Crowdfunding is becoming an increasingly popular method to finance projects of every kind and scale. This contributed volume is one of the earliest books presenting scientific and research-based perspectives of crowdfunding, its development, and future. The European Crowdfunding Network (ECN) and its scientific work group, together with FGF e.V., invited both researchers and practitioners to contribute to this first state-of-the-art edited volume on crowdfunding in Europe. This book contributes to a better comprehension of crowdfunding, encourages further fundamental research and contributes to a systematization of this new field of research. The book also features expert contributions by practitioners to enhance and complement the scientific perspective. This book can be used as a guideline and shall advance classification in an emerging research field


Motion analysis techniques have been widely used in biomechanics for measuring large-scale motions such as gait, posture etc, but have not yet been significantly explored for measuring smaller movements such as tooth movement under load. In principle, very accurate measurements could be possible and this could provide a valuable tool in many engineering applications. The aim of this study was to develop a novel system to measure and calculate tooth movements with 6DOF in 3D space for studying the properties of the periodontal ligament. The Qualisys ProReflex-MCU120 motion capture system has been developed to measure micro-movements. The calibration frame was designed and made for the system calibration. The system accuracy was 1.17%, 1.67% and 1.31% for diamond markers 1.81%, 2.37% and 1.39% for spherical markers in x, y and z directions in the range of 20 - 200pm. These results demonstrated that the system is accurate enough to measure small-scale movements. To measure tooth movement, two retroreflective marker clusters, two pointers and one plane for the pointer calibration were created. The two marker clusters were fixed on the measured tooth and the reference tooth for measurements. The pointer was used to identify the three landmarks for identifying anatomical coordinate system of tooth. Data analysis software was developed and evaluated for calculating tooth movement in 6DOF. In the data analysis software, the three coordinate systems method was used with transformation matrices to give 6DOF results. The evaluation results of a complete system were 3.2%, 2.8% and 2.4% for rotations 5.3%, 7.7% and 4.7% for translations in x, y and z directions in the term of accuracy. For producing tooth measurements, loading devices and loading control system were designed and tested. The experiments were carried out on human volunteers in clinical setting. Loads of 0.196N, 0.294N and 0.49N were separately applied to the measured tooth in the buccal direction and the intrusive direction for 10s and 30s, respectively. The experimental results demonstrated that, with the buccal loading, the tooth translations were 32pm for load of 0.294N, and 41pm for load of 0.49N in the y direction of the anatomical coordinate system, tooth rotations were 0.09 and 0.07 for load of 0.294N, and 0.1 and 0.06 for load of 0.49N in the x and z directions with the intrusive loading, tooth movements were 37pm, 15pm and 54pm for load of 0.196N, and 140pm, 51pm and 25pm for load of 0.49N in the x, y and z directions, tooth rotations were 0.04 , 0.07 and 0.2 for load of 0.196N, and 0.26 , 0.195 and 0.35 for load of 0.49N about the x, y and z directions. Overall, a novel system of measuring and calculating tooth movement has been developed. It could be useful in applications in many other engineering fields.


This brief review is devoted to full-scale numerical modeling of the nonlinear interactions between electromagnetic (EM) waves and the ionosphere, giving rise to ionospheric Langmuir turbulence. A numerical challenge in the full-scale modeling is that it involves very different length- and time-scales. While the EM waves have wavelengths of the order 100 meters, the ionospheric Langmuir turbulence involving electrostatic waves and nonlinear structures can have wavelengths below one meter. A full-scale numerical scheme must resolve these different length- and time-scales, as well as the ionospheric profile extending vertically hundreds of kilometers. To overcome severe limitations on the timestep and computational load, a non-uniform nested grid method has been devised, in which the EM wave is represented in space on a relatively coarse grid with a spacing of a few meters, while the electrostatic wave turbulence is locally resolved on a much denser grid in space at the critical layer where the turbulence occurs. Interpolation and averaging schemes are used to communicate values of the EM fields and current sources between the coarse and dense grids. In this manner, the computational load can be drastically decreased, making it possible to perform full-scale simulations that cover the different time- and space-scales. We discuss the simulation methods and how they are used to study turbulence, stimulated EM emissions, particle acceleration and heating, and the formation of artificial ionospheric plasma layers by ionospheric Langmuir turbulence.


Purpose We discuss the endovascular technique used in treating a critical stenosis of a persistent hypoglossal artery with angioplasty and stenting, as well as the anatomy of this rare variant using CT, MRA, biplanar and 3D DSA, and DynaCT. Case Report A 63-year-old Hispanic male presented to the E.R. with a chief complaint of blurred vision and dizziness for 2 days. Past medical history was significant for hypertension, diabetes and hyperlipidemia. Imaging Findings CT and MRI showed multiple areas of acute ischemia involving both occipital lobes and the right cerebellar hemisphere. The CT also showed an enlarged right hypoglossal canal. MRA and DSA revealed an anomalous vessel, arising extracranially from the cervical segment of the internal carotid artery, entering the intracranial compartment through the hypoglossal canal and supplying the basilar artery. The distal portion of this vessel, just below the basilar junction, had a critical stenosis. This critical stenosis was treated endovascularly with angioplasty and stenting, using a 3×15 mm Gateway balloon and a 4×15 mm Wingspan stent. Summary A persistent hypoglossal artery is one of four primitive embryologic connections between the internal carotid artery and the vertebrobasilar circulation. Atherosclerotic disease of the common or the proximal internal carotid artery, or of the hypoglossal artery itself, may present with symptoms of vertebrobasilar insufficiency, or lead to infarction in the posterior circulation. To our knowledge, this represents the first case report of intracranial stenting through a persistent hypoglossal artery. The technical aspects of the endovascular treatment are addressed. We also discuss the anatomy of the persistent hypoglossal artery, using CT, MRI, MRA, biplanar and 3D DSA, and Dyna CT correlation.Abstract E-018 Figure 1


Angularity is an important parameter to evaluate the position precision. According the new generation of GPS, a new method of evaluating plane to plane angularity error based on coordinate rotation was proposed. In the process of evaluation, first the datum plane is associated by the minimum zone method; and then the datum plane is transformed into the ideal coordinate system plane. Based on the ideal datum, the plane is obtained by coordinate rotation; angularity error value is the maximum distance subtracts the minimum distance that measured points to the plane. The measurement for a V-groove in arbitrary position is performed on a three dimensional coordinates measuring machine; the result shows that angularity error can be evaluated effectually and accurately using this algorithm.


BACKGROUND
The use of etomidate for emergency airway interventions in critically ill patients is very common. In one large registry trial, etomidate was the most commonly used agent for this indication. Etomidate is known to suppress adrenal gland function, but it remains unclear whether or not this adrenal gland dysfunction affects mortality.

OBJECTIVES
The primary objective was to assess, in populations of critically ill patients, whether a single induction dose of etomidate for emergency airway intervention affects mortality.The secondary objectives were to address, in populations of critically ill patients, whether a single induction dose of etomidate for emergency airway intervention affects adrenal gland function, organ dysfunction, or health services utilization (as measured by intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay (LOS), duration of mechanical ventilation, or vasopressor requirements).We repeated analyses within subgroups defined by the aetiologies of critical illness, timing of adrenal gland function measurement, and the type of comparator drug used.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL); MEDLINE; CINAHL; EMBASE; LILACS; International Pharmaceutical Abstracts; Web of Science; the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE); and ISI BIOSIS Citation index(SM) on 8 February 2013. We reran the searches in August 2014. We will deal with any studies of interest when we update the review.We also searched the Scopus database of dissertations and conference proceedings and the US Food and Drug Administration Database. We handsearched major emergency medicine, critical care, and anaesthesiology journals.We handsearched the conference proceedings of major emergency medicine, anaesthesia, and critical care conferences from 1990 to current, and performed a grey literature search of the following: Current Controlled Trials; National Health Service - The National Research Register; ClinicalTrials.gov; NEAR website.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomized controlled trials in patients undergoing emergency endotracheal intubation for critical illness, including but not limited to trauma, stroke, myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, septic shock, hypovolaemic or haemorrhagic shock, and undifferentiated shock states. We included single (bolus) dose etomidate for emergency airway intervention compared to any other rapid-acting intravenous bolus single-dose induction agent.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Refinement of our initial search results by title review, and then by abstract review was carried out by three review authors. Full-text review of potential studies was based on their adherence to our inclusion and exclusion criteria. This was decided by three independent review authors. We reported the decisions regarding inclusion and exclusion in accordance with the PRISMA statement.Electronic database searching yielded 1635 potential titles, and our grey literature search yielded an additional 31 potential titles. Duplicate titles were filtered leaving 1395 titles which underwent review of their titles and abstracts by three review authors. Sixty seven titles were judged to be relevant to our review, however only eight met our inclusion criteria and seven were included in our analysis.

MAIN RESULTS
We included eight studies in the review and seven in the meta-analysis. Of those seven studies, only two were judged to be at low risk of bias. Overall, no strong evidence exists that etomidate increases mortality in critically ill patients when compared to other bolus dose induction agents (odds ratio (OR) 1.17; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.86 to 1.60, 6 studies, 772 participants, moderate quality evidence). Due to a large number of participants lost to follow-up, we performed a post hoc sensitivity analysis. This gave a similar result (OR 1.15; 95% CI 0.86 to 1.53). There was evidence that the use of etomidate in critically ill patients was associated with a positive adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) stimulation test, and this difference was more pronounced at between 4 to 6 hours (OR 19.98; 95% CI 3.95 to 101.11) than after 12 hours (OR 2.37; 95% CI 1.61 to 3.47) post-dosing. Etomidate's use in critically ill patients was associated with a small increase in SOFA score, indicating a higher risk of multisystem organ failure (mean difference (MD) 0.70; 95% CI 0.01 to 1.39, 2 studies, 591 participants, high quality evidence), but this difference was not clinically meaningful. Etomidate use did not have an effect on ICU LOS (MD 1.70 days; 95% CI -2.00 to 5.40, 4 studies, 621 participants, moderate quality evidence), hospital LOS (MD 2.41 days; 95% CI -7.08 to 11.91, 3 studies, 152 participants, moderate quality evidence), duration of mechanical ventilation (MD 2.14 days; 95% CI -1.67 to 5.95, 3 studies, 621 participants, moderate quality evidence), or duration of vasopressor use (MD 1.00 day; 95% CI -0.53 to 2.53, 1 study, 469 participants).

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
Although we have not found conclusive evidence that etomidate increases mortality or healthcare resource utilization in critically ill patients, it does seem to increase the risk of adrenal gland dysfunction and multi-organ system dysfunction by a small amount. The clinical significance of this finding is unknown. This evidence is judged to be of moderate quality, owing mainly to significant attrition bias in some of the smaller studies, and new research may influence the outcomes of our review. The applicability of these data may be limited by the fact that 42% of the patients in our review were intubated for "being comatose", a population less likely to benefit from the haemodynamic stability inherent in etomidate use, and less at risk from its potential negative downstream effects of adrenal suppression.


In order to solve social problems associated with the socially disadvantaged the cases utilizing the concept of the 'inclusive city' are increasing recently. The 'inclusive city' means a city where the inequality of socially disadvantaged personnel that might be generated in the process of urban development is reduced, and every constituent can have the same access to the society and live together in the city. In this study, Busanjin District of the City of Busan is selected as a spatial range, and the study aims at deriving planning elements of the inclusive city. To achieve the goal, the questionnaire survey by experts and factor analysis will be conducted based on the selected elements in literature research and the planning elements for the inclusive urban is to be built finally. And then the factor and satisfaction analysis on the 'planning elements for inclusive urban' are to be conducted through the residents of Busnajin District, so as to seek the way of promoting the inclusiveness of the future destination.


The Eleventh Circuit reviews decisions made by the Board of Immigration Appeals with a very lenient substantial evidence test that incorporates the idea of compulsion. In other words, the record must compel an opposite conclusion for a decision to be overturned as opposed to merely being unsupported by substantial evidence. This article details the job of the Board of Immigration Appeals, the types of claims it hears, and the types of review applied to it by the Eleventh Circuit. A study of 251 cases from 1990 through 2008 suggests that the Eleventh Circuit hardly ever overturns the Board of Immigration Appeals. This complex intersection of administrative and immigration law leaves aliens struggling for relief often lost in the maze of appeals.


Epidemiology develops measurements that allow to quantify the occurrence of disease within the population. There are three types of measurements: frequency measurements, explained in this article; association measurements, between the occurrence of disease and some characteristics, the effect of which on the disease is what they intend to measure; and measurements of the potential impact that modification or disappearance of some risk factors would have on the occurrence of disease in the population. The first objective of epidemiological studies is the knowledge of the frequency of disease. There are three basic measurements of frequency of a disease. Prevalence measures the proportion of people that has it in a given moment. Cumulative incidence measures the proportion of people that convert from non-sick individual to sick individual during a specified period of time. Incidence rate is a measure of the instantaneous strength of occurrence of the disease.


The authorities have identified an emerging trend where over-the-counter products, represented as dietary supplements, contain hidden active ingredients that could be harmful. Consumers may unknowingly take products laced with varying quantities of approved prescription drug ingredients, controlled substances, and untested and unstudied pharmaceutically active ingredients. Hidden ingredients are increasingly becoming a problem in products promoted for sexual enhancement, weight loss, or bodybuilding. The tests have revealed the presence of some undesired substances like sildenafil, tadalafil, vardenafil, and their analogues in tainted sexual enhancement products. The content of these substances is usually around the daily curative dose. A simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for simultaneously determination of sildenafil, vardenafil, tadalafil, dapoxetine, yohimbine, and sibutramine was developed and validated. InfinityLab Poroshell 120 EC-C18 (150 '4.6 mm '4 μm particles) was used, as well as a diode-array detector (DAD) at 230 nm, and a gradient flow with 0.030 М ammonium acetate buffer and acetonitrile. The method is linear in the following range: 2.5–37.5 μg/mL for yohimbine, 2.06–30.9 μg/mL for vardenafil, 2.0–30.0 μg/mL for sildenafil, 3.1–46.5 μg/mL for tadalafil, 1.98–29.7 μg/mL for dapoxetine, and 2.2–66.0 μg/mL for sibutramine. The linearity coefficient is R2 = 1 for all substances. Model matrices were spiked, and the analytical recoveries for all substances are in the range 97.5%–99.5%. The method exhibited an upper hand compared with previously reported methods in terms of speed and simplicity. Additionally, the mobile phase (also used as extracting, column washing, and diluting solvent) was composed of only buffer and acetonitrile, which rendered the method much cheaper than others.


The spin dependence of the conductance of an asymmetric double-barrier InGaAs device is studied within the multiband k¢p and envelope function approximations. The spin-dependent transmission probability for electrons across the structure is obtained using transfer matrices and the low bias conductance per unit area is calculated as a function of the Fermi energy (or doping) in the contacts. The possibility to obtain spin polarized currents in such devices is demonstrated, however, the resulting degree of polarization is rather small (a few percent) in the specific InGaAs structures considered here.


A new (scalar) spectral decomposition is found for the Dirac system in two dimensions associated to the focusing Davey-Stewartson II (DSII) equation. The discrete spectrum in the spectral problem corresponds to eigenvalues embedded into a two-dimensional essential spectrum. We show that these embedded eigenvalues are structurally unstable under small variations of the initial data. This instability leads to the decay of localized initial data into continuous wavepackets prescribed by the nonlinear dynamics of the DSII equation.


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Abstract. Seasonal variability in near-surface air temperature and baroclinicity from the ECMWF ERA-Interim (ERAI) reanalysis and six coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 3 and 5 (CMIP3 and CMIP5) are examined. In particular, the annual and semiannual cycles of hemispherically averaged fields are studied using spectral analysis. The aim is to assess the ability of coupled general circulation models to properly reproduce the observed amplitude and phase of these cycles, and investigate the relationship between near-surface temperature and baroclinicity (coherency and relative phase) in such frequency bands. The overall results of power spectra agree in displaying a statistically significant peak at the annual frequency in the zonally averaged fields of both hemispheres. The semiannual peak, instead, shows less power and in the NH seems to have a more regional character, as is observed in the North Pacific Ocean region. Results of bivariate analysis for such a region and Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes show some discrepancies between ERAI and model data, as well as among models, especially for the semiannual frequency. Specifically, (i) the coherency at the annual and semiannual frequency observed in the reanalysis data is well represented by models in both hemispheres, and (ii) at the annual frequency, estimates of the relative phase between near-surface temperature and baroclinicity are bounded between about ±15° around an average value of 220° (i.e., approximately 1-month phase shift), while at the semiannual frequency model phases show a wider dispersion in both hemispheres with larger errors in the estimates, denoting increased uncertainty and some disagreement among models. The most recent CMIP climate models (CMIP5) show several improvements when compared with CMIP3, but a degree of discrepancy still persists though masked by the large errors characterizing the semiannual frequency. These findings contribute to better characterizing the cyclic response of current global atmosphere–ocean models to the external (solar) forcing that is of interest for seasonal forecasts.


lence of HIV/AIDS in India and its social stigma. An estimated 5.13 million people in India are infected with HIV, the highest number of infections in the world after South Africa (CMAJ 2004;171:1337-8). The southern states, where Mumbai is located, account for 30% of India's population but 75% of HIV-1 cases. The museum is a collaborative venture by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and the Mumbai District AIDS Control Society. When it opened in 2002, it attracted some 25 000 visitors annually. Now, the numbers have tapered off, largely due to a lack of publicity and the social stigma surrounding HIV/AID in India. Precise attendance figures are not available. Nonetheless, the museum is effective, maintains Swapan Jana, secretary of society for Social Pharmacology India, a non-governmental organization working on HIV/AIDS education and prevention. "Sex education provided by the museum has really helped save lives of people," he says. If Antarang's operators maintain the museum and pitch it toward young people, it may be more successful than traditional approaches to combating HIV/ AIDS, he adds. "In India, approaches carried out with posters, leaflets, free condoms, auto-disposable syringes and television publicity seem to have very limited impact in combating HIV/AIDS, because most of them couldn't attract the common people," says Jana. "Antarang is an attractive approach [and] it should work properly, reaching the target population." — Manjulika Das, Kolkata, India


The decoherence of a quantum system, i.e., its becoming partly classical, results from its interaction with the environment and is well described in terms of continuous quantum measurement theory. In the present paper, various approaches to CQM theory are reviewed, of which that using effective complex Hamiltonians is discussed in detail. The effective complex Hamiltonian is obtained from the restricted path integral, the latter highlighting the role of information in the dynamics of the measured system, and is applied to the energy measurement of a two-level system. For such a measurement, quantum transition monitoring is shown to be possible and its back-action on the transition probability analyzed. The performance of such a measurement using a long series of soft observations is described.


The design of a GNSS-based high integrity navigation system for automotive applications presents many challenges that are related to the complicated propagation channel encountered in a typical road environment. The presence of obstacles and/or reflectors on or beside the road such as large trucks, buildings, trees, walls, overpasses or tunnels can result in a large variation in the number of received signals, and a large variation regarding the quality of the GNSS measurements and the independence of these errors both in time and across measurements. As an example, the well documented occurrence of Non Line-of-Sight (NLoS) tracking conditions will tend to create a GNSS pseudorange measurement error distribution with a heavy positive tail. This same situation might, if the obstacle at the origin of the NLOS situation is large enough to affect several satellites, result in correlating the error of multiple measurements. These phenomena are not necessarily well handled by traditional integrity mechanisms because they create breaches of fundamental assumptions (for instance ability to perform CDF overbounding or the assumption of measurement independence). This might result in an under-estimation of the targeted rate of Hazardous Misleading Information (HMI) required by the application.
u-blox is actively working on various integrity solutions that would allow to be resistant to the above phenomenon. These solutions exploit differently the characteristics of the GNSS measurement errors, typically through the use of a strict measurement selection process and their exploitation by either a sequential filter (to capitalize on time filtering) or an advanced snapshot filter (taking advantage of the fine modeling of the GNSS measurement errors).
Of course, the combined effect of strict measurement selection and sky-view obstruction can create frequent situations where a GNSS-only navigation system with integrity becomes unavailable. In this case, it appears critical to be able to use additional and complementary sensors. The typical sensors available on cars are IMUs and odometers, and these sensors are often used to improve accuracy and availability. However, their use does not necessarily conform to stringent integrity requirements, particularly ensuring that the required HMI rate is maintained.
The objective of this paper is to present how the IMU and WT measurements are integrated in both the sequential and snapshot integrity solutions. Both methods require distinct solutions that allow for different advantages and pose constraints. The key element is to ensure that the solution remains appropriately bounded in various situations that range from the availability of a large number of good GNSS measurements to a reasonably long GNSS outage.
For a sequential integrity algorithm, sensor data fits naturally into the estimation framework. The major challenges are in ensuring that the sensor models (both deterministic and stochastic) are adequate to maintain valid bounds, and that the non-linearity in propagation is handled properly.
For the snapshot integrity algorithm, there is no built-in notion of bound propagation, and this concept must be explicitly handled by a new algorithm. When bound propagation is used to reduce latency or computational load, one option is to use GNSS delta-phase observations. During GNSS outages, this is clearly not possible, and IMU and WT sensors are the only available option. In this case, the propagation algorithm is somewhat similar to that used in the EKF, though it requires special care.
Results presenting the bounding capability of both the sequential and snapshot solutions will be shown on an extensive set of more than 100 hours of real data collected in a large number of environments going from city centers to open sky roads. The performance in terms of protection level magnitude as a function of the "GNSS environment" will be presented as well as the comparison between both integrity solutions. Conclusions and way forward will then be formulated.


The optimal treatment for patients with chronic symptomatic middle cerebral artery (MCA) total occlusion is not well established. In addition to medical therapy, vessel recanalisation with stenting has shown much promise, especially for patients with recurrent ischemic symptoms. Nevertheless, the incidence of symptomatic in-stent restenosis (ISR) is high, and is associated with an unfavorable prognosis. Drug coated balloons (DCBs) have been proven to be effective in treating and preventing ISR. However, the feasibility of DCBs for de novo intracranial atherothrombotic stenosis has not been previously described, especially for total occlusion lesions. Here we reported a patient with chronic left MCA total occlusion successfully treated with DCBs, with a good outcome at the 1 year follow-up. More studies are warranted to further compare the efficacy of DCBs and stentings for intracranial revascularisation.


Sleep apnoea syndrome is one of the most common sleep disorders which affects around one out of every 100 people. There is some evidence that sleep apnoea may be linked to hypertension, strokes and heart attacks. The aim of this work is to develop a wearable biomedical system for the continuous and real-time monitoring of the sleep apnoea disease at home. Embedded in a comfortable glove, the proposed wearable device acquires the photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal coming from a standard SpO2 wrapped sensor placed in one of the fingers. Real-time heart rate variability analysis is performed from NN intervals measured in the PPG signal in order to activate an alarm if the number of sleep apnoea events cross a guard level. Through a radio frequency link in the ISM band, the glove communicates with a Internet gateway connected with a remote station for continuous data analysis, monitoring and alarm catch.


The evolutionary economic geography of climate change is concerned with the processes by which the landscapes of greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to climate change are transformed from within over time. Unlike neoclassical economics, evolutionary economic geography is interested in how economic change is driven by innovation and shaped by structural, historical, and contextual factors at different scales. This thesis articulates an evolutionary economic geography perspective on three debates: (1) What factors influence human systems' capacity to adapt to climate change, and how can these factors be assessed? (2) What forces drive and inhibit economic change towards low-carbon economies, and how should governments induce and manage such shifts? (3) What role should climate finance play in promoting developing countries' shifts to low-emitting and climate-resilient economies, and how should it be managed? The thesis includes five academic papers. The first reviews the literature on vulnerability and adaptation. It argues that the adaptive capacity of human systems is constrained by structural and historical factors, and that the rich data necessary to identify these factors can only be obtained through qualitative research methods. The next two papers offer case studies from the Global Islands' Vulnerability Research Adaptation and Policy Development project, which assess the adaptive capacity of Soufriere, Saint Lucia and Whitehouse, Jamaica, respectively. The fourth paper examines the mechanics of three low-carbon shifts in Brazil: the diffusion of no-till agriculture, the decrease in the deforestation rate in the Amazon, and the growth of the ethanol biofuel industry. It found that the driving forces behind each of the shifts were far more varied and complex than the price-based market dynamics analysed in neoclassical economics. The final paper argues that climate finance will need to perform a variety of functions beyond attracting low-carbon private investment. It concludes that the institutional architecture governing climate finance should enable direct access to national governments to incentivise them to implement sustainable innovation policy regimes.


Analysis and understanding of wall erosion, material transport and fuel retention are among the most important tasks for ITER and future devices, since these questions determine largely the lifetime and availability of the fusion reactor. These data are also of extreme value to improve the understanding and validate the models of the in vessel build-up of the T inventory in ITER and future D–T devices. So far, research in these areas is largely supported by post-mortem analysis of wall tiles. However, access to samples will be very much restricted in the next-generation devices (such as ITER, JT-60SA, W7-X, etc) with actively cooled plasma-facing components (PFC) and increasing duty cycle. This has motivated the development of methods to measure the deposition of material and retention of plasma fuel on the walls of fusion devices in situ, without removal of PFC samples. For this purpose, laser-based methods are the most promising candidates. Their feasibility has been assessed in a cooperative undertaking in various European associations under EFDA coordination. Different laser techniques have been explored both under laboratory and tokamak conditions with the emphasis to develop a conceptual design for a laser-based wall diagnostic which is integrated into an ITER port plug, aiming to characterize in situ relevant parts of the inner wall, the upper region of the inner divertor, part of the dome and the upper X-point region.


The strategy for electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor based on the CdSe quantum dots (QDs) to detect amines is proposed. We investigated the QDs ECL toward different amines, and found that amines could lead to the enhancement of ECL intensity. A novel amines detection platform based on micellar reversed sweeping, capillary electrophoresis (CE) separation, and quantum dots electrochemiluminescence detection was proposed for simultaneous detection of ractopamine and clenbuterol in meat samples. Firstly, the capillary was filled with running buffer containing SDS micelles. The electrophoretic velocity of SDS micelle was reverse to that of electroosmotic velocity. By controlling electroosmotic flow, the SDS-sample conjugates were at an immobile state in capillary. This immobile state was maintained for an extended period of time so that essentially unlimited volume of sample solution could be injected into the capillary. Then the sample was electrokinetically introduced into the separation capillary at 20 kV for 50 min. The negative charged SDS micelles in the buffer attracted the sample ions at the boundary of sample and buffer solution. The micellar reversed sweeping process allows introducing large amount of analytes into capillary to accumulate at the capillary inlet. After CE separation, the preconcentrated analytes se-quentially enter into detection cell and lead to the enhancement of ECL intensity of QDs. The micellar reversed sweeping allows a large number of analytes trapped by SDS micelles, which could significantly amplify the QD's ECL signal for 6000-fold. The proposed method by micellar reversed sweeping and CE separation with QDs ECL detection realized the simultaneous and sensitive determination of ractopamine and clenbuterol in meat samples. The linear range were (0.8 ~ 2960) and (3.0 ~ 5520) µg/L and the limit of detection (LOD) were 96.8 and 192.5 ng/L for ractopamine and clenbuterol, respec-tively. CE based QDs ECL that combines the high separation efficiency of CE and the high sensitivity of QDs ECL has been proven to be a promising technique for amines compound assays.


Agriculture is very significant for India. Since, the people of India mostly depend on agriculture
for their livelihood. Farming has seen a number of technological transformations in the last decades, becoming
more industrialized and technology-driven. By using various smart agriculture gadgets, farmers have gained
better control over the process of raising livestock and growing crops, making it more predictable and efficient.
Incumbently a technology play an indispensible role for the development of this agricultural country and
farming is also solemnly depends on water. Water irrigation is one of the methods to supply water in their farms
but in some occasion it might be wasted. The traditional water irrigation system is very difficult due to the
scarcity of water which is primarily caused by rapid growth of population and climate. Internet of Things (IoT)
is a new methodology to empower the modernization of agriculture. Since through automation Iot can make
agriculture and all sorts of farming process in an efficient way by reducing human interventions. So, due to
this, it is proposed a novel method called automation of water irrigation system using IoT to save water and
time. In this novel approach it is planned to use various sensors such as temperature, humidity, soil moisture
sensors to measure the different parameters of the soil based on the value of soil moisture will get automatically
make the motor status as on or off stage. With respect to these sensed parameters and the status of the motor
will be displayed on mobile. Monitoring and collecting data for soil moisture, temperature, humidity and
sunlight intensity across multiple fields will improve efficiency of water usage and crop yield of large and local
farms and also when the soil in agricultural land becomes dry by using this method the pump will automatically
start the flow of water for irrigation. Sensors are deployed on the farms to monitor the status of crops according
to the climate changes in light, humidity, temperature, shape and size. Any deviation is identified by the sensors
then the status of the crop will be displayed on the farmer's smart phone.


This research involves a series of studies investigating various aspects of the development of mental disorder during late childhood and early adolescence (8-14 years) in a large nationwide longitudinal study in England. The first two studies examine the clinical validity and survey format equivalence of a child self-report measure of mental health, the Me and My School questionnaire, measuring symptoms in the two key domains of child psychopathology: internalising and externalising. The next two studies investigate the complexity of individuals' symptom development by examining the developmental trajectories of internalising and externalising symptoms using latent class growth analysis, a method that allows the estimation of different person-centred trajectories of symptom development. Subsequently, the studies investigate the socio-demographic correlates (including gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity and age) of individuals with different trajectories. This is followed by examining the impact of these different types of trajectories on another key domain of child functioning: educational attainment. The fifth study focuses on the co-development of symptoms in the internalising and externalising domains in late childhood and early adolescence, trying to uncover patterns in their association and development over time in these two developmental periods. The last study, based on the results of the previous studies, aims to investigate the underlying structure of child psychopathology. Using hierarchical bi-factor analysis, the study explores the possibility of a general propensity for psychopathology that not only is a better predictor of future psychopathology but can lead to better models of specific disorders as well. The thesis contributes to increasing the understanding of complexities in symptom development and proposes a simpler structural model underlying symptoms. The analytic approach used highlights the value of modern data analytic techniques in increasing our understanding of the development of psychopathology.


Introduction: Deferasirox, an oral iron chelator has been proved to be very safe and effective in beta-thalassemia major children on chronic blood transfusion (CBT); however, adherence to this medication has always been a challenge. Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the adherence to oral iron chelator- deferasirox among beta-thalassemia major children receiving CBT by using selfreporting questionnaire and the factors associated with poor adherence to deferasirox. Materials and Methods: A cross- sectional study was conducted enrolling 91 beta-thalassemia major children (aged between 2 and 14 years, transfused with at least 20 units of packed red blood cell, on deferasirox therapy and serum ferritin greater than 1000 ng/ml) by simple consecutive sampling. Pretested interview schedule was used to collect information on sociodemographic status. Morisky Medication Adherence Scale was used to measure adherence. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel student 2017 and analyzed using SPSS software version 24. Results: About 7.5% (7) of the patients reported to be highly adherent, 48.4% (45) moderately, and 41.9% (39) were poorly adherent. The mean (SD) serum ferritin value was lowest (1281.71±326.85 ng/ml) in highly adherent children. Association betweenthe age and serum ferritin with adherence to deferasirox done using one-way ANOVA was found to be statistically significant among the three different groups (p=0.000). Illiteracy negatively affected the degree of adherence, while belonging to a nuclear family positively affected the degree of adherence to deferasirox. Conclusion: A very low-adherence level was observed in this study which needs to be improved through adequate measures.


The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) resulted in
 the Glasgow Climate Pact. Initial work in the study reported in this paper
 investigated relationships between environment and physiological
 measurements using smartwatches, and self-designed bespoke environmental
 modules which are wearable around the waist. Data from this initial phase
 was analysed with a Random Forest regression model. The next phase of this
 project involves neurophysiological measurement, specifically
 electroencephalography (EEG). EEG was introduced to the model to explore how
 the changes in environmental or biometric measurements correlate with
 changes in neurophysiological measurements. In this latter phase, EEG data
 is viewed as an independent data type that is distinct from environmental
 and other physiological data. The headset model used to record EEG data is
 again a bespoke hand-made design, comprising a combination of biosensing
 board and electrodes from OpenBCI and widely available items like adhesive
 tapes and staples. A subsequent step involved validation of this DIY EEG
 headset data against research grade equipment, of which the analysis of
 different features of EEG data have shown to be of statistically comparable
 trends. For data collection, all data recorded is stored in Google Drive;
 Python is used to synchronize, pre-process data and train regression models.
 The first headset prototype was assembled in mid-October 2021, and was
 tested and developed in early November. From mid-November to late January
 2022, the authors wore the devices for one to two hours per day to collect
 data. For EEG data, eight channels were recorded, basic filters (bandpass
 and notch) and REST re-referencing are applied. In this project, EEG
 time-series are used as input in regression models with other data types as
 output. Two regression models were trained then compared, the first being
 convolutional neural network with pre-built architecture and the other being
 a Random Forest model with features extracted from EEG time-series.
 Inferences are made from the models using open-source interpreters, with an
 eventual aim to infer how one's local environment might impact one's
 emotions and health. The results suggest that sound level, carbon dioxide
 concentration, and dust concentration feature more importantly in the
 regression models trained on collected datasets. These factors were
 continually associated with high feature importance scores in the EEG data
 signal and in both the objective scores recorded from the electronic
 instruments and the more subjective self-report forms. Furthermore, it was
 found that visual stimulus and problem processing, in terms of information,
 touch, and spatial relationships, are the most influential factors affecting
 the participants' physiological well-being in this research. Most recently,
 one aspect that is currently being investigated is electrodermal activity
 (EDA). EDA is marker of sympathetic network activity (Zangróniz et al.,
 2017). As such, it is an indication of human stress and emotion arousal,
 (Rahma et al., 2022). It is hoped that analyses of EDA data will further
 strengthen the emerging model describing the intersections between local
 microclimate and physiological and neurological stress. Early validation
 experiments comparing DIY EDA devices against research-grade Empactica E4
 sets have shown promising results.


The field of coagulation testing has undergone some major technological and conceptual developments, which are briefly reviewed here. The assessment of coagulation parameters is no longer restricted to the study of clot formation and Its dissolution. The understanding of the biochemical natu-e of coagulation processes, coupled with the development of new therapeutic agents in the treatment of hemostatic disorders, has brought about the development of fast, reliable, and clearly defined laboratory test procedures to evaluate the components of this system. The introduction of methods involving synthetic substrates has been very significant because many of the coagulation parameters can now be measured with a spectrophotometer or fluorometer, by methods that lend themselves to the automation found in most large clinical chemistry laboratories. In our laboratory, we use automated synthetic-substrate methods for antlttombln-lll, plasminogen, and prothrombin, and are developing the synthetic-substrate assay equivalent of clot-based prothrombin time and partial thromboplastin. Immunological methods such as laser/rate nephelometry, enzyme-linked immunoassays, electroimmunodiffusion, and radioimmunoassays have been utilized to evaluate coagulation proteins. The relation of functional and Immunological properties of these proteins to their physiological function is being studied. In coming years the testing of coagulation function will undergo some major changes and will require input from clinical chemists and other laboratory scientists to facilitate the technology transfer and proper standardization of new methods.


Sickle cell disease in its heterozygous and homozygous forms exhibits diverse, debilitating pathologic manifestations. No organ system is spared from the effects of chronic hypoxia and poor rheology. The emergency physician should be familiar with the typical complications of SCA, because in large part these problems can either be managed in the ED or require emergent, focused evaluation and referral.


ABSTRACT Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains of serogroup O118 are the most prevalent group among STEC strains in diarrheic calves in Germany (L. H. Wieler, Ph.D. thesis, University of Giessen, 1997). To define their virulence properties, 42 O118 (O118:H16 [n = 38] and O118:H− [n = 4]) strains were characterized. The strains displayed three different Stx combinations (Stx1 [36 of 42], Stx1 and Stx2 [2 of 42], and Stx2 [4 of 42]). A total of 41 strains (97.6%) harbored a large virulence-associated plasmid containinghly EHEC (hly from enterohemorrhagicE. coli). The strains' adhesive properties varied in relation to the eukaryotic cells tested. Only 28 of 42 strains (66.7%) showed localized adhesion (LA) in the human HEp-2 cell line. In contrast, in bovine fetal calf lung (FCL) cells, the number of LA-positive strains was much higher (37 of 42 [88.1%]). The locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) was detected in 41 strains (97.6%). However, not all LEE-positive strains reacted positively in the fluorescence actin-staining (FAS) test, which indicated the attaching and effacing (AE) lesion. In HEp-2 cells, only 22 strains (52.4%) were FAS positive, while in FCL cells, the number of FAS-positive strains was significantly higher (38 of 42 [90.5%; P < 0.001]). In conclusion, the vast majority of the O118 STEC strains from calves (41 of 42 [97.6%]) have a high virulence potential (stx, hly EHEC, and LEE). This virulence potential and the high prevalence of STEC O118 strains in calves suggest that these strains could be a major health threat for humans in the future. In addition, the poor association between results of the geno- and phenotypical tests to screen for the AE ability of STEC strains calls the diagnostic value of the FAS test into question.


The study of dust dynamics in tokamaks has been carried out by means of the DDFTU numericalcode solving the coupled equations of motion, charging and heat balance for a dust grainimmersed in plasmas with given profiles. The code has been updated to include (i) a non-steadystate heat balance model and phase transitions, (ii) geometrical properties of the vessel suchas gaps, (iii) realistic boundary conditions for dust-wall collisions. The models for secondaryelectron emission (SEE), thermionic emission and black body radiation have also been refined,and sensitivity of the results to the SEE strength is demonstrated.The DDFTU code has been used for the first time to explore a large range of initial conditions(position, velocity and radius) for dust grains of various tokamak-relevant materials. This studyconfirmed the impact of the drag force as one of the main factors in dust dynamics and allowedto estimate average lifetimes, to locate preferred sites for dust deposition and to judge thesensitivity to initial conditions. This is a first step towards the use of the code as a predictivetool for devices of importance, such as JET and ITER.Preliminary simulations of scenarios relevant for dust injection experiments in TEXTOR haveyielded results in remarkable agreement with experimental data.These preliminary studies allowed to identify the most crucial issues affecting dust dynamics,lifetime, deposition rate and contribution to impurities, which are to be pursued in futurestudies.


Intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIg) have been used as a substitutive treatment for primary and secondary humoral immune deficiencies for several decades. In the meantime, increased experience has been acquired with IVIg in the management of other inflammatory and autoimmune disorders, such as Kawasaki's disease, idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, dermatomyositis or Guillain-Barré syndrome, in which several clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy. In other pathologies, IVIg seem to be effective, although further studies are required. Nevertheless, the exact mechanism by which IVIg exert their beneficial actions is not completely understood. According to in vitro as well as in vivo data, several mechanisms of action have been proposed: Fc receptor blockade, idiotype-anti-idiotype interactions, neutralisation of bacterial toxins and superantigens, competitive inhibition of complement activation, down-regulation of B- and T-cell function, enhancement of pathogenic autoantibodies clearance, modulation of soluble products, apoptosis blockade via Fas receptor and administration of soluble products which could interfere with the immune response. Both IVIg structure, as well as its obtention from pooled human plasma donors, seem to play an important role in IVIg immunomodulatory properties. Thus, the objective of the present article is to review the current evidence upon the mechanisms of action of IVIg.


Progressive collapse of structures has attracted the interest of the structural engineering community starting with the Ronan Point collapse of 1968. The terrorist attacks on the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma in 1995 and on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 further increased the research interest in this field. Progressive collapse is a phenomenon usually characterized by a triggering event of local structural failure or damage which results into partial or total collapse of the structure. In certain cases, structures have shown high levels of vulnerability to the triggering event, while in other cases they have proven to be quite resilient. The research field of progressive collapse aims at quantifying and ultimately minimizing structural vulnerabilities to a wide range of triggering events. For steel structures, the governing collapse mode usually involves the instability of a member of the structure, a part of the structure or the whole structure as a system. Previous research by the authors has shown that the response of a steel frame under a key component removal scenario can be analytically calculated. Based on this analytical methodology and similarly to the Euler curve for an individual member under compression, the paper presents new Euler-type progressive collapse curves for steel frames which can identify a short-wave loss-of-stability induced collapse mode from a yielding-type induced collapse mode. One of the main advantages of the proposed new Euler-type curves is the simple elastic analysis framework of the analytical method.


The first Marxist theories of capitalist geopolitics emerged in the early 20th century as theories of imperialism and uneven and combined development. They were also the first theories of capitalist geopolitics. While they explained the intensification of imperialism through new interpenetrations of politics and economics in national states and economies, the revival of Marxist thinking about capitalist geopolitics in the English-speaking world in recent decades suffers from a pure, purely economic, conception of capitalism, uncontaminated by politics, by nation-states. It is, as a consequence, also a cosmopolitan conception of capitalism. In it the very object of study disappears. This article argues that it does so because so many Marxists have come to share the cosmopolitan biases of mainstream thinking by accepting the discourses of "globalization" and "empire" and shows how this is so in the case of two pioneers of the recent revival of Marxist geopolitical thinking, Justin Rosenberg and Benno Teschke.


Based on the construction practice of strengthening dam foundation and cross-strait dam end (0+149~0+330) high pressure jet grouting impervious wall of an earth dam, this paper expounds the construction equipment, technological process, construction parameters and construction method of high pressure jet grouting impervious wall construction. By analyzing the impervious wall's depth, continuity, strength, permeable rate, the quality of the wall is eligible, and its indexes comfort the design requirements. The experiences are useful in similar earth dam reinforcement construction.


Turkey has implemented various programmes to increase the quality of in-service training for K–12 teachers with varying success. One of the most recent state-wide implementations of these programmes is the Teaching Profession Career Ladder Programme (TPCLP) that was put into practice in 2005. This study investigates teachers' views related to the implementation of the TPCLP. A detailed account of the application process and teachers' views towards the implementation will generate suggestions to raise the effectiveness of the implementation. Data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Analysis of data revealed that teachers hold direct intensive criticism towards many criteria of the TPCLP, particularly the examination. Furthermore, they have mixed perspectives as to whether the programme is effective. This study shows that career ladder implementation failed to contribute to continuous professional development of teachers and the quality of the education process in K–12 schools.


The determination of islet mass is important for the normalization of islet experiments in the laboratory and for the precise dosing of islets for transplantation. The common microscopical analysis is based on individual islet sizing, calculation of the frequency distribution, and conversion into islet equivalents (IEQ), which is the volume of a spherical islet with a diameter of 150 microm. However, islets are of irregular form, which makes this determination user dependent, and the analysis is irreproducible once the original sample is discarded. This routine technique of islet quantification was compared with the analysis of areal density measurements. It was assumed that the entire area occupied by islets can be expressed in IEQ without sizing and counting individual islets. Porcine islets were isolated by continuous digestion/filtration and purified by gradient centrifugation. Purified islets were stained with dithizone and were repeatedly pictured under the microscope with random area selection. A total of 51 pictures was taken from 11 different purifications and stained islets were detected by digital image analysis. The correlation coefficient (r) between bothanalyses was 0.977 with an underestimation of islet yield by areal density detection (slope: 0.75 +/- 0.03). Areal density analysis per picture took about 1 min, which is about 10 times faster than the traditional method without increasing the method error (CV 2.1% vs. 2.7%). In summary, areal density measurements allow a rapid and reproducible estimation of IEQ without counting individual islets. It can be performed in a single step analysis without computer programming and is valuable for online determinations of islet yield preceding transplantation.


Abstract The rate of heat transfer during melting of solid ice spheres and freezing of spongy ice spheres has been measured over a range of experimental conditions. The results agree quite well with other published heat transfer data, and show that heat transfer to a melting hailstone, whose surface is covered by a film of water, is described by the same expression as that for a freezing hailstone with a dry surface. Using the measured heat transfer rates in a numerical model of the freezing of spongy hailstones in an updraft, it is shown that there is probably time for smaller spongy hailstones to freeze before reaching the ground, but that freezing of spongy hailstones 3 cm in diameter or larger is improbable. This finding, in conjunction with field measurements of liquid water contents of natural hailstones, casts doubt upon hailstorm models which imply growth of large spongy hailstones in an "accumulation zone" of high supercooled liquid water content aloft.


The rabbit experiment has studied the impact of ultraviolet (UV) blood irradiation on the course of adaptative processes under restrictive stress. Thirty-day hypodynamia was demonstrated to result in chronic stress whose pathogenetic links are activated neutrophilic leukocytes, developed disseminated intravascular coagulation, atherogenic metabolic changes. UV blood irradiation enhanced the body's adaptative potentialities under long-term hypodynamia, by diminishing restriction-induced stress lesion.


We have investigated the problem of removing objects from a heap without having recourse to object models. As we are relying on geometric information alone, the use of range data is a natural choice. The objects are to be grasped by a two-ngered gripper and therefore the system has to see opposite patches of the object surface. To ensure this, we use two range views from opposite sides. Each of the two acquired data sets is tessellated into triangles. A merge of them is performed in such a way that a \mutual approximation" is achieved in regions with overlap. A single triangular tessellation of the whole data set serves as a primary world representation. This representation is then segmented, i.e., partitioned into assemblies of contiguous triangles which correspond to objects or object parts in the scene. This is done by deleting all jump discontinuity points and all points with a concave curvature above a certain threshold. A connected component labeling completes the nal world representation. Two heuristics help the system select a \focus of action" which consists of a suitable component. Good grasping point pairs on it are then identiied which fullll certain quality criteria.


GKN Aerospace in Trollhattan manufactures different components for aircraft engines and aero derivative gas turbines. A new workshop has recently been installed that is highly automated and includes operations such as laser welding, x-ray and burring. Their production flow is mostly based on first in first out rules except for the x-ray stations where the workers can select which part they want to begin with. Currently, the workers select the parts based on experience which sometimes is not the most optimal solution. Therefore, they want to improve their selection process in order to reduce delays in their production which is why a priority system is required. Simulation based optimization will be used in order to find near optimal priority lists.Experts at GKN Aerospace have created a discrete event simulation model over their workshop using SIMUL8. In order to find near optimal priority lists for the workshop a new optimization program needs to be created that is compatible with SIMUL8. The program will need to fulfill some requirements to both work as an optimization program and also to be used by the workers at GKN Aerospace.Since multi objective evolutionary algorithms have the advantage of exploring the objective space, this type of method is utilized. The objective is to minimize the total delay in the system which makes this a single-objective optimization problem but since the simulation model contains stochastic behavior the result will differ between each run and therefore several replications is needed. With several replications more outputs can be read, in this case mean value and standard deviation will make this a multi objective optimization problem.The question that is investigated throughout this thesis is: Can a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm efficiently find a robust solution with low delays by considering both mean value and standard deviation as objectives?The aim of this project is to create a priority system that uses an optimization algorithm which together with the simulation model can optimize the production at GKN Aerospace. The purpose of the optimization algorithm is to find robust solutions with low delays in order to improve the production at GKN Aerospace. With the priority system GKN Aerospace may improve their process by following priority lists which has been optimized and therefore reduce waste in form of delays. With the aim of reducing both standard deviation and mean value, a robust solution may be found which means that a small change in the production will not disturb the outcome of the workshop.During this project a priority system was created that considers both the developer and the workers at GKN Aerospace. The priority system is web based where the workers uses a web browser to access the priority list while the developer uses an experiment system in order to improve the underlying optimization algorithm. With the experiment system the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II was implemented in order to solve the real case problem.


Neglect of the representational space has been shown in 8 patients asked to evoke mentally the map of France and to name as many towns as possible successively on each side of a vertical axis splitting the map in two equivalent halves. They had first to imagine the map with an axis in the south-north direction and then with an axis in the reverse direction (north-south). The results were similar to those reported by Bisiach and Luzzatti (1979). They reflect a disturbance of the mechanisms involved in conscious representation of space. In addition we report on the effects of vestibular stimulation on the reversibility of representational neglect in 3 patients. These preliminary results provide support for the idea that vestibular stimulation would play centrally by restoring the symmetry of the internal representation of egocentric space.


This paper develops a stochastic model for estimating potential loan deficiency payments to U.S. corn producers in a discrete-dynamic context. We minimize the potential for misspecification bias by using nonparametric and semi-nonparametric approaches as specification checks in the model. The model permits the forecast at planting time of the resulting empirical distribution of LDP payments for that crop year. Using this model, the paper examines the sensitivity of this distribution to changes in expected price levels.


Abstract Standards for 4D seismic feasibility estimation and interpretation aim to simplify the 4D seismic interpretation process, facilitate understanding of results, and accelerate learning between projects and between disciplines. Standards encode those best practices that have proved to have a more or less universal relevance in the subject area and provide a convenient starting point for individuals and teams new to 4D interpretation. Standards are about casting a result into a familiar format. The main result is a quality improvement of the integration process between different disciplines; a side effect is the efficiency improvement and time saving from increased skill levels within each discipline. There are currently accepted 4D standards in the fields of F = 4D feasibility (fluid effects) P = poststack processing I = seismic inversion and 4D A = 4D interpretation and attributes S = simulator-to-seismic The primary user group is subsurface professionals in asset teams, in particular reservoir eng...


The polymers involved in the adhesion of Pseudomonas fluorescens H2S to solid surfaces were investigated to determine whether differences between cell surface adhesives and biofilm matrix polymers could be detected. Two optical techniques, i.e., interference reflection microscopy (IRM) and light section microscopy (LSM), were used to compare the responses of the two types of polymer to treatment with electrolytes, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and Tween 20. To evaluate initial adhesive polymers, P. fluorescens H2S cells were allowed to attach to glass cover slip surfaces and were immediately examined with IRM, and their response to chemical solutions was tested. With IRM, changes in cell-substratum separation distance between 0 and ca. 100 nm are detectable as changes in relative light intensity of the image; a contraction of the polymer would be detected as a darkening of the image, whereas expansion would appear as image brightening. To evaluate the intercellular polymer matrix in biofilms, 3-day-old biofilms were exposed to similar solutions, and the resultant change in biofilm thickness was measured with LSM, which measures film thicknesses between 10 and 1,000 microns. The initial adhesive and biofilm polymers were similar in that both appeared to contract when treated with electrolytes and to expand when treated with Tween 20. However, with DMSO treatment, the initial adhesive polymer appeared to contract, whereas there was no change in thickness of the biofilm polymer. These results indicate that both polymers bear acidic groups and thus act electrostatically with cations and are able to enter into hydrophobic interactions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This study was carried out to investigate the opportunities of improving thermal performance by focusing on envelope effects of a building located in London. Firstly, through a broad literature review of the previous conducted case studies, an investigation of all the building envelope aspects and parameters influencing the thermal performance of the building was conducted to provide critical information of thermal performance of the envelope components within the UK buildings. Then, onsite measurements were carried out to obtain the building's base case heating load using the standard CIBSE GUIDE A 2017 heat load calculation methodology. Neglecting thermal bridging in the heating calculation showed 8% reduction in the building's total heating load. Also, 17% reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions was achieved by applying polyurethane-foam and polystyrene-boards as cavity and external wall insulations, respectively. Moreover, the effect of applying both insulation in the energy consumption, CO2 emissions, cost and payback period analysis was analysed.


We prove a Brown Representability Theorem in the context of spaces over a category. We discuss two applications to the representability of equivariant cohomology theories, with emphasis on Bredon cohomology with local coefficients.


'Urban polycentricity' has become both a conceptual framework capturing emerging empirical realities and a spatial planning vision adopted in cities across Europe, USA, and, recently, also China. Despite the blossoming academic literature on polycentricity, only limited attempts have been made to explore whether and how polycentric urban development at different spatial scales affects the urban economy. In this paper, we empirically analyse whether and how urban polycentricity at different spatial scales in China is associated with urban economic performance. To this end, we extend the Cobb–Douglas production function and include measures of both inter-urban and intra-urban polycentricity to explain differences in labour productivity. The analysis links intra-urban monocentricity and inter-urban polycentricity with higher levels of labour productivity. In addition, the analysis points to an agglomeration spillover effect, as well as a potential weak positive interaction effect between intra- and inter-urban polycentricity. The paper concludes with policy implications for China's spatial development.


RNA binding to high-density oligonucleotide arrays has shown tantalizing differences with solution experiments. We analyze here its sequence specificity, fitting binding affinities to sequence composition in large datasets. Our results suggest that the fluorescent labels interfere with binding, causing a catch-22. To be detected, the RNA must both glow and bind: without labels it cannot be seen even if bound, while with too many it will not bind. A simple model for the binding of labeled oligonucleotides sheds light on the interplay between binding energies and labeling probability.


Interfacial strength distribution and thermal residual stresses in multi-layered or compositionally graded NiCrAlY/ZrO2 coatings are analyzed. These coatings are fabricated by detonation gun spraying using mechanically alloyed, plasma-spheroidized composite powders. The problems in design of functionally graded materials (FGMs) are outlined and their modeling approaches are reviewed. Due to the concentrational or structural gradients in FGMs, the normal approximations and models, used for traditional composites, are not directly applicable to graded materials. The goal is to show the efficiency of the simplest models to provide the most accurate estimates of the properties and even to make simple elasto-plastic analysis of FGM components without vast computations by finite element methods with an arbitrary non-linear distribution of phases and corresponding properties is presented. Results showed that bonding strengths increased gradually with increase of the composition of metals in the FGM coatings. The FGM coating was more stable on the mechanical properties than normal duplex composites. And, the maximum compressive radial stress is found to be at or near the surface of the specimen where surface cracking may be generated. The maximum axial stress is at the edge of the specimen where spallation may occur. The maximum shear stress is also at or close to the edge.


We propose and experimentally demonstrate a wavelength-tunable harmonically mode-locked short-cavity fiber ring laser, employing a 151-cm-long bismuth-oxide-based erbium-doped fiber (Bi-EDF) and a 414-cm-long bismuth-oxide-based highly nonlinear fiber (Bi-HNLF). A 75-nm continuous wavelength tuning from 1535 to 1610 nm can be achieved by utilizing the wide gain bandwidth of the Bi-EDF. Ultra-high nonlinearity of the Bi-HNLF collaborates with spectral filtering by an optical bandpass filter to suppress the supermode noise quite effectively. Total length of the ring cavity including all optical components is as short as 10 m. Back-to-back bit-error-rate measurements also confirm bit-error-free operation throughout the entire wavelength tuning range.


A dual-rate 4.7/6.5 kbits/s algebraic code excited linear predictive (ACELP) codec is proposed for adaptive speech communicators, which can drop their source rate and speech quality under network control in order to invoke a more error resilient modem amongst less favourable channel conditions. Sourcematched Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) codecs combined with un-equal ,protection diversityand pilot-assisted 16- and 64level quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM, 64-QAM) are employed in order to accommodate both the 4.7 and the 6.5 kbits/s coded speech bits at a signaling rate of 3.1 kBd. In a bandwidth of 200 kHz 32 time slots can be created, which allows us to support i n excess of 50 users, when employing packet reservation multipleaccess (PRMA). Good communications quality speech is delivered in an equivalent bandwidth of 4 kHz, if the channel signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) are in excess of about 15 and 25 dB for the lower and higher speech quality 16-QAM and 64-QAM systems, respectively.


Today an E-mail service is one principal tool in our daily work and life. We cannot dispense Email services. Spammers continue to develop their techniques to flood our inbox daily. On the other hand, websites are created to be in different types of different goals like news, sports, environments, staticialists, governments, etc. Websites may be in its environments, static sites, programs, or databases, and very often a combination of the three integrating relational databases as a back-end. Websites require intensive care in configuration and programming to assure a security factor, confidentiality, and trustworthiness of the published information. Most websites have many scripts that give visitors elastic options to share some subject's links URL with their friends one of that by using a tell a friend form. One of most well-known attacks over the internet is done by SQL-injection, though SQL-injections back to exploits, weak validation of textual input that is used to build tell friend scripts which cause dangerous attacks threat email user's privacy through cheating attacks. In this paper, the author aims to analyse a tell friend exploit and proposes a solution to stop this exploit. Category: Information Security.


Modular plants are structurally stable systems. Perturbations in the genome that arise during growth (somatic mutations) are, it is conjectured, detected and eliminated by diplontic selection at the apical meristem. This requires accurate control, which, it is suggested, results in the accuracy of module arrangement, or phyllotaxy. During differentiation vegetative modules tend to retain autonomy and totipotency; the differentiated state is maintained by a constant flux of signals between parts. This enables damage to be repaired and differentiation to be adjusted to the availability of resources. The differentiation of modules to form flowers, on the other hand, is achieved by loss of totipotency, by hierarchical organization of the genotype, and by tissue-specific signals between parts. Elaborate, but fixed-function, structures can be produced in this way. The physiology of modular plants is best described in terms of cooperation, not competition, between modules. The theory of multicomponent systems predicts that as plants increase in size, structural stability of growth will be lost unless the connectance between modules is kept below a critical value. Experiments confirm that the exchanges of assimilate between modules are limited, but not fixed (the system can adapt to damage). The distribution system is vulnerable to exchanges that might benefit individual modules but that would reduce the inclusive fitness of the genome. Such exchanges are controlled by the organized senescence of branches, leaves, fruit and ovules.


The error and delay performance of variable bit rate (VBR) video transmission over non-ideal channels is examined using equalization schemes. The temporal correlation features of the fading signal and the source video are modeled using finite state Markov chains. The source and training signals are multiplexed using a time slotted multiple access scheme. For slow-fading channels, the characteristic time-scale of the fade durations, the step-size parameter of the LMS equalizer training algorithm, and the number of training sequences allocated per time slot are found to jointly influence error performance. Simulation results show that the proposed channel access scheme can lead to an order of magnitude decrease in the bit error ratio if the combination of training overhead and step-size parameter are chosen judiciously with respect to the fading time-scale. In addition, the multiplexing efficiency of VBR encoded video is shown to be useful for limiting the channel access delays when the training overhead is increased.


Abstract Objective The European Network for Health Technology Assessment (EUnetHTA) was established in 2006. During its final project phase (joint action 3 [JA3]), it undertook an activity to define the scientific and technical principles of a model of health technology assessment (HTA) cooperation in Europe. This policy article presents the key learnings from JA3 partners about developing a model of HTA cooperation. Methods There were two phases to the activity: (i) A descriptive phase to describe the elements of HTA cooperation that were already in place in EUnetHTA JA3 and to identify which elements could be improved or were missing. (ii) An analytic phase synthesizing the data collected to identify learnings from the JA3 and to define the scientific and technical principles for a future model of HTA cooperation. Results Learnings for developing HTA cooperation were identified in regard to the framework used to support the cooperation, the HTA activities undertaken, the involvement of internal and external actors, managing decision making and the required human resources and support services needed to undertake HTA activities and to coordinate collaboration. Conclusions These learnings coming from the experiences of the EUnetHTA JA3 are useful to inform discussions on a European Union regulation for HTA cooperation as well as subsequent work to set up the structures that will be defined in the regulation. The findings also have broader applicability and are relevant to individuals, groups, and organizations setting up HTA programs or establishing their own international collaborations.


The unprecedented growth of the population living in urban environments calls for a rational and sustainable urban development. Smart cities can fill this gap by providing the citizens with high-quality services through efficient use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). To this end, active citizen participation with mobile crowdsensing (MCS) techniques is a becoming common practice. As MCS systems require wide participation, the development of large scale real testbeds is often not feasible and simulations are the only alternative solution. Modeling the urban environment with high precision is a key ingredient to obtain effective results. However, currently existing tools like OpenStreetMap (OSM) fail to provide sufficient levels of details. In this paper, we apply a procedure to augment the precision (AOP) of the graph describing the street network provided by OSM. Additionally, we compare different mobility models that are synthetic and based on a realistic dataset originated from a well known MCS data collection campaign (ParticipAct). For the dataset, we propose two arrival models that determine the users' arrivals and match the experimental contact distribution. Finally, we assess the scalability of AOP for different cities, verify popular metrics for human mobility and the precision of different arrival models.


This paper explores how non-U.S. central banks behave when firms in their economies engage in currency mismatch, borrowing more heavily in dollars than justified by their operating exposures. We begin by documenting that, in a panel of 53 countries, central bank holdings of dollar reserves are significantly correlated with the dollar-denominated bank borrowing of their non-financial corporate sectors, controlling for a number of known covariates of reserve accumulation. We then build a model in which the central bank can deal with private-sector mismatch, and the associated risk of a domestic financial crisis, in two ways: (i) by imposing ex ante financial regulations such as bank capital requirements; or (ii) by building a stockpile of dollar reserves that allow it to serve as an ex post dollar lender of last resort. The model highlights a novel externality: individual central banks may tend to over-accumulate dollar reserves, relative to what a global planner would choose. This is because individual central banks do not internalize that their hoarding of reserves exacerbates a global scarcity of dollar-denominated safe assets, which lowers dollar interest rates and encourages firms to increase the currency mismatch of their liabilities. Relative to the decentralized outcome, a global planner may prefer stricter financial regulation (e.g., higher bank capital requirements) and reduced holdings of dollar reserves. JEL Classification Numbers: E42, F4, G15


During the last years there has been an increase in mobile web browsing, fostered by the introduction of 3G mobile networks and highly capable mobile devices that offer enhanced browsing experiences. However, there are still many Web sites that are unaware of mobile presentation. Those Web sites, when accessed from mobile devices, do not allow a satisfactory user experience or may cause failure of the user's device. In this paper we present an automatic classification method capable of predicting if a given web page would provide (or not) a functional user experience in certain mobile environments. Our method could be used, for example, by mobile search engines, ranking pages not only from the point of view of their textual relevancy, but also from the point of view of their adaptability to the target delivery context. Our experimental results show high percentages of success for the method devised.


It is a universally adopted principle, although it may seem commonplace and virtually self-evident, that in the construction of statutes words are to be read in their "grammatical and ordinary" sense. This is essentially a fundamental rule of language based on general principles underlying human communication, which is equally fundamental to the construction of statutes. Frequently cited over the years as the golden rule of construction, the rule has undergone similar developments in common law and civil law doctrines. Today's doctrine is one of literal construction, but literal in total context. The literal meaning discloses the intention. Except in the rare cases of a mistake or omission by the legislator, the legislative intention is to be found in the entire context of the words of a statute. Incidentally, the question whether a word should be given its ordinary meaning as opposed to its special or technical meaning or its full unrestricted meaning as opposed to its restricted meaning does not constitute a departure from the literal meaning of the statute. The author discusses the notion of "grammatical and ordinary"sense and surveys how the courts have construed it over the past decades.


In the context of the updating of the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10), this study conducted a code-by-code comparison between the ICD-10 chapter "Mental and Behavioural Disorders" and the diagnostic categories of two Latin American classification schemes: the Third Cuban Psychiatric Glossary (GC-3) and the Latin American Guide to Psychiatric Diagnosis (GLADP). The objective was to help define what categories in the current classification should be broadened and what new categories might be added to the future ICD-11 to make it more applicable in local sociocultural and clinical contexts that differ from those found in regions whose perspectives have historically dominated the ICD, namely, the United States and Europe. It is hoped that the results will contribute to the efforts under way to develop a genuinely international classification system.


Book Abstract Book | 14th ESA Conference | Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging | 20-23 August 2019 | ManchesterBook | 14th ESA Conference | Europe and Beyond: Boundaries, Barriers and Belonging | 20-23 August 2019 | Manchester


: Clinical and serological criteria of Yersinia arthritis are presented by a review of the literature and case studies. Characteristic findings are preceding abdominal symptoms followed by oligoarthritis of the lower extremities. 80% of patients are HLA-B 27 positive, rheumatoid factors are negative. Detection of Yersinia in stool cultures is a rare proof. The most important serological indicator is IgA for identification of Yersinia antibodies. Yersinia arthritis will resolve without sequelae under symptomatic and antibiotic (chemotherapeutic) medication within 6 months.


Employee health is becoming increasingly focused as lacking health cause unnecessary costs while better health has been related to higher quality and performance. This paper reports a study in the wellness sector. As this industry has health as its business mission, it might be reasonable to assume that it is populated by health conscious individuals. The purpose has been to investigate health creating dimensions in the wellness industry. Seven leading Swedish SPA-hotels have been studied using a novel methodology based on the quality cafe-method. This method has the 'world cafe-method' at its basis but has been developed by inclusion of quality management methods. Quality cafes focusing on health creating aspects have been carried out at the seven hotels with staff from different departments as participants. The resulting data were analysed with the constant comparative method from the grounded theory approach. As a result four dimensions of employee health have been defined. In the paper, the dimensions are described and related to theories of quality management and health promotion. The findings should be valuable for the theoretical understanding of health creating factors in the wellness industry as well as for managers striving to improve the health status of their employees.


The automatic analysis of expressions of opinion has been well studied in the opinion mining area, but a remaining problem is robustness for user-generated texts. Although consumer-generated texts are valuable since they contain a great number and wide variety of user evaluations, spelling inconsistency and the variety of expressions make analysis difficult. In order to tackle such situations, we applied a model that is reported to handle context in many natural language processing areas, to the problem of extracting references to the opinion target from text. Experiments on tweets that refer to television programs show that the model can extract such references with more than 90% accuracy.


The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of nitric oxide (NO) in the regulation of hemoglobin oxygen affinity (HOA) in the presence of different oxygen partial pressure. In this research the effect of NO donors on gas-transport, acid-base balance, HOA indexes, metHb, iron-nitrosylhemoglobin amounts, and total nitrite/nitrate concentration was estimated in vitro. Experimentally, positive correlation was found between NO-dependent shift of HOA and hemoglobin oxygen saturation level. In conclusion, NO is a component of autonomous intraerythrocytic system of HOA regulation, which action is determined by oxygen in the blood. We assume that the physiological significance of such NO action is to maintain aerobic metabolism through optimal blood oxygenation in the pulmonary circulation, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, its compensation under low oxygen tension in the working tissues.


1. 59Fe-labelled ferric chloride was introduced into tied loops of guinea-pig jejunum. 2. After 5--30 min the loop was removed, the enterocytes were isolated, homogenized and subjected to analytical subcellular fractionation. 3. Uptake of 59Fe was extremely rapid and after 5 min 45% of the radioactivity sedimented in the mitochondrial fraction. 4. Density gradient centrifugation indicated that approximately 80% of this radioactivity was associated with the mitochondria themselves; the remainder was in brush-border fragments. 5. Selective disruption of the mitochondria demonstrates that the iron is localized to the matrix and the inner membrane, indicating transport of the absorbed iron into the organelle. 6. It is suggested that mitochondria are actively implicated at an early stage in the intestinal transport of iron.


Side switching by armed groups is a prominent feature of many civil wars. Shifts in alignment have far-reaching consequences, influencing key outcomes such as civil war duration and termination, military effectiveness, levels of civilian victimization, and state-building prospects. In Sudan's wars, ideological and ethnic cleavages have not influenced factional alignments nearly as much as one might expect given the prominence of clashing political projects and ethnically organized violence in southern Sudan and Darfur. Recent explanations highlighting the role of territorial control, factional infighting, or relative power considerations also have limited value. In many wars fought in weak states characterized by low barriers to side switching, two mechanisms explain patterns of collaboration and defection: first, political rivalries that lead actors to collaborate in exchange for military support in localized struggles; and second, patronage-based incentives that induce collaboration for material gain. A nested analysis drawing on original data from wars in southern Sudan and Darfur supports this argument. The findings have implications for understanding alignments in civil wars, the role of weak states in counterinsurgency, and ethnic politics more generally, as well as policy relevance for factionalized civil wars.


The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn worldwide attention to the difficulties inherent in managing disasters. Scholars across disciplines have been forced to consider the impact disasters have on interstate relations, state resilience, patterns of violence and hostility, and the vulnerabilities that condition conflict. This special issue offers new insights to help disentangle the relationship between disasters, conflict, and cooperation, by adhering to a three-pronged theoretical framework. First, all pieces in this issue are underpinned by a unified understanding of disasters as endogenous social phenomena. Second, we acknowledge that disasters occur as processes rather than discrete events. Finally, we explore the possibility that disasters and conflict are co-determined by a common set of factors. The articles herein were chosen not only because they advance academic thought about the disaster–conflict nexus, but also because of their potential to advance the practical impact of this line of research on the global conflict and disaster landscape. We highlight the relevance of this special issue for further work investigating the effects of conflict on disasters and the relationship between the hazards cycle process and patterns of violence and hostility, as well as the implications of adopting this suggested framework for policymaking and data collection.


The Church of Sweden had barely 6.5 million members in 2012. Just over 1% of the members visit a church service regularly every Sunday. The number of visitors in worship services has diminished continuously for a very long time. From 1990 to 2010, the annual number of visitors at the main worship services has decreased by 50% from 9 million to about 4.5 million. The service activities can still be maintained at the current level because the many passive members still pays their membership fee. According to the national documents from the Church of Sweden the Sunday service is the most important mission. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between the mission to celebrate divine worship as the official church gives local parishes and how this is perceived by the employees and the elected officials of the local parish. What are the similarities, differences and tensions between the mandate given by the Church of Sweden at the national level and the way performers perceive this? The study was based on three main documents: The Church Order for Church of Sweden (Kyrkoordningen), The theological basic principles for preparations for a new book of Common Prayer (2006), and the Explanations for the Proposal of the Book of Common Prayer. Part 1. Finally I analyzed the documentation (2011-2012) for preparation of the parish structural regulation on Northern Gotland. From these documents I formed 26 claims about the service that was presented to the informants in the attitude survey. The claims were then grouped into eight tentative quality dimensions for a "right celebrated worship", namely practical issues, faith, didactics, emotions, ethics, fellowship, diaconal issues and tradition. The empirical study was made in seven parishes in the North of Gotland. The informants were 34 employees and 40 elected officials. To this survey I added ten semi-structured interviews with the same groups. This study has essentially a religious sociological frame of reference. The main contribution of theories has been given by Grace Davie, Per Pettersson, Ole Riis and Linda Woodhead. Davie analyzes North European churches which has or has had any ties to the State and where the majority of the population belongs to the Church, but very few members makes use of church services. Davie has described this in terms like "belonging without believing" or "vicarious religion". Pettersson describes the relationship between the Church and the many members in service theoretical terms. He measures the quality of what the Church of Sweden offers as a service organization and from a theoretical perspective of this service. Riis and Woodhead have mainly contributed to this study through their theories about religion and emotions.The result of the study was that the elected officials were slightly more satisfied with the service as it is performed today compared with the employees. Overall, it was a surprisingly unanimous group that shall plan and develop the service. The elected officials emphasize the importance of parish church more than the employees while matters of faith are more important to the employees. The national documents often points to the importance of tradition. This ambition was not found in any of the groups in the study.


Language affects perception. But how? Recent findings (Boutonnet & Lupyan, 2015; Bocanegra, Poletiek & Zwaan, submitted) suggest a dissociation between perception that is mediated as compared to not mediated by language. One explanation is that language –that is combinatorial in naturestresses the separate features of objects. We investigated the effect of combinatorial (two words) and non-combinatorial (one word) labels on the perceptual separation of features in visual recognition. Participants were trained to categorize meaningless objects with two dimensions: shape and height. Each category had either a one word name; or a two words name reflecting its features. Participants then were tested on new objects . Combinatorial labels enhanced categorization performance as compared to single labels. This suggests that language, by decomposing objects into parts, might drive dimension separation in vision as well.


The cell membrane is thought to have a much more active role in cellular function than previously known. As such, there is considerable interest in measuring the physical properties of model cell membranes to determine the biological relevance of these systems; specifically, the differences between the conventional model of a free bilayer in the form of a vesicle and a solid-supported lipid bilayer are of concern. Solid-supported lipid bilayers have been shown, using atomic force and fluorescence microscopy, to display different bulk properties than vesicles. The molecular information offered by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy complements the bulk information provided by surface based techniques. We are developing NMR as a tool to probe the molecular aspects of model cell membrane structure.A reliable method for creating supported single lipid bilayers on spherical supports has been developed by our lab. The resultant spherically supported bilayers (SSBs) have been studied using 2H NMR spectroscopy to elucidate differences in structure by extracting the order parameter profile of the alkyl chains from the 2H quadrupolar splitting, and by 1H NMR diffusion measurements, where the diffusion coefficient is used as a spectroscopic probe of molecular behavior.Atomic force and fluorescence microscopy studies were also done on planar supported bilayers, as a confirmation of the bilayer properties as measured by the conventional means. Furthermore, a method was developed using AFM to indicate definitively whether or not a supported bilayer existed on the supporting mica surface.Results indicate that there is a difference in bilayer structure between supported bilayers and the conventional model of a free bilayer. A method for extracting the alkyl chain order parameter profile is being developed, with promising initial results. Additionally, an NMR diffusion pulse sequence using the WATERGATE water suppression technique has been developed and employed on both free and supported lipid bilayers.