Abstract: Globally, Upper Devonian sedimentary successions are characterized by multiple organic-rich strata associated with dysoxic to anoxic conditions and biological turnover of varying magnitude, including the Lower and Upper Kellwasser intervals. The cause or causes of the Kellwasser extinction and their relationship to coeval environmental conditions remains actively debated. Here we show that organic-walled microfossils (OWMs) are preserved within the Kellwasser intervals at two localities in western New York State that are otherwise devoid of macrofossils. While OWMs are significantly more abundant within the Upper Kellwasser interval, the assemblages are slightly more diverse within the Lower Kellwasser interval, including two distinct smooth-walled leiosphere populations based on size and, in the more proximal locality, acanthomorphic (spinose) forms. Mo and U concentrations at these localities range from 1–86 ppm and 2–14 ppm respectively, and support oxygen stress, but not persistent anoxia or euxinia, through these events. Notably the Lower Kellwasser exhibits both greater OWM variability and more evidence of anoxic conditions, while the Upper Kellwasser exhibits relatively consistent OWM assemblages and more dysoxic conditions. We interpret OWM abundance, especially large leiosphere forms, as a possible signal of algal blooms potentially associated with eutrophication. Our results suggest that eutrophication may have played a larger role during the Lower Kellwasser event than during the Upper Kellwasser event and demonstrate how OWMs can provide an important link between primary productivity, eutrophication, and the deposition of organic rich-strata.


Cellulosic solid residual, which is the by-product of oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB)-xylan extraction process, was evaluated in terms of cellulose recovery by eco-friendly approach. The OPEFB-fibre was initially treated with alkaline for xylan extraction. The resulting solid residue was dried before treated with mild concentration of bleaching agents of 20% (v/v) formic acid and 5% (v/v) hydrogen peroxide at 85°C for the extraction of cellulose. The α-cellulose content of 84.16±0.4% was achieved. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis showed that the products obtained have the standard cellulose structure and functional group. The crystalline nature of the extracted cellulose, as proven by X-ray diffractometer (XRD) has crystallinity index and crystalline size of 54.4% and 5.5 nm, respectively, whereas the thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) indicates the sample purity in terms of thermal stability at 370°C by comparing the results to commercially available cellulose. Meanwhile, scanning electron microscope (SEM) observation showed that the extracted cellulose morphology is in the form of separated fibrils. In terms of impurities, trace elemental analysis showed the presence of phosphorus (P) as the major element but the quantity of fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I) and sulphur (S) detected on the cellulose was insignificant.


Seismic frequency-magnitude relationship has been investigated in China, based on the earthquake data in the range of M3.0 to M7.0 during the years 1986-2008, to study the potential of variations of b-values with the depth. According to the results, there is a systematic decrease in b value with increasing depth of earthquakes. At the shallow depth conditions, with more heterogeneous material properties and lower lithosphere stress prevail, rupture initiation is more likely to stop before accumulating into large earthquakes, producing relatively smaller earthquakes and consequently higher b-values. On the contrary, the larger earthquakes are more likely to happen at a greater depth.


In the four decades since the decision in Miranda v. Arizona, two areas of consensus have emerged about that decision. The first is that Miranda's rationale for requiring its famous warnings prior to custodial interrogation is wrong, or at least dramatically overstated. In Miranda, the Supreme Court characterized custodial interrogation as involving inherent compulsion within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. The Court has subsequently, however, come to characterize Miranda as prophylactic. On this view, custodial interrogation creates a risk of compulsion, but unwarned custodial interrogation is not itself a violation of the Fifth Amendment's prohibition on compelled self-incrimination. Even Miranda's advocates accept this characterization, while defending the propriety of prophylactic rules of constitutional law. The second point of agreement is that Miranda has turned out to be a failure. Despite Miranda, coerced confessions are said to be ubiquitous. Thus, we are told that stronger medicine is needed, such as videotaping custodial interrogation, requiring counsel during interrogation, strengthening constitutional regulation of the admissibility of confessions, forbidding interrogation techniques thought to be particularly likely to produce false or coercive confessions, or abolishing custodial interrogation entirely. In this article, which appears in a symposium on Miranda's fortieth anniversary, I mean to take on both areas of agreement. On the first point of agreement, I argue that the Court was correct to conclude that an inherent feature of custodial interrogation is compulsion within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment. The original meaning of compulsion for purposes of the Fifth Amendment is the fear of criminal sanctions if one does not submit to interrogation. It was the threat of such sanctions that made compelled oaths mandatory, and led to the creation of the privilege against compelled oaths. When a suspect is subjected to custodial interrogation, however, he cannot help but consider the possibility of criminal prosecution and its ensuing sanctions should he refuse to submit to questioning and therefore risk displeasing his captor. Thus, Miranda correctly concluded that some measure of compulsion inheres in all custodial interrogation. Constitutional rights, however, can be waived, and this is no less true of the right to be free from compelled self-incrimination than any other constitutional right. The Miranda warnings, in turn, provide the ingredients for a valid waiver of the right to be free from compelled self-incrimination. On this understanding, Miranda is not prophylactic - the warnings are essential if a confession obtained during custodial interrogation is to be received in evidence. On the second point of agreement, Miranda critics rely on the incidence of false confessions to make their case for additional regulation. I argue, however, that judicial regulation of interrogations can only be expected to be effective if the judiciary develops relatively clear and administrable rules. Most Miranda critics, however, advance no clear rules, but instead advocate a form of ad hoc regulation that is likely to accomplish no more than the unsatisfactory due process test that Miranda abandoned. Other Miranda critics correctly perceive the problem with ad hoc regulation, and take an expressly prophylactic approach to regulation - they claim that additional regulation is warranted for interrogations likely to lead to Fifth Amendment violations. The critics, however, fail to make the necessary empirical case for their reforms. They cannot show that the tactics they would target for additional regulation create disproportionate rates of false confessions. Instead, they advocate a form of what Henry Monaghan once called constitutional perfectionism - the critics argue that any system that fails to minimize the risk of convicting the innocent should be condemned as unconstitutional. The Constitution, however, does not contain a no-conviction-of-the-innocent clause, nor does it mandate perfection in the administration of justice. Any effective system of law enforcement will have a risk of error; and the critics have developed no principled means for identifying risks of error that can be considered constitutionally undue - indeed, they have not even identified the pertinent error rates. Even if we could identify error rates, it is the political process that should determine what error rates should be considered undue. For purposes of constitutional adjudication, requiring the police to obtain a valid waiver of Fifth Amendment rights under Miranda is all that we can reasonably ask from law enforcement.


The dynamics of the microflora in the foci of surgical infection in 54 patients was studied. Staphylococci and streptococci prevailed among the primarily isolated causative agents. In complicated forms of surgical infection of soft tissues the change of causative agents, mainly to gram-negative opportunistic microflora with a higher level of resistance to antibiotics and high antilysozyme activity, was observed more often than in noncomplicated forms of such infection.


The corrosion behavior of 304L and 316L stainless steel have been investigated in 55 °C,85% food grade phosphoric acid solution by weight loss method and dynamic potential scan , the surface morphology was observed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM). The results showed that the number of pits in 304L was much more than that in 316L. The contents of Cr inside pits were greater than that in the smooth surface in the two stainless steels, indicating the Cr-poor are prone to corrosion. All the samples exhibited stable passive behavior which can be seen from the potentiodynamic polarization curves, 316L corrosion potential (-0.201V) was higher than that of 304L the corrosion potential (-0.357V), and under the same circumstance, 316L stainless steel was more corrosion-resistant than 304L stainless steel.


It has recently been shown that vitamin D (VitD) plays an important role in host defences, inflammation and immunity. We reviewed PubMed and selected all of the studies published over the last 15 years concerning VitD deficiency and VitD supplementation in children with respiratory tract infections. Our analysis showed that VitD seems to be very important because of its part in the complexity of the immune system. However, there are few pediatric studies and most have various limitations. First of all, the literature mainly refers to studies concerning the prevalence of VitD insufficiency and deficiency in specific pathologies. Secondly, it is extremely difficult to identify a common specific range of normal, insufficient and deficient VitD levels. Thirdly, the available studies of VitD supplementation often combined VitD with the use of other micronutrients, thus obscuring the role of VitD itself. Finally, different doses have been used for VitD supplementation. These observations clearly highlight the fact that further studies are needed to evaluate the impact of VitD deficiency and insufficiency in terms of the epidemiology and outcomes of pediatric respiratory tract infection, and whether VitD supplementation favours a positive outcome.


Floating bodies are widely used in the field of offshore engineering. Existing studies show that the motion responses of a floating body in waves will change with the internal water in the cabins, and it is essential to analyze its hydrodynamic performance under various potential operating conditions. However, most of the research only considers the interaction between the floating body and the internal water in the upright position, and there has been little research on the inclined floating body caused by water partially filled in the broadside. In this study, a floating body with a plurality of longitudinal and transverse cabins was designed. The regular wave model test was carried out in a wave basin, and the numerical results were compared with the experimental results, which verified the accuracy of the model. The effects of wave direction, wave frequency, water filling depth and cabin division on the motion responses of the floating body are analyzed. The results show that the water inside the cabins has a significant impact on the roll motion. With the increase of the water filling depth, the natural frequency of the roll motion decreases. Special attention should be paid to the impact on the wave direction and cabin division on the partially water-filled inclined floating body.


To assess the magnitude of unilateral blindness or low vision caused by strabismic amblyopia in astrabismic population, a prospective study was conducted between November 15, 1995 and March 20, 1997 at Menelik II Hospital. The visual acuity of 361 patients with strabismus was evaluated. The average age of persentation was 15.8 years. Visual acuity of less than or equal to 3/60 in the involved eye was considered as blind, while visual acuity better than 3/60 and less than or equal to 6/18 was regarded as low vision. Forty one (11%) patients had unilateral blindness and 72(20%) had low vision in the amblyopic eye. In conclusion, unilateral blindness or low vision as a result of strabismic amblyopia was significant among strabismic patients, especially when the age of persentation of our cases was considered. This calls for health education to increase public awareness so that parents seek medical advice early for their strabismic children.
(Ethiopian Journal of Health Development: 2000, 14(1): 109-112)


Peer harassment in primary school: The role of peers and its relationship with sociometric status. During the last decade, there has been a change in peer harassment research from a focus on the characteristics of the Aggressor-Victim dyad to the recognition of peer harassment as a whole group process, with most of children playing some kind of role. This study uses a shortened adaptation of the Participant-Role Questionnaire approach to identify these roles in 2,050 Spanish children aged 8 to 13 years. These Participant Roles were related to belonging to one of the five sociometric status groups. Factor analysis revealed four different roles, indicating that the adapted scale remains a reliable way of distinguishing the Aggressor, Victim, Defender of the victim, and Outsider roles. Boys played the roles of Aggressor and Victim significantly more frequently. The children's Participant Role was found to be related to their sociometric status. Progress in the measurement of peer harassment as a group process and the success of intervention strategies may depend on finding clearer distinctions among the different peer roles, mobilizing peer pressure, and isolating aggressors from their social support. Language: es


Agile manufacturing is largely dependent on the capabilities of its people to learn and evolve with change. However, while agile manufacturing uses e-commerce enabled technology in a decentralized organizational setting, it remains unclear how these individual capabilities should be linked to other organizational resources to create an agile organization. Another important modern management research perspective is the internal resource-based perspective, resulting in a phenomenon called competence-based competition with renewed attention for competence management. Competence management comprises the management, building, leveraging and deployment of strategic and operational competencies, the causal relationships and linkages between them, and the way competencies are embedded in organizational and individual resources. In this paper, we explore the relation between agile management and time-based competence management, and study its adoption in small batch discrete parts manufacturing environments with the help of a coarse fact-finding survey research.


Microfinance institutions (MFIs) play an important role in enabling poor households to escape poverty. MFIs cannot help borrowers if their own performance is poor. This study evaluates financial performance of Village Funds (VFs) and Saving Groups for Production (SGPs) to determine how well the MFIs are performing financially and how to improve the institutions' future performances. The study evaluates MFIs' performance, including MFI characteristics, outreach, productivity, financial structure and financial performance. Data are collected from the annual reports of MFIs between 2014 and 2016. VF and SGP annual reports were collected by the Government Savings Bank between 2014 and 2016. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, such as means, to compare the VFs' and SGPs' performance. The result shows that SGPs are bigger than VFs in terms of the average number of members and borrowers. However, VFs provide more loans than SGPs to poorer clients. In terms of loan management, SGP staff are more efficient than VF staff. SGPs' profits are significantly higher than VFs' profits. In the context of financial structure, SGPs are funded through member deposits, while VFs receive government subsidies. The results indicate that both VFs and SGPs are profitable and financially sustainable.


Rotating delivery of excitation off-resonance (RODEO) is a new magnetic resonance (MR) imaging pulse sequence that uses a jump return sine excitation on fat resonance to produce fat-suppressed, T1-weighted images. New three-dimensional MR imaging techniques were used to examine 57 women with abnormalities suspicious for breast cancer. MR imaging findings were compared with those of mammography in all cases and with those of other imaging techniques when appropriate. Thirty-five specimens obtained at mastectomy were analyzed with rigorous pathologic examination that included imaging of the entire breast at 5-mm incremental sections. Histologic confirmation was obtained in 76 lesions in 47 patients. MR imaging helped detect 100% of malignant lesions, whereas mammography produced 33% false-negative findings. The use of RODEO in breast imaging is in the early investigational phases, but it has potential for supplementing mammography in the diagnosis of breast cancer.


CMMI and Agile can work together. Over 80% of CMMI appraisals in 2018 were conducted at agile organizations, even though pre-2018 CMMI versions do not provide guidelines for agile contexts. A number of experience reports and research studies address the alignment between the two approaches but also pinpoint open tactical and organizational challenges. CMMI V2.0, published in 2018, was designed to be understandable, accessible, and flexible. It was intended to be integrated with other methodologies such as Agile. In this paper, we discuss to what extent the new CMMI V2.0 addresses the existing Agile-CMMI alignment challenges. We identify the two most significant CMMI V2.0 artifacts for this aim, the contextspecific sections provided for most of the practice areas, and the value statements linked to the practices. We analyze how they contribute to each of the existing challenges and highlight important issues that organizations still need to tackle regarding this alignment.


In his oft-quoted seminal paper 'Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure For Scholarship In The Digital Age' Clifford Lynch (2003) described the Institutional Repository as "a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members." This paper seeks instead to define the repository service at a more primitive level, without the specialism of being an 'Institutional Repository', and looks at how it can viewed as providing a service within appropriate boundaries, and what that could mean for the future development of repositories, our expectations of what repositories should be, and how they could fit into the set of services required to deliver an Institutional Repository service as describe by Lynch.


Modulating image restoration level aims to generate a restored image by altering a factor that represents the restoration strength. Previous works mainly focused on optimizing the mean squared reconstruction error, which brings high reconstruction accuracy but lacks finer texture details. This paper presents a Controllable Unet Generative Adversarial Network (CUGAN) to generate high-frequency textures in the modulation tasks. CUGAN consists of two modules - base networks and condition networks. The base networks comprise a generator and a discriminator. In the generator, we realize the interactive control of restoration levels by tuning the weights of different features from different scales in the Unet architecture. Moreover, we adaptively modulate the intermediate features in the discriminator according to the severity of degradations. The condition networks accept the condition vector (encoded degradation information) as input, then generate modulation parameters for both the generator and the discriminator. During testing, users can control the output effects by tweaking the condition vector. We also provide a smooth transition between GAN and MSE effects by a simple transition method. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed CUGAN achieves excellent performance on image restoration modulation tasks.


The U.S. South is a distinctive political and cultural force-not only in the eyes of Americans, but also in the estimation of many Europeans. The region played a distinctive role as a major agricultural center and the source of much of the wealth in early America, but it has also served as a catalyst for the nation's only civil war, and later, as a battleground in violent civil rights conflicts. Once considered isolated and benighted by the international community, the South has recently evoked considerable interest among popular audiences and academic observers on both sides of the Atlantic. In The U.S. South and Europe, editors Cornelis A. van Minnen and Manfred Berg have assembled contributions that interpret a number of political, cultural, and religious aspects of the transatlantic relationship during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The contributors discuss a variety of subjects, including European colonization, travel accounts of southerners visiting Europe, and the experiences of German immigrants who settled in the South. The collection also examines slavery, foreign recognition of the Confederacy as a sovereign government, the lynching of African Americans and Italian immigrants, and transatlantic religious fundamentalism. Finally, it addresses international perceptions of the Jim Crow South and the civil rights movement as a framework for understanding race relations in the United Kingdom after World War II. Featuring contributions from leading scholars based in the United States and Europe, this illuminating volume explores the South from an international perspective and offers a new context from which to consider the region's history.


Abstract Laboratory bioassays for testing the effect of agrochemicals on Euseius victoriensis (Womersley) and Galendromus occidentalis (Nesbitt) on detached leaves of Glycine max (L.) (soybean) and Phaseolus vulgaris L. (French bean) were developed. The tests allowed standardized comparisons between mite species and leaf substrates, under "worst-case scenario" exposure, comparable with commercial pesticide application. Young juveniles, along with their initial food and the entire water supply, were sprayed to the point of runoff by using a Potter spray tower. The highest registered field rate concentration used on French bean was adjusted to deliver the same pesticide dose per higher runoff point spray volume on soybean. Cumulative mortality was assessed at 48 h, 4 d, and 7 d after spray application. Fecundity was assessed for 7 d from the onset of egg lay. Boscalid (Filan 500 WG), dithianon (Delan 700 WG), and kresoxim-methyl (Stroby 500 WG) caused no significant 7-d mortality or fecundity reduction to G. occidentalis or E. victoriensis compared with controls, and are classified as harmless to both species. Mancozeb (Mancozeb 750 WG) was highly toxic to both species, resulting in severe mortality and fecundity reduction and is considered incompatible with integrated pest management programs that use these species. Metiram (Polyram 700 WG) was highly toxic to E. victoriensis but only moderately toxic to G. occidentalis. Analyses of mortality proportions, including, and excluding unaccounted escapees, produced the same results. Test standardization on leaf substrates provides an alternative approach to standardization via residue on glass used by International Organisation for Biological and Integrated Control or Noxious Animals and Plants/West Palaearctic Regional Section regulatory testing in the European Union.


THE BURIAL OF DISEASED PIGS NEAR WELLS. SIR,-Will you allow me by publishing this letter in the BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL to give publicity to a serious danger to public health which may occur in any part of the country brought about by the officers of the Board of Agriculture causing pigs which have died from, or when killed were found to be affected with, swine fever, to be buried near wells, public water supplies, or houses. Such a case was brought to my notice last week by our Chairman, Mr. G. P. Fuller, 8 pigs being buried within 24 feet of a well in a loose brash soil and rock. My Council have made a representation to the Board of Agriculture upon the matter. My object in writing is that improper burial of pigs is not likely to come to the knowledge of medical officers of health when making inspections of their districts. Such improper burials may account for the pollution of water supplies in those cases where no source of contamination can be found.-I am, etc., WILLIAM T. BRISCOE, B.A., M.D., M.O.H. Chippenham Urbajsand Rural Sanitary Districts. June 2oth.


Background and purpose: Sleep disorders in children with cerebral palsy (CP) are complex and challenging. The aim of this study was to investigate sleep disorders in children with CP based on gross motor function levels. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 76 children with CP (aged 6 to 15 years old) attending rehabilitation centers in Arak, Iran 2016. The participants were recruited by convenience sampling. The Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) was applied. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.18 using descriptive statistics, T-test, and Chi-square test. Results: There were no significant differences between sleep disorders and sex and types of CP (P>0.05). But, a significant difference was found between sleep disorders and gross motor function levels (P<0.05). The most common sleep disorders were difficulty in initiating and maintaining sleep (DIMS) and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) that were seen in the children with quadriplegic spastic in the level of V more than those with other types of CP. Conclusion: The results showed that severe level of gross motor disability (the severity of motor impairment) is related to sleep disorders in children with CP. more training is suggested for children with CP and their caregivers for improving their sleep function.


Background: Leiden Score, is a very useful tool for predicting future development of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), among undifferentiated arthritis (UA) patients. This score has been validated in various western studies but rarely among south east Asian patients. Aims: To validate the Leiden early arthritis prediction rule in an Indian cohort of patients for predicting rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in undifferentiated arthritis (UA) patients and to formulate any simpler version of prediction score taking only clinical variables of original Leiden prediction rule. Subjects and Methods: In a group comparative longitudinal study model, 58 patients with early symmetrical polyarthritis were enrolled and baseline evaluation was done according to Leiden prediction rule and then 3 monthly. After 1 year, Leiden prediction score and chance of evolving into RA were calculated. Patients were divided into two groups: Those who developed RA and who did not. They were selected on random sampling process. Tender joint count (TJC), duration of morning stiffness, and duration of arthritis were selected as clinical variables for linear discriminant analysis with disease outcome being the dependent variable. Discriminant scores (D) for each patient was calculated. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was constructed with the discriminant score and compared with Leiden prediction score. Results: About 54% (27/50) of patients were diagnosed with RA and 46% (23/50) developed other rheumatologic condition or viral inflammatory arthritis or remained undifferentiated or attained complete remission. None of the patients with UA, who scored the regression coefficients 4 or less progressed to RA, and those who scored 7 or more, almost certainly progressed to RA. Unstandardized canonical discriminant coefficients for TJC (T), duration of morning stiffness (M), and duration of arthritis (A) were calculated. ROC curve was plotted with the formula: D = 0.164 × T + 0.066 × M + 0.012 × A − 2.838. Area under curve (AUC) at 95% confidence interval for our discriminant function was 0.845 (standard error [SE] 0.054). In comparison, AUC of Leiden prediction score was 0.897 (SE 0.043). Conclusions: Leiden prediction rule is highly applicable to UA patients to predict progression of RA in Indian patients and larger multi-center study with larger cohorts is needed to validate the formulation we derived to predict RA.


This article contributes to the literature on culture wars work by examining how anti-evolutionists neutralize the framing of their position as religious. Their efforts are uncovered by analyzing 570 letters to the editor published in American newspapers in the months surrounding a nationally covered 2005 federal judicial decision on the legality of the Dover PA, school board's decision to undermine evolutionary theory in the classroom. Anti-evolutionists neutralized the framing of their position as religious through the processes of selective acknowledgement and disagreement with the problematic framing. These findings provide insights into the anti-evolutionist movement, the nature of the culture wars, and the basic ways in which problematic frames are neutralized. First, it shows how public anti-evolutionist discourse has not followed its leaders' efforts to minimize the religious motivations of the movement. Second, the wide variety of neutralizations partially explains the persistence of many cultural disputes. Third, this study calls attention to the under theorized role of disagreement and agreement in undoing problematic definitions of the situation.


The majority of European countries which have had an important tradition of manorialism have undergone profound land reforms, redistributing land from large landowners and giving small-scale farmers and the landless legal rights to land ownership, with the exceptions of Sweden and England. This article will outline the particular Swedish case, where large estates have been able to persist largely intact from the Middle Ages through to the current day, and explore possible reasons for Sweden's failure to develop a substantial land reform. We suggest that while there was not an absolute lack of opportunity for reform, a persistent lack of a critical mass of support has meant a failure of outright revolution, as in the French case, and split incentives from the eighteenth century have prevented successful reform through legislative processes. The barriers to reform have only become stronger with the development of perfect private property rights and of the complexities of European law, and recent Swedish parliamentary outcomes indicate that the case for land reform has expired.


The purpose of this study was to design a preventive scheme using directional antennas to improve the performance of mobile ad hoc networks. In this dissertation, a novel Directionality based Preventive Link Maintenance (DPLM) Scheme is proposed to characterize the performance gain [JaY06a, JaY06b, JCY06] by extending the life of link. In order to maintain the link and take preventive action, signal strength of data packets is measured. Moreover, location information or angle of arrival information is collected during communication and saved in the table. When measured signal strength is below orientation threshold , an orientation warning is generated towards the previous hop node. Once orientation warning is received by previous hop (adjacent) node, it verifies the correctness of orientation warning with few hello pings and initiates high quality directional link (a link above the threshold) and immediately switches to it, avoiding a link break altogether. The location information is utilized to create a directional link by orienting neighboring nodes antennas towards each other. We call this operation an orientation handoff, which is similar to soft-handoff in cellular networks.
Signal strength is the indicating factor, which represents the health of the link and helps to predict the link failure. In other words, link breakage happens due to node movement and subsequently reducing signal strength of receiving packets. DPLM scheme helps ad hoc networks to avoid or postpone costly operation of route rediscovery in on-demand routing protocols by taking above-mentioned preventive action.
This dissertation advocates close but simple collaboration between the routing, medium access control and physical layers. In order to extend the link, the Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) and IEEE 802.11 MAC protocols were modified to use the ability of directional antennas to transmit over longer distance. A directional antenna module is implemented in OPNET simulator with two separate modes of operations: omnidirectional and directional. The antenna module has been incorporated in wireless node model and simulations are performed to characterize the performance improvement of mobile ad hoc networks. Extensive simulations have shown that without affecting the behavior of the routing protocol noticeably, aggregate throughput, packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay (latency), routing overhead, number of data packets dropped, and number of path breaks are improved considerably. We have done the analysis of the results in different scenarios to evaluate that the use of directional antennas with proposed DPLM scheme has been found promising to improve the performance of mobile ad hoc networks.


Weakly supervised referring expression grounding aims at localizing the referential object in an image according to the linguistic query, where the mapping between the referential object and query is unknown in the training stage. To address this problem, we propose a novel end-to-end adaptive reconstruction network (ARN). It builds the correspondence between image region proposal and query in an adaptive manner: adaptive grounding and collaborative reconstruction. Specifically, we first extract the subject, location and context features to represent the proposals and the query respectively. Then, we design the adaptive grounding module to compute the matching score between each proposal and query by a hierarchical attention model. Finally, based on attention score and proposal features, we reconstruct the input query with a collaborative loss of language reconstruction loss, adaptive reconstruction loss, and attribute classification loss. This adaptive mechanism helps our model to alleviate the variance of different referring expressions. Experiments on four large-scale datasets show ARN outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods by a large margin. Qualitative results demonstrate that the proposed ARN can better handle the situation where multiple objects of a particular category situated together.


We present a market-based compensation approach to antitrust litigation and other cases of price overcharges. Instead of lump-sum compensation, paid either directly or through coupons, defendants are required to lower their prices for a certain designated period, i.e. price-cap compensation (PCC). We show why previous criticism of PCC was misguided. And, in sharp contrast to the common view in the literature, implementing PCC may have many substantive and procedural advantages. Importantly, although PCC is implemented vis-à-vis direct purchasers only, it reconciles the U.S. and European Union legal approaches and solves the challenge of passed-on damages to indirect purchasers.


The great effort is being recently spent to develop better Collision Avoidance Warning Systems (CAWS) to reduce the total number of accidents. Improvements in crash avoidance have proven far more difficult to attain, mainly because the probability of a crash is affected by an array of complex and interacting factors involving the drivers, vehicles, and the road environment. One of the important criteria in CAWS is the criteria for system activation. Proper activation algorithm of the system will reduce the number of false alarms and collision by not presenting the warning too early or too late, but at the right time.
The determination of a minimum safe distance is a very fundamental and pivotal step for CAWS system activation. Hence, the success of CAWS system relies very much on whether the activation algorithm or model used is able to indicate a minimum safe distance precisely and timely. Limitations of existing methods in determining the minimum safe distance is restricted to only the kinematic variables such as speed and deceleration. Other important independent parameters for heavy vehicle such as vehicle classification (VC), Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) and tire-road coefficient of friction (CoF), which may have a direct impact on vehicle braking performance, have not been explicitly considered. The characteristics of these important heavy vehicle parameters are assumed to be same for all types of vehicle.
The minimum safe distance is very much related on vehicle braking performance. The important parameters in vehicle braking performance are the deceleration and braking distance (BD). Thus, this study offers a detailed analysis in understanding the factors which influence the deceleration and BD for heavy vehicle. To do this, deceleration data for various heavy vehicle classes under various loads, speeds and road surface conditions was generated employing a commercial multi-body dynamic simulation package. Through statistical analysis, results shown that these four parameters have significant effect on heavy vehicle's deceleration and braking distance. The results shows that changes in the vehicle dynamics' characteristics will affect a heavy vehicle's braking performance and its ability to stop safely in emergency situations. Therefore these parameters are important and must be considered in determining the minimum safe distance. This result is the first major contribution of this dissertation. To represent the adaptive minimum safe distance which will be used in activation algorithm for CAWS, the new distance-based CAWS model, namely Minimum Safe Distance Gap (MSDG) is introduced. By applying non-linear regression analysis to the simulation results, a mathematical model of MSDG has been established. This MSDG model is the second major contribution of this dissertation. In addition, a graphical user interface (GUI) based calculator was developed based on the proposed regression model. It is envisaged that this calculator would provide a more realistic depiction of the real situation for safety analysis involving heavy vehicles. Finally, the development of prototype microcontroller-based CAWS featuring MSDG activation algorithm has been developed. The accuracy and the functionality of the system has been tested and validated. It is envisaged that this CAWS featuring MSDG algorithm would provide a more realistic depiction of the real traffic situation for safety purposes.


This thesis is concerned to discuss two related questions in political theory. First, the relationship of 'theory' and 'practice', concentrating specifically on the relationship between 'philosophy' and 'polities'; and, secondly, how the political theory of the Eighteenth Century Enlightenment is helpful in revealing an answer to the first problem. In order to encompass this dual task, the thesis is divided into three parts. Part One, 'Philosophy in its Place', delineates two trends in modern political thought that most explicitly bracket off the theoretical and the practical. It goes on to discuss the thesis of Alisdair Maclntyre in AFTER VIRTUE, that it was the Enlightenment that was, in fact, the intellectual origin of these two trends. Chapter Two of Part One, continues this discussion by considering recent adaptations of the central claims (such as that offered by Bernard Williams), and challenges to them from thinkers who emphasise the methodological importance of the history of thought (such as Maclntyre himself, and Richard Rorty). It concludes with an analysis of an issue central to the discussions of all three thinkers: incommensurability. Part Two, 'Theory and Practice in the Enlightenment's Politics ', consists of three chapters which together offer an interpretation of the Enlightenment's reflections on the relation between theory and practice and, specifically, of the two thinkers most important for this question, Hume and Kant. The analysis also discusses rival interpretations and concentrates specifically on refuting Maclntyre's arguments in AFTER VIRTUE on the nature, character and implications of Enlightenment thought. Part Three, 'Bringing Philosophy Back In', ties these various threads together by first discussing the methodological questions set out in Part One in more detail, and then by showing how the Enlightenment's thought on this topic is still of the utmost importance for modern political theorists and why this should be so.


BACKGROUND
The relation between dairy product intake and the risk of ischemic heart disease (IHD) remains controversial.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to explore biomarkers of dairy fat intake in plasma and erythrocytes and to assess the hypothesis that higher concentrations of these biomarkers are associated with a greater risk of IHD in US women.

DESIGN
Among 32,826 participants in the Nurses' Health Study who provided blood samples in 1989-1990, 166 incident cases of IHD were ascertained between baseline and 1996. These cases were matched with 327 controls for age, smoking, fasting status, and date of blood drawing.

RESULTS
Among controls, correlation coefficients between average dairy fat intake in 1986-1990 and 15:0 and trans 16:1n-7 content were 0.36 and 0.30 for plasma and 0.30 and 0.32 for erythrocytes, respectively. In multivariate analyses, with control for age, smoking, and other risk factors of IHD, women with higher plasma concentrations of 15:0 had a significantly higher risk of IHD. The multivariate-adjusted relative risks (95% CI) from the lowest to highest tertile of 15:0 concentrations in plasma were 1.0 (reference), 2.18 (1.20, 3.98), and 2.36 (1.16, 4.78) (P for trend = 0.03). Associations for other biomarkers were not significant.

CONCLUSIONS
Plasma and erythrocyte contents of 15:0 and trans 16:1n-7 can be used as biomarkers of dairy fat intake. These data suggest that a high intake of dairy fat is associated with a greater risk of IHD.


Until recently, almost all ETFE film structures that have been erected is the cushion type because there are problems at lower allowable strength under elastic range and viscosity behaviour such as creep and relaxation of ETFE films under long-term stresses. But the number of tension type structures is currently increasing. This paper proposes the stretch fabrication of ETFE film to verify the applicability of ETFE films to tensile membrane structures. First of all, to investigate the possibility of application on tensile membrane structures, the stretch fabrication test is carried out, and it is verified that it is possible to increase the yield strength of the film membrane structures. After simulating the experiment also carries out an analytical investigation, and the effectiveness of the elasto-plastic analysis considering the viscous behavior of the film is investigated. Finally, post-aging tension measurement is conducted at the experimental facilities, and the viscosity behavior resulting from relaxation is investigated with respect to tensile membrane structures.


Over 60 named forms of Rattus are recorded from Celebes (Laurie & Hill, 1954). Some of these names were first proposed in the i8oo's. The taxa they represent were sometimes based on only one specimen and were often poorly diagnosed. Consequently, the taxonomie status of the names has been unclear. Such names are stumbling blocks to accurate identification and sound classification of the species of Rattus which occur on Celebes. Mus faberi, named and described by F. A. Jentink in 1883, is a classic example. The name represents a taxon based on a single specimen. The original description of that specimen was short and vague. No other specimens have ever been allocated to M. faberi in the mammalogical literature and the taxonomie status of the name has remained obscure since Jentink proposed it. I had the opportunity of examining the holotype of M. faberi during a recent visit to the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in Leiden. Results of that study are offered in the present paper wherein M. faberi is associated with Rattus xanthurus. ABBREVIATIONS AND METHODS The specimens discussed in this paper are in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History (A.M.N.H.), the British Museum (Natural History) (B.M.), the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (R.M.N.H), the personal collection of H. J. V. Sody (these specimens are housed in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie and will be indicated as "Sody No."), and the United States National Museum of the Smithsonian Institution (U.S.N.M.). Measurements of the length of the head and body and the length of the tail are those of the collectors and were taken from labels attached to study skins. I measured the length of the hind foot of all the


Background: Increasing number of people with diabetes make it the greatest world-wide epidemy which indicates importance of education in physical and mental health of the patients. Since researches report different results about cognition status of diabetic patients, this study was conducted to determine and compare cognitive status in older people with and without type 2 diabetes. Methods: In this case- control study 80 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus compare with 80 persons without diabetes. Cases were selected from the patients refer to diabetes outpatient clinic and control group were patients referred to other clinics. Instruments were questionnaire for gathering demographic data, glucometer, DSM-IR-TR questionnaire, FBS for control group and TSH - T4- HbA1c for cases.. Results: The mean scores of MMSE were 23.3 and 26.8 in case and control group respectively. Difference between two groups was significant in MMSE scores (P<0.01), furthermore between men and women of two groups (P<0.01 for both). No significant difference of MMSE scores between men and women in case group was seen (P=0.45). There was negative association between MMSE scores and age also duration of illness according to the results. Conclusion: Elderly diabetic patients encounter some cognitive impairment which is exacerbated   with increasing age.


Today's teachers mainly belong to the so-called "Generation X" while learners are most often described as "Generation Y" or "Millennials". Most current discussions of learning methods are being held in view of the status quo. But what about the learners of tomorrow? What expectations do the learners of tomorrow have? Which methods and tools will the teachers of tomorrow have in stock to meet these expectations? "The old learning spaces, dominated by the immensely successful organizations of the industrial era like schools and universities, are struggling to maintain authority and control over the definition and certification of knowledge while at the same time remaining true to the stated mandate of helping to equip people and society for a life where learning is much more heterogeneous and heterarchical"[11]. Therefore, wouldn´t it be good to have a toolset ready and be able to choose the appropriate tools and techniques right on time? Reflecting on publications, expert interviews and state-of-the-art best practices, this paper attempts to draw a picture of the future (e-)learning scenario. To give the next generation a name, "Generation I(mmersion)" has been chosen. Despite breaking the X, Y, Z sequence, this name highlights the state of "Immersion", which educators and learners of tomorrow will/might find themselves in.


A new slip knot is introduced. It can be used as the beginning knot of a running suture and for ligation of pedicles where accessibility is limited. When used at the beginning of a running suture to close abdominal-wall fascia, the knot can be safely used with monofilament material such as polydioxanone. It locks readily, it takes less time to tie than numerous square knots, and it is not as bulky as other knots. The clinch knot has been found to be especially useful for securing pedicles in relatively inaccessible places such as the infundibulopelvic ligament when performing oophorectomy at the time of vaginal hysterectomy. During endoscopic surgery, the knot has been used as an alternative to the Endoloop and as the preferred knot to secure the Endo-knot.


All information in quantum systems is, notwithstanding Bell's theorem, localized. Measuring or otherwise interacting with a quantum system S has no effect on distant systems from which S is dynamically isolated, even if they are entangled with S. Using the Heisenberg picture to analyse quantum information processing makes this locality explicit, and reveals that under some circumstances (in particular, in Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen experiments and in quantum teleportation), quantum information is transmitted through 'classical' (i.e. decoherent) information channels.


Abstract Objective The article aimed to estimate differences in electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) patterns in term gestations attributable to fetal sex. Study Design We conducted a prospective cohort study of consecutive, singleton, nonanomalous, term gestations that labored during admission. EFM characteristics in the 30 minutes prior to delivery were evaluated. Logistic regression models estimated adjusted risks for EFM features by sex. To further estimate the impact of sex, we limited the analysis to gestations without composite morbidity (morbidity defined as arterial cord pH <7.20, 5-minute Apgar <7, or neonatal intensive care unit admission). Results Of 2,639 deliveries, 1,400 (53%) were male. Male fetuses had a higher number of decelerations (median [interquartile range]: 8 [5, 11] vs. 7 [4, 10], p < 0.003) and increased total deceleration area (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] :1.04, 1.18). Male fetuses were at increased risk for prolonged decelerations (aOR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.03, 1.42) and repetitive variable decelerations (aOR: 1.24, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.47). Among neonates without composite morbidity (n = 2,446, 92.7%), male sex conferred an increased risk of late decelerations (aOR: 1.21, 95% CI: 1.02, 1.43) and increased total deceleration area (aOR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.05, 1.20). Conclusion There are significant sex differences in EFM patterns at term among pregnancies without evidence of acidemia. This suggests that interpretation of EFM patterns may need to take into account factors such as fetal sex.


2548 Enhanced chemokinetic and chemotactic motility stimulated by signals transduced through the ErbB family of receptors has been shown to play a critical role in tissue invasion by a variety of solid tumor types. Most efforts in studying the role of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its downstream signals in regulating the biophysical processes of cell motility have been carried out in two-dimensional (2D) systems, whereas in vivo migration occurs through three-dimensional (3D) spaces consisting of the extracellular matrix (ECM). With the additional mechanical and sterical influences posed by the ECM, disruption of EGFR-signaling components of cells migrating in 3D may exhibit effects that are distinct from 2D cell migration. In this work, we developed and optimized a 3D time-lapse confocal microscopy technique to image and quantify real-time 3D migration behavior of individual U87MG human glioblastoma cells sparsely seeded in collagen I gels. EGF stimulation exhibited matrix-concentration dependent increase in 3D cell scattering through both greater cell speed and greater directional persistence. This was in contrast to previous reports that EGF stimulation leads to an increased cell speed, but a decrease in persistence in 2D. Over-expression of Mena, a target downstream of EGFR, in U87MG cells led to decrease in persistence on 2D surfaces, but was correlated with increased persistence in 3D and in vivo. Supported by computer simulations, we propose that low directional persistence in 2D may, at least under some conditions, translate into high directional persistence in a porous 3D ECM network.


Purpose: Several single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with breast cancer risk have been identified through genome-wide association studies (GWAS). We investigated whether eight risk SNPs identified in GWAS were associated with breast cancer disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Methods: A cohort of 739 white women with early-stage breast carcinoma was genotyped for eight GWAS-identified SNPs (rs2981582, rs1219648, rs3803662, rs12443621, rs8051542, rs999737, rs6504950, rs4973768), using Illumina GoldenGate platform. The relationships between SNPs and breast cancer outcomes were evaluated using univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression models. The cumulative effects of SNPs were assessed by computing the number of at-risk-alleles based on the results from the univariate analyses. In addition, we explored higher-order interactions between clinical variables and SNPs using classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Results: Four SNPs (rs2981582, rs1219648, rs12443621 and rs6504950) were significantly associated with OS using univariate Cox proportional hazard regression analysis (P≤0.1) and there was no association with DFS. In multivariate model adjusted for age, hormonal status, clinical stage, and treatment, rs12443621 (16q12) and rs6504950 (17q23) polymorphisms remained as independent prognostic markers for OS. Compared with the GG/AG reference group, homozygous carriers of minor A allele for rs12443621 and rs6504950 had an increased risk for death (HR:1.38, 95% CI:1.01 to 1.86; P=0.04, and HR:1.80, 95% CI:1.18 to 2.77; P=0.007, respectively). In multivariate analysis, a higher risk for death was found in the sub-cohort of patients harboring 3–4 at-risk-alleles of the GWAS SNPs compared to patients carrying ≤2 at-risk-alleles (HR:1.5, 95% CI:1.14 to 1.85; P=0.002). In CART modeling, women with stage 2 breast cancer who did not receive chemotherapy and were carries of the AA genotype for rs6504950 had the highest risk for death (HR:10.0, 95% CI:3.47 to 28.78). Conclusion: SNPs in previously identified breast cancer risk susceptibility loci, rs12443621 (16q12) and rs6504950 (17q23), were also found to be independent prognostic markers for OS in breast cancer patients. The precise molecular mechanisms through which these SNPs influence clinical outcomes remain to be determined. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):A61.


Aimed at the fact that most of the objects was symmetrical, we present a method reconstructing 3D model from single 2D image. At first, the angle, inclination angle and pivot angle should be established in the ternary perspective transformed matrix T, then the calibration which indicated the outline of the object can pick up the characteristic line. It resolved the host extinguishes information in accordance with the similar features of the parallel group of lines projection angle, then ensured the viewpoint situation and the object plane of symmetry, and made use of the object imagination plane of symmetry in accordance with symmetry feature through the interactive alignment specifying three pairs of the known symmetry image coordinates and the space coordinates of the corresponding points confirm the perspective transformative matrix T, then reverse prove the other space coordinates of the surface of the objects.


For decades, principals have been recognized as important contributors to the effectiveness of schools (Day, Harris, & Hadfield, 2001; Pullan, 2001, Leithwood, Patten & Jantzi, 2010; Leithwood, Louis, & Anderson, 2012; Sebastian & Allensworth, 2012). Over these same decades, the work of school administrators has changed dramatically as a restructured system of governance and increased calls for accountability have resulted in constant pressure to innovate, change, and work with community stakeholders (Horng, Kalogrides, & Loeb, 2010; Leithwood & Jantzi, 2006; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2001). As in many jurisdictions across the country and indeed the world, public education in Prince Edward Island (PEI) faces leadership challenges. The limited quantity and difficulty in identifying quality people interested in school leadership, in particular the principalship, are major concerns. The purpose of this study was to investigate the specific factors that impact on the principalship aspirations of teachers in PEI schools. The qualitative methods for data collection employed in this intrinsic case study included focus group interviews, one-on-one interviews with key respondents, and information from relevant documents, and reflections drawn from my own experiences. The conceptual framework, developed from the review of literature served as the guiding and structural lens for the study. Data were collected from teachers, school administrators and district leadership team members and were organized in three categories: motivational, experiential and reluctance factors. The data for this research clearly indicated that most teachers in PEI are reluctant to apply to the principalship because of a perceived weakness in the required skills, a perceived unsuitability for the position based on the requirements posted, and


Complex configurable models of embedded software systems are hard to design and maintain, especially when model structures are variable and the number of allowable configurations is unlimited. We employ model transformation as an underlying technique to configure model structures. A transformation tool is created for actor models that automates tasks in the development workflow. Such tasks include structural configuration with user-specified parameters, resetting enhanced models to simple forms for modification and update, and validating consistency in model structures. As an example, we provide a structurally configurable actor-oriented model of a distributed system using the MapReduce pattern to justify our approach.


Energy consumption due to constant opening and closing of external doors is a source of heat loss in food supermarkets. With the emphasis on energy efficiency in buildings increasing rapidly through various government's legislations and rise in energy prices, reducing heat loss through the doorways by constructing a wind lobby has become the norm. The aims of this thesis were to investigate the current wind lobby layout in supermarkets and their benefits for energy consumption through in-situ measurement, analysis and numerical modelling of a wind lobby. Measurements over one year in an operational supermarket wind lobby showed that electric energy consumption of the air curtain significantly increased from 19% of the total HVAC's electric energy consumption for the whole year to 61 % between October and January. The electric energy consumption of the air curtain was found to increase month on month in winter whilst the average temperature across the doorway decreased for the same period. Although cold snaps in winter months were detected, a correlation between the electric energy consumption of the air curtain and temperature did not exist. To estimate heat flow across a sliding doorway, a controlled experiment was undertaken in a different building without footfall to provide boundary conditions and validation for a numerical model of the wind lobby. The steady state CFD model results showed that the factors affecting the increase in heat loss were the door's opening size, indoor I outdoor temperature difference and the inlet wind speed which were the same whether the air curtain was switched off or on. This meant that the air curtain did not function as intended to contain heat in the lobby. However the air flow pattern was more complex when the air curtain was on and it dominated the air flow near the top of the doorway. A door to the back of the wind lobby was introduced in the CFD model to test cross ventilation. When the air curtain was switched on, it did not function as intended and failed to contain heat inside the lobby. When the indoor outdoor temperature difference and inlet air velocity increased, the volumetric temperature in the lobby was reduced by over 70%. Findings from the CFD model suggest that reducing the impact of the outdoor wind speed on the air curtain will reduce heat loss at the doorway. A system to shield the doors and yet allow easy access to customers such as baffles needs to be tested and assessed.


Abstract Because wild reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) are hunted in southern Norway, reindeer may perceive all recreationists as threats. Potential adverse effects of hunting on reindeer behavior may be exacerbated by other forms of recreation because the number of skiers and hikers in areas inhabited by reindeer has also increased. The Norefjell–Reinsjøfjell wild reindeer area is used extensively for recreation and tourism. Reindeer hunting was introduced in the area in 1992, and harvest rate has been stable at about 38% of winter herd size. We recorded behavioral responses of reindeer to a person approaching directly on foot or skis during 1992 and again in 2002–2006. Compared to 1992, flight-initiation distance increased and fewer groups assessed the observer before taking flight during 2002–2006. In winter, when reindeer are usually comparably more vigilant than in other seasons, flight-initiation distance increased from only 60 m to 115 m and escape distance decreased from 400 m to 210 m. Neither alert distance, calf carcass weights (23.6 ± 0.7 [SE] kg to 22.4 ± 0.2 kg), nor reindeer herd size (661 ± 73 to 579 ± 15) changed during the 15 years of our study. Reindeer appeared to habituate to the observer because they initiated flight at shorter distances as the number of approaches on the same day increased. In Norefjell–Reinsjøfjell, encounters with a person on foot or skis did not result in behavioral responses likely to entail substantial energy costs for reindeer; therefore, hunting at current levels appears compatible with other recreational activities.


Extensive actuation forces and strokes are required for the actuation of large sized valves normally implemented in high power hydraulic systems. A hydraulic piloted operation is, as for now, the most suitable solution and the state of the art. However, recent research has shown that the application of new electromechanical valve actuation systems is possible in various cases. In this contribution a novel electromechanical valve actuation system for large sized 4/3-way directional control valves in a displacement controlled system is presented. The new actuation system is characterized by a hydraulic relief of the centering springs. Therefore, the springs are only active in safety-critical conditions, as in a power outage. Since the actuator is not working against the spring force during every displacement, the necessary actuation force is reduced drastically, so that common electromechanical actuators can be used. In case of a power outage, the spring relief is deactivated causing the stored energy to center the spool in neutral position. The performance of the novel actuation system is examined based on measurements, which are conducted on a manufactured demonstrator for valves of nominal size 25 with a flow rate of up to 600 l/min.


BACKGROUND
The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study has generated a wealth of data on death and disability outcomes in Europe. It is important to identify the disease burden that is attributable to risk factors and, therefore, amenable to interventions. This paper reports the burden attributable to risk factors, in deaths and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), in the 28 European Union (EU) countries, comparing exposure to risks between them, from 2007 to 2017.

METHODS
Retrospective descriptive study, using secondary data from the GBD 2017 Results Tool. For the EU-28 and each country, attributable (all-cause) age-standardized death and DALY rates, and summary exposure values are reported.

RESULTS
In 2017, behavioural and metabolic risk factors showed a higher attributable burden compared with environmental risks, with tobacco, dietary risks and high systolic blood pressure standing out. While tobacco and air quality improved significantly between 2007 and 2017 in both exposure and attributable burden, others such as childhood maltreatment, drug use or alcohol use did not. Despite significant heterogeneity between EU countries, the EU-28 burden attributable to risk factors decreased in this period.

CONCLUSION
Accompanying the improvement of population health in the EU-28, a comparable trend is visible for attributable burden due to risk factors. Besides opportunities for mutual learning across countries with different disease/risk factors patterns, good practices (i.e. tobacco control in Sweden, air pollution mitigation in Finland) might be followed. On the opposite side, some concerning cases must be highlighted (i.e. tobacco in Bulgaria, Latvia and Estonia or drug use in Czech Republic).


The in-cylinder flow of internal combustion (IC) engines formed during the intake stroke is one of the most important factors that affect the quality of air-fuel mixture and combustion. This paper deals with experimental investigation of the in-cylinder flow structures under steady state conditions utilizing Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The measurements have been conducted on an engine head of a pent-roof type (Lotus) at two engine speeds of 2500 and 4000 rev/min respectively. A tumble and swirl flows analysis are carried out for six planes and one plane at half bore downstream from the cylinder head respectively.


Objective To study the association of changes in body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) with cardiovascular risk factors in late adolescence. Methods As part of a population-based cohort (EPITeen) 1574 adolescents were evaluated when they were 13 y and 17 y. We computed OR and 95% CIs using logistic regression to study the association between changes in BMI z-scores and WC from 13 to 17 years and outcomes at 17 years. The outcomes were define as high systolic blood pressure (SBP) ≥130 mm Hg; high diastolic blood pressure (DBP) ≥85 mm Hg; low high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDLc) if first quartile and high: triglycerides, low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDLc), glucose and insulin if fourth quartile. Results Comparing with adolescents who remained normal weight in both study waves, those who remained overweight/obese presented higher odds of high SBP [females: OR=3.33 (1.78–6.23); males: OR=3.17 (2.00–5.01)], DBP [females: OR=2.47 (1.00–6.10); males: OR=2.37 (1.17–4.79)], triglycerides [males: OR=3.25 (1.88–5.62)], LDLc [males: OR=3.50 (2.03–6.00)], insulin [females: OR=2.18 (1.26–3.79); males: OR=2.32 (1.34–4.03)] and low HDLc [females: OR=2.21 (1.28–3.80); males: OR=1.94 (1.11–3.41)]. The estimates for those who changed to overweight/obese were similar. Among those who changed to normal weight, we found associations in the opposite direction, although statistical significance was not achieved. Regarding changes in WC and considering the 75th percentile as cut-off, results were similar, however, partly explained by BMI. Conclusion Remaining or changing to higher anthropometric measures in adolescence period was associated with worse cardiovascular risk profile later in adolescence.


This article focuses on the alternative nutrition policy as a public policy issue. It discusses such important and controversial questions as the efficacy and safety of multimixture. It also analyzes six epidemiological studies focusing on the evaluation of the reliability of results. The article concludes that the numerous ambiguities, gaps, and contradictions in knowledge concerning alternative nutrition do not support the incorporation of this intervention proposal as a food and nutritional policy for Brazil.


Attempts to overcome multi‐drug resistance in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) have been limited by toxicities. To investigate the effect of reducing peak drug levels, we performed sequential phase II studies using continuous infusion daunorubicin and cytarabine without (AD) and then with ciclosporin (ADC) in older patients with AML. Untreated patients (age 56+ years) received daunorubicin (45 mg/m2 per day for 3 d) and cytarabine (200 mg/m2 per day for 7 d), both by continuous infusion, without (S0112, 60 patients) and then with (S0301, 50 patients) the addition of ciclosporin. Complete response (CR) rates were 38% on S0112 and 44% on S0301. Fatal induction toxicities occurred in 17% and 12% respectively, arising primarily from infection and haemorrhage. Median overall and relapse‐free survival was 7 and 8 months for AD respectively, and 6 and 14 months for ADC. Patients with phenotypic or functional P‐glycoprotein had somewhat higher CR rates with ADC than AD, although confidence intervals overlapped. In these sequential trials, continuous infusion AD produced CR rates comparable to those with bolus daunorubicin. The addition of ciclosporin did not cause undue toxicities, produced a similar CR rate, and possibly improved relapse‐free survival. Further correlate analyses did not identify a subpopulation specifically benefitting from the addition of ciclosporin.


Stratigraphic, paleontologic, sedimentologic, and petrographic data are used to construct a revised system of correlation and stratigraphic nomenclature for Pennsylvanian and Permian rocks of central and northern Arizona and adjacent regions. The resulting scheme emphasizes major tectonic and depositional events but also provides for recognition of local to regional minor events. By recognizing stratigraphic spikes in the rock record and combining these with available biostratigraphic data, regional correlation is established in spite of a sparsity of fossils, complex cyclic lithologic units, abrupt facies changes, sporadic subsurface data, and drastic differences in quality and extent of outcrops.

Highlights of the proposed correlation and nomenclature include the following. 1. Differentiation of Supai and Naco Formations and restriction of use of the term "Supai." 2. Correlation of the Supai Group and the Hermit Formation into the western part of central Arizona (as far east as Sedona). 3. Formal definition of a new stratigraphic unit, the Schnebly Hill Formation, and several formal members. 4. Correlation of Pennsylvanian and Permian strata of the Grand Canyon and Defiance Plateau with rocks in central Arizona (Mogollon Rim and adjacent areas).

With a clearer concept of stratigraphy and nomenclature, the resulting sedimentologic and tectonic history of the region can be deciphered. The resulting interpretation of geologic history provides a foundation for relating tectonic and sedimentologic events of the Colorado Plateau to the evolution of southwestern North America.


Objective: Research on health initiatives for rural batey communities in the Dominican Republic is needed. Design and Sample: This study utilized a pretest‐posttest design to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a nutritional intervention targeting rural migrant sugarcane families. Participants (N = 310) were primarily female (61%) and ranged in age from 13 to 64 years (M = 25.9; SD = 10.4). A convenience sample was recruited from six rural bateyes in the southern region of the Dominican Republic. Intervention: The intervention was developed for the target population in partnership with a grass‐roots organization. The intervention consisted of a short video in the participant's preferred language (Spanish or Creole) describing the importance of consuming a diverse diet. Participants then completed an interactive meal‐planning activity to enhance skills learned in the video. The main outcome variable was knowledge and a secondary outcome was participants' performance on the interactive activity. Results: Results showed that the intervention was well received by the target population and participants demonstrated a significant increase in nutrition knowledge (p < .001). Higher postintervention knowledge scores were positively correlated with higher activity skills scores. Conclusion: This novel intervention may have promise as a practical program to enhance the nutritional status of a vulnerable population of migrant sugarcane workers.


The acquisition of skill knowledge about beekeeping management practices is crucial for effective and efficient utilization of the technologies. The study was conducted in the southwestern region of Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used to select 200 respondents. The findings showed that independent variables such as education, years of experience and occupation were positive and significantly related with knowledge at 1% level of significance. But age, farm size, annual income, and distance to market location exhibited negative and significant relationship while gender, household size and number of hives in apiary had no significant relationship with the knowledge level of beekeepers. The result therefore, implies that education is an important factor in the variation of knowledge level. Also, the higher the beekeepers knowledge regarding innovation or technology, the more the tendency for full acceptability of that particular technology.


Different bacterial strains compete to occupy the same niche. The outcome of such competition can be affected by the type VI secretion system (T6SS), an intercellular killing mechanism of bacteria. Here an animal-bacterial symbiosis is used as a platform for study of the genetic factors that promote the T6SS-mediated killing of one strain by another. Identification of the molecular determinants of T6SS function in vivo contributes to the understanding of how different strains interact within a host. ABSTRACT Bacteria that have the capacity to fill the same niche will compete with one another for the space and resources available within an ecosystem. Such competition is heightened among different strains of the same bacterial species. Nevertheless, different strains often inhabit the same host. The molecular mechanisms that impact competition between different strains within the same host are poorly understood. To address this knowledge gap, the type VI secretion system (T6SS), which is a mechanism for bacteria to kill neighboring cells, was examined in the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri. Different strains of V. fischeri naturally colonize the light organ of the bobtail squid Euprymna scolopes. The genome of FQ-A001, a T6SS-positive strain, features two hcp genes that are predicted to encode identical subunits of the T6SS. Coincubation assays showed that either hcp gene is sufficient for FQ-A001 to kill another strain via the T6SS in vitro. Additionally, induction of hcp expression is sufficient to induce killing activity in an FQ-A001 mutant lacking both hcp genes. Squid colonization assays involving inocula of FQ-A001-derived strains mixed with ES114 revealed that both hcp genes must be deleted for FQ-A001 and ES114 to occupy the same space within the light organ. These experimental results provide insight into the genetic factors necessary for the T6SS of V. fischeri to function in vivo, thereby increasing understanding of the molecular mechanisms that impact strain diversity within a host. IMPORTANCE Different bacterial strains compete to occupy the same niche. The outcome of such competition can be affected by the type VI secretion system (T6SS), an intercellular killing mechanism of bacteria. Here an animal-bacterial symbiosis is used as a platform for study of the genetic factors that promote the T6SS-mediated killing of one strain by another. Identification of the molecular determinants of T6SS function in vivo contributes to the understanding of how different strains interact within a host.


Phosphorus (P) fertilizers have a dramatic effect on agricultural productivity, but conventional methods of application result in only limited recovery of the applied P. Given the increasing volatility in rock phosphate prices, more efficient strategies for P fertilizer use would be of economic and environmental benefit in the drive for sustainable intensification. This study used a combination of controlled-environment experiments and radioisotopic labeling to investigate the fertilizer use efficiency of a combination of seed (grain) dressing and foliar applications of P to spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Radioisotopic labeling showed that the application of foliar P in the presence of photosynthetic light substantially increased both P-uptake into the leaf and P-mobilization within the plant, especially when an adjuvant was used. When compared with soil application of inorganic P buried into the rooting zone, a combination of a 3 μmol seed dressing and three successive 46.3 μmol plant−1 foliar applications were far more efficient at providing P fertilization benefits in P-limiting conditions. We conclude that a combination of seed dressing and foliar applications of P is potentially a better alternative to conventional soil-based application, offering greater efficiency in use of applied P both in terms of P-uptake rate and grain yield. Further work is required to evaluate whether these results can be obtained under a range of field conditions.


Human faces elicit faster saccades than objects or animals, resonating with the great importance of faces for our species. The underlying mechanisms are largely unclear. Here, we test two hypotheses based on previous findings. First, ultra-rapid saccades toward faces may not depend on the presence of the whole face, but the upper face region containing the eye region. Second, ultra-rapid saccades toward faces (and possibly face parts) may emerge from our extensive experience with this stimulus and thus extend to glasses and masks – artificial features frequently encountered as part of a face. To test these hypotheses, we asked 43 participants to complete a saccadic choice task, which contrasted images of whole, upper and lower faces, face masks, and glasses with car images. The resulting data confirmed ultra-rapid saccades for isolated upper face regions, but not for artificial facial features.


Background Despite evidence in scientific literature indicating the effectiveness of both cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and physical exercise in the management of major depressive disorder (MDD), few studies have directly compared them. Objective This study aims to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of group CBT, physical exercise, and only wait-listing to receive treatment-as-usual (TAU) in the management of MDD. The investigators hypothesize that participants with MDD assigned to the group CBT or exercise arms of the study will achieve superior outcomes compared with participants wait-listed to receive TAU only. Methods This prospective rater-blinded randomized controlled trial assesses the benefits of group CBT and exercise for participants with MDD. A total of 120 patients with MDD referred to addiction and mental health clinics in Edmonton, Canada, will be randomly assigned to one of the three equal-sized arms of the study to receive either weekly sessions of group CBT plus TAU, group exercise three times a week plus TAU, or only TAU for 14 weeks. Participants will be assessed at enrollment, 3 and 6 months post enrollment, midtreatment, and upon treatment completion for primary (functional and symptom variables) and secondary outcomes (service variables and health care utilization). In addition, participants in the intervention groups would be evaluated weekly with one functional measure. The data will be analyzed using repeated measures and effect size analyses, and correlational analyses will be completed between measures at each time point. Results The study will be conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (Hong Kong amendment) and Good Clinical Practice (Canadian guidelines). Written informed consent will be obtained from each subject. The study received ethical clearance from the Health Ethics Research Board of the University of Alberta on September 7, 2018 (Pro 00080975) and operational approval from the provincial health authority (Alberta Health Services 43638). As of October 13, 2019, we have enrolled 32 participants. The results will be disseminated at several levels, including patients, practitioners, academics, researchers, and health care organizations. Conclusions The results of the pilot trial may inform the implementation of a multicenter clinical trial and provide useful information for administrators and clinicians who are interested in incorporating group CBT and group exercise interventions into existing care. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03731728; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03731728 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/14309


Path planning in mobile robots must ensure optimality of the path. The optimality achieved may be in path, time, energy consumed etc. Path planning in robots also depends on the environment in which it operates like, static or dynamic, known or unknown etc. Global path planning using A* algorithm and genetic algorithm is investigated in this paper. A known dynamic environment, in which a control station will compute the shortest path and communicate to the mobile robot and the mobile robot, will traverse through this path to reach the goal. The control station will keep track of the path traversed by the robot. The mobile robot navigates through the shortest path and if the robot detects any obstacle in the destined path, the mobile robot will update the information about the environment and this information together with the current location will be communicated to the control station. Then the control station, with the updated map of the environment and new starting location and destination recalculates the new shortest path, if any, and will communicate to the mobile robot so that it can reach the destination. The technique has been implemented and tested extensively in real-world experiments and simulation runs. The results demonstrate that the technique effectively calculates the shortest path in known dynamic environment and allows the robot to quickly accomplish the mission.


Abstract: Indonesia is one of the largest tin producers in the world. Tin industry is growing and flourishing in Indonesia. In Indonesia, the processing of tin ore to tin metal uses reverberatory furnace. Effectiveness on flow of material handling process becomes the determining factor in keeping Work in Process (WIP) mate rial inventory levels and increasing productivity. The purpose of this study is to analyze the flow of material handling processes in order to minimize WIP material inventory and increase productivity. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is used as a tool to analyze the process flow. Direct field observations and analysis of production data are developed into current VSM. The result reveals that there are some wastes or muda in the process flow. One of the occurring wastes is on the lead time process of the WIP handling which is longer than the cycle time of melting process; therefore, this causes an accumulation of WIP material that results in productivity decreasing of the tin production. Waste elimination can trim the processing time of WIP material handling so that it will be able to reduce the accumulation of WIP material as much as 53% and increase tin production by 5% Keywords: tin, smelting process, value stream mapping, WIP inventory, cycle time, reverberatory furnace


We show that catalyst pretreatment conditions can have a profound effect on the chiral distribution in single-walled carbon nanotube chemical vapor deposition. Using a SiO2-supported cobalt model catalyst and pretreatment in NH3, we obtain a comparably narrowed chiral distribution with a downshifted tube diameter range, independent of the hydrocarbon source. Our findings demonstrate that the state of the catalyst at the point of carbon nanotube nucleation is of fundamental importance for chiral control, thus identifying the pretreatment atmosphere as a key parameter for control of diameter and chirality distributions.


A subspace-based linear minimum mean-square error (MMSE) multiuser detector is proposed for quasi-synchronous multicarrier code-division multiple-access (MC-CDMA) systems. The proposed receiver is totally blind, i.e., it is both channel- and delay-independent and, unlike many subspace-based algorithms, requires only an upper bound (rather than the exact knowledge) of the channel order, without needing explicit delay estimation. The effectiveness of the proposed blind approach is tested by computer simulation results, which show that it assures satisfactory performances in severe near-far scenarios, while exhibiting a lower computational complexity in comparison with existing subspace-based methods.


Many lessons

Over the past 30 years a wide range of developing countries have successfully developed a model of primary health care promoted by theWorld Health Organisation. This is based on the idea of "essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology, made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain."1 2 It differs fundamentally from the primary care system in the United Kingdom, which relies more on technical and curative care than the community oriented approach. Many Western countries, including the United Kingdom, are now, however, shifting their policies to strengthen primary health care,3 and there could be lessons to be learnt from the achievements of developing countries.

In the 1950s and '60s many developing countries faced a daunting task. Economic recession meant that many could not even start to emulate the West's medical model of health based on hospital medicine and high technology. A different model of care emerged, which recognised that the health of populations was determined by factors other than medical care and that …


Load data representing severe customer usage is needed throughout a chassis development program; the majority of these chassis loads originate with the excitation from the road. These chassis loads are increasingly derived from vehicle simulations. Simulating a vehicle traversing long roads is simply impractical, however, and a greatly reduced set of characteristic roads must be found. In order to characterize a road, certain modeling assumptions must be made. Several models have been proposed making various assumptions about the properties that road profiles possess. The literature in this field is reviewed before focusing on two modeling assumptions of particular interest: the stationarity of the signal (homogeneity of the road) and the corresponding interval over which previous data points are correlated to the current data point. In this work, 2-D topographic road profiles are considered to be signals that are realizations of a stochastic process. The objective of this work is to investigate the stationarity assumption and the interval of influence for several carefully controlled sections of highway pavement in the United States. Two statistical techniques are used in analyzing these data: the autocorrelation and the partial autocorrelation. It is shown that the road profile signals in their original form are not stationary and have an extremely long interval of influence on the order of 25m. By differencing the data, however, it is often possible to generate stationary residuals and a very short interval of influence on the order of 250mm. By examining the autocorrelation and the partial autocorrelation, various versions of ARIMA models appear to be appropriate for further modeling. Implications to modeling the signals as Markov Chains are also discussed. In this way, roads can be characterized by the model architecture and the particular parameterization of the model. Any synthetic road realized from a particular model represents all profiles in this set. Realizations of any length can be generated, allowing efficient simulation and timely information about the chassis loads that can be used for design decisions. This work provides insights for future development in the modeling and characterization of 2-D topographic road profiles.


Extreme events bring rapid change Environmental adaptation is often considered a slow process. However, extreme events, such as heat waves or cold snaps, can produce rapid changes, both morphologically and genetically. Campbell-Staton et al. studied a population of green anole lizards during an extreme cold snap in the southern United States (see the Perspective by Grant). After the cold snap, the lizards showed greater cold resistance and displayed changes in six genomic regions that are important for regulation of function in the cold. Understanding how extreme climatic events influence adaptive potential will become increasingly important as the climate becomes more volatile. Science, this issue p. 495; see also p. 451 Lizards adapted rapidly to extreme cold in the southeastern United States during the winter of 2013–2014. Extreme environmental perturbations offer opportunities to observe the effects of natural selection in wild populations. During the winter of 2013–2014, the southeastern United States endured an extreme cold event. We used thermal performance, transcriptomics, and genome scans to measure responses of lizard populations to storm-induced selection. We found significant increases in cold tolerance at the species' southern limit. Gene expression in southern survivors shifted toward patterns characteristic of northern populations. Comparing samples before and after the extreme winter, 14 genomic regions were differentiated in the surviving southern population; four also exhibited signatures of local adaptation across the latitudinal gradient and implicate genes involved in nervous system function. Together, our results suggest that extreme winter events can rapidly produce strong selection on natural populations at multiple biological levels that recapitulate geographic patterns of local adaptation.


Granitic rocks are here described as mixtures of weak and more resistant fractions whose proportions vary with strain and temperature and control some macroscopic characteristics of shear structures produced during deformation. Three main structural fields are distinguished on a strain/temperature diagram: (1) discrete shear zones anastomosed around low-strain domains, (2) microscale associations of pervasive foliation and ductile shear bands (e.g., C-S structures), and (3) "steady state" homogeneous foliations. We outline the following: a sharp drop in bulk strength is expected to occur around 500 °C within wet granites; the widespread occurrence of pervasive ductile shear bands is diagnostic of retrograde deformation histories, especially as encountered within syntectonic plutons; and most prograde deformation histories, as expected during reworking of pretectonic basement, should produce heterogeneous strain patterns associated with discrete shear zones.


Twenty years after research on children's 'theory of mind' began, this field continues to be a leading influence in the study of developmental psychology and psychopathology. In this review we examine the contribution of research on children's theories of mind to our understanding of children's developing social relationships. Evidence shows that for both typical and atypical populations this relationship is neither uniform nor unidirectional. Theory-of-mind skills are multifaceted and the nature of the developmental relationship between different aspects is not yet known, and there is evidence that theory-of-mind skills both transform and are transformed by interpersonal and family relationships and by language communities. To understand the multifaceted and complex nature of development in this area, we need clearer definitions of the skills under investigation, as well as research designs that capture the transactional nature of the relationship between theory of mind and social relations. Addressing these issues should help to clarify (i) the processes by which children's developing understanding of others is influenced by the social environment, and (ii) issues concerning the specificity of theory-of-mind impairments in atypical populations and the processes by which these impairments develop.

After more than 20 years of pre-eminence, investigations into children's developing theories of mind continue to lead current research in developmental psychology. A key reason for the intense academic interest in this topic is a general acceptance that theory-of-mind skills transform and/or are transformed by children's close relationships. Before reviewing the evidence for this proposal we first address two issues that become recurring themes in this paper, namely the problems of defining 'theory of mind' and of disentangling environmental and genetic influences on children's theory of mind. Next we consider how developments of theory of mind transform children's social relations, and here our main objective is to complement the recent excellent reviews (Flavell, 1999; Wellman & Lagattuta, 2000) and meta-analysis (Wellman, Cross & Watson, 2001) of age-related changes in children's theories of mind by focusing on the social implications of these normative developmental milestones in children's understanding of others. In the third section of this paper we consider aspects of social relations that may influence theory-of-mind development; here we review findings from the growing number of studies that investigate influences of culture, family and inter-individual relationships. Finally, we consider the relation between theory-of-mind performance and social competence in atypical groups; specifically children with autism and children with sensory impairments, before offering some general reflections on emerging issues within contemporary theory-of-mind research.


short durations, on circumscribed populations and under tightly controlled conditions. A key, but often overlooked, issue is whether the results of studies are externally valid (generalisable). Indeed, the evidence base that dictates clinical practice and health policy should comprise data that are both internally and externally valid. We do not suggest that epidemiological modelling replace longitudinal studies (in fact, modelling depends critically on robust prospective data); rather, it complements these studies by providing a means to assess their external validity. We are also mindful of the limitations of epidemiological modelling, as outlined in our article, and acknowledge the importance of ensuring rigour in the methods. Our article dealt with generating the data needed for sound economic evaluation, by taking into account the longterm benefits, risks and costs of treatment strategies, and "real-life" health service conditions. This is distinct from the issue of whether "conditional listing" on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme should be implemented for drugs that are yet to be proven costeffective.


Agricultural land pawning is not a new phenomenon to the traditional communities (Masyarakat Adat) in Indonesia, especially the matrilineal Minangkabau people who rely on their agricultural land for economic transactions. Based on the national law, customary law (referred to as Adat Law hereafter) is to prevail over agrarian issues in Indonesia. But even so, agrarian issues remain under the influence of national law. This study discusses the management of agricultural land pawning in the matrilineal Minangkabau society according to national, Adat, and Islamic laws. Despite its popularity, the Adat law approach in dealing with land issues, especially agricultural land pawning, has not been well accommodated under National Law. This paper investigates how agricultural land pawning is regulated in Indonesia, with a focus on the Minangkabau society in West Sumatra. This paper does not seek to promote one legal system over another, but instead, it intends to promote legal certainty in agricultural land pawning in West Sumatra. To show how the lack of legal certainty can lead to confusion and conflict, this study relies on the contradicting verdicts of an agrarian conflict case from lower courts to the Supreme Court. The study reveals that the contradiction between national agrarian laws, Minangkabau Adat law and West Sumatra local Regulation No. 16/2008 on Communal Land Tenure causes confusion within the community and the judiciary. Legal certainty is crucial to strengthening the rule of law and democracy in Indonesia, and the conflicting interpretations of agrarian laws belittle this concept. This study suggests that one way to deal with legal uncertainty regarding agrarian law in West Sumatra, and throughout Indonesia, is to promote a stronger and more just decentralization, which is increasingly important as the country faces the question of legal unification. The suggested decentralization effort would leave local issues to the authority of local legislations.