Although originalism has grown in popularity in recent years, the theory continues to face major criticisms. One such criticism is that originalism cannot accommodate precedent. This criticism takes two forms. First, some critics, as well as some advocates of originalism, argue that originalism is inconsistent with precedent and therefore originalist judges must overturn all precedents that conflict with the Constitution's original meaning. (1) If these scholars are correct, however, originalism becomes far less attractive because it would obligate judges to make a number of radical and unpopular decisions. For example, depending on one's reading of the Constitution's original meaning, an originalist might be required to declare paper money unconstitutional or to reverse Brown v. Board of Education. (2) Second, even if originalists do follow precedent on pragmatic grounds, critics argue that this approach undermines originalism and its distinctive virtues. If judges can simply decide which precedents they want to follow, then originalism is little better than an unprincipled nonoriginalism. This short Essay, which is based on a longer article, (3) responds to each of these precedent-based challenges to originalism. First, we argue that there is no fundamental conflict between originalism and precedent. The original meaning of the Constitution allows for precedent because it treats precedent as a matter of federal common law that Congress can override by statute. (4) Second, we argue that one can articulate a principled doctrine of precedent that is compatible with originalism and that preserves the most important benefits of both originalism and precedent. Our normative approach is consequentialist. A normatively desirable doctrine of precedent would follow precedent when the benefits of doing so are greater than the benefits of returning to the original meaning and would follow the original meaning in the reverse situation. (5) Turning to this task, we begin by identifying the principal benefits of following the original meaning and the principal benefits of following precedent. (6) We then recommend a few precedent rules. (7) Our theory recommends an intermediate approach to precedent, sometimes following it and sometimes not. Although this theory is less respectful of precedent than the Supreme Court's existing approach, (8) it would avoid the problems created by the wholesale rejection of nonoriginalist precedents while leaving a significant role for originalism in constitutional interpretation. THE COMPATIBILITY OF ORIGINALISM AND PRECEDENT We start by explaining why originalism and precedent are compatible. Although many originalists believe that precedent is inconsistent with originalism, they base their claim on political or jurisprudential theory. (9) In their view, originalism as a matter of theory only permits changes in constitutional meaning to occur through amendments. This view, however, is problematic. Whether precedent is consistent with originalism depends on the original meaning of the Constitution, not political theory. If the Constitution clearly said judges should follow precedents, then everyone would have to admit that originalism requires adherence to precedent. Thus, the question of the compatibility of originalism and precedent turns on what the Constitution itself says about precedent. Some originalists have argued that the original meaning of the Constitution actually prohibits judges from following precedent. (10) The Supremacy Clause says that the Constitution, not judicial precedent, is "the supreme law of the land." (11) Thus, when a judge is confronted with a precedent that erroneously interprets the Constitution, the Constitution itself commands the judge to follow the Constitution, not the precedent. Hence, following precedent is unconstitutional. There are, however, problems with this argument. First, it is inconsistent with the history of precedent in Anglo-American law. …


Most structural/kinematic models are inherently two-dimensional; even several recent three-dimensional models are "pseudo–three-dimensional" in that they consist of a series of parallel two-dimensional cross sections. Lack of a true three-dimensional formulation hampers our abilities to simulate three-dimensional structures such as oblique- and strike-slip faulting and displacement gradients perpendicular to the slip vector. The mathematical formulation of trishear deformation using incompressibility of flow is well suited to a solution in three dimensions. We derive one plausible velocity field for true three-dimensional flow in a triangular shear zone. This formulation allows us to simulate the deformation in oblique-slip deformation zones as well as flower structures associated with strike-slip fault zones. The strain distribution in flower structures combined with some simple mechanical assumptions suggests that faults in these zones would have a helicoidal geometry. The results of the kinematic model compare well to well-described structures in the Colorado Plateau, Andaman Sea, and Death Valley, as well as to data from analogue experiments.


The 'symmetrical' 1,5-bis[1-(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethylidene]thiocarbazone Schiff base condenses with dibutyltin oxide to form the title complex, [Sn(C4H9)2(C17H16N4O2S)], in which the deprotonated ligand O,N,S-chelates to the Sn atom of two crystallographically independent molecules. The ligand bears a formal negative charge on the S and one O atom; the other O atom retains its H atom. The Sn atoms are five-coordinated in a cis-C2NOSSn trigonal-bipyramidal environment, and the apical sites are occupied by the O and S atoms. In both molecules, the hydroxy group is hydrogen bonded to a double-bonded N atom, generating a six-membered ring. The amino group is a donor to the coordinated O atom of an adjacent molecule, the hydrogen-bonding interaction giving rise to a helical chain running along the b axis. In one of the independent molecules, the atoms of one of the n-butyl groups are disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancy. In the other independent molecule, the atoms of both n-butyl groups are disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancy and, in addition, the Sn and S atoms were also refined as disordered over two sets of sites with equal occupancy.


Vitreoretinal surgery has been radically changed over the past 10 years by the development of new techniques, smaller gauge instrumentation, and improvements in vitrectomy machines. The indications for vitrectomy have expanded dramatically, and inoperable conditions have become amenable to surgical treatment. In addition to improvements in intraocular instruments, various dyes become available and enable better visualization and a more complete removal of vitreous and membranes. In this chapter, we issued latest developments in the surgical field of retina that enable improved surgical outcomes and less complications.


Corrosion sensitivity of 2205 and 316L stainless steel in 3.5% NaCl solution was studied by potentiodynamic polarization, EIS and Mott-Schottky. The results show that the 2205 duplex stainless steel has better corrosion resistance than 316L stainless steel and the results of EIS spectra measurements in different formation potential shows that the thickness of passive film formed on 2205 SS is on average thicker than that on 316L SS under the same formation potential. Further investigation by Mott-Schottky analysis proves that the diffusivity of the point defects was 3.67A—10 -15 cm 2 /s for 316L SS and 2.8A—10 -16 cm 2 /s for 2205 SS, it shows that the Dd value of 2205 SS decreases about ten times compared with that of 316L SS, a less-defective passive film can be formed on the 2205 duplex stainless steel.


The objective of this paper is to investigate failure characteristics of SA508 carbon steel in ductile-brittle transition temperature region. To achieve this goal, a series of finite element analyses as well as fracture toughness tests are performed for pre-cracked V-notch specimens. An assessment of failure probabilities is, then, carried out employing Weibull stress models with different rank probability options. Finally, a prototype of toughness scale diagram is derived through comparison of estimated fracture toughness data with those for compact tension specimens. The present results can be utilized to found a basis of realistic integrity evaluation on major nuclear components containing defect.


In this paper we present schemes of experimental setups for the radiation spectral brightness measurements in the range of 0.6 - 5 (mu) for N varying from 10-1 to 102 (if, for example, (lambda) equals 1 (mu) , this range of N corresponds to the brightness temperature range from 6 (DOT) 103 to 106 K), and for photomultipliers quantum efficiency measurements in the range of 0.4 - 5 (mu) with a dynamical range 10 - 1012 photon/sec and accuracy not worse than 1%. The new measurement methods are based on the utilization of the parametric light scattering phenomenon which is a spontaneous decay of laser pump photons in correlated photon pairs in crystals with quadratic nonlinear susceptibility. The first of two methods allows measurement of the radiation spectral brightness N in absolute units ('photons per mode') in visible and infrared range. The quantity N is related to the energetic brightness spectral density B through the equation B equals (hc2/(lambda) 5)N, where h is the Plank constant, c - the light velocity, (lambda) - the wavelength. The method is absolute and does not require any reference source or detector of radiation. Quantum noise of a parametric down-convertor, caused by the zero vacuum fluctuations with an effective brightness Nvac equals 1 photon per mode, is the reference in this case. The second method concerns the quantum efficiency of photodetectors determination, and it is based on the connection between the statistics of photocurrent and the radiation which causes it. The parametric scattering is a unique source of rather intensive and directed radiation flow consisting of photon pairs. Such a flow can be used to determine the absolute quantum efficiency of photodetectors.


Plant sulfydryl proteases such as actinidin are mainly used as meat tenderisers, milk clotting agents for the development of novel dairy products and proteolytic agents in biotechnological procedures. The main issue with regards their application is the method for the control of their enzymatic activity after the desired extent of proteolysis, considering that thermal treatment is not applicable. High Pressure (HP) processing could be applied for the enzyme activity regulation. Actinidin, extracted from kiwi fruit (Hayward var., A. chinensis), was purified using anion-exchange and gel filtration chromatography. After purification procedure, only one single peak was finally received for this enzyme corresponding to a protein of molecular mass of 24 kDa with an isoelectric point equal to or lower than 3.5. The effect of HP (500–900MPa and 50- 70°C) on the remaining activity of purified actinidin in phosphate buffer solution (pH 6.0) was studied. Inactivation of purified actinidin was described by a first-order kinetic model both for thermal and HP treatment at the studied processing conditions. Aiming at an optimal process design, a composite mathematical model, which describes the actinidin inactivation rate as a function of pressure and temperature conditions, taking into account the dependence of both activation energy and activation volume on the applied pressure and temperature respectively, was used. HP-induced conformational changes of the purified actinidin were also investigated using Circular Dichroism spectroscopy (CD). A direct comparison of the CD results for the treated and the untreated enzymes reveals that reversible changes were depicted in the far- and near-UV. It is suggested that the exposure to HP may affect the linkage between thiolate ion of cysteine group and positively charged nitrogen of the imidazole group of the active site of actinidin leading to the reduction of the enzyme activity.


The Hoyran Lake Basin is an example of a Neogene rift basin in southwest Turkey. Initially red coloured, poorlysorted, angular cobble to pebble conglomerates were deposited close to the boundary faults. These conglomerates then passed into the finer-grained, calcite-cemented pebble to granule conglomerates towards the basin interior. The distributions of other lacustrine lithofacies (siltstone/claystone, marlstone, limestone and magnesite) appear to have been dependent on the proximity of the lake margins. These occurrences show that the basin was subject to some climatic and tectonic controls. Humid seasons and/or tectonic activities resulted in increased clastic input from the lake margins, drier conditions enhanced evaporation and significantly modified the water chemistry. Ultramafic and dolomitic older rocks around the basin are considered to have been an important source for the ion concentrations implicated in the precipitation of dolomite and magnesite in the Hoyran Lake deposits.


A B S T R A C T Kenya was at the brink of an environmental disaster as most of its watersheds were experiencing water stresses, which resulted in deadly conflicts on ownership of the little available resources. In the main cities of Machakos, Nairobi, and Mombasa water supply was unreliable and limited in coverage. The Government was therefore unable to supply water services while managing the resources at the same time. In 1999, the government initiated a reform, which culminated with The Water Act 2002. The new legislation attributed the supply of water services to water-businesses and reserved itself the right to manage the resource in consultation with the public. A Bottom-up approach was suggested for the management of water resources through the creation of "Water Resource Users' Associations" (WRUAs). The latter needed to work closely with the "Water Resources Management Authority" (WRMA). But how was this new legislation to be implemented? Until 2005, no strategy was available. In pursuant of the Water Act 2002 and water sector reforms, the German International Cooperation (GIZ and DAAD) supported the National Water Resources Management Strategy 2007 (NWRMS) to enable the Water Resource Management Authority (WRMA) implement Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) approaches in Kenya. Universitat Siegen (Germany) in partnership with Kenyatta University (Kenya) organized three DAAD Alumni Summer Schools in Meru, from 2006 to 2008, with the logistical and financial supports of the GIZ and DAAD. The latter were to strengthen local stakeholders' capacity in addressing issues and challenges pertaining to water resources management. This study used both qualitative and quantitative analytical tools to describe and examine the learning process put in place by the German International Cooperation to instill a participatory watershed management practice in Kenya. It assesses key actors and their respective roles, outlines challenges met, and anticipates the actual impact of these Summer Schools on the ground. Results show that DAAD Alumni played a major role in training local stakeholders in designing, organizing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating participatory water resources management plans. Both locals and professionals, mainly constituted by WRUA and WRMA representatives, played a key role during case studies, the interpretation of the law and governmental policies, as well as providing local expertise during fieldwork. The learning process involved a holistic and interdisciplinary approach of problem assessment and resolution. Thus some participants may have been challenged to interact freely and easily with unacquainted ones while others were monopolizing the debate. Nevertheless, the final outcome was positive and greatly contributed to the development of a sustainable and integrated watershed management approach that is being implemented at the local level in most of the watersheds of Kenya. That is


The high chemical oxygen demand (COD) of vinasses from ethanol distilleries (greater than 130,000 mg/L) has led to exploring alternative treatments enabling their final disposition. The electro-flotation/oxidation of vinasses was thus experimentally evaluated regarding initial pH, electrolytic support (NaCl) and hydrogen peroxide concentration (H2O2), current density (CD) and several electrodes: iron, aluminum and galvanized steel. Its effect on reducing COD and total organic carbon (TOC) was studied, an initial 214,000 ppm COD value being reduced to 90,000 ppm, thereby representing a 58% reduction. The greatest reductions were achieved with galvanized steel electrodes, basic pH, 20 mA/cm 2 and 60,000 ppm H2O2.


The current investigation is concerned with the histological features of Senna occidentalis (L.) Link (coffee senna plant). The anatomical structure of different vegetative and reproductive organs was investigated weekly or fortnightly, according to the investigated organ, throughout the growing season. Organs studied included the main root, main stem (represented by shoot apex, apical, and median internodes), different foliage leaves developed on the main stem and on lateral shoots (including lamina and petiole), epidermal peel and trichomes, flower buds, fruits, and seeds. Histological features of various organs of the coffee senna plant were analysed microscopically and photomicrographed. Moreover, ultrastructural features of the seed coat were investigated by scanning electron microscope.


Oral sustained release cephalexin (S-6437) was administered to 24 pediatric patients. Daily dose used was 18 approximately 60 mg/kg, which was divided into two doses and given after breakfast and dinner. The following are the results of the study. Out of 24 patients, 6 showed very good response, 10 good response, 6 fair, 1 poor and 1 unknown, Ratio of effectiveness was 69.6%. Two patients were reluctant to receive the drug and, therefore, they took other drugs. The other 22 patients, however, were easily given. No remarkable side effects due to S-6437 were found. From the above results, it was recognized that S-6437 has good effectiveness and safety, and it is convenient to give to children because the frequency of the drug administration is only twice a day.


Tau positive neuronal cytoplasmic inclusions (NCI) are the 'hallmark' pathological feature of several neurodegenerative diseases collectively known as the tauopathies. This study compared the spatial patterns of various types of NCI in selected tauopathies including the neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) in Alzheimer's disease (AD) and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Pick bodies (PB) in Pick's disease (PiD), and the tau positive (tau+) neurons in corticobasal degeneration (CBD). In the cerebral cortex of these disorders, the tau+ NCI were distributed in clusters and in a significant proportion of analyses, the clusters were distributed with a regular periodicity parallel to the pia mater. The inclusions in AD, PiD and CBD exhibited a similar range of spatial patterns but in PSP were less frequently clustered and more frequently randomly distributed. In gyri where the NCI were clustered, there was a significant difference in mean cluster size between disorders. Hence, clusters of NFT in AD were larger than those in PSP and the tau+ neurons in CBD and clusters of PB in PiD were larger than the tau+ neurons in CBD and the NFT in PSP. The cluster size of the tau+ neurons in CBD was similar to the NFT in PSP. The data suggest that the formation of clusters of NCI, regularly distributed parallel to the pia mater, is a common feature of the tauopathies indicating similar patterns of cortical degeneration and pathogenic mechanisms across different diseases. Furthermore, the data suggest that cortical degeneration affecting the short and long cortico-cortical pathways may be a characteristic of the tauopathies.


A taxonomic study was carried out on a strain, designated W3-3A(T), which was isolated from a pyrene-degrading consortium, enriched from sediment of the Pacific Ocean. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain W3-3A(T) belonged to the genus Bowmanella, with the highest sequence similarity (99.0 %) with Bowmanella denitrificans BD1(T), whereas sequence similarities with other species were less than 93 %. The nucleotide sequence similarity of both gyrB and rpoD genes of strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) was 81.1 %. However, the protein sequence similarities of the gyrB and rpoD genes of strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) were 96.1 % and 91.0 %, respectively. Phylogenetic trees based on these housekeeping genes showed that strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) formed a distinct lineage in the Gammaproteobacteria. The DNA-DNA hybridization value between strain W3-3A(T) and B. denitrificans BD1(T) was 43 %. Strain W3-3A(T) could also be differentiated from B. denitrificans BD1(T) based on the repetitive extragenic palindromic DNA-PCR fingerprint. The G+C content of the chromosomal DNA of strain W3-3A(T) was 49 mol%. The combined genotypic and phenotypic data showed that strain W3-3A(T) represents a novel species of the genus Bowmanella, for which the name Bowmanella pacifica sp. nov. is proposed, with the type strain W3-3A(T) (=CGMCC 1.7086(T)=LMG 24568(T)=MCCC 1A01018(T)).


Organic conducting redox polymers are being investigated as the active component for secondary battery applications, as they have the potential to solve two of the main problems with small molecule-based organic electrodes for electrical energy storage, viz dissolution of the active compound in the electrolyte, and slow charge transport through the material. Herein we report the synthesis of a series of conducting redox polymers based on polypyrrole with hydroquinone pendant groups that are attached to the backbone via different linkers, and we investigate the impact of the linker on the interaction between the backbone and the pendant groups. For the directly linked polymer, oxidation of the pendant groups leads to a decrease of bipolaron absorbance, as well as a decrease in mass of the polymer film, both of which are reversible. The origin of these effects is discussed in light of the influence of the linker unit, electrolyte polarity, and electrolyte salt. For the longest linkers in the series, no interaction was observed, which was deemed the most beneficial situation for energy storage applications, as the energy storage capacity of the pendant groups can be utilized without disturbing the conductivity of the polymer backbone.


The cognitive-buffer hypothesis proposes that more harsh and unpredictable environments favour animals with larger brains and resulting greater cognitive skills. Comparisons across taxa have supported the hypothesis, but it has rarely been tested within a species. We measured brain size, as inferred from head dimensions, for 1141 cliff swallow specimens collected in western Nebraska, 1982–2018. Cliff swallows starving to death during unusual late-spring cold snaps had significantly smaller brains than those dying from other causes, suggesting that brain size in this species can affect foraging success and that greater cognitive ability may confer advantages when conditions exceed normal environmental extremes. Brain size declined significantly with the size of the breeding colony from which a specimen came. Larger brains may be favoured in smaller colonies that represent more unpredictable and more challenging social environments where there is less public information on food sources and less collective vigilance against predators, even in relatively normal conditions. Our results provide intraspecific support for the cognitive-buffer hypothesis and emphasize the potential evolutionary impact of rare climatic events.


Good relationships at work are thought to enhance various symbolic and material benefits, such as well-being, assistance on the job, and other resources. However, more research is needed to understand the intricacies between the quality of work relationships and organisational context. Therefore, this thesis adopts a social constructionist view to explore how people construct a quality of relationships at work. Moreover, to examine how people make sense of a 'good' way to behave with each other at work, this study investigates the construction of ethical issues at work. While research on ethical behaviours highlighted the role of intuitive processes, more research is needed to understand how these intuitive processes play a role in the construction of ethical awareness. The quality of work relationships is a quotidian phenomenon and has an ambiguous ethical meaning. Hence, work relationships is a way to study of the construction of ethicality in work organisations.

A naturalistic multiple case study is adopted to investigate the phenomenon of work relationships in context. The researcher conducted in- depth qualitative inductive studies in two work organisations in France, including observations (330 hours of nonparticipant observations, 14 hours of audio and video recordings), interviews (45 participants), and questionnaires (N=106). Data was analysed separately, then compared in order to build theory on the construction of the quality of work relationships and underlying ethical issues.

Findings show that relationships at work are a site of conflicting responsibilities: to care for work and to care for co-workers. The ethical meaning that people ascribe to the quality of work relationships is primarily related to individuals' responsibility for the work, trumping a responsibility for co-workers. However, the salience of personal life at work increases the tension felt between caring for work and caring for co-workers. This tension can be rationalised into the belief that both caring obligations are complementary instead of competitive. This research shows that affects play a critical role in the issue construction phase and evidences the role of implicit processes at the collective level.

The thesis contributes to research on work relationships in three ways. Firstly, this study demonstrates that the organisational context shapes the quality of work relationships, which reside in the interplay between care and instrumentality. Secondly, previous research was fragmented on the definition of work relationships, thus this research presents a typology of good relationships at work with an empirical definition. Thirdly, this study draws on an ethics of care to add to understanding care in organisations by showing how workplace instrumentality hinders the possibilities to care for co-workers. Thus, the thesis critically considers the role of work organisations on social welfare.


The aim of this paper is to compare the influence of parameter uncertainties on the performance of two vector oriented control schemes of an electrical drive with an induction motor. In the first one the field oriented control method is used to control the speed of induction motor. In this system the spatial vector of the stator current is transformed into an i/sub 1q/ component which creates the torque, and into an i/sub 1d/ component which creates the flux. If the d-axis component of the stator current is of constant value, the motor drives with a constant flux and the torque can be altered rapidly by means of the q-axis component of the stator current i/sub 1q/. Two components U/sub 1d/, U/sub 1q/ of stator voltages in d-q coordinate system which must be applied to the stator d-q equivalent windings, are generated by two PI regulators controlling the two components: flux-generating and torque generating stator current. In the second one the stator flux oriented control method is used to control the torque of induction motor. By using instantaneous voltage space vectors with selection of the optimum inverter switching modes employing vector modulation technique, the direct control of torque and stator flux is achieved.


AIM: To explore the potential effect of locally applied 1% Curcumin on myeloperoxidase (MPO) enzymatic activity in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and on the periodontal status during the initial phase of orthodontic tooth movement. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Forty patients (26 females and 14 males) aged 12-25 years who required fixed orthodontic treatment were randomly divided into two equal groups. The control and test groups were similar in the various baseline parameters, including standard oral hygiene protocol. Moreover, 1% Curcumin gel was applied around mandibular anterior teeth in the test group twice daily, from three days before to 14 days after the placement of archwires. MPO activity and periodontal status were recorded at five different time points; before placement of archwire (baseline), immediately after placement of archwire, 2 hours, 7 days, and 14 days later. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The data were analyzed using the paired t-test for intra-group differences and the unpaired t-test for intergroup differences at five different time points. Statistical significance in the intragroup and intergroup difference of Plaque and Gingival index was calculated using the unpaired t-test. RESULTS: Maximum MPO enzymatic activity in GCF was observed two hours after the placement of the archwire. MPO activity decreased slightly on the seventh day, but values were still elevated as compared to baseline. However, MPO activity came back to the values similar to baseline on day 14 in the control group and significantly lower than the baseline in the test group. The inter-group differences in clinical periodontal parameters were non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: The locally applied 1% Curcumin gel appears to decrease the MPO activity in GCF on the 14th day after placement of the archwires. However, clinical periodontal status in the initial phase of tooth movement is unaffected by curcumin if patients adhere to good plaque control.


In this paper we present the new DUNE-ALUGrid module. This module contains a major overhaul of the sources from the ALUgrid library and the binding to the DUNE software framework. The main changes include user defined load balancing, parallel grid construction, and an redesign of the 2d grid which can now also be used for parallel computations. In addition many improvements have been introduced into the code to increase the parallel efficiency and to decrease the memory footprint.
The original ALUGrid library is widely used within the DUNE community due to its good parallel performance for problems requiring local adaptivity and dynamic load balancing. Therefore, this new model will benefit a number of DUNE users. In addition we have added features to increase the range of problems for which the grid manager can be used, for example, introducing a 3d tetrahedral grid using a parallel newest vertex bisection algorithm for conforming grid refinement. In this paper we will discuss the new features, extensions to the DUNE interface, and explain for various examples how the code is used in parallel environments.


A 6-aminopurine (adenine) derivative of bis(2,2'-bithienyl)methane, vis., 4-[2-(6-amino-9H-purin-9-yl)ethoxy]phenyl-4-[bis(2,2'-bithienyl)methane] or Ade-BTM, was designed and synthesized for recognition of 5-fluorouracil (FU), an antitumor chemotherapy agent, by RNA-type (nucleobase pairing)-driven molecular imprinting. The prepolymerization complex stoichiometry involved one FU molecule and two molecules of the Ade-BTM functional monomer. Molecular structure of this complex was thermodynamically optimized via density functional theory at the B3LYP/3-21G* level. The stability constant of the FU-Ade-BTM complex of 1:2 stoichiometry was K = 2.17(±0.07) × 10(7) M(-2), as determined by titration with quenching of fluorescence of the bis(2,2'-bithienyl)methane moiety of Ade-BTM by the FU titrant, in benzonitrile, at 352 nm excitation. Next, (5-fluorouracil)-templated molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP-FU) films were deposited on indium-tin oxide (ITO) or Au film-coated glass slides, Pt disk electrodes, or 10-MHz quartz crystal resonators by potentiodynamic electropolymerization from solution of FU, Ade-BTM, and tris([2,2'-bithiophen]-5-yl)methane (TTM) cross-linking monomer at FU:Ade-BTM:TTM = 1:2:3 mol ratio. Then UV-visible and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra of the MIP-FU films were recorded to confirm the FU template presence in the MIP-FU film and its subsequent release by extraction with methanol from this film. For determination of the stability constant of the complex of the MIP cavity and FU, piezoelectric microgravimetry (PM) under both batch- and flow-injection analysis conditions was used. For sensing application, three different transduction platforms [differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), capacitive impedimetry (CI), and PM] were integrated with the MIP-FU recognition unit. The limit of detection (LOD) was 56 nM, 75 nM, and 0.26 mM, for these chemosensors, respectively, indicating suitability of the former two for FU determination in blood plasma or serum (~500 nM). Moreover, the CI chemosensor was appreciably more sensitive to FU than to their common interferences.


Context: Diet and nutrition status has an important role in life and humans' health. Regular physical activity create health promotion and prevent diseases. Aim: Considering the importance of the health of students as young members of the society, the present study was designed to determine the status of nutrition and physical activity and its related factors among students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran. Setting and Design: this Cross- sectional study conducted on 435 students of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on the students were selected via multistage random sampling at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Data collection tools included a demographic and physical activity questionnaire and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Statistical Analysis Used: For data analysis, descriptive statistic and t-test were performed using SPSS version 21. Results: The mean age of the participants was 21.11 ± 3.06 years. Consumption of dairy (P = 0.008) and fruits (P = 0.02) was significantly more in female students compared to male students. A total of 188 persons (43.2%) had physical activity every day. A total of 178 persons (40.9%) had physical activity always on a day, 11 persons (2.5%) had no physical activity, and others (56.6%) had physical activity sometimes. A total of 100 persons (23%) had weight increasing, 113 persons (26%) had weight decreasing, and others (51%) had neither increase nor decrease weight. Conclusion: Based on the findings, the students had optimal nutrition condition. Thus, more attention is important to be paid by authorities to this specific topic, and some measures are essential in training students to maintain and continue optimal nutritional status. Students physical activity wasn't optimal level so it is needs to more educational measures.


Extensive worldwide experience with PE-fractionated porcine factor VIII concentrate has confirmed the expectation that the produce has an important place in the management of hemophiliacs with inhibitors, and that the problems which constrained the use of the original animal factor VIII concentrates have been largely overcome. A particular advantage, compared with PCCs and derivatives, is that dosage and effects can be monitored with conventional coagulation tests.


Detailed pathologic studies over the past decade suggest a distal fallopian tube origin for the majority of "ovarian" high-grade serous carcinomas (HGSC). This review will summarize molecular alterations observed in tubal precursors for HGSC, namely p53 signatures and serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas, and in nonmalignant fallopian tube epithelial cells obtained from women at increased genetic risk for HGSC. Recent experiments investigating the impact of follicular fluid exposure and retrograde menstruation on tumor development in the fallopian tube will also be discussed. These data will be reconciled with traditional ovarian cancer risk factors related to reproductive history.


We analyze R&D competition and cooperation between firms involved in the development of a technology standard. Our model captures two types of incentives these firms are subject to: free-riding due to the public good nature of the standard and patent races in order to derive royalties from essential patents. As a consequence, R&D may be excessive or insufficient as compared to the collective optimum. Our goal is to test if consortia can address any type of inefficiency, by either reducing or increasing collective R&D investment. We address this question empirically on a large dataset of ICT standards, by assessing the effect of consortia on the number of standard-related patents filed by companies. After sorting standards entailing over or underinvestment, our results confirm that in the first case consortia have a chilling effect on patent filings, while it has an inflating effect in the second case.


As blood vessel imaging techniques facilitate the fundamental understanding in vascular performance diagnosis and biomedical research improvement, we aimed to visualize and understand the blood vessels dynamics under human skin and their underlying mechanisms in real time. In this study, a noninvasive imaging system was selected to provide an investigation of the real time oscillation of blood vessels in vivo, using Spectral Radar Optical Coherence Tomography (SROCT). This main goal was achieved by evaluating the precision and confidence in recorded data by using a phantom made of Intralipid (IL) to mimic the physical properties of the skin. Then, we successfully managed to visualize for the first time the vasomotion under human skin using MatLab Image Processing Toolbox. After that, we explored mathematically the cyclic variations of the vascular area obtained from the images for a cohort of six participants. The Fourier and wavelet transforms were applied to identify the characteristic frequencies related to the oscillations in vascular cross sectional area. Finally, we investigated dynamical aspects of vasomotion, in response to temperature change, by using a Melcor Thermoelectric Temperature Controller (MTTC) to produce local heating in conjunction with Spectral Radar Optical Coherence Tomography (SROCT).


In the present study, the rationality for the antiviral effect (H1N1 virus) of Flos Lonicerae Japonicae (FLJ, named JinYinHua)-Fructus forsythiae (FF, named LianQiao) herb couple preparations improved by chito-oligosaccharide (COS) was investigated. We found that the improvement of antiviral activity for four preparations attributed to the enhancement of bioavailability for the FLJ-FF herb couple in vivo, and that caffeic acid derivatives are the most important type of components for antiviral activity. The anti-Influenza virus activity-half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50), not area under concentration (AUC) was considered as the weighting factor for integrating the pharmacokinetics of caffeic acid derivatives. It was found that the integral absorption, both in vitro and in vivo, especially that in Shuang-Huang-Lian, can be improved significantly by COS, an absorption enhancer based on tight junction. The results indicated that the antiviral activity in four preparations improved by COS was mainly attributed to the integral absorption enhancement of caffeic acid derivatives.


This paper proposes a 3-GHz built-in jitter measurement (BIJM) circuit to measure clock jitter on high-speed transceivers and system-on-chip (SoC) systems. The proposed BIJM circuit adopts a high timing resolution and self-calibration techniques. To eliminate process variation effects in 3 GHz systems, this study proposes an auto-calibration technique for the self-refereed circuit and other calibration techniques for the time amplifier (TA) and vernier ring oscillator (VRO), respectively. These calibration techniques can reduce the timing resolution variation of the vernier ring oscillator and the gain variation of the TA by 66% and 65%, respectively. This reduces the timing resolution variation of BIJM by 60%. Because the vernier ring oscillator and time amplifier achieve a small timing resolution, the BIJM circuit does not need an additional jitter-free reference signal using the self-refereed circuit. This study fabricated the BIJM circuit using the UMC 90-nm CMOS process. The BIJM circuit has a power consumption measuring 11.4 mW, and its core area is 120 μm × 320 μm. The BIJM circuit measured the Gaussian distribution jitter at a 1.8 ps timing resolution with a 3-GHz input clock frequency.


When a mother dies of AIDS, basic needs of her children may be left unmet. To estimate the number and characteristics of maternal AIDS orphans in the United States, demographic techniques were applied to data from several sources. From the national HIV/AIDS surveillance system, reporting delays were adjusted for the number of deaths among women aged 15-44 diagnosed with AIDS through 1998 and reported as deceased by December 1999. No fertility was assumed in the year preceding death. To the adjusted number of deaths the annual age- and race-specific cumulative fertility and infant mortality rates from national vital statistics were applied. A perinatal infection rate of 25% was assumed among children born through 1994, and 10% among children born after 1994. Through 1998, 51,473 women died leaving 97,376 children motherless. Of the estimated 76,661-87,0018 uninfected children, 83% were younger than 21 years when orphaned. After increasing each year, the annual number of orphaned children younger than 21 years peaked in 1995. In 1998, between 4252-4489 uninfected youth were added to 47,863-54,025 existing orphans younger than age 21. Due to declines in AIDS deaths, the annual number of children orphaned by AIDS has declined. Nevertheless, each year thousands of youth are orphaned.


Spatial and temporal heterogeneity in habitat quantity and quality, weather and other variables influence the production of food and the distribution of waterfowl, making it difficult to predict carrying capacity accurately. Food densities for waterfowl, which are key parameters of energetic carrying capacity models, were examined in managed moist-soil wetlands and bottomland hardwood forests in or near the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) of the southern United States of America, to determine variation in those densities across wetlands and years. Secondly, the relationship between migratory waterfowl density in managed wetlands and local and mid-latitude factors north of the study area was examined to identify mechanisms influencing waterfowl density at latitudes used during winter. At individual wetlands and within years, food densities were highly variable, but coefficients of variation (CV) at the scale of the MAV and nearby areas across years were relatively low (moist-soil CV = 21%, bottomland hardwood forest CV = 11%). Local precipitation was inversely related to waterfowl density in managed moist-soil wetlands, and this relationship was stronger than other local and mid-latitude factors including weather severity and temperature. Our data suggest that simplistic daily ration models may reasonably incorporate fixed estimates of food density for managed moist-soil wetlands and bottomland hardwood forests to predict energetic carrying capacity of waterfowl habitat at the scale of the MAV across multiple years. However, substantial variation in food densities among locations and time periods likely limits the utility and accuracy of these models when scaled down temporally or spatially. Therefore, the challenge in predicting annual carrying capacity for waterfowl in the MAV likely depends less on precisely estimating food densities at the scale of individual wetlands and more on determining spatial and temporal availability of habitats that contain food resources for waterfowl.


BACKGROUND
Injuries to the pancreas from blunt abdominal trauma in children are rare. Most are minor and are best treated conservatively. The mainstay for treatment of major ductal injuries has been prompt surgical resection. Diagnostic imaging modalities are the key to the accurate classification of these injuries and planning appropriate treatment. Computed tomography (CT) scan has been the major imaging modality in blunt abdominal trauma for children, but has shortcomings in the diagnosis of pancreatic ductal injury. Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) has been shown recently to be superior in diagnostic accuracy. The therapeutic placement of stents in the trauma setting has not been described in children.

METHODS
Two children sustained major ductal injuries from blunt abdominal trauma that were suspected, but not conclusively noted, on initial CT scan. Both underwent ERCP within hours of injury. In case 1, a stent was threaded through the disruption into the distal duct. In case 2, a similar injury, the stent could only be placed through the ampulla, thereby reducing ductal pressure. In both cases, clinical improvement was rapid with complete resolution of clinical and chemical pancreatitis, resumption of a normal diet, and discharge from the hospital. The stents were removed at 10 and 12 days postinjury, and both children have remained well. Follow-up ERCP and CT scans show complete healing of the ducts and no evidence of pseudocyst formation 1 year post injury.

CONCLUSIONS
Acute ERCP should be the imaging modality of choice in suspected major pancreatic ductal injury. Successful treatment by placement of an intrapancreatic ductal stent may be possible at the same time. Surgical resection or reconstruction can then be reserved for cases in which stenting is impossible or fails.


Gavin I. Langmuir's work on the formation and nature of antisemitism has earned him an international reputation. In "History, Religion, and Antisemitism" he bravely confronts the problems that arise when historians have to describe and explain religious phenomena, as any historian of antisemitism must. How, and to what extent, can the historian be objective? Is it possible to discuss Christian attitudes toward Jews, for example, without adopting the historical explanations of those whose thoughts and actions one is discussing? What, exactly, does the historian mean by 'religion' or 'religious'? Langmuir's original and stimulating responses to these questions reflect his inquiry into the approaches of anthropology, sociology, and psychology and into recent empirical research on the functioning of the mind and the nature of thought. His distinction between religiosity, a property of individuals, and religion, a social phenomenon, allows him to place unusual emphasis on the role of religious doubts and tensions and the irrationality they can produce. Defining antisemitism as irrational beliefs about Jews, he distinguishes Christian anti-Judaism from Christian antisemitism, demonstrates that antisemitism emerged in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries because of rising Christian doubts, and sketches how the revolutionary changes in religion and mentality in the modern period brought new faiths, new kinds of religious doubt, and a deadlier expression of antisemitism. Although he developed it in dealing with the difficult question of antisemitism, Langmuir's approach to religious history is important for historians in all areas.


15632 Background: Sunitinib malate is an oral, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor of VEGFRs, PDGFRs, KIT, RET, and FLT3, approved multinationally for the treatment of advanced RCC and imatinib...


A firmly multidlsciplinary approach starts from a theological definition of the Church as the Body of Christ, and Christians as empowered by the Holy Spirit, the possibility of miracle, and the reality of warfare with demons are taken seriously, and scholarly belief in them defended. They are made the subject of excursuses. Hagiographic writings are treated with cautious respect. Bernicia, land and people, and its relationship to its neighbours are considered. In a demographic excursus the view that Dark Age life-span was short is rebuffed. Part two discusses the life and mission of the Church in sub-Roman Britain. In our area evidence for this proves to be largely limited to the shadowy activities of Ninian and Kentigern, therefore further evidence of the status of the British church in the fifth and sixth centuries is sought in Patrick's Confession and Gildas's De Excidlo Britɸmniae. A new model for the latter - the sermon of the protomartyr Stephen - is proposed; as is a new exegesis of D. E. B. c.69, which may have Implications for our understanding of the persistence of Pelagian beliefs. An excursus considers the significance of white stones in association with Christian burial. The origins of the mission of Augustine are considered briefly. Part three considers the mission of Paulinus in detail, in particular the reasons for its collapse; in contrasting it with the Celtic mission misslological principles are cited. A reappraisal of Paulinus's retreat, more favourable to him than that normally held, is reached by invoking wartime experience. The discipline of obstetrics is involved to advance the theory that /Ethelburh's delivery was premature; also earlier to re-examine the Herbert Ian account of Kentigern's conception, where the 'something contrary to sound doctrine' is identified, against the hitherto standard view, as the apparent approval, by Servanus, of extramarital coitus. The final establishment of the Church in Bernicia is seen as occurring principally as the result of Aidan's mission, but with valid contributions from the British and Roman traditions. That Simeon of Durham gave the credit for this foundation to Oswald is found Justifiable. A new genealogical tree of Oswy has been constructed, and maps have been provided.


The evolution of the adaptive immune system is characterized by changes in the relative abundances of the B and T-cell clones that make up its repertoires. To fully capture this evolution, we need to describe the complex dynamics of the response to pathogenic and self-antigenic stimulations, as well as the statistics of novel lymphocyte receptors introduced throughout life. Recent experiments, ranging from high-throughput immune repertoire sequencing to quantification of the response to specific antigens, can help us characterize the effective dynamics of the immune response. Here we describe mathematical models informed by experiments that lead to a picture of clonal competition in a highly stochastic context. We discuss how different types of competition, noise and selection shape the observed clone-size distributions, and contrast them with predictions of a neutral theory of clonal evolution. These mathematical models show that memory and effector immune repertoire evolution is far from neutral, and is driven by the history of the pathogenic environment, while naive repertoire dynamics are consistent with neutral theory and competition in a fixed antigenic environment. Lastly, we investigate the effect of long-term clonal selection on repertoire aging.


Most robots are designed to operate in environments that are either highly constrained (as is the case in an assembly line) or extremely hazardous (such as the surface of Mars). Machine learning has been an effective tool in both of these environments by augmenting the flexibility and reliability of robotic systems, but this is often a very difficult problem because the complexity of learning in the real world introduces very high dimensional state spaces and applies severe penalties for mistakes. Human children are raised in environments that are just as complex (or even more so) than those typically studied in robot learning scenarios. However, the presence of parents and other caregivers radically changes the type of learning that is possible. Consciously and unconsciously, adults tailor their action and the environment to the child. They draw attention to important aspects of a task, help in identifying the cause of errors and generally tailor the task to the child's capabilities. Our research group builds robots that learn in the same type of supportive environment that human children have and develop skills incrementally through their interactions. Our robots interact socially with human adults using the same natural conventions that a human child would use. Our work sits at the intersection of the fields of social robotics (Fong et al., 2003; Breazeal and Scawellan, 2002) and autonomous mental development (Weng et al., 2000). Together, these two fields offer the vision of a machine that can learn incrementally, directly from humans, in the same ways that humans learn from each other. In this article, we introduce some of the challenges, goals, and applications of this research


Purpose The Elekta Active Breathing CoordinatorTM (ABC) is used to control breathing and guide deep inspiration breath hold (DIBH). It has been shown to be accurate in lung cancers, but limited analysis has been performed on the spatial accuracy and reproducibility of the breast surface. The use of optical surface-image guidance for patient positioning has grown in popularity and is an alternative solution for breast DIBH. This study aims to evaluate the breast surface variability of an ABC-guided DIBH by using a three-dimensional (3D) surface imaging system to record surface position. Methods Ten participants were placed in the treatment position, and breathing baselines and inhalation volume threshold baselines were monitored and recorded using the ABC. Over 60 minutes, the breathing patterns were recorded by the ABC and CatalystHDTM (C-RAD, Uppsala, Sweden). For each breath hold, the valve of the ABC closed at the baseline inhalation threshold and a 3D surface image was acquired. For each point on the baseline breast surface, a 3D vector was calculated to the subsequent breath hold surface as well as a root mean square (RMS) vector magnitude for the entire surface. Results The average and standard deviation for the RMS difference between the baseline and subsequent evaluated images were 7.12 ± 2.70 mm. Conclusion This study shows that while the ABC-guided inhalation volume is kept constant, a non-negligible variability of the breast surface position exists. Special considerations should be used in clinical situations, where the positioning of the surface is considered more important than inhalation volume.


A shaking table model test is conducted for Guangzhou West Tower to study its seismic behavior in State Key Laboratory for Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering at Tongji University. Guangzhou West Tower adopts a new structure system and the significant characteristic of this system is the non-perpendicular frame arranged around the building, acting both as columns and bracings. Based on the similarity theory and member equivalent principle,a 1/80 scale model of this building is made of polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA). The model's dynamic characteristics, earthquake-resistant behavior, responses of acceleration and deformation under different wave peak values are investigated, then the seismic responses of the prototype structure are deduced and analyzed. The whiplash effect of the prototype structure is studied, and the weak position of the structure is found out. The experiment results demonstrate that it is feasible to apply this structural type to practical engineering. Finally, some suggestions for the engineering design of the prototype structure are put forward.


Previous studies found that students enrolled in introductory engineering graphics courses at a historically black university (HBCU) had significantly lower than average test scores on the Purdue Spatial Visualization Test: Visualization of Rotations (PSVT) when it was administered during the first week of class. Since the ability to visualize is linked with success in engineering and technology studies, changes to the courses were made that resulted in improvement of these students' visualization abilities. Activities included the use of sketching, blocks and multimedia. It was hypothesized that improving the students' visualization abilities would also improve their overall academic success. Retention in the major and graduation rates of minorities in STEM related fields tend to be lower than their non-minority peers, especially so at HBCUs. To assess the long-term impact of visualization remediation on student success in engineering and technology majors, data was collected on students in a test group and also those in a control group who enrolled in other sections of the engineering graphics courses. Statistics were compared for overall GPA and grades in math and physics courses. Other data gathered included whether the students were retained in the major and at the university. Significant differences were found in the students' GPAs with higher averages earned by those students in the test group. Also a higher percentage of students in the test group were retained both in an engineering or technology major and at the university even if they did change their major.


Thermoacoustic devices convert heat to work or vice versa using acoustic waves, and consist
of several parts that partially reflect acoustic waves. These reflections can be represented by
an acoustic impedance, which is a complex quantity that takes into account a phase difference
between the pressure and velocity oscillation. Usually one is only interested in a single part
of the thermoacoustic device, but to correctly numerically predict these wave phenomena the
whole device should be modeled. As solving acoustics using Computational Fluid Dynamics
(CFD) requires comparatively high computational resources, using the complete computational
domain of the whole device is unattractive. The reduction of the computational domain might
be possible with a so-called Time-Domain Impedance Boundary Condition (TD-IBC), which
relates the inward traveling acoustic wave to the outward traveling acoustic wave. Standard
commercial CFD software does not feature such a boundary condition as of yet. This master
thesis discusses the feasibility, theory and implementation of both a non-reflective boundary
condition (NRBC) and a TD-IBC. The NRBC and TD-IBC are implemented in ANSYS CFX
CFD software using FORTRAN subroutines. The results showed that for a complex reflection
coefficient of R = 0:5 + 0:5i, and an excitation frequency of f = 100Hz, the measured absolute
reflection coefficient [R] was off 1:05%, and the phase differed o/ = 0:0334rad. From the work
done it can be concluded that it is indeed possible to implement a TD-IBC for application in
thermoacoustics.


Author(s): Xie, Dan | Advisor(s): Zhu, Song-Chun | Abstract: In the past decades, the goal of computer vision, as coined by Marr, is to compute what are where by looking. The paradigm has guided the geometry-based approaches in the 1980s-1990s and appearance-based methods in the past years. Despite of the remarkable progress in recognizing objects, actions, and scenes by using large data sets, better designed features, and machine learning techniques, performances in complex tasks are still far from being satisfactory. One example is the first accident caused by Google's self-driving car in Feb 2016, the accident happened despite the fact that the car's 360-degree sensors likely saw the bus coming, the software made a wrong assumption that the bus behind would yield. Therefore, it can be seen that some complex computer vision tasks cannot be solved by the visible appearance alone.The goal of this thesis is to look for a bigger picture to model and reason the missing dimensions, the mind of agents. By borrowing the powerful concept ``dark matter'' from Physics, we call this area as ``dark vision''. In this thesis, the mind of agents is inferred in spatial and temporal domain jointly. The framework including spatial reasoning in multi-scale space, and temporal reasoning in both observed story in the past and unseen events in the future.1) Intention means the mind of an agent about the future plan. Dark matter corresponds to entities which are unfeasible to recognize by visual appearances. This includes, not exclusively, i) status of an agent (human, animals or robot)'s goals and intents, like hungry, thirsty, which trigger actions; and ii) attraction relations between an object (like food) and an agent (hungry). Therefore, functional objects can be viewed as ``dark matter'', emanating ``dark energy'' that affects people's trajectories in the video. A Bayesian framework is used to probabilistically model: people's trajectories and intents, constraint map of the scene, and locations of functional objects. 2) Attention represents the mind of an agent at current time. Gaze refers to the location where a person is looking, and attention purpose explains why a person is looking at that location, e.g., to locate a cup. The method in this thesis computes not only human gaze locations in 3D space, but also attention purpose categories in task-driven actions. The human gaze and attention are decomposed into relations among human skeletons, objects, and human gazes in spatial-temporal domain. Such relations are represented by a stochastic graph learned by maximum likelihood estimation in a supervised way. 3) A further step is to discover invisible relations in group activities. This thesis parses low-resolution aerial videos of large spatial areas, in terms of 1) grouping, 2) recognizing events and 3) assigning roles to people engaged in events. A spatiotemporal And-Or graph framework is proposed to conduct joint inference of the above tasks. This thesis also presents a three-layered And-Or graph to jointly model group activities, individual actions, and participating objects, which not only avoids running a multitude of detectors at all spatiotemporal scales, but also arrives at a holistically consistent video interpretation.Of course, it is well-known that vision is an inverse, ill-posed problem where only the pixels are seen directly and anything else are hidden / latent. The concept of darkness is perpendicular to, and richer than, the meaning of latent / hidden used in vision and probabilistic modeling. It is a measure of the relative difficulty in inferring an entity or relation from the appearance. In computer vision, the literature addresses these dark entities and relations by a lump sum concept: it is context! But what is a formal definition of context? How many types of context are there? How information is passed between entities through context? The literature lacks an explicit and principled framework for joint representation and joint inference. This thesis proposes a framework to explore these ``dark'' dimensions of mind in an explicit manner.


P. M. Mitchell passed away in his home in Ithaca, NY, on March 27, 1999. He was known as an inveterate Danophile and a lover of all things Scandinavian. He considered Bord 61 in the old Reading Room of the Royal Library in Copenhagen his home-away-from-home. Home for him was the library, any library, but especially the libraries of the University of Illinois, the University of Gottingen, and the Fiske Icelandic Collection at Cornell University. He had strong likes and dislikes: Bach and Scarlatti were in, nineteenth- and twentieth-century music were out, except for Niels Gade and Carl Nielsen. Chocolate, dark bitter-sweet chocolate, which he brought back from Germany each year, was not to be consumed before noon, except on Sundays. Tea was the only acceptable beverage, cooled off with a silver spoon without which PMM, as he was known to his friends, was never without. He made his presence known at some distance as he whistled classical music on his way from home to campus, from the classroom to the library or the English building, where he served tea punctually at 10 AM and 4 PM in the offices of the Journal of English and Germanic Philology, whose managing editor he was from 1958 until his retirement from the University of Illinois. P. M. Mitchell was born on Sept. 23, 1916, in Syracuse, NY. He received the BA degree from Cornell University in 1938 and the Ph.D from the University of Illinois in 1942. During the years 1942-45, he served in the Signal Intelligence Service of the U.S. Army. Following his military service he taught at Cornell University in 1945-46 and Harvard University 1946-49. In 1950 he went to the University of Kansas as associate professor of German and eight years later, in 1958, the faculty of the University of Illinois. At the latter institution, where he taught until his retirement in 1986, he introduced a Scandinavian program. In addition to German literature, he taught Danish language and literature. Upon his retirement from the University of Illinois in 1986, he accepted the position of Curator of the Fiske Icelandic Collection at Cornell University, a post he held until 1993. Until 1997, he was also the editor of the monograph series "Islandica," published by Cornell University Press. P. M. Mitchell is known for his many publications chiefly on eighteenth-century German literature and Danish literature. He published over thirty books--these include bibliographies, translations, editions, and monographs--and some sixty articles or chapters in books, in Danish, English, and German. His History of Danish Literature, which appeared both in Denmark (1957) and the U.S. (1958, 2nd rev. ed. 1971) remained for four decades the standard literary history in English. Together with F. J. Billeskov Jansen, he edited the bilingual Anthology of Danish Literature (1971, paperback 1972). He translated Selected Essays of Ludvig Holberg (1955), Vilhelm Gronbech's Religious Currents in the Nineteenth Century (together with W. …


With the honeycomb sandwich structure widely used in aerospace, the research of its mechanical properties becomes especially important. All of the finite element analysis software have no corresponding cell library, so before the analysis, the honeycomb sandwich panels should be equivalent processed. The paper by taking the floor of a microsatellite as the research object, used the equivalent plate theory and sandwich plate theory for equivalent processing, then adopted the finite element software to analyze the mechanical properties of the floor under two alternative condition. By compared with analytical solution, the equivalent results were reasonable, and the two methods were basically identical. Meanwhile, the equivalent results provided the reliable basis for the satellite structure optimum design and mechanical test.


The non-dialyzable material (NDM) of polyphenol-rich cranberry extract (CRE) powder (NDM-CRE) was studied for its effect of inducing body weight (BW) loss in 13 different mouse lines with well-defined genetically diverse backgrounds, named the collaborative cross (CC). From the age of 8 weeks, the mice were maintained on a high-fat diet (HFD) for 18 weeks, to induce obesity, and BW was measured biweekly. From week 12, CRE was injected intraperitoneally (IP) (50 mg kg-1) 3 times a week per mouse for a 6 week period. Statistical analysis results have shown a significant increase in body weight between week 0 and week 12; the increase in BW of 13 lines of mice on HFD was in the range of 10.41% to 68.65% for males and 9.78% to 64.74% for females. After injecting NDM-CRE extract, our analysis has shown an induced change in BW between week 12 and week 18. In males, NDM-CRE caused a significant decrease in BW of 5 out of the 13 lines in the range of -5.68% to -16.69% and a significant increase of 8.31% in BW of one male line, whereas in seven lines there was no significant decrease (-2.14% to -4.09%). In females, NDM-CRE caused a significant decrease in BW of 5 out of the 13 lines in the range of -3.90% to -11.83%, whereas in eight lines there were no significant changes in BW and it ranged between -1.50% and 4.90%. The broad-sense heritability (H2) and genetic coefficient of variation (CVg) were estimated and found to be between 0.71 and 0.81 for H2, and 0.18 and 0.24 for CVg of females and males, respectively, with respect to the efficacy of NDM-CRE on body weight reduction. Our results have shown that hosts with different genetic backgrounds respond differently to body weight increase, as well as to NDM-CRE treatment for body weight reduction. These results provide a platform for assessing more CC lines and mapping genes underlying the efficacy of the NDM-CRE treatment as a way of understanding pharmacogenomics.


Importance
Functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) can severely affect the life of children and their families, with symptoms carrying into adulthood. Management of FADP symptoms is also a financial and time burden to clinicians and health care systems.

Objective
To systematically review various randomized clinical trials (RCTs) on the outcomes of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), educational support, yoga, hypnotherapy, gut-directed hypnotherapy, guided imagery, and relaxation in the management of FAPDs.

Data Sources
PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library.

Study Selection
All RCTs that compared psychosocial interventions with any control or no intervention, for children aged 4 to 18 years with FAPDs.

Data Extraction and Synthesis
Pairs of the authors independently extracted data of all included studies, using a predesigned data extraction sheet. One author acted as arbitrator. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool, and certainty of the evidence for all primary outcomes was analyzed using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) framework.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Primary outcomes were treatment success, pain frequency, pain intensity, and withdrawal owing to adverse events. Dichotomous outcomes were expressed as risk ratio (RR) with corresponding 95% CIs. Continuous outcomes were expressed as mean difference (MD) or standardized MD with 95% CI.

Results
A total of 33 RCTs with 2657 children (median [range] age, 12 [7-17] years; 1726 girls [67.3%]) were included. Twelve studies compared CBT with no intervention, 5 studies compared CBT with educational support, 3 studiescompared yoga with no intervention, 2 studies compared hypnotherapy with no intervention, 2 studies compared gut-directed hypnotherapy with hypnotherapy, and 2 studies compared guided imagery with relaxation. Seven studies evaluated other unique comparisons (eg, visceral osteopathy vs normal osteopathy). Per the GRADE framework, owing to risk of bias, there was moderate certainty in evidence that CBT was associated with higher treatment success numbers (n = 324 children; RR, 2.37; 95% CI 1.30-4.34; number needed to treat [NNT] = 5), lower pain frequency (n = 446 children; RR, -0.36; 95% CI, -0.63 to -0.09), and lower pain intensity (n = 332 children; RR, -0.58; 95% CI, -0.83 to -0.32) than no intervention. Owing to high imprecision, there was low certainty in evidence that there was no difference between CBT and educational support for pain intensity (n = 127 children; MD, -0.36; 95% CI, -0.87 to 0.15). Owing to risk of bias and imprecision, there was low certainty in evidence that hypnotherapy resulted in higher treatment success compared with no intervention (n = 91 children; RR, 2.86; 95% CI, 1.19-6.83; NNT = 5). Owing to risk of bias and imprecision, there was low certainty in evidence that yoga had similar treatment success to no intervention (n = 99 children; RR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.58-2.08).

Conclusions and Relevance
Results of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that CBT and hypnotherapy may be considered as a treatment for FAPDs in childhood. Future RCTs should address quality issues to enhance the overall certainty of the results, and studies should consider targeting these interventions toward patients who are more likely to respond.


Objective. To review, from a mainly clinical standpoint, the different strategies applied to regenerate or restore the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system in Parkinson 's disease (PD). A previous first part focused on the results of adrenal medulla and human fetal mesencephalic transplants, and this second part addresses transplants of other cell types, administration of trophic factors, and gene therapy. Development As an alternative to human fetal mesencephalic neurons, other donor cells types (porcine mesencephalic neurons, retinal pigment epithelial cells) with similar 'dopaminergic' action mechanism have been tried, although with heterogeneous results. Transplantation of carotid body cell aggregates may be a promising therapy because of its neurotrophic action mechanism. The perspectives of cell therapies based on genetically modified cells and precursor cells of different origin are also reviewed. Among other neuroregenerative approaches, the clinical outcomes of direct administration of neurotrophic factors and the perspectives for in vivo gene therapy are also addressed. Conclusions. The objective of neuroregenerative therapy for PD should include trophic restoration of damaged neuronal systems, since improvement in striatal dopaminergic function is not sufficient. After the recent failure of the direct (intraventricular or intraputaminal) administration ofglial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), attention of researchers has focused on indirect methods, including transplantation of GDNF-producing cells (carotid body cell aggregates or different genetically modified cells), and in vivo gene therapy.


A friendly, practical guide to coping with lower back pain -- from pinpointing problems to determining proper treatment.The sometimes crippling, often prolonged back pain that afflicts 2.5 million Americans at one time or another is harder to diagnose than it is to cure. Dr. Loren Fishman, a distinguished clinician and a trailblazer in the treatment of sciatica, believes there's only one road to relief: patients must become partners with their doctors in finding the cause of their pain and in making treatment decisions. Back Talk teaches patients which specialist to see, how to talk to doctors responsibly, what a physical exam should entail, and when to consent to diagnostic testing. It offers clear advice about treatment, surgery, and strategies for pain control.Based on the latest research and Dr. Fishman's fifteen years of experience in successfully treating patients, Back Talk is filled with pain-saving advice and instructional facts: -- most back pain is curable; less than 10 percent becomes chronic-- more than four days of bed rest can make a back ache worse-- patients who choose chiropractors visit them twice as often as those who choose medical doctors-- more than 25 percent of people who go to orthopedic surgeons have referred themselves-- the initial treatment any doctor is likely to prescribe is aspirin.


With an aging population and medical advancements people are living longer. With advanced age often come chronic conditions making it increasingly important to communicate end of life (EOL) care preferences to family, loved ones, and healthcare providers. However, despite the proven benefits that advance care planning (ACP) can provide for patients, families, and providers, it remains a challenge to initiate such conversations and advance directive (AD) completion rates remain low. The purpose of this project was to analyze the current process of discussing EOL care preferences, completing and accessing ADs in a rural family practice clinic and identify areas in need of improvement. The primary goal is to increase completion of ADs with a secondary aim to increase healthcare provider accessibility to ADs. Development and implementation of an ACP intervention consisting of a standard visit for a providerinitiated ACP discussion with patients 65 years and older. Pre and post AD knowledge surveys before and after the visit, augmented with a census medical record review (MRR) were used to evaluate the intervention. A total of 26 patients, 4.42% of the eligible population chose to participate. The project found that the majority 69.23% (n=18) of the participants reported having an AD, however 55.56% (n=10) were not documented in the EMR. Further, 37.50% (3) of participants reported not having one but was found to have had a Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (POLST) during both pre and post intervention periods. The MMR found 81.72% (n= 733) of patients from both time periods did not have an AD in their electronic medical record (EMR). None of the intervention participants were found to have completed an AD following the intervention, however, it proved to be informative and somewhat influential on their thoughts surrounding EOL preferences and discussing them with others. The intervention had no effect on the completion of ADs as reflected by the proportion of ADs found in the EMR in the post intervention period. In fact, the proportion of ADs found in this period decreased. Overall, the intervention was beneficial as it further identified challenges in the current process recognizing provider accessibility to ADs as the bigger issue as well as the need for additional patient and provider education.


This paper investigates how various factors affect the quality of synthetic speech produced by rules. Using rules to synthesize speech will be an important technique for providing various telecommunication services in future intelligent networks. The quality of synthetic speech is generally measured by subjectively evaluating the speech from the viewpoint of intelligibility, or by comparing it with the quality of other types of synthetic speech. However, the development of a practical speech synthesis method for use in telecommunication networks requires an overall quality evaluation, including intelligibility and naturalness. The quality should be compared with that of natural telephone speech. To establish an overall quality evaluation method, the effects of several factors on the overall quality (expressed by MOS) of speech synthesized by several Japanese text‐to‐speech systems are quantitatively compared with the effects of using additive speech‐correlated white noise as a natural speech material. Exp...


Summary

A total of 28 different plants from different regions of Canakkale, Turkey, were investigated for their antioxidant capacity and total phenol contents to find new potential sources of natural antioxidants. The antioxidant capacity of methanolic extracts prepared from various parts of plants was evaluated by both trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assays, while the total phenolics were determined using the Folin-Ciocalteu method. The TEAC values of plant extracts ranged in a large scale from 1472.36 to 17.61 μmol of trolox equivalents per g dry weight (dw), and EC50 values (concentration at which 50% radical scavenging occurred) varied from 0.174 to 42.475 mg dw of plant, while the total phenol content of plant extracts ranged between 117.20 and 1.27 mg of gallic acid equivalents per g dw. There was a positive linear correlation between the TEAC and total phenols of plant materials (r = 0.916). The extracts of Hypericum perforatum, Arbutus andrachne and Paliurus spina-christii showed higher antioxidant activities (both TEAC and DPPH assays). However, there was no clear relationship between TEAC and EC50 values (r = 0.477) of plant extracts.


Cold climate interspecific hybrid grapevines (CCIHG) selected for their superior midwinter cold hardiness have expanded grape production to cold climate regions. However, extreme weather events, such as polar vortexes and the high frequency of fall and spring freezes, often result in yield and vine losses. The main objective of this study was to evaluate changes in bud cold hardiness of five CCIHG cultivars grown in the upper Midwest to identify relative risk for freeze damage throughout the dormant period and to adapt a bud cold hardiness prediction model to CCIHG cultivars grown in cold climate regions. Bud cold hardiness was evaluated biweekly throughout the dormant period by measuring lethal temperatures for buds using differential thermal analysis (DTA). CCIHG cultivars in our study had an early acclimation response with increased levels of cold hardiness before the occurrence of freezing temperatures. Maximum levels of hardiness (-28 to -30°C) were observed both years in February; however, deeper levels of freezing stress resistance, probably attained by freeze dehydration, were not detected using DTA. CCIHG cultivars had a rapid deacclimation response that was accelerated with additional chilling accumulation during spring. The reparametrizing of a discrete-dynamic cold hardiness prediction model by expanding the range of ecodormant threshold temperatures for CCIHG resulted in predictions with an average root mean square error (RMSE) = 1.01. Although CCIHG cultivars have superior midwinter bud cold hardiness, fast deacclimation responses increase the risk of freeze damage during spring, thus this trait should be evaluated for future CCIHG cultivar release. The development of tools such as the discrete-dynamic cold hardiness prediction model for CCIHG cultivars will aid growers in decision-making to minimize damage and yield and vine losses.


LST monthly data for SW USA. Around local solar time 01:30 (night), and 13:30 (day) LST data are acquired from the MODIS instrument on board the Aqua polar orbiting satellite. The LST accuracy is better than 1K (0.5 K in most cases) under real clear-sky conditions. Data from real clear-sky conditions within a calendar month are averaged to yield the MYD11C2 product. The data set provide a continuous (monthly averaged LST) sampling of the earth's surface with a spatial resolution of 3 minutes (0.05 degrees, corresponding to 5.6 km approximately at the equator) referenced to a geographic latitude/longitude grid, with WGS 84 being the horizontal datum.


of Old Church Slavonic. 5705. Shevelov, Y. (Harvard). Byelorussian in its genetic relation to Russian and Ukrain ian. 5706. Tschada, N. (Graz). Die soziale Wertung der geistlichen Personen bei den Slaven. D 5707. Tschernochvostoff, George (Hel sinki). Theorigin of theOld Slavonic alphabets (Glagolitic and Cyrillic). 5708. Yeftich, Ikonia (Columbia). Com parative study of South Slavic and Russian dirges. D See also 234, 316, 345, 5160, 5732.


A novel lachrymatory factor synthase (LFS) was isolated and purified from the roots of the Amazonian medicinal plant Petiveria alliacea. The enzyme is a heterotetrameric glycoprotein comprised of two α-subunits (68.8 kD each), one γ-subunit (22.5 kD), and one δ-subunit (11.9 kD). The two α-subunits are glycosylated and connected by a disulfide bridge. The LFS has an isoelectric point of 5.2. It catalyzes the formation of a sulfine lachrymator, (Z)-phenylmethanethial S-oxide, only in the presence of P. alliacea alliinase and its natural substrate, S-benzyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide (petiveriin). Depending on its concentration relative to that of P. alliacea alliinase, the LFS sequesters, to varying degrees, the sulfenic acid intermediate formed by alliinase-mediated breakdown of petiveriin. At LFS:alliinase of 5:1, LFS sequesters all of the sulfenic acid formed by alliinase action on petiveriin, and converts it entirely to (Z)-phenylmethanethial S-oxide. However, starting at LFS:alliinase of 5:2, the LFS is unable to sequester all of the sulfenic acid produced by the alliinase, with the result that sulfenic acid that escapes the action of the LFS condenses with loss of water to form S-benzyl phenylmethanethiosulfinate (petivericin). The results show that the LFS and alliinase function in tandem, with the alliinase furnishing the sulfenic acid substrate on which the LFS acts. The results also show that the LFS modulates the formation of biologically active thiosulfinates that are downstream of the alliinase in a manner dependent upon the relative concentrations of the LFS and the alliinase. These observations suggest that manipulation of LFS-to-alliinase ratios in plants displaying this system may provide a means by which to rationally modify organosulfur small molecule profiles to obtain desired flavor and/or odor signatures, or increase the presence of desirable biologically active small molecules.


Background and study aims  The prevalence of digestive diseases seems to be high in African countries. Nonetheless, the human and material resources are scarce. The aim of the Portuguese volunteering project described in this report was to develop the specialty of digestive endoscopy in Sao Tome and Principe, a lower-middle-income country in Africa. Methods  Beginning by assessing the local needs and available resources and managing immediate issues related to this field, we aimed to provide the tools necessary to improve gastroenterological and endoscopic care in the country. The first step included training of the local teams, through the development and accomplishment of an adapted curriculum for a 3-year medical gastroenterological fellowship and a short-term nursing fellowship, both in Portugal, and the organization of regular gastroenterological and endoscopic theoretical and practical sessions in Sao Tome and Principe. Second, the endoscopy facilities of the unit were significantly optimized. Third, a web platform was designed to provide telemedicine incorporating real-time endoscopic imaging available remotely. Results  Through these sequential steps achieved in collaboration with Portuguese and local teams, this 5-year project provided the basis for gastroenterology care in this country. Conclusions  At the present time, Sao Tome and Principe has an autonomous, efficient and skilled team and unit to provide care for patients with gastrointestinal diseases who need endoscopic procedures.


When water uptake by growing cells is prevented, the turgor pressure and the tensile stress in the cell wall are reduced by continued wall loosening. This process, termed in vivo stress relaxation, provides a new way to study the dynamics of wall loosening and to measure the wall yield threshold and the physiological wall extensibility. Stress relaxation experiments indicate that wall stress supplies the mechanical driving force for wall yielding. Cell expansion also requires water absorption. The driving force for water uptake during growth is created by wall relaxation, which lowers the water potential of the expanding cells. New techniques for measuring this driving force show that it is smaller than believed previously; in elongating stems it is only 0.3 to 0.5 bar. This means that the hydraulic resistance of the water transport pathway is small and that rate of cell expansion is controlled primarily by wall loosening and yielding.


We show that resonant tunneling of electromagnetic fields can occur through a three-layer structure composed of a single-negative (i.e., either negative-permittivity or negative-permeability) slab paired with bi-layer made of double-positive (i.e., positive permittivity and permeability) media. In particular, one of the two double-positive media can be chosen arbitrarily (even vacuum), while the other may exhibit extreme (either near-zero or very high) permittivity/permeability values. Our results on this counterintuitive tunneling phenomenon also demonstrate the possibility of synthesizing double-positive slabs that effectively exhibit single-negative-like wave-impedance properties within a moderately wide frequency range.


In this dissertation, we examine the positive and negative dependence of infinitely divisible distributions and Lévy-type Markov processes. Examples of infinitely divisible distributions include Poissonian distributions like compound Poisson and α-stable distributions. Examples of Lévy-type Markov processes include Lévy processes and Feller processes, which include a class of jump-diffusions, certain stochastic differential equations with Lévy noise, and subordinated Markov processes. Other examples of Lévy-type Markov processes are timeinhomogeneous Feller evolution systems (FES), which include additive processes. We will provide a tour of various forms of positive dependence, which include association, positive supermodular association (PSA), positive supermodular dependence (PSD), and positive orthant dependence (POD), and more. We will give a history of the characterization of these notions of positive dependence for infinitely divisible distributions, Lévy processes, and certain Feller diffusions. Additionally, we will present our contribution to the characterization of positive dependence for jump-Feller processes, and include applications. We will also characterize positive dependence for general time-inhomogeneous Feller evolution systems and jump-FESs. Finally, we characterize negative association and other forms of negative dependence for infinitely divisible distributions and Lévy processes.


"Sartor Resartus" is Thomas Carlyle's most enduring and influential work. First published in serial form in "Fraser's Magazine" in 1833-1834, it was discovered by the American Transcendentalists. Sponsored by Ralph Waldo Emerson, it was first printed as a book in Boston in 1836 and immediately became the inspiration for the Transcendental movement. The first London trade edition was published in 1838. By the 1840s, largely on the strength of "Sartor Resartus", Carlyle became one of the leading literary figures in Britain. "Sartor Resartus" became one of the important texts of nineteenth-century English literature, central to the Romantic movement and Victorian culture. At the time of Carlyle's death in 1881, more than 69,000 copies had been sold. The post-Victorian influence continued and extends to writers as diverse as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, Willa Cather and Ernest Hemingway. This edition of "Sartor Resartus" is the first publication of the work that uses all extant versions to create an accurate authorial text. This volume, the second in an eight-volume series, includes a complete textual apparatus as well as a historical introduction and full critical and explanatory annotation.


Event cameras are bioinspired vision sensors that output pixel-level brightness changes instead of standard intensity frames. They offer significant advantages over standard cameras, namely a very high dynamic range, no motion blur, and a latency in the order of microseconds. However, due to the fundamentally different structure of the sensor's output, new algorithms that exploit the high temporal resolution and the asynchronous nature of the sensor are required. Recent work has shown that a continuous-time representation of the event camera pose can deal with the high temporal resolution and asynchronous nature of this sensor in a principled way. In this paper, we leverage such a continuous-time representation to perform visual-inertial odometry with an event camera. This representation allows direct integration of the asynchronous events with microsecond accuracy and the inertial measurements at high frequency. The event camera trajectory is approximated by a smooth curve in the space of rigid-body motions using cubic splines. This formulation significantly reduces the number of variables in trajectory estimation problems. We evaluate our method on real data from several scenes and compare the results against ground truth from a motion-capture system. We show that our method provides improved accuracy over the result of a state-of-the-art visual odometry method for event cameras. We also show that both the map orientation and scale can be recovered accurately by fusing events and inertial data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on visual-inertial fusion with event cameras using a continuous-time framework.


The influence of channel morphology and hydraulics on sediment transport within
steep upland streams is investigated. Step-pools are the most common bedform in
such streams. Bedload transport processes operating in a perennial step-pool stream in
central England are established using magnetically-tagged particles and bedload pit
samplers. Water-surface slope in two step-pool streams is monitored in detail.
Water-surface slope measurements show that step-pool bedforms cause large spatial
variations in flow depth during floods, and that the temporal variation of watersurface
slope during a flood wave differs diametrically from the pattern found in lowgradient
rivers that have little roughness. These results demonstrate that it is difficult
to estimate the forces acting on the streambed in steep, rough streams and, therefore,
conventionally established flow variables cannot be used to predict bedload transport .
rates in step-pool channels.
Particle tracing experiments are used to determine the control that step-pool
morphology and flow hycfraulics have on particle displacements. Step-pool streams
exhibit smaller particle travel distance per flood event than low-gradient rivers. This
difference reflects the greater flow resistance and bed rugosity of step-pool streams.
Bed morphology dictates flood particle displacement at step-pool bedform scale. It is
shown that entrainment, pool export rates and transport distances of coarse sediment
are dependent on downstream step dimensions, step permeability and pool form.
Large variations in bedload transport rates at any given flow strength are associated
with variable sediment supply, and particle tracing demonstrates that sediment
availability is controlled at unit pool scale. Bedload consists of fine gravel moving
over a stable bed surface at low discharges, while, at higher discharges, bedload
coarsens, approaching the size of the pool bed material as the bed surface is partially
mobilized. Step framework clasts are stable features of the streambed. Results from
this study are incorporated into a descriptive model of discharge-related bedload
transport phases in step-pool streams.


Rapidly-exploring Random Tree star (RRT*) has recently gained immense popularity in the motion planning community as it provides a probabilistically complete and asymptotically optimal solution without requiring the complete information of the obstacle space. In spite of all of its advantages, RRT* converges to optimal solution very slowly. Hence to improve the convergence rate, its bidirectional variants were introduced, the Bi-directional RRT* (B-RRT*) and Intelligent Bi-directional RRT* (IB-RRT*). However, as both variants perform pure exploration, they tend to suffer in highly cluttered environments. In order to overcome these limitations we introduce a new concept of potentially guided bidirectional trees in our proposed Potentially Guided Intelligent Bi-directional RRT* (PIB-RRT*) and Potentially Guided Bi-directional RRT* (PB-RRT*). The proposed algorithms greatly improve the convergence rate and have a more efficient memory utilization. Theoretical and experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithms have been made and compared to the latest state of the art motion planning algorithms under different challenging environmental conditions and have proven their remarkable improvement in efficiency and convergence rate.


example, there is an unrepresentative picture of psoriatic arthropathy labelled 'psoriatic arthritis', which looks more like rheumatoid arthritis, and I cannot agree that phenylbutazone is 'useful treatment'. On the next page there is no mention of the relatively pleasant modern preparations of dithranol that have so improved our management of psoriasis. Later on, a fixed dose of griseofulvin is recommended which would suffice only for a 50 kg person. These quibbles, however, do not detract from the overall value of the book, which I commend highly.


This thesis deals with the analysis and numerical simulation of different partial differential equation models arising in socio-economic sciences. It is divided into two parts: The first part deals with a mean-field price formation model introduced by Lasry and Lions in 2007. This model describes the dynamic behaviour of the price of a good being traded between a group of buyers and a group of vendors. Existence (locally in time) of smooth solutions is established, and obstructions to proving a global existence result are examined. Also, properties of a regularised version of the model are explored and numerical examples are shown. Furthermore, the possibility of reconstructing the initial datum given a number of observations, regarding the price and the transaction rate, is considered. Using a variational approach, the problem can be expressed as a non-linear constrained minimization problem. We show that the initial datum is uniquely determined by the price (identifiability). Furthermore, a numerical scheme is implemented and a variety of examples are presented. The second part of this thesis treats two different models describing the motion of (large) human crowds. For the first model, introduced by R.L. Hughes in 2002, several regularised versions are considered. Existence and uniqueness of entropy solutions are proven using the technique of vanishing viscosity. In one space dimension, the dynamic behaviour of solutions of the original model is explored for some special cases. These results are compared to numerical simulations. Moreover, we consider a discrete cellular automaton model introduced by A. Kirchner and A. Schadschneider in 2002. By (formally) passing to the continuum limit, we obtain a system of partial differential equations. Some analytical properties, such as linear stability of stationary states, are examined and extensive numerical simulations show capabilities and limitations of the model in both the discrete and continuous setting.


The acclaimed #1 "New York Times" and undisputed King of Horror Stephen King offers another spine-tingling compilation of short stories sure to keep a reader up late at night. King is in terrifying top form in these short stories, taking readers down a road less traveled (for good reason) in the blockbuster ebook Riding the Bullet; bad table service turns bloody when you stop in for Lunch at the Gotham Cafe; and terror becomes deja vu all over again when you get That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French along with eleven more stories that will keep you awake until daybreak. Enter a nightmarish mindscape of unrelenting horror and shocking revelations that could only come from the imagination of the greatest storyteller of our time."