A pleural effusion containing chylomicrons is termed chylothorax and results from leakage of lymph fluid into the pleural cavity. We report on the case of a 59-year-old woman with severe dyspnea due to a large chylothorax. She was known to have liver cirrhosis but no ascites. There was no history of trauma, cardiac function was normal and thorough diagnostic work-up did not reveal any signs of malignancy. In summary, no other etiology of the chylothorax than portal hypertension could be found. Therapy with diuretics as well as parenteral feeding failed to relieve symptoms. After a transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) had successfully been placed, pleural effusion decreased considerably. Eight months later, TIPS revision had to be performed because of stenosis, resulting in remission from chylothorax. This case shows that even in the absence of ascites, chylothorax might be caused by portal hypertension and that TIPS can be an effective treatment option.


Fermentation in the rumen of cattle produces methane (CH4). Methane may play a role in global warming scenarios. The linking of grazing management strategies to more efficient beef production while reducing the CH4 emitted by beef cattle is important. The sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) tracer technique was used to determine the effects of best management practices (BMP) grazing compared with continuous grazing on CH4 production in several Louisiana forages during 1996-1998. Cows and heifers (Bos taurus) grazed common bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flugge), and ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) pastures and were wintered on bahiagrass hay with supplements of protein molasses blocks (PMB), cottonseed meal and corn (CSMC), urea and corn (URC), or limited ryegrass grazing (LRG). Daily CH4 emissions were between 89 and 180 g d(-1) for young growing heifers and 165 to 294 g d(-1) for mature Simbrah cows. Heifers on "ad lib" ryegrass in March and April produced only one-tenth the CH4 per kg of gain as heifers on LRG of 1 h. Using BMP significantly reduced the emission of CH4 per unit of animal weight gain. Management-intensive grazing (MIG) is a BMP that offers the potential for more efficient utilization of grazed forage crops via controlled rotational grazing and more efficient conversion of forage into meat and milk. Projected CH4 annual emissions in cows reflect a 22% reduction from BMP when compared with continuous grazing in this study. With the BMP application of MIG, less methane was produced per kilogram of beef gain.


Membrane electrodes fabricated from yttria-stabilized zirconia, a representative oxygen ion-conducting ceramic, show a linear voltage response to pH over the range 3 to 8 at 285�C and a pressure of 1200 pounds per square inch (82 atmospheres). Test units have been operated continuously at 285�C without failure for periods as long as 9 days. Unlike sensors which are based on electron transfer couples, such membrane electrodes are insensitive to changes in the oxidation-reduction environment and, in turn, exert no influence upon the environment. Such ceramic membranes can therefore be used for the direct measurement of the pH of geothermal brines, of water in nuclear reactors, and in high-temperature thermodynamic studies on aqueous systems.


This essay explores the early Chinese text Guanzi to address the question of ethical responsibility in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. We begin with the premise that being responsive to the other, feeling the impossibility of renouncing ethical obligation, and experiencing the basic moral asymmetry at the heart of Levinas's project all rely on the welcome openness of the subject that Levinas describes as the subject's "radical passivity." However, his emphasis on infinite responsibility, coupled with the theme of radical passivity, gives the problematic impression that ethics amounts to a never-ending to-do list for the other, and certainly this is not what Levinas means. We turn to the Guanzi, which recommends that the ethically efficacious sage-prince must cultivate a state of passive stillness and inner vacuity. Only because the sage-prince maintains this deferential heart-mind is he freely open and responsive to others. Here the sage-prince looks strikingly like a good Levinasian: He is deferential, sensitive to context, and hyper-aware of the limits of his own knowledge. The Guanzi goes on to describe specific practices the sage-prince can employ to cultivate his ethical prowess, including practices of meditation and gentle physical exercises. Taking this insight into Levinas's context, we suggest that such practices of self-regulation are necessary to enable effective responsiveness to the other. From this perspective, responsibility is "infinite" not because I am perpetually beholden to the other's whims, but because I am perpetually accountable for calming and clearing my own mind of the unstable emotions, selfish desires, and intellectual machinations that prevent the welcome openness of radical passivity.


Cyclic lateral load tests simulating 75 years of bridge life were performed on an H-pile, a pipe pile, and a prestressed reinforced concrete pile by applying over 27,000 displacement cycles. The data from the tests indicate that steel H-piles loaded on the weak axis are the best pile type for support of integral abutment bridges. Concrete piles are not recommended for integral bridge support because, under repeated lateral loads, tension cracks progressively worsen and significantly reduce vertical load carrying capacity of these piles. Steel pipe piles are stiffer than H-piles loaded on the weak axis, and therefore induce higher stresses in the abutment where they are embedded.


Considering the complexity and decentralization of data acquisition and power supply for cockpit devices of flight simulator, this paper designs and realizes a distributed simulation system for aircraft cockpit based on embedded Ethernet and Power over Ethernet technology. A simulation scheme with many nodes of data acquisition and instrument control is adopted. Based on PoE technology, the power subsystem can supply DC power on the same cable that carries data. As a result, this greatly simplifies power wiring installation in the narrow cockpit while improving reliability. The design of aircraft cockpit simulation has been successfully used in certain type flight simulator. Through the actual system testing, the design has excellences of higher stability, expansibility and security.


The study of human motor control using functional magnetic resonance imaging gives rise to many challenges. One of them is the design of haptic interfaces that are compatible with the magnetic field. To achieve this, the existing haptic interfaces employ parallel kinematics. However, they are limited to three degrees of freedom (DOFs). When trying to offer more DOF without floating actuators, parallel kinematics suffer from direct kinematic singularities, and thus, strong mechanical anisotropy. In this paper, we determine an optimal six DOF kinematics that overcomes these limitations. To this end, we use performance indices such as singularity occurrence, worst case output capabilities, sensitivity, and the global isotropy index. The resulting Octopod kinematics avoids a range of direct kinematic singularities by design. Finally, we pre-sent and evaluate a non-magnetic-resonance-compatible prototype of this novel type of kinematics.


Transition-metal chalcogenide nanowires (TMCN) as a viable candidate for nanoscale applications have been attracting much attention for the last few decades. Starting from the rigid building block of M6 octahedra (M = transition metal), depending on the way of connection between M6 and decoration by chalcogenide atoms, multiple types of extended TMCN nanowires can be constructed based on some basic rules of backbone construction proposed here. Note that the well-known Chevrel-phase based M 6 X 6 and M 6 X 9 (X = chalcogenide atom) nanowires, which are among our proposed structures, have been successfully synthesized by experiment and well studied. More interestingly, based on the construction principles, we predict three new structural phases (the cap, edge, and C&E phases) of Mo5S4, one of which (the edge phase) has been obtained by top-down electron beam lithography on two-dimensional MoS2, and the C&E phase is yet to be synthesized but appears more stable than the edge phase. The stability of the new phases of Mo5S4 is further substantiated by crystal orbital overlapping population (COOP), phonon dispersion relation, and thermodynamic calculation. The barrier of the structural transition between different phases of Mo5S4 shows that it is very likely to realize an conversion from the experimentally achieved structure to the most stable C&E phase. The calculated electronic structure shows an interesting band nesting between valence and conduction bands of the C&E Mo5S4 phase, suggesting that such a nanowire structure can be well suitable for optoelectronic sensor applications.


The tremendous success of the World Wide Web has led to an ever-increasing user base. Intuitively, one would expect this base to change over time as more people from different segments of the population become Web users and advocates. What exactly have these changes been? How do the original Web users differ from the new users from major online service providers like Prodigy? What trends exist and what picture do they paint for the future of the Web user population? This paper, drawing on results from three User Surveys spanning over a year and a half, attempts to answer these and other questions about who is using the Web and why. Additionally, a review of the methodology, questionnaires, and new architectural enhancements is presented. Although the surveys lack the scientific rigor of controlled and accepted methods of surveying, we discuss analyses that help us understand the limitations and process of this new type of surveying. Finally, new quantitative analysis techniques are presented based upon post-hoc log file analysis, yielding guidelines for Web-based survey design.


Voltage and frequency island (VFI) was recently adopted as an effective energy management technique for multicore processors. For a set of periodic real-time tasks that access shared resources running on a VFI-based multicore system with dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS) capability, we study both static and dynamic synchronization-aware energy management schemes. First, based on the enhanced MSRP resource access protocol with a suspension mechanism, we devise a synchronization-aware task mapping heuristic for partitioned-EDF scheduling, which assigns tasks that access similar set of resources to the same core to reduce the synchronization overhead and thus improve schedulability. Then, static schemes that assign uniform and different scaled frequencies for tasks on different VFIs are studied. To further exploit dynamic slack, we propose an integrated synchronization-aware slack management framework to appropriately reclaim, preserve, release and steal slack at runtime to slow down the execution of tasks subject to the common voltage/frequency limitation of VFIs and timing/synchronization constraints of tasks. Taking the additional delay due to task synchronization into consideration, the new scheme allocates slack in a fair manner and scales down the execution of both noncritical and critical sections of tasks for more energy savings. Simulation results show that, the synchronization-aware mapping can significantly improve the schedulability of tasks. The energy savings obtained by the static scheme with different frequencies for tasks on different VFIs is close to that of an optimal Integer Nonlinear Programming (INLP) solution. Moreover, compared to the simple extension of existing solutions for uniprocessor systems, our schemes can obtain much better energy savings (up to 40 percent) with comparable DVFS overhead.


In this paper,DTA-TG and TEM are used to investigate dolomite containing phosphorus. The investigations suggest that the thermal decomposition of dolomite containing a little bit of phosphorus powder has only one reaction while that of dolomite has two reactions, and the final temperature of the reaction reduces by about 18°C. The oxidation reaction of the phosphorus in dolomite begins at about 500°C, which is 140°C higher than that of the oxidation reaction of phosphorus in standard atmosphere condition. Round-bubble-shape structure gradually appears on the surface of the dolomite sample when observed using TEM. Furthermore, the number and size of this structure increased with the rising of the temperature. Finally, the round-bubble-shape structure breaks to small hollows, showing as teared-shape, and forms a series of protruding and intensive larger hollows and spherical shape. Therefore, the temperature of thermal decomposition of thermal decomposition of dolomite is decreased and the components of thermal decomposition products of dolomite containing phosphorus are almost the same as that of dolomite.


Many beginning managers have poorly constructed resumes. The content of resumes is fairly standard. The style should be clear and concise. Common pitfalls include irrelevant material, distracting detail, and repetition. The cover letter is a more flexible document that introduces the resume. Like the resume, the cover letter should cover some essential details clearly and concisely. Additionally, the cover letter should detail important qualifications and can elaborate on specific aspects of your resume. The cover letter should be tailored to fit the opening.


This paper focuses on the studying of landslides in the hinterland area of the Koroška Bela settlement, NW Slovenia. Research has shown that these landslides have the potential to mobilize the material into a debris flow. The area of interest is located on the Karavanke mountain ridge, above the settlement of Koroška Bela, which lies on the outskirts of the town of Jesenice. In order to recognize and understand the kinematics of landslides and their triggering mechanisms, a multidisciplinary approach using engineering-geological and geotechnical investigations was applied. Thus, landslide source areas were determined based on engineering-geological mapping. Furthermore, landslide boundaries, types of landslides and sediments that are involved in processes of sliding were mapped in detail. Geotechnical monitoring is beneficial in evaluating rates of movement and failures in the ground under real conditions in the field. Current investigations as well as historical evidence and previous research prove that the hinterland of Koroška Bela is prone to various types of landslides that together form a source area that has the potential to mobilize into larger debris flow.


Tax laws applicable to triangular mergers lack neutrality, are complex, and overlap substantially with other tax-preferred forms of corporate acquisition. Their current status is a result of both path dependency and Congress's attempt to create consistency within a framework founded upon inconsistent conceptualizations of the corporation. This article highlights problems arising under current rules, including a notable lack of tax neutrality among merger forms. It proposes pragmatic revisions made within the constraint of double taxation of corporate profits and then revisits the question through a more normative framework. The paper concludes that the tax treatment of target shareholders and the target corporation in corporate acquisitions should be disaggregated. Finally, it observes that both pragmatic and normative solutions proposed within the reorganization statute are unsatisfying in light of larger structural problems in the Internal Revenue Code.


PURPOSE
To evaluate MR-cholangiography after instillation of contrast media via indwelling biliary tubes.

METHODS
In 8 patients with stenoses of the central bile ducts, physiological saline solution and diluted contrast media (Gd-DTPA, 5 mmol/l) were consecutively administered via an indwelling biliary tube. MR cholangiograms were obtained before and after saline injection using a HASTE-sequence and after administration of Gd-DTPA using a T1-weighted gradient echo sequence.

RESULTS
Peripheral bile ducts were better visualised in the water-sensitive approach than after Gd-DTPA enhancement. In patients with short-time drainage bile duct definition was poor due to periportal oedema. Visualisation of peripheral bile ducts could be improved by injection of saline solution in these patients. After administration of Gd-DTPA via the biliary tube contrast enhancement of the central bile ducts was achieved in all patients except for one patient on long-term drainage with an indwelling Yamakawa tube.

CONCLUSION
T1-weighted visualisation of the central bile ducts can be achieved by means of injection of Gd-DTPA via indwelling biliary tubes.


Seventeen patients with recurrent symptomatic arrhythmias were treated with oral disopyramide (DP). Fifteen of the 17 patients had received other currently conventional anti-arrhythmic therapy, to which only 1 patient responded, yet 13 of these 15 patients with resistant arrhythmias responded to DP. Electrophysiological studies were performed on 9 patients. The most impressive electrophysiological findings were the depressant effect of DP on ventricular automaticity and its action in slowing conduction through the His-Purkinje system (including the bundle branches) without depressing sino-atrial rate and atrioventricular (AV) nodal conduction time. Retrograde ventriculo-atrial (VA) conduction was markedly prolonged in 4 patients with reciprocating supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), including 2 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. All 4 patients with reciprocating SVT appear to be cured of their arrhythmia, probably by this mechanism.


We study the relationship between chiral symmetry breaking and baryons in holographic QCD. We construct a soliton with unit baryon charge in the presence of a nonzero mean value of the scalar bifundamental field, which is dual to the chiral condensate. We obtain a relation between the chiral condensate and the mass of the baryon and find in a clear-cut way that at large values of the condensate the holographic soliton is no longer located on the IR wall. Instead it is split into two halves, which are symmetrically located on the left and right flavor branes. On the other hand we find that the local value of the quark condensate is suppressed in the core of the soliton, which is evidence for a partial chiral symmetry restoration inside the baryon.


In an attempt to ensure good-quality printouts of our technical reports, from the supplied PDF files, we process to PDF using Acrobat Distiller. We encourage our authors to use outline fonts coupled with embedding of the used subset of all fonts (in either Truetype or Type 1 formats) except for the standard Acrobat typeface families of Times, Helvetica (Arial), Courier and Symbol. In the case of papers prepared using TEX or LATEX we endeavour to use subsetted Type 1 fonts, supplied by Y&Y Inc., for the Computer Modern, Lucida Bright and Mathtime families, rather than the public-domain Computer Modern bitmapped fonts. Note that the Y&Y font subsets are embedded under a site license issued by Y&Y Inc. For further details of site licensing and purchase of these fonts visit


BACKGROUND
Abdominal tuberculosis usually presents with general symptoms and obscure abdominal complaints for which computerized tomography is often the first imaging study.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the CT findings of abdominal tuberculosis.

METHODS
The CT scans of 19 patients (10 men and 9 women aged 20-85 years) with proven abdominal tuberculosis were retrospectively reviewed to define the location and extent of the disease. The patients were referred for the study mainly with general systemic symptoms. Additional abdominal complaints were present in four, including acute abdomen in one. Two had symptoms deriving from the urinary tract. Nine patients had recently arrived from high prevalence countries; five of them and two others were positive for human immunodeficiency virus. Three patients had a family history of tuberculosis; one had previously been treated for tuberculosis and four others had an underlying chronic disease. The diagnosis of tuberculosis was established by standard microbiological and histological techniques.

RESULTS
We divided the disease manifestations into intraperitoneal (n = 13) and genitourinary involvement (n = 6). Peritoneal tuberculosis was fairly common, characterized by ascites, omental and mesenteric infiltration, and smooth thickening of the parietal peritoneum. One oncology patient had a false positive Tc-99m CEA isotope scanning, suggesting tumor recurrence. Genitourinary disease manifested mainly as hydronephrosis and calcifications. Three patients had pulmonary tuberculosis as well.

CONCLUSION
The CT findings of abdominal tuberculosis may mimic various diseases, mainly diffuse peritoneal malignancy. We emphasize the need to consider tuberculosis in the differential diagnosis in patients with obscure abdominal symptoms, especially with multi-organ involvement. A high degree of clinical suspicion and familiarity with the abdominal CT manifestations allow early diagnosis of this treatable disease.


Two interviewers are often used by police and intelligence agencies, yet very little is known about the benefits of this approach or the best way to employ it. This thesis tested a two interviewer protocol to determine how the second interviewer should behave in order to elicit cues to deceit. Over four experiments, a second interviewer was employed (in various ways) in mock forensic interviews before examining the amount of detail and/or repetition in interviewees' responses. The results offered four key findings: First, that a supportive second interviewer can elicit cues to deceit, notably by encouraging truth tellers to say more. Second, the impact of a second interviewer can be influenced by other factors, such as unexpected questions and the behaviour of both interviewers. Third, the results supported previous research by highlighting that consistency between two accounts is an unreliable cue to deceit. Finally, this thesis also suggests that deliberately mimicking interviewees may encourage truth tellers to provide more detailed and accurate responses. One explanation for the observed findings is that a supportive second interviewer provides a source of positive feedback, reinforcing and encouraging interviewees' default response strategy. The results enabled a recommendation that forensic interviewers adopt a supportive demeanour. More research is needed before a supportive second interviewer should be introduced in real life interviews. Future research should seek to replicate the findings presented here and test a speaking second interviewer. While it was not clear that a supportive second interviewer generated rapport, overall, this thesis provides support for a rapport based approach to investigative interviewing.


One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures have been receiving significant attention due to their unique properties and potential applications. However, their low-cost, highly efficient synthesis remains a great challenge. Herein, we proposed a eutectic-directed self-templating strategy to synthesize PtNi nanoporous nanowires (NPNWs) through the combination of rapid solidification and dealloying. The eutectic-induced phase confinement and dealloying inheritance effect jointly favored the formation of PtNi NPNWs. The PtNi NPNWs exhibit superior electrocatalytic activity (5-fold enhancement in the specific activity) and enhanced durability towards oxygen reduction reaction, as benchmarked with commercial PtC. Moreover, the mechanisms for the activity enhancement have been rationalized on the basis of adsorption energy, d-band center, thermodynamics, and kinetics through density functional theory calculations.


Objectives: Tracheostomy care in leading pediatric hospitals is both multidisciplinary and comprehensive, including generalized care protocols and thorough family training programs. This level of care is more difficult in resource-limited settings lacking developed healthcare infrastructure and tracheostomy education among nursing and resident staff. The objective of this study was to improve pediatric tracheostomy care in resource-limited settings. Methods: In collaboration with a team of otolaryngologists, respiratory therapists, tracheostomy nurses, medical illustrators, and global health educators, image-based tracheostomy education materials and low-cost tracheostomy care kits were developed for use in resource-limited settings. In addition, a pilot study was conducted, implementing the image-based tracheostomy pamphlet, manual suctioning device and low-cost ambulatory supply kit ("Go-Bags"), within a low-fidelity simulated training course for nurses and residents in Kigali, Rwanda. Results: An image-based language and literacy-independent tracheostomy care manual was created and published on OPENPediatrics, an open-access online database of clinician-reviewed learning content. Participants of the training program pilot study reported the course to be of high educational and practical value, and described improved confidence in their ability to perform tracheostomy care procedures. Conclusions: Outpatient tracheostomy care may be improved upon by implementing image-based tracheostomy care manuals, locally-sourced tracheostomy care kits, and tailored educational material into a low-fidelity simulated tracheostomy care course. These materials were effective in improving technical skills and confidence among nurses and residents. These tools are expected to improve knowledge and skills with outpatient tracheostomy care, and ultimately, to reduce tracheostomy-related complications.


: The exact location of the valves of the great saphenous vein and the ability of these valves to prevent centrifugal flow were studied in 20 human cadaveric legs. A valve was present at the saphenofemoral junction in 17/20 (85%) legs. The great saphenous vein above the knee had 4.2 +/- 1.5 (mean +/- SD) valves. In a length-standardised great saphenous vein which measured 100 units from the saphenofemoral junction to the knee joint line, the first, second, third, fourth and fifth valves were located at 7.5 +/- 3.6; 34.3 +/- 18.5; 61.0 +/- 20.9; 79.3 +/- 17.6; and 83.0 +/- 15.9 units from the junction respectively. 19/20 (95%) of the veins were competent at a centrifugal pressure of 161 +/- 7 cm of saline.


While Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) are extremely useful genetic markers, recent advances in technology have produced a shift toward use of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The different mutational properties of these two classes of markers result in differences in heterozygosities and allele frequencies that may have implications for their use in assessing relatedness and evaluation of genetic diversity. We compared analyses based on 89 SSRs (primarily dinucleotide repeats) to analyses based on 847 SNPs in individuals from the same 259 inbred maize lines, which had been chosen to represent the diversity available among current and historic lines used in breeding. The SSRs performed better at clustering germplasm into populations than did a set of 847 SNPs or 554 SNP haplotypes, and SSRs provided more resolution in measuring genetic distance based on allele-sharing. Except for closely related pairs of individuals, measures of distance based on SSRs were only weakly correlated with measures of distance based on SNPs. Our results suggest that 1) large numbers of SNP loci will be required to replace highly polymorphic SSRs in studies of diversity and relatedness and 2) relatedness among highly-diverged maize lines is difficult to measure accurately regardless of the marker system.


In this work a torque assessment approach is presented to estimate FES-induced torque no matter the muscle is fatigued or not in interrupted stimulation. This approach is based on evoked EMG (eEMG) signal and use peak-to-peak (PTP) amplitude and second phase area (SPA) to correlate eEMG and torque. The mapping function is built with pooled data of recruitment test and fatigue test in two complete paraplegic subjects. In this model, PTP is mainly responsible to the effect of recruitment level, SPA is mainly responsible to the muscle fatigue phenomenon. The model is fitted to the measured recruitment curves and measured fatigue curves and shows good fits, with R2 values above 0.95 and 0.93 for each subject. This suggests that it is possible to use processed eEMG signal to change stimulation intensity to obtain desired trajectory even when stimulated muscle is fatigued or to inform the fatigue condition.


Background Acute lung injury (ALI) is defined as PaO2/FiO2 less than 300 with bilateral pulmonary infiltrates, without pressure is the top of the left atrium. Early diagnosis and treatment of pediatric ALI and find new cases is very important. Accurate diagnosis and effective steps to treating these patients is essential in the outcome of ALI. This study was conducted to show the impact of recruitment in the treatment of ALI patients. Materials and Methods This clinical trial study was conducted in Pediatric Educational-Medical center of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Tabriz, Iran) and 42 patients with ALI were enrolled. All patients were underwent echocardiography. The patients were divided in 2 groups randomly (intervention and control groups consisted of 21 patients for each group). Patients were followed for 6 months to be evaluated in terms of clinical status and mortality. Results Difference on level of PaO2 in intervention group was -26±4 in comparison to the control group which was -4±4 (P<0.05). Difference on time of dependence on mechanical ventilation in intervention group was 8.05±3 in comparison to control group which was 11.05±8 (P<0.05). Mortality rate of intervention group (28%) was lower than the control group (47%)(P<0.05). Conclusion  Implementation of recruitment could play an important role in decreasing of mortality in patients with acute lung injury.


Despite the large use of this material in the microsystem field, fabrication of metallic patterns on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) still remains a challenge. In this Letter, we present a new process based on the transfer principle and report its application to MRI microcoils. These double-side structures are well aligned and the transfer yield is higher than 90%. The limit of the working range for these flexible coils is a bending radius of 2%mm, similar to the radius of the coil. The developed process opens a wide range of further applications for flexible devices.


Conservation and management measures for exploited fish species rely on our ability to monitor variations in population abundance. In the case of the eastern stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna (ABFT), recent changes in management policies have strongly affected the reliability of fishery-dependent indicators due to drastic changes in fishing season/area, fisheries selectivity and strategy. However, fishery-independent indices of abundance are rare for large pelagic fish, and obtaining them is often costly and labor intensive. Here, we show that scientific aerial surveys are an appropriate tool for monitoring juvenile bluefin tuna abundance in the Mediterranean. We present an abundance index based on 62 aerial surveys conducted since 2000, using 2 statistical approaches to deal with the sampling strategy: line and strip transects. Both approaches showed a significant increase in juvenile ABFT abundance in recent years, resulting from the recovery plan established in 2007. Nonetheless, the estimates from the line transect method appear to be more robust and stable. This study provides essential information for fisheries management. Expanding the spatial coverage to other nursery grounds would further increase the reliability and representativeness of this index.


The present study has demonstrated that rabbit anti-mouse lymphocyte serum (RAMLS) has the capability of destroying bone marrow cells and suppressing hemopoietic stem cell function. The in vitro incubation of bone marrow suspensions with RAMLS caused extensive cell lysis with an apparent preferential destruction of lymphoid, erythroid, and blastoid elements. Using the spleen colony assay, the number of functional hemopoietic stem cells was found to be markedly reduced in bone marrow populations exposed to RAMLS in vitro. Further, this loss of stem cell function could be produced by exposing marrow suspensions to small concentrations of antiserum which did not produce detectable cytotoxic effects on the general marrow population. A similar effect of RAMLS upon hemopoietic stem cells was found in vivo. The intravenous injection of RAMLS into lethally irradiated mice immediately after the infusion of isogeneic marrow cells reduced the number of spleen colonies formed, indicating that the antiserum could exhibit a deleterious effect upon stem cells in the bloodstream of the intact animal. Normal animals treated with daily subcutaneous injections of RAMLS for 3 wk had a significantly reduced marrow content of functional hemopoietic stem cells, suggesting that RAMLS can affect stem cells located in situ in the bone marrow. The experiments indicate that RAMLS possesses potential marrow toxicity.


A robot system is present for the wind turbine blade grinding work. The robot is a mobile manipulator equipped with a grinding tool. In order to realize the compliant control of the operation force, a robust impedance controller is present in the presence of coupling factors between the mobile platform and manipulator, modeling uncertainties and existing bounded disturbances. The proposed control strategies guarantee that the system motion converges to the desired manifold and the desired constraint force. Simulation experiment has been done and the experiment results show that, the presented control method can realize the robust control of mobile manipulator, and thus show the effectiveness and correctness of the designed controller.


BACKGROUND: India is a developing country and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) influence most of the diseases in our population, and monitoring is required due to the paucity of ADRs. The present study was done to analyze the ADRs at the ADR monitoring center (AMC) of tertiary care hospital in Raipur during 1 year. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Study of ADR monitoring of outpatient and inpatient was a prospective and observational study carried out between September 2015 and August 2016. The ADRs in the form of Individual Case Safety Report (ICSR) was sent to the Indian database (Vigiflow®). RESULTS: Total ICSRs reported to Vigiflow® were 232 during 1 year. Among them, 63.79% were found to be nonserious and 36.21% were serious. Nearly 45% of ADRs were implicated only due to antimicrobials, which is highest among all other groups of drugs. A maximum number of ADRs were observed in 31–60 years of age group (52.15%). In causality assessment, the probable cases had a higher incidence (67.24%), followed by possible (27.58%) and certain (4.74%). The frequency of ADR reporting at our AMC was low (0.043%) compared to national average. Our AMC shared 0.35% of total ICSRs, which is insignificant (P < 0.001) compared to the JSS, Mysore and PGIMER, Chandigarh, AMCs, which have shared most of the ICSRs in Vigiflow®. CONCLUSIONS: The frequencies of ADRs reporting in our study are less compared to those reported with other similar studies. Underreporting is a very serious concern in Raipur, and Pharmacovigilance Programme of India must intercede to pick up ADRs across the country.


The M 4.5 southwestern Indiana earthquake of 18 June 2002 triggered 46 blast monitors in Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky. The resulting flee-field particle velocity records, along with similar data from previous earthquakes in the study area, provide a clear standard for judging the reliability of current maps for predicting ground motions greater than 2 Hz in southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois. Peak horizontal accelerations and velocities, and 5% damped pseudo-accelerations for the earthquake, generally exceeded ground motions predicted for the top of the bedrock by factors of 2 or more, even after soil amplifications were taken into consideration. It is suggested, but not proven, that the low shear-wave velocity and weathered bedrock in the area are also amplifying the higher-frequency ground motions that have been repeatedly recorded by the blast monitors in the study area. It is also shown that there is a good correlation between the peak ground motions and 5% pseudo-accelerations recorded for the event, and the Modified Mercalli intensities interpreted for the event by the U.S. Geological Survey.


We provide a new dynamic approach to scenario generation for the purposes of risk management in the banking industry. We connect ideas from conventional techniques -- like historical and Monte Carlo simulation -- and we come up with a hybrid method that shares the advantages of standard procedures but eliminates several of their drawbacks. Instead of considering the static problem of constructing one or ten day ahead distributions for vectors of risk factors, we embed the problem into a dynamic framework, where any time horizon can be consistently simulated. Additionally, we use standard models from mathematical finance for each risk factor, whence bridging the worlds of trading and risk management. Our approach is based on stochastic differential equations (SDEs), like the HJM-equation or the Black-Scholes equation, governing the time evolution of risk factors, on an empirical calibration method to the market for the chosen SDEs, and on an Euler scheme (or high-order schemes) for the numerical evaluation of the respective SDEs. The empirical calibration procedure presented in this paper can be seen as the SDE-counterpart of the so called Filtered Historical Simulation method; the behavior of volatility stems in our case out of the assumptions on the underlying SDEs. Furthermore, we are able to easily incorporate "middle-size" and "large-size" events within our framework always making a precise distinction between the information obtained from the market and the one coming from the necessary a-priori intuition of the risk manager. Results of one concrete implementation are provided.


Background: Although sexuality is an inherent feature of humans, the timing of this important life-changing event sets the tone for future sexual behaviour with broader social implications. Data source & Method: The present study used the six waves of the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey data (1988 to 2014) to examine the effect of changes in social and demographic contexts on age at which women have their first sexual encounter. Results: The results of the study have shown that even though the age at which women in Ghana initiate sexual intercourse is changing, the changes have been slow over the course of the 26 years under review (1988 to 2014). Of the social and demographers factors examined, only education, religion and ethnicity were found to be significant predictors of the timing of sexual intercourse among women in Ghana, while the effects of place of residence and region were found to be insignificant after controlling for other factors. Educated women tended to postpone the initiation of first sexual encounter compared to their less educated counterparts, while women who belonged to other Christian denominations and Muslims delayed sexual initiation compared to women who did not belong to any religious group. Finally, Ewes, Guans, Mole/Dagbanis and other ethnic groups all tended to delay sexual initiation compared to the majority Akan. Conclussion: The study demonstrated that the timing of first sexual intercourse among women in Ghana is affected by social and demographic contexts such as place of residence, education, ethnicity, region, and religion.


This paper considers sensemaking as it relates to everyday software engineering (SE) work practices and draws on a multi-year ethnographic study of SE projects at a large, global technology company building digital services infused with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. Our findings highlight the breadth of sensemaking practices in AI/ML projects, noting developers' efforts to make sense of AI/ML environments (e.g., algorithms/methods and libraries), of AI/ML model ecosystems (e.g., pre-trained models and "upstream" models), and of business-AI relations (e.g., how the AI/ML service relates to the domain context and business problem at hand). This paper builds on recent scholarship drawing attention to the integral role of sensemaking in everyday SE practices by empirically investigating how and in what ways AI/ML projects present software teams with emergent sensemaking requirements and opportunities.


Public health nurses have historically been on the front line in meeting the needs of refugees in their practice communities. Little nursing research has been focused on the needs of refugees, however. The purpose of this integrative literature review was to clarify research focused on the needs of one refugee group, southeast Asian. The integrating factors reviewed were the instruments used, sampling procedures, statistical methods, and clarification of independent and dependent variables. Power analyses were computed on three of the studies to critique further the appropriateness of sample size. Findings indicate that premigration experiences, especially violence, play an important role in health status and adaptation after settling in the United States. Since health problems are often manifested in cultural ways different from Western norms, public health nurses would benefit from continued research clarifying the needs of individuals from other cultures.


Microbial metabolism plays a key role in controlling the fate of toxic groundwater contaminants, such as arsenic. Dissimilatory metal reduction catalyzed by subsurface bacteria can facilitate the mobilization of arsenic via the reductive dissolution of As(V)-bearing Fe(III) mineral assemblages. The mobility of liberated As(V) can then be amplified via reduction to the more soluble As(III) by As(V)-respiring bacteria. This investigation focused on the reductive dissolution of As(V) sorbed onto Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide by model Fe(III)- and As(V)-reducing bacteria, to elucidate the mechanisms underpinning these processes at the single-cell scale. Axenic cultures of Shewanella sp. ANA-3 wild-type (WT) cells [able to respire both Fe(III) and As(V)] were grown using 13C-labeled lactate on an arsenical Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide thin film, and after colonization, the distribution of Fe and As in the solid phase was assessed using nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS), complemented with aqueous geochemistry analyses. Parallel experiments were conducted using an arrA mutant, able to respire Fe(III) but not As(V). NanoSIMS imaging showed that most metabolically active cells were not in direct contact with the Fe(III) mineral. Flavins were released by both strains, suggesting that these cell-secreted electron shuttles mediated extracellular Fe(III)-(oxyhydr)oxide reduction, but did not facilitate extracellular As(V) reduction, demonstrated by the presence of flavins yet lack of As(III) in the supernatants of the arrA deletion mutant strain. 3D reconstructions of NanoSIMS depth-profiled single cells revealed that As and Fe were associated with the cell surface in the WT cells, whereas for the arrA mutant, only Fe was associated with the biomass. These data were consistent with Shewanella sp. ANA-3 respiring As(V) in a multistep process; first, the reductive dissolution of the Fe(III) mineral released As(V), and once in solution, As(V) was respired by the cells to As(III). As well as highlighting Fe(III) reduction as the primary release mechanism for arsenic, our data also identified unexpected cellular As(III) retention mechanisms that require further investigation.


Cognitive load theory investigates instructional consequences of processing limitations of human cognitive system. Excessive cognitive load inevitably influences our affective states by causing frustration that may discourage further learning activities, while low-load tasks may also be disengaging and boring. This paper reviews basic assumptions of cognitive load theory and their consequences for optimizing the design of information presentations, as well as general implications for affective computing.


We have investigated the interfacial and bulk phase structures of surfactin at different pH and in the presence of mono/divalent cations using neutron scattering techniques. Neutron reflectivity profiles were recorded at the air/water and sapphire/water interfaces as a function of pH and ionic strength. The air/water results show that surfactin has a hydrophobic ball-like structure and that changes in pH and cations lead to changes in the area per molecule and hydrophilicity of surfactin. However the adsorption of surfactin on the hydrophilic sapphire/water interface is highly pH dependent because of electrostatic interactions with the surface. The bulk phase structures were characterized by small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and are more sensitive to pH and cation than the interfacial structure. At high pH surfactin forms micellar structures with low aggregation numbers, but at low pH values the bulk phase structure becomes rod-like at pH 6.5 and lamellar at pH 5.5. The addition of cations in the subphase tends to neutralize the two acidic groups of the peptide ring and the neutralization seems to be more complete for divalent cations than for monovalent cations.


but a cause, of lateral curvature, are furnished by photographs, larger in number than could be published in the JOURNAL, of young persons showing marked amesiality, and then developing, with varying degrees of rapidity, spinal curvature. The interpolated sentence above alluded to states that if he (Dr. Sharman) stands in front of some perpendicular object, and bends his head and shoulders to the left, " he finds his pelvis moves to the right, that is, becomes amesial, obviously for the sake of balance." Here I must differ ; in trial on my own person, and frequent experiment on others, I find that an individual so bending can keep the pelvis mesial; can move it to the right or left just as he pleases. Moreover, in thus bending to the left the spine is made convex to the right, and according to Dr. Sharman the pelvis is amesial also to the right. Even if I conceded, which I do not, the accuracy of this statement, it would not touch the matter in hand; for in all my cases (photographed or not), when the pelvis is amesial to the right, the resulting curvature is primarily convex to the left, precisely the contrary to that which Dr. Sharman thinks necessary for balance. Regarding Dr. Percy Lewis's letter, it is dated two days after the appearance of my first paper (July I7th), and it may be supposed that the greater part of it would not have been written had he awaited the second communication. He assumes that the diagram which early in I895 appeared in the fifth edition of my book on spinal curvature constitutes the whole of my work on amesiality, whereas it marks only the first inception of a, till then, undiscovered condition. My second paper completes, and where necessary corrects, this first, and therefore somewhat crude, description. The photographs there reproduced show that I do not, as he imagines, draw a line from the vertebra prominens downwards; they also very plainly demonstrate one-sidedness of the whole figure. Yet, as "pelvic amesiality" is the primary defect giving rise to all the others, I have so named the condition. A controversy about nomenclature would be a mere battle of words not worth while for either Dr. Lewis or myself. I am very pleased that he is, as he says, fully alive to this condition, being much gratified to learn that he has so thoroughly assimilated a demonstration of amesiality, which by the aid of my scoliometer I was able to give him in November, 1895, when he was good enough to bring me a patient.-I am, etc. Wimpole Street, Aug. i6th. RICHARD BARWELL.


We develop a new location verification system (LVS) focused on network-based intelligent transport systems (ITSs) and vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). The system that we develop is based on an information-theoretic framework in which the mutual information between the system's input and output data is maximized. Our system takes as inputs a user's claimed location and base station (BS) received signal strength (RSS) measurements to form an optimal decision rule on the legitimacy of the claimed location. The scenario that we consider is where a noncolluding malicious user alters his transmit power in an attempt to fool the LVS. We develop a practical threat model for this attack scenario and investigate the performance of the LVS in terms of its input/output mutual information. We show how our LVS decision rule can be straightforwardly implemented with a performance that delivers near optimality under realistic threat conditions. The practical advantages that our new information-theoretic scheme delivers, relative to more traditional Bayesian verification frameworks, are discussed.


For real-world applications, data are often associated with multiple labels and represented with multiple views. Most existing multi-label learning methods do not sufficiently consider the complementary information among multiple views, leading to unsatisfying performance. To address this issue, we propose a novel approach for multi-view multi-label learning based on matrix factorization to exploit complementarity among different views. Specifically, under the assumption that there exists a common representation across different views, the uncovered latent patterns are enforced to be aligned across different views in kernel spaces. In this way, the latent semantic patterns underlying in data could be well uncovered and this enhances the reasonability of the common representation of multiple views. As a result, the consensus multi-view representation is obtained which encodes the complementarity and consistence of different views in latent semantic space. We provide theoretical guarantee for the strict convexity for our method by properly setting parameters. Empirical evidence shows the clear advantages of our method over the state-of-the-art ones.


Currently SMEs have been accepted as the main engine for establishment of electronic government structure based on innovation systems. This paper discusses this concept in developing countries and also the necessity to shift from SME,s orientation method to universities orientation method in developing countries as a paradigm of domestic management of e-government .So the study analyzes the innovation policy in universities based on a review of development program in an e-government structure. In an indirect process for determining the eligibility of higher education institutions to participate and create policy innovations in state e-government programs it has directed that institutions are eligible for participation if they meet two fundamental conditions: 1-Be able to evaluate ,monitor, analyze and predict fundamental changes in science and technology in order to keep abreast of the global fundamental changes in science and technology. 2-Be able to develop priorities plan to organize technological activities of the country to reengineer nationwide development of science and technology and to provide a This issues and circumstances are surrounding the initial development of evaluation and monitoring and major changes in procedure and standards. Also attention is given to some of the challenges that presently are posing for evaluation procedures as growing complexity, globalization and advances in instructional uses of electronic technology allow new forms of higher education provision to emerge. The exiting policies need to be re-examined, and new policies developed. While higher education innovations must be recognized, it is also true that monitoring agencies have greatly assisted their career. In this process monitoring agencies serve as a public brain system to advocate changes that will improve higher education practice.


Smart fault current controller (SFCC) proposed in our previous work consists of a power converter, a high temperature superconducting (HTS) DC reactor, thyristors, and a control unit [1]. SFCC can limit and control the current by adjusting firing angles of thyristors when a fault occurs. SFCC has complex structure because the HTS DC reactor generates the loss under AC. To use the DC reactor under AC, rectifier that consists of four thyristors is needed and it increases internal resistance of SFCC. For this reason, authors propose a hybrid type superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL). The hybrid type SFCL proposed in this paper consists of a non-inductive superconducting coil and two thyristors. To verify the feasibility of the proposed hybrid type SFCL, simulations about the interaction of the superconducting coil and thyristors are conducted when fault current flows in the superconducting coil. Authors expect that the hybrid type SFCL can control the magnitude of the fault current by adjusting the firing angles of thyristors after the superconducting coil limits the fault current at first peak.


Context. On 2020 November 29, the first widespread solar energetic particle (SEP) event of solar cycle 25 was observed at four widely separated locations in the inner (.1 AU) heliosphere. Relativistic electrons as well as protons with energies >50 MeV were observed by Solar Orbiter (SolO), Parker Solar Probe, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO)-A and multiple near-Earth spacecraft. The SEP event was associated with an M4.4 class X-ray flare and accompanied by a coronal mass ejection and an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) wave as well as a type II radio burst and multiple type III radio bursts. Aims. We present multi-spacecraft particle observations and place them in context with source observations from remote sensing instruments and discuss how such observations may further our understanding of particle acceleration and transport in this widespread event. Methods. Velocity dispersion analysis (VDA) and time shift analysis (TSA) were used to infer the particle release times at the Sun. Solar wind plasma and magnetic field measurements were examined to identify structures that influence the properties of the energetic particles such as their intensity. Pitch angle distributions and first-order anisotropies were analyzed in order to characterize the particle propagation in the interplanetary medium. Results. We find that during the 2020 November 29 SEP event, particles spread over more than 230◦ in longitude close to 1 AU. The particle onset delays observed at the different spacecraft are larger as the flare–footpoint angle increases and are consistent with those from previous STEREO observations. Comparing the timing when the EUV wave intersects the estimated magnetic footpoints of each spacecraft with particle release times from TSA and VDA, we conclude that a simple scenario where the particle release is only determined by the EUV wave propagation is unlikely for this event. Observations of anisotropic particle distributions at SolO, Wind, and STEREO-A do not rule out that particles are injected over a wide longitudinal range close to the Sun. However, the low values of the first-order anisotropy observed by near-Earth spacecraft suggest that diffusive propagation processes are likely involved.


This article explores one aspect of increased managerialism, the impact of the expansion of rules in organizations. Discussing findings from a recent large-scale Canadian research project with social workers, this paper addresses some of the effects of the proliferation of rules, including their ethical implications, and considers the usefulness of different theoretical accounts of the rule-bending individual. The research indicated that although rules did serve as technologies to regulate and normalize practitioners' behaviours, they were not monolithic in their consequences. Typologies which divided individuals in terms of their responses to rules were useful but insufficient explanations of the observed effects. The paper suggests that practitioners will use discretion to deal with the complexity of situations, the contradictory nature of the rules, and to resist being positioned as subjects in ways they found problematic, outcomes which support Lipsky's classic premises. Other findings were that the increase of rules, through their complexity and contradiction, promoted 'rogue' or rule-bending behaviour. A further outcome was that practitioners who perceived part of their responsibility to be change agents towards societal transformation encountered particular difficulties, because the expansion of rules impacted negatively on the availability of their time and energy.


In preparation for high fusion plasma performance operation of the newly operating spherical tokamak MAST-U, the equilibrium and stability properties of plasmas in the MAST database, as well as projections for MAST-U, are explored. The disruption event characterization and forecasting (DECAF) code is utilized to map disruptions in MAST, particularly with regard to vertical displacement events. Loss of vertical stability control was not found to be common in MAST, providing reassurance for MAST-U operation. MAST equilibria were reconstructed with magnetic diagnostics, adding kinetic diagnostics, or finally also adding magnetic pitch angle data. The reconstructions work well for MAST and the procedures are set up for MAST-U, including determination of the plasma current in the first MAST-U discharges. A 3D wall model of MAST-U has been constructed in the VALEN code, indicating that significant toroidal currents may be induced in the conducting structure. Rotation measurements may also be included in the reconstructions, and a test with the FLOW code of a rotating MAST plasma indicates a modest shift of the pressure contours off of the magnetic flux surfaces may be expected. Unstable resistive wall modes (RWMs) may constrain the performance of high pressure MAST-U plasmas. A machine learning (ML) assisted algorithm for stability calculation developed for the NSTX spherical tokamak has been applied to MAST plasmas. Improvements and expansion of the ML techniques continue, including semi-supervised learning techniques and a detection algorithm for unstable RWMs. Finally, projections of MAST-U plasma stability have been performed, indicating that a region of high pressure operational space exists in which the new passive stabilization plates act to stabilize ideal kink modes and RWMs may be stabilized by kinetic effects or active control.


This paper reports the results of a research carried out on ecological and agronomic aspects of windbreaks on an area along the jonic sea coast. After a climatic analysis of the area, the influence of Eucalyptus sp.p., Cupressus sp.p., and Olea europea windbreak rows on avifauna and durum wheat yield was studied. The area is characterized by a high Climatic Water Deficit, a long dry period (may-september), a high ETo in summer months, and W, NW, and SE prevailing winds. The different environments (windbreaks and cultivated crops) influence the number of individuals and species of ornithic communities during the year. The Cupressus sp.p. rows is the environment that shows as average the higher abundance of individuals and species, and the more marked avifauna diversity both in summer and winter. The same windbreaks species, placed on NE-SW direction, influence positively the wheat yield for a distance of 60-80m.


The application of network slicing to mobile edge computing (MEC) systems has aroused great interests from both academia and industry. However, the optimization of network slicing and MEC in most existing research works only focuses on resource slicing, energy scheduling, and power allocation from the perspective of mobile devices, without considering the operator's revenue. In this paper, we propose a novel framework for network slicing in MEC systems, including slice request admission and a revenue model, to investigate the operator's revenue escalation problem while considering traffic variations. The revenue model is mainly composed of the longer-term revenue and short-term revenue. Particularly, we jointly optimize slice request admission in the long-term and resource allocation in the short-term to maximize the operator's average revenue. By employing the Lyapunov optimization technique, we develop an algorithm without requiring any prior-knowledge of traffic distributions, referred to as the DNSRA, to solve the problem. To reduce the computational complexity of directly solving the DNSRA, we decouple the optimization variables for efficient algorithm design. By this, the strategies for user association and CPU-cycle frequency are obtained in closed forms, respectively. Power allocation and subcarriers assignment are obtained by employing the successive convex approximation approach. Meanwhile, we develop a heuristic algorithm to obtain the dynamic slice request admission decision. Simulation results show that the proposed DNSRA can strike a flexible balance between the average revenue and the average delay, and can significantly increase the operator's revenue against existing schemes.


The common view that insurer buyer power may effectively counteract provider market power critically rests on the idea that consumers and insurers have a joint interest in pushing for price and cost reductions. We develop theory and provide experimental evidence that the interests of insurers and consumers may be misaligned when insurers have the power to influence the service supplier's cost. Insurers with such buyer power may benefit from increasing initial loss sizes to create demand for insurance. Insurer competition eliminates their profits but markets do not return to the initial non-insurance state. This constitutes a welfare loss.


Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to define the reverse logistics management model, then analysis by structural equation model for describing the relationship between the reverse logistics management, forward logistics management, information technology, corporate citizenship, and logistics performance.
Design/Methodology/approach – The research relies on mixed method theory by explanatory research. Documentary research was conducted with 624 research papers that for identifying the construct of model. Then, survey research was conducted with 420 logistics directors or managers from Thai's electronics companies. The analysis was conducted with the structural equation model (SEM).
Findings – The documentary research was confirmed the model construct that three major factors that consist of forward logistics management (FLM), information technology (IT), and corporate citizenship (CC) had impacted on reverse logistics management (RLM). Also, RLM had impacted on logistics performance (LP). The statistics analysis of structural equation model indicated that the confirmation with the documentary research. The forward logistics management (FLM), information technology (IT), and corporate citizenship (CC) had positive impacted on reverse logistics management (RLM). By the way, the corporate citizenship had the highest positive impacted than other factors.
Research Limitations/ implications – The paper contributes to the logistics performance by reverse logistics management perspective. Also, the green business concept by corporate citizenship. The sample was the electronics industry or assembly-to-stock business. Limitations was the model fit for some business and environment. Limitations suggest the future research in discovering in others business. Implications – research finding reveal the importance of understanding what corporate citizenship means to firm's business executives in competitive advantage with reverse logistics management and sustainability perspective.
Originality/Value – This paper introduces the reverse logistics management model in Thai context and contributes how to create the logistics performance by revere logistics management.
Keywords Reverse Logistics Management, Corporate Citizenship, Structural Equation Model, Forward Logistics Management, Thailand Context


There are many reasons why a government would like to tax differentially commodities known as bads. One is to discourage its consumption; these are goods that generate negative externalities, addiction and health problems. Another reason is that since these consumption goods have a relatively inelastic demand, taxing them heavily will bring a big deal of revenue for the government. Finally, there is a moral element in having the consumer of these so called sinful goods to face higher prices through taxes. Cigarette and other tobacco products are categorized in this group, traditionally in the United States the cigarette tax has been applied as an excise tax. The interesting design feature of this tax is that it is a single stage tax and it is already included in the product's price at the time of purchase, making it almost invisible and in theory less politically sensitive.This paper answers two sets of questions that are equally relevant for the study of excise taxation, and in particular, of cigarette taxation. The first set is: What is the influence of the tax in consumer behavior? How do consumers respond to any increase in taxes, while controlling for all other variables such as smoking restrictions, publicity and factors like income, race, and other demographic characteristics? And the second is: what is the influence of political decisions and other types of political and social variables in the determination of cigarette taxes?These questions are answered by using a two equation model, and a data set for the USA fifty states and D.C, from 1970 to 2010. The impact of different social, economic and political variables is studied, and the results are discussed under the optic of an integrated analysis of public finance and political economics.


It is proposed to investigate whether the distinction between a void and a voidable act, is a necessary incident of the law governing judicial review of administrative decisions, whether the consequences of the distinction are utilised by the Courts, and whether the distinction has a useful role to play in administrative law. The theoretical and historical basis of the distinction is first examined with the conclusion that void and voidable decisions are a necessary result of a system of review based upon the ultra vires doctrine. The notion of jurisdiction is examined to ascertain whether there is any general formula with which to distinguish between decisions producing nullity and those resulting in a voidable decision. It is concluded that such a formula is undesirable in principle and can not in the light of existing authority be produced. The various reviewable defects are then analysed to determine whether the Courts regard them as void or voidable. There is considerable inconsistency in the cases, but it is reasonably clear that some procedural defects, breach of natural justice, and serious abuse of discretion are jurisdictional and produce nullity. As a result of this an investigation of the various consequences of the distinction in connection with remedies, leous standi, estoppel, and privative clauses leads to the conclusion that the Courts do not consistently apply the logical consequences of nullity, and indeed that to do so would produce inconvienience. However, in the field of actions in tort and privative clauses the distinction is consistently relied upon. Finally voidable decisions are examined to determine whether a doctrine of retroactivity operates with the conclusion that it does not. In conclusion the technical difficulties arising from the existing system of review based upon the notion of jurisdiction are criticised, and a broader basis for judicial review is proposed which would involve the ultra vires doctrine and therefore the void voidable distinction having only a subordinate role.


Introduction: Professional education such as Pharmacy Programme basically demands massive hard work and challenges for students due to various assessment methods and heavy co-curricular activities.
Objectives: In order to observe how students approach Islamic way to manage the stress, we studied this retrospective study after conducting cross sectional exploratory study that detected the relationship between the PSS and their academic achievement throughout the semester.
Method: Total 114 third year students including 29 male and 85 female participated. Their marks obtained from 4 quizzes and respective PSS were recorded periodically and analysed descriptively. We provided some questionnaires to check their psychological coping mechanisms and observed how they apply the Islamic approach as one of the key components of managing stress.
Result: The PSS score for overall male and female is highest in the second quiz which was 38.99 ± 6.60 compared to first and third/fourth quizzes which were 38.90 ± 5.60 and 38.10 ± 7.18 respectively. Mean marks students achieved were 7.61±1.25 in Quiz 1; 4.97±1.41 in quiz 2; 6.04±1.77 in quiz 3; 5.71 ±1.32 in 4 respectively. There were 61 (53.5%) students including 22 male (75% of male) and 40 female (47.05% of female) who freely commented on the way of coping stress by Islamic ways such as Tawakal and suitable du'a before answering the quiz. The lowest PSS value (28.33±7.76) was observed for 8 (7%) female students who expressed in Islamic way that they studied the course to obtain the knowledge for the sake of hereafter. They all passed and obtained good score with mean value of 26.19±4.27. The highest PSS on overall was 42.43± 8.12. Those who in that value were not displayed any comment regarding on how to overcome their stressful condition in Islamic way.
Conclusion: Hence, proper stress management is a very pivotal element for students to perform well academically and spiritually.


While crowdsourcing is increasingly used for data gathering and problem solving, the power relations in crowdsourced processes remain largely unexamined. Especially in crowdsourced public policymaking, an understanding of these processes is essential for verifying the data. For understanding the social processes behind the data and designing crowdsourcing technologies and processes suitable for public policymaking, it is important to understand power structures and relations within the crowd and between the crowd and the sourcer: Who has the power, what is being produced through crowdsourcing, and especially how and under which conditions. In this paper we develop a typology of worker relations in crowdsourcing by using Marx theory of alienation. The theory serves as a lens to compare and contrast tools for crowdengagement in public policymaking. We show how different types of crowdsourcing can be described as levels of alienation where the worker, the consumer, their relations, and products are connected in modes of production representing different ontologies. In doing so, we contribute to the body of knowledge about crowdsourcing as a specific type of computer-supported cooperative work. For the research community we introduce a critical perspective on information systems as part of a relational system, whereby both external communications and personal identities are acknowledged. For the practitioner community, namely, decision-makers, we provide a useful resource, outlining in detail the differing potentialities of crowd-engaging in CSCW.


Organic semiconductors are constantly gaining interest in regenerative medicine. Their tunable physico-chemical properties, including electrical conductivity, are very promising for the control of stem-cell differentiation. However, their use for combined material-based and electrical stimulation remains largely underexplored. Therefore, we carried out a study on whether a platform based on the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) can be beneficial to the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs). The platform was prepared using the layout of a standard 24-well cell-culture plate. Polyethylene naphthalate foil served as the substrate for the preparation of interdigitated gold electrodes by physical vapor deposition. The PEDOT:PSS pattern was fabricated by precise screen printing over the gold electrodes. The PEDOT:PSS platform was able to produce higher electrical current with the pulsed-direct-current (DC) electrostimulation mode (1 Hz, 200 mV/mm, 100 ms pulse duration) compared to plain gold electrodes. There was a dominant capacitive component. In proof-of-concept experiments, mESCs were able to respond to such electrostimulation by membrane depolarization and elevation of cytosolic calcium. Further, the PEDOT:PSS platform was able to upregulate cardiomyogenesis and potentially inhibit early neurogenesis per se with minor contribution of electrostimulation. Hence, the present work highlights the large potential of PEDOT:PSS in regenerative medicine.


CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1 (COP1) functions as an E3 ubiquitin ligase and mediates a variety of developmental processes in Arabidopsis by targeting a number of key regulators for ubiquitination and degradation. Here, we identify a novel COP1 interacting protein, COP1 SUPPRESSOR 2 (CSU2). Loss of function mutations in CSU2 suppress the constitutive photomorphogenic phenotype of cop1-6 in darkness. CSU2 directly interacts with COP1 via their coiled-coil domains and is recruited by COP1 into nuclear speckles in living plant cells. Furthermore, CSU2 inhibits COP1 E3 ubiquitin ligase activity in vitro, and represses COP1 mediated turnover of HY5 in cell-free extracts. We propose that in csu2 cop1-6 mutants, the lack of CSU2's repression of COP1 allows the low level of COP1 to exhibit higher activity that is sufficient to prevent accumulation of HY5 in the dark, thus restoring the etiolated phenotype. In addition, CSU2 is required for primary root development under normal light growth condition.


We use information on a French loan guarantee program in order to assess the consequences of credit constraints for new ventures. Loan Guarantee Programs, as implemented in France, are an effective instrument to help young firms grow faster, both in terms of employment and capital. These effects are quite persistent, since they are still significant four years after obtaining the guarantee. Loan guarantees also allow firms to pay cheaper interest rate, but a potential drawback of this policy consists in guaranteed ventures adopting riskier strategies and thus filing more often for bankruptcy. Last, we find no effect, at the industry level, on creation rates.


ABSTRACT Termites face significant and chronic intranidal selection pressures from parasites and pathogens that colonize their nests. They also encounter microbes outside their nest while foraging and during dispersal of winged primary reproductives to establish new colonies. The latter run the additional risk of becoming infected by a mating partner. Indeed, death of reproductives because of disease is a major cause of incipient colony failure and may favor prescreening prospective mates for signs of illness. To determine the role of disease on mate preference in termites, female primary reproductives of the Pacific dampwood termite Zootermopsis angusticollis (Hagen) simultaneously were presented with reproductive males that were either healthy or exhibiting a progression of symptoms associated with infection by the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff Sorokin). We compared duration and frequency of female visits to healthy and infected males. In addition, we determined the physiological consequences for females exposed to fungal conidia, either directly or indirectly through their mate. Females showed no preference for healthy rather than infected males. Moreover, only directly-exposed females experienced negative physiological effects, having a reduced chance of survival, gaining less weight, developing fewer functional ovarioles, and producing significantly fewer vitellogenic oocytes than controls. Although there are important fitness-related costs of direct exposure, the lack of mate selection based on disease risk suggests that more imminent ecological pressures (e.g., predators, desiccation) override the need for a careful and time-consuming assessment of a potential mate's health.


We focus on an interdisciplinary approach to under- stand the MIZ, to highlight that the occurring Arctic change has potentially profound implications for both the natural environment and human activities. The report discusses the MIZ from natural sciences' perspective and focuses on its properties. Additionally, the relations of the MIZ with human activities and governance is also addressed.
We draw on our own (participants) conclusions about how the gained knowledge sheds the new light on our perceptions about future tourism development within the MIZ, as a case study, which was not studied in detail so far. Tourism is a fast-growing industry in the Arctic that requires an adequate un- derstanding of the fast changing and unpredictable MIZ, in order to ensure sustainable development of the region. The relations between the MIZ and tourism are studied in the contexts of natural and built environment, infrastructure development, oil and gas exploration, shipping activities, manage- ment and law regulations. It is concluded that tourism in the MIZ should be studied as a complex discipline, which takes into account natural and anthropogenic values and vulnerabilities of the MIZ, as well as challenges and opportunities caused by climate change and technology development.


OBJECTIVE: our aim was to report the frequency of cancer among a group of children from families having an income above the national average, with attention to adolescents, and to analyze time elapsed from the onset of signs or symptoms up to diagnosis confirmation. METHODS: data related to new cancer cases were reviewed from January, 1995 to December, 2004, according to the International Classification of Childhood Cancers. Frequency was analyzed according age and neoplasm group. The time elapsed until confirm a diagnosis was analyzed for each tumor class. RESULTS: 61 cases were analyzed, 42 in a group under 14-year-old, and 19 in the group of 14-19-year-old. Three most common neoplasms found in children under 14-year-old were: central nervous system tumors (29.5%), leukemia (23%), and bone tumors (14.8%); and in the other group were: central nervous system tumors (26.3%), lymphomas (21.1%), and bone tumors (15.8%). The time elapsed from the onset of signs and symptoms until the histopathology diagnosis for leukemia was less than a month in 71.4% of the population under study, while for solid tumors was one to six months in 44.6% of the population study. CONCLUSIONS: the frequencies for different neoplasm groups in children under private health care, were similar to those reported on developed countries, and they were different to reported on Mexican population receiving public health care, which suggests the existence of different risk factors due to socioeconomic status.


This book's focus is on getting email overload under control by using everything Outlook 2007 has to offer, and how every aspect of it works together. It's the kind of book you'll want to start reading from the beginning instead of flipping through it. It's packed with tips and tricks for managing EMAIL messages, creating and assigning TASKS, scheduling your busy day with the CALENDAR, staying in touch with CONTACTS, and keeping up with bits of information with NOTES. Outlook commands are explained in plain English with step-by-step instructions and screen captures so you'll know you're doing everything right. And because Peggy is a time management expert, she's developed a habit of not taking several pages to explain something she can say in a paragraph. Whether you're a busy executive, professional salesperson, a top-notch administrative assistant, or a small business owner, Peggy Duncan has written this book with you in mind. You'll find real-life examples and ways you'll use Outlook 2007 every day.


Background: The prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases is an important public health problem, especially in people who are sexually active, such as the army conscript group. However, their knowledge, attitudes, and practices may be influenced by certain cultures and beliefs. This study explored the factors associated with the risk of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among the Muslim army conscript in three deep southern provinces of Thailand. Methods: The cross-sectional study design was conducted among 360 Muslim army conscripts. A researcher made questionnaire on knowledge of HIV/STI transmission, attitude toward condom use, and sexual behavior was distributed to the participants in a camp base. The association between the potential predictor variables and the risk of HIV/STI was analyzed using the multiple logistic regression. Statistically significant of the association considered a P value ≤ 0.05. Results: The results suggest that most Muslim army conscripts had a poor knowledge level of HIV/STI transmission (78.7%) and that their attitude toward condom use was at a moderate level (60.0%). The predicted factors were marital status [aOR=0.078, 95% CI=0.035-0.172], substance use before having sex [aOR=8.044, 95% CI=1.288-50.230], stimulant use before having sex [aOR=3.632, 95% CI=1.080-12.211], vaginal sexual intercourse [aOR=26.228, 95% CI=8.370-82.189], and oral sexual intercourse [aOR=2.256, 95% CI=1.106-4.601]. Conclusion: A proper sexual health education program should be developed and delivered to enhance knowledge on HIV/STI transmission among Muslim army conscripts.


SIR,-We agree with Dr Davis that platelet aggregates would tend to distort the distribution curves we published if they were present. The papers he refers to both used citrate as anticoagulant, while we used edetic acid. Although platelet aggregation with edetic acid has been reported,' this is a comparatively rare phenomenon associated with reticuloendothelial malignancy and specific antiplatelet antibodies. We have done no specific studies to exclude platelet clumping in our patients but think that it is unlikely to have been responsible for the changes shown. In reply to Dr Trowbridge and his colleagues, we are not disputing that there is an increased proportion of large plateletsindeed this is the reason why we carried out our study. Our curves are not intended to be, nor are they, relative frequency distributions of platelet volume, but "absolute platelet frequency curves" (as defined in our paper); we sought to determine the absolute numbers of platelets of each size, and not the relative proportions of platelets of different sizes. We accept that our platelets may have changed shape and size after collection because they were collected in edetic acid rather than citrate-PGEI. However, all our controls were measured in the same anticoagulant and using the same counting methods. We are unclear what importance Dr Trowbridge and others want to attach to their finding of a single patient with a platelet volume relative frequency distribution outside the normal range, particularly as they have illustrated a change only in relative proportions of platelets. Eighteen days after infarction it would not be surprising to find distributions similar to those found on the day after infarction in view of our finding of an appreciable return toward normal at one month; we suggest that their failure to find progressive change after infarction is due to their not having examined absolute platelet frequencies and to their not having looked at the distributions at two and three days after infarction. We are extremely interested in their finding of large megakaryocytes in patients who died suddenly from coronary heart disease, as we feel that this is the only current evidence that suggests that the abnormality of platelet distribution antedates the myocardial infarction. We think, however, that as there does not appear to be an increase in absolute numbers of large platelets, any causative role that may be played by the altered platelets cannot be simply due to size alone.


High-speed cutting process of cutting force influence variables and variation and ordinary speed cutting are obviously different, in order to study the high-speed cutting process of different parameters on the effect of cutting force, based on five axis high-speed NC machining center, using multi-factor orthogonal test method for high speed milling of aluminum alloy impeller conducted experiments. It was analyzed that cutting force influence factors of 5-axises blade machining process. A private clamp was designed and produced, to measure the cutting force of machining process. It was observe that distribution of 3-dimension cutting forces in cutting path. It was found that the distribution rule of cutting force. With the experiment study on cutting force when high speed cutting aluminum cuprum, the influence disciplinarian of each cutting parameter on cutting force was obtained.


We propose an adaptive approach to modeling user's behavior in computer anomaly detection systems. As a base model, Markov chains with variable memory length are used. An adaptive version of the algorithm constructing a model that takes into account changes in user's behavior is introduced. Experimental testing of the proposed approach is also provided.


Cystic fibrosis is the most frequent cause of pancreatic insufficiency and chronic lung disease with progressive pulmonary failure in childhood. Though most cases are diagnosed in childhood, because affected individuals now live beyond their 20th birthday' cystic fibrosis is encountered more often by physicians dealing with adults. It has become a major cause of refractory malnutrition and new management approaches to nutrition are important in the care of these patients. This article will review the pancreatic, intestinal, hepatobiliary, and nutritional disturbances characteristic of cystic fibrosis and some current developments in our understanding of their pathogenesis, and in our approaches to management.


We present a study of the micro-structural changes induced in Cr-N layers by irradiation with argon ions. The layers were deposited by reactive ion sputtering on (100) Si wafers, to a thickness of 240-280 nm, at different nitrogen partial pressures and different substrate temperatures. The samples were subsequently irradiated with 120 keV Ar+, to 1x1015 and 1x1016 ions/cm2. Structural characterization was performed with Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction analysis and transmission electron microscopy, and we also did electrical resistivity measurements on the samples. It has been found that the layers grow in the form of a polycrystalline columnar structure, with a columnar width of a few tens of nm. The layer composition, Cr2N or CrN, strongly depends on the nitrogen partial pressure during deposition. Ion irradiation induces local micro-structural changes, formation of nano-particles and defects, though the structures retain their polycrystalline nature. The induced crystalline defects yield an increase of electrical resistivity after ion irradiation.


Campaign priming is generally assumed to function through the activation of memory content. By focusing on specific issues or issue aspects, campaigns render corresponding cognitive concepts more accessible and hence influence which concepts are likely to be used in subsequent evaluation processes. Thus, priming is mainly understood as a cognitive process. In the present study we investigate the impact of campaign-induced emotions on opinion formation. We argue that emotions may activate cognitive content which may in turn influence political judgments. Our analyses support the hypothesis that political campaigns may influence public opinion not only through cognitive priming but also through affective priming.


This paper investigates the scale of the economic crisis in Uganda and the impacts on agriculture, identifies the major labour market changes and explores selected policy measures to attack on rural-urban unemployment. Section II, starts from the scale of the crisis and the need to adjust the Ugandan economy to overcome the resurgence of unemployment. In Section III, the costs of adjustment and rural-urban migration are presented. Policy measures to attack rural-urban unemployment are presented in section IV.


When cylindrical tanks installed on the ground, such as oil tanks and liquid storage tanks, receive strong seismic waves, including the long-period component, motion of the free liquid surface inside the tank called sloshing may occur. If high-amplitude sloshing occurs and the waves collide with the tank roof, it may lead to accidents such as damage to the tank roof or outflow of internal liquid. Therefore, it is important to predict the wave height of sloshing generated by an earthquake input.
 Sloshing is vibration of the free liquid surface, and when the sloshing wave height is small, it can be approximated with a linear vibration model. In that case, the velocity-response-spectrum method using velocity potential can estimate the sloshing wave height under an earthquake input. However, when the sloshing wave height increases and the sloshing becomes nonlinear, it is necessary to evaluate the wave height using other methods such as numerical analysis.
 Taking into consideration that design earthquake levels tend to increase and the use of seismic isolation mechanisms has continued to spread in recent years, the amplitude of the long-period components of an earthquake input which act on cylindrical tanks may also increase. Therefore, although the evaluation of nonlinear sloshing wave height is important, there are few examples which quantitatively evaluate the wave height of nonlinear sloshing.
 The purpose of this study is to construct a simple evaluation technique of a nonlinear sloshing wave height of cylindrical tanks. In this study, the shaking table test using the small cylindrical tank for studying the behavior of nonlinear sloshing was carried out. Furthermore, verification of the flow-analysis technique described by previous report (PVP2017-65313) was carried out by comparing with test results. As a result, the data for constructing an evaluation technique has been acquired. Moreover, the validity of the flow-analysis technique was has been verified.


ABSTRACT In vivo expression technology was used to identify Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium genes that are transcriptionally induced when the bacteria colonize the small intestines of mice. These genes were subsequently screened for those that are transcriptionally inactive during the systemic stages of disease. This procedure identified gipA, a gene that is specifically induced in the small intestine of the animal. The gipA gene is carried on the lambdoid phage Gifsy-1. Consistent with the expression profile, the sole defect conferred by a gipA null mutation is in growth or survival in a Peyer's patch. The gipA strain is wild type in its ability to initially colonize the small intestine and invade the intestinal epithelium. The mutant also survives and propagates at wild-type levels during the systemic stages of disease. The gipA open reading frame is homologous to a family of putative insertion sequence elements, although our evidence shows that transposition is not required for gipA function in the Peyer's patch. These results suggest that the bacteria sense and respond to the particular environment of the Peyer's patch, a critical site for the replication of Salmonella serovar Typhimurium.


Abstract. A key challenge in cultural heritage (CH) sites visualization is to provide models and tools that effectively integrate the content of a CH data with domain-specific knowledge so that the users can query, interpret and consume the visualized information. Moreover, it is important that the intelligent visualization systems are interoperable in the semantic web environment and thus, capable of establishing a methodology to acquire, integrate, analyze, generate and share numeric contents and associated knowledge in human and machine-readable Web. In this paper, we present a model, a methodology and a software Web-tools that support the coupling of the 2D/3D Web representation with the knowledge graph database of Xlendi shipwreck. The Web visualization tools and the knowledge-based techniques are married into a photogrammetry driven ontological model while at the same time, user-friendly web tools for querying and semantic consumption of the shipwreck information are introduced.


Diagnostic catheters based on fiber Bragg gratings (FBG's) are proving to be highly effective for measurement of the muscular activity associated with peristalsis in the human gut. The primary muscular contractions that generate peristalsis are circumferential in nature; however, it has long been known that there is also a component of longitudinal contractility present, acting in harmony with the circumferential component to improve the overall efficiency of material movement. While detection of the circumferential contractions has been possible using solid state, hydraulic, and pneumatic sensor arrays in the oesophagus and anorectum, there have been relatively few reports on the measurement or inference of longitudinal contractions in humans. This is partly due to the lack of a viable recording technique suitable for real-time in-vivo measurement of this type of activity over extended lengths of the gut. We report on the development of, and latest results from, catheter based sensors capable of detecting both forms of muscular activity. Results from validation trials of both circumferential and longitudinal FBG catheters during simultaneous recording and video analysis in lengths of excised mammalian colon are given. Preliminary data from human clinical trials in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders of the colon are also presented demonstrating the ability of the fiber optic catheter technology to provide high resolution data from the complex and convoluted regions of the human gut below the stomach.


This review summarizes the main topics of our research and covers the period of the last 15 years. The prime interest is focused on various ways of controlling the regio- and stereoselectivity of selected organic reactions, in particular electrophilic additions, cleavage of cyclopropane rings, and allylic substitutions by means of neighboring groups and/or transition and non-transition metals. In the first part, the factors governing the course of electrophilic additions are assessed, culminating in the formulation of selection rules for the reactivity of cyclohexene systems, and in a concise synthesis of the natural cardioactive drug, strophanthidin. These studies also contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of electrophilic additions. The second part describes recent developments in the stereo- and regiocontrolled cleavage of cyclopropane rings by non-transition metals (Tl and Hg), and the reactivity and transmetalation (with Pd) of the primary products. This methodology has resulted in novel routes to unique polycyclic structures, and will have synthetic applications in the near future. Evidence for the stereospecific "corner" cleavage of the cyclopropane ring has been provided for the first time for Tl and later for Hg. The third part deals with transition metal-catalyzed allylic substitution. Evidence for a new "syn" mechanism for the formation of the intermediate (π-allyl)palladium complex has been provided, which runs counter to the generally accepted "anti" mechanism. A novel method for a Pd-catalyzed allylic oxidation has been developed and employed in the synthesis of natural sesquiterpenes. The increasing importance of transition and non-transition metals for synthetic organic chemistry is demonstrated by their unique reactivity in a number of the papers included in this review.


Increased anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition can lead to N saturation of ecosystems, altering water quality, biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity. Although some N deposition (Ndep) is natural, there has been an increase of Ndep in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), largely due to local and regional intensification of agricultural activity, which releases ammonia (NHx), and transportation and industrial processes, which release nitrogen oxides (NOx). The climate, topography, and sources of Ndep in the region likely create heterogeneous patterns of Ndep in the GYE, where nutrient-limited alpine ecosystems are especially susceptible to Ndep. Epiphytic lichens obtain their nutrients from the air and record local scale patterns of Ndep. We collected 162 lichen samples (Usnea lapponica and Letharia vulpina) and analyzed them for %N and δ15N at 15 sites in the GYE to understand patterns and sources of Ndep in the GYE at small spatial scales. We found that lichen \%N was higher closer to the Snake River Plains and at higher elevations, which indicates higher deposition at those sites. This is likely because N is more likely to be deposited closer to major sources and because N is often deposited in precipitation so deposition patterns follow precipitation patterns. Additionally, the mean δ15N value was -11.8 ± 3.2‰, which suggests an agricultural source of Ndep, but δ15N values increased with higher %N, which indicated sites with high deposition were receiving more N from combustion sources. However, the large amount of variation in lichens collected at a single site suggest that future work needs to address how microhabitat factors influence lichen N incorporation.

Featured photo by Kathryn Robertson, taken from the AMK Ranch photo collection.