It is no secret that much of rural America is struggling economically. Despite similar employment growth rates, nonmetropolitan areas tend to have relatively higher unemployment and underemployment rates and slower population growth rates than their metropolitan counterparts.1 Additionally, over the past 15 years, evidence from several states suggests that nonmetropolitan job losses have been in relatively high paying sectors, whereas growing sectors in the rural economy tend to pay relatively low-wages (Shields and Vivanco 2003). One important consequence of this dynamic is an increase in the disparity between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan household incomes. For example, Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that over the period 1969-2002, the average state metropolitan nominal per capita income increased by 97.5 percent (to $31,264) whereas the average nonmetropolitan state per capita income increased by only 91.5 percent (to $24,635). The upshot? Many parts of rural America have lower incomes and are falling further behind.


Author(s): Miller, Adam Andrew | Advisor(s): Bloom, Joshua S. | Abstract: Stellar evolution proceeds on timescales of millions to billions of years, however, most stars in both the birthing and dying processes will punctuate their lives with short-lived (few days to a year) eruptions or explosions that lead to dramatic changes in the brightness of the star. Observational studies of these events are the foundation upon which time-domain astronomy is built. While these events are short lived, they often provide some of our most significant insights into stellar evolution. This dissertation focuses on the use of time-domain techniques to discover and characterize these rare astrophysical gems, while also addressing some gaps in our understanding of the earliest and latest stages of stellar evolution. The observational studies presented herein can be grouped into three parts: (i) the study of stellar death (supernovae); (ii) the study of stellar birth; and (iii) the use of modern machine-learning algorithms to discover and classify variable sources. I present observations of supernova (SN) 2006gy, the most luminous SN ever at the time of discovery, and the even-more luminous SN 2008es. Together, these two supernovae (SNe) demonstrate that core-collapse SNe can be significantly more luminous than thermonuclear type Ia SNe, and that there are multiple channels for producing these brilliant core-collapse explosions. For SN 2006gy I show that the progenitor star experienced violent, eruptive mass loss on multiple occasions during the centuries prior to explosion, a scenario that was completely unexpected within the cannon of massive-star evolution theory. I also present observations of SN 2008iy, one of the most unusual SNe ever discovered. Typical SNe take ≤3 weeks to reach peak luminosity; SN 2008iy exhibited a slow and steady rise for ~400 days before reaching maximum brightness. The best explanation for such behavior is that the progenitor of SN 2008iy experienced an episodic phase of mass loss ~100 yr prior to explosion. The three SNe detailed in this dissertation have altered our understanding of massive-star mass loss, namely, these SNe provide distinct evidence that post-main sequence mass loss, for at least some massive stars, occurs in sporatic fits, rather than being steady. They also demonstrate that core collapse is not restricted to the red supergiant and Wolf-Rayet stages of stellar evolution as theory predicted. Instead, some massive stars explode while in a luminous blue variable-like state. I also present observations of the newly discovered FU Orionis variable, PTF~10qpf. FU Orionis stars are young stellar objects (YSOs) that exhibit long-lasting (≥10 yr), large-amplitude (≥5 mag) eruptions due to accretion instabilities in the star+disk system. These eruptions, for which there are precious few examples, play an important role in (i) determining the final mass and angular momentum of the newly born star, (ii) clearing the circumstellar envelope from which the star forms, and (iii) the formation of planets, and ultimately life, in the circumstellar disk. PTF~10qpf is only the fourth FU Orionis variable with detailed observations taken during the course of eruption. Furthermore, it is the best observed FU Orionis star prior to eruption, with both optical spectra and infrared photometry demonstrating that the star was a normal classical T Tauri star before its outburst. This discovery shows that the FU Orionis phenomenon is not reserved for only the most-massive YSOs, as had previously been suggested. As robotic observing and automated data processing procedures render the standard transient discovery process mundane, we are quickly approaching an era where we will be overwhelmed with discoveries. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), with a planned start in 2020, is expected to discover ~50 million variable stars, an orders-of-magnitude leap over the currently known number of variables. As data volumes grow to these enormous sizes, it is clear that classical discovery and characterization techniques relying on the visual inspection of data are no longer tractable. In the final chapters of this dissertation, I present a scaleable machine-learning framework capable of identifying rare sources in a time-domain dataset, while also providing classifications for the most prevalent source types in the survey. Following a search of the variables identified in the All Sky Automated Survey, I discover four bright R Coronae Borealis stars, carbon-rich supergiants in a short-lived phase of late stellar evolution. The discovery of these stars, which were identified via a fully automated procedure, represent an important proof-of-concept demonstrating that advanced algorithmic procedures can unearth the rare astronomical sources that lead to leaps in our understanding of stellar evolution. I close with the presentation of a new machine-learning methodology for inferring the fundamental atmospheric properties of stars, Teff, log g, and [Fe/H], without obtaining spectra. While the development of these tools, which predict the atmospheric parameters from photometric light curves, are still in their infancy, I argue that their continued development will enable the conversion of large photometric time-domain surveys, such as LSST, into pseudo-spectrographs. Astrophysical science should no longer be viewed as a static tableau but instead as the unraveling of violent beginnings in a dynamic cosmos. The use of machine learning to extract novel results from large astronomical datasets occupies an instrumental portion of a burgeoning 21st century revolution in the way we conduct ourselves as scientists — the poetic connection of this modern approach applied to the millennia-old practice of monitoring the heavens will uncover a universe of new mysteries.


This paper examines the relationship between rural non-farm employment and household welfare using nationally representative data from Madagascar. It focuses on labor outcomes in the context of household livelihood strategies that include farm and non-farm income earning opportunities. It identifies distinct household livelihood strategies that can be ordered in welfare terms, and estimates multinomial logit models to assess the extent of the barriers to choosing dominant strategies. It finds that high-return non-farm activities provide an important pathway out of poverty, but that barriers such as lack of (a) education, (b) formal credit and (c) access to telecommunications restrict participation in such activities. Individual employment choice models and estimates of earnings functions provide supporting evidence of these barriers. Although the poverty reduction effects may be limited, low-return non-farm activities also play an important role as safety nets by providing opportunities for ex ante risk reduction and ex post coping with shocks.


Chile is currently undergoing a constituent process. This process, formally initiated through a referendum in which the vote for a new constitution won by an overwhelming majority, has created enormous expectations of political and social transformation. However, achieving that goal will depend less on the constitution as such and more on the legal praxis and political process developing under its influence. In that regard, constitutional comparison and a methodological openness towards social sciences could be important resources when analyzing how new constitutions have managed to positively influence institutional practices capable of reconfiguring the conditions of existence of political communities.


Structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) represent a prominent class of time series models used for macroeconomic analysis. The model consists of a set of multivariate linear autoregressive equations characterizing the joint dynamics of economic variables. The residuals of these equations are combinations of the underlying structural economic shocks, assumed to be orthogonal to each other. Using a minimal set of restrictions, these relations can be estimated—the so-called shock identification—and the variables can be expressed as linear functions of current and past structural shocks. The coefficients of these equations, called impulse response functions, represent the dynamic response of model variables to shocks. Several ways of identifying structural shocks have been proposed in the literature: short-run restrictions, long-run restrictions, and sign restrictions, to mention a few.
 SVAR models have been extensively employed to study the transmission mechanisms of macroeconomic shocks and test economic theories. Special attention has been paid to monetary and fiscal policy shocks as well as other nonpolicy shocks like technology and financial shocks.
 In recent years, many advances have been made both in terms of theory and empirical strategies. Several works have contributed to extend the standard model in order to incorporate new features like large information sets, nonlinearities, and time-varying coefficients. New strategies to identify structural shocks have been designed, and new methods to do inference have been introduced.


Preprints are research reports have that have not yet been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. They have increased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, high profile discredited studies have led to concerns that speed has been prioritized over the quality and credibility of evidence. Joeri Tijdink, Mario Malicki, Lex Bouter and Gowri Gopalakrishna argue that all stakeholders of the science system have a responsibility in improving the quality and credibility of pre-prints. They outline 5 steps by which this can be achieved.


This paper presents a new and efficient approach for capacitor placement in radial distribution systems that determine the optimal locations and size of capacitor with an objective of improving the voltage profile and reduction of power loss. The solution methodology has two parts: in part one the loss sensitivity factors are used to select the candidate locations for the capacitor placement and in part two a new algorithm that employs Shuffle Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) and Particle Swarm Optimization are used to estimate the optimal size of capacitors at the optimal buses determined in part one. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it does not require any external control parameters. The other advantage is that it handles the objective function and the constraints separately, avoiding the trouble to determine the barrier factors. The proposed method is applied to 45-bus radial distribution systems. Index Terms—Distribution systems, Capacitor placement, loss reduction, Loss sensitivity factors, SFLA, PSO


This report presents the results of the Data Management i Praksis (DMiP) project (in English: Data Management in Practice). The project was funded by Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF), the National Danish Archives and the participating main Danish libraries. The following partners participated in the project: Aalborg University Library, Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation (DeIC), DTU Library, Roskilde University Library, The Danish National Archives, Royal Danish Library and The University Library of Southern Denmark. The general objective of the project was to establish a Danish setup covering all aspects of the lifecycle of research data: from application, through the research phase, and finally to the dissemination of results and sharing of research data. The setup was to be based on researchers' demands, and the suggestions and results of the project were to be at an international level. The project should also demonstrate that research libraries have a role to play regarding research data. Furthermore, the project should ensure development of competences at the libraries, which can then be used in the future process of managing research data.


Expecting a preorganization effect, tripodal anion host molecules were designed and synthesized. It was demonstrated that two kinds of new thiourea derivatives having a six-fold substituted benzene ring as a preorganized spacer were effective for recognition of the tetrahedral dihydrogen phosphate anion. A tripodal fluororeceptor 1 having a pyrene moiety adjacent to the thiourea binding site showed long-wavelength emission upon addition of guest anions in acetonitrile. On the other hand, a tripodal thiourea receptor 2 connected to anthracene groups via methylene units showed a decrease in fluorescence intensity upon addition of anions. In both cases, the degree of the change in emission intensity was in the order of H2PO4− > CH3COO− > Cl−
≫ ClO4−, which is clearly
different from that of reference compounds having only one binding site. Association constants (Ka) of these tripodal fluororeceptors also confirmed the dihydrogen phosphate selectivity over the more basic acetate anion in this homogeneous solution system. The characteristics of the fluororeceptors using the preorganization effect were shown to be promising for the development of chemical ion sensors with a specific anion selectivity.


The case was a 56-year-old male who underwent heart transplantation due to dilated cardiomyopathy abroad in 1990. In 2006, he suffered from anginal chest pain on effort. The coronary angiogram showed severe atherosclerotic lesions in the middle of left descending artery. A drug eluting stent, Cypher 3.5 x 23 mm was deployed, followed by balloon dilatations (4 x 8 mm). The procedure was successful without any complications. Furthermore, the 8-month follow-up angiogram showed no significant restenosis in the target vessel. There have been several reports on the outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for cardiac allograft vasculopathy. According to them, the drug eluting stent, as is used in the present case, might be a promising procedure after further evaluations.


This paper analyzes the mobile model and communication mode of the hierarchical wireless networks, and proposes a new hybrid routing protocol(HRP) for the heterogeneous wireless networks. The routing protocol divides the network coverage area into many units, and selects the nodes which have high energy, long transmission radius and strong reliability as the bone nodes. This paper also presents the routing discovery method among units, routing discovery method of common nodes and routing correction method when error occurs. HRP has the advantages over the traditional Ad Hoc network routing protocol of high efficiency, low routing costs, low delay, high throughput and extendibility.


The Bauhaus, the school of art and design founded in Germany in 1919 and shut down by the Nazis in 1933, brought together artists, architects and designers in an extraordinary conversation about modern art. "Bauhaus 1919-1933", published to accompany a major multimedia exhibition at MoMA, is the first comprehensive treatment of the subject by MoMA since 1938 and offers a new generational perspective on the 20th century's most influential experiment in artistic education. It brings together works in a broad range of mediums, including industrial design, furniture, architecture, graphics, photography, textiles, ceramics, theatre and costume design, and painting and sculpture many of which have rarely if ever been seen outside of Germany. Featuring about 400 colour plates and a rich range of documentary images, this publication includes two overarching images by the exhibitions curators, Leah Dickerman and Barry Bergdoll, concise interpretive essays on key objects by over twenty leading scholars, and an illustrated, narrative chronology.


Beego is a traditional Chinese complete water-only fasting practice initially developed for spiritual purposes, later extending to physical fitness purposes. Beego notably includes a psychological induction component that includes meditation and abdominal breathing, light body exercise, and ends with a specific gradual refeeding program before returning to a normal diet. Beego has regained its popularity in recent decades in China as a strategy for helping people in subhealthy conditions or with metabolic syndrome, but we are unaware of any studies examining the biological effects of this practice. To address this, we here performed a longitudinal study of beego comprising fasting (7 and 14 day cohorts) and a 7-day programmed refeeding phase. In addition to detecting improvements in cardiovascular physiology and selective reduction of blood pressure in hypertensive subjects, we observed that beego decreased blood triacylglycerol (TG) selectively in TG-high subjects and increased cholesterol in all subjects during fasting; however, the cholesterol levels were normalized after completion of the refeeding program. Strikingly, beego reduced platelet formation, activation, aggregation, and degranulation, resulting in an alleviated thrombosis risk, yet maintained hemostasis by sustaining levels of coagulation factors and other hemostatic proteins. Mechanistically, we speculate that downregulation of G6B and MYL9 may influence the observed beego-mediated reduction in platelets. Fundamentally, our study supports that supervised beego reduces thrombosis risk without compromising hemostasis capacity. Moreover, our results support that beego under medical supervision can be implemented as noninvasive intervention for reducing thrombosis risk, and suggest several lines of intriguing inquiry for future studies about this fasting practice (http://www.chictr.org.cn/index.aspx, number, ChiCTR1900027451).


Polysilane materials exhibit large photo-induced refractive index changes under low incident optical fluences, making them attractive candidates for applications in which rapid patterning of photonic device structures is desired immediately prior to their use. This agile fabrication strategy for integrated photonics inherently requires that optical exposure, and associated material response, occurs in nonlaboratory environments, motivating the study of environmental conditions on the photoinduced response of the material. The present work examines the impact of atmosphere on the photosensitive response of poly(methylphenylsilane) (PMPS) thin films in terms of both photoinduced absorption change and refractive index modification. Material was subjected to UV light exposure resonant with the lowest energy optical transition associated with the conjugated Si-Si backbone. Exposures were performed in both aerobic and anaerobic atmospheres (oxygen, air, nitrogen, and 5% H{sub 2}/95% N{sub 2}). The results clearly demonstrate that the photosensitive response of this model polysilane material was dramatically affected by local environment, exhibiting a photoinduced refractive index change, when exposed under an oxygen containing atmosphere, that was twice that observed under anaerobic conditions. This effect is discussed in terms of photo-oxidation processes within the polysilane structure and in the context of the need for predictable photosensitive refractive index change inmore » varied photoimprinting environments.« less


Laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) generally involves the use of near-spherical powders due to their smooth morphology and enhanced flowability that allow for easier powder layering and laser processing. Non-spherical powders, on the other hand, are more cost-efficient to manufacture, however, the underlying mechanisms of their movement and interparticle interaction on the powder bed are still unclear. Thus, this study reports on the use of irregular iron-based powder material in LPBF, with a specific focus on particle motion and interaction behavior on the powder bed. The powder morphology, sphericity and particle size were analysed using X-ray computed microtomography and scanning electron microscopy. Based on the acquired data and by using a simplified analytical calculation, the influence of the particle shape/size on the particle movement in LPBF was established. High-speed imaging was employed to investigate the particle flow dynamics in the process zone, as well as the powder entrainment phenomenon. Particle entrainment and entrainment distances along the scanning direction were measured for near-spherical and non-spherical powders. The obtained results were compared between the powders, revealing a dissimilar particle transfer behavior. Non-spherical powder had a shorter entrainment distance partly attributed to the weaker drag force acting on these particles.


This study conducts an investigation of posts in the e-portfolio platform of the program: "The interdisciplinary training program for talented college students in science." Participants in this program were supposed to show their learning portfolios on this platform. Among the 2150 registered students, we randomly selected 126 students who have made at least 3 posts to become the target sample. By identifying the learning stages and posting styles shown by their posts, we find that students are mostly in the surface learning stages and weak in completing their learning portfolios. The results suggest that more strategies should be learned in e-portfolio use. In addition, some related issues about learning performance are also discussed.


Book file PDF easily for everyone and every device. You can download and read online A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners [3rd edition norton] (Annotated) file PDF Book only if you are registered here. And also you can download or read online all Book PDF file that related with A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners [3rd edition norton] (Annotated) book. Happy reading A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners [3rd edition norton] (Annotated) Bookeveryone. Download file Free Book PDF A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners [3rd edition norton] (Annotated) at Complete PDF Library. This Book have some digital formats such us :paperbook, ebook, kindle, epub, fb2 and another formats. Here is The Complete PDF Book Library. It's free to register here to get Book file PDF A Manual of the Operations of Surgery, For the Use of Senior Students, House Surgeons, and Junior Practitioners [3rd edition norton] (Annotated).


In this paper, we present an ongoing work which aims at defining and experimenting a Domain-Specific Language (DSL) dedicated to multi-scale and autonomic software deployment. Autonomic software deployment in open environments is an open issue. There, the topology of target hosts is not always known due either to unforeseen hardware failures or limitations (network links, hosts, etc.) or to device arrival and disappearance. In a previous work, we proposed to describe deployment constraints using a DSL and then to satisfy them using a middleware for autonomic deployment, rather than classically building and executing a deployment plan. As deployment of multi-scale distributed systems demands the expression of specific constraints related to dimensions and scales, it is necessary to think over and define a new Domain-Specific Language. In this paper, we propose a new DSL designed to support the expression of constraints and properties related to multi-scale and autonomic software deployment.


Wireless communications and video kernels contain vast instruction and data level parallelism that can far outstrip programmable high performance DSPs. Hardware acceleration of these bottlenecks is commonly done at the cost of software flexibility. Many vendors, however, view software as intellectual property and prefer a software solution that is a proprietary implementation. The paper uses a research compiler for architectural design space exploration to present comparisons between compiler generated scalable software programmable DSP architectures versus hardware acceleration implementations. It shows that scaled up compiler generated software programmable DSP architectures can be attractive alternatives to non-programmable hardware acceleration.


Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations are used to investigate nucleation and early stages of growth during metal electrodeposition at low overpotentials, where the kinetics of attachment of atoms to the electrode surface is rate-limiting. The surface diffusion energy barriers and deposition rate constants were varied to determine their effects on the deposition of metal onto a (111)-oriented facet of a face-centered cubic substrate material. The cluster density, average cluster size, and average cluster height were obtained from simulations. Over the range of parameters investigated here, the highest cluster densities were achieved when the metal-on-substrate surface diffusion rate was low relative to the metal-on-metal surface diffusion rate. It was found that the cluster density was highest after 0.3 equivalent monolayers had been deposited.


This article emphasizes the credibility of popular intellectuals as a point of contention in framing contests. A movement group – a faction, clique, submovement, network cluster, organization, etc. – asserts its authority to speak on behalf of an issue or constituency by emphasizing the perceived knowledge, character, and logic of its popular intellectuals while attacking those of rivals. Four basic framing strategies relevant to the credibility of popular intellectuals are identified: (1) vilification – demonizing competing popular intellectuals; (2) exaltation – praising ingroup popular intellectuals; (3) credentialing – emphasizing the expertise of the ingroup intellectuals; and (4) decredentialing – raising questions about the expertise of rivals. Al-Qaeda's intramovement framing struggle with nonviolent Islamic fundamentalists over the permissibility of violence is used as a case study. In an attempt to assert its right to sacred authority, the movement portrays scholars who support its jihad as logical, religious experts of good repute while characterizing opposing clerical popular intellectuals as emotional, corrupt, naïve, and ill-informed about politics.


The major objective of the present study was to find the relationship between the claw traits measurements and hoof disorders in crossbred dairy cattle maintained under field conditions. Claw traits of 180 crossbred dairy cattle were measured from all four hooves of crossbred dairy cattle and out of them 62 cows were affected with the hoof disorders. Statistical analysis was carried using unpaired (two-tailed) t-test at 95% confidence interval to examine the level of significance for the claw and hoof disorder traits, whereas Spearman correlation test was applied to detect the effects of claw traits on hoof disorders. The results revealed that the claw traits viz. claw length (CL), claw height (CH), lateral claw width (LCW) and interdigital space width (IDW) were significantly higher in cows affected with the hoof disorders in comparison to normal hooves. It can be concluded from the present study that the increased length, height, width, heel height and space between the claws of a cow affected with hoof disorder has a significant correlation of claw traits with hoof disorders.


This paper describes the hardware architecture of the ICL GOLDRUSH MegaSERVER, a distributed store parallel machine designed to operate as an open database server. The system is sold by ICL to commercial customers who require a high performance, high availability platform to support their critical business applications. GOLDRUSH consists of up to 64 Elements, each of which can co-operate in database processing, exploiting both the parallelism found within complex queries and that found between queries in On-Line Transaction Processing workloads. The Elements are connected by a very high performance (1.2 GBytes/s) internal network. Each Element has local disks to store the database. Some Elements have external comms connections allowing clients to connect to the system and so send queries into it for processing. Large tape libraries can be connected to multiple Elements, so allowing databases to be archived (and restored) in parallel at high speeds. This paper discusses the architectural options for the design of high performance computers, explaining why the Distributed Store Architecture was chosen for Goldrush. It then describes the design of the key aspects of the system including the parallel Elements, the internal network and the cabinets.


.7350 of a grain of uric acid per ounce of the fluid; the low degree of acidity being dependent on the fact that urea was only present in the proportion of 11.5 grains per ounce. Parkes's estimate of 31 grains per pound of the body-weight as the normal for twenty-four hours is, I think, too small for the average of feeders; just as the estimate of six to nine grains of uric acid in all for twenty-four hours is too small. This last should be little, if at all, below twenty grains. The determinative instances alone would, of course, be too few to form the bases of any general inferences; but they form a fair sample of the results obtained in a large number of cases of gout now under treatment, by the method I proposed in the BRITISE MEDICAL JOURNAL some years ago, and which certainly produces better effects than any other of which I am cognisant, The iodine seems to break up the molecule of urate in the blood, and to ensure very rapid elimination of uric acid by the kidney, with speedy relief of pain, reduction of fever, and generally quick recovery.-Yours faithfully, 14, Hanover Square. J. MORTIMER GIRANVILLE.


The possibility of construction of a steady natural vibration system by introduction of successive correction link as an aperiodic link of the first-order is considered.


The phylogenetic position and circumscription of the disjunct African genus Tribulocarpus is investigated with DNA sequences from plastid rps16 and trnLF, and nuclear ITS. Representatives from all four subfamilies of Aizoaceae are included in the analyses, most of them from Aizooideae and Sesuvioideae. The position of Tribulocarpus as sister to the rest of Sesuvioideae is confirmed, and we agree that the genus should be referred to this subfamily. Tetragonia retusa is found to be part of the Tribulocarpus clade with strong support. A new taxonomy of Tribulocarpus with two species is proposed and the new combination Tribulocarpus retusus is made. A lectotype is designated for Tetragonia somalensis. Tribulocarpus dimorphanthus, disjunctly distributed in south-western and north-eastern Africa, is retrieved as paraphyletic with regard to T. retusus, endemic in Somalia, as the latter is sister to the north-east African part of T. dimorphanthus only. Despite the genetic difference between the samples from the disjunct populations of T. dimorphanthus no morphological differences could be detected. Tribulocarpus dimorphanthus-T. retusus is suggested as an example of a progenitor-derivative species pair, where T. retusus has budded off from the north-eastern partial area of distribution of T. dimorphanthus. The compound and spiny fruits of T. dimorphanthus versus the simple and broadly winged fruits of T. retusus indicate a rapid adaptive shift from zoochorous trample burrs to anemochorous nuts.


This GIS layer contains the shiptrack navigation points collected aboard the RV ASTERIAS during a 1983 geophysical cruise to east-central Long Island Sound. A boomer seismic system was used to collect the subbottom data.


SrHo2O4 is a geometrically frustrated magnet in which the magnetic Ho3+ ions form honeycomb layers connected through a network of zigzag chains. At low-temperature two distinct types of short-range magnetic order can be inferred from single crystal diffraction data, collected using both polarized and unpolarized neutrons. In the (hk0) plane the diffuse scattering is most noticeable around the k = 0 positions and its intensity rapidly increases at temperatures below 0.7 K. In addition, planes of diffuse scattering at Q = (hk +/- l/2) are visible at temperatures as high as 4.5 K. These planes coexist with the broad peaks of diffuse scattering in the (hk0) plane at low-temperatures. Correlation lengths associated with the broad peaks are L ~ 150 {\AA} in the a-b plane and L ~ 190 {\AA} along c axis, while the correlation length associated with the diffuse scattering planes is L ~ 230 {\AA} along the c axis at the lowest temperature. Both types of diffuse scattering are elastic in nature. The highly unusual coexistance of the two types of diffuse scattering in SrHo2O4 is likely to be the result of the presence of two crystallographically inequivalent sites for Ho3+ in the unit cell.


Bromide-functionalized microspheres were prepared by the suspension polymerization of bromoethyl methacrylate (BEMA), methyl methacrylate (MMA), and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA). The microspheres were employed as a solid macroinitiator for the ring-opening polymerization of 2-methyl 2-oxazoline. The surface brushes were then converted into poly(ethylenimine) (PEI) by simple hydrolysis with HCl and then NaOH as inferred from chemical analyses and FTIR spectra. The microspheres were used for the immobilization of α-amylase through adsorption and covalent cross-linking. The optimum pH for free enzyme was 6.0 and shifted by about 1.0 unit to the acidic pH range upon immobilization. Compared to free α-amylase, the immobilized enzyme preparations were found to exhibit better tolerance to variations in pH and temperature, as well as improved storage stabilities. The activity retentions of the adsorbed and cross-linked enzyme preparations were found to be 69% and 53%, respectively. Furthermore, the cros...


: A central challenge in designing of wireless ad hoc networks is the development of dynamic routing protocols that can efficiently find routes between two communication nodes when nodes are mobile. To accomplish this, a number of ad hoc routing protocols had been proposed and implemented. In wireless ad hoc network the selected protocol should find best route which can insure packet delivery and packet integrity. Performance evolution of the protocols is the key step before selecting a particular protocol. In this paper, the performance is compared on Ad hoc On-demand Distance Vector (AODV) and Dynamic Source Routing (DSR) at application layer by varying the pause time and number of nodes using QualNet 5.0.2 simulator. The average jitter, end-to-end delay, throughput and packet delivery fraction (PDF) are the four common measures used for the comparison of the performance of above protocols. The experimental results show that DSR perform better in low load and high pause time but in case of high load and less pause time AODV outperform DSR.


This paper proposed a neural network (NN) based remaining useful life (RUL) prediction approach. A new performance degradation index is designed using multi-feature fusion techniques to represent deterioration severities of facilities. Based on this indicator, back propagation neural networks are trained for RUL prediction, and average of the networks' outputs is considered as the final RUL in order to overcome prediction errors caused by random initiations of NNs. Finally, an experiment is set up based on a Bently-RK4 rotor unbalance test bed to validate the neural network based life prediction models, experimental results illustrate the effectiveness of the methodology.


Modern C++ server workloads rely on 2 MB huge pages to improve memory system performance via higher TLB hit rates. Huge pages have traditionally been supported at the kernel level, but recent work has shown that user-level, huge page-aware memory allocators can achieve higher huge page coverage and thus performance. These memory allocators deal with a trade-off: 1) allocate memory from the operating system (OS) at the granularity of a huge page, achieve high performance, but potentially waste memory due to fragmentation, or 2) limit fragmentation by breaking up huge pages into smaller 4 KB pages and returning them to the OS, but reduce performance due to lower huge page coverage. For example, the state-of-the-art TCMalloc allocator handles this trade-off by releasing memory to the OS at a configurable release rate, breaking up huge pages as necessary. This approach balances performance and fragmentation well for machines running one workload. For multiple applications on the same machine however, the reduction in memory usage is only useful to overall performance if another workload uses this memory. In warehouse-scale computers, when an application releases and then reacquires the same amount or more memory quickly, but no other application uses the memory in the meantime, the release causes poorer huge page coverage without any system-wide benefit. We introduce a metric, realized fragmentation, to capture this effect. We then present an adaptive release policy that dynamically determines when to break up huge pages and return them to the OS to optimize system-wide performance. We built this policy into TCMalloc and deployed it fleet-wide in our data centers, leading to an estimated 1% fleet-wide throughput improvement at negligible memory overhead.


Distributed storage systems typically need data to be stored redundantly to guarantee data durability and reliability. While the conventional approach towards this objective is to store multiple replicas, today's unprecedented data growth rates encourage modern distributed storage systems to employ Erasure Coding (EC) techniques, which can achieve better storage efficiency. Various hardware-based EC schemes have been proposed in the community to leverage the advanced compute capabilities on modern data center and cloud environments. Currently, there is no unified and easy way for distributed storage systems to fully exploit multiple devices such as CPUs, GPUs, and network devices (i.e., multi-rail support) to perform EC operations in parallel; thus, leading to the under-utilization of the available compute power. In this paper, we first introduce an analytical model to analyze the design scope of efficient EC schemes in distributed storage systems. Guided by the performance model, we propose UMR-EC, a Unified and Multi-Rail Erasure Coding library that can fully exploit heterogeneous EC coders. Our proposed interface is complemented by asynchronous semantics with optimized metadata-free scheme and EC rate-aware task scheduling that can enable a highly-efficient I/O pipeline. To show the benefits and effectiveness of UMR-EC, we re-design HDFS 3.x write/read pipelines based on the guidelines observed in the proposed performance model. Our performance evaluations show that our proposed designs can outperform the write performance of replication schemes and the default HDFS EC coder by 3.7x - 6.1x and 2.4x - 3.3x, respectively, and can improve the performance of read with failure recoveries up to 5.1x compared with the default HDFS EC coder. Compared with the fastest available CPU coder (i.e., ISA-L), our proposed designs have an improvement of up to 66.0% and 19.4% for write and read with failure recoveries, respectively.


Purpose: Although postoperative radiotherapy is often used to maintain local control after surgical resection and chemotherapy for locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), both locoregional failure and distant metastasis remain problematic. The mechanisms of therapeutic resistance remain poorly understood. Experimental Design: We used reverse-phase protein arrays (RPPA) to profile the baseline expression of 170 total and phosphorylated proteins in 70 NSCLC cell lines to categorize pathways that may contribute to radiation resistance. Significant markers identified by RPPA were further analyzed in tissue microarrays (TMA) of specimens from 127 patients with NSCLC who had received surgery before receiving postoperative radiotherapy. Cox regression analysis and log-rank tests were used to identify potential predictive factors. We then validated the biological function of the markers in NSCLC cell lines in vitro. Results: Of the 170 proteins or phospho-proteins profiled, a subset of 12 proteins was found to correlate with radiation response parameters. TMA analysis of the 12 proteins showing the greatest differences in expression in the RPPA analysis demonstrated that RAD50 had the strongest correlation with distant relapse-free survival, locoregional relapse-free survival, and disease-free survival in patients with NSCLC. We confirmed that knockdown of RAD50 sensitized NSCLC cells to radiation and that upregulation of RAD50 increased radioresistance in in vitro experiments. Conclusions: Upregulated RAD50 may be a predictor of radioresistance in patients with lung cancer who received radiotherapy. Clin Cancer Res; 24(2); 341–50. ©2017 AACR.


Ice storm is a kind of extreme weather conditions that can cause great losses to electric power system. The payments of power transmission towers account for 40 percent of total investment. For this, research on ultimate load and failure mechanism of transmission tower is very necessary. The property of ice coating is summarized in this paper. Also, the lateral load, the longitudinal load, and the vertical load of transmission tower under the effect of ice coating are discussed in detail. Taking a tangent tower as an example, finite element model is built with the consideration of beam element orientations. On these bases, the calculation of ultimate load capacity of the transmission tower is carried out in this paper. The results show that the mechanic behavior of transmission tower is similar to steel member, which can be approximately divided into three different stages: elastic stage, yield stage and strengthen stage.


This study was conducted to validate high-speed texture measuring equipment for use in highway applications. The evaluation included two high-speed systems and a new static referencing device. Tests were conducted on 22 runway and taxiway test sections from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Flight Facility and 7 surfaces from Virginia's Smart Road. Texture estimates recorded with the high-speed (dynamic) equipment correlated extremely well with estimates made with static referencing methods. The system developed by International Cybernetics Corporation was very functional for most conventional highway surfaces. However, a better correlation may be achieved with the referencing methods by using a system (such as the MGPS surface system developed by the Federal Highway Administration) that produces the American Society for Testing and Materials' standard mean profile depth. Finally, an analysis conducted using the CTMeter (circular track meter, a laser-based but static system) demonstrated an important advantage of combining indices produced from high-definition surface profiles. By comparing the mean profile depth with the root mean square data for a particular surface, it is possible to characterize more fully the shapes that contribute to a pavement's macrotexture.


Upon examination of 85 patients with chronic recurrent pancreatitis there appeared a clear cut correlation between the ultrasonic findings and clinical, laboratory and intraoperative evidence indicative of chronic pancreatitis. It should be noted that ultrasonic amplitude histography was a pilot experience in relation to pancreatic investigation. Ultrasonic criteria as a whole were insufficiently informative for definite recognition of the disease phase (aggravation or remission of chronic pancreatitis), while the peak value of ultrasound amplitude histogram of the pancreas allowed differentiation of the severity (moderate or grave) of the excretory pancreatic insufficiency.


In the online world, especially the e-commerce websites, the interactions among various users and
products can be naturally modelled and studied as complex networks. The network-based
similarities, also known as the association rules, have thus found wide applications in examining
the co-accessing patterns among products and providing recommendations for users accordingly.
Focusing on two major forms of online recommendations, including personalised
recommendations which are made for specific users, and recommendation networks which are
hyperlinks connecting similar products as a networked system, this thesis explores the application
of network-based similarity measures in recommendations, and examines the performances of
them.
For the personalised recommendation, the recommendation list for a specific user is shown to be
changing vastly when the system evolves, due to the unstable quantification of object similarities,
which is defined as the recommendation stability problem. To improve the recommendation
stability is thus crucial for the user experience enhancement and the better understanding of user
interests. By ranking the similarities in terms of stability and considering only the most stable ones,
this thesis presents a top-n-stability method based on the Heat Conduction algorithm for tackle the
stability problem as well as guarantee the accuracy and diversity of recommendations. Experiments
on four benchmark datasets indicate that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the
recommendation stability and accuracy simultaneously and still retain the high-diversity nature of
the Heat Conduction algorithm. Furthermore, we show that the dilemma among stability, accuracy
and diversity is caused by the popularity bias of network-based similarity measures, that the
popular objects tend to have more common neighbours with others and thus are considered more
similar to others. Such popularity bias of similarity quantification will result in the biased
recommendations, with either poor accuracy or poor diversity. Based on the bipartite network
modelling of the user-object interactions, this thesis calculates the expected number of common
neighbours of two objects with given popularities in random networks. A Balanced Common
Neighbour similarity measure is accordingly developed by removing the random-driven common
neighbours from the total number. Recommendation experiments in three data sets show that
balancing the popularity bias in a certain degree can significantly improve the recommendations'
accuracy and diversity simultaneously.
Objects such as products, news, articles in most online systems are connected to similar others
through hyperlinks as recommendations for users. Recommendation networks of objects are thus
resulted enabling users to explore the massive relevant online information by surfing from one to
another. While it connects overwhelming online objects as networks and seems to be a good way
for users to navigate the haphazard content-browsing systems, two outstanding questions still exist
that, 1) can the users locate their interests by surfing on the network, and 2) is every object
accessible in the network? By mining the co-accessing pattern among objects, we construct
recommendation networks according to the object similarity matrix, and thereby theoretically
explore its topology and dynamics. Modelling the users' surfing behaviour as random walks, we
examine how many history records of a target user can be retrieved during such process. Most
measures are shown with limited accuracy and cannot help users to explore niche objects which
may be not popular but fit some users' interests. In order to achieve a good accuracy quickly in a
short-term random walk, we show that the recommendation list should be short, where each
object is expected to have generally 2~6 recommended objects. In terms of accessibility, the
recommendation networks are shown to be unnavigable due to the emergence of traps, which are
dense communities with few or even no links connecting outside. Such vicious cycles trapping
surfing users constantly make a handful of objects dominating most of the web traffic. According
to the local structure of the network, a simple measure entitled the local return rate is developed,
which can be used to accurately and efficiently identify the significant traps in large-scale
recommendation networks.
To summarise, this thesis uncovers some fundamental challenges with network-based online
recommendations including the stability problem and popularity bias for personalised
recommendation and the information monopoly for recommendation networks. In addition to the
proposed algorithm, measure and analytical methods, the results inform the needs of more careful
system design in practice, and shed lights on the future studies on such challenges to develop better
network-based similarity measures.


Main belt asteroid (6478) Gault has been dynamically linked with two overlapping asteroid families: Phocaea, dominated by S-type asteroids, and Tamara, dominated by low-albedo C-types. This object has recently become an interesting case for study after images obtained in late 2018 revealed that it was active and displaying a comet-like tail. Previous authors have proposed that the most likely scenarios to explain the observed activity on Gault were rotational excitation or merger of near-contact binaries. Here we use new photometric and spectroscopic data of Gault to determine its physical and compositional properties. Lightcurves derived from the photometric data showed little variation over three nights of observations, which prevented us from determining the rotation period of the asteroid. Using WISE observations of Gault and the near-Earth Asteroid Thermal Model (NEATM) we determined that this asteroid has a diameter <6 km. Near-infrared spectroscopic data obtained with the Infrared Telescope Facility showed a spectrum similar to that of S-complex asteroids, and a surface composition consistent with H chondrite meteorites. These results favor a compositional affinity between Gault and asteroid (25) Phocaea, and rules out a compositional link with the Tamara family. From the spectroscopic data we found no evidence of fresh material that could have been exposed during the outburst episodes.


In the world of cybersecurity, intrusion detection systems (IDS) have leveraged the power of artificial intelligence for the efficient detection of attacks. This is done by applying supervised machine learning (ML) techniques on labeled datasets. A growing body of literature has been devoted to the use of BoT-IoT dataset for IDS based ML frameworks. A few number of related works have recognized the need for a balanced dataset and applied techniques to alleviate the issue of imbalance. However, a significant amount of related research works failed to treat the imbalance in the BoT-IoT dataset. A lack of unanimity was observed in the literature towards the definition of taxonomy for balancing techniques. The study presented here seeks to explore the degree to which the imbalance of the dataset has been treated and to determine the taxonomy of techniques used. In this thesis, a comparison analysis is performed by using a small subset of an entire dataset to determine the threshold sample limit at which the model achieves the highest accuracy. In addition to this analysis, a study was conducted to determine the extent to which each feature of the dataset has an impact on the threshold performance. The study is implemented on the BoT-IoT dataset using three supervised ML classifiers: K-nearest Neighbor, Random Forest, and Logistic Regression. The four principal findings of this thesis are: existing taxonomies are not understood and imbalance of the dataset is not treated; high performance across all metrics is achieved on a highly imbalanced dataset; model is able to achieve the threshold performance using a small subset of samples; certain features had varying impact on the threshold value using different techniques.


Completely revised and updated, The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film, Second Edition provides a comprehensive, in-depth look at more than 300 American and foreign novels and their film adaptations. Edited and written by two renowned film scholars, with contributions from more than 70 top experts in the field, this engaging reference explores both the popular and lesser-known films that have come to define this genre. Covering both American and foreign films, each of the more than 300 illuminating entries provides an overview of the literary source and a critical assessment of its various film adaptations. This edition includes more than 30 all-new entries and numerous updates to cover new adaptations, as well as many new photographs. Providing an in-depth look at how books are selected for the silver screen, The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film, Second Edition is a fascinating study for anyone interested in film and literature.


Mercury (Hg) is a naturally occurring metal that is toxic to humans and can enter the human body through the consumption of mercury-contaminated fish. A general West to East pattern of increasing mercury concentrations was found within ecoregions of the South Central United States. Also, African Americans were found to overall consume more fish than Caucasians and populations with a lower education level eat fish more often and overall consume more fish. In this study, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and 2010 United Stated Census data were used to compare the location of atrisk populations of people to the mercury levels of fourteen Southern ecoregions. Economic status, education level, age, and ethnicity were mapped within these ecoregions. A comparison was conducted to see if there was a relationship between high mercury levels in ecoregions and large numbers of the at-risk populations. The most at risk populations were located in the Eastern part of the six-state study area and should be the focus of education efforts to help the public understand the hazards of consuming mercury-contaminated fish.


Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a chronic psychiatric condition characterized by a pervasive pattern of instability in affect regulation and impulse control. These maladaptive coping strategies predispose individuals with BPD to suicidal behavior, and this diagnosis increases the risk for completed suicide. Empirical data indicate that adverse life events; a history of childhood trauma; and the presence of comorbid psychiatric conditions, in particular major depressive disorder and substance use disorders; confer an elevated risk of suicidal behavior in patients with BPD. Psychopharmacological interventions, including the use of antidepressants, anti-psychotics, and mood stabilizers, are considered in this review in terms of the evidence for their utility in reducing the risk of suicidal behavior in BPD.


The general objective of this paper is to recognize factors affecting the target market of Iran's pistachio and date export. For this purpose, the target market of pistachio and date export(with use screening method), effective factors on export demand of pistachio and date, and elasticity coefficient of export demand of pistachio and date were all analyzed during 1971-2007. According to the results, Non-Asian countries with high income are suitable markets for exporting Iranian date. Also, Asian and Non-Asian countries with high income are suitable markets for exporting pistachio of Iran in long run. Increasing the date price must be stopped to assist promotion of hygienic level and packing export date. Increasing pistachio price with regard to the appearance of new exporters is hazardous. Generally, according to findings, suitable *Head of Support Policy, ARDPERI, Tehran, Iran (Corresponding Author) **MS in Agricultural Economics e-mail:firstname.lastname@example.com ***Researcher in ARDPERI, Tehran, Iran هعسوتو يزرواشكداصتقا لاس ه ج مهد هرامش، 70 20 markets for exporting Iranian date are proposed France, United Kingdom, Germany, Morocco, United State of America, Italy, Spain, Canada, Russia, Georgia, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia and Belgium, and suitable markets for exporting Iranian pistachio in long run are Luxemburg, Hong Kong, Germany, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, Russia, Jordan, India, Syria, Slovakia, Palestine, United Kingdom, Cyprus, Ukraine, Slovenia, Belgium, Latvia and Armenia respectively. Jel Classification: M31


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to over 1 million deaths worldwide and has been associated with cardiac complications including cardiac arrhythmias. The incidence and pathophysiology of these manifestations remain elusive. In this worldwide survey of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 who developed cardiac arrhythmias, we describe clinical characteristics associated with various arrhythmias, as well as global differences in modulations of routine electrophysiology practice during the pandemic. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection worldwide with and without incident cardiac arrhythmias. Patients with documented atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, supraventricular tachycardia, nonsustained or sustained ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, atrioventricular block, or marked sinus bradycardia (heart rate<40 bpm) were classified as having arrhythmia. Deidentified data was provided by each institution and analyzed. Results: Data were collected for 4526 patients across 4 continents and 12 countries, 827 of whom had an arrhythmia. Cardiac comorbidities were common in patients with arrhythmia: 69% had hypertension, 42% diabetes, 30% had heart failure, and 24% had coronary artery disease. Most had no prior history of arrhythmia. Of those who did develop an arrhythmia, the majority (81.8%) developed atrial arrhythmias, 20.7% developed ventricular arrhythmias, and 22.6% had bradyarrhythmia. Regional differences suggested a lower incidence of atrial fibrillation in Asia compared with other continents (34% versus 63%). Most patients in North America and Europe received hydroxychloroquine, although the frequency of hydroxychloroquine therapy was constant across arrhythmia types. Forty-three percent of patients who developed arrhythmia were mechanically ventilated and 51% survived to hospital discharge. Many institutions reported drastic decreases in electrophysiology procedures performed. Conclusions: Cardiac arrhythmias are common and associated with high morbidity and mortality among patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection. There were significant regional variations in the types of arrhythmias and treatment approaches.


The flexural strength of a reinforced concrete beam can be increased by bonding a FRP sheet to its tension face and this method is an alternative to deconstruction and reconstruction. Nevertheless, this type of reinforcement may cause a premature debonding failure. This paper is concerned with the failure by concrete cover separation; in other words by peeling-off which involves the tearing-off of the concrete cover along the level of tension steel reinforcement starting from a plate end. This type of failure prevents the strengthened RC beams from attaining their ultimate flexural capacity; furthermore, it is brittle and unique to beams bonded with a soffit plate. In this study, a reliable numerical model dedicated to the prediction of this failure mode is introduced. It should be noted that the proposed finite element model has been validated by comparing numerical results with experimental ones. The key parameters affecting the efficiency of the strengthening by bonding are then identified as part of a parametric study. The results of this study are compared with test results in the literature demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed model. Finally, several measures are proposed to improve the performance of the strengthening and avoid the peeling-off failure.


The primary aims of this paper were (1) to evaluate the influence of intensive lifestyle weight loss and exercise intervention (ILI) compared with diabetes support and education (DSE) upon Heart Rate Recovery (HRR) from graded exercise testing (GXT) and (2) to determine the independent and combined effects of weight loss and fitness changes upon HRR. In 4503 participants (45–76 years) who completed 1 year of intervention, HRR was measured after a submaximal GXT to compare the influence of (ILI) with (DSE) upon HRR. Participants assigned to ILI lost an average 8.6% of their initial weight versus 0.7% in DSE group (P < 0.001) while mean fitness increased in ILI by 20.9% versus 5.8% in DSE (P < 0.001). At Year 1, all exercise and HRR variables in ILI improved (P < 0.0001) versus DSE: heart rate (HR) at rest was lower (72.8 ± 11.4 versus 77.7 ± 11.7 b/min), HR range was greater (57.7 ± 12.1 versus 53.1 ± 12.4 b/min), HR at 2 minutes was lower (89.3 ± 21.8 versus 93.0 ± 12.1 b/min), and HRR was greater (41.25 ± 22.0 versus 37.8 ± 12.5 b/min). Weight loss and fitness gain produced significant separate and independent improvements in HRR.


The current study aimed to test a key theoretical prediction of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) theory by assessing the role of general and trauma-specific irrational beliefs in the prediction of posttraumatic stress responses. A sample (N = 313) of trauma-exposed emergency service workers participated in the study. Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that an REBT-based model provided satisfactory model fit and explained 89% of variance in posttraumatic stress symptomatology. Theoretical predictions were supported, with results demonstrating that general-level irrationality indirectly impacted posttraumatic stress responses via a set of trauma-specific irrational beliefs. Results indicate the importance of irrational beliefs in predicting posttraumatic stress responses.


Some schizophrenics think that their voices and delusions are true. I have been on my medications for years now, and even I have to tell myself that I am not that popular. You probably think that sounds simple enough. If I don't do that, I do my best to ignore them.

I believe that most schizophrenics do hear positive voices in their head. I thought I could hear the voice of God, and it was God who told me to refer myself to mental health at Fort Irwin, California. I also thought it was a voice of God who told me that I would get the help I needed in my second stay in the psyche ward. Believe it or not I think it was that voice that helped me to be self-aware—to question what I was feeling or in some cases to ask if something was really going on.

I sometimes hear negative voices too. They can be insulting, and they can tell me to kill myself. This is part of the struggle. It's something I don't like to talk about. When I hear these negative voices, I do my best to stimulate my brain and be active, or I try to ignore them.

The realization that what is going on in your head isn't really going on, is a tough pill to swallow. For a doctor to tell a patient to be self-aware or to tell them that the voices aren't real can be taken the wrong way. So waiting is important. Wait until the medication takes hold, and then even the patient will wonder why the voices and delusions have subsided. I felt like I received an epiphany when this happened to me. It was cathartic.

I am sure doctors and other people in the mental health field struggle with this. I never had a person in the mental health field tell me to question what was going on inside my own head until later on in my recovery. I never had anyone, for that matter, tell me that my delusions weren't real.

I think if a doctor had told me my delusions were not real, I probably wouldn't have believed it. Maybe there should be better "bedside manner." I respect doctors, but maybe instead of putting themselves on a higher level, they should be a friend or maybe a neighbor.

How can doctors do this?

Maybe they should start a meeting by talking about what movie they just saw. Talk about the last football game they just saw on TV. If they don't like sports, talk about their kids or a nephew or niece. They may not want to go into talking about the holidays because even people without a mental illness can feel lonely or depressed during these times. In conclusion, build a relationship. Show some sensitivity.

I have had some doctors (don't want to mention any names) that I felt the less I say the better I am. This attitude will not help the patient or the doctor. There are some doctors who feel numb to the mental health field. They may even feel that it is all the patient's fault. I ask all doctors and staff of the mental health field not to give up on us. We need you to be optimistic. Some of you in the field know we do get better.

You may have heard about peer counseling. This is a good program. The patients who have maintained their stability and stayed on their medication for awhile should be invited back to the psyche ward. This would help the patient who has stayed on their meds because it will show them how far they have come. This would help the patient who is actually in the psyche ward because the patient sees the peer counselor as someone who has walked in their shoes.

The stable schizophrenic could discuss their past delusions with other patients as long as it isn't stressful. Both schizophrenics may find some things in common. Both would experience hope by seeing how far they can go and how far they have gone. Imagine, inspiring a mental health patient into going into the field of public service.

Here are examples of questions that a peer counselor/public servant could ask:

"What medication do you take?"

"How long have you been in here?"

"Do you know it does get better?"

"Do you write in a journal? You should start."

"How'd you sleep?"

"Who's your doctor?"

"Everyone falls; it is whether or not you can pick yourself back up again."

"You know you will have to stay on your meds."

"No one is after you; you are safe in here."

"You know if you are not compliant, they make you stay longer."

To name a few conversation starters.

Of course, the staff should make the decision whether or not the patient in the psych ward can handle a visitor. I assure you, it is possible to feel lonely in the psyche ward even when you are around people who have some of the same symptoms you have. It would be nice to have some positive energy on the other side of the table.

How can doctors be self-aware?

I know that psychiatrists are in high demand. There is probably not enough to go around in some cases. The ones we have are probably overworked.

Dennis Leary said, "Happiness comes in short doses." I think that means grab hold of the simple things. That can be a diet soda, a cup of coffee or tea, or an observing nature when you have the chance. Maybe they should have a break room that plays cool jazz (for those of you who don't know too much about cool jazz, you should buy Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue," to start) or find some other way to relax when you take a break. Anyway, for those of you in the mental health field, thanks for your service.

Finally, we all have to be self-aware in our little piece of the world. We all have to know what is going on in our environment whether it is in our minds or outside. This will help us be mentally strong and emotionally strong.


The effect of cysteine availability on protein and coenzyme A (CoA) synthesis in perfused rat heart was incompletely evaluated in earlier experiments because rapid conversion of cysteine to cystine occurred when the perfusion buffer was oxygenated. This conversion was minimized by addition of an excess of reducing agents such as dithiothreitol or mercaptodextran or by provision of bathocuproine disulfonate, a copper chelator. Dithiothreitol was not a suitable protective agent because it reduced ATP and creatine phosphate contents. Perfusion of hearts with [35S]cystine or [35S]cysteine in the presence of mercaptodextran resulted in a 22-fold or 5-fold increase, respectively, in incorporation of [35S] into protein and a 5-fold or 8-fold increase, respectively, in incorporation into CoA compared with hearts supplied [35S]cystine or [35S]cysteine without the reducing agent. When compared with hearts perfused at an aortic pressure of 90 mmHg with bicarbonate buffer that contained 15 mM glucose, 25 mU insulin/ml, 0.4 mM [14C]phenylalanine, no cysteine and plasma levels of other amino acids, provision of 0.09 or 0.2 mM cysteine alone or in the presence of mercaptodextran, or bathocuproine disulfonate enhanced rates of protein synthesis 16-35%. When 0.2 mM cysteine was added to bicarbonate buffer containing 7 microM pantothenic acid, supplementation with mercaptodextran or bathocuproine disulfonate was required to raise CoA content. These results indicated that an exogenous supply of cysteine was needed to maintain maximal rates of protein and CoA synthesis in the perfused rat heart. Protective compounds were required to obtain the cysteine effect on CoA but not on protein synthesis.


Objective: Dopamine is very commonly used in the critical care setting and impacts glucose homeostasis. In some studies, it is noted to increase insulin resistance or decrease insulin secretion. The role of insulin secretion in response to dopamine is incompletely understood. Methods: Eight individuals underwent a hyperglycemic clamp with a dopamine infusion, and eight controls underwent hyperglycemic clamp alone. Insulin, C-peptide, glucagon, cortisol, and norepinephrine (NE) concentrations were measured at various time points. An index of insulin sensitivity (M/I) was calculated. Statistical comparison between the control and treatment arm was done using repeated measures ANOVA. The data is expressed as mean ± standard deviation. Paired t-test was used to compare pre- and post-dopamine infusion time points in the study individuals only. Data was considered to be statistically significant at P < 0.05. Results: On assessing the treatment group before and during dopamine infusion, insulin and C-peptide concentrations were higher at the time of the infusion (P = 0.02 and P = 0.003, respectively). The index of insulin sensitivity was not statistically different. There was a significant decrease in insulin (P = 0.002), C-peptide (P = 0.005), and NE (P < 0.0001) concentrations in the treatment group, compared to the controls. Glucagon concentration was higher in the treatment group (P = 0.02). Conclusion: In this study, dopamine infusion did not adversely impact insulin secretion.


The in-vitro activity of cefpirome, a new injectable cephalosporin, was compared with that of several other antibiotics against bacterial isolates from hospitalized patients with lower respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections and wound infections. Minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined for 874 strains against 16 antibiotics using a microtitration technique. Cefpirome showed a very broad spectrum of activity against most pathogens tested. The spectrum included organisms such as Staphylococcus spp., enterococci, Enterobacter spp., and Pseudomonas spp. which are frequently resistant to third generation cephalosporins.


Abstract Sedimentation in the northern part of the Iberian Basin during the early Kimmeridgian was characterized by the development of coral reef complexes of the Torrecilla en Cameros Formation, which were situated along a seaway that connected the Boreal and Tethys domains. Along the northern portion of that seaway, close to the Boreal Sea, early diagenesis of the Torrecilla fringing reef complex was controlled by rising sea level and by local tectonism, leading to alternations of submergence and reefal exposure. While exposed, reef corals were neomorphosed and dissolved. When the corals were submerged, secondary porosity was filled by calcite cements precipitated from marine-derived waters. During the latest stages of reef development, rate of sea-level rise could no longer keep pace with tectonic uplift and, while younger accretionary units continued to be deposited, older units were exposed subaerially, leading to the precipitation of meteoric calcite cement and to the development of a paleosol. This stage of diagenesis also affected the reef complex during late Kimmeridgian times, as the Boreal and Tethys coastlines progressively retreated to the north and southeast, respectively. Progressive retreat of the Boreal Sea and subsequent Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rifting that formed the Cameros Basin resulted in the deposition of Tithonian continental carbonates directly on these reefal units. Oxygen isotope compositions of these continental carbonates are 3% more negative than Kimmeridgian meteoric cement, suggesting an evolution in the isotopic composition of meteoric water in response to an increasing continental effect on meteoric precipitation. In contrast, early Kimmeridgian reef complexes of the Torrecilla en Cameros Formation in the southern sectors of the seaway, closer to the Tethys Sea, were exposed during the late Kimmeridgian as the Tethys coastline retreated, leading to dissolution of corals and subsequent precipitation of meteoric calcite cement. Oxygen isotope compositions of these meteoric cements are 2% more negative than time-equivalent meteoric calcites precipitated in the northern Torrecilla Reef Complex. Given the regional paleogeography, this difference suggests that sources of meteoric water must have been different for the northern and southern sectors, and probably reflects southward transport of air masses and water vapor from the Boreal Sea to the northern Torrecilla sector, and northwest transport of water vapor from the Tethys Sea to the southern sectors. Tithonian–Berriasian continental carbonates, which unconformably overlie reef complexes in the southern and northern sectors, exhibit an opposite trend, with the δ18O of continental carbonates in southern sectors being 1.6% more positive than time-equivalent carbonates that overlie the Torrecilla Reef Complex to the north. This shift in the trend of the isotopes between northern and southern sectors is coeval with paleogeographic changes that occurred in response to Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous rifting of the Iberian Plate and the progressive retreat of Boreal and Tethys coastlines. During this time, continental carbonates in both the southern and northern sectors of the seaway precipitated from meteoric waters that were sourced from the Tethys Sea to the southeast. More negative δ18O values in the northern Torrecilla sector reflect enhanced continental fractionation effects as the influence of the Boreal Sea-derived meteoric waters diminished.


OBJECTIVE For symptomatic loosened pedicle screws and instrumentation-associated vertebral fracture, extensive surgery to remove the pedicle screws and extend the instrumentation, along with the reinsertion of more pedicle screws, is usually the treatment of choice. After such a surgery, however, similar complications will still be encountered. In this study the authors propose minimally invasive percutaneous cement augmentation under fluoroscopic guidance as a salvage procedure that eliminates the inherent risks of conventional extensive surgery. METHODS The records for 10 consecutive patients who had undergone fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous cement augmentation for loosened pedicle screws and instrumentation-associated vertebral fractures were reviewed. The procedures, performed with the patients under local anesthesia, were basically similar to vertebroplasty except for the preexisting pedicle screws. The trocar was inserted under fluoroscopic guidance, along the path of the loosened pedicle screw, using the latero-pedicular approach. The visual analog scale (VAS) and radiographic images were used for clinical outcome assessment at 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery. RESULTS The mean follow-up period was 14.3 months. The mean postoperative hospital stay was 1.2 days. There was neither cement leakage into the posterior neuroforamen nor neurological complication in this series. The mean VAS score improved from 5.9 preoperatively to 2.5 at the last follow-up (p = 0.02). Eight patients obtained satisfactory results and 2 needed revision open surgery. CONCLUSIONS The results demonstrate that minimally invasive fluoroscopy-guided percutaneous vertebroplasty is technically feasible and can be performed safely and effectively for symptomatic loosened pedicle screws and instrumentation-associated vertebral fracture.


AIM
To describe the clinical characteristic of hepatitis C (HCV) patients and the results of pegylated interferon and ribavirin (PegIFN/RBV) therapy in a routine clinical practice.

METHODS
A retrospective review of consecutive HCV patients treated with PegIFN/RBV in 2004 to 2012.

RESULTS
A total of 273 patients received treatment. The mean age was 44.16 ± 10.5 years and 76% were male. The top 2 self-reported risks were blood or blood product transfusion before 1994 and injection drug use, found in 57.1% of patients. The predominant HCV genotype (GT) was 3 at 60.6%, second was GT1 at 36.1% and other GTs were uncommon at about 1% or less. About half of our patients have high baseline viral load (>800,000 iu/ml), 18.3% had liver cirrhosis and 22.3% had HIV co-infection. Co-morbid illness was found in 42.9%, hypertension and type 2 diabetes were the two most common. The overall sustained virological response (SVR) by intention-to-treat analysis were 54.9% (n=150/273), 41.2% (40/97) for GT1, 100% (5/5) for GT2 and 62% (101/163) for GT3. Subgroup analysis for HCV monoinfected, treatment naïve showed SVR of 49.2% (31/63) for GT1, 100% (5/5) for GT2 and 67% (69/103) for GT3. In HCV mono-infected and treatment experienced (n=29), the SVR was 28.6% (4/14) for GT1, 21.4% (69/103) for GT3. In the HIV/HCV co-infected, treatment naïve (n=56), the SVR was 28.6% (4/14) for GT1 and 64.3% (27/42) for GT3. Treatment naïve GT3 mono-infected patients had a statistically significant higher SVR compared to treatment experienced patients (P=0.001). In GT3 patients who achieved rapid virological response, the SVR was significantly higher at 85.2% (P< 0.001). The SVR for cirrhotics were low especially for GT1 at 21% (4/19) and 31% (4/13) based on all patients and treatment naïve HCV monoinfected respectively. In GT3 cirrhotics the corresponding SVR were 57.1% (16/28) and 60.9% (14/23). Premature discontinuation rate was 21.2% with the majority due to intolerable adverse events at 12.1%.

CONCLUSIONS
In our routine clinical practice, the HCV patients we treated were young, predominantly of GT3 and many had difficult-to-treat clinical characteristics. The SVR of our patients were below those reported in Asian clinical trials but in keeping with some "real world" data.


Dry matter accumulation in grains at the harvesting time is one of the most faithful indicators of the growing season of maize. The paper presents the obtained results of the dry matter accumulation in maize, in the experiments fields conducted at Agricultural Research and Development Station Turda, using simple hybrids in a cyclic cross system, between 2011-2012. The goal of this paper is to identify some inbred lines that are sending a rapid dry matter accumulation in grains at the harvest time and to highlight the genic effects involved in this process. At the harvesting time, for each studied plot was determined grain moisture using GRANOMAT device. Analysis of variance for dry matter content in grains at the harvesting time indicates statistically highly significant differences between variants. Differences occurred also between experimental simple hybrids and the three control hybrids (Turda 201, Turda Favorit and PR39 D81). The effects values for the general combining capacity ranged between 0,75% and +1,43% dry matter at the inbred lines and between -0,79% and +0,72% dry matter at the testers. The effects values for the specific combining ability ranged from -0,77% to 1,07% dry matter. Among the testers inbred lines, the highest dry matter accumulation in maize grains at harvesting time, was sent by the inbred line TC 399 (80,77%); additive genic effects for this value were 0,72%, statistically significant. Among the tested inbred lines, the highest dry matter accumulation in maize grains was recorded by TE 229 (81,48%), the earliest inbred line from the experimental system. Compared with the average of experimental system, there was +1,43% in the general combining ability effects. The highest values for non-additive genic effects were recorded for hybrid combination TE 317 x TC 385A (+1,07%), followed by TE 335 x TC 399 (+0,84%). The heredity of the maize growing season involves additive gene action, but also non-additive interactions. There is a dominance of the early parental forms, simple hybrids being earlier than the parental forms. Our results indicate relatively equal influence of additive and non-additive genic effects for the determinism of dry matter accumulation in maize grains at the harvesting time.


Coupled adsorption and photocatalytic oxidation brings high expectations regarding the fast and efficient removal of gaseous pollutants in air. However, to fabricate an adsorbent-photocatalyst composite, coating of a photocatalyst on adsorbent support inevitably results in loss of adsorption and light blocking on interior surfaces. In this work, we attempt to develop an adsorbent-photocatalyst monolith composite, which not only perfectly retains original high adsorption capacity, but also allows complete penetration of UV light through the whole monolith. We employ a SiO2 aerogel monolith with a diameter of 2.5 cm and thickness of 0.7 cm as adsorbent and support. After atomic layer deposition (ALD) followed by calcination, 0.32-1.25 wt% TiO2 is dispersed on the skeleton of the SiO2 aerogel. In spite of such a low level of loading, the monolith composites exhibit fast and efficient removal of gaseous acetaldehyde and NO. Therein, the best performance is achieved at a loading of 0.6 wt% TiO2. By dark adsorption, the acetaldehyde pollutant with initial concentration of 200 ppm can be adsorbed by 54% within 10 min. Moreover, the light transmittance at 387 nm can be retained as high as 6% after penetrating through the whole monolith, confirming that all loaded TiO2 nanoparticles can participate in the photocatalytic oxidation of acetaldehyde. Under UV irradiation with intensity close to natural sunlight, the preadsorbed acetaldehyde can be completely mineralized into CO2 by photocatalytic oxidation in another 60 min, benefiting from the ultradispersion of TiO2 nanoparticles inside the SiO2 aerogel. The study provides a novel three-dimensional model of an adsorbent-photocatalyst composite for the fast and efficient removal of gaseous pollutants.


It is clear from the implications of growth theory that the impact of aid depends on how it affects savings, investment and government behaviour. In respect of low-income countries, which are the principal aid recipients and the economies for which the issue of the impact of aid on growth is most important, it is government that is most important. This paper presents a review of studies that address the impact of aid on government fiscal behaviour. In particular, the focus is on fungibility and fiscal response studies. We argue that fungibility studies have been granted too much attention; these are narrowly focussed on the composition of government spending, and are not sufficiently informative about fiscal behaviour. Fiscal response studies are of greater relevance, as they attempt to address the effects of aid on behaviour regarding total spending, tax revenue and borrowing. Results show that the effects are complex and varied, but that aid tends to be associated with government spending increases in excess of the value of the aid, and can also have effects on tax effort and borrowing. Outline


Gripen Oil & Gas have extended their prospecting license on Gotland to the north end of the island to search for potential hydrocarbon reservoirs. Earlier prospecting has shown that limestone mound structures from Ordovicium have high potential as hydrocarbon reservoirs due to their antiformal shape and the petrophysical properties of the limestone.This study focuses on the petrophysical properties of the intramound lithofacies of the Ordovician mound structures. Analyses are made to determine the density, porosity and ultrasonic velocity of ten drill core samples (both in dry and water-filled state) from different places on Gotland and these factors are compared to see how they affect one another. Seismic reflection data gathered by OPAB (provided by SGU) is also used to locate potential mound structures in northern Gotland.The results show a clear connection between the density and porosity. Increasing porosities also decreases the ultrasonic velocities of the rocks. The saturated samples show higher velocities for the compressional waves than in the dry samples, but the shear wave velocity is similar in both dry and saturated rocks. Acoustic impedance is used to link the petrophysical analysis to the geophysical data by explaining why one reflector can be seen more clearly than others in a seismic section. Using the seismic sections, five possible mounds are found on northern Gotland. Good correlations are found in the petrophysical analyses, but the porosity of the rock does not seem to be the deciding factor in choosing a reservoir. There is no association between a rock's measured porosity and its potential extraction volume, clearly shown by the low porosity measured in the Risungs drill cores compared to how much volume of oil that has been extracted. Instead, one should look closer at the seismic sections to find mounds with a high degree of fracturing. None of the mounds seen in the seismic sections show any apparent fracturing, and more seismic surveys should be made before deciding where to drill.


Websites are today one of the most common ways for humans to interact with each other. Evolving from just static pages for companies to highly dynamic social medias, websites are built upon complex techniques and architectures to meet end-user demands. One of the latest techniques are single page applicationswhich makes use of the web browsers capabililities to execute application code. One drawback is that search engines cannot visit the site, nor can script-disabled web browsers. For a single page application to function on all devices a new concept called isomorphism needs to be considered. The aim of this thesis have been to analyze, design and implement an isomorphic web application using modern technologies. The practical work have been applied using an agile project method, while theoretical works are based on previous knowledge and an internet based research. The implementation went through several iterations of trial and error but was finally completed with Facebook's React framework together with a modified version of the Flux architecture. The resulting application was implemented in both Ember and the proposed isomorphic solution. Benchmarks of both implementations were carried out and compared with each other to see how the thesis' isomorphic solution performed. The results shows an performance increase in the isomorphic solution. In conclusion the full application was not implemented due to time limits, but the most performance critical parts were. While only one framework was compared, it would be of interest to compare with more frameworks to give a better performance overview.


Security personnel must be able to work together with others on the hospital staff to make the hospital environment as emotionally and physically safe as possible. To do this they must understand the causes of aggression as well as techniques that must be applied to defuse or contain it. Language: en


A class of inherently nonlinear control problems has been identified, the nonlinear features arising directly from physical assumptions about constraints on the motion of a mechanical system. Models are presented for mechanical systems with nonholonomic constraints represented both by differential-algebraic equations and by reduced state equations. Control issues for this class of systems are studied and a number of fundamental results are derived. Although a single equilibrium solution cannot be asymptotically stabilized using continuous state feedback, a general procedure for constructing a piecewise analytic state feedback which achieves the desired result is suggested. >


We study the problem of learning adversarially robust halfspaces in the distribution-independent setting. In the realizable setting, we provide necessary and sufficient conditions on the adversarial perturbation sets under which halfspaces are efficiently robustly learnable. In the presence of random label noise, we give a simple computationally efficient algorithm for this problem with respect to any $\ell_p$-perturbation.


Cortical respones to low-frequency (6 to 8 per sec) rhythmic stimulation of the Centrum medianum thalami have been studied in chronic experiments on cats. Three types of recruiting reactions have been readily obtained: 1) with periodic spindling of response amplitudes, the sustained oscillatory type; 2) with spindling only at the beginning of stimulation, the decaying oscillatory type, and 3) with equal amplitudes throughout the stimulation, the aperiodic type. Distinct changes in the type of reactions have been shown--from the aperiodic to the sustained oscillatory type during transition of active awake state to slow-wave sleep, and from the sustained oscillatory type to the aperiodic type during transition of slow-wave sleep to the paradoxical sleep, which is due to changes in the weights of feedbacks in the thalamo-cortical nonspecific system.


In satellite-to-helicopter communications, interference exists on the incoming signal when the receiving antenna is located below the rotor blades. A bound is established for the performance of a coherent fixed-tone ranging system operating at L band in this interference environment. The scalar diffracted field beneath the rotating blades, at L band and above, is found to satisfy the criterion of Fresnel diffraction, and is computed using the techniques of Fourier optics. The diffracted field is expressed in terms of a narrow-band signal. The amplitude and phase components are calculated from a Fourier Series expansion using the FFT algorithm. The significant harmonics of the phase component of the interference combine with the baseband of the narrow-band, phase-modulated ranging signal. This results in CW interference, and in rearrangement of the first-order, sideband, ranging-tone channel powers. The degradation in ranging accuracy is evaluated by computing the signal-to-interference (SIR) ratio for a set of ranging tones. The post-detection (SIR)PD at the output of the correlator is shown to be a function of the amplitude of the phase harmonics of the interference, the relative difference between the ranging tone and interference center frequencies (a function of rotor speed), the rangetone modulation indices, and the post-detection filter noise bandwidth.


We consider the problem of interference management in wireless cellular networks with caches at both base stations and receivers and we characterize the degrees-of-freedom (DoF) per cell to within an additive gap of 1 and a multiplicative gap of 2 for all system parameters, under one-shot linear schemes. Our result indicates that the one-shot linear DoF per cell scales linearly with the total amount of cache that is available within each cell. A similar phenomenon had been previously observed for the case of fully-connected wireless networks. Hence, our result demonstrates that it also holds in cellular networks, despite the presence of path loss and fading which results in partial connectivity of the network topology. To establish the result, we propose a randomized and decentralized cache placement and a delivery scheme which, on one hand, utilizes the overlap of contents at base station caches to zero-force part of their outgoing interference, and on the other hand, uses the receiver caches to create coded multicasting opportunities, so that the receivers can eliminate the remaining interference due to undesired packets. We also provide a converse argument to show that our achievable one-shot linear DoF per cell is within an additive gap of 1 and a multiplicative gap of 2 of its optimal value.


Energy saving is an important issue in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). Recent studies show that network coding can help reduce the energy consumption in MANETs by using less transmission. However, apart from transmission cost, there are other sources of energy consumption, e.g., data encryption/decryption. In this project, the network coding is done to reduce the energy consumed by data encryption in MANETs. It is interesting that network coding has a nice property of intrinsic security, based on which encryption can be done quite efficiently. Hence, P-Coding, a lightweight encryption scheme is proposed to provide confidentiality for network-coded MANETs in an energy-efficient way. The basic idea of P-Coding is to let the source randomly permutes the symbols of each packet (which is prefixed with its coding vector), before performing network coding operations. Without knowing the permutation, eavesdroppers cannot locate coding vectors for correct decoding, and thus cannot obtain any meaningful information. It is demonstrated that due to its lightweight nature, P-Coding incurs minimal energy consumption compared to other encryption schemes.


Drop impact, spreading, fingering, and snap-off are important inmany engineering applications such as spray drying, industrial painting, environmentally friendly combustion, inkjet printing, materials processing, fire suppression, and pharmaceutical coating. Controlling drop-impact instability is crucial to designing optimized systems for the aforementioned applications. Classical Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) theory has been widely used to analyze fingering where instabilities at the leading edge of the toroidal ring form fingers that may ultimately snap off to form small droplets. In this study, we demonstrate the inapplicability of RT theory, in particular because it fails to explain the stable regimes observed under conditions of low air density and the instabilities observed when a drop impacts a pool of equal-density fluid. Specifically, finger instability decreases with decreasing air density, whereas the RT theory suggests that instability should remain unchanged. Moreover, experiments show that fingers form upon impact of a dyed water drop with a water pool, whereas the RT theory predicts noinstability when the densities of the two interacting fluids are equal. Experimental evidence is instead consistent with instability predictions made using the shear-driven Kelvin-Helmholtz theory.


A polymorphism for anthocyanin production was used as a genetic marker to document the relationship between antherstigma separation and outcrossing rate in the predominantly self-fertilizing weed Datura stramnoniumn. White-flowered plants that differed in anther-stigma separation were placed into populations consisting exclusively of purple-flowered plants. Self vs. outcross origin of progeny was evident in the hypocotyl color of the seedlings. Outcrossing rates measured for single flowers were significantly positively correlated with anther-stigma separation, albeit with some scatter around the regression line, especially for flowers with exserted stigmas. We also performed an 8 X 8 diallel cross to determine whether antherstigma separation is genetically determined. Heritability in two field plots was -0.3 and in the greenhouse was -0.2. Maternal effects, epistasis, and dominance appeared to be relatively unimportant. Genotypes performed consistently across the three environments, although total plant size varied more than fivefold. It appears that the mixed-mating system of D. stUamonium has a heritable basis and would be capable of responding to selection.


This article presents an analysis of electrical distribution theory for 60Hz-lines operating at low voltage, particularly underground lines and residential indoor installations. Such distribution lines' behaviour is observed as a function of frequency to consider any advantages regarding the potential use of power transmission lines (PTL) for transmitting telecommunication signals. A method for computing the secondary parameters is proposed which has been based on the primary parameters, namely inductance, capacitance, conductance and resistance. The secondary parameters so obtained were characteristic impedance, propagation constant (together with its real value) and the attenuation constant. Conductor configurations, insulation materials and gauges commonly used in Colombia were verified for such low-voltage lines. A mathematical model is proposed as a theoretical tool for analysing and predicting characteristic impedance pattern and the attenuations which occur at high frequencies, thereby complementing our group's previous work. Conclusions are drawn, together with a perspective regarding future work and applications.


Counterfactual constructions convey the meaning that the speaker believes a certain proposition not to hold. This article investigates the morphosyntactic composition of counterfactual conditionals and counterfactual wishes and the question of how the form of counterfactuals is related to their meaning. Across languages, there are combinations of tense, mood, and aspect morphemes that are used repeatedly in the expression of counterfactuality. I discuss the role of all three components.