In this chapter, we discuss the prerequisites for high-efficiency water splitting and their implementation with tandem cells based on absorbers of the III–V semiconductor material class. A brief outline of efficiency-limiting factors shows that at a given set of boundary conditions, such as catalyst performance, the optimum tandem absorbers require a very precise control of opto-electronic properties, as facilitated by the III–V compounds. After a short history of high efficiency solar energy conversion, we present recent implementations of highly efficient water splitting systems with solar-to-hydrogen efficiencies of 14–16% together with an outlook on further improvements. Even if other absorber systems turn out to be more cost-competitive, the III–V systems currently serve as a testbed for high-efficiency water splitting in general, with lessons to be learned for catalyst requirements, cell design, and efficiency validation. We conclude with a discussion of appropriate efficiency benchmarking routines, outlining potential pitfalls for multi-junction absorbers and how to avoid them.


SUMMARY This study used statistical methods to investigate linkages in phenotypic resistance profiles in a population sample of 321 Salmonella Typhimurium isolates from sporadic salmonellosis cases in Lower Saxony, Germany, collected during 2008–2010. A resistance index was applied to calculate the conditional probability of resistance to one antimicrobial agent given the resistance to one or more other antimicrobial agent(s). A susceptibility index was defined analogously. A contingency plot, which visualizes the association between resistances to two antimicrobial agents, facilitated the interpretation. Linkages between minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) were analysed using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient and jittered scatter plots. Applying these methods provided a compact description of multi-resistance and linkages between resistance properties in large datasets. Moreover, this approach will improve monitoring of antimicrobial resistance dynamics of bacteria in human or animal populations by identifying linked resistance to antimicrobial agents (cross- or co-resistance) with a non-molecular method.


Unit testing is a commonly applied technique in object-oriented programming, where classes are tested using small, executable tests written as code. It is a laborious, time-consuming, and error prone job, and even after tests are written, it requires developer to maintain them, and to understand code written by other developers. To support developers, unit test can be generated automatically using different testing techniques. However, since algorithms used for test generation are typically guided by structural criteria, generated unit tests are often long and confusing, and with possible negative effect in the test oracle problem and test maintenance. To overcome this problem we investigate the readability of unit test cases. We propose a domain-specific model of unit test readability based on human judgments, and use this model to guide automated unit test generation. The resulting approach can automatically generate test cases with improved readability with the overall objective of reducing the effort for developers to understand these test cases.


The concept of the exposome was initially described by Christopher Wild as the environmental correlate of the genome; the totality of environmental factors, including occupational exposures, an individual encounters over their life-course and their impact on health. Recent efforts have begun to investigate the potential for using both multi-scale 'omic approaches including genomics, proteomics and metabolomics and large scale exposure assessments using personal exposure monitors (sensors), smart phones and other traditional exposure metrics to demonstrate the power of the exposome as a tool for hypothesis generation as a proof of principle. The resulting indicators of exposure and response are potentially powerful tools for understanding and preventing disease. Work is an important determinant of a persons own health and potentially that of their children. However, although many factors have been identified that relate to ill-health there are likely many more to be discovered and quantified. The nature of these risks may however be different than the ones detected to date (e.g. carrying lower risks, potentially act through interactions etc). Therefore, there is a pressing need to improve exposure assessment by both being able to quantify exposures more at the individual level and by being able to more comprehensively measure the totality of these exposures. Although, the concept may be appealing it would require significant improvements in investigative tools such as the use of small wearable sensors and the use of global analysis technologies ("-omics"). In addition, it would require new analytical approaches such as data mining and statistical methods that can handle correlated and protracting exposures. The exposome concept is relevant to the occupational workplace and relates well to the total worker health paradigm. Although, some initial results have shown promise of these new technologies in identifying and quantifying occupational exposures and adverse effects more development and theoretical work is needed.


Fuel cell hybrid vehicles represent an alternative to battery electric vehicles and will gain importance in the future as they do not need large battery capacities and thus require less critical raw materials. Depending on the electric architecture, the voltage of the fuel cell stack and traction battery may overlap. Accordingly, it is necessary to use a bidirectional DC–DC converter that connects the battery to the DC bus, which supports overlapping input and output voltages. Furthermore, these converters should be non-isolating in terms of compact design. Concerning complexity and controllability, the bidirectional cascaded buck and boost converter is preferable and is the subject of this study. Published literature presents the bidirectional cascaded buck and boost converter with high losses for overlapping input and output voltages, introducing two methods for this operation mode. The method selected for this study, namely buck + boost, uses two switches, whereby one switch has a fixed duty cycle. However, there is no appropriate investigation to determine the impact of this fixed duty cycle on converter efficiency to date. Furthermore, efficiency improvement is possible by switching frequency modulation, but current literature does not address this modulation method for overlapping input and output voltages. Therefore, this paper investigates a non-isolated hard-switched bidirectional cascaded buck and boost converter for fuel cell hybrid vehicles operating with up to 19.8 kW. The study focuses on determining the optimum fixed duty cycle and efficiency optimisation through a novel critical conduction mode with adapted switching frequency by utilising the load-dependent inductance of the inductor with powder cores. Measurements with an experimental setup validate the proposed modulation method with Si-IGBT half-bridge modules. The results demonstrate that a loss reduction of 39% is possible with switching frequency modulation and the optimum duty cycle compared to fixed switching frequency. As a result, the converter achieves high efficiencies of up to 99% and low device junction temperatures.


This paper introduces an ultrasonic measurement system to determine the mean temperature of the air between source and receiver. The system uses measurement of changes in the local speed of sound in the air to determine the temperature of the air. The changes in the speed of sound are determined by multi-frequency continuous wave frequency modulation (MFCWFM) techniques. This paper present a simple but efficient algorithm based upon phase shifts generated by three ultrasonic waves of different frequencies. To confirm concept feasibility, two low cost 25 kHz ultrasonic transducers were positioned face to face and used to transmit and receive ultrasound. Frequency modulation of the 25 KHz carrier frequency was used to transmit three frequencies; 25kHz, 1 kHz and 100 Hz. The proposed method can give a more accurate measurement of temperature than the time of flight (TOF) and phase shift (PS) methods. The range accuracy was found to be 0.070C. The main advantages of this system are high resolution and ease of implementation.


We report on the analysis of virtual powder-diffraction patterns from serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX) data collected at an X-ray free-electron laser. Different approaches to binning and normalizing these patterns are discussed with respect to the microstructural characteristics which each highlights. Analysis of SFX data from a powder of Pr0.5Ca0.5MnO3 in this way finds evidence of other trace phases in its microstructure which was not detectable in a standard powder-diffraction measurement. Furthermore, a comparison between two virtual powder pattern integration strategies is shown to yield different diffraction peak broadening, indicating sensitivity to different types of microstrain. This paper is a first step in developing new data analysis methods for microstructure characterization from serial crystallography data.


P2P workflow systems meet the development trend of workflow systems. The running path optimization (the path with the minimum running time which consists of the services discovery time and the task execution time) in full-distribution(decentralized) environments has been a bottleneck restricting the performance of P2P workflow systems. Aiming at this problem, this paper proposes an innovative hybrid P2P location network by introducing a novel structured P2P network which effectively reduces the service discovery time and the search bandwidth with 100% location precision at each step and a novel decentralized workload balance network which optimizes the tasks execution time at each step with little churns of network to P2P workflow systems for the first time to fit the global optimal running path with the sequence of the optimal single running steps.


Graves' disease was diagnosed in a 35-year old woman with a history of myxoedema in childhood. Clinical data, ultrasonography and radioisotope scanning showed that the disease had developed in an ectopic subhyoid thyroid gland. Although numerous thyroid diseases associated with an ectopic thyroid have been described, Graves' disease does not seem to be frequent since only one case has been published so far.


Distributed cyber-physical systems (DCPS) are pervasive in areas such as aeronautics and ground transportation systems, including the case of distributed hybrid systems. DCPS design and verification is quite challenging because of asynchronous communication, network delays, and clock skews. Furthermore, their model checking verification typically becomes unfeasible due to the huge state space explosion caused by the system's concurrency. The PALS ("physically asynchronous, logically synchronous") methodology has been proposed to reduce the design and verification of a DCPS to the much simpler task of designing and verifying its underlying synchronous version. The original PALS methodology assumes a single logical period, but Multirate PALS extends it to deal with multirate DCPS in which components may operate with different logical periods. This paper shows how Multirate PALS can be applied to formally verify a nontrivial multirate DCPS. We use Real-Time Maude to formally specify a multirate distributed hybrid system consisting of an airplane maneuvered by a pilot who turns the airplane according to a specified angle through a distributed control system. Our formal analysis revealed that the original design was ineffective in achieving a smooth turning maneuver, and led to a redesign of the system that satisfies the desired correctness properties. This shows that the Multirate PALS methodology is not only effective for formal DCPS verification, but can also be used effectively in the DCPS design process, even before properties are verified.


The poem "Architecture" by Joseph Brodsky was commented on by Alexander Rappaport, Konstantin Lidin and Elena Bagina. The poem deserves to be studied at all architectural schools and to be learnt by heart by future architects; and the problems touched upon in this poem deserve to be thought about by architectural theorists. This poem is a quintessence of the contemporary theoretical thought about architecture. It raises such themes as time and memory, space, place and substance. It also speaks about ideal geometric shapes in architecture and dynamics of architectural forms. Architectural works are "a step beyond the drawing", an unbreakable link of times. The domes of architectural masterpieces form a safety parachute of our civilization. Alexander Rappaport, Konstantin Lidin and Elena Bagina made a comment on each line of this short but remarkably concise, lofty and ironical work by Joseph Brodsky. These comments partially coincide and partially differ. You may either agree or argue with the authors' opinion. But any meaningful talk about the place and the role of architecture and architectural profession in the present-day world is of importance. It is symptomatic that the modern architectural studies are focused on the history of architecture, being afraid (or unwilling due to a complex and controversial situation in today's profession) to deal with urgent and difficult problems. Wherever the architectural theory of the late 20th century looked for fertility drugs, be it in mathematics, semiotics, sociology, linguistics, it was in vain. In the early 21st century it came to the crossroads. It is no good to verify the death of architecture, because it would mean, according to Brodsky, the end of civilization. Let's believe that architecture has its future and that it will remain "a thing of stone", the strongest material on Earth.


In a study on size and reproductive behaviour in the southern elephant seal,Mirounga leonina, on South Georgia from 1991 to 1993, large size, measured as nose to hind flipper length, was associated with factors that confer an advantage in terms of reproductive success. Some males stayed at the centre of harems, others were on the periphery and others were outside the harem. A male's mating success increased with his length, and for central males, mating success increased with harem size. Central males defeated almost all other males. Central males were also longest and outside males shortest. Furthermore, central males stayed ashore longest. For central males, length was positively correlated with number of days spent in the harem but not with harem size. Central and peripheral males had the highest copulation frequencies (per h and per male). The copulation frequency of central males apparently peaked in harems with a maximum size of 100–150 females, with lower frequencies in larger and smaller harems. However, the mating success of central males over the season increased with harem size. The rate of alert behaviour and time devoted to resting were not correlated with harem size for any of the three male categories, but rate of agonistic behaviour increased with increasing harem size for central males.


In this paper, we present an approach for tracking people in monocular videos, by predicting their future 3D representations. To achieve this, we first lift people to 3D from a single frame in a robust way. This lifting includes information about the 3D pose of the person, his or her location in the 3D space, and the 3D appearance. As we track a person, we collect 3D observations over time in a tracklet representation. Given the 3D nature of our observations, we build temporal models for each one of the previous attributes. We use these models to predict the future state of the tracklet, including 3D location, 3D appearance, and 3D pose. For a future frame, we compute the similarity between the predicted state of a tracklet and the single frame observations in a probabilistic manner. Association is solved with simple Hungarian matching, and the matches are used to update the respective tracklets. We evaluate our approach on various benchmarks and report state-of-the-art results.


This study aims to identify critical elements in Knowledge Management in companies in the second and third sectors of the economy of the region of Campos Gerais, Parana, Brazil. This is a cross-sectional survey. The sample consisted of 191 workers. To collect the data, a social scale developed by Terra (1999) was used. It was found that the critical elements are, in order of relevance: human resource management; organizational structure; organizational culture and values; information and communication systems; learning through the environment; strategic factors; the role of senior management, and the measurement of results. It is concluded that for most organizations to reach the condition of a learning organization several critical elements need to be overcome.


The aim of this study is to design an implantable Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES) stimulator connected and controlled by an Android Bluetooth for the treatment of the gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Then the animal experiments are carried out to evaluate the function of the system. The LES stimulator is composed of an external controller, an Android application (APP) via a smart phone and an implantable electronic device (IED). The external controller is designed to receive the settings parameters information sent by the Android APP via a Bluetooth module, and then is programmed to generate specific electrical stimulation pulses to the LES. The Android APP controls the start and stop of stimulation and the settings of stimulation parameters. The in vivo IED consists of a bipolar stimulating lead, a bipolar head connector and a receiving module. The bipolar stimulating lead is constructed of biocompatible materials: platinum-iridium electrodes which are coated with parylene and an outer silicone rubber sheathing. The size of the receiving module has been significantly decreased to 20×20×2 mm3, which is packaged by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and proposed to deliver stimulation pulses from the external controller to the implantable lead. The one-month implantation experiment on rabbits has been performed to evaluate the LES stimulator. The results indicate that the proposed LES stimulator meets the requirements of the functions, effectiveness and safety.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are evolutionarily conserved small noncoding RNAs that post‐transcriptionally regulate gene expression by targeting specific messenger RNAs (mRNAs) for degradation or translational repression. Recent evidence indicates that miRNA‐mediated gene regulation is critical for normal cellular functions, and as much as one‐third of human mRNAs may be miRNA targets. Emerging evidence suggests that miRNAs play a key role in the regulation of immunological functions including innate and adaptive immune responses, development and differentiation of immune cells, and the prevention of autoimmunity. Here, we review the mechanisms of miRNA maturation and function, the roles of several miRNAs in immunological functions, and the involvement of miRNAs in disease pathogenesis.


A novel approach to 3D localization of narrowband acoustic sources in a shallow ocean using a horizontal array of acoustic vector sensors (AVS) is proposed. It is shown that, if the number of sources J is known, the maximum likelihood (ML) estimates of 3/ source parameters (azimuth angles, ranges and depths) can be found in two successive stages - a J dimensional search for azimuth angles in the bounded parameter space [0 2pi]J, followed by an ML estimation of source amplitudes to obtain source range and depth. When J is not known, a stochastic search based on reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) strategy is proposed, which effectively performs the dual task of joint estimation of the number of sources and their location parameters.


Anxiety in epilepsy has recently become a focus of interest for a number of reasons. Epidemiological studies have established that anxiety disorders are twice as common in patients with epilepsy compared to the general population, while in referral centres their prevalence is even higher. In addition, it has been recently appreciated that anxiety exerts a significant negative impact on the quality of life of patients with epilepsy of any age. With regard to the pathogenesis of anxiety in epilepsy, a number of theories have been put forward including those based on psychodynamics, learning-cognition, and neurobiology. Froma clinical point of view, anxietymayoccur as a comorbid disorder with epilepsy or be directly linked with epilepsy as a preictal, ictal, postictal or interictal phenomenon. The treatment of anxiety in patients with epilepsy requires a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, clinical assessment. Regarding pharmacological therapies, it should berecognised thatsomedrugs prescribed for anxiety disorders are associated with a high risk of seizures, whereas some antiepileptic drugs possess anxiolytic properties that could be of use in the management of epileptic patients with anxiety. The correct diagnosis and successful treatment of anxiety is expected to have significant benefits for the quality of life of epileptic patients.


We describe the parsec-scale kinematics of 200 active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets based on 15 GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) data obtained between 1994 August 31 and 2011 May 1. We present new VLBA 15 GHz images of these and 59 additional AGNs from the MOJAVE and 2 cm Survey programs. Nearly all of the 60 most heavily observed jets show significant changes in their innermost position angle over a 12–16 yr interval, ranging from 10° to 150° on the sky, corresponding to intrinsic variations of ∼0.°5 to ∼2°. The BL Lac jets show smaller variations than quasars. Roughly half of the heavily observed jets show systematic position angle trends with time, and 20 show indications of oscillatory behavior. The time spans of the data sets are too short compared to the fitted periods (5–12 yr), however, to reliably establish periodicity. The rapid changes and large jumps in position angle seen in many cases suggest that the superluminal AGN jet features occupy only a portion of the entire jet cross section and may be energized portions of thin instability structures within the jet. We have derived vector proper motions for 887 moving features in 200 jets having at least five VLBA epochs. For 557 well-sampled features, there are sufficient data to additionally study possible accelerations. We find that the moving features are generally non-ballistic, with 70% of the well-sampled features showing either significant accelerations or non-radial motions. Inward motions are rare (2% of all features), are slow (<0.1 mas yr−1), are more prevalent in BL Lac jets, and are typically found within 1 mas of the unresolved core feature. There is a general trend of increasing apparent speed with distance down the jet for both radio galaxies and BL Lac objects. In most jets, the speeds of the features cluster around a characteristic value, yet there is a considerable dispersion in the distribution. Orientation variations within the jet cannot fully account for the dispersion, implying that the features have a range of Lorentz factor and/or pattern speed. Very slow pattern speed features are rare, comprising only 4% of the sample, and are more prevalent in radio galaxy and BL Lac jets. We confirm a previously reported upper envelope to the distribution of speed versus beamed luminosity for moving jet features. Below 1026 W Hz−1 there is a fall-off in maximum speed with decreasing 15 GHz radio luminosity. The general shape of the envelope implies that the most intrinsically powerful AGN jets have a wide range of Lorentz factors up to ∼40, while intrinsically weak jets are only mildly relativistic.


This study on "The Narrative Technique in Winnie Eads' Short Story The Grandfather: A Stylistic Approach" takes as its focus the narrative technique which generates the aesthetic effects of the story. The narrative technique designed to be adopted for the narration of the story in the first person and merely by a kid narrator necessarily integrates into itself the language style which is constituted by such specific use of language (English) to suit the aesthetic need of the narration. The aesthetic effect achieved through the fusion of the child first-person narration and the specific language style in the story is one in the form of aesthetics of realism, particularly realism in the characterization of the grandfather as the main character and of Pete as the child narrator, which constitutes the attractiveness of the story. Using a stylistic approach in the analysis of the narration, this article is aimed at revealing how the specific language use in the short story The Grandfather constitutes a quite effective device for aesthetic achievement.


Leishmania spp. are protozoan parasites that have two principal life cycle stages: the motile promastigote forms that live in the alimentary tract of the sandfly and the amastigote forms, which are adapted to survive and replicate in the harsh conditions of the phagolysosome of mammalian macrophages. Here, we used Illumina sequencing of poly-A selected RNA to characterise and compare the transcriptomes of L. mexicana promastigotes, axenic amastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. These data allowed the production of the first transcriptome evidence-based annotation of gene models for this species, including genome-wide mapping of trans-splice sites and poly-A addition sites. The revised genome annotation encompassed 9,169 protein-coding genes including 936 novel genes as well as modifications to previously existing gene models. Comparative analysis of gene expression across promastigote and amastigote forms revealed that 3,832 genes are differentially expressed between promastigotes and intracellular amastigotes. A large proportion of genes that were downregulated during differentiation to amastigotes were associated with the function of the motile flagellum. In contrast, those genes that were upregulated included cell surface proteins, transporters, peptidases and many uncharacterized genes, including 293 of the 936 novel genes. Genome-wide distribution analysis of the differentially expressed genes revealed that the tetraploid chromosome 30 is highly enriched for genes that were upregulated in amastigotes, providing the first evidence of a link between this whole chromosome duplication event and adaptation to the vertebrate host in this group. Peptide evidence for 42 proteins encoded by novel transcripts supports the idea of an as yet uncharacterised set of small proteins in Leishmania spp. with possible implications for host-pathogen interactions.


The design specification method described in this report treats a software architecture as a set of runtime entities, including tasks and external input/output elements, which interact either via messages or shared data structures. Tasks have a single thread of execution and represent program units that may be executed concurrently. External input elements produce input requests that in turn trigger a set of low-level activities to be executed by tasks. External output elements consume results that are produced by tasks. The specification method discussed here facilitates the description of the dynamic structure of runtime entities, the synchronization and communication between these entities, and their resource consumption and production properties (which include timing and sizing).


INTRODUCTION
The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of metal oxides from investment dies on the color of metal-free VM7 ceramic.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Forty circular patterns were made with an elastic gelatin duplicator. These were divided into four groups (n = 10) for pouring the investment: G1, Begoform (Bego); G2, Ducera Lay Superfit (DeguDent GmbH); G3, Duravest (Polidental), and G4, Refrax Magnum (CNG). Refractory dies were subjected to the degassing process for gas and metal oxide elimination, and the testing was done with the application of two layers of VM7 ceramic. These layers were sinterized in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendation and then glazed. For the control group, 10 additional VM7 ceramic discs were made without the use of any investment die. The ceramic's control color and the tested groups were analyzed with the aid of a portable colorimeter (Minolta CR-10) in the CIELab. The color change (ΔE) of the specimens from the tested groups was obtained, and the data were submitted to one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey's test.

RESULTS
All tested groups had a color change from the control group. G1 (5,3) and G2 (5,3) were those that showed the greater color change and did not show statistical differences between themselves; G3 (3,3) and G4 (3,1) were those that showed the least color change from control group and did not show statistical differences between themselves.

CONCLUSION
Once all investments present a perceptible color change from the control group, color selection should be done with a laboratory-produced color scale.


Abnormalities of bowel innervation and ganglion distribution
are represented by a wide spectrum of conditions, including
an entity known as neuronal intestinal dysplasia
[NID].
NID is characterized by localized or disseminated hypertrophic
and immature ganglion cells, hyperplasia of the
myenteric and submucosal plexi with giant ganglia [NID
type B], hypoplasia or aplasia of sympathetic innervation
of the myenteric plexus [NID type A] and sometimes by the
presence of ectopic neural formations in the submucosa and
muscular stratum. The frequency of NID coexisting with
Hirschsprung's disease has been reported to vary from 20-
66%.
Special diagnostic clinical signs do not exist, while a precise
correlation between histology and clinical manifestations
is lacking.
The precise options for therapy have not been clearly established.
If aganglionosis is excluded, treatment is initially
conservative, since clinical and histological improvement
has been reported in cases with mild dysganglionosis, in
the presence of immature ganglion cells in the myenteric
plexus, in atopies of ganglions of the submucosal plexus,
as well as in cases of limited areas NID type B. When symptoms
can not be controled with medical treatment, a temporary
loop colostomy could be undertaken. In cases with
severe obstructive symptoms subtotal colectomy and ileorectal
anastomosis is suggested.
Key words: Constipation, pseudobstruction, neuronal intestinal
dysplasia


The main aim of this research was to establish simple regression models for predicting herbage production parameters during uninterrupted growth and to contribute to forage optimisation of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) cultivated as an overwinter catch crop. The field experiment in split-plot design with two block replicates consisted of two growth cycles: primary growth (C1) and regrowth (C2) as the whole plots, and twelve time series with five-day intervals as the sub-plots. For each time point, herbage dry matter yield, mean stage by weight (MSW) and contents of crude protein (CP) and net energy for lactation (NEL) were determined. Growth days for all production parameters and MSW for quality parameters were used as explanatory variables. Considering the practically relevant 47-day growth period, simple linear regression models explained from 84.9% to 94.0% of the variance of the investigated parameters. These models are better than those performed for the whole 67-day period, except for the model for MSW-based prediction of CP content. The comparison of the two predictors showed that growth days were at least as good as MSW in predicting CP and NEL contents determined during C1 and C2. The effect of growth cycle on the patterns of all investigated parameters was significant, indicating that growth conditions played an important role. Based on our results, CP and NEL yield potentials of Italian ryegrass cannot be completely exploited in a double catch crop system if the required forage quality for lactating cows is to be respected. It rather suggests getting the maximal single harvest in early May, which is justified from nutritional and economical standpoints.


In this paper, we show that drought has a positive effect on the incidence of civil war over the 1945-2005 period in Sub-Saharan Africa. We use the Palmer Drought Severity Index which is a richer measurement of drought than the measures used in the literature (rainfall and temperature) as it measures the accumulation of water in the soil in taking into account the temperature and the geological characteristics of the soil. We show that the risk of civil war increases by more than 42% from a "normal" climate to an "extremely drought" climate. Surprisingly, only 2.5% of this effect is channeled through economic growth.


Wind energy is a rapidly growing energy source with vast potential. Vertical axis wind turbines could be more cost-effective than the three bladed horizontal axis turbines that dominate today. A concept based on the straight bladed Darrieus turbine together with a PMgenerator operating in direct drive is studied at Uppsala University; this thesis is a part of that project. This thesis contains a study of stator core loss at low electrical frequencies. The purpose of the study was to test the reliability of core loss simulations where the specific loss at low frequency is extrapolated using specific loss at 50Hz. The simulated loss was compared to the measured loss. Passive rectifiers can be used to connect all wind energy converters in a wind farm to a mutual DC load. This principle has been demonstrated using two PM generators with very different properties. This thesis also contains two studies of a full vertical axis wind turbine prototype. The first study concerns the power coefficient of the turbine. The power coefficient was measured at several wind speeds and turbine rotational speeds. The power coefficient attains its maximum value of 29% when the tip speed ratio is 3.3. In a second study, the armature currents of the generator were used to map the harmonic content of the turbine torque. The third harmonic of the turbine torque was found to be the strongest harmonic. This thesis also presents a wind energy converter that has been tailored for a telecom tower. Several aspects of the design are unique.


The ER protein tapasin (Tpn) forms a bridge between MHC class I H chain (HC)/β2-microglobulin and the TAP peptide transporter. The function of this TAP-associated complex was unclear because it was reported that soluble Tpn that has lost TAP interaction would be fully competent in terms of peptide loading and Ag presentation. We found, however, that only wild-type human Tpn (hTpn), but not three soluble hTpn variants, a transmembrane domain point mutant of hTpn (L410→F), wild-type mouse Tpn, nor a mouse-human Tpn hybrid, fully up-regulated peptide-dependent Bw4 epitopes when expressed in Tpn-deficient .220.B*4402 cells. Consistent with suboptimal peptide loading, the t1/2 of class I molecules was considerably reduced in the presence of soluble hTpn, hTpn-L410F, and murine Tpn. Furthermore, eluted peptide spectra and the class I-mediated inhibition of NK clones showed distinct differences to the hTpn transfectant. Only wild-type hTpn efficiently recruited HC and calreticulin (Crt) into complexes with TAP and endoplasmic reticulum p57 (ERp57). The L410F mutant was defective in TAP association, but bound to class I molecules, Crt, and ERp57. Mouse Tpn associated with human TAP and ERp57 on the one hand, and with HC and Crt on the other, but failed to recruit normal amounts of HLA class I molecules into the TAP complex. We conclude that the loading with peptides conferring high stability requires the Tpn-mediated introduction of HC into the TAP complex, whereas the mere interaction with Tpn is not sufficient.


It is characteristic of collaborative engineering design that precedence relationships among design activities contain information flow conflicts. Indeed, due to multi-actors interaction, conflicts can emerge from disagreements between designers about proposed designs. Therefore, a critical element of collaborative design would be conflict resolution. This paper presents a methodology to identify the conflict resolution team and to evaluate the impact of a selected solution on the product data as well as on the process organisation. The approach is based on product data dependencies network. This network is composed of the handled data and the dependency links between them; two qualification dependency measures are introduced to manage these dependencies. In order to identify this network, a traceability model to track the design process is proposed. Finally, a protocol to manage the conflict resolution negotiation is discussed


Soil variability is often seen as problematic in land degradation studies in terms of sampling effort, data interpretation and for the extrapolation of results to other areas or time periods. Examples are given from land degradation research undertaken in central Spain which demonstrate some of these problems associated with soil variability. Geostatistics is presented as a usefu1 tool for quantifying soil variability and in particular the variogram for interpreting and understanding spatial patterns. Soil variability is also seen to complicate the issues surrounding management strategies and makes monospecific management strategies less likely to be successful. In recent years several studies have suggested that variability in soil properties and vegetation cover may reduce the risk of land degradation by minimizing the spatial extent of runoff and erosion. These studies suggest that increasing soil variability may prove to be an effective strategy for reducing the runoff and erosion risk. This paper discusses these ideas and highlights the importance of increasing thresholds above which runoff and erosion occurs for the success of such strategies. TIlls in particular applies to many semiarid environments where thresholds are deemed to be extremely low. Finally, these concepts are placed in the context of scale where soil variability may be viewed as existing at a multitude of nested levels varying from the microto the macro-scale.


In this paper we describe Fenix, a data model for exchanging information between Natural Language Processing applications. The format proposed is intended to be flexible enough to cover both current and future data structures employed in the field of Computational Linguistics. The Fenix architecture is divided into four separate layers: conceptual, logical, persistence and physical. This division provides a simple interface to abstract the users from low-level implementation details, such as programming languages and data storage employed, allowing them to focus in the concepts and processes to be modelled. The Fenix architecture is accompanied by a set of programming libraries to facilitate the access and manipulation of the structures created in this framework. We will also show how this architecture has been already successfully applied in different research projects.


One step reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays are an attractive option for further automating gene detection assays. One-step assays can reduce hands–on-time and the risk of sample crossover and contamination. The one-step chemistries are showing increasing use in virus detection and have been reported, in some cases, to be more appropriate than their two-step counterparts [1, 2].Previous work presented by the Stokes Institute research group outlined a micro fluidic based continuous flow instrument which performed high throughput qPCR in nanolitre sized droplets [3]. This instrument had advantages over commercially available instruments in that it could process far more than the traditional 96 or 384 reaction setup in a single run and the reaction volume was reduced from 20–50 μl down to 30–100 nl sized droplets.Combining one-step chemistry with the technology offered by the devices being developed would lead to a high-throughput RNA-to-signal system capable of reverse transcribing and performing PCR on thousands of nanolitre sized reactions every day. It is envisaged that this technology will also lead to gene expression from single cells contained in nanolitre sized droplets.In this paper, a study was conducted in which an extra thermal region, manufactured from aluminium, was added to the existing continuous flow instruments. This region was maintained at a temperature suitable for reverse transcription, which was 48°C for the one-step kit tested. The thermal region was also a suitable length to maintain the sample at the required temperature for 15 minutes. Using a commercially available one step RT-PCR kit (TaqMan® RNA-to-CT™ 1-Step Kit, 4392653), the device was evaluated for its potential to perform one-step RT-PCR in continuously flowing nanolitre sized droplets.Electrophoresis gels were initially used in assessing specific amplification before an end-point detection method was utilized. RNA was extracted from the leukemic REH cell line with the housekeeping gene, glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate-dehydrogenase (GAPDH) as the gene of interest. To investigate the possibility of further reducing sample preparation and facilitating further automation, amplification from cell lysates without nucleic acid extraction was carried out on the device. Cell lysates were prepared using the cell lysis buffer from the TaqMan® Gene Expression Cells-to-CT™ Kit (Cat #AM1728). It was found that the device was successful in one-step RT-PCR from extracted RNA samples and samples from cell lysates without nucleic acid extraction.© 2009 ASME


Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a significant negative outcome. There are previous studies showing advantages in removing Foleys early but no studies of the effect of using intermittent as opposed to Foley catheterization in a trauma population. This study evaluates the effectiveness of a straight catheter protocol implemented in February 2015. A retrospective chart review was performed on all patients admitted to the trauma service at a single institution who had a UTI one year before and one year after protocol implementation on February 18, 2015. The protocol involved removing Foley catheters early and using straight catheterization. Rates were compared with Fisher's exact test and continuous data were compared using student's t test. There were 1477 patients admitted to the trauma service in the control year and 1707 in the study year. The control year had a total of 43 patients with a UTI, 28 of these met inclusion criteria. The intervention year had a total of 35 patients with a UTI and 17 met inclusion criteria. The rate of patients having a UTI went from 0.019 to 0.010 (p = 0.035). In females this rate went from 0.033 to 0.009 (p = 0.007), whereas in males it went from 0.012 to 0.010 (p = 0.837). This study shows a statistically significant improvement in the rate of UTIs after implementing an intermittent catheterization protocol suggesting that this protocol could improve the rate of UTIs in other trauma centers. We use this for all trauma patients, and it is being looked at for use hospital-wide.


Information is lacking on the status of threatened tree species in Central Asia. This paper aims to provide preliminary information for 10 fruit and nut tree species of Kyrgyzstan. A field survey was conducted throughout the range of walnut-fruit forests in this country, supported by a socio-economic survey. Results indicated that species differed markedly in abundance. Whereas Malus sieversii was found in all locations, four species (Crataegus pontica,Pistacia vera,Pyrus korshinskyi and Sorbus persica) were only found in a minority ( ≤ 30%) of sites. Four species showed evidence of a bimodal distribution of stem diameters, which could be attributed to fuelwood harvesting, as indicated by the socio-economic survey. A majority of respondents reported a decline in the available grazing resource, a decline in the availability of harvested fruits and an increase in time required to collect fuelwood over the past decade. These results suggest that unsustainable land-use practices may be impacting negatively on populations of threatened fruit tree species. These results highlight the need to regulate local forest use to ensure that threatened fruit and nut tree species are effectively conserved, and the need for targeted actions to conserve the most threatened species, such as P. korshinskyi.


We study production of Kaluza-Klein gluons (KKG) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the framework of a warped extra dimension with the Standard Model (SM) fields propagating in the bulk. We show that the detection of KK gluon is challenging since its production is suppressed by small couplings to the proton's constituents. Moreover, the KK gluon decaysmostly to top pairs due to an enhanced coupling and hence is broad. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that for MKKG<~;; 4 TeV, 100 fb-1 of data at the LHC can provide discovery of the KK gluon. We utilize a sizeable left-right polarization asymmetry from the KK gluon resonance to maximize the signal significance, and we explore the novel feature of extremely highly energetic"top-jets." We briefly discuss how the detection of electroweak gauge KK states (Z/W) faces a similar challenge since their leptonic decays ("golden" modes) are suppressed. Our analysis suggests that other frameworks, for example little Higgs, which rely on UV completion via strong dynamics might face similar challenges, namely (1) Suppressed production rates for the new particles (such as Z'), due to their"lightfermion-phobic" nature, and (2) Difficulties in detection since the new particles are broad and decay predominantly to third generation quarks andmore » longitudinal gauge bosons.« less


The adsorption of reactive dyes on sepiolite has been investigated in a series of batch adsorption experiments. Three reactive dyes (Everzol Black B, Everzol Red 3BS, Everzol Yellow 3RS H/C) were used in bottle adsorption studies. While no significant adsorption capacity was obtained for natural sepiolite, high-adsorptive capacities were observed upon using sepiolite modified with quaternary amines. The electrokinetic measurements along with calculations using the cross-sectional area reveal that the quaternary amines adsorb close to bilayer coverage. A mechanism involving electrostatic attraction of the anionic groups of dye molecules onto oppositely charged amine-modified sepiolite surface is proposed to be responsible for the uptake of dyes. The adsorption data were fitted to the Langmuir isotherm. It is found that the modified sepiolite yields adsorption capacities (qe) of 169, 120, and 108 mg/g for Yellow, Black, and Red, respectively. These results are comparable to the adsorption capacity of the sa...


The aims of this study tested the hypothesis that expression of heparin-binding growth factors (HBGFs) in normal placental development was altered in a specific pregnancy disorder preeclampsia. HBGFs bind to heparin, a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) affecting activity. I investigated the role of heparin and HBGFs in pathophysiology of pre-eclampsia. Placental tissue from a cohort study of 87 women was performed following uncomplicated pregnancy at term, but not in labour (TNL, n=26), preterm labour (PTL, n=17), following labour onset (TL, n=21), first trimester (FNL, n=4) and pre-eclampsia (PE, n=19). The HBGFs studied were vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), placental growth factor (PLGF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF), heparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), midkine (MK), pleiotrophin (PTN), and cluster differentiation (CD105). The localisation of HBGFs and receptors VEGFR-1, /(sflt-1), PLGFR-1, VEGFR-2 and FGF2R-1 in placenta were detected. The expression of VEGF, PLGF, FGF2, HGF, PDGF, CD105 was confined to villous trophoblast, endothelial cells except for MK, HB-EGF and PTN was specifically to villous trophoblast. The total RNA production in human placentae samples (n=7) from PE and controls were analysed using qRTPCR. Placental expression of mRNA was extracted for primer assays of PLGF, FGF2, MK, PTN, and endogenous housekeeping gene as Succinate dehydrogenase complex subunit A (SDHA). FGF2 and SDHA mRNA expression was significantly different using Mann-Whitney U test. An in vitro villous trophoblast invasion model was performed with human fibrosarcoma HT1080 invasive cells (positive control), mouse embryonic fibroblast NIH/3T3 non-invasive cells (negative control) and immortalised human primary villous trophoblastic cell lines TCL-1.The greatest stimulation was by FGF2, PDGF-BB, HGF, MK and co-incubation with heparin enhanced these responses, except for PTN using the Mann-Whitney U test. Heparin's role is indicated in mediating the effects of HBGFs. It's suggests heparin therapeutic use in the treatment of pre-eclampsia.


Objective. To implement and assess a pharmacy dermatology and cosmeceutical compounding elective course and its impact on graduates' careers. Design. A 3-credit elective course that incorporated classroom lectures on ambulatory dermatologic diseases and cosmeceutical products with case studies, weekly quizzes, and a comprehensive business plan project was implemented in a doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) program in 2010. Assessment. Assessment instruments including weekly quizzes, a business plan project, and pre- and post-course tests were used to evaluate course content. Across 3 offerings of the course (2010, 2011, 2012), pre- and post-course test scores improved. Results of a postgraduate survey showed that 54% of respondents worked at a pharmacy offering compounding services, and 57% felt that the course played a significant or very significant role in their counseling on dermatologic conditions. Conclusions. Assessment methods revealed student learning of course content and the course appeared moderately beneficial to graduates' early careers. A more longitudinal analysis is needed to assess the course's impact on long-term career choices, particularly those dealing with compounding of cosmeceutical products.


FIELD METHODS FOR RAPIDLY CHARACTERIZING CONTAMINANT MOBILITY IN PAINT WASTE DURING BRIDGE REHABILITATION by Zhan Shu Currently, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) uses a conservative approach of classifying all paint waste as hazardous from bridges undergoing rehabilitation which were constructed before 1989. This practice stems from the fact that there is no approved reliable, fast, and efficient method for classifying paint waste in-situ as non-hazardous. The main objective of this study was to develop a model that can predict the leachability of trace metals in paint waste generated during bridge rehabilitation. A statistically significant number of bridge sites were sampled based on hypothesis testing. Samples were then evaluated for total concentration of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) metals (i.e., Ag, As, Ba, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, and Se), iron as well as zinc. Leaching studies included the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) toxicity characteristic leaching procedure (TCLP) and the multiple extraction procedure (MEP). Interestingly, although elevated Pb (5 to 168,090 mg kg) and other metal concentrations were observed in the paint samples, leaching results revealed only up to 22.6 mg L for Pb and 9.52 mg L for Cr. The relatively low concentrations observed are attributed to the use of iron-based abrasives (steel grit) in the paint removal process. In New York State, steel grit is typically applied as an abrasive material to remove paint during bridge rehabilitation. Although magnetic separation is applied to collect and reuse the steel grit, the fraction remaining in the paint waste ranges from 5 to 80% by weight. Using the suite of analyses, ferrihyidrite was observed to be an important mineral surface on the steel grit; spherical particle aggregates ranged from 20 to 200 nm in diameter. In addition, sequential extraction revealed trace metal sorption to the iron oxide surface may be the dominant mechanism responsible for the reduced leaching observed. The sorption process was further modeled using the diffuse layer model. Based on an understanding of mechanistic processes along with a demonstrated analysis of variables through principal component analysis (PCA), statistically-based models for leaching from paint waste were developed. Results of this work assist in better understanding and predicting the mobility of trace metals as well as in addressing disposal and management of paint waste during bridge rehabilitation. FIELD METHODS FOR RAPIDLY CHARACTERIZING CONTAMINANT MOBILITY IN PAINT WASTE DURING BRIDGE REHABILITATION


Economic activity nowcasting (i.e. making current-period estimates) is convenient because most traditional measures of economic activity come with substantial lags. We aim at nowcasting ISE, a short-term economic activity indicator in Colombia. Inputs are ISE's lags and a dataset of payments made with electronic transfers and cheques among individuals, firms, and the central government. Under a predictive modeling approach, we employ a nonlinear autoregressive exogenous neural network model. Results suggest that our choice of inputs and predictive method enable us to nowcast economic activity with fair accuracy. Also, we validate that electronic payments data significantly reduces the nowcast error of a benchmark non-linear autoregressive neural network model. Nowcasting economic activity from electronic payment instruments data not only contributes to agents' decision making and economic modeling, but also supports new research paths on how to use retail payments data for appending current models.


In this study, water flow rate and quality variables that restrict freshwater fish distribution were incorporated in species distribution modeling to evaluate the impacts of climate change. A maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) was used to predict the distribution of 76 fish species in the present (2012–2014) and in the future (2025–2035 and 2045–2055) based on representative concentration pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP 8.5 scenarios for five major river basins (Han, Nakdong, Geum, Seomjin, and Yeongsan) in South Korea. The accuracy of MaxEnt performance was improved from 0.905 to 0.933, and from 0.843 to 0.864 in the model training and test, respectively, by introducing flow rate, total nitrogen, total phosphorus (TP), and total suspended solids (TSS). TSS and TP were ranked as the second and fourth contributing parameters, respectively, among the 17 variables considered in this study. There was a greater decline in species richness index under scenario RCP 8.5 than under scenario RCP 4.5, and in 2050 compared with 2030. However, the tolerance guild index (TGI) was predicted to improve in the future. The increase in TGI coupled with the decrease in species richness index (SRI), indicated that climate change is likely to have adverse effects on freshwater fish. Notably, the habitat of Korean spotted barbel (Hemibarbus mylodon), an endemic species of South Korea, is expected to contract largely in 2050 based on the RCP 8.5 scenario. These findings demonstrate that the incorporation of flow rate and water quality parameters into climatic variables can improve the prediction of freshwater fish distribution under climate change.


Silica based monolithic HPLC columns have received much attention in recent years, particularly those modified for reversed-phase separations. However, for ionexchange, silica based monolithic columns have received only limited attention. Therefore, the aim of this work was the development and characterisation of novel monolithic stationary phases for the rapid separation o f inorganic and organic ions.

A 10 cm bare silica monolith has been modified on-column with iminodiacetic acid (IDA) groups and characterised for its selectivity toward alkali, alkaline earth and selected transition metal cations. The applicability of this IDA silica monolithic column for the rapid determination of alkaline earth metals in complex matrices was demonstrated. A second 10 cm bare silica monolith was functionalised with lysine (2 ,6 -diaminohexanoic acid) groups, and both the cation- and anion-exchange properties of the lysine functionalised monolith were evaluated, with a separation of 6 UV absorbing anions achieved in less than 100 seconds. By dynamically modifying the surface of the lysine functionalised silica monolith with copper (II) ions, it was possible to separate L-amino acids via ligand-exchange chromatography, using flow rates up to 7 mL/min. Finally, the ion-exchange properties o f a bare silica monolith were evaluated. The separation of alkaline and transition metal ions on a 10 cm bare silica monolith was possible using acetonitrile or methanol based ammonium and sodium acetate buffered eluents. The effects o f eluent ionic strength, organic content and pH on cation retention were evaluated, and in addition, the effect of solvent polarity on cation selectivity was also investigated.


This is the book that exposes the workings of Iranian politics today. The authors penetrate the labyrinth of political relationships and family networks that is the Iranian ruling class, and reveal the forces which brought hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power. They argue that the power base behind Ahmadinejad represents a kind of Iranian version of American neoconservativism. The Iranian neocons, like their Washington counterparts, have come in from the cold. Politicians and clerics exiled from influence under the reformist President Khatami have seized their chance to get back in to power, and to push an uncompromising foreign policy agenda.Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri show how Ahmadinejad's surprise victory in the 2005 elections was just one facet of this group's strategy for regaining influence. In an analysis which has major implications for Western policymakers, the authors examine the group's agenda on issues like Iraq, Israel and nuclear enrichment, and assess how likely it is that they will be able to implement it. "Iran and the Rise of its Neoconservatives" is the essential guide to the politics of this turbulent nation, whose importance to world security has never been more keenly felt.


An experimental investigation is performed in order to compare the time-averaged spatial structure of low- and high-swirl turbulent premixed lean flames by using the particle image velocimetry and spontaneous Raman scattering techniques. Distributions of the time-average velocity, density and concentration of the main components of the gas mixture are measured for turbulent premixed swirling propane/air flames at atmospheric pressure for the equivalence ratio Φ = 0.7 and Reynolds number Re = 5000 for low- and high-swirl reacting jets. For the low-swirl jet (S = 0.41), the local minimum of the axial mean velocity is observed within the jet center. The positive value of the mean axial velocity indicates the absence of a permanent recirculation zone, and no clear vortex breakdown could be determined from the average velocity field. For the high-swirl jet (S = 1.0), a pronounced vortex breakdown took place with a bubble-type central recirculation zone. In both cases, the flames are stabilized in the inner mixing layer of the jet around the central wake, containing hot combustion products. O2 and CO2 concentrations in the wake of the low-swirl jet are found to be approximately two times smaller and greater than those in the recirculation zone of the high-swirl jet, respectively.


Sandia National Laboratories is developing a prototype 30kW free-piston internal-combustion-based linear generator for vehicular applications. This paper describes the development and experimental validation of a mathematical model for the permanent magnet linear alternator that will be used by the prototype. A magnetic-flux versus mover-position function is used to correlate individual coil fluxes to the motion of the mover. This function is derived from a finite element electromagnetic simulation of the linear alternator. The mathematical model of the alternator is compared to experiments with prototype hardware driving 0.5–2kW loads; excellent correspondence to measured voltage and current waveforms is found.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


Resources end up in wastewater through inefficient consumption. As a result, wastewater contains reusable water, carbon (energy) and nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur) that could be recovered or reused. Meanwhile, current treatment objectives are to produce an acceptable quality of water for reuse or discharge at the lowest life cycle cost. Most of the current treatment processes manage carbon and nutrients as wastes to be removed, and do not attempt to capitalize on these resources inherent in wastewater. In the context of sustainability and climate change, the next generation of wastewater treatment processes should focus on resource recovery (water reuse, energy/carbon recovery and nutrient recovery) as much as they currently do on treatment. The future goal is for wastewater treatment of domestic wastewater to have a minimal carbon footprint, and to be 100% self-sustainable with regards to energy, carbon, and nutrients, while achieving a discharge or reuse quality that preserves the quality of the receiving waters.

In May 2009, the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) convened a work group of international experts in the wastewater sector to develop a Wastewater Treatment Technology Roadmap which will identify possible routes to sustainable wastewater treatment in a carbon-constrained world. The resultant Technology Roadmap report identifies pathways toward sustainable wastewater systems over the next few decades, including various approaches the sector could utilize over the 20-30 year planning horizon.

The Technology Roadmap describes the current status of wastewater technologies, projects future treatment quality requirements, identifies research needs, and summarizes ongoing activities to meet the perceived future objectives such as reducing the carbon footprint while achieving lower nutrient levels. Work group participants brainstormed possible technology concepts which can be reasonably expected to produce actionable results that can be implemented by interested wastewater utilities. The participants considered typical and atypical approaches to optimizing carbon and nutrient management at WWTPs. Typical approaches include the evaluation of process modeling opportunities and constraints, and incremental resource and carbon management optimization techniques.

Atypical approaches will be even more important to the future of wastewater resource reclamation. As an additional outcome, several work group members suggested conceptual and sustainable "plant of the future" treatment systems not constrained by existing infrastructure. Participants discussed their "Plant of the Future" concepts which can be expected to generate opportunities and research needs related to energy sources within treatment plants, changing wasteqater characteristics, decentralized treatment, increased nutrient recovery and management, and total water reuse.

This title belongs to WERF Research Report Series .

ISBN: 9781843393962 (Print)

ISBN: 9781780403366 (eBook)


In this paper, we examine whether acquiring citizenship improves the economic assimilation of Canadian migrants. We took advantage of a natural experiment made possible through changes in the Canadian Citizenship Act of 2014, which extended the physical presence requirement for citizenship from three to four years. Using quasi-experimental methods, we found that delaying citizenship eligibility by one year adversely affected Canadian residents' wages. Access to better jobs explains a citizenship premium of 11 percent in higher wages among naturalized migrants. Our estimates are robust to model specifications, differing sampling windows to form the treatment and comparison groups, and whether the estimator is a non-parametric rather than a parametric one. We discuss how our findings are relevant to the optimal design of naturalization policies regarding efficiency and equity.


Frank Ramsey's note 'Weight or the Value of Knowledge' is a gem. In the note Ramsey proves that when knowledge or information is free it pays in expectation to acquire it. Collecting evidence means that one is gambling with expectation but this is always preferable to not gambling, on the assumption that information is free (see Ramsay's figure below). Ramsey also shows how much the increase in weight is. For a Bayesian, but also for a non-Bayesian, this is an important theorem since it tells us why we should continue to collect new evidence, i.e. continue to make new observations. Several proofs of this theorem can be found in the literature {locus classicus is I. J. Good's article 'On the Principle of Total Evidence' [1967]. and the discussion in L. J. Savage's [1954] The Foundation of Statistics; an early non-Bayesian discussion of the problem can be found in C. S. Peirce's, 'Note on the theory of the economy of research' (18 76) [1958]; a discussion of Ramsey's note can be found in B. Skyrms [1990] and N.-E. Sahlin [1990]). For those interested in the history of probability theory it is a well-known fact that Ramsey in his celebrated paper 'Truth and Probability' (1926) [1990] laid the foundations of themodern theory of subjective probability. He showed how people's beliefs and desires can be measured by use of a betting method and that if a number of intuitive principles of rational behaviour are accepted, a measure used to represent our 'degrees of belief will satisfy the laws of probability. He was the first one to prove the so-called Dutch book theorem. However, developing the theory of subjective probability he also laid the foundations of modern utility theory and decision theory (i.e. twenty years before J. von Neumann and 0. Morgenstern [1947] developed their utility theory in Theory of Games and Economic Behavior and almost thirty years before L. J. Savage [1954] developed his Bayesian decision theory in The Foundations of Statistics). Astoundingly enough, this note shows that Ramsey also had a proof of the value of collecting evidence, years before the works of Good [1967], Savage [1954] and others. I have not altered Ramsey's unorthodox notation for probabilities, which is taken from J. M. Keynes' A Treatise on Probability [1921] (the word 'weight' in the title of Ramsey's note alludes to Keynes' book). When Ramsey, for example, writes aK/h=p, this should be read as the probability of a and K given h equals p. But except for this detail the note reads easily. NILS-ERIC SAHLIN


In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of a system that executes complex event queries over real-time streams of RFID readings encoded as events. These complex event queries filter and correlate events to match specific patterns, and transform the relevant events into new composite events for the use of external monitoring applications. Stream-based execution of these queries enables time-critical actions to be taken in environments such as supply chain management, surveillance and facility management, healthcare, etc. We first propose a complex event language that significantly extends existing event languages to meet the needs of a range of RFID-enabled monitoring applications. We then describe a query plan-based approach to efficiently implementing this language. Our approach uses native operators to efficiently handle query-defined sequences, which are a key component of complex event processing, and pipeline such sequences to subsequent operators that are built by leveraging relational techniques. We also develop a large suite of optimization techniques to address challenges such as large sliding windows and intermediate result sizes. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach through a detailed performance analysis of our prototype implementation under a range of data and query workloads as well as through a comparison to a state-of-the-art stream processor.


Atrial function, through its refilling of the ventricles, plays an important role in cardiac performance. The atrial contribution is particularly important during periods of high heart rates, such as during exercise or stress. A chronic increase in workload on the heart may lead to pathological dilatation of the atria and impaired atrial contractility. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind these alterations are incompletely understood. The Calcium ion (Ca2+) is considered as one of the most important ions in the process of excitation-contraction coupling. We used two different rat models to study atrial myocytes of hearts with reduced global cardiac function; rats selected for low inborn aerobic capacity with a high-risk cardiovascular profile and rats with post myocardial infarction heart failure. In addition, we studied the effect of exercise training on atrial myocyte function and Ca2+ handling in the rat model of post-infarction heart failure. Contractile dysfunction was associated with impaired Ca2+ handling in both rat models, although it was less pronounced in low aerobic capacity rats. We found that high intensity training partly reversed atrial myocyte function and mishandling of Ca2+ in heart failure rats.Despite increasing evidence that alterations in atrial myocyte structure and Ca2+ handling constitute key elements in the underlying pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation, studies on myocytes from human atria are limited. We determine, for the first time, the occurrence of surface membrane invaginations (T-tubules) and the localization and pattern of proteins important for Ca2+ regulation in both left and right atria of patients with and without atrial fibrillation. We observed a mixed population of cells in left and right atria of both sinus rhythm and AF patients, where some cells had clear T-tubule like structures, while others were totally devoid of T-tubules.Taken together, this thesis improves our knowledge about structure, function and Ca2+ handling in cardiac disease. In addition, we identify potential targets for improving atrial function by exercise training.


The paper substantiates the necessity to carry out system optimization of operational, technological and construction parameters of water regulation in the operation of rice irrigation systems, lays out methodological approaches and results. This research formulates approaches to the selection of project criteria and conditions of economic and environmental optimization during the construction of complex optimization models in the projects of their reconstruction and operation taking into account climatic management strategies of such objects. The proposed set of measures as a result of system optimization is focused on improving the natural and amelioration state of rice irrigation systems, improving their technological and technical parameters, introducing of water and resource saving regimes of rice irrigation and related rice crop rotations.


Substantial evidence has accumulated in recent empirical works on the limited ability of the Nash equilibrium to rationalize observed behavior in many classes of games played by experimental subjects. This realization has led to several attempts aimed at finding tractable equilibrium concepts which perform better empirically, often by introducing a reference point to which players compare the available payoff allocations, as in impulse balance equilibrium and in the inequity aversion model. The first part of this paper is concerned with reviewing the recent reference point literature and advancing a new, empirically sound, hybrid concept. In the second part, evolutionary game theoretic models are employed to investigate the role played by fairness motives as well as spatial structure in explaining the evolution of cooperative behavior.


The prevalence of circulating macromolecular creatine kinase type 1 (macro CK type 1 or CK-immunoglobulin complexes) is significantly higher in a patient population selected for CK isoenzyme assay than in age- and sex-matched blood donors (n = 1304). In greater than 8000 patients studied, 49 individuals with macro CK type 1 were identified, yielding an overall prevalence of 0.61%. Macro CK type 1 complexes occurred more frequently in women and in patients older than 70 years, and were often associated with complications of cardiovascular disease, life-threatening conditions, and poor outcome. These latter clinical associations could arise, at least partly, from the selection of patients for whom CK isoenzyme analysis was ordered.


E-supply chain is the use of information technology, electronic means, or cyberspace to bring together widely dispersed suppliers and buyers, to enhance coordination and knowledge sharing, and to manage upstream and downstream value chain channels. "E-Supply Chain Technologies and Management" offers the most comprehensive analysis of the concepts, models, and IT infrastructures of electronic supply chains. This Premier Reference Source provides a broad understanding of issues pertaining to the use of emerging information technologies and their impact on supply chain flexibility and management. Professionals, researchers, and practitioners who want to explore the concepts and principles of e-supply chain, or want to apply various e-supply chain models and systems to solve business problems, will find this reference book to be an indispensable tool.


Emotions shouldn't be neglected, but rather taken seriously in order to understand better the complexity of political, and socio-cultural processes that they have generated. The study of emotions in the field of diplomacy is particularly promising, but requires precise definition of the term, explanation of the methodological approach and qualifications concerning the research possibilities that depend upon the nature of the archival sources. The goal of this article is to analyze how words used to signify emotions, which could be signified as negative, shaped practical decisions within certain socio-political and cultural contexts; in other words to demonstrate an active role of emotions in shaping and conducting practical diplomatic decisions. The study aims to underpin the reciprocal relations between emotions and actions illustrated by two case studies from the late medieval Ragusan history. The sources of an interest are preserved in the State archive in Dubrovnik, in the archival seria Lettere di Levante, which, among others, contains the instructions written by the city authorities to their envoys. Despite the fact that the instructions were a product of a long and sober-minded discussions, and therefore they aren't usually abundant with words used to express certain emotions in them, places where those expressions appear are quite significant and can tell us more about how emotions were used as a tool of cognitive processes.


Over the course of the 20th century, average annual precipitation for the contiguous USA has increased by nearly 10%. This increase has been described as being dominated by 'disproportionate' increases in extreme precipitation events. However, methodological constraints have confounded detailed interpretation of such results. Here, we briefly describe those limitations and re‐evaluate the nature of the observed precipitation changes using a method that allows for a more accurate examination of changes in the proportion of precipitation delivered in extreme daily events. We focus our analysis only on the trends in precipitation on the 10 wettest days of the year and compare the trends observed on those days with the trend in overall precipitation. When averaged across the USA, we find that the precipitation trends on the 10 wettest days of the year are not significantly different from the trend in total overall precipitation. On a regional level, in the northeast and southeast there is some evidence that the rate of precipitation increase on the wettest days exceeds that of total precipitation, whereas in the rest of the country the precipitation on the wettest days is increasing at a rate less than the increase in total precipitation. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society


Rooms with a View is a research report by Dr Caoimhe McAvinchey from the department of Drama at Queen Mary University of London and Sue Mayo, Goldsmiths, University of London. This report documents and examines our Rooms with a View project – our two year collaborative project with over 200 participants from Tower Hamlets, which culminated in the creation of Speak As You Find, an intergenerational site-specific performance created in Tower Hamlets in Autumn 2015.


Objectives. Colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence is higher in post-industrial cultures, and the incidences varies among different populations. In the US, there is a higher incidence of CRC in African Americans (AAs) compared to non-Hispanic whites (NHWs). Recent evidence links consumption of a diet high in animal protein and fat as an environmental risk factor for the development of CRC. The intestinal microbiota is postulated to modulate the effects of diet in promoting or preventing CRC development. Hydrogen sulfide, which is produced by normal members of the colonic microenvironment (sulfidogenic bacteria), triggers pro-inflammatory and hyper-proliferative pathways, and it is genotoxic. We hypothesized that the production of hydrogen sulfide by sulfidogenic bacteria is a key environmental carcinogen contributing to CRC risk. Design. The abundance of sulfidogenic bacteria via quantitative PCR (qPCR) was compared in non-involved colonic mucosa of 97 AA and 56 NHW CRC patients and in 100 AA and 76 NHW healthy controls. In addition, we performed 16S rDNA sequencing in 61 AA cases and 94 AA controls. Additionally, we tested correlations among race, dietary intake, disease status, and sulfidogenic bacterial abundance. Results. Overall, the functional gene for hydrogen sulfide production in sulfate-reducing bacteria, dissimilatory sulfate reductase (dsrA), was more abundant in AAs than in NHWs, in both cases and controls. In addition, AA CRC cases exhibited a significantly higher abundance of Bilophila wadsworthia-specific dsrA. Linear discriminant analysis of 16S rDNA sequencing results revealed several taxa that differed between AA cases and controls, including the known butyrate producer Faecalibacterium that was more abundant in AA controls, and the sulfidogenic Pyramidobacter that was more abundant in AA CRC cases. Importantly, we found that dietary intake of protein and fat was higher in AAs compared to NHWs, and these dietary components correlated with a higher abundance of sulfidogenic bacteria. Conclusion. There were significant differences in sulfidogenic bacterial abundance between AAs and NHWs, in both cases and controls, and implicate sulfidogenic bacteria as an important diet-driven environmental exposure that contributes to the increased risk of CRC in AAs. Replication studies are needed to test that effectiveness of using B. wadsworthia as a biomarker for increased CRC risk. Citation Format: Cemal Yazici, Patricia G. Wolf, Tzu-Wen Liu, Karin Vermillion, Timothy Carroll, Ece Mutlu, Lisa Tussing-Humphreys, Carol Braunschweig, Rosa M. Xicola, Barbara Jung, Xavier Llor, Nathan A. Ellis, H. Rex Gaskins. Sulfidogenic bacteria are an important diet-driven exposure promoting colorectal cancer in African Americans. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Ninth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2016 Sep 25-28; Fort Lauderdale, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2017;26(2 Suppl):Abstract nr B31.


The evolution of optical lithography is traced back more than 30 years to its beginnings with contact printing. As the complexity of integrated circuits increased, the intolerance for defects drove the industry to projection printing. Projection printing was introduced in the early 1970's by imaging the full wafer at 1:1 magnification. The rapid increase in wafer sizes was accommodated by annular field scanning using 1:1 imaging mirror systems. Decreased linewidths and tighter overlay budgets combined with larger wafers created huge difficulties for the mask maker which weren't relived until the introduction of reduction step- and-repeat printing of small blocks of chips in the late 1970's. Further demands for smaller linewidths and larger chips have driven optical lithography to shorter wavelengths and to scanning the chip in a step-and-scan printing mode. Future advancements in lithography will likely combine novel scanning techniques with further reductions in wavelength.


The current data mining technology has the mismatch problem of mining keywords and used words, which leads to low mining precision and low efficiency. In this paper, a new data mining algorithm based on association rule algorithm is proposed. the clustering analysis of new mining results are carried out by K-means clustering algorithm, and according to the descending order, the relevance is ordered, to output mining results. The experimental results show that the algorithm is accurate and efficient.


High performance thermal management is of great significance to the data security and working stability of magnetic devices with broad applications from sensing to data storage and spintronics, where there would exist coupling between the spin and phonon (lattice vibrations). However, the knowledge of the spin effect on thermal transport is lacking. Here, we report that the thermal conductivity of monolayer CrI 3 is more than two orders of magnitude enhanced by the spin–lattice coupling. Fundamental understanding is achieved by analyzing the coupling among electronic, magnetic and phononic properties based on the orbital projected electronic structure and spin density. The bond angles and atomic positions are substantially changed due to the spin–lattice coupling, making the structure more stiff and more symmetric, and lead to the weaker phonon anharmonicity, and thus the enhanced thermal conductivity. This study uncovers the giant effect of spin–lattice coupling on the thermal transport, which would deepen our understanding on thermal transport and shed light on future research of thermal transport in magnetic materials.


Background: Keloids have been treated by using radiation for over a century, and it is currently suggested that keloids are best treated by a combination of surgery and postoperative radiation therapy, although randomized controlled trials testing this are still lacking. However, plastic surgeons tend to avoid radiation therapy for keloids for fear of inducing malignant tumors. Thus, the authors searched for previous reports of associations between carcinogenesis and keloid radiation therapy, and examined the evidence-based opinions of radiation oncologists regarding the acceptability of using radiation to treat keloids. Methods: A computerized literature search was carried out using PubMed that included citations from MEDLINE and PubMed Central between 1901 and March of 2009. The following search terms were used: "keloid(s)," "hypertrophic scar(s)," "radiation," "radiation therapy," "radiotherapy," "carcinogenesis," "carcinoma," "cancer," "complications," and "side effects." Moreover, the references for each report were also retrieved. Results: The authors located five cases of carcinogenesis (i.e., fibrosarcoma, basal cell carcinoma, thyroid carcinoma, and breast carcinoma) that were associated with radiation therapy for keloids. However, it was unclear whether an appropriate dose of radiation was used and whether sufficient protection of surrounding tissues was provided. Moreover, a questionnaire study of radiation oncologists around the world revealed that approximately 80 percent considered radiation to be acceptable for treating keloids. Conclusions: The authors conclude that the risk of carcinogenesis attributable to keloid radiation therapy is very low when surrounding tissues, including the thyroid and mammary glands, especially in children and infants, are adequately protected, and that radiation therapy is acceptable as a keloid treatment modality.


In the current era of globalization, the insurance world in Indonesia is experiencing very sharp competition between insurance companies and makes the company the most superior. The company's competition is not except for insurance service companies. Every insurance company hopes to achieve its goals, grow every year, and achieve success. This success can come from affordable insurance premiums, minimal risk and good service quality. This study aims to see the effect of premium, risk and quality of Islamic services on interest in becoming a customer at Prudential Syariah Bogor Insurance. The method used in this study is a quantitative method. The population in this study is the Bogor Sharia Prudential Insurance customers with a sample of 80 respondents. The data analysis method used is SEM-PLS. research results show that: 1) The premium variable has a positive and significant effect on interest in becoming a customer, 2) The risk variable has a positive but not significant effect on interest in becoming a customer, 3) Islamic service quality variable has a positive and significant effect on interest in becoming a customer. For Prudential Syariah Bogor Insurance can conduct research and risk measurement for the development of insurance products so that they can offer insurance products that facilitate a wider variety of risks, the greater the public's desire to use insurance services.


ABSTRACT During meiotic cell-cycle progression, unequal divisions take place, resulting in a large oocyte and two diminutive polar bodies. The first polar body contains a subset of bivalent chromosomes, whereas the second polar body contains a haploid set of chromatids. One unique feature of the female gamete is that the polar bodies can provide beneficial information about the genetic background of the oocyte without potentially destroying it. Therefore, polar body biopsies have been applied in preimplantation genetic diagnosis to detect chromosomal or genetic abnormalities that might be inherited by the offspring. Besides the traditional use in preimplantation diagnosis, recent findings suggest additional important roles for polar bodies in assisted reproductive technology. In this paper, we review the new roles of polar bodies in assisted reproductive technology, mainly focusing on single-cell sequencing of the polar body genome to deduce the genomic information of its sibling oocyte and on polar body transfer to prevent the transmission of mtDNA-associated diseases. We also discuss additional potential roles for polar bodies and related key questions in human reproductive health. We believe that further exploration of new roles for polar bodies will contribute to a better understanding of reproductive health and that polar body manipulation and diagnosis will allow production of a greater number of healthy babies.


Placing production units under common ownership is often suggested as a solution to the problem of externalities. This will not always be true when there are decreasing returns to scale. An atomistic industry could be more efficient than a monopoly in some instances. Even when the "optimal" industry configuration would involve a finite number of producers, no two may have appropriate incentives to combine. An omniscient and benign regulator can always assure a more efficient outcome than would result from the combination of private producers. Whether real-world regulators should be called upon, however, is less clear.


Assessment in health sciences education has become an extremely critical issue in recent years, given the rapidly changing disease patterns and behavioral changes in communities among diverse cultural and economic contexts of patients. Globally, there is increasing demand for highly qualified contemporary healthcare professionals. Subsequently, learner assessment regimes need to have the capacity to accurately evaluate the competences (i.e. attitudes, skills and knowhow) acquired during the training of healthcare professionals. This paper provides an analysis of assessment of and for learning in health sciences education with a focus on clinical laboratory training at MLT in Uganda. This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research designs. The program evaluation design principles were also utilized to measure the levels of compliance towards attainment of curriculum outcomes. The instruments used during data collection included checklists, questionnaires, indepth interviews, and focus group discussions (FDGs). The findings of this study showed that learners were achieving the intended curriculum objectives progressively. The assessment tools used were prepared through a rigorous process to ensure that the basic principles of assessment are identified and integrated during curriculum design and implementation. Results of the study also showed that adequate institutional administrative support available enhanced the teaching and learning processes and ensured that appropriate curriculum assessment schedules and strategies were strictly followed as stated in the elements of the curriculum structures.This contributed meaningfully in preparing competent contemporary healthcare professionals (clinical laboratory technicians). It was recommended that all healthcare professional training institutions should take the use of aunthetic assessment of and for learning very seriously.


Diseases associated with a disturbance of connective tissue have been recognized for centuries, but the broad concept of these maladies is contemporary. Rheumatoid arthritis and acute rheumatic fever are identified readily as the commoner connective tissue disorders. The less common disturbances include systemic lupus erythematosus, polyarteritis, systemic scleroderma, acute dermatomyositis, and thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura. There are selected physicians who accept yet a broader definition and include such maladies as acute glomerulonephritis, chronic nonspecific ulcerative colitis, sarcoidosis, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, and malignant hypertension. Conclusive proof for or against the inclusion of these latter conditions in the connective tissue group is lacking. One of the strongest arguments for inclusion is the clinical response to steroids, similar to that in the accepted connective tissue category. I do not accept this evidence as convincing, however, and believe that we should limit our concept rather than broaden it. In this presentation, therefore, I have considered


In this study, a virtual laboratory has been developed to enable the effective running of applied courses in formal and distance education. Embedded systems, field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), application programming interfaces (API), and web‐based software infrastructure are used together in the virtual laboratory. Experiments belonging to digital electronics and digital communication courses can be performed by the students in the developed experiment set. Process steps performed by the student in the experiments can be followed by the designed log circuit. Every transaction performed on the experiment set was recorded and a web environment was provided to the educators where they could evaluate the experiment process. Two groups of students were formed to evaluate the success of the virtual laboratory. The first group performed the circuit setup using the traditional method and the second group on the developed virtual laboratory. According to the survey questions directed to the students, it was revealed that the use of the virtual laboratory informal and distance education would bring positive results and provide equal opportunities for disadvantaged individuals. At the same time, it was revealed that a virtual laboratory has been developed that will provide cost benefits in educational institutions.


Nonhuman primates, primarily rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis), and baboons (Papio spp.), have been used extensively in research models of solid organ transplantation, mainly because the nonhuman primate (NHP) immune system closely resembles that of the human. Nonhuman primates are also frequently the model of choice for preclinical testing of new immunosuppressive strategies. But the management of post-transplant nonhuman primates is complex, because it often involves multiple immunosuppressive agents, many of which are new and have unknown effects. Additionally, the resulting immunosuppression carries a risk of infectious complications, which are challenging to diagnose. Last, because of the natural tendency of animals to hide signs of weakness, infectious complications may not be obvious until the animal becomes severely ill. For these reasons the diagnosis of infectious complications is difficult among post-transplant NHPs. Because most nonhuman primate studies in organ transplantation are quite small, there are only a few published reports concerning infections after transplantation in nonhuman primates. Based on our survey of these reports, the incidence of infection in NHP transplant models is 14%. The majority of reports suggest that many of these infections are due to reactivation of viruses endemic to the primate species, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV), polyomavirus, and Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-related infections. In this review, we address the epidemiology, pathogenesis, role of prophylaxis, clinical presentation, and treatment of infectious complications after solid organ transplantation in nonhuman primates.


Transaction cost economics faces serious problems concerning the way it deals, or fails to deal, with bounded rationality, the efficiency of outcomes, trust, innovation, learning and the nature of knowledge. The competence view yields an alternative perspective on the purpose and boundaries of the firm. However, the competence view cannot ignore issues of governance, and in spite of serious criticism, transaction cost economics yields useful concepts to deal with it. This article aims to contribute to the development of theory and empirical research that connects governance and competence perspectives.


The Soil Moisure-Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX) was conducted as part of the larger Soil Moisture Experiments (SMEX) field campaign in the Walnut Creek watershed near Ames, Iowa over the period from 15 June to 11 July 2002. As part of that work, measurements of the height of the boundary layer were gathered using a vertically staring lidar, and a method was developed for calculating the value of the entrainment parameter, A, from boundary layer geometry. The entrainment heat flux is of major importance to boundary layer models, representing the amount of energy that is supplied to the boundary layer by entrainment from the air above, which contributes to the growth of the boundary layer. The entrainment parameter, A, is defined as the ratio of the virtual potential temperature heat fluxes at the surface and at the top of the boundary layer. Most of the suggested values of A range between 0.1 and 0.3, with A=0.2 considered to be a good average to use in most modeling. In this paper we calculate the value of the entrainment parameter A based on entrainment zone geometry and examine a relationship between the entrainment parameter A, the vertical potential temperature gradient, and boundary layer development. The results here indicate that during some periods of boundary layer growth, the entrainment coefficient does not maintain a constant value. It is a characteristic that changes depending on the stage of boundary layer evolution.


Objective To determine the small vessel disease spectrum associated with cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variants in community-dwelling individuals by analyzing the clinical and neuroimaging features of UK Biobank participants harboring such variants. Methods The exome and genome sequencing datasets of the UK Biobank (n = 50,000) and cohorts of cognitively healthy elderly (n = 751) were queried for cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variants. Brain MRIs of individuals harboring such variants were scored according to Standards for Reporting Vascular Changes on Neuroimaging criteria, and clinical information was extracted with ICD-10 codes. Clinical and neuroimaging data were compared to age- and sex-matched UK Biobank controls and clinically diagnosed patients from the Dutch cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) registry. Results We identified 108 individuals harboring a cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variant (2.2 of 1,000), of whom 75% have a variant that has previously been reported in CADASIL pedigrees. Almost all variants were located in 1 of the NOTCH3 protein epidermal growth factor–like repeat domains 7 to 34. White matter hyperintensity lesion load was higher in individuals with NOTCH3 variants than in controls (p = 0.006) but lower than in patients with CADASIL with the same variants (p < 0.001). Almost half of the 24 individuals with brain MRI had a Fazekas score of 0 or 1 up to age 70 years. There was no increased risk of stroke. Conclusions Although community-dwelling individuals harboring a cysteine-altering NOTCH3 variant have a higher small vessel disease MRI burden than controls, almost half have no MRI abnormalities up to age 70 years. This shows that NOTCH3 cysteine altering variants are associated with an extremely broad phenotypic spectrum, ranging from CADASIL to nonpenetrance.