Bioenergy generation from available biomass to screen and select a plant species as potential biomass candidate that is mainly unexplored is emphasized presently. The study endeavours the scope of producing biogas from by-products of hingan fruit-a potential vegetable oil species considered for biodiesel preparation. The work done in the laboratory is aimed at reducing the cost of vegetable oil by increasing the efficiency of utilization of the species for energy generation. A trial is made to generate biogas using the outer cover of hingan fruit an unutilized component of the fruit. Substantial quantity of biogas can be developed form the biomass using an anaerobic digestion process. The gas yield of 50-54 litres is observed during the trial per kg of biomass fed in the digester. Mixing of cow dung with the biomass will slightly enhance the quality and quantity of gas yield. Each hingan tree has a potential of producing 4200 litres of biogas from the unutilized by-product of the fruit. It is also recorded that the gas yield from the digester is a function of temperature and relative humidity. The gas generated is clean and smokeless and can be effectively used for different energy application. The sludge remaining after the digestion has good manurial value.


Science has begun to play an increasing role in industrial development not only as a major source of knowledge for new technological activities or scientointensive industries (medicine industry, chemistry, electronics), but also as essential input in testing, evaluation and quality control. Innovation is one of the activities that can generate economic and social progress. Therefore, this paper also approaches the significance of innovative information dissemination, as well as the objectives of this activity in view of the EU Member States. The European Union has prepared two funding programs for innovation activity, Europe 2020 and Horizon 2020.


Talc and pesta granule formulations of P. lilacinus spores, obtained from solid and liquid media, at 12, 10, 8 and 6 per cent moisture levels were evaluated for their spore viability and tbeir field efficacy, singly and in combination with neem cake against root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita in the farmer's field. The preparation of P. lilacinus used in the field consisted mainly of spores. The fungus was cultured under two sets of defined conditions to produce aerial spores, i. e ., cultured on sorghum grains, and submerged spores, grown in a liquid medium. Aerial spores were more robust (96, 87, 80 and 60% viability at 6, 8, 10 and 12% moisture levels, respectively, in talc formulation from sorghum grains), compared to submerged spores (83, 72,64 and 54% viability at 6, 8, 10 and 12% moisture levels, respectively, in talc formulation from liquid broth), over a period of 60 days after formulation. Talc and pesta granules of P. lilacinus , applied at 2 doses, 10 and 15 kg/ha to the root-knot nematode infested chrysanthemum field correspondingly reduced root gall index to 1.4-2.7, nematode multiplication rate to 1.4-2.12, and enhanced floral yield by 12 per cent depending on the dose of formulation. Further, combined use of these formulations with neem cake enhanced fungal propagules in rhizosphere to 700-1070, fungal infectivity to 32- 52 per cent and chrysanthemum flower yield (by 23-28 %) depending on the dose of formulation.


Introduction. Diabetes mellitus is a condition with a growing morbidity and mortality burden. An estimated 30 million adults currently live with diabetes, with each individual spending over $9500 annually on medical care. The successful management of diabetes is a lifelong endeavor. This involves balancing a variety of factors including diet, medications, and glucose monitoring. It has been well established that successful control of diabetes depends largely upon patients' daily lifestyle habits and activities. Not all patients, however, have the resources necessary for effective diabetes management. Health disparities lead to a higher rate of diabetes development in minority and poor populations. Since underserved patients have limited access to traditional healthcare avenues, providers should explore other means, like mobile health (mHealth), to help such patients. The rapid adoption of smartphones within the last decade has allowed an opportunity for patients to use mHealth and smartphone applications (apps) as a lowcost way to get health information and services. mHealth has the potential to address such disparities in access to health care. Little is known about the effectiveness of using apps to help underserved patients with their diabetes management. Assessing these patients' current self-management practices and their interest in using smartphone apps for their diabetes management is the first step in determining how mHealth may benefit this patient population. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess how underserved patients with limited access to primary care physicians handled their diabetes on their own at home, to determine what challenges they faced with their self-management, and to examine their willingness to use diabetes mHealth apps on their smartphones to assist with their diabetes management. Methods. This study employed purposive sampling to select patients for individual interviews. Participant selection occurred at a Memphis hospital located in an area of town with predominately low-income and minority residents, as well as a high prevalence of diabetes. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on-site at the hospital based on McNamara's interview staging. In all, 15 interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded according to the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework. Results. The data produced 5 topic clusters related to at-home diabetes management, which supported 2 overarching themes, and 7 clusters related to mHealth smartphone app use, which supported 3 overarching themes. The themes related to self-management are as follows: 1. Patients are aware that successful diabetes control requires active engagement on their part but voiced struggles related to balancing limited income and a healthy diet, how to manage fluctuating glucose readings throughout the day, and affording medications; and 2. Lacking a traditional relationship with a primary care doctor, these underserved patients turn to friends and family, written materials, and the internet as health care resources. The themes related to smartphone mHealth are as follows: 1. Despite limited knowledge about health apps and varying phone use patterns, patients were all willing to try at least one diabetes-related app; 2. App functions should be individualized to meet each patient's needs for maximum benefit; and 3. Barriers to app use were varied but commonly included knowledge and technological challenges and security issues. Conclusion. Interviews from this vulnerable population demonstrated that individuals understood the importance of their own active involvement in controlling their diabetes. Yet, because of limited economic and health care resources, these patients struggle with the implementation of effective lifestyle choices in their daily routine. Furthermore, interviewees expressed interest in trying mobile health apps for diabetes management, despite minimal knowledge about the technology. Responses showed that selecting apps tailored to each individual's needs, instead of offering one blanket multifunctional app, would provide patients with the greatest benefit. Smartphone apps may be a low-cost health resource that patients without regular access to physicians can use for their at-home diabetes management. Document Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Program Health Outcomes and Policy Research Research Advisor Shelley White-Means,PhD


Today, drug-eluting stents (DES) are the standard stenting procedure in the USA and in Switzerland. The objective of this analysis is to answer the two questions: what clinically relevant data regarding DES have been published, and is there a clinically relevant difference between the Cypher and the Taxus stents? Twenty-two randomized, controlled studies with a total of 11,118 patients were identified: 18 randomized studies compared a DES to a bare metal stent of identical design in 8,301 patients, and 4 randomized studies compared the Cypher and the Taxus stents in 2,817 patients. Three studies regarding Paclitaxel-releasing stents without polymer (1,235 pats) and five studies regarding Paclitaxel released from a polymer (3,513 pats) were analyzed. Sirolimus released from a polymer was investigated in five studies (2,070 pats). Everolimus released from a polymer was investigated in three studies (166 pats), Biolimus A9 released from a polymer in one (120 pats), and Zotarolimus (ABT-578) released from a polymer in also one (1,197 pats) trial. Thirteen studies chose either a surrogate primary endpoint (angiographic or IVUS) or a clinical endpoint insufficient for a power calculation. A primary clinical endpoint with an adequate sample size for a power calculation was chosen in three trials for the Taxus stent (TAXUS-IV, TAXUS-V, TAXUS-VI; 2,916 patients), in one trial for the Cypher stent (SIRIUS; 1,058 patients), and in one trial for the Endeavor stent (ENDEAVOR-II; 1,197 patients). In all these trials, the primary clinical endpoint was reached. Of the four studies comparing Cypher stents to Taxus stents, one did not define the primary endpoint (TAXi), two assumed superiority of the Cypher stent (REALITY with a surrogate endpoint and SIRTAX, a single-center study), and one was designed as a non-inferiority trial (ISAR-Diabetes, single-center study with a surrogate endpoint). Based on the European Society of Cardiology established strict criteria with a clinical primary endpoint as a prerequisite to recommend a DES, only three DES have thus far had proven positive effects on clinical outcome: the Cypher-stents, Taxus-stents, and Endeavor-stents. A trial proving the superiority of one DES over another would require a multicenter study with a clinical primary endpoint at an adequate power. As long as such a trial does not exist, Cypher and Taxus are regarded as being equivalent. (J Interven Cardiol 2005;18:441–446)


Abstract This article presents a review of studies that investigated the advantage of morphological awareness and knowledge of basic morphemes that comprise verbs in Arabic among normal and dyslexic native Arabic readers, and discusses the role of Arabic morphology in reading. The review included studies on Arabic as well as some studies on Hebrew, since they are both Semitic languages. Recent studies have demonstrated the importance of morphology in the organization of words, and its effect on the reading process. Studies investigating normal and dyslexic readers usually focused on the role of phonology in different orthographies, rather than on the role of morphology. It is important to study the orthography of the specific language, due to its specific nature, and the different effect that each orthography type may have on the reading process. The present review discusses most of the recent studies on Arabic morphology and focuses on the contribution of morphological awareness for acquisition and fluency in reading and its effect on the reading process of normal and dyslexic readers. The findings of these studies, as well as future research directions are discussed. Highlights What is already known about this topic? *Recent studies demonstrated the importance of morphology in the organization and processing of words and its effect on the reading process. This role is not clear in all orthographies. What this paper adds. *The present review discusses most of the recent studies conducted on Arabic morphology, shows what these studies concluded as well as future research directions.


The article examines temporary extramarital cohabitation arrangements between low-wage Chinese female migrants and their male counterparts in Singapore, a phenomenon which is widely referred to by the migrants as becoming a "temporary couple" or "teaming up to have a life." In the simulated
 households, the men usually shoulder most of the daily expenses for both members, while the women are expected to take care of the men's intimate needs and most of the housework. The vast majority of the women involved in such arrangements are married and migrated for work on their own. This
 article, based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2019, explores how these women perform and understand such temporary intimacies. I first demonstrate that the women enter the relationships as a reaction to the institutional setup that places them in a suspended status, in
 which they are treated as nothing more than temporary labourers. I then illustrate how the women put the relationship in a state of suspension: they instrumentalize it as a means to maximize savings, and mark it out as a short-term exception that will end abruptly once they leave Singapore.
 The structurally imposed and self-inflicted conditions of suspension limit the women's agency to an ambiguous private domain that is away from both work and home. Drawing on my long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this article deploys the notion of suspension as a guiding concept to unravel the
 tensions and moral anxieties that the women experience with their temporary intimacies.


While risk of tuberculosis (TB) is high among household contacts (HHCs) of pre-extensively drug resistant (pre-XDR) TB and XDR-TB, data on yield of systematic longitudinal screening are lacking. We aim to describe the yield of systematic longitudinal TB contact tracing among HHCs of patients with pre-XDR-TB and XDR-TB. At the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) clinic, Mumbai, India a cohort comprising 518 HHCs of 109 pre-XDR and XDR index cases was enrolled between January 2016 and June 2018. Regular HHC follow-ups were done till one year post treatment of index cases. Of 518 HHCs, 23 had TB (21 on TB treatment and two newly diagnosed) at the time of first visit. Of the rest, 19% HHCs had no follow-ups. Fourteen (3.5%) TB cases were identified among 400 HHCs; incidence rate: 2072/100,000 person-years (95% CI: 1227–3499). The overall yield of household contact tracing was 3% (16/518). Of 14 who were diagnosed with TB during follow-up, six had drug susceptible TB (DSTB); six had pre-XDR-TB and one had XDR-TB. Five of fourteen cases had resistance patterns concordant with their index case. In view of the high incidence of TB among HHCs of pre-XDR and XDR-TB cases, follow-up of HHCs for at least the duration of index cases' treatment should be considered.


Electronic devices have been used for the support of everyday tasks in domestic and professional environments for some time now. Currently, there is a tendency towards a combined application of individual gadgets that are connected within locally confined environments via a diversity of protocols and technologies like UPnP, WLAN and Bluetooth. As one step further in this direction, there is the vision of devices that are globally and uniformly connected through the WWW, extending the Mobile Web to a Ubiquitous Web. Hence, this allows for scenarios where actions on one device can trigger events on an arbitrary other device, and where third-party Web services from anywhere in the world are involved. Ultimately, this results in federations of devices and Web services belonging to different households, companies, suppliers and service providers, forming new kinds of Web applications that integrate devices as an additional dimension. To fulfill this vision, solutions are required that are able to abstract from the different device implementations and bridge the gap between the device and the Web. In this paper, we present the Federated Device Assembly (FDX) approach that offers an integrated management platform for wrapping and as such connecting arbitrary devices to enable new forms of Web applications along with the means to model such federations. Furthermore, we demonstrate how the required infrastructure systems can be realized by introducing a reference architecture and a generic Web service interface.


Claims about the positive influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on work team performance are very numerous, both in commercial and scientific literature. In this study, EI was assessed using the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS). Paper examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and performance of 15 teams selected from higher education institutes of Pakistan. A single questionnaire was used to gather data from the teams, each team consisting of 5-15 members. Simple and multiple regression was applied to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence as a whole and team performance and then between different dimensions of emotional intelligence. Results indicated that emotional intelligence had positive impact on team performance. The study recommended that experimental study may be conducted to compare the performance of teams before and after providing the training on emotional intelligence so that a clear picture may emerge.


Modern observations of planktic foraminifera from sediment trap studies help to constrain the regional ecology of paleoceanographically valuable species. Results from a weekly-resolved sediment trap time series (2008–2014) in the northern Gulf of Mexico demonstrate that 92% of Globorotalia truncatulinoides flux occurs in winter (January, February, and March), and that encrusted and non-encrusted individuals represent calcification in distinct depth habitats. Individual foraminiferal analysis (IFA) of G. truncatulinoides tests were used to investigate differences in the elemental Magnesium/Calcium (Mg/Ca) and isotopic composition (δ18O and δ13C) of the encrusted and non-encrusted ontogenetic forms of G. truncatulinoides, and to estimate their calcification depth in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Estimates show that non-encrusted and encrusted G. truncatulinoides have mean calcification depths of 66 ± 9 meters and 393 ± 83 meters, respectively. The Mg/Ca-calcification temperature relationship was validated for G. truncatulinoides and demonstrated that the δ18O and Mg/Ca of the non-encrusted form is a suitable proxy for winter surface mixed layer conditions in the Gulf of Mexico. Care should be taken not to combine encrusted and non-encrusted individuals of G. truncatulinoides for down core paleoceanographic studies.


Abstract The present study joins the long-running debate about the semantic–pragmatic distinction of the three domains of epistemic modality, evidentiality, and factuality. In particular, this work aims at providing both a theoretical and operational framework to investigate what type of speech act is at stake when a speaker/writer alternatively decides to mark a proposition as an epistemic modal, an evidential, or a factual construction. In fact, three basic types of illocutionary force will be shown to determine the modal marking of a constative speech act: evaluational (EvF(p)), presentative (PrF(p)), and assertive (AsF(p)) force. This classification is based on a set of tests that can effectively address either grammaticalized constructions or pragmatic strategies, independent from the specificity of the item under enquiry. This approach is first used to disentangle the controversial meaning of MUST-type predicates and then further theorized as a speech-act based framework of epistemic disambiguation.


Modeling and simulation are important tools in the study of power distribution faults due to the limited amount of actual data and the high cost of experimentation. Although a number of software packages are available to simulate the electrical signals, approaches for simulating fault events in different environments have not been well developed. In this paper, we propose a framework for modeling and simulating fault events in power distribution systems based on environmental factors and the cause-effect relationships among them. The spatial and temporal aspects of significant environmental factors leading to various faults are modeled as raster maps and probability functions, respectively. The cause-effect relationships are expressed as fuzzy rules and a hierarchical fuzzy inference system is built to infer the probability of faults in the simulated environments. A test case simulating a part of a typical city's power distribution systems demonstrates the effectiveness of the framework in generating realistic distribution faults. This work is helpful in fault diagnosis for different local systems and provides a configurable data source to other researchers and engineers in similar areas as well.


The disappearance of Homo sapiens neanderthalensis at the end of the Middle Paleolithic has evoked a plethora of explanations, ranging from carefully supported theories to bizarre or romantic speculation. The processes by which the Neanderthals were replaced by anatomically modern humans occurred in a relatively short interval of time, and have been obscured by a wide variety of disturbances. A review of some of the inferences drawn by various researchers tentatively suggests a combination of in situ technological and morphological evolution in the Near East with movement of Upper Paleolithic genes and technology into Europe.


PURPOSE
Retinal illuminance varies with stimulus luminance, pupil size, eye size, and transmissivity of the ocular media. There are few published data to inform estimates of retinal illuminance in early infancy, and no concurrent studies of pupil size and ocular length have been described. The goals were to document simultaneously the measured ocular parameters in growing preterm infants and to estimate the potential errors associated with using either stimulus luminance or troland value as a proxy for retinal illuminance in this population.

METHODS
Ocular biometry including diameters of the eye, vitreous chamber depth (VCD) and dilated pupil diameter was performed on 111 occasions in 33 preterm infants aged between 30 and 55 weeks' postmenstrual age.

RESULTS
Eye size increased rapidly between 30 and 55 postmenstrual weeks and was comparable to that of term-born infants. The ratio of dilated pupil area to VCD(2) was highly variable. Retinal illuminance of the infant eye compared with adult eyes was underestimated by both stimulus luminance and troland values.

CONCLUSIONS
Stimulus luminance and troland values cannot be used to infer retinal illuminance when comparing eyes of markedly differing sizes or transmissivities. Error in estimating retinal illuminance in prematurely born infants is inevitable because of uncertainty regarding media transmissivity, but this discrepancy can be minimized by using directly measured pupil diameter and data presented herein for eye size in this population.


The rates of reduction of carbon tetrachloride (CT) and nitrobenzene (NB) by iron-oxide coated gold electrodes were studied to gain insight into the processes that control reduction of groundwater contaminants by zerovalent metal permeable reactive barriers. Fe(III)-oxide films were deposited on gold electrodes with a small fraction of the Fe(III) electrochemically reduced to Fe(II) to investigate the role of Fe(II) in the reduction of the CT and NB. Mass transport to the surface of the oxide film was controlled through use of a well-defined flow-through system similar to a wall-jet electrode. The factors affecting the overall reduction rate were investigated by varying the Fe(II) content in the iron-oxide, controlling mass transport of the electroactive species to the oxide surface, and varying the thickness of the oxide film. The rates of reduction of CT and NB were found to be independent of Fe(II) content in the iron-oxide and were only slightly dependent on the rate of transport to the surface of the oxide under a few sets of reaction conditions. Conversely, the rates of reduction were greatly dependent on the thickness of the oxide film, with the reduction rate decreasing as the oxide thickness increased. Evidence suggests that the location of the reduction reaction for CT and NB is at the gold surface and supports a barrier model for the system studied, in which the oxide film physically impedes direct contact of the electroactive species and the gold electrode, increases the diffusion path length, and creates adsorption sites.


We propose a new mathematical growth model of primary tumor and primary metastases which may help to improve predicting accuracy of breast cancer process using an original mathematical model referred to CoM-IV and corresponding software. The CoM-IV model and predictive software: a) detect different growth periods of primary tumor and primary metastases; b) make forecast of patient survival; c) have higher average prediction accuracy than the other tools; d) can improve forecasts on survival of BC and facilitate optimisation of diagnostic tests. The CoM-IV enables us, for the first time, to predict the whole natural history of primary tumor and primary metastases growth on each stage (pT1, pT2, pT3, pT4) relying only on primary tumor sizes. Summarising: CoM-IV a) describes correctly primary tumor and primary distant metastases growth of IV (T1-4N0-3M1) stage with (N1-3) or without regional metastases in lymph nodes (N0); b) facilitates the understanding of the appearance period and manifestation of primary metastases.


Abstract Key words: Cannabis sativa L., day length sensitivity, fibre hemp, genotype, harvest time, plant density, plant weight, primary fibres, secondary fibres, sowing date, textiles. Westerhuis, W. (2016) Hemp for textiles: plant size matters, PhD thesis. Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands , 234 pp. With English and Dutch summaries.  Fibre hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) may be an alternative to cotton and synthetic fibres as a raw material for textile yarn production in the European Union. The agronomic options to manipulate plant development and crop growth with the aim to optimise hemp long fibre production were investigated. Field trials with factors sowing density, sowing date, harvest time and variety were conducted. Stems were traditionally processed by retting, drying, breaking, and scutching. Following standard protocols, almost 1500 hemp stem samples were analysed. Varieties differ widely in their fibre content, but this thesis shows that when variety and plant size are known, the amounts of fibres, wood, and retting losses are known. The dry weight of the stems at harvest, not the factors underlying this weight, are determinant. In retted stems the dry matter is split–up into fibres and wood in a fixed way. The options to manipulate this ratio by crop management, given variety, are very small and for practical reasons they can be neglected. In fibre hemp two bast fibre types occur. Primary or long fibres are valuable for yarn spinning. Secondary fibres are too short and their presence hampers the production of fine yarns. This thesis shows that the secondary fibre front height increases with plant weight. Although a causal relationship between secondary fibre formation and flowering does not exist, the secondary fibre front is found higher in flowering plants when compared to non–flowering plants of the same height. This is likely to be caused by the higher weight or momentum of flowering plants as compared with non–flowering plants of the same height. Consequently, a harvest before flowering is preferable. This was shown in a greenhouse experiment, in which the short–day response of hemp was used to create size ranges of flowering and non–flowering plants. To produce high–quality raw materials for textile production, short crops should be grown. The options to produce plants with the desired size are manifold. Since sowing density, sowing date, and harvest time do not have an additional effect on the primary fibre content besides the indirect effect through stem weight, any combination of these factors could be chosen to optimize plant size.


We show that the one-dimensional periodic Zakharov system is globally well-posed in a class of low-regularity Fourier-Lebesgue spaces. The result is obtained by combining the I-method with Bourgain's high-low decomposition method. As a corollary, we obtain probabilistic global existence results in \begin{document}$ L^2 $\end{document} -based Sobolev spaces. We also obtain global well-posedness in \begin{document}$ H^{\frac12+} \times L^2 $\end{document} , which is sharp (up to endpoints) in the class of \begin{document}$ L^2 $\end{document} -based Sobolev spaces.


Background: Although the tissues comprising the ocular conventional outflow pathway have shown strong viscoelastic mechanical response to aqueous humor pressure dynamics, the viscoelastic mechanical properties of the trabecular meshwork (TM), juxtacanalicular connective tissue (JCT), and Schlemm's canal (SC) inner wall are largely unknown. Methods: A quadrant of the anterior segment from two human donor eyes at low- and high-flow (LF and HF) outflow regions was pressurized and imaged using optical coherence tomography (OCT). A finite element (FE) model of the TM, the adjacent JCT, and the SC inner wall was constructed and viscoelastic beam elements were distributed in the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the TM and JCT to represent anisotropic collagen. An inverse FE-optimization algorithm was used to calculate the viscoelastic properties of the ECM/beam elements such that the TM/JCT/SC model and OCT imaging data best matched over time. Results: The ECM of the glaucoma tissues showed significantly larger time-dependent shear moduli compared to the heathy tissues. Significantly larger shear moduli were also observed in the LF regions of both the healthy and glaucoma eyes compared to the HF regions. Conclusions: The outflow tissues in both glaucoma eyes and HF regions are stiffer and less able to respond to dynamic IOP.


ABSTRACT While there is an assumption that wildlife value orientations can be useful in strategic communication, few studies have empirically explored this topic. This article used the concept of wildlife value orientations to understand how to increase the motivation of people to process information about wildlife in the context of persuasive communication. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to identify mutualism and domination wildlife value orientations. From the wildlife value orientations, crosstabs were used to create a typology with four discreet segments: mutualists, pluralists, traditionalists, and distanced. A series of ANOVAs examined how important different messages about bear safety were to the typology segments. Results indicated that message relevancy differs among wildlife value orientations. Managers can use this information to help frame their communications about wildlife-related issues. Future research should continue to explore the impact of this value-framing approach to other persuasive communication concepts, like attitudes and behaviors.


Through a comprehensive theoretical study, we demonstrate that single-molecule junctions formed from asymmetric molecules with different terminal groups can exhibit Seebeck coefficients, whose sign depends on the orientation of the molecule within the junction. Three anthracene-based molecules are studied, one of which exhibits this bi-thermoelectric behaviour, due to the presence of a thioacetate terminal group at one end and a pyridyl terminal group at the other. A pre-requisite for obtaining this behaviour is the use of junction electrodes formed from different materials. In our case, we use gold as the bottom electrode and graphene-coated gold as the top electrode. This demonstration of bi-thermoelecricity means that if molecules with alternating orientations can be deposited on a substrate, then they form a basis for boosting the thermovoltage in molecular-scale thermoelectric energy generators (TEGs).


Active ingredient Trifloxystrobin belongs to the strobilurin class of fungicides which possess improved safety and environmental characteristics. The objective of this research was to evaluate the efficacy of seed treatment fungicides based on Trifloxystrobin to control seed rot and pre-emergence damping off of canola, pulses, and corn crops. In 2004-2006, canola, pulses, and corn trials were conducted in Saskatchewan (Aberdeen, Allan, Indian Head, and Wakaw), Alberta (Vegreville), and Manitoba (High Bluff). The experimental design used was a randomized complete block design with four replications. Seed treatments fungicide tested were Trilex FL (trifloxystrobin [10g]/100 kg of seed); Trilex AL (trifloxystrobin [5g] + Allegiance FL (metalaxyl) [4g]/100 kg of seed); and Trilex FL (trifloxystrobin [5g]/100 kg of seed) tank mixed with Allegiance FL (metalaxyl) [2g]/100 kg of seed) Plants were counted at 14 to 28 days after planting. Data were analyzed using an ANOVA. Trifloxystrobin based seed treatment fungicides possessed excellent efficacy for controlling seed rot and pre-emergence damping-off of canola, pea, lentil, chickpea, and corn crops grown in soils infected with Rhizoctonia solani or Fusarium avenaceum.


This thesis describes the development of a fast rate method for the deposition of high quality CdS and CdTe thin films. The technique uses Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering (PDCMS). Surprisingly, the technique produces highly stable process conditions. CREST is the first laboratory worldwide to show that pulsed DC power may be used to deposit CdS and CdTe thin films. This is a very promising process technology with potential for eventual industrial deployment. The major advantage is that the process produces high deposition rates suitable for use in solar module manufacturing. These rates are over an order of magnitude faster than those obtained by RF sputtering. In common with other applications it has also been found that the energetics of the pulsed DC process produce excellent thin film properties and the power supply configuration avoids the need for complex matching circuits.
Conventional deposition methodologies for CdS, Chemical Bath Deposition (CBD) and CdTe thin films, Electrodeposition (ED), have been chosen as baselines to compare film properties with Pulsed DC Magnetron Sputtering (PDCMS).
One of the issues encountered with the deposition of CdS thin films (window layers) was the presence of pinholes. A Plasma cleaning process of FTO-coated glass prior to the deposition of the CdS/CdTe solar cell has been developed. It strongly modifies and activates the TCO surface, and improves the density and compactness of the deposited CdS thin film. This, in turn, improves the optical and morphological properties of the deposited CdS thin films, resulting in a higher refractive index. The pinhole removal and the increased density allows the use of a much thinner CdS layer, and this reduces absorption of blue spectrum photons and thereby increases the photocurrent and the efficiency of the thin film CdTe cell.
Replacing the conventional magnetic stirrer with an ultrasonic probe in the chemical bath (sonoCBD) was found to result in CdS films with higher optical density, higher refractive index, pinhole and void-free, more compact and uniform along the surface and through the thickness of the deposited material.
PDCMS at 150 kHz, 500 W, 2.5 μs, 2 s, results in a highly stable process with no plasma arcing. It allows close control of film thickness using time only. The CdS films exhibited a high level of texture in the direction. The grain size was typically ~50 nm. Pinholes and voids could be avoided by reducing the working gas pressure using gas flows
ii
below 20 sccm. The deposition rate was measured to be 1.33 nm/s on a rotating substrate holder. The equivalent deposition rate for a static substrate is 8.66 nm/s, which is high and much faster than can be achieved using a chemical bath deposition or RF magnetron sputtering.
The transmission of CdS can be improved by engineering the band gap of the CdS layer. It has been shown that by adding oxygen to the working gas pressure in an RF sputtering deposition process it is possible to deposit an oxygenated CdS (CdS:O) layer with an improved band gap. In this thesis, oxygenated CdS films for CdTe TF-PV applications have been successfully deposited by using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. The process is highly stable using a pulse frequency of 150 kHz and a 2.5 μs pulse reverse time. No plasma arcing was detected. A range of CdS:O films were deposited by using O2 flows from 1 sccm to 10 sccm during the deposition process. The deposition rates achieved using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering with only 500 W of power to the magnetron target were in the range ~1.49 nm/s ~2.44 nm/s, depending on the oxygen flow rate used.
The properties of CdS thin films deposited by pulsed DC magnetron sputtering and chemical bath deposition have been studied and compared. The pulsed DC magnetron sputtering process produced CdS thin films with the preferred hexagonal oriented crystalline structure with a columnar grain growth, while sonoCBD deposited films were polycrystalline with a cubic structure and small grainy crystallites throughout the thickness of the films. Examination of the PDCMS deposited CdS films confirmed the increased grain size, increased density, and higher crystallinity compared to the sonoCBD CdS films. The deposition rate for CdS obtained using pulsed DC magnetron sputtering was 2.86 nm/s using only 500 W power on a six inch circular target compared to the much slower (0.027 nm/s) for the sonoChemical bath deposited layers.
CdTe thin films were grown on CdS films prepared by sonoCBD and Pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. The results showed that the deposition technique used for the CdS layer affected the growth and properties of the CdTe film and also determined the deposition rate of CdTe, being 3 times faster on the sputtered CdS.
PDCMS CdTe layers were deposited at ambient temperature, 500 W, 2.9 μs, 10 s, 150 kHz, with a thickness of approximately 2 μm on CdS/TEC10 coated glass. The layers appear
iii
uniform and smooth with a grain size less than 100 nm, highly compact with the morphology dominated by columnar grain growth. Stress analysis was performed on the CdTe layers deposited at room temperature using different gas flows. Magnetron sputtered thin films deposited under low gas pressure are often subject to compressive stress due to the high mobility of the atoms during the deposition process. A possible way to reduce the stress in the film is the post-deposition annealing treatment. As the lattice parameter increased; the stress in the film is relieved. Also, a changing the deposition substrate temperature had an effect on the microstructure of CdTe thin films. Increasing the deposition temperature increased the grain size, up to ~600 nm.
CdTe thin films with low stress have been deposited on CdS/TEC10 coated glass by setting the deposition substrate temperature at ~200°C and using high argon flows ~ 70 sccm Ar.
Finally, broadband multilayer ARCs using alternate high and low refractive index dielectric thin films have been developed to improve the light transmission into solar cell devices by reducing the reflection of the glass in the extended wavelength range utilised by thin-film CdTe devices. A four-layer multilayer stack has been designed and tested, which operates across the wavelength range used by thin-film CdTe PV devices (400 850 nm). Optical modelling predicts that the MAR coating reduces the WAR (400-850 nm) from the glass surface from 4.22% down to 1.22%. The application of the MAR coating on a thin-film CdTe solar cell increased the efficiency from 10.55% to 10.93% or by 0.38% in absolute terms. This is a useful 3.6% relative increase in efficiency. The increased light transmission leads to improvement of the short-circuit current density produced by the cell by 0.65 mA/cm2. The MAR sputtering process developed in this work is capable of scaling to an industrial level.


There is a great amount of ecological information for terrestrial arthropods in several types of habitats, but few studies have focused on populations living in tidal freshwater wetlands. During a two-year fi eld survey, we studied the temporal dynamics of the harvestman Discocyrtus prospicuus inhabiting a freshwater wetland exposed to predictable tides and unpredictable fl oods. We also explored the effects of temperature, precipitation, and tide level on the population dynamics and reproductive phenology. Our fi ndings are markedly different from those reported in other harvestman species living in different habitats and also from conspecifi c populations living in the mainland. Adults, subadults, and juveniles remain active throughout the year, and a long breeding season was observed. However, the number of adults, subadults, juveniles, and egg clutches showed clear variations over the year without a consistent seasonal pattern. Contrary to the general pattern in harvestmen, no climatic variables were signifi cant predictors of abundance fl uctuations. We discuss the potential masking effect of unpredictable fl ood events, obscuring the relationship between abundance and abiotic factors. In addition, given that climatic conditions seem to favor harvestmen activity throughout the year, we also hypothesized that abundance variations could be driven mainly by biotic rather than by abiotic interactions.


ABSTRACT Diseases are a major constraint limiting dairy cattle production, with East Coast Fever (ECF) ranking among those of high economic importance. The high cost of ECF control and treatment led to the development of the ECF vaccine, which is envisaged to be safer, cheaper and effective. The objective of this study was to identify factors influencing the uptake of this technology. One hundred and eighty one (181) randomly sampled smallholder dairy farmers from North Rift Kenya, where the vaccine had been introduced, were used to estimate the determinants of uptake of East Coast Fever (ECF) vaccine in these areas. Results showed that the vaccine was likely to be adopted by relatively well-off households whose main source of income was off-farm employment, had relatively large herd sizes and could afford to practise on-farm tick control. Farmers with higher levels of education and advanced in age were also likely to adopt the vaccine. The paper derives important policy implications for enhanced ECF vaccine uptake in smallholder dairy systems in Kenya.


In this paper, the author contrasts the substantial impact of mental health problems on global disability with the limited attention and resources these problems receive. The author discusses possible reasons for the disparity: Compared to physical disorders, mental health problems are considered less important, perhaps due to lower priority of disorders that primarily cause dysfunction rather than mortality, and skepticism that mental disorders are treatable in low-resource countries. He argues that achieving improved global health and development requires addressing problems causing disability, particularly mental health problems among populations in which the common mental disorders are frequent due to deprivation, war, and disasters. The author contends that services addressing the common mental disorders could be made widely and relatively cheaply accessible if provided by non-professional workers at the community level.


We report our studies on laser processing techniques suitable for patterning of YBa/sub 2/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 7-x/ (YBCO) thin films, as well as YBCO/SrTiO/sub 3/ bilayers, consisting of in-situ grown YBCO films with 100-nm-thick single-crystalline SrTiO/sub 3/ cap layers. The patterning is achieved through both laser inhibition, in which an intense, focused laser beam locally melts YBCO transferring it into an insulating glass-like material, and laser writing, based on a laser-controlled diffusion of oxygen in or out of the YBCO film. We have found that oxygen easily migrates through the SrTiO/sub 3/ layer, allowing to reversibly convert the underlying YBCO film between the superconducting and semiconducting (virtually insulating at low temperatures) phases. Using laser inhibition and writing, we were able to form in a single YBCO/SrTiO/sub 3/ sample well-defined regions of various electrical properties, showing that laser processing can be successfully used in patterning and/or electrical trimming of multilayered YBCO circuits. Aging studies, performed on an almost 2-years-old laser-written YBCO film, showed a very good, both structural and electrical stability of our laser-processed structures.<<ETX>>


In this paper, we propose a robustness data collection and fault detection method for large-scale sensor networks, which consist of ten thousand sensor nodes. The sensor network has some special features as multihop communication, data aggregation, and high error data rate caused by the huge number of nodes. To tackle this issue, we propose a distributed and self-organized method for data collecting and diagnosis. Our method has two features that are token nodes and limited broadcast for the data sharing and collecting. The token node is a special node that can make a limited broadcast packet for data collecting and sharing. Limited broadcast is a limited multihop number and we apply only two hops on this research. Those features can prevent a flood of broadcast packet. To clear the capability of our method, we make a few simulations and compare with other data collecting and diagnose method. As the result, our proposed method has better performance than other method.


Gynaecologic pelvic tumours comprise a range of histological entities that are highly variable with respect to their clinical behaviour. The distinction of these tumours can be extremely difficult. Accurate identification of the primary tumour site has significant impact on the treatment strategy and prognosis. In this study we investigated the diagnostic and clinical utility of HPV (Human Papillomavirus)-testing in combination with selected immunohistochemical markers in advanced pelvic tumours of unknown primary origin. Specimens of eight patients who presented with advanced gynaecologic pelvic tumour of unknown primary origin, 10 unequivocal cervical carcinomas with 10 corresponding metastases and 10 unequivocal endometrial carcinomas with 4 corresponding metastases were studied. All cases were analysed for HPV-infection by PCR. The expression of CEA, vimentin (VIM), estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) was studied by immunohistochemistry. HPV-DNA was exclusively detected in cervical carcinomas and their corresponding metastases but in none of the endometrial carcinomas (Fisher's exact test p<0.001). Endometrial carcinomas and their metastases were generally positive for ER (86%), PR (93%) and VIM (100%) but rarely positive for CEA (14%) and HPV (0%). Most cervical carcinomas and their corresponding metastases were positive for CEA (79%) and HPV (89%). They rarely expressed ER (5%), PR (5%) and VIM (10%). Among the eight patients with unknown primary tumour four patients were diagnosed with a cervical carcinoma and four with an endometrial carcinoma. In one case we could exclude an ovarian carcinoma. Immunohistochemical analysis of selected markers in combination with HPV-testing is simple and inexpensive. The detection of HPV-DNA seems to provide the most compelling evidence for the primary tumour site, when immunohistochemical analysis is less definitive. The proposed diagnostic approach is helpful in the identification and management of pelvic tumours of unknown primary origin.


This study tested the hypothesis that a prolonged decrease in arterial oxygen pressure in resting or contracting skeletal muscles alters their ability to develop force through an impairment of energy-dependent metabolic processes and also through an alteration of electrophysiological events. The experiment was conducted during a 32-day simulated ascent of Mt. Everest (8848 m altitude) (Everest III Comex '97), which also allowed testing of the effects of re-oxygenation on muscle function. Maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of the flexor digitorum, and static handgrips sustained at 60% of MVC, were performed by eight subjects before the ascent (control), then during the stays at simulated altitudes of 5000 m, 6000 m and 7000 m, and finally 1 day after the return to 0 m. The evoked muscle compound action potential (M-wave) was recorded at rest and during the manoeuvres at 60% of MVC. The changes in median frequency of electromyographic (EMG) power spectra were also studied during the contraction at 60% of MVC. In four individuals, transient re-oxygenation during the ascent allowed us to test the reversibility of hypoxia-induced MVC and M-wave changes. At rest, a significant decrease in M-wave amplitude was noted at 5000 m. This effect was associated with a prolonged M-wave conduction time at 6000 m and an increased M-wave duration at 7000 m, and persisted after the return to 0 m. Re-oxygenation did not modify the changes in M-wave characteristics. A significant decrease in MVC was measured only during the ascent (-10 to -24%) in the non-dominant forearm of subjects who underwent re-oxygenation; this intervention slightly improved muscle strength at 6000 m and 7000 m. During the ascent and after the return to 0 m, there was a significant reduction of the median frequency decrease throughout contraction at 60% of MVC compared with the EMG changes measured before the ascent. It is concluded that prolonged exposure to hypoxia slows the propagation of myopotentials and alters sensorimotor control during sustained effort. Re-oxygenation did not affect the hypoxia-induced EMG changes and had a modest influence on muscle strength.


Component malalignment can be associated with pain following total knee replacement (TKR). Using MRI, we reviewed 50 patients with painful TKRs and compared them with a group of 16 asymptomatic controls to determine the feasibility of using MRI in evaluating the rotational alignment of the components. Using the additional soft-tissue detail provided by this modality, we also evaluated the extent of synovitis within these two groups. Angular measurements were based on the femoral transepicondylar axis and tibial tubercle. Between two observers, there was very high interobserver agreement in the measurements of all values. Patients with painful TKRs demonstrated statistically significant relative internal rotation of the femoral component (p = 0.030). There was relative internal rotation of the tibial to femoral component and combined excessive internal rotation of the components in symptomatic knees, although these results were significant only with one of the observers (p = 0.031). There was a statistically significant association between the presence and severity of synovitis and painful TKR (p < 0.001). MRI is an effective modality in evaluating component rotational alignment.


BACKGROUND
Implant surface characteristics have been shown to modify cell behavior and regulate integrin expression. Integrin expression and resultant integrin-mediated cellular activity are essential components of tissue healing and homeostasis. Although both osseous and soft tissue healing around dental implants are critical to clinical success, there is limited information available on the effect of implant surfaces on integrin expression in soft tissues. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine integrin expression for gingival fibroblasts on titanium surfaces and the influence of titanium surface roughness on integrin expression and cell morphology.

METHODS
Human gingival fibroblasts were cultured on smooth (polished) and rough (sand-blasted acid-etched) titanium surfaces and a cell culture plastic (control) surface. To analyze integrin expression, total RNA was isolated from experimental and control cells, and levels of integrin subunit mRNA were assessed by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using primers specific for the alpha2, alpha4, alpha5, alpha(v), and beta1 integrin subunits and aldolase (internal control). PCR products were analyzed by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE), confirmed via DNA sequencing, and quantified using computer-assisted densitometry. The expression of the integrin subunits was analyzed at the protein level using flow cytometry, as well as fluorescence and confocal laser microscopy. Cell morphology was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).

RESULTS
Our experiments demonstrated cellular expression of the alpha2, alpha4, alpha5, alpha(v), and beta1 integrin subunits at both mRNA and protein levels on all surfaces. In addition, the alpha4 and beta1 mRNA levels were significantly increased on smooth titanium relative to plastic surfaces (P <.05) with intermediate mRNA levels found on the rough titanium surfaces. The smooth titanium surfaces exhibited a flat monolayer of cells, while rough titanium surfaces showed cells orienting themselves along surface irregularities.

CONCLUSIONS
These results demonstrate the presence of multiple integrin subunits in human gingival fibroblasts grown in contact with titanium implant surfaces and that titanium surface roughness alters cellular morphology but appears to have limited effects on integrin expression. This study provides insight into the complicated cellular and molecular events occurring at the implant surface that may be critical to optimizing the soft tissue interactions with the soft tissue-implant interface.


The information about the chemical compositions of stars is encoded in their spectra. Accurate determinations of these compositions are crucial for our understanding of stellar nucleosynthesis and Galactic chemical evolution. The determination of elemental abundances in stars requires models for the stellar atmospheres and the processes of line formation. Nearly all spectroscopic analyses of late-type stars carried out today are based on one-dimensional (1D), hydrostatic model atmospheres and on the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). This approach can lead to large systematic errors in the predicted stellar atmospheric structures and line-strengths, and, hence, in the derived stellar abundances. In this thesis, examples of departures from LTE and from hydrostatic equilibrium are explored. The effects of background line opacities (line-blocking) due to atomic lines on the statistical equilibrium of Fe are investigated in late-type stars. Accounting for this line opacity is important at solar metallicity, where line-blocking significantly reduces the rates of radiatively induced ionizations of Fe. On the contrary, the effects of line-blocking in metal-poor stars are insignificant. In metal-poor stars, the dominant uncertainty in the statistical equilibrium of Fe is the treatment of inelastic H+Fe collisions. Substantial departures of Fe abundances from LTE are found at low metallicities: about 0.3 dex with efficient H+Fe collisions and about 0.5 dex without. The impact of three-dimensional (3D) hydrodynamical model atmospheres on line formation in red giant stars is also investigated. Inhomogeneities and correlated velocity fields in 3D models and differences between the mean 3D stratifications and corresponding 1D model atmospheres can significantly affect the predicted line strengths and derived abundances, in particular at very low metallicities. In LTE, the differences between 3D and 1D abundances of C, N, and O derived from CH, NH, and OH weak low-excitation lines are in the range -0.5 dex to -1.0 dex at [Fe/H]=-3. Large negative corrections (about -0.8 dex) are also found in LTE for weak low-excitation neutral Fe lines. We also investigate the impact of 3D hydrodynamical model stellar atmospheres on the determination of elemental abundances in the carbon-rich, hyper iron-poor stars HE 0107-5240 and HE 1327-2326. The lower temperatures of the line-forming regions of the 3D models compared with 1D models cause changes in the predicted spectral line strengths. In particular we find the 3D abundances of C, N, and O to be lower by about -0.8 dex (or more) than estimated from a 1D analysis. The 3D abundance of Fe is decreased but only by -0.2 dex. Departures from LTE for Fe might actually be very large for these stars and dominate over the effects due to granulation.


ABSTRACT Late Devonian paralic to shallow-marine Shatti Formation exposed along the northern margin of Murzuk Basin in west-central Libya is in the upper part of an essentially continuous Paleozoic detrital succession. Iron-bearing Shatti deposits, a maximum of 90 m thick, comprise five coarsening-upward regressive sequences that record intermittent detrital influx along a low-energy coast. Quartz arenite sandbodies include long breaker bars on a chenier coast, thin storm-generated littoral sheet sands, wave-dominated delta-front sands, thin crevasse splays, and minor deeply scoured channel fill. Processes and products along the Shatti shoreline ranged from those characteristic of the low-energy shelf of southwestern Louisiana to those of fluvial-wave interaction on the Rhone Delta. Shatti seq ences are marked by the absence of large well-winnowed shoreface sandbodies and other evidences of major transgressive nearshore sedimentation and also of any associated platform carbonate facies. As many as 10 beds of ferric oxide-chamosite ooids are present in the iron-bearing section. Most of the thicker oolitic ironstones overlie coarsening-upward deltaic sequences where they accumulated during episodes of delta abandonment. Some interfinger laterally with sheeted shoreline sandbodies. The ooids were formed on low-energy mudflats and then concentrated in thick nearshore bars by local currents. Interruptions in accretion produced burrowed, ferruginous horizons. When building ceased, the ooid bars were deeply penetrated by large vertical burrowers. Commonly an ooid bar was succeeded by or graded laterally into a thin, ferruginous phosphatic intraclast lag deposit that developed when relatively higher coastal energy of storms or renewed transgression winnowed the sediment-star ed mudflats. Then the oolite and intraformation conglomerate were buried under marine mud that accumulated during the succeeding transgression.


Best practices and international standards for determining n-year return period extreme wave (sea states) conditions allow wave energy converter designers and project developers the option to apply simple univariate or more complex bivariate extreme value analysis methods. The present study compares extreme sea state estimates derived from univariate and bivariate methods and investigates the performance of spectral wave models for predicting extreme sea states at buoy locations within several regional wave climates along the US East and West Coasts. Two common third-generation spectral wave models are evaluated, a WAVEWATCH III® model with a grid resolution of 4 arc-minutes (6–7 km), and a Simulating WAves Nearshore model, with a coastal resolution of 200–300 m. Both models are used to generate multi-year hindcasts, from which extreme sea state statistics used for wave conditions characterization can be derived and compared to those based on in-situ observations at National Data Buoy Center stations. Comparison of results using different univariate and bivariate methods from the same data source indicates reasonable agreement on average. Discrepancies are predominantly random. Large discrepancies are common and increase with return period. There is a systematic underbias for extreme significant wave heights derived from model hindcasts compared to those derived from buoy measurements. This underbias is dependent on model spatial resolution. However, simple linear corrections can effectively compensate for this bias. A similar approach is not possible for correcting model-derived environmental contours, but other methods, e.g., machine learning, should be explored.


On a conformal net $\mathcal{A}$, one can consider collections of unital completely positive maps on each local algebra $\mathcal{A}(I)$, subject to natural compatibility, vacuum preserving and conformal covariance conditions. We call \emph{quantum operations} on $\mathcal{A}$ the subset of extreme such maps. The usual automorphisms of $\mathcal{A}$ (the vacuum preserving invertible unital *-algebra morphisms) are examples of quantum operations, and we show that the fixed point subnet of $\mathcal{A}$ under all quantum operations is the Virasoro net generated by the stress-energy tensor of $\mathcal{A}$. Furthermore, we show that every irreducible conformal subnet $\mathcal{B}\subset\mathcal{A}$ is the fixed points under a subset of quantum operations. When $\mathcal{B}\subset\mathcal{A}$ is discrete (or with finite Jones index), we show that the set of quantum operations on $\mathcal{A}$ that leave $\mathcal{B}$ elementwise fixed has naturally the structure of a compact (or finite) hypergroup, thus extending some results of [Bis17]. Under the same assumptions, we provide a Galois correspondence between intermediate conformal nets and closed subhypergroups. In particular, we show that intermediate conformal nets are in one-to-one correspondence with intermediate subfactors, extending a result of Longo in the finite index/completely rational conformal net setting [Lon03].


Latin American societies have experienced profound economic transformations in recent years. Yet, little is known about the effects of these transformations on occupational attainment and mobility. We study these effects in Monterrey, the third largest city of Mexico. We analyze two stages of men's process of occupational attainment: the entry into the labor force and subsequent job shifts. Despite short-term negative effects in the 1980s, Monterrey's labor market upgrading has continued, facilitating upward mobility. However, class of origin remains an important determinant of attainment, labor-market segmentation imposes barriers to mobility, and wages in non-manual occupations have decreased, thus imposing particular characteristics to occupational attainment.


We describe EPIC 205718330 and EPIC 235240266, two systems identified in the K2 data whose light curves contain episodic drops in brightness with shapes and durations similar to those of the young `dipper' stars, yet shallower by ˜1-2 orders of magnitude. These `little dippers' have diverse profile shapes with durations of ≃0.5-1.0 d and depths of ≃0.1-1.0 per cent in flux; however, unlike most of the young dipper stars, these do not exhibit any detectable infrared excess indicative of protoplanetary discs, and our ground-based follow-up spectra lack any signatures of youth while indicating that these objects are kinematically old. After ruling out instrumental and/or data processing artefacts as sources of the dimming events, we investigate possible astrophysical mechanisms based on the light curve and stellar properties. We argue that the little dippers are consistent with transits of star-grazing exocomets, and speculate that they are signposts of massive non-transiting exoplanets driving the close-approach orbits.


Introduction: road traffic deaths are the eighth cause of death globally and the leading cause of death between the ages of 15 to 29. The National Road Safety Unit was created in Uruguay in 2007, with the aim of consolidating national road safety policies as well as promoting them through laws. Objective: to analyze the impact of road traffic laws drafted and passed in Uruguay during 2007-2010 on road traffic deaths between 2011 and 2015. Methods: this is a descriptive and retrospective study. We analyzed fulfillment of road traffic laws passed between 2007 and 2010, and their impact on mortality between 2011 and 2015. The study considers three measures that directly affect the risk factors frequently involved in road traffic deaths, such as alcohol, speed and use of helmet use. Discussion: 16 deaths every 100.000 inhabitants was the average death rate between 2010 and 2015. Death rate in 2015 was the lowest in the period, dropping from 17.4 in 2011 to 14.6 in 2015. In the period from 2007 to 2010, prior to the approval of the road traffic law, the death rate had an ascending curve, accounting for 465 deaths in 2007 and 556 deaths in 2010. This growth rate was interrupted in 2011. Conclusion: although between 2011 and 2015 there was an increase in vehicle fleet, gas uptake and tourist income, the road traffic death rate has decreased. We beRev Méd Urug 2018; 34(3):149-154


In this thesis, we present a novel generic and unifying framework for data-adaptive shape modeling. Our work is motivated by the raising need for powerful geometric modeling kernels that are required for shape characterization in biomedical imaging. The ongoing development of faster and more precise hardware in biomedicine creates new demands regarding the characterization, processing, and analysis of shapes in medical and biological data such as MRI, CT or microscopy. We develop a novel mathematical framework to construct a geometric kernel that is capable to represent deformable shapes in the contexts of segmentation, visualization, and deformation, while also enabling user-interaction, fast optimization as well as the construction of shape dictionaries for shape encoding. Our approach relies on spline-based concepts for shape representation in computer graphics combined with spline-theoretical fundamentals from signal and image processing. This thesis is organized in two main parts. In the first part, our main contribution is the development of a novel generic framework to encode shapes, learn dictionaries and construct shape projectors onto functional vector spaces defined by spline shapes. Our construction is formulated in the continuous domain and we propose solutions based on L2-methods as well as sparsity-promoting l1-based methods. Our contribution is generic in the sense that it is applicable to any spline-based generator that forms a Riesz Basis. We apply our solution to classify shapes in medical ultrasound images, to learn dictionaries of brain structures and to construct robust shape priors for segmentation algorithms. In the second part of this thesis, our contribution is a novel data-adaptive framework to construct deformable shapes with different kinds of topology that are used in a broad spectrum of applications such as the semi-automatic segmentation of biomedical structures, user-interactive shape modeling, shape deformation and morphing, shape reconstruction from samples as well as the visualization and animation of shapes. We construct novel families of spline-generators that facilitate intuitive user-interaction, shape modeling, and shape characterization, and we provide specific examples and validations of the use of our framework in practice. The two parts of this thesis together build a unifying theory for the construction of a novel flexible geometric modeling kernel with a wide range of use and applications as we illustrate throughout this thesis with a vast amount of experiments.


The combustion process in hydrocarbon fuels, involves complicated chemical reactions associated with bond braking, radicals production and heat generation which are responsible for flames initiation. The conditions, such as pressure, temperature and mixture strength, make a strong influence on combustion. This paper reports an investigation of combustion characteristics of premixed propane/air flames and the effects of initial conditions on heat production rates, emissions (combustion products) and final equilibrium pressure and temperature values. Different mixtures concentrations were used in this study, including lean, stoichiometric and rich (f = 0.8, 1.0, 1.2), subject to different pressures and temperatures ranging from 5 - 40 bars and 350 - 600 K, respectively. Theelevated pressures and temperatures values were deliberately selected in this study to have more data available in the literature to fill in the gap in research and also to cover conditions that are similar to those in engines, in an attempt to have a better understanding on how to control emissions from these engines which is a major concern nowadays. Results show that rich mixture of propane fuel produces the highest rate for carbon monoxide (CO) with slight increase as pressure and temperature increase, where the stoichiometric mixture produces the highest rate of carbon dioxide (CO2). It was noted that this type of emission decreases with the increase of pressure and temperature. On the other hand, nitric acid (NO) was found to be the highest for the lean mixture with sharp increase as pressure and temperature increase. Finally, the combustion heat (Q) is extracted from each mixture which plotted against pressure and it was also found that rich mixture of this fuel produces the highest and increases sharply with increased pressures and temperatures.


Blackcurrant has nutritional and therapeutic qualities. Organic acids and vitamins are constituents of these fruits with antioxidant character. Comparative studies have shown that black currant fruit is on the first place, as regards the content of C vitamin. The purpose of this paper is to show the characteristics of the chemical changes that are responsible for black currant fruit quality. Research has been carried out during the period 2008-2010, at the Research Institute for Fruit Growing Pitesti, Maracineni, using new varieties of black currant: 'Tines', 'Tisel', 'Ruben', 'Ben Hope', 'Titania', 'Ores', 'Bona', 'Tiben', '124/3'. Fruit samples were collected in the period 1-10 July, in three repetitions of the experiment. Experimental plot consisted of rows with four black currant bushes turn, arranged in three repetitions. Physical measurements, chemical and biochemical determination took into account the following components: total sugar content (%), using the volumetric method of the Fehling-Soxlet, titratable acidity expressed in the content of organic acids – citric acid (%) using titrimetric method with sodium hydroxide reagent, vitamin C mg/100g edible part, who was wrapping by solvent extraction with hydrochloric acid 5% using iodometric method, total solids (%) through the gravimetric method. The data obtained from the analysis of the studied varieties were interpreted using the analysis of variance test Duncan. In these conditions, there have been high levels of total sugar over 12.00 (%) and vitamin C, over 230 mg/100 g fresh fruit to some varieties of black currant. Also the content of organic acids has high values to many of the varieties considered in the study.


Background : Multiple myeloma (MM) is a lethal malignancy with a poorly understood etiology. Adult body mass index (BMI) is a recently identified risk factor for MM, but the etiologic roles of body fatness at different ages and adult weight cycling have not been assessed. We prospectively examined body shape during childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, as well as weight cycling over a 20-year period, in relation to MM risk in the Nurses9 Health Study (NHS) cohort. Methods : The NHS was formed in 1976 among 121,700 female registered nurses ages 30–55 years from the United States who returned the enrollment questionnaire on lifestyle and medical history. Biennial follow-up questionnaires have subsequently updated lifestyle and medical information. A validated somatogram-depicted body shape (current and at ages 5, 10, 20, 30, and 40 years) was queried in 1988. The 1992 questionnaire characterized weight change over the prior 20 years (when most NHS participants were middle-aged adults). The present analyses included women who completed the 1988 (somatogram) or 1992 (weight cycling) questionnaires and had no cancer history at that time. Women were followed through the earliest among a cancer diagnosis, death, or June 2008. We classified body shapes as relatively lean, medium, and heavier at the specified ages and for the average shape at ages 5 and 10 ("childhood") and ages 10 and 20 years ("adolescent"). We classified women9s 20-year weight cycling patterns as weight loser/maintainer, gainer (i.e., only weight gain), light cycler (i.e., net loss or gain of ≥5 lbs. with ≥1 episode of voluntary 5–9 lb. change), or heavy cycler (i.e., net loss or gain of ≥5 lbs. with ≥1 episode of voluntary ≥20 lb. change). We computed hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) in Cox proportional hazard models to assess the association of body shape and weight cycling with MM risk. Models included only one body shape or weight cycling variable and controlled for potential confounding by age and baseline BMI. Results : We confirmed 126 incident diagnoses of MM over 1,049,600 person-years for the somatogram analyses and 96 incident diagnoses of MM over 749,578 person-years for the weight cycling analyses. We observed suggestive increases in MM risk among women who reported heavier average body shapes in childhood (v. those with a relatively lean childhood shape; HR=1.8; 95% CI=0. 8–4.2) and adolescence (HR=1.6; CI=0.6–4.1). Body shape at specific ages and at baseline did not appear to predict MM risk. In the 20-year weight cycling analysis, we observed a suggested modest increase in MM risk among women who were weight gainers (HR=1.2; 95% CI=0.5–3.0) or light (HR=1.2; 95% CI=0.5–2.8) or heavy cyclers (HR=1.4; 95% CI=0.6–3.2) compared to those who lost weight or maintained stable weight. Discussion : These first prospective studies of body shape at various ages and long-term adult weight cycling are consistent with existing evidence that obesity is positively associated with risk of MM. Obesity in adulthood has consistently predicted an increased risk of MM in published studies and is thus a potentially modifiable risk factor for MM. Obesity at younger ages or an inability to maintain stable adult weight may be predictors of adult obesity, or may indicate an etiologic role for earlier life exposures in MM. Confirmation of the present findings in men and in other large populations is warranted, as are studies to explore potential biologic correlates of these lifestyle factors. If confirmed, these data would suggest that maintenance of a healthy weight from an early age, in addition to conferring other health benefits, may help to diminish risk of MM. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):A79.


This paper defends direct activism – the view that it is possible to form beliefs in a causally direct way. In particular, it addresses the charge that direct activism entails voluntarism – the thesis that we can form beliefs at will. It distinguishes weak and strong varieties of voluntarism and argues that, while direct activism may entail the weak variety, it does not entail the strong one. The paper goes on to argue that strong voluntarism is non-contingently false, sketching a new argument for that conclusion. This argument does not tell against the weak form of voluntarism, however, and the final part of the paper argues that weak voluntarism, and consequently direct activism, remains a coherent and defensible position.


We are familiar with the claim that seismic inversion improves resolution—something I routinely dismissed as advertising until an article on Alpine Field by Gingrich et al. (TLE, 2001) awakened my curiosity. That article described how impedance data were used to determine thickness and, in order to understand the reasons for the success of their impedance-based method for thickness determination, I created simple seismic models. Much to my surprise, these models substantiate the claim that impedance data allow us to directly measure thicknesses even below the "tuning thickness" that limits a similar approach with the original amplitude data.


Aphasia is an important presenting symptom of acute stroke. With increasing reliance on electronic communication, incoherent texting or "dystextia," which is a subset of aphasia that is reflected in text messages, can be a useful tool for symptom recognition and analysis. It can be a red flag for the family and therefore can help in early identification of an acute neurological deficit. It is also useful for providers to reliably analyze the deficit as well as establish a timeline of evolution of symptoms. There have been case reports where dystextia has been the presenting feature of stroke or complicated migraine and in one case of meningioma. We present the case of a teenage patient that in our knowledge is the youngest reported case of dystextia, whose aphasia recorded in a text message assisted with stroke localization. This also adds to the literature of dystextia which so far has only seven other cases reported.


Background Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are chronic relapsing inflammatory conditions of unknown cause and likely result from the loss of immunological tolerance, which leads to over-activation of the gut immune system. Gut macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) are essential for maintaining tolerance, but can also contribute to the inflammatory response in conditions such as IBD. Current therapies for IBD are limited by high costs and unwanted toxicities and side effects. The possibility of reducing intestinal inflammation with DCs genetically engineered to over-express the apoptosis-inducing FasL (FasL-DCs) has not yet been explored. Objective Investigate the immunomodulatory effect of administering FasL-DCs in the rat trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS) model of acute colitis. Methods Expression of FasL on DCs isolated from the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs) of normal and TNBS-colitis rats was determined by flow cytometry. Primary rat bone marrow DCs were transfected with rat FasL plasmid (FasL-DCs) or empty vector (EV-DCs). The effect of these DCs on T cell IFNγ secretion and apoptosis was determined by ELISPOT and flow cytometry for Annexin V, respectively. Rats received FasL-DCs or EV-DCs intraperitoneally 96 and 48 hours prior to colitis induction with TNBS. Colonic T cell and neutrophil infiltration was determined by immunohistochemistry for CD3 and myeloperoxidase activity assay, respectively. Macrophage number and phenotype was measured by double immunofluorescence for CD68 and inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase. Results MLN dendritic cells from normal rats expressed more FasL than those from colitic rats. Compared to EV-DCs, FasL-DCs reduced T cell IFNγ secretion and increased T cell apoptosis in vitro. Adoptive transfer of FasL-DCs decreased macroscopic and microscopic damage scores and reduced colonic T cells, neutrophils, and proinflammatory macrophages when compared to EV-DC adoptive transfer. Conclusion FasL-DCs are effective at treating colonic inflammation in this model of IBD and represent a possible new treatment for patients with IBD.


It is well established in the literature that an important reason why people move from place to place is to seek employment. One way to balance non-job considerations against the need for a wage income is to move to another place temporarily for a job opportunity. By making a temporary move, an individual can maintain his or her residence in a community, thereby retaining place level amenities, family relationships, traditional activities, and so on. Temporary migration for market work might be an especially attractive solution for people who have strong community ties but few job opportunities. This paper concentrates on the case of internal temporary migration for job market reasons in Alaska. Some U.S. Census data are useful for analysis of migration, but those data are not collected frequently enough to address temporary migration questions well. Using a set of pre-existing non-Census surveys, this paper examines temporary migrants in north and northwest Alaska. For the investigated area, approximately 8 percent to 16 per cent of the population are engaged in temporary migration for market work. Substantial seasonal differences in temporary migration rates are uncovered, as are gender differences.


Tweets often contain a large proportion of abbreviations, alternative spellings, novel words and other non-canonical language. These features are problematic for standard language analysis tools and it can be desirable to convert them to canonical form. We propose a novel text normalization model based on learning edit operations from labeled data while incorporating features induced from unlabeled data via character-level neural text embeddings. The text embeddings are generated using an Simple Recurrent Network. We find that enriching the feature set with text embeddings substantially lowers word error rates on an English tweet normalization dataset. Our model improves on stateof-the-art with little training data and without any lexical resources.


Abstract. The success of geological carbon storage depends on the
assurance of permanent containment for injected carbon dioxide
(CO2) in the storage formation at depth. One of the critical elements
of the safekeeping of CO2 is the sealing capacity of the caprock
overlying the storage formation despite faults and/or fractures, which may
occur in it. In this work, we present an ongoing injection experiment
performed in a fault hosted in clay at the Mont Terri underground rock
laboratory (NW Switzerland). The experiment aims to improve our
understanding of the main physical and chemical mechanisms controlling (i) the migration of CO2 through a fault damage zone, (ii) the interaction
of the CO2 with the neighboring intact rock, and (iii) the impact of
the injection on the transmissivity in the fault. To this end, we inject
CO2-saturated saline water in the top of a 3 m thick fault in the
Opalinus Clay, a clay formation that is a good analog of common caprock
for CO2 storage at depth. The mobility of the CO2 within the fault
is studied at the decameter scale by using a comprehensive monitoring system.
Our experiment aims to close the knowledge gap between laboratory
and reservoir scales. Therefore, an important aspect of the experiment is
the decameter scale and the prolonged duration of observations over many
months. We collect observations and data from a wide range of monitoring
systems, such as a seismic network, pressure temperature and electrical
conductivity sensors, fiber optics, extensometers, and an in situ mass
spectrometer for dissolved gas monitoring. The observations are complemented
by laboratory data on collected fluids and rock samples. Here we show the
details of the experimental concept and installed instrumentation, as well
as the first results of the preliminary characterization. An analysis of
borehole logging allows for identifying potential hydraulic transmissive
structures within the fault zone. A preliminary analysis of the injection
tests helped estimate the transmissivity of such structures within the
fault zone and the pressure required to mechanically open such
features. The preliminary tests did not record any induced microseismic
events. Active seismic tomography enabled sharp imaging the fault zone.


Here, Turkish human hair fibers were used as a carbon source at the synthesis of human hairsourced activated carbons (HHC). During the synthesis of HHCs sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) was added to the synthesis process for an elevated activation by calcination at different temperatures. Then obtained HHCs utilized for the modification of carbon paste electrode to evaluate the supercapacitance performance of this activated HHC. Electrochemical investigation of the HHC modified electrodes have been carried out by employing differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. The pore and surface properties and chemical structure of the HHCs were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Brunauer-Emmett and Teller (BET) analysis and Raman spectroscopy. HHCs displayed a Type-IV isotherm, which indicates the existence of micromesoporous structure on the surface. Carbonization of the waste hair was performed by calcination to improve the pore facilities at three different temperatures (200-250-300 °C). The sample was named HHC-250 (HHC calcinated at 250°C) exhibited the best charge storage capacity when used at the modification of carbon paste electrode, among other HHCs with a 26.88 F g specific capacitance value (in 6 M KOH at a scan rate of 100 mV s). Also, a very attainable supercapacitance stability was achieved from HHC-250 modified electrode after 1000 cycles. The presented electrode system exhibited an energy density of 3.73W h kg. This work can serve as a guideline for optimizing the performance of hair like biomass-derived carbons by matching their pore properties and detailed electrochemical performance investigations. Received:01 Apr 2020 Accepted:24 Dec 2020


Although deep learning has historical roots going back decades, neither the term "deep learning" nor the approach was popular just over five years ago, when the field was reignited by papers such as Krizhevsky, Sutskever and Hinton's now classic (2012) deep network model of Imagenet. What has the field discovered in the five subsequent years? Against a background of considerable progress in areas such as speech recognition, image recognition, and game playing, and considerable enthusiasm in the popular press, I present ten concerns for deep learning, and suggest that deep learning must be supplemented by other techniques if we are to reach artificial general intelligence.


Articles published in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling (JMHC) from 2000 to 2019 were analyzed to find patterns over time in author characteristics (e.g., demographic information, work setting, and leading contributors and institutions) and article content (e.g., typology, research methodology, research design, sophistication of statistical applications, and participant characteristics). A majority of JMHC lead and total authors are women, while the proportion of practitioner authors dropped significantly over the past 20 years from nearly 15% to less than 5%. Topical content was stable, while the proportion of research articles rose significantly to more than 50% from 2000 to 2019. JMHC displayed consistency in nearly all research study characteristics, commensurate with a mature scholarly journal. Journal reporting standards were stable for sample reliability and validity. JMHC made great strides in increasing the proportion of research studies reporting effect sizes over the past 20 years and is well positioned to continue meeting the scholarly needs of the mental health community.


Forex social trading is a nascent financial innovation that endows investors with opportunities to speculate on global currencies online by following and emulating investment strategies from savvy traders. Although social trading has been touted as a means of lowering distance barriers and facilitating interactions among investors, the geographical dispersion of forex markets confines traders' expertise to domestic currencies due to the cost of information gathering, thereby culminating in home bias behavior. Espousing geographic proximity theory, we endeavor to explore leading traders' home bias propensities on forex social trading platforms and uncover how such behaviors may affect their performance and their appeal to followers from afar. Furthermore, we strive to delve into the role of governmental transparency of currency issuers on reconciling followers' preference for profitable home-biased leading traders. In so doing, we quantify the influence of geographic proximity on leading traders' performance and followers' subscription tactics, which in turn yield insights into optimized emulative trading strategies for forex social trading.


The ATLAS Experiment has conducted a search for the rare decays of $B_s$ and $B_d$ into two muons. $25$ fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity of proton-proton collisions collected during LHC Run 1 were studied and new results were obtained, as presented in this talk. An upper limit is set on the branching ratio of $\cal{B}$($B_{d} \to \mu^+ \mu^-) < 4.2 \times 10^{-10}~\text{at}~ 95\%$ confidence level. For $B_s$, ATLAS measurement yields the branching ratio $\cal{B}$($B_{s} \to \mu^+ \mu^-) = (0.9^{+1.1}_{-0.8}) \times 10^{-9}$. The result is consistent with the Standard Model expectation and other available measurements.


In both humans and cats, pancreatic carcinoma is an aggressive cancer with a grave prognosis. Proteomics techniques have successfully identified several blood-based biomarkers of human pancreatic neoplasia. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether similar biomarkers can be identified in the plasma of cats with FePAC by using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). To facilitate evaluation of the low abundance plasma proteome, a human-based immunodepletion device (MARS-2) was first validated for use with feline plasma. Marked reduction and/or complete removal of albumin and immunoglobulins was confirmed by analysis of electrophoretograms and mass spectral data. Subsequently, plasma collected from 9 cats with pancreatic carcinoma (FePAC), 10 cats with symptomatic pancreatitis, and 10 healthy control cats was immunodepleted and subjected to LC-MS/MS. Thirty-seven plasma proteins were found to be differentially expressed (p < 0.05 in one-way ANOVA, FC >2 in fold change analysis). Among these proteins, ETS variant transcription factor 4 (p < 0.05) was overexpressed, while gelsolin (p < 0.01), tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase (p < 0.05), serpin family F member 1 (p < 0.01), apolipoprotein A-IV (p < 0.01), and phosphatidylinositol-glycan-specific phospholipase D (p < 0.05) were down-regulated in cats with FePAC. Further studies on these potential biomarkers are needed to investigate their diagnostic value.


Due to environmental changes and business trends such as globalisation, outsourcing and virtualisation, more and more companies get involved in business activities that are outside their direct control. This typically occurs by entering into collaborative relationships and joint ventures with specialised companies in order to fulfil the demands of customers quickly (DiMaggio, 2001). Organisational structures that results from such collaborative relationships and joint ventures are referred to in this paper as enterprises and the management of them known as enterprise management. The authors use the definition of the European Commission (2003) that defines an enterprise as "… an entity, regardless of its legal form … including partnerships or associations regularly engaged in economic activities." Therefore in its most simple form an enterprise could be a single integrated company. However, findings from this research show that enterprises can also be made up of parts of different companies and the structure of the enterprise is contingent upon a variety of different factors. The success of the enterprise as a collaborative venture depends on the ability of companies to intermediate their internal core competencies into other participating companies' value streams and simultaneously outsource their own peripheral activities to companies that can perform them quicker, cheaper, and more effectively (Lal et al., 1995). In other words, the peripheral activities of one member-company must be complemented by a core competence of another member-company within an overall enterprise.


Building upon an earlier critique of the Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) granting of a humanitarian device exemption for deep brain stimulation in treatment-resistant obsessive compulsive disorder, this article considers how we regulate and finance DBS. It suggests that these devices are mosaic in nature: both potentially therapeutic and probative and that their dual roles need to be appreciated to maximize their therapeutic and investigational potential.


• Hypertensive patients frequently discontinue follow-up care. In a population-based survey of 4688 adults, we examined the impact of nonattendance on blood pressure control in aware hypertensives. Nonattendance was defined as a failure to visit a physician for hypertensive care within a six-month interval and was reported by 29% of 907 aware hypertensives. Nonattenders had a higher prevalence of diastolic blood pressure above 90 mm Hg (67% vs 30% for attenders). The nonattender profile was male, young, active in the work force, and without coexisting chronic diseases. Poor blood pressure control among nonattenders was associated with a lower treatment rate. Uncontrolled diastolic hypertension and less adherence to medications in nonattenders warrants concern by clinicians. ( Arch Intern Med 1988;148:525-528)


AOL Instant messenger (IM) was used over four semesters as an additional way for students to contact us during office hours. Since college students primarily use IM as a way to interact socially with their friends and family, we were curious if students would use IM to contact us, who would use it, how often they would use it, and what the content of the IM interactions would be. After two years of collecting all IM exchanges with students, we found that students did use IM to contact us on a regular basis. Both male and female students in roughly equal numbers used IM. In addition, a majority of the exchanges were task related; that is, questions and comments relating to a particular course or assignment. Results, personal reflections, and suggestions for future research are discussed.


The article presents a critical review of the various solutions that have been proposed, within the framework of generative phonology, regarding the problem of the morphophonological relations between the sounds [e, e, e] in French. In order to remedy the flaws in the above mentioned approaches that have been examined, a new model is developped, which may be considered as an extension of lexical phonology, invented by Kiparsky (1982) and Mohanan (1984). The model makes use of paracyclic rules beside the cyclic rules. It will be demonstrated that the recourse to paracyclic rules offers some advantages with respect to the postcyclic rules advocated by Booij & Rubach (1984, 1987).


ABSTRACT Few studies have examined the socio-cultural determinants of alcohol and drug misuse trajectories among adult Latinas. To assess the associations between socio-cultural determinants and alcohol and drug misuse, we used a longitudinal design to follow a sample of adult Latina mother-daughter-dyads (N = 267) for ten years, and collected four waves of data. They were adult Latinas of Caribbean, South and Central American descent. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of the following factors: (1) Individual Determinants (e.g., socioeconomic conditions, mental health, and medical status); (2) Cultural Determinants (e.g., acculturation to US culture); (3) Interpersonal Determinants (e.g., interpersonal support, relationship stress, mother-daughter attachment, intimate partner violence); (4) Community Determinants (e.g., neighborhood related stress); and (5) Institutional Determinants (e.g., religious involvement, involvement with the criminal justice system). Using hierarchical modeling, we found that taking prescribed medication on a regular basis for a physical problem, religious involvement, and mother-daughter attachment were negatively associated with drug misuse, while involvement in criminal activity was positively associated with drug misuse. Regarding alcohol misuse, results showed that age at arrival in the United States, number of years in the United States, and religious involvement were negatively associated with alcohol misuse, while involvement in criminal activity was positively associated with alcohol misuse. Based on our findings, explicit implications are provided for culturally relevant interventions.


Author(s): Garic-Humphrey, Natasa | Advisor(s): Postero, Nancy | Abstract: Twenty-three years after the end of the war many Bosnians feel they have been stuck in an endless post-war transition, yearning for a better life for so long that an idea of a brighter future is almost unimaginable. While the political elites are focusing their attention on ethnic divisions, the rest of the country is falling deeper into economic regression with high unemployment rates and widespread corruption in politics and business. This dissertation is an ethnography of contemporary Bosnia-Herzegovina that examines the ways citizen activists are widening the cracks between ethnic territories and in that space practicing the kind of belonging that turns residents who are merely sharing a certain space as subjects of ethnic collectivities, to citizens who are members of a shared community going beyond the primacy of ethnic identification. This way, citizen activists are creating an alternative to widespread political focus on identitarian politics by concentrating on social justice for all, positioned against the backdrop of pervasive and institutionalized ethnicization of everyday life and politics in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Thus, citizen activists are experiencing citizenship differently, not as a legal membership that ties one to the respective ethnic group but as a belonging that ties one to a community of people who have been disenfranchised and who, regardless of the precarious situation they find themselves in, put their bodies to work to create lives worth living by engaging in citizen activism. However, citizen activists are not only rejecting identitarian politics but also positioning themselves as discontent with neoliberalism, where the beneficiaries of political party-family infrastructure are the ones reaping the benefits of an unequal system and accumulation by dispossession. I call this form of alternative citizenship emerging among citizen activists in Bosnia-Herzegovina, ethical citizenship, where the ethics is located in the bodily acts of resistance to the mainstream politics of consensus and part-taking in something one is excluded from. The ethics is also located in the very process of people working on their selves and transforming themselves through self-care and self-reflection, in order to obtain a state of normality in their lives. This normality is often lodged in those moments of indignation where citizen activists get to experience, practice, and exercise a sense of control over their lives such as demanding a solution to a problem by trapping public officials in the Parliament, as well as day-to-day, subtler acts of refusal or resistance. These ethical acts of citizenship are creative endeavors where people are rejecting the way they are supposed to act and responding to a crisis with invention and creativity by building alternative forms of direct citizen action. This dissertation is based on one year of ethnographic fieldwork working with citizen activists primarily in Sarajevo, with frequent visits to other cities such as Mostar, Tuzla, Banja Luka, and Prijedor.