As routing tables in core Internet routers grow to exceed 100,000 entries, it is becoming essential to develop methods to reduce the lookup time required to forward packets toward their destinations. In this paper, we employ a bank of novel thermally tuned fiber-Bragg-grating-based optical correlators to construct an "optical bypass" to accelerate conventional electronic Internet routers. The correlators are configured as a routing table cache that can quickly determine the destination port for a fraction of the incoming traffic by examining only a subset of the bits in an IP packet's 32-bit destination address. We also demonstrate a novel multiwavelength correlator based on fiber Bragg grating that can simultaneously recognize the header bits on multiple wavelengths for use in wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) systems. Using the optical bypass, routing table lookup times are reduced by an order of magnitude from microseconds to nanoseconds and are limited only by the speed of the optical switch.


INTRODUCTION
The goal of this study is to describe the state of mental health of Wisconsin medical students.

METHODS
Online wellness surveys were distributed to students at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH) and Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) during the 2016-2017 school year.

RESULTS
Of UWSMPH respondents, 40.0% and 12.5% reported experiencing depression/other mood changes and suicidal ideation during medical school, respectively. Twelve percent of MCW respondents screened positive for depression using the Patient Health Questionnaire-2, and 7.8% reported experiencing suicidal ideation in the last 2 weeks.

DISCUSSION
Similar to results shown worldwide, Wisconsin medical students experience diminished mental health relative to nonmedical peers. Changes in medical education are needed to improve student mental well-being.


As DRAM systems face scalability challenges, the architecture community has started investigating alternative technologies for main memory. These emerging memory technologies tend to suffer from the problem of limited write endurance. This problem is exacerbated because of the high variability in lifetime across different cells, resulting in weaker cells failing much earlier than nominal cells. Ensuring long lifetimes under high variability requires that the design can correct a large number of errors for any given memory line. Unfortunately, supporting high levels of error correction for all lines incurs significantly high overhead, often exceeding 10 percent of overall memory capacity. We propose to reduce the storage required for error correction by exploiting the observation that only a few lines require high levels of hard-error correction. Therefore, prior approaches that uniformly allocated a large number of error correction entries for all lines are inefficient, as most (more than 90 percent) of these entries remain unused. We propose Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG), an efficient hard-error resilient architecture that allocates error correction entries in proportion to the number of hard faults in the line. We describe a storage-efficient and low-latency organization for PAYG. Compared to uniform error correction, PAYG requires one third the storage overhead and yet provides 13 percent more lifetime.


Remotely operated vehicle (ROV) explorations of the Kahouanne Seamounts, located 25 km SE of Montserrat in the northern Lesser Antilles island arc, have discovered the occurrence of honeycomb-scalloped erosional features on volcanic and limestone outcrops at depths of up to 600 m below sea level (mbsl). These features, combined with the flat-topped morphology of the seamounts, the occurrence of shallow-water carbonates (rhodoliths, benthic foraminifera), and the presence of oxidized, highly-vesicular volcanic fragments, suggest that the seamounts were once subaerial islands and have subsequently subsided to their present depth. The subsidence is likely to have been in response to a combination of 1) graben development southeast of the island of Montserrat where faulting and extension are driven by the accommodation of slip convergence associated with oblique subduction along the Lesser Antilles volcanic arc and 2) regional subsidence inferred from studies of nearby carbonate platforms. Ar/Ar dating of basalt/andesite lavas from the central seamount indicates active volcanism around 5.4 Ma. Shallow-water carbonates recovered from an apparent wave-cut terrace at ~600 mbsl in the same area, were deposited approximately 3 Ma, based on Sr-isotope stratigraphy, indicating significant subsidence of the complex since that time. The total subsidence is in line with displacements in the Kahouanne valley graben and regional subsidence rates inferred from carbonate platform depths around the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, implying that intra-arc subsidence has been a significant process shaping the present bathymetry and topography of this island arc.


ABSTRACT Scholars have tended to overemphasise the influence of the colonisers. This precludes an analysis of the ability of indigenous populations to resist, reimagine and remake colonial visions of urban life. However, Tom Goodfellow and Stefan Lindemann (2013) have observed a widespread 'resurgence' of traditional authorities in Africa since the 1990s – meaning indigenous political structures have recently experienced a revival (Englebert 2002; Foucher & Smith 2011; Ubink 2008a). Chimhowu (2019, 898) writes, 'Typical reform countries like Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, Uganda and Zambia have built this into their reforms'. This article explores the institution and influences of chiefs in both South Africa and Eswatini. It looks at the historical relationship between chieftaincy and the urban, and explores factors that have implications for the future of urban governance in the two countries. The article examines the ways in which chieftaincy influences over urban life have both subverted and been subverted by the colonial project in the two countries. The authors argue that while many of the categories and divisions of (settler) colonial rule are still visible in the two countries, the traditional authorities have engaged in local practices that reimagine and remake urban life, centred on the role of chieftaincy. These practices are made visible mostly on the urban peripheries, which have absorbed a large proportion of the poor since the end of the colonial era.


Members of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor family are thought to play key roles in the regulation of a large number of important functions of the CNS. However, the precise roles of the individual muscarinic receptor subtypes in modulating these processes are not well understood at present, primarily because of the lack of ligands with sufficient receptor subtype selectivity. To investigate the behavioral significance of the M1 muscarinic receptor (M1R), which is abundantly expressed in the forebrain, we subjected M1 receptor-deficient mice (M1R−/− mice) to a battery of behavioral tests. M1R−/− mice showed no significant impairments in neurological reflexes, motor coordination, pain sensitivity, and prepulse inhibition. Strikingly, however, M1R−/− mice consistently exhibited a pronounced increase in locomotor activity in various tests, including open field, elevated plus maze, and light/dark transition tests. Moreover,M1R−/− mice showed reduced immobilization in the Porsolt forced swim test and reduced levels of freezing after inescapable footshocks, suggesting thatM1R−/− mice are hyperactive under stressful conditions as well. An increased number of social contacts was observed in a social interaction test. Surprisingly,M1R−/− mice displayed no significant cognitive impairments in the Morris water maze and in contextual fear conditioning.M1R−/− mice showed slight performance deficits in auditory-cued fear conditioning and in an eight-arm radial maze, most likely because of the hyperactivity phenotype displayed by theM1R−/− mice. Our results indicate that M1 muscarinic receptors play an important role in the regulation of locomotor activity but appear to be less critical for cognitive processes, as generally assumed.


The functionality of embedded systems is ever growing. The computational power of embedded systems is growing to match this demand, with embedded multiprocessor systems becoming more common. The limitations of embedded systems are not always related to chip size but are commonly due to energy and/or power constraints. While it can be possible to embed a more powerful Multiprocessor System on Chip (MPSoC), it is not always possible to provide an energy or power supply that meets its demands within the device's size and weight requirements. Power management through Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) enables the device to be run at less than its maximum voltage and frequency, allowing high computational capability when necessary while conserving power at other times. Embedded systems commonly perform real-time functionality. A real-time application has an associated formal model to verify that it meets its timing requirements. This formal model is used to perform a worst-case timing analysis to ensure that the application meets its requirements. These models incorporate the worst-case timing of the application's computation and communication. Timing changes due to power management must also be taken into account, complicating the verification process. The drive for evermore functionality has led to mixed time-criticality systems, in which multiple applications of various timing criticalities share the same (hardware) resources. This complicates the verification process further as the timing interference due to shared resource contention must be taken into account. A monolithic verification effort is therefore traditionally required after system integration and must be carried out again if any modifications are made that affect the timing of any of the applications. The problem that we aim to solve in this work is to enable real-time applications to perform independent execution and power management without violating their timing requirements or invalidating the timing verification of concurrently executing applications. To solve this problem, we contribute the Composable and Predictable Microkernel (CoMik) to composably and predictably virtualise processors. When used in combination with composable and predictable memory controllers and interconnect (as provided by the Composable and Predictable System-on-Chip (CompSOC) platform), these virtual processors cannot interfere with each other's timing by even a single cycle. If whatever executes on the virtual processors (e.g. an Operating System (OS) or an application directly) has a real-time requirement, it can be verified independently of whatever executes on the concurrent virtual processors and other virtual resources. To enable formally analysable application execution, we contribute the Predictable Operating System (POSe) that enables dataflow applications to be executed on the (virtualised) processor. We contribute a combined application and platform dataflow graph, including an algorithm to automate this process. When annotated with worst-case timings, the combined application and system graph is then used to verify that the application meets its timing requirement. If the application's performance is better than its requirement (e.g. when the input or platform behaviour are better than worst case), its performance can be reduced using DVFS to achieve a reduction in power consumption. We contribute an off-line convex optimisation that uses the combined application and platform dataflow model to derive static run-time operating frequency levels to achieve low power consumption. The off-line technique is able to exploit static slack in the schedule, but not dynamic run-time slack due to variations in task execution times. Before dynamic slack can be used it must be possible to observe it. For this purpose, CoMik provides independent power, energy and timing accounting per virtual processor. This enables each virtual processor to be assigned individual power and energy budgets and POSe applications to be assigned timing budgets. We contribute a description and model of how energy and power budgets can be distributed between multiple virtual processors, enabling whatever executes on the virtual processor to perform composable independent power-management without affecting the ability of other virtual processors from using their entire budget allocation. Using CoMik's accounting infrastructure, we also demonstrate how the quality of applications can be dynamically scaled to assist meeting timing, energy or power requirements. We further contribute a distributed dynamic power management policy that enables dataflow applications that are mapped onto multiple (virtual) processors to make distributed dynamic slack observations and local power-management decisions. We demonstrate the applicability of the presented techniques on an implemented Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) prototype of a CompSOC hardware platform instance, using an H.263 decoder as a case-study application. We show that our techniques do not only work in theory, but that they are also implementable and implemented.


This report documents study methods and summarizes key findings and field notes from the 2016 annual long-term monitoring study of fish and benthic communities at Stetson Bank. Stetson Bank is an uplifted claystone/siltstone feature located within Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico, and supports a diverse benthic community of sponges and coral. Benthic monitoring has been conducted at the site since 1993 and was expanded in 2015 to include monitoring in the mesophotic habitats surrounding the bank crest. In 2016, bank crest high relief habitat was documented to have higher hydrocoral and sponge cover than low relief habitat, with overall macroalgae cover increasing from 2015 levels. Bank crest fish communities were predominantly small individuals and exhibited an inverted biomass pyramid. In the mesophotic zone, two hardbottom habitats were documented: coralline algae reef and deep reef. Biotic cover on coralline algae reef was predominantly Rhodophyta (red algae) and Astrocoeniidae (stony coral), and deep reefs were dominated by Antipathidae (black coral). Mesophotic fish communities comprised small individuals, like the bank crest, and biomass was predominantly invertivores.


2011 program of the Open Forum on Energy and the Environment, presented on March 3, 2011, from 4:30 PM-5:30 PM in room L1255, Ford Environmental Science & Technology Building (ES&T) on the Georgia Tech campus.


Observations of birds in the Bylot Island region from 1979 to 1997, with emphasis on the southwest part of the island each summer since 1989, revealed an avifauna composed of 63 species, of which 35 were breeding. Thirteen species are new records for the region, including one for the Northwest Territories (black-headed gull, Larus ridibundus ) and two for the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (killdeer, Charadrius vociferus ; mew gull, Larus canus ). Two species, Canada goose ( Brant canadensis ) and red knot ( Calidris canutus ), were also confirmed as breeders for the first time in the region. A summary of these avifaunal observations, along with a review of previous observations made in the region, allows changes in population size and status of individual species to be identified. These records combined with those from earlier studies give a total of 74 species for the Bylot Island region, 45 confirmed as breeders. This makes the avian community in the area one of the most diverse known north of 70° N latitude in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Key words: arctic birds, avifauna, avian distribution, Baffin Island, Bylot Island


In Augmented Reality (AR), careless augmentations can easily lead to information overflow. Especially on small screen devices, only a limited amount of information can be displayed comprehensively. Compact visualization filters data by reducing redundancies and creating a layout of the remaining information. Previously, this approach was applied to create static compact explosion diagrams. In this paper, we extend the approach to annotations, which are a major source of information in AR, and create compact layouts of annotations and annotated explosion diagrams. We present methods to transfer compact visualizations to dynamic AR settings and achieve interactive frame rates even on limited-resource hardware, such as mobile phones. Moreover, we create temporally coherent and scene-aware layouts.


It is our habit in writing an English composition that, as we write each word, each phrase, each sentence, and each paragraph, we consciously or unconsciously check the syntax and the semantics of the composition just written. Writing a computer program in a high-level language could be made similar to writing a composition in English. In this case, a highly interactive highlevel language system checks the syntax and the semantics of the highlevel language program as each symbol, each expression, and each statement are being entered at the terminal. When the source program is completely entered, the program could have been debugged and could have run once.


Legal regulations and manufacturers' monitoring practices have not been enough to prevent contamination of the national food supply and protect consumers from serious harm. In addressing food safety risks, regulators could perhaps better ensure the quality and safety of food by monitoring food production not just at a single point in production but all along the way, from farm to table. Recognizing the troubled state of food safety, the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) Food Forum met in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2008, to explore the management of food safety practices from the beginning of the supply chain to the marketplace.


495 Abstract: The distribution of both peptidergic and non-peptidergic primary afferents in meninges was investigated in whole-mount preparations from meninges. Lectin Griffonia simplicifolia I-B4 (GSA I-B4) was used as a marker for non-peptidergic fibres. Calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) was used as a marker for peptidergic fibers. Lectin Griffonia simplicifolia selectively labeled thin sensory axons that were distributed throughout meninges unrelated to blood vessels. CGRP immunoreactive axons, in contrast, were found to be very close to vascular patterns. This study demonstrates that lectin-positive fibres are constituted by a fibre population separate from those containing neuropeptides.


In this paper, we replicate the main results of Rudebusch and Williams (2009), who show that the use of the yield spread in a probit model can predict recessions better than the Survey of Professional Forecasters. We investigate the robustness of their results in several ways: extending the sample to include the 2007-09 recession, changing the starting date of the sample, changing the ending date of the sample, using rolling windows of data instead of just an expanding sample, and using alternative measures of the \actual" value of real output. Our results show that the Rudebusch-Williams findings are robust in all dimensions.


Measures to slow down the spread of Covid-19 have had profound effects on the food and nutrition security of poor and marginalised households and communities. This article provides an overview of the effects of Covid-19 on food systems across low- and middle-income countries using resilience and political economy lenses, before proposing approaches to build back resilient and equitable food systems. First, future interventions need to target structural issues that limit people's agency in accessing nutritious and diverse food and production capital. Second, local innovation systems and institutions require investment to create a market environment that benefits domestic (small and medium) enterprises and agri‑food supply chain workers without jeopardising the environment. Third, interventions need to be informed by a diverse set of opinions that include the voices of the most marginalised.


Adaptive optics (AO) systems take sampled measurements of the wave-front phase. Because in the general case the spatial-frequency content of the phase aberration is not band limited, aliasing will occur. This aliasing will cause increased residual error and increased scattered light in the point-spread function (PSF). The spatially filtered wave-front sensor (SFWFS) mitigates this phenomenon by using a field stop at a focal plane before the wave-front sensor. This stop acts as a low-pass filter on the phase, significantly reducing the high-spatial-frequency content phase seen by the wave-front sensor at moderate to high Strehl ratios. We study the properties and performance of the SFWFS for open- and closed-loop correction of atmospheric turbulence, segmented-primary-mirror errors, and sensing with broadband light. In closed loop the filter reduces high-spatial-frequency phase power by a factor of 10(3) to 10(8). In a full AO-system simulation, this translates to a reduction by up to 625 times in the residual error power due to aliasing over a specific spatial frequency range. The final PSF (generated with apodization of the pupil) has up to a 100 times reduction in intensity out to lambda/2d.


In the context of Twitter, social capitalists are users trying to increase their number of followers and interactions by any means. They are not healthy for the service, because they introduce a bias in the way user influence and visibility are perceived. Understanding their behavior and position in the network is thus of important interest. In this work, we propose to do so by focusing on the community structure level. We first extend an existing method based on the notion of community role, on three different points: 1) handling of directed networks, 2) more precise modeling of the community-related connectivity and 3) unsupervised role identification. We then take advantage of an existing tool to detect social capitalists, and apply our method to analyze their organization and how their links spread across the network. The specific community roles they hold in the network let us know that they reach to obtain high visibility.


Biotic homogenization, the process of gradual replacement of native biotas by nonindigeous and locally expanding nonnative species, is rapidly diminishing the re- gional distinctiveness of global terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Although the empirical study of biotic homogenization is substantial and growing, the mechanisms underlying its dynamics remain poorly understood. We recently developed a theoretical model that predicts levels of biotic homogenization or differentiation (i.e., decreased community similarity) according to a series of distinct mechanisms that describe the outcomes of various inter- actions between native species, nonnative species, and the environment. Here, we test this model using empirical data for freshwater fish faunas in the United States at three spatial scales: the entire continent, zoogeographic provinces in California, and watersheds within these provinces. Our analysis reveals that, in general, mechanisms depicting widespread introductions of cosmopolitan species and either no or differential spatial patterns of native- species extirpations explain fish-community homogenization across multiple spatial scales. Our results also highlight the potential effect of spatial grain on the perceived importance of different invasion-extinction scenarios shaping patterns of homogenization and differ- entiation. Next, we discuss the utility of the model for providing insight into the dominant ecological processes likely driving the homogenization of other major taxonomic groups that currently lack quantitative estimates of community change. Our study is the first to quantitatively examine the relative importance of different ecological mechanisms that can generate observed patterns of biotic homogenization. Using this model may allow advance prediction of future patterns of homogenization by explicitly considering underlying eco- logical processes and mechanisms.


Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DBMD) are X‐linked neuromuscular disorders characterized by progressive muscle weakness, leading to decreased mobility and multisystem complications. We estimate productivity costs attributable to time spent by a parent caring for a male child under the age of 18 y with DBMD, with particular focus on female caregivers of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) who have already lost ambulation.


The chemical composition (protein, polysaccharide, amino acid, and fatty acid/ethyl ester content), foaming properties, and quality of 50 Australian sparkling white wines, representing the four key production methods, that is, Méthode Traditionelle (n = 20), transfer (n = 10), Charmat (n = 10), and carbonation (n = 10), were studied. Méthode Traditionelle wines were typically rated highest in quality and were higher in alcohol and protein contents, but lower in residual sugar and total phenolics, than other sparkling wines. They also exhibited higher foam volume and stability, which might be attributable to higher protein concentrations. Bottle-fermented Méthode Traditionelle and transfer wines contained greater proportions of yeast-derived mannoproteins, whereas Charmat and carbonated wines were higher in grape-derived rhamnogalacturonans; however, total polysaccharide concentrations were not significantly different between sparkling wine styles. Free amino acids were most abundant in carbonated wines, which likely reflects production via primary fermentation only and/or the inclusion of nontraditional grape varieties. Fatty acids and their esters were not correlated with foaming properties, but octanoic and decanoic acids and their ethyl esters were present in Charmat and carbonated wines at significantly higher concentrations than in bottle-fermented wines and were negatively correlated with quality ratings. Research findings provide industry with a better understanding of the compositional factors driving the style and quality of sparkling white wine.


Background Biological monitoring of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected pediatric population remains challenging. The aim of the present study was to assess the long-term HIV-1 genetic diversity in pol gene in HIV-1-infected children in virological failure under antiretroviral regimen adapted according to the successive World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for resource-constrained settings. Methods HIV-1 diversity in pol gene was assessed in HIV-1-infected children and adolescents born from HIV-infected mothers (median age at follow-up: 13.8 years) in virological failure (VF+) despite long-term regimen recommended by the WHO. The numbers of nonsynonymous substitutions per potential nonsynonymous site (dN) and of synonymous substitutions at potential synonymous sites (dS) in HIV-1 pol gene and the dN/dS ratios were used to estimate the selective pressure on circulating HIV-1. Results The immunological responses to ART basically corresponded to: 1) Full therapeutic failure with immunological (I-) and virological nonresponses in one-quarter (24.6%) of study children ((I-, VF+) subgroup); 2) Discordant immunovirological responses with paradoxical high CD4 T cell counts (I+) and high HIV-1 RNA load in the remaining cohort patients (75.4%) ((I+, VF+) subgroup). The mean dS was 1.8-fold higher in (I+, VF+) than (I-, VF+) subgroup (25.9 ± 18.4 vs. 14.3 ± 10.8). In the (I+, VF+) subgroup, the mean dS was 1.6-fold higher than the mean dN. Finally, the mean dN/dS ratio was 2.1-fold lower in (I+, VF+) than (I-, VF+) subgroup (0.6 ± 0.3 vs. 1.3 ± 0.7), indicating purifying selection in the immunovirological discordant (I+, VF+) subgroup and positive selection in the immunovirological failure (I-, VF+) subgroup. Conclusions Children and adolescents in immunovirological therapeutic failure harbor positive selection of HIV-1 strains favoring diversifying in pol-encoded amino acids. In contrast, children with persistent discordant immunovirological responses show accumulation of mutations and purifying selection in pol gene sequences, indicating limited genetic evolution and likely suggesting genetic adaptation of viruses to host functional constraints.


The article has revealed the relevance of nutriciology as a science, classification and types of nutritional support. Nutritional support diagnostics and the metabolic correction of arising violations of various kinds of homeostasis, aimed at ensuring the functioning of the systems of protein-energy synthesis and intermediate exchange of nutrients, vitamins, macro and microelements, or a temporary replacement therapy of their failure. The notions of «lack of food», «artificial» food, protein-energy insufficiency with the exception of the syndromes of malabsorption, alimentary anemia, the effects of protein-energy malnutrition, consumptive disease, starvation have been interpreted. It was noted that nutriciology has taken place as a science. The problems of prognostification of nutritional deficiency, assessment of nutritional risk, the organization of nutritional support in the hospital and at home have been presented. Some fundamental bases of enteral probe feeding have been described.


This Article challenges the mathematical probability system that underlies law and economics and behavioral analysis and argues that many of the core insights of both approaches are irremediably flawed. The Article demonstrates that mathematical probability is only suitable for pure gambles and hence does not provide a useful epistemic tool for analyzing individual decisionmaking. As a result, mathematical probability cannot serve as a useful tool for lawmakers. Mathematical probability, the Article proposes, ought to be replaced with causative probability - a system of reasoning compatible with the causal structure of people's physical, social and legal environments. Originating from the writings of John Stuart Mill and Francis Bacon, causative probability differs from its mathematical cousin both conceptually and substantively. By contrast to the mathematical system that bases probability estimates on abstract averages, the causative system bases probability estimates upon case-specific evidential variety. Under the causative system, the probability that a person's action will bring about a particular consequence - gain or loss - is determined by the number and scope of the consequence's evidential confirmations in the individual case, and not by general averages that are usually irrelevant to the individual determination at hand. Causative probability allows a person to develop a better epistemic grasp of her individual case relative to what she could achieve under the mathematical system. This epistemological advantage turns causative probability into a superior tool for understanding how legal mechanisms work, for improving those mechanisms, and for defining the rationality of individuals' decisions.


Abstract We studied lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities in a large public grazing allotment within a sagebrush steppe ecosystem in which the biotic soil crusts are largely intact. The allotment had been rested from grazing for 12 years, but experienced an extensive series of wildfires. In the 350, 4 × 0.5 m plots, stratified by topographic position, we found 60 species or species groups that can be distinguished in the field with a hand lens, averaging 11.5 species groups per plot. Lichen and bryophyte soil crust communities differed among topographic positions. Draws were the most disturbed, apparently from water erosion in a narrow channel and mass wasting from the steepened sides. Presumably because of this disturbance, draws had the lowest average species richness of all the topographic strata we examined. Biotic crust species richness and cover were inversely related to cover of the invasive annual, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum), and positively related to cover of native bunchgrasses. Integrity of the biotic crust was more strongly related to cheatgrass than to fire. In general, we observed good recovery of crusts following fire, but only in those areas dominated by perennial bunchgrasses. We interpret the resilience of the biotic crust, in this case, to the low abundance of cheatgrass, low amounts of soil disturbance and high moss cover. These fires have not resulted in an explosion of the cheatgrass population, perhaps because of the historically low levels of livestock grazing.


The present clinical and social characteristics of new cases with pulmonary tuberculosis show some features. The clinical characteristics of patients in 1995 to 1997 indicate an increased number of patients with disseminated, frequently bilateral processes and acute tuberculosis which is largely associated with the decline in preventive fluorographic surveys of the population including those who have contacted bacteria-isolating patients. There were 61.3% with pulmonary symptoms among those who visit physicians and 62.1% among those from the foci of tuberculous infection. Social aspects of the study demonstrate that there is a great number of young patients (56.4% of those under 39-49 years) and a high proportion (81.1%) of able-bodied patients among both males and females. There was an increase in the proportion of patients having higher education (43.7%) and a decrease in laboring patients (21.4%). This is most likely to be associated with the fact that many patients did not work by the profession they had been trained. There was a higher proportion (43.0%) of the patients having different poor working conditions and patterns. In these years, the patients' financial position deteriorated. It was slightly better in the employed than in the unemployed. However, in both groups the bulk of the patients had income per head in the family at the subsistence level or lower (56.2 and 21.6% in the unemployed and employed, respectively. These data were assessed by the guidelines made by the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation and the RF Ministry of Labour. It should be noted that the nutritional quality did not correspond to the optimal composition ratio of dietary foods and it was characterized by the high content of less valuable foods, carbohydrates, low levels of protein and vitamins. Poor social aspects in characteristics of patients were undoubtedly to be associated with a greater number of patients with severe, frequently progressive forms of tuberculosis although they had received specific chemotherapy.


Background: Resonances around x alpha thresholds in light nuclei are recognized to be important in basic aspects of nuclear structure. However, there is scarce experimental information associated with them. Purpose: We study the alpha-clustering phenomenon in resonant states around the 4 alpha threshold (14.44 MeV) in the O-16 nucleus. Method: The C-12(Li-6, d)(16)Oreactionwas investigated with an unprecedented resolution at a bombarding energy of 25.5 MeV by employing the Sao Paulo Pelletron-Enge-Spectrograph facility and the nuclear emulsion technique. Results: Several narrow resonances were populated and the energy resolution of 15 keV allows for the separation of doublet states that were not resolved previously. The upper limits for the resonance widths in this region were extracted. The angular distributions of the absolute differential cross section associated with four natural parity quasibound states are presented and compared to distorted wave Born approximation predictions. Conclusions: Narrow resonances not previously reported in the literature were observed. This indicates that the alpha-cluster structure information in this region should be revised.


One of the primary tasks in mining distributed textual data is feature extraction. The widespread digitization of information has created a wealth of data that requires novel approaches to feature extraction in a distributed environment. We propose a massively parallel model for feature extraction that employs unused cycles on networks of PCs/workstations in a highly distributed environment. We have developed an analytical model of the time and communication complexity of the feature extraction process in this environment based on feature extraction algorithms developed in our textual data mining research with HDDI/sup TM/ (Hierarchical Distributed Dynamic Indexing). We show that speedups linear in the number of processors are achievable for applications involving reduction operations based on a novel, parallel pipelined model of execution. We are in the process of validating our analytical model with empirical observations based on the extraction of features from a large number of pages on the World Wide Web.


Utilizing the proprietary data of a company operating 10 pawnshops throughout Kentucky and Ohio, and exploiting the randomized variation of the Economic Stimulus Payments of 2008, this paper studies the effect of positive liquidity shocks on pawn loan utilization. We uncover a statistically significant 67% decrease in pawn loan utilization in the week following receipt of ESP checks. However, in the year following receipt of the ESP via check or direct deposit, a statistically significant increase of 20% and 138% respectively in pawn loan utilization occurs. A distributed lag regression model corroborates this effect— an initial decrease, but then dominating increase in pawn loan utilization following receipt of an ESP. This propensity of short term, transitory changes in income to drastically affect the borrowing patterns of households proves difficult to reconcile with Permanent Income/Life Cycle Hypothesis.


A new interconnection network composed of 3/spl times/3 switching elements is proposed. This new network is called Palindrome interconnection network (PIN) with hardware complexity identical to its counterparts. Compared with its counterparts, the proposed network is fault-tolerant, as totally disjoint paths exist in the network between any source/destination pair. In addition, for a given routing tag in the PIN, all the other equivalent tags which correspond to the same source/destination pair, can be derived easily. Computing an equivalent routing tag from a given routing tag requires the change of two bits of routing tag, irrespective of the network size, suggesting that rerouting logics can be incorporated into the constituent switching element comfortably without compromising performance. The proposed network exhibits higher terminal reliability than its counterparts.


The enigmatic and rare spiders of the family Deinopidae are known for their extremely large ocelli and their unique habit of casting their small cribellate webs over nocturnal pedestrian or aerial prey. Although the monophyly of the family has not been controversial, deinopid descriptive systematics has been neglected since the original species descriptions. The first goal of this monograph is to test the monophyly of Deinopidae and its genera and thus to establish a phylogenetically informed taxonomy of the species. We provide the first phylogeny of this family on the basis of 53 morphological and 3 behavioral characters scored for 17 deinopid species and 2 outgroups. Extant deinopid spiders belong to two genera: the larger pantropical Deinopis MacLeay, 1839, diagnosed by the extreme size of their posterior median eyes, and the smaller Menneus Simon, 1876, of the Old World (sub)tropics with normally sized eyes. Avella Pickard-Cambridge, 1877, and Avellopsis Purcell, 1904, are junior synonyms of Menneus as their type species are nested throughout Menneus phylogeny. The second goal is to revise the non-Deinopis species of Deinopidae. Here, we recognize, diagnose, illustrate, describe, and phylogenetically place the 14 known Menneus species. Africa currently has six species: Menneus camelus Pocock, 1902, from South Africa; M. capensis (Purcell, 1904) new combination from Western Cape, South Africa; M. darwini new species from Tanzania; M. dromedarius Purcell, 1904 (removed from synonymy of M. camelus), from South Africa and Madagascar; M. samperi new species from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda; and M. tetragnathoides Simon, 1876 (M. affinis Tullgren, 1910 new synonym), from Angola, Malawi, and Tanzania. Australasia currently has eight species: M. aussie new species from eastern Australia and New Caledonia; M. bituberculatus new species from Queensland and Indonesian West Papua; M. superciliosus (Thorell, 1881) from eastern Australia; M. nemesio new species from New South Wales; M. neocaledonicus (Simon, 1889) from New Caledonia, M. quasimodo new species from Western Australia; M. trinodosus Rainbow, 1920 (Deinopis insularis Rainbow, 1920, new synonym), from Queensland and New South Wales; and M. wa, new species, from Western Australia. We propose Avella angulata L. Koch, 1878, Avella despiciens O. P.-Cambridge, 1877, and Avella unifasciata L. Koch, 1878, as nomina dubia. Paleomicromenneus lebanensis Penney, 2003, the earliest known fossil, is similar to Menneus. Menneus is phylogenetically sister to Deinopis, and within Menneus we recover a grade of Australasian species that includes the African M. capensis, followed by a distal clade of African species with peculiar asymmetric somatic morphology.


In point cloud generation and completion, previous methods for transforming latent features to point clouds are generally based on fully connected layers (FC-based) or folding operations (Folding-based). However, point clouds generated by FC-based methods are usually troubled by outliers and rough surfaces. For folding-based methods, their data flow is large, convergence speed is slow, and they are also hard to handle the generation of non-smooth surfaces. In this work, we propose AXform, an attention-based method to transform latent features to point clouds. AXform first generates points in an interim space, using a fully connected layer. These interim points are then aggregated to generate the target point cloud. AXform takes both parameter sharing and data flow into account, which makes it has fewer outliers, fewer network parameters, and a faster convergence speed. The points generated by AXform do not have the strong 2-manifold constraint, which improves the generation of non-smooth surfaces. When AXform is expanded to multiple branches for local generations, the centripetal constraint makes it has properties of self-clustering and space consistency, which further enables unsupervised semantic segmentation. We also adopt this scheme and design AXformNet for point cloud completion. Considerable experiments on different datasets show that our methods achieve state-of-the-art results.


This article presents the research focusing on the effect of water extraction of true hemp seeds (Cannabis sativa L.) (50% concentration) of lupines (Lupinus augustifolius), beans (Pisum sativum) and peas (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the organogenesis stage I (seed germination, length of roots, height of shoots, ratio of root/shoot length). The experiment was conducted at the Laboratory of the Institute of Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Aleksandras Stulginskis University in 2017. The control was distilled water. The experiment was repeated three times.
 It has been determined that the water extraction of the true hemp seeds had no considerable effect on the germination of legume plants. The extract did not significantly stimulate the root and shoot elongation of the lupines 'Max' and 'Snaigiai'.
 The extract considerably shortened the root length of 'Baltija' beans by 1.59 times and the shoot length by 1.27 times. The hemp seeds shortened the root and shoot length of 'Kiblukai' peas by 1.45 and 1.94, respectively. The effect of the water extracts of true hemp seeds on the legume plants in the organogenesis stage I depended on their genotype.


Objective To assess the utility of hysterosonography (HS) as a screening method in patients with abnormal uterine bleeding. Materials and Methods We retrospectively reviewed transvaginal ultrasonography (TVS) and HS for 105 patients whose diagnosis was confirmed pathologically. All 105 patients were initially evaluated on the same day with both TVS and HS. On TVS and HS examination, endometrial cavitary lesions were classified as diffuse hyperplasia, endometrial polyp, endometrial cancer, uterine synechia and submucosal leiomyoma. Hysteroscopy with biopsy (n=35), curettage (n=60) or hysterectomy (n=10) was performed, and the results of TVS and HS examination were correlated with the pathological findings. Results The sensitivity and specificity were 79.0% and 45.8% for TVS, and 95.1% and 83.3% for HS, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 83.0% and 39.3% for TVS, and 95.1% and 83.3% for HS, respectively. Twenty-seven showed a discrepancy between the TVS and HS, and eight cases showed a discrepancy between HS and the pathologic diagnosis. Conclusion TVS is a sensitive method to evaluate the endometrial cavitary lesions, but it often does not provide the physician with sufficient diagnostic information. With its higher sensitivities, specificities and positive and negative predictive values, HS can be better used than TVS in evaluating those patients with abnormal uterine bleeding.


The Spectranomics approach to tropical forest remote sensing has established a link between foliar reflectance spectra and the phylogenetic composition of tropical canopy tree communities vis-a-vis the taxonomic organization of biochemical trait variation. However, a direct relationship between phylogenetic affiliation and foliar reflectance spectra of species has not been established. We sought to develop this relationship by quantifying the extent to which underlying patterns of phylogenetic structure drive interspecific variation among foliar reflectance spectra within three Neotropical canopy tree communities with varying levels of soil fertility. We interpreted the resulting spectral patterns of phylogenetic signal in the context of foliar biochemical traits that may contribute to the spectral-phylogenetic link. We utilized a multi-model ensemble to elucidate trait-spectral relationships, and quantified phylogenetic signal for spectral wavelengths and traits using Pagel's lambda statistic. Foliar reflectance spectra showed evidence of phylogenetic influence primarily within the visible and shortwave infrared spectral regions. These regions were also selected by the multi-model ensemble as those most important to the quantitative prediction of several foliar biochemical traits. Patterns of phylogenetic organization of spectra and traits varied across sites and with soil fertility, indicative of the complex interactions between the environmental and phylogenetic controls underlying patterns of biodiversity.


We present in this study a creep behavior in flexure of a hybrid composite consisting of a polyester matrix containing methyl methacrylate reinforced by two bidirectional fabrics. The first one is made with E-glass fibers and the second one is made of a knitted polyamide 66. The mass fractions are 13% for the glass fabric and 9% for the polyamide fabric. The specimens, of dimensions (L = 60, l = 15 and h = 2.3 mm) containing 06 alternating layers (2P/2V/2P) were fabricated by using the vacuum bag molding method. Bending tests performed at different temperatures allowed us first to determine the load levels for the creep tests. Creep tests at different loads (5 to 43 MPa) and different temperatures (23 ° to 80 ° C) show a noticeable increase of creep deformation for both tests under the same load and different temperatures just as those carried out at different loads under the same temperature. The initial deformation varies significantly with the load but very little with temperature. The application of the Findley model shows good correlation with experimental results. Model parameters were identified. Creep deformation satisfies the principle of superposition time-temperature-stress (TTSSP). Findley's model has subsequently been coupled with the principle of superposition of time-temperature-stress to plot master curves at different stresses and temperatures; this enables prediction of creep deformation in the long term.


Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a serious mood disorder that affects about 1% of the population of the United States. Twin, family, and adoption studies have shown evidence for a genetic component of BPD, but monozygotic twin concordance is less than one, indicating that BPD is a mulitfactorial disorder. First-degree relatives of an individual with BPD have approximately a 3-15% risk of developing BPD because of shared genes and environment. No strong genetic susceptibility loci for BPD have been located, although some regions of interest are currently being evaluated. With increasing genetic information, it is expected that demand for genetic counseling for BPD and other psychiatric disorders will increase. This project is relevant to public health because BPD is a common disorder with a significant disease burden. Understanding the needs and concerns of the patient population can help tailor care and reduce the burden of the disease.Using anonymous surveys and a semi-structured interview for individuals with BPD and their first-degree relatives, the knowledge, opinions, and acceptance of genetic counseling in this population have been studied. The Health Belief Model was used to assess current health beliefs relating to BPD. Additionally, using a brief educational session, the effect of education on knowledge and health beliefs was assessed.Preliminary data show that the perceived severity of BPD, susceptibility to BPD, and perceived benefit of genetic information were high at 4.33, 4.45, and 4.36 out of 5, respectively, while the cumulative perceived barriers to testing were moderate to high at 3.09 out of 5. Preliminary data also show that the knowledge of BPD in affected individuals is high at 7 (±1.15) out of 8.


New absolute spectrophotometry of the Kitt Peak night sky has been obtained in 2009–2010, which we compare to previously published data obtained in 1988 and 1999, allowing us to look for changes over the past two decades. A comparison of the data between 1988, 1999, and 2009–2010 reveals that the sky brightness of Kitt Peak has stayed remarkably constant over the past 20 yr. Compared to 1988, the 2009–2010 data show no change in the sky brightness at zenith though, as expected, the sky glow has increased most dramatically in the direction of Tucson. Comparison between the 1999 and 2009–2010 data suggests that the sky has actually decreased in brightness compared to 10 yr ago. However, both of the older data sets were taken during times of increased solar activity. When we correct the measurements for the solar irradiance fluctuations, we find that compared to 20 yr ago, the sky is ∼0.1 mag brighter at zenith and ∼0.3 mag brighter toward Tucson. But even after these corrections, we still find that the sky over Kitt Peak is comparable to what it was 10 yr ago at zenith and ∼0.1 mag darker toward Tucson. This suggests that the strengthened lighting ordinances established by the city of Tucson and Pima County in the early 2000s have been quite effective. With some care, the Kitt Peak night sky will remain this dark many years into the future.


To investigate the effect of conjugated π-bridge and fluorination on the properties of asymmetric-building-block-containing polymers (ABC polymers), hexylthiophene (HT) was inserted into D–A-type polymers based on asymmetric dithieno[3,2-b:2′,3′-d]pyran (DTPa) donor and benzothiadiazole (BT), mono-fluorinated benzothiadiazole (fBT) or di-fluorinated benzothiadiazole (ffBT) acceptors, respectively. In comparison with non-bridged analogs, introducing the HT π-bridge between DTPa and BTs significantly reduced the intramolecular charge transfer and consequently affected the absorption spectra, frontier energy levels, and electrochemical and charge transport properties of the resulting ABC polymers. Interestingly, HT π-bridge enlarged the fluorination effect on photovoltaic properties, and the power conversion efficiency (PCE) increased gradually from 1.56% (DTPa-HTBT) to 4.39% (DTPa-HTfBT) and 6.09% (DTPa-HTffBT), significantly different with non-bridged polymers. Most importantly, with the increase in the number of the fluorine atoms on the BT unit, all of the photovoltaic parameters, including PCE, Voc, Jsc, and FF, improved gradually, which provides a useful guide for the further design of ABC photovoltaic polymers.


We have used IEEE Trial Use Standard 1057 since 1989 for testing and evaluating analog-to-digital converters for use in high energy physics experiments. This standard primarily covers waveform digitizers, such as digital oscilloscopes, but much of it is applicable to testing ADCs. Using DC levels and sine, triangle, and specialized waveforms, we measure parameters such as integral and differential nonlinearity, number of effective bits, word error rate, short term settling time, and overvoltage recovery. We summarize the tests performed and describe our experience in using the standard.


This study empirically evaluated the learning experience of Canadian youth in mathematics, based on existing theoretical tenets, to explore a conceptual model that depicts two major orientations: one is the internal aspects, which focus on how the students feel; and another is external aspects, which focus on how the students behave. An imperative question underpinning this research involves examining different untested trajectories of learning experience in Mathematics that could elucidate and predict individuals' mastery-approach goals. The data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2012 surveys comprises participants who are 15-year-old Canadian students from different provinces, investigating how the factors of learning approaches, learning environments, and participants' familiarity affect their development of skills and learning attitudes, both at home and at school in mathematics. Path analytical procedures are applied to test the hypothesized relationships, and certain notable findings would impact mediating mechanisms while remarkable trajectories would inform complete pedagogical practices. Particularly, this research is significant for its un-exploratory nature. The Path Analysis offers visions of the relationships between the internal and external aspects, and the relationships between the elements in those same internal and external aspects. The contribution of this study is that the results/findings could support policy targets by establishing measurable goals for consideration and implementation, assist in the building of trajectories for reform, as well as notify all stakeholders such as educators, researchers, parents, governments, and policy makers about the importance of understanding individuals' academic and learning patterns, as the researcher contends.


INTRODUCTION A synopsis of this paper was presented before the Sixteenth International Geological Congress at Washington in July, 1933, but as the paper itself was too long to appear in the Compte Rendu of the Congress, the Geological Society of America kindly consented to publish it. Since the writer's lengthy review of the Permian of the world was published by the Society in 1928, 1 a flood of Permian literature has appeared, from which he has gathered much information; also, he has been in correspondence with local workers on the Permian in many parts of the world. Furthermore, he has recently received, through cooperation with the Geological Survey of India, a large collection of fossils from the Productus limestone of the Salt Range, made by a trained collector, Austin M. N. Ghosh. Through another local collector, Guiseppe Bonafede, of Palermo, he has received a representative collection from the Middle Permian of . . .


Author(s): Davis, Fred Pejman | Advisor(s): Sali, Andrej | Abstract: Proteins function through interactions with other biomolecules. Here I describe a series of tools developed and applied to study potential interactions between host and pathogen proteins. First, I describe a comprehensive relational database of structurally defined interfaces between pairs of protein domains, PIBASE. A diverse set of geometric, physicochemical, and topologic properties are calculated to describe each complex, its domains, interfaces, and binding sites (http://salilab.org/pibase). This database allows a range of observations, from the atomistic detail of individual interfaces, to the structural organization of protein interaction space. Next, I present a comparative modeling method that uses experimentally determined structures of protein complexes as templates to predict the composition of protein complexes. Candidate complexes are assessed by comparative modeling of the components and subsequent assessment by a statistical potential derived from binary domain interfaces in PIBASE. Moreover, the predicted complexes were also filtered using functional annotation and sub-cellular localization data. The protocol was validated using experimentally observed interactions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae (http://salilab.org/modbase). Finally, I present a global computational protocol that generates testable predictions of potential host--pathogen protein interactions. The protocol first scans the total genomes for host and pathogen proteins with similarity to known protein complexes, then assesses these putative interactions, using structure if available, and finally filters these using biological context, such as the stage-specific expression of pathogen proteins and tissue expression of host proteins. The technique was applied to a set of ten pathogens, including species of mycobacterium, apicomplexa, and kinetoplastida, responsible for "neglected" human diseases. The method was assessed by (i) comparison to a set of known host--pathogen interactions, (ii) comparison to genomics data describing host and pathogen genes involved in infection, and (iii) analysis of the functional properties of the human proteins predicted to interact with pathogen proteins. The predictions include interactions known from previously characterized mechanisms, such as cytoadhesion and protease inhibition, as well as suspected interactions in hypothesized pathways, such as apoptotic pathways (http://salilab.org/hostpathogen). These results suggest that comparative protein structure modeling in combination with genomic and proteomic data can be a valuable tool for the study of inter-specific protein interactions.


Sovereign immunity is a legal fiction that forecloses the possibility of the government being hailed into court, except by its own permission. The fiction draws on narratives about kingship and realm, state and church, and property and owner that help shield the sovereign from challenges to its authority. This Article argues that sovereign immunity's legal sources relied on relationships between king and church, king and property, and king and constitution to articulate an authority that could not be challenged by its subjects. This Article suggests that, absent other normative stories that support sovereign immunity, the doctrine remains empty of substance other than the legitimating of authority in the face of legal challenges.


taneously without requiring pacing and that the majority of patients with anterior myocardial infarction do badly whether they are paced or not. Our figures and those of the authors whom we quoted lend some support to this belief but they do not prove the point. Our present policy continues to be relatively conservative, pacing only those patients in whom drug therapy is unsuccessful. It is apparent from Dr. Benaim's last paragraph that there is not, in fact, a marked difference of opinion between his views and ours.-We are, etc.,


: The assessment of competence in the elderly is an assessment of functional ability and not merely the act of establishing a diagnosis. The recommendations outlined above offer a model for such an assessment. In most cases, the decision is straightforward and the assessment not unduly time consuming. In a small number of cases, the circumstances and clinical features will make intensive and extensive study necessary to form a well considered opinion. The psychiatrist is wise to recognize those cases in which, for whatever reason he/she is not able to offer a considered certain opinion. To be a credible witness before the court, a physician must have a good mastery of the necessary data and present it clearly in a fashion which allows the court to consider criteria. The clinician must be familiar with the relevant provincial legislation with respect to appeals, change in status, etc. An opinion with respect to competence must reflect consideration of functioning in the present and in the recent past, as well as, the future implications implicit in the diagnosis. However, it remains an assessment of the ability to function at the time of the examination. The clinical state of competence or incompetence is of course subject to change and this may or may not come to be reflected in the legal status of the person.


Studies on root development, soil physical properties, and yield are important for identifying suitable soil management practices for sustainable crop production. Field experiments with winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were conducted in silt loam soil from 2005 through 2007 in arid northwestern China to determine the effects of five tillage systems on soil strength, soil moisture, crop root development, grain yield, and yield components. The five treatments were conventional tillage without wheat stubble (T), conventional tillage with wheat stubble incorporated (TSI), no-tillage without wheat stubble mulching (NT), no-tillage with wheat stubble standing (NTSS), and no-tillage with wheat stubble mulching (NTS). Compared with the T treatment, the NTSS and NTS treatments improved soil water content in the 0- to 130-cm soil depth by 10 to 17% and 15 to 25%, respectively (P < 0.05). The NTSS treatment also increased mean root length density (RLD) by 8 to 40% and crop yield by 13 to 24%, and NTS by 17 to 48% and 17 to 31%, compared with the T treatment. Yield components analysis indicated that thousand-grain weight and spike density considerations helped explain the grain yield increases under conservation tillage systems (NT, NTSS, NTS), while spike length, number of grains per spike, and grain weight per spike failed to contribute to the model. Our results suggest that Chinese farmers should consider adopting conservation tillage practices in arid northwestern China because of benefits to soil strength, water storage, RLD, and wheat yield.


Rigidly foldable origami tubes are widely used in origami-inspired engineering designs. Here, using a mechanism construction process, we show that these tubes can be combined with tapered adding parts to form new tubes with different-sized cross sections that are rigidly foldable. A tapered tube is proposed, whose geometries is provided based on the kinematics of spherical 4R linkages. Several variations of the tapered tubes are presented, and the flat-foldability of these tubes are studied, leading to the right-angled and non-right-angled tubes which can be folded along their radial direction. The approach can be applied to both single and multilayered tubes. Moreover, the thick-panel form of the right-angled tubes is developed. Our work provides designers great flexibility in the design of tubular structures that require large shape change. The results can be readily utilized to build new structures for engineering applications ranging from deployable structures, meta-materials to origami robots.


The paper describes engineering a system for a distributed Austrian Alpine road-pricing environment as well as the structure and organization of the software development. The client/server-based road-pricing system, handling on average 1.2 million vehicle transitions per month, had be to operational within a mere eight months after the start of the project. Current practical and industrial problems of client/server system strategies are discussed. Our main theses derived from the presented case study are: in current medium to large software engineering tasks there is a need for a) technical specialists for industrially identified project stress points (database, network, front-end) with experience in large projects, b) a project and process plan for a (very) short development time frame before production, and c) a dynamic production-oriented process model rather than a traditional linear process model.


The ability to understand spoken language is essential for social, vocational, and emotional health, but can be disrupted by environmental noise, injury, or hearing loss. These auditory deficits can be ameliorated by visual speech signals that convey redundant or supplemental speech information, but the brain regions critically responsible for these audiovisual (AV) interactions remain poorly understood. Previous TMS and lesion-mapping studies suggest that the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) is causally implicated in producing the McGurk effect, an AV illusion in which auditory and visual speech are perceptually "fused." However, previous research suggests that the McGurk effect is neurally and behaviorally dissociable from other visual effects on speech perception and, therefore, may not provide a generalizable index of AV interactions in speech perception more broadly. To examine whether the left pSTS is critically responsible for AV speech integration more broadly, we measured the strength of the McGurk effect, AV facilitation effects, and AV conflict effects longitudinally over 2 years in patients undergoing surgery for intrinsic tumors in the left pSTS (n = 2) or frontal lobes (control; n = 14). Results demonstrated that left pSTS lesions impaired experience of the McGurk effect, but did not uniformly reduce visual influences on speech perception. Additionally, when multisensory behaviors were affected by a lesion, AV speech perception abilities could recover over time. Our results suggest a causal dissociation between perceptual benefits produced by congruent AV speech and perceptual modulations produced by incongruent AV speech (the McGurk effect).These data are consistent with models proposing that that the pSTS is only one of multiple critical areas necessary for AV speech interactions.


This paper analyzes the effect of local income taxation on taxable income, inequality and internal migration in Italy using two tax reforms and several administrative data sources. These reforms, introduced in 2007 and 2011, granted municipalities the authority to switch from a flat to a progressive local income tax. I obtain two main results. First, the progressive tax reduced taxable income by 5 percent and the income share held by the top percentile of the municipal income distribution by 6 percent. Second, I find compelling evidence of a positive effect of net-of-tax rate differentials across provinces on changing fiscal residence.


The paper investigates the effect of two types of public support measures, production-related subsidies and value added tax (VAT) reimbursements, on productivity of crop production in Ukraine. The analysis is carried out by means of production function difference-in-differences (fixed effects regression) approach using data provided by the State Statistic Service of Ukraine (SSSU) for the time period of 2008-2013. The public support effect is analyzed from different perspectives considering (i) potential differences related to two farm structural characteristics - holding membership and size, and (ii) time-variability. The results indicate that the relationships between both subsidies and VAT reimbursements and farm productivity statistically significantly vary across time periods and farm types. For nonholding farms in general, an increase in the volume of subsidies is found to statistically significantly increase farm productivity. However, entering subsidization is found to have a negative relation to farm productivity. The latter result may imply uncontrolled-for policy selection of farms in greater need for public support. The level of VATreimbursements is also found to be statistically significantly and positively related to farm productivity; this result is driven by VAT-reimbursements' productivity impact mainly in the earlier years of the analyzed period. For holding companies, public support effects on farm productivity are found not statistically significant in models on pooled data (over time or only inconsistently statistically significant in some years.


In this article, effects of traditional surface machining processes and a newly used surface finishing process called burnishing process on a brass material are compared on the basis of microstructure, circularity, cylindricity, and surface roughness. For this reason, test samples made of brass material which is a non-ferrous metal were prepared to be widely used in many fields of machining industry as it accurately reveals deformation effects of surface finishing processes, and those samples were subjected to drilling, lathing, reaming, grinding, honing, and burnishing. After these processes, hole surface roughness, cylindricity, and change in microstructure were analyzed. All surface machining processes were performed under constant depth of cut, cutting speed, and feed rate. Data collected after experimental research indicates that the best combination of surface characteristics is obtained by burnishing process, in comparison to all other different methods of finishing. Also the highest hardness and best surface quality of machined surface are provided with burnishing. All results show that burnishing should be preferred to provide the optimum characteristics in hole surfaces subjected to continuous deformation and corrosion.


Exertional heat stroke is an emergency condition which can be found inoccupational settings. Pre-hospital and medical management is essential for preventionof morbidity and mortality. A 33-year old male ranger was sent to a district hospitalpresenting with unconsciousness and generalized tonic-clonic seizure. His had an axillarytemperature of 42oC, blood pressure of 60/40 mmHg and heart rate of 160 beats perminute (bpm), His blood glucose level was 59 mg/dL. Exertional heat stroke wassuspected. He was resuscitated, intubated, medicated and referred to a tertiary hospital.During an hour of transportation, his body was submerged in ice and water. At thetertiary hospital, his esophageal temperature was 29oC with presentation of Osborn wavein electrocardiogram and electrolyte imbalances. After rewarming and correction ofelectrolytes in the intensive care unit, he gained consciousness the following day. A dayafter that, hyperthermia developed from Enterococcus faecalis septicemia whichresponded to medication. On admission day 6, physical examination showed onlyweakness of his right nasolabial fold. Although this patient had minor complications,lethal or serious outcomes could have occurred in this patient. This report emphasizes theneed for early recognition and proper medical care in heat illness.

Keywords:
heat stroke, heat injury, hypothermia, core temperature, core temperature afterdrop

Address Correspondence to author:
Sarinpant Pongpant, MD.Occupational health unit,Department of Community medicine,Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University,Songkhla, 90110, Thailand.email: firstname.lastname@example.com

Received: April 9, 2018
Revision received: May 3, 2018
Accepted after revision: June 20, 2018
BKK Med J 2018;14(2): 76-80.

DOI: 10.31524/bkkmedj.2018.09.014


Abstract Surgery can be stressful situation and anxiety can cause sings such as tachycardia, hypertension and post-operation bleeding. The necessary information about surgery can help the patient and medical team to reduce anxiety. This experimental study was done in Shahriar hospital in Tehran and 110 patients chosen and randomly divided into two interventional and control groups. Intervention was done through giving information booklet and educational program to the interventional group. Significant differences were seen between the experimental group and control group in the level of anxiety one hour before surgery. Mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures at one hour before surgery in the intervention group were 14.5 and 8.6 and in the control group were 16.3 and 9.1 mm Hg respectively. The results showed a significant difference between the experimental and control group. According to the findings of the study it is suggested that in the process of admitting and in the night before surgery, in addition to routine examination and testing, the patients should be educated. Therefore, undesirable effects, anxiety and postoperative recovery period will be reduced.


Abstract In this paper we examine how vague quantifiers, such as few, several, lots of, map onto non-linguistic number systems. In particular our focus is to examine how judgements about vague quantifiers are affected by the presence of objects in visual scenes other than those being referred to. An experiment is presented that manipulated the number of objects in a visual scene (men playing golf; the 'focus' objects) together with the number of other objects in those scenes and their similarity — in terms of form (women or crocodiles) and function (playing golf, not playing golf) — to the focus objects. We show that the number of other objects in a scene impacts upon quantifiers judgements even when those objects are in a different category to the focus objects. We discuss the results in terms of the mapping between the large approximate number (estimation) system and language.


The ability of synthetic arginine‐glycine‐aspartic acid (RGD)‐containing peptides to induce intracellular calcium transients similar to those observed at fertilization by spermatozoa in the bovine has been reported (Campbell et al., 2000: Biol Reprod 62:1702–1709; Sessions et al., 2006. Mol Reprod Dev). These results also indicated the ability of synthetic RGD‐containing peptides to induce activation and subsequent parthenogenetic development to the blastocyst stage, although, at numbers lower than observed with control in vitro fertilization (IVF). Evidence has been provided indicating the important effect of surrounding regions on the biological activity of the RGD sequence (Zhu and Evans, 2002; Sessions et al., 2006). The current experiments were designed to use natural RGD‐containing sequences (disintegrins) to understand their effects. A total of three RGD‐containing snake venom peptides (Kistrin (K), Elegantin (Ele), and Echistatin (Ech)) and one nonRGD‐containing venom (Erabutoxin B (EB; control) were used at three concentrations (0.1, 1, and 10 µg /ml) to induce parthenogenetic development to the blastocyst stage and in conjunction (1.0, 5.0, and 10 µg/ml) with spermatozoa to evaluate competitive inhibition of fertilization and subsequent development. A (P < 0.01) higher number of bovine oocytes developed to the blastocyst stage after incubation with K, Ele and Ech at 1.0 µg/ml, and was not different (P > 0.01) from IVF control. Fertilization was significantly reduced (P < 0.01) at all concentrations of K, Ele and Ech as compared to IVF control. No reduction (P > 0.05) was observed in EB (nonRGD) treated oocytes. These results support the involvement of a disintegrin–integrin interaction at fertilization in the bovine resulting in activation and subsequent development. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 74: 88–96, 2007. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: Petrol is an integral ingredient in industrial world. According to the US Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, there are typically more than 150 chemicals in petrol, including small amounts of benzene, toluene, xylene, ethyl benzene, and trace amounts of some contaminants, such as lead. The aim of this study was to measure the possible deleterious effect of long-term exposure to petrol on blood parameters and liver function. Methods: This is a case–control study conducted on 160 participants. Among them, 80 participants worked in a gas station for at least 4 years and 80 participants appeared with no history of occupational exposure to petrol. Blood sample was taken at the time of admonition to the tardive office at each station at 10 AM to measure the association of number of total and differential leukocyte and liver functions. Results: Based on the results, significant reduction in total leukocyte numbers was found in exposed group compared to unexposed group (1347 ± 4.59, <0.001). However, there was a significant increase in neutrophil (75.9 ± 3.50 in exposed group compared with 58.9 ± 3.15 among unexposed group, P < 0.001). However, no significant difference was found in liver enzymes between both groups. Conclusions: Long-term exposure to petrol fumes has deleterious effect on white blood cells. A significant reduction in the number of total and differential lymphocyte seems to be attributed to the toxic effect of petrol ingredients.


The bulk density of an oven charge is a very important factor for the selection of the coking coals and coke quality in a coke-making process for producing blast furnace coke. Major factors influencing the bulk density of coal are moisture content, particle surface properties, particle shape, particle-size distribution, and particle density. The bulk density can be increased significantly through compacting the coal to a coal cake prior to oven charging. The objective of the compaction processes is the production of a cake with high density and as well as a sufficient mechanical strength in order to ensure a trouble-free cake charging into the coke oven. The present article deals with the evaluation of the compaction process based on lab-scale test work. The two subprocesses of densification and strengthening during both stamping and pressing were theoretically and experimentally investigated using compaction test units in combination with a strength-test device. Systematic investigations showed that particle-size distribution and degree of saturation have significant influence on cake density and mechanical properties of the coal cake.


We report results from preliminary analysis of the recently constructed dataset from the Farm Service Agency, FSA 1614. FSA 1614 provides the location of the farm and the farm payment recipient for all Title I payments. This makes it possible to analyze the spatial dispersion between landowner and farm more precisely than previously possible. A discussion of what research questions could be informed through the use of this data is provided. We find that a significant percentage of payments are sent to individuals that are likely to be absentee landowners, although this value is much smaller when looking at the total value of payments. These national results are compared to four corn belt states.


Characterizing the nature and spatial distribution of the lensing objects that produce the previously measured microlensing optical depth toward the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) remains an open problem. We present an appraisal of the ability of the SuperMACHO Project, a next-generation microlensing survey directed toward the LMC, to discriminate between various proposed lensing populations. We consider two scenarios: lensing by a uniform foreground screen of objects and self-lensing by LMC stars. The optical depth for "screen lensing" is essentially constant across the face of the LMC, whereas the optical depth for self-lensing shows a strong spatial dependence. We have carried out extensive simulations, based on data obtained during the first year of the project, to assess the SuperMACHO survey's ability to discriminate between these two scenarios. In our simulations we predict the expected number of observed microlensing events for various LMC models for each of our fields by adding artificial stars to the images and estimating the spatial and temporal efficiency of detecting microlensing events using Monte Carlo methods. We find that the event rate itself shows significant sensitivity to the choice of the LMC luminosity function, limiting the conclusions that can be drawn from the absolute rate. If instead we determine the differential event rate across the LMC, we will decrease the impact of these systematic biases and render our conclusions more robust. With this approach the SuperMACHO Project should be able to distinguish between the two categories of lens populations. This will provide important constraints on the nature of the lensing objects and their contributions to the Galactic dark matter halo.


The technologies for the use of biomass as an energy source are not always environmental friendly process: wood combustion, for example, can be a rather a dirty process that causes the release in air of several dangerous compounds. For those reasons it is important to develop approaches aimed at the use of biomass in a cleanest way, avoiding, whenever possible, direct combustion of solid biomass and, rather, pursuing fuel upgrade processes allowing a better combustion or direct conversion to electricity through fuel cells.
The products originating from the gasification process mainly comprise a mixture of the permanent gases CO, CO2, H2 and CH4, steam, char, tars and ash. The raw synthesis gas needs to be cleaned from tars before it may be upgraded to other commodities. In most cases if tars deposit on the catalyst surface it will block the active sites i.e., carbon acts as catalyst poison. Furthermore, tars in the raw gas can also cause corrosion and blockage of pipes in downstream process equipment. One of the main challenges in biomass gasification is the minimization of tar content in the product gas in combination with optimization of the gas composition. That is, to reduce the tar content as much as possible and to increase the permanent gases.
In this context, it is especially interesting the development of technologies for syngas production (i.e. synthesis gas) through biomass gasification and for syngas utilization in fuel cells system, in order to produce energy from renewable resources. In detail the SOFCs (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) work at high temperatures, and can be fed with different type of fuels, such as methane, carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Thus, the syngas produced by means of biomass gasification, seems to be a suitable fuel for this kind of cells. This chance is particularly interesting, considering that small and medium size conversion plant technologies could be integrated in a distributed energy generation model that is expected to increase its diffusion.
The aim of the present project is to verify the possibility of coupling a biomass gasifier with a SOFC for energy production. The use of steam as gasifying agent increases the syngas heating value in comparison with the use of air, since its nitrogen content cause a dilution of the obtained gaseous fuel. Moreover, another beneficial effect in using water steam, is the increase of the H2 percentage up to 50 % in volume. A high hydrogen concentration is kindly recommended if the final aim is to feed a fuel cell. However, the disadvantages of the steam gasification are the lower steam reactivity, comparing with the oxygen one, and the decreasing of the temperature inside the reactor due to the endothermicity of the main reactions. Thus, it is necessary to supply indirectly the heat of reaction. In fluidized bed gasifiers, the bed material acts as solid heat carriers and often provides the heat from char combustion; however fixed bed gasifier are more suitable for small scale application, especially when biomass is used as feedstock .
In the first part of this project a small scale (semi continuous, fixed-bed) gasifier has been designed and built. The syngas composition produced has been analyzed and the hydrogen concentration was approximately 60%. In a second stage the plant has been modified in a continuous fixed-bed gasifier, to perform long test duration. The gas composition slightly changes, even if anyway exploitable in fuel cell.
Between the gasifier and the fuel cell, a gas cleaning stage has been foreseen. A catalyst is needed for tar cracking. A series of air-gasification tests have been run in a fluidized bed gasifier to test two different catalysts: dolomite and iron. The results on tar concentrations have confirmed the higher efficiency of dolomite in tar cracking. Then, a catalytic filter filled with dolomite has been placed after the fixed bed gasifier for tar abatement. Finally, some tests coupling the gasifier with a solid oxide fuel cells stack have been run.
The temperature field measured during the experimental activity by some K-thermocouples has been elaborated to estimate an apparent thermal conductivity coefficient to be used in a 2D model for heat transfer simulation; moreover the data on the syngas composition have been used to test the reliability of a thermo chemical equilibrium model previously developed.
The agreement between the output of the equilibrium model and the experimental data is not satisfying. The main problems are the prediction of the residual solid carbon phase and the methane estimation. It is known that the methane prediction it is a difficult task, because it is mainly formed by tars cracking, and thus it is not an equilibrium compound. Several authors have already faced the problem of methane estimation modifying the model with different approaches.
In this work, the experimental data have been used to tune up the model, considering the residual solid carbon formed by means of the definition of a parameter called "carbon conversion efficiency". The accuracy between the thermodynamic equilibrium model and the experimental values significantly improves if the percentage of solid phase is considered. A second modification has been introduced to take into account the moles of carbon and hydrogen which contribute to the methane formation. A better agreement between the experimental results and the output of the modified model has been observed.
The experimental campaign shows that steam gasification represents an interesting pathway for the biomass utilization, because it leads to a high quality effluent gas, suitable for feeding solid oxide fuel cells. The proposed modified equilibrium model seems to be a useful engineering tool, as the syngas composition measured is not so far from the thermodynamic predictions.


This study seeks to evaluate the impact of the ACAT program within the Illawarra Area Health Service. The purpose of the study was to describe outcomes from the ACAT activities in 1992 and first six months of 1993, these include consumer satisfaction, range of services offered to the clients and carers' involvement in the consultation and negotiation process. The main sources of data were ACAT records, team co-ordinator's information and the study instrument. Of 285 carers selected for the study, 149 (52%) carers responded to the mailed questioimaire. Of questionnaires received, 117 (41%) questioimaires were completed, six questioimaires (2%) were partially completed, and 32 (11%) explained that they did not wish to participate. Due to the age of the chents and their frailty, in this investigation there was a large data loss. One hundred and thirty six (48%) carers of the total sample did not respond to questioimaires. In this study total response rate was 41 per cent. ACATs' clients were the study subjects and their carers responded to the study questionnaires. Criteria for selection of study subjects were that they were 65 years or over, had an identified carer and were deemed to be able to participate in the investigation by the local ACAT co-ordinator. The range of services offered to the clients, carers' involvement in consultation, negotiation with ACAT concerning the elderly friend/relative and carers service satisfaction were the study variables. Most carers were older than 65 years of age and suffered from a number of chronic illnesses. The fact that 33 per cent of carers suffer from stress was one of the findings. Carers reported caring responsibilities negatively affected their health. Dementia was the illness with the highest incidence among the clients. A number of institutional and Community Services were offered to ACAT clients. Seventy per cent of clients were referred to Community Services. Community Home Nursing was the most frequently used of the different Commimity Care Services (n=52)(46%). Most carers (57%) were satisfied with services which their elderly relative/friend received. Despite carers' worry about their elderly friend/relative and the fact that caring responsibility had a negative effect on their own health, a large number of the carers were satisfied with the services and happy to continue caring responsibilities. There was no significant difference between level of satisfaction and the effect of caring responsibility on the carer's health. Need for services beyond those already utilized was not high, but need for Respite Care was frequently mentioned (34%) (n=38). Forty five per cent (n=50) of carers had one contact with ACAT members. Carers were usually not involved in the process of decision making by ACAT about services required, since twenty one per cent (n=28) were consulted by ACAT staff only twice and only twenty six (n=29) per cent were consulted three times and more. Also, eight per cent (n=9) of the carers reported that they had never been contacted by ACAT staff. Overall Aged Care Assessment Teams successfully offer a range of Community Services to the aged residents of The Illawarra. Carers were mainly weU satisfied with the services received.


Studies on determination of five heavy metals, i.e. copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb) and nickel (Ni) in water samples collected from drains located outside five factories using sodium sulfide precipitation and aluminium sulphate inorganic coagulation followed by FAAS detection were carried out. The amount of coagulant added, effect of centrifugation time and analysis methods have been developed and optimized. Samples was analysed by FAAS after undergone digestion with 1:1 nitric acid according to EPA Method 200.7. The recoveries of analytes were in the range of 68 to 99.2.% The relative standard deviations of the studied five elements were found in the range of 0.1-12.5%. The method detection limit of Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb and Ni were 0.043, 0.012, 0.011, 0.020 and 0.008 mg/L. The presented coprecipitation procedure was successfully applied to determine five free elements in the environmental samples collected from the drains surrounding the factories. The concentration of the heavy metals in the collected water samples were not exceeded the maximum contamination levels which stipulated under Environmental Quality Act 1974.


There have been many reports on chemical reactions using ultrasound such as decomposition of polymer chains or initiation of polymerization by ultrasound. However, the mechanism of these sonochemical reactions has not been clarified yet. Understanding the mechanism will be useful for establishing a new radical polymerization system without an initiator, for new applications in the medical field, and so on. Decomposition of water (H2O) into OH and H radicals is being studied by high‐intensity ultrasound, because it is one of the simplest systems used for elucidation of the mechanism of sonochemical reactions. The influence of sonication conditions such as ultrasonic frequency, sonication time, and ultrasonic intensity on the production of OH radicals from water was studied, and the factors governing the sonolysis were examined. Since the OH radical is very short lived, DMPO (5,5‐dimethyl‐1‐pyrroline N‐oxide) was used as a scavenger, and the concentration of spin‐trapped OH radicals was measured by ESR after sonication. The results show that (1) lower frequency ultrasound generates the radicals more efficiently, (2) the radical concentration initially increases linearly with time and the ultrasound intensity, and then (3) saturates at a value which is independent of the ultrasound intensity.


The objective of this study were to analyze the effect of different compliance monitoring cards of iron supplementation and the determinants in female adolescents in Bogor. Design of this study was quasi experimental. There were 240 adolescent girls from 6 different schools in Bogor who participated and allocated into 3 groups: receiving either monitoring card from Health Department (M), monitoring card verified by teacher and parents (M+T), and monitoring card verified by teacher with additional information about anemia and iron supplementation (M+TP). The data of iron supplement consumption compliance, perception of iron supplementation, nutritional knowledge, motivation, parents and teacher support were collected. The results showed, that a significant difference on compliance level among the groups (p<0.05). The M+TP group had the highest compliance level. Weekly compliance rate was higher (15%) compared to compliance during which participants were menstruating. The most determining factor for compliance level was teacher support (p<0.05; OR=4.7; 95%CI;1.5-14.2). The developed monitoring cards can improve compliance of iron supplement consumption on female adolescents.


This paper investigates the problem of adaptive fuzzy tracking control for nonlinear strict-feedback systems with input delay and output constraint. Input delay is handled based on the information of Pade approximation and output constraint problem is solved by barrier Lypaunov function. Some adaptive parameters of the controller need to be updated online through considering the norm of membership function vector instead of all sub-vectors. A novel adaptive fuzzy tracking control scheme is developed to guarantee all variables of the closed-loop systems are semiglobally uniformly ultimately bounded, and the tracking error can be adjusted around the origin with a small neighborhood. The stability of the closed-loop systems is proved and simulation results are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control approach.


This article investigates forest policies and institutions surrounding REDD+ in three heavily forested countries: India, Tanzania, and Mexico. The comparative analysis leads to three key insights. First, each of the case study countries has multiple land tenure statutes that result in different distributions of the costs and benefits of forest protection for key stakeholders. Second, land tenure regimes that offer local communities the most secure forest rights are not necessarily those associated with benefit-sharing mechanisms outlined in national REDD+ policy proposals. Third, a credible commitment by government to share REDD+ benefits with forest-dependent people is contingent on the interests of key actors involved in the policy process. Political and administrative structures that limit the power and authority of forest government bodies lead to more responsive and accountable policy outcomes.


The concentrations in the intestinal mucosa after the initial dose of cefoxitin, piperacillin and clindamycin have been studied. The antibiotics were given at the induction of anesthesia as prophylaxis to patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery. The concentrations of the antibiotics in serum and intestinal mucosa taken during the operation were determined by the microbiological agar diffusion method. Therapeutic concentrations in intestinal mucosa were maintained during the major part of the operation period. The mean mucosa/serum concentration ratios were for cefoxitin 0.4, for piperacillin 0.5 and for clindamycin 1.2.


Seismic surveying of glaciers give both englacial and subglacial physical information and is as such an important tool in glaciology. In comparison with the collection of radar data, mainly performed from airborne platforms, seismic data acquisition is a time consuming process practiced in small survey areas and used less frequent. Over the last six years, AWI developed an effective strategy to collect seismic data on glaciers, ice sheets and ice shelves, at a high production rate with a small team (three to five persons) at relatively little effort. The survey areas varied from a 4500m high Alpine saddle to several hundreds of kilometers long transects on the Antarctic ice sheet and adjacent ice shelf. Each survey area has its own possibilities and limitations in the survey set-up. I will reflect upon the hardware, methods, advantages and shortcomings of the performed surveys and will discuss some results. In particular I will focus on the results of two seismic surveys performed in the ablation zone on the West coast of the Greenland Ice Sheet. The main objective here was to characterize the subglacial conditions of the glacier. One site was Russell glacier where ice terminates on land, a second site was Store Glacier, a tidewater glacier in Uummannaq Fjord. In both areas the subglacial hydrology probably plays a key role in the ice dynamics as ice velocities pick up in Summer.


A field experiment was conducted on a tropical soil (Humoxic Tropohumult) with a high P sorption capacity to compare the critical external and internal P require ments of soybean (Glycine max (L) Merr.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata () Walp.) as affected by the predominant mode of N nutrition during crop growth. The experiment had a split-plot design with two N-level subplots established within each of six Plevel mainplots. Phosphorus treatment ranged from 0.0015 (unamended soil) to 0.08 (1,880 kg P/ha) µg P/ml in 0.01M CaCl2 solutions equilibrated with soil for 6 days. Nitrogen levels were either deficient (plants primarily dependent on N fixation) or sufficient (N fertilizer supplied at rates sufficient to satisfy the crop N requirement). Nitrogen-fixing soybeans required 750 kg P/ha to obtain a 900/. relative yield which was 320 kg P/ha more than that required by N-supplied plants to obtain a comparable relative yield. The P concentration of N-fixing soybean plants was significantly lower than that of Nsupplied plants at all levels of applied P fertilizer. The external P requirement and tissue P concentration of cowpea were unaffected by soil N level. The data show that cowpea was more tolerant of P stress than soybean, especially when dependent on N fixation. The cowpea cultivar grown without P or N fertilizer yielded 72% of the maximum yield obtained at optimum P levels while the comparable relative yield for the soybean cultivar was 28%. We conclude that (i) some N-fixing grain legumes can make respectable yields with little or no P fertilizer while others might not and, (ii) screening N-fixing grain legumes for tolerance to nutrient stress should be conducted on N-deficient soil to insure that nutritional requirements are assessed for the N-fixing plant, especially on the highly weathered soils of the tropics.