Abstract. Rainfall-induced landslides number among the most devastating natural hazards in the world and early warning models are urgently needed to reduce losses and fatalities. Most landslide early warning systems are based on rainfall thresholds defined on the regional scale, regardless of the different landslide susceptibilities of various slopes. Here we divided slope units in southern Taiwan into three categories (high, moderate and low) according to their susceptibility. For each category, we established separate rainfall thresholds so as to provide differentiated thresholds for different degrees of susceptibility. Logistic regression (LR) analysis was performed to evaluate landslide susceptibility by using event-based landslide inventories and predisposing factors. Analysis of rainfall patterns of 941 landslide cases gathered from field investigation led to the recognition that 3 h mean rainfall intensity (I3) is a key rainfall index for rainfall of short duration but high intensity; in contrast, 24 h accumulated rainfall (R24) was recognized as a key rainfall index for rainfall of long duration but low intensity. Thus, the I3–R24 rainfall index was used to establish rainfall thresholds in this study. Finally, an early warning model is proposed by setting alert levels including yellow (advisory), orange (watch) and red (warning) according to a hazard matrix. These differentiated thresholds and alert levels can provide essential information for local governments to use in deciding whether to evacuate residents.


Ammonium (NH4+) is a major constituent of many contaminated groundwaters, but its movement through aquifers is complex and poorly documented. In this study, processes affecting NH4+ movement in a treated wastewater plume were studied by a combination of techniques including large‐scale monitoring of NH4+ distribution; isotopic analyses of coexisting aqueous NH4+, NO3−, N2, and sorbed NH4+; and in situ natural gradient 15NH4+ tracer tests with numerical simulations of 15NH4+, 15NO3−, and 15N2 breakthrough data. Combined results indicate that the main mass of NH4+ was moving downgradient at a rate about 0.25 times the groundwater velocity. Retardation factors and groundwater ages indicate that much of the NH4+ in the plume was recharged early in the history of the wastewater disposal. NO3− and excess N2 gas, which were related to each other by denitrification near the plume source, were moving downgradient more rapidly and were largely unrelated to coexisting NH4+. The δ15N data indicate areas of the plume affected by nitrification (substantial isotope fractionation) and sorption (no isotope fractionation). There was no conclusive evidence for NH4+‐consuming reactions (nitrification or anammox) in the anoxic core of the plume. Nitrification occurred along the upper boundary of the plume but was limited by a low rate of transverse dispersive mixing of wastewater NH4+ and O2 from overlying uncontaminated groundwater. Without induced vertical mixing or displacement of plume water with oxic groundwater from upgradient sources, the main mass of NH4+ could reach a discharge area without substantial reaction long after the more mobile wastewater constituents are gone. Multiple approaches including in situ isotopic tracers and fractionation studies provided critical information about processes affecting NH4+ movement and N speciation.


The empirical line (EL) calibration method is commonly used for atmospheric correction of remotely sensed spectral images and recovery of surface reflectance. The current EL-based methods are applicable to calibrate only single images. Therefore, the use of the EL calibration is impractical for imaging campaigns, where many (partially overlapped) images are acquired to cover a large area. In addition, the EL results are unconstrained and an undesired reflectance with negative values or larger than 100% can be obtained. In this paper, we use the standard EL model to formulate a new generalized empirical line (GEL) model. Based on the GEL, we present a novel method for simultaneous and constrained calibration of multiple images. This new method allows for calibration through multiple image constrained empirical line (MIcEL) and three additional calibration modes. Given a set of images, we use the available ground targets and automatically extracted tie points between overlapping images to calibrate all the images in the set simultaneously. Quantitative and visual assessments of the proposed method were carried out relatively to the off-the-shelf method quick atmospheric correction  (QUAC), using real hyperspectral images and field measurements. The results clearly show the superiority of MIcEL with respect to the minimization of the difference between the reflectance values of the same object in different overlapping images. An assessment of the absolute accuracy, with respect to 11 field measurement points, shows that the accuracy of MIcEL, with an average mean absolute error (MAE) of ∼11%, is comparable with respect to the QUAC.


The owl, an ancient symbol of wisdom, and the lynx, signifying alert observation, are prominent figures in the bas-relief adorning the cheneau on the eaves of the National Academy of Sciences' building in Washington, DC. The use of these symbols on the front cover of this book suggests that insight, judgment, and vigilance are essential to ensuring integrity in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. Responsible Science is a review of factors that influence the integrity of the research process. Volume I examines reports on the incidence of misconduct in science and also reviews institutional and governmental efforts to handle cases of misconduct.


ABSTRACT The Mediterranean group (commonly known as Q biotype; hereafter MED) of the sweetpotato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius), originated in the Mediterranean region, but it now has been found in at least 10 countries outside the Mediterranean. Collections of B. tabaci from some of these countries exhibit different pest behaviors and pesticide resistance characteristics, yet all may be classified as MED. A phylogenetic analysis of 120 mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I (mtCOI) sequences (JN966761–JN966880) of MED whiteflies collected in Arizona and of 417 retrieved from the GenBank database resolves the MED into five subclades, designated as Q1–Q5. Only subclades Q1 and Q2 have been detected in the United States. Q1 and the other four subclades (Q2–Q5) differ in the number or position of the AluI recognition sites. Based on the differences in the AluI recognition sites reported here and the previously reported differences in VspI recognition sites, we developed a simple diagnostic technique to identify subclades Q1–Q5 by using mtCOI polymerase chain reaction (PCR) -restriction fragment-length polymorphism (RFLP). A test of a worldwide collection of whiteflies demonstrates that this combination mtCOI PCR-RFLP technique can reliably distinguish not only the MED from the Middle East-Asia Minor 1 group but also the Q1 from any of the other four MED subclades.


The molecular structure of human skin fibroblast heparan sulphate was examined by specific chemical or enzymic depolymerization and high-resolution separation of the resulting oligosaccharides and disaccharides. Important features of the molecular organization, disaccharide composition and O-sulphate disposition of this heparan sulphate were identified. Analysis of the products of HNO2 hydrolysis revealed a polymer in which 53% of disaccharide units were N-acetylated and 47% N-sulphated, with an N-/O-sulphate ratio of 1.8:1. These two types of disaccharide unit were mainly located in separate domains. Heparitinase and heparinase scission indicated that the iduronate residues (37% of total hexuronate) were largely present in contiguous disaccharide sequences of variable size that also contained the majority of the N-sulphate groups. Most of the iduronate residues (approx. 70%) were non-sulphated. About 8-10% of disaccharide units were cleaved by heparinase, but only a minority of these originated from contiguous sequences in the intact polymer. Trisulphated disaccharide units [alpha-N-sulpho-6-sulphoglucosaminyl-(1----4)-iduronate 2-sulphate], which are the major structural units in heparin, made up only 3% of the disaccharide units in heparan sulphate. O-Sulphate groups (approx. 26 per 100 disaccharide units) were distributed almost evenly among C-6 of N-acetylglucosamine, C-2 of iduronate and C-6 of N-sulphated glucosamine residues. The results indicate that the sulphated regions of heparan sulphate have distinctive and potentially variable structural characteristics. The high content of non-sulphated iduronate in this heparan sulphate species suggests a conformational versatility that could have important implications for the biological properties of the polymer.


Generalizations derived from experimental studies of enzymic disorganization and stability of membranes of cellular structures (microsomes, mitochondria, lysosomes, cytoplasmic membrane) of various organs and systems (liver, kidney, lung, brain, placenta, gonads, alveolar macrophages and others) due to hepato-, neuro-, gonado-, embryotoxic, mutagenic and carcinogenic effect of chemical pollutants of the environment are presented. Evaluation of the membrane-damaging effect taking into account the stage of labilization of biomembranes (according to severity of manifestation) and compensatory defence reactions at the moleculo-cellular level (alveolar macrophages) is recommended. Classification of biochemical methods (according to priority) is proposed for the evaluation of early functional changes during the examination of the health state of the population in dependence on the effect of environmental factors.


Historically, scientists who perform low-level measurements of 14C for age dating, and 3H2O for environmental contamination, have purchased or constructed highly specialized instruments to quantitate low-level radionuclides using a general-purpose liquid-scintillation analyzer (LSA). The LSA uses special time-resolved 3-D spectrum analysis (TR-LSC) to reduce background without substantially affecting sample counting efficiency. This technique, in combination with a special slow fluor scintillating plastic, further reduces the minimal detectable limit for the TR-LSC liquid scintillation counter.


: In the development of dental and facial system primary teeth undergo a series of topographic and morphological changes. Regular alignment of upper and lower dental arches temporary occlusion depends mostly on genetic factors although type of feeding may also play a significant role. According to the results of the study, conducted in 150 children aged 3 to 8 years we can conclude that the purpose of the modern restoration of deciduous teeth is to restore the aesthetic and functional architectonics of the crown, taking into account its value in the occlusion and articulation, as well as indirect influence of restoration on the growth and development of dental system.


By combining a tilted-pulse-intensity-front scheme using a LiNbO3 crystal and a chirped-pulse-beating method, we generated a narrowband intense terahertz (THz) pulse, which had a maximum electric field of more than 10 kV/cm at around 2 THz, a bandwidth of about 50 GHz,and frequency tunability from 0.5 to 2 THz. By performing THz-pump and near-infrared-probe experiments on GaAs quantum wells, we observed that the resonant excitation of the intraexcitonic 1s-2p transition induces a clear and large Autler-Townes splitting. Our time-resolved measurements show that the splitting energy observed in the rising edge region of electric field is larger than in the constant region. This result implies that the splitting energy depends on the time-averaged THz field over the excitonic dephasing time rather than that at the instant of the exciton creation by a probe pulse.


Browning of white adipocytes (beiging) is an attractive therapeutic strategy against obesity attributed to the enhanced capacity of heat production. Betatrophin as a novel cold-derived adipokines, is necessary for adipogenesis. Recent data suggest that Betatrophin deficient mice displayed increased thermogenesis and reduced body weight. But its role in the browning of white adipocytes remains unknown. Here, we report that deletion of Betatrophin in 3T3-L1 adipocytes enhanced expression of brown fat-specific markers (UCP-1, PRDM16 and CIDEA), mitochondrial biogenesis genes (PGC-1α) and the key lipid metabolism lipases (ATGL), Additionally, those effects were dramatically abolished by compound C, revealing silencing Betatrophin-induced browning depend on activation of AMPK signaling pathways. Overall, our findings suggest that Betatrophin is a candidate target gene treating obesity due to its function of inhibiting white adipocyte browning conversion. Disclosure X. Qi: None. Z. Liao: None. Y. Wang: None. J. Li: None. J. Liu: None. X. Xiao: None.


Who has never encountered a bully? Who has never told?or been told?a story of a bully? With an uncanny insight into what bullies are all about, Nick Fonda brings sensitivity and even humour to an otherwise sinister topic.
Everybody knows that bullying is not limited to physical violence or intimidation and that bullies don't necessarily look or dress like thugs. Through the voices of boys and girls, men and women, Nick Fonda recounts events and puts words to feelings and emotions that mark people's lives. His characters include the biased principal who wreaks havoc as he protects his own pets, wicked adoptive parents, and the neighborhood tough who, with his parents' approval, terrorizes anybody smaller than him.

These eleven intriguing stories, ably illustrated by Denis Palmer, will charm, surprise, and stir readers. A thought-provoking delight for educators, parents, and students, in fact, anybody who has been confronted by abuse of power, be it subtle or flagrant.


. We propose a game-theoretic model of the reliability of decentralised systems based on Varian's model of system reliability [27], to which we add a new normalised total effort case that models decentralisation conscious players who prioritise decentralisation. We derive the Nash equilibria in the normalised total effort game. In these equilibria, either one or two values are played by players that do not free ride. The speed at which players can adjust their contributions can determine how an equilibrium is reached and equilibrium values. The behaviour of decentralisation conscious players is robust to deviations by other players. Our results highlight the role that decentralisation conscious players can play in maintaining decentralisation. They also highlight, however, that by supporting an equilibrium that requires an important contribution they cannot be expected to increase decentralisation as contributing the equilibrium value may still imply a loss for many players. We also discuss practical constraints on decentralisation in the context of our model.


The problem of discriminating the state of a quantum system among a number of hypothetical states is usually addressed under the assumption that one has perfect knowledge of the possible states of the system. In this thesis, I analyze the role of the prior information available in facing such problems, and consider scenarios where the information regarding the possible states is incomplete. In front of a complete ignorance of the possible states' identity, I discuss a quantum "programmable" discrimination machine for qubit states that accepts this information as input programs using a quantum encoding, rather than as a classical description. The optimal performance of these machines is studied for general qubit states when several copies are provided, in the schemes of unambiguous, minimum-error, and error-margin discrimination. Then, this type of automation in discrimination tasks is taken further. By realizing a programmable machine as a device that is trained through quantum information to perform a specific task, I propose a quantum "learning" machine for classifying qubit states that does not require a quantum memory to store the qubit programs and, nevertheless, performs as good as quantum mechanics permits. Such learning machine thus allows for several optimal uses with no need for retraining. A similar learning scheme is also discussed for coherent states of light. I present it in the context of the readout of a classical memory by means of classically correlated coherent signals, when these are produced by an imperfect source. I show that, in this case, the retrieval of information stored in the memory can be carried out more accurately when fully general quantum measurements are used. Finally, as a transversal topic, I propose an efficient algorithmic way of decomposing any quantum measurement into convex combinations of simpler (extremal) measurements.


A highly integrated, low power GALILEO/GPS front-end for the new generation of positioning services has been designed using a 0.35 mum SiGe process. It has been implemented using a 6 MHz bandwidth low IF architecture whose IF frequency is 4 MHz approximately. The front-end exhibits a voltage gain of 103 dB and present a SSB noise figure of 3.7 dB which makes it suitable for high sensitivity applications. The achieved power consumption is only 62 mW from a 3V voltage supply with no compromise with performance and with a minimal amount of external components


INTRODUCTION
Happiness is one of the most important concepts in the mental health that has an impact on different aspects of young people.

AIM
The present study was conducted to identify the factors influencing on happiness among young persons in Liam, Iran during 2014.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted among young population 15-29-year-old. Multistage cluster random sampling method was used to select the participants. Data were collected using two demographic and Oxford Happiness Inventory. SPSS software Package 14 was used to analyse the data.

RESULTS
A total of 500 young people, including 272 men and 228 women were enrolled. The Mean ± SD of the participants' age was 20 ± 2.18 years. There was a significant relationship between the happiness score and location in urban and rural, employment status and physical activity. There was not a significant relationship between gender, marital status and education level with happiness score among participants.

CONCLUSION
The age groups, type of occupation, physical activity and place of residence were factors associated with happiness in young persons. However, there was not significant relationship between gender, marital status and education level with a happiness score among study participants.


At low coverages, alkali, alkaline earth, and rare earth layers adsorbed on furrowed transition metal surfaces--such as the Mo(112) surface--demonstrate a quite unusual behavior. In contrast to well-known formation of one-dimensional wires lying in furrows of reconstructed surfaces of semiconductors and noble metals, these metals on the W(112), Mo(112), and Re(1010) surfaces tend to form commensurate linear structures built of monoatomic chains directed across the furrows. Monte-Carlo simulations of the increasing disorder of the chains with increasing temperature provides a transparent presentation of typical fluctuations in such linear structures. Such studies provide insight into the parameters of indirect interaction that are the basis for the formation of the atomic wires. Increasing coverage leads to a one-dimensional compression of the layers along the furrows, which results in dramatic changes in the surface electronic structure as revealed by photoemission ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy and electron energy loss (EELS) spectroscopies. Recent low energy electron diffraction, UPS, and electron energy loss spectroscopy data suggest a nonmetal to metal transition in the adsorbed alkaline earth layers when the coverage exceeds 1/2 monolayer and the film structure becomes incoherent with the substrate in direction along the furrows. The NMT in adsorbed layers is discussed in the framework of recent calculations of evolution of the band structure followed from increasing density of the films.


A reliable electrical energy supply is a prerequisite for improving the standard economic and quality of life levels in a country. As is the case in many countries, Iraq is home to a collection of remote villages. Since it is uneconomical to connect these villages to the existing grid, the installation of stand- alone electrical power generators has become common practice. As a result, diesel stand-alone power generators see widespread use in these remote locales, which, whilst fit for their intended purpose, unfortunately suffer from several drawbacks, including instability in regards to everyday oil prices and a number of environmental issues. The implementation of a PV/FC hybrid power system could be one potential alternative to help solve these problems. Therefore, this paper will present PV/FC system control strategies alongside information relating to the performance of such system components, based on a case study that was conducted in Al-Gowair, Iraq. This study is especially important in terms of envisioning the future energy supply needs of Iraq. The HOMER simulation results showed that by using the proposed control strategies and suggested components of a PV/FC system, it was able to produce a satisfactory outcome.


Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS) is a severe and often fatal rodent-borne zoonosis. Maporal (MAP) virus is a newly discovered hantavirus that originally was isolated from an arboreal rice rat captured in central Venezuela. The results of this study indicate that MAP virus in the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) can cause a disease that is clinically and pathologically remarkably similar to HPS. The similarities include the time course of clinical disease, presence of virus-specific IgG at the onset of clinical disease, subacute pneumonitis, rapid onset of diffuse alveolar edema in the absence of necrosis, hepatic-portal triaditis, mononuclear-cellular infiltrate in lung and liver, widespread distribution of hantaviral antigen in endothelial cells of the microvasculature of lung and other tissues, and variable lethality. These similarities suggest that the MAP virus-hamster system is a useful model for studies of the pathogenesis of HPS and for the evaluation of potential therapeutic agents.


We introduce SPECFEM2D-DG, an open-source, time-domain, hybrid Galerkin software modeling the propagation of seismic and acoustic waves in coupled solid-fluid systems. For the solid part, the visco-elastic system from the routinely used SPECFEM2D software is used to simulate linear seismic waves subject to attenuation. For the fluid part, SPECFEM2D-DG includes two extensions to the acoustic part of SPECFEM2D, both relying on the Navier-Stokes equations to model high-frequency acoustics, infrasound, and gravity waves in complex atmospheres. The first fluid extension, SPECFEM2D-DG-FNS, was introduced in 2017 by Brissaud, Martin, Garcia, and Komatitsch; it features a non-linear Full Navier-Stokes (FNS) approach discretised with a discontinuous Galerkin numerical scheme. In this contribution, we focus only on introducing a second fluid extension, SPECFEM2D-DG-LNS, based on the same numerical method but rather relying on the Linear Navier-Stokes (LNS) equations. The three main modules of SPECFEM2D-DG all use the Spectral Element Method (SEM). For both fluid extensions (FNS and LNS), two-way mechanical coupling conditions preserve the Riemann problem solution at the fluid-solid interface. Absorbing outer boundary conditions (ABCs) derived from the Perfectly Matched Layers' (PML) approach are proposed for the LNS extension. The SEM approach supports complex topographies and unstructured meshes. The LNS equations allow the use of range-dependent atmospheric models, known to be crucial for the propagation of infrasound at regional scales. The LNS extension is verified using the method of manufactured solutions, and convergence is numerically characterized. The mechanical coupling conditions at the fluid-solid interface (between the LNS and elastodynamics systems of equations) are verified against theoretical reflection-transmission coefficients. The ABCs in the LNS extension are tested and prove to yield satisfactory energy dissipation. In an example case study, we model infrasonic waves caused by quakes occurring under various topographies; we characterize the acoustic scattering conditions as well as the apparent acoustic radiation pattern. Finally, we discuss the example case and conclude by describing the capabilities of this software. SPECFEM2D-DG is open-source and is freely available online on GitHub.


The old clinical classification of subacute or chronic diffuse nephritis (chronic parenchymatous nephritis) with edema, and its pathologic counterpart, the large white kidney, has been superseded by the present day concepts of chronic nephrosis and the nephrotic phase of glomerulonephritis, developed from the work of F. Muller, Munk, Volhard and Fahr, A. A. Epstein and others. The clinical picture of pure or uncomplicated nephrosis has been repeatedly defined in recent years (principally in the German and American literatures) as one of profuse albuminuria, edema, oliguria, insidious onset, normal concentrating power of the kidney, prolonged course with tendency to cyclic remissions and low basal metabolic rate (occasional), with absence of cardiovascular changes, such as hypertension, retinitis, hematuria or uremia. Furthermore, it is widely maintained that chronic nephrosis manifested by degenerative changes in the kidney tubules, without demonstrable glomerular lesions, in adults at least, is an uncommon condition; that, much more frequently,


Sovereign debt restructurings are associated with declines in the growth of GDP, investment, bank credit to the private sector and capital flows. Our empirical findings show that the intensity of these losses depends on two aspects: whether the restructuring preempts a default and the extent of the country's reliance on bank intermediation. Post-default restructurings are associated with worse outcomes than restructurings that take place preemptively without missing payments to creditors and going into default. Much of that difference is driven by the particularly adverse effects experienced after post-default restructurings in countries with relatively larger banking sectors.


Over the past two decades, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has pursued the delivery of high-density development in London in order to respond to population growth whilst protecting the green belt. Though high-density places have been associated with sustainable outcomes, it is well documented that residents interact less frequently and build fewer relationships in these environments. This can be particularly detrimental since social contact is fundamental for our general wellbeing and happiness. In response to this problematic, this study explored if and how we can design for social interaction in high-density housing. To do so, it adopted the process of inducting theory from case studies. Firstly, three case studies of recently completed developments were undertaken to determine whether social interaction was a driving factor in the design process, the type and location of social interactions, and clarify the influence of physical design on social contact in comparison to other factors. Three research methods were used to find answers to these questions including interviews with the residents and architects of the schemes, participant observation, and content analysis. These design-led schemes were chosen for investigation as award-winning developments which had received commendation for creating the foundations for a strong community. Next, a cross-case comparison was undertaken to identify hypotheses that addressed the research question and objectives. Providing support for existing literature in the context of high-density housing, it was discovered that limiting the number of apartments to a building allows for collective stewardship, and that communal areas shared by smaller groups are used more intensively. Moreover, combining shared paths and communal areas was observed to support fleeting interactions and helped to nurture a local sense of community. New findings included that externalizing the circulation spaces of multi-story apartment blocks can facilitate conversations between neighbors, and that bike stores can represent an epicenter for contact if internalized and co-located with shared paths. Notably, the impact of physical design factors was not deterministic.


One of the assumptions that underlies the profiling process is that criminals are behaviourally consistent from one offence to another. To date, however, this is an assumption that has not been scientifically validated. The present study therefore tested the assumption of behavioural consistency in serial rape offences. The author collected dichotomous data on 30 behavioural variables for a total of 439 offences committed by 121 serial rapists in New Zealand. There were two main research aims of the study. The first aim was to test the behavioural consistency of a range of individual behaviours. It was hypothesised that higher consistency would be found for behaviours that reflected a degree of planning or that prioritised control of the victim and the offence environment, because these behaviours might be less affected by environmental factors. In contrast, many sexual behaviours arise directly out of offender-victim interactions and therefore are most affected by environmental factors such as victim resistance. It was therefore also hypothesised that sexual behaviours would display lower consistency. A consistency measure was used that compared behaviour in consecutive offences. Consistency for each behaviour was defined as present-present or absent-absent matches of that behaviour in consecutive offences. The degree of consistency for any behaviour will be reflected in the consistency score received by that variable based on the number of matches for that behaviour across the offence series. The consistency analysis found moderate to high levels of consistency for the majority of individual behaviours. As predicted, higher consistency was exhibited for behaviours that prioritised control of the victim and the offence environment, and lower consistency was exhibited for the sexual behaviours. The second research aim was that if behavioural consistency was found in the results of the consistency analysis, to explore whether there were any underlying patterns to the consistency of offending behaviour. A factor analysis of the consistency scores established that there are clear patterns to the behavioural consistency of offenders consistent with previous analysis of offence characteristics. The factor analysis resulted in three themes or domains to behaviour: hostility, involvement and control. These findings have theoretical implications for the assumption of behavioural consistency in serial rapists, for the concepts of modus operandi and signature in offence behaviour, and for the theoretical understanding of the profiling process. The findings also have practical implications for the practice of profiling and case linkage in New Zealand, and raise possibilities for future directions in research.


In this paper we demonstrate a method for measuring the effect of spatial interactions on the adoption of hybrid rice using a unique, nationally-representative data set from Bangladesh. Based on resulst from a generalized spatial two-stage least squares estimation, we have shown that neighbor effects are a significant determinant of hybrid rice adoption. Further, using two specifications of spatial systems, we show that having a network including nearby hybrid rice adopters is more influential than having a network of more distant hybrid rice adopters, and that merely have a network with a large number of adopters may be relatively meaningless if they are far away. JEL classification: O13, O33, Q12


Objective: To compare the effects of Dexmedetomidine and Fentanyl on the blunting of the hemodynamic response to intubation.
Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital Peshawar Pakistan, from Jan to Aug 2021.
Methodology: This study was conducted on 908 patients who were ASA grades I and II and underwent general anaesthesia for any surgical procedure. Group-A received Dexmedetomidine, while Group-B received Fentanyl and routine preanaesthetic medications. Hemodynamic responses in both groups were recorded and compared in heart rate and mean arterial pressure at baseline, 2, 5, and 10 minutes after the intubation.
Results: Out of 908 patients equally divided into two groups, 579 (63.7%) were males, while 329 (36.3%) were females. The mean age of patients included in our study was 33.445 6.363 years. A significant increase in heart rate was found at 2, 5 and 10 minutes in the group who took Fentanyl compared to the group who took Dexmedetomidine (p-value 0.001).  ignificant increases in mean arterial pressure were found at 2 and 5 minutes (p-value 0.019 and 0.007, respectively) in the Fentanylgroup, while no significant difference was found at 10 minutes in either group (p-value 0.914).
Conclusion: In this study, Dexmedetomidine was found to be a better agent in providing hemodynamic stability during and after the process of intubation compared to Fentanyl.


Three new fluonmetnc assays were developed for the detection of pyroglutamyl ammopeptidase type-II (PAPII) activity. Two of these assays are based on hydrolysis of the TRH substrate analogue pGlu-His- Pro-MCA, while the third, a continuous assay, exploits the ability of the enzyme to hydrolyse the substrate pGlu-MCA.

Following solubilisation of PAPII from the membrane fraction o f bovme brain, using trypsin, the enzyme was purified 3,000-fold, with an overall yield of 24%, using a range of conventional chromatographic techniques.

By gel filtration chromatography, a relative molecular mass of 214,000 Da was determined for the enzyme The purified PAPII was found to be relatively labile. However, the presence of 1% v/v BSA was shown to greatly improve its stability. Optimal enzyme activity was observed at 45 °C A pH optimum of 6 8-7 6 was observed for the enzyme, with rapid inactivation occurring below pH 40 and above pH
92.

Purified PAPII was strongly inhibited by the transition metals Cd2+, Hg2+ and Zn2+, while activation was observed m the presence of Co2+. The enzyme was identified as a metallopeptidase on the basis of its inhibition, in a time dependent manner, by metal-complexing agents and its subsequent reactivation in the presence of metal ions, including Zn2+, Ni2+ and Co2+ Inhibition by cysteine protease inhibitors and activators and by the senne protease inhibitor AEBSF, was also observed.

Substrate specificity studies revealed that, with the exception of pGlu-Phe-Pro-NH2, pGlu-MCA and pGlu-BNA, the purified enzyme cleaves N-terminal pyroglutamic acid from only tn- and tetrapeptides with a His residue m the penultimate position. A number of N-terminal pyroglutamyl peptides of varying length were shown to competitively inhibit the enzyme. Of these, LHRH and LHRH 1-5, although not substrates for the enzyme, were found to be potent inhibitors, with Kj values of 8|xM and 11 (iM respectively.


The present work investigates the dominant mechanisms in the plasticity of nano-sized fcc metallic samples. Molecular dynamics simulations of nanopillar compression show that plasticity always starts with the nucleation of dislocations at the free surface, and the crystal orientation affects the subsequent microstructural evolution. The Schmid factor of leading and trailing partials plays a decisive role in leading to the twinning, or slip deformation. A significant difference is observed in the strength of pillars of the same size with different orientations. The power-law equation exponent is completely dependent on the crystal orientations, and a weak or no size effect is observed in the compression of [100]- and [110]-oriented nanopillars. The observed orientation based behaviour decreases by confining the free surface.


AIMS
To assess and synthesize the evidence of the effects and safety of non-pharmacological interventions in treating pain in patients with advanced cancer.

BACKGROUND
Pain is a common symptom experienced by patients with advanced cancer; the treatment of such pain is often suboptimal. To manage it, non-pharmacological interventions are recommended after pharmacological treatments have been re-evaluated and modified. However, there remains a lack of knowledge about the effects and safety of such interventions.

DESIGN
A systematic review was conducted based on the procedure of the Centre of Reviews and Dissemination.

DATA SOURCES
Research papers published between 2000-2013 were identified from the following databases: CINAHL, MEDIC, MEDLINE (Ovid) and PsycINFO. The references in the selected studies were searched manually.

REVIEW METHODS
The studies selected were reviewed for quality, using Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Review Group risk of bias assessment criteria.

RESULTS
There was limited evidence that some of the non-pharmacological interventions were promising with respect to reducing cancer pain. Relatively, few adverse events were reported as a result of using such interventions.

CONCLUSION
It was not possible to draw conclusions about the effects and safety of the non-pharmacological interventions in reducing cancer pain. Some interventions showed promising short-term effects, but there is a need for more rigorous trials. Qualitative studies are required to collect information about patients' perceptions. There are several research gaps: we found no studies about music, spiritual care, hypnosis, active coping training, cold or ultrasonic stimulation.


In this paper, we developed an infrared polarization imaging system. The system is composed of imaging lens, IR polarizing filter, medium wave IR detector, and image acquisition system. The design scheme of implementing target recognition with IR polarization imaging system was presented, and the IR Images with polarization information have been acquired by this system. On the basis of Stokes parameters and polarization IR images processing, the images of linear Stokes parameters (I, Q, U), the image of degree of linear polarization (P image) and the image of angle of polarization (X image) could been obtained. The image of PUX fusion image could be achieved by the pseudo color fusion. The results of actual experiment and quantitative analysis data confirm that the target in the processed images obtained from IR polarization imaging system is much clear than that in the original IR image.


Storing big data reliably is hard. Searching that data is just as hard. Basho Technologies, the company behind Riak KV and Riak Search, focuses on solving these two problems.
 Both Riak KV (a key-value datastore and map/reduce platform) and Riak Search (a Solr-compatible full-text search and indexing engine) are built around a library called Riak Core that manages the mechanics of running a distributed application in a cluster without requiring a central coordinator or shared state. Using Riak Core, these applications can scale to hundreds of servers, handle enterprise-sized amounts of data, and remain operational in the face of server failure.* This talk will describe the implementation, responsibilities, and boundaries of Riak Core, including how Riak Core:
 •Divides the data- or computing-domain of your application into separate virtual nodes located on different physical servers.
 •Distributes data and operations to the correct virtual nodes within the cluster.
 •Dynamically re-shapes the cluster without requiring a central coordinator when nodes enter, leave, crash, slow down, or go dark.
 •Provides the Erlang community with a solid platform for creating other distributed applications.
 Special attention will be paid to how Riak Core adopts common functional programming patterns and leverages OTP/Erlang libraries and behaviours.


A subcutaneous vein remover has been developed to facilitate harvesting of the greater saphenous vein. The technique described is applicable only to the segment of saphenous vein above the knee. This technique was used in 19 selected patients without complication; however, intraoperative and postoperative precautions are necessary to prevent bleeding and injury to the vein.


The research of exotic plant species detection and invasive plant risk analysis conducted in Halimun Salak corridor area. This study aims to do inventory of exotic plant species in this area and perform invasive plant risk analysis to the exotic plants found. T he invasion risk assessment of detected exotic plants analyzed using Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method. Moreover, analysis of multi-dimensional scaling (MDS) based on inequality performed on relative humidity, light intensity, and soil pH. There are eleven exotic plant species which consist of three tree species and eight species of herbs / shrubs. Lantana camara and Camellia sinensis are the exotic species with biggest and smallest WRA score respectively.  MDS analysis shows that exotic tree species have similar environmental variables. Moreover, environmental variables of Clidemia hirta are relatively different from other exotic species found in the Halimun Salak corridor. Recommendations for the management of invasive exotic plant species in the area are: immediate management implementation , priority of eradication to exotics that have not been abundant but have a high risk score, two management options (gradual eradication or containment) should be considered for exotic s with very high WRA score such as Ageratina riparina, Chromolaena odorata and Lantana camara .


As the COVID-19 pandemic started triggering widespread lockdowns across the globe, cybercriminals did not hesitate to take advantage of users' increased usage of the Internet and their reliance on it. In this paper, we carry out a comprehensive measurement study of online social engineering attacks in the early months of the pandemic. By collecting, synthesizing, and analyzing DNS records, TLS certificates, phishing URLs, phishing website source code, phishing emails, web traffic to phishing websites, news articles, and government announcements, we track trends of phishing activity between January and May 2020 and seek to understand the key implications of the underlying trends.We find that phishing attack traffic in March and April 2020 skyrocketed up to 220% of its pre-COVID-19 rate, far exceeding typical seasonal spikes. Attackers exploited victims' uncertainty and fear related to the pandemic through a variety of highly targeted scams, including emerging scam types against which current defenses are not sufficient as well as traditional phishing which outpaced the ecosystem's collective response.


This article considers an effective way of processing natural and technogenic magnesium-containing materials, which will release magnesium oxide and magnesium sulphate for the production of magnesian cement. Using this method, pure magnesium oxide, magnesium sulphate and magnesium sulfate have been obtained, the study considers the properties of magnesian cement with differeng magnesium oxide production conditions.
Keywords: non-conventional magnesium containing raw materials, technogenic materials, magnesian cement, hydrochemical processing, ammonium hydrosulfate


The collegiate and university realms--which include lectures, students, clinical and scientific sessions--is open to growth. Furthermore, it has opened gates for new currents of thought and planted hopes for the growth and development of professors who, apart from mastering their specialty, may be familiar with didactics and directly or indirectly engage in full-time research, so that their lecturing and promotions may partially depend on the number and quality of their published works, preferably on scientific research.


Pollution flashover occurs when soluble and nonsoluble materials cover the surface of an insulator, and this may ultimately cause a reduction in its performance. In this paper, the common type of sodium chloride (NaCl) was used as a soluble pollutant (ESDD) and kaolin as a nonsoluble pollutant (NSDD). Samples of silicone rubber (SiR) insulators were selected for this study and fabricated at the Advanced High Voltage Engineering Research Centre (AHIVEC) at Cardiff University. The samples were preconditioned and polluted according to standard specifications. Additionally, the AC voltage ramp technique was used to achieve flashover (FOV) voltage with different pollution levels. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of nonsoluble materials on flashover characteristics to understand their interaction with dry-band arcs by using FOV electrical equations and experimental data. The test results show that the FOV voltage of the silicone rubber insulator substantially decreased with the increase in both ESDD and NSDD values. It was also identified from these results that the dry-band arcs were considerably influenced by both ESDD and NSDD levels. This impact can be quantified by determining the variation of discharge parameters (N, n). Based on the FOV equations and experimental data, a mathematical model was suggested, taking into account the effect of both ESDD and NSDD.


This paper mainly presents the study on the properties of cement treated aggregate with different coarse aggregate content. The test specimens which contain 75%, 70%, 65%, 60% and 55% of coarse aggregates were made and the 7d, 28d, and 90d unconfined compressive strengths (UCS), 28d thremal shrinkage coefficient, as well as 90d anti-erosion performance were tested. Results show that with the increase of coarse aggregate, the maximum dry density (MDD)of the cement treated aggregate mixture increased slowly at first to reached the peak value and then decreased rapidly; The optimum moisture content (OMC) declined with the increase of coarse aggregate content; In order to enhance the UCS of cement treated aggregate, coarse aggregate of mixture can be increased to some extent, but too much coarse aggregate will increase the void of the specimen and lead to lower UCS; Increasing the content of coarse aggregate is able to decrease the thermal shrinkage coefficient and erosion quantity of 30 min of the specimens. This is favourable to enhance the cracking resistance and anti-erosion performance of cement treated aggregate base course.


BACKGROUND:Although the outcome of epilepsy surgery changes with time, few studies have considered longitudinal changes after frontal lobe epilepsy (FLE) surgery. OBJECTIVE:To assess the longitudinal changes after FLE surgery. METHODS:Resection of the seizure onset zone was performed in 76 patients with FLE. Invasive monitoring was performed in 56 of these 76. Awake craniotomy was performed in 43 of the 76 patients. More than 50% of patients were followed up for at least 7 years. The mean follow-up was 81 months. RESULTS:For all patients, the seizure-free rate was 79% at 6 months, 64% at 1 year, 55% at 2 years, and 55% at 7 years. For patients with cortical dysplasia, the seizure-free rate was 72% at 6 months, 53% at 1 year, 51% at 2 years, and 46% at 7 years. For patients with tumor, the seizure-free rate was 89% at 6 months, 83% at 1 year, 83% at 2 years, and 74% at 7 years. Patients with tumor showed better outcome than those with cortical dysplasia (P = .04). Although the overall seizure-free rate became stable after 2 years, individual status changed for up to 5 years. Seizures recurred in 11 patients within 1 year (early recurrence) and in 12 patients by 1 to 5 years (late recurrence). Antiepileptic drug (AED) medication was adjusted in all patients with recurrence. Patients with late recurrence had a more favorable response (Engel class I or II) than early recurrence (P < .01). CONCLUSION:The overall seizure outcome changes mostly during the first year. However, individual seizure status changes for up to 5 years. The outcome of late recurrence is favorable to AED adjustment.


ABSTRACT Pecking at small targets requires accurate spatial coordination of the head. Planning of the peck has been proposed to occur in two distinct stop phases, but although this idea has now been around for a long time, the specific functional roles of these stop phases remain unsolved. Here, we investigated the characteristics of the two stop phases using high-speed motion capture and examined their functions with two experiments. In experiment 1, we tested the hypothesis that the second stop phase is used to pre-program the final approach to a target and analyzed head movements while pigeons (Columba livia) pecked at targets of different size. Our results show that the duration of both stop phases significantly increased as stimulus size decreased. We also found significant positive correlations between stimulus size and the distances of the beaks to the stimulus during both stop phases. In experiment 2, we used a two-alternative forced choice task with different levels of difficulty to test the hypothesis that the first stop phase is used to decide between targets. The results indicate that the characteristics of the stop phases do not change with an increasing difficulty between the two choices. Therefore, we conclude that the first stop phase is not exclusively used to decide upon a target to peck at, but also contributes to the function of the second stop phase, which is improving pecking accuracy and planning the final approach to the target. Summary: Pigeons control their pecking movements with two distinct stop phases that are dependent on stimulus size and type.


Closed-form direct and inverse kinematics of a new three degree-of-freedom (DOF) parallel manipulator with inextensible limbs and base-mounted actuators are presented. The manipulator has higher resolution and precision than the existing three DOF mechanisms with extensible limbs. Since all of the manipulator actuators are base-mounted; higher payload capacity, smaller actuator sizes, and lower power dissipation can be obtained. The manipulator is suitable for alignment applications where only tip, tilt, and piston motions are significant. The direct kinematics of the manipulator is reduced to solving an eighth-degree polynomial in the square of tangent of half-angle between one of the limbs and the base plane. Hence, there are at most sixteen assembly configurations for the manipulator. In addition, it is shown that the sixteen solutions are eight pairs of reflected configurations with respect to the base plane. Numerical examples for the direct and inverse kinematics of the manipulator are also presented.© 2005 ASME


These flyers, written by Natalie Seymour, Mary Yavelak, Candice Christian, and Ben Chapman (NC State University Extension), provide quick, digestible information regarding prevention of COVID-19 and procedures for food service, grocery stores, and other food-related businesses. This flyer in particular provides guidance for washing your hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Published by the UF/IFAS Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, March 2020.
Revised April 21, 2020: Changes were made relating to physical distancing, mask usage and monitoring employee health when exposed to the virus.
FSHN20-11/FS334: COVID-19 Preventative Measures: Clean Your Hands Often (ufl.edu)


Studies have shown that deep neural networks (DNNs) are vulnerable to adversarial examples – perturbed inputs that cause DNN-based models to produce incorrect results. One robust adversarial attack in the NLP domain is the synonym substitution. In attacks of this variety, the adversary substitutes words with synonyms. Since synonym substitution perturbations aim to satisfy all lexical, grammatical, and semantic constraints, they are difficult to detect with automatic syntax check as well as by humans. In this paper, we propose a structure-free defensive method that is capable of improving the performance of DNN-based models with both clean and adversarial data. Our findings show that replacing the embeddings of the important words in the input samples with the average of their synonyms' embeddings can significantly improve the generalization of DNN-based classifiers. By doing so, we reduce model sensitivity to particular words in the input samples. Our results indicate that the proposed defense is not only capable of defending against adversarial attacks, but is also capable of improving the performance of DNN-based models when tested on benign data. On average, the proposed defense improved the classification accuracy of the CNN and Bi-LSTM models by 41.30% and 55.66%, respectively, when tested under adversarial attacks. Extended investigation shows that our defensive method can improve the robustness of nonneural models, achieving an average of 17.62% and 22.93% classification accuracy increase on the SVM and XGBoost models, respectively. The proposed defensive method has also shown an average of 26.60% classification accuracy improvement when tested with the infamous BERT model. Our algorithm is generic enough to be applied in any NLP domain and to any model trained on any natural language.


A model independent analysis approach in CMS is presented, systematically scanning the data for deviations from the Monte Carlo expectation. Such an analysis can contribute to the understanding of the detector and the tuning of the event generators. Furthermore, due to the minimal theoretical bias this approach is sensitive to a variety of models of new physics, including those not yet thought of. Events are classified into event classes according to their particle content (muons, electrons, photons, jets and missing transverse energy). A broad scan of various distributions is performed, identifying significant deviations from the Monte Carlo simulation. The importance of systematic uncertainties is outlined, which are taken into account rigorously within the algorithm. Possible detector effects and generator issues, as well as models involving Supersymmetry and new heavy gauge bosons are used as an input to the search algorithm.


FQ Editor-in-Chief9s quarterly roundup of the issue, her roadmap for navigating the ideas, authors, films, TV shows, and interviews featured within the issue, and a nod to FQ9s coming attractions.


Synaptic vesicle fusion is driven by soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive-
factor attachment receptors (SNAREs) but is also regulated by physical properties
of the membrane like curvature and tension. Using artificial SNARE containing
prestressed pore-spanning membranes (PSMs) comprised of supported membranes (s-PSM) and freestanding membranes (f-PSM), the influence of lateral tension on
SNARE-induced fusion, as well as dynamic aspects of vesicle docking and fusion on the two distinct membrane parts can be investigated. PSMs were prepared on porous substrates functionalized with binary self-assembled monolayers (SAM) composed of 6-mercaptohexanol (6-MH) and cholesterylpolyethylen-oxythiol (CPEO3). Varying the amount of CPEO3 in the SAM allowed to modulate
the lateral tension in the PSM. The tensions ranged from 1.4 mN/ m for 0 mol%
CPEO3 to 4.5 mN/m for 35 mol% CPEO3 in the SAM. With increasing lateral
tension, i.e. higher CPEO3 surface concentrations, the membrane stability decreased resulting in rupturing of the freestanding membranes. To investigate the influence of the lateral tension on SNARE-mediated fusion and to compare fusion on s-PSM and f-PSM, vesicular-SNARE proteoliposomes were fused with target-SNARE containing PSMs. The PSMs were prepared on pure 6-MH SAMs as the membranes composed of a physiological lipid mixture, which was essential for efficient fusion, were unstable on SAMs containing CPEO3. Docking of
the liposomes could be observed on the s-PSM and f-PSM but was two times more
likely on the s-PSM. The s-PSM docked liposomes were completely immobile, while
those on the f-PSMs were mobile with a mean diffusion coefficient of D = 0.42 µm2/s.
In comparison to a single SNARE transmembrane domain, the diffusivity of the f-PSM
docked vesicles were eight times slower indicating a close contact of the membranes
induced by tight SNARE-complexes. The immobile s-PSM docked vesicles probably
arise from interactions between the SNAREs and the support. The docking time
distributions on s-PSMs and f-PSMs were both in the range of seconds indicating that
the higher mobility of the vesicles and the lateral membrane tension in the f-PSM do
not significantly alter the fusion kinetics. The fusion kinetics were also unaffected by
the size of the fusing vesicle as small (90 nm) and large (240nm) vesicles exhibited
comparable docking times. The shape of the docking time distributions indicated a
two-step process, which can be either interpreted with the assembly of two SNARE
complexes or with a kinetic intermediate.


Haptic and robotic technologies have the potential to provide assessment during interaction with humans. This manuscript presents our earlier research during the I-Match project where a haptic peg-in-hole test was used in order to compare between healthy volunteers' performance and those with neurological impairment. Subjects all performed a series of haptic virtual peg-in-hole tasks with varying degrees of difficulty determined by the hole diameter. Haptic instrument, Phantom Desktop 1.5, allowed for recording of biomechanical data which is used to present some variant features between the two subject groups. This paper analyses the placement time, maximum peg transfer velocity, collision forces recorded during peg placement and also insertion accuracy. The first three parameters showed statistically significant differences between the two groups while the last, insertion accuracy, showed insignificant differences p = 0.152. This is thought to be due to the large clearance value between the smallest hole diameter and the peg. To identify differences between the haptic peg-in-hole and the established NHPT, we are currently in process of conducting a further experiment with a haptic replica of the NHPT test, in order to investigate effects resulting from addition of haptic force feedback compared to the original NHPT test, as well as allowing to explore influences caused by the 1 mm clearance value as originally proposed by Wade.Furthermore, in order to investigate if this method can identify differences between subjects with different neurological conditions, a larger group of subjects with neurological conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and traumatic brain injury is required to explore potency of this approach for identifying differences between these different conditions.


Background: Irrational prescribing and dispensing of antimalarials has been identified as a contributing factor in the emergence of malaria parasites resistant to existing antimalarial drugs. Factors that contribute to such irrational prescribing and dispensing should therefore be identified to address this problem. The aim of this study was to assess irrational antimalarial drug dispensing and prescribing practices in public health facilities. Methods: A descriptive-retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted between January and June 2011 in order to assess prescribing and dispensing practices for antimalarial drugs in three public hospitals and nine health centers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Thirty-two drug dispensers were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. A total of 4,320 prescriptions for the period January to December 2010 were collected and assessed for antimalarial drug prescribing patterns. Results: The majority (84.6%) of drug dispensers had poor knowledge regarding the basic information required from patients before dispensing artemether-lumefantrine. Seventeen of 32 drug dispensers did not know the basic information that should be given to patients in order to increase absorption of artemether-lumefantrine after oral intake. Most drug dispensers also showed limited knowledge about the dosage and contraindications for artemether-lumefantrine. Eighty-seven percent of all prescriptions contained artemether-lumefantrine as the only antima-larial drug, 77.1% contained at least one analgesic, and 26.9% contained at least one antibiotic, indicating unnecessary use of analgesics and antibiotics with antimalarial drugs. A substantial number of prescriptions contained antimalarial drugs that have already been declared ineffective for the treatment of malaria in Tanzania, providing additional evidence of inadequate knowledge among health care workers concerning treatment policy. Conclusion: Despite the government's efforts to increase public awareness regarding use of artemether-lumefantrine as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria, there is still irrational prescribing, dispensing, and use of this combination. Based on the results of this study, it is proposed that regular on-the-job training and continuing education be provided to drug dispensers and prescribers in public health facilities.


In this paper, the application of video-based information processing technology in the Internet of things has been researched. Currently, the real-time of most video-based identification methods is not satisfactory. The Hausdorff distance plays an important role in object recognition. However, when comparing the relationship between objects, the traditional Hausdorff distance even some modified Hausdorff distances need to traverse all the points of the image to be matched, which is a non-linear operator. In order to deal with the real-time problem, an improved Hausdorff distance algorithm based on central detection method is proposed. Due to narrowing the search range of space when calculating the Hausdorff distance, the computing speed has been improved compared with the traditional Hausdorff distance for object recognition. An example of vehicles recognition is used to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method. Experimental results show that compared with the LTS-HD, the new Hausdorff distance can not only guarantee the accuracy of matching but also enhance the perception between objects in real time.


IMPORTANCE
Depression is prevalent and associated with negative outcomes in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI). Antidepressants are used routinely to treat depression, yet no placebo-controlled trials have been published in this population to our knowledge.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the efficacy and tolerability of venlafaxine hydrochloride extended-release (XR) for major depressive disorder (MDD) or dysthymic disorder in persons with chronic SCI.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Multisite, randomized (1:1), double-blind, placebo-controlled Project to Improve Symptoms and Mood After SCI (PRISMS) trial. All research staff conducting screening, intervention, and outcome procedures were blinded to randomization status. We screened 2536 patients from outpatient clinics at 6 SCI treatment centers in the United States and randomized 133 participants into the trial. Participants were 18 to 64 years old and at least 1 month after SCI, with MDD or dysthymic disorder. Seventy-four percent of participants were male, and participants were on average 40 years old and 11 years after SCI. Forty-seven percent had cervical injuries, 53.4% had American Spinal Injury Association injury severity A (complete injury) SCI, 24.1% had at least 2 prior MDD episodes, and 99.2% had current MDD. Common comorbidities included chronic pain (93.9%), significant anxiety (57.1%), and history of substance dependence (44.4%).

INTERVENTIONS
Twelve-week trial of venlafaxine XR vs placebo using a flexible-dose algorithm.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D 17-item version and Maier subscale, which focuses on core depression symptoms and excludes somatic symptoms) over 12 weeks.

RESULTS
Mixed-effects models revealed a significant difference between the venlafaxine XR and placebo groups in improvement on the Maier subscale from baseline to 12 weeks (treatment effect, 1.6; 95% CI, 0.3-2.9; P = .02) but not on the HAM-D 17-item version (treatment effect, 1.0; 95% CI, -1.4 to 3.4; P = .42). Participants receiving venlafaxine XR reported significantly less SCI-related disability on the Sheehan Disability Scale at 12 weeks compared with placebo (treatment effect, 4.7; 95% CI, 1.5-7.8; P = .005). Blurred vision was the only significantly more common new or worsening adverse effect in the venlafaxine XR group compared with the placebo group over 12 weeks.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Venlafaxine XR was well tolerated by most patients and an effective antidepressant for decreasing core symptoms of depression and improving SCI-related disability. Further research is needed to determine the optimal treatment and measurement approaches for depression in chronic SCI.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00592384.


This story begins in 1980, when a budding anti-lawsuit movement found an energetic champion in a new conservative president. Over time, the movement became a dominant feature of political life, as its narrative of activist judges, jackpot justice and a thriving lawsuit industry stirred partisan passions. And yet, some thirty years on, it is clear that the primary legacy of the anti-lawsuit movement is the movement itself – not legislative achievements, which have been few and far between, but committed adherents, including future Supreme Court Justices, lower court judges, and business leaders. Meanwhile, and also in the early 1980s, federal courts began a long, slow, and initially apolitical process of invigorating the staid legal backwater of arbitration. Over the next thirty years, arbitration came fully of age. By 2013, the Supreme Court had held that companies may freely and openly use provisions mandating one-on-one, confidential arbitration in standard form agreements with employees, consumers and others to escape the judicial system – and avoid potential exposure to class actions. And finally, over these same thirty years, class actions became a dominant force in litigation, having managed to dodge the most serious reform initiatives of the anti-lawsuit movement. Class actions – for better or for worse – have proven to be extremely powerful weapons in a wide variety of subject-matter areas, accounting for billions of dollars in damages settlements. Companies of all stripes dearly want to avoid class exposure. And so, as these three movements have unfolded over the past thirty years – separately and together – we are now at a unique point in our legal history: one that portends, quite literally, the end of doctrinal development in entire areas of the law. Companies, anxious to avoid any and all exposure to class actions are highly motivated to insert confidential, one-on-one arbitration mandates into the standard-form agreements that, over these same thirty years, have come to govern their relationships with employees, consumers, direct purchasers, and all manner of counterparties. As a result, all disputes under these agreements – whether they would have otherwise been brought as class or individual claims – will now be shunted into the hermetically-sealed vault of private arbitration, where there is no public, transparent decision-making process, much less stare decisis or common law development.


We study the influence of the fluctuations of a Lorentz-invariant and conserved vacuum on cosmological metric perturbations, and show that they generically blow up in the IR. We compute this effect using the K\"all\'en-Lehmann spectral representation of stress correlators in generic quantum field theories, as well as the holographic bound on their entanglement entropy, both leading to an IR cutoff that scales as the fifth power of the highest UV scale (in Planck units). One may view this as analogous to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which is imposed on the phase space of gravitational theories by the Einstein constraint equations. The leading effect on cosmological observables comes from anisotropic vacuum stresses which imply: i) any extension of the standard model of particle physics can only have masses (or resonances) $\ensuremath{\lesssim}24\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$, and ii) perturbative quantum field theory or quantum gravity become strongly coupled beyond a UV scale of $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}\ensuremath{\lesssim}1\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{PeV}$. Such a low strong coupling scale is independently motivated by the Higgs hierarchy problem. This result, which we dub the cosmological nonconstant problem, can be viewed as an extension of the cosmological constant (CC) problem, demonstrating the nontrivial UV-IR coupling and (yet another) limitation of effective field theory in gravity. However, it is more severe than the old CC problem, as vacuum fluctuations cannot be tuned to cancel due to the positivity of spectral densities or entropy. We thus predict that future advances in cosmological observations and collider technology will sandwich from above and below, and eventually discover, new (nonperturbative) physics beyond the standard model within the TeV\char21{}PeV energy range.


The content of calcium and phosphorus is decreased and that of fluorine increased in the oral fluid of children whose diet includes fluorinated salt, and the levels of calcium and phosphorus in their dental enamel are increased in comparison with children using common table salt. Three-year consumption of fluorinated salt resulted in a decrease of calcium release and increase of phosphorus release into acid biopsy.


This paper introduces filter structures for interpolation and decimation by a factor of two. The structures are derived by using the frequency-response masking approach, in which the overall filter makes use of a periodic model filter, its complementary filter, and two masking filters. The periodic model filters are obtained by replacing each delay element in a model filter with M delay elements in cascade. The model filter is a half-band infinite-impulse response (IIR) filter composed of two all-pass filters in parallel, whereas the masking filters are linear-phase finite-impulse response (FIR) filters. In the final interpolator and decimator structures the filtering takes plate at the lowest of the two sampling rates involved. The corresponding overall filter can be designed by separately optimizing a half-band IIR filter and a linear-phase FIR filter. Both nonlinear-phase and approximately linear-phase filters are considered. One advantage of the proposed filter structures over conventional half-band IIR filter structures is that their maximal sample frequency is M times higher, which may be utilized to increase the speed in an implementation and/or to reduce the power consumption via power supply voltage scaling techniques. In the case of approximately linear-phase filters, the computational complexity can be reduced as well. Several design examples are included demonstrating the properties and advantages of the proposed filter structures.


Uncertainty is a major issue facing electric utilities in planning and decision making. Modeling uncertainty can be based on the approach called "Unknown but Bounded" in which upper and lower limits on the uncertainties are assumed without probability distributions. Interval mathematics provides a tool for the practical implementation and extension of the unknown but bounded concept. The calculation of transmission line sag and inductance are used as examples to illustrate the use of interval mathematics. The purpose of sag calculations is to determine the change in cable length, given a fixed span and an interval of cable sag values, for numerous variations in temperature. The resulting change in cable length will therefore be an interval corresponding to the interval of cable sag values. Inductance values are also calculated using the traditional single point numbers as well as interval numbers. The values from these two methods are compared to prove the validity of interval analysis.


There exists a variety of maximum power point tracking (MPPT) techniques, each having its own merits and demerits. Under partial-shading conditions, the conventional tracking techniques fail to guarantee successful tracking of the global maximum power, ie the conventional MPPT methods such as perturb and observe and incremental conductance may converge on local maximum power point resulting in significant reduction of power generated. This paper discusses about an improved technique for tracking global maximum power point of photovoltaic arrays that has better performance under partial shading conditions. The first stage in this method is to find out global maximum power point among the local maxima. Once the global maximum power point is found then by adjusting the duty ratio, the voltage corresponding to maximum power can be found out. The control is then transferred to perturb and observe algorithm stage. This technique could be applied for both stand alone and grid connected PV system. A comparison study between a SEPIC converter and a buck boost converter with the above mentioned algorithm has also been carried out in order to verify the performance of both the converters. The above mentioned converters have been designed for 150W at a switching frequency of 10 KHz. Modified algorithm has been simulated using MATLAB/Simulink and results are obtained. Partial shading condition was modelled in MATLAB/Simscape and analysed the solar array characteristics under various shading conditions. From the simulation results it was found that the SEPIC converter is much more efficient and is highly suitable for photo voltaic applications.


This paper presents an image-based approach to perform visual control for differential-drive robots. We use for the first time the elements of the 1D trifocal tensor directly in the control law. The visual control utilizes the usual teach-by showing strategy without requiring any a prior knowledge of the scene and does not need any auxiliary image. The main contribution of the paper is that the proposed two-steps control law ensures total correction of both position and orientation without switching to any other visual constraint rather than the 1D trifocal tensor. The paper exploits the sliding mode control technique in a square system, ensuring stability and robustness for the closed loop. The good performance of the control system is proven via simulations.


Many transcriptional regulators function in homo- or heterodimeric combinations. The same protein can carry out distinct regulatory functions depending on the partner with which it associates. Here, we describe a mutant of the Escherichia coli cAMP receptor protein (CRP) that has an altered dimerization specificity; that is, mutant/mutant homodimers form preferentially over wild-type/mutant heterodimers. CRP dimerization involves the formation of a parallel coiled-coil structure, and our CRP mutant bears an amino acid substitution affecting the first "d" position residue within the alpha-helix that mediates CRP dimerization. The genetic strategy we used to isolate this CRP altered dimerization specificity (ADS) mutant is generalizable and could be utilized to isolate ADS mutants of other dimeric transcriptional regulators.


This study aims to investigate if the sentiment expressed on Twitter has an effect on individual stock returns. We use a uniquely large data-set consisting of129 million tweets related to 31 companies over a 15-month period. The sentiment is derived on a daily basis with Loughran and McDonald's established finance-focused method, as well as with Vader, a sentiment analysis tool developed specially for social media. Using a panel data regression, we empirically test Twitter sentiment effectual forecasting power on individual stock returns. Our main findings are: 1) the sentiment derived from Twitter can help predict individual stock returns up to two days ahead 2) the individual stock returns are more sensitive to 'cashtag'-tweets than general-company tweets 3) Twitter data can be used to explain the stock return volatility 4) Loughran and McDonald Lexicon-based method outperforms Vader. The results indicate that Twitter data is a suitable data source to understand and forecast stock market movements.


Far from being a banality or a philosophical naivety, there is a quintessential nexus between language and meaning, in the philosophy of Jacques Derrida (1930-2004). The thrust of Derrida's idea is that, language is chaotic and meaning is never fixed, in a way that allows us to effectively determine it (that is, meaning is unstable, undecided, provisional and ever differed). As a Poststructuralist, Derrida's quarrel was with Logocentrism, which privileges speech over writing, and hitherto assume that, we have an idea in our minds, which our writing or speaking attempts to express. But, this, for Derrida, is not the case, for no one possesses the full significance of their words. Texts, in some sense write themselves: that is, are independent of an author or his intentions. Thus, in Derrida's thinking, intentionality does not play quite the same role, as is traditionally conceived in the philosophy of language; our intention does not determine the meaning of what we are saying. Instead, the meaning of the words we use, determines our intention, when we speak. This does not mean that we do not mean what we are saying, or that we cannot have intentions in communicating. But, since language is a social structure that developed long before and exists prior to our use of it as individuals, we have to learn to use it and tap into its web of meanings, in order to communicate with others; hence, the need for deconstruction. It is this process of deconstruction, which can point the way to an understanding of language, freed from all forms of structuralism, logocentrism, phonocentrism, phallogocentrism, the myth or metaphysics of presence and also open up a leeway, to the idea of différance. Thus, this paper, attempts an expository-philosophical analysis of Derrida's eclectic contributions to language and meaning, by drawing insights from his magnus opus, captioned De la grammatologie (Of Grammatology).


: The microcrystalline collagen preparation evaluated in this study appeared to create a slightly denser and longer lasting inflammation and to delay slightly the early phase of bone repair in this wound model. However, beneficial effects of more rapid achievement of hemostatis were also noted. On the basis of these findings, it would be of interest to compare this material with other more widely used materials, such as gelatin foam, in this wound model.


The history of chemical fertilization in Hungary over the last three decades, could be divided into three periods: an extremely fast increase of consumption from the middle 60's to the middle 70's; a period of constancy till the 90's; permanent decrease, the phase of new reckless exploitation up to the present. The Hungarian nutrient-management has had a strongly negative nutrient-balance for the last 8 years. This fact is quite a problem for our country in meeting the expectations of EU member-states. Due to accumulation and consumption of nutritive materials in the soil, the income redistribution took place between the 80's and the 90's. Behind extreme soil utilization in planting practice, lie new environmental risks and negative economic effects. Although special conditions call for specific measures, these facts don't seem to be important either to legal administration or to the media. Therefore, the environment policy of not decreasing the nutrient content of soils any longer, is urgent.


The stability of encapsulated planar-structured CH3NH3PbI3 (MAPbI3) perovskite solar cells (PSCs) was investigated under various simulated environmental conditions. The tests were performed under approximately one sun (100 mW cm−2) illumination, varying temperature (up to 85 °C cell temperature) and humidity (up to 80%). The application of advanced sealing techniques improved the device stability, but all devices showed significant degradation after prolonged aging at high temperature and humidity. The degradation mechanism was studied by post-mortem analysis of the disassembled cells using SEM and XRD. This revealed that the degradation was mainly due to the decomposition of MAPbI3, as a result of reaction with H2O, and the subsequent reaction of hydroiodic acid, formed during MAPbI3 decomposition, with the silver back contact electrode layer.


The Terciary Basin of As Pontes (Northwest Spain) is associated with an onshore NW-SE dextral strike-slip fault system. A total of 900 specimens from the sedimentary infill have been demagnetized, using thermal and alternating field demagnetization procedures. Paleomagnetic data indicate that the duration of sedimentation in the basin was about 6,2 My, lasting from the latest Early Oligocene until the Early Miocene. The magnetostratigraphy of the basin successions allows us to establish a very precise chronological correlation within the basin. In addition, the overall pattern of declinations shows a clockwise rotation (9o±4o in the sedimentary infill) with respect to the Oligocene-Miocene reference declination, coherent with a NW-SE dextral strike-slip faults system. The dating of the sedimentary infilling of the As Pontes basin establishes that the NW-SE dextral strike-slip faults system of NW Iberian Plate were highly active from the uppermost Early Oligocene to the Early Miocene. This implies that the end of the main tectonic activity in both NW Iberian offshore and onshore took place during the same time span.


Erosion is a large problem in many industries. CFD modelling is used to model the process in order to enable the engineer to design better equipment. This paper discusses a novel solution to reduce computational effort, using OpenFOAM to combine two exiting solvers. The two phases of the bulk flow are modelled partially in the Eulerian-Eulerian reference frame, and partially in the Eulerian-Lagrangian frame. The method aims to reduce computational time, but still keep the necessary particle impact data at the wall required for erosion modelling. This paper is a continuation of a previous paper which was concentrated on the development of the new hybrid solver. The new solver was applied to different geometries and test cases, and was validated against experimental data. A submerged jet impingement test with different shaped impingement samples was used to generate experimental data of the fluid phase. The results show a promising outlook for the new solver to be used for more efficient erosion prediction.


In this paper we undertake an analytical review of the extant literature on the building food system resilience. While the concept of food system resilience has become a topical issue in global and national policy discussion, there is little research on how to develop operational procedures to design and implement interventions from the food system and resilience perspective. This review identifies five major entry points to strengthen food system resilience in the national context: policy, institutions, technology, capacity, and governance. Measurement issues and analytical approaches to studying food system resilience are reviewed. We conclude that while there is a large gap in the methodological approaches to study the food system resilience, beginning with the case studies of understanding specific elements of a food system and their role in enhancing resilience would be good starting point for addressing thematic issues, challenges and constraints facing resilience of the food systems.


In this paper, a methodology is investigated for signal recovery in the presence of non-Gaussian noise. In contrast with regularized minimization approaches often adopted in the literature, in our algorithm the regularization parameter is reliably estimated from the observations. As the posterior density of the unknown parameters is analytically intractable, the estimation problem is derived in a variational Bayesian framework where the goal is to provide a good approximation to the posterior distribution in order to compute posterior mean estimates. Moreover, a majorization technique is employed to circumvent the difficulties raised by the intricate forms of the non-Gaussian likelihood and of the prior density. We demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach through comparisons with state-of-the-art techniques that are specifically tailored to signal recovery in the presence of mixed Poisson–Gaussian noise. Results show that the proposed approach is efficient and achieves performance comparable with other methods where the regularization parameter is manually tuned from the ground truth.


The hexane, acetone, dichloromethane and methanol extracts of Combretum vendae A.E. van Wyk (Combretaceae), Commiphora harveyi (Engl.) Engl. (Burseraceae), Khaya anthotheca (Welm.) C.DC (Meliaceae), Kirkia wilmsii Engl. (Kirkiaceae), Loxostylis alata A. Spreng. ex Rchb. (Anacardiaceae), Ochna natalitia (Meisn.) Walp. (Ochnaceae) and Protorhus longifolia (Bernh. Ex C. Krauss) Engl. (Anacardiaceae) were screened for their antimicrobial activity. The test organisms included bacteria (Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus), and fungi (Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Microsporum canis and Sporothrix schenckii). A simple bioautographic procedure, involving spraying suspensions of the bacteria or fungi on thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates developed in solvents of varying polarities was used to detect the number of antibacterial and antifungal compounds present in the extracts. All the extracts had antimicrobial activity against at least one of the test microorganisms. This activity was denoted by white spots against a red-purple background on the TLC plates after spraying with tetrazolium violet. Twenty seven TLC plates; 9 for each solvent system and 3 different solvent systems per organism were tested in the bioautographic procedure. Of the bacteria tested, S. aureus was inhibited by the most compounds separated on the TLC plates from all the tested plants. Similarly, growth of the fungus C. neoformans was also inhibited by many compounds present in the extracts. Loxostylis alata appeared to be the plant extract with the highest number of inhibition bands when compared with other plants tested against both bacteria and fungi. This species was selected for in depth further study.


This study aimed to assess how specific components of an action could be selected by a simple computational system. We performed an experiment to test associations between grasps (precision or power grip) and several objects. We then ran simulations using a naive bayes classifier to study to what extent it could reproduce participants' choice. This classifier had two learning matrices containing objects' size associated with a grip by means of our experiment. When receiving a new object' size it computed the probability for each grip to be adapted. The highest probability was considered to represent which grip was associated with the object by the classifier. Results show that the classifier can reproduce participants' choice depending on the size of its learning matrices, and can quickly select the right type of grip for a majority of trials, showing that micro-affordances (Ellis & Tucker, 2000) can be reproduced through naive bayesian classification.


Forensic autopsy focuses on revealing the cause of death (CoD) by examining a dead body. This process is performed by medical pathologists during the investigation of criminal and civil law cases. In forensic autopsy, pathologists examine corpses externally and anatomically to collect autopsy findings. Moreover, these experts collect the history of the deceased and death scene-related information from the deceased's relatives and eyewitnesses. Afterward, the pathologists determine the CoD through their expert knowledge while correlating the current autopsy findings with previous autopsy reports. Therefore, determining the CoD from autopsy findings is laborious, time consuming, and subject to inconsistencies associated with any labor-intensive process. Hence, automated text classification (ATC) techniques must be employed to overcome the aforementioned issues in determining the CoD. This study aimed to employ ATC techniques to classify the CoD from forensic autopsy reports. In the ATC technique, feature engineering is a highly important step because the success or failure of any ATC model is heavily dependent on the quality of the features used in the classification task. In ATC, the traditional feature engineering techniques include bag of words (BoW) and n-gram. This study argues that BoW and its variant techniques are inadequate in determining the CoD from forensic autopsy reports because these techniques ignore word-order, word-context, and word-level synonymy and polysemy. To overcome the aforementioned issues of BoW and its variant techniques, this study aimed to achieve the following four main objectives. First, this work intended to investigate the existing feature engineering techniques to classify free-text clinical reports, including forensic autopsy reports. Second, this study aimed to develop semi-automated expert-driven feature engineering to overcome the issue of word-level synonymy and polysemy. Third, this research sought to propose a fully automated conceptual graph-based feature engineering technique to address issues in word-order and word-context. Finally, this work intended to evaluate the proposed techniques by comparing their performances with existing baseline techniques. For the experimental evaluation, forensic autopsy reports of 16 different CoDs were obtained from a very large hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. These reports were preprocessed by applying various text preprocessing techniques. The discriminative features were then extracted from the preprocessed reports through the proposed feature engineering techniques and formed numeric master feature vectors. These master feature vectors were fed as input to six machine learning algorithms to construct and evaluate the classification models. Furthermore, to show the effectiveness of the proposed techniques, this study compared their performances with five state-of-the-art baseline feature engineering techniques. Experimental results showed that the proposed techniques outperformed the traditional BoW and its variant techniques. Moreover, support vector machines and random forest algorithms outperformed the four other algorithms. The proposed techniques are feasible and practical in determining the CoD from forensic autopsy reports and can assist pathologists to accurately and rapidly determine the CoD from autopsy findings. Finally, the proposed techniques are generally applicable to other kinds of free-text clinical reports.


With the integration of new low-energy buildings the traditional district heating (DH) systems with high operating temperatures will have significantly higher heat loss according to the heat supplied to the district. The relatively higher heat loss could be reduced with low operating temperatures of 55 °C and 25 °C in supply and return line of DH network, respectively with a convenient control of in-house installations (substations). Traditional DH pipe dimensioning methods were based on size searching algorithm in which lowest possible pipe diameter was defined according to the limit of max velocity and/or max pressure gradient. Since traditional dimensioning methods cause over-dimensioned network, special attention has to be given to lower the dimensions and as a consequence heat loss from the DH network further. In this investigation pipe dimensioning method of low-energy DH system was developed with an optimization method in the objective of minimizing heat loss from the network while pressure drop values were kept as the constraints through the DH network. In the dimensioning method also descending pipe dimensions were formed in the branched type DH network by taking into account simultaneity of heat load, according to the cumulative consumer load, on each pipe segment separately. According to the traditional dimensioning method, 14% reduction in the heat loss was achieved with the developed optimization method. The resultant pipe dimensions were evaluated via hydraulic and thermal simulation software Termis with simultaneity factor based randomly generated heat demand scenarios for peak winter situation. The simulation results were re-sampled with bootstrapping method and confidence interval of the reliability of the DH system was presented as a result.


In the first half of the 20th century, harbor seal (Phoca vitulina richardsi) numbers were severely reduced in Washington state by a state-financed population control program. Seal numbers began to recover after the cessation of bounties in 1960 and passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) in 1972. From 1978 to 1999, aerial surveys were flown at midday low tides during pupping season to determine the distribution and abundance of harbor seals in Washington. We used exponential and generalized logistic models to examine population trends and size relative to maximum net productivity level (MNPL) and carrying capacity (K). Observed harbor seal abundance has increased 3-fold since 1978, and estimated abundance has increased 7 to 10-fold since 1970. Under National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) management, Washington harbor seals are divided into 2 stocks: coastal and inland waters. The observed population size for 1999 is very close to the predicted Kfor both stocks. The current management philosophy for marine mammals that assumes a density-dependent response in population growth with MNPL > K/2 is supported by growth of harbor seal stocks in Washington waters.


In this paper an attempt has been made to detect stationarity and inequality of the State Domestic Product among twenty states of Indian Federal System. For the purpose, time series and panel data has been utilized. Inequality in SDP and per capita SDP among states has been estimated with the help of Gini coefficient, generalized entropy indices and Atkinson indices. An attempt has been made to decompose inequality by using panel data. Indices of inequality are higher for SDP in comparison with per capita SDP. All the indices of within group inequality are higher than between group for SDP while it is vice ~ versa for per capita SDP. Percentile Ratios', Generalized Entropy Indices and Atkinson Indices reveal the presence of unit root at level and zero lag which shows the inequality among states are not stationary during the period under study.


The article provides a theoretical analysis of the organization of the forensic examination in Latvia. In particular, the author investigates the organizational aspects of the forensic examination: legislative regulation of the status of the entity authorized to conduct the forensic examination; the possibility to conduct the forensic examination in criminal proceedings by private experts; peculiarities of taking up a position (obtaining a license to practice) and terminating a forensic expert etc.

It is determined that according to the legislation of Latvia the right to carry out expert activity in the Republic of Latvia belongs to both state and private experts: state experts are people who carry out their activity in the state expert institutions. Private experts are involved in carrying out expertise by concluding civil contracts as self-employed people or as the forensic experts who are members of professional non-governmental associations. There are five state expert institutions in Latvia: the State Bureau of Judicial Expertise (accredited in 2008), the Forensic Directorate of the State Police (accredited in 2006), the State Medical Examination Center (accredited in 2013), the Examination Service under the General Directorate of the State border guards and the State Riga Psychiatric and Drug Center LLC. Since 1996, the Association of Independent Experts of Latvia has been operating in Latvia, comprising private court experts.

All experts who may be involved in criminal proceedings must be certified. Certified expert information is placed in the Official Register of Forensic Experts. The Council of Forensic Experts is the compiler of the Register. The Register of Forensic Experts and any changes thereto shall be published on the website of the Judicial Administrations. In addition to the Register of Forensic Experts, there is a Register of Methods of Forensic Examination, which is also compiled by the Council of Forensic Experts.

It should be noted that in Latvia a unified standard and qualification requirements have been developed for persons wishing to carry out forensic activities, which are enshrined in the legislation of Latvia and a procedure has been developed for certification of experts, as well as certification of expert research methodologies.

At the same time, certain problems arise in practice (for example, the subjectively greater trust of the court in the expert's conclusions provided by the state expert organization), requiring an urgent solution for the effective functioning of the system of forensic expert activity in Latvia.


Margaret Atwood is an important figure in Canadian ecocriticism. Defined as the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment, ecocriticism is a field of study which has long been monopolized by American critics. It is only from the second half of the twenty-first century that Canadian critics stood up and attempted to provide their country with a voice of itself. Canada's natural landscape, its most obviously spectacular and significant trait, provided authors and artists with a strong basis for a new national identity. Margaret Atwood was one of the first major authors to express this identity in her work. She viewed Canadian wilderness as hostile and mysterious, bringing humans to a state of constant survival. More than that, she highlighted the unbalanced relationship between humans and nature, oscillating between fascination and rejection of a fearful and primitive landscape, thus creating divided identities, at the national and individual levels. My work focuses on one of Atwood's short story called "Death by Landscape", in which she personifies the canadian divided identities into the characters of Lois and Lucy. Through a complex psychological analysis embedded in numerous narrative layers, Atwood analyzes the canadian relationship to nature, but also enlarges the scope of her message. With her literature, she works towards a reconnection of human beings with their inner natural self, so that they reach harmony with the environment instead of harming it with deeply rooted thoughts and actions.