Purpose To evaluate safety and efficacy of the Solitaire device when used as 1st choice device in the treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) secondary to large artery occlusion. Methods A retrospective data collection on consecutive patients presenting with AIS treated with Solitaire device as first line device to restore blood flow in six experienced European sites from March 2009 to June 2010. An independent Core Lab evaluated TICI scores on the pre-procedure and post-procedure angiograms. Complete recanalization was defined as TICI 2b or three-post treatment. Baseline and post-treatment brain CT or MRI were also centrally reviewed to evaluate ASPECTS and symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (SICH). The definition of SIH used is parenchymal hemorrhage type 2 + death or neurologic deterioration of 4 or more point of NIHSS. Patients were treated according to the hospitals' stroke protocols (direct IA, bridging IV t-PA/IA and failed or contraindicated IV t-PA). Sites provided patient information at pre-procedure, procedure, 24 h, discharge and 90 days. Good early neurological outcome was defined as NIHSS score improvement of ≥10 points or NIHSS 0, 1 at discharge, and favorable functional outcome as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score ≤2 at day 90. Patients with missing mRS data were judged to have worst possible outcome for data analysis. Results Of the 206 patients treated with Solitaire device, the device was used as first line treatment in 141 patients (mean age, 66; median NIHSS, 18): 74 patients were treated with IV t-PA prior to endovascular treatment, 56 had contra indication to IV t-PA and 11 were directly treated IA. The revascularization success independently evaluated was 85%. The mean number of recoveries was 1.8 and median time from groin puncture to successful revascularization was 40 min. Good early neurological outcome at discharge was 41% and good clinical outcome at 90 days was 55%. Sub group analysis on results according to administration or not of IV tPA pre use of Solitaire device was performed. The two sub-groups were analyzed and considered statistically similar on criteria such as age, sex, NIHSS at baseline, ASPECTS at baseline, occlusion lesion site. Conclusions This retrospective, uncontrolled study shows the positive effect of Solitaire device in treatment of patients with acute ischemic stroke to restore flow and good clinical outcomes in patients with AIS and large artery occlusion. Competing interests V Costalat: Covidien.


Computers are being used frequently in educational environments these days. The Disease Game is a computerized game that tests ones knowledge of diagnosing and treating ocular diseases. Ten subjects (5 fourth year and 5 third year optometry students) were chosen to play this game and rate the game in terms of its accessibility, effectiveness, and enjoyment versus other conventional methods used. It was concluded that the Disease Game could be a valuable supplement to existing teaching methods in the classroom.


This study examined differences in literacy development between five students attending whole language pre-first-grade classes and five students eligible for pre-first-grade classes but attending modified traditional first-grade classes. Differences between whole language pre-first-grade classes and modified traditional first-grade classes in use of literacy materials, teaching procedures, and amount of time spent on literacy were also examined. The procedures involved testing the subjects on reading and writing skills, observations of the pre-first-grade and first-grade classes, and analysis of subjects' writing samples.


We present a robotic system for collecting data from wireless devices dispersed across a large environment. In such applications, deploying a network of stationary wireless sensors may be infeasible because many relay nodes must be deployed to ensure connectivity. Instead, our system utilizes robots that act as data mules and gather the data from wireless sensor network nodes. We address the problem of planning paths of multiple robots so as to collect the data from all sensors in the shortest time. In this new routing problem, which we call the data gathering problem (DGP), the total download time depends on not only the robots' travel time but also the time to download data from a sensor and the number of sensors assigned to the robot. We start with a special case of DGP in which the robots' motion is restricted to a curve that contains the base station at one end. For this version, we present an optimal algorithm. Next, we study the two‐dimensional version and present a constant factor approximation algorithm for DGP on the plane. Finally, we present field experiments in which an autonomous robotic data mule collects data from the nodes of a wireless sensor network deployed over a large field. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


A numerical study has been performed to evaluate mixed convection heat transfer in a porous medium between two vertical concentric cylinders for a constant-temperature outer and an insulated inner boundary conditions. In modeling the flow in the bed a finite difference technique was utilized to represent the governing equations with appropriate boundary layer assumptions. The effects of flow inertia, variable porosity and properties, and the Brinkman friction were all taken into account. The model simulated the condition where water was the fluid flowing through the porous material. In all flow simulations the Darcy law condition was obeyed, i.e., the Reynolds number based on the particle diameter was less than unity. Results obtained include radial and axial velocity and temperature profiles in the bed. The dependence of local Nusselt number on the axial distance for several Reynolds numbers was also obtained. Correlations of the average Nusselt number against the Grashof, Peclet, and Darcy numbers were obtained for various radius ratios. Comparisons of the heat transfer predictions to data and calculations of others for special situations showed excellent agreement.


Discusses the American Psychiatric Association's well-known removal of homosexuality from its list of mental disorders. Argues that this was done because of political pressures, the overall influence of the sexual revolution, and problematic humanitarian motives. Asserts that now homosexuals who seek treatment for their condition are often denied help by psychologists and psychiatrists. All three great pioneers of psychiatry—Freud, Jung and Adler—saw homosexuality as disordered. Yet today, homosexuality is not to be found in the psychiatric manual of mental disorders. Were these three great pioneers just reflecting the ignorance and prejudice of their times? Is this radical shift due to our modern-day enlightened, sophisticated attitude? Has there been any new research to account for this shift of opinion? Submits that no new psychological or sociological research justifies this shift. Research did not settle the question. Research simply stopped, and it is politics that has silenced the professional dialogue. Now, the only studies on homosexuality are from an advocacy perspective. Militant gay advocates working in a small but forceful network have caused apathy and confusion within our society. They insist that acceptance of the homosexual as a person cannot occur without endorsement of the homosexual condition. Intellectual circles too—who are self-conscious about sounding intolerant—proclaim homosexuality as normal, yet it is still not so for the average person for whom it "just doesn't seem right."


Here, we show that the development of nuclei and subsequent growth of a molecular organic crystal system can be induced by electron beam irradiation by exploiting the radiation chemistry of the carrier solvent. The technique of Liquid Cell Electron Microscopy was used to probe the crystal growth of flufenamic acid; a current commercialised active pharmaceutical ingredient. This work demonstrates liquid phase electron microscopy analysis as an essential tool for assessing pharmaceutical crystal growth in their native environment while giving insight into polymorph identification of nano-crystals at their very inception. Possible mechanisms of crystal nucleation due to the electron beam with a focus on radiolysis are discussed along with the innovations this technique offers to the study of pharmaceutical crystals and other low contrast materials.


ABSTRACT In contrast to formalist understanding that a work of art can be studied regardless of culture, socio-historical background, the content and authorship, in this paper I will try to show that the relation between artwork and artist is very important to read into the text in order to do justice to the artwork and to understand underlying principles on which the artwork is produced. The relation of the artist and artwork is essential to this kind of analysis because artist is the reference point for artwork to be evaluated in its contextuality. In order to do this I will mainly focus on a Panofskian perspective that develops three-part process. The first process focuses on factual meaning which Erwin Panofsky calls pre-iconographical, the second namely iconographical directs focus toward the socio-historical context that the author belongs to in the orient of who, what where questions, and lastly iconological process generates an analysis of the underlying philosophy and how and why this background affects the artwork. Even though Panofsky focuses mostly on visual arts, his methodology provides a system to interpret an artwork justly. Therefore, in order to accomplish this project, Fyodor Dostoevsky's work Notes from Underground will be examined under the light of Panosfkian methodology to affirm the argument that an artwork can only be interpreted in its contextuality with its relations to its author, its historicity and ideological totality, but not in its autonomous existence. To accomplish this I will divide my paper into three sections. The first part will cover Panofsky's methodology; the second will replace the author's importance in this analysis. However, author's importance will not be discussed as if artwork is only centered on the artist and its creative genius as in Romanticist interpretation, but rather author as a construction of self in a society as in sociologist George Herbert Mead's analysis. The third part Dostoevsky's work will be used to exemplify the correctness of this methodology. Keywords: Erwin Panofsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, artwork.


The sensory quality evaluation processes are widely used for many industrial products, which is evaluated according to the knowledge acquired via human senses (such as sight, taste, touch, smell). Because the evaluation information acquired by our senses is involving uncertainty, vagueness and imprecision, and the sensory quality information of products always has the panel data characteristic, so the sensory quality evaluation and certification is a multi-feature group decision-making problem based on panel linguistic information processing. This paper presents a proposed method for the development of accredited sensory evaluation methods, and shows the application of the linguistic 2-tuple representation model and its advantages. It involved several steps: gathering of sensory information from experts; computing a collective evaluation for each feature; computing collective evaluations for each object; dynamic aggregation; sensory evaluation and quality certification with global evaluation result.


Based on the investigation and detection of Dongji Bridge, a reinforced concrete (RC) T-beam bridge, the major diseases of the bridge was identified. The disease characteristics and rules are classified, the strength of the bridge was analyzed by finite element technology. Research is expected to provide scientific and rational basis for maintenance and reinforcement of Dongji bridge and same style bridges, and lay a foundation for further research work for RC T-beam bridges.


In this article, stability behavior of laminated composite curved panels under thermo-mechanical loading is analyzed. A generalized panel model is developed based on higher order shear deformation theory by taking the nonlinearity in Green-Lagrange sense for thermal distortion. The critical buckling load (mechanical/thermal) parameters are obtained by using the developed finite element model validated for both ANSYS and homemade computer code. The model has been discretized in ANSYS using an eight-noded serendipity shell element (shell281) and a nine noded isoparametric element for the computer code. The convergence test has been carried out and the results are compared with those available published literature. In this analysis, a uniform temperature distribution through the thickness is taken and the material properties for the composites are assumed to be temperature invariant. We note substantial effect of different parameters (support conditions, number of layers, thickness ratio and modular ratio) on thermo-mechanical stability behavior of laminated structures.© 2013 ASME


We recently showed that the Drosophila transforming acidic coiled-coil (D-TACC) protein is located in the centrosome, interacts with microtubules, and is required for mitosis in the Drosophila embryo. There are three known human TACC proteins that share a conserved, C-terminal, coiled-coil region with D-TACC. These proteins have all been implicated in cancer, but their normal functions are unknown. We show that all three human TACC proteins are concentrated at centrosomes, but with very different characteristics: TACC1 is weakly concentrated at centrosomes during mitosis; TACC2 is strongly concentrated at centrosomes throughout the cell cycle; and TACC3 is strongly concentrated in a more diffuse region around centrosomes during mitosis. When the C-terminal TACC domain is overexpressed in HeLa cells, it forms large polymers in the cytoplasm that can interact with both microtubules and tubulin. The full-length TACC proteins form similar polymers when overexpressed, but their interaction with microtubules and tubulin is regulated during the cell cycle. At least one of the human TACC proteins appears to increase the number and/or stability of centrosomal microtubules when overexpressed during mitosis. Thus, the TACC domain identifies a family of centrosomal proteins that can interact with microtubules. This may explain the link between the TACC genes and cancer.


Basic dimensions of work design: New inputs to functional flexibility. Although a lot of research has been developed during the last century in the field of human work design, the results seem to be unsatisfactory. Nowadays, there is renewed interest in this field but it is not producing any new results. This is the main reason why, in our investigation, we have tried to determine the real variables that truly affect the human work design. We have carried out two empirical researches involving 660 and 310 companies, obtaining from both exactly the same results, four factors that confirm the conclusions reached in previous research: demand-adaptation, flexibility-polyvalence, improvement-autonomy and conciliation-participation. We can add that these factors are independent from the environment and the type of technology used by the companies, which does not occur if the size of the enterprise is taken into account.


Abstract The heat capacities (CP) of goethite (goe, α-FeOOH), lepidocrocite (lep, γ-FeOOH), and maghemite (mag, γ-Fe2O3) were measured from below liquid helium temperature up to their decomposition temperatures by a combination of adiabatic, semi-adiabatic, and differential scanning calorimetry. All three phases were synthetic, with <160 ppm of Al. Chlorine content in goe (32 ppm) and lep (202 ppm) is too low to affect the calorimetric results of this study. Phase purity was verified by Rietveld refinement of the powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns; we determined lattice parameters, atomic positions, crystallite size, and microstrain for all three samples. The Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) surface area is 21 (goe), 23 (lep), and 18 (mag) m2/g. No amorphous impurity was found in the goethite sample by extraction of the oxalate soluble fraction. The excess water, determined from weight loss after firing at 1200 K overnight, is 0.083 ± 0.010 (goe), 0.087 ± 0.005 (lep), 0.042 ± 0.003 (mag) moles of water per mole of FeOOH or Fe2O3. The entropy at standard temperature and pressure (STP) was calculated from subambient CP data and corrected for the excess water content using a Debye-Einstein representation of the CP of hexagonal ice. The entropy at STP is 59.7 ± 0.2 (goe), 65.1 ± 0.2 (lep), and 93.0 ± 0.2 (mag) J/(K·mol). The XRD pattern of maghemite lacks superstructure peaks, and complete disorder of the vacancies leads to configurational entropy Sconf = 2.0 J/K·mol. Because very weak superstructure peaks can be overlooked, or the vacancies may be short-range ordered, this calculated Sconf represents only an upper limit. The heat capacity above 273 K was fitted to a Maier-Kelley polynomial CP [J/(K·mol), T in K] = a + bT + cT-2. The CP polynomial coefficients are a = 1.246, b = 0.2332, c = 313900 (goe, valid in temperature range 273-375 K), a = 59.76, b = 0.06052, c = -772900 (lep, 273-390 K), and a = 106.8, b = 0.06509, c = -1886000 (mag, 273-760 K).


HIV-1 infection and AIDS remain one of the major global health challenges, with an estimated 2.7 million new infections alone in 2010. Two innovative strategies have recently been proposed to curb HIV-1 spread: 1) Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) aims to protect uninfected individuals 'at risk' by decreasing the probability of infection upon virus exposure. 2) 'Treatment for prevention' aims to put infected individuals on therapy as early as possible. This rapidly decreases virus burden within the infected individual and thereby reduces the number of viruses per transmission event, which in turn reduces the probability of infecting the exposed partner. While 'treatment for prevention', was shown in 2011 to be highly efficient (preventing 96% infections relative to standard of care), its efficacy in preventing disease spread is intimately connected with viral suppression. However, HIV inevitably develops drug resistance upon treatment, which leads to virus rebound and nullifies the effect of 'treatment for prevention' for the time it remains unrecognized. In resource-constraint countries, where the potential for 'treatment for prevention' is maximal, fewer drugs are available and infrastructure and diagnostic facilities are less developed, constituting a risk for unrecognized drug resistance break-through and resistance spread. We investigated optimal treatment- and diagnostic strategies against HIV-1, in terms of durable viral suppression, patient health and by economic means in resource-rich and resource-poor settings: We first developed a novel control framework ('Markov decision processes with rare state observation', RO-MDP) that allows patient-specific optimal treatment after diagnostic testing in the context of markovian disease dynamics. For each disease state, it computes the optimal treatment and the next time of medical examination, minimizing viral burden as well as treatment- and diagnostic costs from a national economic perspective. We then analyzed and compared the developed model with an open-loop switched system, which allows pro-active treatment switching in a cross-sectional manner without patient examination. Both frameworks were applied to a coarse-grained stochastic model of within-host HIV dynamics in the context of resource-rich and -poor settings, and monetary as well as patient-specific outcomes were assessed. We discovered, based on the RO-MDP framework, that available drugs may not be utilized efficiently in resource-poor settings due to exorbitant diagnostic costs. Furthermore, we suspected that allowing treatment change only after diagnostic confirmation of treatment failure (i.e. some time after drug resistance has occurred) may limit future treatment options for the patient. In contrast, pro-active treatment switching without patient examination, as modelled by the open-loop switched system, yielded better outcomes in the resource-poor setting in terms of monetary costs and viral suppression. While treatment is highly subsidized in resource-poor settings, the same is not true for diagnostics, which precludes a patient-specific, diagnostics-driven optimal use of available therapies. Our models predict that cross-sectional approaches may be used instead. The developed control framework is applicable to many medical phenomena. Further developments may improve its applicability to even more complex biomedical processes.


If the election of Donald Trump has proven anything indisputably, it is that the notion of America as a "postracial" society in the aftermath of the Obama presidency is a canard. Yet how should we understand the specific pattern of race's persistent salience in US politics? In Deep Roots, Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen argue that it is the long legacy of chattel slavery that continues to shape politics in the US South in distinctive fashion. Comparing regions that were once marked by slavery with those that were not, the authors develop the concept of "behavioral path dependence" to describe the production and reproduction of a political culture marked by intergenerational racial prejudice. They argue that this legacy continues to shape US politics today in a fashion that is both understandable and predictable with the tools of empirical political science. We asked several scholars with expertise on politics and race, US political development, and political behavior to address this controversial argument.


The author discusses whether the EU Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD) may be expected to promote tax fairness and thereby contribute to increased sustainability of the international tax regime. A legal (juridical) approach to tax fairness is followed, which entails that the provisions of the ATAD are examined in light of the principles of legitimacy, certainty and equality. Even though the ATAD suffers from shortcomings with respect to legitimacy and legal certainty, it is argued that the adoption of the ATAD is an important step forward and a preferred solution compared to the alternative of (some) member states unilaterally introducing new anti-avoidance rules or strengthening existing ones. Against this background, it is concluded that the ATAD must be expected to bolster the overall resilience of the corporate tax systems of member states towards aggressive tax planning and prevent loss of tax revenue. Furthermore, as the ATAD curtails MNEs' possibilities for taking advantage of aggressive tax planning, the ATAD must be expected to promote a more level playing field, leading to increased tax equality and a more sustainable international tax regime.

https://www.ibfd.org/IBFD-Products/Tax-Sustainability-EU-and-International-Context


Remarkable improvement in electrode performance of Mn3O4-graphene nanocomposites for lithium ion batteries can be obtained by incorporation of a small amount of exfoliated layered MnO2 or RuO2 nanosheets. The metal oxide nanosheet-incorporated Mn3O4-reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites are synthesized via growth of Mn3O4 nanocrystals in the mesoporous networks of rGO and MnO2/RuO2 2D nanosheets. Incorporation of metal oxide nanosheets is highly effective in optimizing porous composite structure and charge transport properties, resulting in a remarkable increase of discharge capacity of Mn3O4-rGO nanocomposite with significant improvement of cyclability and rate performance. The observed enormous discharge capacity of synthesized Mn3O4-rGO-MnO2 nanocomposite (∼1600 mA·h·g(-1) for the 100th cycle) is the highest value among reported data for Mn3O4-rGO nanocomposite. Despite much lower electrical conductivity of MnO2 than RuO2, the MnO2-incorporated nanocomposite at optimal composition (2.5 wt %) shows even larger discharge capacities with comparable rate characteristics compared with the RuO2-incorporated homologue. This finding underscores that the electrode performance of the resulting nanosheet-incorporated nanocomposite is strongly dependent on its pore and composite structures rather than on the intrinsic electrical conductivity of the additive nanosheet. The present study clearly demonstrates that, regardless of electrical conductivity, incorporation of metal oxide 2D nanosheet is an effective way to efficiently optimize the electrode functionality of graphene-based nanocomposites.


Low-grade astrocytomas and gliomas are the most common type of childhood brain tumor. Although children with low-grade gliomas often survive many years after conventional treatment with surgery and radiotherapy, there can be tremendous morbidity depending on the location of tumor and the effects of therapy. Newer forms of treatment with reduced side effects are much needed. We have designed a phase II trial to examine efficacy and safety of the biological response modifier poly-ICLC in children with low-grade gliomas, and to identify surrogate biomarkers for response to this agent. Poly-ICLC, a synthetic complex of polyinosinic and polycytidylic acid, stabilized with polylysine and carboxymethyl cellulose is a double stranded RNA (dsRNA) that is a ligand for the Toll-like Receptor 3 (TLR3), an important component of innate immunity. It has been shown to have direct antiviral and antineoplastic effects mediated by at least two interferon inducible nuclear enzyme systems of OAS and PKR. A previous Phase I/II trial of poly-ICLC conducted in pediatric patients with brain tumors (all histopathologic subtypes) suggested the low-grade glioma cohort had the best response to this therapy (50% PR rate). Additional clinical trials in adult patients have confirmed that the most responsive subgroup to poly-ICLC is low-grade glioma patients. We are currently conducting a multi-institutional phase II study of poly-ICLC administered at 20mcg/kg/dose intramuscularly twice weekly to children with recurrent or progressive low-grade gliomas. Simon9s two-stage design will be used for statistical analysis. The primary goal of this study is determine the radiographic response rate. We will also characterize toxicity and determine if surrogate markers of tumor response and progression can be identified in patient serum, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), and/or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). To date, 4 pediatric subjects (ages 2-15) with recurrent low-grade gliomas have enrolled in the study. Poly-ICLC therapy has been well tolerated and none of the subjects have shown radiologic or clinical progressive disease. These results suggest that poly-ICLC may have a beneficial role in children with low-grade gliomas while minimizing treatment side effects. We have begun analyzing blood and CSF samples to attempt biomarker identification and correlation with subject responses, in hopes to yield a basis towards stratification and personalized therapy with recurrent disease. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2489. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2489


In recent years, deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) have delivered notable successes in visual tasks, and in particular, image classification related applications. However, they are sensitive to the selection of their architectural and learning hyperparameters, which impose an exponentially large search space on modern DCNN models. Traditional hyperparameter selection methods include manual model tuning, grid, or random search but these require expert domain knowledge or are computationally burdensome. On the other hand, Bayesian optimization and evolutionary inspired techniques have surfaced as viable alternatives to the hyperparameter problem. In this work, an alternative automated system that combines the advantages of evolutionary processes and state-of-the-art Bayesian optimization is proposed. Specifically, the search space is first partitioned into separate discrete-architectural, and continuous and categorical learning parameter subspaces, which are then efficiently traversed by a stochastic genetic search applied to the former, combined with a genetic-Bayesian search of the latter. Several sequential experiments on prominent image classification tasks reveal that the proposed method results in overall classification accuracy improvements over several wellestablished techniques, and significant computational costs reductions compared to brute force computation.


Abstract One of the most useful survey methods in nearshore studies is airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR), which is able to densely sample topographic and shallow bathymetric elevation data over large geographic regions. Airborne LIDAR bathymetry systems are dependent on water clarity, but in the surf zone sediment and air bubbles entrained in the water column by wave breaking attenuate the laser pulse and compromise the LIDAR's ability to retrieve accurate bottom elevations. Data assimilation techniques can improve the ability of LIDAR systems to estimate bathymetry inside the surf zone. The assimilation methods are based on comparing pixel intensity patterns (scaled by offshore wave energy flux) extracted from time-averaged airborne imagery with dissipation profiles produced by a simple wave-energy transformation model. The subaerial topography and the offshore bathymetry are assumed known and an initial featureless bathymetry is assumed in the surf zone (where the data are missing). Differences between modeled dissipation and observed image pixel intensity patterns can be minimized by incrementally modifying the bathymetry. Final assimilated bathymetry estimates are compared with surveyed bathymetric data collected at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility in Duck, NC using traditional surveying methods. Analysis of data from three aerial overflights produced average root mean square differences between assimilated and surveyed bathymetry of 25–35 cm, similar to results from land-based systems. This methodology can be used to improve LIDAR-derived profiles where large gaps exist because of surf that attenuates the laser pulses, and allow for more complete evaluation of large-scale coastal behavior that includes profile evolution within the surf zone.


Labrenzia alexandrii Biebl et al. 2007 is a marine member of the family Rhodobacteraceae in the order Rhodobacterales, which has thus far only partially been characterized at the genome level. The bacterium is of interest because it lives in close association with the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium lusitanicum. Ultrastructural analysis reveals R-bodies within the bacterial cells, which are primarily known from obligate endosymbionts that trigger "killing traits" in ciliates (Paramecium spp.). Genomic traits of L. alexandrii DFL-11T are in accordance with these findings, as they include the reb genes putatively involved in R-body synthesis. Analysis of the two extrachromosomal elements suggests a role in heavy-metal resistance and exopolysaccharide formation, respectively. The 5,461,856 bp long genome with its 5,071 protein-coding and 73 RNA genes consists of one chromosome and two plasmids, and has been sequenced in the context of the Marine Microbial Initiative.


In the United States, the American Thyroid Association recommends that women take a dietary supplement containing 150 µg of iodine 3 months prior to conception and while pregnant and lactating to support fetal growth and neurological development. We used data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2011–2014 to describe the use of dietary supplements with and without iodine in the past 30 days among 2155 non-pregnant, non-lactating (NPNL) women; 122 pregnant women; and 61 lactating women. Among NPNL women, 45.3% (95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 42.0, 48.6) used any dietary supplement and 14.8% (95% CI: 12.7, 16.8) used a dietary supplement with iodine in the past 30 days. Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women were less likely to use any dietary supplement as well as one with iodine, than non-Hispanic white or non-Hispanic Asian women (p < 0.05). Among pregnant women, 72.2% (95% CI: 65.8, 78.6) used any dietary supplement; however, only 17.8% (95% CI: 11.4, 24.3) used a dietary supplement with iodine. Among lactating women, 75.0% (95% CI: 63.0, 87.0) used a dietary supplement; however, only 19.0% (95% CI: 8.8, 29.2) used a dietary supplement with iodine. Among NPNL women using a supplement with iodine, median daily iodine intake was 75.0 µg. Self-reported data suggests that the use of iodine containing dietary supplements among pregnant and lactating women remains low in contrast with current recommendations.


We propose using discovery-based learning games to teach people how to use complex software. Specifically, we developed Jigsaw, a learning game that asks players to solve virtual jigsaw puzzles using tools in Adobe Photoshop. We conducted an eleven-person lab study of the prototype, and found the game to be an effective learning medium that can complement demonstration-based tutorials. Not only did the participants learn about new tools and techniques while actively solving the puzzles in Jigsaw, but they also recalled techniques that they had learned previously but had forgotten.


The article proposes a new approach for IP multicast networks using a geostationary satellite. An overview of the current use of satellites for the Internet is presented. It describes the interaction between the network and link layers and underlines the limits of current solutions, i.e., the use of a transparent payload and multi protocol encapsulation (MPE). Then, solutions are proposed, presenting the use of an on-board intelligence and of a more interactive standard than DVB-S, namely DVB-RCS (DVB-return-channel-for-satellite). The paper sets out to study a system conveying multicast streams over an on-board-switching GEO satellite. We study the implementation of both an encapsulation and a signalisation protocol adapted to the system, focusing on the on-board-switching. Eventually, as food for thought, the adaptation of terrestrial protocols in this framework is brought up.


INTRODUCTION
Spondylodiscitis in ankylosing spondylitis has a prevalence of 5%. Mechanical and inflammatory factors are involved in its pathogenesis. Neurosurgical operation is required when neurological complications or vertebral instability occur. Surgery is complicated by the increased fragility of the vertebral column, advanced stage of the disease in many patients, and serious pulmonary complications.

CLINICAL CASES
We report two patients who had had ankylosing spondylitis for over 20 years. Both presented complaining of symptoms for several months with lumbar pain and signs of spinal cord lesions. There were signs of discitis and destruction of the adjacent vertebral bodies at T11 T12 and T12 L1 on imaging investigations of the first and second patient respectively. In both cases an anterior approach was used for discectomay and resection of the adjacent vertebral plates. Then an autologous rib graft was done, and anterolateral fixation with plate and screws to the adjacent vertebral bodies. The patients condition improved. Their pain and previous clinical neurological disorder had disappeared by 5 and 1 year later.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of patients operated on for spondylodiscitis in the context of ankylosing spondylitis is not known. Dorsolumbar pain with inflammatory characteristics of recent onset in patients with chronic ankylosing spondylitis should lead to suspicion of spondylodiscitis. Although it may be related to previous trauma, discitis is the fundamental mechanism. MR is the most sensitive imaging technique. There may be marked osteoporosis and stenosis of the vertebral canal together with marked ossification of all the paraspinal ligaments. This hinders the approach to the vertebral bodies and their subsequent fixation. Decompression of the vertebral canal using an anterior approach (thoracotomy or thoraco phreno laparotomy) and anterior spinal fixation is the treatment of choice in cases with neurological involvement or involvement of the anterior and medial columns of Denis.


Background: cell-cell variation in expression of their gene in isogenic population is frequently observed in microbes, which is recognized as one of the reasons for phenotype heterogeneity. The aim of this study is to investigate the hetorogeneous resistance level in genetically identical cells which was origenated from cell-cell variation in expression of bla CTX-M-14.

Methods: The transcriptional region of CTX-M-14 with or without the entire coding sequence of CTX-M-14 which were amplified from clinic strain isolated from patients with lower respiratory tract infection were subcloned to upstream of green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene to regulate expression of GFP followed by standard method. Applying flow cytometry measurement (FCM) to analyze the expression pattern of bla CTX-M-14 in single cell using GFP as the report genes. The expression pattern of cells after cultured with different ceftriaxone concentrations ranging from 0μg/ml to 2048μg/ml was also analyzed. Using the E-test method to measure the MIC to ceftriaxone.

Results: Variation in GFP expression from cell to cell was seen (The fluorescence intensity of different cells vary largely, ranging from 102 to 105). The resistance level to ceftroaxone was positively correlated with the expression level, with increment of the extracellular ceftroaxone concentrations, the proportion of cells with more GFP abundance increasing. We also found the epigenetic resistance phenotype mediated by the heterogeneous expression was non-strictly inheritable and have a transient property .

Conclusions: Heterogeneous expression of antibiotic genes other than nucleotide alterations in genetically identical cells may be one of the reasons for diverse antibiotic resistance level.


Al-base and Fe-base powders have been amorphized by a high energy milling process in an Attritor miller. Microstructural evolution in powder particles has been analyzed by XRD, DSC, SEM and TEM. The conventional route of cold pressing and sintering applied to these powders does not result adequate to preserve their amorphous or nanometric character. An additional disadvantage of this route appears during the cold pressing stage, as a consequence of the insufficient green strength of the compacts, due to the high hardness of the milled powders. In order to avoid these difficulties a new consolidation technique, electrical resistance sintering (ERS), has been successfully employed. ERS consolidated compacts have been microstructurally characterized by optical microscopy and XRD, showing that compacts preserve their amorphous and/or nanometric character.


Fabrication process of efficient Yb/sup 3+/,Er/sup 3+/ codoped phosphosilicate fibers by modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) combined with the solution doping technique is studied in detail. We show that the process can be adapted to incorporate low viscosity phosphate glass and some important issues in the fabrication process are discussed. These include the sensitive presintering pass. We also report on the fabrication of a low loss all-glass double clad Yb/sup 3+/:Er/sup 3+/ codoped fiber. We explain how we evaluate the fibers and discuss the effect of the ytterbium to erbium concentration ratio on the laser characteristics. Finally, we present results of some investigations into the mechanisms which can affect the efficiency of the lasers, and show that the detrimental up-conversion from the metastable level of the erbium ions is dramatically reduced by the presence of the ytterbium ions.


Hemp fibers are one of the strongest and stiffest available natural fibers and therefore have great potential for use in composite materials. This paper investigated the impact response of reinforcing polypropylene (PP) by hemp fibers. Hemp fibers were added at (30 wt.%, 33 wt.%, 35 wt.%, 37 wt.%, and 40 wt.%). Influence of fiber's content on composite tensile strength and strain were revealed and the results show that at 33 wt.% the tensile strength of PP and hemp fiber composites was improved by 12.75 %. At 33 wt.% the fibers were longitudinally, at 45 , horizontally, and randomly oriented. The influence of fiber's orientation on both stress and strain of the composites was studied and the results show that the tensile strength of the composites when the fibers were longitudinally oriented was higher than that of the other fiber's orientation. Also the tensile strength of the composites at 33 wt.% was highly improved when the fibers were weaved and the tensile strength of the composite was improved by 25.98 %. The effect of hemp fiber on the hardness of PP was deliberated where the hardness of the composite was increased by 5.77 % better than that of pure PP.


In this article I examine how the inhabitants of the city with an immigrant background experience the public space in a suburb of Helsinki: how Finnish diversity is produced as lived everyday practices. The data analyzed in the article consists of interviews of 26 inhabitants who have an immigrant background. The starting point is to analyze the shape of interethnic encounters and how they are formed in relation to public spaces. The article rests on the idea of urban space as constantly produced and altered through social practices and cultural meanings combined with intersectionality. I analyze the interviews applying the concepts cosmopolitan canopy and conviviality. These concepts refer to the idea that a semi-public urban space encourages people to adopt a positive attitude towards one another in a way that reflects civility and tolerance. In these kinds of spaces ethnicity and race can be and often are visible but unpronounced factors, which give potential to cross the possible ethnic boundaries. On the one hand, my analysis supports these ideas: people experience their city as a positive multicultural space. However, on the other hand, racism is a very common experience among the interviewees. The differences in the experiences are related to intersectionality and how one is positioned in regard to different social hierarchical categories and the social resources s/he has access to. All in all, the experiences are framed by Finnish immigration policy and discussions regarding the issue. These both affect the everyday life of the inhabitants of the city.


BACKGROUND
Worldwide, several bodies produce renal guidelines, potentially leading to duplication of effort while other topics may remain uncovered. A collaborative work plan could improve efficiency and impact, but requires a common approved methodology. The aim of this study was to identify organizational and methodological similarities and differences among seven major renal guideline bodies to identify methodological barriers to a collaborative effort.

METHODS
An electronic 62-item survey with questions based on the Institute of Medicine standards for guidelines was completed by representatives of seven major organizations producing renal guidelines: the Canadian Society of Nephrology (CSN), European Renal Best Practice (ERBP), Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcome (KDIGO), Kidney Health Australia-Caring for Australians with Renal Insufficiency (KHA-CARI), Kidney Disease Outcome Quality Initiative (KDOQI), Sociedad Latino-Americano de Nefrologia e Hipertension (SLANH) and United Kingdom Renal Association (UK-RA).

RESULTS
Five of the seven groups conduct systematic searches for evidence, two include detailed critical appraisal and all use the GRADE framework. Five have public review of the guideline draft. Guidelines are updated as new evidence comes up in all, and/or after a specified time frame has passed (N = 3). Commentaries or position statements on guidelines published by other groups are produced by five, with the ADAPTE framework (N = 1) and the AGREEII (N = 2) used by some. Funding is from their parent organizations (N = 5) or directly from industry (N = 2). None allow funders to influence topic selection or guideline content. The budgets to develop a full guideline vary from $2000 to $500 000. Guideline development groups vary in size from <5 (N = 1) to 13-20 persons (N = 3). Three explicitly seek patient perspectives, for example, by involving patients in the scoping process, and four incorporate health economic considerations. All provide training in methodology for guideline development groups and six make their methods public. All try to avoid overlapping topics already planned or published by others. There is no common conflict of interest policy.

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, there is considerable commonality in methods and approaches in renal guideline development by the different organizations, although some procedural differences remain. As the financial and human resource costs of guideline production are high, a collaborative approach is required to maximize impact and develop a sustainable work plan. Coming to consensus on methods and procedures is the first step and appears feasible.


Basal metabolic rate (BMR), the sum of maintenance energy costs, represents a major component of the energy budgets of ectothermic vertebrates and varies between individuals within a species. Individual ectotherms are generally assumed to have a constant BMR at any given temperature. A strategy of flexibility in BMR might have evolved to cope with differing environmental conditions. Within-individual variation in BMR was examined in two fishes, juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and juvenile northern pike Esox lucius, whilst the effects of exercise and ration on BMR, maximum metabolic rate (MMR), enzyme levels and body composition were studied in detail for pike. In the first part of the study, measurements of BMR were made for first-summer Atlantic salmon parr at rest by respirometry. In 1996, initial measurements of BMR were made for 25 fish held in a stock tank. Fish were then allocated in small groups to channels to represent a change in environment and BMR re-measured after a period of several weeks. The procedure was repeated for 30 fish in the summer of 1997, when fish were given a reduced food ration. Variation in BMR in each experiment was analysed for individual fish, and for all fish using a linear mixed model. There were statistically significant differences in BMR values between the two times, the within-individual, between-time variation representing approximately ± 21% of BMR in 1996 and ± 28% of BMR in 1997. Reduced-rafion fish (1997) displayed a significant decrease in the mean elevation of the allometric scaling relationship between body mass and BMR between time periods. To further explore possible mechanisms for flexibility in BMR and relationships with MMR, juvenile pike were used. Initial measurements of BMR and MMR (following exhaustive exercise) were made and factorial metabolic scope calculated (MMR/BMR). Fish were then split into a high ration no-exercise group (n = 10), low ration no-exercise group (n = 10) and sustained exercise group (n = 13). Initial measurements were termed time 1, with subsequent measurements made after approximately 3 weeks (time 2) and 11 weeks (time 3). Exercised fish had a significantly larger MMR and scope following 3 weeks of sustained swimming. For all fish there were significant correlations between BMR and MMR at times 1 and 3 but not at time 2.After the oxygen measurements made at time 3 all fish were humanely killed. Maximal enzyme assays were performed on six tissues for each remaining fish (n = 30). Levels of each of two enzymes (citrate synthase, CS, and lactate dehydrogenase, LDH, measured in the direction of lactate oxidation) were found to be similar between treatment groups for respective tissues. Total CS activity levels and LDH levels were highest in the heart and red muscle. In general there was little difference in the relative organ masses of fish exposed to different treatments. It is concluded that in these two fish species with very different life styles, between- and within- individual variation in BMR (salmon & pike) and MMR (pike only) is apparent and that differences in ration and exercise influence individual physiology.


Significance Wheat is a globally important food crop that suffers major yield losses due to outbreaks of severe disease. A better mechanistic understanding of how wheat responds to pathogen attack could identify new strategies for enhancing disease resistance. Here, we discover six pathogen-induced biosynthetic pathways that share a common regulatory network and form part of an orchestrated defense response. Investigation of the wheat genome reveals that these pathways are each encoded by biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs). We further show that these BGCs produce flavonoids and terpenes that may serve as phytoalexins or defense-related signaling molecules. Our results provide key insights into the molecular basis of biotic stress responses in wheat and open potential avenues for crop improvement.


Whilst a global transition towards sustainability appears to be a pressing challenge, several surveys have shown that sustainable principles and values seem to emerge on a global scale. Various social movements have laid claim to such a transition. An example of these movements is the No TAV movement in the lower part of the Susa Valley in Italy. Since the 1990s, this area has been the scene of a territorial conflict pitting the local inhabitants against the Italian state on a 54km long railway tunnel project under the Alps. By strongly rejecting this project and collective participation in numerous resistance movements, the Low-Valsusans have gradually become a territorialized community whose members seem to share a set of sustainable principles and values. In our research, we have questioned the impact of this very peculiar context on the local small and medium entrepreneurs, trying to find out if they are sharing the sustainable norms of their community, and whether it influences their activities. Are the Low-Valsusan entrepreneurs currently in transition towards a sustainable solidarity economy? We have been able to portray an ongoing social innovation process in the lower part of the Susa Valley through which these entrepreneurs are gradually getting involved in the implementation of the sustainable principles and values of their community. After the introduction of our transdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework, this paper will describe this peculiar social innovation process that seems to be currently transforming the Low-Valsusan entrepreneurs' activities.


The friction force on wafer surface plays an important role in removing material of wafer surface and the friction force on wafer surface may have a direct influence on non-uniformity of material removal in wafer CMP process. In this paper, models of friction force on wafer surface were built according to the CMP process. It is proved that the model of the friction force on the wafer surface is correct by the silicon wafer CMP Friction experiment. Then the data fitting of friction model has been done with the experimental data. By the friction force model, the within wafer nonuniformity (WIWNU) of friction force distribution on wafer surface has been obtained with different rotational speed of wafer and polishing pad. The research of this paper is helpful to further understanding the material removal mechanism in wafer CMP.


Using data spanning 200 years we examine the nature of the long-run cointegrating behaviour between real output and real stock prices. A standard cointegration framework demonstrates that such a long-run relationship exists with both variables exhibiting significant equilibrium reversion, albeit quicker for stock prices. To further examine the nature of the equilibrium we consider two exercises. First, we consider possible time-variation in the cointegrating vector, for which we find evidence. Second, we separate the fundamental and bubble components within stock prices. Our results indicate that failure to account for these two issues can lead to errors in determining the nature of any disequilibrium between the two series, including the size and sign of the disequilibrium. Furthermore, our results reveal that the bubble component has a significant impact on future values of output growth. An out-of-sample forecasting exercise for returns shows that the time-varying model performs best and may beat the market. These results have implications for policy-makers and market practitioners alike. For the former, they are interested in the impact of stock market behaviour of the real economy, while the latter group are interested in any possible information about future stock prices.


Author: William S. Read Title: The Evolution of Dirt: Real Estate in the Age of Disruption Supervising Professors: Greg F. Hallman, Ph.D.; Steven M. Bowers, J.D. "We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." -Winston Churchill A physical building is designed to weather the test of time, however, it becomes obsolete when it no longer provides an environment that people demand. Real estate developers are always trying to anticipate future consumer demands for space. It is hard to predict with any certainty how future technological innovations will affect those demands. This forces developers to rely on historical data, personal experience, and an innate "gut" feeling as to how to design a building. In this current climate of rapid technological innovation, how people occupy and use space is changing right in front of our eyes, and the consequences of that innovation should serve to separate the winners (innovators) in the real estate business from the losers. This thesis examines various ways in which twenty-first century technology innovations are transforming the real estate industry.


The dynamics of propagation and disintegration of laminar liquid jets moving in air has been investigated theoretically. It is assumed that the jet is thin, i.e. the ratio of the characteristic transverse size to the longitudinal one is small. It is assumed also that the lateral surface of the jet is free of shearing forces and is 'almost free' of normal ones in the sense that the normal tractions other than isotropic pressure are small in comparison with the internal stresses acting in the jet cross-section. Asymptotic quasi-one-dimensional equations of the continuity, momentum and moment of momentum of liquid motion in the jet have been derived. These equations were used as a basis for studying the process of growth of long-wave bending (transverse) disturbances of high-velocity jets of circular cross-section during their motion through air. The instability condition has been obtained and the growth rate of small bending disturbances of the jet has been found; the evolution of the jet shape at the stage of finite disturbances is investigated.


Mixed pine-oak forests are exposed to extreme environmental conditions where water availability is a limiting factor and climatic change makes the conditions for plant grow even more acute. In addition, unsustainable management contributes to the acceleration of forest degradation and deforestation in great parts of the mountain due to anthropogenic stresses like forest fires, agricultural, silvo-pastural and silvicultural activities, why natural regeneration and reforestation are difficult. The response of ecosystems to such climatic and anthropogenic stresses will depend in part on the drought tolerance capabilities of the individual species. In order to develop and apply sustainable management or reforestation programs, detailed knowledge about the physical condition of tree species and their capacity to respond to a dynamic environment is an important precondition. The objectives of our study were to assess and quantify how seasonal plant water potentials (Ψw) and osmotic potentials (Ψs) are related to soil water availability and evaporative demand components in four tree species (Acacia rigidula, Juniperus flaccida, Pinus pseudostrobus, and Quercus canbyi) under natural drought and non-drought conditions in the Sierra Madre Oriental. All species showed high predawn and low midday values that declined progressively with increasing drought and soil-water loss. During the dry period, juniper and oak had the lowest Ψw and Ψs while A. rigidula maintained relatively high values. However, J. flaccida and Q. canbyi recovered high water potentials during the wet months indicating their capacity to overcome drought. A. rigidula had a wide range between predawn and midday Ψw during the dry season suggesting drought resistance. Ψw was positively correlated with soil water content for Q. canbyi and J. flaccida, and between 30 % and 47 % of temporal variation in predawn water potential (Ψwpd) was explained by soil water content. Ψs was correlated with climatic variables for J. flaccida and Q. canbyi. Finally, A. rigidula, Q. canbyi, and J. flaccida had better capacity to withstand drought than pine, and are considered as suitable candidates for reforestation programs on dry sites in the Sierra Madre Oriental in Mexico.


Microphoretic application of acetylcholine (ACH) to the neurones of the rabbit sensorimotor cortex elicits changes of spontaneous and evoked activity which do not correlate with one another and which persist up to two minutes after the end of ACH application. Following the formation of a defensive conditioned reflex to sound, the reactions to ACH in units involved in the formation of the temporary connection are intensified as compared with their reactions before conditioning and with reactions of those neurones which did not elaborate a temporary connection. The possible mechanisms of ACH participation in the processes of elaboration and fixation of temporary connections are discussed.


Heathlands are cultural landscapes which are managed through cyclical cutting, burning or grazing practices. Understanding the carbon (C) fluxes from these ecosystems provides information on the optimal management cycle time to maximise C uptake and minimise C output. The interpretation of field data into annual C loss values requires the use of soil respiration models. These generally include model variables related to the underlying drivers of soil respiration, such as soil temperature, soil moisture and plant activity. Very few studies have used selection procedures in which structurally different models are calibrated, then validated on separate observation datasets and the outcomes critically compared. We present thorough model selection procedures to determine soil heterotrophic (microbial) and autotrophic (root) respiration for a heathland chronosequence and show that soil respiration models are required to correct the effect of experimental design on soil temperature. Measures of photosynthesis, plant biomass, photosynthetically active radiation, root biomass, and microbial biomass did not significantly improve model fit when included with soil temperature. This contradicts many current studies in which these plant variables are used (but not often tested for parameter significance). We critically discuss a number of alternative ecosystem variables associated with soil respiration processes in order to inform future experimental planning and model variable selection at other heathland field sites. The best predictive model used a generalized linear multi-level model with soil temperature as the only variable. Total annual soil C loss from the young, middle and old communities was calculated to be 650, 462 and 435 g C m −2 yr −1 , respectively.


This study examines citations of archival material in a sample of 136 recently-published scholarly historical monographs produced by a selection of highly-cited American university presses, with the goal of discovering patterns in scholarly user reportage of archival use. The study found that 68% of the titles referenced at least one archival collection, that archival collections housed at universities were used more often than other types of repositories, that citations to physical archival collections far outnumbered citations to digital archival collections and that the amount and type of of repositories did not in most cases vary based on historical subject matter of the book. The findings could potentially provide a baseline by which further and more diverse archival use and users can be measured.


BACKGROUND The request in the urgency service for attention in acute asthma is determined by multiple factors as the medical handling, the constancy and the pursuance of the patient in the adequate follow up of the treatment, the climate, the food hygienic habits and the allergies. OBJECTIVE To determine in one year period, the frequency, recurrence of medical attention for acute asthma and the cost in the hospital urgency service of second level in medical attention. MATERIAL AND METHODS We made an analysis of a secondary study done in 1999 in pediatric patients younger than 16 years with diagnosis of acute asthma. RESULTS From 6,912 consultations given in the pediatric emergency area, 2,586 were from acute asthma, the half was 5.2 years old patients, the minimal average time a patient had to stay in the hospital per month was of 7.36 hours in January and the maximum average time was of 22.10 hours in the month of September. Regarding the frequency of attendance in the service for a new event, the following distribution was found: from two to three 25.72%, from 4 to 6 10.1% and from 7 to 15 0.96%. The cost of the attention had a total cost of 5'787,494.82 pesos. CONCLUSIONS The frequency of acute asthma was 41.58% and this figure was considered high in comparison to similar studies. The clinic evolution and the treatment response are related to the age, and, in the study results, the patients younger than 3 years had a longer stay in the hospital, also, there was an increase of patients in the rainy months. The frequency of patients who assisted between 2 or 3 times and the cost was 387,123.00 pesos. That frequency may be due to patients did not receive a long-term treatment provision, or because of ignorance in the initial rescue treatment, ignorance in the factors that raise the sickness, as well as patients not taking their treatment the way it was asked by the doctors. These factors increase the cost, which is feasible to be modifyied, if the patients and their families get acknowledge on the importance of respecting the instructions on the proper way of treating the acute asthma, and all the triggering factors of it.


This article presents part of the initial stages of a research project exploring the design processes through which the Commonwealth preserves the names of the dead in perpetuity. It will focus principally on how the names of the dead are recorded. It will examine the process of documenting the position of the graves and the names of the dead in battle fields, how the names were ordered in indices, classified by location within the cemetery registers, verified by next of kin by means of 'V' forms, accessed by the public through cemetery maps using a system of plot and row coordinates and finally preserved through inscriptional lettering on headstones and memorials.


This study aims to determine students' mathematics learning outcome in the material Lines and Angles discussion of the relationship between the angle, the position of the two lines, properties and large corner angles in class VII MTs Islamiyah field in the academic year 2016/2017. This research is a classroom action research conducted in 2 cycles including planning, implementation, observation and reflection activities. While to know the student's ability, researchers used the test results of students' individual and group. The subject of this research is the students of class VII-3 MTs Islamiyah Medan which amounted to 22 people consisting of 8 male students and 14 female students. Before giving the action, the percentage of students' classical completeness is seen from the pretest given by the teacher by giving post test of cycle I and post test cycle II with the validated problem. From the results of this class action, the researchers conclude their students' mathematics learning outcome and recommend on implementing learning to teach the material to develop Genius Learning Strategy Learning.


Ammonia oxidation in marine and estuarine sediments plays a pivotal role in the cycling and removal of nitrogen. Recent reports have shown that the newly discovered ammonia-oxidizing archaea can be both abundant and diverse in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. In this study, we examined the abundance and diversity of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and betaproteobacteria (beta-AOB) across physicochemical gradients in San Francisco Bay--the largest estuary on the west coast of the USA. In contrast to reports that AOA are far more abundant than beta-AOB in both terrestrial and marine systems, our quantitative PCR estimates indicated that beta-AOB amoA (encoding ammonia monooxygenase subunit A) copy numbers were greater than AOA amoA in most of the estuary. Ammonia-oxidizing archaea were only more pervasive than beta-AOB in the low-salinity region of the estuary. Both AOA and beta-AOB communities exhibited distinct spatial structure within the estuary. AOA amoA sequences from the north part of the estuary formed a large and distinct low-salinity phylogenetic group. The majority of the beta-AOB sequences were closely related to other marine/estuarine Nitrosomonas-like and Nitrosospira-like sequences. Both ammonia-oxidizer community composition and abundance were strongly correlated with salinity. Ammonia-oxidizing enrichment cultures contained AOA and beta-AOB amoA sequences with high similarity to environmental sequences. Overall, this study significantly enhances our understanding of estuarine ammonia-oxidizing microbial communities and highlights the environmental conditions and niches under which different AOA and beta-AOB phylotypes may thrive.


This paper presents a thermal power plant retrofitting approach focused on improvements in the operational flexibility of existing combined cycle power plants dedicated to providing thermal energy for medium and low‐temperature processes in copper mining facilities. The main motivation for this research was aimed at evaluating the operational flexibility of the electrical industry through sector coupling and its effect on solving the energy sector decarbonization issues. The research evaluates the advantages of hybridization systems for supporting the electrical and mining industries to better predict operations. The proposed approach is based on a dynamic simulation scheme that finds the optimal operating parameters of the combined heat and power (CHP) system, such as location, type, and arrangement of each component of the CHP system. The power plant dynamic simulation model was validated against data available in the literature; it was also characterized by real operational data of the San Isidro II power plant installed in Chile. Several alternatives for the cogeneration plant location, as well as the splitter system design, were investigated and then compared. A cogeneration plant design with two heating modules was selected based on the comparative study performed in this work and its CHP system was evaluated for a load reduction case study. The results were compared against a reference model. The proposed CHP system exhibited improved performance: a minimum of 15% of the exhaust gases are required to supply the thermal energy demand of the electrowinning process when a full load is considered. It was also found that an average decrease of 5% of the mechanical power at each steam turbine stage noted. Finally, the proposed CHP system's average thermodynamic efficiency is found to be 19% greater than the power plant average efficiency. Consequently, an average decrease of 32 500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year is predicted.


We propose new algorithms for implementing a software-defined data center (SDDC) to improve the dependability of storage systems without the addition of new hardware. We define the construction of a system that can predict its future resource requirements and act on these predictions to allocate overprovisioned resources to improve reliability. We introduce algorithms for implementing a smart SDDC (SSDDC) that characterizes user I/O transactions (writes and deletes), and use these models to predict the level of overprovisioning within a system, overbooking excess resources to improve reliability, while mitigating the impact on quality of service. We compare several implementations of our methods experimentally, and discuss methods for improving the fault-tolerance of our S2DDC, present experimental results showcasing our ability to improve system reliability showing the decrease in expected annual block loss due to disk failures and latent sector errors, and highlight the benefit of dependence based usage models in estimating overprovisioning.


Wireless broadband communications such as UWB, WiMAX et. al. have been put into services in Japan, in order to realize high-speed transmission systems. Such a system enables to transmit movies from a person to the other person in the winking of an eye. To realize such wireless broadband communications, wideband antennas have been required. This paper describes the bandwidth limitations of ultra-wideband antennas and its downsizing techniques for wireless broadband communications. First, the bandwidth limitation of wideband antennas is shown by data of wideband characteristics of many kinds of antennas reported in the recent papers. Next, the bandwidth limitations of ultra-wideband antennas are described. Finally, in order to downsize ultra-wideband antennas, rounded disc monopole antennas are proposed, and the limitations of the relative bandwidth and the lowest frequency of small- sized card antennas are clarified.


International Relations scholars routinely credit Christian actors with helping to create the modern international humanitarian order by institutionalizing principles of care and assistance within global governance. As this humanitarian order has become more secularized, however, faith-based reflections have been sidelined in secular academic work on humanitarian issues. This article reflects on the opportunities for dialogue and mutual engagement following the critical turn in International Relations scholarship over recent years. It highlights the development of International Relations thinking on the normative dimensions of the international humanitarian order and shows how their critiques of a secular order have created a window for engagement with the intellectual resources of the Christian traditions. Developing meeting places for engaging on deeper questions of ontologies of practice provides an opportunity to pursue a richer vision of global humanitarian endeavours, to the benefit of all.


Abstract : The thermal characteristics of a Hall thruster directly influence thruster and spacecraft design. High temperatures affect the magnetic coil capabilities and cause higher insulator erosion rates, influencing both thruster performance and lifetime. The Hall thruster transfers heat through both radiation and conduction, and the spacecraft must handle this additional thermal energy. An infrared camera provides a non-intrusive method to analyze the thermal characteristics of an operational Hall thruster. This thesis contains the thermal analysis of a Busek Co. Inc. 200 W Hall thruster, using a FLIR ThermaCAM SC640 infrared camera. The Space Propulsion Analysis and System Simulator Laboratory at the Air Force Institute of Technology on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base provided the location for thruster set up and operation. The infrared camera furnishes the surface temperatures for the entire thruster, and approximates the transient heating behavior during start up, steady state, and shut down. Thermocouples verify and correct the camera data. Experimentally determined emissivities characterize the materials of the thruster. In addition, a view factor analysis between the camera pixels and the alumina sprayed portion of the cathode determines the exchange of radiation between the pixels and cathode surface. This process develops a technique to map surface temperatures of complex geometries with confidence in the actual values. Accurately mapping the surface temperatures of a Hall Effect thruster will improve both thruster efficiency and lifetime, and predict the thruster's thermal load on a satellite.


This field-based study investigated the effect of an instructional strategy with two schedules of augmented knowledge-of-performance (KP) feedback on skill acquisition of a selected shooting task. Students enrolled in university rifle classes (N=135) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) instructional strategy (IS) with KP feedback after every trial, (b) IS with summary KP feedback, and (c) no IS with no KP feedback. Data collection consisted of (a) a pretest phase (one set of five trials) and (b) an acquisition phase (four sets of five trials). Instructional integrity was maintained during data collection so that students were treated as class participants. The findings indicated that (a) the presence of the instructional strategy in conjunction with the two feedback schedules appeared to positively effect the overall shooting performance as compared to no strategy/no KP, (b) the effects of the two KP schedules did not statistically differ from one another, and (c) the significant effect...


We prove the existence of an increasing equilibrium, and study the comparative statics of correlation in the k-double auction with affiliated private values. This is supposedly the simplest bilateral trading mechanism that allows for dependence in valuations between buyers and sellers. In the case k ?{0 ,1} there exists a unique equilibrium in non-dominated strategies. Using this equilibrium we show that correlation has a dual effect on strategic bidding. It might impose bidders to become more or less aggressive depending on their private valuation, and on the level of correlation. In the case k ? (0 ,1), we prove the existence of a family of strictly increasing equilibria, and demonstrate them using examples. Moreover, we show that equilibria in the case of independent private values are pointwise limits of equilibria with strictly affiliated private values.


This classic textbook covers the social, economic and political history of Italy from unification in 1870 to the present time. This new edition brings students right up to date, with increased coverage of the the 1980's and 90's and a new section on the turbulent reign of Silvio Berlusconi. Other changes include updating the coverage of Liberal Italy and Fascism in the light of recent scholarship and changes in historiographical approach, additional material on Italian popular culture and a new chronology.


IZA DP No. 15305 MAY 2022 Housing Unaffordability and Adolescent Subjective Well-Being in China Using the 2010-2018 waves of the China Family Panel Studies, we investigate the impact of housing unaffordability on subjective well-being (SWB) among Chinese adolescents aged 10-15. Using a combined methodology of propensity score matching and fixed effects and instrumental variable estimations, we show that housing unaffordability leads to higher levels of depression, with more pronounced impacts among older adolescents (aged 13-15), those from migrant and urban families, and those living in regions with high housing prices and expensive living costs. These results are robust not only to alternative housing unaffordability and SWB measures but to a series of estimation approaches that control for endogeneity. An additional structural equation modelling analysis of underlying pathways further reveals that this housing unaffordability-SWB relation is mediated by paternal depression and (lower) adolescent trust in parents. JEL Classification: D10, I10, I31, J13, R21


Environmental health literacy (EHL) has recently been defined as the continuum of environmental health knowledge and awareness, skills and self-efficacy, and community action. In this study, an interdisciplinary team of university scientists, partnering with local organizations, developed and facilitated EHL trainings with special focus on rainwater harvesting and water contamination, in four communities with known environmental health stressors in Arizona, USA. These participatory trainings incorporated participants' prior environmental health risk knowledge and personal experiences to co-create training content. Mixed methods evaluation was conducted via pre-post participant surveys in all four trainings (n = 53). Participants who did not demonstrate baseline environmental science knowledge pre-training demonstrated significant knowledge increase post-training, and participants who demonstrated low self-efficacy (SE) pre-training demonstrated a significant increase in SE post-training. Participants overall demonstrated a significant increase in specific environmental health skills described post-training. The interdisciplinary facilitator-scientist team also reported multiple benefits, including learning local knowledge that informed further research, and building trust relationships with community members for future collaboration. We propose contextual EHL education as a valuable strategy for increasing EHL in environmental health risk communities, and for building academia-community partnerships for environmental health research and action.


Reforming higher education and science in the world is associated with the widespread introduction of the indicators aimed at promoting their sustainability, productivity, and efficiency. The introduction of new educational technologies and the development of networks in education allow us to speak about the effect of increasing returns and mostly positive feedback. The instability inherent in such processes is an important factor for institutional change. Higher education and the professions associated with it, become large-scaled, which determines the use of indicators in the management plan. Exogenously introduced target indicators of development negatively affect the existing academic freedom and values, as well as hinder their reproduction.
This paper attempts to understand the limitations of quantitative indicators and their impact on the adaptive strategies of the actors achieving them. We think that it is necessary to pay more attention to the problems of academic culture and values as important factors in both economic and social performance. It should be considered that education as a specific type of activity and institution is associated with the production of public goods and trust, and performs an important social function. We scrutinize the system of higher education through the prism of applying development target indicators as a tool of public policy. Our results seem to justify the importance of integrating institutions, values and self-governance mechanisms that promote long-term sustainable development.


This Article proposes a new approach to "anti-aggregation agreements" — contractual provisions that purport to prohibit parties from participating in class actions and other aggregate proceedings. Anti-aggregation agreements are permitted by Supreme Court doctrine under the Federal Arbitration Act but eliminate financial incentives for attorneys to seek out and prosecute wrongdoing. Where private litigation performs an important deterrent function, anti-aggregation agreements raise the prospect that protected companies will be permitted to violate the law with impunity.Taking the Supreme Court's arbitration doctrine as a given, the Article argues that an anti-aggregation agreement's enforceability should be tied to its effect on actual regulatory compliance. Consistent with the Court's preference for privately-designed dispute-resolution procedure, this test allows an anti-aggregation agreement to be enforced by default. But if a party shows that the agreement permits significant, unremedied wrongdoing, the agreement is not enforced.In contrast to the leading approach in the doctrine and scholarship, this test allows enforcement of anti-aggregation agreements that eliminate claiming against a protected company. At the same time, the test invalidates agreements that result in substantial wrongdoing, regardless of their effect on claiming. In doing so, the test ties the decision not to enforce an anti-aggregation agreement to a fact of normative and legal significance. Where it is shown that enforcement of an agreement permits significant unremedied wrongdoing, there can be little doubt that eliminating incentives for private attorneys to enforce the law creates an impermissible gap in the regulatory enforcement framework.


The legality of the 2003 invasion of Iraq has has attracted intense scholarly and public scrutiny. The academic debate surrounding the legal dimensions to the United States' post-invasion actions in Iraq, however, has been far less robust. In particular, scholars have paid comparatively limited attention to the manner in which the U.S. -- the self-acknowledged occupying power in Iraq -- complied with the international law of occupation and, more specifically, the conservationist principle, which together contemplate that occupying states will endeavor to preserve the status quo ante bellum in the occupied state and uphold existing laws, unless "absolutely prevented" from doing so. The academic literature to date on the legal dimensions to the United States' occupation of Iraq can be loosely characterized as taking one of two theoretical approaches. First, some scholars remain focused solely on the relevance of occupation law to contemporary occupations (arguing that it is, in fact, anachronistic and therefore was not fully applicable to the occupation of Iraq), thereby truncating serious investigation to the legal questions attendant to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Second, scholars that do attribute relevance and legal authority to the traditional law of occupation as applied to contemporary occupations rely exclusively on U.S. sources (as opposed to Iraqi sources) to evaluate America's compliance with the law of occupation in its occupation of Iraq. Both approaches are incomplete. In an attempt to address the weaknesses in the existing literature on the subject, the Article makes a distincitve contribution: It relies primarily on the minutes kept and resolutions adopted by the Iraqi Governing Council (the "IGC") (the quasi-governmental body established by the Coalition Provisional Authority in June of 2003 and officially recognized in U.N. General Assembly Resolutions 1483 and 1511 prior to its dissolution in June 2004) to examine the relevance of occupation law to contemporary, state-building occupations and, in turn, to determine the degree to which the United States adhered to its legal mandate as the occupying power in Iraq. Until now, Iraqi perspectives on the U.S. occupation of Iraq have been absent from the debate. Given that the the raison d'etre of the international law of occupation is to protect and uphold the human rights of the occupied population, it is only natural that scholars examine the legality of the occupation of Iraq from the perspective of the rights-holders themselves -- who are, in this case, the Iraqis, of whom the IGC was the principal representative entity. Relying principally on the insights provided by the hitherto unreferenced resolutions adopted and meeting minutes kept by the IGC, this Article provides compelling justifications for the application of the conservationist principle -- the axiom of occupation law -- to contemporary, state-building occupations, while also casting incriminating shadows upon the United States' adherence to certain of its obligations under occupation law as the occupying power in Iraq. In addition to examining the relevance of the law of occupation to contemporary occupations and the United States' adherence to this law in its occupation of Iraq, the Article extends arguments of other scholars by proposing modifications to the traditional law of occupation. Such modifications would enable states to more effectively balance the tension between traditional occupation law and the realities of contemporary, state-building occupations that require drastic transformations to the economic, political, and legal infrastructure of the occupied state. Specifically, the Article contributes to the growing body of literature on the emerging international legal doctrine, jus post bellum, by outlining three fundamental principles that must supplement the existing proposals related to the jus post bellum law of transformative occupations. Foremost among these principles is the necessity of preserving popular sovereignty during transformative occupations in the form of an executive council made up of elected citizen representatives from the occupied state that have veto power over all proposed reforms to the legal, economic, and political infrastructure of the occupied state. These principles, if implemented, will more effectively uphold the rights of the sovereign, occupied population while concomitantly providing for certain political and economic transformations to the occupied state in instances where the rights of the ousted or fallen, de jure government are not worth protecting, as was the case in Iraq.


The field of ambient environments and ubiquitous computing has matured greatly over the past 20 years. We are no longer building toy applications but are focusing on real applications that have real impacts on user. We must now consider usability concerns when designing these applications, and particularly support for intelligibility, or the ability of applications to explain their behavior. This paper discusses the importance of intelligibility, particularly for applications that model human activity, and describe work my group has conducted in understanding how users understand these applications and toolkit support for intelligibility.


Given recent focus on large rivers as conduits for excess nutrients to coastal zones, their role in processing and retaining nutrients has been overlooked and understudied. Empirical measurements of nutrient uptake in large rivers are lacking, despite a substantial body of knowledge on nutrient transport and removal in smaller streams. Researchers interested in nutrient transport by rivers (discharge >10000 L/s) are left to extrapolate riverine nutrient demand using a modeling framework or a mass balance approach. To begin to fill this knowledge gap, we present data using a pulse method to measure inorganic nitrogen. (N) transport and removal in the Upper Snake River, Wyoming, USA (seventh order, discharge 12000 L/s). We found that the Upper Snake had surprisingly high biotic demand relative to smaller streams in the same river network for both ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3-). Placed in the context of a meta-analysis of previously published nutrient uptake studies, these data suggest that large rivers may have similar biotic demand for N as smaller tributaries. We also found that demand for different forms of inorganic N (NH4+ vs. NO3-) scaled differently with stream size. Data from rivers like the Upper Snake and larger are essential for effective water quality management at the scale of river networks. Empirical measurements of solute dynamics in large rivers are needed to understand the role of whole river networks (as opposed to stream reaches) in patterns of nutrient export at regional and continental scales.


The study is conducted to determine the effect of quenching and tempering processes on microstructural evolutions and abrasive properties of medium carbon-high chromium steel. For this purpose, Austenitizing was performed at the temperatures of 1000 °C for 15 min followed by oil quenching. To determine the optimum tempering temperature, tempering temperatures were selected in the temperature ranges of 350-550°C. The samples cryogenically treated immediately after quenching in liquid nitrogen (-196°C) for 24 hrs. Dry sand/rubber wheel test was used to evaluate the wear resistance properties. Microstructural observation, fractography and retain austenite was evaluated by optical and scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The results show that the best wear resistance can be obtained at the tempering temperature of 500°C, due to the reduction of a tendency to micro-cracking, decrease in internal stresses and improvement of impact energy. Observation of the worn surfaces revealed that the wear mechanisms after tempering at 450°C are a combination of abrasive, adhesive and fatigue wear. However, abrasive wear is the only active wear mechanism for specimen tempered at 500°C. In addition, wear resistance of deep cryogenically treated sample was significantly increased (about 25%) by the removal of retained austenite and formation of uniform fine carbides distribution in the matrix.


Abstract:This article explores the reasons behind the relatively slow diffusion of washing machines in interwar America and the rise and decline of a distinctive marketing strategy employed to accelerate diffusion: door-to-door sales. Washers represented a particularly difficult selling challenge, as many white-collar households (and, in the South, most white families) had already outsourced some, or all, of their washing, to a laundress or a commercial laundry. Consumer resistance to machine washing was particularly strong in the South, reflecting both the greater availability and lower cost of black domestic servants, together with attitudes, inherited from the slavery era, that clothes washing was beneath the dignity of white women. During the 1920s, washers were mainly sold door-to-door, by salesmen who focused primarily on the large number of blue-collar families who relied on manual home washing. The Depression witnessed a change in the washer market, with a greater emphasis on over-the-counter selling and price competition. Yet diffusion remained relatively slow, as the sector failed to provide a machine that would give housewives what they wanted—a means of doing their laundry within the privacy of the family unit, without significant inputs of either effort or time.


Consideration is given to energy transfer in solids between donors and acceptors under conditions in which the number and position of available acceptors change with time. Theoretical expressions and a simulation model are developed and shown to agree with one another. The application of this model to cerium-doped yttrium-aluminum-garnet is discussed. >


To ensure stable operation of a power system, it is necessary to analyse the power system performance under various operating conditions. Analysis includes studies such as power flow and both steady-state and transient stability. To perform such studies requires knowledge about the models used to represent the various components that constitute an integrated power system. In situations where there is a risk of loss of stability, it is necessary to apply controls that can ensure stable and uninterrupted supply of electricity following a disturbance. The subject of stability thus encompasses modelling, computation of load flow in the transmission grid, stability analysis under both steady-state and disturbed conditions, and appropriate controls to enhance stability. All these topics are covered in this book, providing a comprehensive treatment of the overall subject of stability of power systems. Topics covered include modelling of the synchronous machine; the synchronous machine connected to power systems; modelling of transformers, transmission lines and loads; power flow analysis; optimal power flow; small signal stability; transient stability; transient energy function methods; artificial intelligent techniques; power system stabilizers; series compensation; shunt compensation; compensation devices; and recent technologies. The subject matter is covered at a level that is suitable for students, scientists and engineers involved in the study, design, analysis and control of power systems.


Alkaline hydrothermal process with using cetyl-trimenthylammonium bromide as template is typical method to prepare MCM-41 mesoporous material. Synthesis in acid media was seldom researched deeply. With cheap inorganic water glass, effect of different silicon sources on self-assembly in acid media was investigated. Not like typical MCM-41 mesoporous materials, it is found that results of analysis are a little different and morphology of mesoporous materials synthesized in acid media does not rely on silicon sources, regardless of organic or inorganic silicon source. It is also noticed that nanometer granule of mesoporous material can be directly made by simply adjusting water dosage, which open up a new way for preparing nanometer material by self-assembly.


Bending analysis of closed cylindrical shells subjected to asymmetric load and having different support conditions is of interest in the design of chimneys, water towers, oil storage tanks, etc. A simple method of analyzing a long cantilever cylindrical shell, subjected to asymmetric load, is presented in the paper, using Schorer's shell theory and orthogonal functions. The application of the solution has been illustrated with an example of a cantilever shell subjected to wind loads. The results obtained for this problem have been compared with the previously available results to illustrate the accuracy of the results obtained here. The solution presented can also be extended to a cylindrical shell with other support conditions, as well as to the study of free vibration of a cylindrical shell. The present solution will be very useful for designers who need to obtain numerical results for specific problems with minimum computational effort.


Transcranial Doppler ultrasound measurements of ophthalmic artery velocity were made on 88 patients predominantly suffering from glaucoma. Of the four observed parameters, peak velocity, mean-enveloped velocity, diastolic velocity, and resistivity index, the latter was found to be the most reproducible (CV = 5.2%). The variability between patients was approximately twice that of the variability between consecutive measurements. Measurement error appeared to decrease as the operator gained experience.


Infertility affects one in seven couples and ascending bacterial infections of the male genitourinary tract by Escherichia coli are an important cause of male factor infertility. Thus understanding mechanisms by which immunocompetent cells such as testicular macrophages (TM) respond to infection and how bacterial pathogens manipulate defense pathways is of importance. Whole genome expression profiling of TM and peritoneal macrophages (PM) infected with uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) revealed major differences in regulated genes. However, a multitude of genes implicated in calcium signaling pathways was a common feature which indicated a role of calcium-dependent nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) signaling. UPEC-dependent NFAT activation was confirmed in both cultured TM and in TM in an in vivo UPEC infectious rat orchitis model. Elevated expression of NFATC2-regulated anti-inflammatory cytokines was found in TM (IL-4, IL-13) and PM (IL-3, IL-4, IL-13). NFATC2 is activated by rapid influx of calcium, an activity delineated to the pore forming toxin alpha-hemolysin by bacterial mutant analysis. Alpha-hemolysin suppressed IL-6 and TNF-α cytokine release from PM and caused differential activation of MAP kinase and AP-1 signaling pathways in TM and PM leading to reciprocal expression of key pro-inflammatory cytokines in PM (IL-1α, IL-1β, IL-6 downregulated) and TM (IL-1β, IL-6 upregulated). In addition, unlike PM, LPS-treated TM were refractory to NFκB activation shown by the absence of degradation of IκBα and lack of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion (IL-6, TNF-α). Taken together, these results suggest a mechanism to the conundrum by which TM initiate immune responses to bacteria, while maintaining testicular immune privilege with its ability to tolerate neo-autoantigens expressed on developing spermatogenic cells.


Emerging opportunities for open data based business have been recognized around the world. Open data can provide new business opportunities for actors that provide data, for actors that consume data, and for actors that develop innovative services and applications around the data. Open data based business requires business models and a collaborative environment-called an ecosystem-to support businesses based on open data, services, and applications. This paper outlines the open data ecosystem (ODE) from the business viewpoint and then defines the requirements of such an ecosystem. The outline and requirements are based on the state-of-the-art knowledge explored from the literature and the state of the practice on data-based business in the industry collected through interviews. The interviews revealed several motives and advantages of the ODE. However, there are also obstacles that should be carefully considered and solved. This paper defines the actors of the ODE and their roles in the ecosystem as well as the business model elements and services that are needed in open data based business. According to the interviews, the interest in open data and open data ecosystems is high at this moment. However, further research work is required to establish and validate the ODE in the near future.


In this paper, the development of an original and time-efficient measurement device is proposed for the detailed investigation of the daylight distribution within buildings. It is meant to be used for two kinds of applications: - to assess the sunlight distribution inside scale models in an automated way so as to serve as a design and educational tool for architects and students and help them find solutions to improve the sunlight distribution within their building projects. - to achieve time-efficient bidirectional goniophotometric measurements of materials, typically used for innovative fenestration systems such as solar blinds, advanced glazing or coatings and daylight-redirecting devices, as well as energy-efficient artificial lighting components like luminaires reflectors e.g. The functioning principle of the device in both configurations is explained here and its early stages of development are presented: design and construction of the mechanical platform, command interface prototype and characteristics of the light detection system.