The UN Sales Convention is easily the most successful effort in history to unify international private law, but it has been marred by a structural defect from inception. In the charged political environment of the 1970s, the drafters simply were unable to agree on the treatment of standard business terms in the formation process (the so-called "battle of the forms"). The result has been substantial judicial confusion and substantial scholarly controversy.

The goal of this Article is no less than to provide a comprehensive, indeed definitive, solution to this most enduring controversy. As I explain here, the flaw in the two traditional approaches to this issue is that each proceeds from a stylized assumption about how parties express contractual assent. A refined understanding of the battle of the forms must begin, however, with a recognition that the subject matter in fact is not a phenomenon, but rather a diverse spectrum. Seen in this way, no rigid rule or fixed assumption can begin to capture the nuanced reality.

The proper solution instead is to be found in the core values that unify the Convention's contract formation scheme. These formation values permit, indeed require, a flexible approach that is comprehensive in scope, but individualized in application. With a nod to physics, I describe this approach as the "unified field solution"—for it incorporates the existing theories, but also recognizes that a single set of principles applies across the full spectrum of agreement processes in modern international contracting.


Conventional strabismus surgery employs a conjunctival incision to gain access to Tenon's space where a wide variety of procedures are routinely performed on the tendon and anterior aspect of the extraocular muscles. Recently, transnasal endoscopic surgical techniques have gained acceptance as effective means of decompressing the medial wall and floor of the orbit in patients with thyroid-related orbitopathy. The orbital surface of the medial rectus and inferior rectus are exposed from the annulus of Zinn to a position close to where the muscles penetrate Tenon's capsule. In theory, this technique also provides the exposure necessary to locate and retrieve a "lost" medial rectus when the usual sub-Tenon's approach fails to recover the muscle. Cadaver studies demonstrate the feasibility of exposure and suture placement in the stump of a lost medial rectus with passage of the suture through Tenon's capsule to transmit the force of the muscle to the globe, provided that the lost muscle is retrieved before severe contracture develops.


During the 2007 Noto Hanto earthquake, a K-NET station ISK005, which is located in Anamizu town and approximately 19 km far from the epicenter, recorded the ground velocity larger than 100 cm/s. A set of observational study is carried out to investigate spatial variation of ground motion amplification characteristics in Anamizu town. Firstly, the spatial variation of the amplification was observed by aftershock observations along a temporary linear seismic array across Anamizu town. In the center of the town, the spectral amplification factor is 10 to 20 between 1 Hz and 2 Hz with respect to the rock site. Then, dense single-station microtremor observations were carried out at 147 sites with average spacing of 100 m in Anamizu town to see the spatial variation in thickness of low-velocity layers. The peak frequency of the microtremor H/V spectral ratio varies from 0.8 to 2.0 Hz in the town. The velocity structure model of shallow portion in Anamizu town is estimated from the mircrotremor H/V spectral ratios. The thickness of low-velocity layers (VS =70 to 100 m/s) changes along the Omata and the Manai rivers. Finally, a three-dimensional ground motion simulation is conducted using the obtained velocity structure model in order to see relationship between shallow sedimentary layers and ground motion amplification in Anamizu town. The peak velocity in the frequency range below 2.5 Hz is three or four times larger in the area around ISK005, where the thickness of low-velocity layers is approximately 10 to 25 m, than that in the rock side. It could be concluded that the ground motion amplification characteristics in the frequency range between 1 Hz and 2 Hz is mainly controlled by the existence of such low-velocity sedimentary layers.


An influential theory of dyslexia is based on the premise that individuals with the disorder have impaired sensitivity to rapidly changing stimuli in the visual and auditory modalities, due to a dysfunction in the magnocellular channel of the visual system and its analogue in the auditory pathway. The deficit in the auditory system is thought to cause difficulties in the segmentation of speech and the formation of accurate phonological representations, leading to problems in making the grapheme–phoneme correspondences necessary for reading. In a sample of 13 adults with a history of severe reading difficulty and 18 controls, visual contrast thresholds were measured in response to an 8-Hz flickering Gaussian blob as well as a slowly modulated 8 cycles/deg Gaussian windowed grating. Auditory thresholds were measured in response to a 4-s burst of white noise, the 2nd or 3rd second of which was amplitude modulated at 100 Hz or 1 Hz. The adult reading difficulty group exhibited normal thresholds to rapidly changing stimuli in both modalities and to the slowly modulated visual stimulus, but some showed reduced sensitivity to the 1-Hz amplitude-modulated auditory stimulus. Sensitivity to amplitude modulation at slower rates has been shown to be important for segmentation of the speech stream and so may be implicated in the reading difficulty of the affected individuals. A magnocellular deficit cannot explain this impaired sensitivity, which may be the result of a reduced echoic memory span.


A simulator based on the Open Dynamics Engine (ODE) is presented in this report. The simulator is validated experimentally with varying results, but simulation speed and stability of the simulator is excellent. This report provides an overview over strategies that have been used for modeling and simulation of snake robots. The methods can be divided into three categories: mathematical models, physics engines and robot developer tools. The first is the method most commonly used in this area, while the two latter are rarely used. Developing your own mathematical model often require high-level skills in physics and mathematics, and sometimes lead to simulators with slow speeds, but you are totally in control yourself over the simulator. Physics engines handles the physics for you, and let you work with rigid bodies, joints and forces, and putting them together. They are however often designed with speed in mind, sacrificing accuracy. Developer tools are commonly based on physics engines, and provide an even simpler interface, but are typically limited to one robot type. The simulator developed in this work is a 3D simulator for snake robots with surrounding obstacles. Obstacles and parameters of the snake robots can easily be changed using functions in the simulator. Because it is built on a physics engine, modifications to the simulator itself can be made with ease once you get acquainted with ODE's interface. 'Aiko', a real snake robot developed by NTNU/SINTEF, is the inspiration behind one of the snake robot models in the simulator, and this is the robot that is used to perform the experimental validation. To validate the simulator, three tests are made, all of which are based on existing snake robot locomotion: sidewinding, sidewinding into an obstacle and lateral undulation on a flat surface. Several discrepancies are revealed, such as that the simulated snake robots move faster than Aiko in general, and are not following the same path. The latter is not the case in the sidewinding into obstacle case though, where both the simulated snakes and Aiko follow the same trajectory. The differences are blamed on the approximative physics and inaccurate integrator in ODE, and characteristic of Aiko left out of the model, including a more complex contact surface and free play in the joints. Apart from the the apparent inaccuracies, ODE is in our use considered an adequate, user-friendly physics engine that is both fast and stable. A comfortable testing environment is provided in our simulator, lacking the bothersome problems that can arise during live experiments. The results we get are, after all, qualitatively sensible, and the simulator may some day be used in development of snake robot locomotion.


Abstrac t This study presents partial results from an ongoing doctoral research project. It explores the current status of familiarity and experience with Open Access (OA) among medical researchers in Iran. As a developing country, Iran has been involved in the OA movement via publishing several OA journals, but there are few research studies that indicate the perspectives of Iranian medical researchers with regards to OA. Data has been collected by using questionnaires, and the respondents are 367 clinical and basic science academic staff of medical schools at public medical universities. The results of this survey indicate that in nearly all 13 categories of terms, initiatives, and services of OA, more than half of the respondents are unfamiliar. Only half of the researchers have publishing experience with OA journals. The respondents familiar with OA have more publishing practice than those who are unfamiliar with it. This research is among the earliest studies investigating OA in Iran.


This paper examines data of companies subjected to tax investigation during the tax years of 2001 to 2005 to detect the financial ratio associated with tax evasion. Using the financial ratio analysis, the objective of this study is to investigate the possible indicators of fraudulent financial reporting for tax evasion. Six financial ratios applied to a final sample of 73 companies. Univariate and multivariate statistical techniques are used to identify the indicators of fraud financial reporting. Based on the ordinary least square model, this study provides empirical evidence that the ratio of sales, working capital and debts over total assets, are significantly associated with the companies' tax evasion. Hence, the findings imply that these ratios can be used by tax offices in their investigation as a predictor of fraud financial reporting for tax evasion purposes. The results therefore demonstrate that the findings could be of assistance to tax authorities in their effort to identify the possibility of tax evasion.Keywords: Tax evasion, tax fraud indicators and financial statements fraud.


This paper intends to explicate the present framework of legal and social policies in India, which govern urban development. The research is directed towards contemplating the progress of sustainable urbanism in India in achieving the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Overcrowding, rise in the number of informal settlers and unplanned development are the most prominent multi- faceted issues that India faces in the present day. A comprehensive analysis of urban development policies, environmental legislation, property laws and information laws have been discussed in order to exhibit the lacunae in the legal system which has slowed down the process of sustainable urban development in India. It is not only the policies, but also an array of problems that, have affected urban development in metropolitan cities, semi- urban regions and transitioning rural areas rendering them to be unsustainable. Therefore, this paper envisages and suggests solutions in tackling problems in legal and social policies that would make sustainable urbanism conducive and successful in India. An attempt has also been made to display how completely sustainable urban spaces would look in India. Analytical, Comparative and Doctrinal methods of research have been utilized to conduct the research.Keywords: Development, Local Self Government, Policies, Sustainable, India


Abstract. Simple climate models (SCMs) are numerical representations of the Earth's gas cycles and climate system. SCMs are easy to use and computationally inexpensive, making them an ideal tool in both scientific and decision-making contexts (e.g., complex climate model emulation; parameter estimation experiments; climate metric calculations; and probabilistic analyses). Despite their prolific use, the fundamental responses of SCMs are often not directly characterized. In this study, we use unit tests of three chemical species (CO2, CH4, and BC) to understand the fundamental gas cycle and climate system responses of several SCMs (Hector v2.0, MAGICC 5.3, MAGICC 6.0, FAIR v1.0, and AR5-IR). We find that while idealized SCMs are widely used, they fail to capture important global mean climate response features, which can produce biased temperature results. Comprehensive SCMs, which have non-linear forcing and physically-based carbon cycle representations, show improved responses compared to idealized SCMs. Even some comprehensive SCMs fail to capture response timescales of more complex models under BC or CO2 forcing perturbations. These results suggest where improvements should be made to SCMs. Further, we provide a set of fundamental tests that we recommend as a standard validation suite for any SCM. Unit tests allow users to understand differences in model responses and the impact of model selection on results.


Purpose
The speed of information transfer, discovery, and evaluation is accelerating the timeline for young researchers to establish their scholarly identity. A clear scholarly identity is an essential element in developing and maintaining a scholar's reputation. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Design/methodology/approach
Texas A&M University is developing workflows and programmatic support for graduate students as they navigate a labyrinth of tools, such as ORCID iD, to establish and manage their identity and reputation.

Findings
This paper discusses the evolution of a collaboration between the Texas A&M University Libraries (A&M UL) and the Office of Research and Graduate Studies in the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences to educate graduate-level students about scholarly identity and reputation.

Originality/value
The collaboration between the Texas A&M UL and the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences Office of Research and Graduate Studies evolved into an intentional practice to assist emerging researchers as they navigate the labyrinth of standards and research information systems to establish their scholarly identity.


The InsCinema Course Education Institute has Japanese language course classes, the matriculation is done by collaborating this medium so that the course participants before entering their linguistics they have to learn with the introduction of these letters. The elements of using animation used in learning are able to convey complex concepts visually and dynamically. The form of media that is transformed into digital animation is able to attract the attention of students easily. Making with elements of this animated form can easily convey a message quickly compared to using other media. For the InsCinema course institution, the existence of this learning media as part of computerization is expected to be able to answer interactive learning needs that can display sounds, images, and information needed by course students. This multimedia letter recognition application is expected to be able to overcome the boredom of the course students and to make it easier for the tutor to complete the subject matter. Audio-visual and dynamic publications provided by animation technology can facilitate the process of applying concepts or demonstrations. So that the learning process starting from the atmosphere, technical use, user absorption and tutors who use it becomes easier


Five test diets were formulated using locally available feed ingredients: fishmeal, groundnut cake, rice bran, tapioca flour, and vitamin/mineral premix. Diets contained 35% crude protein with graded lipid levels. Sardine oil was incorporated at four dietary levels: 2.07%, 4.07%, 6.07%, or 8.07%, with corresponding total lipid levels of 8.11%, 10.24%, 12.28%, and 14.33%. A diet without sardine oil (6.05% total lipid) served as control. The diets were fed to giant freshwater prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, for 112 days. A significantly higher weight gain was recorded in the treatment with 6.07% sardine oil and the specific growth rate, food conversion rate, and protein efficiency ratio were best in this treatment. The diet containing 8.07% sardine oil produced the highest RNA:DNA ratio in the prawn muscle, significantly similar to the ratio in prawns fed the 6.07% diet and significantly higher than in prawns fed the other diets. Digestive enzyme analyses in the digestive tract and midgut gland showed the greatest activity in prawns fed the 8.07% diet.


Abstract The Siberian Craton is bounded by fold-and-thrust belts involving Neoproterozoic (locally Mesoproterozoic) complexes on the southern (Baikal-Vitim), western (Yenisey Ridge and Turukhansk-Igarka), northern (Taimyr), and eastern (Verkhoyansk) sides. This paper focuses on the geological structure and evolution of these formations. Previous and new geochronological data show that passive continental margins existed around most of the Siberian Craton during the early Neoproterozoic and possibly the late Mesoproterozoic. Between about 850–760 Ma, the southern, western and northern passive margins of the Siberian Craton were transformed into active margins. Middle-late Neoproterozoic island arcs and ophiolites were formed between c. 750–650 Ma along these margins; they are inferred to have been obducted onto the Siberian continental margin at c. 600 Ma, prior to late Vendian deposition. New ion microprobe U-Pb ages of ophiolitic rocks from Taimyr's Central domain are presented. The Neoproterozoic record in the Cretaceous Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt indicates that the eastern part of the Siberian Craton remained a passive continental margin during the Neoproterozoic and Palaeozoic. Baltica-Siberia relationships are also discussed.


Textbooks of embryology are concerned almost exclusively with the morphogenesis of organ systems, paying little attention to the development of embryonic or fetal reactivity. Dr. Hooker's book,The Prenatal Origin of Behavior, published almost 20 years ago, filled an important gap in our Knowledge. It also opened a new and exciting field of investigation on intrauterine environment and its influence on the behavior and future mental development of the human being, the main subject of today's fetology. This concise volume is divided into three chapters dealing with (1) fetal activity in the infrahuman vertebrates, (2) the sequence of human fetal activity, and (3) the structural and functional interrelationships in prenatal activity. In the first chapter, the phylogenesis of prenatal behavior is presented in the light of the controversy between two concepts concerning the basic nature of fetal activity. Coghil's concept of total pattern maintains


Absorption spectra of cold Cs atoms in a magneto-optical trap under the influence of a strong external pump laser field with arbitrary detuning and intensity have been systematically investigated. The spectra featured the Rabi sidebands of each transition, and their behavior was nicely fitted by the dressed-atom theory. A pronounced dispersion-type profile with sub-natural linewidth at the pump frequency may be attributable to the stimulated Raman process by sublevels that are lightshifted and optically pumped by the pump laser.


Crossed by many travelers from the mid-19th century, Algeria later became a popular tourist destination for winter-holiday makers and tourists. At the turn of the 20th century, local business circles and colonial authorities introduced structures destined to favor the development of tourism in the country. Tourism represented to most a source of potential wealth for the colony but also a mirror of "French works" in Algeria. The military itself took over the development of tourist activities in the Sahara region. Yet, in spite of agreed efforts- albeit modest in comparison with the ambitions displayed- tourism had trouble developing. Neither did the attempt to introduce a popular tourism after World War Two meet the expected success. This paper seeks to (modestly) contribute to the study of colonial societies through the analysis of the various tourism development policies that were elaborated.


The present study makes an attempt to assess drainage basin characteristics of Sajnam watershed situated in Lalitpur district of Bundelkhand region, Uttar Pradesh. The basin covering an area of 995.87 km 2 was delineated on Arc map software using Arc hydro tool and the ASTER data. Elevation and slope map were prepared using ASTER data and the maximum and minimum elevation encountered in the area are 283 meter and 563 meters respectively and slope varies from less than 8 ° –40 ° . Survey of India (SOI) toposheet on 1:50000 scales were geo-referenced and mosaicked to digitize the drainage. IRS P6 LISS III data was used to update the drainage by using image enhancement techniques. Linear, shape and areal parameters of the basin were computed in GIS. Mean bifurcation ratio of the basin is 4.1 showing that drainage development lack structural control and was influenced by geology and morphology of the basin. The drainage density is 1.43 km/km 2 of the area has been found to be low which indicates permeable /resistant subsurface material and low relief. Shape parameters like form factor, elongation ratio and circulatory ratio, basin shape, suggests the Sajnam watershed is elongated in shape with a longer duration of concentration and flat peak flow. Land use/land cover map was prepared by visual interpretation of IRS P6 LISS III satellite data on the premise of tone, texture, color, pattern and association. Comprehensive information on land use land cover categories was derived in order to assess the present land use/land cover of study area. Thirteen land use/land cover categories were recognized. The study was valuable in deciding the catchment characteristics in terms of shape, size, slope, drainage development and its impact on underlying lithology and type of land use /land cover. Keywords: Morphometric analysis, IRS P6 LISS III image, land use/land cover, geoinformatics Cite this Article Sadiya Idris Khan, Akram Javed. Geomorphometric Characteristics and Associated Land Use/Land Cover in Sajnam Basin: A Remote Sensing and GIS Based Approach. Journal of Remote Sensing & GIS . 2017; 8(3): 22–32p.


Summary 1. The trade in wild animals for meat, or 'bushmeat', is perceived as one of the most important threats to wildlife in the tropics. Unsustainable bushmeat extraction also threatens the loss of livelihoods. However, the long-term persistence of the bushmeat trade, documented in Africa over several centuries, suggests that the trade can be sustainable. In this study, we investigate sustainability in a mature bushmeat market in West Africa (Takoradi, Ghana). 2. Our study, conducted over January and February 2000, combined biological and socio-economic approaches. Offtake data, including information on species identity, capture location and sales price, were collected in a market survey. Species biological data, and the historical price of bushmeat and its substitutes (fish and domestic meat), were taken from the literature. The theoretical sustainable yield for each species was estimated using standard algorithms. 3. We tested the hypothesis that the current trade is unsustainable with four predictions: that (1) the number of animals extracted exceeds a theoretical sustainable yield, (2) larger taxa are depleted more heavily close to the city, (3) the price of bushmeat has outstripped inflation and (4) the price of alternatives, such as domestic meat and fish, has fallen relative to the price of bushmeat. None of these predictions were supported. There was therefore no evidence of unsustainability. 4. Analysis of market profiles and hunter reports suggest that the present pattern of sustainability is the result of a series of non-random extinctions from historical hunting. Vulnerable taxa (slow reproducers) have been depleted heavily in the past, so that only robust taxa (fast reproducers), such as rodents and small antelope, are now traded. These robust taxa are supplied from a predominantly agricultural landscape around the city. 5. Synthesis and applications. The bushmeat trade can have a severe impact on species that are vulnerable to overexploitation. However, once these species have disappeared, the remaining species may be harvested sustainably. Bushmeat management policy might therefore be improved by adopting a two-pronged approach in which vulnerable species are protected from hunting, but robust species are allowed to supply a sustainable trade. The productivity of agricultural landscapes for many bushmeat species indicates that these areas may play an important role in supporting a sustainable bushmeat trade.


The U.S. House of Representatives voted 402-0 on Jan. 16 to pass legislation that would suspend import duties on nearly 1,700 products that are not made in the U.S. or are not available in sufficient quantities. Slightly more than half of the items—approximately 850—are raw materials and intermediate products that are used by the manufacturers of chemicals and plastics and related industries. The bill (H.R. 4318) now goes to the Senate, which is also likely to approve it. The tariff relief provided by the measure "will strengthen the competitive advantage of chemical manufacturers and the thousands of other businesses that depend on our products," says the American Chemistry Council (ACC), an industry trade group. Eliminating the duties on the chemicals and plastics products listed in the bill will save U.S. manufacturers an estimated $207 million this year. The duty suspensions would expire at the end of 2020. Congress has not


BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular disorders are known to be the major causes for infants requiring intensive care. The consequences of the treatment given to these infants suffering from congestive heart failure and/or cyanosis need to be evaluated.

METHODS
A total of 210 infants both at term suffering from critical cardiovascular problems were hospitalized in the pediatric and neonatal ICU between July 1990 and December 1993. The etiology, clinical data, emergency procedures and outcomes of infants with or without congestive heart failure or cyanosis were analyzed.

RESULTS
Congenital cardiac defects were the most common cause of critical cardiovascular disorders in infancy. These included ventricular septal defect in 42 (20%), Tetralogy of Fallot in 22 (10.5%), Dtransposition of the great arteries in 20 (9.5%) cases, etc. The most common symptoms and signs observed were congestive heart failure in 162 (77.1%) and cyanosis in 137 (65.2%) cases. In spite of aggressive medical and surgical treatments, the outcomes were still unsatisfactory. The mortality rate was found to be the same in infants with or without congestive heart failure, but was significantly higher in infants with cyanosis than in those without cyanosis, after operation (28.5% vs 5.5%, p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Infants suffering from critical cardiovascular disorders need urgent medical and surgical treatments in intensive care units. In spite of treatment, the outcomes are still unsatisfactory.


The study focused on the characterization of taro, scientifically known as Colocasia esculenta in the Bicol Region, Philippines. Taro samples were collected from different provinces in the Bicol region and planting materials for each sample were grown in a germplasm collection site. Characterization of cultivars was based on the established botanical morphometrics such as length, width and diameter for leaf, petiole and corm using an ordinary ruler and meter stick. Color variations of leaf margin, dorsal and ventral blade and veins, petiole and corm flesh and fiber were identified. Results indicated 17 taro cultivars, 13 of which were identified with its local names as Princesa, Agatpaya, Balitaka, Sinamar, Tinahig, Quinsol, Negrito, Lipod/Ipod, Binting dalaga, Ito-ini, Inuruon, kolduroy, Duguan/ Dugong dalaga while four (4) cultivars were unknown to the farmers. Sample of cultivars were subjected to morphological characterization using color of leaf or blade, petiole and corm and sizes as major distinguishing characteristics. Leaf color ranged from dark green on the dorsal to pale green on the ventral surfaces but varied in distribution of purple color. Petiole color varied from purple to green or a combination of both. Corm color is from white to yellow flesh with fibers from yellow to purple.


ABSTRACT. Viana L.F.S., Wenceslau A.A., Costa S.C.L., Figueiredo M.A.F., Andrade F.S.S.D. & Ferreira M.L. [Complementary treatments for wound with exuberant granulation tissue in one horse - Case report.] Tratamentos complementares para ferida com tecido de granulacao exuberante em um equino - Relato de caso. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinaria, 36(4):417-420, 2014. Departamento de Ciencias Ambientais e Agrarias, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Campus Soane Nazare de Andrade, Rodovia Ilheus Itabuna, Km 16, Salobrinho, Ilheus, BA 45662-000, Brasil. E-mail: email@example.com This paper reports the treatment of a two years olde mare, Mangalarga Marchador breed, wich suffered injury in right hind limb and developed a chronic granuloma. Radiographic showed infuse periosteal reaction, so surgery excision was recomended. The extracted material was sent for histopathological analysis. The postoperative treatment consisted of dexamethasone (IV), phenylbutazone (IV), morphine (IM) and cephalosporin (IM). As a complementary therapy, the healing period was used policresuleno, silver sulfadiazine, copper sulfate, copaiba oil, barbatimao and laser therapy. Further sessions were held with power of 10mW laser therapy, 4J/cm2 intensity and wavelength of 658nm. The patient's recovery was slow but got up successfully, the lesion healed completely after eight months and there was no recurrence of the fabric to date of publication of this report, so little functional impairment of the animal.


A 60 days feeding experiment was carried out with Black Sea turbot Psetta maeotica to determine the amount of poultry by-product meal (PBM) that could replace fish meal (FM) in formulated diets without reducing growth performance. Juvenile Black Sea turbot (initial average weight, 30 g) were fed five isoenergetic (gross energy, 20.5 ± 0.21 kJ g⁻¹ diet) and isonitrogenous diets (protein content, 550 ± 0.35 g kg⁻¹). The control diet used white FM as the sole protein source, the other four diets were prepared to replace FM protein at levels of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% with PBM. The fish readily accepted all experimental diets and no mortality were recorded during the trial. There were no significant differences in growth performance of turbot (P < 0.05) fed the diets with 25% and 50% replacement levels compared with fish offered the control diet (100% FM), however, final body weight and specific growth rate values in the 50% replacement diet were about 8% lower than those of the control. Total nitrogen excretion in fish fed 50% replacement diet were about 10% higher than the control group, even though these parameters were not found to be statistically different. At the levels of 750 and 1000 g kg⁻¹ of the protein, PBM inclusion caused a severe decrease in growth performance, feed utilization, protein efficiency ratio and per cent nitrogen retention. The results in the present study indicate that up to 25% of FM protein can be replaced by PBM protein without causing reduction in growth performance, nutrient utilization and nitrogen retention.


The Quaternary history of the Arctic Ocean constitutes from alternating glacial, deglacial and interglacial/interstadial periods on the Arctic mainland. A precise knowledge of the past rates and scales of climate change might give an idea about the climate variability and give a possibility to predict future climate changes. The high-resolution records may help to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental conditions and solve some uncertainties in the debate of recent climate change (Stein, 2008 and reference therein).
This study was focused on sediment core PS72/413-3 from the Northern transect across the Mendeleev Ridge. This short sediment core was taken using the giant box corer (GKG) during the Polarstern Expedition ARKXXIII/3 in 2008. Different sedimentary proxies such as geochemistry (total organic carbon, inorganic carbon, carbon to nitrogen ratio), lithology (Stein et al., 2009), micropaleontology (absolute abundances of benthic and planktonic foraminifers, planktonic to benthic foraminifera relation, absolute and relative abundances of C. wuellerstorfi and B. aculeata), grain size composition, tentative X-ray diffraction and colour reflectance measurements were used for the core investigation.
The age model of the core was established by the correlation to the age model developed by Jang et al. (2013) for the adjacent sediment core at site PS72/410. The lithofacies were determined based on Stein et al. (2010b) and colour reflectance measurements. According to established stratigraphic framework the PS72/413-3 comprises marine isotope stages (MIS) 5a to 1.
The proxy results were discussed in terms of depositional environments and paleoenvironmental conditions. The alternation of brown and grey beds down the sediment core was clearly to identify. Brown beds (B1-B3) are supposed to be deposited in the interglacial/interstadial environment with a diminished sea-ice cover and high primary production. The deposition environment of the grey beds (G1-G3) is interpreted as deglacial and/or glacial termination periods with minimum foraminiferal abundances and iceberg-dominated sediment transport. The so called condensed sections were defined based on lithology and proxy correlation with the neighbor-core PS72/410 (Jang et al., 2013) and most likely coincide with glacial environment with a completely packed sea-ice cover. The characteristic for central Arctic Ocean sediments pink-white layers W3 and PW were defined on bases of G1 and B3 beds respectively based on Stein et al. (2010b), inorganic carbon content and X-ray diffraction measurements.
The obtained data were discussed using the published data (Adler et al., 2009; Backman et al., 2004; Darby et al., 2006; Jang et al., 2013; Norgaard-Pedersen et al., 1998, 2003; Polyak et al., 2004, 2009; Poore et al., 1999; Stein et al., 1994). In general our results are in an agreement with an interpretation of MIS 1, 3, 5a as an interglacial/interstadial and MIS 2 and 4 as glacial periods.
In frame of this study the origin of the inorganic carbon peak within MIS 5a and the paleoecology in terms of foraminiferal abundances were discussed. Based on the proposed age model the sedimentation rates were calculated and they range from 0.1 cm/ky to 2.5 cm/ky during the glacial and interglacial/interstadial periods respectively with an average value of 0.84 cm/ky. That is in agreement with the proposed mean sedimentation rates for the northern Mendeleev Ridge of 0.5-0.9 cm/ky (Stein et al., 2010b).


Yeratapally, Saikumar Reddy Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2015. A Microstructure Based Fatigue Life Prediction Framework and its Validation. Major Professor: Michael D. Sangid. Fatigue crack initiation in polycrystalline materials can be attributed to various mechanistic and microstructural features acting in concert like the elastic stress anisotropy, plastic strain accumulation, resolved shear stress, normal stress, slip-system length, and grain boundary character. In nickel-base superalloys, fatigue cracks tend to initiate near twin boundaries. The factors causing fatigue crack initiation depend on the material's microstructure, the variability of which results in the scatter observed in the fatigue life. In this work, a robust microstructure based fatigue framework is developed, which takes into account i) the statistical variability of the material's microstructure, ii) the continuum scale complex heterogeneous 3D stress and strain states within the microstructure, and iii) the atomistic mechanisms such as slip-grain boundary (GB) interactions, extrusion formations, and shearing of the matrix and precipitates due to slip. The quantitative information from crystal plasticity simulations and molecular dynamics is applied to define the energy of persistent slip bands (PSB). The energy of a critical PSB and its associated stability with respect to the dislocation motion is used as the failure criterion for crack initiation. This unified framework helps us gain insights on why fatigue cracks tend to initiate at twin boundaries. In addition to that, the computational


Robert Cyril Layton Perkins , born on 15 November 1866, died on 29 September 1955, aged 88. A zoologist, principally an entomologist, an outstanding field-worker and taxonomist, his name is inseparably connected with the investigation of the fauna of the Hawaiian islands, besides intensive studies of certain groups of British insects. Early upbringing and school-days His love of nature and ardent interest in insects, together with exceptional powers of observation and memory, manifested themselves from the earliest time which he could recall. Yet he had no scientific training whatever at school, nor until he was half-way through his undergraduate years at Oxford. From his family background several persons stand out, of a type far rarer now (if, indeed, it has not almost vanished); men, largely clergy, who, living in the country for years in the same place, gained an intimate knowledge of the natural history or antiquities of their own districts. His grandfather, the Rev. Benjamin Robert Perkins, B.C.L., of Lincoln College and Christchurch, Oxford, after working in Buckinghamshire as a parish priest and schoolmaster, was Vicar of Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, for over 50 years (1829-81). A good classical scholar, he was interested in geology, archaeology and architecture. Perkins's maternal grandfather was also a clergyman. For his mother was Agnes M artha Beach, daughter of the Rev. Percy Thomas, Rector of Nash, near Pembroke. Her relatives were not, as far as he knew, interested in science.


BACKGROUND: Complete mesocolic excision has been suggested to improve oncological outcomes for patients with colon cancer. However, the long-term outcomes of single-site laparoscopic colectomy with complete mesocolic excision remain unclear. OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the long-term outcomes of single-site laparoscopic colectomy with complete mesocolic excision compared with conventional multiport laparoscopic colectomy for colon cancer, as well as the short-term outcomes. DESIGN: This is a single-center, retrospective study. SETTINGS: The study was conducted at Osaka University Hospital in Japan. PATIENTS: A total of 971 consecutive patients who underwent laparoscopic surgery for colon cancer between 2008 and 2014 were included. Of these patients, 517 were analyzed using propensity score matching (231 with single-site laparoscopic colectomy and 286 with conventional multiport laparoscopic colectomy). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Recurrence, survival, intraoperative morbidity, and postoperative complications were analyzed. RESULTS: Before propensity score matching, the single-site laparoscopic colectomy group had greater proportions of women and of patients with right-sided and early stage tumors compared with the conventional multiport laparoscopic colectomy group. After matching, the 2 groups each included 200 patients and did not significantly differ in any patient characteristics. The median follow-up period was 41.4 months. The 2 groups showed similar rates of intraoperative morbidity (p = 0.22) and postoperative complications (p = 0.87). Rates of 3-year disease-free and overall survival in single-site laparoscopic colectomy and conventional, multiport, laparoscopic colectomy groups were 95.5% and 91.3% (p = 0.44) and 100.0% and 98.7% (p = 0.24). The 3-year disease-free and overall survival rates in each stage did not significantly differ between the 2 groups. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its retrospective nature. CONCLUSIONS: Single-site laparoscopic colectomy with complete mesocolic excision for colon cancer provided acceptable perioperative outcomes and oncological outcomes, similar to those achieved with conventional multiport laparoscopic colectomy. Evidence accumulation from randomized controlled trials will be necessary to promote the wide acceptance of single-site laparoscopic colectomy. See Video Abstract at http://links.lww.com/DCR/A326.


To enhance the understanding of entrepreneurial communication strategies in the start-up phase of the business, a resource dependence perspective is presented. Resources can be categorized in several ways. Penrose (1959), one of the pioneers in the resource-based view, and the subsequent work of, for example, Wernerfelt (1984) and Barney (1991), have brought the individual, the entrepreneur and especially resources within the business into focus. The process school of the resource-based view focuses on processes and activities and internal strategic capabilities (Tucker, Meyer, & Westerman, 1996). Furthermore, capabilities are based on developing, carrying and exchanging information through the business's human capital (Tucker et al., 1996). Grant (1991, p. 122) defined such capabilities as 'complex patterns of coordination and cooperation between people, and between people and (tangible) resources'. Baum, Locke, and Smith (2001) and Lee, Lee, and Pennings (2001) found that new businesses' internal capabilities are the primary determinants of the businesses' performance. One of the intangible resources could be a business reputation (Deephouse, 2000). A positive reputation creates advantages in order to obtain, for example, financial capital.


Nowadays, biological terror cause illness and death by effecting people health in a negative way because of various reasons. The epidemics that occur as terrorist purposes can influence over the masses with unexplained reasons. Throughout history, epidemic diseases as plague effected the results of lots of wars is known. Today, communities in competing try biological terror agents to damage each other is observed. Precautions should be taken to biological terror attacks like as all other diseases for getting over them with minimum negative effects. So, services giving by health care professionals at these situations are very important to reduce or stop the danger. It is known that pharmacies are the one of the health authorities that people who exposure various biological agents at these situations firstly go. The pharmacists should have enough information to correctly route people who came pharmacies and to provide right information flow to related places at mentioned situations. In this study, the scope of given pharmacy services, pharmacists' roles will be tried to explain by examining reasons of biological terror and danger and coping strategies with them.


Starting from a broad picture of paths of formation through life histories that make use of exploration procedures and position themselves against an academic and operational definition of the formative intervention, this article proposes to present a specific instrument: the project biographical workshops. At the same time, the text develops the theoretical principles related to this instrument in its practical modalities, and the challenges for the formation that it brings with it. The biographical workshop is a procedure that inscribes the life history in a dynamical prospective that links the past, the present and the future of the subject, and aims to make emerge his/her personal project, considering the dimension of the narrative as construction of the subject's experience and of the life history as a space of changes open to the project of the self. Within a group of twelve people the individual life histories are the object of an exploratory and socializing work that involves acts of writing about oneself (autobiography) and of understanding of the other (heterobiography). The formation procedure put into motion has therefore as its explicit objective to place the participants in a position to create a project for their professional selves.


Diagnostic delay (DD) of Crohn's disease (CD) is poorly investigated in the real-world setting, and could affect significantly the outcome of CD. The aim of the present study was to quantify the possible DD of CD in CD patients in Tuscany region of Italy, evaluating effectiveness and safety outcomes in CD patients with DD.

 We conducted a retrospective cohort study on data extracted from administrative databases of Tuscany. We included patients >18 years old (yo) with a record of ICD-9 diagnosis for CD or disease exemption or a dispensation of oral budesonide from 6/1/2011 to 6/30/2016 (index date, ID) whichever came first. Patients with a look-back period (time before ID) < 5 y and follow-up (FUP) < 3 y were excluded. Patients with at least one Emergency Department (ED) access or hospitalisation for gastrointestinal causes in the lookback period (excluding 6 months before ID) could have a possible DD. DD was classified in short (up to 18 months) and long (up to 60 months). We performed survival analyses (Kaplan-Meier curves) for effectiveness (time free from the first: dispensation of azathioprine, biologic drug and ileocecal resection surgery) and safety outcomes (time free from first: ED access and/or hospitalization for any cause). Hazard ratio (HR) was calculated by using Cox models adjusted for age, gender and number of concomitant drugs in the month before ID. Both outcomes were evaluated for dichotomous (No DD and DD) and categorical variables of DD (No DD, short DD and long DD).

 Among 3342 CD patients, 584 (17,5%) had a suspected DD: 212 and 372 patients had short and long DD, respectively, p<0.001. The effectiveness analysis revealed that about the 20% of patients with long DD were treated with a biologic within 3 years, as compared with those with short DD or no DD (10%), p=0.0007. The adjusted (a)HR for biologic drug was 1.30 (Confidence Interval, CI 95%: 1.12–1.56) for patients with long DD and 1.02 (CI 95%:0.82–1.30) for those with short DD. No significant aHRs were found for the other effectiveness outcomes. The safety analysis showed that 75% of patients with DD had first ED access or hospitalization for any causes with the FUP, as compared with those without (about 60%), p<0.001. The aHR showed an increased risk for safety outcomes in patients with DD: 1.71 (CI 95%:1.61–1.91) for the ED accesses, 1.31 (CI 95%:1.19–1.49) for hospitalization, and 1.54 (CI 95%:1.41–1.71) for the composite outcome.

 More than 17% of patients had a putative DD (mostly long DD). A risk of treatment with biologic drug, ED accesses and hospitalizations for any cause was found for patients with DD compared with those timely diagnosed.


The Jaynes–Cummings model (JCM) is used to give a detailed analysis of the long-time behavior of a two-level atom interacting with a (Glauber) coherent-state field. This work is based on the earlier work of J. H. Eberly and collaborators, who drew attention to the collapse and revival of the Rabi oscillations of the atomic inversion. We use the three components S1, S2, and S3 of the pseudospin vector S to analyze the dynamics of the atom within the rotating-wave approximation and exact resonance. We show that, at the times when the revivals peak, the variables σ = |S| and η = S3/σ become independent of (1) the transition dipole moment of the atom, (2) the intensity of the coherent-state field, and (3) the (common) frequency of the atom and the field. Thus these special values of σ and η are a universal feature of the JCM that should be observed in experiments with any two-level atom in an arbitrarily intense (but resonant) coherent-state field. The derivation of the above results was facilitated by transforming into a rotating coordinate frame in which S1 = 0 so that S2 and S3 are the only dynamical variables. The two-dimensional nature of S in this frame makes it easy to visualize the dynamical changes in the atom. The dynamics of the JCM is clarified by comparison with the closely related Buck–Sukumar model. The relationship of the phenomena discussed here to photon echoes and to quench echoes (in condensed media) is pointed out.


Commercial aircraft now provide over 130,000 meteorological observations per day, including temperature, winds, and in some cases, humidity, vertical wind gust, or eddy dissipation rate (turbulence). The temperature and wind data are used in most operational numerical weather prediction models at NCEP and at other centers worldwide. At nonsynoptic times, these data are often the primary source of upper-air information over the United States. Even at synoptic times, these data are critical in depicting the atmosphere along oceanic air routes. A Web site [http://acweb.fsl.noaa.gov/] has been developed that gives selected users access to these data. Because the data are proprietary to the airlines, real-time access is restricted to entities such as government agencies and nonprofit research institutions (although sample past data are available to all). Data can be displayed in a variety of ways and can be downloaded for local processing. These data are described here, and examples of how they have been usefu...


One hundred years ago, public school vocal music was taught primarily by regular classroom teachers and not by music specialists. What was the quality of the preparation of these teachers and the extent of their music teaching? What can today's music educators learn from a time when music could have been called a "basic" in the classroom? This study reviewed educational philosophies of the period from 1885 to 1905, teacher preparation at normal institutes, certification examinations in vocal music, techniques of classroom teacher supervision by music specialists, and methods of teaching vocal music. Four contemporary national surveys regarding the status of public school music were also examined. The study found that teachers trained at normal schools received between ten and fifty hours of music instruction, primarily in music theory. Supervision of grade teachers (instuctors of the period who were primarily responsible for grades one through eight) by music supervisors produced some striking successes and some failures. The study's findings suggest that music educators pursue joint efforts between music specialists and classroom teachers.


Taking a coherent state representation, we derive the nonlinear Schrödinger-type differential-difference equations from the quantized model of an array of traps containing Bose–Einstein condensates and linked by the tunnelling process among the adjacent traps. It is shown that no matter whether two-body interactions among atoms are repulsive or attractive, a nearly uniform atom distribution can evolve into a bright soliton-type localized ensemble of atoms and a lump of atom distribution can also be smeared out by redistributing atoms among traps under appropriate initial phase differences of atoms in adjacent traps. These two important features originate from the tailoring effect of the initial phase conditions in coherent tunnelling processes, which differs crucially from the previous tailoring effect coming mainly from the periodicity of optical lattices.


Slavery was ubiquitous in the ancient world and the metaphorical use of slaves and slavery was equally common. This is the case in the New Testament also where the use of slavery as a metaphor in the Pauline literature has been particularly well investigated. However, in the study of the gospels little attention has been paid to the metaphor of slavery and its role in creating a model for discipleship. This thesis will remedy this by considering both how such an investigation should be conducted and what the results would be in the Gospel of Mark. It will therefore pursue both a methodological and an exegetical course.

Building on careful use of metaphor theory, not previously employed in investigating this metaphor, the thesis will utilise Conceptual Blending Theory to argue that the historical reality of slavery is vital to the understanding of the metaphor. It will therefore pay equal attention to both Roman and Jewish sources to understand the reality of slavery and the ideology at work in these representations, as well as the ways in which writers could use this to imagine slavery and apply it as a metaphor. In doing so, it will show that the physical abuse of slaves is an important element of slavery – in reality and in metaphor – which is sometimes underplayed in NT scholarship.

On the basis of this investigation, the thesis will engage in close analysis of slavery texts in the Gospel of Mark, something not accomplished in this level of detail before. In reading the relevant sayings and parables in Mark, the study will show that they share a thematic unity in their narrative contexts in this gospel, along with sharing the ideological values of slave owners. They emphasise, in particular, the expected suffering of discipleship, drawing on the physical costs of being a slave. It will be argued that, by this means, the metaphor DISCIPLESHIP IS SLAVERY provided a conceptual framework for Mark's disciple-readers to interpret their particular setting in their world, and their response to it.


Methionine is the first-limiting amino acid in corn and soybean meal-based poultry diets. Therefore, its supplementation level is of primary economic importance to poultry production. The responses to the methionine sources dl-methionine (DLM) and methionine-hydroxy analog-free acid (HMTBA) have been compared using various methodologies. The so-called common plateau nonlinear model has been used to estimate relative bioavailabilities of the sources. This model has a coefficient that is used as a single value to compare the relative bioavailabilities of the sources for independent technical parameters like gain and feed efficiency. This model was used previously in a meta-analysis of published experiments and found 79 and 81% relative biological efficiencies of HMTBA for DLM for ADG and feed utilization efficiency, respectively. Because different sources would have different optimal feeding levels to maximize profits, we demonstrate the challenge of calculating a single optimal level for the different methionine sources. Further, we apply an economic analysis to results of the previous meta-analysis to demonstrate that the relative values of HMTBA and DLM for BW and ADG are between 81 and 86%, depending on the value of a broiler and the costs of feed and DLM.


Throughout the years. researchers searched for the definition of a good teacher. This article offers to learn from model educators, fictional and historical, how to define values, perception and practices which characterize good teachers. Four fictional teachers were chosen based on two characteristics: First, author's descriptions that underline their good qualities as a person and as a teacher. Second, remarks from their  students' and/or students' parents or guardians, stating their acknowledgment of the teachers' special qualities. and their gratitude for the learning experience they shared. A qualitative narrative analysis of these teachers – 'Jane Eyre', 'Ann of Green Gables' and his sequel 'Anne from Avonlea", 'Up the down Staircase' and 'Goodbye Mr. Chips' – defined five major characteristics which represent the exceptional teacher: holistic perception of the student, identifying and addressing students' unique needs, emphasis on student-teacher relationship, creative teaching, a sense of mission and an inspiring personality. Examining the work of exceptional educators such as Ann Sullivan (Helen Keler's tutor). Janusz Korczak, and Haime Escelante, reveals common themes which corresponds with fictional model teachers characteristics. Qualitative interviews with 14 Israeli rural high school teachers (7 homeroom educators and 7 subject teachers) emphasized similar characteristics of their role perceptions and practices. The key to higher achievements, educational and academic alike, lies in the hands of the teachers. If these traits characterize the 'good teacher' we should consider merging then into teachers' preparatory and in-work professional training, as well as teachers' evaluation processes. Let us learn from good examples how to become 'good teachers'.


The pascichnial trace fossil Bichordites kuzunensis isp. nov. occurs as an epichnial complex structure in early Oligocene prodelta sediments of the Thrace Basin in Gokceada Island, northwest Turkey. It displays characteristics of irregular echinoid burrows such as overall shape and a double meniscate filling with a chevron dorsal suture, in addition to the feature typical of the so far monospecific Bichordites Plaziat and Mahmoudi, 1988, that is a single central core around a single drainage tube. Its miniature size can be related to the small size of the tracemaker (ontogenic feature) or to its dwarfism in a stressed deltaic environment (palaeoecological feature). Its occurrence indicates a period of fully marine conditions during accumulation of the deltaic sediments of the Mezardere Formation.


Aberrantly Expressed CeRNAs Account for Missing Genomic Variability of Cancer Genes via MicroRNA-Mediated Interactions Hua-Sheng Chiu There is growing evidence that RNAs compete for binding and regulation by a finite pool of microRNAs (miRs), thus regulating each other through a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanism. My dissertation work focused on systematically studying ceRNA interactions in cancer by reverse-engineering context-specific miR-RNA interactions and ceRNA regulatory interactions across multiple tumor types and study the effects of these interactions in cancer. I attempted to use ceRNA interactions to explain how genetic and epigenetic alterations are propagated to target established drivers of tumorigenesis. Using bioinformatics analysis of primary tumor samples and experimental validation in cell lines, I have investigated the roles that mRNAs and noncoding RNAs can play in tumorigenesis via ceRNA interactions. Specifically, I studied how RNAs target tumor-suppressors and oncogenes as ceRNAs, and attempted to accounting for some of the missing genomic variability in tumors.


penicillin (a suspension of 300 mg of procaine penicillin and 60 mg of benzylpenicillin) to protect susceptible patients from bacterial endocarditis following dental treatment will have to change our practice, despite the support for this combination of antibiotics implicit in your leading article (26 July, p. 191), as this is no longer marketed by the sole U.K. distributors. We would suggest fortified benzathine penicillin B.P.C. (300 mg procaine penicillin, 190 mg benzylpenicillin, and 450 mg benzathine penicillin) by intramuscular injection as the most suitable replacement, to provide high initial (first hour) and also prolonged (one week) effective blood penicillin levels.-We are, etc., JOHN SEWELL STANLEY KLAR St Charles Hospital, London W.10


The efficiency of cleaning of flux residues after various periods of ageing was assessed by measuring the ionic contamination removed in an Ionograph 500 SMD. The flux residues were removed from bare boards, and boards with through hole and surface mount components. The effect of different ageing temperature was also investigated. The work has shown that there is a maximum time interval following assembly during which cleaning should be carried out. The ionic contamination of aged assemblies with through hole and surface mount components were cleaned with varying efficiencies. The surface mount components were more difficult to clean. The use of brushing and scrubbing proved particularly beneficial for the through hole components. A proprietary cleaner proved more effective than the generic alternatives considered.


Big data pipelines are becoming increasingly vital in a wide range of data intensive application domains such as digital healthcare, telecommunication, and manufacturing for efficiently processing data. Data pipelines in such domains are complex and dynamic and involve a number of data processing steps that are deployed on heterogeneous computing resources under the realm of the Edge-Cloud paradigm. The processes of testing and simulating big data pipelines on heterogeneous resources need to be able to accurately represent this complexity. However, since big data processing is heavily resource-intensive, it makes testing and simulation based on historical execution data impractical. In this paper, we introduce the SIM - PIPE Dry Runner approach - a dry run approach that deploys a big data pipeline step by step in an isolated environment and executes it with sample data; this approach could be used for testing big data pipelines and realising practical simulations using existing simulators.


A novel method is proposed to produce an optical bistability by using a dynamically stable complex coupled DFB (CC-DFB) laser with TM mode injection. In this paper polarization optical bistabilities are analyzed in detail using coupled mode equations and rate equations for the CC-DFB lasers considering the longitudinal hole burning and carrier dependent complex coupling coefficients. Several parameters reflecting the physical features of a complex coupled DFB laser are discussed. It is shown that for a CC-DFB laser the polarization bistability induced by the TM mode injection is much stronger for the antiphase of complex coupling than that for the in-phase. In addition, the influences of initial coupling condition for gain grating structure on the optical bistability are also investigated considering both cases of the antiphase and in-phase.


Global environmental change is expected to induce widespread changes in the geographic distribution and biomass of forest communities. Impacts have been projected from both empirical (statistical) and mechanistic (physiology-based) modelling approaches, but there remains an important gap in accurately predicting abundance across species' ranges from spatial variation in individual-level demographic processes. We address this issue by using a cohort-based forest dynamics model (CAIN) to predict spatial variation in the abundance of six plant functional types (PFTs) across the eastern United States. The model simulates tree-level growth, mortality, and recruitment, which we parameterized from data on both individual-level demographic rates and population-level abundance using Bayesian inverse modelling. Across a set of 1° grid cells, we calibrated local growth, mortality, and recruitment rates for each PFT to obtain a close match between predicted age-specific PFT basal area in forest stands and that observed in 46,603 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots. The resulting models produced a strong fit to PFT basal area across the region (R2  = 0.66-0.87), captured successional changes in PFT composition with stand age, and predicted the overall stem diameter distribution well. The mortality rates needed to accurately predict basal area were consistently higher than observed mortality, possibly because sampling effects led to biased individual-level mortality estimates across spatially heterogeneous plots. Growth and recruitment rates did not show consistent directional changes from observed values. Relative basal area was most strongly influenced by recruitment processes, but the effects of growth and mortality tended to increase as stands matured. Our study illustrates how both top-down (population-level) and bottom-up (individual-level) data can be combined to predict variation in abundance from size, environmental, and competitive effects on tree demography. Evidence for how demographic processes influence variation in abundance, as provided by our model, can help in understanding how these forests may respond to future environmental change.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this article was to identify some common organizational features of multisector health care alliances (MHCAs) and the analytic challenges presented by those characteristics in assessing organizational change.

DATA SOURCES
Two rounds of an Internet-based survey of participants in 14 MHCAs.

STUDY DESIGN
We highlight three analytic challenges that can arise when quantitatively studying the organizational characteristics of MHCAs-assessing change in MHCA organization, assessment of construct reliability, and aggregation of individual responses to reflect organizational characteristics. We illustrate these issues using a leadership effectiveness scale (12 items) validated in previous research and data from 14 MHCAs participating in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program.

FINDINGS
High levels of instability and turnover in MHCA membership create challenges in using survey data to study changes in key organizational characteristics of MHCAs. We offer several recommendations to diagnose the source and extent of these problems.


Plasma phospholipid binding to cell-derived cholesterol is important in reverse cholesterol transport, a key step in the regression of atherosclerosis. However, the mechanism by which phospholipids are transferred from cells to plasma remains unclear. [3H]Choline-labeled phospholipid efflux from fibroblasts has been studied using plasma and its components as acceptors. The kinetics were resolved into a fast component (k1 = 0.119 +/- 0.23 min-1) that corresponded to high-affinity binding of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) to the cell surface and a slow component (k2 = 0.0047 +/- 0.0009 min-1) due to protein-mediated desorption (n = 3). Altering the donor charge with heparinase or the acceptor charge by acetylation abolished the fast component, while the slow phase was unchanged. Only HDL displayed biexponential kinetics, comparable to whole plasma. Half-lives for low-density lipoprotein and very-low-density lipoprotein were t1/2 = 278 +/- 22 min and t1/2 = 1003 +/- 147 min, respectively. In the absence of transfer factor, HDL alone significantly reduced phospholipid efflux (t1/2 = 663 min). Phospholipid transfer protein restored biexponential kinetics. We conclude that cell membranes are a potentially important source of plasma phospholipids and that protein-mediated transfer to HDL is the major route for cell-to-plasma transfer. This step represents a locus for anti-atherosclerotic intervention.


A theoretical treatment of space charge effects in beam-type magnetron amplifiers and oscillators is given. It is assumed that the beam is relatively thin and that the magnetic field is large. The "cyclotron waves" are not treated. A space charge parameter appears in this theory of magnetron-type traveling-wave inter action in a manner which is analogous to the manner in which QC appears in ordinary traveling-wave inter action. A distinctive feature of the space charge waves in the magnetron case is that one increases along the beam and the other decreases along the beam. A simple physical explanation of this effect is given. This theory is then used to determine the starting conditions of an M-type backward wave oscillator. It is found that when the tube is long in space charge wavelengths there is an appreciable reduction of starting current. When the space charge parameter approaches zero, the solutions found here reduce to the usual two-wave solutions.


Among multiple access techniques, code division multiple access (CDMA) has the exclusive advantage of allowing all active users to share the same channel concurrently. When the CDMA technique is used, multiuser detection is needed to reject or reduce the multiple access interference (MAI) affecting each active user. Adaptive techniques for detection of direct-sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) signals are investigated to improve the performance of the CDMA system by reducing interference among users. In this paper, we employ two major types of adaptive technique called least mean squares (LMS) and recursive least squares (RLS), and compare their complexities


This paper is aimed to investigate the effect of roller working on the torsional fatigue properties of a typical low carbon steel referring by the resutls of FEM analysis. Three types of specimens had been prepared with plastic deformation value of 0, 0.5 and 1.0mm, respectively. The main results obtained in this study are as follows: (1) The torsional fatigue strength of roller-worked specimen with 1.0mm plastic deformation is increased more than twice of that of non-rollerworked specimens. (2) Surface hardness of roller worked specimen is much higher than that of the non-roller worked one, and compressed and elongated structure is formed at the notch bottom of the specimen. (3) Crack length along the axial direction of roller worked specimens is longer than that of the non-roller worked specimen, and plural cracks initiated and propagated in the roller worked specimens. (4) The residual stress distribution at the specimen's notch bottom was analysed using FEM analysis and it is verified the same tendency as the experimental results.


This special and important photography book presents, for the first time, the very best contact sheets created by Magnum photographers. Contact sheets tell the truth behind a photograph. They unveil its process, and provide its back story. Was it the outcome of what a photographer had in mind from the outset? Did it emerge from a diligently worked sequence, or was the right shot down to pure serendipity a matter of being in the right place at the right time? This landmark publication provides the reader with a depth of understanding and a critical analysis of the story behind a photograph, the process of editing it, and the places and ways in which the selected photographs were used. For anyone with a deep appreciation of photography and a desire to understand what goes into creating iconic work, "Magnum Contact Sheets" will be regarded as the definitive volume. It is presented with 435 illustrations in total, 230 in colour, including over 3,600 frames on 139 contact sheets.


One of the most difficult speech recognition tasks is accurate recognition of human to human communication. Advances in deep learning over the last few years have produced major speech recognition improvements on the representative Switchboard conversational corpus. Word error rates that just a few years ago were 14% have dropped to 8.0%, then 6.6% and most recently 5.8%, and are now believed to be within striking range of human performance. This then raises two issues - what IS human performance, and how far down can we still drive speech recognition error rates? A recent paper by Microsoft suggests that we have already achieved human performance. In trying to verify this statement, we performed an independent set of human performance measurements on two conversational tasks and found that human performance may be considerably better than what was earlier reported, giving the community a significantly harder goal to achieve. We also report on our own efforts in this area, presenting a set of acoustic and language modeling techniques that lowered the word error rate of our own English conversational telephone LVCSR system to the level of 5.5%/10.3% on the Switchboard/CallHome subsets of the Hub5 2000 evaluation, which - at least at the writing of this paper - is a new performance milestone (albeit not at what we measure to be human performance!). On the acoustic side, we use a score fusion of three models: one LSTM with multiple feature inputs, a second LSTM trained with speaker-adversarial multi-task learning and a third residual net (ResNet) with 25 convolutional layers and time-dilated convolutions. On the language modeling side, we use word and character LSTMs and convolutional WaveNet-style language models.


The parallel Master of Arts in Education: curriculum and instruction of art education program was introduced in the college of education at King Saud University in the year 2010. This research aim to evaluate the program to identify its weaknesses and strengths. Thus, the objectives of the research are to: identify the efficiency of courses and study plan of the program based on students' perspectives; identify the level of teaching efficiency of teaching faculty of the program based on students' perspectives; and, determine statistically significant differences in the responses of the students depending on gender variable. Using descriptive method, forty master's students (male and female) representing the program's students in the academic year 2012 participated in this study. The instrument used in this research was the questionnaire. The results indicated that the courses and study plan of the program in general had a high degree of efficiency; however, the results indicated that the inclusion of the research project with other courses in the study plan had a medium efficiency. As for the students' evaluation of the teaching faculty members' axis and teaching efficiency, the results indicated a very high degree of efficiency; on the other hand, the faculty members' acceptance of evaluation directed to them by students came in a moderate level. Keywords - Psychometrics, Evaluation- Efficiency- Curriculum and instruction of art education- Students' perspectives, descriptive research, Saudi Arabia


ABSTRACT Background: This study aims to compare the cost-effectiveness of treatment sequences with available biologics, including adalimumab (ADA), biosimilar infliximab (bsIFX), originator infliximab (IFX) and vedolizumab (VEDO) for luminal Crohn's disease in nine European countries. Methods: A Markov-model was constructed to simulate five-year medical costs and quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). Data on clinical efficacy were obtained from randomised controlled trials. Country-specific unit costs, discount rates and a third-party payer perspective were applied. Results: The bsIFX versus conventional therapy resulted in the most favourable incremental cost-utility ratios (ICURs) ranging from €34,580 (Hungary) to €77,062/QALY (Sweden). Compared to bsIFX, the bsIFX-ADA sequence was more cost-effective than the bsIFX-VEDO sequence with ICURs varying between €70,277 (France) and €162,069/QALY (Germany). The ICURs of the bsIFX-ADA-VEDO sequence versus the bsIFX-ADA strategy were between €206,266 (The Netherlands) and €363,232/QALY (Spain). Conclusion: We are the first to compare cost-effectiveness of multiple biological sequences for luminal Crohn's disease. Based on our findings, bsIFX can be recommended as a first-line treatment in patients unresponsive to conventional treatments. While biological sequences only slightly differ in their associated health gains, their costs vary greatly. The bsIFX-ADA-VEDO seems to be the most cost-effective sequence of the available biologics across Europe.


People once witnessed an interaction method between a user and mobile devices where buttons used to play a prominent role in interacting with the device. However, such interaction has been developed from the past in a variety of ways as we can see from the advancement of smartphones, tablets, and smart devices. Buttons were replaced with a touch screen system, along with many new methods to interact with a mobile device such as voice, camera, and fingerprint. These novel methods have a lot of input, saying the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality that already has been taken in by the mobile devices. The modern interaction methods aim to give its users the best experience in the areas of communication and interaction. They are expected to have a great ability to access and simple to use. Regardless of the positive light, the new interaction methods may provide, they arguably have a shortcoming for its safety of use. Seeing that the security issues of advanced interaction methods should be explored further, this article has been conducted on the pattern of interaction, both direct and indirect way, between devices and users in different methods to see the potentiality of the security issues that may harm its users.


Background and Purpose— Prediction of activities of daily living (ADL) functions at an early stage after a stroke is critical because it enables clinicians to set treatment programs and goals. The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between trunk control at an early stage and comprehensive ADL function (as assessed by combining basic ADL and instrumental ADL [IADL]) in patients at 6 months after stroke. Methods— A total of 169 stroke patients participated in this prospective study. Trunk control was measured with the use of the trunk control items of the Postural Assessment Scale for Stroke Patients (PASS-TC). In addition to the PASS-TC score, age, sex, type of stroke, side of hemiparesis, urinary incontinence, limb paresis (measured by the Fugl-Meyer motor test), balance (measured by the Fugl-Meyer balance test), and basic ADL (measured by the Barthel Index) were also selected as predictor variables. These variables were assessed at 14 days after stroke or earlier. The Barthel Index and Frenchay Activities Index (measuring IADL) were administered at 6 months after stroke. The sum of the standardized Barthel Index and standardized Frenchay Activities Index scores was used to assess comprehensive ADL function. Results— Multivariable stepwise linear regression analysis showed that PASS-TC score, age, Fugl-Meyer motor test score, and Barthel Index score (listed by the order of forward selection) were the strongest predictors of comprehensive ADL function. These results were internally validated with the use of the bootstrap resampling technique. The PASS-TC score alone accounted for 45% of the variance in predicting comprehensive ADL function. Results also indicated that the PASS-TC score had slightly more power in predicting comprehensive ADL function than either the Fugl-Meyer motor test score or Barthel Index score. Conclusions— The findings of this study provide strong evidence of the predictive value of trunk control on comprehensive ADL function in stroke patients. The results imply that early assessment and management of trunk control after stroke should be emphasized.


OBJECT
The object of this study was to delineate the microsurgical anatomy of the cisternal segment of the anterior choroidal artery (AChA). The authors also propose a new classification of this segment on the basis of its complicated course within the carotid and crural cisterns in relation to important neurovascular structures, and the site of origin, course, and areas of supply of perforating arteries.

METHODS
Thirty cadaveric cerebral hemispheres injected with colored latex were dissected under surgical magnification to view the cisternal segment of the AChA and its perforators. Fiber dissections using the Klingler technique were performed in two additional latex injected hemispheres to follow the penetration points, courses, and terminal areas of supply of perforating branches that arise from the cisternal segment of the AChA.

RESULTS
The cisternal segment of the AChA was divided into pre- and postoptic parts that meet at the artery's genu, the most medial extension point of the cisternal segment where the artery makes an abrupt turn after passing under the optic tract. The preoptic part of the AChA extended from its origin at the inferomedial side of the internal carotid artery to the artery's genu, which is commonly located just inferomedial to the initial part of the optic tract. The postoptic part coursed within the crural cistern and extended from the genu to the inferior choroidal point. The genu of the AChA was 8 mm medial to the artery's origin and was located medial to the optic tract in 13% of the hemispheres. The postoptic part was longer than the preoptic part in all hemispheres and had more perforating arteries supplying critical deep structures (preoptic 3.4 per hemisphere vs postoptic 4.6 per hemisphere), and these results were statistically significant (p = 0.01). At the preoptic part, perforating arteries arose from the superolateral portion of the artery and coursed laterally; at the postoptic part, perforators arose from the inferomedial portion of the artery and coursed medially. Perforating arteries from both segments passed most commonly to the optic tract, followed by the anterior segment and apex of uncus in the preoptic part and the cerebral peduncle in the postoptic part.

CONCLUSIONS
Both parts of the cisternal segment of the AChA come into surgical view during surgeries for different pathologies in and around the perimesencephalic cisterns. However, attending to the artery's genu and defining pre- and postoptic parts during surgery may help the surgeon locate the origin and eventual course of these perforators, and even estimate the terminal areas of supply of most of the perforating arteries. The proposed classification system can prove helpful in planning any operative procedure along the crural cistern and may reduce the probability of inadvertent injury to perforating branches of the cisternal segment.


Albanese et al. (see ibid. vol.42, p.1737-44, 1996) introduced priority encoding transmission (PET) for sending hierarchically organized messages over lossy packet-based computer networks. In a PET system, each symbol in the message is assigned a priority which determines the minimal number of codeword symbols that is required to recover that symbol. This article revisits the PET approach using tools from network information theory. We first show that priority encoding transmission is intimately related with the broadcast erasure channel with a degraded message set. Using the information spectrum approach, we provide an informational characterization of the capacity region of general broadcast channels with degraded message set. We show that the PET inequality has an information-theoretical counterpart. The inequality defining the capacity region of the broadcast erasure channel with degraded message sets. Hence the PET approach which consists in time-sharing and interleaving classical erasure-resilient codes achieves the capacity region of this channel. Moreover, we show that the PET approach may achieve the sphere packing exponents. Finally, we observe that on some simple nonstationary broadcast channels, time-sharing may be outperformed. The impact of memory on the optimality of the PET approach remains elusive.


During recent years, many advanced oxidation techniques have been investigated for water and wastewater treatment to overcome the shortage of clean water. This review summarizes the background and principles of photocatalysis applied as an advanced oxidation technology. In particular, this paper focuses on modification of photocatalysts with various dopants as well as the novel photocatalytic reactors to improve the oxidation efficiency of the pollutants in water and wastewater.


UNLABELLED
Ventilation duct cleaning (DC) is widely advocated to provide good indoor air quality (IAQ), health benefits, cost savings, and enhance ventilation system performance. The aim of the present review is to evaluate the scientific evidence as shown in the literature. There is evidence that under normal operating conditions, ventilation ducts can be contaminated with dusts and serve as reservoirs for microbials to proliferate. While controlled experiments noted that contaminants resuspension can elevate exposure levels indoors, no field studies have correlated poor IAQ with duct contamination. Despite high efficiencies of contaminant removal within the ducts during cleaning, reductions for different indoor air pollutants vary widely, where, post-cleaning air pollutants concentrations can be higher than pre-cleaning levels. Further, there are health concerns in the use of biocides, sealants and encapsulants. There is inadequate evidence to show that DC can improve airflow in ducts and reduce energy consumption. Although epidemiological studies indicate suggestive evidence that improperly maintained ducts are associated with higher risks of symptoms among building occupants, this review finds insufficient evidence that DC can alleviate occupant's symptoms. In summary, the need for duct cleanliness has to be properly balanced by the probable generation of indoor pollution resulting from DC and subsequent potential health risks.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Existing evidence is insufficient to draw solid conclusions regarding positive impact of duct cleaning on IAQ, health benefits, cost savings and HVAC performance. Maintaining duct cleanliness has to be properly balanced by the probable generation of indoor pollution and potential health risks.


As a more practical setting for unsupervised domain adaptation, Universal Domain Adaptation (UDA) is recently introduced, where the target label set is unknown. One of the big challenges in UDA is how to determine the common label set shared by source and target domains, as there is simply no labeling available in the target domain. In this paper, we employ a probabilistic approach for locating the common label set, where each source class may come from the common label set with a probability. In particular, we propose a novel approach for evaluating the probability of each source class from the common label set, where this probability is computed by the prediction margin accumulated over the whole target domain. Then, we propose a simple universal adaptation network (S-UAN) by incorporating the probabilistic structure for the common label set. Finally, we analyse the generalization bound focusing on the common label set and explore the properties on the target risk for UDA. Extensive experiments indicate that S-UAN works well in different UDA settings and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods by large margins.


Aboriginal Australians face a range of health challenges, which can be linked to dietary-related factors. A higher prevalence of dietary-related illness, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and renal disease, exists among Aboriginal people. This paper examines factors affecting the food practices of Aboriginal Australians since colonisation and contrasts these with the sustainable food practices of Aboriginal people prior to permanent European occupation. Significant shifts in policy and other factors affecting food and eating practices in Australia have occurred over the past 200 years. Influential overlapping historical epochs identified include the pre-colonial, colonial, protection and assimilation periods, as well as the influence of the industrialisation of food production. The literature review draws on historical sources and policies that highlight the impact of the changing food identities of Aboriginal people that affect dietary-related illness. The paper concludes with some implications for food and nutrition policies. Evidence drawn from these findings indicates that further progress is required to inform the development of culturally appropriate food policies to address the dietary-related health issues of Aboriginal people.


Osteological and skeletal characters have long been proven to be particularly informative in taxonomic and systematic research. Furthermore, ossification sequences are assumed to be a potential tool to investigate developmental states and developmental modes of fossil and extant skeletal specimens. Herein, we provide a detailed account on adult osteology and skeletogenesis in the Montevideo treefrog, Hypsiboas pulchellus (Anura: Hylidae) based on evaluation of a series of cleared and stained specimens. A consensus sequence of ossification, i.e., the order of appearance of mineralized elements until early metamorphosis could be determined as (parasphenoid, presacral vertebrae I-VII, frontoparietal, exoccipital) – transverse processes of presacral vertebrae I-VIII – sacral vertebra – (humerus, radioulna, ilium, femur, tibiofibula, scapula) – (cleithrum, clavicle, coracoids, metacarpals, tarsals, metatarsals, phalanges, hypochord) – (prootic, angulosplenial, dentary, maxilla, premaxilla, squamosal). Comparing the state of mineralized elements in individual specimens, a number of skeletal elements, including the exoccipital, frontoparietal, parasphenoid and prootic, as well as elements of the shoulder and pelvic girdles, and the phalanges, were found to vary intraspecifically regarding the relative time of their ossification within the ossification sequence.


NASA's Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center has developed the Goddard Interactive Online Visualization ANd aNalysis Infrastructure or ldquoGiovanni,rdquo an asynchronous Web-service-based workflow management system for Earth science data. Giovanni has been providing an intuitive and responsive interface for visualizing, analyzing, and intercomparing multisensor data using only a Web browser to scientists and other users. Giovanni supports many types of single- and multiparameter visualizations and statistical analyses. The interface also provides users with capabilities for downloading images and data in multiple formats. Giovanni supports open and standard data protocols and formats. Finally, Giovanni provides users with a data lineage that describes, in detail, the algorithms used in processing the data including caveats and other scientifically pertinent information.


We propose three different dynamic resource allocation algorithms using adaptive beamforming for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) OFDM systems, and investigate their performance over multipath fading channels under perfect and imperfect channel state information (CSI). These approaches involve the use of adaptive modulation, adaptive frequency-domain power allocation, and/or adaptive sub-channel allocation. By employing the proposed approaches in MIMO/OFDM systems, significant performance improvement can be achieved compared to the conventional adaptive antenna array based OFDM. The investigation of the effects of imperfect CSI reveals that the adaptive-modulation based approach is too sensitive to channel estimation errors, and that its performance is worse than the adaptive frequency-domain power allocation and/or adaptive sub-channel allocation approaches. The performance analysis also shows that combining adaptive power allocation with sub-channel allocation yields the best performance under imperfect CSI while being robust to channel estimation errors.


As diagnostic assessment systems become more prevalent as large-scale operational assessments, consideration must be given to the method of reporting reliability. Alternatives to traditional reliability methods must be explored that are consistent with the design, scoring, and reporting level of diagnostic assessment systems. One method for evaluating retest reliability when practical constraints make a second empirical administration infeasible is with the use of simulation methodology. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the method and application of using a simulated second test administration to report reliability for one large-scale operational diagnostic assessment program. Using operational administration data, student response data was simulated based on model-calibrated parameters. Reliability estimates were calculated to provide a measure of association between true and estimated mastery of skills. Overall, results provide support for reporting reliability via simulation-based methods and for the valid interpretation and use of skill mastery information provided in diagnostic score reports. This paper includes a summary of the methods used, presentation of example results, broad implications for its application within the measurement field and future directions.


The research path I am presenting here focuses on an analysis of the imagery of the "Performance Society". This phrase is to be meant as the overall (re)-configuration of contemporary society. A new form of reality, in which the relationship between the individual and society is (re)-thought in market terms, according to a corporate management approach. A generative form of a new anthropology and of a new idea of subjectivity, of performative type. In this essay, the performative subject is investigated resorting to a phenomenological point of view; hence highlighting as "having to be performative" is, first and foremost, a norm (and a set of typified meanings) increasingly taken for granted by millions of individuals in the world. In this study, I have analysed some of the most relevant international publications focusing on self-management, namely that set of widely spread formulae which address the need for constant improvement that social actors experience in their daily "performance". Moving from this analysis, I have tried to understand how the concept of performative subject is meant and represented, hereby contributing to produce – in the global imagery – more and more typical forms of subjectivity.


Choreography changes performed by one party may affect other parties. The changes and the implication for other parties can be determined. However, the required changes on the orchestration are difficult to determine since a choreography is an abstraction of the orchestration and thus information is lost. In this paper an approach is proposed to enrich the orchestration with the observed changes using a syntactical representation of the orchestration language and semantic invariants of the orchestration language.


This paper presents a strategy for the design and implementation of an energy-efficient multi-sensor network, based on the structure of sectioned Bayesian networks. A key issue in the design of Bayesian networks for monitoring engineering systems is to ensure that a reliable inference scheme about the health of the system can be made by combining information acquired from each sensor in the system into a single Bayesian network. However, as the size of the network rapidly grows, aggregating information made by all the sensors becomes computationally intractable. Hence, sectioning of the Bayesian network based on functional or logical constraints allows for improved computational efficiency in aggregating information while reducing the overall communication requirements. This ultimately leads to a reduction of the energy cost which is critical to effective operation of the sensor network.


Summary:

This submission contains tomographic dataset of a large wooden bookchest from the Rijksmuseum collection.

The data is made available as part of [Bossema et al., 2021].

Apparatus:

The dataset is acquired using the Baltograph X-ray scanner (https://www.balteau-ndt.com/), located in the Ateliergebouw of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. This apparatus consists of the Baltograph Generator XSD225 with X-ray tube TSD225/0 (focal spot size is 1mm (640W) or 5,5mm (3000W)), Control Unit LS1, water cooling unit WCU3000 and manipulator system Seifert DP435 (C-arm and rotating table, 3 axes in total and rotation). The X-ray beam projects polychromatic X-rays onto a 1920-by-1536 pixels, 16-bit, flat detector panel with pixel size 127 micron (Baltoscope FPDIGIT13-127).

Sample Information:

The object is a large wooden bookchest (73 cm width x 160 cm length x 75 cm height) from the Rijksmuseum collection, inventory number NG-KOG-1208 (http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.53787).

Experimental Plan:

The data in this submission was collected to compare dendrochronological measurements on the reconstructed image using a linear scanning trajectory and a photograph of the radial/tangential section of the plank on the outside (see Figure 7 in [Bossema et al, 2021]). It was recorded with focal spot size 1mm, 150kV and 525W.

All raw data (i.e. no corrections) is made available in .tiff format.

List of Contents:

The content of the submission is given below.

 data: 1325 projections

Additional Links:

These datasets are produced by the Computational Imaging group at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CI-CWI).

Contact Details:

For more information or guidance in using these datasets, please get in touch with

 bossema [at] cwi.nl

Acknowledgments:

The authors would like to acknowledge the funding from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), project numbers 341-60-001, 639.073.506 and 628.007.033 and Netherlands Institute for Conservation, Art and Science (NICAS).


Ricin is a member of a group of protein toxins whose cytosolic target is the 28S rRNA of the 60S ribosomal subunit. It was recently introduced as a weapon of terrorism in some countries. There is little evidence about the mechanism, diagnosis and treatment of ricin poisoning. The case history is reported of a patient with ricin poisoning who presented with nausea and vomiting following ingestion of Korean castor bean.


As prelude to the special issue, this short piece reflects on the scholarly origins of the 'ethnocracy' concept, and comments on the arguments made by James Anderson's insightful opening article. It then outlines several concepts developed in the author's own work in later years as 'offsprings' of ethnocracy. Finally, it answers the challenge raised by Anderson by suggesting future theoretical, conceptual and empirical directions for research into ethnocratic dynamics on urban, state and global scales.


The unique structural hallmark of the intervertebral disc has made its central composition, the nucleus pulposus (NP), excluded from the immunologic tolerance. Consequently, the intervertebral disc is identified as an immune-privileged organ. Traditionally, local detrimental immune activities caused by NP at the lesion sites of the disc are noted as a significant factor contributing to disc degeneration. However, given the beneficial activities of immune cells in other immune-privileged sites on basis of current evidence, the degenerate disc might need the assistance of a subpopulation of immune cells to restore its structure and lessen inflammation. In addition, the beneficial impact of immune cells can be seen in the absorption of the herniated NP, which is an important factor causes the mechanical compression of nerve roots. Consequently, a modulated immune network in degenerate disc is essential for the restoration of this immune-privileged organ. Until now, the understandings of immune response in disc degeneration still rest on the harmful aspect. Further studies are needed to explore its beneficial influence. Accordingly, there are no absolutely the pros and cons in terms of immune reactions caused by NP.