Scarcity strategies have been a successful tool employed by marketers within physical retail settings. However, within the next years,the use of online shopping – and in particular mobile shopping applications – is likely to continue growing as consumers prefer to purchase products in convenient ways. Recently, studies have found that the employment of digital nudges can facilitate consumer
purchases online. A well-known digital nudge within the context of online shopping, which is already applied by large online retailers (in addition to physical retailers), is the scarcity principle. However, significant differences appear in the way women and men behave in online purchasing and respond to persuasive cues such as scarcity tactics; these differences must be considered. To address this research gap, this study investigates to what extent two different scarcity messages – limited-time scarcity (LTS) and
limited-supply scarcity (LSS) – influence (i) perceived novelty, (ii) perceived exclusiveness, (iii) perceived value, and (iv) purchase intention of females and males in viewing a hotel booking offer in a hotel booking app.
A twice two (LTS/no LTS) by two (LSS/no LSS) by two (male/female) between-subjects design is performed with a total of n = 320 respondents (160 male and 160 female) from Europe, who actively make purchases online and were recruited for the online experiment. Respondents were randomly assigned to any of four conditions: (i) LTS claim, (ii) LSS claim, (iii) combination LTS and LSS
claim, or (iv) no scarcity claim. The experiment, additionally, included a short questionnaire for measuring perceived novelty, perceived exclusiveness, perceived value, and purchase intention. The results of this study suggest that there is a main effect of perceived scarcity. Moreover, LTS negatively impacts perceived novelty,and fear of missing out (FOMO) is found to be higher in any scarcity condition for females than for males. There is also a significant interaction effect between gender and LTS and LSS on purchase intention. Implications and research directions for further research are stated.


One of the key challenges related to the grid environment is to efficiently use the storage resources of compute nodes. Therefore, we have developed the ViSaGe solution which features VisageFS - a Posix-compliant wide-area file system, VCCC - a distributed lock mechanism, and VRT - a storage virtualization layer.In this paper, we present the VisageFS translucent directory property which enables a dynamic, transparent and efficient use of local storage by means of hierarchical Posix consistencies.Nodes that access a translucent enabled shared-directory will see different contents according to the site or node-level Posix consistency. Thereafter, one of the various reconciliation modes re-enables the grid-level Posix consistency. Our ``nevermind'' mode does it in constant time.


Based on a sample of Israeli adolescents living in a city which was under missile attack 2½ months prior to this study, we examined the possible affective and cognitive mechanisms through which gratitude may serve as a protective factor against PTSD symptoms. Specifically, we focused on how this process might be mediated by positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction. These are widely understood as the emotional and cognitive components of subjective well-being and have each been significantly associated with gratitude and with pathology in the literature. Using pathway analysis, our findings revealed that life satisfaction and negative affect, but not positive affect, mediated the relationship between gratitude and PTSD symptoms. Our study suggests that gratitude may serve as a protective factor primarily through cognitive appraisal processes tied to greater appreciation of life in a way that distinguishes it from other positive emotions.


This study aims to test the perceptions of audiences to positive and non-aggressive humour in two popular articles. The themes were the effects of climate change on biodiversity and the over-exploitation of species. Both articles were published on-line at a Portuguese environmental site, and readers were asked to answer to an on-line survey. A total of 159 participants submitted their answers concerning their receptiveness to the humour, demographic information and comments. Results showed that the use of humour in popular articles is considered valuable for the majority of these readers, but different degrees of receptiveness suggest caution in its use. Abstract


Rural areas of developing countries are very dependent on biomass fuels such as wood fuel and dried dung for their energy consumption. Wood fuel as a source of energy plays a vital role in household energy requirements, due to increasing economic hardship in the country, many people are finding it increasingly difficult to afford conventional fuels in Nigeria. Wood fuel in Kaduna State is the most highly consumed fuel, together accounting to about 1,722,904 t/year consumed per person in the State. This review examines the wood fuel used and the energy ladder in Kaduna State. However, the major reason why people used wood fuel as the alternative source for heat energy generation is poor income, poverty and like of adequate national grid.

 Key words: Wood fuel, energy ladder, consumption, conventional fuel


How can I improve my practice and contribute to the professional knowledge base through narrative-autobiographical self-study?" Through the use of Whitehead's (1989) living educational theory and examination of my stories, I identify the values and critical events that have helped me come to know my own learning and shape my professional self. Building on the premise that educational knowledge/theory is created, recreated, and lived through educational inquiry; I strive to make meaning of this data archive, collected over 7 years of teaching. I chart my journey to reexamine my beliefs and practices, to find a balance between traditional and progressive practices and to align my theory and practice. I retell, and, thus, in some way relive, my own "living contradictions." A reconceptualization of the KNOW, DO, BE model (Drake & Burns, 2004) is used to develop strategies to align my practice, including a six-step model of curriculum design that combines the backwards design process of Wiggins and McTighe (1998), the KNOW, DO, BE model (Drake & Burns) and Curry and Samara' s (1995) differentiation planner.


Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
Magister Technologiae: Quality
in the Faculty of Engineering
at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology
2008


Stream daylighting projects are highly complex and require prolonged cooperation between multiple agencies and collaboration between diverse actors. Given most of these projects are quite expensive and require extensive effort in a very small area, a "frog dilemma" emerges in which the ecological benefits might seem to not justify the resources required. However such projects can bring significant ecological, economic and social benefits to urban areas, and aid in challenging the nature/culture divide. Two stream daylighting projects in the lower mainland of British Columbia, Canada are examined, the partnerships needed to bring the projects to completion are explored, and the long term outcomes and prospects of the projects are investigated. Both projects required public/private partnerships, high levels of community agency, and the more successful of the two projects includes an ongoing monitoring and education program.


We consider the effect of small-scale fading on the detection of weak signals in cognitive radio systems. We formulate a model for the detection problem taking fading into account, and give the associated likelihood ratio tests. Additionally we give an expression for the asymptotic detection performance and use this to consider the tradeoff between the detection performance and the coherence time and bandwidth of the channel.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize the susceptibility to levofloxacin of clinical isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) obtained from patients with HIV-related tuberculosis and to characterize the molecular genetics of levofloxacin resistance.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Isolates from culture-positive patients in a United States multicenter trial of HIV-related TB were tested for susceptibility to levofloxacin by minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) determinations in Bactec 7H12 broth. Automated sequencing of the resistance determining region of gyrA was performed.

RESULTS
Of the 135 baseline MTB isolates tested, 134 (99%; 95% exact binomial confidence interval, 95.9-99.9%) were susceptible to levofloxacin with an MIC < or = 1.0 microg/ml. We identified a previously unrecognized mis-sense mutation occurring at codon 88 of gyrA in a levofloxacin mono-resistant MTB isolate obtained from a patient with AIDS who had received ofloxacin for 8 months prior to the diagnosis of tuberculosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Clinical MTB isolates from HIV-infected patients were generally susceptible to levofloxacin. However, the identification of a clinical isolate with mono-resistance to levofloxacin highlights the need for circumspection in the use of fluoroquinolones in the setting of potential HIV-related tuberculosis and for monitoring of rates of resistance of MTB isolates to fluoroquinolones.


A common and natural intuition among software testers is that test cases need to differ if a software system is to be tested properly and its quality ensured. Consequently, much research has gone into formulating distance measures for how test cases, their inputs and/or their outputs differ. However, common to these proposals is that they are data type specific and/or calculate the diversity only between pairs of test inputs, traces or outputs. We propose a new metric to measure the diversity of sets of tests: the test set diameter (TSDm). It extends our earlier, pairwise test diversity metrics based on recent advances in information theory regarding the calculation of the normalized compression distance (NCD) for multisets. A key advantage is that TSDm is a universal measure of diversity and so can be applied to any test set regardless of data type of the test inputs (and, moreover, to other test-related data such as execution traces). But this universality comes at the cost of greater computational effort compared to competing approaches. Our experiments on four different systems show that the test set diameter can help select test sets with higher structural and fault coverage than random selection even when only applied to test inputs. This can enable early test design and selection, prior to even having a software system to test, and complement other types of test automation and analysis. We argue that this quantification of test set diversity creates a number of opportunities to better understand software quality and provides practical ways to increase it.


Bachelor Thesis Music & Event Management School of Economics at Linneaus University of Kalmar, Economics, 2FE40E, Spring 2013 Author: Johan Hagelberg, Sofia Prins & Oskar Sjogren Supervisor: Petter Boye Examinator: Thomas Karlsson Titel: Det svaraste som finns ar att tanka i nya banor - En studie kring personalhantering och effektivisering av arbetet pa svenska musikfestivaler.Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how different music festivals in Sweden can work to increase the efficiency by managing the workforce and internal knowledge.Method: The study was based on a qualitativ method with an abductive approach. The majority of the data comes from qualitativ interviews with persons in the industry.Conclusion: The music festivals in Sweden are acting under a constant economic pressure which leads to an experienced need for a larger workforce - mosty non-profit. The result of this study shows that the larger workforces are both unmotivated and decreases the effeciency of the work. The study aims to highlight the diffrenses between non-profit and commersial festivals and the way they work with human resource management and personal in different levels of the organization.


Though researchers now are aware of the potential importance of character skills, such as conscientiousness, grit, self-control, and a growth mindset, researchers struggle to find reliable measures of these skills. In this paper, we use data collected from the Understanding America Study, a nationally representative internet panel to study the validity of innovative measures of character skills based on measures of survey effort. We believe surveys themselves can be seen as a behavioral tasks and that respondents provide meaningful information about their character skills by way of the effort they put forward on surveys. In particular, we compare measures of grit, conscientiousness and other personality traits, and growth mindset, based on self-reports, and survey effort measures of character. We study the relationship across each other and their relationship with academic and life outcomes such as income and labor-market outcomes, after controlling for cognitive ability and other relevant demographic characteristics. Our results show that survey effort measures of character skills, in particular measures of careless answering in surveys, show great promise for being good proxy measures of relevant non-cognitive skills.


Converting existing diesel engines to the spark ignition (SI) operation can increase the utilization of natural gas (NG) in heavy-duty applications, which can reduce oil imports in the US and curtail greenhouse-gas emissions. The NG operation at lean-burn conditions was evaluated inside a retrofitted heavy-duty direct-injection compression-ignition (CI) engine, where the diesel injector was replaced with a high-energy spark plug and NG was mixed with air in the intake manifold. Steady-state engine experiments that changed combustion phasing were performed at 13.3 compression ratio, lean equivalence ratio, medium load, and low-speed conditions, fueled with pure methane as NG surrogate. Results suggested that NG combustion inside such retrofitted engines is different from that in conventional SI engines due to the geometric characteristics of the diesel combustion chamber. In detail, the different conditions inside the bowl and the squish partitioned the combustion process into two distinct events in terms of timing and location. Moreover, the squish region helped stabilize the extreme lean operation by creating a highly turbulent flow into the bowl during the compression stroke. However, combustion efficiency and unburned hydrocarbon emissions were significantly affected by the fuel fraction that burned inside the squish region under less than optimal conditions during the expansion stroke. As a result, despite the combustion phasing being the primary control of engine's indicated thermal efficiency, the combustion strategy for CI engines converted to NG SI should optimize the slower burning inside the squish region.


Pseudorandom test techniques are widely used for measuring the impulse response (IR) for linear devices and Volterra kernels for nonlinear devices, especially in the acoustics domain. This paper studies the application of pseudorandom functional test techniques to linear and nonlinear MEMS built-in-self-test (BIST). We will first present the classical pseudorandom BIST technique for linear time invariant (LTI) systems which is based on the evaluation of the IR of the device under test (DUT) stimulated by a maximal length sequence (MLS). Then we will introduce a new type of pseudorandom stimuli called the inverse-repeat sequence (IRS) that proves better immunity to noise and distortion than MLS. Next, we will illustrate the application of these techniques for weakly nonlinear, purely nonlinear and strongly nonlinear devices


The physiological stress response results in release of glucocorticoid hormones such as corticosterone (CORT). Whereas short-term activation of this response helps animals cope with environmental stressors, chronic activation can result in negative effects including metabolic dysregulation and reproductive failure. However, there is no consensus hormonal profile of a chronically stressed animal, suggesting that researchers may need to look beyond hormone titers to interpret the impacts of chronic stress. In this study, we brought wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus) into captivity. We then compared glucocorticoid and mineralocorticoid receptor concentrations in sparrows exposed either to a standardized chronic stress protocol (n=26) or to standard husbandry conditions (controls; n=20). We used radioligand binding assays to quantify receptors in whole brain, liver, kidneys, spleen, gonads, gastrocnemius and pectoralis muscle, omental and subcutaneous fat, and bib and back skin. In most tissues, CORT receptors did not differ between controls and stressed animals, although we found marginal increases in receptor density in kidney and testes in stressed birds at some time points. Only in pectoralis muscle was there a robust effect of chronic stress, with both receptor types higher in stressed animals. Increased pectoralis sensitivity to CORT with chronic stress may be part of the underlying mechanism for muscle wasting in animals administered exogenous CORT. Furthermore, the change in pectoralis was not paralleled by gastrocnemius receptors. This difference may help explain previous reports of a greater effect of CORT on pectoralis than on other muscle types, and indicate that birds use this muscle as a protein reserve.


Health care is complex and there are few sectors that can compare to it in complexity and in the need for almost instantaneous information management and access to knowledge resources during clinical decision-making. There is substantial evidence available of the actual, and potential, benefits of e-health tools that use computerized clinical decision support systems (CDSS) as a means for improving health care delivery. CDSS and associated technologies will not only lead to an improvement in health care but will also change the nature of what we call electronic health records (EHR) The technologies that "define" the EHR will change the nature of how we deliver care in the future. Significant challenges relating to the evaluation of these health information management systems relate to demonstrating their ongoing cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, and effects on the quality of care and patient outcomes. However, health information technology is still mainly about the effectiveness of processes and process outcomes, and the technology is still not mature, which may lead to unintended consequences, but it remains promising and unavoidable in the long run.


ABSTRACT: This case in the area of Individual Federal Taxation describes the dilemma faced by a young couple who were trying to file an accurate 1040. The couple had some major life events during the year and decided to have their return prepared by a national chain of walk-in tax return preparation services. They were disappointed in the result and didn't have a lot of faith in the person who worked on their return. The case picks up on the eve of April 15 with the couple trying to decide whether to file the questionable return or to try to prepare one themselves. Students review client-provided tax information and apply the tax law learned during the semester to identify the correct presentation of the items in the tax return, identify potential controversial issues that might be challenged by the IRS, and recognize where additional information is needed in order to prepare an accurate tax return.


Author(s): Clark, Patrick | Advisor(s): Norena, Carlos | Abstract: Abstract Taxation and the Formation of the Late Roman Social ContractBy Patrick E. ClarkDoctor of Philosophy in HistoryUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Carlos Norena, Chair"Taxation and the Formation of the Late Roman Social Contract" offers a novel interpretation of the function of taxation in late Roman society. I argue that the tax policies introduced by Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century facilitated the negotiation of a social contract between the rulers and the ruled that stipulated that all Roman citizens had rights under and responsibilities to the Roman Empire. The late Roman social contract contrasted with the social contract of the Principate, which sought to reduce the responsibilities on the emperor's political coalition while also enabling this group to enjoy more rights under the empire. Taxation was, on the one hand, one of the citizens' responsibilities, whose specific provisions, rates, and institutions were subject to intense negotiation between the ruler and the ruled. On the other hand, taxation functioned as a forum where state actors and taxpayers interacted, engaged in performances of the "public transcript", and negotiated with each other, and as a medium for communication that enabled the emperor to give real world realization to his values, ideals, and normative conceptions of citizenship. Thus instead of interpreting late Roman sources for taxation individually as accurate statements of the nature of late Roman taxation, I situate them in a larger discursive context that led to a broad consensus on the social contract and the nature of citizenship.The first chapter builds on recent work by Walter Scheidel, Gilles Bransbourg, Andrew Monson, and Carlos Norena and demonstrates that tax policies under the Principate worked to reinforce and make visible the social and legal hierarchy that underpinned the social contract of the Principate. Tax expenditures by the state on senators, soldiers, the local elite, and the city of Rome created financial incentives for these groups to support the Roman monarchy. Chapter 1 also serves as a point of contrast for chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2 I reconstruct Diocletian's vision for state-society relations from his imperial constitutions, arguing in particular that Diocletian continued a 3rd century development in which all Roman citizens were expected to be concerned with the survival of the emperor and empire. In addition to requiring his subjects to demonstrate their commitment to the empire through empire-wide displays of traditional religious devotion, as 3rd century emperors had, Diocletian proliferated obligations on certain occupations, decurions, tenant farmers, and, most importantly, taxpayers. At the same time, Diocletian insisted that his policies would be fair, rational, useful, and legal. Chapter 3 examines Diocletian's tax policies in greater detail and concludes that by and large they reflected the vision for state-society relations outlined in chapter 2. Taxation under Diocletian would be fair, rational, useful, and legal, and, most importantly, it would locate individual taxpayers in a universal hierarchy of fiscal responsibility that defined each taxpayer as owing a discrete portion of the state's budgetary requirements. Chapter 4 then explores the impact that these tax policies, as a powerful medium for communicating imperial ideology, had on taxpayers' conception of the empire and their place in it. My close reading of 477 Egyptian papyri, including many valuable petitions, demonstrates that petitioners asserted their acceptance of the legitimacy of their fiscal burdens, only if those burdens corresponded to the petitioners' census documents. This acceptance had two main consequences. First, it confirmed the legitimacy of the imperial ideology, outlined in chapters 2 and 3, that in part structured fiscalite under Diocletian. Second, petitioners' payment of their taxes enabled them to argue that they were enthusiastic members of the imperial community who deserved the state's legal protection. This second claim transformed the label "taxpayer" into a positive moral quality of an ideal citizen. In this way, petitioners tried to use their payment of taxes to secure for themselves legal rights in the social contract.If the observations from chapter 4 represent a constructive engagement with and acceptance of Diocletian's ideology and policies, chapter 5 is an example of the polemic criticism the emperor's policies could provoke. In his Divine Institutes and On the Deaths of the Persecutors Lactantius argues that the Tetrarch's persecution of Christian, which deprived them of the state's legal protection, revealed the ideology and institutional basis of the Tetrarchy to be unjust. On closer examination, other Tetrarchic policies appear unjust as well. Tapping into a deeper Graeco-Roman philosophical tradition, Lactantius demonstrates that Tetrarchic tax policies had a deleterious effect on social relations in the Roman Empire. Contrary to justice, taxation introduced inequality, war, violence, and discord. It would be more just, Lactantius maintained, for Romans to give charity instead, because charity would reduce inequalities and strengthen the bonds of Roman society. Rather than being the outpourings of righteous indignation, however, Lactantius' polemics should be read, like the petitions from chapter 4, as a contribution to the negotiation of the late Roman social contract.My observation that the communicative nature of 4th century tax policies facilitated the negotiation of a social contract represents an advancement in scholarly thinking about taxation in the later Roman Empire because it reveals the ideological and ethical pronouncements that tax policies and statements about taxation could make. Taxation enabled the emperor and his subjects to communicate their conception of state-society relations and to critique what they saw as flaws in others' conceptions. This observation also has analytical value outside the narrow temporal bounds of dissertation. For example, when viewed through the lens of my dissertation, the emperor Julian's reduction of the Gallic provinces' tax rate should be seen as his attempt to communicate his commitment to a just social contract in advance of his planned revolt against Constantius II. Julian's tax policies signaled to the whole empire that he intended to be a prototypical good emperor. Herein lies the main take-away from this dissertation: when emperors, intellectuals, and petitioners mentioned taxation, they were talking about much more than taxation; they were making normative claims about how best to organize their society.


Chronic (persistent) pain (CP) affects 1 in 10 adults; clinical resources are insufficient, and anxiety about activity restricts lives. Technological aids monitor activity but lack necessary psychological support. This article proposes a new sonification framework, Go-with-the-Flow, informed by physiotherapists and people with CP. The framework proposes articulation of user-defined sonified exercise spaces (SESs) tailored to psychological needs and physical capabilities that enhance body and movement awareness to rebuild confidence in physical activity. A smartphone-based wearable device and a Kinect-based device were designed based on the framework to track movement and breathing and sonify them during physical activity. In control studies conducted to evaluate the sonification strategies, people with CP reported increased performance, motivation, awareness of movement, and relaxation with sound feedback. Home studies, a focus group, and a survey of CP patients conducted at the end of a hospital pain management session provided an in-depth understanding of how different aspects of the SESs and their calibration can facilitate self-directed rehabilitation and how the wearable version of the device can facilitate transfer of gains from exercise to feared or demanding activities in real life. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings on the design of technology for physical rehabilitation.


The effect of cultivation conditions of Bacillus polymyxa N 3 on the intensity of beta-amylase accumulation during cultivation, procedure of isolation and 100-fold purification as well as physico-chemical properties was investigated. From the culture medium the enzyme was isolated by ethanol precipitation. The highly purified enzyme was obtained by corn starch chromatography. The molecular weight of the PAAG homogeneous preparation was estimated to be 48,000. The optimum temperature of the enzyme reaction was 50 degrees C. The rate of soluble starch hydrolysis by beta-amylase was found to depend on pH.


Patients undergoing Carotid Artery Stenting (CAS) may encounter serious complications including Intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). ICH after carotid re-vascularization has been usually attributed to cerebral hyperperfusion syndrome (CHS) and it is reported as a significant cause of mortality and morbidity. Factors mentioned as risk factors for ICH after carotid intervention are preoperative hypertension, renal failure, bilateral carotid disease or contralateral carotid occlusion, impaired cerebrovascular reserve, female gender, age, nonselective admission, increased Charlson comorbidities score. In this study, we report two cases of ICH after CAS in patients receiving dual antiplatelet regimen plus omega-3 fatty acids before and after carotid intervention. It seems that administration of omega 3 with other antiplatelets could augment inhibition of platelet aggregation and may increase the risk of ICH in patients undergoing CAS especially in those with several risk factors for ICH. These findings are important because of the wide availability of omega-3 supplements as an over-the-counter (OTC) drug and the propensity for usage of it in alternative medicine.


A patient filed a lawsuit on behalf of her child alleging negligence by her obstetrician in delaying the delivery when she was in the hospital contracting and had severe abdominal pain. Thus, her uterus was allowed to rupture, which caused the child's severe brain injury. Plus more malpractice cases.


Three methods for determining the extent of infection of cotton roots (Gossypium hirsutum L.) by root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid and White) Chitwood, were compared. Root-knot nematode eggs were added to pots containing either sterilized soil or soil amended with rye, and cotton seedlings were planted. Cotton root systems were then assessed for infection/damage after 14 and 28 days of exposure. At the 14-day sampling, the roots were stained, using the lactophenol acid fuchsin method and the juvenile nematodes counted. At the 28-day samplings, the cotton roots were given a visual rating for nematode-induced root galling (0-100), and the galls were counted. The number of stained juveniles counted in the roots at 14 days gave a poor indication of the number of galls that will ultimately develop. The visual rating and the gall counts gave similar results. In this study the visual rating proved to be faster and more useful due to difficulties encountered obtaining a repre


The authors justified study program and complex of adequate, informative and significant parameters of intestinal microecology in hygienic regulation of industrial germs, in evaluating their risk for workers engaged into biotechnologic industry.


Desired improvements in the delivery of quality healthcare drive healthcare managers toward lean technologies. Sustaining efficiencies gained from lean-associated process reengineering requires managers to address human factors in lean implementation. Drawing from the existing research literature, the authors identified three human factors essential to successful lean implementation: communication, leadership, and workload. Using case-study and qualitative methods, the authors identified relevant key concepts from each construct. To account for variation among organizations' behavior and explain the interaction between the sociotechnical factors, they used concepts from complexity theory, other case studies, and semi-structured interviews with two healthcare managers responsible for process improvement. They found that elements of communication, leadership, and workload are interactive, interrelated, and dynamic. Managers of successful lean implementations have well-developed shared vision and implementation plans that are adaptive to workforce stress arising from management's drive toward the efficient delivery of healthcare. Leaders using timely two-way communication through organizational hierarchy and across departments find successful implementations of their initiatives. The consolidation of literature and interpretation of interactions between communication, leadership, and workload through triangulation and cross-case evaluation has potential to provide realistic and relevant information to managers working toward a successful lean implementation in their healthcare facility.


The stochastic frontier production model is one of the most used ways to estimate efficiency and productivity. The purpose of this paper was to decompose the sources of total factor productivity (TFP) growth into technological progress, changes in technical efficiency and changes in economies of scale. In this paper, we also used Divisia index in order to estimate production function. A random sample of 298 farmers selected from Rafsanjan Township for three years, 2004, 2005 and 2006, which was a larger data set with a wider spatial coverage than used in previous studies of pistachio production. Sampling approach of this paper was "Two stage cluster sampling" and the data for outputs and inputs were obtained during 2007 and the spring and summer of 2008, by filling questionnaires and interviewing 298 farmers in the region. Results showed that technological progress includes the majority of TFP growth, but that differences in efficiency change explained cross-region differences in TFP growth. Efficiency in the 19 contiguous regions averaged 52.52% from 2005 to2007. Experience and firm size were both positively associated with efficiency, whereas age, education and farmsize, were negatively associated with efficiency. Ke y words: TFP growth % Technical efficiency % Pistachio % Rafsanjan % Iran


The objective of this paper is to present an overview of the power quality industry and issues in South America. An attempt is made to focus on the present needs and future opportunities for R&D and international cooperation. The paper reveals aspectos of the tends, efforts, solutions and insights progressinf in South American countries coping with power quality in the context of political, economical and organizational structures. Form the impact of pioneering transmission access on power quality, to developing instrumentation and standards, to national surveys, a broad spectrum of experience is presented in this paper.


An inverse dynamics method is introduced for constructing exact special-case solutions for hybrid coordinate ordinary/partial systems of differential equations (hybrid ODE/PDE systems). The solution is constructed such that it lies near a given approximate numerical solution, and therefore the special-case solutions can be generated in a versatile and physically meaningful fashion and can serve as a benchmark problem to validate approximate solution methods. The exact solution is constructed such that it is a differentiable, continuous-function neighbor of the given approximate numerical solution. This continuous solution is then substituted into the governing system of ODEs/PDEs and a full complement of distributed and boundary forces is determined algebraically to exactly satisfy the differential equations. This process has been automated by computer symbol manipulation. Since the exact special-case algebraic solutions can be evaluated anywhere in space and time, this approach is ideally suited to providing a true exact motion and the corresponding forces for studying the convergence errors in a family of approximate solutions. This methodology makes it possible for one to rigorously determine exact solution errors for a significant class of ODE/PDE systems for which the initial-value problem is not, in general, exactly solvable. We explore the utility of this method in validating numerical solution methods.


Different bio-optical and ecological methods have been established that use ocean color data to identify and differentiate between phytoplankton functional types (PFTs) or phytoplankton size classes (PSCs) in the surface ocean. These can be summarized into four main types: spectral-response methods which are based on differences in the shape of the light reflectance/absorption spectrum for different PFTs/PSCs, methods which use information on the magnitude of chlorophyll biomass or light absorption to distinguish between PFTs or PSCs, methods that retrieve the particle size distribution from satellite-derived backscattering signal and derive PSCs, and ecological-based approaches which use information on environmental factors. Within this presentation we will give an overview over the presently available algorithms. Based on the input we get from the algorithm developers we will try within the short time to present for each product its spatial and temporal coverage, (potential) applications, uncertainties, benefits and short comings. This talk will provide the basis for subsequent discussion in the splinter session on 'Phytoplankton community structure from ocean colour: Methods, validation, intercomparisons and application'.


In many materials processing routes, objects such as bubbles or particles interact with a moving solidification front. The output of this confrontation, from instantaneous encapsulation to complete rejection of objects, regulates the solidified microstructure and the spatial distribution of the objects, and thus the final properties of the materials. Here we investigate by in situ cryo-confocal microscopy how thermal conductivity and solute compete to control the interfacial curvature of the solidification front. We first validate the prediction of physical models in absence of solute, and then demonstrate the dominating effect of solute. In the case of cellular front morphology, we show that thermal effects depending on the particle conductivity induce a distortion of ice crystals thereby modifying the final microstructure of the solid. Overall our results show that to successfully predict and control solidification microstructure in the presence of objects, physical models that take into account both thermal and long-range solute effects are now required.


Information is recorded about the places and depths in the Fremington clay (Pleistocene) of north Devonshire, England, from which a dozen or so erratic igneous boulders have been taken. The conclusion is that the erratics are found in the heart of the clay and support the theory of glacial origin for the clay.


Since 2015, the so-called refugee crisis has prompted an explosion of mobile applications and other initiatives aimed at helping refugees navigate the spaces of Fortress Europe, connect with useful resources, access opportunities, and integrate into the destination country. Guided by faith in the power of technologies to initiate change, different fringes of society—humanitarian organizations, private entrepreneurs, tech corporations, volunteers, and grassroots organizations—have increasingly relied on digital solutions to circulate solidarity across borders. This article reflects on the tensions that characterize cross-border digital solidarity by looking at how we can reconcile the ethics of "doing social good" with the more discriminatory practices of data collection that affect the refugee body. The article argues that attention needs to be paid to the implementation of mindful filtering practices as an alternative framework for more ethical uses of technology that center around care as a guiding principle and value.


Module systems are important for software engineering: they facilitate code reuse without compromising the correctness of programs. However, they still lack some flexibility: first, they do not allow mutually recursive definitions to span module boundaries ; second, definitions inside modules are bound early, and cannot be overridden later, as opposed to inheritance and overriding in class-based object-oriented languages, which follow the late binding semantics. This paper examines an alternative, hybrid idea of modularization concept, called mixin modules. We develop a language of call-by-value mixin modules with a reduction semantics, and a sound type system for it, guaranteeing that programs will run correctly.


Biomedicalization is seen as the natural outgrowth of continued scientific progress - a movement towards improving the quality and quantity of life through scientific inquiries using biomedical perspectives and methods. This approach carries with it the assumption that with "proper" risk assessment, detection, and treatment, our lives can be lengthened, improved, and indeed more fulfilling. Yet critics question biomedicalization's ability to deliver. There is concern about how biomedicalization can change our traditional concepts of health as we discover more conditions for which we are at risk, and health maintenance is seen as the responsibility of the individual. The purpose of the book is to describe, assess, and critique biomedicalization and its influence as a larger social trend on the health field and specifically in the area of alcohol research, policy, and programs. Chapter 1 gives a broad overview of biomedicalization. Chapter 2 lays the ground-work for a historical understanding of how medicalization and biomedicalization have developed and are expressed in diverse fields such as aging, psychiatry/mental health, and women's health. Chapter 3 focuses in-depth on alcoholism and assesses the development and assumptions underlying the two movements that have greatly influenced the substance abuse field: the medicalization of deviance and the growth of the disease model of alcoholism. Chapter 4 discusses the origins and development of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) from its inception in 1970. Chapter 5 illustrates the growing biomedicalization that has occurred in the alcohol field prior to NIAAA's movement to the National Institute of Health (NIH). Chapter 6 assesses how Sweden has handled alcohol problems and currently funds alcohol research. Chapter 7 concludes with a rationale for an expanded discourse between social scientists and biomedical researchers working on social problems, particularly alcohol issues. This volume will stimulate discussion of the processes by which social problems, and specifically alcohol issues, are framed, managed, and studied. It will hold particular interest for researchers and students in the areas of alcohol studies, social science, and social welfare.


Basil (Ocimum L.) species are used as medicinal plants due to their essential oils exhibiting specific biological activity. The present work demonstrated that both the variety and season/conditions of cultivation had a significant effect on (i) the produced amount (extraction yield), (ii) qualitative, as well as (iii) quantitative profile of basil essential oil. Among studied basil varieties, a new variety, 'Mánes', was characterized for the first time. Based on our quantitative evaluation of GC-MS profiles, the following chemotypes and average concentrations of a main component were detected in the studied basil varieties: 'Ohře', 'Lettuce Leaf', 'Purple Opaal', 'Dark Green' (linalool, 5.99, 2.49, 2.34, 2.01 mg/mL, respectively), and 'Mammolo Genovese', 'Mánes', 'Red Rubin' (eucalyptol, 1.34, 0.96, 0.76 mg/mL, respectively). At the same time, when considering other compounds identified in GC-MS profiles, all the studied varieties, except from 'Lettuce Leaf', were methyl eugenol-rich with a strong dependence of the eugenol:methyl eugenol ratio on the seasonal changes (mainly solar irradiation, but also temperature and relative humidity). More complex and/or variable (depending on the season and cultivation) chemotypes were observed with 'Lettuce Leaf' (plus estragole, 2.27 mg/mL), 'Dark Green' (plus eucalyptol, 1.36 mg/mL), 'Mammolo Genovese' (plus eugenol, 1.19 mg/mL), 'Red Rubin' (plus linalool and eugenol, 0.46 and 0.56 mg/mL, respectively), and 'Mánes' (plus linalool and eugenol, 0.58 and 0.40 mg/mL, respectively). When considering superior extraction yield (ca. 17 mL·kg−1, i.e., two to five times higher than other examined varieties) and consistent amounts (yields) of essential oil when comparing inter-seasonal or inter-year data (RSD and inter-year difference in mean yield values ˂2.5%), this new basil variety is very promising for use in the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetic industries.


Due to a rise in global urbanization and motorization, pedestrian injuries continue to be a major public-health problem worldwide. To design pedestrian-friendly vehicles, knowledge of common pedestrian injuries, technologies available for reducing these injuries, and benefit estimations for these technologies are essential. In this report, we present a literature review and provide insights into vehicle designs for improving pedestrian safety. Pedestrian-injury data show that heads and lower extremities are the most commonly injured body regions in vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes, but chest injuries are the second most common injuries after head injuries to cause fatalities. Pedestrian injuries are strongly related to impact speed, pedestrian age, and vehicle type. The increased proportion of older pedestrians and SUVs will likely result in more pedestrian injuries, especially those involving the torso. Adding energy-absorbing materials to the vehicle front-end structures is the most cost-effective way of developing pedestrian-friendly vehicles. However, such improvements often conflict with other design considerations, such as styling, aerodynamics, and safety standards for low-speed crashes and rollovers. Deployable passive safety designs, such as pop-up hoods and windshield airbags, and active safety designs, such as brake-assist systems and autonomous-braking systems, have demonstrated considerable benefits for reducing pedestrian injuries. Integrated passive and active systems are recommended for a further enhancement of pedestrian protection. However, the benefits from different pedestrian-safety designs vary with different types of vehicles and pedestrians with different statures and ages. Consequently it is important to consider implementing specific safety designs to a specific vehicle for maximizing the effectiveness, and population-age profile may also play an important role in selecting pedestrian safety features.


Aquaponics is a complex food production system where fish and vegetables are produced simultaneously. Microorganisms, fish and plants participate in it; it is a complex system where conditions conducive to fish may not be suitable for microorganisms and plants. The diameter of the substrate particles for plant support and space for microorganism colonies can be a determining factor in aquaponics. This research investigates the particle size of tezontle, a porous red volcanic gravel that is used in Mexico for hydroponics and that here it is hypothesized that there is a particle size of this material that favors the growth and yield of plants in aquaponics. The model consisted of the use of 12 containers of 120 L as ponds for fish, and 12 tubs of 240 L for the substrate and a 120 L/min air pump to supply auxiliary oxygenation to the ponds. Three crops were established in each tub: tomato, cucumber, and lettuce. These cultures were transplanted in 3 tezontle diameters: particle diameter less than 1 cm (Æ<1), greater than 5 cm (Æ>5) and 50:50 % (v:v) mixture of both diameters (<1:>5), which constituted the substrate particle diameter treatments. There was no effect of substrate particle diameter on height, stem diameter, and SPAD readings in tomato, cucumber or lettuce plants. Regarding the yield and quality of tomato fruits (firmness, titratable acidity and ˚Brix) there were also no effects of the particle diameter of the substrate. There was also no effect of treatments on the morphological and quality variables of cucumber fruits. In the final fresh weight of lettuce, the treatment with substrate with diameter <1 cm was statistically superior to diameter >5 cm with averages of 89.87 g and 50.12 g respectively. Particle diameter does not affect the yield or quality of established crops, however, in practical terms the fine substrate < 1 cm is recommended because it has greater moisture retention capacity and greater surface area for bacteria to colonize the environment, and promote higher plant growth and fruit quality in aquaponics. The fine substrate acts as a filter to retain suspended solids and prevents clogging of the system, and improves water quality and generates better living conditions for fish.


This paper describes an implementation of the occupancy grid algorithm, one of the most popular algorithms for robotic mapping. The algorithm is implemented on a robot setup at Lund University Cognitive Science (LUCS), and a number of experiments are conducted where the algorithm is exposed to different kinds of noise. The outcome show that the algorithm performs well given its parameters are tuned right. The conclusion is made that, in spite of its limitations, the occupancy grid map algorithm is a robust algorithm that works well in practice.


Polyaromatic hydrocarbons are ubiquitous pollutants formed by incomplete combustion of organic material using in part from natural combustion, such as forest fire and volcanic eruption for most part. However; human activities such as industrial production, smoking, transportation and waste incineration generates significant levels of PAHs. PAHs forms important carcinogenic constituents of the cigarette smoke and vehicular exhaust. Heavy transportation using hydrocarbon fuels leads to environmental pollution resulting in health hazards and ecological imbalances. One key observation was that the mixture of these substances that had carcinogenic activities was fluorescent and had similar fluorescence spectrum to polycyclic compounds by spectroscopy. Work has been done on the vehicular exhaust and tobacco smoke and a number of PAHs were purified and their fluorescence spectra were examined. A simple and precise analytical method for the estimation of alcohol contents in blended petrol has also been developed. As an immediate measure, to meet the present day automobile fuel scarcity and exhaust pollution problems, ethanol can be blended into existing gasoline. The use of alternative fuel can considerably reduce level of pollutants in air.


Synopsis Extensively fractured quartzite clasts in Lower Old Red Sandstone conglomerates adjacent to the Highland Boundary Fault Zone in central Scotland contain multiple populations of healed microfractures delimited by fluid inclusion planes. Microthermometric analysis indicates that the healing of microfractures oriented perpendicular to the trend of the Highland Boundary Fault Zone, which probably formed during Acadian overthrusting towards the SE along the fault zone in Middle Devonian times, involved moderate temperature (Th 102 to 238°C), low to moderate salinity (3 to 17 wt% NaCl eq.) aqueous fluids. The clasts also contain a second set of fluid inclusion planes oriented parallel to the Highland Boundary Fault Zone, which formed during extension associated with the intrusion of late Carboniferous quartz dolerite dykes. The healing of this set of microfractures involved low temperature (Th 58 to 155°C), low to moderate salinity (1 to 12 wt% NaCl eq.) aqueous fluids.


Reverse-Time Migration (RTM) is a state-of-the-art technique in seismic acoustic imaging, because of the quality and integrity of the images it provides. Oil and gas companies trust RTM with crucial decisions on multi-million-dollar drilling investments. But RTM requires vastly more computational power than its predecessor techniques, and this has somewhat hindered its practical success. On the other hand, despite multi-core architectures promise to deliver unprecedented computational power, little attention has been devoted to mapping efficiently RTM to multi-cores.

In this paper, we present a mapping of the RTM computational kernel to the IBM Cell/B.E. processor that reaches close-to-optimal performance. The kernel proves to be memory-bound and it achieves a 98% utilization of the peak memory bandwidth.

Our Cell/B.E. implementation outperforms a traditional processor (PowerPC 970MP) in terms of performance (with an 15.0× speedup) and energy-efficiency (with a 10.0× increase in the GFlops/W delivered). Also, it is the fastest RTM implementation available to the best of our knowledge.

These results increase the practical usability of RTM. Also, the RTM-Cell/B.E. combination proves to be a strong competitor in the seismic arena.


BACKGROUND AND METHODS
Patients with cirrhosis of the liver are recognized as being at risk for hepatocellular carcinoma. The magnitude of the risk, the natural history of this disease, and the possibilities for detecting potentially curable tumors in patients in the Western world are unknown. To address these questions, we examined 447 Italian patients with well-compensated cirrhosis (which was of viral origin in 62 percent of them) from 1985 through 1990, performing serum alpha-fetoprotein assays and real-time ultrasonography every 3 to 12 months.

RESULTS
Hepatocellular carcinoma was found in 30 patients (7 percent) at base line and in another 29 patients (7 percent of 417 patients free of tumor at base line) during follow-up periods averaging 33 months (range, 1 to 48). The cumulative hazard of the development of hepatocellular carcinoma during follow-up was higher among patients with persistently elevated serum alpha-fetoprotein levels (12 with tumors among 42 with such levels) than among those with fluctuating levels (11 among 82) or those with consistently normal levels (6 among 255). Only 17 patients had potentially operable tumors. The proportion of potentially operable tumors among those detected during follow-up was significantly lower than the proportion at enrollment (4 of 29 vs. 13 of 30, P = 0.027). The survival at one year of the 12 patients who underwent surgery was 67 percent, and the tumor-recurrence rate was 60 percent. Outcome was not appreciably different for the five patients who refused surgery.

CONCLUSIONS
In the West, as in Asia, patients with cirrhosis of the liver are at substantial risk for hepatocellular carcinoma, with a yearly incidence rate of 3 percent. Our screening program did not appreciably increase the rate of detection of potentially curable tumors.


Research objective. Study of condition of hemostasis system at patients with hysteromyoma complicated by bleeding; comparative estimation of hemostasis indicators at patients with uterine arteries embolization (the basic group n=48) and abdominal hysterectomy (comparison group n=65). Materials and methods. Complex study of the basic hemogram parameters and hemostasis at 162 patients with hysteromyoma and 30 patients without marked genital pathology (the II control group) was carried out. 48 patients formed the main group which was subjected to uterine arteries embolization for bleeding break; 65 patients (the comparative group) were surgically operated upon abdominal hysterectomy; 49 patients with hysteromyoma had no bleedings and formed the control group. Research of hemostasis system was carried out by means of test-tube method, and also by plotting set for express-diagnostics, analysis of thrombocyte unit of hemostasis system was realized with 2-channel analyzer of thrombocyte aggregation «Biola» — LA 230. Results. Presented analysis of hemostasiogram parameters allows to state development of chronic DIC-syndrome in women with hysteromyoma. Reliable shortening of coagulation index, decrease of thrombocyte aggregation function in comparison to the control group data were revealed. Conclusion. Development of hyper coagulation with increase of paracoagulative products with simultaneous activation of fibrinolysis processes in all the patients with hysteromyoma was revealed. Minimal effect of embolization of uterine arteries to hemostasis system in patients with hysteromyoma was marked. And they were intensified after surgical treatment, which is the evidence of definite advantages of this method unlike of hysterectomy


Apicomplexan parasites are obligate intracellular pathogens infecting humans and many animals. Members of this group are causative agents of severe diseases like malaria, cryptosporidiosis, toxoplasmosis and babesiosis. Similar to other intracellular pathogens, apicomplexan parasites rely on both synthetic and import mechanisms to obtain necessary nutrients for growth. Consequently, these metabolic pathways have been the focus of drug development studies. Components of the metabolism of fatty acids are validated drug targets against intracellular bacterial and viral pathogens. Likewise, this process has been considered as a suitable target against apicomplexan infections. However, fatty acid synthesis in apicomplexan parasites seems to be a very complex phenomenon due to presence of multiple mechanisms for lipid synthesis and acquisition. Understanding the details of these mechanisms is key to identifying the strongest drug target. Toxoplasma gondii is an apicomplexan parasite, which habors three mechanisms of fatty acid synthesis. The parasite harbors both prokaryotic type II (FASII) and eukaryotic type I (FASI) pathways of fatty acid synthesis. Additionally, the parasite appears to contain a fatty acid elongation machinery. In this research, we attempt to determine the role and significance of these pathways in T. gondii tachyzoites, the parasite life cycle stage responsible for acute toxoplasmosis. While the FASII pathway is essential for parasite growth, its precise contribution towards overall fatty acid synthesis has not been determined yet. Little is known about the function and significance of FASI and FAE pathways in T. gondii. Characterizing these pathways has been especially challenging due to expected similarity in their products and substrates. Here, we have developed a novel strategy by coupling genetics with metabolomics to individually dissect the precise role of each synthesis mechanism. We show that fatty acid synthesis is a crucial determinant for T. gondii infection. We also show that the parasite selectively uses these pathways to generate specific products that are necessary for continuous growth and thereby for establishing an acute infection. INDEX WORDS: Apicomplexa, fatty acid, T. gondii. FATTY ACID SYNTHESIS IN THE APICOMPLEXAN PARASITE TOXOPLASMA GONDII


VHL-deficient clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCC), the most common form of kidney cancer, express transcripts derived from the novel human endogenous retrovirus HERV-E (named CT-RCC HERV-E). In this study, we define a transcript encoding the entire envelope gene of HERV-E as expressed selectively in ccRCC tumors, as distinct from normal kidney tissues or other tumor types. Sequence analysis of this envelope transcript revealed long open reading frames encoding putative surface and transmembrane envelope proteins. Retroviral envelopes are known to be capable of eliciting immunity in humans. Accordingly, we found that HLA-A*0201-restricted peptides predicted to be products of the CT-RCC HERV-E envelope transcript-stimulated CD8(+) T cells, which could recognize HLA-A*0201-positive HERV-E-expressing kidney tumor cells. Overall, our results offer evidence of unique HERV-E envelope peptides presented on the surface of ccRCC cells, offering potentially useful tumor-restricted targets for T-cell-based immunotherapy of kidney cancer. Cancer Res; 76(8); 2177-85. ©2016 AACR.


Energy efficiency is well-known to have recently become one of the most important aspects for both today's and tomorrow's telecommunications infrastructures. To curb their energy requirements, next-generation hardware platforms of network devices are expected to include advanced power management capabilities, which may allow a dynamic trade-off between power consumption and network performance. At the same time, network protocols are going to evolve in order to carry energy-aware information, and to add them to classical performance indexes in network optimisation strategies. However, the question of how to map energy-aware indexes, often arising from low-level local hardware details, and the ones related to network performance is still an open issue. Starting from these considerations, we propose the Green Abstraction Layer (GAL), a device internal interface that provides a standard way of accessing and organising energy-aware information from the low-level hardware components to control processes. The GAL is specifically designed to hide the heterogeneous hardware implementation details, and to provide a simple, hierarchical, and common view of underlying power management capabilities to network control processes.


We examined the influence of continuous laser irradiation on as‐prepared and oxidized multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the basis of Raman scattering. Differences between Raman spectra for both types of nanotube samples are shown. We evaluate the influence of the laser power density (LPD) on two main Raman modes (D and G) based on the position of the peaks, widths, and the relative intensity ID/IG ratio. Impurities and their interaction with nanotubes are crucial for interpretation of the measured effects. Oxidation, as well as the irradiation process, improves purity of samples. No structural changes of the tubes are observed. The Raman signal decrease is likely to originate from nanotube loss.


Laboratory based experiments were conducted using Bacillus thuringiensis var israelinsis (Bti) to establish the efficacy of Bti on Anopheles and Culex mosquito larvae from Zomba. The study evaluated two formulations of Bti namely VectoBac® WG and VectobaBac® 12AS against selected species of mosquito larvae. During this study, six different concentrations of Bti were set and 360 mosquito larvae were exposed to these different concentrations and results were observed hourly for 10 hours, then 24 hours and 48 hours. The experiment was replicated three times. Results show that the lower effective dosage that can be used to control Culex mosquito larvae in Zomba after 48hours of exposure is 47.73g/ha. The LT50 and LT90 being 7.5hrs and 24.3 hrs respectively. On the other hand, Anopheles mosquito larvae require 103.41g/ha of Bti which is almost double as much as that required by Culex. Anopheles LT50 is 6.2 hrs and LT90 is 18.5 hrs. In addition, it was observed that when Culex and Anopheles mosquito larvae were exposed to the same dosage of liquid formulation of Bti (0.001ml/L) there was no significant difference in their mortalities. Following the successful results of Bti in controlling mosquito larvae at laboratory level it is our recommendation to ask the Government of Malawi to come up with a policy to allow the use of Bti in controlling mosquito larvae in Malawi


In his desire to aid people in the development of simplicity, sincerity, and spontaneity in oral reading, Mr. Anderson has developed a system of charting on a music-like staff the lines of the selection to be read. Less artificial than the system might at first appear, it is none the less a somewhat more mechanical procedure that most oral readers of the Bible might care to employ. It does seem, however, that the most mature reader could profit from a careful reading of Mr. Anderson's explanatory material. Charles A. McGlon


A selective and differential medium, Shahidi-Ferguson Perfringens agar (SFP agar), and a confirmatory medium, lactose-motility agar (LM agar), were developed for the enumeration and identification of Clostridium perfringens in foods. These media provide a rapid, specific, and direct diagnosis of C. perfringens. SFP agar contains sodium metabisulfite and ferric ammonium citrate to demonstrate H(2)S production and egg yolk to demonstrate lecithinase production by C. perfringens. On SFP agar, C. perfringens produces black colonies, 2 to 3 mm in diameter, surrounded by zones of opaque precipitate. The typical colonies are confirmed on LM agar. Enumeration and identification are completed within 48 hr. All of the ingredients of SFP agar are stable to heat and storage conditions. SFP agar also contains two antibiotics, kanamycin and polymyxin B, which are inhibitory to many bacteria commonly occurring in foods. A comparative study of SFP agar and noninhibitory media showed that SFP agar did not inhibit any of the 16 strains of C. perfringens tested. Recovery of C. perfringens added to foods averaged 90.6% for SFP agar as compared with 69.8% for sulfite polymyxin-sulfadiazine (SPS) agar (BBL) and 60.2% for SPS agar (Difco). The colonies on the SFP agar, were much larger and were consistently black. Of 464 food samples tested, C. perfringens was found in 27 samples with SFP agar and in 5 samples with SPS agar (Difco), with a recovery ratio considerably higher on SFP agar. SFP agar is a more specific presumptive medium for the enumeration of C. perfringens and in conjunction with LM agar should save considerable time, effort, and materials toward the final identification of the species.


The aim of this study is to provide a description of the ultrasonographic and angiographic anatomy of the hepatic and portal veins in normal dogs. Knowledge of this anatomy is essential for the proper diagnosis and correction of hepatic vessel anomalies like portal systemic shunts. Cranial mesenteric portography was done in 10 adult mongrel dogs to visualize the portal vein and its branches while the hepatic veins were visualized using the transvenous retrograde angiography method. Longitudinal and transverse ultrasound scans of the liver were done in the same dogs in left and right lateral positions in order to determine the best positions for imaging the different liver vessels. The distribution pattern of the hepatic and portal veins could be demonstrated by both ultrasonography and contrast angiography. Hepatic arteries are not usually visualized ultrasonographically. Ultrasound provided dynamic information that could not be obtained by contrast radiography. Super imposition of all vessels in the angiographic studies made the description of the branches of the liver vessels difficult. The results of the present study suggest that both methods may provide important complementary information in the diagnosis and planning of surgical procedures for the correction of vessel anomalies in the canine liver.


The characteristics of health information and its flow throughout health and social care delivery and research is integral to quality integrated care. Electronic Health Record(EHR) systems can facilitate appropriate availability of quality, clinically sensible information to decision makers when and where required. Development of EHRs is very challenging due to the heterogeneity of information producers and consumers, the care, research, regulation and development environment and the range of current and future uses and use contexts for the record. There is also the complexity of the system itself to consider. EHRs are longitidinal and comprise many interdependent aspects e.g. architecture, data storage and user interfaces to suit use settings within care and research organisations as well as home or community environments. Traditionally, patients have not been included in the development of such large scale, complex, national eHealth systems even though they and their carers are in a unique position to describe and comment on the characteristics of information flow across the entire system. In Ireland, the Office of the Chief Information Officer(OOCIO) has placed significant focus on our national EHR development. Some new groupings e.g. the council of clinical information officers (CCIO) have formed and relationships between existing stakeholders and patients are developing and strengthening. One of the more innovative, patient inclusive activities of the OOCIO involves development of personas that will be representative of potential users of our national EHR and will directly influence procurement of our national EHR. The development process for EHR systems is complex with unstable user requirements, a variety of independent stakeholder groupings, interdependent components, essential flexibility and reliance on human skills and teamwork. These characteristics place EHRs squarely in the domain of what are called wicked systems(1). One crucial factor in successful development and adoption of wicked systems is stakeholder engagement with multiple engagement processes required, usually over a long period of time. Due to lengthy project timescales, support and resources it is not usually possible to get consistent, continual stakeholder engagement for the duration of development of a national EHR. So, care needs to be taken on engagement processes, opportunities and outputs. The authors are collaborating with various stakeholders including the national standards authority of Ireland (NSAI), the health informatics society of Ireland(HISI), regulation authorities, the OOCIO, the CCIO, Higher education institutes, industry, patients and patient organisations. This paper will report on three aspects of this collaboration. Firstly, describing our national EHR development environment. Secondly, identifying how patients and their carers could potentially engage meaningfully alongside other stakeholders in the development and adoption of our National EHR. Finally, engagement work to date will be presented including patient persona development with the OOCIO, engagment with NSAI/HSE advisory panel to comment on information standards aspects for our national EHR, a patient focused workshop and feedback session at the HISI annual conference which captured views on and possible next steps for our national EHR development and on the educational front, inclusion of patients in participatory design classes on the MSc in Health Informatics in Trinity College Dublin. References: 1- Henver A, March S, Park J. Design Science in Information Systems Research. MIS Quaterly 2004;28(1):75-10575-105.


A skin test to assess cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity (CBH) was evaluated in the interdigital skin of chickens grouped according to age. A total of 45 broiler Shaver hybrid chicks were used. Cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity was determined in the interdigital skin of 10- and 30- day-old chicks by a single intradermal injection of phytohemagglutinin-P (200 µg). In order to induce immunosuppersion, dexamethason dosed 3mg/kg body weight was injected IM for 3 days; to stimulate the immune system of the animals, levamisole was applied at 3 mg/kg body weight in the drinking water for 3 days. The effect of immunomodulation on the progress of the skin reaction for CBH was evaluated 12, 24 and 24 hours after injection. The skin reaction, as indicated by a significant (P<0.05) increase in the mean interdigital skin thickness, was detectable the day after injection in both groups. In conclusion, the test can be recommended to assess in vivo cell-mediated immunity even in 10-day-old broiler chicks.


This research aims to describe rhetorical moves, metadiscourse types and resources used to accompany the moves in English abstract section of undergraduate students' (thesis) article at STKIP PGRI Jombang. Moreover, this research also explains how the metadiscourse functions are applied in relation to the moves. The method of this study is qualitative research. The data collected using non-participant observation method and note taking techniques were analyzed with the theory of rhetorical moves in abstracts and metadiscourse. The results show that from 42 abstracts, only few abstracts from science belong to informational abstracts. Humanities tends to use three moves with the pattern PMR (Purpose, Method, Results); meanwhile, science andsocial science tend to use four moves with the pattern BPMR (Background, Purpose, Method, Results). On the whole, interactional metadiscourse is infrequently used. In terms of functions of metadiscourse in relation to moves, discourse goal (sub-type of frame markers) characterizes Move 2. Then, the resources of boosters which characterize move 4 are show, found, obtained, embodied, and revealed. Conclude (resources of frame markers sub-type—discourse stage) characterizes move 5. Some metadiscourse types related to the moves applied are evidentials, hedges, boosters, attitude markers and self-mentions. There are also certain resources in certain metadiscourse types which exist in certain move such as the resource of transitions and code glosses. In conclusion, only few abstracts from science support support Day's (1995) model. In the use of metadiscourse, the use of interactive metadiscourse is dominant. From 10 types of metadiscourse, transitions are frequently employed.


The MalG protein is needed for the transport of maltose in Escherichia coli K12. We present the sequence of gene malG. The deduced amino acid sequence corresponds to a protein of 296 amino acid residues (mol. wt. = 32 188 daltons). This protein is largely hydrophobic (hydrophobic index = 0.83) and is thus presumably an integral inner membrane protein which could span the membrane through six hydrophobic segments. We provide direct evidence from fusion proteins for the translation frame and we also identified the in vitro made MalG protein. We have found a sequence which is highly conserved between MalG and MalF, the other integral inner membrane protein of the maltose transport system. This conserved sequence is also present in all known integral membrane proteins of binding protein‐dependent transport systems, always at the same distance (approximately 90 residues) from their COOH terminus. We discuss briefly this finding.


The Advanced Research Consortium (ARC) is the central organizing force for several virtual research environments (VREs). ARC is the hub for these period-specific nodes, which offer digital project peer review, aggregation and search technologies, and forms of community engagement. The mission of both ARC and the nodes is to construct and support a "social system" for the humanities in which the digital and the traditional can come together to develop a working social humanities infrastructure. This article discusses how the ARC infrastructure evolved from the framework of scholarly engagement developed by NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-Century Electronic Scholarship) and explains how the consortium assists the scholarly community: through digital project peer review, aggregation and search, and outreach services.


Conventional CT‐based planning is anatomically‐based. Advanced imaging techniques facilitate the incorporation of "functional" information into the planning process. For example, FDG‐PET is being more commonly used to define GTVs for lung, cervix, head and neck. Similarly, MRI spectroscopy can identify metabolically‐distinct tumor targets within the prostate. For normal tissue,MRI can localize critical areas of brain function. SPECTlung and heartimaging quantifies regional organ perfusion, a reasonable surrogate for function. We've conducted studies using SPECTlung and heart perfusion to minimize and monitor RT‐induced normal tissue injury. In the lung, "incidental" dose can be steered to the lesser functioning regions. IMRT may be particularly useful in exploiting these regional functional heterogeneities. We have shown that SPECT guidance can reduce the average functional lung above 20 Gy and 30 Gy by ≈ 15% and 14%, respectively. Carefully selecting beam orientations can provide further reductions in irradiated functional lung. Incorporating nuclear medicine imaging into radiation planning is challenging. Some planning systems do not readily accept nuclear medicineimages. While CTimaging can be readily gated to respiration, nuclear medicine imaging is not necessarily gated. Limitations of nuclear medicine scanners may prevent scanning patients in the treatment position/cradle. These factors may introduce inaccuracies in registering nuclear images to the planning CT.Conversely,combined nuclear medicine/CT scanners may facilitate image registration.The resolution of nuclear medicine imaging is typically inferior to CT/MR. Therefore, abnormalities and anatomic findings on CT should not be readily dismissed if they are not seen on nuclear scans, since the resolution is relatively limited. Further, one needs to decide exactly how to use the nuclear medicine information. Quantitative nuclear data can be grossly "binned" and areas of high vs. low activity can be defined and considered as separate regions for optimization. Alternatively, one can try to consider the full range of nuclear‐activities (i.e. more finely binning the volume in areas of graded activity). However, it is not clear if the SPECT/PET activity is always linearly related to biological/functional information. More fundamentally, there remains controversy regarding what biological/functional attribute is actually being imaged by some nuclear scans. The field of functional‐based planning is rapidly evolving and likely will play a major role in the future of RT. However, given the uncertainties, care should be taken when radiation techniques deviate wildly from the standard/traditional approaches. Research sponsored, in part, by Varian Medical Systems, The Lance Armstrong Foundation, the Department of Defense, and the National Institute of Health (CA69579, CA115748). Educational Objectives: To understand the 1. difference between anatomic and functional‐based planning. 2. utility of PETimaging to define GTV's. 3. utility of SPECT and MRI in defining normal tissues. 4. potential shortcomings of functional imaging for treatment planning.


Three series of derivatives have been prepared by reaction of sulfanilylaminoguanidine with pyrylium salts, with the pyridinium derivatives of glycine and with the pyridinium derivatives of p-alanine, respectively. The new compounds were assayed as inhibitors of two serine proteases, thrombin and trypsin. The study showed that in contrast to the leads, possessing K,'s around 100-300 nM against thrombin, and 4501420 nM against trypsin, respectively, the new derivdtives showed inhibition constants in the range of 15-50nM against thrombin, whereas their affinity for trypsin remained relatively low. Derivatives of p-alanine were more active than the corresponding glycine derivatives, which in turn were more inhibitory than the pyridinium derivatives of sulfanilylaminoguanidine possessing the same substitution pattern at the pyridinium ring. Thus, the present study proposes two novel approaches for the preparation of high affinity, specific thrombin inhibitors: a novel S1 anchoring moiety in the already large family of arginine/amidine-based inhibitors, i.e., the S02NHNHC(=NH)NH2 group, and novel nonpeptidomimetic scaffolds obtained by incorporating alkyl-/aryl-substituted-pyridinium moieties in the hydrophobic binding site(s). The first one is important for obtaining bioavailable thrombin inhibitors, devoid of the high basicity of the commonly used arginine/amidine-based inhibitors, whereas the second one may lead to improved water solubility of such compounds.


The electronic properties of antimony-doped anatase (TiO2) thin films deposited via aerosol assisted chemical vapour deposition were investigated by a range of spectroscopic techniques. The incorporation of Sb(V) into the TiO2 lattice was characterised by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and resulted in n-type conductivity, with a decrease in sheet resistance by four-orders of magnitude compared to that of undoped TiO2 films. The films with the best electrical properties displayed charge carrier concentrations of ca. 1 × 1020 cm−3 and a specific resistivity as low as 6 × 10−2 Ω cm. Doping also resulted in an orange colouration of the films that became progressively stronger with increasing Sb content. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed that substantial segregation of Sb(III) to the surface of the film was associated with the appearance of lone pair surface states lying above the top of the main O 2p valence band. The pronounced visible region absorption in the films is attributed to transitions from the Sb(III) states at surface and grain boundary interfaces into the conduction band. The segregation of Sb leads to p-type surface layers at high doping levels and limits the mobility in this new conducting oxide.


We present Brax, an open source library for rigid body simulation with a focus on performance and parallelism on accelerators, written in JAX. We present results on a suite of tasks inspired by the existing reinforcement learning literature, but remade in our engine. Additionally, we provide reimplementations of PPO, SAC, ES, and direct policy optimization in JAX that compile alongside our environments, allowing the learning algorithm and the environment processing to occur on the same device, and to scale seamlessly on accelerators. Finally, we include notebooks that facilitate training of performant policies on common OpenAI Gym MuJoCo-like tasks in minutes.


BACKGROUND
Hospice and Palliative Medicine is a newly designated subspecialty of Emergency Medicine (EM). As yet, no well defined palliative care (PC) models for education or training exist. A needs assessment is the first step towards developing a curriculum.

GOAL
To characterize emergency physicians' (EP) perceived educational and formal training needs for PC related skills.

METHODS
All EM residents and faculty of one academic facility were asked to complete an anonymous needs-assessment survey. Participants were asked to rank statements related to attitudes about PC and rate their formal training and knowledge in 10 aspects of PC using a 5-point Likert-scale. EPs also ranked 4 learning modalities in order of preference and 12 PC educational topics in order of perceived importance in an EM curriculum.

RESULTS
Ninety-three percent (42/45) of eligible participants completed the survey (28 residents, 14 faculty). Respondents agreed/strongly agreed that PC skills are an important competence for EM (88%, 37/42) and that they would "like to have more training/education in PC" (79%, 33/42). Respondents also disagreed/strongly disagreed with the statement that "PC consult is called when no more can be done for the patient" (90%, 38/42). Important PC topics identified were pain management, discussing code status, and management of dyspnea and other symptoms in terminal illness. Bedside teaching was listed as the preferred learning modality. EM residents reported minimal training in pain management (46%, 13/28), managing hospice patients (54%, 15/28), withdrawal/withholding life support (54%, 15/28), and managing the imminently dying (43%, 12/28). There was no consistent, significant improvement reported in any domain as training and experience progressed from PGY (postgraduate year) 1 to PGY 4 to attending physician.

CONCLUSION
EPs view PC skills as important for EM practice and report that they are not yet adequately educated and trained in providing PC. Domains of particular interest and targeted areas for PC skills training for EPs may include managing hospice patients, withdrawal of life support, prognostication, and pain management.


ABSTRACT Data presented herein provide records of four species of bats new to the fauna of the Antillean island of Saba — Monophyllus plethodon, Ardops nichollsi, Tadarida brasiliensis, and Molossus molossus. Together with three species previously recorded from the island – Brachyphylla cavernarum, Artibeus jamaicensis, and Natalus stramineus – the chiropteran fauna of the island is documented to be composed of seven species. Our analysis of species/area relationships for West Indian bats provides a slope value of z = 0.177 and R2 = 0.76; therefore, the bat fauna of the West Indies has the flattest slope for this relationship of any West Indian group. This relationship is best explained by a propensity for over water dispersal by West Indian bats. We propose to unite the chiropteran faunas of the islands of Anguilla, Antigua, Barbuda, Nevis, Saba, St. Barthélemy, St. Eustatius, St. Kitts, and St. Martin by recognizing them as the Northern Antillean Faunal Area. Given the small size of Saba (12 km2) and the even smaller effective habitat for non-molossid bats (4 km2), conservation concerns are expressed for the future of the fauna and some recommendations are made for its preservation.


Microtubules have a key role in plant morphogenesis, as they control the oriented deposition of cellulose in the cell wall, and thus growth anisotropy. The idea that mechanical stress could be one of the main determinants behind the orientation of microtubules in plant cells emerged very soon after their discovery. The cause of mechanical stress in plant cells is turgor pressure, which can build up to 1 MPa and is restrained by cell wall stiffness. On the tissue scale, this can lead to regional patterns of tension, in particular in the epidermis of aerial organs, which resist the stress generated by cells in internal tissues. Here we summarize more than 50 years of work on the contribution of mechanical stress in guiding microtubule behavior, and the resulting impact on growth anisotropy and growth heterogeneity. We propose a conceptual model on microtubule dynamics and their ability to self-organize in bundles parallel to the direction of maximal stress, as well as a synthetic representation of the putative mechanotransducers at play.


Abstract. This study investigates the characteristic time-scales of variability found in long-term time-series of daily means of estimates of surface solar irradiance (SSI). The study is performed at various levels to better understand the causes of variability in the SSI. First, the variability of the solar irradiance at the top of the atmosphere is scrutinized. Then, estimates of the SSI in cloud-free conditions as provided by the McClear model are dealt with, in order to reveal the influence of the clear atmosphere (aerosols, water vapour, etc.). Lastly, the role of clouds on variability is inferred by the analysis of in-situ measurements. A description of how the atmosphere affects SSI variability is thus obtained on a time-scale basis. The analysis is also performed with estimates of the SSI provided by the satellite-derived HelioClim-3 database and by two numerical weather re-analyses: ERA-Interim and MERRA2. It is found that HelioClim-3 estimates render an accurate picture of the variability found in ground measurements, not only globally, but also with respect to individual characteristic time-scales. On the contrary, the variability found in re-analyses correlates poorly with all scales of ground measurements variability.


Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are a heterogeneous group of disease with complex clinical features. It has been sub-classified as: (1) Dermatomyositis, (2) Polymyositis, and (3) Inclusion body myositis (IBM). Nowadays, there are some studies in literature suggest necrotizing autoimmune myopathy and immune-mediated necrotizing myopathy should also be added to this group of disease. There is a debate in the diagnosis of IIMs and up until now, about 12 criteria systems have been proposed. Some of the criteria systems have been used widely such as Griggs et al.'s proposal for IBM. Clinical findings, autoantibodies, enzymes, electrophysiological, and muscle biopsy findings are diagnostic tools. Because of diseases' complexity, none of the findings are diagnostic alone. In this study, we discussed the diagnostic criteria of IMMs and described detailed morphological features.


Digital video imagery is rear-projected onto a translucent screen. A camera sensitive to the near infrared is also positioned on the opposite side of the projection screen. On the near side is positioned an array of infrared illuminators which flood the screen from oblique angles. Standing on the near side of the projection surface, participants touch the screen in order to interact. Because they stand between the illuminators and the screen they cast infrared shadows, one for each illuminator. These shadows converge on the projection screen creating dark infrared areas detectable by the camera. Using a previously computed calibration, the computer samples the camera image, de-warping and filtering it in order to extract where the participants are touching the screen. Unlike many other touch screen technologies, this system permits obtaining an image of how the participants are touching the screen as opposed to merely finding a contact point.


It is known that an axial piston pump barrel experiences small oscillations due to forces acting over it.
Cavitation als o occurs in many cases, damaging the plate and barrel sliding surfaces and therefore reducing the
volumetric and overall efficiency of the pump. More importantly, the resulting failure of the pump is often a critical
issue in modern industrial applications. The complex fluctuation movement of the barrel while turning around the
piston pump axis, has been experimentally evaluated in this paper, also the barrel plate film thickness will be
experimentally studied, showing that a large amount of the piston pump leakage occurs between the barrel/plate gap.
The present paper demonstrates the importance of properly designing the barrel/plate sliding surface. Some of the
paper conclusions are that the film thickness between the barrel and the plate sharply decreases as oil temperature
increases, mixed lubrication appears under most of the conditions studied and it is especially severe at high
temperatures. With regards to the barrel dynamics two main frequencies appear, one related to the torque created
when each pis ton enters and leaves the pressure kidney port, and a much higher frequency due to the elastic and
plastic metal to metal contact.


Software reliability was estimated based on NHPP software reliability growth models. Testing reliability and operational reliability may be essentially different. On the basis of analyzing similarities and differences of the testing phase and the operational phase, using the concept of operational reliability and the testing reliability, different forms of the comparison between the operational failure ratio and the predicted testing failure ratio were conducted, and the mathematical discussion and analysis were performed in detail. Finally, software optimal release was studied using software failure data. The results show that two kinds of conclusions can be derived by applying this method, one conclusion is to continue testing to meet the required reliability level of users, and the other is that testing stops when the required operational reliability is met, thus the testing cost can be reduced.


Little is known about the stigma of anabolic steroid use despite clear implications for treatment-seekers and for public policy development. We investigated the predictors of steroid stigma and contextualized the results by comparing steroids with marijuana. Undergraduates (N = 304) completed measures of drug stigma, exposure to drug users, and history of drug use. Participants stigmatized steroid use more than marijuana use—a very large effect. Participants reported less exposure to steroid users. Nevertheless, 15% of participants reported having a steroid-using friend. History of drug use, but not exposure to steroid users, predicted lower steroid stigma. Drug use and exposure both predicted lower marijuana use stigma. The amount of stigma expressed toward steroids is commensurate with that of "hard" drugs, such as heroin, likely constituting a formidable barrier to treatment. The public's difficulty empathizing with male body image insecurities may partially explain why exposure to steroid users did not predict lower stigmatization.


A new 2-DOFs dynamic turning model including the compliance of workpiece and cutting tool is developed. In past studies, most of them were based on SDOF models and either the workpiece or tool was simplified as rigid one. Meanwhile, traditional regenerative chatter models focus mainly on cross cutting which was particularly prone to chatter. It is evident that such models cannot descript cutting system comprehensively. In order to tackle this problem, we introduce the overlap factor making the new model also suitable for length-wise cutting. Stability was analyzed after performing the Laplace transformation, correlation between critical chip width and spindle speed was derived. Simulation suggests that the new model has a larger critical chip width which complies with practical situation.


W-doped DLC films were synthesized from CH4 and W by ion beam deposition and magnetron sputtering, and the influence of W target current on the surface morphology and the mechanical properties of W-doped DLC films deposited were studied. The W-doped DLC films in the study have a smooth dense surface with several particles of about 2micron. The hardness, the modulus, and the film-substrate adhesion of the films are increased with the rise of W target current and the critical load of the scratch test for all the W-doped DLC films is above 70N. The friction coefficient of W-doped DLC films is increased with the increase of W target current while the lowest wear rate is obtained when W target current is 1A.


This paper deals with control and design of quasi-direct converters, i.e. AC/AC converters including a forced-commutated rectifier, an inverter, and a small filter in the DC link. Converter performance can be optimized by means of a predictive digital control strategy, which ensures instantaneous input-output power balance, fast response, and high power factor. After a discussion of the control strategy, the paper gives design criteria of both power and control sections. Experimental results of a 2.5-kVA prototype are reported.


Do contemporary welfare policies reflect the realities of the economy and the needs of those in need of public assistance, or are they based on outdated and idealized notions of work and family life? Are we are moving from a "war on poverty" to a "war against the poor?" In this critique of American social welfare policy, Sanford F. Schram explores the cultural anxieties over the putatively deteriorating "American work ethic," and the class, race, sexual and gender biases at the root of current policy and debates. Schram goes beyond analyzing the current state of affairs to offer a progressive alternative he calls "radical incrementalism," whereby activists would recreate a social safety net tailored to the specific life circumstances of those in need. His provocative recommendations include a series of programs aimed at transcending the prevailing pernicious distinction between "social insurance" and "public assistance" so as to better address the needs of single mothers with children. Such programs could include "divorce insurance" or even some form of "pregnancy insurance" for women with no means of economic support. By pushing for such programs, Schram argues, activists could make great strides towards achieving social justice, even in today's reactionary climate.


In part one of this dissertation, we present a scheme for rendering higher-order isosurfaces. Animation and visualization of rectilinear data require interpolation schemes for smooth image generation. Piecewise trilinear interpolation, the de facto standard for interpolating rectilinear data, usually leads to significant visual artifacts in the resulting imagery. These artifacts reduce the fidelity of the resulting visualization, and may even lead to false interpretations of the data. This part is concerned with the generation of smooth isosurface image sequences, obtained by casting rays through the image plane and computing their intersections with an isosurface. We describe a novel solution to this problem: We replace trilinear interpolation by tricubic interpolation, smoothing out the artifacts in the images; and we simplify the ray-isosurface intersection calculations by rotating and resampling the original rectilinear data onto a second rectilinear grid—a grid with one family of grid planes parallel to the image plane.
In part two of this dissertation, we discuss multiresolution techniques for hardware-accelerated, texture-based visualization of very large data sets. We discuss both volume visualization and cutting-planes techniques and how we have implemented them. In general, these methods use an adaptive scheme that renders the volume in a region-of-interest at a high resolution and the volume away from this region at progressively lower resolutions. The developed algorithm is based on the segmentation of texture space into an octree, where the leaves of the tree define the original data and the internal nodes define lower-resolution approximations. Rendering is done adaptively by selecting high-resolution cells close to a center of attention and low-resolution cells away from this area. We discuss four items particular to multiresolution volume visualization: (a) the special attention that must be paid to the transfer function; (b) the proxy geometry; (c) indexed texture maps to allow for quick changes to the transfer function; and (d) error evaluation in the context of index texture maps. We discuss a method for removing artifacts in multiresolution cutting planes.


Marine protected areas (MPAs) can be used to conserve parts of marine ecosystems, including fish stocks exploited by fisheries. Social acceptance of MPAs must be achieved if they are to function as effective management tools. Artisanal fishers operating around tropical coral reef areas were questioned in an attempt to investigate their acceptance and perceptions of MPAs. Fishers from two areas were surveyed: Koh Rong Island, Cambodia, where MPAs are a new concept to fishers, and Southern Leyte, the Philippines, where MPAs have been used in management for over 10 years. Fishers' opinions of MPAs from each study site were compared and variables affecting fishers' opinions of MPAs were also investigated at each site. Although small sample sizes of fishers were observed at each study site, results showed that the majority of fishers at each site accepted MPAs as a management tool. Cambodian fishers felt the state of marine resources had worsened in the past decade (with regards to the number of fish, the size of fish and the number of species present in their catch), whereas most Filipino fishers had noticed an opposite trend. Older Cambodian fishers had greater acceptance of MPAs; age did not affect Filipino fishers' acceptance, and did not affect any other opinions fishers had of MPAs at either site. Community-based management of MPAs was fishers' preference at both sites. The study shows evidence of MPA support in Cambodia, with mobile gear users being more willing to be involved in MPA management. Most Filipino fishers felt that their MPA improved their catches, although there was evidence of conflict between fishers since the MPA was implemented.