The in-patient treatment of migrants with psychiatric disorders causes particular difficulties. There is often a barrier of language and culture that raises problems for the diagnostic and therapeutic process. To solve these problems we developed a bilingual setting by integrating a Turkish psychologist who belongs to a counselling centre into our therapeutic team for at least once a week. This offers the possibility for a very qualified psychopathological assessment as the patient can talk to the Turkish psychologist in his native language and the Turkish psychologist can translate this and his own impression accurately also using the psychiatric language. All relevant themes can be discussed, including the possibility of continuing the therapy in the counceling centre. We investigated the impact of this kind of therapeutic approach on the duration of hospitalisation, remission in terms of psychopathology, rehabilitation level, ratio of readmission and contentment with therapy. The migrants were divided into two groups: Turkish migrants were treated in this special setting, non Turkish migrants were not treated in the manner described. There are shorter periods of hospital treatment for Turkish non-schizophrenic in-patients and Turkish schizophrenic patients achieve higher levels of rehabilitation. Turkish patients with all kinds of psychiatric diagnoses show lower ratios of readmission and express greater contentment with therapy. The psychopathological symptoms themselves, however, are not substantically reduced in this special setting.


We analyze the nature of stock price reactions of Borussia Dortmund, the only publicly traded soccer club in Germany, following domestic league and international matches over an extended period of time. Our results suggest that abnormal returns vary with the match result, the match venue, the competition type, bookmakers' expectations, and the importance of the Bundesliga match. Although our results confirm the evidence presented in previous studies, they are surprising insofar as the legal form of Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA—a mixture of a stock company (AG) and a limited partnership (KG)—is quite different from that of traditional stock companies. From a theoretical perspective, diluted property rights and a lack of managerial monitoring are the main characteristics of this legal form. However, the club managers' career concerns and the competitive pressures of the football industry seem to compensate for these deficits in the organizational architecture.


We consider a multiple access channel where the users choose their best power control strategy in order to selfishly maximize their energy-efficiency. To increase the utilities with respect to the classical non-cooperative game, we introduce hierarchy in two ways. On the one hand, assuming single-user decoding at the receiver, we investigate a Stackelberg formulation of the game where one user is the leader. On the other hand, assuming neither leader nor followers among the users, we introduce hierarchy by using successive interference cancellation at the receiver. For both cases, we study the existence and uniqueness of an equilibrium and compare the individual performance obtained in the hierarchical game with that obtained in the non-cooperative game. An exhaustive comparative analysis of the two games is also conducted. In order to optimize the choice of the leader in the Stackelberg formulation (with single user decoding) and that of the decoding order (in the non-cooperative game with successive interference cancelation), we study two measures of global energy-efficiency for the network and discussions are provided for each case.


The tendency of females to mate with multiple males is often explained by direct and indirect benefits that could outweigh the many potential costs of multiple mating. However, behaviour can only evolve in response to costs and benefits if there is sufficient genetic variation on which selection can act. We followed 108 mating chases of 85 North American red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) during 4 years, to measure each female's degree of multiple male mating (MMM), and used an animal model analysis of our multi-generational pedigree to provide what we believe is the first estimate of the heritability of MMM in the wild. Female red squirrels were highly polyandrous, mating with an average of 7.0 ± 0.2 males on their day of oestrus. Although we found evidence for moderate levels of additive genetic variation (CVA = 5.1), environmental variation was very high (CVE = 32.3), which resulted in a very low heritability estimate (h2 < 0.01). So, while there is genetic variation in this trait, the large environmental variation suggests that any costs or benefits associated with differences among females in MMM are primarily owing to environmental and not genetic differences, which could constrain the evolutionary response to natural selection on this trait.


Ethical frameworks and principles from philosophy have long been used to characterize human behavior. As driving is transitioning from human control to automated control, these ethical frameworks can be used to guide engineering design decisions for autonomous vehicles in a responsible manner. In particular, moral regulation provides two methods for guiding behavior. Proscriptive strategies emphasize rules, transgressions, and forbidding rule violation. Prescriptive strategies encourage achievement of goals. These two principles have been shown to map to human behavior regulation in approach and avoidance. These concepts have a natural parallel to driving strategies, and thus to differing outlooks on programming automated vehicles. In this paper, we apply proscriptive and prescriptive strategies to a model predictive control framework for an automated vehicle. Two scenarios featuring the ego vehicle navigating with obstacles in a roadway are used to elicit the resulting and differing vehicle behavior when either approach is used.


A commercially available small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) NanoSTAR instrument (Bruker AXS) with a liquid-metal-jet source (Excillum) has been optimized for solution scattering and installed at iNANO at Aarhus University. The instrument (named HyperSAXS) employs long high-quality parabolic Montel multilayer optics (Incoatec) and a novel compact scatterless pinhole slit with Ge edges, which was designed and built at Aarhus University. The combination of the powerful source and optimized geometry gives an integrated X-ray intensity close to 109 photons s−1 for a standard range of scattering vector moduli q = 0.0098–0.425 A−1, where q = (4πsinθ)/λ and λ is the Ga Kα wavelength of 1.34 A. The high intensity of the instrument makes it possible to measure dilute samples of, for example, protein or surfactant with concentrations of 1 mg ml−1 in a few minutes. A flow-through cell, built at Aarhus University, in combination with an automated sample handler has been installed on the instrument. The sample handler is based on the commercial Gilson GX-271 injection system (Biolab), which also allows samples to be stored under thermostatted conditions. The sample handler inserts and removes samples, and also cleans and dries the sample cell between measurements. The minimum volume of the flow-through capillary is about 20 µl. The high intensity additionally allows time-resolved measurements to be performed with a temporal resolution of seconds. For this purpose a stopped-flow apparatus, (SFM-3000, Bio-Logic) was connected to the flow-through cell by high-performance liquid chromatography tubing. This configuration was chosen as it allows vacuum around the sample cell and thus maintains a low background. The instrument can readily be converted into a low-q setup with a q range of 0.0049–0.34 A−1 and an X-ray intensity of about 5 × 107 photons s−1.


The collection and use of bioinformation is an important feature of contemporary efforts to ensure public safety and maintain (inter)national security. The National DNA Database(NDNAD) is widely acknowledged to be a world-leading innovation in the forensic application of genetic technology and information management. The IDENT1 platform, hosting the national fingerprint and palm print databases, also continues to grow in size and technical capability. The collection, retention and use of biological materials, usually without the consent of those from whom they were taken or retrieved, raise a range of policy questions. These include the scope of powers necessary for the effective and ethical collection and use of such materials, and how a balance may be achieved between the exercise of these powers by the police and the rights of individuals. The relevance of much domestic discussion has been overtaken by the judgement of the European Court of Human Rights in 'S' & Marper vs UK, of December 2008, which made a decisive contribution to normative debates about the use and governance of forensic bioinformation and placed the Government under a legal obligation to reform the laws governing the retention of forensic bioinformation.


In this article, examples are presented for which questions fish can be successfully used as bioindicators. Bioindicators are organisms, which react as sentinels on environmental changes. To decide which parameters have to be selected to best describe such influences, it has to be considered that stressors, which affect the body often have their initial effects at the molecular level. The resulting interactions affect the next higher level in the biological organization, namely the cells, organs and finally the organism or population. Molecular effects are thus expected to be most sensitive and provide the earliest indication. However, their ecological relevance is mostly low since many molecular effects are abolished by repair and protective mechanisms of the organism.A decline of fish populations together with an obviously increasing impairment of fish health was observed in numerous European river systems for years. In Switzerland, the trout catches decreased more than 40 per cent in the last decades.The aim of the study was to compile a set of parameters which cover the extent of changes in fish under adverse conditions and allow to narrow down the causing stressors.Among the molecular markers, stress or heat shock proteins are discussed to be useful for determining the impact of environmental stress. These proteins are involved in the protection of cells from stressor-induced damage, either in form of an adaptive response to prevent from danger or as a response to repair or remove stressor-induced damage. We tested tissue- and cell-specific differences in trout - these have to be known before a broad use in biomonitoring studies can be recommended. A transient increase of the temperature for two hours was sufficient to raise the amount of stress protein HSP 70 in both, gill and skin. Whereas in skin the level remained elevated for two days of recovery, the protein amount decreased rapidly in the gill.Metallothionein, a biomarker of exposure and toxicity of heavy metals has been detected in the gills of brown and rainbow trout. A very prominent labeling of the ion-transporting chloride cells was found after exposure to diluted sewage plant effluents. No significant increase was observed after exposure to river water 8 km further downstream of the sewage plants indicating a decreasing pollution and threat of the trout in this river due to heavy metals. The observed decline in population density is most likely due to other reasons in this river system. Reproductive failure in wildlife attracted considerable attention in the last years. Therefore, we investigated the situation in fish in Switzerland. To detect disturbances in the reproductive system of fish, vitellogenin can be used as a sensitive and specific biomarker. This yolk protein is synthesized in the liver of female mature fish, but can be induced by estrogen or estrogen- like substances in juvenile and male fish as well. Downstream of four out of 36 sewage treatment plants we observed male fish with vitellogenin in their livers. This indicates the presence of hormones or estrogen-like substances in the river water or effluent and has to be further investigated. In laboratory experiments, we showed that one of the estrogen-like substances, nonylphenol (a metabolite of alkylphenol ethoxylates, used in dyes, plastics and industrial cleaning products) induced alterations in the granulation pattern of skin mucous cells and in the surface of gill chloride cells.In the river Alte Aare, low fish populations and health problems were observed for many years. One possible reason is the insufficient water quality, which may be due, among others, by waste water released by a sewage treatment plant. Trout were investigated after exposure with and without addition of sewage effluents. A broad set of parameters was studied. High concentrations of nitrite, ammonia, pesticides and further possibly harmful compounds were detected. Trout suffered high mortalities, pathological changes of liver, kidney, skin and gill, and blood chemistry parameters, and displayed a high abundance of parasites as well as of pathogenic bacteria. We concluded that the combination of several adverse factors, including high water temperatures in the summer is responsible for the observed effects. An interdisciplinary workshop comprising the experience of many experts who worked at this river system for years was the basis for a synthesis report, which included recommendations for measures.In addition to the mentioned studies carried out mostly in the field, approaches are necessary which focus even more strongly on the mechanisms and evaluate the direct response of biomarkers to the environmental conditions than is possible in the whole animal system. Further, we wanted to reduce the number of fish necessary for monitoring and ecotoxicological studies.


Water-dispersible CdS quantum dots (QDs) were synthesized in a simple one-pot noninjection route. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern of the nanoparticles shows the cubic structure with particle size of the order 5-7 nm which was in good agreement with the transmission electron microscopic (TEM) studies. Selected area electron diffraction (SAED) recognized the cubic structure of CdS. The energy dispersive X- ray spectroscopy (EDAX) analysis confirms the presence of Cd and S elements in the samples. The optical properties are characterized by Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) absorption and Photoluminescence (PL) spectra. The synthesis parameters of this simple and rapid approach, including the reaction temperature and time, the pH of the reaction solution and the molar ratio of the 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) stabilizer to Cd 2+ , have considerable influence on the particle size and photoluminescence of the CdS quantum dots. The 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) stabilized CdS QDs can be used in solar cells, light emitting diodes, biological imaging etc. Copyright © 2013 VBRI press.


The volume of trajectory data has become tremendously large in recent years. How to efficiently maintain and compute such trajectory data becomes a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a trajectory spatial and temporal compression framework, namely CLEAN. The key of spatial compression is to mine meaningful trajectory frequent patterns on road networks. By treating the mined patterns as dictionary items, we have the chance to encode a long trajectory by shorter paths, thus leading to smaller space cost. Meanwhile, we design an error-bounded temporal compression on top of the identified spatial patterns for much low space cost. Extensive experiments on real trajectory datasets validate that CLEAN significantly outperforms existing state-of-art approaches in terms of both space saving and runtime of trajectory compression.


Abstract Productivity of mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus Raf.) populations is closely linked to individual nutritional condition. We modeled body fat of individual does as a function of vegetation cover, composition, and water characteristics of their annual, summer, and winter home ranges in north-central New Mexico. We also modeled home range size as a function of the same characteristics. Levels of body fat were most closely and negatively related to the amount of pinyon-juniper in an individual deer's annual home range (F1,21  =  7.6; P  =  0.012; r2  =  0.26). Pinyon-juniper types provided little (combined ground cover of preferred forbs and shrubs  =  5.7%) mule deer forage but were included in home ranges in excess of their availability on the landscape, likely because of security cover attributes. Proportion of grasslands in home ranges was most strongly related to both annual (F1,23  =  4.9; P  =  0.037; r2  =  0.18) and summer (F2,25  =  5.7; P  =  0.009; r2  =  0.31) home range sizes, and home ranges increased as the grassland component increased, indicating that this habitat type was providing little value to mule deer. Grassland (0.2% combined cover of preferred forb and shrub) and montane conifer (3.2% ground cover of preferred forb and shrub) habitat types similarly lacked preferred mule deer food, and grasslands also lacked cover. Most immediate gains in mule deer habitat in north-central New Mexico may be attained by management of pinyon-juniper communities to increase forage quantity and quality while maintaining cover attributes. Gains can also be realized in grasslands, but here management must establish both cover and forage.


Plants play a vital role in our day-to-day life. Hence, a good understanding of plants is needed to help in identifying new or rare plant species. Such identification will in turn improve the drug industry, balance the ecosystem as well as the agricultural productivity and sustainability. We often come across various plants with different variety of leaves and flowers every single day. We try to recognize it, but we fail. So we need some system which can tell us about the leaf/flower instantly. So, to solve such problems, we introduce a plant recognition system (PRS) which tells you the details about a leaf by just uploading the image of the leaf. For this system, we use image processing and some identification techniques which can recognize the leaf by its structure, colour, shape etc and fetch the details about it and provide the details of it to the user. This paper gives a understanding about the different methods used under image processing and various methods and algorithm used to identify that leaf in a short and simple way. Object recognition and detection are techniques with similar end results and implementation approaches. Therefore, it requires heavy pre-processing and implements various processes to obtain the end results.


We propose applying the standard aggregate demand and aggregate supply model (AD-AS) to the housing market. It is a very simple and intuitive tool that can help shed light on the major forces at play in the market and that can supplement the use of the general equilibrium and dynamic stochastic equilibrium models (DSGE). The latter models are very sophisticated and aim to cover many aspects of the economy, but they require a significant number of long time series to estimate the model parameters. However, in many countries, such as post-socialist countries, the time series are short. Those models moreover cover only real house prices, but in certain situations we should consider real and nominal prices at the same time.


High quality speech capture has been widely studied for both voice communication and human computer interface reasons. To improve the capture performance, we can often find multi-microphone speech enhancement techniques deployed on various devices. Multi-microphone speech enhancement problem is often decomposed into two decoupled steps: a beamformer that provides spatial filtering and a single-channel speech enhancement model that cleans up the beamformer output. In this work, we propose a speech enhancement solution that takes both the raw microphone and beamformer outputs as the input for an ML model. We devise a simple yet effective training scheme that allows the model to learn from the cues of the beamformer by contrasting the two inputs and greatly boost its capability in spatial rejection, while conducting the general tasks of denoising and dereverberation. The proposed solution takes advantage of classical spatial filtering algorithms instead of competing with them. By design, the beamformer module then could be selected separately and does not require a large amount of data to be optimized for a given form factor, and the network model can be considered as a standalone module which is highly transferable independently from the microphone array. We name the ML module in our solution as GSENet, short for Guided Speech Enhancement Network. We demonstrate its effectiveness on real world data collected on multi-microphone devices in terms of the suppression of noise and interfering speech.


Fault identification plays an important role in oil and gas exploration of the Ordovician reservoirs underlying the Permian igneous rocks in the fault-controlled Shuntuoguole uplift, Tarim Basin, China. Faults identified through conventional analysis of seismic coherence attributes, however, usually contain many artifacts or pseudofaults in which velocities of the igneous rocks tend to be selected incorrectly during migration imaging. We have evaluated a quantitative method to identify the pseudofaults by numerical simulation of depth migration on synthetic seismic records generated by finite-difference modeling of wave propagation. Detailed information on the spatial distribution and velocity range of the Permian igneous rocks is used to build a refined velocity model for the wave-equation-based forward modeling, calibrated with core, well log, and seismic data. It is found that the thickness and the migration velocity error used for the igneous rocks in depth migration are important factors affecting the pseudofault throws. There exists a strong quantitative relationship between igneous rock thickness ([Formula: see text]) and pseudofault throw ([Formula: see text]), [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] are constants for a given migration velocity error. For a maximum migration velocity error of 15% for the dacite bodies in the studied area, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], and [Formula: see text] are 0.0002, 0.1864, and [Formula: see text], respectively. Using this relationship, the maximum fault throw ([Formula: see text]) of a pseudofault caused by an arbitrary thickness of any dacite body can be calculated. If the actual fault throw (H) of an apparent fault measured on the migrated seismic profile is greater than the calculated maximum fault throw for the fault, i.e., [Formula: see text], then the apparent fault is a real geologic fault. Otherwise, it is a pseudofault. The method has been successfully applied to produce corrected fault distribution maps for geologic evaluation of the Ordovician reservoirs in the Shuntuoguole region.


This paper focuses on the task of RGB-D indoor scene classification. It is a very challenging task due to two folds. 1) Learning robust representation for indoor scene is difficult because of various objects and layouts. 2) Fusing the complementary cues in RGB and Depth is nontrivial since there are large semantic gaps between the two modalities. Most existing works learn representation for classification by training a deep network with softmax loss and fuse the two modalities by simply concatenating the features of them. However, these pipelines do not explicitly consider intra-class and inter-class similarity as well as inter-modal intrinsic relationships. To address these problems, this paper proposes a Discriminative Feature Learning and Fusion Network (DF2Net) with two-stage training. In the first stage, to better represent scene in each modality, a deep multi-task network is constructed to simultaneously minimize the structured loss and the softmax loss. In the second stage, we design a novel discriminative fusion network which is able to learn correlative features of multiple modalities and distinctive features of each modality. Extensive analysis and experiments on SUN RGB-D Dataset and NYU Depth Dataset V2 show the superiority of DF2Net over other state-of-the-art methods in RGB-D indoor scene classification task.


GHz scanning acoustic microscopy (GHz-SAM) was successfully applied for non-destructive evaluation of the integrity of back end of line (BEOL) stacks located underneath wire-bond pads. The current study investigated two sample types of different IC processes. Realistic bonding defects were artificially induced into samples and the sensitivity of the acoustic GHz-microscope towards defects in BEOL systems was studied. Due to the low penetration depth in the acoustic GHz regime, a specific sample preparation was conducted in order to provide access to the region of interest. However, the preparation stopped several microns above the interfaces of interest, thus avoiding preparation artifacts in the critical region. Cratering related cracks in the bond pads have been imaged clearly by GHz-SAM. The morphology of the visualized defects corresponded well with the results obtained by a chemical cratering test. Moreover, delamination defects at the interface between ball and pad metallization were detected and successfully identified. The current paper demonstrates non-destructive inspection for bond-pad cratering and ball-bond delamination using highly focused acoustic waves in the GHz-band and thus illustrates the analysis of micron-sized defects in BEOL layer structures that are related to wire bonding or test needle imprints.


A new method is presented to prepare anatomical slides of plant materials including a combination of soft and hard tissues, such as stems with cambial variants, arboreal monocotyledons, and tree bark. The method integrates previous techniques aimed at softening the samples and making them thereby more homogeneous, with the use of anti-tearing polystyrene foam solution. In addition, we suggest two other alternatives to protect the sections from tearing: adhesive tape and/or Mayer's albumin adhesive, both combined with the polystyrene foam solution. This solution is cheap and easy to make by dissolving any packaging polystyrene in butyl acetate. It is applied before each section is cut on a sliding microtome and ensures that all the tissues in the section will hold together. This novel microtechnical procedure will facilitate the study of heterogeneous plant portions, as shown in some illustrated examples.


ABSTRACT: The U.S. Geological Survey examined 25 agricultural streams in eastern Wisconsin the determine relations between fish, invertebrate, and algal metrics and multiple spatial scales of land cover, geologic setting, hydrologic, aquatic habitat, and water chemistry data. Spearman correlation and redundancy analyses were used to examine relations among biotic metrics and environmental characteristics. Riparian vegetation, geologic, and hydrologic conditions affected the response of biotic metrics to watershed agricultural land cover but the relations were aquatic assemblage dependent. It was difficult to separate the interrelated effects of geologic setting, watershed and buffer land cover, and base flow. Watershed and buffer land cover, geologic setting, reach riparian vegetation width, and stream size affected the fish IBI, invertebrate diversity, diatom IBI, and number of algal taxa; however, the invertebrate FBI, percentage of EPT, and the diatom pollution index were more influenced by nutrient concentrations and flow variability. Fish IBI scores seemed most sensitive to land cover in the entire stream network buffer, more so than watershed‐scale land cover and segment or reach riparian vegetation width. All but one stream with more than approximately 10 percent buffer agriculture had fish IBI scores of fair or poor. In general, the invertebrate and algal metrics used in this study were not as sensitive to land cover effects as fish metrics. Some of the reach‐scale characteristics, such as width/depth ratios, velocity, and bank stability, could be related to watershed influences of both land cover and geologic setting. The Wisconsin habitat index was related to watershed geologic setting, watershed and buffer land cover, riparian vegetation width, and base flow, and appeared to be a good indicator of stream quality Results from this study emphasize the value of using more than one or two biotic metrics to assess water quality and the importance of environmental characteristics at multiple scales.


Background: The prevalence of behavioral problems is significantly high in children with epilepsy compared to children with other chronic illnesses which do not affect the central nervous system. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common comorbid disorder with epilepsy. Thus, children with epileptic seizure are in increased risk of cognitive disorders particularly attention problems. Parent Management Training (PMT) can be defined as an approach for the treatment of child behavioral problems in which parents are trained to alter their child's behavior. Therefore, the main purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of PMT on improvement of symptoms of ADHD in a child with epilepsy. Methods: The study design was single-subject using multiple baseline design. The samples were parents of two children with epilepsy and comorbid ADHD who completed Child Symptom Inventory (CSI-4) part A. Participants received 9 sessions of PMT (1-1.5 hour for each session per week). They completed CSI-4 part A in pretest, during the treatment and one month follow-up. Data were analyzed by visual analysis. Results: Results indicated the effect of PMT on ADHD symptoms was clinically significant. Findings showed positive effect of PMT on monitoring the child's behavior. Conclusion: Hence, the enhancement of parents' control skills and the improvement of parent-child interaction could result in parents' anger management and considerable reduction in child behavioral problems and aggression.


Is the Bayh-Dole intellectual property regime associated with more and better academic entrepreneurship than the Professor's Privilege regime? The authors examine data on US PhDs in the natural sciences, engineering, and medical fields who became entrepreneurs in 1993–2006 and compare this to similar data from Sweden. They find that, in both countries, those with an academic background have lower rates of entry into entrepreneurship than do those with a non-academic background. The relative rate of academics starting entrepreneurial firms is slightly lower in the United States than in Sweden. Moreover, the mean economic gains from becoming an entrepreneur are negative, both for PhDs originating in academia and for non-academic settings in both countries. Analysis indicates that selection into entrepreneurship occurs from the lower part of the ability distribution among academics. The results suggest that policies supporting entrepreneurial decisions by younger, tenure-track academics may be more effective than are general incentives to increase academic entrepreneurship.


Oriented toward developing a seminar for the Department of Plastic Arts University of Concepcion Chile, This production model was designed in the MA in Project Teaching School of Architecture Construction and Design, University of Biobio, Chile. The School of Art at the University of Concepcion proposed in his origins to keep the tradition of the graph and the Chilean recorded, because is in that line where begins to develop the curriculum modification toward digital openness and incorporating technology tools for the professional artist formation. The main motivation of this coalition is to detect and generate visual art discourses through multidisciplinary strategies for the production of works that incorporate processes and technological tools to generate digital art spaces and territories exploratory different to the traditional model of museum work.


This paper investigates the impacts of different turbulence models on the biological state at an ocean station in the northern Adriatic sea, named S3, comparing them with other uncertainties inherent to coupled physical–biological simulations. The numerical tool is a 1-D model resulting from the coupling of two advanced numerical models. The hydrodynamic part is modelled using the General Ocean Turbulence Model (www.gotm.net), in a version adopting state-of-the-art second-moment Turbulence Closure Models (TCMs). Marine biogeochemistry is parameterized with the Biogeochemical Flux Model (http://www.bo.ingv.it/bfm), which is a direct descendant of ERSEM (European Regional Sea Ecosystem Model). Results, obtained by forcing the model with hourly wind and solar radiation data and assimilating salinity casts, are compared against monthly observations made at the station during 2000–2001. Provided that modern second-moment TCMs are employed, the comparisons indicate that both the physical and the biological dynamics are relatively insensitive to the choice of the particular scheme adopted, suggesting that TCMs have finally 'converged' in recent years. As a further example, the choice of the nutrient boundary conditions has an impact on the system evolution that is more significant than the choice of the specific TCM, therefore representing a possible limitation of the 1-D model applied to stations located in a Region of Freshwater Influence. The 1-D model simulates the onset and intensity of the spring–summer bloom quite well, although the duration of the bloom is not as prolonged as in the data. Since local dynamics appears unable to sustain the bloom conditions well into summer, phytoplankton at the station was most likely influenced by river input or advection processes, an aspect that was not found when the S3 behaviour was adequately modelled using climatological forcings. When the focus is in predicting high-frequency dynamics, it is more likely that lateral advection cannot be neglected. While the physical state can be satisfactorily estimated at these short time scales, the accurate estimation of the biological state in coastal regions still appears as rather elusive.


This paper describes the general architecture of a digital research environment for manuscript and textual studies (particularly those pertaining to ancient Greek and Byzantine texts), and it discusses some questions of data representation and encoding in the framework of such an online research platform. The platform is being developed by the project Teuchos. Zentrum fur Handschriften- und Textforschung, established in 2007 by the Institut fur Griechische und Lateinische Philologie (Universitat Hamburg) in cooperation with the Aristoteles-Archiv (Freie Universitat Berlin). Teuchos is a long-term infrastructural project of the Universitat Hamburg. It is currently in its three-year initial phase which is being co-funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the "Thematic Information Networks" scheme within the "Scientific Library Services and Information Systems" programme. We introduce the main object types to be handled by our system and describe the overall functionality of the online platform. The paper focuses on the representations of two main object types: manuscripts as textual witnesses and watermarks, with an emphasis on the former. Since the adequate encoding of different layers of structure of a transmitted text is particularly relevant to optimising users' choices of navigating both digital images of the containing manuscripts and trancriptions of the text contained, this topic is discussed in some detail. We introduce the formal data model and the corresponding encoding for the object types discussed. The project encodes textual data in XML, aiming for TEI conformance where possible. Since no accepted XML model exists for the encoding of metadata within a watermark collection, we briefly explain how we chose to model the objects to accomodate the collections the project is making accessible.


High temperature deformation behavior of AZ31 and AZ91 magnesium alloys was examined by compression tests over a wide strain rate range from 10–3 to 103 s–1 with emphasis on the behavior at high strain rates. The dominant deformation mechanism in the low strain rate range below 10–1 s–1 was suggested to be climb-controlled dislocation creep. On the other hand, experimental results indicated that the deformation at a high strain rate of ~103 s–1 proceeds by conventional plastic flow of dislocation glide and twinning even at elevated temperatures. The solid-solution strengthening was operative for high temperature deformation at ~103 s–1.


Five cases of macerated stillborn fetuses with congenital syphilis were studied. Despite severe maceration with visceral autolysis, spirochetes could be easily detected using Warthin-Starry stains. Clues that led to performing silver stains included the presence of an enlarged liver, spleen, chorioamnionitis, and nucleated red blood cells in villous capillaries. In a patient population where prenatal care is not always obtained, and maternal serologic tests results are not available at the time of delivery, these pathologic clues are very helpful in detecting congenital syphilis in macerated stillborn fetuses where the classic findings of syphilitic infection, including hydrops fetalis and plasma cell infiltrates, may be masked.


Neurogenesis processes differ in different areas of the cortex in many species, including humans. Here, we performed single-cell transcriptome profiling of the four cortical lobes and pons during human embryonic and fetal development. We identified distinct subtypes of neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and their molecular signatures, including a group of previously unidentified transient NPCs. We specified the neurogenesis path and molecular regulations of the human deep-layer, upper-layer, and mature neurons. Neurons showed clear spatial and temporal distinctions, while glial cells of different origins showed development patterns similar to those of mice, and we captured the developmental trajectory of oligodendrocyte lineage cells until the human mid-fetal stage. Additionally, we verified region-specific characteristics of neurons in the cortex, including their distinct electrophysiological features. With systematic single-cell analysis, we decoded human neuronal development in temporal and spatial dimensions from GW7 to GW28, offering deeper insights into the molecular regulations underlying human neurogenesis and cortical development.


Food culture is most influenced by the locality of its origin, which will have been one of food acquisition and processing by various means. It is generally agreed, and is the basis of much United Nations, especially Food and Agriculture Organisation strategic development policy, that successful agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture along with fishing, underpin economically viable and healthy communities with their various food cultures. We also know that this must be in tandem with maternal literacy and operational health care systems. These elements are best represented on a regional basis. There is a growing consumer interest in knowing where one's food comes from as a measure of "food integrity". However, food production alone can be a precarious business and relate to a lesser or greater extent to local food culture and to trade, which may be complementary or at-odds with each other. Likewise, the local food culture may have its strengths and weaknesses as far as its ability to meet nutritional and health needs is concerned. Local food production may be restricted because of geographical or socio-economic conditions which preclude food diversity, although this may be compensated for by trade. Where food adequacy and diversity is compromised, and soils poor, various macronutrient, micronutrient (from animals and plants) and phytonutrient (nutritionally-advantageous food component from plants) deficiencies may be in evidence. These food system problems may be intertwined with food culture--for example, "rice-based and water-soluble vitamin poor"; "few animal-derived foods like meat, fish, eggs and milk with associated low calcium, vitamin D, Vitamin B12 and long chain n-3 fatty acid intakes"; "low fruit and vegetable intake with limited carotenoids and other phytonutrients". Geo-satellite surveillance and mapping as identifying such "hot spots": for regional food problems, as well as hot spots where most of the world's biodiversity is found (1.4 % of land on earth). On the other hand, regional food culture can confer considerable advantage for health and economic development, but does not necessarily do so. The challenge is to respect and retain traditional food knowledge and sustainable food systems, with good governance for food security. There has been a recent awakening of interest and concern about the lack of documentation of traditional and indigenous food cultures which are important not only for their own sake, but for the legacy of food knowledge which they can confer on future generations, provided they are not lost. Hence, the value of a special focus on African food cultures (www.healthyeatingclub.org/Africa), including Rift and Nile Valleys and North West African foods, which are the cradles of human food systems and habits. This is the case too with indigenous foods and food cultures (whether hunter-gatherer or subsistence agriculture); with relatively long-living food cultures in North East Asia, with food cultural distinction and fusion (FHILL and SENECA studies) and with migratory Food Habits. By and large, there is a remarkable resilience and ingenuity of people and their food systems, but monoculture and lack of diversity encourage food system failure.


For more than a decade, clinical trialists and their sponsors have been saying that they want all controlled clinical trials tagged and listed somewhere while they are in progress—preferably on an international register that's simple to use, searchable, and free to anyone who wants to know who is studying what and where. No one doubts that registering ongoing controlled trials is a good idea. The Americans have made an excellent start with their publicly funded register(http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/>).1 And the United Kingdom's Medical Research Council and the NHS Research and Development Programme have made important progress through a meta-register of controlled trials (http://www.controlled-trials.com/>), established by Current Controlled Trials, a publisher. Why has it not happened more widely in Europe? Last year the European Science Foundation, an umbrella organisation, advised all its member organisations to register controlled trials through http://www.controlled-trials.com/>and to assign each of them a unique identifier—an international standard randomised controlled trial number (ISRCTN).2 Last month, the foundation hosted a meeting in Frankfurt to review progress, and more importantly, to urge members to stop talking and do something.

The compelling arguments that started this debate 10 years ago remain the same: 3 4 The international research effort is chaotic. It is impossible to …


The Dutch railway network is in the top three of highest utilized networks within Europe. In the most positive scenarios, demand forecasts for railway transport in the Netherlands show further growth between 2011 and 2020 for both passenger and freight transport of 27% and 107% respectively. Budgets for extending the infrastructure are limited. For many years the railway infrastructure and operating timetable have been optimized to deal with an increasing number of trains running on the same rail infrastructure. It has proven di�cult to determine the impact of new infrastructure or a new timetable on the feasibility and robustness of operating trains.
ARCADIS detects a shift in their clients' requests from calculating the minimum interval time between two train services towards a more extensive analysis of the impact of infrastructure modifications on the feasibility of operating the timetable. Currently, analysing the operability for infrastructure alternatives on a specific timetable is a time consuming process, taking up to several weeks. The alternative selection processes often do not include secondary processes like shunting movements, and transitions between peak-hour and o�-peak timetables. Therefore, ARCADIS has developed a prototype model to automate steps in the evaluation of infrastructure alternatives and to implement the UIC 406 (2004a) methodology. UIC 406 is a widely accepted methodology to calculate the occupation time rate using the concept of timetable compression.
However, other indicators are required to evaluate and select alternatives.
The above leads to the following research goal: to facilitate the selection of alternatives in railway infrastructure or timetabling projects by developing and implementing a decision support system which uses indicators and the UIC 406 methodology to evaluate timetable scenarios.
In this research, a literature review and interviews are used to gain information about the decision making process and to determine the indicators required to select alternatives. Two products are the outcome of this research:
(1) a model to develop a passive decision support system to facilitate the selection of alternatives in infrastructure and timetable projects based on indicators and
(2) an application tool that implements the designed decision support system and can support the decision making processes The model is capable of using headway times to evaluate a timetable realistically in a matter of seconds. The model describes the steps of the evaluation process for an infrastructure or timetable proposal, through the use of simulation software to calculating the follow-up times and the model uses that to calculate the indicators. Those indicators are an important aspect against which a timetable can be evaluated. The following four indicators are important in evaluating a timetable based on previous research into this subject by Schittenhelm (2013) and
the interviews conducted with stakeholders during this research:
(a) the occupancy time rate, calculated by using the UIC 406 methodology. In this research, the methodology is extended by calculating the occupation time rate per hour.
(b) the heterogeneity of a timetable, calculated by �nding the variation in headway time interval and speed with the method provided by Landex (2007).
(c) the degree of deviation from timetable planning rules, calculated by comparing the scheduled departure times with the earliest departure time according to the minimum headway
time.
(d) the stability of the timetable during operation: in this research a methodology is developed that calculates the e�ects of disturbance to a timetable/infrastructure scenario. The indicator is a ratio between the input disturbance and the amount of disturbance that is
transferred to subsequent trains. The model contains three controls which allow the end-user to change parameters and to see the effects of those parameters on the output. These controls are (1) scenario selection, (2) level of aggregation output (1h, 2h, 24h), and (3) the running time margin.
The application tool shows that it is capable of supporting and speeding up the selection of alternatives by providing three primary checks to the alternative: the occupation time rate, the stability of the timetable, and a check whether the proposed timetable will �t. Due to
the nature of this application, this model allows a very
exible way of testing the location of secondary processes in the timetable as the relation between the secondary processes and the primary process only needs to be calculated once. The stability indicator used in the application enables the end-user to see the e�ect of changing the distribution of margin between trains in
the timetable. Therefore, a timetable with a more uniform distributed margin will be able to withstand more disturbances without transferring delays to subsequent trains. The output of the application uses modules to display the information, which allows for quick customization depending on the requirements of the end-user and type of project.
In future research, the indicators should be veri�ed outside the Netherlands and applicability of the sensitivity-based stability indicator in a wider context should be further investigated. So far, the model has been applied to theoretical test cases. Further validation should be done by applying the tool to real-life projects, providing cases for analysis.


In this paper, we consider the use of a channel shortening prefilter in conjunction with a turbo equalizer, in order to allow its use with arbitrarily long channel impulse responses. We show that the residual intersymbol interference (ISI), caused by imperfect channel shortening, results in considerable performance loss. However, by intentionally introducing a particular signal-to-interference plus noise ratio (SINR) mismatch, some of the penalty incurred can be overcome. We also show that the coloring of the noise through the prefllter results in a significant performance loss, which is insensitive to SINR mismatch and cannot be improved by choosing an appropriate SINR mismatch.


Dermatophytosis is a major public health problem especially in tropical countries like Malaysia. Several studies report incidence of resistance to common treatment for dermatophytosis with drugs such as terbinafine, fluconazole, and griseofulvin. Resistance arise as consequence of non-adherence with prescribed treatment regimens, repetitive use of antifungal drugs more than once in a patient's life, incidence of reabsorption or washout of drug from the skin and failure of drug to reach the stratum corneum. Currently available antifungal preparations (ointments or creams) are easily removed after application and may contribute to none cure and/or to development of resistance. This project was initiated with the intention of producing an antifungal topical drug delivery system using film-forming polymeric solutions. The research was divided into 4 main areas which are (1) preliminary studies to test antimicrobial activities and determine the cytotoxicity of selected antimicrobial drugs and natural product extracts in vitro, (2) formulation and characterization of film-forming solutions, (3) elucidate skin permeation of selected drug, (4) determine antifungal activity and safety profile of topical film forming polymeric spray. Seventy-three (73) formulations were prepared but only 6 formulations were chosen from the preformulation studies were further testing. Formulation A was superior to the other tested formulations due dries in less than 1 minute, is non-sticky and forms a transparent film on the skin.


A retrospective study of plain radiographic findings in 11 patients with traumatic rupture of the aorta was conducted, and the results compared with the incidence of numerous chest x-rays signs previously described in 294 cases of angiographically proven thoracic aorta dissection. It is concluded that positive plain radiographic signs obtained from patients with blunt chest trauma reveal high sensitivity and may thus be used as an indication for emergency aortography. However, since this procedure lacks 100% specificity even those patients with normal x-ray findings but clinically and/or anamnestically adequate thoracic trauma should be submitted to aortography.


Lascaux Cave is renowned for its outstanding prehistoric paintings, strikingly well-preserved over about 18,000 yr. While stalagmites and stalactites are almost absent in the cave, there is an extensive calcite flowstone that covered a large part of the cave until its opening for tourists during the 1950s. The deposit comprises a succession of calcite rims, or "gours," which allowed seepage water to pond in large areas in the cave. Their possible role in preservation of the cave paintings has often been evoked, but until now this deposit has not been studied in detail. Here, we present 24 new radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) and 6 uranium-thorium (U-Th) analyses from the calcite of the gours, 4 AMS 14C dates from charcoals trapped in the calcite, and 4 AMS 14C analyses on organic matter extracted from the calcite. Combining the calibrated 14C ages obtained on charcoals and organic matter and U-Th ages from 14C analyses made on the carbonate, has allowed the calculation of the dead carbon proportion (dcp) of the carbonate deposits. The latter, used with the initial atmospheric 14C activities reconstructed with the new IntCal09 calibration data, allows high-resolution age estimation of the gour calcite samples and their growth rates. The carbonate deposit grew between 9530 and 6635 yr cal BP (for dcp = 10.7 ± 1.8%; 2 σ) or between 8518 and 5489 yr cal BP (for dcp = 20.5 ± 1.9%; 2 σ). This coincides with humid periods that can be related to the Atlantic period in Europe and to Sapropel 1 in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. However, geomorphological changes at the cave entrance might also have played a role in the gour development. In the 1940s, when humans entered the cave for the first time since its prehistoric occupation, the calcite gours had already been inactive for several thousand years.


The mainstream conduct of research on Esperanto and interlinguistics is a relatively recent phenomenon, which of late has grown easier through better access to libraries and a growing body of scholarly work. The situation of Esperanto and interlinguistics in universities remains stable. However, the years 2005 and 2006 have been marked by the passing of two major figures: Ito Kanzi in Japan and William Auld in Scotland. A survey of recent scholarship shows steady production of studies and reference works in the linguistics of Esperanto, interlinguistics, the Esperanto movement and speech community, Zamenhof studies, the history of Esperanto, Esperanto literature, translation, the teaching of Esperanto, and language policy. There has been an increase in publication on Esperanto and interlinguistics particularly in German and Russian.


For modern high-resolution imaging sensors, pixel binning is performed in low-lighting conditions and in case high frame rates are required. To recover the original spatial resolution, single-image super-resolution techniques can be applied for upscaling. To achieve a higher image quality after upscaling, we propose a novel binning concept using tetromino-shaped pixels. It is embedded into the field of compressed sensing and the coherence is calculated to motivate the sensor layouts used. Next, we investigate the reconstruction quality using tetromino pixels for the first time in literature. Instead of using different types of tetrominoes as proposed elsewhere, we show that using a small repeating cell consisting of only four T-tetrominoes is sufficient. For reconstruction, we use a locally fully connected reconstruction (LFCR) network as well as two classical reconstruction methods from the field of compressed sensing. Using the LFCR network in combination with the proposed tetromino layout, we achieve superior image quality in terms of PSNR, SSIM, and visually compared to conventional single-image super-resolution using the very deep super-resolution (VDSR) network. For PSNR, a gain of up to +1.92 dB is achieved.


Various chemical compositions (1-x)CaTiO3+xMgF2+xLiF were prepared and dry-ground. The powder mixtures were pressed to pellets and co-fired at 900°C for 2h. The obtained ceramics were investigated by XRD, SEM, DSC and dielectric measurements. A new solid solution with nominal composition Ca1-xMgx(Ti1-xLix)O3-3xF3x occurred in the initial composition range 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.25. The fluoride additive MgF2+LiF lowered significantly the sintering temperature of pure CaTiO3. Above room temperature, one or two second order phase transitions were detected by DSC and confirmed by dielectric measurements. Moreover, below room temperature, a frequency peak dependent on the permittivity and losses was observed and the quantum paraelectric behaviour of CaTiO3 disappeared with increasing x. These oxifluorides could be of interest for electronic applications.


The experiment evaluated the effects on the chemical composition (fermentation, kinetic parameters, and protein and carbohydrate fractions) of corn silage after various storage durations (45, 90, 180, and 360 days). Experimental mini silos of the corn plants were made and opened after various storage periods. The experimental design was completely randomized with four treatments and four replications per treatment. Variables such as pH, lactic acid and acetic acid showed a quadratic effect, whereas effluent and gas losses increased linearly with prolonged storage. Proteolysis was observed with an increase in storage, resulting in a rise in ammonia-N, soluble N, and non-protein N concentration and reduction in true protein. The soluble carbohydrate fractions were reduced, and digestible and indigestible fibre were increased. For the kinetic degradation parameters of the silages obtained through in vitro gas methodology, the highest fermentation rate occurred in the first 12 hours of incubation, and the highest volume of gas produced within 96 hours was obtained for silages with shorter storage (45 days). The increase in storage resulted in greater losses and lower ruminal degradability in vitro, causing a decrease in protein quality and nutritional value.


Layered thin films composed of concanavalin A (Con A) and sugar-bearing polymers were prepared by a layer-by-layer deposition of Con A and the polymer on a solid surface. The sugar-induced disintegration was studied. Con A–polymer layered films could be successfully prepared using a maltose-bearing polymer (PV-MA), while melibiose- and glucose-bearing polymers (PV-MEA and PV-G) did not afford a layered film, due to a weak affinity of PV-MEA and PV-G to Con A. The Con A/PV-MA layered film was stable in pH 7 and 8 solutions, while in a pH 6 medium the film was slightly unstable. The Con A/PV-MA film was disintegrated upon the addition of sugars in solution owing to a preferential binding of the sugars to the binding site of Con A in the film. The disintegration rate was dependent on the type of sugar and its concentration. The Con A/PV-MA film was disintegrated rapidly upon the addition of methyl α -D-mannopyranoside, while the rate was slower upon the addition of the same concentration of D-mannose, D-glucose and methyl α -D-glucopyranoside. The present system may be useful for constructing sensitive devices that can release a drug or other functional molecules in response to sugars.


Brazilian Portuguese is the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, which has slight differences from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal. One may try to understand such differences by comparing them with the dissimilarities between the American English and the British English. Although this article does not intend to establish potential differences between Brazilian Portuguese and Portuguese spoken in other countries, such as Portugal, it is important to bear in mind that divergences in meaning of words for Design in Portuguese in different places may happen, following the historical, cultural, social and economic concerns of each place.
Words for design in Brazilian Portuguese are rich in diversity. Naturally, the multiplicity of words has similarities in their denotative meanings, and some of these words are synonyms. Each particular meaning may be considered complementary to another for a closer understanding of what the English term means, for there is no single Brazilian Portuguese word which would translate the complexity of the word design in a precise and succinct way. This is perhaps the main reason why the English word design is largely adopted in Brazil.


All currently available assays for antibodies to the etiologic agents of spotted fever group rickettsioses detect reactivity with antigens of lipopolysaccharides and the major cell wall proteins, which contain epitopes that are shared among many spotted fever group rickettsiae. The hypothesis of this study was that a monoclonal antibody to a species-specific epitope of Rickettsia rickettsii would be blocked from binding to the rickettsial surface if the rickettsiae were incubated previously with serum containing species-specific antibodies to the epitope. In an EIA, binding of monoclonal antibody 5C10-F3 to R. rickettsii was blocked by convalescent sera from patients with Rocky Mountain spotted fever but not from those with Mediterranean spotted fever, endemic typhus, or Q fever or normal subjects. This assay should be useful in determining the origin of the high seroprevalence of spotted fever rickettsial antibodies in certain geographic regions and establishing a species-specific diagnosis in patients with undetermined rickettsial exposure.


Background HIV protease inhibitor (PI), the core component of highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) for HIV infection, has been implicated in HAART-associated cardiovascular complications. Our previous studies have demonstrated that activation of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress is linked to HIV PI-induced inflammation and foam cell formation in macrophages. Raltegravir is a first-in-its-class HIV integrase inhibitor, the newest class of anti-HIV agents. We have recently reported that raltegravir has less hepatic toxicity and could prevent HIV PI-induced dysregulation of hepatic lipid metabolism by inhibiting ER stress. However, little information is available as to whether raltegravir would also prevent HIV PI-induced inflammatory response and foam cell formation in macrophages. Methodology and Principal Findings In this study, we examined the effect of raltegravir on ER stress activation and lipid accumulation in cultured mouse macrophages (J774A.1), primary mouse macrophages, and human THP-1-derived macrophages, and further determined whether the combination of raltegravir with existing HIV PIs would potentially exacerbate or prevent the previously observed activation of inflammatory response and foam cell formation. The results indicated that raltegravir did not induce ER stress and inflammatory response in macrophages. Even more interestingly, HIV PI-induced ER stress, oxidative stress, inflammatory response and foam cell formation were significantly reduced by raltegravir. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis further demonstrated that raltegravir did not affect the uptake of HIV PIs in macrophages. Conclusion and Significance Raltegravir could prevent HIV PI-induced inflammatory response and foam cell formation by inhibiting ER stress. These results suggest that incorporation of this HIV integrase inhibitor may reduce the cardiovascular complications associated with current HAART.


Recent geochemical studies of uranium-thorium series disequilibrium in rocks from subduction zones require magmas to be transported through the mantle from just above the subducting slab to the surface in as little as ∼30,000 years. We present a series of laboratory experiments that investigate the characteristic time scales and flow patterns of the diapiric upwelling model of subduction zone magmatism. Results indicate that the interaction between buoyantly upwelling diapirs and subduction-induced flow in the mantle creates a network of low-density, low-viscosity conduits through which buoyant flow is rapid, yielding transport times commensurate with those indicated by uranium-thorium studies.


Technology developed to harness extended reach deviated (ERD) wells for deep-water and longer laterals for unconventionals demand the use of reliable "Dissolvable Alloys". Furthermore, an economic prediction mechanism to assess the degree of dissolution of deployed dissolvable hardware is highly coveted. This is one of the bottlenecks preventing the increased adoption of dissolvables in both deep-water and multistage stimulation (MSS). DAMORPHE was founded to take advantage of recent Mechanical-Materials-Electrical (MME) innovations for development and commercialization of "Game-Changing" technologies through the selective use of amorphous and nanocrystalline dissolvable alloys with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Here we discuss a couple of applications where dissolvable materials bring enhanced functionality over traditional methods and present a case for how replacing these with intelligent materials can bring further benefits to the end users.


Methanol, an alcohol, is known to be hazardous for human consumption. Methanol contamination in traditional rice liquor caused many deaths in local areas in Cambodia. Contamination happened in every step of liquor manufacturing, distribution, and consumption. To avoid this problem, monitoring the quality of alcohol is important. However, only a few government institutes in the capital can detect the methanol contamination at an institutional level by colorimetric methods. To detect methanol contamination easily at the local level, a simplified method is urgently required. We tested the original colorimetric methods to determine the influence of the amount of chemical solutions, the time and the alcohol percentage to the color change. Further we checked the shelf life of the chemical solutions. The results showed that methanol was detectable at one-twenty of original volume after treatment 25 hours, and the alcohol percentage was not influence of the color changes. In addition, we tested 21 liquor samples collected from markets in Phnom Penh and 6 provinces with the simplified method, resulting that methanol was not detected in all samples.


This paper presents analysis and design methodology of single-phase line-start permanent-magnet synchronous (LSPM) motors. The d-q-axes inductances of LSPM motors have a nonlinear variation according to the current and the load angle. The variation of d-q-axes inductances due to load angle is calculated by finite-element method in steady state. Iron loss is analyzed considering the harmonics of the flux density waveforms using iron loss curves. The validity of the presented analysis method considering the variation of the d-q-axes inductances is verified by comparison with experimental results.


The use of civilians as human shields is one of the burning issues faced by democracies in their modern armed conflicts. Nevertheless, the current application of the laws of war enables and encourages this ferocious and inhumane use of civilians during armed conflicts. This article seeks to underline two challenges regarding the use of human shields. The first is that, despite the legal prohibition on using civilians as human shields, the relative lack of response, political or legal, to such use renders the prohibition merely theoretical. In recent conflicts, the international community's attention and condemnation were wrongfully directed solely at the impeded party and not at the shielding party which initially violated international law by placing civilians at risk in order to gain military goals. This omission by the international community countenances and motivates the intentional placement of civilians at risk. The second is that the current law encourages a belligerent to use civilians as shields against military attacks because, although one party is violating international law, the other party remains bound by the principle of proportionality and could be prevented from defending itself. The authors call for a refocus of the international community's attention toward the responsibility of the shielding party's obligations to keep civilians safe. The party which deploys civilians as human shields is committing a grievous war crime and must be held personally accountable before international criminal tribunals. Moreover, the authors propose a practical formula for adjusting the proportionality requirement's application in circumstances involving human shields when either (i) the use of human shields is part of the enemy's widespread or systematic policy or (ii) the enemy's fire poses clear and present danger to the impeded party's population or troops. The adjusted application of the proportionality requirement would assist in restoring international law's credibility, realign the balance between the two conflicting principles of humanity and military necessity, and make the laws of war compatible with modern warfare.


This paper analyses differences and development of regional distribution of marginal costs of dairy production in the EU and how they are affected by structural change in the dairy sector and different national quota regimes. The empirical analysis employs multiple-input-multiple output cost functions, estimated using an unbalanced panel data set of the European Farm Accountancy Data Network. The results show marginal costs for different types of dairy farms and the distribution of marginal costs across farms within the region. A clear tendency towards a more balanced distribution of marginal costs within the regions can be found whereas the impact of different quota regimes on this development remains vague.


We report on the high-temperature performance of high-power GalnNAs broad area laser diodes with different waveguide designs emitting in the 1220-1240-nm wavelength range. Large optical cavity laser structures enable a maximum continuous-wave output power of >8.9 W at T = 20degC with emission at 1220 nm and are characterized by low internal losses of 0.5 cm-1 compared to 2.9 cm-1 for the conventional waveguide structures. High-power operation up to temperatures of 120deg C is observed with output powers of >4 W at T = 90degC. This laser diode showed characteristic temperatures of To = 112 K and T1 = 378 K.


Dynamic visualization of stress distribution even due to a small deformation has been realized by coating the surface of the test object of metal with a upgrade mechanoluminescence (ML) material of SrAl2O4:Eu (SAO). In this paper we report the application of this ML sensing technique to stress concentration analysis on an aluminium plate. And the comparison with a theoretical calculation demonstrated that the ML intensity of SAO sensing film correlates linearly with von Mises stress on metal surface and the observed real-time ML images quantitatively reflect stress concentration.


Israel and Palestine, over the course of their historical conflict, have created a complex patchwork of memory narratives dealing with different representations of the same landscape. The article examines how the two peoples have elaborated their narratives of national identity by practicing a pre-modern repertoire to shape a modern identity, and by knitting together their collective, multiple visions of the land. Israelis and Palestinians have used space as a temporal-spatial tool to practice the remembering of lost land and to elaborate an imaginative geography. Attention is focused on the relations created by the process of dreaming/imagining space, and on the intricacies, denials, oblivion and ambivalence related to memory construction.


Theoretical economics and empirical results indicate that people respond to incentives. However, the magnitude of those responses differs according to behavior and context. We investigated the effect of contracts for ambulatory-care services temporarily in effect at Landspitali - The National University Hospital of Iceland on physicians' practices. The relative risk of endoscopy referrals was calculated after per-referral compensations were eliminated, versus when they were in effect. The frequency of endoscopies during the years of 2000-2002 was compared to the frequency of endoscopies in the years 2003-2005. Data was collected from the University Hospital at Hringbraut (LSH-Hringbraut) along with the University Hospital in Fossvogur (LSH-Fossvogi). Data was also collected from The Icelandic Health Insurance (Sjukratryggingar Islands) on endoscopies preformed at physicians' private clinics. For comparison, analogous data was collected from Akureyri Hospital where no change in physician compensations occurred over the time period. The results showed a 185% increased chance of referrals to an endoscopy at private physicians' offices after the contracts on ambulatory care services were eliminated. At the University Hospital however, these chances decreased by 38.2%. The overall relative risk of being referred to an endoscopy in the capital region increased by 3.57% after the contracts were eliminated. The assessed relationship between changes in payment schedules to physicians and the frequency rate of endoscopies is statistically, as well as practically significant.


The philosophy of binary plurality of the World with its branching evolution and converging devolution is the most general concept of Universe, doctrine about Life. It is knowledge of binary plurality of subjects and of phenomena joining in different parities dual multitude of opposite qualities in existing with branching and convergences World. The philosophy of binary plurality of the World with its branching evolution and converging devolution promotes an explanation of an opportunity of more objective interaction of the person with the World [1-3]. New ecological ethics of empathy may conform to new philosophy: it takes into account the plurality of all subjects and phenomenon. Author proposes new ecological ethics of empathy to life of nature, of understanding (from position of human life) all complexity and difficulty of life of animate organisms in nature [4]. Ethics of empathy do not demand of love to all creations of wildlife; it does not demand of reverence for all forms of life. This ethics supposes deep understanding of their indispensability and necessity. All forms of life are necessary and invaluable for nature; they cannot be replaced with other animals. They do not demand creation for them more favorable, comfort and sparing conditions of life. This ethics is the most real ethics.


The main focus of the blockchain literature has been on the technical capabilities of the technology in terms of data privacy and security enhancement. Such an approach has disregarded the individual's perception of potential threats in data exchange and the capabilities of a blockchain to eliminate them. To fill this gap this study aims to examine the cognitive factors determining the users' motivation to utilise blockchains as a means to protect oneself from privacy and security issues. This paper adopts the Protection Motivation Theory, which makes it possible to assess the role of threat and coping appraisal in relation to the adoption of the blockchain. We examined the effect of the factors using a sample of 506 respondents. The findings showed that threat vulnerability, response efficacy, response cost and self-efficacy determine adoption intention. Compared to threat appraisal, coping appraisal has a stronger effect on intention to use. The findings contribute to the understanding of the individual's perspective on blockchain adoption by focusing on cognitive factors. They can inform blockchain developers and marketers about aspects of individuals' behaviour that should be considered when developing and promoting the technology.


A model portraying the carrier dynamics for an inhomogeneous array of quantum dots (QDs) interacting with a number of photon modes is presented. The model treats an ensemble of QDs with one confined level coupled to a wetting layer or quantum well level and explicitly considers only the electrons. The model is derived by numerically solving a set of rate equations that includes the inhomogeneity of the dot size, multimode photon modes and temperature dependence. Explicitly the inhomogeneous size distribution is included within a inhomogeneous broadening parameter and the temperature dependence within the homogeneous broadening parameter as well as carrier thermal escape. This is similar to the well-known Sugawara model but in the Sugawara model the carriers are assumed to occupy the inhomogeneous quantum dots equally at all temperatures. Experimental and theoretical work in ref. (2) and (3) believes this is true only for a low temperature regime. Above the temperature where a global minima exists, Fermi-Dirac statistics have been used. This results in different gain and lasing behaviour for higher temperatures from those calculated using the Sugawara model.


In this paper, we present a new optimum asymmetric half-plane (ASHP) autoregressive lattice parameter modeling of two-dimensional (2-D) random fields. This structure introduces 4N points into the prediction support region when the order of the model increases from (N-1) to N. Starting with a given data field, a set of four auxiliary prediction errors are generated in order to obtain the growing number of 2-D ASHP reflection coefficients at successive stages. The theory has been applied to the high-resolution radar imaging problem and has also been proven using the concepts of vector space, orthogonal projection, and subspace decomposition. It is shown that the proposed ASHP structure generates the orthogonal realization subspaces for different recurse directions. In addition to developing the basic theory, the presentation includes a comparison between the proposed theory and other alternative structures, both in terms of conceptual background and complexity. While the recently developed reduced-complexity ASHP lattice modeling structure requires O(4N/sup 3/) lattice sections with N equal to the order of the error filter, the proposed configuration requires only O(2N/sup 2/) lattice sections.


A practical search technique for finding the complex saddle points used in wave packet and coherent state propagation is developed which works for a large class of Hamiltonian dynamical systems with many degrees of freedom. The method can be applied to problems in atomic, molecular, and optical physics and other domains. A Bose-Hubbard model is used to illustrate the application to a many-body system where discrete symmetries play an important and fascinating role. For multidimensional wave packet propagation, locating the necessary saddles involves the seemingly insurmountable difficulty of solving a boundary value problem in a high-dimensional complex space, followed by determining whether each particular saddle found actually contributes. In principle, this must be done for each propagation time considered. The method derived here identifies a real search space of minimal dimension, which leads to a complete set of contributing saddles up to intermediate times much longer than the Ehrenfest timescale for the system. The analysis also gives a powerful tool for rapidly identifying the various dynamical regimes of the system.


Real estate development appraisal is a quantification of future expectations. The appraisal model relies upon the valuer/developer having an understanding of the future in terms of the future marketability of the completed development and the future cost of development. In some cases the developer has some degree of control over the possible variation in the variables, as with the cost of construction through the choice of specification. However, other variables, such as the sale price of the final product, are totally dependent upon the vagaries of the market at the completion date. To try to address the risk of a different outcome to the one expected (modelled) the developer will often carry out a sensitivity analysis on the development. However, traditional sensitivity analysis has generally only looked at the best and worst scenarios and has focused on the anticipated or expected outcomes. This does not take into account uncertainty and the range of outcomes that can happen. A fuller analysis should include examination of the uncertainties in each of the components of the appraisal and account for the appropriate distributions of the variables. Similarly, as many of the variables in the model are not independent, the variables need to be correlated. This requires a standardised approach and we suggest that the use of a generic forecasting software package, in this case Crystal Ball, allows the analyst to work with an existing development appraisal model set up in Excel (or other spreadsheet) and to work with a predetermined set of probability distributions. Without a full knowledge of risk, developers are unable to determine the anticipated level of return that should be sought to compensate for the risk. This model allows the user a better understanding of the possible outcomes for the development. Ultimately the final decision will be made relative to current expectations and current business constraints, but by assessing the upside and downside risks more appropriately, the decision maker should be better placed to make a more informed and better decision.


Abstract Hawkins' (1970) article on subliminal stimulation has been used for over 15 years as empirical evidence that subliminal advertising can directly affect consumption-relevant behavior. Our study presents new evidence that casts doubt on Hawkins' conclusion that "a simple subliminal stimulus can serve to arouse a basic drive."


Infectious mononucleosis is usually a benign, self-limited disease, but complications may develop in up to 5 percent of patients. The complications can be life-threatening and may precede, follow or coincide with the usual symptoms of infectious mononucleosis. Occasionally, a complication is the only clinical manifestation of the disease. Complications may be due to an autoimmune response, a lymphocytic infiltrative reaction, generalized edema of the airway tissues or enlargement of the spleen.


In this article, we investigate the competitive interaction between electrical vehicles or hybrid oil-electricity vehicles in a Cournot market consisting of electricity transactions to or from an underlying electricity distribution network. We provide a mean field game formulation for this competition, and introduce the set of fundamental differential equations ruling the behavior of the vehicles at the feedback Nash equilibrium, referred here to as the mean field equilibrium. This framework allows for a consistent analysis of the evolution of the price of electricity as well as of the instantaneous electricity demand in the power grid. Simulations precisely quantify those parameters and suggest that significant reduction of the daily electricity peak demand can be achieved by appropriate electricity pricing.


Supporting the efficient discovery and use of Web APIs is increasingly important as their use and popularity grows. Yet, a simple task like finding potentially interesting APIs and their related documentation turns out to be hard and time consuming even when using the best resources currently available on the Web. In this paper we describe our research towards an automated Web API documentation crawler and search engine. This paper presents two main contributions. First, we have devised and exploited crowdsourcing techniques to generate a curated dataset of Web APIs documentation. Second, thanks to this dataset, we have devised an engine able to automatically detect documentation pages. Our preliminary experiments have shown that we obtain an accuracy of 80% and a precision increase of 15 points over a keyword-based heuristic we have used as baseline.


Banks need to keep both capital and liquidity against unforeseen events.During the early-mid nineteenth century, there were a number of banking crises. Banks responded by holding higher levels of capital.An analysis of bank capital shows that they adjusted their capital ratios according to the risks that they were taking and that they were well capitalised in comparison with the standards set by regulators under the Basel I and Basel II approaches.Indeed, when bank capital levels became very thin after the Second World War, banks were prevented by the Bank of England from raising more capital, despite their appeals to the Bank.During this long period of prudent management of the banking sector, there was no clear expectation that the state would have stepped in to save an insolvent bank in Britain.Capital regulation is relatively recent and led to banks trying to game the rules contributing to the complexity that was created in the banking system.An analysis of history demonstrates that capital regulation is not necessary if banks are not underwritten by the state.The principle of many of the reforms to banking law and regulation currently being proposed or implemented is correct. That principle, which should be at the heart of regulatory reform, is that banks should be wound up in an orderly way if they fail.The whole apparatus of bank capital regulation which has done so much to make the banking system more opaque should be abandoned. Attempts by the British government to require large banks to hold very high levels of capital are misguided.


An increasing number of genome sequencing projects results in explosive growth of whole genome sequences. Furthermore the number of studies on the functions of individual genes has also been rapidly increased. However on-memory algorithms are not applicable to the analysis of whole genome sequences, since the size of individual whole genome ranges from several million base pairs to hundreds billion base pairs. In order to effectively manipulate the huge sequence data, it is necessary to use the indexed data structure for external memory. In this paper, we introduce the development and application of the workbench for the analysis and visualization of whole genome sequences using string B-tree that is suitable for the analysis of huge data. This system consists of two main parts, the analysis query part and the visualization part. The query system supports various transactions such as pattern matching, k-occurrence, and k-mer analysis. The visualization system helps biologists to easily understand whole genome structure and specificity by vatious kinds of visualization such as whole genome sequence viewer, annotation viewer, CGR (Chaos Game Representation) viewer, k-mer viewer, RWP (Random Walk Plot) viewer, and map viewer. We can find the relationships among organisms, support gene prediction in a genome, and study the function of junk DNA using our workbench. In this paper, we apply our workbench to investigating specific sequence such as avoided sequence, common sequence, and classifiable sequence.


ABSTRACT Primary central nervous system phaeohyphomycosis is a fatal fungal infection due mainly to the neurotropic melanized fungi Cladophialophora bantiana, Rhinocladiella mackenziei, and Exophiala dermatitidis. Despite the combination of surgery with antifungal treatment, the prognosis continues to be poor, with mortality rates ranging from 50 to 70%. Therefore, a search for a more-appropriate therapeutic approach is urgently needed. Our in vitro studies showed that with the combination of amphotericin B and flucytosine against these species, the median fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) indices for strains ranged from 0.25 to 0.38, indicating synergy. By use of Bliss independence analysis, a significant degree of synergy was confirmed for all strains, with the sum ΔE ranging from 90.2 to 698.61%. No antagonism was observed. These results indicate that amphotericin B, in combination with flucytosine, may have a role in the treatment of primary cerebral infections caused by melanized fungi belonging to the order Chaetothyriales. Further in vivo studies and clinical investigations to elucidate and confirm these observations are warranted.


Here for the first time, we investigated the cytotoxic effects of the chitosan extracted from the Persian Gulf Chiton shell (Acanthopleura vaillantii) on liver cancer cell line (HepG2). Chitosan extraction was implemented following this method: chitin was produced by demineralization and deproteinization procedure, and the extracted chitin was converted into soluble chitosan using deacetylation method. The cytotoxic effects of extracted chitosan were evaluated using four different tests, including 3-(4,5dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay, Annexin V-FITC, propidium iodide (PI) staining, 4',6-diamidino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) staining, and Caspase activity analysis. The IC50 inhibitory concentrations of chitosan were obtained at 250 μg/mL after 24 h. Chitosan clearly inhibited the growth of hepatocarcinoma cells in vitro in a dose-dependent manner. For detecting the induced cell apoptosis, HepG2 cells were treated with 125, 250 and 500 μg/ml of chitosan for 24 h. According to the result of Annex in V/PI kit, in 125, 250, and 500 μg/ml of chitosan, 28.2, 49.1, and 83.3% of HepG2 cells undergone late apoptosis, respectively. The morphology of treated cells by DAPI staining showed non uniform plasma membrane and DNA fragmentation compared to untreated cells with perfect nucleus. The analysis of cell cycle using flow cytometry demonstrated that the rate of sub-G1 peak was increased to 52.7%. Both caspase-3 and -9 activities increased by the extracted chitosan, but it was only significant for caspase-3. The results of the present study suggested that the extracted chitosan has efficient cytotoxicity on HepG2 cells. Therefore, the extracted chitosan from the shell of the Chiton may be considered as a futuristic natural product regarding the treatment of liver cancer.


Abstract Tomilin, N. V., Solovjeva, L. V., Svetlova, M. P., Pleskach, N. M., Zalenskaya, I. A., Yau, P. M. and Bradbury, E. M. Visualization of Focal Nuclear Sites of DNA Repair Synthesis Induced by Bleomycin in Human Cells. Radiat. Res. 156, 347–354 (2001). In this study, we examined DNA repair synthesis in human cells treated with the radiomimetic drug bleomycin, which efficiently induces double-strand breaks (DSBs). Using tyramide-biotin to amplify fluorescent signals, discrete nuclear foci from the incorporation of 5-iododeoxyuridine (IdU) were detected in proliferating human cells treated with bleomycin. We believe this comes from the repair of DSBs. An increase in the number of foci (>5 per nucleus) was detected in a major fraction (75%) of non-S-phase cells labeled for 30 min with IdU 1 h after the end of bleomycin treatment. The fraction of cells with multiple IdU-containing foci was found to decrease 18 h after treatment. The average number of foci per nucleus detected 1 h after bleomycin treatment was found to decrease twofold between 1 and 3.5 h, indicating that the foci may be associated with the slow component of DSB repair. The presence of DSBs in bleomycin-treated cells was confirmed using antibodies against phosphorylated histone H2AX (γ-H2AX), which is strictly associated with this type of DNA damage. After treatment with bleomycin, non-S-phase cells also displayed heterogeneous nuclear foci containing tightly bound proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), suggesting an ongoing process of unscheduled DNA synthesis. PCNA is known to be involved in base excision repair, but a fraction of the PCNA foci may also be associated with DNA synthesis occurring during the repair of DSBs.


Tuberculosis surveys are in progress in many countries that do not have adequate laboratory facilities for carrying out complicated bacteriological procedures. As part of a WHO co-operative research programme, studies have been undertaken with a view to developing a simple culture technique for the isolation of mycobacteria that does not require elaborate equipment. This paper is the first report on these co-operative studies.Storage and transport are known to affect adversely the viability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in pathological specimens, thus giving rise to poor culture results and indicating the advisability of culturing such specimens on the spot. The preparation of the efficient and widely used Löwenstein-Jensen (L-J) culture medium, however, requires materials and facilities that are not easy available in developing countries. In an attempt to overcome this difficulty, the Tuberculosis Research Institute in Prague has developed a semi-synthetic liquid medium that can be prepared in bulk, concentrated and lyophilized, and sent even to distant laboratories.The present paper describes in detail the preparation of this lyophilized medium, which can be stored at room temperature for at least 6-12 months and is easy to reconstitute, and discusses the growth characteristics of mycobacteria multiplied in it.Experience in Czechoslovakia, where between 1953 and 1962 nearly 21 million cultures have been made with the medium, has shown that it is quite satisfactory and even slightly superior to L-J medium in certain respects.


Soil erosion is one of the major causes for low agricultural productivity in Ethiopia and particularly in Assosa Woreda. The study was carried out in Assosa Woreda, in Benshangul Gumuz Regional state to assess farmers' perception on soil erosion and biological soil and water conservation practices. In this study, both primary and secondary data collection techniques were used. These include interviews, focus group discussions, field observations, and questionnaires were the source of this research. The sampling technique employed in this study were stratified, purposive and simple random were applied to select sample kebele and representative households heads. A sample of 150 heads of households was used to gain insight into soil erosion perceived by farmers and conservation practices in the study area. The finding of the study shows that almost all farmers of the study area had good perception on the causes, indicators and problems of soil erosion. The main causes of soil erosion perceived by farmers in the study area were high intensity of rainfall, continuous cultivation, topography and inappropriate soil conservation practices. The major biological soil and water conservation practices implemented by farmers in the study area were vetivers grass, elephant grass, desho grass, savanna grass, bamboo plantation and other local grasses. This research finding also concludes that the main constraints to implement biological soil and water conservations in Assosa Woreda were mainly related to socioeconomic and biophysical factors such as uncontrolled (free) grazing, distance between homestead and their farm land and farmers' low level of the economic capacity. Therefore, any concerned bodies need to investigate the issue and take appropriate measures. Keywords: Farmers' perception, soil erosion and biological soil and water conservation practices


The transduction frequency of wild type resistance plasmids carrying the modification of a defined donor strain into a series of acceptor strains with different restriction systems and into restriction-deficient mutants was studied. Plasmids carrying resistance to tetracycline, chloramphenicol and penicillin were in general as sensitive as the transducing phage to restriction and modification. Plasmids carrying penicillinase of type A and C could be transferred into strains of group II.


Referral attitudes and habits were examined in a survey of Minnesota chiropractors. A questionnaire was developed and mailed to 1160 chiropractic physicians that included items concerning referral methods and frequency, factors prompting referral, and providers to whom referrals were directed. Of 531 respondents in active practice, 97.2% reported making referrals during 1985. Most referrals were made to orthopedic surgeons and neurologists with 76.1% of respondents reporting that referrals were made to these specialists on four or more occasions. A majority of respondents (57%) reported that referrals often were made to established consultants [corrected]. Doctors frequently submitted requests to medical physicians for patient records (66.2%) and 71.1% [corrected] reported referring patients for CT scans. The most commonly reported factor leading to a decision to refer was the need for a second opinion, and patient insistence for referral was the least common. Doctor characteristics and demographic [corrected] factors such as age, practice setting (rural or urban location) and practice arrangement (solo or group) were generally unrelated to referral attitudes or habits. However, respondents under the age of 40 did report a slightly higher frequency of requests for patient records than doctors older than 40.


We prove local in time well-posedness for the Zakharov system in two space dimensions with large initial data in L2 × H−1/2 × H−3/2. This is the space of optimal regularity in the sense that the data-to-solution map fails to be smooth at the origin for any rougher pair of spaces in the L2-based Sobolev scale. Moreover, it is a natural space for the Cauchy problem in view of the subsonic limit equation, namely the focusing cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation. The existence time we obtain depends only upon the corresponding norms of the initial data—a result which is false for the cubic nonlinear Schrödinger equation in dimension two—and it is optimal because Glangetas–Merle's solutions blow up at that time.


ABSTRACT:
 In the southeastern United States, private landowners manage a majority of the forests, and despite their widespread pursuit of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) restoration, little is known about their motivation, the challenges they face, and their expected outcomes. In 2009, in order to increase understanding of how landowners perceive, practice, and afford longleaf pine restoration, we conducted a written survey of managers in nine southeastern states. Motivations for longleaf pine restoration included both profit, as at least 50% of the respondents emphasized longleaf pine's economic value, and non-profit (wildlife habitat, natural heritage, biological diversity) goals. Our results also show that time and effort are not limiting factors, while availability of financial support and the cost of restoration are. Over 80% of respondents relied on some form of financial support for their restoration projects. The vast majority (78%) of restoration practitioners identified single-species dominance of longleaf pine as the targeted "reference state." We suggest landowners consider expanding their desired targets to include a mixed-dominance stand component, thereby reducing costs associated with regeneration and time-to-rotation, since mature loblolly (P. taeda), shortleaf (P. echinata), and slash (P. elliottii) pines are often already present. Mixed-stand inclusion would still meet the reported objectives of restoration, but would decrease the specific challenges associated with solely rearing longleaf pine and thereby ease the financial burden of restoring forests to include a significant longleaf pine component.