Abstract. Terrestrial Biosphere Modeling (TBM) is an invaluable approach for studying plant-atmosphere interactions at multiple spatial and temporal scales, as well as the global change impacts on ecosystems. Yet, TBM projections suffer from large uncertainties that limit their usefulness. A large part of this uncertainty arises from the empirical allometric (size-tomass) relationships that are used to represent forest structure in TBMs. Forest structure actually drives a large part of TBM uncertainty as it regulates key processes such as the transfer of carbon, energy, and water between the land and atmosphere, but remains challenging to measure and reliably represent. The poor representation of forest structure in TBMs results in models that are able to reproduce observed land fluxes, but which fail to realistically represent carbon pools, forest composition, and demography. Recent advances in Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) techniques offer a huge opportunity to capture the three-dimensional structure of the ecosystem and transfer this information to TBMs in order to increase their accuracy. In this study, we quantified the impacts of integrating structural observations of individual trees (namely tree height, leaf area, woody biomass, and crown area) derived from TLS into the state-of-the-art Ecosystem Demography model (ED2.2) at a temperate forest site. We assessed the relative model sensitivity to initial conditions, allometric parameters, and canopy representation by changing them in turn from default configurations to site-specific, TLS-derived values. We show that forest demography and productivity as modelled by ED2.2 are sensitive to the imposed initial state, the model structural parameters, and the way canopy is represented. In particular, we show that: 1) the imposed openness of the canopy dramatically influenced the potential vegetation, the optimal ecosystem leaf area, and the vertical distribution of light in the forest, as simulated by ED2.2; 2) TLS-derived allometric parameters increased simulated leaf area index and aboveground biomass by 57 and 75 %, respectively; 3) the choice of model structure and allometric coefficient both significantly impacted the optimal set of parameters necessary to reproduce eddy covariance flux data.


The article is concerned with the biography of professor, Doctor of Medicine Petr Lazarevich Seltsovsky (1898-1961), who was surgeon-in-chief of Air Force during the Great Patriotic War. He enunciated suggestions about the problems of surgery during his service in Air Force in his scientific works "Head injury of aircraft personnel of Air Force", "Traumatism of aircraft personnel", "Traumatism in Air Force". During the 30-year period of academic and research practice professor P. L. Seltsovsky published more than 120 scientific works including 7 monographs and 2 manuals.


The predominant boundary conditions for evaluating watertightness of a wall are pressure difference across and water spray rate on the wall. However, the relation between these key climatic effects as defined in standards or actual weathering conditions remain, as yet, undefined. A comprehensive calculation method to define
correct boundary conditions based on extreme value analysis of wind and rain events has been developed, however, the method relies, to an extent, on the statistical independence of these events. Hence, the calculation of the return period for winddriven rain loads on buildings has up to now required unverified and perhaps uncertain assumptions concerning the co-occurrence of wind and rain events; this necessarily affects the calculation of results for wind-driven loads. In this paper a new methodology is presented that was developed to derive boundary conditions for watertightness testing based on Pareto-front analysis of meteorological data. The method takes into account actual combinations of rain and wind without making assumptions regarding the co-occurrence of wind and rain events, and thereby allows calculating realistic boundary conditions for different return periods. This method was developed based on only one climate database, and necessarily should be validated for a broader range of climates and return periods. As well, the Pareto-based methodology only offers information for the specific averaging period of a given climate database. The conversion to shorter time periods for both wind and rain again introduces assumptions on the co-occurrence
of extremes.


Malarial retinopathy addresses diseases that are characterized by abnormalities in retinal fundus imaging. Macular whitening is one of the distinct signs of cerebral malaria but has hardly been explored as a critical bio-marker. The paper proposes a computerized detection and classification method for malarial retinopathy using retinal whitening as a bio-marker. The paper combines various statistical and color based features to form a sound feature set for accurate detection of retinal whitening. All features are extracted at image level and feature selection is performed to detect most discriminate features. A new method for macula location is also presented. The detected macula location is further used for grading of whitening as macular or peripheral whitening. Support vector machine along with radial basis function is used for classification of normal and malarial retinopathy patients. The evaluation is performed using a locally gathered dataset from malarial patients and it achieves an accuracy of 95% for detection of retinal whitening and 100% accuracy for grading of retinal whitening as macular or non-macular. One of the major contributions of proposed method is grading of retinal whitening into macular or peripheral whitening.


Field Methods in Archaeology; Prepared for Archaeological Expeditions of the Museum of Northern Arizona. HAROLD S. COLTON. Museum of Northern Arizona, Technical Series, No. 1. Second edition. Flagstaff, 1953. 30 pages, 5 figures, $1.00. The first edition (1950) of Colton's manual was mimeographed and limited to 100 copies; this is a straight republication which will make the work accessible to a wider audience. The special excellence of excavations carried out by the MNA in the past by the methods detailed in this handbook provide the measure of their worth.


In the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, four organizations, Both ENDS, World Wide Fund for Nature, Wetlands International and IUCN Netherlands Committee, implemented "Green Coast: for nature and people after the tsunami", to assist the tsunamiaffected countries in Asia: India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia. The overall goal of the project was to recover and support local livelihoods in the tsunami-affected regions through the rehabilitation and sustainable management of coastal ecosystems. Using case studies, this publication provides an overview of the projects implemented under this initiative.


Metabolic syndrome X is common in Indians. But the exact cause for this is not clear. Earlier, I proposed that this could be due to low activities of delta6 and delta5 desaturases and consequent decreased plasma and tissue concentrations of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids of omega-6 and omega-3 series since perinatal period. This implies that perinatal to adult life supplementation of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids could prevent, arrest or postpone the development of metabolic syndrome X and its complications.


ABSTRACT Jebakumar, J.P.P.; Nandhagopal, G.; RajanBabu, B.; Ragumaran, S.; Kiran, A.S., and Ravichandran, V., 2022. Ecological appraisal of geotextiles in coastal erosion protection engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, 38(2), 345–354. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The emergence of geotextiles in coastal erosion protection as an alternative material to stone boulders and concrete tetrapods is evident in the recent past. The submergence of geotextiles being colonized by epibiotic organisms on their surface is called marine growth, similar to all other materials inundated in seawater. It includes organisms of the primary producers of algal populations, secondary consumers, and filter feeders of benthic-fouling communities crusting geotextiles' surface. In-situ experimental studies of more than a year of research at a fishing harbour along Chennai coast, India, projected a typical pattern of epibiotic encrustation and its impact on tensile strength nonwoven geotextiles fabrics. Results demonstrated a patchy-mosaic design of marine growth on the geotextile comprising 41 species of sessile invertebrates, including seaweeds, showing a natural succession of biotic density and diversity. Noted distinct stages in colonization were commencing with the domination of deposit feeders, followed by filter feeders, secondary consumers, and primary producers, where later filter feeders subjugated them. The incidence of fundamental ecological succession based on food availability, nature of trophic consumers, and intra/interspecific competition lead to dynamic population shifts on geotextiles. The monolayer settlement pattern of marine growth on the surface is dominated by the benthic filter-feeding community, forming an inverted trophic pyramid structure. Significant differences in tensile strength between geotextile with and without marine growth (p = 0.042) and the progressive improvement in tensile strength indicated no adverse impact on the erosion protection structure's stability. Thus, a harmonious relationship between population density and tensile strength (r = 0.8) represents a mutual relationship between encrusting biota and geotextile substrate, resulting in camouflaging with the coastal background ecosystems as an innovative ecodesign for coastal erosion protection engineering.


We identified a partially sequenced Saccharomyces cerevisiae gene which encodes a protein related to the S. cerevisiae RNA polymerase II subunit, RPB7. Several lines of evidence suggest that this related gene, YKLI, encodes the RNA polymerase III subunit C25. C25, like RPB7, is present in submolar ratios, easily dissociates from the enzyme, is essential for cell growth and viability, but is not required in certain transcription assays in vitro. YKLI has ABF-1 and PAC upstream sequences often present in RNA polymerase subunit genes. The sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis mobility of the YKL1 gene product is equivalent to that of the RNA polymerase III subunit C25. Finally, a C25 conditional mutant grown at the nonpermissive temperature synthesizes tRNA at reduced rates relative to 5.8S rRNA, a hallmark of all characterized RNA polymerase III mutants.


In this paper we present a full analog CMOS implementation of Gallager's iterative decoding algorithm applied to a relatively simple Block Turbo Code. The aim of our work is to investigate the potentiality of this approach in the construction of the analog decoding network, with respect to those based on the forward-backward algorithm on the trellis of the constituent codes. The work describes the design issues and the post-layout simulation results of a prototype which is going to be fabricated in a 0.8 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. The prototype implements a decoder for a rate 0.4, BTC code built from (7,4) Hamming constituent codes, with a 16-bit block length, and including on-chip I/O interfaces for serial input and parallel digital output. The simulated overall power consumption at 4.8 Mbit/s information (i.e. 12 Mbit/s channel) transmission rate was 11 mW.


Wound healing is a dynamic, interactive process critically involved in maintaining normal physiology and host defence of the body. Nevertheless, a healed wound (scar) is only about 70% as strong as normal skin. Moreover, reduced healing capability in the elderly, costs the American government more than $90 billion yearly due to hospitalisation. Apart from that, surgical scars can be a cause of psychological problem. Therefore, a new treatment that can speed up healing and decreases scarring is in great need. Plasminogen has shown significant healing acceleration effect in earlier studies on punctured tympanic membrane. Therefore, in the current study, we aim at investigating the healing quality in mice treated with plasminogen by functionality analysis.
In the first part of the study, the correlation of skin tensile strength with gender, skin color and plasminogen genotypes of mice were analyzed. In the second part of the study, the effects of plasminogen injection on the tensile strength of different types of wounds in wild-type mice and mice lacking plasminogen gene were analyzed.
The studies on excision and incision wounds did not supply any data that significantly confirmed that plasminogen has a positive effect on the tensile strength of the wounds. When plasminogen was only administered for a limited period during the whole experimental process, the data did not give any overt conclusive effects. However, when the plasminogen was injected locally and daily for the entire duration of a burn study, the data showed clearly that plasminogen significantly improve the tensile strength of burn wounds.
There are at least a couple of factors affecting the tensile strength of a mouse skin; gender, male skin is stronger, and skin color, fair skin i stronger, both had significant effect, whereas the genotype have no effect at all. Administering plasminogen has a positive effect on the tensile strength of the healed burn wounds when the mice were treated during the entire 28-day experimental period. In the other studies, too few animals were included to give any final conclusions


: HCSM's interview this month is with Eugene E. Loubier, FACHA, President of Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield, Massachusetts. This 162-bed facility is the first to start formally a MeSH plan, a unique medical staff/hospital joint venture or partnership. Through MeSH, the hospital and its medical staff have created a new corporation, equally owned by the hospital and the medical staff members participating in the MeSH. This corporation is responsible for areas where the economic interests of the physicians and the hospitals overlap. Instead of each party independently pursuing economic opportunities that might impact the other party, the MeSH can, as a whole, undertake the venture.


A direct comparison of experimentally determined protein structures and their corresponding protein coding mRNA sequences has been performed. We examine whether real world data support the hypothesis that clusters of rare codons correlate with the location of structural units in the resulting protein. The degeneracy of the genetic code allows for a biased selection of codons which may control the translational rate of the ribosome, and may thus in vivo have a catalyzing effect on the folding of the polypeptide chain. A complete search for GenBank nucleotide sequences coding for structural entries in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank produced 719 protein chains with matching mRNA sequence, amino acid sequence, and secondary structure assignment. By neural network analysis, we found strong signals in mRNA sequence regions surrounding helices and sheets. These signals do not originate from the clustering of rare codons, but from the similarity of codons coding for very abundant amino acid residues at the N- and C-termini of helices and sheets. No correlation between the positioning of rare codons and the location of structural units was found. The mRNA signals were also compared with conserved nucleotide features of 16S-like ribosomal RNA sequences and related to mechanisms for maintaining the correct reading frame by the ribosome.


Abstract Objective: Bangladesh, like many emerging economies of South-East Asia, has started to experience a double burden of continuing high rates of undernutrition and increasing rates of overweight and obesity. A lack of assessment of the nutritional shift leaves a gap in current policies: the growing overweight and obesity is yet to be addressed. The present paper investigates the change in nutritional status, particularly the shift in BMI, of Bangladeshi women of reproductive age (15–49 years) and characterizes the vulnerable households for both underweight and overweight status during a period of 10 years (2004–2014). Design: Generalized linear mixed-effect models were fitted for both urban and rural residents to assess underweight and overweight status. Setting: Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys. Participants: Women aged 15–49 years (n 53 077). Results: The proportion of overweight increased during 2004–2014 from 10·7 to 25·1 % and the proportion of underweight decreased from 32·6 to 18·2 %. Prevalence of underweight status remained high in rural areas and prevalence of overweight increased rapidly in both rural and urban areas, creating a double burden. The significant contributors to this double burden were the change in women's level of education, increased household wealth, divisional location and rapid urbanization. Conclusions: The findings indicate that specific cohort- or area-based intervention policy studies in line with the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition are required to address the nutritional double burden in Bangladesh.


ABSTRACT In essence, the Policy Institute has explored the contributions that tested educational research (including reputedly viable educational innovations not based on formal research and development) might make to actual school and classroom practice within the context of the Experimental Schools Program's planning. The Policy Institute set itself three tasks--to construct a "research-readiness" spectrum, a "criteria-of-importance' typology, and a "host-readiness" synopsis. A highly eclectic applied-social-science research method was used'. This method included commissioning two independent papers, conducting interviews, and searching the literature. What emerged was a reexamination of assumptions about the innovative process. It seems that emphasis on the suitability for implementation of research results and innovations, in an abstract sense, reflects an unconscious prejudice, favoring the perspective of the researcher over that of the practitioner. As a result, the group has been led to place greater emphasis on the characteristics of the potential host. The major outcome of this discussion is a set of questions intended to be used. by an evaluator as a means of focusing his judgment of the suitability of potential Experimental Schools grant recipients. Numerous appendixes are included. (Author /IRT).


There is a lack of data about daily difficulties and life quality, especially among young patients having arteriovenous fistula (AVF) affected by (pseudo)aneurysm. In this retrospective cohort study, 195 patients with AVF were followed up from May to June 2015. An unstandardized questionnaire was used for the evaluation of patients' screening needs and expectations. Retired married men in their sixties, with completed secondary education, represented the majority of patients with AVF in this study. The patients had a positive attitude towards the disease and AVF, and they received the majority of information related to the care and treatment of AVF from the medical personnel and doctors in selected dialysis centers. Employed, well-educated single men, aged between 21 and 40 years, had the highest interest in having an aesthetic correction of AVF, especially due to the formation of (pseudo)aneurysm at the AVF site. Establishment of rules for reconstructive procedures of AVF, once circulatory and hemodynamic stability is achieved after renal transplantation, is suggested in addition to establishing criteria for determining vascular access affected by (pseudo)aneurysm.


During the ten-year period since the creation of EFSA, two scientific panels of EFSA, the former Scientific Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Materials in Contact with Food (AFC Panel) and the Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS Panel) have been successively responsible for the safety assessment of food additives and nutrient sources added to food. They have successfully addressed a challenging number of applications and re-evaluations while developing specific risk assessment methodologies and guidance for applicants. The achievements of these scientific panels are presented, focusing on: (i) safety assessment of food additives covering new applications and re-evaluation of already authorised food additives; (ii) safety assessment of nutrient sources added to food; and (iii) safety assessment of other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect. The most important developments are highlighted; these include establishment of new guidance for food additive applications and development of more refined exposure assessment methodologies. The future challenges for the ANS Panel are anticipated to be mainly linked to its role in the re-evaluation of the safety of authorised food additives and the assessment of substances other than vitamins and minerals.


Finding the causative genes for common diseases using SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) markers is now becoming a real challenge. Although traditional statistical SNP association tests exist, these tests could not explain the effects of SNP combinations or probable recombination histories from ancestral chromosomes. Haplotype analysis of disease associated site provides more powerful markers than individual SNP analysis, and can help identify probable causative mutations. In this paper, we introduce a new method for effective haplotype pattern mining to detect disease associated mutations. Using this procedure, we can discover some of the new disease associated SNPs, which can not be detected by traditional methods. We will introduce a powerful tool for implementing this procedure with some worked examples.


Recent studies have shown that tropospheric aerosols composed of internal mixtures of organics with sulfates are quite common with the organic composing up to 50% of the particle mass. The influences of the organics on the chemical and physical properties of the aerosol are not known. In this paper, we report the solubility of a series of dicarboxylic acids in saturated ammonium sulfate solution as a function of temperature. We also report the deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) of the pure dicarboxylic acids and of mixtures of dicarboxylic acids with ammonium sulfate. For the systems studied, we find that the presence of water‐soluble dicarboxylic acids caused deliquescence to occur at a lower relative humidity (RH) than pure ammonium sulfate. In contrast, the less soluble dicarboxylic acids had no measurable effect on the deliquescence relative humidity of ammonium sulfate.


: The effectiveness of elective neck dissection for treatment of cancers of the head and neck is controversial. We report a restrospective study of 142 patients treated at our hospital between 1974 and 1994 for squamous cell carcinomas of the supraglottic larynx. At the time of surgery, none of the patients had palpable cervical adenopathy. All patients underwent tumour resection, while 55 additionally underwent functional elective neck dissection. Elective neck dissection had no significant effects on either the risk of subsequent development of ipsilateral cervical adenopathy or on survival. In view of these results, we do not consider elective neck dissection to be beneficial as a routine strategy for management of carcinomas affecting the supraglottic larynx.


Kr-like ions are good candidates for FUV lasing since they can be produced in plasmas quite easily. We present results from a spectroscopic investigation of Y IV emission from a high current density, cold cathode reflex discharge. The Y II to Y V emission is recorded in the 200 - 3000 angstroms range using photometrically calibrated spectrometers, while the emission of trace aluminum ions serves for plasma diagnostics. The intensities of the Y IV 4d - 5p and 5s - 5p transitions strongly increase relative to lines from Y II and Y III with increasing plasma current. The spectra studied here are obtained at a current density of 1.75 A/cm2. Experimental Y IV intensity ratios spanning several excited configurations are compared with collisional radiative predictions of the HULLAC atomic physics package. Good agreement is found for the measured and predicted ratios of 4p55p to 4p55s level populations per statistical weight. Finally, the response of the Kr-like system to a fast, transient excitation pulse is examined using the RADEX code. Large transient gains are predicted for several 5s - 5p transitions in Y IV, Zr V, Nb VI and Mo VII.


Normal pigmentation depends on the uniform distribution of melanin-containing vesicles, the melanosomes, in the epidermis. Griscelli syndrome (GS) is a rare autosomal recessive disease, characterized by an immune deficiency and a partial albinism that has been ascribed to an abnormal melanosome distribution. GS maps to 15q21 and was first associated with mutations in the myosin-V gene. However, it was demonstrated recently that GS can also be caused by a mutation in the Rab27a gene. These observations prompted us to investigate the role of Rab27a in melanosome transport. Using immunofluorescence and immunoelectron microscopy studies, we show that in normal melanocytes Rab27a colocalizes with melanosomes. In melanocytes isolated from a patient with GS, we show an abnormal melanosome distribution and a lack of Rab27a expression. Finally, reexpression of Rab27a in GS melanocytes restored melanosome transport to dendrite tips, leading to a phenotypic reversion of the diseased cells. These results identify Rab27a as a key component of vesicle transport machinery in melanocytes.


Abstract Previous research has suggested the use of truncation to alleviate problems of high variance in flow time and tardiness when dispatching jobs using the shortest processing time rule. These studies have suggested truncation schemes based on the time a job spends waiting in the queue to be processed and on job slack. This study describes three new truncation procedures, along with the two existing methods, that truncate jobs based on their critical ratio, operation slack and change in queue rank. In addition, the truncated (priority) jobs are dispatched using four common dispatching rules. The results show that the interaction between truncation schemes and dispatching rules is always significant and that the new truncation schemes proposed here perform as well as or better than older methods with respect to certain performance measures.


Stacked DRAM memories have become a reality in High-Performance Computing (HPC) architectures. These memories provide much higher bandwidth while consuming less power than traditional off-chip memories, but their limited memory capacity is insufficient for modern HPC systems. For this reason, both stacked DRAM and off-chip memories are expected to co-exist in HPC architectures, giving raise to different approaches for architecting the stacked DRAM in the system. This paper proposes a runtime approach to transparently manage stacked DRAM memories in task-based programming models. In this approach the runtime system is in charge of copying the data accessed by the tasks to the stacked DRAM, without any complex hardware support nor modifications to the application code. To mitigate the cost of copying data between the stacked DRAM and the off-chip memory, the proposal includes an optimization to parallelize the copies across idle or additional helper threads. In addition, the runtime system is aware of the reuse pattern of the data accessed by the tasks, and can exploit this information to avoid unworthy copies of data to the stacked DRAM. Results on the Intel Knights Landing processor show that the proposed techniques achieve an average speedup of 14% against the state-of-the-art library to manage the stacked DRAM and 29% against a stacked DRAM architected as a hardware cache.


Aggressive research on terabit per second networks has led to dramatic improvements in network transmission speeds. One result of these improvements has been to put pressure on router technology to keep pace. There is more urgent need to research and study terabit (10/sup 12/ bit) router. Traditional routes using shared-bus and central processing unit cannot do it. So how to support the terabit per second data speed is a great challenge for traditional router architecture. In this article, the recent years' new achievements in terabit routers are summarized, the new functions of terabit routers are introduced, and the distributed architecture of new generation super high speed terabit router are analyzed, which put emphasis on the multi-dimensional switching architecture. At last, The prospect of terabit router plays the final role for the paper.


In this paper, the development level of field crop production in municipalities of AP Vojvodina was observed, in the period from 1989 to 2008, through indicators of presence of harvested areas, total production and production per ha of main field crop cultures: wheat, corn, sugar beat, sun flower, clover and alfalfa. The tendency of change of observed traits of main field crop cultures was monitored. Ranking of the municipalities of AP Vojvodina is not uniform based on presence of observed field crop cultures. Therefore, Spearman correlation coefficient indicates medium, but statistically very significant level of compliance of formed rankings based on individual field crop cultures. Statistical significance was not demonstrated only in the case of presence of surfaces under sugar beat, clover and alfalfa, as well as sunflower and clover. Based on the test of the independence of the rankings, on the territory of the municipalities of AP Vojvodina, it was recorded that investigated field crop productions were mutually independent. Considering that the level of development of the municipalities of AP Vojvodina was analyzed through several indicators of field crop production for determination of the synthetic ranking which would show which of the municipalities is most developed in regard to observed field crop productions, Idistance was used in the paper.


Parental reassurance and thickened feeds are the only requirements in the management of infants with reflux when this is the sole detectable gastro-oesophageal abnormality. In view of the strong propensity for spontaneous clinical resolution and the excellent results achieved by conservative management, infants with reflux due to a partial thoracic stomach (hiatal hernia) uncomplicated by a stricture should be treated in the first instance by postural therapy, with or without thickened feeds and supplements of antacids, domperidone, and cimetidine. Those showing no response after an adequate period of conservative treatment should have an antireflux operation. The Belsey MK IV type of fundoplication is preferred. Only an exceptional patient will require to be treated surgically before 12 months of age. The same surgical antireflux procedure, combined with oesophageal dilatations as necessary, is the treatment of choice for patients with a partial thoracic stomach complicated by a reflux oesophageal stricture. A similar treatment regimen should be followed for patients with reflux after repair of an oesophageal atresia. Surgical correction is mandatory for all infants with reflux due to a large combined hiatal hernia.


Abstract Background. Intraosseous (IO) access is attempted when intravenous access cannot be established during an emergency. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration–cleared semiautomatic IO access device (EZ-IO; Vidacare Corp., Shavano Park, TX) has been shown to be safe and effective. Objective. To examine the characteristics of pediatric patients receiving IO infusions, primary clinical impressions of emergency medical services providers, success rates, and subsequent treatment after use of a manual IO device or the semiautomatic IO device. Methods. A midwestern, 12-site, statewide ambulance service began using the semiautomatic device instead of a manual IO device in 2007. Retrospective review included analysis of device placement rates and subsequent treatment of children (younger than 18 years) who underwent an IO access procedure with either the manual device (January 2003 through February 2007) or the semiautomatic device (March 2007 through May 2009). Results. First-attempt success was achieved in 80.6% of patients (25 of 31) in the manual device group and in 83.9% of patients (52 of 62) in the semiautomatic device group (p = 0.98). In the manual device group, there were 37 attempts for 25 successful device placements (67.6% success), and in the semiautomatic group, there were 72 attempts for 58 successful placements (80.6% success) (p = 0.52). Intravenous attempts were made before IO attempts in 35.5% of patients (11 of 31) in the manual group and in 1.7% of patients (1 of 60) in the semiautomatic group (p < 0.001). Treatment (medication use, excluding lidocaine for local anesthetic purposes and intravenous crystalloid) was administered IO in 84.0% of the patients (21 of 25) in the manual device group and in 73.2% of the patients (41 of 56) in the semiautomatic device group. Conclusions. For the pediatric cohort, use of a semiautomatic IO access device in place of a manual device offered no statistically significant difference in first-attempt success (3.3%) or in success per attempt (13.0%). However, the rate at which IO access was used by emergency medical services providers more than tripled with use of the semiautomatic device.


Background: Treatment choices for skeletally immature patients sustaining anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries have been controversial. The main dilemma is whether surgical treatment should be provided before patients reach skeletal maturity or whether nonoperative treatment should be provided until the physis has closed. Surgical reconstruction risks physeal damage, while delaying surgery may increase menisci and cartilage damage. Purpose: To identify patients at the onset of ACL injury and follow them longitudinally to surgery or final follow-up to describe differences between nonoperative and operative patients and to analyze the effect of delayed reconstruction. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A retrospective review of patients enrolled at a large integrated health care system (IHS) between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2008, was performed. The study sample included all females ≤12 years old and males ≤14 years old who were evaluated with an ACL injury. The incidence of ACL injuries in each age group was calculated using the number of covered lives by the IHS system per age category as the denominator. Each patient was longitudinally followed using an electronic health record that captures all patient encounters. Every encounter was reviewed for symptoms associated with the index knee, and encounters were considered significant if new-onset pain or swelling was reported. Patients were instructed to restrict their activities while awaiting skeletal maturity to undergo reconstruction by not participating in activities that included any cutting or pivoting movements that would risk injury to the knee. Cartilage and meniscal injuries were recorded for patients who underwent reconstruction. Results: A total of 71 patients were identified during the study period (66 males, 4 females). At the completion of this study, 47 (66.2%) patients had undergone ACL reconstruction, and 24 (33.8%) were being treated nonoperatively. While there were no significant associations between time to surgery and meniscal or cartilage injury, there was a positive association between the number of significant encounters and the likelihood of a combined cartilage and meniscal injury (P = .01). Conclusion: This is the first study to measure the incidence of ACL injuries in a skeletally immature population. For patients undergoing ACL reconstruction, an increased number of significant encounters was statistically significantly associated with combined meniscal and cartilage injuries, while increased time from injury to surgery was not significantly associated with additional injuries. In addition, one-third of the patients continued nonoperative treatment without symptoms that warranted surgical interventions during the follow-up period.


In the world of internet and communication technologies where our personal and business lives are inextricably tied to internet enabled services and applications, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks continue to adversely affect the availability of these services and applications. Many frameworks have been presented in academia and industry to predict, detect and defend against DDoS attacks. The available solutions try to protect online services from DDoS attacks, but as yet there is no best-practice method that is widely-accepted in the community. Differentiating DDoS attacks from similar looking legitimate Flash Events (FE) wherein huge numbers of legitimate users try to access a specific internet based service or application, is another challenging issue in the field. This paper proposes a novel hybrid DDoS and FE detection scheme taking three isolated approaches including Kernel Online Anomaly Detection (KOAD), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Information Theory. We applied our proposed approach on simulated DDoS attacks, real FEs and normal network traffic. The results indicate that information theory works well in combination with machine learning algorithms to detect and discriminate DDoS and FE traffic in terms of both false positive and detection rates.


When the labor market becomes tighter and the economy is uncertain, companies often respond by downsizing and by asking those employees who remain to be more productive and dependable. It is, therefore, of interest to both managers and researchers to better understand the dynamics of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). OCB is defined as one's willingness to do more than required, to go the extra mile. This study explores how one's subjective sense of career orientation (the internal career) affects OCB. The research was conducted in eight medium‐to‐large organizations in Thailand and it was discovered, as predicted, that internal career orientations impact the level of OCB. This finding is important because other research shows that the relationship between dispositional variables and OCB is inconclusive.


Future computer vision systems must have the ability to discover new object models. This problem can be addressed by relational concept formation systems, which structure a stream of observations into a taxonomy of discovered concepts. This paper presents a representation for images which is invariant under arbitrary groups of transformations. The discovered models, also being invariant, can be used as indices for 3D images. The methodology is illustrated on a small problem in molecular scene analysis, where discovered models, invariant under Euclidean transformations, are efficiently recognized in a cluttered molecular scene.


This paper introduces the Steel Cold Rolling Ontology (SCRO) to model and capture domain knowledge of cold rolling processes and activities within a steel plant. A case study is set up that uses real-world cold rolling data sets to validate the performance and functionality of SCRO. This includes using the Ontop framework to deploy virtual knowledge graphs for data access, data integration, data querying, and condition-based maintenance purposes. SCRO is evaluated using OOPS!, the ontology pitfall detection system, and feedback from domain experts from Tata Steel.


The effects of cannabinergic drugs on morphine state-dependent memory of passive avoidance task were examined in mice. Pre-training (0.25, 0.5 and 5 mg/kg) and post-training (5 mg/kg) administration of morphine impaired memory retrieval on the test day. Impairment of memory retrieval by morphine (5 mg/kg) on the test day was reversed by pre-test administration of the same dose of the opioid. The pre-test intracerebroventricular administration of the cannabinoid CB1/CB2 receptor agonist (WIN55,212-2) (0.75 and 1 μg/mouse) not only mimicked the effect of pre-test morphine treatment, but also increased this action of the opioid. Furthermore, the pre-test intracerebroventricular administration of CB1 receptor antagonist (AM251) (20 and 100 ng/mouse) prevented the restoration of memory by morphine. Pre-training administration of WIN55,212-2 (1 μg/mouse) led to state-dependent learning with impaired memory retrieval on the test day as well, which was reversed by pre-test administration of the drug (0.5, 0.75 and 1 μg/mouse) or morphine (1 and 5 mg/kg). Restoration of impairment induced by WIN55,212-2 was decreased by both the opioid receptor antagonists, naloxone (0.01 μg/mouse) and AM251 (20 and 100 ng/mouse). In conclusion, the improvement of memory retrieval by morphine treatment on the test day seems to be induced, at least in part, by the cannabinoid CB1 receptors.


FROM THE perspective of services delivery and services research, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report 1 and the "report card" by the IOM Committee for the Study of Research on Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders 2 in this issue of theArchivesreflect a flawed and circumscribed perspective. That perspective needs revision. The original IOM report limited itself to research relating primarily to diagnosable mental disorders. It dealt with phenomena such as drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school as consequences of or risk factors for developing mental disorders. A POLICY-FOCUSED PERSPECTIVE Conditions that significantly affect large numbers of lives warrant a high priority. Examples of such conditions are conduct disorder, substance abuse, violence, abuse/neglect, and the use of psychotropic medication in the treatment of children and adolescents. Unfortunately, the attention and resources these prevalent problems receive is meager. Research expenditures per year of potential life lost


According to the quality standards established by ARACIS, the RO universities (public or private), running distance learning study programs, are obliged to implement electronic platforms and to use them in order to support the communication and collaboration with distance learning students..
In Romania, according with the Law of National Education nr.1/2011, three types of HE systems are officially recognized: full-time on-campus, part time on-campus (IFR) and distance learning (ID). These systems have some particularities: (a) traditional lectures are replaced by self-study performed based the learning resources designed based the ID model; the laboratory is 100% similar with full-time on-campus situation; the seminar activities are replaced by tutorial activities developed on-campus(30-50%) and off-campus. Very easily someone may draw the conclusion that both ID and IFR systems are, in fact, blended learning systems. The most important aspect is ALL the ID/IFR programs have to obtain the authorization /accreditation from ARACIS. The main consequence is: the ID/IFR diplomas are equivalent with diplomas obtained in traditional, full-time on-campus education systems.
According with the quality standards established by ARACIS, the RO universities(public or private) running ID/IFR study programs are obliged to implement electronic platforms and to use them in order to support the communication and collaboration with ID/IFR students. Different institutions in RO and abroad are using different platforms, according with their strategies. Anyway, there are three major solutions: to buy a proprietary platform(e.g. Blackboard), to implement a free of charge platform available on Internet (e.g. Moodle) or to develop an own platform (home made).
This paper will present the electronic platforms that are implemented and used by the Department for DL/IFR of the University of Bucharest, starting with the academic year 2012-2013.


In order to compare subjective and objective assessments, a passenger car was driven at several speeds over several road profiles. To measure the acceleration signals experienced by the seated subject who provided an subjective assessment, four triaxial translational accelerometers and one triaxial gyro sensor were mounted on the steering wheel and on the passenger seat and floor, respectively. Correlations were determined between the measured accelerations and the subjective assessments of 3 expert subjects and 9 general subjects using psychophysical power law.


The risk of oil spills in rivers has increased due to oil storage facilities along rivers, inland navigation, major oil transport pipelines that cross rivers. Inland oil spills are more frequent than ocean oil spills but are usually of smaller volumes. Oil spills in inland waterways can have enormous environmental and economical impacts because of their closeness to populated areas and economic centres. Previous review studies on oil spill modelling have concentrated on ocean oil spill modelling. In this paper all existing major river oil spill models are reviewed. The specific needs of the river oil spill models that are different from the ocean oil spill models are identified. The physico chemical oil spill processes which form the model are discussed. A comparison of the different models are presented. Simulations are presented to demostrate state-of-the-art in river oil spill models.


Introduction: Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (MRDT) is widely used for diagnostic purposes in endemic areas and resource-constrained settings. However, concern about the accuracy of RDTs has made its wide-scale usage a debatable issue.
Aim: To assess the validity of antigen detecting MRDT kits by comparing the test results with that of conventional Peripheral Smear (PS) examination used for diagnosis of malaria.
Materials and Methods: The present cross-sectional study was done in Mangalore city which is highly endemic for Plasmodium vivax and falciparum malaria. It was conducted from May to September 2017 which corresponds to the peak season of malaria in Mangalore. The validity of antigen detecting MRDT kit namely SD Bioline Malaria Antigen test kit (Standard Diagnostics Inc., India) as a screening test was compared with a gold standard test namely Giemsa stained thick and thin blood film microscopy.
Results: Out of the total 309 cases, 210 (68%) tested positive by PS examination. MRDT showed a sensitivity of 98.6%, specificity of 86.9%, Positive Predictive Value (PPV) of 94.1% and Negative Predictive Value (NPV) of 96.6%. False Positive (FP) rate of the test was 13.1% and False Negative (FN) rate was 1.4%. The accuracy rate of the screening test was 94.8%, positive likelihood ratio was 7.53, negative likelihood ratio was 0.016 and Diagnostic Odds Ratio (DOR) was 470.6. Sensitivity and specificity of the screening test were higher in the age group of less than 18 years compared to higher age groups. Sensitivity and NPV of the screening test were higher while PPV was lesser for diagnosing Plasmodium falciparum malaria compared to Plasmodium vivax malaria. Area under receiver operating characteristic curve for MRDT was 0.927 when compared with the gold standard test.
Conclusion: Antigen detecting MRDT showed good performance as a screening test and hence can be recommended for wide-scale usage at this settings.


OBJECTIVE
This study aims to determine if cervical medial branch radiofrequency neurotomy reduces psychophysical indicators of augmented central pain processing and improves motor function in individuals with chronic whiplash symptoms.

DESIGN
Prospective observational study of consecutive patients with healthy control comparison.

SETTING
Tertiary spinal intervention centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

SUBJECTS
Fifty-three individuals with chronic whiplash associated disorder symptoms (Grade 2); 30 healthy controls.

METHODS
Measures were made at four time points: two prior to radiofrequency neurotomy, and 1- and 3-months post-radiofrequency neurotomy. Measures included: comprehensive quantitative sensory testing (including brachial plexus provocation test), nociceptive flexion reflex, and motor function (cervical range of movement, superficial neck flexor activity during the craniocervical flexion test). Self-report pain and disability measures were also collected. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance and Friedman's tests were performed to investigate the effect of time on the earlier measures. Differences between the whiplash and healthy control groups were investigated with two-tailed independent samples t-test or Mann-Whitney tests.

RESULTS
Following cervical radiofrequency neurotomy, there were significant early (within 1 month) and sustained (3 months) improvements in pain, disability, local and widespread hyperalgesia to pressure and thermal stimuli, nociceptive flexor reflex threshold, and brachial plexus provocation test responses as well as increased neck range of motion (all P < 0.0001). A nonsignificant trend for reduced muscle activity with the craniocervical flexion test (P > 0.13) was measured.

CONCLUSIONS
Attenuation of psychophysical measures of augmented central pain processing and improved cervical movement imply that these processes are maintained by peripheral nociceptive input.


This paper explores three distinct layers of impact within the seafood industry: a transformation in professional practice, a resolved product and implementation plan and a new design-led FMCG framework that can be applied across the FMCG sector. Within these three layers of impact are five key recommendations: Transformation in professional practice Personal and professional reflection and limitations of relying on tacit knowledge alone A resolved product and implementation plan Rejecting the established methods of new product development The value of effective communication across multiple stakeholders of non-linear and iterative design processes The social and environmental value of seafood serve-over counters within retail New design-led FMCG framework Trademarked new development model including its application within FMCG Through personal and professional reflection, I will explore my intertwined relationships with the environment, personal values and a sense of place within fishing communities. These elements of working, class survival and protecting our planet are what drive my conscious and unconscious bias within my design practice. In addition, it is about what my career has meant, not only to me but the wider community in which I operate. Within this, and more critically, are the limitations of relying on tacit knowledge and other traditional development models from FMCG industries, such as stage-gate models. An identified area of weakness in the existing development model is that it is predominantly linear; therefore, a rejection of these established methods is critical for the evolution of novel products and services. This notion of rejecting the established methods of new product development will be explored through the application of design thinking, and more especially Human-Centred Design (HCD). Further explored will be how design thinking and HCD can be used to facilitate and explore users' needs and pain points, thereby creating desirability and integrating design thinking into new products. This incorporation of design thinking over traditional methods results in a new development model, one that is able to communicate the value of non-linear and iterative design processes across multiple stakeholders. This development and application of the new model is explained through multiple sections of this document. The application will be applied to fisheries resource management and value creation within seafood, exploring consumer health, environmental considerations and social connectivity. The rationale for this approach in relation to focusing on seafood and fisheries is the declining human connection associated with the purchasing of seafood, on a global scale. Seafood counters are facing extinction, unless a radical approach is adopted. I wish to ensure seafood counters become more relevant to providing solutions to shoppers' everyday problems, whilst understanding and highlighting the notion of value beyond purely financial metrics. The switching of seafood sales from traditional serve-over counters to single use packaged seafood are noted, and whilst advancements in packaging is explored from the viewpoint of environmental considerations, such as replacing unrecyclable foam trays destined for landfill with packaging made from recycled material, suitable to be recycled, this is still not addressing the root cause of the problem. Whilst using recyclable packaging is significantly kinder to the planet from a reduced carbon emissions viewpoint, it is not the long-term solution. We must stop the problem in the first place, adopting a new model of environmentally sound reusable packaging with HCD at its core. A paradigm shift is needed through the awareness of the failures and continued destruction of a body of accepted behaviours and patterns embodied in mass packaged fresh foods, and from this destruction a new model emerges.


Abstract The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of laparoscopic-based score combined with a multiple disciplinary team (MDT) for predicting optimal cytoreduction and perform personalized surgical treatment in recurrent ovarian cancer (ROC). The study is a single-center, prospective investigation. From March 2013 to May 2015, the consecutive treated patients with platinum-sensitive ROC were collected in Yangpu Hospital. The appropriated patients were enrolled into the study to perform the laparoscopic-based PIV (predictive index value) score assessment with an MDT for predicting optimal cytoreduction. The PIV cutoff value was confirmed to be 8. Patients of PIV <8 received laparoscopic/laparotomy secondary surgery following chemotherapy, and the ones with PIV ≥8 did chemotherapy alone. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predicted value (PPV), negative predicted value (NPV), and overall accuracy for each range of PIV score were calculated. All recruited patients participated in follow-up observation. Overall survival was recorded. In total, 58 eligible ROC patients received laparoscopy assessment. Forty-one patients of PIV <8 received secondary cytoreductive surgeries. Twenty-three (23/41 56.1%) attained optimal cytoreduction. However, 8 of 23 achieved completed cytoreduction. Also, 17 patients of PIV ≥8 underwent chemotherapy alone. Sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and overall accuracy for PIV ≥8 were 60%, 100%, 100%, 25%, and 64.7%, respectively. Overall survival in patients performing optimal cytoreduction was significantly higher than in those undergoing suboptimal cytoreduction or chemotherapy alone (45.9 ± 2.5 vs 36.7 ± 4.3 months, P = .047; 45.9 ± 2.5 vs 35.8 ± 3.4 months, P = .027). Laparoscopic-based score assessment plus MDT helps to identify the appropriate patients to perform optimal secondary cytoreduction and provide a personalized surgical approach in management of ROC.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the incidence, clinical presentation, and performance of cochlear implant (CI) recipients with tip fold-over.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective case series.

SETTING
Tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS
CI recipients who underwent postoperative computed tomography (CT) scanning.

INTERVENTION(S)
Tip fold-over was identified tomographically using previously validated software that identifies the electrode array. Electrophysiologic testing including spread of excitation or electric field imaging (EFI) was measured on those with fold-over.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S)
Location of the fold-over; audiological performance pre and postselective deactivation of fold-over electrodes.

RESULTS
Three hundred three ears of 235 CI recipients had postoperative CTs available for review. Six (1.98%) had tip fold-over with 5/6 right-sided ears. Tip fold-over occurred predominantly at 270 degrees and was associated with precurved electrodes (5/6). Patients did not report audiological complaints during initial activation. In one patient, the electrode array remained within the scala tympani with preserved residual hearing despite the fold-over. Spread of excitation supported tip fold-over, but the predictive value was not clear. EFI predicted location of the fold-over with clear predictive value in one patient. At an average follow-up of 11 months, three subjects underwent deactivation of the overlapping electrodes with two of them showing marked audiological improvement.

CONCLUSION
In a large academic center with experienced surgeons, tip fold-over occurred at a rate of 1.98% but was not immediately identifiable clinically. CT imaging definitively showed tip fold-over. Deactivating involved electrodes may improve performance possibly avoiding revision surgery. EFI may be highly predictive of tip fold-over and can be run intraoperatively, potentially obviating the need for intraop fluoroscopy.


There is a large consensus that cities have a special role in the process of climate change. Cities are responsible for 75% of global energy consumption and 80% of GHG emissions, both due to "lifestyle" generated in the last 150 years and changes associated with urbanization process in the era of globalization and urban sprawl. The specialized literature has devoted many efforts to analyze the contribution of urban systems to climate change, occupying the Urban Heat Island (UHI) an important place in studies on urban climate. In this sense, the use of remote sensing technology has allowed detailed mapping of (daytime) land surface temperature (LST) for urban and metropolitan systems. These studies have demonstrated the key role played by vegetation, impervious soil and land uses to explain differences in the spatial distribution of LST. However, the information provided by satellites has important limitations: especially the low resolution of the thermal band of night images. MODIS, for example, provides valuable information on the night LST; however, the spatial resolution of the thermal band is about one km², scale clearly insufficient to identify accurately the spatial structure of the UHI. In the opposite site, Landsat offers a more accepTabla spatial resolution (30 m² / pixel for the visible bands of the electromagnetic spectrum as well as 60 to 100 m² / pixel in the thermal bands), but does not provide information about night soil temperature. In addition, it is at night when the urban heat island becomes more evident. Therefore, to determine the night LST in an appropriate scale (as offered by Landsat) remains a significant challenge in studies aimed at identifying the spatial structure of the UHI.
In Metropolitan Area of Barcelona (AMB, 3,200 km² and 4.8 million inhabitants), the (day) highest temperatures are not in the CBD but in areas that are more peripheral specialized in economic activity such as industrial parks, producing a "donut" in the spatial distribution of the LST. Bare soil also shows a (day) high surface temperature. In contrast, sprawled areas have a less pronounced LST. The spatial structure of the LST, however, changed significantly during the night: compact and sprawl areas maintain high levels of heat, facing the agricultural soil, which cools more sharply as also happens in the industrial land. UHI appears therefore overnight.
This paper aims to show the spatial patterns of Urban Heat Island in the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona at medium scale (30 m² / pixel). It develops a new methodology aimed at modeling the night temperature at one km² resolution (MODIS) and then extrapolating this methodology to a most accurate scale of 30 m² / pixel (Landsat). The study allows identifying differences in (night) LST according to the distribution of land use, quantity and quality of the vegetation, intensity of urban sprawl, spatial distribution of economic activity and type of urban morphology (continuous vs. scattered urbanization).


The zinc finger transcription factor gene Krox-20 is expressed in Schwann cells and is required for the myelination of peripheral nerves. We show that the regulation of Krox-20 expression in peripheral glial cells reveals three important steps in the development and differentiation of these cells. (i) Expression of Krox-20 in Schwann cells requires continuous neuronal signalling via direct axonal contact. Therefore Krox-20 appears to be a key component of the transduction cascade linking axonal signalling to myelination. (ii) Krox-20 inducibility is acquired by Schwann cells at the time that they are formed from their precursors. Diffusible factor(s) synthesised by the neural tube can mediate this transition and can be mimicked by NDFbeta or a combination of CNTF and bFGF. Furthermore, the neural tube activity is blocked by a hybrid protein containing the NDF-binding domain of the ErbB4 receptor, strongly implicating NDF in the physiological transition. (iii) In sensory ganglia, the microenvironment is capable of negatively regulating Krox-20, presumably by preventing the conversion of satellite glial cells toward a Schwann cell-like phenotype.


Abstract This article examines the limitations of decision-making skills of children and adolescents in a medical context imposed by cognitive immaturity. The author considers the work of Piaget and other theorists who have addressed when children do and do not possess the requisite maturity to make their own decisions. Finally, the author proposes that providers individually assess the cognitive abilities of children in an attempt to ascertain when the child is able to make his or her own decision, regardless of chronological age. Introduction Western medicine, which has traditionally encouraged autonomous decision-making by patients, faces a special challenge when the patient is a minor. The fields of law, medicine and cognitive development may provide guidance in determining when a child is an appropriate decision-maker and when parental involvement is mandated. The common law has traditionally recognized the Rule of Sevens, which finds that "(1) under seven years of age there is no capacity; (2) between 7 and 14 years of age there is a rebuttable presumption of no capacity; and (3) between 14 and 21 there is a rebuttable presumption of capacity" (Cardwell v. Bechtol, 724 S.W.2d 739 (Tenn. 1987, cited in Rozovsky, 1990, p. 264). The law has therefore given its tacit approval of the concept of varying degrees of emotional and mental maturity to exercise judgment. Further, many states (such as Illinois) allow minors as young as 12 or 14 to receive treatment for outpatient mental health treatment, drug or alcohol abuse or for treatment of STDs without parental permission. The American Academy of Pediatrics' (AAP) Committee on Bioethics developed a policy in 1995 in which they noted that "pediatricians should not necessarily treat children as rational, autonomous decision makers, but they should give serious consideration to each patient's developing capacities for participating in decision-making, including rationality and autonomy" (p. 315). The AAP Committee noted that medical staff should defer treatment to address patient concerns if the minor patient refuses to assent. Further, refusal to assent should "carry considerable weight when the proposed intervention is not essential to his or her welfare and/or can be deferred without substantial risk"(p. 316). Finally, they note "coercion in diagnosis or treatment is a last resort" (Shield & Baum, cited in AAP Committee Report, 1995, p. 315). Research in Cogitative Development A classic study (1983) conducted by Lois Weithorn found that subjects aged 9, 14, 18 and 21 presented with complex scenarios in which they had to make medical treatment decis ions for others all used similar reasoning processes. In three of the four scenarios, the nine-year-olds did not differ significantly from adults in the options they chose. Interestingly, the single divergence from the other three groups occurred when the nine-year-olds indicated a greater preference for hospitalization than outpatient treatment, evidence of "the notion that "more treatment" is necessarily "better treatment"" (Weithorn, 1983). Further, despite evidence that the nine-years exhibited less understanding about the information provided in the scenarios, they did display "an impressive level of understanding" and used important factors when weighing the different treatment options (Weithorn, 1983). While Weithorn notes that children and young adolescents may be inappropriately motivated by the desire to please others and may be easily influenced by parents, providers and significant others, "minors may be more capable than we expect" (Weithorn, 1983). It is this knowledge that a minor patient may be capable of the requisite critical thinking that has justified granting them limited autonomy in some cases. Autonomy, which many ethicists consider to be the leading value in medical decision-making in western-influenced cultures, is routinely accorded to the vast majority of adult patients in this country. …


Late blight caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont de Bary) is a serious disease of potato in Indo-gangetic alluvial plains of Bihar. Depending on severity, it can cause heavy yield losses ranging between 10 – 75%. Inprevious studies the disease was reported to be effectively controlled by the application of one spray of RidomilMZ(2.0 kg / ha) + one or two sprays of Mancozeb @ 2.0 kg/ha. In the present study this technique was refined using need based applications of fungicides. The study was conducted in 9 villages of Alampur-Gonpura panchayat of block Phulwarisharif in Patna district. In these villages, potato was observed to be an important crop covering a major area of land cultivated by the farmers. However, due to lack of proper knowledge and skill, farmers of these villages were found to use lower doses of fungicides resulting into ineffective disease control and reduction in potato yield. After identification of these problems, farmers' participatory approach was applied and on-farm trials with early-maturing cultivar Kufri Ashoka were conducted under TAR / IVLP. These trials were conducted during 1999-2004 on 120 farmers-fields. Depending on occurrence of cool and humid weather, the first spray of Mancozeb @ 2.0 kg/ha was applied prophylactically in the 3rd or 4th week of December. Ridomil @ 2 kg/ha was applied in the 2nd spray after the disease appearance but not earlier than 10-11 days. The third and the last spray was applied 14-15 days later using Mancozeb @ 2.0 kg/ha. The results showed that the recommended doses and schedule of fungicidal sprays (T2) not only checked the late blight but also increased the yield over the plots treated with inadequate doses of fungicides by the farmerspractice (T1). The yield in scheduled fungicidal ranged between 215-260 q/ha as against 170-214 q/ha in plots treated as in farms practice. Thus, the improved practices of disease management could enable the farmers to get an additional yield of about 35-50 q/ha with extra return of Rs. 11,000/- to Rs. 19,000/- per ha. This refined spraying schedule has now been adopted by 80-90% of the farmers of surrounding villages also.


California is the nation's great vineyard, supplying grapes for most of the wine produced in the United States. The state is home to more than 700 wineries, and California's premier wines are recognized throughout the world. But until now there has been no comprehensive guide to California wine and winemaking. Charles L. Sullivan's "A Companion to California Wine" admirably fills that gap - here is the reference work for consumers, wine writers, producers, and scholars. Sullivan's encyclopedic handbook traces the Golden State's wine industry from its mission period and Gold Rush origins down to last year's planting and vintage statistics. All aspects of wine are included, and wine production from vine propagation to bottling is described in straightforward language. There are entries for some 750 wineries, both historical and contemporary; for more than 100 wine grape varieties, from Aleatico to Zinfandel; and for wine types from claret to vermouth - all given in a historical context. In the book's foreword the doyen of wine writers, Hugh Johnson, tells of his own forty-year appreciation of California wine and its history. 'Charles Sullivan's "Companion"', he adds, 'will provide the grist for debate, speculation, and reminiscence from now on. With admirable dispassion he sets before us just what has happened in the plot so far'.


The usefulness of ground based air quality monitoring data for diagnostics of uncertainties in gridded emission inventories is examined. A general probabilistic procedure for comparison of levels of uncertainties in different emission datasets is developed. It implies the evaluation of the agreement between modeling results obtained with these emission datasets and corresponding measurements. This procedure is applied to the evaluation of different datasets for European gridded nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by using the AirBase monitoring data and the CHIMERE chemistry-transport model. Numerical experiments are performed for two different types of spatial distributions of emission uncertainties and five different types of monitors. The results are also generalized for various levels of uncertainties in simulated and meas- ured data. It is found, in particular, that most informative, from the point of view of diagnostics of NOx emission uncer- tainties, are the measurements of NO2 at rural background sites and measurements of ozone at suburban sites situated in the vicinity of intensive sources of emissions. A more precise conclusion regarding the relative accuracy of two emission datasets can be drawn with a larger number of monitors in a network and a higher accuracy of the model and measure- ments. For example, with a network of 50 rural background NO2 monitors, the probability of choosing the more certain emission data set is more than 90 percent, if differences in uncertainty of two sets are more than 50 percent. Practical rec- ommendations for designing or evolving surface measurement networks, in light of the study results, are given.


Skills of the 'information age' need to be applied to social work. Conceptual and practical aspects of using online bibliographic databases to identify research were explored using multi-professional decision-making in child protection as a case study. Five databases (Social Science Citation Index, Scopus, Medline, Social Work Abstracts and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) were searched for relevant studies, retrieving 6,934 records of which fifty-eight studies were identified as relevant. The usefulness of specific search terms and the process of learning from the terminology of previous searches are illustrated, as well as the value of software to manage retrieved studies. Scopus had the highest sensitivity (retrieving the highest number of relevant articles) and retrieved the most articles not retrieved by any other database (exclusiveness). All databases had low precision on this topic, despite extensive efforts in selecting search terms. Cumulative knowledge about search strategies and empirical comparison of database utility helps to increase the efficiency of systematic literature searching. Such endeavours encourage and support professionals to use the best available evidence to inform practice and policy.


All trans-retinoic acid (ATRA) is widely used to direct the differentiation of cultured stem cells. When exposed to the pluripotent human embryonal carcinoma (EC) stem cell line, TERA2.cl.SP12, ATRA induces ectoderm differentiation and the formation of neuronal cell types. We report in this study that novel polyene chain length analogues of ATRA require a specific chain length to elicit a biological responses of the EC cells TERA2.cl.SP12, with synthetic retinoid AH61 being particularly active, and indeed more so than ATRA. The impacts of both the synthetic retinoid AH61 and natural ATRA on the TERA2.cl.SP12 cells were directly compared using both RT-PCR and Fourier Transform Infrared Micro-Spectroscopy (FT-IRMS) coupled with multivariate analysis. Analytical results produced from this study also confirmed that the synthetic retinoid AH61 had biological activity comparable or greater than that of ATRA. In addition to this, AH61 has the added advantage of greater compound stability than ATRA, therefore, avoiding issues of oxidation or decomposition during use with embryonic stem cells.


This paper presents a method based on residual neural networks to classify poor workmanship defects located on MV cable terminations. A total of two cable groups was used, and each group consists of five different cables with five defects. Each cable has one defect. 120 partial discharge patterns were acquired for each defect (1200 patterns in total). One group of cables was used in the training phase and the other in the testing phase. Residual neural networks, one of the deep learning algorithms, were used in the analysis and classification of the data. The results show that the residual neural network algorithm can be used as an efficient diagnostic tool for classifying poor workmanship defects in cable termination, and partial discharge measurements provide valuable information in classifying defects.


Efficient synthesis of a new 3'-O-amino-UNA monomer was developed as a scaffold for further functionalization and incorporation into oligonucleotides (ONs). Pyrene-functionalized 3'-O-amino-UNA was incorporated one, two or three times into 21-mer DNA and 2'-O-Me-RNA ONs. Duplex melting temperatures, circular dichroism (CD) spectra, steady-state fluorescence emission spectra, UV/Vis absorption spectra and triplex melting temperatures were measured for the modified duplexes. The presence of the pyrene-modified UNA monomer lead to a surprising and unprecedented thermal stabilization of especially DNA:DNA duplexes when compared to the corresponding unmodified DNA:DNA duplexes. Improved mismatch discrimination was also seen for some of the modified duplexes. CD spectra revealed no major differences between modified and unmodified duplexes. Molecular modeling showed that the pyrene moieties were located in the minor groove of DNA:DNA duplexes as confirmed by CD and UV/Vis absorption studies. Upon multiple incorporations of the monomer in single-stranded ONs, steady-state fluorescence emission studies revealed the formation of a pyrene excimer which in most cases was quenched upon duplex hybridization, and fluorescence-based detection of mismatched hybridization was observed for some modified strand constitutions. Incorporation of the monomer in a triplex-forming oligonucleotide (TFO) strand lead to an increase of triplex melting temperature both at pH 6.0 and pH 7.0 for parallel triplexes - again an effect that has not been reported earlier for UNA-containing ONs. Steady-state fluorescence emission studies revealed significant differences in fluorescence for single-stranded ONs and triplexes.


Objective To describe the impact of civil unrest on the mental health of a community in near real-time using syndromic surveillance. Introduction As part of a wide-spread community discussion on the presence of monuments to Confederate Civil War figures, the Charlottesville city council voted to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee. 1 Multiple rallies were then held to protest the statue's removal. A Ku Klux Klan (KKK) rally on July 8, 2017 (MMWR Week 27) and a Unite the Right rally on August 12, 2017 (MMWR Week 32) held in Charlottesville both resulted in violence and media attention. 2,3 The violence associated with the Unite the Right rally included fatalities connected to motor vehicle and helicopter crashes. Syndromic surveillance has been used to study the impact of terrorism on a community's mental health 4 while more traditional data sources have looked at the impact of racially-charged civil unrest. 5 Syndromic surveillance, however, has not previously been used to document the effect of racially-charged violence on the health of a community. Methods The Virginia Department of Health (VDH) analyzed syndromic surveillance data from three emergency departments (EDs) in the Charlottesville area (defined to include Charlottesville city and Albemarle county), regardless of patient residence following the Unite the Right rally. Visits to these EDs between January 1 and September 2, 2017 were analyzed using the Enhanced Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) and Microsoft SQL 2012. Encounters were identified as acute anxiety-related visits based on an International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) discharge diagnosis beginning with 'F41'. Analyses were conducted using the ESSENCE algorithm EWMA 1.2 and SAS 9.3. Results The greatest number of visits with a primary diagnosis of anxiety in 2017 (N=20) was observed in MMWR week 34 (August 20-26). This represented a statistically significant increase over baseline with a p -value of 0.01. By race, a significant increase over baseline in visits with a primary diagnosis of anxiety was observed among blacks or African Americans. The largest volume of visits was observed in MMWR week 33 with a total of 8 identified visits or 1.8% of total ED visit volume. The increase in visits for anxiety observed in weeks 33-35 was 2.2 times greater among blacks or African Americans than it was among whites, p = 0.016, 95% CI [1.14, 4.16]. Conclusions Previous work done in Virginia to identify ED visits related to anxiety included only chief complaint criteria in the syndrome definition. Due to a change in how one ED in the Charlottesville area reported data during the study period, this syndrome definition could not be applied. In order to remove any potential data artifacts, only those visits with an initial diagnosis of anxiety were included in the analysis. The resulting syndrome definition likely underestimated the occurrence of anxiety in the Charlottesville area, both because it lacked chief complaint information and because syndromic surveillance does not include data on visits to mental health providers outside of EDs. This analysis presents a trend over time rather than a true measure of the prevalence of anxiety. This analysis, while conservative in its inclusion criteria, still identified an increase in visits for anxiety, particularly among blacks or African Americans. In today's political environment of race-related civil unrest, a way to measure the burden of mental illness occurring in the community can be invaluable for public health response. In Charlottesville, the identification of a community-wide need for mental health support prompted many local providers to offer their services to those in need pro-bono. 6 References 1 Suarez, C. (2017, February 6). Charlottesville City Council votes to remove statue from Lee Park. The Daily Progress. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2wYOHhv 2 Spencer, H., & Stevens, M. (2017, July 8). 23 Arrested and Tear Gas Deployed After a K.K.K. Rally in Virginia. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://nyti.ms/2tCiBGU 3 Hanna, J., Hartung, K., Sayers, D., & Almasy, S. (2017, August 13). Virginia governor to white nationalists: 'Go home … shame on you'. CNN. Retrieved from http://cnn.it/2vvAGHt 4 Vandentorren, S., Paty, A. C., Baffert, E., Chansard, P., Caserio-Schonemann, C. (2016, February). Syndromic surveillance during the Paris terrorist attacks. The Lancet (387 (10021), 846-847. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00507-9 5 Yimgang, D. P., Wang, Y., Paik, G., Hager, E. R., & Black, M. M. Civil Unrest in the Context of Chronic Community Violence: Impact on Maternal Depressive Symptoms. American Journal of Public Health 107 (9), 1455-1462. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303876 6 DeLuca, P. (2017, August 19). Downtown Charlottesville Library Offers Free Counseling. NBC29.com. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2yIzHbl


In this paper, distributed arithmetic (DA) has been used to implement a fully parallel LUT-based DA wavelet filterbank with interlaced input registers. In our scheme, decimation has been seamlessly integrated into the filter structure to achieve the same throughput performance as polyphase-based filterbanks. However, because partitioning of the filters is avoided, our scheme gives more flexibility to implement the LUT-DA structure, and consequently, lets designers maximize area utilization on LUT-based FPGAs. Our architecture has been designed for orthonormal and biorthogonal wavelets, and implemented on an Altera Stratix II FPGA. Significant reduction in terms of area requirements and increased throughput performance are achieved when compared to other DWT filterbanks based on DA, convolution or the lifting scheme.


The omnibus test is commonly applied to evaluate the overall disparity between group means in ANOVA. Alternatively, linear contrasts are more informative in detecting specific pattern of mean differences that cannot be obtained via the omnibus test. This article concerns power and sample size calculations for contrast analysis with heterogeneous variances and budget concerns. Optimal allocation procedures for the Welch-Satterthwaite tests of standardized and unstandardized contrasts are presented to minimize the total sample size with the designated ratios, to meet a desirable power level for the least cost, and to attain the maximum power performance under a fixed cost. Currently available methods rely exclusively on simple allocation formula and direct rounding rule. The proposed allocation strategies combine the computing techniques of nonlinear optimization search and iterative screening process. Numerical assessments of a randomized control trial for the overcoming depression on the Internet are conducted to demonstrate and confirm that the approximate procedures do not guarantee optimal solution. The suggested approaches extend and outperform the existing findings in methodological soundness and overall performance. The corresponding computer algorithms are developed to implement the recommended power and sample size calculations for optimal contrast analysis.


LEARNING NETWORKS—A METAPHOR FOR INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Joakim Tell, Halmstad University, Sweden Principal Topic I want to highlight the importance of external relations and the qualitative elements in dialogue for the development of SMEs, by using the metaphor of networks as a base for facilitating company development. I have, during a four years period, followed and studied inter organisational networks from "within," and seen the possibilities of using networks (external relations) as a development tool. In this paper, I reflect over the process where different organisations meet and share knowledge and visions on how to work with development questions and emphasise the importance of external relations for both inter organisational and internal company development. Method The method used in this study is action research. In action research the question at issue is addressed by both researcher and the so called "researched," the other (e.g. an organisation) who presents as well as represents the question. The research the learning, is in the joint action, which, if successful, will at the same time and in the same act a contribution to solving or clarifying practical problems as well as generate knowledge. Implications The implications drawn from this study is that external relations is an important complement in the development of SMEs, both on a personal level for the people taking part, but also on a company level. On a personal level, uncertainty reduction and changed values are examples on development, and on a company level, different intra/inter organisational development projects have been initiated. These relations have also proved to be an effective medium for sharing experience and enhancing mutual trust among the participants. It has particularly been effective in sharing tacit knowledge and creating new perspectives. In order to give representatives from SMEs a greater possibility to reflection, researchers from universities can work more closely with companies in the region and fill the roles necessary to facilitate these relations. I see that SMEs can use external relations as an alternative form of organisation for development, where a group of key persons from SMEs and universities form this ad hoc "development group," to compensate for internal lack of resources. This closer co-operation between university and industry will also have a positive, long-term effect on the development of the region and the relations between university-industry.


The allocation problem of sending grapefruit to packinghouses versus processing plants is considered in this paper. The authors examine on-tree grower prices reported by the USDA for fresh and processed grapefruit and report that these prices do not reflect the alternative returns necessary for this allocation decision. The USDA processed on-tree price is a weighted average of returns for fruit that is intended for processing and fruit that is not intended for processing while the USDA fresh on-tree price is for fruit that is only intended for the fresh market.


The organometallic approach to the functionalization of arenes and heteroarenes has recently been investigated by our group introducing modifications of the standard methods. This includes, in particular, the basicity-driven heavy halogen migration, which allows the introduction of a functional group at a not directly accessible position. Then, some attentions were reported toward nucleophilic aromatic substitution and especially to a regio-controlled attack at heteroarenes. Bulky trialkylsilyl groups were used to shield a given position by steric congestion against both electrophilic and nucleophilic attack. Using different electrophiles, commercially available 2,6-difluoropyridine was selected as substrate for a large proliferation of derivatives through organolithium intermediates. To allow for more regioflexibility, one can either rely on protective groups or introduce iodine which will be subsequently submitted to a basicity gradient-driven relocation and eventually a halogen/metal exchange. A systematic investigation was undertaken to explore the scope and the limitations of this latter option. Di-, tri- and tetrahalopyridines are used to explore the substituent effect in nucleophilic substitutions with the pyridine ring. An activating substituent as chlorine directed the nucleophilic substitution at the vicinal fluorine atom. Unprecedented was the finding that bulky 3-trialkylsilyl group effectively shielded the fluorine at the adjacent 2- and 4-positions, reorienting the nucleophilic substitution to the 6-position. To exploit the regioselectivity established by the "silyl trick", some halopyridines, such as 2,4,5-trifluoropyridine or 2,4-dichloro-6-hydrazinopyridine, were prepared for the fist time. Highly substituted derivatives isolated during nucleophilic substitutions were the starting point for the development of more complex structures such 2-amino-5-bromo-4-chloro-6-fluoro-3-nitropyridine obtained by using some of the developed techniques.


The objective of this study is to assess the impacts of forest trade policies, especially trade liberalisation, on forest governance. This was based on a literature review and three country case studies – Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico. The emphasis is on national (public, private and community sector) forest governance in developing and transition economy countries, since this is where governance problems like illegal logging and corruption are most problematic. A brief review of trade policies found it difficult to establish an overall trend towards trade liberalisation. Reductions in tariffs have been counteracted by a range of nontrade measures – mainly trade restrictions by poorer countries, and subsidies by wealthier nations - to protect domestic forest industry. An analysis was carried out of various pro and anti-trade liberalisation positions towards likely forest governance impacts. It was found that the empirical basis for both (pro and anti-liberalisation) sets of arguments was weak, fundamentally because trade policies and pressures have weak, indirect and sometimes perverse impacts on forest governance. They are also difficult to identify due to the complexity of trade and governance interactions, and the greater importance of non-trade factors.


Abstract. This paper describes a one-dimensional finite element code for debris flows developed to model the flow within a steep channel and the stopping conditions on the fan. The code allows the systematic comparison of a wide variety of previously proposed one-phase flow resistance laws using the same finite element solution method. The one-dimensional depth-averaged equations of motion and the numerical model are explained. The model and implementation of the flow resistance relations was validated using published analytical results for the dam break case. Reasonable agreement for the front velocities and stopping location for a debris-flow event in the Kamikamihori torrent in Japan can be achieved with turbulent flow resistance relations including "stop" terms which allow the flow to come to rest on a gently sloping surface. While it is possible to match the overall bulk flow behavior using relatively simple flow resistance relations, they must be calibrated. A sensitivity analysis showed that the shape of the upstream input hydrograph does not much affect the flow conditions in the lower part of the flow path, whereas the event volume is much more important.


Electrochemical machining is a process combined with electrochemical and mechanical actions. It has the advantage of higher efficiency, lower surface roughness, better quality and simpler equipment etc. According to the current development, topology optimization was introduced for the improvement of electrochemical machine tool and applied by the ANSYS software in this paper. Based on the result of the topology optimization, some improvement was done to the electrochemical machine tool. On the basis of the new FE model of the improved machine tool, the modal analysis and static analysis were carried out. By the comparison of the results between the former and latter, the weight of the machine tool is substantially reduced while the stiffness and strength reserved.


Building community spaces is important for immigrant communities: it helps transform the sterility of an unfamiliar new city into home. Muslims have historically sought to make cities their own by building mosques that have served spiritual, social and symbolic functions as architectural sites. This essay examines what the interplay between settlement of newcomers and new types of land use applications and what it tells readers about municipal gaps in addressing the question of "difference" in Canada using the City of Mississauga as a case study. It starts with a review of the history and context of mosque building in Canada, follows up by examining land use policies in Mississauga, and then looks at controversial mosque development issues by examining official city and provincial documents including one Human Rights Complaint. This paper wraps up by presenting recommendations for municipalities to better navigate the question of difference through policy and praxis. Keywords: Islamophobia, land‐use planning, urban planning, racism, exclusion, xenophobia, Mississauga, public policy


ABSTRACT Although Twitter is used for emergency management activities, the relevance of tweets during a hazard event is still open to debate. In this study, six different computational (i.e. Natural Language Processing) and spatiotemporal analytical approaches were implemented to assess the relevance of risk information extracted from tweets obtained during the 2013 Colorado flood event. Primarily, tweets containing information about the flooding events and its impacts were analysed. Examination of the relationships between tweet volume and its content with precipitation amount, damage extent, and official reports revealed that relevant tweets provided information about the event and its impacts rather than any other risk information that public expects to receive via alert messages. However, only 14% of the geo-tagged tweets and only 0.06% of the total fire hose tweets were found to be relevant to the event. By providing insight into the quality of social media data and its usefulness to emergency management activities, this study contributes to the literature on quality of big data. Future research in this area would focus on assessing the reliability of relevant tweets for disaster related situational awareness.


The influence of aging treatment on the fatigue strength of 18 Ni-maraging steels has been investigated in relation to the behavior of age hardening and the formation of reversion austenite in an 18Ni-8Co-5Mo steel. In the present study, fatigue test was performed on two series of specimens in order to make the effect of age hardening phases on fatigue property clear; in the first series, the strength of test pieces was controlled to have the same proof strength by varying aging temperature and time, and in the second series, it was changed by varying aging time at 750K, which is usually applied as the aging temperature in the commercial 18Ni-maraging steel. Fractography was also examined to study the fracture mode. The main results obtained are as follows.(1) The fatigue limit is almost independent of the aging condition of specimens as far as they have the same proof strength. The computed fatigue strength, however, decreases when specimens have been hardened through the precipitation of low temperature phases.(2) In the case of 750K aging, specimens strengthened to around the maximum hardness (Hv 450) have the almost same value in the fatigue limit independent of small difference in the aging time, although the fatigue limit of under-aged specimens was much lower.(3) A small amount of reversion austenite, which is formed in an over-aging condition, is very effective in increasing fatigue resistance. An amount of 3 vol% austenite was enough for improving the fatigue limit of a maraging steel used.


This book is an ideal resource for busy managers whose time is scarce. It provides a rapid introduction to straightforward, yet powerful ideas that enable users to address real world problems. Systems theory and practice is predominantly a framework for thinking about the World, in which holistic views are maintained. In this respect it contrasts with some familiar techniques of management science, in which problem situations are broken down into their constituent parts with resultant loss of coherence.


The removal of suspended solids (SS) and color is critically important for textile wastewater treatment processes. Typically, chemical coagulation and sedimentation have been used as pretreatment processes to remove SS and color from textile wastewater. The effective removal of SS depends significantly on the particle size distribution, density, and fractal dimension. In practice, a batch settling test is used in the laboratory to evaluate the performance of chemical coagulation for the removal of SS. In this paper, we present the application of digital image analysis (DIA) for on-line and simultaneous measurement of the variations of the characteristics of particles in textile wastewater. This technology was used during a batch settling test to measure the characteristics of particles, including the mean gray value (MGV) of the captured images, particle size (i.e., equivalent diameter (ED)), total area, total volume, the fractal dimension, and the mean red/green/blue (R/G/B) values of the captured images. The on-line DIA data were used as input to regression and artificial neural network (ANN) models that predicted the efficiencies of SS removal and color removal in real textile wastewater after chemical coagulation and sedimentation. The experimental results indicated that the ANN models predicted both the SS and color removal efficiencies precisely, with correlation coefficients (R2) of 0.93 to 0.96. Thus, digital image analysis and ANN models can be used to simultaneously evaluate the removal of SS and color from textile wastewater by chemical coagulation.


"The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings" is now firmly established as the world's leading guide to recorded jazz, a mine of fascinating information and a source of insightful - often wittily trenchant - criticism. For this completely revised ninth edition, Richard Cook and Brian Morton have reassessed each artist's entry, and updated the text to incorporate thousands of additional CDs. The result is an endlessly browsable companion that will prove required reading for aficionados and jazz novices alike. There are 14,000 CDs reviewed and 2,000 new discs in this edition. It includes over 400 new artist listings. 'It's the kind of book that you'll yank off the shelf to look up a quick fact and still be reading two hours later' - "Fortune". 'Part jazz history, part jazz Karma Sutra with Cook and Morton as the knowledgeable, urbane, wise and witty guides ...This is one of the great books of recorded jazz; the other guides don't come close' - "Irish Times".


When competing firms possess overlapping sets of investors, maximizing shareholder value may provide incentives that distort competitive behavior, affecting pricing, entry, contracting, and virtually all strategic interactions among firms. We propose a structurally consistent and scaleable approach to the measurement of this phenomenon for the universe of S&P 500 firms between 1980 and 2017. Over this period, the incentives implied by the common ownership hypothesis have grown dramatically. Contrary to popular intuition, this is not primarily associated with the rise of BlackRock and Van- guard: instead, the trend in the time series is driven by a broader rise in diversified investment strategies, of which these firms are only the most recent incarnation. In the cross-section, there is substantial variation that can be traced, both in the theory and the data, to observable firm characteristics – particularly the share of the firm held by retail investors. Finally, we show how common ownership can theoretically give rise to incentives for expropriation of undiversified shareholders via tunneling, even in the Berle and Means (1932) world of the "widely held firm."