Social and organisation theorists have become increasingly interested in studying information and communication technologies over the last two decades. This thesis examines how information and communication technologies are organised, and what is organised by information and communication technologies. The thesis contributes to the interest in detailed studies of information and communication technology through an analysis of the implementation and deployment of a mobile data system-the Vehicle Mounted Data System (VMDS)-by firefighters, fire crews and officers at a United Kingdom fire brigade. This thesis examines what becomes of the Vehicle Mounted Data System when it is introduced into a UK fire brigade. This includes an exposition of how recurring issues including the boundaries of the brigade, what is meant by standardisation and risk, what counts as information, and what is understood by devolved incident management is reordered as the VMDS becomes a constitutive part of the problematic fire service provision. The VMDS is bound up with reality constituting effects and this means that what is meant by technology and organisation becomes an important topic of scholarly study.
This thesis develops a non-essentialist ontology of technology and organisation-an ontological turn in organisation theory. It is argued that the VMDS is a relational effect that is aligned with existing boundaries and assumptions at Hereford and Worcester Fire Brigade, that the VMDS is a multiple object that is a mutable mobile and is deployed not only to manage safety at incidents but also for managing performance and organisational flexibility, and that the instabilities of the VMDS are responded to ambivalently by various actors as they are enrolled in the collective upkeep of the VMDS. In analysing the Vehicle Mounted Data System a range of analytical resources are drawn upon, including, most significantly, actor-network theory, but also the writings of Deleuze and Guattari. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the politics of theory and suggests that researchers would remain faithful to their intellectual tradition and a sense of critical and creative purpose if they engaged with and helped to construct the heterogeneous ways in which technological devices such as the Vehicle Mounted Data System transform what organisation theorists understand by organisation.


IT IS APPARENT that the study of Palaeozoic volcanism attracts a multi-disciplinary approach involving sedimentologists as closely as volcanologists, and utilizes techniques ranging from field mapping to the statistical handling of geochemical data. This interdependence was revealed by the list of contributions and even more by the discussion stimulated by the papers read at the September 1976 meeting of the Volcanic Studies Group, held in the Geology Department, Trinity College, Dublin. It is also clear that for a fair proportion of workers in both Caledonian and Hercynian volcanism, plate-tectonic models are now being invoked both to explain the petrogenesis of volcanic suites and to account for regional variations in petrochemistry. Speakers who eschewed this 'armchair' approach were concerned with regional field aspects and emphasized the need for detailed field mapping as a basis for any interpretation. Dr Max described work in progress on the correlation, distribution and deformation of the South Connemara Group volcanics, including the extension of land-based studies by surveys of islands in Galway Bay. Dr Howells demonstrated the relationship between the Bedded Pyroclastic Formation of central Snowdonia, and the Middle Crafnant Volcanic Formation of eastern Snowdonia, and showed that, whilst synchronous, two very different volcanic facies derived their material from different sources––the Bedded Pyroclastics from the Snowdon area and the Middle Crafnants from sources east of Betwsy Coed. In the region of Dolwyddelan a rising submarine ridge is invoked to provide separation between the shallow-water, bedded basaltic tuff sequence of the former and the acid


Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic, relapsing-remitting disease which presents in childhood or adolescence in a significant proportion of cases.1 Even those patients who remain in remission with an uncomplicated course in paediatric services need to progress to adult services in anticipation of the natural disease course and for surveillance of associated complications. Evidence from other chronic diseases tells us that morbidity and mortality often increase in young people in the early years following transfer to adult services.2

Many patients with paediatric IBD (PIBD) have spent a significant amount of time in paediatric services and had prolonged contact with a particular multidisciplinary team, such that the prospect of moving on from familiar surroundings and care providers, with the additional challenge of taking on more responsibility for their own disease management, can be daunting for both patients and their families. It can also be difficult for the …


on early medical journals. Finally, Edward W. Archibald, with whom the tour with the tuberculosis expert of 1930 was to have taken place at Montreal (but why a surgeon, however eminent?), contributes a full and illuminating account of the development of surgical methods in treatment. Considering the amount of " meat " in this volume, most of it of excellent quality, the price is modest. For it is a book to buy and to possess, and not merely one to borrow.


Thin films of Cu-In-Se (CISe) photoabsorber with overall composition of CuIn3Se5 were deposited onto glass/ITO substrates by using physical vapour deposition (PVD) technique. Thermal conditions for the substrates during deposition process and following thermal annealing were selected with the purpose to prepare polycrystalline n-CuIn3Se5 photoabsorber layers for the hybrid photovoltaic structures based on inorganic photoabsorber and conductive polymer functional layers. It was found, that the CISe layers deposited at the temperature of substrate of 200 °C and annealed at the temperature range of 450-500 oC in vacuum and double annealed in argon and vacuum at 500 oC demonstrate high photosensitivity and photoconductivity under white light illumination of 100 mW/cm2 intensity. Obtained results show the chalcopyrite structure of prepared photoabsorber films with good adhesion to the glass/ITO substrate.


Anaerobic wastewater treatment is an alternative to the conventional aerobic treatment processes for the removal of easily biodegradable organic matter in medium to high strength industrial wastestreams. Anaerobic treatment has several advantages, however one important disadvantage is the high sensitivity of the anaerobic bacteria (ie. methanogenic bacteria) to toxic compounds. The anaerobic technologies were initially developed for the treatment of non-toxic organic wastewaters. As the technology matured, the limits of its application to toxic wastewaters were studied. Past research has been mostly directed towards the toxic effects of compounds introduced by man into the industrial process rather than natural constituents present in agricultural wastewaters. This dissertation investigates the role of natural polar phenolics (ie. tannins and related compounds) on anaerobic digestion. Tannins are important constituents of certain types of agro-industrial wastewaters such as vegetable tannery effluent; olive oil mill effluent; wine vinasse; coffee pulp water; debarking wastewater; and masonite (fiber board) wastewater. A distinct feature of highly hydroxylated phenolics is that they are readily oxidized to darkly colored humic compounds. Such transformations can generate products which differ in toxicity and biodegradability compared to the original tannic compounds. Industrial process waters are often exposed to conditions which promote phenol oxidation, therefore the role of humus forming processes was a major consideration included in this study. The toxicity of tannin compounds to anaerobic bacteria was determined. The concentration of tannins found to cause 50% inhibition to methanogenic bacteria was 350 and 700 mg L -1 of condensed and hydrolyzable tannins, respectively. The condensed tannins were the major inhibitors present in wastewater derived from the debarking of wood at pulping factories. The effects of oxidation treatments on the methanogenic toxicity of phenolic compounds was evaluated. The initial polymerization of monomers led to a higher toxicity due to an increase in tannic qualities. The oligomers formed have stronger hydrogen bonds with proteins than the monomers. They are thus more likely to react with the functional proteins of bacteria. If the polymerization was continued, a decrease in toxicity occurred due to a lower effectiveness of high MW compounds to penetrate bacteria. These results indicated that toxic oligomeric tannins can be detoxified by oxidative polymerization. The application of autoxidation (aeration at a high pH) as a pretreatment prior to anaerobic digestion of tannin containing wastewater was tested. Debarking wastewaters of coniferous trees were successfully detoxified by autoxidation pretreatments. The tannins were converted to poorly degradable humic compounds that were non-toxic. During anaerobic treatment, no inhibition occurred and the fermentable fraction of the wastewater was converted to methane. The high MW humic products were non-toxic for aquatic organisms and thus could be discharged to the surface waters with considerably less environmental impact as compared to the unoxidized tannins. Up to date, methods of combatting toxic organic pollutants have been largely based on microbial degradation or physical-chemical removal. A viable alternative approach to these methods that potentially is applicable for certain aromatic compounds, could be polymerizing these inhibitory compounds to non-toxic humus. The humus forming process is a natural mechanism in the forest environment that detoxifies tannic compounds before such compounds are released into the surface waters. The humus forming reactions were imitated in this study and were an effective method for eliminating the environmental impact of tannins in wastewater. Research should be continued to determine the extent to which humus forming processes can be applied for the treatment of other toxic organic contaminants.


Background Gene expression alterations have previously been associated with type 2 diabetes, however whether these changes are primary causes or secondary effects of type 2 diabetes is not known. As healthy first degree relatives of people with type 2 diabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, they provide a good model in the search for primary causes of the disease. Methods/Principal Findings We determined gene expression profiles in skeletal muscle biopsies from Caucasian males with type 2 diabetes, healthy first degree relatives, and healthy controls. Gene expression was measured using Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Arrays covering the entire human genome. These arrays have not previously been used for this type of study. We show for the first time that genes involved in insulin signaling are significantly upregulated in first degree relatives and significantly downregulated in people with type 2 diabetes. On the individual gene level, 11 genes showed altered expression levels in first degree relatives compared to controls, among others KIF1B and GDF8 (myostatin). LDHB was found to have a decreased expression in both groups compared to controls. Conclusions/Significance We hypothesize that increased expression of insulin signaling molecules in first degree relatives of people with type 2 diabetes, work in concert with increased levels of insulin as a compensatory mechanism, counter-acting otherwise reduced insulin signaling activity, protecting these individuals from severe insulin resistance. This compensation is lost in people with type 2 diabetes where expression of insulin signaling molecules is reduced.


Creativity is an important criterion for evaluating conceptual and design abilities of architects and their praxis. However, in recent years, the world has grown more complex. New problems have emerged that are often outside the architect's capacity. Given this challenge, architects collaborate with colleagues from architecture and other related disciplines, bringing more creative minds to participate in the process of producing creative solutions. In many cases collaboration can enhance creativity. Yet, at the same time it can create significant problems, including miscommunication, and conflicts. New Media, particularly immersive, three-dimensional Online Multiuser Virtual Environments (MUVE) offer a possible solution to this problem by providing designers with immersive experiences in the designed environment, a synchronous and shared collaboration environment, presence of others, represented by avatars, and manipulability of a three-dimensional representation. These characteristics of MUVE can facilitate collaborators' intra- and extra- processes of communication, reflection-in-action, and socio-psychological mechanisms that can help achieve creativity. The aforementioned potential of MUVE to assist creative collaboration rests mostly on theoretical assumptions rather than results based on empirical studies. Therefore, this dissertation investigates empirically the affordance of MUVE for creative collaboration in architectural design and attempts to answer two main questions: (1) What is the affordance of MUVE for creative collaboration in architecture? (2) In what ways does MUVE influence creative collaboration in architecture? To achieve this goal, this study has conducted comparative experiments in creative collaboration using two modes of creative collaboration: MUVE and sketching, in face-to-face collaboration, and in remote collaboration. For the purpose of the experiments, creativity is evaluated in terms of novelty and appropriateness of the results by the participants and by external judges. The empirical experiments showed that statistically MUVE and sketching have equivalent affordances for creativity in face-to-face collaboration, but when participants collaborate remotely, MUVE facilitates more creative outcome of exterior form than Online Sketch does. Based on interviews and observation, I verified the reasons of those statistical results. In face-to-face collaboration, the characteristics of MUVE, which are the immersive experiences in the three-dimensional environment, a synchronously shared collaboration environment, and co-presence of other partners, have equivalent impacts on the production of creative solutions when compared to the two-dimensional and non-immersive representation in face-to-face sketching.In brief, the aforementioned characteristics of MUVE allowed participants to experience design solutions in search of creative solutions, and thus helped them to evaluate the usability of any new synthesized forms, whereas sketching media's characteristics enabled participants to track and reason their problem-solving processes, and helped problem analysis and initial solution synthesis, based on knowledge that designers already have. In contrast, in remote collaboration, the characteristics of MUVE supported collaborative search for creative solutions, communication, and interdependency, like the feeling of working together amongst collaborators regardless of the remote distance. Online sketching, on the other hand, lacked communication cues, such as gesture, and collaboration mood. Therefore, participants misinterpreted their partners' representations and strained to communicate with each other. Those misinterpretation and miscommunication obstructed their creative attempts and problem-solving abilities. The general purpose of this research is to contribute to the development of creative collaboration methods using MUVE to foster creativity in architectural design.


OBJECTIVES
We investigated behavioral changes in a large cohort of drivers to identify underlying causes of the decline in road casualties in France.

METHODS
In 2001 and 2004, 11,240 participants used self-administered questionnaires to report attitudes toward road safety and driving behaviors. Injury road traffic collisions were recorded from 2001 to 2005 through the cohort's annual questionnaire.

RESULTS
Between 2001 and 2004, speeding and cell phone use decreased concomitantly with a decrease in injury road traffic collision rates among participants. Reported driving while sleepy remained unchanged and driving while alcohol intoxicated was reported by a higher proportion in 2004 than in 2001. Decreases in speeding between 2001 and 2004 were strongly linked with positive attitudes toward road safety in 2001.

CONCLUSIONS
In this cohort, speeding and using a cell phone while driving decreased over the 2001 to 2004 period concomitantly with increases in traffic law enforcement and a dramatic decline in road mortality in France. However, the deterrent effect of traffic enforcement policies may have been reduced by negative attitudes toward traffic safety and having had a history of traffic penalty cancellations.


This paper analyses differences in the pricing behaviour between cooperatives and investor-owned dairies for raw milk in a spatial market setting. We systemize the theoretical literature concerning the relations between price and space in oligopsonistic markets. This provides the foundation for empirically analysing the price-space relationship in the German raw milk market. Space represents the distance to competing dairies and transportation cost. We differentiate between cooperatives and investor-owned dairies in North and South Germany. Specifically, the impact of a dairy's own legal form and that of neighbouring competitors on the pricing behaviour is assessed. For the South of Germany, a negative relationship between space and raw milk price is found while for the North the relationship is positive. In both North and South the effect is stronger for cooperatives compared to investor-owned firms. Overall, our findings do not necessarily suggest an increase in market power and a decrease in raw milk prices when the concentration process of the dairy sector is progressing. Further, this paper provides the first spatial analysis of the competitive yardstick effect, for which we find weak evidence in the South. For the north, the theory of the competitive yardstick effect cannot be supported empirically. The estimation is based on a panel-data set covering all German dairies from 2001 to 2012 providing information on raw milk prices, processing quantities, legal and production form.


In previous studies it was shown that the structurally dissimilar compounds delta 9-THC, CP 55,940 and WIN 55,212 produced more or less the same pharmacological effects and interacted with the same cannabinoid receptor. However, their potencies vary across a number of pharmacological assays, suggesting that a single mechanism may not account for all of their actions. To further explore possible differences among these cannabinoids, cross-tolerance studies were conducted. Specifically, the ability of delta 9-THC, CP 55,940 and WIN 55,212 to produce hypoactivity, hypothermia, antinociception and catalepsy was assessed in mice that had been chronically treated with either delta 9-THC or CP 55,940. The results indicated the delta 9-THC-treated mice were tolerant to delta 9-THC. The degrees of tolerance were 15.9, 7.8, and 13.4 for spontaneous activity, hypothermia and antinociception, respectively. Mice chronically treated with delta 9-THC also exhibited tolerance to some of the behavioral effects of CP 55,940 and WIN 55,212. The tolerance induced by repetitive administration of CP 55,940 was substantial. The ED50 for CP 55,940 was shifted 102 fold for spontaneous activity, 100 for hypothermia and 44 for catalepsy. Also, some cross-tolerance to delta 9-THC and WIN 55,212 was observed in CP 55,940 chronically treated mice. These findings indicate that cross-tolerance develops between delta 9-THC, CP 55,940 and WIN 55,212 and that these agents have some actions in common. However, quantitative differences in their development of cross-tolerance suggests that all of their actions may not be identical.


One of the most prominent application areas of
induction heating principle is for sealing of caps of plastic and glass
containers. It is increasingly being used to seal containers with extremely
wide range industrial products. The process ambience around the controller for
sealing of bottles containing different types of products could be different. Such
prospects, often, could act as constraints for design of power controllers.
Dust prone environment prevailing in processes such as for sealing
nutraceuticals, coffee, a few pharma products, etc. recommends use of air-tight
enclosure. It does not have any ventilation, even the natural air movement
inside or the free convection is restricted. This article proposes that the
internal convection could still be made effective by creating requisite buoyant
force where both power converter topology and component engineering could play
important roles. The topology should
optimally reduce the power loss and surface temperature of components should be
high. The proposed idea has been validated by designing a zero-ventilated 1.5
kW, 50 kHz induction heating system that includes the induction coil head.


Precise tree diameter estimation for a lightweight and intelligent vehicle such as unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in a commercial farm is still an unresolved problem. A lot of UAVs and the ground vehicles (UGV) are navigated across the farm by relying on the aided of the vision sensor as well as laser scanner. All of these methods require an extremely massive image computation, bulky package dimension and some of the components are pricey. This paper evaluates the morphological technique of an innovated infrared scanner technique for cylindrical object diameter measurement which is fundamentally comprised of a low-cost infrared sensor and digital servo motor. Filter algorithm, compensating for the ascertained midpoint of the object was also developed and tested. The method is tested on three different poles with diameters of 9 cm, 11.4 cm and 16.4 cm. It is found that the filtered method, compensating for midpoint data, reduced the error to 82.92% for 9 cm, 30.37% for 11.4 cm and 6.30% for 16.4 cm, respectively.


Composting has been practiced for thousands of years as a way of stabilizing and recycling organic matter into useful soil amendments. Thermophilic compost releases significant amounts of heat at temperatures (~140 °F) that are useful for environmental heating or process water. This heat has been taken advantage of in various ways throughout history, but development of a widely adopted technology remains elusive. The biggest barrier to adoption of compost heat recovery (CHR) systems is projecting accurate, attractive economic returns. The cost of transfer equipment is significant, and with variability in composting substrates and methods, it is difficult to predict the power and quality of heat a proposed system would produce. While the ultimate heat release may be calculated with standard techniques, the dynamics of compost temperature and thermal power are less understood. As heat yield is one of many goals, better understanding of compost's thermal dynamics is important for CHR optimization. This research addresses the issue by developing a field test that measures heat release and temperature across a representative-scale compost volume. The compost test vessel was built from common construction materials and insulated enough to be self-heating in cold weather. A 4' x 4' x 4' cube of 2" foam insulation panels held 1.812 cubic yards of active compost, intermittently aerated at ~35 CFM. Data from 84 temperature sensors, and one pressure sensor at the blower, was logged at 1-minute intervals for a period of 35 days. Spatial temperature fields were estimated by Kriging, and used to calculate conductive heat loss and compost volume temperature over time. Enthalpy loss was calculated using the blower pressure curve, temperature data and humidity assumptions. The compost exhibited wide variation in temperature and heat flow over time, and less horizontal symmetry than expected. The results are dynamic and best viewed graphically. Enthalpy loss varied with adjustments to the aeration cycle, ranging from 100 to 550 W (60-minute average rates), while conductive losses were in the range of 75 W. Peak sustained thermal output was around 600 W (500 W by aeration) from days 11-13 with about 0.6 yd of compost in the thermophilic zone; however, this cooled the compost significantly. Aeration was then reduced, and the compost temperature recovered, with 50% 90% of the compost volume above 130 °F from days 14-23; during this period, total heat loss was around 150 200 W with aeration loss around 60-100 W. The test was successful in producing hot compost and building temperature field and heat loss models. However representative aeration rates cooled a large amount of the compost volume as cool air was drawn into the vessel. Aeration rate reduction accomplished desired compost temperatures, but resulted in low enthalpy extraction rate and temperature. Future work will address this issue with the ability to recirculate air through the compost.


"The RURALIZATION project aims to look at ways to overcome rural decline issues that support rural regeneration and generational renewal. The empirical focus of the project is to develop, assess and disseminate novel instruments, strategies and policies that cater for rural regeneration. This is done specificallyin relation to the future dreams of rural youth, facilitating rural newcomers and new entrants into farming and by addressing the issue of access to land. RURALIZATION will also carry out a trend analysis to uncover relevant trends for rural regions. This knowledge base will culminate in generating effective policy tools. Through this RURALIZATION aims to contribute to the development of a new rural frontier that provides exciting opportunities to new rural generations for social and economic sustainability and to realise their dreams in a rural context (...)"


OBJECTIVES. To estimate the prevalence of intimate partner violence among parents at a pediatric primary care clinic and to evaluate the stability, sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and likelihood ratios of a very brief screen for intimate partner violence. METHODS. A total of 200 parents (mostly mothers) bringing in children less than 6 years of age for child health supervision completed the Parent Screening Questionnaire in a primary care clinic. The Parent Screening Questionnaire, a brief screen for psychosocial problems developed for the study, includes 3 questions on intimate partner violence. Mothers then completed the computerized study protocol within 2 months. This included the Parent Screening Questionnaire as well as the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale. Different combinations of the intimate partner violence questions were evaluated against the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale. RESULTS. A total of 12.0% of the mothers answered "yes" to at least one of the screening questions. On the standardized Revised Conflict Tactics Scale, responses ranged from 9% reporting a physical injury in the past year to 76% reporting psychological aggression. There was moderate stability of the screening questions. A single question, "Have you ever been in a relationship in which you were physically hurt or threatened by a partner?" in relation to the "physically injured" Revised Conflict Tactics Scale subscale was most effective. Sensitivity was 29%, specificity was 92%, positive predictive value was 41%, and negative predictive value was 88%. The positive likelihood ratio was 3.8, and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.77. CONCLUSIONS. Intimate partner violence is a prevalent problem. A very brief screen can reasonably identify some mothers who could benefit from additional evaluation and possible services. Additional research is needed to find a more sensitive screen and to examine whether identifying intimate partner violence leads to interventions that benefit mothers, families, and children.


We have analyzed the role of the REL family members in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). shRNA targeting of each REL member showed that HL was uniquely dependent on relB, in contrast to several other B-cell lymphomas. In addition, relA and c-rel shRNA expression also decreased HL cell viability. In exploring relB activation further, we found stable NF-κB inducing kinase (NIK) protein in several HL cell lines and that NIK shRNA also affected HL cell line viability. More importantly, 49 of 50 HL patient biopsies showed stable NIK protein, indicating that NIK and the noncanonical pathway are very prevalent in HL. Lastly, we have used a NIK inhibitor that reduced HL but not other B-cell lymphoma cell viability. These data show that HL is uniquely dependent on relB and that the noncanonical pathway can be a therapeutic target for HL. Furthermore, these results show that multiple REL family members participate in the maintenance of a HL phenotype.


Abstract
 Some interesting mosses discovered at the Laga Mountains in the central Apennines are reported. Myurella sibirica, a very rare moss in Europe, is rediscovered in Italy after more than one century. Dicranella cerviculata and Dicranum flexicaule, only known from northern Italy, are reported for the first time from Central Italy. Finally, Dicranum polysetum and Pseudoleskea patens are reported as new for the Abruzzo region. Ecological and chorological remarks are given for each species.


Soot originating from the burning of butter and mustard oil in a lamp with a cotton wick was collected on a brass plate and dispersed in water and carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) as naked, and as Gum Arabic (GA, a anionic polyelectrolyte)-coated nanoparticles in water. They were physically characterized, and their anti-bacterial activities were probed on gram positive and negative bacterial colonies. TEM data revealed the presence of 35–55 nm diameter spherical carbon nanoparticles in water and CCl4. The dynamic light scattering determined the average hydrodynamic diameter for the same samples, which was found to be ≈100 nm (in CCl4) and ≈240 nm (in water), implying the packing of these nanoparticles into clusters. GA-coated particles yielded stable suspensions in water, but the clusters were almost the same in size (≈250 nm). The zeta potential distributions of the naked and the GA-coated nanoparticles were found to be unimodal and bimodal, respectively, with both yielding mean zeta potential values nearly equal to zero. Results of energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDAX) confirmed the absence of toxic metallic elements inside the specimen. X-ray diffraction study confirmed the presence of amorphous as well as graphitized carbon in these nanostructures. The anti-microbial activities in terms of growth inhibition for the carbon nanoparticles against Staphylococcus aureus, ATCC 13709 (native strain) and Klebsiella pneumonia ATCC 29655 (native strain) were assayed in agar gel. In vitro testing revealed significant anti-microbial activity against Klebsiella pneumonia, but carbon nanoparticles were unable to kill Staphylococcus aureus.


We study how industry-level agglomeration economies affect government policy. Using administrative data on firm subsidies in economically lagging regions of Great Britain, we test two alternative hypotheses. Economic geography models imply that firms at an industry's core can sustain higher tax burdens or require lower subsidies than firms in more remote locations. Conversely, political economy models predict firms at the industry's core to be more successful at lobbying government, particularly at the sub-national level, thus obtaining more favourable fiscal treatment. We find that local government agencies structure subsidy offers to favour pre-existing employment in locally agglomerated industries, behaviour more in line with theories of policy capture than with economic geography models.


We present a photomicrographic investigation of a sample of the Shroud of Turin, split from one used in the radiocarbon dating study of 1988 at Arizona. In contrast to other reports on less-documented material, we find no evidence to contradict the idea that the sample studied was taken from the main part of the shroud, as reported by Damon et al. (1989). We also find no evidence for either coatings or dyes, and only minor contaminants.


Welcome to the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale University, the first of its kind in North America. The Graduate School stands at the very heart of Yale's mission as a university, and this publication, Programs and Policies, reveals the extraordinary breadth of opportunities for graduate study at Yale. As you peruse it, you likely will discover the intriguing ways in which graduate study differs from the undergraduate experience and the fulfillment brought by this intellectual progression. You have undertaken to explore a field in depth, master an area of inquiry, and learn to disseminate knowledge through classroom teaching. Graduate education culminates in a creative and original contribution in one's field of study representing the ability to participate in the advancement of human knowledge.


The microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton provides the architecture that governs intracellular organization and the regulated motion of macromolecules through the crowded cytoplasm. The key to establishing a functioning cytoskeletal architecture is regulating when and where new MTs are nucleated. Within the spindle, the vast majority of MTs are generated through a pathway known as branching MT nucleation, which exponentially amplifies MT number in a polar manner. Whereas other MT nucleation pathways generally require a complex organelle such as the centrosome or Golgi apparatus to localize nucleation factors, the branching site is based solely on a simple, preformed MT, making it an ideal system to study MT nucleation. In this review, we address recent developments in characterizing branching factors, the branching reaction, and its regulation, as well as branching MT nucleation in systems beyond the spindle and within human disease. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Cell and Developmental Biology Volume 38 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Roger Leakey. Living with the trees of life: Towards the transformation of tropical agriculture . July 2012. CABI, 224 pp. ISBN: 978 1 78064 098 3 Agroforestry as a modern science is barely fifty years old. Nevertheless, it has become an integral part of concepts, reports and assessments on the state-of-the-art of rural development. Against this background, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) plays a remarkable role. But when precise concepts, practices and technologies are tracked, one ends up recognizing specific research groups and even individuals as founders and promoters of most of them. This is the case, for instance, in alley cropping or push-pull technologies, developed ad hoc to satisfy specific demands and which have been strongly promoted by identifiable institutions and individuals. In his book 'Living with trees: towards the transformation of the tropical agriculture', Roger Leakey renders his personal testimony of agroforestry. He does this from the viewpoint of a student, scientist, scientific leader, and lately as an advocate of agroforestry as a land-use management alternative. In a narrative style, Leakey interlaces cornerstones of his scientific queries with his contributions on agroforestry as a driver and path for rural development. He describes, for instance, how a high diversity of tree seeds in a Cameroonian market indicates the potential of native trees to provide diverse benefits to small households. Later, as the director general of ICRAF, he introduced the idea of the 'Cinderella' tree, which led to a worldwide program on participative identification and domestication of indigenous tree species. Through anecdotal causalities, Leakey reveals the manifold character of agroforestry: "(…) is more than just an agronomic practice that restores soil fertility and produces tree products in farmers' fields. It is also applied ecology or, more accurately, applied agroecology – the ecology of farming systems." (Leakey 2012: 51). In the context of the current global challenges, he further develops this premise to the concept of multifunctionality, which he understands as the simultaneous provision of diverse goods, services and functions to strengthen the ecological and social sustainability of livelihoods. Furthermore, for the operationalization of farming multifunctionality Leakey proposes the use of systemic insights by acknowledging that the "(…) interconnectedness of agriculture's different roles and functions in rural development, is a sine qua non" condition to generate and promote sustainable scientific and technological alternatives. This is possible since multifunctionality, by its intrinsic logic, avoids the hampering factors inherent to other approaches by being affordable, socially accepted, environmentally harmless and naturally capable of supporting rehabilitation of water and soils. Leakey supports his thesis with several case studies: Participatory domestication of the galip nut in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, re-introduction of overexploited wild sandalwood species in the Vanuatu archipelago in the South Pacific, and in Australia exploration of bush tucker species together with the aboriginal communities. His flagship experience is the Food for Progress project in Cameroon, which by 2009 included almost 500 villages in active production, use and commercialization of tree local species. However, as is the case with similar technological/paradigmatic proposals, this approach faces inherent constraints. One is the unpredictability resulting from dealing with social-ecological systems and diverse interests that may or may not match the interests and foreseen goals of the stakeholders. This generates diverging and unexpected outcomes. Associated herewith is the tradeoff through optimization of the components' performance, i.e., which outcome should be privileged and which the guiding criteria? Again, the dilemma between producing more with less against more with more becomes apparent. Strictly speaking, Leakey's book is not a scientific book. As a prolific scientific author with an extensive bibliography, Leakey does not need to provide methodological and technical arguments to make a point. His style, this time, is rather discursive. He says that scientific research can benefit from participation, scientific findings can achieve developmental goals, and multifunctionality as a production paradigm can facilitate this. But besides scientific training, a sensitive mindset is a fundamental condition to realize these aspects and put them into practice. In short, Leakey's work is a book that a committed (young) scientist interested in development, but with both feet on the ground, could significantly benefit from.


Authorization bugs, when present in online social networks, are usually caused by missing or incorrect authorization checks and can allow attackers to bypass the online social network's protections. Unfortunately, there is no practical way to fully guarantee that an authorization bug will never be introduced—even with good engineering practices—as a web application and its data model become more complex. Unlike other web application vulnerabilities such as XSS and CSRF, there is no practical general solution to prevent missing or incorrect authorization checks. In this paper we propose Invariant Detector (IVD), a defense-in-depth system that automatically learns authorization rules from normal data manipulation patterns and distills them into likely invariants. These invariants, usually learned during the testing or pre-release stages of new features, are then used to block any requests that may attempt to exploit bugs in the social network's authorization logic. IVD acts as an additional layer of defense, working behind the scenes, complementary to privacy frameworks and testing. We have designed and implemented IVD to handle the unique challenges posed by modern online social networks. IVD is currently running at Facebook, where it infers and evaluates daily more than 200,000 invariants from a sample of roughly 500 million client requests, and checks the resulting invariants every second against millions of writes made to a graph database containing trillions of entities. Thus far IVD has detected several high impact authorization bugs and has successfully blocked attempts to exploit them before code fixes were deployed.


This paper is written for the purpose of addressing the power and possibility of early apologies in the criminal justice system. As constructed, our criminal justice system rewards defendants that learn early in their case to remain silent, and punishes those that talk. Defendants that may want to offer an apology or allocution for the harm they've caused are often required to wait until a sentencing hearing, which may come months, or even years after the event in question. This paper proposes that the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure be modified to provide an exception for apology to criminal defendants. Apologies can play an invaluable role in the healing process for victims, defendants, family members and others tied together by the unfortunate events of a criminal prosecution. This paper seeks to further the comprehensive law movement approach that promotes a healing process for those involved in the criminal justice system.


Jonathan Herring, in his book Caring and the Law, contends that the law does not properly recognize the importance of caring, and, instead, tends to isolate, disregard, or undermine both those who provide care and the relationships where caring occurs. Herring tackles this problem using the philosophical theory of the ethics of care to analyze the legal system.One of his overarching concerns is that, in both the United States and England, where the book was published, we tend to view both health law and bioethics through a lens that values autonomy above all.In this book, Herring takes on a formidable task, or, rather, a series of formidable tasks. In the first three chapters of this book, he defines the philosophical concept of the ethics of care, and he does so from the perspective of a lawyer, directly confronting highly fraught philosophical and legal issues that can arise within this ethical framework. The remaining six chapters endeavor to cover an extraordinary breadth of specific legal areas where the ethics of care has work it can do. These areas range from structuring state support systems for the disabled, to family law, torts, international human rights, and rationing of healthcare. While the focus of the book is on the law in England, there are enough similarities to the United States to make this an interesting tour de force for readers in this country, oftentimes pointing out conflicts and problems that easily can escape a legal mind unaccustomed to focusing on caring as a legal issue.


The abundance and distribution of uranium have been determined in 11 units of rhyolitic lava and ash-flow tuff of calc-alkaline and transitional composition from the western United States in order to further evaluate the potential of rhyolitic glass as a source of uranium ores. Samples consist of coexisting obsidians, perlites, and felsites that range in age from Pleistocene to Oligocene. Uranium abundances in analyzed obsidians are 5 to 46 ppM. Obsidians and coexisting perlites have identical (+-5 percent) uranium concentrations, which confirms that little or no uranium is lost during hydration. Felsites show uranium depletions as high as 80 percent relative to coexisting obsidians and perlites. Combination of this data with the results of earlier work on peralkaline rhyolites indicates that uranium depletion seems to increase with age, with different rates of depletion for calc-alkaline (slowest) and peralkaline (fastest) compositions. Uranium distribution is homogeneous in obsidians, perlites, and spherulites, but inhomogeneous in felsites. Electron microprobe analyses of the least-depleted felsites indicate that uranium is associated with concentrations of Fe--Ti--Mn oxides or is in accompanying accessory minerals. Secondary Fe--Mn oxides in older, depleted felsites are uranium-bearing, especially along fractures or flow layers. Uranium loss from felsites seems to be largely controlledmore » by low-temperature solution over long time periods, with some precipitation in secondary phases.« less


In the last 30 years, the desktop metaphor has become the standard user interface for workstations, with its pros (e.g., ease of learning) and cons (e.g., interaction constraints for skilled users, lack of context awareness). In this tutorial, we present itsme, an initiative to create the next-generation workstation - especially designed for users who think that what they do holds value. Much of what we present derives from CSCW research, while Interaction Design research shapes the project, as well as the involvement of a wide and heterogeneous community of contributing people. The early design phases of the project led to the definition of a new metaphor for personal computing, called 'stories and venues'. The metaphor is being adopted for the development of a radically new front-end for the Linux operating system.


BACKGROUND
 Studies have found associations between increasing BMIs and the development of various chronic health conditions. The BMI cut points, or thresholds beyond which comorbidity incidence can be accurately detected, are unknown.

 OBJECTIVE
 The aim of this study is to identify whether BMI cut points exist for 11 obesity-related comorbidities.

 METHODS
 US adults aged 18-75 years who had ≥3 health care visits at an academic medical center from 2008 to 2016 were identified from eHealth records. Pregnant patients, patients with cancer, and patients who had undergone bariatric surgery were excluded. Quantile regression, with BMI as the outcome, was used to evaluate the associations between BMI and disease incidence. A comorbidity was determined to have a cut point if the area under the receiver operating curve was >0.6. The cut point was defined as the BMI value that maximized the Youden index.

 RESULTS
 We included 243,332 patients in the study cohort. The mean age and BMI were 46.8 (SD 15.3) years and 29.1 kg/m2, respectively. We found statistically significant associations between increasing BMIs and the incidence of all comorbidities except anxiety and cerebrovascular disease. Cut points were identified for hyperlipidemia (27.1 kg/m2), coronary artery disease (27.7 kg/m2), hypertension (28.4 kg/m2), osteoarthritis (28.7 kg/m2), obstructive sleep apnea (30.1 kg/m2), and type 2 diabetes (30.9 kg/m2).

 CONCLUSIONS
 The BMI cut points that accurately predicted the risks of developing 6 obesity-related comorbidities occurred when patients were overweight or barely met the criteria for class 1 obesity. Further studies using national, longitudinal data are needed to determine whether screening guidelines for appropriate comorbidities may need to be revised.


Consumption guidelines are a common way of improving conscious consumption behaviors in areas where game fish are known to contain contaminants. However, guideline information can be difficult to distribute, and effectiveness difficult to measure. To increase the distribution and effectiveness of guideline information for the Detroit River, an educational campaign was launched in 2010, which included distribution of pamphlets with consumption information, posting of permanent signs at popular fishing locations, and hiring River Walkers to personally communicate with anglers. In 2013 and 2015, we conducted in-person surveys of active shoreline anglers to determine the effectiveness of education and outreach efforts. Results from the survey indicated that 55% of anglers were aware of the guidelines in 2013, and by 2015 36% had communicated the information to family or friends. However, anglers were often unwilling to reduce consumption of popular game species, despite high contaminant levels. Encouragingly, black anglers were most likely to supplement their diet with species lower in contaminants. Our results suggest that utilizing multiple educational strategies including reaching out directly to individual anglers may improve conscious consumption behavior among the targeted population, providing a template for educational campaigns to successfully target vulnerable populations.


For time-invariant finite-dimensional systems, it is known that global asymptotic stability (GAS) is equivalent to uniform global asymptotic stability (UGAS), in which the decay rate and transient overshoot of solutions are requested to be uniform on bounded sets of initial states. This paper investigates this relationship for time-invariant delay systems. We show that UGAS and GAS are equivalent for this class of systems under the assumption of robust forward completeness, i.e. under the assumption that the reachable set from any bounded set of initial states on any finite time horizon is bounded. We also show that, if the state space is a space in a particular family of Sobolev or Holder spaces, then GAS is equivalent to UGAS and that robust forward completeness holds. Based on these equivalences, we provide a novel Lyapunov characterization of GAS (and UGAS) in the aforementioned spaces.


This chapter lists the late 15th century notarial and courts records of the Notary (Not.) Pietro Buscemi. The records have been sourced from Sciacca, Archivio di Stato (ASSc), and describe the history of the Jews in Sicily. Additionally, the chapter presents tables listing the date and page of the records, name of debtor, amount and purpose for the loan, and name of the creditor.Keywords: Pietro Buscemi; Sciacca, Archivio di Stato (ASSc)


Despite arguments about the importance of self-regulated learning (SRL) in massive open online courses (MOOCs) (Terras & Ramsay, 2015), understanding of the topic is limited. This study offers a systematic review of empirical research on SRL in MOOCs. It revealed that the body of literature on SRL in MOOCs has grown from 2014 to 2016. The content analysis findings show that SRL was a factor positively influencing learning in MOOCs. SRL strategies were identified, including motivational regulation strategies, specifically self-efficacy, task value, and goal setting. Particular cognitive regulation strategies were not identified, and goal setting was found as a metacognitive regulation strategy. Regarding behavioural and contextual regulation strategies, help seeking, time management, and effort regulation were identified. In addition, several MOOC designs and SRL interventions that consider unique characteristics of MOOCs were proposed to promote SRL. Implications of these findings and future research are discussed.


The endangered California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) was reduced to a total population of 22 birds by the end of 1982. Their captive-bred descendants are now being released back into the wild in California, Arizona, and Baja California, where monitoring indicates they may accumulate lead to toxic levels. Fragments of ammunition in the carcasses of game animals such as deer, elk, and feral pigs not retrieved by hunters or in gut piles left in the field have been considered a plausible source of the lead, though little direct evidence is available to support this hypothesis. Here, we measured lead concentrations and isotope ratios in blood from 18 condors living in the wild in central California, in 8 pre-release birds, and in diet and ammunition samples to determine the importance of ammunition as a source of exposure. Blood lead levels in pre-release condors were low (average 27.7 ng/mL, SD 4.9 ng/ mL) and isotopically similar to dietary and background environmental lead in California. In contrast, blood lead levels in free-flying condors were substantially higher (average 246 ng/mL, SD 229 ng/mL) with lead isotopic compositions that approached or matched those of the lead ammunition. A two-endmember mixing model defined by the background 207Pb/206Pb ratio of representative condor diet samples (0.8346) and the upper 207Pb/206Pb ratio of the ammunition samples (0.8184) was able to account for the blood lead isotopic compositions in 20 out of the 26 live condors sampled in this study (i.e., 77%). Finally, lead in tissues and in a serially sampled growing feather recovered postmortem from a lead-poisoned condor in Arizona evidence acute exposure from an isotopically distinct lead source. Together, these data indicate that incidental ingestion of ammunition in carcasses of animals killed by hunters is the principal source of elevated lead exposure that threatens the recovery in the wild of this endangered species.


As the limits of nanotechnology are expanded ever further, so too must we push back the frontiers of imaging and analysis. The need for tools that can deliver new, ultrahigh resolution information is driving the development of electron microscopy and spectroscopy to the extremes of performance. For example, aberration-corrected S/TEM gives us the ability to work at sub-angstrom length-scales. This, combined with sharply-defined energy resolution, enables us to acquire information at the single atomic level and gain knowledge of inter-atomic bonding for characterisation of chemical composition, electronic structure and mechanical properties. In addition, there is scope for capturing time-resolved structural transformations with sub-nanometer detail, enabling us to directly observe and understand the dynamics of a range of chemical processes in situ. We discuss the advances that have enabled these technological breakthroughs and demonstrate the potential for new insights in nano-characterisation and analysis.


Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a multi-system disease characterised by a high prevalence of co-morbidities and micro- and macro-vascular complications. The aim of this study was to provide --comprehensive assessment of multi-organ health and pre-clinical detection of diabetes-related organ damage with a single, non-contrast MRI scan. We recruited 138 adults with T2D (median 62 yrs, 60 % male; BMI 31 kg/m2, 92 % on metformin [NCT04114682]) . MRI data were acquired to derive organ-specific measures of size, fat deposition, fibroinflammation, body composition and aortic distensibility (CoverScan®, Perspectum Ltd.) . Reference values of MRI metrics were based on 92 healthy volunteers and published literature. Statistical significance of co-prevalence was assessed by simulation assuming that values were independently binomially distributed. There was a high prevalence of abnormality in individual organs (Figure, left) . Prevalence of low skeletal muscle index and elevated pancreatic fat were associated with T2D duration. There was further evidence of co-prevalence of organ abnormalities (Figure right; 86 % with at least 2 organs affected) . Aortic stiffness was frequently associated with organ steatosis. MRI assessment can enrich the current blunt assessment of multi-organ abnormalities in T2D to inform earlier intervention and treatments.

 N.Eichert: Employee; Perspectum Ltd. S.Ali: Other Relationship; NICE committee for diabetes. G.Thanabalasingham: Speaker's Bureau; Boehringer Ingelheim International GmbH. D.Cuthbertson: Other Relationship; AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk. K.Gibbons: None. A.Hamid: None. R.Ramkhelawon: Other Relationship; NICE committee. V.E.Woolgar: None. R.Suriano: None. H.B.Thomaides-brears: Employee; Perspectum Ltd, Stock/Shareholder; Perspectum Ltd. R.Banerjee: Employee; Perspectum Ltd., Other Relationship; Perspectum Ltd., Stock/Shareholder; Perspectum Ltd. G.Kemp: None.

 Innovate UK (Digital Health Technology Catalyst scheme) ; Perspectum Ltd.


This thesis aims to address two problems that appear to attach to the model of rational agency that underlies Kant's moral philosophy. These I call the problem of experiential incongruence and the problem of misdirected moral attention. The former problem arises because the central elements of Kant's theory of action (the possession of and action upon maxims; the subjection of maxims to moral assessment through the Categorical Imperative's universalisability test; our supposedly perennial consciousness of the moral law; and so on) seem not to square at all with our lived experience of agency. The latter problem, on the other hand, is a result of Kant's apparently claiming that when an agent 11s from duty, her reason for 4Ling is just that the maxim of tILing can simultaneously be acted upon and willed to be a universal law, while its contrary maxim cannot. This picture seems, as Philip Stratton-Lake notes, to place the good-willed agent's attention in the wrong place, namely, on the nature of her own policies of action, rather than on the external world of "concrete considerations".
In order to show that Kant's practical philosophy is able to sidestep both problems, I first develop and argue for a particular account of what I call "the traditional model," or that picture of rational agency that can be gleaned from Kant's writings, expressed in the terms that Kant himself uses. I then go on to offer a novel interpretation of that model, according to
which (1) all the central concepts of Kant's theory of rational agency are shown to be entirely compatible with our experience as agents, and (2) the Kantian good-willed agent is shown to be centrally concerned with, and motivated by, concrete considerations.


PURPOSE
This study aimed to examine changes in English and Spanish morphosyntactic standardized scores over time in bilingual children.

METHOD
One hundred bilingual children participated in this longitudinal study. The average age of the children at the beginning of the study was 5;11 (years;months). A subset of the participants was identified as children with developmental language disorder (DLD, n = 43). Children completed behavioral testing in Spanish and English at three time points over a period of 2 years. Growth curve modeling was employed to analyze longitudinal data.

RESULTS
Distinct patterns of Spanish and English language growth were observed. While the average standard score in English increased, the average score in Spanish decreased over time for both groups. Children with DLD showed persistent language difficulties in both Spanish and English over time in comparison to their peers.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study provide evidence of a shift in language proficiency from Spanish to English for bilingual children with and without language disorders. This study also shows that bilingual children with DLD show a protracted but parallel growth in morphosyntactic skills in comparison to children without DLD.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23671464.


Ethnic residential segregation in Italy is an emerging key question, which will be crucial in the definition and implementation of both urbanistic and social policies. This paper focuses on this phenomenon in the Italian city of Palermo. We use individual data for all the population residing in the city at 31 December 2011, organized by ethnicity and district. Firstly, we describe the spatial distribution and the residential segregation of foreigners in the city, applying many different segregation measures. Among the others, we also apply the Duncan and Duncan dissimilarity index. Finally, we apply a recent methodological approach, which allows reducing the bias of the Duncan's index and performs better than previous bias reduction techniques, in terms of both mean bias and mean square error. Annalisa Busetta, Researcher, Department of Economics, Business and Statistics, University of Palermo, Italy. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com . Angelo Mazza, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics and Business, University of Catania, Italy. E-mail: email@example.com . Manuela STRANGES, Researcher, Department of Economics, Statistics and Finance, University of Calabria, Italy. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com .


Available data indicates a growing urban-rural income gap (the ratio of mean urban to rural incomes) with a significant increase from around 1.8 in the late 1980's to over 3 today. These estimates do not take into account the higher volatility of rural incomes in China. Current literature based on analyses of rural income volatility in China decomposes poverty into chronic and transient components using longitudinal survey data and assesses the fraction of the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke poverty gap attributable to mean income over time being below the poverty line. Resulting estimates of 40-50 % transient poverty point to the policy conclusion that poverty may be a less serious social problem than it appears in annual data due to rural income volatility. Here we use a direct method instead to adjust rural income for volatility using a certainty equivalent income measure and recompute summary statistics for the distribution of volatility corrected incomes, including the urban-rural income gap on which much of current poverty debate in China focuses. Since an uncertain income stream is worth less in utility terms than a certain income stream we argue that heightened rural volatility increases the effective urban-rural income gap and intensifies not weakens poverty concerns. Using Chinese longitudinal rural survey data for which current decompositions can be replicated, we make adjustments for certainty equivalence of rural household income streams which not only widen the urban-rural income gap in China but also increases other distributional summary statistics. Depending upon values used for the coefficient of relative risk aversion, the measured urban-rural income gap increases by 20-30% using a certainty equivalent measure to adjust rural incomes for volatility. We also conduct similar analyses using consumption data, for which slightly larger increases occur.


In this paper we present the development of Acceleratable UVCs from standard UVCs in System Verilog and their usage in UVM based Verification Environment of Image Signal Processing designs to increase run time performance. This paper covers development of Acceleratable UVCs from standard UVCs for internal control and data buses of ST imaging group by partitioning of transaction-level components and cycle-accurate signal-level components between the software simulator and hardware accelerator respectively. Standard Co-Emulation API: Modeling Interface (SCE-MI) compliant, transaction-level communications link between test benches running on a host system and Emulation machine is established. Accelerated Verification IPs are used at UVM based Verification Environment of Image Signal Processing designs both with simulator and emulator as UVM acceleration is an extension of the standard simulationonly UVM and is fully backward compatible with it. Acceleratable UVCs significantly reduces development schedule risks while leveraging transaction models used during simulation. In this paper, we discuss our experiences on UVM based methodology adoption on TestBench-Xpress (TBX) based technology step by step. We are also doing comparison between the run time performance results from earlier simulator-only environment and the new, hardware-accelerated environment. Although this paper focuses on Acceleratable UVC's development and their usage for image signal processing designs. Same concept can be extended for non-image signal processing designs.


The dye widely used in sarung samarinda textile dyeing is direct black 38 (DB 38). A batch system applied to study the adsorption of DB 38 from aqueous solutions by chitosan hydrogel beads as adsorbent. The ionic cross-linking reagent sodium tripolyphosphate (STTP) used to obtain more rigid chitosan beads. The effects of contact time and adsorbent dose were evaluated. DB 38 and adsorbent inserted into flasks and were shaked at 150 rpm using an electric shaker at room temperature. Samples were filtered and analyzed using a UV-Vis at a wavelength of 505.7 nm to determine the concentration of DB 38. The results showed that chitosan produced in a spherical shape and diameter of 3 mm. The beads observed solid, rigid, white milk, not sticky and has water content of 96%. The use of chitosan hydrogel dose of 0,34 g (dry based) and contact time of 360 minutes can removal of DB 38 up to 92,42%. The maximum adsorption capacity is 4,93 mg/g, which followed Freundlich model.


Suspension-cultured cells of carrot contain three populations of coated vesicles, associated with the plasma membrane (84–91 nm diameter), Golgi dictyosomes and the partially coated reticulum (61–73 nm diameter). These were observed by thin sectioning, dry-cleaving and rapid-freeze deep-etching of cells. Dissociation of clathrin coats with Tris, released triskelions that were morphologically identical with those from mammalian tissue. The triskelion arm length of carrot clathrin was greater (61nm versus 44–50 nm), but packaging results in clathrin cages of pentagons and hexagons of similar size to those from mammalian cells. SDS-PAGE of Tris-released triskelion preparations revealed a complex of three polypeptides of 190, 60 and 57(x10 3 )M r . The 190x10 3 M r protein is the plant clathrin heavy chain, slightly larger than the mammalian heavy chain. The 60 and 57(x10 3 )M r bands showed the same sensitivities to protease treatment as mammalian light chains. Triskelion preparations containing these three proteins reassembled into polyhedral cages. These results are discussed in relation to the structural organization of coated vesicles and clathrin cages in other systems.


Paper accepted for presentation at the annual conference of the Society of Architectural Historians Marion Dean Ross / Pacific Northwest Chapter, Astoria, Oregon, May 18-20, 2018


Background Recruitment for Alzheimer's disease (AD)-focused studies, particularly prevention studies, is challenging due to the public's lack of awareness about study opportunities coupled with studies' inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulting in a high screen fail rate. Objectives To develop an internet-based participant recruitment registry for efficiently and effectively raising awareness about AD-focused study opportunities and connecting potentially eligible volunteers to studies in their communities. Methods Individuals age 18 and older are eligible to join the Alzheimer's Prevention Registry (APR). Individuals provide first and last name, year of birth, country, and zip/postal code to join the APR; for questions regarding race, ethnicity, sex, family history of AD or other dementia, and diagnosis of cognitive impairment, individuals have the option to select "prefer not to answer." The APR website maintains a list of recruiting studies and contacts members who have opted in by email when new studies are available for enrollment. Results As of December 1, 2019, 346,661 individuals had joined the APR. Members had a mean age of 63.3 (SD 11.7) years and were predominately women (75%). 94% were cognitively unimpaired, 50% reported a family history of AD or other dementia, and of those who provided race, 76% were white. 39% joined the APR as a result of a paid social media advertisement. To date, the APR helped recruit for 82 studies. Conclusions The APR is a large, internet-based participant recruitment registry designed to raise awareness about AD prevention research and connect members with enrolling studies in their communities. It has demonstrated the ability to recruit and engage a large number of highly motivated members and assist researchers in meeting their recruitment goals. Future publications will report on the effectiveness of APR for accelerating recruitment and enrollment into AD-focused studies.


We present an experimental method for measuring velocity gradients caused by distortions and rotations of arbitrary light scattering surfaces. The method is sensitive, gauge free and has a fairly high resolution. It is based on the scattering of a coherent plane light wave at the surface and the evaluation of the intensity pattern of the scattered light in the far field by use of a CCD camera. By properly choosing the scattering geometry one can measure specific components of the velocity gradient of the surface.


Partial base station coordination is analyzed on the downlink of a cellular system with randomly deployed base stations. In contrast with existing work, a stochastic geometry framework is considered for both base station deployment and base station clustering. The cluster-cells form a Poisson tessellation of the plane generated by Poisson distributed cluster base stations. Inter-cell interference nulling is applied to coordinate interference inside each cluster-cell. Both perfect and limited channel state information (CSI) sharing among coordinating base stations are considered. The average achievable rate with perfect CSI and the mean loss in rate due to limited CSI feedback are derived for a typical user inside the cell. Numerical results show that the average achievable rate with interference coordination as well as the mean loss in rate with equal-bit partitioning increase with increasing average cluster size and increasing number of antennas at the transmitter.


Potassium is a mineral [3] that helps your body conduct a number of critical functions. This mineral is also an electrolyte [4] that plays a role in normalizing blood pressure, muscle contraction, and the transmission of nerve impulses ? all pretty crucial functions for your body. There?s also some evidence that shows potassium helps your cells access nutrients and buffers against some negative effects of sodium in the body. The good news is that there are plenty of fresh, whole foods available that can supply you with an abundance of the essential mineral and give you plenty of energy for monkey business!


Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and C4 photosynthetic syndromes have much in common: they employ a shared biochemical pathway that enables the concentration of CO2 inside plant cells, they are both considered to be adaptations to stressful environments, and they are both arguably among the most convergent of complex traits, having each evolved multiple times in various plant lineages. They are also both signature elements of stress-adapted floras the world over and play fundamental roles in the ecological success of flowering plants. In spite of these similarities, the obvious phenotypic and ecological differences between certain groups of fully optimized C4 and CAM plants have led us to generally view these syndromes as very distinct ecological adaptations. A broad look at the distribution of CAM and C4 plants across a very large phylogeny of angiosperms highlights that while CAM photosynthesis seems to have evolved more often, both CAM and C4 origins show tight and overlapping clustering in many regions of the tree, suggesting that certain plant lineages are prone to evolve either pathway. Additionally, recent phylogenetic analyses revealed that the origins and diversification of many CAM and C4 lineages were recent and contemporaneous in time. We postulate that the evolutionary "starting points" for CAM and C4 pathways could be much more similar than typically acknowledged. Using species with C3-C4 and CAM-like intermediate phenotypes as models of CAM and C4 evolution has been productive, but the distinct advantages that each affords may have promoted rapid ecological divergence that subsequently masked any shared ancestral characteristics between the two pathways. Focusing on newly discovered phylogenetic "hotbeds" of CAM and C4 evolution will allow for inclusion of relevant C3 taxa and a finer evaluation of the possible environmental and organismal traits that would strongly favor the evolution of one syndrome over the other.


Intravenous administration of nutrition mixtures induces endothelial damage and arterial wall remodeling in animal models. To study endothelial function and common carotid artery mechanical properties in children receiving parenteral nutrition, we used noninvasive ultrasonic measurements in 18 children on parenteral nutrition and 18 controls. No difference appeared in the geometry of the common carotid artery (intima media thickness, systolic and diastolic diameters) between the patients on parenteral nutrition and the controls. The incremental elastic modulus was significantly higher in the patients on parenteral nutrition (1.8 ± 0.4 versus 1.4 ± 0.5 4 mm Hg · 103, p < 0.05) reflecting alteration of the elastic properties of the arterial wall independent of the vessel geometry. The flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery was significantly lower in the patients on parenteral nutrition (6 ± 3 versus 8 ± 3%, p < 0.05), whereas the dilatation after glyceryl trinitrate administration was similar (22 ± 9 versus 25 ± 9%). Children on parenteral nutrition exhibit endothelial dysfunction and altered stiffness of the common carotid artery. The noninvasive methods used in this study may prove useful for objectively determining the effects of various preventive methods.


Historical films are a widely discussed genre of visual narration as it poses the challenge of a reliable balance between history, myth and truth. Indian history and independence have been one of those themes that have been adapted into filmic narration, not only as a national oration, but from an international lens. Unlike any other historical moment, Indian Independence is the most celebrated and recurring themes of historical movies and still continuous to be a vibrant subject for Indian film makers. Dealing with the narration of a nation, often these films are looked at with a skeptical attitude, mostly because of its colonizer's view of the colonized. This article addresses Bhabha's (1994) interstitial perspective and mimicry of ambivalence positing that these films neither dominate nor propagate certain colonial ideologies, nor does it make the colonizer as a virtuous subject, but rather create an ambivalent identity, which is neither colonizer nor colonized, but a hybrid of it. Apart from some English productions on Indian colonial rule and independence, some Indian films are also taken as a case study to elucidate the concept of hybridity in cultural meaning. When the 'object' of history or the colonized reacts with their perception, it creates an ambivalence that is far different from the colonizer's perception.


Relative biological effectiveness (RBE) for the inactivation of V79 cells were determined using the initial slopes of survival curves (published in literature), the physical quality parameters are interpolated utilizing the standard values relevant to charged particles such as protons and heliums. The issues of utilizing physical parameters as quantifier of radiation effects that influence the effectiveness have been investigated. The results show that the effectiveness may represent in terms of other physical parameters rather than linear energy transfer (LET). Meanwhile, mean free path for linear primary ionization (λ) is expressed the generalized specifier physical quality parameter to quantify ionizing radiation effects at lower doses. Therefore, plot of mean free path as a function of RBE has been made to identify the physical features of this parameter as an alternative physical quality for LET.


Background Asthma is a major health problem world-wide. Prevalence surveys of asthma provide valid information and help design national programs of health care services. Recent data are missing from Greece. Objectives To study the prevalence of asthma and associated symptoms in the adult population of Greece. Methods A nation-wide, cross-sectional, community-based survey of asthma and asthma-like symptoms was conducted, using a pre-tested structured questionnaire based on the ECRHS Questionnaire for adults. A stratified random sampling method was used to select 2,191 participants, aged > 18 years old. Data was collected with face-to-face interviews. Results The self-reported current prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma and asthma-like symptoms were as follows: physician-diagnosed asthma 9 %, asthma attack 2.3%, use of asthma medication 3.7%, awakening from shortness of breath 22.3%, awakening from cough 24.1%, wheezing 19% and nasal allergies 23.3%. The incidence of asthma was calculated as 16 new cases per thousand people. Smoking prevalence was high both in the general population and in asthmatics (39.2% and 36.4%, respectively). Asthma prevalence was higher in Athens (10.9%), while there was no difference between rural and urban areas (8.5% and 7.8%, respectively). Conclusions The prevalence of asthma and associated symptoms in Greece is high, presenting a substantial increase from the last survey conducted 20 years ago. The results of this survey highlight the increasing social burden and impact of asthma in Greece and may aid policy makers and healthcare providers to plan effective health strategies for the proper diagnosis and management of this disease.


This article describes a study that has been made on the automation of deburring in a foundry. Circular castings weighing up to 20kg are deburred before delivery in order to make them fit into machining cells. The maximum production rate of the cylindrical castings on the foundry line is one casting every ten seconds. However, the castings are produced in small batches, typically ranging from 100 to 1,000. After casting and integrated sand blasting and cooling chambers, the castings are transferred further on a conveyor belt. Deburring is today done manually by lifting and pressing against different grinding and deburring machines. Bins and forklifts are used in transport and storage of castings, from production line to deburring and shipment.


Partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) and the belief-desire-intention (BDI) framework

have several complimentary strengths. We propose an agent architecture which combines these two powerful

approaches to capitalize on their strengths. Our architecture introduces the notion of intensity of the desire

for a goal's achievement. We also define an update rule for goals' desire levels. When to select a new goal to

focus on is also defined. To verify that the proposed architecture works, experiments were run with an agent

based on the architecture, in a domain where multiple goals must continually be achieved. The results show

that (i) while the agent is pursuing goals, it can concurrently perform rewarding actions not directly related to

its goals, (ii) the trade-off between goals and preferences can be set effectively and (iii) goals and preferences

can be satisfied even while dealing with stochastic actions and perceptions. We believe that the proposed

architecture furthers the theory of high-level autonomous agent reasoning.


We think that the major cause of the students' failure in introductory programming course is the lack of a basic skill, the problem solving ability. Several authors frequently regarded this skill as the most important cognitive activity in everyday, professional and educational contexts. In traditional programming teaching, generic problem solving is not emphasized. In this paper we discuss the concepts and stages of problem solving, considering also how experts and novices solve problems. The idea is that this analysis leads to a number of important principles for teach and learn problem solving strategies. The main purpose of this paper is to present the features of a system currently under development to support programming learning, focusing in problem solving activities.


Snow depth (SD) can be retrieved from spaceborne data through linear regression against the microwave brightness temperature difference between 19 and 37 GHz (or similar frequencies). Other methods use snow physical and/or snow electromagnetic (EM) models to estimate SD. Here, we introduce novel retrieval approaches that dynamically combine ancillary SD information (e.g., from snow physical models driven with surface meteorological data) with established algorithms based on regression or EM modeling. The basic idea is to recalibrate regression coefficients (or the effective grain size in the case of EM models) once per week in a simple data assimilation scheme. SD is retrieved from Special Sensor Microwave Imager brightness temperature data and evaluated against in situ observations from 37 stations throughout the Northern Hemisphere. As expected, the SD retrievals perform better with (weekly) ancillary SD inputs from in situ measurements (not used in validation) than with (weekly) ancillary SD inputs from snow physical modeling. The best results are obtained with the regression-based approach using dynamically recalibrated coefficients and ancillary SD inputs from in situ observations (rmse = 6 cm). The regression approach still performs better with the time average of the dynamic coefficients (rmse = 8 cm) than with standard literature values based on climatology ("REGR-CLIM"; rmse = 50 cm). For SD retrieval with an EM model, we obtain results comparable to REGR-CLIM (rmse = 44 cm). Driving the novel regression approaches with SD estimates from snow physical modeling still results in improvements over REGR-CLIM for all approaches (rmse = 15 cm). Comparable SD estimates are obtained from the snow physical model alone.


Malaria vector control campaigns generate rapid changes to ecology with concomitant selective pressures on their targets. Malaria mosquitoes, therefore, present an excellent system for studying ecological adaptation alongside the medical importance of understanding the evolution of insecticide resistance.

Adaptive introgression allows rapid adaptation through gene flow of fitness conferring loci from another species and, though commonly reported in plants, it is thought to be rare in animals. Using a whole genome sequencing approach, the impact of an insecticide resistance locus introgression between malaria vectors, A. gambiae and A. coluzzii, was investigated. The resistance locus lies within a genomic 'island', a large region of genome, highly divergent between the two species. Our results revealed that the inter-specific introgression transferred, not only the kdr resistance locus, but ~1.5% of the surrounding genome from A. gambiae into A. coluzzii, homogenising the entire island. These findings bring into debate hypotheses of the genomic islands' role in the speciation of these mosquitoes, as no increase in hybridisation had been recorded despite the large introgressed region sweeping through the A. coluzzii population. From a control perspective, these results also demonstrate how quickly a species can react to anthropogenic pressure, to escape chemical control.

In Ghana, as across much of A. gambiae and A. coluzzii's sympatric range, low levels of hybridisation are recorded, a fact that was in part used to validate the recent elevation to specific status of the pair. However, in the far-west of their range, much higher levels of hybridisation are reported. A microsatellite study, sampling a transect across a region known for high gene-flow in Guinea Bissau, was carried out to investigate this phenomenon, discovering a hybridisation hot-spot in the coastal region. We augmented this microsatellite study with WGS data, sequencing individuals from coastal and inland sites. Results revealed that in the coastal region alongside molecularly genotyped hybrids, mosquitoes which had been genotyped as pure species appeared to be admixed. Ancestry informative markers demonstrated asymmetric introgression from A. coluzzii into the coastal A. gambiae and, with A. coluzzii numbers falling in the region, species collapse or perhaps hybrid speciation may be occurring. In these high gene flow regions the mosquitoes do not conform to distinct taxonomic units and we show that whole genome characterisation is necessary to understand the evolutionary dynamics.

Understanding insecticide resistance is a major motivation in researching the genomics of malaria vectors, as resistance threatens the success of control campaigns. The voltage gated sodium channel (VGSC), is of particular interest, carrying several loci known to confer insecticide resistance in A. gambiae and A. coluzzii. We utilised 765 WGS individuals from the Anopheles gambiae 1000 Genomes Project, to investigate gene flow and evolution in this important gene. The data was phased then displayed in a network approach, to enable relationships between the VGSC haplotypes to be discerned. Striking was both the evidence for an abundance of long range gene flow, with resistant haplotypes shared across vast geographical distances, and for the high numbers and placement of non-synonymous mutations on haplotypes carrying resistance mutations. A hitherto unknown complexity of both the spread of resistance and protein altering mutations was found, suggesting current molecular assays may need revising.

Insecticide resistance is perhaps less well understood in another major malaria vector, A. arabiensis. Recent advances in genomic resources for the species enabled us to carry out a genome wide association study (GWAS) to identify insecticide resistance candidates. To produce confidence in results, a pool-seq approach was taken, sequencing and comparing the allele frequencies of over 1000 resistance phenotyped individuals. Several candidate regions were found, the strongest of which we investigated further. The ~225kb region on the 2R chromosome arm straddled a cluster of cytochrome P450 genes, known to be involved in detoxification, including CYP6P2, a gene previous linked to pyrethroid resistance in this species. These results revealed this technique to be both viable and useful for identifying phenotype/genotype candidates in wild populations of mosquitoes.

The work herein demonstrates that the genomic study of Anopheles malaria vectors is not just powerful in medical context, but that these animals provide excellent natural systems for evolutionary study. A. gambiae in Ghana and in Guinea Bissau provide natural experiments contrasting how species integrity reacts in low and high gene flow situations, while investigations into the VGSC and insecticide resistance in A. arabiensis shine light on how organisms adapt to rapidly changing ecologies.


In this study, stressed overlayers and nanoindentation were used to study the effect of elevated temperature on the resistance to interfacial fracture of gold-chromium films in hybrid microcircuits. The samples were prepared by sputter deposition of gold films and chromium adhesive layers onto sapphire substrates. Some films were left in the as-deposited condition for testing. Others were annealed until either most or all the chromium adhesive layer had diffused from the substrate interface. Stressed overlayers and nanoindentation were then used to drive interfacial delamination and blister formation. From these blisters, interfacial fracture energies were determined using mechanics-based models modified for multilayer film effects. The results clearly showed that the chromium interlayers increased interfacial fracture energy. However, they showed an even greater increase in fracture energy after diffusion had reduced the continuous chromium adhesion layer to a solid solution of gold and chromium, suggesting two different mechanisms act to control resistance to interfacial fracture in these films.


The study evaluated the adoption and farmers' practice of raised bed technology at farm level since the close of the Soil Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SMCRSP) through a follow-up survey conducted at Durgapur Upazila of Rajshahi district. Data for the study were collected from 195 adopters and 65 non-adopters through a pre-tested interview schedule during May, 2011. The survey findings showed that the raised bed technology had a strong demonstration effect and were adopted well (56%) by the respondent farmers. The probability of adopting this technology was significantly influenced by extension contact, societal membership, and the number of male member in the household. Due to lack of machine, most farmers prepared raised bed by hand (82.7%) without maintaining recommended bed size. The most cultivated crops on bed were wheat (cultivated by 97.95% farmers) maize (27.69%) onion (16.41%) and mungbean (12.31%). Respondent farmers mentioned various positive benefits of bed technology and willing to continue this practice in future with increased area of land. This immerging technology increased cop productivity and farmers' income to some extent. To popularize the raised bed technology among farmers, bed planter should be available to the farmers and the positive benefits should be broadcasted in the mass media


In this paper, we investigate whether and to what extent exposure to a company's social media activities over time is beneficial for corporate reputation, and whether conversational human voice mediates this relation. In a two-wave longitudinal survey among 1969 respondents, we assessed consumers' exposure to an international airline's social media activities, perceived level of conversational human voice and perception of corporate reputation. The results show that consumers' level of exposure to company social media activities precedes perceptions of corporate reputation. Also, conversational human voice mediates the relation between consumers' level of exposure to company social media activities and perceptions of corporate reputation. We discuss the implications of the results for the presence of organizations in social media.


Purpose of the research. The paper aims to analyse the relationship between migration and the sustainable development of the countries, identifying the tendencies evolutions of the migration theory in the context of three dimensions: content, geographical and historical. Methodology. The description of tendencies of the evolution of the theory of management of migration processes was done with bibliometric analysis tools. For this purpose, the author generated the meta-data of scientific publications on the researched issues from Scopus. The results of the bibliometric analysis were visualised using VOSviewer. To determine the relationship between migration and sustainable development of the country, a nonparametric measure of Spearman's correlation was calculated using the EViews. Results. According to bibliometric analysis, the main directions of scientific research on migration issues are determined. The development of the theory of management of migration processes by geographical and temporal dimensions is described. The following scientific clusters could be highlighted: the most significant cluster (red) – focuses on the general aspects of the migration; green cluster – focuses on the demography and cultural as core factors that influenced migration; blue cluster – focuses on the impact of migration policy and governance efficiency on the migration; yellow cluster – linking among gender factor, economic and social development, and migration. It was determined that the latest publications focus on the study of relationships among migration processes and the effectiveness of sustainable development goals. Practical meaning. The author empirically proved the existence of a correlation between migration and sustainable development of the country. Prospects for further research. The results justified the necessity to test the hypothesis of long-term causal links between migration and indicators of sustainable development of the country.


Despite the advantages of an electrochemical control for drug release, only a handful of electrochemical-based release systems have been developed so far. We report herein on the development of an electrochemically activatable platform for on-demand delivery of drugs. It is based on flexible gold thin film electrodes coated with porous reduced graphene oxide (prGO) nanosheets onto which the drug of interest has been integrated beforehand. Two different drugs are investigated here: ondansetron hydrochloride (ODS), a selective 5-HT3 receptor antagonist used for preventing nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and ampicillin (AMP), an antibiotic to prevent and treat a number of bacterial infections such as respiratory tract infections, urinary tract infections, and meningitis. In the case of ODS, application of a negative potential bias of -0.8 V results in a sustained slow ODS release with an ODS flux of 47 μg cm-2 h-1. In the case of AMP, we show that polyethyleneimine modified prGO (prGO/PEI) is an extremely efficient matrix. Upon the application of +0.8 V, 24% of AMP could be released from the electrical interface in a time span of 2 h. The released AMP kept its antibacterial activity as demonstrated by antimicrobial tests. These examples illustrate the major benefits of the developed approach for biomedical applications.


Stress, Adaptation, and Self-Organization: Balancing Processes Facilitate Health and Survival Background: Stress is of growing significance not only in established industrial countries. Preventive medical aspects are becoming important in association with the stress phenomenon. Objective: Discussing the correlation between stress and health (or disease). Does a state of dynamic balance play a role in the context of stress, allostasis, adaptation, and self-organization? What kind of influence do balancing processes have on health and survival? Results: Stress itself is neither harmful nor healthy. Instead, it represents a fundamental biological principle that is associated with vivacity and that facilitates adaptation, dynamic balance, self-organization, and survival within a constantly changing environment. Stress may also be of significance for biological evolution. A crucial part of the physiological concept is the autoregulatory stress response. Thereby, stress may enhance biological creativity and health, but may also lead to allostatic load and disease. Not only exogenous stressors, but also the subject itself decide upon the individual stress outcome. Conclusions: Dynamic balances characterize life and survival. Further, they are crucial for health processes. Stress may facilitate a 'healthy' balance or enhance disease processes likewise. Hence, the subjective inner structure or self-organization of an organism determines – in addition to exogenous factors – individual consequences of stress. Therefore, prevention should strengthen the subject and amplify self-capacity and responsibility. Professional stress-management strategies or integrative/mind-body medical programs may be helpful.


Quantifying the uncertainty of wind energy potential from climate models is a very time-consuming task and requires a considerable amount of computational resources. A statistical model trained on a small set of runs can act as a stochastic approximation of the original climate model, and be used to assess the uncertainty considerably faster than by resorting to the original climate model for additional runs. While Gaussian models have been widely employed as means to approximate climate simulations, the Gaussianity assumption is not suitable for winds at policy-relevant time scales, i.e., sub-annual. We propose a trans-Gaussian model for monthly wind speed that relies on an autoregressive structure with Tukey $g$-and-$h$ transformation, a flexible new class that can separately model skewness and tail behavior. This temporal structure is integrated into a multi-step spectral framework that is able to account for global nonstationarities across land/ocean boundaries, as well as across mountain ranges. Inference can be achieved by balancing memory storage and distributed computation for a data set of 220 million points. Once fitted with as few as five runs, the statistical model can generate surrogates fast and efficiently on a simple laptop, and provide uncertainty assessments very close to those obtained from all the available climate simulations (forty) on a monthly scale.


Abstract The performance of (ensemble) Kalman filters used for data assimilation in the geosciences critically depends on the dynamical properties of the evolution model. A key aspect is that the error covariance matrix is asymptotically supported by the unstable–neutral subspace only, i.e. it is spanned by the backward Lyapunov vectors with non-negative exponents. The analytic proof of such a property for the Kalman filter error covariance has been recently given, and in particular that of its confinement to the unstable–neutral subspace. In this paper, we first generalize those results to the case of the Kalman smoother in a linear, Gaussian and perfect model scenario. We also provide square-root formulae for the filter and smoother that make the connection with ensemble formulations of the Kalman filter and smoother, where the span of the error covariance is described in terms of the ensemble deviations from the mean. We then discuss how this neat picture is modified when the dynamics are nonlinear and chaotic, and for which analytic results are precluded or difficult to obtain. A numerical investigation is carried out to study the approximate confinement of the anomalies for both a deterministic ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) and a four-dimensional ensemble variational method, the iterative ensemble Kalman smoother (IEnKS), in a perfect model scenario. The confinement is characterized using geometrical angles that determine the relative position of the anomalies with respect to the unstable–neutral subspace. The alignment of the anomalies and of the unstable–neutral subspace is more pronounced when observation precision or frequency, as well as the data assimilation window length for the IEnKS, are increased. These results also suggest that the IEnKS and the deterministic EnKF realize in practice (albeit implicitly) the paradigm behind the approach of Anna Trevisan and co-authors known as the assimilation in the unstable subspace.