explicit consideration of construction worker safety in the design of a project (Toole and Gambatese, 2008). Besides the ultimate benefit of decreasing site safety hazards, DFCS, through the proactive identification and elimination of hazards is safer and more cost effective than reactive management of the same hazards (Toole and Gambatese, 2008).
The most critical impediments to DFCS include designers' concern about increased liability, increased cost, and designers' lack of safety expertise. Others include concerns about schedule problems, diminished design creativity, and designers' lack of interest (Gambatese et al, 2005). To assist designers in DFCS implementation, safety researchers sponsored by the Construction Industry Institute (CII) developed over 400 design suggestions to minimize or eliminate certain construction safety hazards (Gambatese et al, 1997). These suggestions were incorporated in a computer program, the DFCS Toolbox. Besides this, other research has been conducted and guidelines developed to aid DFCS implementation.
However, as DFCS is still experiencing limited application (Toole and Gambatese, 2008), this research presented a different paradigm. This paradigm considered that the guidelines and tools provided to enable and aid DFCS implementation were incomplete, inaccurate and/or inadequate to serve their intended purpose. Through this research, some of the available guidelines and tools were fine-tuned and detailed to better enable DFCS implementation. Hence, the research produced certain deliverables.
Firstly, the research identified DFCS measures that meet all the criteria for being situated in the capital project design phase. Secondly, the research identified impediments to implementing each of these design-phase DFCS measures where applicable. Thirdly, the research obtained revisions of certain designphase DFCS measures based on their identified impediments to make them more viable, both for implementation and for improving construction safety. Additionally, the safety benefits of implementing each of the design-phase DFCS measures were identified through the publicly accessible Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) database. These benefits refer to the construction hazard incidents that could have been prevented by implementing the DFCS measures. Lastly, a relational database application was developed to assist designers in making safety a consideration in the early phases of the capital project delivery process. This desktop software application was developed to have the functionality to provide the design-phase DFCS measures, their preventable safety incidents, their potential impediments, potential solutions to their impediments, and their tier of feasibility, based on project characteristics, design profession, and the stage of the design phase. The application also allows for the addition of new DFCS measures and accompanying data. It therefore incorporates the other research deliverables and thus, encapsulates the research findings to serve as a vehicle for utilizing the data to enhance DFCS implementation. In producing and validating these deliverables, a number of research tasks were executed including survey administration to AEC design professionals. Also, over 30 interviews were conducted with design professionals.
Besides the deliverables, there were a number of findings from the research results. Firstly, the results emphasized a key shortcoming of the DFCS concept. This is the effectiveness of DFCS depends on construction sequence. Secondly, it was determined that DFCS measures or modifications that not only improve construction worker safety but occupant and maintenance worker safety are more likely to be implemented by AEC design professionals and more likely to be accommodated by project owners as well. On this basis, a new dimension was identified towards increasing and improving DFCS implementation. Thirdly, this research further emphasized that the design-build project delivery method offers more opportunity and fewer barriers for DFCS implementation.
This research made a number of contributions. Firstly, the research characterized the design suggestions for construction worker safety yielded from earlier research. This research also brought focus to individual DFCS measures and their feasibility for implementation, as opposed to for the DFCS concept as a whole. Secondly, this research, through its deliverables, serves in fulfilling several earlier recommendations for DFCS research and some earlier identified information gaps. These research contributions are collectively intended to enhance and increase DFCS implementation on projects towards improving construction safety. There are a number of motivating factors for this. Firstly, professional, ethical and moral obligations require the safety of others to be protected. Secondly, the improvement of safety could potentially benefit every project stakeholder and participant by minimizing or eliminating the numerous costs associated with injuries to construction workers. Thirdly, all project participants may also benefit in that reducing the number of construction accidents and injuries could avoid disruption to work and avert delays in project completion and as a result, improve productivity (Huang, 2003). Additionally, poor safety performance and its resulting consequences such as court cases and lawsuits expose all project participants to bad publicity which could have such adverse impacts as preventing job awards or causing even more lawsuits from prior projects (Huang, 2003). These reasons collectively highlight the importance of improving construction worker safety and towards this goal, this research emphasized and enhanced DFCS as a strategy for reducing or eliminating construction hazard risks on capital projects.


It is necessary to promote and enhance African languages as intangible cultural heritage. This heritage needs conservation and management in the form of language planning and policy making that would contribute towards the restoration of the indigenous speakers' humanity, identity and culture. Our indigenous languages seek to focus on African philosophy, aesthetics, art, performing arts, politics, sociology, sport and other subjects. These languages would explore ways in which the forms of African cultural life and expression will help to shape, inform and influence cultures and intellectual traditions across the globe. It is necessary to transcend colonial alienation as "part and parcel of the anti-imperialist struggles of [Zimbabweans] and African peoples" whose indigenous languages "were associated with negative qualities of backwardness, underdevelopment, humiliation and punishment." (Ngugi, 1981:28). This paper will testify the superiority of our indigenous languages to English. The researcher believes in the maxim "free your mind": the mind must be liberated even from the confines of biased Afro-centric thought. These languages will convey the profound need for the Zimbabwean people to be re-located historically, economically, socially, linguistically, politically, and philosophically. For a number of years, Africans have been devoid of their cultural, economic, religious, political and social heritage. They have been living on the periphery of Europe. It is this "illusion of the fringes" that this paper seeks to eliminate and restore "the African person as an agent in human history..." (Asante, 2003:1)This will answer questions on how African cultural and intellectual traditions radically and indelibly shape the world. In demanding to know the total system of truth about the world, the first step is to know the reality of our own existence through our indigenous languages.


The bellows formed of TiNi shape memory alloy (SMA) is proposed as a new type of seismic protection device. The bellows structure is known to have lower rigidity along the axial direction through effect of its shape. TiNi is known to be one of the most typical SMAs, which have high damping characteristics for dynamics engaged in its twin formation under martensite state and have the ability to recover completely from the large strain after unloaded and or heated. In this study, fundamental compressive behavior of TiNi bellows was investigated and discussed. Several shapes of TiNi single-stage bellows produced by rubber bulge method were prepared. They were heat-treated for some heat treatments and then examined on compression tests. Based on the results, the relationships among the bellows shapes and the stiffness, energy-absorbing capacity and so on were clarified. Finally, it was found from these results that single-stage bellows of TiNi SMA could be used as one of seismic protection devices.


It is well acknowledged that deployment can have a significant impact on military personnel; however, the effect on their partners who remain on the homefront is less researched. This meta-synthesis aimed to explore the experience of deployment for partners of military personnel to provide a greater understanding of the challenges and responses involved for them. Noblit and Hare's (1988) meta-ethnographic approach was adopted to synthesize 11 qualitative studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The five core concepts to emerge from the meta-synthesis were the multitude of emotions; methods of coping; communication with their partner; relentless responsibilities; and positive outcomes. These findings provide a developed understanding of how challenges of deployment are managed, including negative outcomes and protective psychological responses and behaviors. The limitations of these findings are discussed, as are clinical implications and recommendations for future research.


Renal cell carcinoma is a rare but serious malignancy. Since a reduction in the level of retinoic acid receptor beta 2 (RARbeta2) expression in cancer cells due in part to histone hypoacetylation which is controlled by histone deacetylase (HD), the study on the interaction between cellular retinoic acid-binding proteins II (CRABP II), which is proposed to have its potential influence on retinoic acid (RA) response, and HD can be useful. Comparing to CARBP II and HD, the CARBP II-HD poses the same function and biological process as HD. This can confirm that HD has a significant suppressive effect on the expression of CARBP II. Therefore, reduction in the level of RARbeta2 expression in cancer cells can be expected and this can lead to failure in treatment of renal cell carcinoma with RA. The author hereby purpose that additional HD inhibitor should be added into the regiment of RA to increase the effectiveness of treatment.


Project 8 is a next-generation direct neutrino mass experiment measuring the spectral endpoint region of tritium beta decays. The energy of the beta decay electrons is measured using Cyclotron Radiation Emission Spectroscopy (CRES) which has been demonstrated by the Project 8 collaboration with both krypton and molecular tritium confined in a section of a microwave guide. To reach the target sensitivity of 40 meV/22, major technological research and development is necessary. Building on the milestones achieved so far, I will present the next phases of Project 8: In Phase III, atomic tritium will be produced and trapped magnetically, and cyclotron radiation emission spectroscopy will be demonstrated in free space which allows larger detection volumes. The knowledge gained from Phase III will enable the design and operation of a large-volume atomic tritium experiment, sensitive to the entire mass range allowed by the inverse neutrino mass ordering.


Ragnar Frisch proposed in 1936 a procedure for estimating natural variable values by modifying what are now called structural macroeconometric models. This paper shows that Frisch's procedure can be used to illuminate natural concepts using today's models. The procedure also forces one to be precise regarding the assumptions used in moving from a short-run model to a medium-run or long-run model.


Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Global Journal of Science Frontier Research Mathematics & Decision Sciences Volume 12 Issue 3 Version 1.0 March 2012 Type : Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-4626 & Print ISSN: 0975-5896


The Hyde Amendment, a ban on the Medicaid funding of abortion, is once again at the center of the abortion wars. For the most part, critics of the Hyde Amendment argue that it authorizes discrimination against poor women. Using original archival research, this Article show that the amendment has had a far greater impact.
In popular debate, proponents of the Hyde Amendment helped to forge an idea of complicity-based conscience that has recently transformed fights about everything from same-sex marriage to contraceptive access. Constitutionally, the fight for the Hyde Amendment also revolutionized the rights-privilege distinction in constitutional law. In abortion-funding cases, the Court held that there was no constitutional problem with laws that created practical obstacles to abortion access so long as the obstacles themselves were not controlled or created by the state. This approach has resonated outside the context of abortion law.
The Court's recent decision in Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt makes a challenge to the Hyde Amendment realistic and compelling. The cases upholding the Hyde Amendment regard as constitutional any burden on a woman's right to choose that is neither created nor controlled by the government. Whole Woman's Health explicitly rejected this approach, looking instead at how the formal terms of law interact with forces beyond the government's control. For this reason, the Article shows that Whole Woman's Health undermines the core premises of the Hyde Amendment and creates an opening for those seeking to revisit the distinction between negative and positive rights.