Although lack of seeds can limit forest recovery in abandoned agricultural lands, few studies have documented the patterns of seed rain and soil seed bank in active pastures. To determine if lack of seeds is a limiting factor, we studied the woody species composition of the seed rain and soil seed bank in an active pasture in Barranquitas, Puerto Rico. In addition, fruit production of 43 common shrub and tree species was monitored in the surrounding secondary forest. Seed rain was monitored for one year at -2, 0, 2, 4, 8, 16, and 32 m from the forest edge along six transects. The soil seed bank was sampled in January/February 1995 and October/November 1995 at the same distances from the forest edge along ten transects. Of the 35 species that produced fruits in the forest, 14 species were detected in the seed rain study and only 0.3 percent of the seeds and 3 species dispersed to more than 4 m from the forest edge. Two of the three species were dispersed by wind. The seed bank study showed a similar pattern with a dramatic decrease in seedling density and species richness with distance from the forest edge. More than 50 percent of the seedlings in the seed bank study were Trema lamarckianum. This study demonstrated that few seeds disperse into the pastures and even when a rare dispersal event occurs, species do not accumulate because of short-term seed viability and, possibly, high seed predation. Studies of early secondary forest regeneration have shown that in some cases, forest can recover rapidly in abandoned agricultural lands; but our results suggest that only a small subset of the forest species will contribute to the initial recovery process.


Financial markets reflect what is the collective trading behaviour of traders. Such behaviour is often affected by financial crisis or political events. The term regime change is used to describe such significant change of collective behaviour. This thesis studies how regime change can be measured and detected in financial markets.

The traditional ways to detect regime changes are based on analysis of the statistical properties of time series. For example, researchers may have used significant changes in means, volatilities, autocorrelations and cross-covariances of asset returns to conclude regime changes. In this thesis, we study regime change detection using indicators developed in Directional Change (DC). DC is an alternative way to sample financial data. Unlike time series, which samples transaction prices at regular time intervals, DC samples prices at peaks and troughs of the market.

We propose a new method to detect regime changes under the DC framework. DC data is fed into a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), a machine learning model, which aims to discover the hidden state of the market. To evaluate our method, we apply it to the Forex market over a time period of uncertainty, namely the Brexit referendum period. The timing of regime changes detected by this method is consistent with the political developments taking place at the time. While regime changes detected by DC and time series agree with each other most of the time, some regime changes found under DC were not found under time series. That means our DC approach complemented the time series approach by the provision of supporting and additional information.

With the method developed, we then went on to detect normal and abnormal market regimes (which represent regimes before and after significant events took place) in other assets. Through observation of regimes detected in ten different markets at different times using different thresholds, we discovered that normal and abnormal regimes are clearly separable from each other in the DC indicator space. This allowed us to generalise and characterise what are the features of normal and abnormal market regimes using DC indicators.

We then showed that the regime characteristics established above can be used for regime tracking. As a proof of concept, we showed that, based on the market data observed so far, one can use a simple Bayes model to compute the probability of the current market being in the normal or abnormal regime. Preliminary results suggested that the proposed method managed to detect regime change signals accurately and promptly.

Finally, we examined the usefulness of the detected regime change signals. Two trading algorithms are proposed to demonstrate the practical implication of the regime tracking information.

To summarise: this thesis pioneers a new method for regime change detection under the DC framework. It showed that normal and abnormal regimes can becharacterised using DC indicators. Once such characteristics are clearly established, this could be used for effective market tracking, which potentially lays the foundation for a practical financial early warning system. The regime tracking signals can be used to established valuable trading algorithms.


Local financial management improvements needs to be realized for good governance. Regulation No. 17 of 2003 requires regional governments to better manage their finances through technology based Local Finance Information Systems (SIKD). In practice, it often causes behavioral problems because it leads to changes in the system in a short time by claiming to gain a better system that complies with the financial administration system in Indonesia. Thus, the government has to pay attention to their apparatus. This study tries to find out factors for strengthening the finance staff for implementing technology-based SIKD. It used a phenomenological approach and the data were collected through observation, in-depth interview, and document analysis. Informants in this study are those who directly involved in technology-based SIKD, finance staff, and policy makers. It shows that there are three important factors for the success of technology-based SIKD. Firstly, the staff's commitment to self- integrity. Secondly, ethics and morality for staff's building character, and thirdly, improve the government apparatus' capacity. In conclusion, the government should be proactive in improving the human resources quality for implementing technology-based SIKD, through socialization or training. Results of this study suggest that regional government regulates human resource development for the successful implementation of technology-based SIKD.


Abstract. This paper presents the method applied and the results obtained in the photogrammetric study of the Qubbet el-Hawa Coptic Church. After several archaeological interventions, the ruins of this church were completely uncovered of sand. Therefore, a geometric documentation is justified in prevision of possible damages or deterioration that could affect it, considering the weakened status of several structures. In this context, we selected close-range photogrammetry because of the site conditions which include several vertical walls and occlusions that complicated the use of other terrestrial methods. In addition, a real texture of the object was demanded in order to obtain a complete documentation of the church. In this sense, some decorations and wall paintings were still visible causing this requisite of documentation based on real textures. However, the use of terrestrial photogrammetry was complicated due to the presence of occlusions, and in addition the use of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) was not allowed. So a method using a mast of about 4 to 6 metres was considered in order to lift the camera, avoiding these obstacles and reducing the amount of photographs needed. Applying this method, a great set of photographs was acquired and the scene covered with convergent images. The results of the photogrammetric processes were several metric products such as a 3D model with real textures, a ground Digital Elevation Model (DEM), several orthoimages, sections, etc. In addition a preliminary virtual reconstruction of the church has been developed based on these results. In conclusion, we have obtained a complete and reliable geometric documentation of the site and other derived products that can be used for other purposes. The method used has demonstrated its efficiency in these types of studies.


The objectives of this study were to determine the differences in the expression of heat shock protein, and steroidogenic and apoptosis genes by cumulus-oocyte complex (COC) of beef cattle in a tropical environment as affected by seasonal and day effect of temperature and relative humidity. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used to measure gene expression in COC in different seasons including cool (Jan to Feb), summer (Mar to Apr) and rainy (May to Jul) seasons. Ambient temperature and relative humidity recorded on the day before oocyte collection were used to classify environment groups as: low temperature and low humidity (LT-LH), high temperature and low humidity (HT-LH) and high temperature and high humidity (HT-HH). Expression of HSP70 was higher in the cool than rainy season, and for LT-LH than HT-HH (p < 0.05). For the steroidogenic gene, STAR genes were expressed less in HT-LH than either LT-LH or HT-HH (p < 0.05), but no effect of season was observed. Expression of MCL-1 was lower (p < 0.05) for HT-LH than LT-LH or HT-HH and BAX was higher (p < 0.05) for HT-LH than LTLH or HT-HH. Except for HSP70, expression of heat shock proteins and steroidogenic and apoptotic genes in COC was not affected by season. However, expression of these genes in COC was altered when environmental conditions were characterized by HT-LH. Higher humidity appears to mediate expression of these genes when climates are hot.


Health effects as a result of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred in 1986 are considered in the paper. Wrong prognosis of the health effects with respect to mortality and morbidity among the population exposed to low radiation doses is shown. Proven increase in thyroid cancer cases among people who were children aged from 0 to 18 at the time of the accident is shown. Linear relationship between thyroid cancer cases and dose to thyroid ranged from 0.2 to 4.0 Gy is considered. An additional absolute risk of thyroid cancer in children varies in the range 1.9-2.6 cases per 10(4) person-year Gy. During the fifteen years following the accident no cases of acute and chronic radiation sickness have been revealed because the population living in contaminated areas received low radiation doses. Also, exposures to low radiation doses did not result in excess of malignant tumors among population. In some cases the outcomes of acute radiation sickness were as follows: radiation damages to the skin, cancer cataracts, development of oncopathology.


Taking advantage of the extremely high dependence of surface tension on the concentration of amphiphilic molecules in aqueous solution, a new model based on the double equilibrium between free and aggregated molecules in the liquid phase and between free molecules in the liquid phase and those adsorbed at the air/liquid interface is presented and validated using literature data and fluorescence measurements. A key point of the model is the use of both the Langmuir isotherm and the Gibbs adsorption equation in terms of free molecules instead of the nominal concentration of the solute. The application of the model should be limited to non ionic compounds since it does not consider the presence of counterions. It requires several coupled nonlinear fittings for which we developed a software that is publicly available in our server as a web application. Using this tool, it is straightforward to get the average aggregation number of an amphiphile, the micellization free energy, the adsorption constant, the maximum surface excess (and so the minimum area per molecule), the distribution of solute in the liquid phase between free and aggregate species, and the surface coverage in only a couple of seconds, just by uploading a text file with surface tension vs concentration data and the corresponding uncertainties.


This paper argues that unemployment persistence in countries like Tunisia is not caused only by labor market rigidities and by population growth. The size of the informal sector and the low level of investment within the formal sector and in public infrastructure and services are other important factors. The main purpose of this paper is to show that the larger the size of the informal sector the more persistent unemployment will be, and that the larger the share of investment allocated to the formal sector the lower and least persistent unemployment will be. We also show that an exogenous increase of the wage rate paid by the informal sector, for instance as a result of the enforcement of some labor regulations within the informal sector, will (paradoxically) reduce unemployment. The reason is that it reduces the gap between work conditions in the formal and the informal sectors and slows down the migration process to the formal sector. The link between unemployment, the size of the informal sector and capital formation is based on many channels and assumptions built in the dynamic theoretical framework of this paper. Although the most crucial of these assumptions are tested empirically using data from a survey of firms conducted in Tunisia, the main results obtained in this paper are confirmed mainly by simulation under various scenarios.


Introduction The prevalence of azithromycin resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) including high-level resistance (HL-AziR NG) is increasing in England. It has been suggested that exposure to azithromycin at sub-optimal doses may facilitate development of azithromycin resistance in NG. We investigated whether treatment history for non-rectal chlamydia (CT) or NG (as proxies for azithromycin exposure) in GUM services was associated with susceptibility of NG to azithromycin. Methods Descriptive and negative binomial regression analyses of azithromycin Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) data from 4608 NG isolates collected by the Gonococcal Resistance to Antimicrobials Surveillance Programme (GRASP) 2013–2015 (matched to GUMCADv2 data on CT/NG diagnoses) were performed. Descriptive analyses of previous CT/NG among 56 HL-AziR NG isolates (MIC>256 mg/L) were also performed (2013–2016). Results Modal azithromycin MIC was 0.25mg/L (1 dilution below the resistance breakpoint) in those with and without history of CT or GC. There were no differences in MIC distribution by previous CT/NG, nor by time since most recent infection (CT: p=0.97; NG: p>0.99). Among patients with HL-AziR NG, 4 (8%) were treated for CT and 4 (8%) for NG in the previous year, compared with 9% and 13% respectively for all GRASP patients. Discussion There was no evidence of an association between previous CT/NG treatment in GUM services and subsequent presentation with an azithromycin-resistant strain. However, 46% of CT diagnoses occur in non-GUM settings therefore further research is needed to explore whether an association with azithromycin exposure in other settings and for other conditions exists.


Glass-ionomer-cements (GIC) have been shown to act as matrices for the slow release of fluoride ions. The aim of the current research is to assess whether the incorporation of differing species leads to a similar release pattern. In this study, the objective is to attempt to clarify the release mechanism within the cement. GICs evaluated had differing glass compositions; all glasses having Si Al Ca and O present. AH2 has additionally Na, F and P, MP4 had additionally Na, LG26 had additionally F and P and LG30 P only. The influence of different ions on the binding and release characteristics of the cement were evaluated. This study investigated the use of four different experimental GICs as carriers for the release of chlorhexidine acetate (CHA) and amprolium hydrochloride (AHCI) at included concentrations ranging from 0.5% to 13.0% of added species by weight. Release into water at 37 °C was examined using highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Physical properties evaluated included compressive strengths, and working times and setting times. In general, the more added species that was included, the greater the amount released. More amprolium hydrochloride was released and at a faster rate than chlorhexidine acetate. For most GICs, compressive strengths were found to be decreased by the presence of an additional species, while working and setting times increased. Amprolium hydrochloride had a more marked effect than chlorhexidine acetate. The effects of included species on the surfaces of the GICs were observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy. The influences of the additional species on the chemical setting of the GICs were measured by spectroscopic methods including FTIR.


ABSTRACT  The unique morphology of quillworts has received limited attention, and such studies have been limited to only a few species. Our extensive field work during the past two decades has revealed variation in the structures of the plant, including the rhizomorph, scales, phyllopodia, and abscission caps. Polarity of the axes of southeastern quillwort rhizomorphs varies from discoid (most species), to elongate, to upright with axis branching in several species. In species of intermittent streams, these branched rhizomorphs produce plantlets that break off in running water. Scales are tiny brown or black structures in alternating whorls with sporophylls (leaves). They are often overlooked and easily removed when rinsing specimens. Found in most southeastern terrestrial/amphibious species, scales are absent from aquatic species. Scales are distinct from phyllopodia, the sclerified bases of sporophylls, but intermediates between scales and phyllopodia occur. Not all species with scales have phyllopodia. Although scales cannot be used for determination of species, their presence or absence is of taxonomic value. Research on southeastern Isoetes phylogeny could help determine which of the rhizomorph and scale characters are plesiomorphic.


In computational psycholinguistics, various language models have been evaluated against human reading behavior (e.g., eye movement) to build human-like computational models. However, most previous efforts have focused almost exclusively on English, despite the recent trend towards linguistic universal within the general community. In order to fill the gap, this paper investigates whether the established results in computational psycholinguistics can be generalized across languages. Specifically, we re-examine an established generalization —the lower perplexity a language model has, the more human-like the language model is— in Japanese with typologically different structures from English. Our experiments demonstrate that this established generalization exhibits a surprising lack of universality; namely, lower perplexity is not always human-like. Moreover, this discrepancy between English and Japanese is further explored from the perspective of (non-)uniform information density. Overall, our results suggest that a cross-lingual evaluation will be necessary to construct human-like computational models.


Food Safety offers an intriguing, anecdotal assessment of food- and waterborne illnesses "from farm to fork." It examines how modern technology and traditional views about food safety and food handling can affect consumer safety and it concludes that the responsibility of a safe food supply lies with a variety of people, including regulators, food producers, food handlers, and consumers. Readers will become familiar with the history and causes behind many well-known outbreaks from cholera to E. coli O157:H7 to mad cow disease.
This informative book is accessible and engaging, with minimal jargon. Extensive references are included at the conclusion of each chapter, and three appendixes detail the pathogens that cause most foodborne illness, key terms, and common abbreviations and acronyms used by the major world regulatory agencies.
Paperback, 400 pages, illustrations, index.


Consistency relations of large-scale structures provide exact nonperturbative results for cross-correlations of cosmic fields in the squeezed limit. They only depend on the equivalence principle and the assumption of Gaussian initial conditions, and remain nonzero at equal times for cross-correlations of density fields with velocity or momentum fields, or with the time derivative of density fields. We show how to apply these relations to observational probes that involve the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect or the kinematic Sunyaev-Zeldovich effect. In the squeezed limit, this allows us to express the three-point cross-correlations, or bispectra, of two galaxy or matter density fields, or weak lensing convergence fields, with the secondary Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) distortion in terms of products of a linear and a nonlinear power spectrum. In particular, we find that cross-correlations with the integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect show a specific angular dependence. These results could be used to test the equivalence principle and the primordial Gaussianity, or to check the modeling of large-scale structures.


The special challenges faced by central banks in emerging market economies in conducting monetary policy are examined. In addition to sharing the same problems confronted by their counterparts in advanced economies - including most profoundly time inconsistency and model uncertainty - they encounter more shocks emanating from the external environment, due to their relatively small economic size. In this context, the exchange rate and the management of capital flows take on a heightened importance. Overarching these concerns is the fact that most emerging markets, by definition, are characterized by less well developed financial markets that constrain and complicate the conduct of monetary policy. These points are illustrated by reference to a description of the evolution of (i) emerging market economies choices with regard to the international trilemma, (ii) the implementation of monetary policy, and (iii) the accumulation of foreign exchange reserves.


This article is dedicated to the strategy of explanatory interpretation from the perspective of Functionalist Skopos Theory, which is one of the most important translation theories guiding translation action and teaching. Taking China-Aid Project as a case study, the research objects are hundreds of foreign trainees from the China-Aid Project and Chinese interpreters from 2008 to 2014, via the research approaches of literature review, quantity and quality research methods. In regarding to the research findings, the article straightens out the translation problems and proposes the explanatory interpretation strategy effectively used on diversified international communication occasions. In general, through statistical analysis and the empirical research from the three dimensions of Skopos Theory, explanatory interpretation method and China-Aid Project, this article aims at helping translators to accomplish a high quality translation product effectively with the explanatory interpretation strategy.


Static analysis has been successfully used in many areas, from verifying mission-critical software to malware detection. Unfortunately, static analysis often produces false positives, which require significant manual effort to resolve. In this paper, we show how to overlay a probabilistic model, trained using domain knowledge, on top of static analysis results, in order to triage static analysis results. We apply this idea to analyzing mobile applications. Android application components can communicate with each other, both within single applications and between different applications. Unfortunately, techniques to statically infer Inter-Component Communication (ICC) yield many potential inter-component and inter-application links, most of which are false positives. At large scales, scrutinizing all potential links is simply not feasible. We therefore overlay a probabilistic model of ICC on top of static analysis results. Since computing the inter-component links is a prerequisite to inter-component analysis, we introduce a formalism for inferring ICC links based on set constraints. We design an efficient algorithm for performing link resolution. We compute all potential links in a corpus of 11,267 applications in 30 minutes and triage them using our probabilistic approach. We find that over 95.1% of all 636 million potential links are associated with probability values below 0.01 and are thus likely unfeasible links. Thus, it is possible to consider only a small subset of all links without significant loss of information. This work is the first significant step in making static inter-application analysis more tractable, even at large scales.


This paper presents the modelling, controller design and a steady-state analysis algorithm for a wind-driven induction generator system. An output feedback linear quadratic controller is designed for the static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) and the variable blade pitch in a wind energy conversion system (WECS) in order to reach the voltage and mechanical power control under both grid-connection and islanding conditions. A two-reference-frame model is proposed to decouple the STATCOM real and reactive power control loops for the output feedback controller. To ensure zero steady-state voltage errors for the output feedback controller, the integrals of load bus voltage deviation and dc-capacitor  voltage deviation are employed as the additional state variables. Pole-placement technique is used to determine a proper weighting matrix for the linear quadratic controller such that satisfactory damping characteristics can be achieved for the closed-loop system. Effects of various system disturbances on the dynamic performance have been simulated, and the results reveal that the proposed controller is effective in regulating the load voltage and stabilizing the generator rotating speed for the WECS either  connected with or disconnected from the power grid. In addition, proper steady-state operating points for an isolated induction generator can be determined by the proposed steady-state analysis algorithm. Constant output frequency control using the  derived steady-state characteristics of the isolated induction generator is then demonstrated in this paper.


BACKGROUND
 The uptake of traditional pulmonary rehabilitation classes by patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is poor because of personal factors that prevent accessibility to the venue. Therefore, there is a need for innovative methods of pulmonary rehabilitation, and virtual reality (VR) could be a promising technology for patients with COPD to access services remotely.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aimed to investigate whether VR improves compliance with pulmonary rehabilitation among patients with COPD, a particularly vulnerable patient group (Medical Research Council [MRC] 4 or 5), and whether VR provides a credible alternative to traditional pulmonary rehabilitation programs.

 METHODS
 This was an 8-week patient trial using an innovative VR pulmonary rehabilitation program. A purposive sample of 10 patients with COPD graded MRC 4 or 5 and registered at a selected health care center and a hospital in Cumbria, United Kingdom, were included. Qualitative (focus groups and interviews) data were collected, and to further support the qualitative findings, quantitative data (self-report patient surveys) were gathered before and after the 8-week trial. The 5 self-reported surveys included the Patient Activation Measure, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Short Physical Performance Battery, and the Edmonton Frail Scale.

 RESULTS
 In a thematic analysis of the qualitative data, 11 themes emerged specific to delivering pulmonary rehabilitation using VR. The quantitative data further support the qualitative findings by revealing significant improvements in all physical measures.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Overall, this study demonstrates how remotely supervised VR-based pulmonary rehabilitation could help to overcome current issues and limitations associated with providing this service to patients with COPD at scale.


The intracrystalline partitioning of Fe and Mg in the octahedral sites of olivine is known to be dependent on temperature, pressure, and composition. Interpretations of the temperature effect on the partitioning have been mostly based on heating and quenching experiments, which seem to indicate that Fe2+ preferentially orders into the Ml site with increasing temperature. The present single-crystal neutron diffraction experiments yield the first in-situ high-temperature structure refinements above 900 .C and clearly indicate an ordering reversal above this temperature. Three data sets collected at 960, 1030, and 1060 'C show a remarkable progressive decrease in the KD parameter with temperature, whereas the data at 880 oC are consistent with a slight preference of Fe2+ for Ml, as reported in the literature. The effect is tentatively interpreted on the basis of competing contributions of configurational and vibrational entropy at high temperature, and it is expected to have profound implications for the thermodynamic modeling of olivine in the Earth's mantle and in planetary processes.


We examined the effects of arginine vasopressin (AVP), parathyroid hormone (PTH), and bradykinin (BK) on the cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca]i) in cultured LLC-PK1 and MDCK kidney cell lines by use of the fluorescent Ca chelator fura-2. In LLC-PK1 cells, the addition of AVP but not [1-desamino-8-D-arginine]vasopressin (dDAVP, V2 agonist), PTH, or BK (10(-6) M) caused a significant increase in [Ca]i. The AVP-induced increase in [Ca]i from 61 +/- 6 to 225 +/- 44 nM (n = 7, P less than 0.01) was rapid and transient, returning to base line in 2 to 3 min. The effect of AVP was dose dependent and was present at 1 (61% increase) but not 5 min after extracellular Ca was removed. The effect of 10(-6) M AVP could be blocked with the pressor (V1) antagonist, d(CH2)5Tyr(Me)AVP, but not dDAVP. In MDCK cells, BK, but not AVP and PTH, increased [Ca]i from 146 +/- 11 to 281 +/- 31 nM (n = 9, P less than 0.001). The removal of extracellular Ca (5 min), reduced but did not abolish this effect. These results indicate that [Ca]i mobilized by activation of V1-receptors may mediate AVP-regulated function in some transporting epithelia.


This paper presents an automatic test generation and minimization method for testing interoperability of communication protocols such as the asynchronous transfer mode/broadband integrated services digital network (ATM/B-ISDN) signaling protocol and the transmission control protocol (TCP). The method is based on a technique of composing finite-state machines (FSMs). Traditionally, the generation of inputs utilizing FSM was mostly based on sequential test scripting languages and often done manually. Each input is processed on a one-at-a-time basis, which did not allow generating complex scenarios of simultaneous inputs on several interfaces of the system under test (SUT). In practice, there exists the possibility that additional inputs have to be sent to the SUT, while the previous input is still being processed, and/or multiple inputs need to be sent to different interfaces of the SUT at the same time. Our method generates interoperability test cases dealing with these more complex situations. Moreover, it minimizes the number of increased test cases due to the multiple stimuli without jeopardizing transition coverage. Experimental results have shown that compared with the conventional methods, our test generation method generates more interoperability test cases resulting in higher transition coverage (26% higher for TCP and 12% higher for ATM signaling protocol). Also, our test minimization method reduces the interoperability test cases by about 94% in the case of the ATM signaling protocol with the same transition coverage.


Over the years many books on Australian military history have given rise to a host of such 'zombie' myths - myths that refuse to die. A great many have a strong commemorative and celebratory tradition and aim to entertain or memorialise the gallant deeds of past Australian servicemen. Such accounts are often heavily overlayed by the national mythology of Anzac and imagery of indomitable Australian national character. Leading Australian military historians tackle ten of the most enduring historical zombies that have staggered their way through the annals of this nation's military history. From the mistaken idea that there was no Aboriginal resistance to occupation, to Gallipoli as a near success, to Japanese designs to invade Australia in WWII, right up to the triumphal success that was East Timor, this book lays these zombies to rest once and for all.


To detect network changes and network troubles, Transpondertech needs a tool that can make network measurements. The purpose of this thesis has been to find measurable network properties that best reflect the status of a network, to find methods to measure these proerties and to implement these methods in one single tool. The resulting tool is called NetworkPerf and can measure the following network properties: availability, round-trip delay, delay variation, number of hops, intermediate hosts, available bandwidth, available ports, and maximum allowed packet size. Together, these properties give a good picture of the status of a network connection. The thesis also presents the methods used for meassuring these properties in the tool.


Rat L6 myoblastic cell line fused rapidly after two day cultivation in a medium containing horse serum and insulin. We analyzed whether the induction of plasma membrane or secreted proteins occurred simultaneously with ongoing fusion. Thus the cells were metabolically labeled with (35S]methionine followed by biotinylation of the cell surface proteins. Detergent-solubilized proteins derivatized with biotin were isolated with streptavidin-agarose and subjected to 5DS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. This analysis did not show fusion-associated induction of any surface proteins. However, analysis of the microsomal fraction revealed a fusion-associated 38-kDa glycopolypeptide. This polypeptide appeared simultaneously with the formation of the multinucleated cells and then declined with decreasing fusion activity. Pulse-chase labeling experiments showed that the 38-kDa component was secreted into the medium. These results indicate that a secreted protein component is induced during the fusion of L6 myoblasts.


The present study compares the statistical analysis methods for nonlinear hydrodynamic responses in offshore engineering. In particular, the Kac–Siegert and Hermite-moment methods were compared for estimating the probability distribution of the second-order responses represented via the two-term Volterra series. The Kac–Siegert method analytically formulates the probability density function (PDF) of the second-order Volterra series using an eigenvalue problem constructed with the frequency-domain transfer functions and the wave spectrum, whereas the Hermite-moment method utilizes the statistical moments to determine the coefficients of the fitting function. In addition, the probability distribution of the peak values in the second-order Volterra series with high spectral bandwidth was derived explicitly. The fatigue damage rate and the extreme response were estimated analytically. The accuracy and applicability of each method were investigated by comparing the methods with the results of the direct sampling obtained from the time series.


Electronic Voting can deliver free and fair elections as well as ensuring on time release of results. One factor fueling the adoption of e-voting is the access to internet and more so GSM network, by majority of the world population. However, with this adoption of electronic voting around the world, some concern are being raised regarding the process. Technically, it's hard to achieve availability, integrity and confidentiality which are the pillars of a free and fair elections while using electronic voting. It is because of this issues that the purpose of this research was to examine security shortcomings for existing web based electronic voting frameworks. A mixed research design was used for the study covering both descriptive survey design and content analysis. The target population of the study was 13700 students, 60 student's council leaders, 64 electoral Officials, 4 dean of student office officer, 6 ICT directorate staff and 29 top management from Catholic University and Kenya College of Accounting University both located in Kenya. Purposive sampling was used to select electoral commission chair, Dean of students while random sampling was used to select 6 management officers, 6 ICT directorate staff, 376 students, 14 electoral officials' staff and 12 student leaders giving a sample of 420. Data collection Instruments were questioners, interview schedule and observation and the data collected was analyzed using descriptive analysis. It was established from the study that the university voting system of the sampled had issues with availability as they had failed at some point. Also, the systems experienced slow speed on the voting day. Another outcome was that the system had locked out a group of eligible voters. Therefore, the systems had issues with integrity. Finally, it was established that the voting system had not allowed non eligible people to vote as well as the system can link the voter and the voter's ballot which is a confidentiality security concern. The output of the paper is a framework for solvingthe current security issues of the electronic voting web based system for Kenyan universities. The findings of the study are significant to electoral commissions of different institution, voters and policy makers.


This paper describes the work undertaken as part of the 'Digital Documentation of Ksar Said' Project. This project, funded by the British Council, combined education, history, and heritage for the digital preservation of tangible and intangible aspects of heritage associated with the 19th century Said Palace (Ksar Said) in Tunis. We produced an interactive 3D model of Ksar Said and developed learning resources to build Tunisian students' critical engagement with their heritage through inquiry learning activities within the 3D model. We used a user-centred approach, based on pre-assessment (i.e., co-creation of contents), mid-term evaluation (i.e., feedback on contents and preliminary design of virtual activities), and post-assessment design (i.e., user trial). Our results demonstrate the potential of this novel approach to virtual learning and inform future co-design, evaluation and implementation choices for improving the generative power of three dimensional virtual replication of heritage sites in the cultural heritage sector.


LiDAR is an important method for autonomous driving systems to sense the environment. The point clouds obtained by LiDAR typically exhibit sparse and irregular distribution, thus posing great challenges to the detection of 3D objects, especially those that are small and distant. To tackle this difficulty, we propose Reconfigurable Voxels, a new approach to constructing representations from 3D point clouds. Specifically, we devise a biased random walk scheme, which adaptively covers each neighborhood with a fixed number of voxels based on the local spatial distribution and produces a representation by integrating the points in the chosen neighbors. We found empirically that this approach effectively improves the stability of voxel features, especially for sparse regions. Experimental results on multiple benchmarks, including nuScenes, Lyft, and KITTI, show that this new representation can remarkably improve the detection performance for small and distant objects, without incurring noticeable overhead costs.


The interaction of electrical fields and liquids can lead to a phenomenon that defies intuition. Some famous examples can be found in electrohydrodynamics as Taylor cones, whipping jets, or noncoalescing drops. A less famous example is the floating water bridge: a slender thread of water held between two glass beakers in which a high voltage difference is applied. Surprisingly, the water bridge defies gravity even when the beakers are separated at distances up to 2 cm. In this paper, experimental measurements and simple models are proposed and discussed for the stability of the bridge and the source of the flow, revealing an important role of polarization forces on the stability of the water bridge. On the other hand, the observed flow can only be explained due to the non-negligible free charge present in the surface. In this sense, the floating water bridge can be considered as an extreme case of a leaky dielectric liquid [ J. R. Melcher and G. I. Taylor, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 1, 111 (1969) ].


This paper uses analytical and numerical models to illustrate how the presence of other distortions within the transport system changes the overall welfare effect of a congestion tax. These other distortions include a transit fare subsidy, congestion on competing (unpriced) routes, accident externalities, gasoline taxes, and pollution externalities. Each of these pre-existing distortions can substantially alter the welfare effect of a congestion tax that would be predicted by a first-best analysis. If congestion taxes encourage travel on other congested routes, they can produce sizeable indirect welfare losses. In addition, induced reductions in the demand for gasoline can lead to substantial welfare losses when, as appears to be the case for European countries, gasoline taxes significantly exceed marginal pollution damages. On the other hand, congestion taxes may produce significant welfare gains by offsetting accident externalities, though these gains are partially offset by increased accidents on competing roadways. To the extent that congestion taxes increase the demand for transit, they can induce significant welfare gains or losses, depending on whether transit fares are above or below marginal supply costs. The importance of other distortions varies considerably across different transport systems and across different countries. Our generic analysis illustrates the proportionate change in the welfare effect of a congestion tax due to each of these distortions over a wide range of parameter scenarios.


Francis Ford Coppola (USA, b. 1939) is the oldest of the generation of 'movie brats', including Scorsese and Spielberg, who breathed new life into the Hollywood of the 1970s. He revived the glory of the studio age with the legendary Godfather saga (1972 - 90), explored the soul of America at war in Vietnam with Apocalypse Now (1979) and has directed some of the greatest actors, including Brando, Pacino and De Niro. Having outgrown the role of director decreed by the major studios, he is now an independent producer and continues to direct films with undimmed brilliance (Tetro, 2009).


Conventional vehicles burning fossil fuels are emitting CO2 emissions contributing to climate
change. Therefore, electric vehicles are becoming more and more an area of interest
due to the need of lowering the CO2 emissions from transportation. This development
goes hand in hand with the rising awareness of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The
Swedish government has set a goal to have a fossil independent vehicle fleet by 2030, and
since analysis made by the IEA indicates that the number of electric vehicles (EVs) are
growing in the country and globally, EVs will probably play a big role going there. Moreover,
almost all major car producers have EV models and are investing in further research.
In this thesis we have analyzed driving and charging data for 15 EVs, all of them were
Volkswagen e-golf vehicles situated in Gothenburg, Sweden. The data sets have been
collected during the two time periods 1st of October to 22nd of January, and 11th of
Febrauray to 30th of May by the division of physical resource at Chalmers university of
technology. Our analysis focuses on driving and charging behaviour, including calculations
of the energy consumption from both driving and charging the EVs. In order to
analyze the behaviours of the test drivers using the EVs, we have looked into how the
EVs have been driven through following parameters: number of trips; distance; as well as
how, where and how much they have been charged.
The results show clearly that the different EV test drivers, included in this study, have
different driving behaviours, which, for example, resulted in a broad range of energy consumptions
when driving. We also saw that there were variations in energy consumption
over periods of time, indicating that the drivers were able to handle seasonal variations
differently. It could be concluded that the charging load curves for the EVs showed strong
tendencies towards charging in the afternoon, directly at upon home coming. Furthermore,
we also saw that all of EVs 1-5 and six of EVs 6-15 were charged simultaneously
during the maximum day of energy demand. In addition to this it can be concluded that
the analysis of possible shifting of charging showed a big potential for cost savings of
about 30 to 50 % during both test periods.


In the Christian world during the late fourth through the sixth centuries various strains of monastic life developed, from extreme eremitic isolation to the communal discipline of the cenobia. These different types of monastic life continued to evolve through the Middle Ages. Though most specialists are aware of the multiplicity of patterns of monastic life which are found within both the Latin and the Byzantine spheres, they have been less concerned with what informs these traditional patterns.1This paper attempts to isolate some differences in modes of monastic life in the eastern empire during the Komnenian period and then to explain those differences in terms of the founders' distinct conceptions of salvation.2 The analysis compares two founders—John II Komnenos and Neophytos—and the monastic life led in their respective institutions—the Pantocrator monastery in Constantinople and the Enkleistra in the provincial milieu of Byzantine Cyprus. These two monasteries have been selected not only because they represent extreme examples of their types, but also because rich artistic and literary documentation survives from both.


Objective: Stereoelectroencephalogram (SEEG) has been widely adapted to detect the electrical activity of patients with epilepsy. Due to the low-quality, large-amount, high-dimensionality characteristics of SEEG data, it is still challenging to comprehensively employ the SEEG signals to automatically and precisely determine the seizure onset zone (SOZ). This is because there is lack of an effective criterion for clinicians to select the target electrodes, which is of great importance for SOZ localization. Methods: We propose a SOZ localization method via analyzing the long-term SEEG monitoring for preoperative planning of epilepsy surgery. Considering that high frequency oscillations can reflect physiological brain activity of epileptic patients, we first extract the high-frequency features of the SEEG signals and utilize the convolutional neural network (CNN) to detect the interictal and seizure segments. Then we propose a novel criterion, namely adaptive high frequency epileptogenicity index (AHFEI), to determine the target electrodes. Results: We compare our SEEG-determined target electrodes with three preoperative planning of successful focal epilepsy resective surgery cases, finding that most localization results of our method are in consistent with clinical successful decision making, while the performance of our method outperforms than the state-of-the-art method for SOZ localization. Conclusion: Our SEEG-determined SOZ localization method can assist clinicians in preliminarily selecting the potential target electrodes according to long-term SEEG data automatically and effectively. Clinical Impact: The proposed automatic SOZ localization method has achieved satisfactory performance in the preliminary study, which has the great potential to be integrated into function-structure fused clinical decision-making system.


A transcription factor translocates from shoots to roots to coordinate carbon and nitrogen metabolism in plants. Carbon fixation (photosynthesis) occurs in plant leaves and shoots, and nitrogen assimilation occurs in the roots. These processes must be coordinated for optimal growth. Chen et al. found that the light-regulated bZIP transcription factor ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL5 (HY5) was required for the growth of Arabidopsis thaliana roots in response to illumination of the shoot. Illumination of the shoot, but not the root, promoted nitrate uptake through the transporter NRT2.1 in the root in a HY5-dependent manner. Grafting experiments with wild-type plants and hy5 mutants demonstrated that production of HY5 in the shoot promoted root growth and nitrate uptake. In hy5 mutants carrying a transgene encoding a fluorescent- or epitope-tagged form of HY5 (HY5-GFP or myc-HY5, respectively), both the tagged protein and its corresponding transcripts were present in the shoot, but only the tagged protein, not the corresponding transcripts, accumulated in the root. When the authors expressed a form of HY5-GFP fused to a very large protein through a linker containing a TEV protease recognition site, this large fusion protein did not accumulate in roots in response to shoot illumination. However, when this large fusion protein was coexpressed with TEV protease, HY5-GFP accumulated in roots in response to shoot illumination, indicating that the there is a size limit to the transport of proteins from shoots to roots. HY5 bound to the NRT2.1 promoter in vitro and in vivo. In grafting experiments, shoot-derived HY5-GFP stimulated the expression of NRT2.1 in both wild-type and hy5 mutant roots. Shoot-derived HY5-GFP also stimulated the expression of HY5 in wild-type roots, indicating the presence of a positive feedback mechanism for amplifying the shoot-derived HY5 signal. Additional experiments indicated that HY5 also promoted the production and efflux of sucrose, the primary form in which fixed carbon is transported from shoots to roots through the phloem, and that sucrose enhanced the binding of HY5 to the NRT2.1 promoter in the root in response to shoot illumination. Thus, shoot-derived HY5 and sucrose cooperate to ensure that plants take up enough nitrogen to meet photosynthetic and growth demands. Many mobile transcription factors move between neighboring plant cells through plasmodesmata. These findings demonstrate that regulatory proteins can also be transported between distant tissues in plants, implying that the phloem and xylem, like the circulatory system of animals, is important for more than just moving nutrients and water throughout the plant. X. Chen, Q. Yao, X. Gao, C. Jiang, N. P. Harberd, X. Fu, Shoot-to-root mobile transcription factor HY5 coordinates plant carbon and nitrogen acquisition.Curr. Biol. 26, 640–646 (2016). [PubMed]


With more than 2 billion people connected to the Internet, information security has become a top priority. Many applications such as electronic banking, medical database, and electronic commerce require the exchange of private information. Hashed Message Authentication Code (HMAC) is widely used to provide authenticity, while symmetric encryption algorithms provide confidentiality. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is one of the most widely used security protocols on the Internet. In the current Bulk Data Transfer (BDT) phase in SSL, the server or the client firstly calculates the Message Authentication Code (MAC) of the data using HMAC operation, and then performs the symmetric encryption on the data together with the MAC. Despite steady improvements in SSL performance, BDT operation degrades CPU performance. This is due to the cryptography operations that include the HMAC and symmetric encryptions.
The thesis proposes a new algorithm that provides a significant performance gain in bulk data transfer without compromising the security. The proposed algorithm performs the encryption of the data and the calculation of the MAC in parallel. The server calculates the MAC of the data the same time the encryption processes the data. Once the calculation of the MAC is completed, only then the MAC will be encrypted. The proposed algorithm was simulated using two processors with one performing the HMAC calculation and the other encrypting the data, simultaneously. Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) was chosen as encryption algorithm and HMAC Standard Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA1) was chosen as HMAC algorithm. The communication between the processors was done via Message Passing Interface (MPI). The existing sequential and the proposed parallel algorithms were simulated successfully while preserving security properties. Based on the performance simulations, the new parallel algorithm gained speedup of 1.74 with 85% efficiency over the current sequential algorithm. The parallel overheads that limit the maximum achievable speedup were also considered. Different block cipher modes were used in which the Cipher-Block Chaining (CBC) gives the best speedup among the feedback cipher modes. In addition, Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) was also simulated as the encryption algorithm to compare the speedup performance with AES encryption.


This document describes how application clients can request IP-based
Bidirectional Forwarding Detection (BFD) sessions while either being
IP agnostic themselves or while dealing with IP unnumbered interfaces.
A dedicated well-known multicast IP address 224.XXX.XXX.XXX is used as
the destination IP address of the BFD packets when running BFD for
interface. It allows for BFD sessions on interfaces that may have no
IP addresses, either because the interface is unnumbered or because
the layer 3 protocol status of the interfaces is not up yet. One
application of BFD for interface is to run BFD over LAG/Bundle
component links. An example will be given in this document.


Subject area

Business Management and Strategy.

Study level/applicability

The case study is relevant for undergraduate and post-graduate management degrees. It includes courses such as business management, corporate ethics and change management.

Case overview

This case study illustrates one of the important initiatives that the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) has undertaken to help save the atmosphere and the environment. This case study describes the Paperless Day initiative that EAD launched in 2008 and how it was carried out for five years. The study also describes how EAD implemented this initiative internally.

Expected learning outcomes

Creating awareness and encouraging individuals in the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere to reduce their use of paper, water and energy for a cleaner environment.

Supplementary materials

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email email@example.com to request teaching notes.


Raman microspectroscopy-based, label-free imaging methods for human cells at sub-micrometre spatial resolution are presented. Since no dyes or labels are used in this imaging modality, the pixel-to-pixel spectral variations are small and multivariate methods of analysis need to be employed to convert the hyperspectral datasets to spectral images. Thus, the main emphasis of this paper is the introduction and comparison of a number of multivariate image reconstruction methods. The resulting Raman spectral imaging methodology directly utilizes the spectral contrast provided by small (bio)chemical compositional changes over the spatial dimension of the sample to construct images that can rival fluorescence images in terms of spatial information, yet without the use of any external dye or label.


Abstract. Extreme weather events, such as droughts, have been increasingly affecting the agricultural sector, causing several socio-economic consequences. The growing economy requires improved assessments of drought-related impacts in agriculture, particularly under a climate that is getting drier and warmer. This work proposes a probabilistic model that is intended to contribute to the agricultural drought risk management in rainfed cropping systems. Our methodology is based on a bivariate copula approach using elliptical and Archimedean copulas, the application of which is quite recent in agrometeorological studies. In this work we use copulas to model joint probability distributions describing the amount of dependence between drought conditions and crop yield anomalies. Afterwards, we use the established copula models to simulate pairs of yield anomalies and drought hazard, preserving their dependence structure to further estimate the probability of crop loss. In the first step, we analyse the probability of crop loss without distinguishing the class of drought, and in the second step we compare the probability of crop loss under drought and non-drought conditions. The results indicate that, in general, Archimedean copulas provide the best statistical fits of the joint probability distributions, suggesting a dependence among extreme values of rainfed cereal yield anomalies and drought indicators. Moreover, the estimated conditional probabilities suggest that when drought conditions are below moderate thresholds, the risk of crop loss increases between 32.53 % (cluster 1) and 32.6 % (cluster 2) in the case of wheat and between 31.63 % (cluster 2) and 55.55 % (cluster 2) in the case of barley. From an operational point of view, the results aim to contribute to the decision-making process in agricultural practices.


Introduction: Stabilization of open fractures is an important step in managing these injuries. Intratramedullary nailing of forearm fractures in adults is an acceptable and preferred method for internal fixation. In this study we tried to evaluate the functional end results of using a new nailing system in open diaphyseal fractures of forearm.
Patients and Method: Between May 2011 and February 2015 (45 months), Fifty-three patients (106 fractures) with open diaphyseal forearm fractures had been treated and followed using new intramedullary nailing technique (Be. Te. Radial & Ulnar Nails-Santam etal,) as a method of fixation and assessing their effectiveness clinically and radiologically. There were 17 females and 36 males. Their age ranged from 25 years to 45 years (mean 32 years).
Results: The final functional outcome was assessed utilizing Mayo Elbow Performance Score (MEPS) based on the parameters of pain, range of motions, stability and activities of daily life (ADL). The results of the study were: 25 (47.2%) Excellent, 20 (37.7%) Good, 6 (11.3%) Fair and 2(3.8%) Poor.
Conclusion: The use of intramedullary nailing in open diaphyseal forearm fractures in adults is recommended and may be alternative to plate osteosynthesis because of minimal surgical exposure, less scarring and disfigurement, lower risk of infection, lower risk of soft tissue injury, less risk of refracture after implant removal and minimal period of convalescence.


This book is about indigenous learning, or rural people's learning, in northern Ghana, and the need to capture this rich body of knowledge in development intervention. Ile book is divided into three parts. Part 1: The first part deals largely with secondary information that is drawn together to provide an entry to the research. I start with a general background picture of Ghana, and agriculture in Ghana. I draw out the problems that sustainable increase in agricultural productivity has to deal with; in the country as a whole and in the region particularly. The historical evolution of how development intervention has tried to respond to these demands in Damongo (the study area) are summarized. The problem area that was tackled by this research; 'indigenous learning and its role in development intervention' , is discussed showing both the theoretical and practical evolutions of the subject. Evidence is given to for fact that within the Government sector intervention still operates with the Transfer of Technology model. The Non-Governmental (NGO) sector has progressed to the state of introducing participatory processes in response to concerns for improving intervention strategies (a stage Government intervention is yet to reach). While acknowledging the efforts of the NGOs to draw on indigenous knowledge in their participatory processes, I criticise them for their insufficient attention to spirituality and indigenous learning. I argue that recent evidence show that the people's own notions of spirituality (their cosmovision) are gradually being introduced into development intervention strategies, but not people's learning processes. In order to reconstruct what the rural communities say their ways of learning are, and to see how to integrate such findings into sustainable intervention strategies, I have made a choice for a combination of the actor-oriented approach and the soft systems perspective. Within this context I look at diversity (heterogeneity) as part of the theoretical discours that has guided the collection and management of my data. The methodology used for data collection and management involved a combination of ethnographic tools like discourse, conversational, and case study analyses; participatory rural appraisal tools like impact matrix, matrix scoring, and mapping. I describe the various modifications that I had to make to these tools and the evolution of techniques to make my data management more effective. Part II : This is dedicated to data that have largely been generated by the field surveys themselves. The section starts with the role of imagery in the peoples lives. My research findings are then discussed to show that on one side of the indigenous learning continuum there is a type of learning which I refer to as 'vertical learning'. It is vertical in the sense that it describes inter-generational learning; particularly the young learning form the old (juvenile learning). These forms include organised, unorganised, and even unconscious or unintended learning. The socially constructed environment within which learning occurs is described. The peoples' categorization of vertical learning into "wulu" (a period of intensive tutelage and apprenticeship), and "bangfu and oogfu" (periods of graduation and passing out), were identified. Among the young, the concept of "gandaalu" shows that peer group learning also goes on. Indigenous horizontal learning (adult learning, peer learning or intragenerational learning) is the other end of the learning continuum I identified. As a. continuation of vertical learning, it takes advantage of issues like imagery, knowing environment, and "gandaalu" discussed earlier. Some of the specific aspects discussed in this section include 'the partial commoditization of learning', organised and less organised learning, socially constructed learning distances, and learning orientations. The people designate four learning quadrants, "zanzanbe, Ire-karbe, Ike-brebe, zuudem". These are analyzed using the 'three planes of learning'. The use of this technique draws out the transitions and the dynamic inter-changes between the learning orientations. The growth trends of 'knowing' are then discussed. Accepting the fact that rural communities are open and dynamic in their orientations towards knowledge, I proceed to analyze what communities referred to as 'the outside world'. This reveals how some of the information that interventions have introduced to farmers has functioned when confronted with the ongoing indigenous learning. Further in this section, diversity is discussed by looking at acquired versus generated information, the ways information is utilized; at the categorization into 'three generations', and categorization into the three religious groupings that the communities said were important in differentiating their identities - catholics, moslems, and animists. Part II ends with a revisitation of the various discourses in the entire study, drawing out the various experiences of indigenous learning. These experiences are then discussed both as subjects and objects of the social constructions of power. I take the position that all development interventions have to deal with power relations. The discussions about power in this section pave the way for the presentation of the proposed action framework. Part III : 1 conclude the book by dealing with a recommended action resulting from the findings of the research; 'a framework for Empathetic Learning and Action (ELA). As a recommendation, it draws on both primary and secondary information captured in earlier chapters. In evolving this framework, 1 take the position that communicating innovations, as done by intervention processes so far developed, is weak in achieving the participation of rural communities. 1 question the empowerment of rural communities so far, and the way intervention strategies manage differential power positions of actors in the development arena. My opinion is that development intervention should shift towards arriving at sustainable communication with rural communities which emphasise negotiations, consensus building, and collective actions as opportunities for continuous 'learning - action cycles' . I proceed to propose a framework on how to move participation a step forward. My learning and action framework which is yet to be tested in the field, is developed with NGO activities in mind, but it is possible to use it to serve development intervention in general.


The Rules of Professional Conduct [Rules] of the Law Society of Upper Canada outline the professional and ethical obligations of all members of the legal profession in the province of Ontario. Lawyers are required to turn to these Rules when faced with ethical and professional dilemmas in their everyday practice. However, the acrimonious nature of family law often makes the application of these rules impractical. This article examines the vague and conflicting guidance the Rules provide to family law lawyers faced with ethical dilemmas in child custody and access proceedings. It is proposed that past disciplinary proceedings of other lawyers actually provide the most concrete and clear guidance for family lawyers faced with difficult ethical dilemmas. This state of affairs is problematic, as disciplinary proceedings are not meant to be a forum for teaching ethical standards. The proceedings were created as a method for reprimanding lawyers who deliberately violate the Rules. To alleviate this problem, it is proposed that the Rules should include a hierarchical ordering so that family law lawyers are not faced with conflicting advice when resolving their ethical dilemmas.


Happiness economics studies economic and social factors that determine or are related to happiness. Happiness economics results are intended to inform economic and social policy. This article examines the feasibility and expediency of economic measures of happiness. It argues that economic measures of happiness are not valid in the sense that happiness is immeasurable phenomenon and that the measures are not reliable in the sense that the established level of happiness is not going to be correct. The invalidity is implied by the subjective theory of value and the unreliability, in turn, is implied by the invalidity. Happiness economics invokes assumptions that are false: happiness is not subject to be measured in a cardinal scales of measurement and to be intersubjectvely aggregated. Every individual scale of happiness can be only ordinal and these individual orders cannot be aggregated into intersubjective order due to the lack of intersubjective definition of happiness and due to the impossibility of aggregation of subjective preferences into an intersubjective rank. The validity of economic measures of happiness is further undermined by their unreliability: there is no common definition of happiness; different cultures do not have the same con cept of happiness as we want to measure it; different cultures are prone to different valuation of happiness; personal valuation of happiness is relative and prone to be context sensitive; people do not always adequately assess their perceptions; demonstrable preferences do not necessarily match the real preferences that are revealed during the choice of an actual action. Moreover, the intention to use happiness economics results to inform economic and social policy meet a moral problem. Happiness economics, through policy decisions, can transfer to the public a particular definite understanding of happiness instead of allowing spreading different possible alternative understandings of happiness.


On Track is a Victorian Government initiative designed to ensure that all students are on a pathway to further education, training or employment after leaving school. It involves making contact with Year 10 to 12 students in the year after they leave school to map their initial destinations and the factors involved, and offering assistance to school leavers who appear to be experiencing a problematic transition. In addition, a longitudinal component follows the post-school experiences of a sub-set of school leavers over a four-year period. The results are provided back to schools, tertiary providers, regions and [Local Learning and Employment Networks] LLENS to assist with program development. The project, which was launched in 2003, was the first of this scope to be undertaken by an Australian government. In 2008 around 33,300 completers of Year 12 or a vocational equivalent were interviewed, along with 4,700 early leavers. The paper provides an overview of the main trends in Victorian school-leaver pathways since 2003 and key results from the 2008 survey, and discusses their policy implications.


Street art, with its subcultural character, has been looked upon for its potential for social aesthetic and political dissidence. While some accounts have diverted attention to street art's utopia with its creative dissidence and regenerative potential, others have insisted that street art has already been coopted by the aesthetic and institutional order of the neo-liberal economy. Street art has been both a product of and a response to the unequal distribution of resources and visibility in the city. A dialectical study that investigates both sides of the coin showing art's aesthetic, spatial, social and political situation in the changing neo-liberal urban landscape is needed. Analysing simultaneously the hegemonic restructuring of the urban environment and the growth of counter-hegemonic resistance on the streets requires taking into account the plurality and complexity of the links between the urban environment, society and arts. This thematic journal issue offers a multi-geographical and interdisciplinary perspective to analyse how street art, as an aesthetic dispositive, functions dialectically as both resource and resistance in the sociopolitical make-up of the urban landscape.


This paper traces various developments in technology education at the turn of the 21st century in the USA. It begins by highlighting issues that were being discussed in the 1990s among the technology educaton community, and the efforts by the science and engineering communities to help shape the content of technology education. The efforts of the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) to create standards for technological literacy in 2000 and supporting standards for assessment and professional development in 2003 are discussed. The recommendations from the report 'Technically Speaking' and the impact it had in defining how a technologically literate person is characterized are also presented. This paper also examines the work of the National Center for Engineering and Technology Education (NCETE) from 2005-2012 in spearheading an understanding of how engineering design can be infused in schools, and also how students learn engineering design. The role of pre-engineering curricula in STEM education is examined, and the various curricula that are being used in technology education classroooms since the publication of the 'Standards for Technological Literacy' are also traced. Finally, lessons that the Caribbean can learn from the recent evolution of technology education in the USA are discussed.


The Sea Is Your Mirror is an artistic interactive experience where surface cerebral electromagnetic waves from a participant wearing an EEG sensor headset are depicted in real-time as ocean waves in an animated 3D environment. The aim of this article is to describe the sea wave model used for the sea state animation and how it is connected to the brain computer interface (BCI). The sea state is animated by the groupy choppy wave model that provides nonlinear sea states with wave groups and asymmetric wave shapes. The BCI maps the temporal spectrum of the electroencephalogram onto the elevation spectrum of the sea surface. The resulting setup enables the participant to fly over a dynamic sea state: a metaphor for conscious and unconscious neurofeedback.


Inattentional blindness refers to the finding that people do not always see what appears in their gaze. Though inattentional blindness affects large percentages of people, it is unclear if there are individual differences in susceptibility. The present study addressed whether individual differences in attentional control, as reflected by variability in working memory capacity, modulate susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Participants watched a classic inattentional blindness video (Simons & Chabris, 1999) and were instructed to count passes among basketball players, wherein 58% noticed the unexpected: a person wearing a gorilla suit. When participants were accurate with their pass counts, individuals with higher working memory capacity were more likely to report seeing the gorilla (67%) than those with lesser working memory capacity (36%). These results suggest that variability in attentional control is a potential mechanism underlying the apparent modulation of inattentional blindness across individuals.


Content creation for computer graphics applications is a very time-consuming process that requires skilled personnel. Many people find the manipulation of 3D object with 2D input devices non-intuitive and difficult. We present a system, which restricts the motion of objects in a 3D scene with constraints. In this publication we discuss an experiment that compares two different 3D manipulation interfaces via 2D input devices. The results show clearly that the new constraint-based interface performs significantly better than previous work.


This study was conducted to check predominance of keratoconus in male and female of the various age groups in Pakistan and to check the severity of disease in keratoconus patients. Keratoconus is a progressive eye disease in which the normally round cornea thins and begins to bulge into a conelike shape. A cross-sectional, analytical study was performed between September 2016 to May 2017 on Keratoconus patients visiting Layton Rahmatullah Benevolent Trust Hospital and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital during their ophthalmic consultation. The techniques used for the diagnosis of Keratoconus were Visual Acuity by Snellen chart, Ophthalmoscopy, Orbscan corneal topography, and Slit lamp bio microscopy. Total 110 patients of Keratoconus were studied in which 62 were females and 48 were males. Patients developed both unilateral as well as bilateral conditions. Visual acuity from normal to high vision loss was also observed in Keratoconus patients. Different disorders with different percentage such as Munson's sign were present in 68 patients, Rizutti's sign was present in 30 patients, Vogt's striae were present in 26 patients and Fleischer ring was present in 23 patients. 19 patients had Atopic syndrome and 6 patients had Leber's Congenital Amaurosis were also associated with keratoconus.


The author rises some problems of psychopathy which are the most significant at present: etiology and pathogenesis of psychopathy, their clinical classification, studies of their dynamics, differentiation of psychopathy from other forms of borderline conditions. In respect to the data concerning the modern state of the studies in psychopathy new perspectives in this area emerge: epidemiological studies of psychopathy, a study of its biological substrate, a creation of a unified classification of psychopathy, a differentiation of separate forms in the dynamics of psychopathy.


ABSTRACT: Background: Calcifying pseudoneoplasm of the neuraxis (CAPNON) is a rare tumefactive lesion. CAPNONs can mimic calcified meningiomas at the skull base. Methods: Here, we report two cases of CAPNON and present a systematic review of the literature on skull base CAPNONs, to compare CAPNONs with calcified meningiomas. Results: Case 1: A 57-year-old man presented with right-sided lower cranial neuropathies and gait ataxia. He underwent a subtotal resection of a right cerebellopontine angle lesion, with significant improvement of his gait ataxia. However, his cranial neuropathies persisted. Pathological examination of the lesion was diagnostic of CAPNON, with the entrapped nerve fibers identified at the periphery of the lesion, correlating with the patient's cranial neuropathy. Case 2: A 70-year-old man presented with progressive headache, gait difficulty, and cognitive impairment. He underwent a frontotemporal craniotomy for a near-total resection of his right basal frontal CAPNON. He remained neurologically stable 7 years after the initial resection without evidence of disease recurrence. We analyzed 24 reported CAPNONs at the skull base in our systematic review of the literature. Cranial neuropathies were present in 11 (45.8%) patients. Outcomes regarding cranial neuropathies were documented in six patients: two had sacrifice of the nerve function with surgical approaches and four had persistent cranial neuropathies. Conclusion: While CAPNON can radiologically and grossly mimic calcified meningiomas, they are two distinctly different pathologies. CAPNONs located at the skull base are commonly associated with cranial neuropathies, which may be difficult to reverse despite surgical intervention.


By using techniques of severe plastic deformation a metallic material can be subjected to an enormous strain that is not achievable by conventional methods of deformation. In this study nickel single crystals with different crystallographic orientation and nickel polycrystals were deformed by high pressure torsion. All nickel samples were processed up to the evolution of a saturation microstructure where no further hardening of the material can be observed. In this region all samples develop a similar microstructure and micro-texture. The differences in the fragmentation of the microstructure and the micro-texture development between the single crystals and the polycrystalline aggregate were examined using EBSD. A major difference between single crystals and polycrystals was not only the microstructure evolution at low equivalent strains, but also the development of a stable micro-texture, which is achieved earlier by the use of a polycrystalline aggregate.


We study learning of a matching model for response selection in retrieval-based dialogue systems. The problem is equally important with designing the architecture of a model, but is less explored in existing literature. To learn a robust matching model from noisy training data, we propose a general co-teaching framework with three specific teaching strategies that cover both teaching with loss functions and teaching with data curriculum. Under the framework, we simultaneously learn two matching models with independent training sets. In each iteration, one model transfers the knowledge learned from its training set to the other model, and at the same time receives the guide from the other model on how to overcome noise in training. Through being both a teacher and a student, the two models learn from each other and get improved together. Evaluation results on two public data sets indicate that the proposed learning approach can generally and significantly improve the performance of existing matching models.


MOTIVATION
Recent years have seen a growing number and an expanding scope of studies using synthetic oligo libraries for a range of applications in synthetic biology. As experiments are growing by numbers and complexity, analysis tools can facilitate quality control andsupport better assessment and inference.

RESULTS
We present a novel analysis tool, called SOLQC, which enables fast and comprehensive analysis of synthetic oligo libraries, based on NGS analysis performed by the user. SOLQC provides statistical information such as the distribution of variant representation, different error rates and their dependence on sequence or library properties. SOLQC produces graphical reports from the analysis, in a flexible format. We demonstrate SOLQC by analyzing literature libraries. We also discuss the potential benefits and relevance of the different components of the analysis.

SOFTWARE AVAILABILITY
SOLQC is a free software for non-commercial use, available at https://app.gitbook.com/@yoav-orlev/s/solqc/. For commercial use please contact the authors.


Using a modeling approach, we constructed a time series to examine interannual vari- ability in the spring nitrate concentrations in the surface layer of the Gulf of St. Lawrence (GSL) for the period 1947 to 2000. This 2-step modeling approach used the lower boundary of the cold inter- mediate layer (CIL), a persistent summer characteristic of the temperature profiles in the GSL, to infer interannual variations in the depth of the winter mixed layer. Using a linear model describing the dis- tribution of nitrates at intermediate depths, we estimated a time series of spring nitrate concentration in the surface waters of the GSL for the period 1947 to 2000. This early spring time series showed interannual fluctuations in nitrate concentrations of about 1 order of magnitude, attributable to vari- ability in winter convection. Such variability in the spring nitrate availability should have a significant impact on the ecosystem. Some elements that should be taken into account in any future attempt to validate this estimated nitrate time series are discussed.


The in silico principal properties (PPs) of ionic liquids (ILs), derived by means of the VolSurf+ approach, were used to develop a Partial Least Squares (PLS) model able to find a quantitative correlation among IL descriptors (accounting for both cationic and anionic structural features) and heat capacity values, providing affordable predictions validated by experimental Cp measurements for an external set of ILs. In silico predictions allowed the selection of a limited number of structurally different ILs with similar Cp values, providing the possibility to select an optimal IL according to efficiency, as well as to environmental and economic sustainability. The present general procedure, using readily available descriptors for above 8000 ILs and adopting an accessible statistical procedure such as PLS, could be extended to other QSPR models.


This thesis forwards a path-based hermeneutics as a middle path (Skt. madhyamā-pratipad) between Deconstruction and Mādhyamaka, in order to understand our existential relatedness without reference to Being. It does not attempt to do so by way of a comparative analysis, which I believe results inevitably in some form of reification of both in terms of their method. Rather, what I see as unique to both Deconstruction and Mādhyamaka is this very lack of method – hermeneutical or otherwise – hence underscoring the significance of this path (either as demarche or mārga) that demands our existential response. The method is the argument, and in working through the various linguistic, epistemological, and ontological assumptions we thus engage (as our response and responsibility at once) with our very conditions of possibility that make them impossible at the same time.


ABSTRACT Hygromycin B is an aminoglycoside antibiotic active against prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomes. Ribosomal alterations in bacteria conferring resistance to hygromycin B have not been described, prompting us to use a single rRNA allelic derivative of the gram-positive bacterium Mycobacterium smegmatis for investigation of the molecular mechanisms involved in ribosomal resistance to hygromycin B in eubacteria. Resistance mutations were found to localize exclusively in 16S rRNA. The mutations observed, i.e., 16S rRNA U1406C, C1496U, and U1498C (E. coli numbering), are in close proximity to the hygromycin B binding site located in conserved helix 44 of 16S rRNA. The 16S rRNA positions involved in hygromycin B resistance are highly conserved in all three domains of life, explaining the lack of specificity and general toxicity of hygromycin B.


BACKGROUND
Rituximab added to chemotherapy prolongs survival among adults with B-cell cancer. Data on its efficacy and safety in children with high-grade, mature B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are limited.

METHODS
We conducted an open-label, international, randomized, phase 3 trial involving patients younger than 18 years of age with high-risk, mature B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (stage III with an elevated lactate dehydrogenase level or stage IV) or acute leukemia to compare the addition of six doses of rituximab to standard lymphomes malins B (LMB) chemotherapy with standard LMB chemotherapy alone. The primary end point was event-free survival. Overall survival and toxic effects were also assessed.

RESULTS
Analyses were based on 328 patients who underwent randomization (164 patients per group); 85.7% of the patients had Burkitt's lymphoma. The median follow-up was 39.9 months. Events were observed in 10 patients in the rituximab-chemotherapy group and in 28 in the chemotherapy group. Event-free survival at 3 years was 93.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 89.1 to 96.7) in the rituximab-chemotherapy group and 82.3% (95% CI, 75.7 to 87.5) in the chemotherapy group (hazard ratio for primary refractory disease or first occurrence of progression, relapse after response, death from any cause, or second cancer, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.15 to 0.66; one-sided P = 0.00096, which reached the significance level required for this analysis). Eight patients in the rituximab-chemotherapy group died (4 deaths were disease-related, 3 were treatment-related, and 1 was from a second cancer), as did 20 in the chemotherapy group (17 deaths were disease-related, and 3 were treatment-related) (hazard ratio, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.16 to 0.82). The incidence of acute adverse events of grade 4 or higher after prephase treatment was 33.3% in the rituximab-chemotherapy group and 24.2% in the chemotherapy group (P = 0.07); events were related mainly to febrile neutropenia and infection. Approximately twice as many patients in the rituximab-chemotherapy group as in the chemotherapy group had a low IgG level 1 year after trial inclusion.

CONCLUSIONS
Rituximab added to standard LMB chemotherapy markedly prolonged event-free survival and overall survival among children and adolescents with high-grade, high-risk, mature B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and was associated with a higher incidence of hypogammaglobulinemia and, potentially, more episodes of infection. (Funded by the Clinical Research Hospital Program of the French Ministry of Health and others; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01516580.).


In an age of collective responsibility, even the most well-intentioned third parties are faced with an impossible choice between the consequences of complacency or the uncertainty of intervention to resolve civil conflicts. When faced with these situations and the desire to act, international actors need an answer to the question of how. Despite the frequency of third party interventions, very little if anything is understood about the interaction between the efforts, which begs the question: how do conflict resolution efforts affect each other in reducing the amount of violence in conflict? Further, what factors or design characteristics are more effective in specific intervention environments? And finally, are certain combinations of actors or intervention types more or less successful in managing conflict? This project begins to tackle these complex questions by evaluating simultaneous thirdparty resolution efforts in civil conflicts and the levels of violence following an intervention. The first chapter suggests a new perspective on conflict resolution: simultaneous interventions. The concept of simultaneous interventions is defined as multiple conflict resolution efforts overlapping in time and compared to relevant concepts in the literature, such as multiparty efforts and sequential interventions. Then a theoretical framework is proposed iii for understanding how simultaneous interventions affect conflict dynamics, suggesting that they will be more successful in mitigating and resolving violence. Simultaneous conflict resolution efforts are expected to be more successful on average by increasing the input of resources dedicated to conflict resolution, increasing the diversity of skills and experience, and increasing the efficiency of efforts by reducing costs. The second chapter explores the new perspective of simultaneous interventions empirically, highlighting the potential for uncovering new knowledge in already studied areas of conflict resolution. First, the trends and patterns of simultaneous conflict resolution efforts over time and across different civil conflicts are discussed to illustrate how these interventions occur in practice. An initial look at the effectiveness – or lack thereof as the evidence shows – of simultaneous interventions in mitigating violence is included. Second, the relationship between simultaneous efforts and levels of violence is considered in a broader context, including other intervention characteristics and conflict settings such as levels of violence before the intervention. The types of conflict resolution considered in this project are also detailed and the variations in how simultaneous interventions interact across types is considered. The third chapter introduces a new concept made possible by the perspective of simultaneous conflict resolution efforts: coordinated interventions. First, the concept of coordination is defined for the literature more broadly and then specifically for this project as common actor involvement. Second, a theoretical framework of how coordinated simultaneous interventions are more efficient in implementing conflict resolution than uncoordinated efforts is proposed. Coordinated interventions reduce competition by coordinating goals and utilize the advantages of division of labor by coordinating implementation. Third, the implementation and consequences of coordinated efforts in practice is explored. After a brief consideration of the patterns of coordination over time and across conflicts, the effectiveness of coordinated and simultaneous efforts in reducing levels of violence in a conflict


E-learning promises people the ability to learn at a time and place to suit their needs. However, we frequently assume they can automatically adapt to an online environment. This is not the case. They need focussed support on their journey of development from e-user to e-learner. However, many fail to complete this journey. It is essential we identify how best to support them if we are to fully realise the potential of e-learning. This paper builds on previous research and presents an e-moderation activity model for tutor-led courses.


Great progress has been made in the study of fatty liver with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine in aspects of diagnosis, treatment and experimental study, etc. Most researches were designed to utilize diagnostic or model replicating method of western medicine to observe the effects or investigate the action mechanism of compound recipe, single Chinese herb or effective ingredients of Chinese herbs on fatty liver. According to the pathological mechanism of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), fatty liver is characterized by deficiency in nature and repletion in appearance, which involves three Zang viscera such as liver, spleen and kidney and manifests as spleen Qi deficiency, liver and kidney deficiency, phlegm and dampness heaping internally, and Qi stagnation and blood stasis. This facilitates us to use specific recipe or modified recipe to treat fatty liver from the points of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine and combining syndrome differentiation with disease differentiation. With gratifying achievement, this kind of approach has been the mainstream of the research on fatty liver and many researchers have reached an agreement on this point domestically. Spleen Fortifying and Blood Invigorating Recipe (SFBVER in brief, invented by our institute) can significantly improve the B ultrasound outcome of the liver in patients with fatty liver, with significant difference in B ultrasound scoring between pre-and post-treatment. It can alleviate the patients' symptoms, improve or regain liver function, decrease waist/buttocks ratio and the content of triglyceride and cholesterol in blood. SFBVER is superior to Dongbao Gantai Recipe in general effective rate. Experimental study also reveals that SFBVER can alleviate CCl(4) induced liver cell fatty degeneration and the inflammatory cell infiltration in rats, decrease the activities of ALT and AST, lower the content of triglyceride in liver, recover SOD activity in liver to normal level. The overall efficacy of SFBVER is superior to that of Dongbao Gantai Recipe. Further correlated study should be focused on inventing new preparation of traditional Chinese medicine and investigating its action mechanism with the guiding of the theory of TCM and referring to the latest discovery in fatty liver research in modern medicine.


A current source circuit to drive a light source in an optical sensor system is disclosed. The current source includes an inductor connected in series with a resistor, and a diode coupled in parallel with the inductor and resistor. The current source is configured to receive a regulated direct current (DC) voltage and to provide the current through the inductor to the light source when a switch is closed, and to divert current through the inductor to the diode when the switch is open.


Importance
Lower cranial neuropathy (LCNP) is a rare, but permanent, late effect of radiotherapy and other cancer therapies. Lower cranial neuropathy is associated with excess cancer-related symptoms and worse swallowing-related quality of life. Few studies have investigated risk and clinical factors associated with late LCNP among patients with long-term survival of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC survivors).

Objective
To estimate the cumulative incidence of and identify clinical factors associated with late LCNP among long-term OPSCC survivors.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This single-institution cohort study included disease-free adult OPSCC survivors who completed curative treatment from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2013. Exclusion criteria consisted of baseline LCNP, recurrent head and neck cancer, treatment at other institutions, death, and a second primary, persistent, or recurrent malignant neoplasm of the head and neck less than 3 months after treatment. Median survival of OPSCC among the 2021 eligible patients was 6.8 (range, 0.3-18.4) years. Data were analyzed from October 12, 2019, to November 13, 2020.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Late LCNP events were defined by neuropathy of the glossopharyngeal, vagus, and/or hypoglossal cranial nerves at least 3 months after cancer therapy. Cumulative incidence of LCNP was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were fit.

Results
Among the 2021 OPSCC survivors included in the analysis of this cohort study (1740 [86.1%] male; median age, 56 [range, 28-86] years), 88 (4.4%) were diagnosed with late LCNP, with median time to LCNP of 5.4 (range, 0.3-14.1) years after treatment. Cumulative incidence of LCNP was 0.024 (95% CI, 0.017-0.032) at 5 years, 0.061 (95% CI, 0.048-0.078) at 10 years, and 0.098 (95% CI, 0.075-0.128) at 15 years of follow-up. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression identified T4 vs T1 classification (hazard ratio [HR], 3.82; 95% CI, 1.85-7.86) and accelerated vs standard radiotherapy fractionation (HR, 2.15; 95% CI, 1.34-3.45) as independently associated with late LCNP status, after adjustment. Among the subgroup of 1986 patients with nonsurgical treatment, induction chemotherapy regimens including combined docetaxel, cisplatin, and fluorouracil (TPF) (HR, 2.51; 95% CI, 1.35-4.67) and TPF with cetuximab (HR, 5.80; 95% CI, 1.74-19.35) along with T classification and accelerated radiotherapy fractionation were associated with late LCNP status after adjustment.

Conclusions and Relevance
This single-institution cohort study found that, although rare in the population overall, cumulative risk of late LCNP progressed to 10% during the survivors' lifetime. As expected, clinical factors associated with LCNP primarily reflected greater tumor burden and treatment intensity. Further efforts are necessary to investigate risk-reduction strategies as well as surveillance and management strategies for this disabling late effect of cancer treatment.


Nano-object additives are used in tribological applications as well as in various applications in liquids requiring controlled manipulation and targeting. On the macroscale, nanoparticles in solids and liquids have been shown to reduce friction and wear. On the nanoscale, atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies have been performed in single- and multiple-nanoparticle contact, in dry environments, to characterize friction forces and wear. However, limited studies in submerged liquid environments have been performed and further studies are needed. In this paper, spherical Au nanoparticles were studied for their effect on friction and wear under dry conditions and submerged in water. In single-nanoparticle contact, individual nanoparticles, deposited on silicon, were manipulated with a sharp tip and the friction force was determined. Multiple-nanoparticle contact sliding experiments were performed on nanoparticle-coated silicon with a glass sphere. Wear tests were performed on the nanoscale with AFM as well as on the macroscale by using a ball-on-flat tribometer to relate friction and wear reduction on the nanoscale and macroscale. Results indicate that the addition of Au nanoparticles reduces friction and wear.