Introduction.

During the visit of the Yorkshire Geological Society to Pateley Bridge, in April of the present year (1906), I had the welcome opportunity of examining the Carboniferous Sequence in that district. Although the material which I then obtained has not yet been completely examined, I deem it good policy to set forth, here and now, a general summary of the facts which the visit has established, as well as of the facts upon which further light is required, in the hope that more much-needed material may be forthcoming. I therefore appeal to the numerous and keen workers of the Yorkshire Geological Society to undertake the elucidation of those more difficult problems which can only be solved by continuous and exhaustive field work. A flying visit to a new district raises an easy crop of suggestions, but the credit of final truth can only be gained by the worker who has examined every exposure throughout the area.

The Carboniferous Sequence.

I.—The D2 Limestone.

The lowest horizon which was examined, in the immediate neighbourhood of Pateley Bridge, consists of massive fossiliferous limestones. These beds are excellently exposed in the quarries on Greenhow Hill, and contain a rich fauna of Corals and Brachiopods.

The horizon of these limestones is unquestionable; the included fauna indicates with certainty the upper part of the Dibunophyllum- Zone (D2 of the Avonian Sequence.

The following fossils (selected from a much longer list) are of common occurrence in the Greenhow Quarries, and constitute an assemblage, which, in the ...


The feasibility and economic value of DNA paternity identification were investigated and illustrated using Nevada beef cattle operations. A panel of 15 microsatellites was genotyped in 2,196 animals from 8 ranches with a total of 31,571 genotypes. Probabilities of exclusion for each marker within ranch and across ranches were computed. Joint probabilities of exclusion for the 15 microsatellites were also determined, resulting in values over 0.99 for any individual ranch and across ranches. Dropping 1 or 2 microsatellites with the lowest probabilities of exclusion resulted in joint probabilities greater than 0.99 and with marginal reduction compared with the probabilities with 15 microsatellites. Formulas for benefit-cost analysis for a DNA paternity identification program in beef cattle were derived. Genotyping 15 microsatellites with 20 calves per sire resulted in benefits of $1.71 and $2.44 per dollar invested at bull culling rates of 0.20 and 0.30, respectively. The breakpoints for the program to be profitable occurred when the ratio of the price of 1 kg of calf liveweight over the cost of genotyping 1 microsatellite was greater than 1.1 for a bull culling rate of 0.30. Benefit-cost analysis was also derived under incomplete DNA paternity identification using a lower number of DNA markers than necessary to achieve joint probabilities of exclusion of 0.99. Approximately a 20% increase in the benefit-cost ratio was achieved using 10 vs. 12 microsatellites with incomplete paternity identification. The greater the number of bulls in the operation, the lower the benefit-cost ratio of the paternity testing program. Low probabilities of exclusion and a high number of bulls in the beef operation reduced the benefit-cost ratio dramatically. The DNA paternity identification programs are feasible and may be profitable for free-range beef cattle operations.


Upland rice cultivars manifest different nutritional demands. A field study was conducted to quantify the extraction, distribution, and removal of micronutrients and silicon by the upland rice cultivars. The experiment was arranged in a randomized complete block-split plot design. Plots consisted of three cultivars (Caiapo – traditional, BRS Primavera – intermediate, and Maravilha – modern) of upland rice. Split-plots consisted of plant samplings, which occurred at 39, 46, 55, 67, 75, 83, 92, 102, 111, 118, and 125 days after emergence (DAE). Up to the end of tillering (46 DAE), all cultivars exhibited low demand for most micronutrients and Si, and took up less than 24 % of the total B, Cu, and Si, but around 31 % of the total Zn. The period of greatest uptake of micronutrients and Si occurred from 65 to 80 DAE in the Caiapo and BRS Primavera cultivars, and after 80 DAE in the Maravilha cultivar. The Caiapo and BRS Primavera cultivars took up their necessary demand of B, Mn, and Fe in the first 98 DAE and Cu, Zn, and Si up to 105 DAE, but the Maravilha cultivar took up these nutrients for two to three weeks longer. The quantities of micronutrients and Si taken up by cultivars Caiapo, BRS Primavera, and Maravilha did not exhibit large differences, and these cultivars took up between 98-135 g B, 103-110 g Cu, 1,157-1,460 g Fe, 1,278-1,424 g Mn, 240-285 g Zn, and 111-124 kg Si per hectare. The BRS Primavera cultivar showed greater removal of nutrients, with average amounts per hectare of 19.7 g B, 25.8 g Cu, 200 g Fe, 234.2 g Mn, 102.4 g Zn, and 32.6 kg Si, while the other cultivars removed smaller amounts per hectare (14.4 g B, 19.9 g Cu, 160.7 g Fe, 136.3 g Mn, 67 g Zn, and 21.9 kg Si). The BRS Primavera showed a greater removal of nutrients because it has a higher yield and allocates a greater quantity of nutrients to the panicles.


The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Working Group has postulated the cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) as an interaction between the kidneys and the cardiovas‐ cular system in which therapy to relieve congestive heart failure (HF) symptoms is limited by the further worsening renal function. CRS is classified from type I to V, taking into account the progression of the symptoms in terms of mechanisms, clinical conditions, and biomarkers. Experimental and clinical studies have shown the kidney as both a trigger and a target to sympathetic nervous system (SNS) overactivity. Renal damage and ischemia, activation of the renin angiotensin aldosterone system (RAAS), and dysfunction of nitric oxide (NO) system are associated with kidney adrenergic activation. Indeed, the imbalances of RAAS and/or SNS share an important common process in CRS: the activation and production of free radicals, especially reactive oxygen species (ROS). The present chapter addresses connections of the free radicals as potential biomarkers as the imbalances in the RAAS and the SNS are developed. Understanding the involvement of free radicals in CRS may bring knowledge to design studies in order to develop accurate pharmacological interventions. dysfunction, local oxidative stress, and


In this paper we analyze Twitter as a news channel in which the network of followers and followees significantly corresponds with the message content. We classified our data into twelve topics analogous to traditional newspaper sections and investigated whether the spread of information depended upon the Twitter network of followers and followees. To test this, we mapped the social network related to each topic and calculated the occurrence of retweet and mention mes-sages whose senders and receivers were interconnected as followers and followees. We found that on average 10% of retweets (RT-messages) and 5% of direct mentions between users (AT-messages) in Twitter hashtags are sent and received by users interconnected as followers and followees. These figures vary considerably from topic to topic, ranging from 15%-19% within Technology, Special Events and Politics to 3%-5% within the categories Personalities and Twitter-Idioms. The results show that hard-news messages are retweeted by a considerably larger community of users interconnected as followers and followees. We then performed a statistical correlation analysis of the dataset to validate the classification of hashtag in news sections based on retweet connectivity.


The frequency of natural disasters has increased sharply in the last 50 years and their impact - in terms of societies disrupted, the destruction of the productive capacity of land and waters and of public and private property, and beyond - grows faster with increasing densification and globalization of our societies. The Great East Japan Earthquake of March 11, 2011 exemplifies all of these problems. How do we put society back together after an event of this kind in the age of information and globalization? Japan's culture strongly emphasizes inclusiveness, debate, and consensus and today we see the nation moving onward from disaster response and restoration and toward the planning of the reconstruction.
This work is based on personal experience, beginning on March 11, 2011, of the opinions, challenges and approaches across Japanese society, which are compounded by a long period of economic stagnation. The paper will describe and illustrate the major impacts of the March 11th event and the methods employed during the response and restoration phases to secure the refugees and later to move them to more stable environments. Japan is now beginning a long and complex debate from the level of villages up to the central government about how to reconstruct the society and indeed what kind of society to reconstruct. Opinions vary from "re-build it as it was" to "a chance to re-invent Japan". Cities and citizens are beginning the deliberative dialogues and the complexity of the decision-making begins to appear.
The March 11th earthquake and tsunami heavily damaged a region that takes part in both global industrial and food supply chains and the event serves to underline the global inclusiveness that will be an increasing characteristic of major disasters. From radiation hazards, to food safety and GDP impacts, nations around the world feel that they are stakeholders in this event. We also see that information technologies can serve to increase the resilience of society but also introduce new risks. The notion of "Design for Resilience" emerges. Perhaps too we need some supra-national processes – akin to the roles played by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in stabilizing the global financial systems – to stabilize public safety, health, and industry.


The Effect of High Rotational Speed on the Performance of Straight-through Labyrinth Seals for Compressible and Incompressible Flow. (May 2012) Ekene R. Obidigbo, B.Eng., Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Gerald L. Morrison The leakage flow through straight through labyrinth seals with tooth on stator was investigated by performing CFD simulations .ANSYS Fluent is used to simulate the fluid flow through straight through Labyrinth seals. The effect of seal geometry on discharge coefficient, carry over coefficient and expansion factor is studied by varying clearance, pitch, tooth height, tooth width ,Reynolds number and rotor speed. Derived quantities Such as carry over coefficient, coefficient of discharge and expansion factor are analyzed as a function of the tooth with preceding cavity to predict the effectiveness of the seal. To understand the effect of varying seal geometries and swirl, 2D CFD simulations were performed. It was found that the clearance to pitch ratio is a strong geometry factor which affect the performance of the seal. The carryover coefficient which describes the portion of kinetic energy carried over from one cavity to the next is also examined. It was found to be a function of Reynolds number and shaft speed. Discharge coefficient describes the losses which occur when iv fluid flows through the cavity and under the tooth. Just like the carryover coefficient, it is also discovered that it is a strong function of Reynolds number and shaft speed.


There have been long-standing debates about the relative values of quantitative vs. qualitative research, and of positivism vs. critical theory in management studies. In this paper we discuss the value of discourse theory and the tools of discourse analysis in the context of complex adaptive systems theory, which can usefully be seen as a synthesis of the thesis of modernism and the antithesis of post-modernism. Discourse' has been developed and used in several disciplines, to interesting effect. It is now time to systematise the notion of discourse, and the tools of discourse analysis, both theoretically and practically, so that they can better be applied to management research, and to management practice.


This study compared the degree to which social networking sites and structured extracurricular activities provided adolescents with positive developmental experiences. Given the relatively unique nature of social networking sites as a leisure context for adolescents, and the extremely fast rate at which this leisure activity has been adopted by the majority of youth in countries where the technology is easily accessible, it is important that research explores how this leisure context compares to more traditional extracurricular activities. Adolescents from eight high schools across the state of Western Australia were surveyed. The results showed that traditional structured leisure activities (e.g., sport, art) provided adolescents with more experiences of identity exploration and reflection and positive peer interactions than social networking site use. Further analysis compared differences within social networking site use and found that both the frequency with which an adolescent visited their social networking site, and the degree of investment they had in their social networking site, positively predicted greater experiences of identity exploration and reflection and positive peer interactions. Though social networking sites are a popular adolescent leisure activity, they do not provide the same level of positive developmental experiences that are afforded through adolescent participation in traditional structured extracurricular activities.


Abstract Spinescence refers to the presence of sharp appendages of various origins with ecological, evolutionary or biogeographic significance. This research was conducted to explore patterns and adaptive processes of thorns, spines and prickles in the Italian flora. We compiled an inventory of 401 spiny plants taking into account the following attributes: type of spinescence, family, biological form, chorotype, bioclimate and habitat. Then, we evaluated the incidence of plants with each attribute, the co-occurrence of various types of spinescence, the associations among spinescence types and biological forms and families, the structure of data across spinescence types, thermotypes and habitats. The spatial distributions and the adaptive processes of plants with various types of spinescence revealed that these patterns are driven by evolutionary, biogeographic and ecological factors, thus supporting the hypothesis that interactive processes of selective pressures and phylogenetic constraints have influenced the evolution of spinescences.


The aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of hypodermatosis in cattle in the province of Sanliurfa. For this purpose, sera samples were randomly collected from 300 cattle in the towns Sanliurfa, Suruç, Siverek, Viransehir and Akçakale. The sera were analyzed using a commercial ELISA kit. Out of the 300 cattle, 116 (38.6%) were found to be seropositive. Seropositivity rates ranged from 11.6-70.0 % according to age, race, gender and origins. In regard to race, significant difference (P < 0.001) was found between seropositivity ratios of pure breed and crossbreed animals. No significant difference was found between seropositivity ratios as a result of gender difference. Also, with regard to age and origins, significant differences (P < 0.01) were found between animals aged < 1 and aged>/=1 and in animals from Akçakale as well as Viransehir and other regions (P < 0.001). As a result, high seropositivity for hypodermatosis in cattle of the Sanliurfa Province has been detected.


This article examines the biopower of non-Han bodies by considering the intersections of anthropology, racial science, and colonial regimes. During the 1930s and 1940s, when extensive anthropometric research was being undertaken on non-Han populations in the south-western borderlands of China, several anthropologists studied non-Han groups under the aegis of frontier administration. Chinese scholars sought to generate the physical characteristics of ethnic minority groups in the south-west of China through the methodology of body measurement, in order to identify forms of social and political intervention in the management of the non-Han population in wartime. This article examines the global transmission of Western social science in China, highlighting the local reception of Western racial taxonomy. Non-Han bodies were represented as a subcategory of the Mongolian/'Yellow' race through anthropometric research. The body measurements of non-Han people were used to demonstrate physical similarities between the Han and various ethnic minority groups in order to evoke a unified Zhonghua minzu (Chinese ethnicity) that embraced both the Han Chinese and frontier ethnic minority groups.


LeQuest develops interactive e-training modules to improve the competence regarding medical technology of medical professionals. The medical technology is analysed by LeQuest to develop training modules, but the analysis process and writing associated information can be performed more efficiently. This would reduce the required time and resources which could be invested in additional trainings and quality improvements. In the end, this will lead to an improvement regarding the patient's safety in health institutions. This work empirically evaluated the Spoofax Workbench by conducting an industrial case-study which consists of the design, implementation and evaluation of a domain-specific language (DSL). The LeQuest DSL is used as a tool for transforming the current analysis process into a more formalized process which does allow for objective observations, measurements and quantifiable information. Although the LeQuest DSL is not integrated in the current work-flow yet, the evaluation has shown that it is expected that the overall quality and efficiency of the analysis process will increase after the introduction of the DSL.


Difficult financial times have forced law schools to look for ways to restructure. One promising opportunity, especially for independent law schools, is affiliating with another law school or a university. How does this change impact the law library? This study of the University of New Hampshire Law Library seeks to provide a partial answer.


Objective: to study pulmonary diffusing capacity (DL CO ) and frequency of osteoporosis in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Material and Methods: 125 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were observed. The investigated group was made by the men having the long experience of smoking. Smoker index was 240. The average age was 61.4 ± 6.4 years. The patients received basic therapy system glucocorticoids have been excluded from the research. Research of function of external breath was studied with multimodular installation of type «Master-Lab/Jaeger». Pulmonary diffusing capacity (DL CO ) was studied. Research of bone mineral density (BMD) of a bone fabric was studied with the method x-ray absorbtiometry with the densitometer « Lunar DPX-NT». Results: Indicators of pulmonary diffusing capacity (DL CO) in patients with COPD were highest at the 2 stage of COPD and were 70,6 ± 20,3. The level of DL CO in patients with 3 stage COPD was 53,9 ± 17,6 (p CO were detected in patients with COPD 4 stage 35,9 ± 15,4 (p CO /VA in patients 2 stage COPD was 78,1±24,9, DL CO /VA in patients with 3 stage COPD was 62,4 ± 17,01, DL CO /VA in patients with 4 stage COPD was 52,8± 29,4. Frequency of osteoporosis of femoral neck according densitometry in patients with DL CO CO 40-60% was 19.35%. The correlation coefficient between DL CO / VA and BMD of hip was 0,59 (p Conclusions : increased frequency of osteoporosis in patients with COPD is associated with decrease of pulmonary diffusing capacity.


Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is Professor of Religion at Goucher College where she holds the Susan D. Morgan Professorship of Religion. She is widely published in national and international journals and other publications. As a leading voice in the development of a womanist theology, Essence magazine counts Douglas "among this country's most distinguished religious thinkers, teachers, ministers, and counselors."  Her groundbreaking and widely used book Sexuality and the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective (1999) was the first to address the issue of homophobia within the black church community.  Dr. Douglas has been a pioneering and highly sought after voice in regard to addressing sexual issues in relation to the black religious community. She has been very active in advocating equal rights for LGBT persons.Her latest book, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (2015) examines the challenges of a "Stand Your Ground" culture for the Black Church and all black bodies.  Other books include The Black Christ (1994), What's Faith Got to Do With It?:Black Bodies/Christian Souls (2005),and Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant (2012). Dr. Douglas is also the co-editor of Sexuality and the Sacred: Sources for Theological Reflection (2010).Douglas is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Denison where she earned a bachelor of science summa cum laude in psychology.  She went on to earn a master of divinity and a doctoral degree in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary (New York City). Rev. Douglas was ordained at Ohio's St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in 1985. She received the Anna Julia Cooper Award by the Union of Black Episcopalians (July 2012) for "her literary boldness and leadership in the development of a womanist theology and discussing the complexities of Christian faith in African-American contexts."Rev. Douglas was an Associate Priest at Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. for over 20 years.  She currently serves at the Washington National Cathedral.


Climate change can impact the pattern of marine biodiversity through changes in species' distributions. However, global studies on climate change impacts on ocean biodiversity have not been performed so far. Our paper aims to investigate the global patterns of such impacts by projecting the distributional ranges of a sample of 1066 exploited marine fish and invertebrates for 2050 using a newly developed dynamic bioclimate envelope model. Our projections show that climate change may lead to numerous local extinction in the sub-polar regions, the tropics and semi-enclosed seas. Simultaneously, species invasion is projected to be most intense in the Arctic and the Southern Ocean. Together, they result in dramatic species turnovers of over 60% of the present biodiversity, implying ecological disturbances that potentially disrupt ecosystem services. Our projections can be viewed as a set of hypothesis for future analytical and empirical studies.


The flutter and limit-cycle oscillation behavior of a 45-deg delta-wing-store model with various store spanwise locations is studied using an aeroelastic model that includes a high-fidelity nonlinear finite element structural solver and a vortex-lattice aerodynamic model. The store aerodynamics are modeled using slender-body theory. The computed results are compared with a previous computational model and with the experiment. The zero-angle-of-attack flutter behavior of the wing-store configuration is shown to be sensitive to the spanwise store location. This is predicted accurately using the current methodology. Limit-cycle oscillation results for zero angle of attack are computed for two store spanwise locations and compare favorably with the experiment. For a clean-wing configuration and a configuration that had the store located at y/c = 0.291, the flutter results show very little sensitivity to the model angle of attack. This too was predicted accurately using the current model. However, when the store is placed at y/c = 0.545, the experimental flutter data show a large sensitivity to angle of attack, with the flutter velocity decreasing by almost 20% when the model is placed at an angle of attack of 2 deg. This is not predicted in the current work and it is possible that unmodeled flow physics such as leading-edge vortices are the cause of this difference.


This paper mainly designs a device for improving setting load of hydraulic support. The device could enhance the pressure of bottom cavity of the stand column in hydraulic support, decrease the late bearing time of stand column of hydraulic support, shore the roof of coal face effectively, prevent the roof fall caused by separate the roof of wall rock untimely from the layer, and ensure the safety production in the coal facing, with the circumstance that the structure of liquid valve bank of hydraulic support isn't changed and that it has no influence on the normal working of liquid-inlet and rising support. The device using the techniques of hydraumatic and machinery, of which the structure is simple, safe and reliable, is convenient for the work at the underground coal mine. Through the simulated analysis for hydraulic circuit of hydraulic support and the field test, the hydraulic system of hydraulic support is stability with no larger vibration and has a better effect on pressurizing, after using the device. So, the automatic pressure control device to setting load has good popularization and application value.


In this work, the external switching dynamics of a Fabry-Perot etalon are studied via optical bistability system simulation. The simulated set-up of this investigation consists of two laser beams; the first beam is continuous (CW) which is considered as a biasing beam and capable of holding the bistable system for a certain range, which we are interested in, from a point that is very close self-switching to a point where the switching is unachievable. The second beam is modulated by passing the first beam through an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) to produce pulses with a minimum rise time and is used as an external source (coherent switching). In this work, we obtained the optical bistable loops by applying absorption coefficient (α) = 20cm -1 , e sample etalon thickness (D) = 110μm, forward mirror reflectivity (Rf) = 0.6, and backward mirror reflectivity (Rb) = 0.95. The steady state characteristic of an initial detuning of the cavity (φ0) = 0.8 was studied at the conditions of no external input pulse intensity (M(t) = 0) and switching that takes place at Is(ON)= 0.57mW and Is(OFF) = 0.4mW. .


Stories of trafficking into the sex industry in Cambodia are a popular feature in local and international media, academic and development literature, policy and humanitarian debates, social and political discourse, and NGO interventions. These stories are powerful for their ability to evoke deep emotions and outrage from their intended audiences. However, they are equally powerful for the ways in which they can cause harm—namely to already marginalised populations of migrants and people involved in the sex trade either by choice, circumstance or coercion. One of the most contentious contemporary trafficking stories is that of the controversial case of Somaly Mam—the self-declared 'sex slave' turned 'modern-day hero'. This paper outlines Mam's prolific trajectory of self-representation according to the tropes of sexual humanitarianism and argues that these narratives helped to set in motion one of the most lucrative, and in many ways, most exploitative and problematic anti-trafficking endeavours in Cambodia, to date. The paper concludes with offering suggestions for how the anti-trafficking industry might better address real cases of trafficking and exploitation by focusing on structural violence and systemic injustice rather than on sensationalised humanitarian rhetoric, which can perpetuate harms.


The compressibility limit of a cold gas confined in a magneto-optical trap due to multiple scattering of light is a long-standing problem. This scattering mechanism induces long-range interactions in the system, which is responsible for the occurrence of plasma-like phenomena. In the present paper, we investigate the importance of the long-range character of the mediated atom-atom interaction in the equilibrium and dynamical features of a magneto-optical trap. Making use of a hydrodynamical formulation, we derive a generalized Lane-Emden equation modeling the polytropic equilibirum of a magneto-optical trap, allowing us to describe the cross-over between the two limiting cases: temperature dominated and multiple-scattering dominated traps. The normal collective modes of the system are also computed.


This presentation examines students' use of lecture videos through two approaches -- (1) students' real usages of lecture videos as collected from Blackboard, a learning management system which can track students' activities and store every click in its backend database or in the web server log file, and (2) a self-evaluation of students' study strategies in the course survey at the end of the semester.   This study was conducted in a fully online psychology course taught in Fall 2014, Summer 2015, and Fall 2015. The course included 76 streaming lecture videos ranging from 3.5 to 30 minutes. A comparison between these two sets of data was examined and discussed in this presentation. The preliminary analysis revealed that most students' study strategies reported on the survey were consistent with their real usages on the Blackboard course site.  However, survey data could not explain which lecture videos students had watched and how frequently students watched videos. Learning analytics can support instructors in understanding how students used videos, when they watched, and which videos were watched most.  The data also implied that students' final grades and learning satisfaction associated with their usage of lecture videos.  As compared to survey data, the evidence indicated that learning analytics can give more detailed and accurate descriptions about students' learning behaviors. This presentation will share the limitations of either method.  This presentation will benefit both undergraduate and graduate courses whose instructors plan to use surveys or learning analytics to understand their students' learning behaviors and study strategies.


Most pedagogical literature has generated "how to" approaches regarding the use of student response systems (SRS). There are currently no systematic reviews on the effectiveness of SRS, for its capacity to enhance critical thinking, and achieve sustained learning outcomes. This paper addresses this current gap in knowledge. Our teaching team introduced GoSoapBox (an interactive online SRS) in an undergraduate sociology and public health subject, as a mechanism for discussing controversial topics, such as sexuality, gender, economics, religion, and politics, to allow students to interact with each other and to generate discussions and debates during lectures. Bandura's Social Learning Theory (SLT) was applied to investigate the effectiveness of GoSoapBox for improving learning experiences. We produced a theoretical model via an iterative analytical process between SLT and our data. This model has implications for all academics considering the use of SRS to improve the learning experiences of their students.


Automotive assemblers and suppliers have employed a number of different strategies to deal with external uncertainty. These strategies have evolved relatively rapidly of late in part because of changes in the locus of innovation from OEMs to suppliers, changing market conditions, and the future regulations of greenhouse gases. This presents a unique challenge for the industry. Some auto firms have been more effective in dealing with market and regulatory uncertainty due to technology resource integration across platforms and integration between functions on the value added chain from suppliers to retailers.


Background T regulatory cells (Tregs) have been associated with prolonged allograft survival and tolerance across a wide variety of species and organ types. We used our nonhuman primate model of facial vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) to study the association of Tregs with graft outcomes. Methods We quantified Tregs in peripheral blood and allograft biopsies from nonhuman primates after heterotopic partial facial segment allotransplantation from major histocompatibility complex class I–mismatched donors using flow cytometry and immunohistochemistry. Immunosuppression consisted of tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil without induction or depletional therapies. Circulating and graft skin Treg values were compared with graft outcomes and with histologic grade from concurrent biopsies. Results Treg proportion in peripheral blood ranged from 0.156% to 9.00% with a mean of 3.34%±0.22%. FoxP3 staining was observed in 3 of 29 graft biopsies. Median circulating Treg value did not predict time to Banff grade II rejection (hazard ratio, 0.9; confidence interval, 0.4–2.2) or graft loss (hazard ratio, 0.5; confidence interval, 0.01–5.3). Animals that experienced rejection did not have significantly different peripheral blood or graft skin Treg values from those that did not. Biopsy specimens with grade I or II rejection were more likely to contain Tregs (25% vs. 0%; P=0.044) despite no difference in concurrent circulating Tregs (3.56% vs. 3.36%; P=0.704). Conclusions These findings in a clinically relevant model suggest that Tregs may have limited prognostic value with standard immunosuppressive protocols used in VCA. Further studies are necessary to determine the specific role of Tregs in VCA and any role of Treg monitoring in clinical practice.


Inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images are often used for classifying and recognising targets. To reduce the amount of data processed by the classifier, scattering centres are extracted from the ISAR image and used for classifying and recognising targets. This paper addresses the problem of estimating the position and the scattering vector of target scattering centres from polarimetric ISAR images. The proposed technique is obtained by extending the CLEAN technique, which was introduced in radar imaging for extracting scattering centres from single-polarisation ISAR images. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, namely, the Polarimetric CLEAN (Pol-CLEAN) is tested on simulated and real data.


Patricia A. and Peter Adler's 1999 article on The Ethnographer's Ball, a hypothetical geography of the community of ethnographers, launched this exercise in futurist speculation. What will happen to autoethnography in the future? What historical trajectory will it take? The adherents of autoethnography—now in its ascendance as a research movement, particularly with the launch of its new journal—will likely follow one or another trajectory that previous intellectual communities have traced. This paper projects five potential scenarios for the future of autoethnography twenty years from now: from universal acceptance, to a narrowly defined community, to being hijacked by a future intellectual movement, to institutionalization within the academy, to complete disappearance. It compares these scenarios to the fates of other scholarly communities such as symbolic interaction, world-systems analysis, and social impact assessment.


ABSTRACT In the sandy, braided South Saskatchewan River, ripples, sand waves, and dunes are recognized as lower flow regime bedforms on the basis of a morphological classification. Sand waves are straight-crested to rhomboidal and are very regular in the direction transverse to flow, lacking scour troughs or spurs. The amplitudes of sand waves may gradually increase or decrease along their crestlines, but abrupt changes are rare. Dunes are sinuous to strongly three-dimensional bedforms, showing marked irregularities in crestline height and well developed spurs and scour troughs. Sand waves occur with ripples superimposed on their stoss sides at flow velocities less than 0.5-0.7 m/sec depending on depth. Dunes occur in most cases with no superimposed ripples at velocities greater than sand waves for each depth. Slipface-bounded bars up to 3 m in height form where the flow is non-uniform and expands laterally or vertically. This happens where channels widen or bend or where the flow passes over an abrupt downward step such as the junction of channels of different depths. Bars may have ripples, sand waves, or dunes superimposed on their upper surfaces and are less sensitive to changing flow conditions than are these others. Sand flats are large-scale sandy braid bars which are complexes of all the smaller forms. They are comparable in scale to the point bars of meandering streams.


This paper presents a new test scheme based on scan block encoding in a linear feedback shift register (LFSR) reseeding-based compression environment.Meanwhile,our paper also introduces a novel algorithm of scan-block clustering.The main contribution of this paper is a flexible test-application framework that achieves significant reductions in switching activity during scan shift and the number of specified bits that need to be generated via LFSR reseeding.Thus,it can significantly reduce the test power and test data volume.Experimental results using Mintest test set on the larger ISCAS'89 benchmarks show that the proposed method reduces the switching activity significantly by 72%-94%and provides a best possible test compression of 74%-94%with little hardware overhead.


Background/Context If education centrally involves self-cultivation, and the teacher's own robust selfhood is necessary for inspiring self-cultivation in students, then teacherly self-cultivation is a necessary condition of education. But teaching is seen as a helping profession, where helping others always seems, in practice if not in principle, to preclude helping oneself. Some scholars refer to teaching as a praxis, a form of ethical/political conduct where knowing and doing become fused, where freedom is enacted. But is this simply wishful thinking? Perhaps, as institutionalized, teachers are a cog in a bureaucratic machine, or at best selfless servants of their students in a "noble" calling. This study asks what aspects of teaching, if any, might nurture the teacher's own quest to flourish, without thus becoming a selfish betrayal of the role. What might it mean to speak of teaching as "self-ful"? Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The philosophy of Hannah Arendt is a fruitful context in which to refine and explore this question. Arendt offers a rich typology of practical activities, distinguishing "labor" and "work" from action proper. And she puts action at the center of her theory of education. However, it is the natality and action of students that drives education, and Arendt seems to suggest that teaching itself amounts to only labor or work. The problem is that if the teacher's core project is not actional, she will grow estranged from her own natality, and thus be incapable of recognizing and responding to the natality of her students. How can we theorize teaching as action without violating the spirit of Arendt's compelling accounts of education and of action? Research Design This is a theoretical paper and uses philosophical methods such as concept clarification and development, textual analysis, and thought experiments. Conclusions/Recommendations Arendt's conception of the classroom as mediating space, sheltered from full exposure to the public realm and the demands of action, is a sound one. However, this need not entail that teaching cannot be a form of action. The classroom mediates but does not entirely exclude the public. Meanwhile, action for Arendt itself involves mediation. The classroom is a theatrical space where participants may adopt roles, but politics too is theatrical for Arendt. The curriculum involves representations of aspects of the cultural inheritance, making education akin to an ongoing (cultural) constitutional convention, where making is always remaking, where the polis is again called into existence by its representatives.


In this work, a novel approach utilizing feature covariance matrices is proposed for time series classiflcation. In order to adapt the feature covariance matrices for time series classiflcation, a feature vector is defined for each point in a time series. The feature vector comprises local and global information such as value, derivative, rank, deviation from the mean, time index of the point and cumulative sum up to the point. Instead of representing the whole time series with a single covariance matrix, time series is divided into overlapping subsequences. Extracted feature vectors for the time instances are concatenated to construct feature matrices for the overlapping subsequences. Covariance of the feature matrices are used to describe the subsequences. After the determination of feature covariance matrices for both training and test samples, SVM classifier is utilized to decide the class of the test samples. Conducted experiments on UCR time series dataset show that the proposed method yields results which mostly outperform well-known methods such as DTW, shapelets and other state-of-the-art techniques.


This work presents a template-free electrochemical route to producing superhydrophobic copper coatings with the water contact angle of 160 ± 6° and contact angle hysteresis of 5 ± 2°. In this technique, copper deposit with multiscale surface features is formed through a two-step electrodeposition process in a concentrated copper sulfate bath. In the first step, applying a high overpotential results in the formation of structures with dense-branching morphology, which are loosely attached to the surface. In the second step, an additional thin layer of the deposit is formed by applying a low overpotential for a short time, which is used to reinforce the loosely attached branches on the surface. The work also presents a theoretical analysis of the effects of the fabrication parameters on the surface textures that cause the superhydrophobic characteristic of the deposit.


Over the course of the 2014 and 2015 seasons, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) collected around 150 hours of new airborne gravity, magnetic and ice-penetrating radar data in the area of Dronning Maud Land to the east and south of Princess Elisabeth station. Survey was completed at 10 km line spacing. The 2014 survey used a LaCoste and Romberg Air-Sea gravimeter (LCR) at constant barometric altitude. The 2015 survey was completed at constant ground separation with a Gravimetric Technologies GT2A gravimeter. Both surveys used a Scintrex Cs-3 caesium vapour magnetometer mounted in a tail boom and a fuselagemounted three-component fluxgate magnetometer. The GT2A gravity data can be shown to reliably reflect the effects of the density contrast between basement rocks and the ice sheet at much shorter wavelengths than the LCR data. Results of the cross-over analysis are consistent with the advertised sub-milliGal repeatability of data collected with the GT2A. Gravity data reveal a prominent sub-glacial channel separating eastern Sr Rondane from the Yamato Belgica Mountains to the east. The area to the south of eastern Sr Rondane is characterised by a dendritic pattern of valleys that converges away from the prominent channel in the east. At longer wavelength, the data suggest the presence of a compensating root beneath eastern Sr Rondane and thinner crust towards the extended continental margin north of the mountains.

The magnetic data reveal strong NS-trending magnetic anomalies coincident with the Yamato-Belgica Mountains, and a more subdued set of ESE trending anomalies that confirm the eastwards continuation of the SE Dronning Maud Land province into the region. Instead, a new and unexpected feature is a strong NNW-trending anomaly, also present in the gravity data, at which the SE Dronning Maud Land province, which had been suggested to continue much further towards Prydz Bay, appears to terminate. In contrast, the deep sub-glacial valley between Sr Rondane and the Yamato-Belgica Mountains has little or no magnetic signature of its own.


In this paper, we present a video processing algorithm for texture replacement of moving garments in monocular video recordings. We use a color-coded pattern which encodes texture coordinates within a local neighborhood in order to determine the geometric deformation of the texture. A time-coherent texture interpolation is obtained by the use of 3D radial basis functions. Shading maps are determined with a surface reconstruction technique and applied to new textures which replace the color pattern in the video sequence. Our method enables exchanging fabric pattern designs of garments worn by actors as a video post-processing step.


Chile is a country that is growing older. Sanitary resource allocation is insufficient and there exists inadequate training in Geriatrics and Bioethics. Aging determines greater susceptibility and vulnerability when facing pathological aggressions. The elderly present a high prevalence of chronic diseases which translates into a greater demand for health assistance. Bioethical principles are frequently addressed in geriatric practice and give rise to complex discussions. Thus, knowledge and full command of those principles are fundamental. Discussion is the basic tool for decision-making and must be realized by the interdisciplinary team, together with the patient's family or proxy. If we consider we do not treat diseases but sick people, we will find in the elderly a very particular type of patient; one with particular psychosocial conflicts. Taking into account patient's values and ethical principles as well is a must. This paper attempts to analyze, from the bioethical standpoint, the dilemmas posed by decision-making in Geriatrics.


Total column ozone data from the Nimbus‐4 Backscatter UltraViolet (BUV) instrument, Nimbus‐7 Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instrument, as well as from seven NOAA SBUV/2 instruments have been newly reprocessed with the Version 8.6 ozone retrieval algorithm. This yields a coherent data set that, unlike the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer ozone record, has no data gaps or significant time periods with large uncertainties due to calibration issues from 1979 to the present. The column ozone data from the first 3 years of the BUV record (1970–1972) is of high quality and can be used to extend the satellite ozone record back over 40 years. With the new algorithm, an improved total column ozone value is calculated by summing up the profile information as opposed to a single direct column measurement, and the algorithm is optimized for the detection of long‐term trends. The results from this processing of these data have been systematically compared to total ozone data from Brewer and Dobson spectrophotometers for many individual ground stations as a function of time, satellite solar zenith angle, and latitude. The time series comparisons show an agreement within ± 1% over the past 40 years with the bias approaching zero over the last decade. The aerosols associated with the eruption of Mt Pinatubo in 1991 produced an underestimation of ozone for our retrievals at high slant columns while the near‐nadir values were relatively unaffected. There is very little systematic offset between the satellite and ground‐based measurements as a function of latitude with the Nimbus‐4 BUV data (1970–1976) showing the largest offsets. The comparisons as a function of satellite solar zenith angle show consistent behavior for all instruments. Comparisons with ozonesonde data show good agreement in the integrated column up to 25 hPa with differences of no more than 5%.


The constrained melting of nano-enhanced phase change materials (NePCM) in a horizontal cylindrical capsule was investigated via the utilization of thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) technique for tracking the invisible phase interfaces. A parametric study was carried out by varying both the loading of NePCM (i.e., 0 wt %, 1 wt %, and 3 wt %) and the wall superheat (at 10 °C and 30 °C), leading to a total of six cases. Numerical simulations, based on the enthalpy-porosity method, were also performed to reveal the evolutions of temperature and convective flow fields during melting. It was first shown that the numerically predicted melting front evolutions are in good agreement with the TLC imaging results. A comparison among the six cases indicated that there is a similar melting pattern that heat conduction dominates the initial stage of melting and natural convection then takes over to play a more important role when melting proceeds. With the TLC-assisted reconstruction of the melting fronts, the instantaneous melting and heat storage rates were estimated, and melting was clearly found to slow down with increasing the loading of NePCM, as a result of the dramatically increased viscosity that deteriorates the contribution of natural convection to melting heat transfer.


Information assets such as customer information, business transaction, and contract transaction data are important for the organization as these assets affect business value and operation. Therefore, to manage information assets, the organization needs to establish the security system, one of the non-functional requirements, to control the resource accessibility. The security patterns provide practices for formal security process establishment which could be applied to assets access control. However, the security patterns explanations are specific but an applying has to define process operation in details. This research proposes a design of process model for Information Assets Access Control (IAAC) using security patterns. In addition, the proposed process model also uses ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and ISO/IEC 27002:2005 as a fundamental framework. The supporting templates are also designed to support the proposed process model.


The authors describe the lessons learned in extending the capabilities of a reverse engineering tool to analyze both an additional dialect of the language it was initially built to parse and a new embedded assembly language. The effort involved in this extension provides data to support the assertion that reverse engineering tools should create a clean separation between parsing the source code and analyzing it. A language independent modeling approach is discussed that will allow achieving this separation. Additional advantages that accrue by maintaining this separation, such as multiple language support and support for design recovery, are discussed.<<ETX>>


Real-time tracking of vigilance states related to both sleep or anaesthesia has been a goal for over a century. However, sleep scoring cannot currently be performed with brain signals alone, despite the deep neuromodulatory transformations that accompany sleep state changes. Therefore, at heart, the operational distinction between sleep and wake is that of immobility and movement, despite numerous situations in which this one-to-one mapping fails. Here we demonstrate, using local field potential (LFP) recordings in freely moving mice, that gamma (50–70 Hz) power in the olfactory bulb (OB) allows for clear classification of sleep and wake, thus providing a brain-based criterion to distinguish these two vigilance states without relying on motor activity. Coupled with hippocampal theta activity, it allows the elaboration of a sleep scoring algorithm that relies on brain activity alone. This method reaches over 90% homology with classical methods based on muscular activity (electromyography [EMG]) and video tracking. Moreover, contrary to EMG, OB gamma power allows correct discrimination between sleep and immobility in ambiguous situations such as fear-related freezing. We use the instantaneous power of hippocampal theta oscillation and OB gamma oscillation to construct a 2D phase space that is highly robust throughout time, across individual mice and mouse strains, and under classical drug treatment. Dynamic analysis of trajectories within this space yields a novel characterisation of sleep/wake transitions: whereas waking up is a fast and direct transition that can be modelled by a ballistic trajectory, falling asleep is best described as a stochastic and gradual state change. Finally, we demonstrate that OB oscillations also allow us to track other vigilance states. Non-REM (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep can be distinguished with high accuracy based on beta (10–15 Hz) power. More importantly, we show that depth of anaesthesia can be tracked in real time using OB gamma power. Indeed, the gamma power predicts and anticipates the motor response to stimulation both in the steady state under constant anaesthetic and dynamically during the recovery period. Altogether, this methodology opens the avenue for multi-timescale characterisation of brain states and provides an unprecedented window onto levels of vigilance.


: Travelers' diarrhea is a common illness among international travelers from developed to developing countries. Travelers' diarrhea is caused by ingestion of contaminated food and water. Bacteria are the primary cause of travelers' diarrhea. In most surveys, the most common diarrheal pathogen identified is enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli. There are several antimicrobial agents available for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea including rifaximin which is approved in the United States for the treatment of travelers' diarrhea due to noninvasive E. coli strains. In this review, we will review the most recent advances of rifaximin for the treatment and prevention of travelers' diarrhea, with regard to its pharmacokinetics, in vitro susceptibility profile, and efficacy and safety data from clinical trials.


A molecularly imprinted photonic polymer (MIPP) sensor for respective detection of tetracycline, oxytetracycline and chlortetracycline is developed based on the combination of a colloidal crystal templating method and a molecular imprinting technique. Colloidal crystal templates are prepared from monodisperse polystyrene colloids. The molecularly imprinted polymer, which is embodied in the colloidal crystal templates, is synthesized with acrylic acid and acrylamide as monomers, N,N'-methylene bisacrylamide as a cross-linker and tetracyclines (TCs) as imprinting template molecules. After removal of the colloidal crystal template and the molecularly imprinted template, the resulted MIPP consists of a three-dimensional, highly ordered and interconnected macroporous array with a thin hydrogel wall, where nanocavities complementary to analytes in shape and binding sites are distributed. The response of MIPP to TCs stimulants in aqueous solution is detected through a readable Bragg diffraction red-shift, which is due to the lattice change of MIPP structures responding to their rebinding to the target TCs molecules. A linear relationship was found between the Δλ and the concentration of TCs in the range from 0.04 μM to 0.24 μM. With this sensory system, direct and selective detection of TCs has been achieved without using label techniques and expensive instruments. The developed method has been applied successfully to detect tetracycline in milk and honey samples.


A direct current glow discharge source structure operating at high pressure based on the micro-slot hollow cathode is presented in this article. A 100 μm width slot cathode was fabricated of copper, and a stable DC glow discharge with an area of 0.5 mm2 was produced in noble gases (He, Ne) and air over a wide pressure range (kPa-10 kPa). The current-voltage characteristics and the near UV radiation emission of the discharge were studied.


-In this paper, porous silicon was prepared by using electrochemical etching technique of p-type silicon acceptor, with a resistivity of 1.5-4Ohm.cm, using hydrochloric acid with concentration of 24%. The etching current density effect 4, 12, 20mA/cm2 was carried out at constant etching time of 15min. The structural characteristics of the porous silicon and the doped porous silicon were studied and found an expansion in the spectrum of the X-rays and a simple shift in the diffraction angles while maintaining the surface direction (111). The morphological properties were studied using the atomic force microscope which showed pores formation and gives the pore diameter within the range of 19.08 to 44.73nm for the prepared samples. It was also noted that the rate of pore diameter and the thickness of the porous silicon layer increased with increasing etching current density. Electrical characteristics of the nanoscale porous silicon layer and the doped porous silicon with silver and copper showed that Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics of the prepared samples to be a rectifying behavior. An improvement in the electrical characteristics of the doped porous silicon samples was observed


Fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 (FGFR2) has been shown to induce luteinization in granulosa cells, luteal angiogenesis, and luteal growth. Alternative splicing of 4 genes give rise to 7 subtypes of fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFR) with varying affinity for different fibroblast growth factors (FGF). Fibroblast growth factor receptor 2 and FGF18 efficiently activate FGFR3C and FGFR4 and may act in cooperation in tissues expressing these receptors. We aimed to determine mRNA expression patterns for FGF18, FGFR3C, and FGFR4 during bovine luteal development and following induced luteolysis. In addition, we assessed FGF18 localization in the bovine CL. Bovine CL were obtained from abattoir ovaries and classed into 4 stages of development: stage 1 =corpus hemorragicum; stage 2 = developing CL; stage 3 = mature or early functional luteolysis CL; and stage 4 = structural luteolysis. To assess FGF18 and FGFR mRNA expression during induced luteolysis, adult cows (Bos taurus Holstein-Friesians) were injected with the PGF2 analogue cloprostenol (500 mg i.m. Intervet, Unterschleissheim, Germany) during the mid-luteal phase of the cycle (Days 8-12). Corpus luteum were collected by transvaginal ovariectomy at 0, 0.5, 2, 4, 12, 24, 48, and 64 hr (n = 5/time point) after PGF2 injection. Tissue samples were submitted to total RNA extraction. Expression of FGF18, FGFR3C, and 4 mRNA during the bovine CL lifespan and induced luteolysis were measured by real-time RT-PCR with oligo-dT in the RT and bovine-specific primers in the PCR. Expression of cyclophilin was used as internal control. The effect of developmental stage and time post-PGF2 on gene expression was tested by ANOVA, followed by Tukey- Kramer HSD test. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed with a commercial human antibody (anti-FGF18; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA, USA). Fibroblast growth factor 18, FGFR3C, and FGFR4 mRNA was detected in all 4 developmental stages; FGF18 mRNA abundance was higher in stage 3 (2.89 ± 0.05; mean ± SEM) compared with stages 1 (0.3 ± 0.27), 2 (0.56 ± 1.27), and 4 (0.99 ± 0.32). Fibroblast growth factor 18 and FGFR4 mRNA expression did not significantly change during induced luteolysis. Fibroblast growth factor receptor 3C mRNA abundance peaked 4 h after PGF2 injection and significantly decreased at 24 h post-treatment in comparison with peak levels. Immunohistochemical analysis revealed the presence of FGF18 in small and large luteal cells and in blood vessels. In conclusion, the mRNA expression patterns of FGF18 and its receptors suggest their participation in the control of luteal differentiation, particularly during functional luteolysis. The localization of FGF18 protein to blood vessels suggests it may play a role in the control of angiogenesis in the bovine CL. Supported by CAPES/FAPESP.


Hepatitis A virus (HAV) disease disproportionately affects adolescents and young adults, American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic racial/ethnic groups, and disadvantaged populations. During 1996-2006, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) made incremental changes in hepatitis A (HepA) vaccination recommendations to increase coverage for children and persons at high risk for HAV infection. This report examines the temporal association of ACIP-recommended HepA vaccination and disparities (on the absolute scale) in cases of HAV disease and on seroprevalence of HAV-related protection (measured as antibody to HAV [anti-HAV]). ACIP-recommended childhood HepA vaccination in the United States has eliminated most absolute disparities in HAV disease by age, race/ethnicity, and geographic area with relatively modest ≥1-dose and ≥2-dose vaccine coverage. However, the increasing proportion of cases of HAV disease among adults with identified and unidentified sources of exposure underscores the importance of considering new strategies for preventing HAV infection among U.S. adults. For continued progress to be made toward elimination of HAV disease in the United States, additional strategies are needed to prevent HAV infection among an emerging population of susceptible adults. Notably, HAV infection remains endemic in much of the world, contributing to U.S. cases through international travel and the global food economy.


Reliable descriptions of the optical properties of clouds and aerosols are essential for studies of radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres. Mie scattering algorithms provide accurate estimates of these properties for spherical particles with a wide range of sizes and refractive indices, but these methods are not valid for nonspherical particles (e.g., ice crystals, mineral dust, and smoke). Even though a host of methods exist for deriving the optical properties of nonspherical particles that are very small or very large compared with the wavelength, only a few methods are valid in the resonance regime, where the particle dimensions are comparable with the wavelength. Most such methods are not ideal for particles with sharp edges or large axial ratios. We explore the utility of an integral equation approach for deriving the single-scattering optical properties of axisymmetric particles with large axial ratios. The accuracy of this technique is shown for spheres of increasing size parameters and an ensemble of randomly oriented prolate spheroids of size parameter equal to 10.079368. In this last case our results are compared with published results obtained with the T-matrix approach. Next we derive cross sections, single-scattering albedos, and phase functions for cylinders, disks, and spheroids of ice with dimensions extending from the Rayleigh to the geometric optics regime. Compared with those for a standard surface integral equation method, the storage requirement and the computer time needed by this method are reduced, thus making it attractive for generating databases to be used in multiple-scattering calculations. Our results show that water ice disks and cylinders are more strongly absorbing than equivalent volume spheres at most infrared wavelengths. The geometry of these particles also affects the angular dependence of the scattering. Disks and columns with maximum linear dimensions larger than the wavelength scatter much more radiation in the forward and backward directions and much less radiation at intermediate phase angles than equivalent volume spheres.


The question of how to conceive and represent the context of work is explored from the theoretical perspective of distributed cognition. It is argued that to understand the office work context we need to go beyond tracking superficial physical attributes such as who or what is where and when and consider the state of digital resources, people's concepts, task state, social relations, and the local work culture, to name a few. In analyzing an office more deeply, three concepts are especially helpful: entry points, action landscapes, and coordinating mechanisms. An entry point is a structure or cue that represents an invitation to enter an information space or office task. An activity landscape is part mental construct and part physical; it is the space users interactively construct out of the resources they find when trying to accomplish a task. A coordinating mechanism is an artifact, such as a schedule or clock, or an environmental structure such as the layout of papers to be signed, which helps a user manage the complexity of his task. Using these three concepts we can abstract away from many of the surface attributes of work context and define the deep structure of a setting-the invariant structure that many office settings share. A long-term challenge for context-aware computing is to operationalize these analytic concepts.


This article critically examines how 'what-went-right' analyses are used to subsequently justify the transfer of reform packages or 'best practices' from one country to another. Similar to evidence-based policy planning, the what-went-right approach needs to be criticized for being presumptuous. There are three fallacies of the what-went-right analysis that the article dismantles: rationality, precision and universality. The article focuses on the façade of universality and examines how the claim to universal solutions is methodologically sustained. First, the author shows how standardized or normative comparison has in recent years overshadowed the other two types of comparison: comparison across time (historical analyses) and comparison across contexts ('simple comparison'). Then, she elaborates on why the what-went-right approach requires policy analysts to downplay differences between educational systems in order to establish comparability between cases. The emphasis on comparability and similarity of cases is a prerequisite to importing 'best practices' from vastly different educational systems. But what if transfer occurs regardless of difference? There is a curious phenomenon that the article addresses in greater detail: the retrospective definition of a local problem. Given the worldwide circulation of 'best practices' and traveling reform packages, policy analysts sometimes are under pressure to align their analyses of local problems with already existing global solutions. The article ends with a reflection on policy borrowing and lending research and situates the what-went-right approach in the broader question of why and how policy analysts 'buy' or 'sell' reform packages that worked well in one context for transfer into another.


The objective of this survey is to cover the research in the area of adaptive traffic control with emphasis on the applied optimization methods. The problem of optimizing traffic signals can be viewed in various ways, depending on political, economic and ecological goals. The survey highlights some important conflicts, which support the notion that traffic signal optimization is a multi-objective problem, and relates this to the most common measures of effectiveness. A distinction can be made between classical systems, which operate with a common cycle time, and the more flexible, phase-based, approach, which is shown to be more suitable for adaptive traffic control. To support this claim three adaptive systems, which use alternatives to the classical optimization procedures, are described in detail.


A series of CoNiCu/Cu multilayers was potentiostatically electrodeposited on strong 100 textured Cu substrates from electrolytes with different Ni concentrations. X-ray diffraction patterns showed that all studied samples exhibited a face-centered cubic structure. From scanning electron microscopy images, it was observed that the surface morphology of the films is affected by their Ni content. The compositional analysis by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy demonstrated that as the Ni ion concentration in the electrolyte is increased, the Ni content of the film increases. Magnetoresistance MR measurements were carried out at room temperature in the magnetic fields of 12 kOe. The samples grown from the electrolytes with the Ni concentration of up to 0.3 M exhibited giant magnetoresistance GMR. For the samples grown from 0.3 M Ni, anisotropic magnetoresistance AMR begins to appear as well as GMR. As the Ni concentration in the electrolytes is increased, the AMR effect enhances, whereas the GMR effect weakens. For the 2.0 M Ni concentration, the MR behavior of multilayers converts from GMR to AMR. Furthermore, the magnetization measurements made by a vibrating sample magnetometer showed that the antiferromagnetic coupling between ferromagnetic layers weakens with increasing the Ni concentrations.


Documentation of land rights can ensure tenure security and facilitate smooth land transactions, but in most countries of the global south this has been difficult to achieve. These difficulties are related to the high transaction cost, long transaction times, and procedural rigidity of land registration processes. In response to these problems, innovative approaches of tenure documentation have been conceived at a global level and are being promoted in many countries of the global south. Little is known yet about how such innovative land tenure documentation approaches unfold in various contexts and to what effect. The implementation of innovative approaches is challenging, due to the legal pluralistic nature of land governance and administrative hybridity in many countries of the global south, including the West African region. This qualitative study explores how Meridia, a small for-profit company, develops innovative approaches to register land rights in the form of "documentation packages" within the existing institutional setting of Ghana. In the paper, we describe both the processes of preparing the documentation packages and respective actors involved, as well as the nature of encounters between innovative interventions and existing institutions. Meridia develops specific products in response to both the regional diversity of land tenure, uses, and market demands, as well as in response to the challenges that the institutional context poses to the process of land tenure registration. As such, the case illustrates how innovation evolves in step-by-step fashion through negotiations with existing land institutions. The various documentation packages developed in this manner differ in terms of cost and complexity of preparation, in terms of recognition by customary and statutory institutions, as well as in the usability of the issued certificates and the extent of exchangeability of associated land parcels. Therefore, Meridia's product innovation reflects the continuum of land rights, but it also poses questions for future research regarding the political economy of land tenure certification and regarding the actual uses and benefits of issued certificates.


Background: Since 2014 Luminex crossmatch (LXM) is being performed regularly in India for post-transplant management of renal allograft recipients. Aim This study was planned to evaluate the possible role of the LXM in the post-transplant setting for the detection and characterization of HLA-specific IgG antibodies and to correlate with allograft biopsy and renalfunction. Methods: A retrospective study was performed on 169 consecutive LXM performed at a single center to investigate suspected allograft dysfunction (n=147) and for monitoring DSA in normally functioning allografts (n=22). A total of 116 biopsies (including 11 repeats) and 40 panel reactive antibody (PRA) screen tests were performed. Results: Donor specific antibodies (DSA) were detected in 81 samples (47.9%): 7 recipients had HLA class I DSA alone, 56 had only HLA class II DSA and 18 recipients had both. First time biopsies were categorized as: negative for rejection (n=30), antibody mediated rejection (n=32), acute cellular rejection (n=23), chronic rejection (n=15) and dual morphology (n=5). LXM was positive in 44/75 biopsies with rejection and transiently raised in 11/30 recipients who showed no evidence of rejection. On the basis of the LXM results biopsywas not performed in 42 recipients who showed improved renal function 15 recipients with non-specific findings on first biopsy. Conclusion: The study suggests that LXM is useful and economically viable algorithm for the detection of antibodies in the post-transplant work up of renal allograft recipients in developing nations.


ABSTRACT Duce, S., Vila-Concejo, A., Hamylton, S., Bruce, E., Webster, J. M, 2014. Spur and groove distribution, morphology and relationship to relative wave exposure, Southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 115–120, ISSN 0749-0208. Spur and groove features occur on the seaward reef slope of coral reefs around the world. They are believed to act as important natural breakwaters, regulating the hydrodynamic energy and nutrients received by reef platforms. They also represent one of the most diverse and productive zones of modern reefs. However, the formation processes and morphodynamics of spur and groove systems are poorly understood, particularly in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR). This paper constitutes the first broad scale analysis of spur and groove systems in the Capricorn Bunker Group (CBG) in the southern GBR. It uses remotely sensed imagery coupled with ground-truthed data to measure groove length at four reefs (Wreck, Heron, One Tree and Lady Elliot). A total of 2621 grooves were digitised across the four study reefs. Groove length was found to vary both between and within the study reefs. The maximum groove length was 536 m. Average groove length ranged from 93 m at Wreck Reef to 32 m at Heron Reef. This data was compared to relative wave exposure estimates derived from the fetch scenario at each reef. Strong positive correlation was found with groove length increasing as wave exposure increased. Groove length was highly spatially dependant and varied around the reef platforms according to the degree of wave exposure. The longest grooves were found on the most exposed, eastern sides of all reefs. These results provide valuable insight into spur and groove function, formation and likely response to future environmental changes in the CBG and further afield.


Purpose of review Fibromuscular dysplasia is an underdiagnosed and misunderstood disease. The purpose of this review is to inform healthcare providers and the public about a condition that may be more common than previously thought. Recent findings There has been little new information published about fibromuscular dysplasia in the past 30 years. The International Registry that is now underway will remedy that situation and provide a large number of patients to study with this condition. Summary Fibromuscular dysplasia is a noninflammatory, nonatherosclerotic disease that has been reported in almost every arterial bed and primarily affects women aged 15–50 years. It most commonly presents in the renal and extracranial cerebrovascular arteries, either manifesting as hypertension, transient ischemic attack or stroke, respectively. Some patients may be asymptomatic and fibromuscular dysplasia could only be discovered by imaging for some other reason or by the detection of an asymptomatic bruit. Dissection or aneurysm may also occur in patients with fibromuscular dysplasia. The true prevalence is unknown, partially because of the fact that it is underdiagnosed in many patients. Treatment consists of antiplatelet therapy for asymptomatic individuals and percutaneous balloon angioplasty for patients with indications for intervention. Patients with macroaneurysms should be treated with either a covered stent or surgery.


Leaving aside historical and mythological dramas, a considerable number of plays written for the Abbey Theatre between 1904 and the outbreak of the Second World War represent emigration. They enjoyed varying degrees of success. In 1904 G.B. Shaw portrayed an Irish émigré as one of the two protagonists in John Bull's Other Island; in the following two years Padraic Colum's The Land and William Boyle's The Mineral Workers were enthusiastically received by Abbey Theatre audience, the former with its depiction of young Irish men and women emigrating to America, the latter, an engineer returning to Ireland from overseas; 1907 saw three plays presenting emigration as one of the great Irish issues, both politically and economically: J.M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World, George Fitzmaurice's The Country Dressmaker and Lady Augusta Gregory's The Jackdaw. They were followed by T.C. Murray's Birthright, Lennox Robinson's Harvest and Colum's Thomas Muskerry. Indeed, it is almost impossible to provide an exhaustive list of all the plays dealing with emigration. The present paper aims to discuss a selection of significant plays intended for or staged at the Abbey Theatre in the first decades of the twentieth century, analysing what emigration stood for, and how it was exploited dramatically. The historical boundaries of this research (1904-1939) provide a provisional limit to an otherwise too vast study for the present paper.


AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have achieved record output power densities at microwave frequencies; however, reliability of these devices is still a major concern. In this paper, the results of DC and RF stress tests at several drain voltages of passivated 75 /spl mu/m devices are discussed. After DC stress for 48 hours, negligible differences in IN and small signal performance were observed in some devices, while significant reduction in drain current, decrease in transconductance, and increase in on-resistance were measured in some other devices. RF stress for 40 hours has resulted in lower transconductance and drain current and degradation in power performance at 10 GHz. A comprehensive comparison of equivalent circuit models before and after stress is presented.


This case study in progress compares two stages of usage of a Course Management System at a private university: before a major functionality upgrade, and after. Here, we report the initial study of usage before the upgrade. It extends current research by taking into account prior use, and noting features (whether in the previous system or not) that attract new implementers. The focus of the study is on Perceived Characteristics of Innovations and management behaviors that facilitate effective implementation of system features. The instrument used by Van Slyke, Lou and Day will be used to study secondary adoption both before and after the upgrade, as described by Gallivan (2001). Results of the first phase of research will be available for presentation at the conference.


Although effective school-based alcohol prevention programs do exist, the overall efficacy of these programs has been compromised by implementation failure. The CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module was developed to overcome some of the obstacles to high fidelity program implementation. This paper details this development of the CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module. The development involved two stages, both of which were considered essential. The first stage, involved reviewing the literature to ensure the program was based on the most effecttive pedagogy and health promotion practice and the second stage involved collaborating with teachers, students and specialists in the area of alcohol and other drugs, to ensure these goals were realised. The final CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module consists of computer-driven harm minimisation program which is based on a social influence approach. The program consists of six lessons, each with two components. The first component involves students completing an interactive computer-based program, with the second consisting of a variety of individual, small group and class-based activities. This program was developed to provide an innovative new platform for the delivery of drug education and has proven to be both feasible and effective in the school environment. The success of this program is considered to be testament to this collaborative development approach.


Through its National Center for Transit Research, and under contract with the Florida Department of Transportation, the Center for Urban Transportation Research has conducted an inventory of current and planned Advanced Public Transportation Systems (APTS) in Florida to help the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) develop baseline information on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) transit activities around the state. Although the primary task of this effort was to develop an inventory of current and planned Florida APTS projects based on the results of a survey of Florida transit properties, the project also included two supplementary tasks related to the implementation of APTS technologies. One of these tasks involved examining, through a literature review, 10 of the major issues that transit properties around the country have encountered during the development and/or deployment phases of the projects, and then analyzing the Florida properties' experiences with these issues based on the survey responses. The other. and final, task involved conducting an assessment of APTS benefits for a few selected transit agencies utilizing a benefits analysis spreadsheet tool and documenting the results of the assessments in order to provide an evaluation example for other agencies to follow as they continue to develop and deploy APTS technologies. It is anticipated that this research will help provide further guidance to Florida and other U.S. transit properties in the formative stages of APTS investigation.


To be implemented on an analog CMOS image sensor, a robust algorithm based on recursive operations is presented. It allows sensor's acuity adaptation to the scene activity. The main interest of the presented motion detection with adaptive thresholding is that, in a context of embedded steady camera, such a system allows focusing on targets with high resolution while keeping background in low resolution. Drastic power consumption reduction is achieved by tremendously reducing the amount of processed data.


This paper presents a distribution power flow experiment for use in outreach education. The work was adapted from an existing power flow experiment by Yang et al. to target non-engineers with diverse educational backgrounds. Critical educational outcomes were identified. An iterative design process was developed to build the experiment. Subsequently, new laboratory activities and interactive manuals were created. Assessment surveys were designed for evaluation purposes. Feedback results from 26 participants are presented.


Cation diffusion controls mass transport and microstructural evolution in zirconia above 1200 oC. In past research, its experimentally measured activation energy of 5 eV cannot be reproduced by computer simulation, which gives >10 eV and a cation vacancy mechanism implicating enhanced diffusion in oxidizing atmosphere, contradicting experimental evidence. This thesis was undertaken to answer these questions and to explore new ground in cation kinetics. To help search for low-energy configurations in zirconia alloys, we employed crystal chemistry to boost sampling efficiency, by >1,000 times, and obtained plausible "ground states" to launch ab-initio calculations for cation defects and migration. The combined formation and migration energy, about 5 eV, is in agreement with experimental observations. Our calculations further found an extra electron can facilitate migration of a reduced cation, because electron localization at the saddle point can significantly lower the energy. Confirming recent reports, we found graded grain size under large electrical loading, implicating a 104� enhancement in cation kinetics in favor of the cathode side; similarly enhanced kinetics was observed under reducing conditions. This connection allowed us to map local oxygen potential using grain growth kinetics, thus obtaining a direct measure of electrode polarization in zirconia for the first time. In addition to the wellknown effects of electrode kinetics, a new effect caused by the association of electrons/holes and lattice oxygens/defects was revealed by cavitation due to vacancy condensation. Such association led to predictions on oxygen potential distributions that agree with experimentally observed grain size distributions. Lastly, we discovered a sharp mobility transition in zirconia grain growth at around 1200 oC, caused by crossover from boundary-mobility control to junction-mobility control. A theory was formulated to predict new growth exponents and grain size variations. When mobility inhomogeneity was further considered, we obtained predictions in agreement with the measured statistics and kinetics at low temperatures. By placing several fundamental aspects of cation diffusion in zirconia on a firmer footing, this thesis will help understanding and design of zirconia ceramics. Such understanding may be used to improve zirconia fabrication and applications at high temperatures, especially under a large electrical or chemical driving force. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Materials Science & Engineering First Advisor I-Wei Chen This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2261


Ca-Mg-Al hydrotalcite-like compounds (CaMgAl-HTLcs) were synthesized by a hydrothermal method, and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and differential thermal analysis (DTA) techniques. The effects of the medium pH value, the molar ratio of the raw materials, the reaction temperature and the reaction time on the structure of CaMgAl-HTLcs were studied. The results showed that increasing treatment temperature and reaction time could improve the crystallinity and monodispersity of hydrotalcite-like compound particles. And well-defined CaMgAl-HTLcs could be prepared at a pH value of 10~11 with n (Mg+Ca): n (Al) = 1~3 and n (Mg): n (Ca) = 1~3.


Too many strategic management scholars may have lost their passion for research or what Robert Merton has defined as the 'taste for science.' A lack of passion curtails the pursuit of original, creative research, and the knowledge generated often may be of questionable value for the field's advancement and business practices. We argue that the reduction of a scholar's passion for research and an insufficient generation of meaningful knowledge are influenced by a flawed academic governance system. The current governance system of our academic journals and universities undermines attaining the legitimate interests of individual faculty, the scientific community, and broader society. To resolve this situation, we propose a new governance system based on open access and open evaluation. We demonstrate how this alternative system can meet the interests of its stakeholders, encourage more meaningful research and knowledge, and restore a scholar's 'taste for science.'


Buildings built on the slope and slope, in order to avoid a lot of digging embankment. According to the slope of potential changes in pile foundation of General unequal height. In the design of such buildings are generally the superstructure and Foundation when considered separately, under normal load bearing capacity and deformation is to meet to coordinal requirements.Changes in water level cause of slope sliding, so lead to individual settlement, the class meets the deformation of the structure of coordination of the Department of architecture and how the force is not known. Based on this, to a shore in 8 layers of pile foundation in the framework, for example, using finite element analysis software ANSYS in different parts of a single settlement on the basis of structural impact.


In the present study crystal structure of 3-[Bis-(2 -hydroxy-4,4-dimethyl-6-oxo-cyclohex-1-enyl)-methyl ]benzonitrile was determined using single crystal X-ray diffracti on. Further the structural features was extrapolate d to molecular docking studies with focal adhesion kinase (FAK) do main using Autodock to study its anticancerous property. The compound exhibited considerable bacterial inhibitio n of lower to moderate concentrations. We conclude that these derivatives can be used in medicine and have enormo us potential as pharmaceutical agents due to their biological activities. The above titled receptor gain function al and structural insights into their mechanism of inhibition and explore its potential as an anticancer agent.


I have been aspirating palpable "lumps and bumps" for over 30 years and also interpreting aspirates performed by radiologists, endocrinologists, and other physicians; the last 9 years performing mostly thyroidal aspirates. What follows is based on my reflections and on the insight developed into the particular problem of thyroid nodules. We have to understand the limitations of fine needle aspiration (FNA) of thyroidal lesions. FNA is a diagnostic tool. Tools only work if they are handled properly. The five most important things I have learned in all these years are: (1) the role of the aspirator is crucial, (2) the technique is deceptively simple, (3) you have to have a team, (4) communication with the referring physician is essential, and (5) you have to persist.

I cannot overemphasise this premise. I believe that this still is overlooked in the literature. Frequently I read about how important it is to have an experienced cytopathologist interpreting the smears. The cytopathologist is only as good as the sample he obtains or receives. You can have the best cytopathologist in the world and he will not be able to diagnose your patient's nodule accurately if you only aspirated blood. Remember, that to acquire experience you must perform a sufficient number of aspirations. How many is enough? Only you will know. Also, you have to be self critical, and you must be a life-long learner. After 30 years I am still tinkering with my technique and getting better. In the last 9 years at the Washington Hospital Center I have aspirated over 10 000 patients (92% thyroids). There is a positive relation between "procedural experience" and outcomes. This is not restricted to FNA.

Again, I want to reiterate that not many "aspirators" realise that it is not only a matter of inserting a needle. The backbone …


Off-policy evaluation (OPE) is important for closing the gap between offline training and evaluation of reinforcement learning (RL), by estimating performance and/or rank of target (evaluation) policies using offline trajectories only. It can improve the safety and efficiency of data collection and policy testing procedures in situations where online deployments are expensive, such as healthcare. However, existing OPE methods fall short in estimating human feedback (HF) signals, as HF may be conditioned over multiple underlying factors and is only sparsely available; as opposed to the agent-defined environmental rewards (used in policy optimization), which are usually determined over parametric functions or distributions. Consequently, the nature of HF signals makes extrapolating accurate OPE estimations to be challenging. To resolve this, we introduce an OPE for HF (OPEHF) framework that revives existing OPE methods in order to accurately evaluate the HF signals. Specifically, we develop an immediate human reward (IHR) reconstruction approach, regularized by environmental knowledge distilled in a latent space that captures the underlying dynamics of state transitions as well as issuing HF signals. Our approach has been tested over two real-world experiments, adaptive in-vivo neurostimulation and intelligent tutoring, as well as in a simulation environment (visual Q&A). Results show that our approach significantly improves the performance toward estimating HF signals accurately, compared to directly applying (variants of) existing OPE methods.


Background : Cognitive decline is age-related, although some clinical situations and comorbidities may raise and worse the condition. Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), a neuromodulation technique which uses low electrical currents, has previously been used to enhance cognition in healthy elderly. Previous studies points that tDCS raises neuroplasticity markers such as EEG-alpha power. Postoperative cognitive decline (POCD) is a common complication of on-pump coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, leading to increased postoperative morbidity and mortality. There is no effective treatment to avoid POCD and the tDCS, through raising EEG-Alpha power, may offer better preoperative patient conditions to lower POCD incidence. Once tDCS has never been used in this population before, this is a proof-of-concept design to determine if 10 sessions of tDCS treatment increase EEG-alpha power as compared to sham tDCS in elderly at risk of POCD undergoing elective CABG surgery. Methods : The proposed study design describes a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blinded, single center trial. In total, 40 patients are to be equally divided in blocks of 4 patients and randomized with concealed allocation. Study arms: 1) anodal stimulation or 2) sham stimulation. The primary outcome is the mean EEG-alpha power (difference in tDCS group as compared to sham tDCS). The secondary outcomes include the measurements of cognitive performance before intervention, after intervention and postoperatively, as indexed by The Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) (higher score signalizes cognitive enhancement and lower score cognitive decline). Conclusion : This study is a considerable step before a larger randomized double-blind clinical trial, which provides the information needed for clinical use. This design sheds light on the mechanisms underlying POCD related to EEG-Alpha power and establish the role of tDCS as a tool to enhance cognitive reserve.


We present an intermediate frequency-over-fiber (IFoF) transmission system that uses cascaded connections between a broadband link and multiple narrowband links for future mobile fronthaul (MFH). The downlink MFH system employs analog and digital signal processing after broadband and narrowband IFoF transmissions, respectively, for extractions and frequency conversions of IF signals. The bandwidth of the optical components for the downlink MFH system is investigated and compared with that for the subcarrier multiplexed passive optical network (SCM-PON). The results support the satisfactory performance of the MFH system for bandwidth reduction. Two types of our developed digital signal processors for the MFH system are also described in detail: One is for an output of a single radio frequency (RF) stream, whereas the other is for simultaneous outputs of multiple RF streams. In addition, using either of the digital signal processors, we experimentally demonstrate the downlink MFH system's transmission of 64-QAM filtered OFDM (f-OFDM) signals with 360-MHz signal bandwidth and 3.6-MHz guard bands between adjacent IF signals and 64-QAM OFDM signals with 380.16-MHz signal bandwidth and 19.84-MHz guard bands between IF signals. In both experiments, eighteen IF signals are successfully transmitted over 20-km and 1-km fibers, which includes analog and real-time digital signal processing for IF channel extractions and frequency conversions. The results obtained in this study demonstrate the potential of cascaded IFoF links using hybrid signal processing for 5G and future MFH systems.


Abstract Although massive fish kills are wide-spread and can be economically devastating, there is little information on exact causal mechanisms of fish kills in nature. In large shallow Lake Võrtsjärv, sporadic fish kills have been registered mainly in cold winters, yet in 2013, an unexpected fish kill occurred beginning mid-June. At the time of the fish kill, an investigation was conducted to determine species composition, number, and sizes of dead fish along the lake shore. To determine possible causes of the fish kill, we analysed the dynamics of key physical and chemical parameters of lake water, including diurnal fluctuations of water temperature (WT), pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), ammonium ion concentrations (NH4-N), and the development of water stratification, during the growing season of 2013 using high-frequency water quality monitoring buoy and monthly manual monitoring data. Environmental data between 2010 and 2012 were used as a reference because no fish kill occurred. The results suggest that the fish kill was induced by a combination of successive and co-occurring extreme water parameters such as high WT (up to 24.5 °C), pH (up to 9.2), and NH4-N (up to 0.13 mg L−1), short-term stratification, and low DO concentration in the bottom water (0.49 mg L−1, saturation 5.4%) induced by quick warming of this shallow lake after a long ice-covered period and leading to a likely ammonia poisoning and hypoxia. The main target species was the bottom-dwelling ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernuus), indicating that the summer kill started at the bottom of the lake. The event highlights the significance of short-term disturbances on fish populations, which can be detected only using high-frequency monitoring data.


An effective transformation of sentence level voiced speech from young to aged, or male to female, requires the parametrization and subsequent modification of various components in speech. A glottal excited linear predictive model (GELP), similar to that developed by Childers and Hu [D. G. Childers and H. T. Hu, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 2026–2036 (1994)] was used as a basic platform for experiments in gender, age, and vocal quality transformation. This model permits a parametrization initially into excitation and articulation components, which were then separately modified. This study describes the changes in pitch, prosody, glottal pulse shape, and formant structure necessary to evoke a perceptual transformation from an adult male to a prepubescent child. The transformation was performed at the sentence level. A time‐domain glottal pulse model which is sensitive to gender/age was used, along with a male‐to‐child vocal‐tract pseudoarea warping. [Work supported by NIH Grant DCO2532‐01.]


AMADEUS is a dexterous subsea robot hand incorporating force and slip contact sensing, using fluid filled tentacles for fingers. Hydraulic pressure variations in each of three flexible tubes (bellows) in each finger create a bending moment, and consequent motion or increase in contact force during grasping. Such fingers have inherent passive compliance, no moving parts, and are naturally depth pressure-compensated, making them ideal for reliable use in the deep ocean. In addition to the mechanical design, development of the hand has also considered closed loop finger position and force control, coordinated finger motion for grasping, force and slip sensor development/signal processing, and reactive world modeling/planning for supervisory 'blind grasping'. Initially, the application focus is for marine science tasks, but broader roles in offshore oil and gas, salvage, and military use are foreseen.