Background and Aims: Looked After Children (LAC) have complex mental health needs, as a result of the trauma and inadequate care which they have typically experienced during their early years, and the instability that continues to permeate their lives in many cases. Outcomes of psychological interventions with this group may be particularly difficult to assess, yet little consideration has been given to this issue in the research literature to date. The current study aims to explore the perspectives of clinicians working in specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for LAC, on the nature, process and outcomes of the psychological interventions they undertake with clients, and the implications of their observations for measuring outcomes. Method: Fourteen individual interviews with clinicians were undertaken, each exploring clinicians' experiences and observations of a particular case with which they had undertaken an intervention. Preliminary themes from these interviews, regarding the nature, process and outcomes of clinicians' interventions, were fed back to clinicians during two focus groups; clinicians were asked to reflect on the implications of these themes for measuring outcomes of psychological interventions with LAC. Results and Conclusions: Thematic analysis of interview and focus group data was conducted. The data was organised into five super ordinate themes, relating to the impact of the external context of the child's life, the nature of presenting problems, the nature of interventions undertaken by clinicians, changes and outcomes observed by the clinician and implications for measuring outcomes. Relationship factors, particularly those in the relationship between the carer and child, were identified as the focus of CAMHS interventions and the changes that clinicians most commonly observed. Measuring these changes in the carer-child relationship, which existing outcome measures do not capture, is crucial. The need to contextualise treatment outcomes within the child's overall life was also highlighted.


YiXuan Lin Jinju Li Di Wu FanJing Wang ZhaoHui Fang GuoMing Shen 1Graduate School of Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; 2Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China; 3Anhui Academic of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diabetes Research Institute, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in the world with complicated pathogenesis. This study aimed to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and molecular pathways in T2DM using bioinformatics analysis. Materials and Methods: To explore potential therapeutic targets for T2DM, we analyzed three microarray datasets (GSE50397, GSE38642, and GSE44035) acquired from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. DEGs between T2DM islet and normal islet were picked out by the GEO2R tool and Venn diagram software. Gene Ontology (GO) function and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analysis were performed using the Database for Annotation, Visualization, and Integrated Discovery (DAVID) to identify the pathways and functional annotation of DEGs. Then, protein–protein interaction (PPI) of these DEGs was visualized by Cytoscape with Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins (STRING). Results: In total, we identified 36 DEGs in the three datasets, including 32 up-regulated genes and four down-regulated genes. The improved functions and pathways of the DEGs enriched in cytokine–cytokine receptor interaction, pathways in cancer, PI3K-Akt signaling pathway, and Rheumatoid arthritis. Among them, ten hub genes with a high degree of connectivity were selected. Furthermore, via the re-analysis of DAVID, four genes (IL6, MMP3, MMP1, and IL11) were significantly enriched in the Rheumatoid arthritis pathway. Conclusion: Our study, based on the GEO database, identified four significant up-regulated DEGs and provided novel targets for diagnosis and treatment of T2DM.


. Using the Rost invariant for non split simply connected groups, we define a relative degree 3 cohomological invariant for pairs of orthogonal or unitary involutions having isomorphic Clifford or discriminant algebras. The main purpose of this paper is to study general properties of this invariant in the unitary case, that is for torsors under groups of outer type A . If the underlying algebra is split, it can be reinterpreted in terms of the Arason invariant of quadratic forms, using the trace form of a hermitian form. When the algebra with unitary involution has a symplectic or orthogonal descent, or a symplectic or orthogonal quadratic extension, we provide comparison theorems between the corresponding invariants of unitary and orthogonal or symplectic types. We also prove the relative invariant is classifying in degree 4, at least up to conjugation by the non-trivial automorphism of the underlying quadratic extension. In general, choosing a particular base point, the relative invariant also produces absolute Arason invariants, under some additional condition on the underlying algebra. Notably, if the algebra has even co-index, so that it admits a hyperbolic involution, which is unique up to isomorphism, we get a so-called hyperbolic Arason invariant. Assuming in addition the algebra has degree 8, we may also define a decomposable Arason invariant. It generally does not coincide with the hyperbolic Arason invariant, as the hyperbolic involution need not be totally decomposable.


The focus of this research is to describe the development of innovations in the Ministry of State Secretariat (Kemensetneg) from the perspective of Knowledge Management including the factors that influence it. This study uses a post-positivism approach with qualitative data collection methods, which result show that the development of innovations in the Ministry of State Secretariat has been going well, judging from the context of Socializaton, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization (SECI). Factors influencing the development of innovation are the existence of strong and effective leadership, the availability of human resources as a lever of change, organizational culture and policies that support innovation, and the supply and use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a driving factor. However, there are still inhibiting factors, namely the limited budget for the development of innovation itself and the many innovations created in the form of applications that have not been integrated in the framework of the ministry's big data through the use of machine learning


Radiation therapy is part of recommendations in the adjuvant settings for advanced stage or as exclusive treatment in unresectable thymic epithelial tumors (TETs). However, first-generation techniques delivered substantial radiation doses to critical organs at risk (OARs), such as the heart or the lungs, resulting in noticeable radiation-induced toxicity. Treatment techniques have significantly evolved for TET irradiation, and modern techniques efficiently spare normal surrounding tissues without negative impact on tumor coverage and consequently local control or patient survival. Considering its dosimetric advantages, hadrontherapy (which includes proton therapy and carbon ion therapy) has proved to be worthwhile for TET irradiation in particular for challenging clinical situations such as cardiac tumoral involvement. However, clinical experience for hadrontherapy is still limited and mainly relies on small-size proton therapy studies. This critical review aims to analyze the current status of hadrontherapy for TET irradiation to implement it at a larger scale.


This paper examines the value of human rights arguments in reducing the access gap to patented medicines. Great efforts continue to be poured into institutional, doctrinal and activist settings to bring human rights thinking to bear on the grant and exploitation of patents. Far from triggering meaningful intervention, however, the international human right to health functions as a placeholder, pointing to specific sites of injury or harm and diverting attention from larger ambitions of justice over current incentive structures around patented pharmaceuticals. Excessively technical, incomplete theorising and linguistically driven decision-making have purged reflexive spaces in patent law that might have accommodated purposive reasoning aligned with the protection of human rights. Reliance on the human right to health to correct the technocratic forces in patent law is doomed to fail, because doing so ignores the source of the problem. The point is not that we should not limit patent rights; it is that we cannot do so using only human rights thinking. It would be far better to uncouple human rights from patent law, so that we may systematically retool the latter to be a purposive and reflexive system of law that understands and participates in its own consequences.


Limited color palettes have been employed by artists for centuries, but most have lacked a rigorous organization sufficient to permit color relationships to compete in clarity and complexity with compositional relationships. Artist James Mai proposes new, systematic methods for color selection in his modular color palettes, limited palettes whose colors conform to discrete positions within the range of color variables. These modulated colors are used to create general palette-types, each of which can yield multiple palette-versions. Modular color palettes are built from precise modulations of the intrinsic dimensions of color—hue, value, and intensity—and offer new possibilities for color-motivated painting. In this paper, the author elucidates the dimensional structure of color, explains the development of his palette-types and palette-versions, and examines how modular color palettes are employed in a selection of his paintings.


The present study examined the relation between anxiety and depression and threat perception abnormalities. Children were exposed to stories describing social situations. Some of the stories were ambiguous (i.e., these stories contained information that could be interpreted as threatening) whereas other stories were non-threatening (i.e., these stories contained no obvious trace of threat). From children ' s responses to the stories, several threat perception indices were derived. Children ' s level of anxiety and depression were assessed by means of self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that high levels of anxiety were accompanied by a high frequency of threat perception, high ratings of threat, a high frequency of threatening interpretations, high levels of negative feelings and cognitions, and an early detection of threat. Interestingly, signi " cant associations between anxiety and threat perception abnormalities were not only observed in response to ambiguous stories but also in relation to non-threatening scenarios. Furthermore, depression was also connected with threat perception distortions. Even when controlling for anxiety levels, depression remained signi " cantly related to threat frequency, threat ratings, and threat thresholds. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


In this paper, following the research line proposed by Milankovicth (1910) and Signorini (1925), a semi-analytical approach for the analysis of masonry walls - treated as horizontally multi-layered strata of no-tension material - is proposed in order to evaluate the stress distribution generated by applied loads. The main applications concern walls subjected only to vertical loads. The goal is to identify in the masonry wall the actual bearing sub-structures by defining at each vertical and horizontal level the transversal sections generated by the unilateral behaviour. The method proposed will allow identifying the partition of the wall into macro-elements, which depend on the centre of applied loads, and wall and bricks geometrical features. The technique adopted to approach the problem can be referred to as the search for the best shape. Two cases are discussed: corbelled masonry walls surrounding windows and arch behaviour of masonry over the window.


Self-described as 'a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot', Henry David Thoreau dedicated his life to preserving his freedom as a man and as an artist. Nature was the fountainhead of his inspiration and his refuge from what he considered the follies of society. Heedless of his friends' advice to live in a more orthodox manner, he determinedly pursued his own inner bent - that of a poet-philosopher - in prose and verse, in his masterpiece "Walden", from which this work is taken. Edited by noted Thoreau scholar Jeffrey S. Cramer, this edition is the new standard for those interested in discovering the great thinker's influential ideas about everything from environmentalism to limited government.


Contemporary Security Policy is a refereed journal. Articles submitted to Contemporary Security Policy should be original contributions and should not be under consideration for any other publication at the same time. If another version of the article is under consideration by another publication, or has been, or will be published elsewhere, authors should clearly indicate this at the time of submission. Each manuscript should be submitted in triplicate. Articles should be typewritten on A4/Letter paper, on one side only, double-spaced and with ample margins. All pages (including those containing only diagrams and tables) should be numbered consecutively. There is no standard length for articles but 8,000 words (including notes and references) is a useful target. The article should begin with an indented and italicized summary of around 100 words, which should describe the main argument and conclusions of the article. Details of the author's institutional affiliation, full address and other contact information should be included on a separate cover sheet. Any acknowledgements should be included on the cover sheet as should a note of the exact length of the article. All diagrams, charts and graphs should be referred to as figures and consecutively numbered. Tables should be kept to a minimum and contain only essential data. Each figure and table must be given an Arabic numeral, followed by a heading, and be referred to in the text. Following acceptance for publication, articles should be submitted on high density 3/2 inch disks (IBM PC or Macintosh compatible) in rich text format (.RTF) together with a hard copy. To facilitate the typesetting process, notes should be grouped together at the end of the file. Tables should also be placed at the end of the file. Tables should be saved as text using the appropriate function within your word processor. If this function is not available then tables should be prepared using tabs. Any diagrams or maps should be copied to a separate disk separately in uncompressed .TIF or JPG formats in individual files. These should be prepared in black and white. Tints should be avoided, use open patterns instead. If maps and diagrams cannot be prepared electronically, they should be presented on good quality white paper. If mathematics are included 1/2 is preferred over /2. Each disk should be labelled with the journal's name, article title, lead author's name and software used. It is the author's responsibility to ensure that where copyright materials are included within an article the permission of the copyright holder has been obtained. Confirmation of this should be included on a separate sheet included with the disk. Authors are entitled to 25 free offprints and a copy of the issue in which their article appears. Copyright in articles published in Contemporary Security Policy rests with the publisher.


The L/sub 2/-norm pyramid has already been investigated as a promising data structure for the fast search of vector quantization (VQ) encoding in the previous work. Because the distortion at the top level is always tested first when using such a conventional L/sub 2/-norm pyramid, the top level is most important. In order to enhance the capability of achieving a rejection decision at the top level, a modification is introduced into the conventional L/sub 2/-norm pyramid in this letter by using both the mean and the variance of a vector simultaneously to replace the L/sub 2/-norm of the vector for distortion computation at the top level. Two issues are made clear as 1) why this modification is beneficial to the distortion test is proved and 2) why only the top level of a conventional L/sub 2/-norm pyramid should be modified is interpreted as well. Experimental results confirmed that the performance of VQ encoding by using the modified L/sub 2/-norm pyramid can be improved obviously.


This paper is primarily concerned with the place of producer-controlled marketing boards in contemporary agricultural policy. The accomplishments and limitations of state marketing boards are reviewed from the standpoint of their stated objectives. Their possible future role is discussed in the light of changes which have occurred in market structure and in public attitudes towards intervention in agricultural marketing, both in Australia and in other advanced economies.


Global health emergencies, particularly those occurring in failed and failing States, can become threats to the stability of the international community. This Article assesses the international mechanisms available to respond to such emergencies. After defining global health emergencies, it discusses the implications of global outbreaks in failed and failing States. It then examines the role played by the World Health Organization in controlling global health emergencies, with particular reference to the newly amended 2005 International Health Regulations and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. Finally, it explores the role of other international organizations, including the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in addressing global health emergencies in failed or failing States. While no comprehensive and mandatory action plan exists to deal with global health emergencies, the tools developed by the World Health Organization and other international organizations are proving to be effective in dealing with global health emergencies so far. The lack of enforcement measures seems to be compensated by cooperation and voluntary actions by Member States, and significant non-State actor involvement. The lingering question is how to ensure that actions are taken in a timely and comprehensive manner in all global health emergencies.


Skin lesions are in a category of disease that is both common in humans and a major cause of death. The classification accuracy of skin lesions is a crucial determinant of the success rate of curing lethal diseases. Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are now the most prevalent computer algorithms for the purpose of disease classification. As with all algorithms, CNNs are sensitive to noise from imaging devices, which often contaminates the quality of the images that are fed into them. In this paper, a deep CNN (Inception-v3) is used to study the effect of image noise on the classification of skin lesions. Gaussian noise, impulse noise, and noise made up of a compound of the two are added to an image dataset, namely the Dermofit Image Library from the University of Edinburgh. Evaluations, based on t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) visualization, Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analysis, and saliency maps, demonstrate the reliability of the Inception-v3 deep CNN in classifying noisy skin lesion images.


Ion charge state distributions (CSDs) are experimentally known for 50 elements but theoretical understanding is unsatisfactory. CSDs of vacuum arc plasmas are calculated under the assumption that the spot plasma experiences an instantaneous transition from equilibrium to non-equilibrium while expanding. Observable charge state distributions are the result of a freezing process at this transition. "Frozen" CSDs have been calculated using Saha equations in the Debye"Hiickel approximation of the non-ideal plasma for all metals of the Periodic Table, and for carbon, silicon, and germanium. The results are presented in a "Periodic Table of CSDs". The table contains also the mean ion charge state, the neutral vapor fraction, and the effective plasma temperature and density at the freezing point for each element.


The possibility of growing citrus crops on the eastern slopes of the coast range in Fresno County has gained considerable attention since the cotton allotment reductions. The deep, well-drained, fertile soil; a good water supply from the San Luis reservoir and canal system; and a possible thermal belt are some of the advantages found in the area. However, many questions remain to be answered. The citrus specialists at Riverside, cooperating with the Fresno County farm advisor, are currently engaged in investigations to determine whether the high boron levels in this area might preclude citrus crops; how weather conditions there would affect citrus; and which of the commonly used scion-rootstock combinations could be adapted. Preliminary studies reported here indicate: (1) that proper leaching with good quality water could reduce boron damage; (2) that high wind velocities probably can be controlled with windbreaks; and (3) that of the 47 scion-root-stock combinations observed, Valencia and navel on trifoliate orange rootstock made the best showing. However, much research remains to be accomplished before definite conclusions can be stated.


Abstract Using satellite altimetric sea surface height (ADT) data, we search for propagation of hydrographic anomalies along the Norwegian Atlantic Slope Current (NwASC) from the Svinøy section in the south to the Fram Strait in the north. Our analyses indicate that ADT anomalies, related to low-frequency temperature variations, propagate downstream with speeds of about 2 cm s. Notably, this speed is nearly an order of magnitude slower than the speed of the NwASC, which in agreement with previously estimated propagation speeds of hydrographic anomalies along the flow. A conceptual tracer advection model, consisting of a thin current core interacting with an adjacent slow moving reservoir, is introduced to examine temperature anomaly propagation along the NwASC. It is shown that shear dispersion effects, resulting from cross-stream eddy mixing and velocity shear, can qualitatively explain the observed delayed propagation of hydrographic anomalies: low-frequency temperature anomalies move downstream with an effective velocity that corresponds to a mean velocity across the entire Atlantic Water layer, rather than the speed of Norwegian Atlantic Slope Current.


A THESIS SUMBITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER DEGREE IN BUSINESS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION FACULTY OF EDUCATION AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA


ABSTRACT Xiao, Q.; Li, R.; Li, C., and Fang, X., 2018. Predicting wave-induced ripple geometry and bottom friction factor. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 148–154. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. The ripples induced by waves are prevalent in the offshore area. The accurate prediction of the ripple characteristics and bottom friction factors is the foundation of the research on the wave deformation, sediment transport and the evolution of shoreline. In this paper, the formulas commonly used for the calculation of the wave-induced ripples are analyzed and evaluated by using the published experimental data from the laboratory experiment and the field observation. The coordinated property of the bed form and the flow condition is considered, and a new prediction method is proposed to calculate the ripple equilibrium geometry such as length, height and steepness. The discriminant function including the wave critical Shields parameters is introduced to take the effect of the bed load transport into account. The formula of wave friction factor is derived theoretically, and the estimation of roughness height is improved by the sand ripples formulas. The results show that the proposed formulas can give a better description of the ripple characteristics when the bed load sediment move in different state. The critical Shields parameters influence greatly on the calculation ripple geometry. Moreover, the new ripple prediction can be used to calculate bottom friction factors efficiently.


While occupational therapists on this side of the Atlantic can easily identify with their American counterparts, some of the settings, being uniquely American, seem somewhat remote; for example, private practice in high-tech northern California, occupational therapy in the railroad industry, and employee health promotion in industry. Yet, these insights perhaps provide us with a preview of things to come for our profession.


A new one-dimensional constitutive model for human cortical bone is proposed to simulate the viscoelastic–viscoplastic behaviour occurring during creep-recovery tests.The material parameters are determined by fitting experimental results of creep-recovery tests reported in the published literature. An efficient computational algorithm for the integration of the proposed constitutive model at the material point level is derived. The derived algorithm in conjunction with the Jacobian matrix is implemented in the finite element code ABAQUS. The model predictions are found to be in good agreement with the experimental data presented in literature.


The growth of a nation-state in the 19th century led to the protection of heritage
as a distinct discipline. Initially, the prime objective was physical protection and
conservation of archaeological and architectural monuments valued for their aesthetic
and historic importance. However, the 20th century practice of imposing nationalist
ideas onto communities and cultures which share the same territory, but not religion
and/or language, brought into prominence a discipline of heritage management. One
of the main characteristics of heritage management is its interpretation in national
terms which, when used for nation-building purposes, often becomes the subject of
contested grand narratives; i.e. ethnically, religiously and socially divisive tool in the
hands of political elites interested in securing and maintaining their powers. Historical
changes of political systems and state ideologies, however, witnessed the lasting
impact on the interpretation of heritage over la longue duree, almost always with
negative outcomes.
The Wars of Yugoslav Succession during the 1990s resulted not only in the
creation of new nation-states, but also their own new national narratives and languages,
often rooted in flagrant revisionism of the interpretation of historical sources and
surviving heritage. This thesis examines the evolution of national narratives in five ex-
Yugoslav republics and Albania from the time of their individual inception until the
present. It employs chronologically juxtaposed nation-building processes in the
observed states and points to the differences in interpretation which usually coincided
with changes of political systems. It also highlights the contemporary interpretations
of the heritage as understood by both local and international researchers and publicists,
affected by the surrounding political atmosphere. It explores the destruction,
vandalism, and "culturcide" and their condemnations and justifications by the media
and biased scholarship. The thesis also points to the negative influence of the external
political factors in heritage management through the extensive production of poorly
and/or partially researched publications. Finally, it concludes that the (re)interpretation
of heritage is a recurring process, which will be employed every time when the balance
of power in Europe changes and almost always with detrimental consequences for the
local population.


Multi-criteria decision support methods are common in engineering design. These methods typically rely on the specification of importance weights to accomplish trade-offs among competing objectives. Such methods can have difficulties, however: they may not be able to select all possible Pareto optima, and the direct specification of importance weights can be arbitrary and ad hoc. The inability to reach all Pareto optima is shown to be surmountable by the consideration of trade-off strategy as an additional parameter of a decision. The use of indifference points to select a best solution, as an alternative to direct specification of importance weights, is presented, and a simple truss design example is used to illustrate the concepts.


Innovation Ecosystems are transforming the way organizations are creating value within an innovative landscape. Although Innovation Ecosystems are heavily supported by Information Systems (IS), there is currently a lack of research on how IS capabilities facilitate the development of these ecosystems. The lack of knowledge in this domain may account for uncertainties faced by organizations in pursuing breakthrough innovations. To address this gap, we conducted a pilot case study of the Hallyu phenomenon, a term describing Korean entertainment products that are globally popular, to derive a process model of Innovation Ecosystem development from an IS capabilities perspective. Our findings suggest that the development of Innovation Ecosystems can involve three successive phases: Developing the means of generating content, laying ground rules, and establishing an in-group mentality. Moreover, each phase is aligned with different values rooted in the philosophy of Korean business management, which is facilitated by different types of IS capabilities.


The Tier-1 facility operated by the Nordic DataGrid Facility (NDGF) differs significantly from other Tier-1s in several aspects: It is not located at one or a few locations but instead distributed throughout the Nordic, it is not under the governance of a single organisation but but is instead build from resources under the control of a number of different national organisations. Being physically distributed makes the design and implementation of the networking infrastructure a challenge. NDGF has its own internal OPN connecting the sites participating in the distributed Tier-1. To assess the suitability of the network design and the capacity of the links, we present a model of the internal bandwidth needs for the NDGF Tier-1 and its associated Tier-2 sites. The model takes the different type of workloads into account and can handle different kinds of data management strategies. It has already been used to dimension the internal network structure of NDGF. We also compare the model with real life data measurements.


Providing increased transmission speed, quality and an efficient spectrum utilization is crucial for high speed wireless services of today and the future. This thesis is a collection of papers that address an important step in that direction -- the utilization of the spatial domain of the wireless channel. Paper I provides a survey of the most important concepts in channel and radio propagation modeling for spatial wireless channels. A couple of key features of channels and radio propagation, which are not sufficiently included in current MIMO models, are also described. Paper II presents the first conclusive experimental evidence of the keyhole effect in wireless MIMO channels, and concludes that the keyhole effect in real wireless scenarios is not probable. Analysis of the limitations due to measurement imperfections for measurement-based capacity calculations and keyhole investigations are also presented. In addition, a bound for the higher eigenmodes as a function of the finite measurement signal-to-noise ratio and multipath component leakage is derived. Paper III presents a comparison of the waterfilling gain in the different domains, i.e., frequency, spatial and joint spatial-frequency waterfilling, and shows that the largest gain resides in the spatial domain. Paper IV investigates the performance of seven antenna subset selection schemes, with and without pre-processing both in a diversity and capacity sense and the influence of antenna selection on diversity in wideband channels. The evaluations are based on measured wireless personal area network (WPAN) channels, covering both line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) channels, and synthetic MIMO channel models. Paper V presents results from one of the first measurement campaigns for the double-directional characterization of outdoor-to-indoor wireless propagation channels. Measurements were performed at 5.2 GHz between 53 different receiver locations in an office building, and three "base station" positions on a nearby rooftop. Results for angular-delay profiles, RMS angular spread, and other statistical parameters characterizing delay and angular dispersion are given. Paper VI studies the influence of measurement random-walk phase noise (in terms of Allan variance of the sum of the phase noise of two free-running local oscillators) on the SAGE estimation algorithm, and the random-walk phase noise effect on capacity estimates. Paper VII analyses the impact of receiver antenna horizontal orientation on the channel capacity of a 6×6 MIMO system. It shows that in a "wave guiding" environment such as a long corridor with the presence of a strong LOS, a significant difference in capacity is observed when the orientation of the uniform linear array at the receiver is changed from parallel to perpendicular (to the LOS). (Less)


What potential effect do flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol have on energy efficiency, fuel switching and the development of renewable energy sources for the eight post-communist EU Member States that accessed in 2004? These countries are chief candidates for hosting Joint Implementation (JI) projects and for participating in international emission trading, which may assist the implementation and financing of projects in these target areas. The potentials and barriers to Joint Implementation are reviewed, as well as the conditions under which international emission trading can influence the energy use of the selling country. Different strategies adopted by the host countries towards the application of these instruments, and their impact on sustainable energy development, are examined. The article concludes that the Kyoto flexibility mechanisms may play a positive, but rather limited, role in the sustainable energy development of the region, but the barriers to Joint Implementation may shift the emphasis towards transactions under the framework of international emission trading. If innovative mechanisms are tied to sustainable development goals, this may mobilize the energyefficiency potentials of these countries. An attractive opportunity exists to achieve energy efficiency and emission reductions, utilizing the revenues from allowance sales through 'green investment' schemes.


Summary

1
The habitat use and diet of skylarks wintering on lowland farms were studied to assess whether changes in agricultural practice could have reduced their most favoured wintering habitats or foods. Faecal samples were collected and soil seed densities were estimated. Skylarks in 122 cereal stubble fields in Oxfordshire were counted monthly to examine habitat use.

2
Cereal stubble fields were more likely to be occupied than other crops, and densities of birds in occupied fields were high. Barley stubbles were significantly more likely to be occupied than wheat stubbles. Growing cereals were weakly selected. Sugar beet stubbles held high densities of birds. Rotational set-aside was occupied more frequently and held higher densities than non-rotational set-aside.

3
Field size affected field occupancy independently of crop type, with larger fields more likely to be occupied. Fields enclosed by hedges or trees tended to be avoided. Cereal and set-aside fields that were occupied by skylarks in at least 1 month held significantly higher soil seed densities than fields that were not occupied.

4
Differences in occupancy between crops could be explained by diet. Birds in cereal stubbles fed largely on cereal grain, whereas those in winter cereals fed largely on cereal leaves. Broad-leaved weed leaves were strongly selected as food in cereal crops and farmland grass fields. In grass fields, the proportion of the diet made up by broad-leaved weeds was positively correlated with their availability. Broad-leaved weed seeds did not make up a significant dietary component in any crop.

5
Our results show that the shift from spring to autumn sowing of cereals has led to a loss of the skylark's most strongly selected wintering habitat and best food source. In winter cereals and in grass there was a high selectivity for relatively scarce, and probably declining, food resources. Our results suggest that the retention of weed-rich cereal (particularly barley) and sugar beet stubbles through the winter, particularly in large open blocks, will improve conditions for skylarks in winter. Whole-field rotational set-aside, particularly as naturally regenerating cereal stubbles, provides good winter food resources for skylarks.


In this paper, we present experimental results evaluating the performance of the scalable-TCP, HS-TCP, BIC-TCP, FAST-TCP, and H-TCP proposals in a series of benchmark tests. In summary, we find that both scalable-TCP and FAST-TCP consistently exhibit substantial unfairness, even when competing flows share identical network path characteristics. Scalable-TCP, HS-TCP, FAST-TCP, and BIC-TCP all exhibit much greater RTT unfairness than does standard TCP, to the extent that long RTT flows may be completely starved of bandwidth. Scalable-TCP, HS-TCP, and BIC-TCP all exhibit slow convergence and sustained unfairness following changes in network conditions such as the start-up of a new flow. FAST-TCP exhibits complex convergence behavior.


Background The mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is a proxy for subcutaneous fat in the upper body and is a reliable screening measure for identifying individuals with abnormal local fat distribution. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between MUAC and metabolic syndrome (MetS) in middle-aged and elderly individuals. Methods We measured the MUAC in a cross-sectional sample with a total of 9787 subjects aged 40 years and older. The measurement of MUAC is performed on the right arm using a non‐elastic tape held midway between the acromion and the olecranon processes in duplicate, with the arm hanging loosely at the side of the body. The MetS was defined according to the Joint Statement of the International Diabetes Federation Task Force on Epidemiology and Prevention. Results MUAC was positively correlated with waist circumference (r=0.437, P<0.001), BMI (r=0.334, P<0.001), fasting insulin(r=0.348, P<0.001), HOMA-IR (r=0.134, P< 0.001), triglycerides (r=0.138, P<0.001), SBP (r=0.124, P< 0.001), and DBP(r= 0.123, P<0.001), and inversely correlated with adiponectin (r=-0.147, P < 0.001) and HDL-cholesterol (r=-0.176, P<0.001) after adjusting for age and gender. Compared with the lowest quartile group, the odds ratios were substantially higher for MetS (OR 1.77; 95% CI 1.51-2.09, P for trend<0.001) in the highest MUAC quartile group after adjustment for potential cofounder. Conclusion Large mid-upper arm circumference is associated with metabolic syndrome in middle-aged and elderly individuals .


BackgroundIncidence of adenocarcinoma of the esophagogastric junction (AEG) is increasing in Japan as well as Western Country. However, there is no consensus on treatment strategy. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimal range of resection and lymph node dissection for Siewert type II AEG and to develop a strategy for treatment that includes adjuvant therapy to improve the survival rate. MethodsWe retrospectively investigate 88 cases of advanced AEG in patients who underwent surgery with lymph node dissection with 52 cases of superficial AEG, 23 of whom underwent endoscopic treatment (endoscopic mucosal resection [EMR] or endoscopic submucosal dissection [ESD]), and 29 of whom underwent surgery with lymph node dissection. ResultsThe optimal lymph nodes to resect for advanced AEG were in the inferior mediastinum (No. 110), in the lesser curvature (Nos. 1, 3, 7), No. 2, and No 11. According to area of actual lymph node metastasis, lymphadenectomy of lymph nodes 1, 2, 3, 7, and 11 was sufficient to improve survival of patients with superficial AEG. If esophageal involvement was >40 mm, we performed esophagectomy through right thoracotomy. The 5-year overall survival rates were 88% for patients treated with ESD, 78% for those with superficial AEG who under-went surgery, and 24% for those with advanced AEG (p = 0.011). Despite of lymph node dissection, twenty-five patients experienced lymph node metastasis after operation in advanced AEG and there were many disseminations in advanced AEG. There were no differences in survival between patients who received postoperative adjuvant therapy with S-1 for advanced AEG and those who received surgery alone (p = 0.5192).Conclusion Although surgical procedures of superficial and locally advanced AEG are standardized, the role of adjuvant therapy for AEG is still controversial. We recommend nab-paclitaxel plus radiotherapy for advanced AEG as neoadjuvant therapy.


ABSTRACT    Leptin is an obese gene product, and leptin‐deficient ob/ob mice develop hyperphagia and reduced locomotor activity. Leptin is thought to be related to brain development, because leptin receptors are widely expressed in the brain, and because brain weight as well as brain protein and DNA contents were reduced in adult ob/ob mice. In this study, we investigated the effect of leptin on the fetal cingulate cortex, since the leptin receptor is expressed in the neurons of the cingulate cortex, which is involved in emotion as well as in sensory, motor, and cognitive processes. The ob/ob fetuses had more pycnotic cells than wild‐type fetuses in the cingulate cortex at embryonic day (E) 18. Many pycnotic cells were observed in the intermediate zone of the cingulate cortex. Most cells observed in this area were neuronal lineage cells, while few undifferentiated cells and oligodendrocyte precursor cells were found. At E18 there was no significant difference in the rostrocaudal length of the corpus callosum, which contains the neuronal projection from the cingulate cortex, between ob/ob and wild‐type fetuses. We also showed that the length of the cerebrum was greater and the width of the cerebrum and cerebellum were lesser in ob/ob fetuses than in wild‐type at E16. These results suggest an increased cell death in neuronal lineage cells in the intermediate zone of the cingulate cortex in leptin‐deficient ob/ob mice. Leptin deficiency may also alter the gross morphology of the brain in development, but not the formation of the corpus callosum.


To what extent did chivalry promote a power difference between the sexes? In romantic works of medieval English literature, knights are commonly seen to project their values onto a female counterpart, which consequently leads them to pin their narrative successes or failures onto that person. This article examines "Le Roman de Tristan" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" under the framework Stephen Ahern presents in "Listening to Guinevere". The chivalric Tristan idolizes his beloved Ysolt to the point of delusion, causing him to condemn her when she fails to meet his unrealistic expectations, and thus to illustrate the temperamental nature of the relationship between knight and lady. "Sir Gawain" complicates the issue, as Gawain lacks the expected devotion to a lady. Using Amy S. Kaufman and Michelle Sweeney's models of the configuration of power as lenses, I analyze Lady Bertilack's manipulation of Sir Gawain's chivalric values, and his resulting display of frustration towards himself, as a critique of gendered morals. By comparing these knights and their respective treatments of failure, I argue that the chivalric code's inconstant values ultimately encourage its followers to see any female-encoded morals, whether external or internal, as the cause of knightly failure. Faculty Sponsor: Elizabeth Tavares


The purpose of this article is to evaluate arm measurements of breast cancer patients to critically assess absolute change in arm size compared to relative arm volume change as criteria for quantifying breast cancer-related lymphedema (BCRL). We used pre-operative measurements of 677 patients screened for BCRL before and following treatment of unilateral breast cancer at Massachusetts Gen- eral Hospital between 2005 and 2008 to model the effect of an absolute change in arm size of 200 mL or 2 cm compared to relative arm volume change. We also used sequential measurements to analyze temporal variation in unaffected arm volume. Pre-operative arm volumes ranged from 1,270 to 6,873 mL and correlated strongly (Kendall's s = 0.55) with body mass index (BMI). An absolute arm volume change of 200 mL corresponded to relative arm volume changes ranging from 2.9 to 15.7 %. In a subset of 45 patients, modeling of a 2-cm change in arm circumference predicted relative arm volume changes ranging from 6.0 to 9.8 %. Sequential measurements of 124 patients with (6 measurements demonstrated remarkable temporal variation in unaffected arm volume (median within-patient change 10.5 %). The magnitude of such fluctuations correlated (s = 0.36, P \ 0.0001) with pre-operative arm volume, patient weight, and BMI when quantified as absolute volume change, but was independent of these variables when quan- tified as relative arm volume change (P ( .05). Absolute changes in arm size used as criteria for BCRL are correlated with pre-operative and temporal changes in body size. Therefore, utilization of absolute volume or circumference change in clinical trials is flawed because specificity depends strongly on patient body size. Relative arm volume change is independent of body size and should thus be used as the standard criterion for diagnosis of BCRL.


Proper treatment of failed total ankle replacement remains a challenge. Several revision modalities and techniques exist to either preserve or salvage the ankle joint. Among them there is revision total ankle replacement, amputation, or ankle arthrodesis. The goal of salvage ankle fusion is to restore height and alignment of the hindfoot and to get a stable but pain-free plantigrade and functional foot. Loss of bone and additional deformities pose specific problems for the surgeon and must be taken into consideration during preoperative planning. Meticulous preparation of the fusion sites is crucial to achieve later union of the bones. Although screw fixation alone could be used to get solid fusion, anterior double plating offers an intriguing alternative and provides great stability and high-compressive forces across the fusion site.


Pressure from payers for cost containment and accountability is forcing clinicians to refine existing skills and develop new areas of competence. To adequately address patients' needs in the new health care environment, clinicians must master at least six skill sets and the individual skills within each set. This paper describes six core skill sets-clinical care skills, clinical management skills, clinical knowledge, skills with special populations, administrative competence, and ethical care management-and specific skills within each set. These descriptions are intended to serve as a how-to manual for modern behavioral practice.


The Okavango Delta, Botswana, is a major wetland surrounded by the Kalahari Desert. The delta supports a diverse fish fauna that depends on highly seasonal flooding from inflowing rivers, and on the actions of ecosystem engineers (hippopotamuses, elephants, and termites), for creation and maintenance of their habitats. Conflicts in resource use, especially water, are likely to affect fish populations and the Okavango ecosystem in the near future. We present conceptual models of this remarkable aquatic ecosystem in relation to fish and fisheries as the basis for future research and conservation efforts. Developing understanding of the environmental flow requirements of the delta is key to the management of the Okavango Delta as an ecosystem supporting diverse and abundant fish and wildlife. Once developed, this understanding can be used to allocate water within the Okavango watershed.


This paper revisits the Macfarlane Report of 1980, the first draft of which recommended the dissolution of school sixth forms, sixth form colleges and other providers of postcompulsory education and training, and the establishment of a national system of tertiary colleges across England
 – a programme of reform which would effectively have extended the principles of comprehensive education to the post-compulsory level. Whilst the rejection of the Macfarlane committee's plan may represent an opportunity which has been lost forever, the paper presents a case for the revival
 of tertiary colleges across England. This, it is argued, would provide a much more coherent, 'democratised' system of provision than the current model of further education based on the neoliberal principles of markets, competition, diversity and choice. A national system of tertiary colleges
 would, I contend, be able to deal far more effectively – and equitably – with some of the significant social and educational challenges now facing contemporary British society, although a concomitant programme of labour market reform is, I argue, also necessary to create sustainable
 and meaningful employment, and stimulate demand for learning.


Vasculitis as a complication of leflunomide therapy in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis has been reported. We describe a case of acute necrotizing vasculitis following leflunomide therapy. Characteristics of this case and 4 cases in the literature suggest that vasculitis may be a rare but serious adverse effect of leflunomide therapy.


: We investigated the effect of chronic non-toxic ingestion of cadmium chloride on the growth of the prostate, seminal vesicles and testes of the white rat. Cadmium chloride seems to have a statistically significant dose-related adjuvant effect on the weight of these organs when administered continuously to the white rat during a 6-month period.


Purpose of reviewTight junctions are intercellular seams sealing and preventing the entrance of microorganisms or unwanted substances from the luminal compartment. They also define the border between the basolateral and apical membranes of polarized cells, thus enabling the normal transcellular vectorial transport typical of epithelial function. Their major components are claudin and occludin proteins. Tight junctions are now recognized as having more specific properties in cell function. This review will concentrate on novel findings related to tight junctions in polarized cells. Recent findingsTight junctions are regulated, interacting with the cell cytoskeleton and being responsible for the reabsorption of molecules. The latter has been exemplified by the discovery of claudin 16 (paracellin-1) as the gene product responsible for the hypomagnesaemia with hypercalciuria syndrome. Pathogenic bacteria and viruses target and use the tight-junction machinery to invade multicellular organisms. SummaryTight-junction-targeted research may help not only in the future design of novel therapies against invading microorganisms, but also may promote passage of medications through the normally sealed epithelial barrier. In addition, the regulatory properties of tight junctions may help in the understanding of still unanswered aspects of epithelial ion transport.


This note examines demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as predictors of emergency finance in Australian households. The data is from the Household Expenditure Survey Confidentialised Unit Record Files and relates to 6,892 households. Emergency finance is defined as the ability to raise $2,000 within a week and its potential sources include own savings, loans from deposit-talking institutions, finance companies, credit cards, family and friends, welfare or community organisations and selling household assets. Characteristics examined included family structure, household income, age, sex and marital status, ethnic background and housing value. Multinomial logistic models indicate income, housing value and status are key factors influencing the ability to raise emergency finance. The model is more accurate predicting the inability to raise emergency finance and emergency finance sourced from own savings and deposit-taking institutions.


Advances in mobile technologies are opening new possibilities to support collaborative activities through mobile devices. Unfortunately, mobile collaborative systems have been difficult to conceive, design and implement. These difficulties are caused in part by their unclear requirements and developers' lack of experience with this type of systems. However, several requirements involved in the collaborative back-end of these products are recurrent and should be considered in every development. This paper introduces a characterization of mobile collaboration and a framework that specifies a list of general requirements to be considered during the conception and design of a system in order to increase its probability of success. This framework was used in the development of two mobile collaborative systems, providing developers with a base of back-end requirements to aid system design and implementation. The systems were positively evaluated by their users.


This study was carried out whilst the author occupied the post of Educational Development Officer to the Occupational Therapists Board. This Board is part of the Councils Supplementary to Medicine, a quango concerned with the terms and conditions of employment of Occupational Therapists, amongst others. The aim was to describe and compare the education offered by the Schools of Occupational Therapy. The author obtained a great deal of information from the schools about the number and wastage of students; students' success in examinations; staff-student ratios; and curriculum hours. She also visited all the schools and talked to staff and students about their likes and dislikes. The results are tabulated but have not been analysed statistically.


Driven by synergetic factor combinations of resource scarcity leading to an increase in the pressure of production on resources, changing opportunities created by markets, outside policy intervention, loss of adaptive capacity, and changes in social organisation and attitudes, the Karrayu pastoralists are in a state of gradual transformation in their livelihood system. Like many pastoral areas of the country, the Karrayu pastoral and agropastoral land has been a hub for resource competition since the land can be used for different purposes by different interest groups. The conservation scheme by the Awash National Park, the state-driven commercial farms and the mushrooming of small-scale cultivators are the main contenders for the ever shrinking pasture land of the Karrayu pastoralists. Under these compelling or changing circumstances, the Karrayu pastoralists started to carry out farm activities on a joint basis with other partners. In the process, an informal land market has emerged in which land is temporarily or permanently transferred between households within the pastoral group or outside it through sales or mortgages. There are indications that there will be an increasing conversion of the pasture land into arable land, given the present high demand for cultivable land. These are manifested from the commercial farm and the small cultivators side as well. Particularly, the state farm has a plan to boost its sugarcane production in response to the growing demand for sugar. These changes signify the fact that land is assuming a commodity value as a means of production and exchanges which attribute it did not posses prior to the advent of cultivation. In the final analysis, all the different arrangements by the Karrayu communities are adopted to maintain the continuity of the pastoral practice while simultaneously searching for an alternative to cope with adversities.


We undertake a systematic experimental study of the effects of concurrent packet transmissions in low-power wireless networks. Our measurements, conducted with Mica2 motes equipped with CC1000 radios, confirm that guaranteeing successful packet reception with high probability in the presence of concurrent transmissions requires that the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio (SINR) exceed a critical threshold. However, we find a significant variation of about 6 dB in the threshold for groups of radios operating at different transmission powers. We find that it is harder to estimate the level of interference in the presence of multiple interferers. We also find that the measured SINR threshold generally increases with the number of interferers. Our study offers a better understanding of concurrent transmissions and suggests richer interference models and useful guidelines to improve the design and analysis of higher layer protocols.


Abstract Purpose Research on breaking bad news (BBN) in healthcare has mostly focused on the doctor-patient interaction during a single consultation. However, it has been increasingly recognised that BBN is a wider process that also involves other healthcare professionals. This qualitative study explored non-medical1 healthcare professionals' involvement in BBN to newly diagnosed patients with motor neurodegenerative conditions in the UK. Materials and methods 19 healthcare professionals working with people with motor neurone disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease or Huntington's disease took part in individual, semi-structured interviews which were analysed using thematic analysis. Results Four themes were constructed: dealing with the diagnostic aftermath, unpacking the diagnosis, breaking bad news as a balancing act and empowering patients to regain control over their health and lives. Participants reported being broadly involved in BBN by supporting patients with negative diagnostic experiences, re-iterating diagnostic information and helping patients understand the impact of their condition. The challenges of effectively breaking bad news and how these difficult conversations could help empower patients were also emphasised. Conclusions BBN was a critical and challenging aspect of healthcare professionals' clinical work with newly diagnosed patients with motor neurodegenerative conditions. Besides providing information, BBN was perceived as a way to educate patients, encourage them to make decisions and prepare for the future. Implications for rehabilitation Breaking bad news is a potentially under-recognised but significant aspect in the neurorehabilitation of neurodegenerative conditions. Listening to patients' stories about a long and occasionally unsatisfactory diagnostic journey and allowing them to express their frustration can be critical in regaining patients' trust and building a relationship with them. Newly diagnosed patients have not always received adequate information about their condition at diagnosis or they might have not understood or retained that information. It is, therefore, essential that patients' understanding of their condition is assessed, misconceptions are cleared and appropriate information about the nature and impact of the diagnosis is provided. Irrespective of the length of experience, breaking bad news was perceived as a multi-faceted, challenging, stressful and emotionally demanding task. Formal support and specialised training on breaking the bad news that addresses the incurable, unpredictable and progressive nature of motor neurodegenerative conditions could help professionals with this challenging task.


The work presented in this paper focuses on software tools that act as video explorers and annotation platforms and more specifically as diary composers for younger children. Through such tools, children can have as their raw material video recordings from everyday life and they are given the opportunity to review this material, reflect upon it and annotate it, thus creating the stories of everyday life from their own perspective. The specific tool proposed, focuses on multiperspective capture of events by one or more children and their cooperation during the annotation procedure.


Practically every knitted project needs an edging. This book offers more than 300 unusual edge combinations and shapings that will add a special, unique touch to any knitted garment. The striking patterns will keep knitters of every level busy experimenting with different types of ties, loops, knots, braids, twists, bobbles and more. The topics explored in depth include: Unique ribs Cords Appliques Colour work Corners Angles Closures * Nicky Epstein is one of today's hottest knitwear designers, whose designs appear regularly in Vogue Knitting magazine. * This is the sequel to the last year's Knitting on the Edge (ISBN 1-931543-40-2) which took the humble rib to new heights. * Sixth & Spring Books is the new imprint for publishing projects and patterns from the Vogue Knitting archives. Vogue Knitting magazine is the world leader in knitting expertise, an internationally renowned brand name in the knitting market.


SIR, This S4-year-o!d Pakistani woman was attending the Dermatology Clinic with facial discoid lupus erythematosus {Fig. 1). The triangular area of scarring alopecia ofthe frontal scalp was considered to be the legacy of her dermatosis and care was taken at each clinic appointment to examine it closely. The patient spoke no English, but was obviously puzzled by the interest shown in her bald patch. The reason for this became apparent when she attended the dinie accompanied by a female relative who had a similar, large triangular patch of alopecia in the frontal scalp. Further enquiry via an interpreter revealed that most ofthe women from their village of origin in Pakistan were similarly affected. The explanation for this was the village tradition of tying the hair in a tight knot from an early age, producing a traumatic alopecia of the anterior central scalp. We believe this to be the first report of this variant of traumatic alopecia.


The recent surge in commodity prices has rekindled interest in their power to predict consumer price inflation. But is this interest warranted? In examining the empirical relationship between commodity prices and consumer price inflation, this article finds that commodities' reputation as useful leading indicators of inflation is actually based more on fable than fact. Testing eight commonly used indexes, the authors conclude that although commodities had some predictive power in the past, the commodity-consumer price connection has broken down in the more recent period. They argue that this shift primarily reflects the diminished role of traditional commodities in U.S. production and the "sterilization" of some inflation signals by offsetting monetary policy actions.


Pius V.C. Okoye The paper set out to ascertain whether e-taxation can resolve the issue of tax evasion and to prevent corrupt practices of tax officials in Nigeria. Three research questions and hypotheses were formulates in line with the objectives of the paper. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Data collected were analyzed by use of means and standard deviation and the three hypotheses formulated were tested by the use of Z-test statistical tool. Findings show that E-taxation can enhance internally generated revenue and reduce the issue of tax evasion in Enugu state. Another finding is that Etaxation can prevent corrupt practices of tax officials. The implication of this is that the extent at which government has gone in inaugurating their e-tax administration is still low hence some tax administrators and tax payers are still not aware of the online tax assessment/collection in Nigeria. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that the Government should support the establishment of e-tax administration so as to start ripping the benefit of high rate of compliance among taxpayers and E-taxation should be implemented to reduce the diversion of government funds to private pockets. Copy Right, IJAR, 2013,. All rights reserved.


We have been interested in elucidating how simultaneous stimuli modulate inflammation-related signal transduction pathways in lung parenchymal cells. We previously demonstrated that exposing respiratory epithelial cells to 95% oxygen (hyperoxia) synergistically increased tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)-mediated activation of NF-kappaB and NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression by a mechanism involving increased activation of IkappaB kinase (IKK). Because the signal transduction mechanisms induced by IL-1beta are distinct to that of TNF-alpha, herein we sought to determine whether hyperoxia modulates IL-1beta-dependent signal transduction. In A549 cells, simultaneous treatment with hyperoxia and IL-1beta caused increased activation of IKK, prolonged the degradation of IkappaBalpha, and prolonged the nuclear translocation and DNA binding of NF-kappaB compared with cells treated with IL-1beta alone in room air. Hyperoxia did not affect IL-1beta-dependent degradation of the interleukin receptor-associated kinase differently from treatment with IL-beta alone. In contrast to the effects on the IKK/IkappaBalpha/NF-kappaB pathway, simultaneous treatment with hyperoxia and IL-1beta did not augment NF-kappaB-dependent gene expression compared with treatment with IL-1beta alone. Similar observations were made in a different human respiratory epithelial cell line, BEAS-2B cells. In addition, simultaneous treatment with hyperoxia and IL-1beta caused hyperphosphorlyation of the NF-kappaB p65 subunit compared with treatment with IL-1beta alone. In summary, concomitant treatment of A549 cells with hyperoxia and IL-1beta augments activation of IKK, prolongs degradation of IkappaBalpha, and prolongs nuclear translocation and DNA binding of NF-kappaB. This activation, however, is not coupled to increased expression of NF-kappaB-dependent genes, and the mechanism of this decoupling is not related to decreased phosphorylation of p65.


Sustainable development requires changes in socio-technical systems and wider societal change – in beliefs, values and governance that co-evolve with technology changes. In this article we present a practical model for managing processes of co-evolution: transition management. Transition management is a multilevel model of governance which shapes processes of co-evolution using visions, transition experiments and cycles of learning and adaptation. Transition management helps societies to transform themselves in a gradual, reflexive way through guided processes of variation and selection, the outcomes of which are stepping stones for further change. It shows that societies can break free from existing practices and technologies, by engaging in co-evolutionary steering. This is illustrated by the Dutch waste management transition. Perhaps transition management constitutes the third way that policy scientists have been looking for all the time, combining the advantages of incrementalism (based on mutual adaptation) with the advantages of planning (based on long-term objectives).


I. INTRODUCTIONPerhaps Chief Justice Roberts was correct when he remarked that "[t]he way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."1 The use of race in admissions decisions to undergraduate and graduate institutions is a subject that has long roiled the Supreme Court.2 Most affirmative action challenges have focused on attacking affirmative action programs that are already in place.3 In November 2012, the Sixth Circuit addressed an ironic affirmative action question: whether a state that places a ban on the use of affirmative action programs violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.4 The Sixth Circuit's decision invalidating Michigan's ban on affirmative action has split with the Ninth Circuit's decision in Coalition for Economic Equity v. Wilson, which addressed the same question but came to the opposite conclusion.5This Comment argues that the Supreme Court should reverse the Sixth Circuit's decision in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.6 The Court should also hold that the Hunter-Seattle doctrine was not triggered under the factual circumstances at issue in the case before the Sixth Circuit where a statewide referendum repealed existing affirmative action programs.7 Further, the Court should adopt the Ninth Circuit's reasoning in Wilson and analyze the ban at issue in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action using the more expansive traditional approach to equal protection.8 Part II examines the nature of permissible affirmative action plans under current Supreme Court doctrine and explains the circuit split.9 Part III argues that the Sixth Circuit incorrectly found Michigan's initiative banning affirmative action unconstitutional by applying the Hunter-Seattle test.10 Part IV offers a policy argument for abandonment of the Hunter-Seattle test.11 Part V concludes that affirmative action bans are consistent with the Equal Protection Clause and questions the continued relevance of the Hunter- Seattle doctrine.12II. BACKGROUNDA. Permissible Use of Race in Affirmative Action Programs Under Bakke, Grutter, and GratzIn the education context, affirmative action programs provide an advantage to minority applicants in the admissions process.13 Affirmative action programs are recognized racial classifications that presumptively violate the Equal Protection Clause.14 Under the Equal Protection Clause, racial classifications are subject to strict scrutiny and must be narrowly tailored to advance a compelling state interest.15 Despite the invalidity of affirmative action programs, the Supreme Court permits them as a remedy for past discrimination.16 Consequently, affirmative action programs are an exception to the general rule of equality required by the Equal Protection Clause.17Though the Supreme Court allows affirmative action programs, there are well-defined limitations on how such programs may operate.18 First, race may only be considered as a "plus" in conjunction with other characteristics in a student's file.19 This means that race cannot be the sole factor determining admission.20 This requirement ensures that all applicants receive comprehensive review.21 In defining the contours of permissible affirmative action programs, the Court prohibits procedures that create quotas for minority applicants.22One of the more important limitations on affirmative action programs is that they must be limited in time.23 In Grutter v. Bollinger, the Court approved the law school's use of race but stressed that the Fourteenth Amendment requires elimination of policies, like affirmative action, that embody racial classifications.24 This is because all racial classifications are presumptively invalid.25 The Court noted that California, Florida, and Washington have banned affirmative action in the same way that Michigan did with Proposal 2 in Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.26 The Court's approval of state-level affirmative action bans in Grutter suggests consistency with the Court's policy of eliminating racial classifications and reinforces the necessity of an end to those programs. …


Marine bacteria in surface waters must cope daily with the damaging effects of expo- sure to solar radiation (containing both UV-A and UV-B wavelengths), which produces lesions in their DNA. As the stratospheric ozone layer is depleted, these coping mechanisms are likely to play an even more important role in the viability of marine bacterial communities. The recA gene is ubiq- uitous among eubacteria and is highly conserved both in nucleotide and amino acid sequence. Besides its role in generalized recombination, the gene's translational product, RecA, is the regulator of 'dark repair' activity (DNA-repair mechanisms that do not require visible light as a cofactor). We have taken advantage of this function and used recA gene expression as a barometer of the DNA- damage repair capacity of bacterial assemblages in the Southern Ocean. Studies were conducted in the Gerlache Strait, Antarctica, in the austral springs of 1995 and 1996. Analysis of both recA mRNA and RecA protein extracted from natural communities indicated that the level of expression of this gene varied in a diel fashion, suggesting an increased repair capacity in these organisms. These included an early morning rise in RecA levels followed by a plateau or even a reduction in RecA con- centration during the remainder of the day. A much greater increase in RecA was consistently observed after sunset, followed by a constant decrease during the night. Microcosm experiments with a RecA + Gerlache Strait γ-proteobacteria isolate, RM11001, demonstrated a similar diel pattern of expression. These studies demonstrate the usefulness of RecA as a biological indicator of DNA repair capacity in natural bacterial assemblages. They indicate that 'dark repair' of DNA damage is an important coping mechanism for bacteria in the marine environment of Antarctica.


Aims Birth weight above the 90th percentile on growth charts based on population norms, or large for gestational age (LGA), are associated with adverse perinatal outcome. We compared the association between neonatal mortality, morbidity and LGA as determined by currently used centiles based on population standards (method A) and customised birth weight centiles (method B). Methods Cohort study of 6125 consecutive neonates, labelled as LGA using both methods (A) and (B), the latter calculated by adjusting for maternal height, booking weight, parity, ethnic origin, gestational age at delivery and sex. The outcomes were analysed in function of the method used to diagnose LGA. Results There were 1295 LGA infants (prevalence of 11.3%) with the majority (94.7%) not born to diabetic mothers and 90.4% born at term. Method A alone identified 44.5%, method B alone 11.3% and both methods concurred in identifying 44.2% of these infants. After correcting for prematurity, LGA infants diagnosed by method B alone (not identified by standard population method) did not have an increase in morbidity or mortality except for congenital anomalies (p = 0.01). Conclusion With the majority of LGA infants being born from non-diabetic mothers and with 11.3% not correctly identified by using population-based growth standards, these infants would therefore not be considered at risk of LGA-associated complications.


Vitrimers have the characteristics of shape-reforming and surface-welding, and have the same excellent mechanical properties as thermosets; so vitrimers hold the promise of a broad alternative to traditional plastics. Since their initial introduction in 2011, vitrimers have been applied to many unique applications such as reworkable composites and liquid crystal elastomer actuators. A series of experiments have investigated the effects of reprocessing conditions (such as temperature, time, and pressure) on recycled materials. However, the effect of particle size on the mechanical properties of recycled materials has not been reported. In this paper, we conducted an experimental study on the recovery of epoxy-acid vitrimers of different particle sizes. Epoxy-acid vitrimer powders with different particle size distributions were prepared and characterized. The effects of particle size on the mechanical properties of regenerated epoxy-acid vitrimers were investigated by dynamic mechanical analysis and uniaxial tensile tests. In addition, other processing parameters such as temperature, time, and pressure are discussed, as well as their interaction with particle size. This study helped to refine the vitrimer reprocessing condition parameter toolbox, providing experimental support for the easy and reliable control of the kinetics of the bond exchange reaction.


The particular structure of the research into historical seismology found in this catalogue has allowed a lot of information about unknown seismic events to be traced. This new contribution to seismologic knowledge mainly consists in: i) the retrieval and organisation within a coherent framework of documentary evidence of earthquakes that took place between the Middle Ages and the sixteenth century; ii) the improved knowledge of seismic events, even destructive events, which in the past had been "obscured" by large earthquakes; iii) the identification of earthquakes in "silent" seismic areas. The complex elements to be taken into account when dealing with unknown seismic events have been outlined; much "new" information often falls into one of the following categories: simple chronological errors relative to other well-known events; descriptions of other natural phenomena, though defined in texts as "earthquakes" (landslides, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.); unknown tremors belonging to known seismic periods; tremors that may be connected with events which have been catalogued under incorrect dates and with very approximate estimates of location and intensity. This proves that this was not a real seismic "silence" but a research vacuum.


The consequences of educational differentiation have been at the centre of research in sociology of education during the past decades. Processes of educational allocation have, however, received much less attention. Despite the fact that research has shown that teacher recommendations in France and Germany are partly determined by pupils' social background, studies that inquire into the causes of this social bias seem to be virtually inexistent. This study aims to examine whether teacher recommendations at the transition from primary to secondary education in Flanders (northern, Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) are also socially biased, and if so what causes these differentials in advice, using a mixed-methods design. We found the advice given by primary school teachers to be partly determined by pupils' social background. Analysis of the qualitative data suggests that teachers tend to evaluate pupils from low socio-economic status backgrounds less positively, due to their emphasis on specific pupil characteristics.


Industry 4.0 stands for the 4 th Industrial revolution and the new paradigm of autonomous and decentralized control in production. Products and production systems are enhanced to Cyber Physical Systems which have the capability to communicate with each other, to build ad-hoc networks and for self-control and self-optimization. From the IT-perspective this involves a new level of networking, data integration and data processing in production. Established technologies like Internet of Things, Cloud or Big Data are propagated solution-components of Industry 4.0. So far, there is no founded elaboration of IT-requirements and no differentiated discussion on how solution-components fulfil these requirements. This research uses the method of content analysis to extract requirements of Industry 4.0 from current research publications. Objective of analysis is a structured compilation of requirements regarding data processing. The resulting category scheme enables further development of solution-components in the application domain of Industry 4.0. Furthermore, this paper shows how the requirements can be matched to the capabilities of Big Data software solutions. As a result, two general use cases for Big Data applications in Industry 4.0 were identified and characterized.


Ti-45.5Al-2Cr-4Nb-0.4B alloy was cast by vacuum arc melting at high purity Ar atmosphere using high purity sponge Ti, granular Al (99.99%), flake Nb (99.9%), lump Cr (99.9%) and TiB2 (99.5%) and subsequently heat-treated to obtain a couple of microstructures, i.e. lamellar and near γ. The heat treatment consisted of annealing at a high temperature (1200 ~ 1330oC) of different phase fields for 24 hrs and stabilizing at 900oC for 4 hrs followed by air cooling. Fracture toughness was measured on the specimens with different microstructures at room temperature. The value of KQ of specimen with fully lamella structure was obtained as 18.68 MPa √m, much higher than that of specimen with near γ structure (11.84 MPa √m). It was also revealed that the KQ value was decreased as the annealing temperature decreased.


The gravitational instability of a filamentary molecular cloud in non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics is investigated. The filament is assumed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. We add the effect of ambipolar diffusion to the filament which is threaded by an initial uniform axial magnetic field along its axis. We write down the fluid equations in cylindrical coordinates and perform linear perturbation analysis. We integrate the resultant differential equations and then derive the numerical dispersion relation. We find that, a more efficient ambipolar diffusion leads to an enhancement of the growth of the most unstable mode, and to increase of the fragmentation scale of the filament.


In the field of forensic anthropology, the hyoid bone provides
important evidence on victim's biological profile (e.g., sex or
age at death) and on potential foul play, because in addition
to accidental (e.g., traffic accidents, medical-rescue
interventions), and self-inflicted traumas (e.g., hanging),
hyoid fractures have been vastly documented in assaulted
injuries (e.g., manual or ligature strangulations). Still, an
unbiased diagnosis of perimortem damage can be problematic as
hyoid fractures frequently occur postmortem when a laryngeal
region is being harvested and examined at autopsy. The aims of
the present study was to explore characteristics of peri- and
post-mortem fractures in hyoid bones by a variety of available
examination techniques. The studied material consisted of
selected fractured hyoid bones with documented demographic
profiles and mechanisms of damage. Characteristics of the
observed fractures (e.g., hyoid shape, fracture angle and
surface characteristics of the fracture line) were assessed on
a macroscopic level using traditional and advanced approaches
(macro-photography, 3D laser scanning). Furthemore, micro-CT,
RTG and SEM imaging methods were employed to examine damaged
regions on a microscopic level. Special attention was given to
the distinctions between peri- and post-mortem fractures by
observing the cortical bone microstructure (as viewed on raw CT
images, and generated 3D digital models) as the bone tissue
properties are believed to reflect the mechanism of damage
substantially. The acquired results provide an important
insight into potentials and limitations of currently available
imaging techniques employable in the course of assessing hyoid
bone fractures in the framework of physical and forensic
anthropology.


Advances in brain-computer interface research have recently empowered the development of wearable sensors to record mobile electroencephalography (EEG) as an unobtrusive and easy-to-use alternative to conventional scalp EEG. One such mobile solution is to record EEG from the ear canal, which has been validated for auditory steady state responses and discrete event related potentials (ERPs). However, it is still under discussion where to place recording and reference electrodes to capture best responses to auditory stimuli. Furthermore, the technology has not yet been tested and validated for ecologically relevant auditory stimuli such as speech. In this study, Ear-EEG and conventional scalp EEG were recorded simultaneously in a discrete-tone as well as a continuous-speech design. The discrete stimuli were applied in a dichotic oddball paradigm, while continuous stimuli were presented diotically as two simultaneous talkers. Cross-correlation of stimulus envelope and Ear-EEG was assessed as a measure of ongoing neural tracking. The extracted ERPs from Ear-EEG revealed typical auditory components yet depended critically on the reference electrode chosen. Reliable neural-tracking responses were extracted from the Ear-EEG for both paradigms, albeit weaker in amplitude than from scalp EEG. In conclusion, this study shows the feasibility of extracting relevant neural features from ear-canal-recorded "Ear-EEG", which might augment future hearing technology.


We present a throughput-efficient FPGA implementation of the Set Partitioning in Hierarchical Trees (SPIHT) algorithm for compression of images. The SPIHT uses inherent redundancy among wavelet coefficients and suited for both grey and color images. The SPIHT algorithm uses dynamic data structure which hinders hardware realization. In our FPGA implementation we have modified basic SPIHT in two ways, one by using static (fixed) mappings which represent significant information and the other by interchanging the sorting and refinement passes. A hardware realization is done in a Xilinx Vertex FPGA device. Significant throughput and compression ratio are obtained.


The chemical compositions of magmatic zircon growth zones provide powerful insight into evolving magma compositions due to their ability to record both time and the local chemical environment. In situ U-Pb and Hf isotope analyses of zircon rims from Oligocene–Miocene leucogranites of the Bhutan Himalaya reveal, for the first time, an evolution in melt composition between 32 and 12 Ma. The data indicate a uniform melt source from 32 Ma to 17 Ma, and the progressive addition of an older source component to the melt from at least ca. 17 Ma. Age-corrected ɛHf ratios decrease from between −10 and −15 down to values as low as −23 by 12 Ma. Complementary whole-rock Nd isotope data corroborate the Hf data, with a progressive decrease in ɛNd(t) from ca. 18 to 12 Ma. Published zircon and whole-rock Nd data from different lithotectonic units in the Himalaya suggest a chemical distinction between the younger Greater Himalayan Series (GHS) and the older Lesser Himalayan Series (LHS). The time-dependent isotopic evolution shown in the leucogranites demonstrates a progressive increase in melt contribution from older lithologies, suggestive of increasing LHS involvement in Himalayan melting over time. The time-resolved data are consistent with LHS material being progressively accreted to the base of the GHS from ca. 17 Ma, facilitated by deformation along the Main Central thrust. From 17 Ma, decompression, which had triggered anatexis in the GHS since the Paleogene, enabled melting in older sources from the accreted LHS, now forming the lowermost hanging wall of the thrust.


Generation of large spin current is an important issue in the operation of spintronic devices because the spin current plays a key role in spin-dependent transports and spin-transfer switching. Recently, a heat flow across a ferromagnet (FM) / nonmagnet (NM) junction is found to be able to generate and propagate the spin current. We have found that the large spin current is efficiently produced by using a heat flow across the CoFeAl /Cu junction because of the relatively large spin-dependent Seebeck coefficient for CoFeAl. The generated spin current is, in general, detected as the electrical voltage by using another ferromagnetic electrode. Using the nonlocal electrical detection scheme, one can prevent the background signal due to the spin-independent charge current. However, in the case of the thermal spin injection, the heat current reaches at the nonlocal ferromagnetic electrode and produces classical thermoelectric effects such as anomalous Nernst effect. Such spurious signals becomes serious obstacle when the large spin current is generated by the thermal spin injection. Therefore, the optimization of the device structure is indispensable for the ideal generation of the spin current using the heat. Here, we explore better geometry for generating the thermally excited spin signal in a laterally configured FM/NM hybrid nanostructure.


There are many different algorithms for solving Sudoku puzzles, with one of the newer algorithms being the hybrid AC3-tabu search algorithm. Since the algorithm has not been subject of much research, the aim of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of it.This thesis evaluates the efficiency of the hybrid AC3-tabu search algorithm by analyzing how quickly it solves puzzles compared to two other solving algorithms: one using brute-force search, and one combining human solving techniques with brute-force search. This thesis also investigates if there is a correlation between the number of puzzle clues and the solving time for the hybrid AC3-tabu search algorithm.The results show that the hybrid AC3-tabu search algorithm is less efficient than the two other algorithms, and that there seems to be a correlation between the number of clues and the solving time for the algorithm. The conclusion is that due to the algorithm's low efficiency and some of its characteristics, it is not suitable for solving Sudoku puzzles.


In the adult mouse, distinct morphological and transcriptional differences separate stomach from intestinal epithelium. Remarkably, the epithelial boundary between these two organs is literally one cell thick. This discrete junction is established suddenly and precisely at embryonic day (E) 16.5, by sharpening a previously diffuse intermediate zone. In the present study, we define the dynamic transcriptome of stomach, pylorus, and intestinal tissues between E14.5 and E16.5. We show that establishment of this boundary is concomitant with the induction of over a thousand genes in intestinal epithelium, and these gene products provide intestinal character. Hence, we call this process intestinalization. We identify specific transcription factors (Hnf4γ, Creb3l3, and Tcfec) and examine signaling pathways (Hedgehog and Wnt) that may play a role in this process. Finally, we define a unique expression domain at the pylorus itself and detect novel pylorus‐specific patterns for the transcription factor Gata3 and the secreted protein nephrocan. Developmental Dynamics 238:3205–3217, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The current and predicted implications of climate change are one of the most pressing global issues we face today. There is a strong indication that forests, especially in northern ecozones such as the boreal forest, are likely to experience some of the greatest impacts from climate change. Using dendrochronology (tree-ring analysis), this study examined the growth of trees, specifically white spruce (Picea glauca) and black spruce (Picea mariana), found at a site within the forest-tundra ecotone of the central Northwest Territories. The goal of this study was to conduct research that will contribute towards a better understanding of how the boreal forest-tundra ecotone is responding to climate change. Results show that while black and white spruce had similar growth trends during the 19 century, they have shown changes in more recent years and do not grow as similarly as they used to. There has also been a shift in growth in both species in the last century, in which white spruce appears to be decreasing in growth and black spruce appears to be increasing in growth. Pearson correlation tests on data between 1901-2010 found no significant relationship between climate trends (summer temperature and precipitation) and white spruce growth, but found significant relationships between climate trends and black spruce growth. To further examine climate-growth relationships, the data was divided into two time periods. Significant correlation tests were detected between black spruce ring widths and summer temperatures during 1920-1960, and summer precipitation during 1960-2010. Based on these results, is important to consider that there may be other local environmental factors influencing growth of each species (such as species competition, forest disturbances, soil moisture/nutrients, snowfall, wildfires, etc.). Future studies could include an analysis of pointer years (specifically 2007 and 1939 from this study) to obtain more information relating to extreme environmental changes that have occurred by identifying variables that cause abrupt responses in tree growth patterns. ENSC501 E. FEATHERSTONE April 2007 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS


This article surveys corpus research into what might generally be referred to as conventionalism in language use, and discusses its implications for second language teaching methodology. After an introductory section with traditional and more recent views on the idiomatic and formulaic nature of language use, Section 2 presents a survey of corpus-based case studies into preselected types of lexical patterning like idioms and collocations. Section 3 presents the cruder statistical approach of automatically assessing the frequency of recurrent combinations in texts. The results suggest that conventionalism extends far beyond the traditionally recognised patterns, and might be the basic combinatory principle underlying the composition of written and oral texts. After a short section with some evidence that conventional sequencing is also a feature in learner output, the concluding section (5) argues that to do justice to the phenomenon of conventionalism in language use, teaching methodology should be essentially text-based.


International findings and our own results in gerohygienic sociogerontological, geriatric, medical epidemiological and psychogerontological research have positively confirmed the need for preparing for old age. Demographic data in the GDR has brought to light the growing need to put the preparation for an active old age into practive making use of research data and of the existing resources. The means of implementing the programme life in the overall resources of our developed socialist society, in our laws, in our well-organized public health system and above all in the industrial health protection service. It is shown that the society's potentials and the industrial health protection service, which operates on a country-wide scale, can have a positive influence on ageing and on life of old people. The ways in which this can be achieved are described. These ways are based on the main medical, psychological and social aspects of preparaing for old age. The existing limits must be taken into account when translating the schemes of preparation for old age into practice of socialist health protection. It is indispensable to concentrate on problems of focal importance. The preparation must first benefit factory workers exposed to health hazards. Medical preparation should come first, followed by psychological and social preparation. In the long term, preparation for old age must be integrated into the overall process of education and it must start at school, where it should be integrated into biology and civics classes. Such a process corresponds to the life-long process of ageing, to socialist principles and to the efforts of the public health system to preserve health, working capacity and joy of living up to a ripe old age.


Due to the increase in the rack power of computer equipment, in recent years, thermal management of data centers has become a challenging problem. Data center facilities with raised floor plenums are the most popular configuration from a ducting configuration perspective. The under floor plenum serves as a distribution chamber for the cooling air. Plenums are also used to route piping, conduits and cables that bring power, server network connections, and supply coolant to the air conditioning units. Computational modeling studies have shown that, these under floor blockages impede the flow of cold air from the air conditioning units and yield unpredictable air flow patterns. In this paper, the impact of under floor blockages on flow distribution in a data center is experimentally investigated. A data center experimental cell with one server rack and one air conditioning unit is examined. A number of perforated tiles and their resistances are altered to achieve variable flow patterns under the raised floor. Using previously established guidelines for the placement of under floor structures (piping, etc.) three different scenarios are studied, i.e. no blockages, blockages in critical flow path and blockages in safe flow path are considered. Experiments were carried out for two different tile designs, with free area ratios of 16% and 30%, respectively, and three tile configurations. A detailed comparison between the experimental and CFD model results are presented for several different cases, showing good agreement. Blockages if placed in critical path are shown to significantly reduce the supply tile flow rates which directly affects the thermal performance of the corresponding server. Blockages are shown to have minimal impact when they are placed in safe path. Based on CFD model and experimental results, guidelines on managing under floor blockages are verified. Emphasis has been given to the routing the blockages from safe paths and to keeping critical paths blockage free.Copyright © 2007 by ASME