The amount of reactive N in soils on the Australian continent appears to be increasing, mainly because of biological N-fixation by permanent pastures in the dryland farming zone. This gain is partly offset by N-mining by crops, which we estimate have removed between one-fifth and one-quarter of the original soil N. The vast areas of non-agricultural land and arid rangelands appear to be in neutral N balance and the relatively small area of intensive agriculture is in negative balance. There are regional N losses from the sugar and dairy industries to groundwater, estuaries and lagoons, including the Great Barrier Reef. Fertiliser N application is increasing, and is likely to increase further, to compensate for the soil-N mining and to meet increasing crop yield potential, but fertiliser-N represents a relatively small fraction of the Australian N balance. The dryland farming zone utilises the largest amounts of native and fertiliser N. The average fertiliser application to dryland cereals and oilseeds, 45 kg N ha–1, is low by international standards because of the small N-demand by dryland crops and because there are no subsidies on crops or fertiliser that promote overuse. The efficiency of N-use is relatively low, for example about 40% of fertiliser N is recovered in the aboveground parts of dryland wheat and the rest is retained in the soil, denitrified or otherwise lost. We suggest further research on fertiliser-application methods to increase crop recovery of fertiliser, as well as research to reduce the surplus N from permanent pasture.


Angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1R) mediates the cardiovascular actions of angiotensin II. Growing studies have revealed the underlying association between AT1R-A1166C (rs5186) polymorphism and coronary heart disease (CHD) among the East Asia population. Results from these studies remain conflicting. We conducted this meta-analysis to estimate the overall CHD risk of AT1R-A1166C polymorphism regarding the East Asia population. We searched the PubMed, Embase and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) databases for all articles within a range of published years from 1995 to 2011. The odds ratio (OR) corresponding to the 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the different associations. The statistical heterogeneity among studies was assessed with the Q-test and I 2 statistics. Up to December 2011, 17 case-control studies, including 2,366 cases and 2,414 controls, were available for our study. The C allele and the AC/CC genotypes were associated with significantly increased risk of CHD (OR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.22–2.06 for C versus A and OR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.16–2.13 for AC/CC versus AA, respectively). Our result suggested that AT1R-A1166C polymorphism may be involved in the development of CHD.


Preemptive and non-preemptive scheduling paradigms typically introduce undesirable side effects when scheduling real-time tasks, mainly in the form of preemption overheads and blocking, that potentially compromise timeliness guarantees. The high preemption overheads in preemptive real-time scheduling may imply high resource utilization, often requiring significant over-provisioning, e.g., pessimistic Worst Case Execution Time (WCET) approximations. Non-preemptive scheduling, on the other hand, can be infeasible even for tasksets with very low utilization, due to the blocking on higher priority tasks, e.g., when one or more tasks have WCETs greater than the shortest deadline. Limited preemptive scheduling facilitates the reduction of both preemption related overheads as well as blocking by deferring preemptions to favorable locations in the task code.In this thesis, we investigate the feasibility of limited preemptive scheduling of real-time tasks on uniprocessor and multiprocessor platforms. We derive schedulability tests for global limited preemptive scheduling under both Earliest Deadline First (EDF) and Fixed Priority Scheduling (FPS) paradigms. The tests are derived in the context of two major mechanisms for enforcing limited preemptions, viz., defer preemption for a specified duration (i.e., Floating Non-Preemptive Regions) and defer preemption to the next specified location in the task code (i.e., Fixed Preemption Points). Moreover, two major preemption approaches are considered, viz., wait for the lowest priority job to become preemptable (i.e., a Lazy Preemption Approach (LPA)) and preempt the first executing lower priority job that becomes preemptable (i.e., an Eager Preemption Approach (EPA)). Evaluations using synthetically generated tasksets indicate that adopting an eager preemption approach is beneficial in terms of schedulability in the context of global FPS. Further evaluations simulating different global limited preemptive scheduling algorithms expose runtime anomalies with respect to the observed number of preemptions, indicating that limited preemptive scheduling may not necessarily reduce the number of preemptions in multiprocessor systems. We then theoretically quantify the sub-optimality (the worst-case performance) of limited preemptive scheduling on uniprocessor and multiprocessor platforms using resource augmentation, e.g., processor speed-up factors to achieve optimality. Finally, we propose a sensitivity analysis based methodology to control the preemptive behavior of real-time tasks using processor speed-up, in order to satisfy multiple preemption behavior related constraints. The results presented in this thesis facilitate the analysis of limited preemptively scheduled real-time tasks on uniprocessor and multiprocessor platforms.


Cost-based filtering is a promising technique able to improve search performance in combinatorial optimization problems. Such a technique has already been successfully applied to stochastic inventory control problems. We focus on the class of production/inventory control problems that considers a single product and a single stocking location, given a stochastic demand with a known non-stationary probability distribution. An exact CP approach has been recently introduced to find optimal policy parameters for this problem under ordering, holding and shortage cost. We extend such a CP approach using cost-based filtering. Our algorithm can efficiently solve to optimality instances of realistic size, often with no search effort at all. An extended version of this work is presented in the application track of the technical programme. 1 Problem definition and (Rn, Sn) policy Inventory control is a topic that has been


Cultural ecosystem services are the nonmaterial ways in which humans derive benefits from ecosystems. They are distinct from other types of ecosystem services in that they are not only intangible, but they require an entirely different set of research tools to identify, characterize, and value them. We offer a novel way to assess how individuals perceive and use their local ecosystem, thereby advancing the state-of-the-art of cultural ecosystem service assessment. We identify distinct environmental "tastes" that represent general dispositions, preferences, or orientations regarding particular characteristics of the environment. We then use these environmental tastes to explain environmental behaviors (e.g., engagement in outdoor activities and resource conservation efforts) and opinions (e.g., perceived economic dependence on various environmental resources and opinions regarding environmentally focused development issues). We identify three distinct environmental tastes: "Landscape" is associated with the visual and sensory landscape; "Biota" is associated with living elements of the environment; and "Desert" is associated with the extreme climatic characteristics of the environment. We report that the "Biota" environmental taste has wide-ranging impact on subsequent measures of pro-environmental behaviors and opinions. We maintain that this taste dimension is important for the ability of researchers, land use managers, and policy-makers to understand and evaluate cultural ecosystem services and to characterize how humans perceive them and benefit from them.


Sexually mature male cockerels were treated with low and high doses of alpha-chlorohydrin for up to 30 days. Neither gross nor histological lesions were produced by the drug, and sodium, potassium and acid phosphatase levels in the testicular fluid and ductus deferential plasma were not significantly altered. All the cockerels given low doses remained fertile.


Ube2d ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes promote p53 ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation. We previously showed that cadmium induced p53-dependent apoptosis through the suppression of expression of Ube2d family genes (Ube2d1, Ube2d2, Ube2d3 and Ube2d4) in normal rat proximal tubular cells. Here we examined the effects of inorganic arsenic and inorganic mercury, which induce apoptosis in proximal tubular cells, on cellular protein level of p53 and gene expression of Ube2d family. Inorganic arsenic induced apoptosis with p53 accumulation, and suppressed Ube2d1, Ube2d2 and Ube2d4 expression, but not Ube2d3. On the other hand, although apoptosis was induced in response to inorganic mercury in proximal tubular cells, protein level of p53 was not elevated by inorganic mercury. These results suggest that inorganic arsenic, but not inorganic mercury, may induce p53-dependent apoptotic pathways through downregulation of gene expression of Ube2d family in proximal tubular cells.


Although advances have been made in understanding the role of hypoxia in the stem cell niche, almost nothing is known about a potentially similar role of hypoxia in maintaining the tumor stem cell (TSC) niche. Here we show that a highly tumorigenic fraction of side population (SP) cells is localized in the hypoxic zones of solid tumors in vivo. We first identified a highly migratory, invasive, and tumorigenic fraction of post‐hypoxic side population cells (SPm[hox] fraction) in a diverse group of solid tumor cell lines, including neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, and small‐cell lung carcinoma. To identify the SPm(hox) fraction, we used an "injured conditioned medium" derived from bone marrow stromal cells treated with hypoxia and oxidative stress. We found that a highly tumorigenic SP fraction migrates to the injured conditioned medium in a Boyden chamber. We show that as few as 100 SPm(hox) cells form rapidly growing tumors in vivo. In vitro exposure to hypoxia increases the SPm(hox) fraction significantly. Quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction and immunofluorescence studies showed that SPm(hox) cells expressed Oct‐4, a "stemness" gene having a potential role in TSC maintenance. In nude mice xenografts, SPm(hox) cells were localized to the hypoxic zones, as demonstrated after quantum dot labeling. These results suggest that a highly tumorigenic SP fraction migrates to the area of hypoxia; this migration is similar to the migration of normal bone marrow SP fraction to the area of injury/hypoxia. Furthermore, the hypoxic microenvironment may serve as a niche for the highly tumorigenic fraction of SP cells.


Author(s): Navas Molina, Jose Antonio | Advisor(s): Knight, Rob | Abstract: Advances in 'omics technologies are producing vast amounts of data, bring- ing microbiome research to a whole new level. This increase in data is pushing the limits of existing analysis tools, creating a rapidly-changing environment in which new tools are constantly being released. This presents a challenge to researchers, who need to constantly learn new analytical tools, expose themselves to new envi- ronments such as cloud computing or supercomputers, and deal with the problems resulting from a heterogeneous environment lacking the enforcement of standards. This thesis demonstrates how computational optimizations, enforcement of stan- dards, and minimizing the learning curve for analytical tools and computational environments empower researchers to push the microbiome field forward.Chapter 1 motivates and contextualizes the thesis, exposing the challenges and opportunities that current microbiome research faces as it presents itself as a big data field. Next, Chapter 2 presents the first gold standard approach for an- alyzing microbiome data, improvements in analytical tools, and examples of how these improvements move microbiome research forward. Chapter 3 describes a system that lowers the access barrier to cloud computing that researchers without a computational background face. Chapter 4 exposes the importance of meta- analyses to increase researchers' ability to discover new findings and how much effort is currently spent to perform such meta-analyses. This chapter also presents Qiita, a web-based system focused on facilitating meta-analyses by enforcing stan- dards, normalizing data representation and processing, and providing a common interface to current state-of-the-art analysis tools. Chapter 5 describes how using the tool improvements and data standardizations presented in Chapters 2 and 4, respectively, and a novel system that aids the recording of sample handling in- formation, speed up the process of analyzing microbiome samples to levels never reached before. Finally, the concluding chapter of this thesis discusses the results and the opportunities opened due to these advances, paying special attention to precision medicine, a topic in which the microbiome is becoming key.


The majority of studies investigating the importance of coarse woody debris (CWD) to forest- floor vertebrates have taken place in the Pacific Northwest and southern Appalachian Mountains, while comparative studies in the southeastern Coastal Plain are lacking. My study was a continuation of a long-term project investigating the importance of CWD as a habitat component for shrew and herpetofaunal communities within managed pine stands in the southeastern Coastal Plain. Results suggest that addition of CWD can increase abundance of southeastern and southern short-tailed shrews. However, downed wood does not appear to be a critical habitat component for amphibians and reptiles. Rising petroleum costs and advances in wood utilization technology have resulted in an emerging biofuels market with potential to decrease CWD volumes left in forests following timber harvests. Therefore, forest managers must understand the value of CWD as an ecosystem component to maintain economically productive forests while conserving biological diversity.


BACKGROUND
Lower extremity artery disease (LEAD) involves progressive arterial narrowing manifested by intermittent claudication (IC). LEAD entails endothelial dysfunction and fibrinolytic disorders. In the current study, we analyze the selected parameters of the fibrinolytic system in the blood of patients with symptomatic LEAD depending on clinical parameters.

METHODS
The test group was comprised of 80 patients with diagnosis of LEAD based on Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) test (27 female/ 53 male) with an average age of 63.5±9 years. The control group included 30 healthy, non-smoking volunteers (10 female/ 20 male), with the median age of 56±6 years. The research material - venous blood - was sampled to determine the concentrations of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA Ag), plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1 Ag), D-dimer, fibrinogen, and platelet count (PLT).

RESULTS
We found elevated concentrations of t-PA Ag, PAI-1 Ag, D-dimer, and fibrinogen in the plasma of subjects with symptomatic LEAD. Various stages of the Fontaine classification demonstrated a gradual, statistically significant increase in the concentrations of fibrinogen and PLT count as the disease progressed. More so, in the subgroup of LEAD patients aged ≥ 65 years, we observed significantly higher levels of D- dimer than in the group of younger subjects. In addition to that, the LEAD group demonstrated negative correlations of IC distance, fibrinogen concentrations, and PLT count, negative correlations of ABI at rest and concentrations of D-dimer and PLT count, as well as positive correlations between age and D-dimer levels.

CONCLUSIONS
High t-PA Ag concentrations in LEAD patients suggest damage to the endothelium which comprises the main source of this factor. With high PAI-1 Ag levels, inactive fibrinolytic t-PA-PAI-1 complexes are formed. Increasing fibrinogen concentrations at the subsequent stages in accordance with the Fontaine classification, indicate increasing inflammation. Moreover, heightened values of D-dimer reflect an increased secondary fibrinolysis activation as patients get older and impaired extremity vascularization, manifested by the decreasing ABI, progresses.


We address the problem of compiling quantum operations into braid representations for non-Abelian quasiparticles described by the Fibonacci anyon model. We classify the single-qubit unitaries that can be represented exactly by Fibonacci anyon braids and use the classification to develop a probabilistically polynomial algorithm that approximates any given single-qubit unitary to a desired precision by an asymptotically depth-optimal braid pattern. We extend our algorithm in two directions: to produce braids that allow only single-strand movement, called weaves, and to produce depth-optimal approximations of two-qubit gates. Our compiled braid patterns have depths that are 20 to 1000 times shorter than those output by prior state-of-the-art methods, for precisions ranging between 10(-10) and 10(-30).


For decades seismologists have sought causal relationships between maximum earthquake sizes and other properties of subduction zones, with the underlying notion that some subduction zones may never produce a magnitude ∼9 or larger event. The 2004 Andaman M w - 9.2 earthquake called into question such ideas. Given multicentury return times of the greatest earthquakes, ignorance of those return times and our very limited observation span, I suggest that we cannot yet make such determinations. Present evidence cannot rule out that any subduction zone may produce a magnitude 9 or larger earthquake. Based on theoretical recurrence times, I estimate that one to three M9 earthquakes should occur globally per century, and the past half century with five M9 events reflects temporal clustering and not the long-term average.


Africa?s universities and research centers have a unique role to play in knowledge production and dissemination as drivers of knowledge-based development. To this end, they need to be locally established and socially connected in order to draw fully from the society while feeding back the products of knowledge. Problems identified are the high cost of Internet access, partial realization of campus networks in the universities, ineffective configuration of platforms and the lack of reliable and permanent source of power. Regulatory bodies have been set up for the organization and production of contents which will serve for development support, and the Association of African Universities (AAU) with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have taken up the challenges of plotting a path that captures the synergies, a roadmap to increased bandwidth, resources and knowledge networking for Africa?s knowledge centers.


Blood pressure recordings were made from right atrium, right ventricle, pulmonary trunk, and pulmonary arterial "wedge" positions in the standing, resting, adult horse. Similarly, comparisons were made of blood samples collected from these vascular positions, as well as from jugular vein and carotid artery. A consistently lower partial pressure of carbon dioxide and a greater partial pressure of oxygen and pH were found in blood samples from pulmonary arterial wedge than from carotid artery. A technique for safe and rapid collection of pulmonary trunk and pulmonary arterial wedge blood gases, pH, and pressure data, using a balloon-tipped flow-directed catheter, is described in the nonsedated, nontranquilized, resting, adult horse.


The native plant flora of UAE is almost under-explored for their potential benefits. The cleome brachycarpa plant were grown on a nursery bed with normal watering and growth conditions for 90 days and were then harvested as a whole plant. This study was carried to evaluate the total phenolic content and in-vitro antioxidative activities of the ethanolic (80%) extract of the plant. When ethanol (80%) was used as an extraction solvent, a yield of 4% was achieved. Results showed that total phenolic content of ethanolic extract obtained from the stem (1031 mg/kg) and root (1032 mg/kg) of the plant was higher than that of leaves (1020 mg/kg) (p< 0.05). In-vitro antioxidative activity of different plant showed different activities. Leaf extract showed higher 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activities and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) compared to the extract obtained from stem and shoot. However, there was no difference in the DPPH radical scavenging activities and FRAP among the extract stem and root. The higher antioxidative activities with concomitant higher total phenolic was found in all three parts of the plant. Thus, the extract obtained from un-exploited plant of UAE was found to possess good antioxidative activity extract and could be a promising source of natural antioxidant to be applied in animal feed and as a natural food additive.


We studied heavy and light mineral associations from two grain-size fractions (63–125 μm, 125–250 µm) from 18 permafrost sites in the northern Siberian Arctic in order to differentiate local versus regional source areas of permafrost aggradation on the late Quaternary time scale. The stratigraphic context of the studied profiles spans about 200 ka covering the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 to MIS 1. Heavy and light mineral grains are mostly angular, subangular or slightly rounded in the studied permafrost sediments. Only grains from sediments with significantly longer transport distances show higher degrees of rounding. Differences in the varying heavy and light mineral associations represent varying sediment sources, frost weathering processes, transport mechanisms, and post-sedimentary soil formation processes of the deposits of distinct cryostratigraphic units. We summarized the results of 1141 microscopic mineral analyses of 486 samples in mean values for the respective cryostratigraphic units. We compared the mineral associations of all 18 sites along the Laptev Sea coast, in the Lena Delta, and on the New Siberian Archipelago to each other and used analysis of variance and cluster analysis to characterize the differences and similarities among mineral associations. The mineral associations of distinct cryostratigraphic units within several studied profiles differ significantly, while others do not. Significant differences between sites as well as between single cryostratigraphic units at an individual site exist in mineral associations, heavy mineral contents, and mineral coefficients. Thus, each study site shows individual, location-specific mineral association. The mineral records originate from multiple locations covering a large spatial range and show that ratios of heavy and light mineral loads remained rather stable over time, including glacial and interglacial periods. This suggests mostly local sediment sources and highlights the importance of sediment reworking under periglacial regimes through time, including for example the formation of MIS 1 thermokarst and thermo-erosional deposits based on remobilized MIS 3 and 2 Yedoma Ice Complex deposits. Based on the diverse mineralogical results our study supports the viewpoint that Yedoma Ice Complex deposits are mainly results of local and polygenetic formations (including local aeolian relocation) superimposed by cryogenic weathering and varying climate conditions rather than exclusive long distance aeolian transport of loess, which would have highly homogenized the deposits across large regions.


The first total synthesis of the proposed structure of delta-indomycinone has been accomplished. The key steps involve the Diels-Alder reaction of a bromonaphthoquinone (6) and 1-methoxy-3-methyl-1-trimethylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene (7) to access the anthraquinone skeleton, representing a common building block of other naturally occurring anthraquinone antibiotics, regioselective bromination of anthraquinone (14) and a highly diastereoselective alkylation of enantiomerically pure dioxolanone 8. The reported synthetic approach has the advantage of high yields, excellent selectivity and a remarkable general applicability for the total synthesis of other anthrapyran natural products. The spectroscopic data obtained for the synthetic compounds 2 and 36 are not in agreement with those reported for the natural product, and therefore revision of the assigned structure is required.


In this paper I report results from recent trials in which students used mobile devices to collaboratively create, edit and share trails. These included 9to 10-year-olds as well as adult diploma students, in the subject of horticulture in botanic gardens. Findings indicate that a narrow subject focus and a manageable amount of data capture are appropriate in most cases; trails are most effective when framed with structured tasks and a narrow focus. Structure can be introduced through the use of collaboration scripts that specify tasks, roles and groups. Findings also show that audio is an important mode for communication and interpretation, particularly when paired with photos; audio alone is effective when location data is known; but photos alone are much less effective. Audio is especially effective when used collaboratively – for example when two people have a conversation or share their impressions while in front of the object or exhibit of interest.


Target concentration intervention (TCI) is proposed as an alternative conceptual strategy to therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). It is argued that the idea of a therapeutic range has limited the interpretation of measured drug concentrations and diminished the anticipated clinical benefit to patients by use of an oversimplified pharmacodynamic model. TCI on the other hand embraces pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic concepts and uses the idea of a target effect and associated target concentration to make rational individual dose decisions.


In this paper we introduce ShiftCNN, a generalized low-precision architecture for inference of multiplierless convolutional neural networks (CNNs). ShiftCNN is based on a power-of-two weight representation and, as a result, performs only shift and addition operations. Furthermore, ShiftCNN substantially reduces computational cost of convolutional layers by precomputing convolution terms. Such an optimization can be applied to any CNN architecture with a relatively small codebook of weights and allows to decrease the number of product operations by at least two orders of magnitude. The proposed architecture targets custom inference accelerators and can be realized on FPGAs or ASICs. Extensive evaluation on ImageNet shows that the state-of-the-art CNNs can be converted without retraining into ShiftCNN with less than 1% drop in accuracy when the proposed quantization algorithm is employed. RTL simulations, targeting modern FPGAs, show that power consumption of convolutional layers is reduced by a factor of 4 compared to conventional 8-bit fixed-point architectures.


The present study examined early interactions between infants at heightened risk (HR) for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their caregivers in order to better understand the social-communicative environment and its relation to language outcomes in this population. Joint engagement (JE) in HR infants (i.e., younger siblings of children with ASD) has primarily been studied in structured experimenter-infant interactions with a focus on eye contact (i.e., coordinated JE). However, recent work suggests JE without eye contact (i.e., supported JE) in naturalistic interactions is particularly important for language development. Videotaped toy play interactions in the home between 12- and 18-month old infants (at high and low risk for ASD) and their caregivers were coded into mutually exclusive engagement states, and contingent caregiver utterances and labels were coded and examined in relation to language in toddlerhood. HR infants were evaluated for diagnostic outcome at 36 months and classified into three groups: ASD, language delay but no ASD (HR-LD), and no diagnosis (HR-ND). Supported JE was prevalent in the interactions across outcome groups, while both HR-LD and HR-ASD infants spent less time in coordinated JE than their typically developing peers by 18 months. HR infants as a group spent more time solely engaged with objects and less time unengaged than their low risk peers. While caregivers provided similar rates of contingent input and labels across outcome groups, an increase in labels during coordinated JE from 12 to 18 months was apparent for HR-LD and HR-ASD infants. Furthermore, higher rates of labels during coordinated JE were associated with lower toddlerhood language scores for these groups. Findings suggest that parents may pick up on subtle differences in the second year of life and increase the number of labels they provide, but that this simply may not be enough to bolster language development for infants already on a path to communicative delays. This research highlights supported JE as a potential context for early interventions with HR infants, and a critical goal for future research will be to determine what aspects of caregiver input, at what points in development, are most effective for language learning in this population.


Background: Among people coping with chronic illness, tangible social support sometimes has unintended negative consequences on the recipient's psychological health. Identity processes may help explain these effects. Individuals derive selfworth and a sense of competence by enacting social roles that are central to the self-concept.Purpose: This study tested a model drawing from some of these theoretical propositions. The central hypothesis was that tangible support in fulfilling a highly valued role undermines self-esteem and a sense of self-efficacy, which, inturn, affect psychological adjustment.Methods: Structured interviews were conductedwith 98 Latina women with arthritis who rated the homemaker identity as being of central importance to the self-concept.Results: A path analysis indicatedthat, contrary to predictions, tangible housework support was related to less psychological distress. Emotional support predicted greater psychological well-being. These relationships were not mediated by self-esteem or self-efficacy. Qualitative data revealed that half of the sample expressed either ambivalent or negative feelings about receiving housework support.Conclusions: Results may reflect social and cultural norms concerning the types of support that are helpful and appropriate from specific support providers. Future research should consider the cultural meaning and normative context of the support transaction. This study contributes to scarce literatures on the mechanisms that mediate the relationship between social support and adjustment, as well as illness and psychosocial adaptation among Latina women with chronic illness.


Author(s): Kim, Amy Chun | Advisor(s): Davis, Whitney | Abstract: This dissertation presents a history of the development of abstract art in the 1920s and 1930s, the period of its expansion and consolidation as an identifiable movement and practice of art. I argue that the emergence of the category of abstract art in the 1920s is grounded in a voluntaristic impulse to remake the world. I argue that the consolidation of abstract art as a movement emerged out of the Parisian reception of a new Soviet art practice that contained a political impetus that was subsequently obscured as this moment passed. The occultation of this historical context laid the groundwork for the postwar "multiplication" of the meanings of abstraction, and the later tendency to associate its early programmatic aspirations with a more apolitical mysticism.Abstraction has a long and varied history as both a conceptual-aesthetic practice and as an ideal. In the first chapter, I provide a conceptual overview of the terms used by abstract artists and their contemporaries, as well as provide a historicization of the meaning of pure abstraction in terms of the relationship of modernism to its own eighteenth century beginnings and antiquity. The second chapter focuses on the "Soviet moment" of pure abstraction by looking at the Soviet contributions—primarily Konstantin Melnikov's pavilion—to the 1925 Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Modernes in Paris and their enthusiastic reception. The third chapter continues the examination of pure abstraction but in the context of the Parisian art world. It begins with an examination of the L'Art d'Au'jourd'hui exhibit of December 1925 and the two paintings Mondrian contributed to it. I seek to demonstrate that while Mondrian's practice cannot be assimilated to the revolutionary aesthetics of the previous chapter, it was, nevertheless fundamentally connected to a certain vision of capitalism as a problem of everyday life. I argue that it is within the historical context of a dialectic between a "Soviet moment" and a Parisian experience of daily life that the rise and fall of pure abstraction should be understood. In the final chapter, I present the work of Jean Helion, a young, committed French painter, whose trajectory from geometric to figural abstraction provides an understanding of the aesthetic and political impasses, as well as defeats, of the period, a case that casts an unsettling light on the entire adventure of pure abstraction.


Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been developed under the field of computer science for more than 50 years. AI somehow only gains its prominence in the recent millennia when the necessary tools to test the hypothesis on nature of thought became available. Unfortunately, the absence of legal regulation on AI has caused AI to exist in a regulatory vacuum and nature abhors vacuum. The law is at the state of confusion about who shall be blameworthy for the damage caused by AI. The prevalence of this problem triggers for the expatiation of this review article in defining the scope of AI that must be regulated. The objective of this article is to suggest that AI with certain capabilities must be placed in the legal realm. This article will first begin by highlighting the problems associated with AI before directing the focus of the discussion to the various reasons that justify for AI to be regulated. This article will then explore the various approaches which can be adopted by government in regulating AI. These approaches can be a workable formula to procure the two-tier methods in regulating AI in Malaysia. The methodology devised for this article is based on doctrinal research where most of the materials are derived from text books, online resources and established academic databases. The findings made in this article suggest that AI must be regulated independently from the existing legal framework. Reason being, AI capabilities are unique in its own sense and therefore cannot be treated like other previous technologies. The outcome of this article will also able to contribute on issues relating to the legal liability of AI in Malaysia.


This report is the first in a series of reports exploring the role of law in housing equity and innovative uses of law to improve health equity through housing. The reports are based on extensive literature scans and semi-structured interviews with people who are taking action in housing policy and practice. The full series includes: Report I: A Vision of Health Equity in Housing; Report II: Legal Levers for Health Equity in Housing: A Systems Approach; Report III: Health Equity in Housing: Evidence and Evidence Gaps; Report IV: Creative People and Places Building Health Equity in Housing; Report V: Governing Health Equity in Housing; and Report VI: Health Equity through Housing: A Blueprint for Systematic Legal Action.

This report describes the strong relationship between housing, neighborhood and health, and reviews old and new evidence about health, health equity and housing to make the case for "health equity in housing" as a top goal of the movement to create a Culture of Health in America. Achieving health equity in housing means that a substantial proportion of people living in the United States will have the option to live in racially and socio-economically mixed communities where all residents benefit from safe and affordable houses, good schools, transportation, parks and recreational facilities, and economic opportunities.


Last few years digital watermarking has facilitated the protection of copyright information through embedding the hidden information into the digital content. Digital image watermarking is one such the technology that has been developed to protect digital images from illegal manipulations. In this paper a new SWT-SVD semi-blind composite images watermarking algorithm that is robust against various attacks is presented .We use SWT transform to obtain 4-diffirent frequency images. Then we apply SVD on each subsection to modifying their singular value, on the basis of MSE & PSNR values Experimental evaluation demonstrates that proposed algorithm is able to withstand variety of attacks as Salt & Pepper noise, Rotation, Median filter, Vertical Mirroring, Horizontal Mirroring, Gaussian noise, Cropping, Contrast etc. Watermark is recovered efficiently.


BACKGROUND: Bariatric surgery has been established as the best option of treatment for morbid obesity. In recent years single-incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS) has emerged as another modality of carrying out the bariatric procedures. While SILS represents an advance, its application in morbid obesity at present is limited. In this article, we review the technique and results of SILS in bariatric surgery. METHODS: The PubMed database was searched and totally 11 series reporting SILS in bariatric surgery were identified and analyzed. The case reports were excluded. Since 2008, 114 morbidly obese patients receiving SILS bariatric surgeries were reported. RESULTS: The procedures performed included SILS gastric banding, sleeve gastrectomy and gastric bypass. No mortality was reported in the literatures. Sixteen patients (14.05%) needed an additional incision for a liver retractor, a trocar or for conversion. Only one complication of wound infection was reported in these series. All the surgeons reported that the patients were highly satisfied with the scar. CONCLUSION: Because of abundant visceral and subcutaneous fat and multiple comorbidities in morbid obesity, it is more challenging for surgeons to perform the procedures with SILS. It is clear that extensive development of new instruments and technical aspects of these procedures as well as randomized studies to compare them with traditional laparoscopy are essential before these procedures can be utilized in day-to-day clinical practice.


Heavy metal (HM) in industrial wastewater has been one of the serious environmental issues in China for a long time. This paper analyzes the distribution of HMs and governance input efficiency in industrial wastewater based on the archival data of China Statistical Yearbook on Environment from 2001 to 2014. The empirical analysis shows that the concentrations of Hg, Cd, Pb, As, and Cr(VI) generally decreased from 2001 to 2014. The emissions of Hg, Cd, Pb, and As are mostly concentrated in the central provinces (i.e., Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi), the southern provinces (i.e., Guangxi and Guangdong), and the northern provinces (i.e., Gansu and Inner Mongolia). The distribution pattern is closely related to local industry due to resources dependence, such as mining and processing of non-ferrous metal ores, smelting and pressing of ferrous or non-ferrous metals. Cr(VI) is mainly located in the eastern coastal provinces, including Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and caused by manufacturing industries such as automobile, metal products, leather, fur, feather and related products, and footware. Furthermore, we find that the annual expenditure on and the capacity to deal with industrial wastewater play significant negative effects on reducing HM concentrations in industrial wastewater.


Inheritance plays an undisputedly important role in the development of most psychiatric disorders. However, the genes involved have mostly not yet been identified. In all probability, not a single gene but a large number of genes are involved in each disorder. - In psychiatry, a lot is expected from research into the relationship between so-called endophenotypes and genotypes because endophenotypes are more closely related to the genotype and are better defined and quantifiable than the phenotype. - Endophenotypes are biological or neuropsychological markers which are (a) associated with the disorder in the population, (b) are themselves heritable, (c) are manifest in the absence of the disorder, (d) cosegregate with the illness in the families and (e) are more prevalent in relatives of people suffering from the disease than in the general population. - To date only a few markers have been examined in sufficient detail to know whether they fulfil these criteria. Therefore it is still too early to evaluate the significance of endophenotypes in psychiatry.


This paper analyses the digital internal market and when EU intervention is needed to achieve this internal market. It sets legal and economic criteria to determine the appropriate scope of the EU intervention. It applies these criteria to several case studies and concludes that sometimes the EU intervention is not justified (choice of regulatory remedies in many national markets, regulation of mobile termination rate, price control of Next Generation Access networks), whereas in other cases EU intervention is justified (entry regulation, international roaming, spectrum). The paper calls for a more open debate of the concept and the means to achieve the digital internal market. It also submits that EU intervention should focus on the areas where its benefits are the highest (in particular given the possibilities of economies of scale provided by the technology or the cross-country externalities), and where its costs are the lowest (in particular given the heterogeneity of national preferences or the need for regulatory experimentation and competition). Therefore, EU intervention is more relevant for the content part of digital regulation (such as copyright, privacy, electronic commerce, dispute resolution) than for the infrastructure part (i.e. the electronic communications networks and services). In particular, this paper calls the Commission to use with extreme caution its new power on regulatory remedies, especially in the context of the deployment of NGA, given the uncertainty on the best form of regulation.


Paris, 13th July 1887
My dear colleague,
Your kind invitation is very tempting, indeed! Unfortunately, I am obliged to decline the pleasure and honour of attending your useful and brilliant meeting on the 31st August.
A few days ago, I was thanking Sir Paget for the remarkable report by the rabies commission, which gave me such intense satisfaction that I told him I intended to go to London personally this autumn to express my gratitude to the members of this Commission and its revered President, and that, on this occasion, if my health allows it, I shall deliver a lecture on rabies at the Royal Institution. In those conditions, it would be impossible for me to go to Manchester. I indeed have at present a pressing need to go to the countryside for a rest. It is on this condition that I take some rest that my doctor will allow me to go to London in October.
Do accept, Sir Roscoe, my kind wishes.
L. Pasteur


This article presents data on the influence of mineral nutrition on the productivity of spring bird rape varieties in the conditions of the non-chernozem zone of Russia. The experiments were carried out on agro-gray loamy soils of the experimental agrotechnological station of the Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution of Higher Education "Ryazan State Agrotechnological University" (FSBEI HE RSATU) in the Ryazan Region in 2016-2018. A level of mineral nutrition for spring bird rape was calculated asN180P100K100. Based on this, the options for mineral nutrition in research were established. According to the results of the experiments, the duration of the growing season of spring bird rape varieties was established: 73-91 days.An increase in nitrogen to 150 kg of the active substance turned out to be less effective, as the yield increased slightly or remained at the level of N90P50K50. The use of phosphoruspotassium fertilizers did not contribute to the creation of such a nutritional regime that would increase seed productivity. An increase in the nitrogen nutrition of the plants led to increased protein content anddecreased oil content in seeds. This trend was observed in all varieties of spring bird rape. The average oil content was 38.5-45.5% and the average protein contentwas 18.0-24.7%, depending on the variety and the level of mineral nutrition. On average, the highest oil content was shown by varieties Lipchanka (44.1%) and Kulta (42.6%).
Keywords: agro-gray soil, level of mineral nutrition, oil content, productivity, spring bird rape, variety


Introduction I. Julius Henry Cohen's Observations About the Russian Legal Professions II. Regulation of the Russian Legal Professions III. The Moscow Ethics Conference IV. The Role of Private Law Firms in Russian Legal Education. V. Reflections Conclusion INTRODUCTION In his 1916 work The Law: Business or Profession?, (1) Julius Henry Cohen describes an American legal system in which uniform standards for regulating, disciplining, and educating the profession are just beginning to be developed, albeit unevenly, (2) In discussing the differences between a business and a profession, he argues that a profession requires a uniform set of standards to guide it in matters of ethics, (3) as well as a system of rigorous legal education that includes a firm grounding in these ethical principles: Perhaps most surprising for a book written in the early twentieth century--long before the study of comparative law and "globalization" became a central focus of legal education and practice in the United States--Cohen devotes three full chapters to a historical discussion of and comparison among the legal systems of China, Japan, ancient Greece and Rome, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and England. (5) Cohen focuses in particular on Russia, writing for twelve pages about the long history of that country's legal professions. (6) He expresses optimism about the developments he sees unfolding at the time of his book, (7) but he also notes some important reservations. In this essay, I use Cohen's work as a starting point for an examination of some of the professional responsibility issues facing the Russian legal professions today. The essay draws upon my experience at a legal ethics conference in Moscow in November 2011. I participated in the four-day "Professional Responsibility and Legal Ethics School" as a Rule of Law Fellow for the Paul Klebnikov Fund. The class involved thirty students from several Russian universities and covered a variety of professional responsibility topics, including formation of the attorney-client relationship, confidentiality, conflict of interest, issues facing in-house counsel, and the tensions between the roles of officer of the court and advocate. Participating students were selected through a competitive essay contest. (8) The conference was a collaboration among Moscow State University, a human rights non-governmental organization (NGO) (PILnet), two law firms (DLA Piper and White & Case), and two corporations (Verizon and Microsoft). In addition to its involvement in this conference, White & Case teaches several classes at Russian universities, including a legal skills class which involves an ethics component. (9) The role of the private sector in ethics education in Russia challenges the conventional notion of a business-profession dichotomy. In effect, the private sector is actively engaged in helping to develop higher professional standards for lawyers. I will begin with a brief discussion of Julius Henry Cohen's observations about the Russian legal professions in The Law." Business or Profession ? I will then briefly describe the current state of regulation of the Russian legal professions, drawing upon the fascinating parallels with the early twentieth century Russian professions that Cohen describes in his book. I next discuss the Moscow ethics conference and legal skills class in more detail. Finally, I offer some reflections about the promise of this approach to legal education, as well as some concerns. I. JULIUS HENRY COHEN'S OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE RUSSIAN LEGAL PROFESSIONS In The Law: Business or Profession?, Cohen explains that the major reforms affecting the Russian legal professions occurred in 1864, when a largely self-regulating Bar was established. (10) The core of this regulatory structure was membership in a "General Assembly" within each judicial district. (11) Despite the promise of this membership system, it had one important limitation--it did not apply to all lawyers. …


Two new findings using data from the ISOLDE trial are presented in this issue of Thorax: (1) patients with COPD cannot be separated into discrete corticosteroid responders and non-responders, and (2) the response of an individual patient with COPD to a bronchodilator challenge on a single occasion does not predict whether or not the patient will benefit subsequently from that agent. Consistency is needed between North America and Europe as to the diagnosis of COPD and the criteria for inclusion in COPD trials. his study compared the enzyme linked immunospot assay (ELISPOT) with tuberculin skin testing (TST) for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) in low prevalence settings. The ELISPOT assay measures interferon gamma secretion by blood mono- nuclear cells to ESAT-6, an antigen present in Mycobacterium tuberculosis but not in M bovis or environmental mycobacteria. 535 students were tested in a large tuberculosis outbreak in a UK school. Although agreement between the tests was high (89%), ELISPOT correlated significantly more closely with M tuberculosis exposure than did TST based on duration of exposure


BACKGROUND
COVID-19 is a new pandemic, and its impact by HIV status is unknown. National reporting does not include gender identity, therefore data are absent on the impact of COVID-19 on transgender people, including those with HIV. Baseline data from the American Cohort to Study HIV Acquisition Among Transgender Women in High Risk Areas (LITE) Study provide an opportunity to examine pre-COVID factors that may increase vulnerability to COVID-19 related harms among transgender women.

SETTING
Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Miami, New York City, Washington, DC METHODS:: Baseline data from LITE were analysed for demographic, psychosocial, and material factors that may affect vulnerability to COVID-related harms.

RESULTS
The 1020 participants had high rates of poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, homelessness, and sex work. Transgender women with HIV (n=273) were older, more likely to be Black, had lower educational attainment, and were more likely to experience material hardship. Mental and behavioural health symptoms were common and did not differ by HIV status. Barriers to healthcare included being mistreated, provider discomfort serving transgender women, and past negative experiences; as well as material hardships, such as cost and transportation. However, most reported access to material and social support - demonstrating resilience.

CONCLUSIONS
Transgender women with HIV may be particularly vulnerable to pandemic harms. Mitigating this harm would benefit everyone, given the highly infectious nature of this coronavirus. Collecting gender identity in COVID-19 data is crucial to inform an effective public health response. Transgender-led organizations' response to this crisis serve as an important model for effective community-led interventions.


This paper documents a close link between mispricing and liquidity by investigating stocks with high analyst disagreement. Previous research finds that these stocks tend to be overpriced, but that prices correct downwards as uncertainty about earnings is resolved. Our analysis suggests that one reason mispricing has persisted through the years is that analyst disagreement coincides with high trading costs. We also show that in the cross-section, the less liquid stocks tend to be more severely overpriced. Additionally, increases in aggregate market liquidity accelerate the convergence of prices to fundamentals. As a result, returns of the initially overpriced stocks are negatively correlated with the time series of innovations in aggregate market liquidity.


A sedentary lifestyle has increased the amount of people with obesity and diabetes. Obesity has become an urgent matter in recent years since the number of children with this condition has increased in alarming numbers. This thesis addresses this issue throughout the use of pervasive games to support healthier lifestyles. A healthy lifestyle refers to the balance between physical activity and food intake. Nowadays popular health and tracking apps have not integrated this relationship as they are mainly focus on either exercise or nutrition. The latter focus only considering the amount of calories or the type of food the user consumes. But they don't contemplate the association between mood and food. The former focus is mostly used to track the energy expenditure of the user's physical activity. Thus, this thesis supports healthy lifestyles using a prototype of a mobile application. To do so, requirements have been gathered from young people through a workshop and a questionnaire. Then, the requirements were compared against the literature to define all the relevant features. Finally, a prototype has been designed. Such support is provided in three main areas: Exercise, Nutrition and Mood. Feedback is given about the user's exercise and by interacting with nutrition and mood through a virtual character that can feed and exercise. All the food contained in the application shows its nutritional value, number of calories and it is related to a mood score. The higher the mood score is, the happier the virtual character will be. And the other way around: if the score is low, the character will become sad. The outcome of this project has been evaluated by students from the Trondheim International School and was presented to people from the IT industry. The diversity of both groups gave a different perspective of the us and areas of application of the final prototype. The evaluation results have shown that the use of a virtual character can help the user to understand and realize the impact of food and its relationship with the mood. The virtual character creates a cognitive conflict among children because they are encourage to change their idea about the relationship between junk food and happiness. The cognitive conflict can help to destabilize misconceptions and create new and solid knowledge.


This study evaluated fiscal federalism in Nigeria with a view to identifying the areas of problems. Surveyresearch method was adopted. Data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using Z-test. The findingsrevealed that the recommendations proffered by the commissions set up by government in respect to fiscalfederalism did not make much impact on the economy due to some factors like: imperfection in the 1999constitution, furthermore there are many problems inherent in fiscal federalism which has led to duplication ofgovernment functions and waste of public fund. However, in order to ensure an efficient and sound fiscalfederalism in Nigeria, it is recommended among others that the Nigerian fiscal responsibility bill, due processshould be adhered to by public officers. More so efforts should be made to ensure that all tiers of governmentadhere to fiscal transparency, accountability and constitutional provisions on fiscal relations. It is alsorecommended that National Fiscal Commission is established to enhance inter governmental understanding andcooperation in ways conducive to dialogue between federal, state and local government actors.


Gantry crane is used frequently in the dock. How to reduce the number of lifting and improve construction efficiency are given more attention by shipyard. According to site and equipment conditions of a shipyard, a tooling which is used for the large blocks lifted is designed to improve construction efficiency. Moreover, the processes of lifting the large blocks are described. Tooling structure strength is checked by FEM. And the influence of different rails arrangement for tooling structure is analyzed. The successful tooling design plan is of great significance for improving construction efficiency, reducing building period and saving construction cost.Copyright © 2016 by ASME


developed overt diabetes mellitus within three weeks of receiving nifedipine retard 40 mg daily. All were already taking long term thiazides. Excluding the above, 117 paired measurements of non-fasting blood glucose before and while receiving nifedipine showed a small but significant mean increase from 4-7 to 5 mmol/l (85 to 90 mg/100 ml) (p < 0 05). This effect was not exclusive to the cases treated with thiazides. Such observations do not prove cause and effect but taken in conjunction with other evidence should not be ignored. There are reports of hyperglycaemia with impaired insulin release and hyperglucagonaemia in normal subjects' and deterioration in glucose tolerance of diabetics with nifedipine,2 although other studies have not detected changes.2-4 Calcium is important for insulin release, and catecholamine rises associated with nifedipine may be contributory.5 6 Data are scant, short term, and lacking for patients with hypertension. Until more information is available the possible role of nifedipine in the development of diabetes or deterioration of glucose tolerance must be borne in mind and blood glucose routinely monitored. A V ZEzuLKA J S GILL D G BEEVERS


A cDNA fragment encoding part of a DNA methyltransferase was isolated from maize. The putative amino acid sequence identically matched that deduced from a genomic sequence in the database (accession no. AF063403), and the corresponding gene was designated as ZmMET1. Bacterially expressed ZmMET1 actively methylated DNA in vitro. Transcripts of ZmMET1 could be shown to exclusively accumulate in actively proliferating cells of the meristems of mesocotyls and root apices, suggesting ZmMET1 expression to be associated with DNA replication. This was confirmed by simultaneous decrease of transcripts of ZmMET1 and histone H3, a marker for DNA replication, in seedlings exposed to wounding, desiccation and salinity, all of which suppress cell division. Cold stress also depressed both transcripts in root tissues. In contrast, however, accumulation of ZmMET1 transcripts in shoot mesocotyls was not affected by cold stress, whereas those for H3 sharply decreased. Such a differential accumulation of ZmMET1 transcripts was consistent with ZmMET1 protein levels as revealed by western blotting. Expression of ZmMET1 is thus coexistent, but not completely dependent on DNA replication. Southern hybridization analysis with a methylation-sensitive restriction enzyme revealed that cold treatment induced demethylation of DNA in the Ac/Ds transposon region, but not in other genes, and that such demethylation primarily occurred in roots. These results suggested that the methylation level was decreased selectively by cold treatment, and that ZmMET1 may, at least partly, prevent such demethylation.


This article introduces a novel binary discriminative learning technique based on the approximation of the non-linear decision boundary by a piece-wise linear smooth additive model. The decision border is geometrically defined by means of the characterizing boundary points - points that belong to the optimal boundary under a certain notion of robustness. Based on these points, a set of locally robust linear classifiers is defined and assembled by means of a Tikhonov regularized optimization procedure in an additive model to create a final lambda-smooth decision rule. As a result, a very simple and robust classifier with a strong geometrical meaning and non-linear behavior is obtained. The simplicity of the method allows its extension to cope with some of nowadays machine learning challenges, such as online learning, large scale learning or parallelization, with linear computational complexity. We validate our approach on the UCI database. Finally, we apply our technique in online and large scale scenarios, and in six real life computer vision and pattern recognition problems: gender recognition, intravascular ultrasound tissue classification, speed traffic sign detection, Chagas' disease severity detection, clef classification and action recognition using a 3D accelerometer data. The results are promising and this paper opens a line of research that deserves further attention.


Abuse rates for inhalants among adolescents continue to be high, yet preclinical models for studying mechanisms underlying inhalant abuse remain limited. Our laboratory has previously shown that, in male rats, an acute binge-like exposure to toluene vapor that mimics human solvent abuse modifies the intrinsic excitability of mPFC pyramidal neurons projecting to the NAc. These changes showed region (infralimbic; IL vs prelimbic; PRL), layer (shallow; 2/3 vs deep; 5/6), target (core vs shell), and age (adolescent vs adult) dependent differences (Wayman and Woodward, 2017). To expand these findings using reward-based models that may better mimic human drug abuse, we used whole-cell electrophysiology and drug receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs to examine changes in neuronal function and behavior in rats showing a conditioned place preference (CPP) to toluene. Repeated pairings of adolescent rats to binge concentrations of toluene vapor previously shown to enhance dopamine release in reward-sensitive areas of the brain produced CPP that persisted for 7 but not 30 d. Toluene-induced CPP was associated with increased excitability of IL5/6 mPFC neurons projecting to the core of the NAc and reduced excitability of those projecting to the NAc shell. No changes in PRL-NAc-projecting neurons were found in toluene-CPP rats. Chemogenetic reversal of the toluene-induced decrease in IL5/6-NAc shell neurons blocked the expression of toluene-induced CPP while manipulating IL5/6-NAc core neuron activity had no effect. These data reveal that alterations in selective mPFC-NAc pathways are required for expression of toluene-induced CPP. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Disturbed physiology of pyramidal neurons projecting from the mPFC to the NAc has been shown to have different roles in drug-seeking behaviors for a number of drugs (e.g., methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol, heroin). Here, we report that rats repeatedly exposed to the volatile organic solvent toluene, a member of the class of abused inhalants often used for intoxicating purposes by adolescents, induces a preference for the drug-paired environment that is accompanied by altered physiology of a specific population of NAc-projecting mPFC neurons. Chemogenetic correction of this deficit before testing prevented expression of drug preference. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of corticolimbic circuitry in mediating the rewarding properties of abused inhalants.


We present estimates of magnetic field strengths in the interstellar media of starburst galaxies derived from measurements of Zeeman splitting associated with OH megamasers. The results for eight galaxies with Zeeman detections suggest that the magnetic energy density in the interstellar medium of starburst galaxies is comparable to their hydrostatic gas pressure, as in the Milky Way. We discuss the significant uncertainties in this conclusion, and possible measurements that could reduce these uncertainties. We also compare the Zeeman splitting derived magnetic field estimates to magnetic field strengths estimated using synchrotron fluxes and assuming that the magnetic field and cosmic rays have comparable energy densities, known as the "minimum energy" argument. We find that the minimum energy argument systematically underestimates magnetic fields in starburst galaxies, and that the conditions that would be required to produce agreement between the minimum energy estimate and the Zeeman derived estimate of interstellar medium magnetic fields are implausible. The conclusion that magnetic fields in starburst galaxies exceed the minimum energy magnetic fields is consistent with starburst galaxies adhering to the linearity of the far-infrared–radio correlation.


This study provided the proposed hypotheses to encourage researcher to do more study to gain knowledge of online information search behavior of Vietnamese customer. In online customer context, some psychology theories have proved its power in explaining customer action and there were lot of empirical research in the world supported this viewpoint. In addition, due to information available on the Internet, customers are willing to search product or service information online and this action is likely to be habitual behavior. Habit is special psychology construct and thus the empirically study to exam the role of this factor is pragmatic and urgent.


Solid-state 1 H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy has developed into a versatile, high-resolution method for elucidating the detailed structures of both crystalline and amorphous materials. Here, we summarize our recent endeavors in applying this method to crystalline and glassy silicates and related inorganic materials. We first present updated correlations between 1 H chemical shift and O ··· O and H ··· O distances of O-H ··· O hydrogen bonds, derived from a comprehensive 1 H chemical shift database containing both original high-quality fast magic angle spinning (MAS) and two-dimensional combined rotation and multiple pulse spectroscopy (CRAMPS)-MAS NMR data and literature MAS NMR data for a large number of inorganic compounds, including phosphates, silicates, (oxy)hydroxides, borates, sulfates, and carbonates. These correlations may be used to estimate hydrogen-bonding distances for inorganic oxide materials of unknown structures. We then present case studies for the application of high-resolution two-dimensional 1 H CRAMPS-MAS NMR to unravel the order/disorder of proton distributions in crystalline high-pressure hydrous silicates. Finally, we summarize some of our results on the water speciation in hydrous (alumino)silicate glasses of a range of compositions obtained through comprehensive 1 H MAS NMR, and 29 Si- 1 H and 27 Al- 1 H double-resonance NMR experiments, and analyze them in the framework of a quasi-chemical model.


The aims of this study are to: 1) Compare road safety behaviours among car drivers and motorcyclists in Rhodes and Athens, 2) Examine the factors influencing road safety behaviours, focusing on community road safety culture (RSC), 3) Examine the factors influencing RSC among the two modes of transport in the two geographical areas. The study is based on a questionnaire survey, focusing on three types of road safety behaviours: aggressive driving, over speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Although previous research has found important differences between motorcyclists and car drivers on the two former behaviours, drivers' and riders' behaviours were shared within the geographical communities and significantly different across communities. The study concludes that this to a large extent can be attributed to different community RSCs, in the two areas, which was found primarily to be influenced by the perceived level of police enforcement.


In this paper, an image coding approach is developed based on the quadtree classified method. It can solve the problem that some range blocks cannot be coded under the conventional fractal coding method. Experimental results show that compared to the conventional automatic fractal coding method, this approach can obtain high compression ratio with no apparent depression on the quality of the reconstructed image.


Due to the constant changes in workforce and generational composition, employee retention and recruitment has been a major problem. Currently there are three generations working side by side in the workforce namely; the Baby Boomer Generation, Generation X and Generation Y. This research has focused on the most effective ways in which to motivate, attract and retain employees, in particular Generation Y employees. This is important as an employee's motivation and performance has an impact on the company's success. Different generational members have different generational characteristics as well as individual differences and failure by mangers to understand the generational and individual differences can result in misunderstandings, miscommunication, conflict and performance issues. By providing managers with the necessary knowledge to understand employees, effective incentive and reward schemes can be designed and implemented. Using Vroom's Expectancy Theory framework, this study examines Generation Y and X employees in New Zealand accounting and commerce industries in order to understand their preferences, feelings and opinions on the matter of motivation, employee retention and attraction, as well as their perceived generational characteristics. A focus group method was used in order to gather the necessary data. The results illustrate that the characteristics of Generation Y participants did not agree with most of the existing literature on what types of incentive schemes are most effective for these employees, while also pointing out that these employees are also driven by cultural and individual differences. As this study was industry and generational specific, it allowed the gathering of in-depth information, opinions and feelings that contributes to existing literature as well as being the first of its kind due to being executed in New Zealand.


The Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis - an inverted U-shape relation between various indicators of environmental degradation and income per capita - has become one of the 'stylised facts' of environmental and resource economics. This is despite considerable criticism on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Cointegration analysis can be used to test the validity of such stylised facts when the data involved contain stochastic trends. In the present paper, we use cointegration analysis to test the EKC hypothesis using a panel dataset of sulfur emissions and GDP data for 74 countries over a span of 31 years. We find that the data is stochastically trending in the time-series dimension. Given this, and interpreting the EKC as a long run equilibrium relationship, support for the hypothesis requires that an appropriate model cointegrates and that sulfur emissions are a concave function of income. Individual and panel cointegration tests cast doubt on the general applicability of the hypothesised relationship. Even when we find cointegration, many of the relationships for individual countries are not concave. The results show that the EKC is a problematic concept, at least in the case of sulfur emissions. Copyright Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society Inc. and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.


BACKGROUND
Many medical schools require a student thesis before graduation. Publishing results in a peer-reviewed journal could be an indicator of scientific value and acceptability by the scientific community. The publication pattern of theses published by medical students in Peru is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess the characteristics and publication pattern of theses in biomedical-indexed journals conducted by medical students in a university with the highest research output in Peru.

METHODS
Data from registered theses between 2000 and 2003 were obtained from the university library. Publication of theses in biomedical journals was assessed in 2008 by a search strategy using PubMed, Google Scholar, LILACS, LIPECS and SciELO.

RESULTS
Four hundred and eighty-two medical theses were registered between 2000 and 2003; 85 (17.6%) were published in biomedical-indexed journals. Of the published theses, 28 (5.8%) were published in MEDLINE-indexed journals, 55 (11.4%) in SciELO-indexed journals, 61 (12.6%) in LILACS-indexed journals and 68 (14.1%) in LIPECS-indexed journals. Most of the published theses (80%) were in Spanish and published in Peruvian journals; and 17 theses (20%) were published in foreign journals (all of them indexed in MEDLINE). In addition, 37 (43.5%) belong primarily to internal medicine, and 24 (28.2%) belong primarily to infectious diseases. Medical students were first authors in 71 (83.5%) of the articles.

CONCLUSION
In this study, most of the published theses were in Spanish, published in local journals and indexed in LIPECS. The percentage of published theses in biomedical journals at this university is comparable with others coming from developed countries.


Abstract: There is a demand to incorporate content information into social networks. The authors constructed and visualized a network of the most important gods and heroes in the Sanskrit epic Mahābhārata. The network includes semantic information about the actors and their relationships. These two types of information were collected automatically with the help of the Nubbi topic modeling algorithm, which assigns separate sets of topics to both persons and their relations. The visualization of such a network provides intuitive access to a high density of information, like the topic distribution for each actor and the predominant topic for each relation.


The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), is the third emerging human coronavirus, leading to fatal respiratory distress and pneumonia. The disease originated in December 2019 in Wuhan City, Hubei province, China. As of 23 November 2021, over 258 million cases and 5.1 million deaths have been reported in more than 222 countries and territories worldwide. The COVID-19 is under biological hazards group 4 of high risk of spreading to the community with the potential to overwhelm the health system, especially in resource limited countries. Transmission of COVID-19 within healthcare and non-healthcare facilities has been recorded. Therefore, several authorities such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and other global partners issued guidance to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic in these facilities. A global emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic requires various studies of mitigation measures and risk assessment. The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) was used as a tool for risk assessment in healthcare and clinical fields that assigns a numerical value to each risk associated with failure. Therefore, in this review, the FMEA procedure was used to evaluate the COVID-19 risks and risk groups in health care and non-healthcare workplaces. Proposed mitigation measures and risk ranking tools were also summarized. The COVID-19 transmission risk should be theoretically and practically reduced by applying the best hygienic practices. However, providing safe work practices must be improved for infection control measures in healthcare and non-healthcare workplaces. Additionally, it is recommended to reassess the risk of COVID-19 infection from time to time, especially after vaccines availability.


In this paper, we propose a two-stage method for solving the Bi-Objective Quadratic Multiple Knapsack Problem (BO-QMKP). The method combines both a special local branching (the first stage) and the ϵ-constraint (the second stage) strategies, where the local branching tries to intensify the search process while a series of ϵ-constraints are added to tailor a diversification of the search space. The method is based on solving a series of mono-objective optimization problems: from the current problem, provided by combining the original problem and an ϵ-constraint (using a single objective function), an optimization phase is applied in order to generate a set of non-dominated solutions. A preliminary experimental part is given, where the performance of the proposed two-stage method is evaluated on a set of benchmark containing large-scale instances. Its provided results are compared to those achieved by one of the best method available in the literature. Encouraging results have been obtained.


This paper presents a spatio-temporal graph-based method of detecting and tracking moving objects by treating the encoded blocks with non-zero motion vectors and/or non-zero residues as potential parts of objects in H.264/AVC bitstreams. A spatio-temporal graph is constructed by first clustering the encoded blocks of potential object parts into block groups, each of which is defined as an attributed subgraph where the attributes of the vertices represent the positions, motion vectors and residues of the blocks. In order to remove false-positive blocks and to track the real objects, temporal connections between subgraphs in two consecutive frames are constructed and the similarities between subgraphs are computed, which constitutes a spatio-temporal graph. We show the experimental results that the proposed spatio-temporal graph-based representation of potential object blocks enables effective detection for the small-sized objects and the objects with small motion vectors and residues, and allows for reliable tracking of the detected objects even under occlusion. The identification of the detected moving objects is determined as rectangular regions of interest (ROIs) for which the ROI sizes and positions are adaptively adjusted to give the best approximation of the real shapes and positions of the objects.


This book contains short, pithy summaries of historical information about every community in Cumbria, large and small. Arranged alphabetically, it provides a digest of facts about population, landownership, local economic history, places of worship, schools and other community institutions across the centuries. The groundwork for the Gazetteer was carried out for the Victoria County History of Cumbria project by a large team of volunteer local historians, who compiled brief historical cameos for the project website, drawn from a checklist of key sources. This was a large undertaking, since the project divides Cumbria into 348 separate places (defined as the Civil Parishes as they existed in the 1890s). The material prepared for the website has now been substantially re-written for this Gazetteer, in an attempt to ensure accuracy and consistency.


. Be it snow, volcanic ash or strikes, crisis events impose high costs on the air transport system and society. Airlines have progressively learned to mitigate the irregular operations arising from such events through procedures such as Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) for tra(cid:30)c (cid:29)ow and airport departure management; however the passen- ger's door-to-door journey during di(cid:30)cult times often remains unpleas-ant. Meta-CDM (Multimodal, E(cid:30)cient Transportation in Airports and Collaborative Decision Making), aims at taking a passenger-centric approach when examining how airside and landside CDM can be inter- linked with other transport modes to minimize the impact of severe disruptions. In this paper, we provide a preliminary analysis of past suc- cesses and failures of passenger-centric operations, by documenting the state of the art in airport CDM, by investigating representative disrup- tive events and by studying the conditions of development of airport intermodality. In addition, as the success or failure of any new concept depends on which metrics it is being evaluated against, we also discuss the need of relevant KPIs to measure the success of an extended CDM concept.


A static interval optimization method for structures was developed. The matrices of structures with interval parameters are given. Combining the interval extension of functions with the perturbation theory of static analysis, the method for interval static analysis of the structure with interval parameters and interval loading was derived. The Interval optimization problem was transformed into a corresponding deterministic one. Because the mid-values and the uncertainties of the interval parameters can be selected as the design variables, more information of the optimization results can be obtained by the present method than that obtained by the deterministic one. The numerical results show that the present method is valid.


The Eighteenth Edition of ADVANCED WORD PROCESSING, LESSONS 56-110 uses proven techniques to help readers master the advanced word processing skills they need for career success?including confident expertise in formatting business documents with Microsoft? Word 2010. South-Western College Keyboarding offers a proven, time-tested approach that helps readers rapidly become proficient in document formatting and business communication. Each lesson is clearly focused, well structured, and designed to provide step-by-step training and reinforcement to help readers quickly develop advanced skills. This one-book solution includes 55 progressive lessons, documents, and software instructions within a space-saving easel-back format.


Neisseria gonorrhoeae, an obligate human pathogen, is subjected to oxidant stress when attacked by O2 reduction products formed by neutrophils. In this study, exposure of gonococci to sublethal concentrations of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide (and related O-centered radicals) resulted in phenotypic resistance to oxidant stress. Adaptation required new protein formation but was not related to increases in superoxide dismutase or catalase. We have previously demonstrated that gonococci use phagocyte-derived L-(+)-lactate. Oxidant stress of greater magnitude than that required for adaptation led to a generalized increase in bacterial metabolism, particularly in L-(+)- and D-(-)-lactate utilization and lactate dehydrogenase activity. Increased lactate utilization required new protein synthesis. These results suggest the possibility that lactate metabolism is of importance to N. gonorrhoeae subjected to oxidant stress. Use of lct mutant organisms unable to use L-(+)-lactate should allow examination of this hypothesis.


In orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, it is generally assumed that the channel response is static in an OFDM symbol period. However, the assumption does not hold in high-mobility environments. As a result, intercarrier interference (ICI) is induced, and system performance is degraded. A simple remedy for this problem is the application of the zero-forcing (ZF) equalizer. Unfortunately, the direct ZF method requires the inversion of an N times N ICI matrix, where N is the number of subcarriers. When N is large, the computational complexity can become prohibitively high. In this paper, we first propose a low-complexity ZF method to solve the problem in single-input-single-output (SISO) OFDM systems. The main idea is to explore the special structure inherent in the ICI matrix and apply Newton's iteration for matrix inversion. With our formulation, fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) can be used in the iterative process, reducing the complexity from O (N3) to O (N log2 N). Another feature of the proposed algorithm is that it can converge very fast, typically in one or two iterations. We also analyze the convergence behavior of the proposed method and derive the theoretical output signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). For a multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM system, the complexity of the ZF method becomes more intractable. We then extend the method proposed for SISO-OFDM systems to MIMO-OFDM systems. It can be shown that the computational complexity can be reduced even more significantly. Simulations show that the proposed methods perform almost as well as the direct ZF method, while the required computational complexity is reduced dramatically.


The purpose of this research was to explore and develop an understanding of Cretan women's subjective experiences regarding food and eating behaviors. On average, 43 community group participants provided reflective written feedback after eleven consecutive meetings. The participants ranged in age from 20 to 85 years. The group engaged in experiential activities and critical reflection with the aim of construction and generation of meanings regarding women's subjective experiences of food, eating, nutrition and body image. The women expressed worry and confusion concerning what the 'right' foods are, and balancing 'tradition' with new and conflicting 'lifestyles'. Younger women were more concerned with diet and body image, middle age participants with preparing 'appropriate' foods for their families, and older participants with the changing practices in traditional cuisine. This study offers a conceptual understanding of how a sample of women living within a culture considered privileged to possess 'a medically sanctioned' diet, subjectively experience food and eating.


Megathrust earthquakes in western North America may be preceded by a precursor phase several years prior to megathrust, induced earthquakes. For example, on 27 March 1964, a 9.2 magnitude (on the Richter scale) earthquake occurred on the coast of Alaska. Changes in foraminifera and diatom assemblages at Girdwood Flats, Alaska, provide evidence of a precursor to this earthquake, thereby detailing a previously unknown sequence of events. We describe further evidence of precursor phases from marshes in Turnagain Arm, Alaska, United States, and farther south in Netarts Bay, Oregon, United States; this is the first time that two widely spaced locations have been examined for earthquake-related precursor stages.

The Alaska earthquake offers the possibility to compare a modern sequence (A.D. 1964) of events with the geologic record. The Netarts Bay marsh has experienced no modern earthquake that could be used for comparison, but the nature of megathrust zones implies that the modern and ancient events should be physically similar. New cores examined from Turnagain Arm include both the 1964 earthquake and an event identified and dated at 1800 yr B.P. Prior to the 1964 event, the foraminifera and thecamoebian assemblages changed from a forest phase to a mildly brackish stage; this sequence was dated as being 15 yr or less in length, using Pb210 and Cs137 dating techniques. The event at 1800 yr B.P. was also associated with a similar precursor stage, indicating a small subsidence prior to the megathrust earthquake–related subsidence event.

In Netarts Bay a new core was taken at a previously cored site to make use of carbon-14 dates and the assurance that at least four events were known to have occurred over the past 3000 yr. The new core contains four transitions, each identified by a mineralic deposit, often sharply bounded below and gradationally overlain by marsh peat. Transition in this context refers to the section of core analyzed, ∼15 cm above and below each of the four sand layers. Foraminiferal assemblage analyses indicate that these units represented a high marsh prequake phase followed by a lower marsh precursor stage, the earthquake-related deposition (sand layer), and then a rebound back into postquake marsh deposits. Sand deposits with either no or few foraminifera are inferred as tsunami/earthquake–related deposition stages.

These transitions in two widely separated geographic areas (Alaska and Oregon) indicate that similar mechanisms operate for large megathrust earthquakes at subduction zones from Alaska to northern California in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, thus implying that precursor events also occur and can be detected by foraminiferal zonation all along this area. In a recent article ([Dragert et al., 2001][1]), scientists from the west coast suggested that "slow" or "silent" earthquakes they measured with continuous geographical positioning systems might be indicators of megathrust earthquakes. The transitions we document may be the prehistoric representations of these "silent" quakes. Foraminiferal evidence may help by allowing, more accurate positioning of seismometers along the west coast of North America and thereby lead to more precise and timely earthquake prediction methods.

 [1]: #ref-14


Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain) exhibit relevant challenges related to pension systems. These challenges are here revisited. We also discuss the political and socio-economic roots of these challenges. Finally, we analyze the social indicators, the social expenses and the aging scenarios of these countries.


Abstract The pollination effectiveness (floral visitation rate, percentage of flowers pollinated, and pollen deposition) of indigenous and introduced bees visiting lowbush blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium Aiton) was studied in Nova Scotia from 1992 to 1994. Floral visitation rate alone was not a good indicator of pollination effectiveness, as not all floral visits resulted in successful pollination events. As a group, pollen-harvesting taxa pollinated >85% of flowers visited as compared with under 25% for nectar foragers. Equivalencies derived from floral visitation rates and pollination percentages show that the most effective pollen-harvesters, Bombus spp. queens and Andrena spp., would pollinate 6.5 and 3.6 flowers, respectively, in the time it would take a nectar-foraging honey bee, Apis mellifera L., to pollinate a single flower. Average pollen deposition for nectar-foragers (A. mellifera and Megachile rotundata F.) did not exceed 13 tetrads per visit, which was significantly less than all pollen-harvesters. Among pollen-harvesters, Bombus spp. workers, M. rotundata and Halictus spp. deposited moderate stigmatic loads (34, 28, and 26 tetrads, respectively), whereas Bombus spp. queens and Andrena spp. deposited >45 tetrads per single visit. Pollination equivalencies show A. mellifera would have to visit a flower four times to deposit the same amount of pollen as single visits by Bombus spp. queens or Andrena spp.


Australian construction projects today are usually more successful than information technology (IT) projects. One reason lies in the way construction companies manage project management. Based on in-depth research of four successful construction companies, this paper describes a project management-centered organizational form. It describes the organizational and management arrangements that support project performance and the individual and organizational capabilities that underpin sustained project success. This particular form of organization is shown to be stable and effective because its constituent arrangements are logically consistent and mutually reinforcing. The authors show how many of these arrangements can be adopted by IT service firms and in-house IT organizations to improve their performance on projects.


On February 2, 1998, the President requested $7.8 billion for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in FY1999. The Senate Appropriations Committee reported S. 2168 (S.Rept. 105-216) on June 12; the full Senate passed the bill on July 17. The House Committee reported H.R. 4194 (H.Rept. 105-610) on July 8, 1998; the full House passed it on July 29; and the Senate passed it on July 30 after incorporating S. 2168's provisions. During the week of October 6, the House and Senate approved the conference report, H.Rept. 105-769, which includes $7.5 billion, thus clearing the bill for the President's signature of October 21 (P.L. 105-276). The Omnibus Appropriations Act (P.L. 105-277) added $30 million more in FY1999 funds.


BENIGN intracranial hypertension is a well-recognized complication of therapy with tetracycline and its derivatives in infants.1-9This condition manifests itself by bulging fontanelles and occasionally by spreading of sutures. Irritability, drowsiness, feeding disturbances, and vomiting are common symptoms, but the child may be asymptomatic. The results of the neurological examination are usually normal and there are no changes in the cerebrospinal fluid. The mechanism of this reaction remains quite obscure. It has not been associated with other manifestations of abnormal reactivity to tetracycline. No relationship has become apparent between the occurrence of tetracycline-induced benign intracranial hypertension and tetracycline dosage or length of therapy. The complication has appeared after five hours to four days of tetracycline treatment. Cessation of tetracycline administration has been followed by disappearance of all signs of increased intracranial pressure in a few hours to three days, and there have been no sequelae. On three occasions reexposure


The need for information management is growing in this age of digital data and information sharing. With growing expectations for data accessibility and needs for data organization, scientific networks face challenges unique to long-term, large-scale scientific endeavors including a recognized gap between skills in information management and the needs – both recognized and unrecognized. Amidst the diversity of tools and technologies available, there are changes in scientific practices to consider that add to the data work in individual investigator's laboratories and the work involved in supporting collaborative project teams. There are even more profound cultural shifts involved as collaborative systems are developed at multiple, interdependent scales, moving from short-term, single site projects to longer-term, multi-site distributed networks (NSF, 2002, p.15). To support creation and dissemination of knowledge about information management, an NSF supplement proposal was submitted in 2009 to the NSF LTER program office. The request was framed as follows: "We are requesting funds to bring together a group of specialists to 1) define a course of action and guidelines for creating a forum with educational materials on information management and 2) define the research questions we will pursue in a larger proposal." The idea of initiating an education-oriented information management learning commons grew from collaboration among participants in two networks in the International Long Term Ecological Research Network (ILTER): the US Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER) and the Finnish Long-Term Socio- Ecological Research (FinLTSER) Network. With Finnish expertise in relevant topics and data managers interested in the commons located at or near Oulu University, the meeting was planned for Oulu University and referred to as 'the Oulu meeting'. Workshop participants from both networks recognized the need to consider development of some type of life-long, life-wide learning arrangements for information managers. The US Long-Term Ecological Research Network began in 1980. Due to a fortuitous accumulation of insights developed from previous community efforts, of bold visions from charismatic well-placed leaders, of holistic perspectives inherent to ecological science, and of a deep understanding about data matters, data management emerged early on as a required role at each of the U.S. LTER sites. The inclusion of a data manager at a site's inception can be recognized as a strategic, formative factor. Further, the understanding that 'data matters' and that there are new types of work is a message that currently travels informally among ILTER participants. The role and its responsibilities have evolved and broadened in the last decade as is evident in the name change within the US LTER from 'data manager' to 'information manager' (Baker et al., 2000; Baker and Millerand, 2010). The generation of effective resources to scaffold articulation of and learning about information management roles is, however, at an early stage. This report summarizes start-up efforts in gathering and conceptualizing information about information management (IM) and collaborative learning environments such as a Virtual Learning Commons (VLC). Plans and products are discussed in Section 1; a timeline is given in Section 2 along with a description of initial events. The Oulu meeting activities are detailed in Section 3. Discussion and final thoughts are summarized in Sections 4 and 5, respectively. A list of abbreviations and online links is provided in Appendix 7.1 along with our 2009 proposal, the 2009 LTER All-Scientists Meeting Working Group Reports, and the Oulu meeting agenda.


Solution verification is crucial for establishing the reliability of simulations. A central challenge is to estimate the discretization error accurately and reliably. Many approaches to this estimation are based on the observed order of accuracy; however, it may fail when the numerical solutions lie outside the asymptotic range. Here we propose a grid refinement method which adopts constant orders given by the user, called the Prescribed Orders Expansion Method (POEM). Through an iterative procedure, the user is guaranteed to obtain the dominant orders of the discretization error. The user can also compare the corresponding terms to quantify the degree of asymptotic convergence of the numerical solutions. These features ensure that the estimation of the discretization error is accurate and reliable. Moreover, the implementation of POEM is the same for any dimensions and refinement paths. We demonstrate these capabilities using some advection and diffusion problems and standard refinement paths. The computational cost of using POEM is lower if the refinement ratio is larger; however, the number of shared grid points where POEM applies also decreases, causing greater uncertainty in the global estimates of the discretization error. We find that the proportion of shared grid points is maximized when the refinement ratios are in a certain form of fractions. Furthermore, we develop the Method of Interpolating Differences between Approximate Solutions (MIDAS) for creating shared grid points in the domain. These approaches allow users of POEM to obtain a global estimate of the discretization error of lower uncertainty at a reduced computational cost.