This study aims to illuminate a general framework for fixed point and coincidence point theorems. Our theorems work with functions defined on ball spaces (X,B). This notion provides the minimal structure that is needed to express the basic assumptions which are used in the proofs of such theorems when they are concerned with functions that are contractive in some way. We present a general fixed point theorem which can be seen as the underlying principle of proof for fixed point theorems of Banach and of Prieß-Crampe and Ribenboim. Also we study two types of general coincidence point theorems and their applications to metric spaces (Theorem due to K. Goebel) and ultametric spaces (Theorem due to Prieß-Crampe and Ribenboim). Further, we find an alternative approach to coincidence point theorems. We introduce a general Bx theorem which does not deal with obtaining a coincidence point for two functions f, g directly, but allows a variety of applications. Then we present two coincidence point theorems as its applications. Finally, we introduce three different coincidence point theorems for ultrametric spaces. These theorems are: a special case of one of the general Bx theorem's applications, a coincidence point theorem due to Prieß-Crampe and Ribenboim, and an ultrametric version of Goebel's theorem. We study the logical relation between these theorems.


Salmonella antibiotic-resistant strains, isolated from patients with hospital infections and from various environmental objects, showed lower virulence than antibiotic-sensitive strains in experiments on mice infected by intraperitoneal and enteral routes. Salmonella strains, sensitive to antimicrobial preparations, contained 1-2 plasmids, while those with multiple drug resistance contained 3-10 plasmids varying in their molecular weight. All these strains, with the exception of one laboratory strain, carried a plasmid with a molecular weight of about 60 Md. A decrease in the virulence of Salmonella strains, carrying R-plasmid, with respect to mice, their natural host, in experimental infection by the above-mentioned routes was probably unrelated to the loss of this plasmid. 80% of Salmonella strains with multiple resistance to antibiotics yielded positive results in the keratoconjunctival and conjunctival tests as compared with 42% of sensitive strains. These data suggest that Salmonella strains, carrying R-plasmid, retained pronounced capacity for local colonization.


Star formation takes place in a different and simpler environment in irregular galaxies compared to spirals. Because they lack spiral density waves, non-interacting irregular galaxies are interesting laboratories for all of the internal processes other than spiral density waves that are involved in normal star formation. Most irregular galaxies are currently forming stars, and some are forming stars at rates that are comparable to those for spiral galaxies. In addition, there is a larger range in star formation rates among irregular galaxies than spirals. I discuss the status of our knowledge about large-scale star formation processes in irregular galaxies in the context of four key questions: What regulates star formation on global and local scales in irregular galaxies? What feedback processes are operating? What are the consequences of differences in the interstellar medium on the star formation process? What role does the extended gas play in the evolution of irregular galaxies? Answers to these questions are important for understanding not only how star formation works in irregular galaxies, but in understanding the process by which galaxies form stars and evolve anywhere.


Constipation is a common complication in patients treated in neurosurgery clinics and it is an important problem. Neurosurgery nurse has an important role in assessment and prevention, of the disease. Constipation can be prevented in neurosurgery patients, with effective constipation diagnosis and side effects resulting from unnecessary use of drugs can be minimized. Within this framework, the nurse diagnoses the excretion habits, listens to the abdominal sounds of the patient, palpates the abdomen for distention and uses reliable and safe diagnosis tools. With the most important nursing interventions to prevent constipation, one can include the increase the intake of liquids in patients, making them do exercise and increasing their mobility as well as their intake of fibers and applying necessary pharmacological methods compliant with the recommendations from the physician. In patients with neurosurgery, constipation is a problem which can be prevented by using extensive nursing assessment and effective nursing interventions. This compilation aims at highlighting the fact that constipation is a serious symptom especially in neurosurgery patients and also at revealing the importance of nursing assessment. (JNNN 2014;3(2):81–87)


Container ships are the type of ships that produce the most emissions in maritime transport. In container transportation not only in navigation but also at container ports, a lot of emissions are formed. Ports are generally close by and highly interacted with the inner parts of the city, the impacts of the gas emissions are quite high on people. The study investigated port selection criteria, in terms of cost, efficiency and especially in terms of environmental impacts in order to create awareness. Container port selection problem was solved using fuzzy TOPSIS (The Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Situation) method considering the perspective of carriers. In the study, the container port selection was carried out among the four largest container ports in Turkey.


A 63-year-old man with type 2 diabetes mellitus developed deep aching and numbness in the right hip and lower extremity with rapid body weight loss. Neurological examination revealed weakness of the right hamstrings, tibialis anterior, and peroneus longus muscles with diminished ankle tendon reflex. We diagnosed him with diabetic lumbosacral radicuoloplexus neuropathy (DLRPN) based on neurological, radiological, and neurophysiological findings. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of skeletal muscles showed high intensity signals on T2-weighted images in bilateral hamstrings, adductor magnus and right tensor fasciae latae, and lower leg extensor muscles. The MRI findings suggested muscle edema caused by acute denervation. DLRPN, or diabetic amyotrophy, is known to be caused by ischemic axonal degeneration. Our patient showed good functional recovery, and abnormal MRI signals in the involved muscles mostly disappeared in parallel to the clinical course. Distribution of the denervated muscles suggested that our patient had either patchy lesions in the lumbosacaral plexus or mononeuropathy multiplex in the nerve branches. The current study highlights the potential of skeletal muscle MRI for clinical evaluation of DLRPN.


A direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) receiver using a new transversal filter structure called minimum redundant transversal filter (MRTF), for combating narrow-band interference is proposed. The tap spacings of MRTF are selected by a particular non-uniform thinning technique so as to achieve better cancellation resolution than the conventional transversal filter structure, but with a lesser number of tap weights and at a far reduced level of complexity. Analytical expressions for the signal-to-noise ratio improvement factors and for the average bit error rate (BER) are derived under the conditions of multiple tone interferer. The effectiveness of the new suppression filter is examined and the results obtained for the system reveals the fact that the MRTF structure leads to superior performance especially when frequencies of the jamming tones are near the carrier frequency of the modulated signal.


Aim. To assess the relationship between different types of sleep disorders, sleep-related symptoms and hypertension (HTN). Material and methods. This cross-sectional study based on the online survey of persons aged 18-39 years with a body mass index of 18-25 kg/m 2 . Results. According to the res ults, the HTN risk in persons aged 18-39 years with normal body mass index increases 2 or more times in the presence of various types of sleep disorders and related symptoms. The prevalence of HTGN depends on the patient's phenotype, i.e. from a combination of different types of sleep disorders and sleep-related symptoms. Conclusion. Given the widespread prevalence of various sleep disorders, as well as the relationship between sleep disorders and hypertension in young people, it is necessary to develop preventive measures aimed at reducing the HTN risk by restoring healthy sleep. We also suggest that various sleep disorders may be the primary link in the development of essential HTN. Acknowledgments. The authors are grateful to for help in data collection and analysis.


INTRODUCTION The authors of this article have extensive and long-term experience as both college professors and management consultants. Over the past several years, they have collected information from the faculty of domestic and foreign colleges and universities on their attitudes toward academic dishonesty and what they do when infractions occur (Frost, Hamlin & Barczyk, 2007). This paper examines the approaches and policies several institutions use in an effort to minimize the problem of academic dishonesty. Often there is a lack of alignment between individual professors and their institutions of employment, both in terms of attitudes and enforcement of policy. This is particularly acute for non-tenured faculty, who often fear retaliation by students on course evaluations if they act as "policemen" who protect the university's policies on academic integrity. This has resulted in the creation of committees that enforce sanctions against students who are found guilty of various acts of academic dishonesty. In so doing, these committees relieve the individual instructor of the obligation to act as judge and jury. Generally, institutions create a policy that defines expected behavior, establishes a committee to enforce the policy, and formulates a communication program to explain to everyone exactly what is expected. This paper is organized into three sections. The first describes why the problem of academic dishonesty is important. It examines the extent of the problem and describes approaches to control it. The second section presents the administrative mechanisms employed by ten U.S.-based universities to help manage student academic dishonesty. The third section provides some conclusions. Limitations of this research and implications for further study are discussed. WHY THIS PROBLEM IS IMPORTANT While the root cause of academic dishonesty is subject to much debate, anecdotal evidence suggests multiple factors. Many undergraduate students in colleges and universities either engage in dishonest behavior themselves; refuse to turn in fellow students who they see cheating; think it is permissible to cheat if the rewards are high enough; or have some other type of unhealthy or unrealistic attitude. These attitudes result in more dishonest behavior, which in the long run, hurts the cheater and honest students that do not engage in dishonest acts. According to Hamlin and Powell (2008) the need has never been greater for a solution to the problem of academic dishonesty. Six points highlight the urgency of this issue. First, academic dishonesty occurs frequently in every discipline, as discussed in the next section. Second, there is no uniform method for dealing with the problem within the same department, much less between different universities. Thus, individual faculty members can be left to fend for themselves, and most instructors, regardless of tenure status, do not wish to increase their workload by becoming classroom enforcement officers. Third, non-tenured faculty members have even less incentive to deal with this problem, since student retaliation on end-of-semester evaluations can interfere with the instructor's goal to attain tenure. Fourth, discrepancies in either policy or implementation can result in legal problems. Fifth, honest students are disadvantaged when dishonest students are not charged and punished, especially if the instructor grades on a curve. Sixth, how the issue is handled is of paramount importance in getting a positive outcome from this very negative experience. Academic instructors must foster the perception for the benefit of faculty and students, that integrity policies and enforcement mechanisms are fair and consistently applied. Even if these points are addressed, dishonesty will remain a problem for colleges and universities. The scope of the issue is so significant that the authors strongly believe that it is their responsibility to at least make an effort to minimize it. …


Previous research in the domain of air traffic control (ATC) has explored factors that describe the complexity facing a controller. Based on this research, new technologies and procedures have been developed that may aid the controller and reduce the complexity in ATC. Most of these technologies were designed to reduce ATC complexity associated with air traffic density, identification and resolution of conflict situations, and the operational efficiency of the human-machine interface. The purpose of the present study was to explore and prototype new display enhancements that may reduce complexity in ATC. A team of researchers from the Human Factors Branch (ACT-530) of the Federal Aviation Administration William J. Hughes Technical Center and the Human Resources Research Division (AAM-500) of the Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) identified four complexity factors as being suitable for a graphical enhancement. These factors were the effects of weather on airspace structure, the effects of active Special Use Airspace (SUA), the effects of the number of transitioning aircraft, and the effects of the reliability of radio and radar coverage. We conducted a user evaluation of the display enhancements and their possible impact on ATC complexity. Two supervisors and 13 Full Performance Level controllers from the Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center participated as observers in this evaluation. The results of the user evaluation showed that the controllers supported earlier research that identified weather, SUA, transitioning aircraft, and reliability of radio and radar coverage as factors that increase ATC complexity. The controllers favored the proposed display enhancements. More importantly, the controllers predicted a substantial reduction in their job complexity from the enhancements. Based on these findings, we recommend a formal test simulation of the proposed enhancements to determine their efficacy for reducing task complexity in ATC operations. We also recommend further studies to determine the optimal colors for each display enhancement for use in operational systems.


The number of organic farmers in Scotland increased dramatically in the period between 1997 and 2000, from 120 in 1997 to approximately 600 at the end of 2000; a five fold increase. Currently the outlook for organic farming in Scotland appears positive, despite recent publicity about farmers leaving the sector. Market prospects for all organic commodities are buoyant and there are increased Scottish Executive Organic Aid Scheme (OAS) maintenance payments in the offing. But what do Scotland's organic producers really think about the system, which has them, tied in for at least five years?
In June 2004, a representative group of Scottish organic farmers in the South of Scotland was surveyed to determine how many intended to continue farming organically once they had completed the OAS and to consider the factors affecting their decisions regarding organic conversion and cessation. Results indicated that 55% of respondents intended to continue farming organically in the short term whilst 37% intended to continue for the long term (the next decade). Although half of the respondents indicated that they were greatly influenced to convert to organic farming for wider environmental benefits and 45% for perceived job satisfaction, by far the biggest influence cited was financial benefit. Sixty nine per cent of respondents cited OAS subsidies and 55% cited the perceived price premium on produce. These fi ndings were confirmed in a second survey of organic farmers in Central Scotland between November 2004 and January 2005. In this second survey almost half (49%) of respondents cited increased long term financial returns and 44% cited the short-term cash injection from OAS payments as being of great importance in the decision to convert.
The Central Scotland survey also indicated that stress and pressure on farmers following conversion was remarkably high, perhaps as a result of farmers having to adopt new practices and procedures; 97% of respondents reported increased paperwork and 79% stated that they required increased management skills. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that farmers' attitude to
organic farming changes over time from initial apprehension to more confidence in production methods and the system in general.
Factors impeding farmers' efforts to farm organically were primarily issues relating to cash flow, certification bodies, standards and marketing. Marketing issues were perceived or found to be the main problem after full organic status was achieved in the SW Scotland survey. The Central Scotland survey indicates insufficient price premiums and lack of local outlets as the main factors for cessation of organic farming. Both surveys also concur on the fact that hill farmers are more likely to leave organic farming in the short term than their upland and lowland counterparts. However, respondents from both surveys who did not intend to continue farming organically stated they planned to continue farming extensively using organic farming methods and systems.


Agro-industrial residues are a potential source of antioxidant compounds, which in general are phenolic compounds with a large chemical variability. The structure and the complexity of the phenolic compounds (polyphenols) determine their antioxidant capacity, pretreatments, and extraction methods. This chapter gives an overview of the chemical complexity of the phenolic compounds found in extractable and non-extractable fractions of agro-industrial residues, and representative compounds that are present in such residues are shown. Moreover, extraction methods described in this review showed the use of nonconventional technologies and chemical, enzymatic, or thermic treatments, useful to transform non-extractable polyphenols (NEP) to extractable polyphenol (EP) and then apply the EP extraction methods and recover antioxidants.


The student-centered teaching paradigm focuses on students engaged in learning high-order skills. Pedagogical research results suggest that the use of active learning within a cooperative environment is the best way to obtain these skills. In this context, the use of the Internet for these educational purposes-a concept known as electronic learning-can eliminate the physical barriers to cooperative learning. However, the implementation of such an electronic learning environment is often attempted using ad-hoc strategies that considerably limit its final impact and applicability. This work demonstrates how to design cooperative learning activities on the Internet by using basic principles derived from contemporary pedagogical research results. These activities were successfully applied in the context of forums repeated twice in two years in an artificial neural networks laboratory belonging to an engineering program.


I. INTRODUCTION II. BACKGROUND OF CURRENT LAW A. The Aramco Decision 1. The Presumption against Extraterritoriality 2. Congress Responds to ARAMCO B. The Courts' Interpretation of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 1. Iwata v. Stryker Corp 2. Shekoyan v. Sibley Int'l Co. 3. Gantchar v. United Airlines 4. No Case Has Considered the Conflict Between the Alien Exemption Clause and the Constitution III. THE ALIEN EXEMPTION CLAUSE, AS ENFORCED, IS AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL DENIAL OF EQUAL PROTECTION A. STATE CLASSIFICATIONS ON THE BASIS OF ALIENAGE ARE SUBJECT TO STRICT SCRUTINY B. ACTIONS BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT THAT CLASSIFY PEOPLE BASED ON ALIENAGE ARE ALSO SUBJECT TO STRICT SCRUTINY C. APPLYING STRICT SCRUTINY TO THE ALIEN EXEMPTION CLAUSE 1. Strict Scrutiny Applied to the Alien Exemption Clause Would Invalidate the Clause D. A COURT MUST INTERPRET A STATUTE IN A WAY THAT AVOIDS A CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION IV. THE IMPACT ON THE APPLICATION OF TITLE VII'S ALIEN EXEMPTION CLAUSE A. IF THE ALIEN EXEMPTION CLAUSE IS SIMPLY AMBIGUOUS, COURTS WILL HAVE TO DETERMINE WHICH ALIENS ARE EXCLUDED FROM COVERAGE B. IF THE ALIEN EXEMPTION CLAUSE IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL, THE COURTS SHOULD APPLY A CONFLICT OF LAWS ANALYSIS TO DETERMINE COVERAGE 1. The Federal Choice of Law Rule 2. Application of the Choice of Law Rule V. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION Global commerce began on a small scale in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and, since the early nineteenth century, the world's economies have been highly integrated. (1) Today, several factors allow the world's economies to benefit from a new dimension of globalization. (2) First, the removal of trade restrictions has greatly influenced companies' decisions to expand trade to other countries. (3) Over the last fifty years, the global economy has seen an increase in multilateral and regional agreements that have stimulated global trade. (4) The second factor increasing the incentives to globalize is the privatization first seen in the 1990s. (5) Privatization drives globalization by creating aggressive competition in domestic markets. (6) In turn, competition drives local industries to search the world for new markets and cheaper materials. (7) Finally, recent internet-related technologies drive globalization by boosting efficiency and growth. (8) These technologies catalyze rapid industrialization of developing regions by increasing information and improving access to markets. (9) What would have taken fifty to one-hundred years is now possible in five years or less, thanks to today's superior technology. (10) This increase in globalization raises many interesting legal issues. The numerous U.S. companies operating internationally initiate much litigation about which U.S. laws apply outside the United States. (11) Notably, part of this litigation addresses the employer-employee relationship. (12) To complicate the issue, there is a presumption that the "legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States." (13) Thus, debate over extraterritorial application of U.S. law persists. One important area in the international application of U.S. law is the development of Title VII protection for workers outside of the United States. (14) In the early 1990s, the Supreme Court held that Title VII does not apply to workers outside of the United States. (15) Congress quickly enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1991 "to respond to recent decisions of the Supreme Court by expanding the scope of relevant civil rights statutes in order to provide adequate protection to victims of discrimination", (16) The Act extends Title VII coverage to U. …


While a growing awareness of climate change has marked the institutional agenda at the national level in Colombia, the capital city of Bogota has not undertaken actions to include adaptation to climate change within its policies so far. Conceptualizing the central role of city-level institutions in the successful realization of adaptation policies is a straightforward matter. This is not the case for actions and conditions that may foster adaptation capacity according to varying institutional and social geographies. Using secondary data and a selection of interviews with key stakeholders occupying leading planning roles in important departments of the local administration, this article explores why and how a framework based on incentives and obstacles should be complemented by recent developments in the analysis of policy implementation based on the differentiation between political and programmatic success and failure on the basis of existing local policy styles.


A number of studies have assessed the association between acculturation and resilience following atraumatic event. This study examines the relationship between acculturation strategies and resilience among the Qiang nationality following the 2008 Chinese earthquake. We found evidence that there are four acculturation strategies (integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization) based on the Qiang's cultural identity status. We also assessed resilience among this sample, using the Connor-DavidsonResilience Scale (CD-RISC). Correlation analysis results indicated that most dimensions of the Qiang cultural identities have positive relationships with participants' scores on CD-RISC dimensions of tenacity, strength and optimism. And regression analyses indicated that most of the cultural identity dimensions can predict resilience. The four acculturation strategies are also predictive of resilience: those with an Integration strategy have greater resilience than those pursuing marginalization; those pursuing assimilation and separation have intermediate levels of resilience.


Increasingly, modern conflict and military activity require soldiers to carry out their missions within foreign cultures in which the civilian populace rather than a battlefield becomes the focal point. So, from the commander to the soldier on the street, the warfighter must understand the society's values and the motivations of the groups within it. Gaming can help the military train soldiers for this new type of conflict.


Abstract Many studies have assessed the effect of landscape patterns on spatial ecological processes by simulating these processes in computer‐generated landscapes with varying composition and configuration. To generate such landscapes, various neutral landscape models have been developed. However, the limited set of landscape‐level pattern variables included in these models is often inadequate to generate landscapes that reflect real landscapes. In order to achieve more flexibility and variability in the generated landscapes patterns, a more complete set of class‐ and patch‐level pattern variables should be implemented in these models. These enhancements have been implemented in Landscape Generator (LG), which is a software that uses optimization algorithms to generate landscapes that match user‐defined target values. Developed for participatory spatial planning at small scale, we enhanced the usability of LG and demonstrated how it can be used for larger scale ecological studies. First, we used LG to recreate landscape patterns from a real landscape (i.e., a mountainous region in Switzerland). Second, we generated landscape series with incrementally changing pattern variables, which could be used in ecological simulation studies. We found that LG was able to recreate landscape patterns that approximate those of real landscapes. Furthermore, we successfully generated landscape series that would not have been possible with traditional neutral landscape models. LG is a promising novel approach for generating neutral landscapes and enables testing of new hypotheses regarding the influence of landscape patterns on ecological processes. LG is freely available online.


In many applications, it is necessary to determine the similarity of two strings. A widely-used notion of string similarity is the edit distance: the minimum number of insertions, deletions, and substitutions required to transform one string into the other. In this report, we provide a stochastic model for string-edit distance. Our stochastic model allows us to learn a string-edit distance function from a corpus of examples. We illustrate the utility of our approach by applying it to the difficult problem of learning the pronunciation of words in conversational speech. In this application, we learn a string-edit distance with nearly one-fifth the error rate of the untrained Levenshtein distance. Our approach is applicable to any string classification problem that may be solved using a similarity function against a database of labeled prototypes.


and Implications The ability of the uterus to accommodate a finite amount of placental tissue appears to be a major limitation to litter size. Meishan preimplantation conceptuses contain fewer cells, produce less estradiol-17β, elongate to a shorter length, and exhibit a reduced placental size throughout gestation than Yorkshire conceptuses. Uterine luminal embryonic estradiol-17β and growth factor content are positively associated at elongation. Based on these data, we have argued that growth factor quantity regulates the length an embryo attains at elongation, and ultimately limits placental size. Recently, we injected Meishan gilts every 6 hours with estradiol-17β on day 12 and 13 of gestation, resulting in a 40% increase in placental size at term compared with vehicle-injected Meishan gilts. This study was conducted to determine if transfer of embryos into the oviducts of asynchronous females (more or less advanced uterine environments) would alter fetal and/or placental size at term. Embryos (1 to 4 cells) were flushed from the oviducts of each donor gilt on day 2.5 of gestation and transferred in equal numbers to the oviducts of a recipient gilt on day 1.5, 2.5, or 3.5 of their estrous cycle. Gilts were slaughtered on day 112 of gestation and fetal and placental weight, placental surface area, and implantation site lengths were determined. Although litter sizes were similar (8.4 ± 1.1), conceptuses transferred to day 3.5 recipients had heavier fetuses (1.57 ± .09 vs. 1.23 ± .04 kg, P<.001), larger placental surface area (1812 ± 106 vs. 1458 ± 43 cm, P<.01) and occupied longer implantation site length (34 ± 3 vs. 25 ± 1 cm, P<.001) than those transferred to recipients on day 1.5 or 2.5. These data demonstrate that oviductal transfer of embryos to a reproductive tract as little as 24 hours more advanced can result in dramatic alterations in placental growth and function during gestation.


Abstract Structural data and a regional tectonic interpretation are given for the NE–SW-trending Hatay Graben, southern Turkey, within the collision zone of the African (Arabian) and Eurasian (Anatolian) plates. Regional GPS and seismicity data are used to shed light on the recent tectonic development of the Hatay Graben. Faults within Upper Cretaceous to Quaternary sediments are categorized as of first-, second- and third-order type, depending on their scale, location and character. Normal, oblique and strike-slip faults predominate throughout the area.The flanks of the graben are dominated by normal faults, mainly striking parallel to the graben, that is, 045–225°. In contrast, the graben axis exhibits strike-slip faults, trending 100–200°, together with normal faults striking 040–060° and 150–190° (a subset strikes 110–130°). Similarly orientated normal faults occur throughout Upper Cretaceous to Pliocene sediments, whereas strike-slip faults are mostly within Pliocene sediments near the graben axis. Stress inversion of slickenline data from mostly Pliocene sediments at ten suitable locations (all near the graben axis) show that σ3 directions (minimum stress axis ≈ extension direction) are uniform in the northeast of the graben but orientated at a high angle to the graben margins. More variable σ3 directions in the southwest may reflect local block rotations. During Miocene times, the Arabian and Anatolian plates collided, forming a foreland basin associated with flexurally controlled normal faulting. During the Late Miocene there was a transition from extension to transtension (oblique extension). The neotectonic Hatay Graben formed during the Plio-Quaternary in a transtensional setting. In the light of modern and ancient comparisons, it is suggested that contemporaneous strain was compartmentalized into large-scale normal faults on the graben margins and mainly small-scale strike-slip faults near the graben axis. Overall, the graben reflects Plio-Quaternary westward tectonic escape from a collision zone towards the east to a pre- or syn-collisional zone to the west in the Mediterranean Sea.


Steven Spielberg has become a brand name and a force that extends far beyond the movie screen. Phrases like "phone home" and the music score from Jaws are now part of our cultural script, appearing in commercials, comedy routines, and common conversation. Yet few scholars have devoted time to studying Spielberg's vast output of popular films despite the director's financial and aesthetic achievements. Spanning twenty-five years of Spielberg's career, Steven Spielberg: Interviews explores the issues, the themes, and the financial considerations surrounding his work. The blockbuster creator of E.T., Jaws, and Schindler's List talks about dreams and the almighty dollar. "I'm not really interested in making money," he says. "That's always come as the result of success, but it's not been my goal, and I've had a tough time proving that to people." Ranging from Spielberg's twenties to his mid-fifties, the interviews chart his evolution from a brash young filmmaker trying to make his way in Hollywood, to his spectacular blockbuster triumphs, to his maturation as a director seeking to inspire the imagination with meaningful subjects. The Steven Spielberg who emerges in these talks is a complex mix of businessman and artist, of arrogance and insecurity, of shallowness and substance. Often interviewers will uncover the director's human side, noting how changes in Spielberg's personal life -- marriage, divorce, fatherhood, remarriage -- affect his movies. But always the interviewers find keys to the story-telling and filmmaking talent that have made Spielberg's characters and themes shape our times and inhabit our dreams. "Every time I go to a movie, it's magic, no matter what the movie's about," he says. "Whether you watch eight hours of Shoah or whether it's Ghostbusters, when the lights go down in the theater and the movie fades in, it's magic."


Background: Happiness is an important but less-explored topic in higher education. This calls for examining courses in higher education on happiness and how college students perceive happiness through experiential learning activities. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to analyze the development of a happiness course in higher education and understand students' perspectives toward their experiential learning activities. Methodology/Approach: The course materials (e.g., the syllabus), teaching logs, students' reflective observations, and final projects were collected. Content analysis was adopted to analyze the course design. Findings/Conclusions: The concrete experiences in this happiness course involved field trips, hands-on activities, dialogue, inquiries, and shared reading. These activities were associated with good relationships, art, and the human spirit, a healthy life, peaceful coexistence with nature, as well as harsh realities and optimism. Evidence from reflective observations demonstrates students' personal unique perspectives toward the experiential learning activities on absolute happiness. The final projects as active experimentation deepened students' understanding of absolute happiness. Implications: Converging evidence across intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intergroup domains, our study suggests the possibility of using Ikeda's six life conditions for absolute happiness and Kolb's experiential learning model to help college students develop knowledge and wisdom for creating absolute happiness.


The white-rot fungus Phanerochaete sordida (Karsten) Eriksson and Ryvarden 1978 is known for its excellent ligninolytic activity and capability to degrade various recalcitrant organic pollutants. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of P. sordida YK-624. The mitochondrial genome is 129,567bp in length with a GC content of 28.9%, and contains two ribosomal RNA genes, 26 transfer RNA genes, and 50 open reading frames, including 14 conserved proteins. Phylogenetic analysis based on the mitochondrial genome confirmed that P. sordida belongs to the family Phanerochaetaceae in the order Polyporales, and showed the general phylogenetic relationships.


Over the last decade the interest in the quality of EU legislative instruments has surged due to serious threats to the effectiveness of the legislation. This contribution makes an inventory of the policies and instruments that have been put into place to improve quality of legislation and assesses their character, orientation and effectiveness. Any appraisal of these policies, so the paper argues, is dependent on a perception of the basic functions attributed to EU legislative instruments and the standards derived from it. The paper concludes that the present policies and instruments for better lawmaking have the ability to promote regulatory quality, but not necessarily overall legislative quality.


The development of reliable shear wave velocity (VS) profiles from surface wave velocity measurements requires compatibility between the measured and theoretical dispersion curves used in the inversion procedure. The most common approach in geotechnical applications is to use a fundamental-mode theoretical dispersion curve based on the assumption that the measured dispersion curve is representative of the fundamental mode of surface wave propagation. Analyses of low-frequency surface wave measurements presented in this paper show that this widespread assumption is invalid at low frequencies (long wavelengths) for some profile conditions. Results are presented from measurements performed at two deep soil sites in the central United States where surface wave analyses were performed using both the common fundamental-mode approach as well as an "effective-velocity" approach. At one site these two methods produced essentially the same estimate of the VS profile, while at the second site the estimated VS values at depth differed by more than 40 %. Using soil profile information for these sites and simulations of surface wave propagation, it is shown that the shallower depth to a higher-velocity formation at the second site created dominant higher-mode energy at wavelengths of 300–600 m, resulting in an overestimation of deep VS values.


The continuous cooling transformation behaviour of dual phase steels were studied with emphasis on the effects of addition of chromium, cooling rate and intercritical annealing temperature on the volume fractions of different transformed products of austenite. The results show that addition of 0.21% chromium promotes the formation of acicular products in the final microstructure and does not have much effect on the volume fractions of the co-existing phases at intercritical annealing temperatures. A mathematical model based on Avrami's equation and Scheil's additivity principle was developed to predict the volume fractions of polygonal ferrite as a function of cooling rate for one of the continuous cooled steels. The predicted results from the model show good agreement with experimental observations.


Over the past years applications of fusion technique have been growing rapidly. However, very few applications of the technique to microarray data have been reported. In this paper, we propose a new fusion method based on pseudo standard deviation minimization (PSDM) for the feature selection of microarray. This new method provides a more accurate set of features. Therefore the classification can be performed and functional meaning from the features can also be revealed. The new method is actually obtained through a combination of two different feature selection methods (FSMs). It is shown that it can explore nonperfect correlation between gene expression profile and cancer classes or feature detection algorithms. To evaluate its effectiveness, it is tested on lymphoma and leukemia microarray expression datasets and then compared with the existing methods. Self-organizing map (SOM) is used for feature classification. It can be seen through the comparison that the classification accuracy of the new fusion method is at least 2% ~ 3% higher than others.


This study investigated the extent to which cognitive measures of individual differences predict strategy shifts in a series of procedural-motor curve-drawing tasks. College students participated in a task which required them to trace or draw various forms of a figure-8 before completing a battery of cognitive tests. Three distinct drawing strategies emerged, and the tendency to vary these strategies was quantified using Shannon's Entropy. The results indicated that participants employed multiple strategies early in a block of trials before eventually settling on a preferred strategy. Additionally, higher creativity scores were associated with higher entropy, whereas participants with higher verbal and working memory ability preferred to settle on their preferred strategy.


Sir,

Deletions in the Forkhead-box P2(FOXP2) gene are characteristically associated with language impairment. We report a 3-year-old girl with global developmental delay who had a deletion in the long arm of chromosome 7 involving the FOXP2 gene. She also had a characteristic butterfly-shaped appearance of the ventricular atria with decreased volume in the splenium of corpus callosum and delayed myelination of the parietal centum semiovale. Our patient was born to healthy, non-consanguineous parents. Mother was an 18-year-old primigravida and father was 33 years old. Father had two children from a previous partner. One child was normal and the other child was said to have "something wrong" but the details were not clearly known. Our patient was born at full term by cesarean section done for face presentation after an uncomplicated pregnancy. At birth, she was hypotonic and admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit for observation. Birth weight was 2.5 kg (5th percentile) and length was 45.7 cm (5th percentile). Physical examination was otherwise unremarkable except for hypotonia. She failed the initial hearing test. In the first few days of life, she had frequent apneas requiring stimulation. All the investigations for etiology of apnea were negative. She was discharged at 3 weeks on home apnea monitor. The home apnea monitor was discontinued at 4 months of age. Work-up included a karyotype which revealed 46XX with deletion involving chromosome-7.

At 7 months of age, social smile was the only milestone met. Further genetic evaluation with an oligonucleotide array revealed 19.1 Mbdeletion in chromosome 7 spanning 7q22.1-q31.31. Mother was evaluated for this deletion by fluorescent in-situ hybridization and was found to be negative. Unfortunately, we could not do genetic testing in the father. Echocardiogram of the patient was within normal limits and her renal ultrasound was also normal. Repeat hearing test (tymphanogram) showed type B pattern bilaterally.

In the first year of life, growth was consistently below 5th percentile despite increasing calorie density of the formula. Developmental milestones across all domains were severely delayed. Eye examination was done at 15 months for esotropia and daily patching was recommended. At 21 months of life, she was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit for status epilepticus. Seizures were controlled with multiple medications and levetiracetam was continued for maintenance. Initial electroencephalogram (EEG) was consistent with mild to moderate diffuse global neuronal dysfunction. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed delayed myelination seen mostly in the region of posterior horns of the lateral ventricles [Figure 1a]. Additionally, the white matter of the Sylvain fissure was also attenuated and the fissure appeared to extend up to the lateral ventricles [Figure 1b]. This pattern resembled the shape of a butterfly [Figure 1b]. Another finding observed was attenuation of the posterior third of the body of corpus callosum [Figure 1c].

Figure 1

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain. (a) FLAIR sequence. Axial slice. Unmyelinated white matter represented as hyperintensity in centrum semiovale. (b) Coronal T1W image-"butterfly"- shapedventricles. Deep Sylvian fissure (arrow). ...

Currently, our patient is 3 year old and does not have any dysmorphic features. Her current weight is 9 kg and height is 78 cm (both below 5th percentiles). Her development is severely delayed in all domains. She is hypotonic and does not sit, stand or walk. She does not say a single word and also does not communicate non-verbally. She is under multidisciplinary care.

Language development has been partly localized to chromosome 7q31 which includes the FOXP2 gene (SPCH1; OMIM#602081).[1] FOXP2 gene defects are well known to cause speech and language deficits (developmental verbal dyspraxia), articulation problems and significantly limited oral vocabulary.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7] At least two dozen cases of interstitial deletions involving 7q31 have been reported so far.[2] Additionally, majority of these patients also have significant delay in cognition and motor development.[2,7] Imaging abnormalities of the brain were rarely reported in these children. Mild brain atrophy and bilateral hyperintensities in the white matter were reported by Zilina et al.[2] Cranial imaging was reportedly normal in some patients.[2,4,8] In our patient, the lateral ventricles appeared butterfly-shaped on the coronal images at the level of the atria with irregular walls. To the best of our knowledge, this butterfly pattern has so far not been reported in cases of chromosome 7q deletion. In view of no prior reports, the exact mechanism of pathogenicity of deletion (chromosome 7q22.1-q31.31) observed in our patient contributing to this butterfly imaging pattern is currently unknown and precise role in normal development is unclear.

Gonzalez-Toledo et al. presented butterfly pattern in eight patients with severe psychomotor retardation.[9] All these patients were all reported from Argentina and they were aged 8 months, 17 months, 2 years, 3 years, 6 years, 6 years, 9 years and 22 years. The male:female (M:F) ratio was 6:2. In all cases, the lateral ventricles appeared butterfly-shaped on coronal views at the level of the atria, very similar to the present case. The features consistently observed were non-myelination in the juxtaventricular white matter, decreased volume of the posterior third of the corpus callosum, squaring of the posterior cap of the lateral ventricles and irregular contour of the ventricular walls. Additionally, the Sylvian fissures were deep and almost extended to the lateral ventricles. All these eight children had severe psychomotor retardation. However, unfortunately genetic studies could not be done in these patients due to financial constraints. The specific genetic associations underlying this neuroimaging pattern may be further elucidated by future case reports.

In conclusion, we report an unusual neuroimaging pattern in a patient with a 19.1 Mb deletion in chromosome 7 spanning 7q22.1-q31.31 who has severe developmental delay.

The exact prevalence and significance of this observed genetic and neuroimaging association is still unclear but can be further clarified with future similar observation and reports.


Aquasomes are nanoparticulate carrier system but instead of being simple nanoparticles these are three layered self assembled structures, comprised of a solid phase nanocrystalline core coated with oligomeric film to which biochemically active molecules are adsorbed with or without modification. Aquasomes are the nanobiopharmaceutical carrier system contains the particle core composed of nanocrystalline calcium phosphate or ceramic diamond, and is covered by a polyhydroxyl oligomeric film. Aquasomes are spherical 60–300 nm particles used for drug and antigen delivery. Properties like protection and preservation of fragile biological molecules, conformational integrity, and surface exposure made it as a successful carrier system for bioactive molecules like peptide, protein, hormones, antigens and genes to specific sites. Three types of core materials are mainly used for producing aquasomes: tin oxide, nanocrystalline carbon ceramics (diamonds) and brushite (calcium phosphate dihydrate). Calcium phosphate is the core of interest, owing to its natural presence in the body. The brushite is unstable and converts to hydroxyapatite upon prolong storage. Hydroxyapatite seems, therefore, a better core for the preparation of aquasomes. It is widely used for the preparation of implants for drug delivery. It has been reported haemoglobin loaded aquasomes using hydroxyapatite core as potential artificial oxygen carrying system. Conformational integrity of aquasomes exploited as a red blood cell substitutes, vaccines for delivery of viral antigen (Epstein-Barr and Immune deficiency virus) to evoke correct antibody and as targeted system for intracellular gene therapy. Enzyme activity and sensitivity towards molecular conformation made aquasome as a novel carrier for enzymes like DNAses and pigment/ dyes.This article reviews the principles of self assembly, the challenges of maintaining both the conformational integrity and biochemical activity of immobilized surface pairs, and the convergence of these principles into a single functional composition.


The aim of this paper is to move steps towards the determination of "ownership" of Big Data related to consumers and to understand whether allocating economic rights on personal data to consumers is efficient and consistent with human rights of individuals; and whether it will strengthen the level of legibility, agency and negotiability of human-data interactions.
In particular, there is an uncertain "grey area" in which determining "default entitlement" of data is particularly challenging: it is the case of the intellectual output of algorithms on individuals' personality, i.e. all information created by processing raw data (data received, observed, inferred or predicted) through data mining and in general all customer data which are just forecasted, statistically predicted, obtained by the original combination of probabilistic data, meta-data and raw data related to customers.
To find a solution to this grey area "default entitlement" issue, several sub-questions need to be addressed. Firstly, it is necessary to analyze balancing rules in the EU and US legal systems, both under a constitutional point of view and under literal interpretation of existing provisions.
A second sub-question concerns the analysis of the legal and socio-economical feasibility of a form of shared ownership on immaterial goods and in particular of quasi-property on personal data.
Finally, in order to clarify roles and ownership in the "grey area" zone it will be necessary to re-categorize personal data on the basis of the intellectual activity that businesses – through algorithms and Big Data - spend to acquire such data and of the opposite degree of relationship between data and individuals.
A new shared multi-stakeholder management for personal data and new forms of "(intellectual) ownership" on data would be an original solution to the problem of privacy of consumers in the world of behavioral profiling and pervasive direct marketing. In particular, a clear and well-defined shared "quasi-property" on personal data would lead to a stronger level of legibility, agency and negotiability for individuals in the so called "Human-Data Interactions", with very important advantages and protections for consumers in the Information Society world.


Forest and vegetation of particular ecosystem is generally influenced by external factors especially from development activities. Nepal has been endowed with an immense variety of forest resources with its unique biodiversity. The current study is conducted in the temperate forest of central Nepal to compare the state of vegetation recorded during 1995 with the present condition. To identify floristic composition, species distribution and diversity, same location and same size of quadrates were selected in natural forest and planted or regenerated area as in previous study. Measurement and analytical tools for forest and vegetation reveled a total of 19 species and 341 individuals in 0.14 ha regenerated area and 18 species, 17 genera and 260 individuals in 0.16 ha, natural forest areas. However, in 1995, total 31 individuals of 20 woody species, 18 genera and 15 families were recorded within the sampling plots of 0.16 ha of natural forest. Moreover, Alnus nepalensis is found dominating regenerated area and Caryopteris odorata in natural forests whereas in 1995, Litsea chartacea and Maesa chisia were recorded dominant. The Shannon's diversity H' = 2.908, E = 0.970 and Var H' = -0.00 and Simpsons D = 0.027 recorded in 1995 is found to be with higher values when compared with the analysis of present study. Furthermore, in comparison to 1995 study, this study showed lower basal area and timber volume with declining species diversity. Although, the natural forest is found with higher species composition compared to rehabilitated forest, species of herbs and shrubs were found extensively growing.


\(\textbf{Background:}\) Schizophrenia is a debilitating mental disorder that presents impairments in neurocognition and social cognition. Several studies have suggested that the etiology of schizophrenia can be partly explained by oxidative stress. However, our knowledge about the implications of oxidative stress on illness-related cognitive deficits is still far from being clear. The aim of this work was to study the role of oxidative stress molecules on social cognition and neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia.
\(\textbf{Methods:}\) We assessed the peripheral levels of several molecules associated with oxidative stress, namely nitric oxide (NO), malondialdehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), homocysteine, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and neurotrophin 4/5 (NT4/5), in forty–one patients with schizophrenia and forty-three healthy participants. A battery of tests to measure neurocognition and social cognition was also administered to the schizophrenia group.
\(\textbf{Results:}\) We found that the schizophrenia group presented substantially higher levels of oxidative stress than the control group, as revealed by elevated quantities of the pro-oxidants NO and MDA, and decreased levels of the antioxidants GSH, SOD and NT4/5. Interestingly, the levels of NT4/5, which have been shown to have antioxidant effects, correlated with executive functioning, as measured by two distinct tests (WCST and TMT). However, social cognition and symptom severity were not found to be associated with oxidative stress.
\(\textbf{Conclusions:}\) We propose a protective role of NT4/5 against oxidative stress, which appears to have a potentially beneficial impact on neurocognition in schizophrenia.


The ability of radar–rain gauge merging algorithms to precisely analyse convective precipitation patterns is of high interest for many applications, e.g. hydrological modelling, thunderstorm warnings, and, as a reference, to spatially validate numerical weather prediction models. However, due to drawbacks of methods like cross-validation and due to the limited availability of reference data sets on high temporal and spatial scales, an adequate validation is usually hardly possible, especially on an operational basis. The present study evaluates the skill of very high-resolution and frequently updated precipitation analyses (rapid-INCA) by means of a very dense weather station network (WegenerNet), operated in a limited domain of the southeastern parts of Austria (Styria). Based on case studies and a longer-term validation over the convective season 2011, a general underestimation of the rapid-INCA precipitation amounts is shown by both continuous and categorical verification measures, although the temporal and spatial variability of the errors is – by convective nature – high. The contribution of the rain gauge measurements to the analysis skill is crucial. However, the capability of the analyses to precisely assess the convective precipitation distribution predominantly depends on the representativeness of the stations under the prevalent convective condition.


Village hollowing is a growing policy problem globally, but accurately estimating housing vacancy rates is difficult and costly. In this study, we piloted the use of power consumption data to estimate the vacancy rate of rural housing. To illustrate the method used, we took power consumption data in 2014 and 2017 in an area of rural China to analyze the change in housing vacancies. Results indicated that the rural vacancy rates were 5.27% and 8.69%, respectively, while underutilization rates were around 10% in 2014 and 2017. Second, there was significant spatial clustering of vacant rural housing, and the hotspots were mainly distributed in western mountainous areas, whereas villages near urban areas had lower vacancy rates. Third, rural vacancies increased from 2014 to 2017. Compared with other methods, our method proved to be accurate, very cost-effective and scalable, and it can offer timely spatial and temporal information that can be used by policymakers to identify areas with significant village hollowing issues. However, there are challenges in setting the right thresholds that take into consideration regional differences. Therefore, there is also a need for more studies in different regions in order to scale up this method to the national level.


AAbdominal pregnancies are rare and life threatening conditions with increased maternal mortality rate. A 37-year old woman admitted with acute abdominal pain. She had a history of dilatation and curettage due to anembryonic pregnancy five days ago. A pelvic X Ray confirmed an abdominally located IUCD. Her serum β-human chorionic gonadotropin level was 5531 mIU/ml.  A laparoscopy was performed and there was a round hemorrhagic mass in the vesicouterine pouch in exploration. The trophoblastic tissue was removed from the vesicouterine pouch and left sacrouterine ligament. The histopathology report revealed chorionic villi both of the excised specimens. The abdominal cavity should be explored carefully in suspicion of abdominal pregnancy and laparoscopic management is a feasible approach for this cases.


Digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution are increasingly impacting all aspect of everyday life, including business management. The use of AI comes with substantial advantages in the short, medium and long term, but also creates substantial new risks that must be appropriately addressed. These risks can hinder innovation and progress if they constitute an obstacle for the adoption of AI technologies. An ethical adoption of AI can encourage progress and innovation and therefore benefit both business and society at large. In this work we aim to provide a clear and understandable managerial framework for stakeholders to adopt AI safely within their activities, an ethical risk identification and mitigation set of strategies, and emphasise the leadership role that firms can have in this process.


Introduction and aims: juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) may cause permanent physical disabilities in children and adolescents. This study aimed to describe the several kinds of rehabilitation procedures, ranging from evaluation to prescription of exercises, as well as the elaboration of a practical rehabilitation guide for JIA patients. Sources of data: the research was based on data from Medline and Lilacs. The opinion of experts working on the Pediatric Rheumatology service from Lar Escola Sao Francisco and Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo was considered on the debate of several topics. Summary: JIA patients may present pain and limitation of joint movement thereby leading to decrease in physical capacity, affecting both aerobic and anaerobic activities. In addition to the joint compromise, cardiac and autonomic dysfunctions collaborate on this process, impairing sport and everyday activities. The American College of Rheumatology recommends 30-minute activity with moderate intensity, two to three times weekly. Hydrotherapy is associated to treatment adherence, besides helping in decreasing pain perception and adding to cope with daily activities. Other rehabilitation modalities, such as massage, education, joint protection, energy conservation, and splints are also considered in the present review. Conclusion: there are few studies in the literature focusing on rehabilitation in children with JIA. Particularly, there is a lack of studies concerning aspects of adequate prescription of exercises, weight-bearing, number of series and repetitions, as well as the best choice regarding ground or water activity. We believe that additional information is needed in order to improve the physical care to these patients.


Brain Anatomy
Contrary to historical perception, although their brains are small, birds are surprisingly smart. Olkowicz et al. compared neuronal numbers across mammalian and bird species with similar brain mass. They found that parrot and songbird brains have twice as many nerve cells as mammalian brains of equivalent size. Their neurons are more densely packed than those of any mammal, even primates. What is more, corvids (crows, jays, and ravens) and songbirds have an exceptionally high percentage of neurons located in brain structures that are the avian homolog of the neocortex. The extremely high packing density of bird brains leads to short interneuronal distances. This results in high information processing speeds, which might further enhance the cognitive abilities of some species. Intelligence may depend more on the absolute number and connections of neurons than on brain size.

Proc. Nat. Acad. U.S.A. 113 , 7255 (2016).


Traditional Chinese medicine is mysterious for its special diagnosis and treatment. In TCM, syndrome differentiation is the method of recognizing and diagnosing diseases or body imbalances in TCM. In this paper, we first give a hierarch model of differentiation syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine according to the model data mining procedure is designed to complete it. Given special data mining schema and character of high-dimensional data sets, we introduce hypergraph based on greedy algorithm in cluster and similarity measure during clustering stage. Finally, the experiment shows that the hypergraph clustering is correct and efficient, which in return could be important for association rules and diagnosis


China is often singled out as one of worst human rights violators in the world today. On the other hand, the Chinese government regularly issues reports chock-full of statistics showing considerable progress on a wide variety of fronts, and proudly claims that Chinese citizens enjoy more rights than ever before. While not denying that much remains to be done, the government maintains its critics are biased, human rights are being misused for political purposes, and China is being subject to a double standard. Many Chinese citizens feel the same way. The very fact that government leaders and Chinese citizens feel China is being held to double standards, whether or not it is true, has several negative consequences for human rights. Beijing has been reluctant to allow visits by inspectors from the U.N. or other countries, and has imposed restrictions on their visits. In response to the annual U.S. State Department report, China now issues its own critical report on the rights situation in the U.S. In addition, China has cancelled bilateral dialogues on human rights and programs on rule of law in response to the attempts to censure it in Geneva. The public's support for international reform efforts has also been weakened. Many citizens are suspicious about the motives of NGOs. Public opinion about America, seen as the leader of Western critics, has undergone a dramatic shift in the last twenty years, from wildly supportive to highly critical. Is China subject to a double standard? I argue based on comparative empirical studies of rights performance that it is, and offer several explanations why. Part I provides a brief overview of China's official policy on human rights and China's involvement in international human rights regime. Part II examines how China does relative to other countries, particularly other countries at its income level, in physical integrity rights, civil and political rights, social and economic rights; quality of governance; law and order and social stability; women's rights; and cultural or minority rights. While China scores well below the average in its lower middle income category on civil and political rights, it outperforms the average country in its income class on virtually all other indicators, supporting the claim that China is subject to a double standard. Part III considers several reasons why China seems to be held to a higher standard than other countries. Some critics argue the attention paid to China is warranted because, given China's huge population, addressing problems in China will benefit so many people. However, India has a population nearly as large as China. And yet, despite a human rights record that falls short of China's on most indicators, India has not received anywhere near as much critical scrutiny as China. A second, more likely explanation is that the international human rights community remains biased toward civil and political rights, the area in which China is the weakest. Third, and related, non-democratic countries are held to higher standards than democratic countries. Fourth, China is singled out because of its geopolitical importance. For some, China has assumed the role played by Russia during the Cold War – the evil empire that must be opposed at every turn. Fifth, China presents a normative challenge to the human rights regime. As suggested by the debate over Asian values, China is likely to take advantage of its growing economic and geopolitical influence to defend and advocate rights policies and normative vision of the world at odds with current rights policies based on secular liberalism even in the face of Western opposition. Sixth, much of the reporting on China by the general media and human rights monitors tends to focus on particular horrific cases of human rights violations that are not representative of the system as a whole. This creates a mistaken impression of how serious the problems are. On the other hand, the government's lack of transparency, combined with the egregious nature of some violations, leads people to suspect the worse, and fuels images of China as a repressive totalitarian state. Part IV concludes with a brief discussion of the benefits of avoiding a double standard.


Many raw biological sequence data have been generated by the human genome project and related efforts. The understanding of structural information encoded by biological sequences is important to acquire knowledge of their biochemical functions but remains a fundamental challenge. Recent interest in RNA regulation has resulted in a rapid growth of deposited RNA secondary structures in varied databases. However, a functional classification and characterization of the RNA structure have only been partially addressed. This article aims to introduce a novel interval-based distance metric for structure-based RNA function assignment. The characterization of RNA structures relies on distance vectors learned from a collection of predicted structures. The distance measure considers the intersected, disjoint, and inclusion between intervals. A set of RNA pseudoknotted structures with known function are applied and the function of the query structure is determined by measuring structure similarity. This not only offers sequence distance criteria to measure the similarity of secondary structures but also aids the functional classification of RNA structures with pesudoknots.


Most research on work-home conflict focuses solely on women. This study compares men and women's perceptions of the extent to which paid work interferes with family life, and examines associations between work-home conflict and health. Data were collected from 2,176 full-time white-collar employees of a British bank. We did not find any significant gender differences in perceptions of work-home conflict. However, predictors of work-home conflict did vary by gender; having children and being in a senior position were more strongly related to work-home conflict for women than for men, while working unsociable hours was more important for men than for women. Work-home conflict was strongly associated with reporting fair or poor self-assessed health, a high number of reported physical symptoms and minor psychological morbidity (GHQ-12). These associations were equally strong for men and women. Our results suggest that work-home conflict is a problem for men as well as women.


Monetary policy for those Members whose currency is the Euro is one of European Union's few formally exclusive competences. Yet despite formal allocation of monetary policy competence to the Union, this chapter argues that the practice of monetary policy decision-making reflects the EU's nation-state structure. It tells us one side of the story about the balance of power for the conduct of monetary policy. If exclusive competence at bottom means that member states have no say in devising policy, then monetary policy, is not at present a genuinely exclusive competence.

Instead, the chapter contends that monetary policy is an exclusive competence of the EU in name only. At the very least, the position is more nuanced than the label of exclusive competence suggests.

The first section compares competence for monetary policy with related areas, specifically economic policy, and closely connected thereto, education, health, labour and social policy. It also briefly discussed how the Eurozone crisis has affected the vertical balance of responsibilities between the EU and its member states in these areas. The second section examines the asymmetric allocation of competence for economic and monetary policy, and the fuzzy boundary between the two, through the prism of the two key Eurozone crisis cases before the CJEU, Pringle and Gauweiler. The third section examines why, contrary to first appearances, the EU does not at present have a genuine exclusive competence for monetary policy.


This comprehensive checklist of aphids presents a total of 591 species, including 26 subspecies, from 147 genera belonging to 15 subfamilies in three families distributed over three superfamilies of Aphidomorpha recorded from 1903 to 2020 in Turkey. In the current list, the systematic positions with the genus and species names of some taxa have been revised, and some species have been downgraded to subspecies in accordance with recent changes in nomenclature. Seven species have been removed from the Turkish fauna and four species that were not included in the previous checklist have been added to the list. Also, 59 of the listed species (about 10% of Aphidomorpha) are evaluated as alien to the Turkish fauna, and the distribution of all species in Turkey is given.


In the past few dacades, urbanization and urban growth have been increasing rapidly in many of the developing countries. It is expected that over 50% of the world population will live in cities in 2005. The growing trend indicates that as many as one fifth of all households still remain with housing tenure problems, which they try to solve through very expensive rentals, insecurity, socially and environmentally-hazardous squatting or unhealthy overcrowding, sometimes ending up with none at all. And hence, proper planning is necessary in urban development policies to improve human settlement managements in a sustainable way. This article has tried to handle urban poverty in the Sudan to a reasonable level of detail. It dealt with selected areas with regard to promotion of sustainable human settlement. The study managed to identity some recent progress in Sudanese human settlements, that is, however, still accompanied by numerous serious instances of decline in the urban environment, especially that of the greater Khartoum.Such instances of environmental deterioration are profiled and analyzed by the study with respect to all human settlement aspects of management, land-use, infrastructure, energy and transport. The paper's conclusion emphasized that improving all these aspects is of high priority.


Integrative analyses of high-throughput omics data have elucidated the aetiology and pathogenesis for complex traits and diseases1–4, and the linking of omics information to electronic health records promises new insights into human health and disease. Recent nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy biomarker profiling has implicated glycoprotein acetyls (GlycA) as a biomarker for cardiovascular risk5 and all-cause mortality6. To elucidate biological processes contributing to GlycA-associated mortality risk, we leveraged human omics data from three population-based cohorts together with nation-wide Finnish hospital and mortality records. Elevated GlycA was associated with myriad infection-related inflammatory processes. Within individuals, elevated GlycA levels were stable over long time periods, up to a decade, and chronically elevated GlycA was also associated with modest elevation of numerous cytokines. Individuals with elevated GlycA also showed increased expression of a transcriptional sub-network, the Neutrophil Degranulation Module (NDM), suggesting an increased activity of microbe-driven immune response. Subsequent analysis of nation-wide hospitalisation and death records was consistent with a microbial basis for GlycA-associated mortality, with each standard deviation increase in GlycA raising an individual's future risk of hospitalization and death from non-localized infection by 40% and 136%, respectively. These results show that, beyond its established role in acute-phase response7–9, elevated GlycA is more broadly a biomarker for low-grade chronic inflammation and increased neutrophil activity. Further, increased risk of susceptibility to severe microbial-infection events in healthy individuals suggests this inflammation is a contributor to mortality risk. Taken together, this study demonstrates the power of an integrative approach that combines omics data and health records to delineate the biological processes underlying a newly discovered biomarker, providing a model strategy for future systems medicine studies.


Objective: The aim of our research was to evaluate the demographic and clinical features, treatment characteristics, and responses of the patients who presented to the Ege University Neurology Headache Outpatient Clinic with headaches lasting less than 4 hours. Another primary goal was to compare the characteristics mentioned above of patients with and without cranial autonomic symptoms. Materials and Methods: Our study was retrospective and cross-sectional. The findings were based on the data collected at our tertiary headache center. Headache disorder diagnoses were made in accordance with the International Classification of Headache Disorders-3 guideline. We reviewed the patients' charts and recorded the information on a standardized form. The patients' clinical features, and treatment responses were noted. The patients were divided into two groups as those with and without autonomic findings, and the above-mentioned features were compared. Treatment responses of patients with trigeminal autonomic cephalgia (TAC) and patients with trigeminal neuralgia (TN) were analyzed via logistic regression analysis. Values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: Sixty-eight patients were included. Twenty-five patients had TAC. Twenty-three patients had TN and 13 had tension type headache. Seven had other primary headaches. The patients' clinical features and treatment responses were different in the subgroups. In patients with TAC , having a triggering factor [Odds ratio (OR): 0.059, 95% confidence interval (CI): (0.005-0.645); p=0.02] reduced the risk of need of attack treatment. In patients with TN, having a brainstem lesion on cranial magnetic resonance imaging sequences [OR: 24.776, 95% CI: (1.033-60.613); p=0.049] increased the risk of long-term treatment failure with carbamazepine, whereas having headache attacks more than once a day [OR: 0.58, 95% CI: (0.04-0.832); p=0.036] decreased the risk. Conclusion: The correct diagnosis of headache disorders is mainly based on the clinical features of the headache. For an effective treatment initiation, a correct diagnosis is mandatory, entirely dependent on adequate history taking.


In Leukemias, recent developments have demonstrated that the Hedgehog pathway plays a key-role in the peculiar ability of self renewal of leukemia stem cells. The aim of this research activity was to investigate, through a first in man, Phase I, open label, clinical trial, the role and the impact, mainly in terms of safety profile, adverse events and pharmacokinetics, of a Sonic Hedgehog inhibitor compound on a population of heavely pretreated patients affected by AML, CML, MF, or MDS, resistant or refractory to standard chemotherapy. Thirty-five patients have been enrolled. The drug was administered orally, in 28 days cycles, without rest periods. The compound showed a good safety profile. The half life was of 17-35 hours, justifying the daily administration. Significant signs of activity, in terms of reduction of bone marrow blast cell amount were seen in most of the patients enrolled. Interestingly, correlative biological studies demonstrated that, comparing the gene expression profyiling signature of separated CD34+ cells before and after one cycle of treatment, the most variably expressed genes were involved in the Hh pathway. Moreover, we observed that many genes involved in MDR (multidrug resistance)were significantly down regulated after treatment. These data might lead to future clinical trials based on combinatory approaches, including, for instance, Hh inhibitors and conventional chemotherapy.


We specify and estimate a lifecycle model of consumption, housing demand and labor supply in an environment where individuals may file for bankruptcy or default on their mortgage. Uncertainty in the model is driven by house price shocks, education specific productivity shocks, and catastrophic consumption events, while bankruptcy is governed by the basic institutional framework in the US as implied by Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. The model is estimated using micro data on credit reports and mortgages combined with data from the American Community Survey. We use the model to understand the relative importance of the two chapters (7 and 13) for each of our two education groups that differ in both preferences and wage profiles. We also provide an evaluation of the BAPCPA reform. Our paper demonstrates importance of distributional effects of Bankruptcy policy.


Leaf extract of plant kesinai (Streblus asper) contains a milk coagulating
protease, which could be a potential rennet substitute. However, its potential has not
been investigated and the protease has not been purified and characterised. Preparation
of the crude leaf extract results in an undesirable, very dark brown colour and inhibition
of this browning may enhance the use of the leaf extract.
The browning inhibitors, citric acid, ascorbic acid, L-cysteine and sodium
metabisulphite were used for prevention of browning and to obtain a crude extract with
an acceptable colour. Metabisulphite was found to be an effective inhibitor of the
enzymatic browning of the leaf extract. At 2 mM concentration it has inhibited browning
and the extract obtained resulted in a white milk coagulum compared to the brown
coloured coagulum of the brown extract. It is thermostable up to 85°C, with an optimum
temperature at 70°C and its optimum pH is 7.2. Six mM added calcium chloride was
optimum for its milk coagulation activity.Microstructure, texture and syneresis of the milk coagulum of the crude extract
were assessed by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron
microscopy (TEM), the Texture Analyser, and measurement of whey volume,
respectively and were compared with that of calf rennet and Fromase. Kesinai coagulum
appeared as a sponge-like when examined under SEM, while calf rennet and Fromase
coagulum appeared as a fibrous network. Quantification results showed that porosity of
kesinai coagulum is low, and significantly different from both of calf rennet and
Fromase coagulum (P<0.05) and (P<0.01), respectively. Kesinai coagulum was soft,
and its strength is significantly lower than that of calf rennet and Fromase coagulum (P<
0.01). Syneresis of its coagulum was low, and the whey volume as per cent of milk
volume was 34.75% compared to 46.75% and 48.79%, for calf rennet and Fromase,
respectively.
The ratio of milk coagulation activity to proteolytic activity of the extract was
very low (0.02) and the protein profile of the milk coagulum and whey on sodium
dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed that the
protease was more proteolytic than calf rennet, and Fromase.The protease was purified by ultrafiltration (UF), Fast protein Liquid
Chromatography (FPLC) gel filtration with Superose 6, FPLC ion exchange using
MonoQ HR 5/5 and lsoelectric Focusing (IEF) using the Rotofor system, with a
puritification fold of 25, and 18% recovery. The purified protease appeared as a single
band on SDS-P AGE with a molecular weight of 31.3 kDa. Characterisation of the purified protease showed that it could be a serine protease with optimum pH of 7.2,
stable in the pH range 5.0 -9.5, and its pI is 5.2. It is thermostable up to 85°C, with
optimum temperature at 70°C. Zymogram analysis showed that protease activity is
associated with milk coagulation activity.
It is concluded that kesinai protease could be used in the production of short
ripened cheese varieties.


The purpose of this study was to describe the sociodemographic, psychopathologic and criminological features associated with homicide based on review of expert psychiatric court reports describing murder and attempted murder perpetrators examined at Jamot Hospital in Yaounde, Cameroon. The study cohort comprised reports describing 12 offenders who were examined at the request of ajudge or public prosecutor from March 1, 2002 to July 31, 2006. There were 8 men (66.7%) and 4 women (33.3%) with a mean age of 18.3 years (range, 17 to 43 years). In 8 cases the criminal act coincided with a difficult period in the offender's life. In the remaining 4 cases the act could not be linked to a specific life event. Assaults were carried out by strangulation, battery, or stabbing (knifes or machetes) in 87.5% of cases and occurred at the victim's home in 68.8% of cases. The main mental disorders diagnosed using the ICD-10 classification were schizophrenia in 41.7% of cases (n = 5), chronic delirium in 25.0% (n = 3), and personality disorder in 8.3 % (n = 1). Nine offenders (75.0%) had a history of mental disorder including 8 within at least six months preceding the assault. Four offenders had already received psychiatric treatment including 2 who required hospitalization following one or more episodes of psychotic decompensation. There were a total of 16 victims including 14 that died and 2 that were seriously wounded but survived thanks to prompt medical attention. The victims included 8 males and 8 females with 11 children (68.7%) and 5 adults (31.3%). In the child group 9 victims died (81.8%) and 2 survived (18.2%). Except one 17-year-old teenager, the 6 female and 3 male child victims were between the ages of 18 months and 8 years. The adult victims included 1 female and 4 males. The main findings of this study were the high incidence of mental disease, especially schizophrenics (66.7%), associated with homicide and the high number of child victims (62.5%). The first finding underlines the public danger of releasing mental patients without psychiatric care or assistance. The second finding highlights the special vulnerability of children and raises questions about the need for special protection and preventive measures. Language: fr


The purpose of the study was to examine the potency of the implementation of e-portfolio supported by the implementation of Lesson Study to improve the metacognitive skill and concept comprehension of Cell Biology. The activities of the lesson study aimed for developing and enhancing e-portfolio implementation habit carried out done seventh times with the same Cell Biology material. The study was followed by quasi experimental study conducted on two classes, consisting of 26 and 27 students. One class underwent seven meetings of portfolio and another class underwent seven meetings of e-portfolio. The data of the study related to the concept comprehension were obtained by valid and reliable pretest and posttest. The data related to the metacognitive skill were obtained too by the pretest and posttest supported by a special rubric. The data of the lesson study were analyzed qualitatively. The data of the quasi experimental study were analyzed by ANACOVA test, to uncover the difference between the two treatments. The results of the study showed that there were significant effects of the implemented treatment on the metacognitive skill and the cell biology concept comprehension of the students. The average score of the metacognitive skill of e-portfolio class supported by lesson study was 39,4% higher than that of the portfolio class. The average score of the concept comprehension of e-portfolio class supported by lesson study was 15% higher than that of the portfolio class without lesson study. The implementation of lesson study was significantly effective in improving the metacognitive skill and the concept comprehension of e-portfolio class compared to that of portfolio class, regardless the previous research reported that the implementation of e-portfolio had unsignificant effect.


Child and youth conduct problems constitute a major phenomenon nowadays, with implications at different levels (individual, familial, academic, social, etc.) that raise important social concerns. Even though we know that a high proportion of this problematic behavior is more common during adolescence, prior research has suggested that the most serious and persistent forms show an early onset. Concerning this, different theoretical approaches suggesting the distinction between early- and adolescence-onset conduct problems have been proposed. These approaches highlight the need of assuming a developmental approach, through longitudinal studies, leading to examine in depth the development of problematic behavior, and the factors and mechanisms that may explain its course over the life span. To this end, the current work is devoted to analyzing, from a longitudinal person-oriented perspective, the development of conduct problems from childhood to adolescence, particularly focusing on the role that psychopathic traits (e.g., callous and unemotional traits; CU) may play in that process. Through the five studies included in the present work, different developmental trajectories of child and youth conduct problems have been identified in a six-year period, as well as the relevance of general psychopathic traits, and specific CU traits, as identifiers of a high-risk profile. Similarly, the significance of psychopathic personality as a valid and useful construct in the development and understanding of the most serious forms of behavioral and psychosocial maladjustment has been reinforced. Overall, a comprehensive outlook of conduct problems has been provided through the study of psychopathic personality, with valuable theoretical and practical implications that lead to opening new means of analysis, discussion, and application in terms of prevention and intervention.


There are marked parallels in scale use, the use of modality and harmonic construction and movement in the music of John Coltrane as compared to impressionist composers like Claude Debussy. The modal harmonic exploration employed in in the works of Coltrane is often attributed to the Indian raga and other music, but it can also be likened to Impressionist works by Debussy. A fascination with exoticism and a search for new veins in music to draw from propelled both of these artists forward musically. While Debussy learned medieval modality from the Russians, Coltrane looked further East to the Arab world and India, however, both subjects used modal environ-ments when seeking an exotic and more tonally-freeing sound. Unorthodox scales, especially ar-tificial scales without consecutive semitones are notably present in Coltrane's improvisatory style and in works by Debussy. The exploration of a sound sensation, more visceral than conventionally pleasing, is a uniting factor in both artists, most notably in Coltrane's more avant-garde works. Hazy tonality, often lacking tonal center or possessing a constantly shifting tonal center, for example, the "Coltrane Changes" moving in thirds and Debussy's often tonally indistinct Preludes for piano, is a shared harmonic trait between two musical eras as well.


Use of benefit‐cost analysis for economic comparison of agricultural research projects remains confounded, by lack of rigour in specifying the without‐project scenario and how benefits from an innovation endure after its adoption declines. Failure to account for the without‐project scenario favours projects to the extent that more benefits are foregone than costs avoided. Moreover, it is unreasonable to assume generally that aggregate benefits from an innovation continue at the peak level until the end of a 30–40 year planning horizon. A general BCA model for agricultural research projects is presented to enable flexible handling of these issues.


This article analyses anthropological surveys in Brazil that are conducted by consultant researchers (specialists in ethno-anthropological disciplines) for the national institutions responsible for officially recognising which lands are to become indigenous reserves. The complexities of the Brazilian situation and the theoretical, methodological and ethnic (identity) issues faced by the anthropologists are examined. This article attempts to answer the question: can anthropology, which since the 1960s has developed a specific analysis of the concepts of ethnicity and ethnic identity, provide specific answers to such institutions concerning the ethnic identity of these groups and their territorial borders? This article attempts to answer this question by drawing on field research that turned anthropologists into informers, just as Indians seeking to claim their territorial rights were turned into informers by these anthropologists. The article analyses the strategies adopted by these Brazilian researchers while performing their consultancies, concluding that the anthropologists who have decided to embark on this challenge assume a role as mediator between indigenous community and state rather than that of a classifier by and for the state.


In Finnish context some landlords in business-to-business context are seeking ways to widen their service offering to cover more aspects of the corporate real (CRE) function of their tenant. The window for offering such services is open, as at the same time tenants understand better the importance of the CRE function and they still lack the ability to carry out CRE activities themselves. This is especially the case in SME's.This paper looks at the service development process of one big Finnish real estate actor. The aim is to understand the potential area of the CRE related services that may be provided by the landlords to commercial tenants. Secondary aim is to look at the hindrances and enablers that affect the potential to widen the service offering to CRE services in commercial rental business. The methodology of this paper is based on action research philosophy. The material for the article is gathered with interviews and workshops in the case organization. The process is iterative in manner and the previous interviews and workshops provide input for the next ones. Thus the paper outlines the service development process in the case setting. The findings suggest that there is a wide range of CRE related services that the landlords may offer to their tenants in commercial context. There are still some CRE management activities that are so close to the tenant core business, that these services will probably not be outsourced. Finally, the research suggests some hindrances and enablers to providing the CRE services for the tenant. The enablers include, for example, the expert knowledge in real estate business while the lack of marketing and communication skills in realm of services is an example of hindrances. Theoretically this article adds the amount of empirical research in the service development and services marketing fields. The article takes a look at one field of services that is not so often studied. Further, the article offers insights into service development for the practitioners in landlord organizations and other business-to-business actors in real estate field.


1. Post-heparin plasma from normal subjects, patients with chronic renal failure and recipients of renal allografts were subjected to affinity chromatography on heparin—agarose (Sepharose 4B) columns to separate two fractions representing hepatic lipase and lipoprotein lipase respectively. 2. The optimum conditions for assay of each fraction were determined for both normal and uraemic plasma. 3. Normal males had activities of hepatic lipase which were higher, and activities of lipoprotein lipase which were lower, than normal females. There was no consistent relationship to age for either enzyme. 4. Thirty patients with chronic renal failure untreated by dialysis had significantly elevated serum triacylglycerol concentrations, and significantly lowered lipoprotein lipase activities when compared with control groups with similar ages for each sex. However, only in uraemic males was hepatic lipase activity significantly reduced. 5. In a study of female patients with chronic renal failure, there were no significant differences in activities of hepatic lipase or lipoprotein lipase or concentrations of serum triacylglycerols between eight patients receiving dialysis treatment and eight untreated by dialysis. 6. Although serum triacylglycerol concentrations were raised in the group of 15 renal transplant recipients, lipase activities were not diminished. The only significant change was elevation of hepatic lipase activity in female graft recipients. 7. No relationship was found between the enzyme activities and fasting serum triacylglycerol concentrations in any group. However, there was a weak inverse correlation between serum creatinine and hepatic lipase in female patients from both renal failure and transplant groups. 8. Similar results were obtained when the enzymes were assayed with, as substrate, a laboratory-prepared emulsion of 14 C-labelled triolein in water with soya-bean lecithin as emulsifier, or commercially prepared soya-bean oil in water, emulsified with egg-yolk lecithin and containing glycerol (Intralipid).


A set of oscillograms has been obtained to investigate the development of pulse mode in the positive discharge from a single and twin interacting thin needles. The transition from burst pulses to continuous glow in laboratory air is discussed. When the needles brought close together, the onset voltage increases with a subsequent decrease of the corona current for the same applied voltage. Not only the onset voltage but also the offset voltage (i.e. voltage at which the burst pulses disappear) increases as the needle-to-needle spacing decreases. The pulse repetition rate increases with the applied voltage reaching maximum and then showed a decrease with further increase of voltage. When the needles brought very close to each other, the rate of increase of pulse repetition rate with voltage increases by about 15 % more than the corresponding rate for single needle. Not only the rate of increase of pulse repetition rate but also the repetition rate itself reaches almost double the value for a single needle. The randomness of the pulse repetition rate was found maximum at voltages close to the onset value and decreases with increase of the voltage. On the contrary, the pulses had almost the same amplitude at voltages very close to the onset value.


Abstract. Global-scale river routing models (RRMs) are commonly used in a variety of studies, including studies on the impact of climate change on extreme flows (floods and droughts), water resources monitoring or large-scale flood forecasting. Over the last two decades, the increasing number of observational datasets, mainly from satellite missions, and increasing computing capacities have allowed better performance by RRMs, namely by increasing their spatial resolution. The spatial resolution of a RRM corresponds to the spatial resolution of its river network, which provides the flow directions of all grid cells. River networks may be derived at various spatial resolutions by upscaling high-resolution hydrography data.
This paper presents a new global-scale river network at 1/12∘ derived from the MERIT-Hydro dataset. The river network is generated automatically using an adaptation of the hierarchical dominant river tracing (DRT) algorithm, and its quality is assessed over the 70 largest basins of the world. Although this new river network may be used for a variety of hydrology-related studies, it is provided here with a set of hydro-geomorphological parameters at the same spatial resolution. These parameters are derived during the generation of the river network and are based on the same high-resolution dataset, so that the consistency between the river network and the parameters is ensured. The set of parameters includes a description of river stretches (length, slope, width, roughness, bankfull depth), floodplains (roughness, sub-grid topography) and aquifers (transmissivity, porosity, sub-grid topography).
The new river network and parameters are assessed by comparing the performances of two global-scale simulations with the CTRIP model, one with the current spatial resolution (1/2∘) and the other with the new spatial resolution (1/12∘). It is shown that, overall, CTRIP at 1/12∘ outperforms CTRIP at 1/2∘, demonstrating the added value of the spatial resolution increase.
The new river network and the consistent hydro-geomorphology parameters, freely available for download from Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6482906, Munier and Decharme, 2022), may be useful for the scientific community, especially for hydrology and hydro-geology modelling, water resources monitoring or climate studies.