Manure storages are a major odor source. Straw and/or geotextile fabric covers can be used to reduce these odor
emissions. Thirty–eight 160–L (42–gal) open–topped PVC pipes (columns) containing swine or dairy manure were used in
a 2  4  4 factorial experimental design consisting of two manure sources, four thicknesses of straw, and/or four thicknesses
of geotextile fabric. Collected air samples were tested for odor strength using a dynamic olfactometer, for hydrogen sulfide
(H2S) concentration using a Jerome ± meter, and for ammonia (NH3) using a boric acid trap. The main effects of straw
thickness and time significantly affected odor, H2S, and NH3 reduction, while the main effects of manure type and geotextile
thickness did not affect these reductions. The recommended minimum thickness of straw may be 20 cm (7.9 in.), since little
additional odor reduction, H2S, or NH3 was gained by increasing thickness to 30 cm (11.8 in.). However, 30–cm (11.8–in.)
depth may be needed to keep the straw material afloat or to keep the upper portion dry to allow the straw to absorb gases
and/or act as a biofilter. Even though the geotextile did not significantly impact reduction of odor, H2S and NH3, the fabric
may play a role in creating a barrier between the manure and straw to increase the life and effectiveness of the straw cover.


I have the honor of presenting to the Society three drawings which I have selected from my portfolio, for the purpose of illustrating the changes which the influence of time and weather produces on certain varieties of granite. The subjects are all chosen among the granites of the west of England; and that I might at the same time preserve memorials of circumstances which are remarkable independently of their geological interest, I have taken two of my examples from places which have called forth more admiration from the common spectator than even from the philosopher, and which form two points of attraction for the curious or idle who annually visit Cornwall. Not only indeed have idle curiosity and ignorant speculation busied themselves in accounting for phenomena which many of the vulgar have deemed little less than miraculous, but learned antiquaries have tortured their inventions and have constructed religious systems for the purpose of explaining these very simple and intelligible natural appearances, by the rites of a mysterious and Druidical worship. I trust I shall be pardoned, if while I deduce from these facts the geological consequences which depend on them, I likewise give a more particular detail of the appearances themselves which have excited so much of the attention of all visitors. The Logging rock (Pl. III.) is situated on a peninsula of granite, in the parish of St. Levin, which stretches out about 200 yards into the sea, its isthmus still exhibiting remains of the ancient fortification of Castle


It has been known that silymarin exhibits protective activity against oxidative liver injury induced by various hepatotoxicants, but the underlying mechanism of its beneficial action remains unclear. We determined the alterations in sulfurcontaining amino acid metabolism induced by silymarin in association with its effects on the antioxidant capacity of liver. Male mice were treated with silymarin (100 or 200mg/kg, p.o.) every 12 h for a total of 3 doses, and sacrificed 6 h after the final dosing. The hepatic methionine level was increased, but the activity and protein expression of methionine adenosyltransferase were decreased by silymarin in a dose-dependent manner. S-Adenosylmethionine or homocysteine concentration was not changed, whereas the sulfurcontaining metabolites generated from homocysteine in the transsulfuration pathway including cystathionine, cysteine, and glutathione were increased significantly. Cystathionine β-synthase was induced, but cysteine dioxygenase was downregulated, both of which would contribute to the elevation of cysteine and its product, glutathione, in liver. Oxygen radical scavenging capacity of liver cytosol against peroxyl radical and peroxynitrite was increased, and also hepatic lipid peroxidation was diminished in the silymarintreated mice. Taken together, the results demonstrate that silymarin enhances hepatic glutathione generation by elevating cysteine availability via an increment in cysteine synthesis and an inhibition of its catabolism to taurine, which may subsequently contribute to the antioxidant defense of liver.


Cameras offer advantages over contact sensors, particularly in structures that might be difficult to instrument in a traditional manner. Recent work including motion magnification and phase-based optical flow methods enable the extraction of displacement, vibration, and structural information from videos with imperceptible subpixel motion. In this paper we present two case studies of interest to the structural health monitoring community. One case study involves the analysis of a video from the internal observation deck near the top of the Taipei 101 tower, showing the motion of the tuned mass damper during an earthquake. The other involves using high-speed video to measure the frequency responses of everyday objects as excited by a frequency sweep as reference measurements to identifying the object's material by using separate measurements with a popular song as excitation


Abstract Red deer Cervus elaphus, even in wilderness areas, are increasingly exposed to disturbance from human recreation as well as hunting, and it has been suggested that both types of disturbance may be perceived as a predation risk. We studied the vigilance behaviour of red deer in the Scottish Highlands, in sites with traditionally high numbers of visitors ('disturbed') and sites with relatively few visitors ('less-disturbed') during the main recreational season (spring and summer), and in their mating grounds during the hunting season (autumn and winter). We carried out direct observations, using scan sampling at 3-minute intervals for 1-hour periods, and recorded the number of animals in each group that were vigilant and their mode of vigilance. During the recreational season, in both the disturbed and less-disturbed sites, data were collected in habitats with different levels of cover (grassland, heather and woodland). The percentage of animals that were vigilant was higher in disturbed than in less-disturbed sites, and higher in disturbed grassland (poor cover) and heather (intermediate cover) than in disturbed woodland (good cover). The majority of the vigilant animals in disturbed heather and woodland habitats and in all the less-disturbed habitats were standing. In disturbed grassland, however, lying was the main posture whilst vigilant. In both disturbed grassland and heather, the percentage of vigilant animals that were moving was higher than in woodland or the less-disturbed habitats. In disturbed sites, the deer were more likely to be aggregated when vigilance levels were high. During the hunting season, the overall level of vigilance was higher than at any sites during the recreational season, and the majority of vigilant animals were moving. We conclude that red deer respond to disturbance from human recreational activities by increasing their level of vigilance, but that the nature of their response varies with the level of cover available. We suggest that red deer may lie down when keeping vigil in grasslands, because lying animals are less conspicuous and the low cover will still allow animals to scan their surroundings. We conclude that, although they respond to both types of disturbance by increasing vigilance, red deer perceive human recreation as a less acute threat than hunting.


The stages of human natural killer (NK) cell differentiation are not well established. Culturing CD34(+) progenitors with interleukin 7 (IL-7), IL-15, stem cell factor (SCF), FLT-3L, and murine fetal liver cell line (EL08.1D2), we identified 2 nonoverlapping subsets of differentiating CD56(+) cells based on CD117 and CD94 (CD117(high)CD94(-) and CD117(low/-)CD94(+) cells). Both populations expressed CD161 and NKp44, but differed with respect to NKp30, NKp46, NKG2A, NKG2C, NKG2D, CD8, CD16, and KIR. Only the CD117(low/-) CD94(+) population displayed cytotoxicity and interferon-gamma production. Both populations arose from a single CD34(+)CD38(-) Lin(-) cell and their percentages changed over time in a reciprocal fashion, with CD117(high)CD94(-) cells predominating early and decreasing due to an increase of the CD117(low/-)CD94(+) population. These 2 subsets represent distinct stages of NKcell differentiation, since purified CD117(high) CD94(-) cells give rise to CD117(low/-)CD94(+) cells. The stromal cell line (EL08.1D2) facilitated the transition from CD117(high)CD94(-) to CD117(low/-)CD94(+) via an intermediate phenotype (CD117(low)CD94(low/-)). EL08.1D2 also maintained the mature phenotype, preventing the reversion of CD117(low/-)CD94(+) cells to the intermediate (CD117(low)CD94(low/-)) phenotype. An analogous population of CD56(+)CD117(high)CD94(-) cells was found in cord blood. The identified stages of NK-cell differentiation provide evidence for coordinated acquisition of HLA-specific inhibitory receptors (ie, CD94/NKG2A) and function in developing human NK cells.


The majority of procedures for in situ measurement of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity are variations of the instantaneous profile method. A vertically nonuniform soil requires the unsaturated hydraulic functions to be estimated at each horizon. Scaling systems have evolved in an attempt to reduce the number of hydraulic functions needed to characterize water flow through heterogeneous soils. In this study, we extended the concept of water content scaling to nonuniform soil profiles, tested the effectiveness of scaling for reducing apparent spatial variability, and estimated the unsaturated hydraulic functions for a naturally occurring loamy sand field site. Two instantaneous profile experiments conducted at Etiwanda, CA, provided soil water content and pressure head (h) data vs. depth (z) and time (t). Water retention, and hydraulic conductivity, functions fitted to data from the 15-cm depth at Plot 1 were arbitrarily chosen as the reference hydraulic properties to which the other depths and plots were scaled. Based on a unit-gradient analysis of the drainage data, the slope of the hydraulic conductivity function, was estimated as z/t. Scaling other depths and plots to the reference location was done using an iterative procedure that provided least-squares estimates of the two scaling parameters ( and ) and a corresponding transformed depth variable (z*). Scaled water content, , plotted vs. z*/t, using data from all depths and plots, coalesced to a single curve. Scaling successfully coalesced heterogeneous soil hydraulic properties into unique functions for both and View complete article To view this complete article, insert Disc 5 then click button8


As deliberative democracy is gaining practical momentum, the question arises whether citizens' attitudes toward everyday political talk are congruent with this 'talk-centric' vision of democratic governance. Drawing on a unique survey we examine how German citizens view the practice of discussing politics in everyday life, and what determines these attitudes. We find that only a minority appreciates talking about politics. To explain these views, we combine Fishbein and Ajzen's Expectancy-Value Model of attitudes toward behaviors with perspectives from research on interpersonal communication. Individuals' interest in politics emerges as the only relevant political disposition for attitudes toward everyday political talk. Its impact is surpassed and conditioned by conflict orientations and other enduring psychological dispositions, as well as contextual circumstances like the closeness of social ties and the amount of disagreement experienced during conversations. The beneficial effect of political interest dwindles under adverse interpersonal conditions. The social dimension of everyday political talk thus appears to outweigh its political dimension.


The experiment of decoy state QKD has been reported using commercial QKD system based on a standard bi-directional 'Plug & Play' set-up. By making simple modifications to a commercial quantum key distribution system, decoy state QKD allows us to achieve much better performance than QKD system without decoy state in terms of key generation rate and distance. One decoy state protocol has been implemented. The obtained results demonstrate an unconditionally secure key rate of 0.127 × 10–4 per pulse for a 10 km fiber length.


The network hub nodes consumed excessive energy and failed prematurely, thus it reduced the network lifetime. In order to solve the problem, distributed lifetime optimized routing algorithm (DLOR) for wireless sensor networks was proposed. Energy for transmitting data and neighbor node residual energy were considered comprehensively. Then new weight function was introduced and distributed asynchronous Bellman-Ford algorithm was also used to construct the shortest routing tree. Finally, data were gathered along the shortest routing tree to sink node. Simulation results show that DLOR algorithm can extend network lifetime and enable cost-effective energy consumption. Under certain conditions, DLOR algorithm outperforms PEDAP, GreedyDijkstra, LET, Ratio-w and Sum-w algorithms.


Focal Points
The study investigated if general practitioners (GPs) were aware that their patients took warfarin when supplies of the drug were being provided by a hospital anticoagulant clinic.
The clinic checked an electronic GP prescribing record linked to the hospital to confirm that GP practices had made the appropriate entries to register anticoagulant use. Warfarin was missing from the main repeat prescribing screen of the electronic record in 49% of cases. Where GPs do not have to prescribe medication which is instead supplied by a hospital, then there is a risk that they may have an incomplete prescribing record of such therapy.

Introduction and Objectives
Whenever new general practitioner (GP)-led anticoagulant clinics planned opening to take over the care of well-controlled patients who had previously obtained their supply of warfarin from a pharmacy-led hospital anticoagulant clinic, it was found that the lists of patients identified in each GP practice as taking anticoagulants were different to those held by the hospital. GPs were unsure which of their patients took warfarin. A poor communication system when clinical responsibility for anticoagulant therapy is transferred has been identified as an area of
risk. Because the hospital routinely accessed the main locally used electronic GP prescribing program (SystmOne) for confirming medication histories, the hospital pharmacy clinic was asked by primary care to make use of this access to try to identify reasons for the mismatch.

Method
The audit involved accessing GP electronic records either in hospital or at the GP practice after a period of at least 4 weeks following each new patient referral by the hospital to the pharmacy-led clinic. A check was made to confirm that practices had received and registered information sent by the hospital about warfarin in the form of consultant discharge summaries, discharge letters and outpatient clinic letters. The main 'repeat template' prescribing field of the electronic record (used to generate repeat prescriptions) was investigated to determine if the practice had highlighted that warfarin was being provided by a third party and that the record relating to anticoagulation was comprehensive. This included checking that the practice was aware of the duration of anticoagulant therapy and in patients taking aspirin, determining if this had stopped or continued to be prescribed.

Results and Discussions
From a sample of 84 referrals by the hospital to the pharmacy clinic, 51 patients belonged to GP practices using SystmOne. From this latter group, there was only one instance where hospital communications had not been scanned onto the electronic record by a GP practice. Nevertheless, in 25 cases (49%), warfarin had not been entered on the repeat template, possibly because the GP was not being asked to prescribe the drug. This meant that as details of warfarin use were consigned to less frequently accessed sections of the electronic record, the GP might easily overlook that anticoagulation had commenced. Information about the duration of warfarin treatment was invariably absent. There were 18 cases where patients had remained on aspirin unintentionally and two instances where the hospital had not indicated if it should stop. Overall, information about warfarin was missing, not readily accessed or incomplete in 82.4% of cases. As there was no hospital electronic link with non-SystmOne practices, it is not clear if a similar picture would be found there.

Conclusions
Where GPs do not have to prescribe warfarin because it is already being provided in hospital, then there is a risk that their practice records about anticoagulation may remain incomplete. Retinoids, certain drugs for metabolic diseases
and oral chemotherapy may also exclusively be supplied by hospitals, and possibly GPs may similarly not always be aware of their use. Anticoagulant clinic pharmacists could themselves correct the GP electronic record, but this was not a solution for those practices with no electronic link to the hospital. Instead a form was introduced for GPs formally to acknowledge that warfarin was recorded on their patient's
repeat template as being supplied by the hospital.


To the Editor: The interest that Andersen et al1 have shown in our study on Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) as a risk factor for ectopic pregnancy2 is highly appreciated. Andersen et al have several comments to our paper that will be addressed successively in the following. First, Andersen et al included only women with a registered pregnancy to the analyses, arguing that it is important to include only women at risk for an ectopic pregnancy. When we conducted our study we did not have access to data on intrauterine pregnancies. We were, therefore, not able to repeat Andersen's study design but suggested in our discussion that including only women with registered pregnancies to the analyses might possibly have led to underestimation of ectopic pregnancy risk. It would have been interesting to see analyses from the Andersen research group that included data from all women irrespective of fertility history. Such analyses would settle the discussion on whether the hazard ratio would increase or decrease, at least in their data. Second, we certainly had access to data from a single laboratory only. However, this laboratory is the only facility for CT diagnostics in the study area, as stated clearly in our paper. Third, our concern regarding the observation period in the study by Andersen et al is that the period when data on CT tests were collected is relatively short and restricted to the first few years of the total observation period. Andersen et al also offer other explanations to the differences between the results from the two studies. Indeed, our Norwegian population is opportunistically screened whereas the Danish is more sporadically tested. Information on all tests in a population frequently tested gives better access to the history of prior chlamydial infections. Also, the results for the oldest age group in our study are similar to the results in the study by Andersen et al. As discussed in our report, we believe the main reason for the lack of association for the oldest women is the incomplete testing history in this age group. Finally, not being able to adjust for potential confounding factors is a general weakness of studies based on registry data. However, as pointed out in our paper, sexual behavior and contraceptive use are not likely to be independent risk factors or true confounders. Such characteristics are more likely to reflect an increased risk for sexually transmitted infections. Andersen et al suggest that the conclusion by Low et al3 that the incidence of severe complications associated with chlamydial infection is lower than expected might apply to all 3 Scandinavian studies. However, these studies include women tested for CT, and although no treatment data are available, it seems unlikely that a large proportion of women with CT were left untreated. The relatively low complication rates also among women with positive tests might rather indicate that screening for chlamydial infection benefits female reproductive health.


Change blindness is influenced by factors such as: set size (the number of items in the scene), change size (the degree of change), and familiarity (whether or not the change occurs in a familiar stimulus). The objectives of this research were: (a) to investigate the role of familiarity in detecting changes in human faces and (b) to establish the temporal locus of the face familiarity effect within Tovey & Herdman's (2014) stage model for change blindness. Chinese and Caucasian participants detected changes in images of same-race (familiar) and other-race (unfamiliar) faces in a flicker
paradigm. Familiarity, set size, and change size were jointly manipulated to determine the locus of the face familiarity effect using Sternberg's additive factors logic. Caucasian (but not Chinese) participants were faster and more accurate in detecting changes in Caucasian faces than in Chinese faces, and a 3-way interaction in the Caucasian participants' accuracy data was observed.


Alumina (α-Al2O3) and hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) are biocompatible ceramic materials. Alumina is described as "bioinert" while hydroxyapatite as "bioactive". These ceramics can be used in production of orthopedic prostheses, dental implants and bone filling materials either separately or in composite form. Especially porous materials attract attention due to their supportive structure for cell and tissue growth/development.Alumina was derived via sol-gel method. Firstly, boehmite (AlOOH) sol was produced by hydrolyzing the starting material, aluminium iso-propoxide (AIP, Al(OC3H7)3). Then this sol was mixed with hydroxyapatite powders (Bovine Hydroxyapatite, BHA) obtained from bovine bones. Subsequently, the mixture was gelated at 110 °C for 3 hours and the resulting gel mixture was heat treated at 1300 °C for 2 hours. BHA powders were not synthetic and added as 10 and 30 wt.% of AIP to the boehmite sol. Irregular shape of the powders produced after the heat treatment was interpreted as a sign of porosity.SEM-EDS and XRD characterization studies were performed on heat treated powders. XRD results showed that powders were composed of α-alumina and apatite based phases such as tricalcium phosphate and hydroxyapatite. SEM images of the composite powders indicated that neck bonds were not formed between α-alumina and apatite based phases. Comparison of SEM images and EDS results of pure BHA and composite powders revealed that pure BHA powders possess granular particle shape. Furthermore, needle shaped alumina particles were observed in the composite sample with 10 wt.% BHA. Finally, it has been found out that alumina particles were placed layer by layer in the composite powders with 30 wt.% BHA.


The localized plasticity development was studied for a wide range of pure metals and alloys in single-crystal and polycrystalline state as well as nonmetallic materials, alkaline halide crystals, ceramics and rocks. Using photographic and digital versions of speckle photography, the localization of plastic flow in the test samples was investigated on specially designed units having high spatial and temporal resolution. According to the analysis given here, the different stages of plastic flow are related both qualitatively and quantitatively.


As organizations face increased competitive pressures and technological changes, their attention is focusing on how to attain strategic benefits from information technology investments, including investments in people. From a human resources perspective, one debate centers on how to attract and retain information technology (IT) professionals. Somewhat paradoxically, it is suggested that to retain IT professionals, organizations must provide both technical and business oriented career opportunities.This paper presents a case study of one organization, The Mutual Group, in which more than 70 IT professionals permanently moved into non-IT, business unit jobs during the 1980's and early 1990's. Using interviews and surveys of 51 former IT professionals, this research investigated the characteristics of the individual, the organization, the first non-IT job, and the transition period.We conclude from our findings that IT professionals who moved to non-IT jobs in the line made the transition without the benefit of deliberate preparation, formal transition programs, or safety nets to reduce the risk. Some conditions existed at The Mutual Group that may have assisted them, including: good relations between IT and the line, friends and mentors in line units, and a willingness to take risks in pursuit of new challenges.One contribution of this paper is that is begins to fill a gap in the career mobility literature, based on individuals and their stories of change. It also attempts to understand the role of context in one organization that is a recognized leader in the use of IT for competitive advantage.


In common with other early-type stars, Ori (B0 Ia) shows evidence for structure in its stellar wind. Variations in optical and ultraviolet line profiles reveal the presence of large-scale structure in the inner wind. The detection of X-rays and the existence of black troughs in saturated ultraviolet lines are indicative of small-scale structure. The geometric extent of both types of structure is poorly known. In principle, large-scale structure can be detected directly from very high spatial resolution observations that resolve the stellar wind. A simpler technique is to look for the presence of additional flux compared to that expected from a smooth wind. The run of this excess flux as a function of wavelength indicates how fast structure decays in the wind. If there is variability in the excess flux, it shows us that the structure must be large-scale. Such variability is suggested by two previous 6 cm radio observations of Ori: Abbott et al. (1980) found 1.6 ± 0.5 mJy, while Scuderi et al. (1998) measured only 0.60 ± 0.06 mJy. This could indicate that the large-scale structure persists beyond ∼50 R∗. To further investigate this variability, we used the Very Large Array (VLA) to monitor Ori over a 5-day period in February 1999. We supplemented our data with observations from the VLA archive. In an attempt to resolve the stellar wind, we also obtained a series of high spatial resolution observations with the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) during January–March 1999. From this combined material we find no evidence for variability and we conclude that the Abbott et al. (1980) flux determination is in error. The data do show substantial excess flux at millimetre wavelengths, compared to a smooth wind. This excess is confirmed by a submillimetre observation which we obtained with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The behaviour of Ori is therefore similar to what had been found previously for α Cam, δ Ori A, κ Ori and ζ Pup. While the present data do not allow very strong constraints, they show that considerable structure must persist up to at least ∼10 R∗ in the wind of Ori. The combined radio fluxes are used to derive a mass-loss rate of log Ṁ(M /yr) = −5.73 ± 0.04. This value is in good agreement with the Hα mass-loss rate. The good agreement between Hα and radio mass-loss rates for hot stars in general remains puzzling, as it implies that the same amount of structure is present in very different formation regions.


We consider the problem of controlling a Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) system over a finite horizon T with fixed and known cost matrices Q,R, but unknown and non-stationary dynamics A_t, B_t. The sequence of dynamics matrices can be arbitrary, but with a total variation, V_T, assumed to be o(T) and unknown to the controller. Under the assumption that a sequence of stabilizing, but potentially sub-optimal controllers is available for all t, we present an algorithm that achieves the optimal dynamic regret of O(V_T^2/5 T^3/5 ). With piecewise constant dynamics, our algorithm achieves the optimal regret of O(sqrtST ) where S is the number of switches. The crux of our algorithm is an adaptive non-stationarity detection strategy, which builds on an approach recently developed for contextual Multi-armed Bandit problems. We also argue that non-adaptive forgetting (e.g., restarting or using sliding window learning with a static window size) may not be regret optimal for the LQR problem, even when the window size is optimally tuned with the knowledge of $V_T$. The main technical challenge in the analysis of our algorithm is to prove that the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator has a small bias when the parameter to be estimated is non-stationary. Our analysis also highlights that the key motif driving the regret is that the LQR problem is in spirit a bandit problem with linear feedback and locally quadratic cost. This motif is more universal than the LQR problem itself, and therefore we believe our results should find wider application.


The increasing trend towards delegating complex tasks to autonomous artificial agents in safety-critical socio-technical systems makes agent behavior monitoring of paramount importance. In this work, a probabilistic approach for on-line monitoring using optimal action selection and twin Gaussian processes (TGP) is proposed. A Kullback-Leibler (KL) based metric is proposed to characterize the deviation of an agent behavior (modeled as a controlled stochastic process) to its specification. The optimal behavior specification is obtained using Linearly Solvable Markov Decision Processes (LSMDP) whereby the Bellman equation is made linear through an exponential transformation such that the optimal control policy is obtained in an explicit form.


This report focuses on the selectivity of four mesh sizes of gillnets (6", 7", 8" and 9") and two type of twine (monofilament and multifilament) on cod (Gadus morhua) conducted in two different areas in Icelandic waters. The data were collected in April 2001 as part of a spawning net survey of cod but not for examining selectivity. In this study a comparison of relative selectivity of mesh size and netting material was made for these nets in each area. The selection curves were estimated indirectly by using the Gamma model. This study has concluded that monofilament gillnets catch better than multifilament. The mean lengths of cod increased with mesh size of gillnet but the difference of netting material did not affect selection range. However the selection was affected by size distribution and abundance of cod. This approach emphasises that the process of catch such as wedging, snagging, and entangling should be considered in gillnet selectivity studies because it has been demonstrated that small mesh size of gillnet can catch large fish and large mesh size can catch small fish.


Purpose

Integration is policy, practice as well as object of systematic investigation. What we do not know is whether or not integration can be understood as a science. In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn formulated a notion of (natural) sciences based on the emergence of commitments amongst a community of scientists to a set of logics, model and exemplars. He called this a paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to assess the scientific nature of integration by perceiving it as a paradigm in Kuhn's sense.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proceeds by conceptual reflection through matching existing components, theories and exemplifications of integration to Kuhn's model of a scientific paradigm. Integration is understood broadly, either vertical or horizontal, and located within the practical domains of policy formulation, policy implementation and evaluation research. The nature, scope and depth of group commitments amongst students and practitioners of integration receive particular attention in line with Kuhn's social interactionist approach.

Findings

Employing Kuhn's notion of paradigm in the context of integration highlights the fundamental tension between integration efforts and integration outcomes. Whilst integration defines itself in contradistinction to professional boundaries and fragmentation, the paper argues that it fails to develop a strong theoretical and empirical foundation for a robust and stable group commitment. The reason is that the key motivational force that may create a stable group commitment amongst those engaged in integration, the patient perspective, remains outside the integration paradigm. This leaves integration as a practice and policy model underdeveloped, mainly paradigmatically illustrated by singular exemplars and rooted in aspirational policy vocabulary, while clustered around a near dogmatic belief that working together between services must lead to improved quality of care. To become a scientific paradigm the group commitment in integration would have to coalesce around a clear ontology (symbolic generalisations), epistemology (models of knowledge) and manifestations in practice (exemplars).

Research limitations/implications

At present both the ontology and epistemological foundations of integration practice and research are insufficiently clear. This hampers the development of integration practice as well as a better understanding of how to evaluate integration outcomes. Future studies should focus on the depth, nature and subject of group commitments to assess whether integration is a viable candidate for scientific paradigm or an assorted construct of policy aspirations.

Originality/value

The paper questions the rigour and trajectory of integration practice, policy and research. It identifies a tension at the centre of the field between group commitments to scientific exemplars (case studies) and symbolic generalisations, encapsulated in the desire to improve patient care. The notion of a scientific paradigm thus helps to re-frame the discussion about research and practice in integration.


Type 2 diabetes is one of the major public health challenges in 21 century. Both environmental changes and genetics are attributed for increased risk of type 2 diabetes. Obesity is the most critical and modifiable risk factor and should be targeted for successful management of diabetes. This review article discusses three main approaches to manage obesity. Three management modalities considered are lifestyle modifications including dietary counseling, behavior therapy and physical activity/exercise, use of pharmaceutical agents, and bariatric surgery. In most patients, lifestyle interventions produce only modest weight loss and have a diminishing effect over time. If patients are unable to respond lifestyle intervention with a weight loss of 5-10%, adjunctive pharmacological treatment may be considered. A variety of pharmacological agents have been shown to induce weight loss and preserve weight loss for longer, as well as ameliorate cardiovascular risk factors. However, the long term health benefits and safety remain unclear and thus, long term studies powered to examine mortality and cardiovascular morbidity are required. Bariatric surgery is the ultimate treatment producing massive weight loss and resolution of type 2 diabetes in nearly 100% of patients. However this is applicable only for patients with significant obesity. Successful treatment of most overweight and obese individuals will depend upon the future development of new therapies. It also requires a paradigm shift in viewing obesity as a disease that requires treatment, rather than deferring treatment until the complications develop.


Berger code has been extended in this paper to construct optimal t-UED/AUED codes for t=1, 2 and 3. The resulting codes are similar to some existing codes. A generalization of Bose's method (1991) has been shown on extending Berger code into AUED code (with r check bits for 2/sup r/ information bits). Further extension of Berger code results in an efficient (t+1)-UED code with t check bits, where a combined approach of the two extensions of generating t-UED and AUED code from Berger code has been applied. Finally, a very simple and regular hardware implementation of the encoder/decoder has been proposed.


The study of the properties of doubly heavy baryons represents a promising area in particle physics. It can provide us with information about Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM) matrix elements and the low energy dynamics of QCD. They have a very rich phenomenology. The investigation of weak, electromagnetic, and strong decays has a vital importance for understanding the dynamics of doubly heavy baryons. The main ingredients of such studies are the spectroscopic parameters, the strong coupling constants, and the transition form factors. For calculations of these quantities, non-perturbative methods are needed. One of these methods is the QCD sum rules. In the present work, we review our studies on the properties of the doubly heavy baryons within the sum rules method, focusing mainly on the mass and strong coupling constants of the doubly heavy baryons. In addition, the radiative decays of doubly heavy baryons are estimated using the vector dominance model. We also make few remarks on the semileptonic decays of the doubly heavy baryons. ∗ email@example.com


The principal numerical and experimental results obtained by the authors on the har- monic power losses in low-voltage networks in the lighting area have been summarized in this review. Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) loads were considered. Four-core cables and four single-core cable arrangements were examined. The cables were modeled by using electromagnetic finite element analysis software. It was found that the cross section of the neutral conductor plays an important role in the derating of the cable ampacity due to the presence of a high level of triplen harmonics in the distorted current. In order to reduce the third-order harmonic currents in the neutral conductor, an experimental investigation of diversity factors for LED in combination with CFL and LED lamps was also performed. Attention was paid to the reduction of the third-order harmonic current, which is mainly responsible for the strong increase in power losses in the neutral conductor of low-voltage installations. The convenience of having LED lamps designed to operate as two-phase loads is suggested for certain applications.


The present invention is to provide the contrast is excellent and also the reflection type image projection apparatus capable of realizing the miniaturization of the apparatus, projection-type image display apparatus using the same, a light source device that is used to this. A reflection type image projection apparatus according to the present invention includes R, G, a reflective liquid crystal in a light flux emitted from the light source 100 that includes three light component B in the optical engine 200 is made up of three prism type polarizing beam splitter synthesized by the modulation panel (221, 222, 223) and emitted. A reflection type of liquid crystal panel element-modulated R, G, B light components on a single 3, and G light components are emitted passes through the two prism-like polarizing beam splitter (231, 232). On the other hand, the other branch light component R B light components are emitted after passing through the reflection and transmission or after reflection. Green (G) light, blue (B) light, red (R) light, a narrow band phase difference plate, the optical engine


The performance of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver can be significantly degraded in the presence of pulsed interference and jamming. In this study, the authors leverage on tools from robust statistics to enhance the receiver performance, with jamming signals treated as outliers to the nominal, interference-free model. Particularly, the signal samples are pre-processed with a zero-memory non-linearity (ZMNL), which limits the impact of pulsed inference in a principled way. A possible approach for the design of such ZMNL is provided by the M-estimator framework when the noise at the receiver input is modelled with a heavy-tailed distribution. This approach is adopted in this study and the complex signum non-linearity is analysed. This ZMNL is obtained by considering a complex Laplacian noise. This choice is discussed and analysed in the context of GNSS receivers under jamming. The impact of the complex signum non-linearity is theoretically analysed under nominal conditions, that is, in the absence of interference. Theoretical results are supported by Monte Carlo simulations. Real GNSS signals, collected in the presence of jamming, are used to demonstrate the advantages brought by the complex signum non-linearity. Theoretical and experimental results demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach.


The US, Brazil, and a number of European and other countries worldwide have introduced various support schemes for bioethanol and biodiesel. The advantage of these biofuels is that they are relatively easily integrated with the current fossil fuel based transport sector at least up to a certain point. However, recent studies point to various negative effects of expanding the production of first generation (1G) biofuels further. 1G biofuels' problems can be overcome by a transition to second generation (2G) biofuels. So far, 2G biofuels are much more costly to produce. We therefore ask: To what extent is targeted support to 2G biofuels likely to bring costs down? And are current support schemes for biofuels well designed in order to promote the development of 2G biofuels? We find that the prospects for cost reduction looks better for 2G bioethanol than for 2G biodiesel. Biothanol made from cellulose is far from a ripe technology, with several cost reducing opportunities yet to be developed. Hence, targeted support to cellulosic ethanol might induce a switch from 1G to 2G biofuels. However, we find little evidence that production and use of 1G bioethanol will bridge the conversion to 2G bioethanol. Hence, to the extent that private investment in the development of 2G bioethanol is too low, current support schemes for 1G fuels may block 2G bioethanol instead of


ANOTHER attractive picture-book from the Cyprus Museum, this time by its curator. It is devoted to a number of general and detailed views of the principal visible monuments and sites on the island, each being carefully described. The most useful features are the Introduction, which summarizes the characteristic domestic, military, religious, and tomb architecture of the island, period by period; and the first large photographs to be published of the recently discovered mosaics in the third-century A.D. House of Dionysus at Nea Paphos. They include scenes of Pyramus and Thisbe; Dionysus, Icarius, and the 'First Wine-drinkers'; Poseidon and Amymone; Apollo and Daphne; Ganymede and the eagle; and the Triumph of Dionysus.


The acceleration of the firm failure rate in France between 2008 and 2010 was preceded by a surge in the number of firms' creations in 2003-2004. Therefore, identifying the impact of the 2008 crisis requires to distinguish, among the failures occurring over the period, those resulting from the crisis from hose mechanically stemming from firm demography, as we know that many firms disappear during their first years of existence. Our study was conducted using the universe of firms created between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2007. This sample is extracted from the database managed by the Companies Direction at Banque de France. The lack of complete information on firms created before 2000 led us to restrict the sample to newly created firms, but the period under study is long enough to encompass the increase in the number of firm creation in 2003-2004. The originality of this study lies both in the sample size and in the richness of the data used. Our statistical analysis focuses on the period between the date of the firm creation and of its first failure. The impact of the crisis is estimated using a flexible duration model, stratified according to the date of creation. The model takes into account the effects of the company age at the failure date, its industry, its size and the sequence of dates associated with its payment incidents on trade bills. We examine more specifically the failure rates in four industries: retail trade, transport, manufacturing and construction. The proportion of failures due to the crisis varies greatly across these four sectors. On average, the impact of the 2008 crisis has been of 27% in retail trade, 35% in transports, 43% in manufacturing and 46% in construction. Younger firms, namely those created in 2006 and 2007, were the most affected by the crisis.


The article presents a case study focused on the definition, political discussion, application, and experience with direct elections and referenda on local, regional and national levels of the Czech political system in the context of participation and elements of direct democracy. The first part of the article (Part I) contains theoretical background, research design of the case study and data for local referenda based on authors' own research; they are divided by topics into the original typology. The added value of the article should culminate in its second part (Part II, to be published in the next issue) with the analysis of electoral participation in local referenda, and this will bring us to the direct elections. At the end of Part II, an application of selected elements of direct democracy and direct elections is embedded in a European context and the main trends are analyzed. Such trends as well as the topic itself demonstrate the motivations of political actors and the relations among the different levels of governance in the Czech Republic.


Large applications of sprinkler irrigation and N fertilizer have been implicated in causing nitrate contamination of ground water in central Wisconsin. Field and lysimeter experiments were established in 1972 and 1973 on the Plainfield loamy sand to determine the effect of reducing the amount of sprinkler-irrigation and fertilizer N on potato (Solanum tuberosum L., var. 'Russet Burbank') tuber yields and on the field water and N balance. Two main treatments were used. The conventional (CON) treatment received irrigation water and N fertilizer according to current recommendations. The improved (IMP) treatment received less irrigation water than the CON treatment in both years. In both years fertilizer N was applied more frequently to the IMP treatment and in 1973 the total amount applied was less in the IMP treatment than in the CON treatment. Chloride (as KCl) accompanied N on a one-to-one weight basis to provide an independent ion for tracing. Additional subtreatments included planting potatoes without hilling in a furrow, additional application of N late in the season, and cropping a high N fertility area. The overall average fresh weight tuber yield was 515 q/ha. Total yields were the same in both CON and IMP treatments for both years. However, grade A tuber yields were greater on the IMP treatment than the CON treatment in 1973 when irrigation was applied every 3 rather than every 5 days, and fertilizer N was applied in 11 rather than three doses. The greater grade A tuber yields occurred despite a decrease in fertilizer N from 260 to 170 kg N/ha and a decrease in irrigation water applied from 45 to 27 cm. Evapotranspiration and N uptake by tubers were not appreciably affected by irrigation and N management. In 1973 most of the N applied at planting was leached except where S-coated urea was used to provide a source of slow-release fertilizer N. Application of fertilizer N and Cl with the irrigation water resulted in substantial variability in inputs over the plot area due to variation in the water distribution. The average coefficient of variation for inputs of fertilizer and water was 19% and the average uniformity coefficient (Cᵤ) was 85%. A satisfactory mass balance of water, N and Cl for potatoes grown in the dosimeters was obtained. Drainage accounted for considerable amounts of the water, N, and Cl outputs with nearly all of the remainder going to and plant uptake. The carefully managed IMP treatment decreased NO₃-N leaching from 200 to 120 kg N/ha and lowered the overall average NO₃-N concentration of the leach ate from 23 to 16 mg N0₃-N/liter. However, the additional costs required to effect a small savings in N fertilizer is probably not justified.


SUMMARY: A description is given of a selective medium which supports the growth of Haemophilus pertussis and Haemophilus parapertussis and largely inhibits the growth of Haemophilus influenzae. The medium contains horse-meat extract, horse blood, salt agar, 2 μg. 4:4′-diamidino-diphenylamine-dihydrochloride/ml. and 0.3 unit penicillin/nil. The medium is of value in the primary isolation of H. pertussis and H. parapertussis.


In the last 30 years agricultural areas have occupied a larger proportion of cultivable zone in the Pampa Plain, generating the movement of livestock activities to the margins of waterways. These changes in land use can cause hydrological, morphological, physicochemical and biological alterations in the lotic systems of this region. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of different types of land use on the structure of the fish community in streams of the middle basin of Areco River. To do this, monthly samplings were realized during the summer of 2014 in four tributaries of the Areco River. Two of these sections were associated with an unfenced livestock use on the bank stream, while the other two sites had an agricultural use with preserved riparian zone. In each sampling site the structure of the riparian zone was evaluated by applying a quality index of the banks. On each sampling date physicochemical and hydrological parameters were surveyed and the fish community was sampled. The quality of the banks in places exposed to livestock was lower than in those dedicated to agricultural use. In the latter, the values of suspended solids were lower while the total coverage of macrophytes was higher. Moreover, the total fish biomass was higher in the sites with higher level of preservation of the riparian zone. Significant differences were also observed in the fish species composition among sites with contrasting land use. There were strong positive correlations between the proportion of piscivores and the integrity of the bank. These results show a consistent relationship between the land use and the quality of the bank, which ultimately have an impact on the structure of the fish community in the lotic systems of the Pampa Plain.


Abstract Phaeochromocytomas are catecholamine-secreting tumors arising in the chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla. They are a rare cause of secondary hypertension. However, catecholamine secreting tumors may also be found in the extra-adrenal sites, producing similar symptoms as the adrenal phaeochromocytoma. The extra-adrenal phaeochromocytomas, are referred to as paragangliomas (PGLs). About 75% of extra-adrenal phaeochromocytomas are intra-abdominal, mostly located in perinephric, periaortic, and bladder regions. Most phaeochromocytomas secrete excessive amount of epinephrine and norepinephrine, whereas most paragangliomas secrete only norepinephrine. The excessive secretion of these products could lead to paroxysms of symptoms that could be life threatening. Medical management is initially offered, but definitive treatment involves surgical removal of the tumor, which requires promptness on the both the clinician and the patient sides. We present a case of an extra-adrenal phaeochromocytoma in an adult male with revealing imaging of a mass surrounding the bladder. The patient was managed with both alpha- and beta-adrenergic blockers. He declined the surgery and eventually died after appearing in an acute hypertensive crisis.


Study of 'Rationalised' Workers in Durgapur Ratan Khasnabis Sudipti Banerjea The article explores the mechanisms behind the workers' acceptance of voluntary retirement scheme in the Durgapur industrial area of West Bengal. Though there is willingness on the part of the workers to accept the compensation in some cases, there are sizeable number of instances of coercion from the management forcing the workers to accept the deal. More importantly, the amount of VRS gets mostly utilised for non-productive purposes, thus reducing the chances of the retired workers to begin any self-employment venture.


This work presents a sparse-attention Transformer architecture for modeling documents that contain large tables. Tables are ubiquitous on the web, and are rich in information. However, more than 20% of relational tables on the web have 20 or more rows (Cafarella et al., 2008), and these large tables present a challenge for current Transformer models, which are typically limited to 512 tokens. Here we propose MATE, a novel Transformer architecture designed to model the structure of web tables. MATE uses sparse attention in a way that allows heads to efficiently attend to either rows or columns in a table. This architecture scales linearly with respect to speed and memory, and can handle documents containing more than 8000 tokens with current accelerators. MATE also has a more appropriate inductive bias for tabular data, and sets a new state-of-the-art for three table reasoning datasets. For HybridQA (Chen et al., 2020), a dataset that involves large documents containing tables, we improve the best prior result by 19 points.


Advances in human brain neuroimaging to achieve high-temporal and high-spatial resolution will depend on computational approaches to localize EEG signals to their sources in the cortex. The source localization inverse problem is inherently ill-posed and depends critically on the modeling of human head electromagnetics. In this paper we present a systematic methodology to analyze the main factors and parameters that affect the accuracy of the EEG source-mapping solutions. We argue that these factors are not independent and their effect must be evaluated in a unified way. To do so requires significant computational capabilities to explore the landscape of the problem, to quantify uncertainty effects, and to evaluate alternative algorithms. We demonstrate that bringing HPC to this domain will enable such investigation and will allow new avenues for neuroinformatics research. Two algorithms to the electromagnetics forward problem (the heart of the source localization inverse), incorporating tissue inhomogeneity and impedance anisotropy, are presented and their parallel implementations described. The head model forward solvers are evaluated and their performance analyzed.


In this essay I explore the dualism in Oscar Wilde's most famous society comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. My thesis is that Wilde employed the well-established Late Victorian concept of double identity as well as a dualistic theme in the play, revealed in the language and in the strategies of lying, in order to exploit the hypocrisy of the society, i.e. the ruling class. The focus of the argument has been to analyse the characters, the double language and the lying in the play in a historical, a biographical and, in part, a colonial context to disclose a higher intent of the work and to fully understand the wit in the play.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol dependence has been associated with long-lasting alterations in limbic-hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (LHPA) axis and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine [5-HT]) function. Other conditions that are associated with alcoholism (cigarette smoking and antisocial personality disorder [ASPD]) have been linked with disturbances in these interrelated systems. We evaluated the stress hormone response to 5-HTergic stimulation in alcohol-dependent men with extended abstinence (average abstinence duration, 4.3 months) and controls to determine the relative contributions of alcoholism, cigarette smoking, and ASPD on baseline and provoked plasma cortisol and adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH) concentrations.

METHODS
One hundred nine alcohol-abstinent men with alcohol dependence (62%), habitual smoking (70%), and ASPD (43%) received D,L-fenfluramine (100 mg po) in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial. The group of recovering alcohol-dependent individuals included abstinent primary alcohol-dependent men and alcohol-dependent men with ASPD, whereas the group of non-alcohol-dependent men comprised healthy controls and non-alcohol-dependent men with ASPD. Plasma cortisol and ACTH levels were obtained at AM baseline and at half-hour intervals after drug administration. Subjective ratings of drug response and physiological measures were also obtained at baseline and every 30 min.

RESULTS
Abstinent alcohol-dependent men had significantly lower (approximately 20%) AM baseline plasma cortisol concentrations than non-alcohol-dependent men on both challenge days; however, no differences between the groups were observed with regard to resting AM plasma ACTH levels. After adjusting for these baseline differences, recovering alcohol-dependent men (area under curve = 35.6 +/- 37.4 [microg/dl] x min) had a twofold greater cortisol response to fenfluramine than non-alcohol-dependent men (area under curve = 17.5 +/- 32.5 [microg/dl] x min) (F = 5.1; df = 1,105; p < 0.03). The elevated cortisol response, which occurred primarily along the descending limb of the response curve, was paralleled by a nonsignificant statistical trend for alcohol-dependent men to also exhibit a greater ACTH response to fenfluramine at the 210-min (p < 0.07) and 240-min (P < 0.09) time points as compared with non-alcohol-dependent men. Cigarette smoking and ASPD did not affect hormonal responses, nor could the groups' subjective ratings and physiological measures be distinguished.

CONCLUSIONS
Alcohol-dependent men with extended abstinence differed from age- and race-matched non-alcohol-dependent men in resting AM and fenfluramine-induced plasma cortisol levels. This dysfunction in glucocorticoid homeostatic mechanisms was associated with alcoholism and not with smoking or ASPD. We also observed a nonsignificant statistical trend for plasma ACTH levels to be elevated among alcohol-dependent men along the descending limb of the response curve. Alcohol-dependent men seemed to have inherited or acquired damage to 5-HT-regulated LHPA axis function, the precise mechanisms and sites of which remain to be determined.


In this guide you will find basic information on using the Cricut Explore electronic cutting machine, as well as instructions for some projects to try!


The performance of hash function computations can impose a significant workload on SSL/TLS authentication servers. In the WLCG this workload shows also in the computation of data transfers checksums. It has been shown in the EGI grid infrastructure that the checksum computation can double the IO load for large file transfers leading to an increase in re-transfers and timeout errors. Storage managers like SToRM try to reduce that impact by computing the checksum during the transfer. That may not be feasible, however, when multiple transfer streams are combined with the use of hashes like MD-5 or SHA-2. We present two alternatives to reduce the hash computation load. First we introduce implementations for the Fast SHA-256 and SHA-512 that can reduce the number of cycles per second of a hash computation from 15 to under 11. Secondly we introduce and evaluate parallel implementations for two novel hash tree functions: NIST SHA-3 Keccak and Skein. These functions were conceived to take advantage of parallel data transfers and their deployment can significantly reduce the timeout and re-transfer errors mentioned above.


These pages have been designed to help you as you begin the research process. Whether you're working on a research paper or preparing a presentation we're confident that you'll find all the research tips and tools to make the job easier.


An earthquake is a natural phenomenon which occurs frequently in Indonesia due to its geographic location which is surrounded by three major plates: Pacific Plate, Australian Plate and Eurasian Plate. In 2017, there were 5.841 earthquakes recorded in Indonesia, and this high number of earthquakes had created major damages and destruction. Therefore, in this research, the researcher will create a clustering of regions prone to earthquakes. In analysing these regions, there will be two clustering processes. The first process will apply two variables which are Latitude and Longitude which will be analysed using DBSCAN and DMDBSCAN method. From the clustering of these two methods, the results signify that the DBSCAN method is better in clustering since the standard deviation value is smaller which is 0.199516, created 6 clusters and 3 data noise. Furthermore, the second clustering process will apply several variables which are earthquake frequencies, depth and magnitudes, and these variables will be analysed using DBSCAN method and Complete Linkage method. After comparing the result of these two methods using standard deviation, the ratio of the standard deviation in Complete Linkage method was revealed to be smaller which is 0.292973, and four clusters were created. Following the profiling results, regions which are the most prone to earthquakes belong to cluster 4, and the lesser ones belongs to cluster 3, 2 and 1 respectively.


We have investigated the effect of annealing temperature on the structural property of Au thin films deposited on Si(100) substrate using the radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering technique. X-ray diffraction revealed that the relative intensities and FWHM of (111), (200), and (311) peaks increased and decreased, respectively, after thermal annealing at 600°C. Scanning electron microscopy indicated that after annealing at 600-700°C, Au structures agglomerated on Si(100) surfaces. Energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDX) revealed that the agglomerated structure was composed of pure Au.


A disadvantage in the design of gerotor pump is a lack of parts that can be adjusted to compensate for wear in the rotor set, and as a consequence, it causes shape reduction of efficiency. In this paper, an attempt has been made to reduce the wear rate between the rotors of a gerotor pump. To do this, floating genetic algorithm (FGA) is used as an optimization technique for minimizing the wear rate proportional factor (WRPF). The result shows that the wear rate can be reduced considerably, e.g. approximately 8% in this paper, through the optimization using FGA.


It has been reported that lubricating oil has a significant influence on the cooling heat transfer of supercritical carbon dioxide. In this study, numerical analysis of the flow pattern of a carbon dioxide (CO2)-oil mixture in a gas cooler was conducted to analyze the change in oil film thickness and heat transfer coefficient against bulk temperature. Simulations were conducted using FLUENT software, and the volume-of-fluid (VOF) model was applied to capture the interface of the lubricating oil and CO2. The compatibility of lubricants was found to have a dramatic influence on cooling heat transfer. The flow regime changes due to CO2 dissolving into the oil causing changes in viscosity, surface tension, and density of the oil film. The comparison of simulated heat transfer coefficients with experimental results showed that the numerical simulation is an effective approach to analyze the characteristics of the flow and heat transfer of supercritical CO2-oil mixture, and the numerical approach proposed could be further extended to the actual gas cooler design.


Unconventional and tight gas reservoirs are located in deep and competent formations, which requires massive fracturing activities to extract hydrocarbons. Some of the persisting challenges faced by operators are either canceled or non-productive fractures. Both challenges force oil companies to drill new substitutional wells, which will increase the development cost of such reservoirs.
 A novel fracturing method was developed based on thermochemical pressure pulse. Reactive material of exothermic components are used to generate in-situ pressure pulse, which is sufficient to create fractures. The reaction can vary from low pressure pulse, to a very high loading up to 20,000 psi, with short pressurization time.
 In this study, Finite Element Modeling (FEM) was used to investigate the impact of the generated pressure-pulse load, by chemical reaction, on the number of induced fractures and fracture length. Actual tests of pulsed fracturing conducted in lab scale using several block samples compared with modeling work. There was a great relationship between the pressure load and fracturing behavior. The greater the pulse load and pressurization rate, the greater the number of created fractures, and the longer the induced fractures.
 The developed novel fracturing method will increase stimulated reservoir volume of unconventional gas without introducing a lot of water to formation. Moreover, the new method can reduce formation breakdown pressure by around 70%, which will minimize number of canceled fracturing.


This article precisely defines huge proofs within the system of Natural Deduction for the Minimal implicational propositional logic \mil. This is what we call an unlimited family of super-polynomial proofs. We consider huge families of expanded normal form mapped proofs, a device to explicitly help to count the E-parts of a normal proof in an adequate way. Thus, we show that for almost all members of a super-polynomial family there at least one sub-proof or derivation of each of them that is repeated super-polynomially many times. This last property we call super-polynomial redundancy. Almost all, precisely means that there is a size of the conclusion of proofs that every proof with conclusion bigger than this size and that is huge is highly redundant too. This result points out to a refinement of compression methods previously presented and an alternative and simpler proof that CoNP=NP.


Haemoglobin polymorphism, haemoglobin concentration, blood group and genotypes of wild and cultured Clarias gariepinus were investigated. Blood samples of Clarias gariepinus collected from Lake Alau (wild) and Dalori fish farm (cultured) were subjected to cellulose acetate electrophoresis to reveal the activities of hemoglobin (Hb). The result shows that both wild and cultured C. gariepinus had AA, BB and CC genotypes in the males and females. However, BD genotype was observed only in the female wild C. gariepinus . The percentage AA and BB genotypes of wild male C. gariepinus was 6.6% each. Wild females had AA, BB, CC and BD genotype with frequencies of 26.6, 33.3, 20 and 6.6% respectively. Cultured male C. gariepinus had AA, BB and CC with frequencies of 13.3, 26.6 and 6.6%, respectively, while the female C. gariepinus had AA, BB and CC with frequencies of 20, 13.3 and 20% respectively. Wild C. gariepinus had the highest (10.36 g/dl) haemoglobin  concentration value while the cultured strain had 8.86 g/dl. The blood groups of wild male C. gariepinus were O - (10% of the population) and AB + (10% of the population). The wild females had O - , O + , A + , B + and AB +   with 40,   10, 10, 10 and 10% of the population respectively, Cultured male had O + , A +  and AB + (10, 20 and 20% of the fish observed) respectively. The blood group observed in the cultured female C. gariepinus were O - (30%), A + (10%) and B + (10%). The BD genotype observed in a wild strain of C. gariepinus indicates incomplete (partial) dominance and rare allele. This could be an indication of natural hybridization. Keywords : Haemoglobin concentration, polymorphism, genotype, blood group, wild and cultured, Clarias


The phenomenon of creativity has received a growing amount of attention from scholars working across a range of disciplines. While this research has produced many important insights, it has also traditionally tended to explore creativity in terms of the reception of products or outcomes, conceiving of it as a cognitive process that is limited to the individual domain of the creative agent. More recently, however, researchers have begun to develop perspectives on creativity that highlight the patterns of adaptive embodied interaction that occur between multiple agents, as well as the broader socio-material milieu they are situated in. This has promoted new understandings of creativity, which is now often considered as a distributed phenomenon. Because music involves such a wide range of socio-cultural, bodily, technological, and temporal dimensions it is increasingly taken as a paradigmatic example for researchers who wish to explore creativity from this more relational perspective. In this article, we aim to contribute to this project by discussing musical creativity in light of recent developments in embodied cognitive science. More specifically, we will attempt to frame an approach to musical creativity based in an 4E (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended) understanding of cognition. We suggest that this approach may help us better understand creativity in terms of how interacting individuals and social groups bring forth worlds of meaning through shared, embodied processes of dynamic interactivity. We also explore how dynamical systems theory (DST) may offer useful tools for research and theory that align closely with the 4E perspective. To conclude, we summarize our discussion and suggest possibilities for future research.


This paper investigates the synergistic interaction between carbonation and microcracks in hardened cement pastes. Ordinary Portland cement pastes with three different water/cement ratios of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6, hydrated for 28 days with crack apertures ranging from 10 to 150 μm were subjected to accelerated carbonation in a climate chamber that controls the targeted relative humidity (65 and 75%), CO2 concentration (0.3 vol.% and 1 vol.%) and temperature (20 °C). Mercury intrusion porosimetry, N2-adsorption and thermogravimetry analysis were used to quantify the carbonation-induced changes in pore size distribution, porosity and phase assemblages. Additionally, the changes in crack apertures were followed during carbonation. The results indicated that cracks within the investigated range facilitate the carbonation along the crack surface due to a faster gas diffusion process. The cracks with apertures below 50 μm increase the carbonation depth at least by a factor of two for all studied w/c and environmental conditions. We observed a constant increase in crack openings during carbonation and its linear relationship with the amount of precipitated calcium carbonate. Due to depletion of CH and decalcification of C-S-H close to the sample surface, the crack aperture increase becomes limited. Therefore, the crack apertures do not increase further after the material around the crack is carbonated. It was also found that the densification of the carbonated cement matrix coexists with large capillary pores (>50 nm) or cracks, especially for the low w/c samples. The shift in pore size distribution from about 100 nm towards smaller pores (4.5–50 nm) and a decrease in gel pore fractions after 28 days of carbonation also indicate a simultaneous calcium carbonate precipitation in meso/capillary pores and decalcification of C-S-H at the nanoscale.


Abstract Alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) is a complex neuropsychiatric condition with a multifaceted impact on functioning and the ability to live independently. A comprehensive approach to assessing ARBD is therefore necessary. This study aimed to investigate the neurocognitive, psychosocial and everyday functioning of a group of individuals with ARBD on admission to specialist residential care. A comprehensive assessment framework was used to investigate the baseline functioning of 20 individuals with ARBD. The following assessment tools were administered: the National Adult Reading Test (NART); a selection of Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) tasks; the EuroQoL EQ-5D-5L; the Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short Form Version 2, acute version (SF-36v2); the Profile of Mood States; the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS); the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS); and the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS). The results demonstrate the heterogeneity of individuals with ARBD. There was variability across the group. However, the results indicate a broad pattern of deficits across neurocognitive domains. The majority of participants scored within the normal range for depression, anxiety and stress, although there was evidence for mild to extreme levels of depression and anxiety, as well as elevated levels of confusion and relatively low levels of vigour. Scores on the AMPS also showed variability and most participants demonstrated increased clumsiness and physical effort, and decreased efficiency while performing activities of daily living. Larger scale, longitudinal research is now required to investigate changes in the functioning of people with ARBD over time.


P‐glycoproteins encoded by the (multi‐drug resistance) mdr genes play a central role in the resistance of tumor cells to a wide range of anti‐cancer drugs. Modulation of P‐glycoprotein function could therefore provide a means of sensitising tumor cells to chemotherapy. Studies in this context have centred around the use of compounds which antagonise the P‐glycoprotein membrane transport system. To investigate the possibility of modulating P‐glycoprotein expression at a transcriptional level, we investigated the effects of hormonal factors and cytochrome P450‐inducing agents on hepatic expression of murine mdr I, mdr 2 and mdr 3. Hepatic mdr 2 and mdr 3 expressions were significantly suppressed in hypophysectomised animals, indicating that pituitary hormones activate the hepatic expression of these genes. Many of the foreign compounds and anti‐cancer drugs tested did not significantly induce mdr 1, 2 or 3 expression. However, it was of particular interest that a potent cytochrome P450 inducer, 1,4‐bis[2‐(3,5‐dichloropyridyloxy)]benzene, almost completely suppressed hepatic mdr 2 and 3 expressions.


Background It is likely that clinical deficits in Huntington's disease (HD) arise from damage involving a cortico-basal ganglia network rather than damage in the striatum only. Aims To determine the structural correlates of impaired brain functions in HD by using whole brain voxel based DTI analysis. Methods DTI axial slices were obtained using a 3T system (slice thickness 2 mm no gap, 50 independent directions). We included 24 early HD and 23 controls from the TRACK-HD Paris site cohort. Voxelwise group comparisons of white matter fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) were performed using voxel based analysis (SPM5, clusters considered significant at p<0.05, corrected for multiple comparisons). We selected one task in each cognitive domain which showed significant cross-sectional differences at baseline: motor (self-paced tapping tasks), cognitive (UPSIT), attention (Trail B making test) and behavioural (Apathy scores calculated from problem behaviours assessment). Results There was a significant decrease in FA in several white matter association pathways and increase in FA in the anterior putamen. Voxel based MD analysis showed a diffuse increase in MD in cortical grey, white matters and in the basal ganglia. There were significant correlations between: (i) self-paced tapping and MD in the parietal gyrus at 1.8 Hz and the prefrontal areas at 3 Hz, (ii) UPSIT test and MD in the parietal and occipital lobes, the cingulum and the insula, and FA in the insular and external capsule white matter, (iii) TMT tests and diffusion in the frontal, temporal gyri, the superior parietal and the post central gyri and (iv) apathy and FA in the rectus gyrus bilaterally. Conclusions Disruption of motor, associative and limbic cortico-striatal circuits differentially contribute to the clinical signs of the disease and play a role in symptom development.


After outlining some relevant background information about the NT crocodile farming industry and explaining the purpose of our survey of NT crocodile farmers conducted in the first half of 2005, this paper reports the results of the survey. The information received from the survey is supplemented by secondary data and by information from secondary sources. This report covers the location of respondents; the size of crocodile farms; farmers' stated knowledge of and attitudes towards the NT Crocodile Management Plan; the involvement of farms in the harvesting of crocodile eggs and the costs involved; views of crocodile farmers about whether the NT Crocodile Management Plan encourages landholders to conserve crocodiles and their perceptions of the benefits to landholders; predicted production trends and trends in the number of farms operating in NT; economic characteristics of crocodile farms producing in NT including the economic advantages and disadvantages of crocodile farming in NT. Concluding comments provide, amongst other things, an overview of the structure of the crocodile farming industry in the NT gleaned from a consideration of data available from the NT Government's Department of Business, Industry and Resource Development.


Vehicle-to-grid (V2G) has the potential of reducing the cost of owning and operating electric vehicles (EVs) while increasing utility system flexibility. Unidirectional V2G is a logical first step because it can be implemented on standard J1772 chargers and it does not degrade EV batteries from cycling. In this work an optimal combined bidding formulation for regulation and spinning reserves is developed to be used by aggregators. This formulation takes into account unplanned departures by EV owners during contract periods and compensates accordingly. Optional load level and price constraints are also developed. These algorithms maximize profits to the aggregator while increasing the benefits the customers and utility. Simulations over a three month period on the ERCOT system show that implementation of these algorithms can provide significant benefits to customers, utilities, and aggregators. Comparisons with bidirectional V2G show that while the benefits of unidirectional V2G are significantly lower, so are the risks.


Based at Wansbeck District Council, positioned within the Wansbeck Initiative, the Wansbeck Online community portal project was established in 2003. Wansbeck Online aims to build community capacity, and develop awareness and understanding of ICT and web based information amongst its users (residents, and community and voluntary groups). The project has progressed from its focus on website design and function, to development and promotion of its content. In evaluating the Wansbeck Community Online project, the research team assessed the extent to which the project has achieved a range of objectives, including: •Achievement of relevant targets and policy objectives, locally and nationally •Effective development and delivery of the project •Increase in awareness and understanding of ICT amongst service users •Building overall capacity in the local community •Offering Value for money •Delivering examples of best practice Drawing upon experience of other similar projects, the final report made recommendations for the future of the project, informing its succession strategy and identifying issues around funding, staffing, management, promotion, and community engagement.


In this paper we describe our submission to the ImageCLEFmed 2020 Tuberculosis task and discuss additional results on the training set with various neural networks. After some centralization and normalization we independently categorized the 2D slices with convolutional neural networks (traditional and residual feed-forward networks) and we aggregated the individual predictions based on the positions of the lung and the slices. Our additional experiments with various aggregation methods indicate that individual slices do not necessary contain enough information about such complex structures.


The research presented in this article estimated three asset pricing models, applied to sixteen European stock markets, to create efficient portfolios, based on the solution originally proposed by Elton, Gruber and Padberg (1976, 1978). This solution overcomes the need to solve a mathematical programming problem, as required by the mean-variance approach proposed by Markowitz (1952). The innovative approach proposed consists of extending the original method of Elton et al. to include the market timing and lower partial moments. In the empirical analysis of this article three asset pricing models were estimated and their parameters and risk measures were used to create beta-based efficient portfolios. The first asset pricing model is the standard CAPM, the second model adds an additional variable which represents market timing, and the third model includes two additional variables, one representing market timing, and the other representing lower partial moments. The asset pricing models were estimated by rolling regressions applied to moving samples. Three types of efficient portfolios were constructed and evaluated on a daily basis, each type being related to one of the three asset pricing models estimated. The efficient portfolios were recomposed daily as they benefited from the new parameters that were given by the most recent rolling estimation. The results showed that the beta-based efficient portfolios dominated the equally weighted portfolios and the investment in the European index, which served as benchmarks.


ABSTRACT Today, there are more countries practising democracy in Africa than at any stage of human development on the continent. However, most newly democratic countries still show remnants of precedents set by colonialism and past autocratic regimes. One of the litmus tests in a democracy is the holding of free and fair elections. The media occupy a central role in this process, but the constraints imposed on formal mainstream media in many African countries have affected the role of the media in election monitoring and observation. The principles of transparency and credibility in election results reporting remain elusive. This article analyses how two civil society organisations, the Christian Churches Monitoring Group (CCMG) and Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) utilised Facebook and mobile phone SMSs to conduct parallel voter tabulation (PVT) of the 2015 presidential by-election in Zambia and publish election results in real time, so as to restore transparency and credibility in the electoral process. The argument made here is that this has complemented formal mainstream media to create a converged media system where new and old media convene to improve the role of the media in election monitoring and observation.


Berndtsson, Joakim 2009: The Privatisation of Security and State Control of Force: Changes, Challenges and the Case of Iraq. PhD dissertation in Peace and Development Research, School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 700, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden. ISBN 978-91-87380-74-7 The thematic focus of this dissertation is the privatisation of security, that is, the increasing use of private security companies (PSCs) to perform securityand military-related tasks traditionally associated with the state and institutions such as the police or the military. More concretely, the study investigates security privatisation in the context of violent conflict and in relation to the problem of state control of force. The point of departure is that the privatisation of security calls for a theoretical and historical reassessment of the ideal of a state monopoly of violence and of assumptions about the primacy of states vis-à-vis issues of security and conflict. Thus, it is argued that the level of state control of force is shifting across time and space and that the use of non-state forms of violence and protection is a recurrent theme in the history of state formation and change. The aim of the dissertation is, firstly, to situate the post-Cold War expansion of the market for privatised security in a historical perspective and, secondly, to investigate empirically how security privatisation transpires in the conflict in Iraq and how this use of PSCs connects to changes and challenges to state control. Analysing issues of control from the perspective of civil-military relations, the study focuses on the functional, political and social dimensions of state control of force. Empirically, the study investigates the use of PSCs in Iraq from 2003-2007 and in particular how security privatisation is realised in terms of the production, financing and regulation of services. Adopting a descriptive and exploratory approach, the thesis draws on different sources, including official documents and a series of semi-structured interviews with people in the private security industry. The study finds that the privatisation of security can fruitfully be seen as a reemergence of non-state, commercial forms of violence and protection, in turn indicating a shift in state control over the instruments and use of force. This is in line with arguments about the increasing "marketization" of the state in the globalised period. However, the study also finds that there is no simple correlation between security privatisation and increasing or decreasing state control of force. Under some circumstances, privatisation has increased aspects of state control, but has also resulted in serious problems that challenge conventional thinking on the sovereign state and the ideal of state or democratic control of force. The case of Iraq provides several important insights into the logic and potential outcome of security privatisation in the context of armed conflict, but also points to a number of issues that merit further investigation, for instance concerning the oversight of PSCs and their activities in conflict and post-conflict environments and the difficulties of holding companies accountable.


Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) for bone mineral density (BMD) have identified over 1,100 associations to date. However, identifying causal genes implicated by such studies has been challenging. Recent advances in the development of transcriptome reference datasets and computational approaches such as transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) colocalization have proven to be informative in identifying putatively causal genes underlying GWAS associations. Here, we used TWAS/eQTL colocalization in conjunction with transcriptomic data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project to identify potentially causal genes for the largest BMD GWAS performed to date. Using this approach, we identified 512 genes as significant (Bonferroni <= 0.05) using both TWAS and eQTL colocalization. This set of genes was enriched for regulators of BMD and members of bone relevant biological processes. To investigate the significance of our findings, we selected PPP6R3, the gene with the strongest support from our analysis which was not previously implicated in the regulation of BMD, for further investigation. We observed that Ppp6r3 deletion in mice decreased BMD. In this work, we provide an updated resource of putatively causal BMD genes and demonstrate that PPP6R3 is a putatively causal BMD GWAS gene. These data increase our understanding of the genetics of BMD and provide further evidence for the utility of combined TWAS/colocalization approaches in untangling the genetics of complex traits.


Cryptography is one of the most popular methods for protecting data stored in storage devices such as solid-state drives (SSDs). To maintain integrity of data, one of the popular techniques is that all incoming data are encrypted before they are stored, however, in this technique, the encryption overhead is non-negligible and it can increase I/O service time. In order to mitigate the negative performance impact caused by the data encryption, a write buffer can be used to hide the long latency by encryption. Using the write buffer, incoming unencrypted data can be immediately returned as soon as they are written in the buffer. They will get encrypted and synchronized with flash memory. However, if the write buffer itself is not encrypted, unencrypted secret data might leak through this insecure write buffer. On the other hand, if the entire write buffer is fully encrypted, it incurs significant performance overhead. To address this problem, we propose an on-chip access control memory (ACM) and presents a fast encrypted SSD, called FeSSD that implements a secure write buffering mechanism using the ACM. The ACM does not require a memory-level full encryption mechanism, thus not only solving the unencrypted data leaking problem, but also offering relatively fast I/O service. Our simulation results show that the I/O response time of FeSSD can be improved by up to 56 percent over a baseline where encrypted data are stored in the normal write buffer.


In this paper a comparison between different advanced oxidation processes (AOP), for the remediation of a wastewater contaminated with 100 mg/l of pentachlorophenol (PCP), is proposed. The AOP chosen were: Fenton or Fentonlike reactions in which the soluble iron catalyst salt was added as Fe(II) or Fe(III) or a mixture of Fe(II) and Fe(III), and ozonation. In the latter case the effects of the presence of a solid iron oxide (hematite) were also evaluated. For the Fenton's reactions, the investigated parameters were: pH (from pH=1.5 to pH=5), reaction time, H2O2/PCP ratio (from 5/1 to 20/1), Fe/H2O2 ratio (from 0 to 2/1) and the effect of a H2O2 stabilizer: KH2PO4. The highest TOC removal (75%) was reached, using stabilized H2O2 and Fe(II), when H2O2/PCP=5/1 and Fe/H2O2=1/1; in this case, dechlorination was 96% and KH2PO4 increased H2O2 lifetime significantly. Fe(III) or the mixture of Fe(II) and Fe(III), proved to be more efficient than Fe(II) when H2O2/PCP<15/1 and Fe/H2O2<1/1. For ozonation the effects of pH and of the ratio between airflow and the solution's volume, were investigated. The highest efficiencies (TOC removal=35%, Cl release=80%) were reached when O3=0.24 mg/l at pH=11; however diminishing the volume of treated solution, 47% TOC removal and stoichiometric Cl release were observed. The addition of hematite resulted in a slight increase of TOC removal and Cl release. By comparing the experimental results, among the tested AOP systems, Fenton's reaction proved to be the most effective for PCP remediation.


Abstract. The number of smartphone users has increased dramatically as smartphones have become more widely available. The mass-market urgently requires the deployment of low-cost GNSS chips in smartphones to achieve continuous, high-precision velocity and location services. Currently, most GNSS velocity determination research relies on traditional geodetic receivers and focuses on comparing velocity determination methods and analyzing velocity determination influencing factors, while research into the direction of multi-GNSS velocity determination for smartphones is insufficient. To solve this problem, we study the differences in velocity determination accuracy of Android smartphones with single-constellation, dual-constellation and multi-constellation focusing on BDS-2 and BDS-3. The results show that the accuracy of velocity determination differs significantly between different mobile phone models. The velocity determination accuracy of BDS is the highest in all single constellations, and the accuracy of BDS-2, BDS-3 and GPS are not much different. The velocity determination accuracy of dual-constellation and multi-constellation is better than single-constellation. In static velocity determination, the Huawei nova5 quad-constellation velocity determination error is in the cm/s level, while the Redmi K40 error is in the dm/s level. In kinematic velocity determination, the Huawei nova5's quad-constellation velocity determination error in horizontal and vertical directions is 1.06 dm/s and 1.77 dm/s respectively; The Redmi's quad-constellation velocity determination error in horizontal and vertical directions is 3.76 dm/s and 4.59 dm/s respectively.


Crankcase ventilation contributes significantly to diesel engine particulate emissions. Future regulations will not only limit the mass of particulate matter, but also the number of particles. Controlling the source of crankcase emissions is critical to meeting the perennial legislation. Deficiency in the understanding of crankcase emissions generation and the contribution of lubricating oil has been addressed in detail by the experimental study presented in this thesis.

A plethora of high speed laser optical diagnostics techniques have been employed to deduce the main mechanisms of crankcase oil aerosol generation. Novel images have captured oil atomisation and passive oil distribution around the crankcase of an optically accessed, motored, four cylinder, off highway, heavy duty, diesel engine. Rayleigh type ligament breakup of oil films present on the surface of dynamic components, most notably the crankshaft, camshaft and valve rockers generated oil drops below 10 micrometers. Data illustrated not only crankcase oil aerosol generation at source, but it has provided valuable information on methods to control oil aerosol generation and improve oil circuit efficiency. The feasibility of utilising computational fluid dynamics to predict crankcase oil aerosol generation has been successfully assessed using the experimental data.

Particle sampling has characterised the crankcase emissions from both a fired and motored diesel engine crankcase. The evolution of submicron crankcase particles down to 5 nm has been recorded from both engines, including the isolated contribution of engine oil, at a wide range of engine test points. Results have provided constructive insight into the generation and control of this complex emission.

The main mechanism of crankcase oil aerosol generation was found to be crankshaft oil atomisation. This atomisation process has been analysed in detail, involving high speed imaging of primary and satellite drop generation and high speed digital particle image velocity of the crankshaft air flow. A promising mechanism of regulating and controlling crankcase oil aerosol emissions at source has been studied experimentally.


Abstract : This report demonstrates the need for a strategic and operational approach to securing U.S. interests called special warfare. The United States requires new approaches for exerting influence, filling the missing middle between the limitations of distant-strike options presented by armed unmanned aerial systems and Tomahawk missiles and the costly, indefinite commitment of conventional forces. Special warfare is an Army Special Operations Forces doctrinal term meaning the execution of activities that involve a combination of lethal and nonlethal actions taken by a specially trained and educated force that has a deep understanding of cultures and foreign language, proficiency in small-unit tactics, and the ability to build and fight alongside indigenous combat formations in a permissive, uncertain, or hostile environment. It includes special operations forces conducting combinations of unconventional warfare, foreign internal defense, and/or counterinsurgency through and with indigenous forces or personnel.1The report has four aims: (1) to adapt conventional operational art to the unique characteristics of special warfare, (2) to identify the strategic advantages and risks associated with special warfare, (3) to explore how special warfare campaigns could be used to address challenges identified in strategic guidance, and (4) to provide guidance to military and civilian leaders and planners in designing and executing these campaigns.


Many analysts argue that the Internet is producing a fundamental change in the way that business works. The network economy grows faster every day. Internet markets are developing rapidly with information being the single most traded commodity on the Internet. This paper looks at the extent to which conventional pricing theory applies to this type of good and whether it requires modifications in order to be applicable to cyberspace. Do issues such as the ease of consumer arbitrage activity, privacy or convergence constitute a major impediment to the application of conventional price theory? The thesis considers these issues with particular reference to the implications for consumer welfare on the one hand and economic efficiency on the other. The findings of the research with respect to the economic theory's applicability to the digital information goods and services traded on the Internet is mitigated. The diverse pricing schemes will be applicable according to different industries trading electronically. For the establishments of price discriminatory schedules to be efficient and welfare enhancing, three conditions must be reunited: side issues such as consumer arbitrage, unbundling ought to be resolved and the seller ought to be aware of consumer price sensitiveness and market output must increase.


Abstract. Operational systems operated by Mercator Ocean provide daily ocean forecasts, and combining these forecasts we can produce ensemble forecast and uncertainty estimates. This study focuses on the mixed-layer depth in the Northeast Atlantic near the Porcupine Abyssal Plain for May 2013. This period is of interest for several reasons: (1) four Mercator Ocean operational systems provide daily forecasts at a horizontal resolution of 1/4, 1/12 and 1/36° with different physics; (2) glider deployment under the OSMOSIS project provides observation of the changes in mixed-layer depth; (3) the ocean stratifies in May, but mixing events induced by gale force wind are observed and forecast by the systems. Statistical scores and forecast error quantification for each system and for the combined products are presented. Skill scores indicate that forecasts are consistently better than persistence, and temporal correlations between forecast and observations are greater than 0.8 even for the 4-day forecast. The impact of atmospheric forecast error, and for the wind field in particular (miss or time delay of a wind burst forecast), is also quantified in terms of occurrence and intensity of mixing or stratification events.