Reply to comment by A. G. J. Hilberts and P. A. Troch on "Influence of capillarity on a simple harmonic oscillating water table: Sand column experiments and modeling"

We thank Hilberts and Troch [2006] for their comment on our paper [Cartwright et al, 2005]. Before proceeding with our specific replies to the comments we would first like to clarify the definitions and meanings of equations (1)-(3) as presented by Hilberts and Troch [2006]. First, equation (1) is the fundamental definition of the (complex) effective porosity as derived by Nielsen and Perrochet [2000]. Equations (2) and (3), however, represent the linear frequency response function of the water table in the sand column responding to simple harmonic forcing. This function, which was validated by Nielsen and Perrochet [2000], provides an alternative method for estimating the complex effective porosity from the experimental sand column data in the absence of direct measurements of h_(tot) (which are required if equation (1) is to be used).

The status and relevance of Vietnamese journalism education: An empirical analysis

Based primarily on data from indepth interviews with senior journalists and journalism educators as well as a content analysis of journalism curricula, this paper sets out to provide an overview of the demand, overall provision structure, teaching materials and methods of Vietnamese journalism education. It first shows that with a fast expansion in both size and substance, the Vietnamese media system is beginning to feel the urgent need for formal journalism education. However, the country's major journalism programs have been criticised for producing hundreds of unqualified journalism graduates a year. In general, the most deplorable aspects of Vietnamese journalism education include its body of outdated and awkward teaching material, its undue focus on theories and politics at the expense of practical training, its lack of qualified teaching staff and its inadequate teaching resources.

Isolation, characterization and discovery of new alleles of sHsp genes in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.)

Gli organismi vegetali mostrano una notevole capacità di adattamento alle condizioni di stress e lo studio delle componenti molecolari alla base dell'adattamento in colture cerealicole di interesse alimentare, come il frumento, è di particolare interesse per lo studio di varietà che consentano una buona produzione con basso input anche in condizioni ambientali non ottimali. L'esposizione delle colture cerealicole a stress termico durante determinate fasi del ciclo vitale influisce negativamente sulla resa e sulla qualità, a questo fine è necessario chiarire le basi genetiche e molecolari della termotolleranza per identificare geni e alleli vantaggiosi da impiegare in programmi di incrocio volti al miglioramento genetico. Numerosi studi dimostrano il coinvolgimento delle sHSP a localizzazione cloroplastica (in frumento sHSP26) nel meccanismo di acquisizione della termotolleranza e la loro interazione con diverse componenti del fotosistema II (PSII) che determinerebbe un’azione protettiva in condizioni di stress termico e altri tipi di stress. Lo scopo del progetto è quello di caratterizzare in frumento duro nuove varianti alleliche correlate alla tolleranza a stress termico mediate l'utilizzo del TILLING (Target Induced Local Lesion In Genome), un approccio di genetica inversa che prevede la mutagenesi e l'identificazione delle mutazioni indotte in siti di interesse. Durante la tesi sono state isolate e caratterizzate 3 sequenze geniche complete per smallHsp26 denominate TdHsp26-A1; TdHsp26-A2; TdHsp26-B1 e un putativo pseudogene denominato TdHsp26-A3. I geni isolati sono stati usati come target in analisi di TILLING in due popolazioni di frumento duro mutagenizzate con EMS (EtilMetanoSulfonato). Nel nostro studio sono stati impiegati due differenti approcci di TILLING: un approccio di TILLING classico mediante screening con High Resolution Melting (HRM) e un approccio innovativo che sfrutta un database di TILLING recentemente sviluppato. La popolazione di mutanti cv. Kronos è stata analizzata per la presenza di mutazioni in tutti e tre i geni individuati mediante ricerca online nel database di TILLING, il quale sfrutta la tecnica dell’exome capture sulla popolazione di TILLING seguito da sequenziamento ad alta processività. Attraverso questa tecnica sono state individuate, nella popolazione mutagenizzata di frumento duro cv. Kronos, 36 linee recanti mutazioni missenso. Contemporaneamente lo screening con HRM, effettuato su 960 genotipi della libreria di TILLING di frumento duro cv. Cham1 ha consentito di individuare mutazioni in una regione di 211bp di interesse funzionale del gene TdHsp26-B1, tra le quali 3 linee mutanti recanti mutazioni missenso in omozigosi. Alcune mutazioni missenso individuate sui due geni TdHsp26-A1 e TdHsp26-B1 sono state confermate in vivo nelle piante delle rispettive linee mutanti generando marcatori codominanti KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR) con cui è stato possibile verificare anche il grado di zigosità di tali mutazioni. Al fine di ridurre il numero di mutazioni non desiderate nelle linee risultate più interessanti, è stato eseguito il re-incrocio dei mutanti con i relativi parentali wild type ed inoltre sono stati generati alcuni doppi mutanti che consentiranno di comprendere meglio i meccanismi molecolari presieduti da questa classe genica. Gli individui F1 degli incroci sono stati poi genotipizzati con i medesimi marcatori KASP specifici per la mutazione di interesse per verificare la buona riuscita dell’incrocio. Questo approccio ha permesso di individuare ed implementare risorse genetiche utili ad intraprendere studi funzionali relativi al ruolo di smallHSP plastidiche implicate nella acquisizione di termotolleranza in frumento duro e di generare marcatori potenzialmente utili in futuri programmi di breeding.

Organohalogen contaminants in wildlife from the Yangtze River Delta : Development of methods and assessments of legacy and emerging persistent organic pollutants

Rapid economic development has occurred during the past few decades in China with the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) area as one of the most progressive areas. The urbanization, industrialization, agricultural and aquaculture activities result in extensive production and application of chemicals. Organohalogen contaminants (OHCs) have been widely used as i.e. pesticides, flame retardants and plasticizers. They are persistent, bioaccumulative and pose a potential threat to ecosystem and human health. However, limited research has been conducted in the YRD with respect to chemicals environmental exposure. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the contamination level, distribution pattern and sources of OHCs in the YRD. Wildlife from different habitats are used to indicate the environmental pollution situation, and evaluate selected matrices for use in long term biomonitoring to determine the environmental stress the contamination may cause. In addition, a method is developed for dicofol analysis. Moreover, a specific effort is made to introduce statistic power analysis to assist in optimal sampling design. The thesis results show extensive contamination of OHCs in wildlife in the YRD. The occurrences of high concentrations of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are reported in wildlife, in particular in terrestrial species, (i.e. short-tailed mamushi snake and peregrine falcon). Impurities and byproducts of pentachlorophenol products, i.e. polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDEs) and hydroxylated polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (OH-PCDEs) are identified and reported for the first time in eggs from black-crowned night heron and whiskered tern. High concentrations of octachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (OCDD) are determined in these samples. The toxic equivalents (TEQs) of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs) are at mean levels of 300 and 520 pg TEQ g-1lw (WHO2005 TEQ) in eggs from the two bird species, respectively. This is two orders of magnitude higher than European Union (EU) regulation limit in chicken eggs. Also, a novel pattern of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) with octa- to decaCBs, contributing to as much as 20% of total PCBs therein, are reported in birds. The legacy POPs shows a common characteristic with relatively high level of organochlorine pesticides (i.e. DDT, hexacyclohexanes (HCHs) and Mirex), indicating historic applications. In contrast, rather low concentrations are shown of industrial chemicals such as PCBs and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs). A refined and improved analytical method is developed to separate dicofol from its major decomposition compound, 4,4’-dichlorobenzophenone. Hence dicofol is possible to assess as such. Statistic power analysis demonstrates that sampling of sedentary species should be consistently spread over a larger area to monitor temporal trends of contaminants in a robust manner. The results presented in this thesis show high CPs and OCDD concentrations in wildlife. The levels and patterns of OHCs in YRD differ from other well studied areas of the world. This is likely due to the extensive production and use of chemicals in the YRD. The results strongly signal the need of research biomonitoring programs that meet the current situation of the YRD. Such programs will contribute to the management of chemicals and environment in YRD, with the potential to grow into the human health sector, and to expand to China as a whole.

The science and technology of corpus, and corpus for science and technology

Corpus Linguistics is a young discipline. The earliest work was done in the 1960s, but corpora only began to be widely used by lexicographers and linguists in the late 1980s, by language teachers in the late 1990s, and by language students only very recently. This course in corpus linguistics was held at the Departamento de Linguistica Aplicada, E.T.S.I. de Minas, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid from June 15-19 1998. About 45 teachers registered for the course. 30% had PhDs in linguistics, 20% in literature, and the rest were doctorandi or qualified English teachers. The course was designed to introduce the use of corpora and other computational resources in teaching and research, with special reference to scientific and technological discourse in English. Each participant had a computer networked with the lecturer’s machine, whose display could be projected onto a large screen. Application programs were loaded onto the central server, and telnet and a web browser were available. COBUILD gave us permission to access the 323 million word Bank of English corpus, Mike Scott allowed us to use his Wordsmith Tools software, and Tim Johns gave us a copy of his MicroConcord program.

Simultaneous chemical reaction and distillation of formaldehyde

The thesis is concerned with the development and testing of a mathematical model of a distillation process in which the components react chemically. The formaldehyde-methanol-water system was selected and only the reversible reactions between formaldehyde and water giving methylene glycol and between formaldehyde and methanol producing hemiformal were assumed to occur under the distillation conditions. Accordingly the system has been treated as a five component system. The vapour-liquid equilibrium calculations were performed by solving iteratively the thermodynamic relationships expressing the phase equilibria with the stoichiometric equations expressing the chemical equilibria. Using optimisation techniques, the Wilson single parameters and Henry's constants were calculated for binary systems containing formaldehyde which was assumed to be a supercritical component whilst Wilson binary parameters were calculated for the remaining binary systems. Thus the phase equilibria for the formaldehyde system could be calculated using these parameters and good accuracy was obtained when calculated values were compared with experimental values. The distillation process was modelled using the mass and energy balance equations together with the phase equilibria calculations. The plate efficiencies were obtained from a modified A.I.Ch.E. Bubble Tray method. The resulting equations were solved by an iterative plate to plate calculation based on the Newton Raphson method. Experiments were carried out in a 76mm I.D., eight sieve plate distillation column and the results were compared with the mathematical model calculations. Overall, good agreement was obtained but some discrepancies were observed in the concentration profiles and these may have been caused by the effect of limited physical property data and a limited understanding of the reactions mechanism. The model equations were solved in the form of modular computer programs. Although they were written to describe the steady state distillation with simultaneous chemical reaction of the formaldehyde system, the approach used may be of wider application.

Analysis and simulation of computer controlled cellular mobile radio systems

Cellular mobile radio systems will be of increasing importance in the future. This thesis describes research work concerned with the teletraffic capacity and the canputer control requirements of such systems. The work involves theoretical analysis and experimental investigations using digital computer simulation. New formulas are derived for the congestion in single-cell systems in which there are both land-to-mobile and mobile-to-mobile calls and in which mobile-to-mobile calls go via the base station. Two approaches are used, the first yields modified forms of the familiar Erlang and Engset formulas, while the second gives more complicated but more accurate formulas. The results of computer simulations to establish the accuracy of the formulas are described. New teletraffic formulas are also derived for the congestion in multi -cell systems. Fixed, dynamic and hybrid channel assignments are considered. The formulas agree with previously published simulation results. Simulation programs are described for the evaluation of the speech traffic of mobiles and for the investigation of a possible computer network for the control of the speech traffic. The programs were developed according to the structured progranming approach leading to programs of modular construction. Two simulation methods are used for the speech traffic: the roulette method and the time-true method. The first is economical but has some restriction, while the second is expensive but gives comprehensive answers. The proposed control network operates at three hierarchical levels performing various control functions which include: the setting-up and clearing-down of calls, the hand-over of calls between cells and the address-changing of mobiles travelling between cities. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the control netwvork and indicate that small mini -computers inter-connected via voice grade data channels would be capable of providing satisfactory control

Evaluation of the quality and promotion of open learning materials

In the UK, Open Learning has been used in industrial training for at least the last decade. Trainers and Open Learning practitioners have been concerned about the quality of the products and services being delivered. The argument put forward in this thesis is that there is ambiguity amongst industrialists over the meanings of `Open Learning' and `Quality in Open Learning'. For clarity, a new definition of Open Learning is proposed which challenges the traditional learner-centred approach favoured by educationalists. It introduces the concept that there are benefits afforded to the trainer/employer/teacher as well as to the learner. This enables a focussed view of what quality in Open Learning really means. Having discussed these issues, a new quantitative method of evaluating Open Learning is proposed. This is based upon an assessment of the degree of compliance with which products meet Parts 1 & 2 of the Open Learning Code of Practice. The vehicle for these research studies has been a commercial contract commissioned by the Training Agency for the Engineering Industry Training Board (EITB) to examine the quality of Open Learning products supplied to the engineering industry. A major part of this research has been the application of the evaluation technique to a range of 67 Open Learning products (in eight subject areas). The findings were that good quality products can be found right across the price range - so can average and poor quality ones. The study also shows quite convincingly that there are good quality products to be found at less than 50. Finally the majority (24 out of 34) of the good quality products were text based.

Computer aided design and manufacture of form-rolls

Cold roll forming of thin-walled sections is a very useful process in the sheet metal industry. However, the conventional method for the design and manufacture of form-rolls, the special tooling used in the cold roll forming process, is a very time consuming and skill demanding exercise. This thesis describes the establishment of a stand-alone minicomputer based CAD/CAM system for assisting the design and manufacture of form-rolls. The work was undertaken in collaboration with a leading manufacturer of thin-walled sections. A package of computer programs have been developed to provide computer aids for every aspect of work in form-roll design and manufacture. The programs have been successfully implemented, as an integrated CAD/CAM software system, on the ICL PERQ minicomputer with graphics facilities. Thus, the developed CAD/CAM system is a single-user workstation, with software facilities to help the user to perform the conventional roll design activities including the design of the finished section, the flower pattern, and the form-rolls. A roll editor program can then be used to modify, if required, the computer generated roll profiles. As far as manufacturing is concerned, a special-purpose roll machining program and postprocessor can be used in conjunction to generate the NC control part-programs for the production of form-rolls by NC turning. Graphics facilities have been incorporated into the CAD/CAM software programs to display drawings interactively on the computer screen throughout all stages of execution of the CAD/CAM software. It has been found that computerisation can shorten the lead time in all activities dealing with the design and manufacture of form-rolls, and small or medium size manufacturing companies can gain benefits from the CAD/CM! technology by developing, according to its own specification, a tailor-made CAD/CAM software system on a low cost minicomputer.

Constructing institutional change: emergence, contestation and convergence of business models in the field of Java application servers

How are innovative new business models established if organizations constantly compare themselves against existing criteria and expectations? The objective is to address this question from the perspective of innovators and their ability to redefine established expectations and evaluation criteria. The research questions ask whether there are discernible patterns of discursive action through which innovators theorize institutional change and what role such theorizations play for mobilizing support and realizing change projects. These questions are investigated through a case study on a critical area of enterprise computing software, Java application servers. In the present case, business practices and models were already well established among incumbents with critical market areas allocated to few dominant firms. Fringe players started experimenting with a new business approach of selling services around freely available opensource application servers. While most new players struggled, one new entrant succeeded in leading incumbents to adopt and compete on the new model. The case demonstrates that innovative and substantially new models and practices are established in organizational fields when innovators are able to refine expectations and evaluation criteria within an organisational field. The study addresses the theoretical paradox of embedded agency. Actors who are embedded in prevailing institutional logics and structures find it hard to perceive potentially disruptive opportunities that fall outside existing ways of doing things. Changing prevailing institutional logics and structures requires strategic and institutional work aimed at overcoming barriers to innovation. The study addresses this problem through the lens of (new) institutional theory. This discourse methodology traces the process through which innovators were able to establish a new social and business model in the field.

Branded lives:the production and consumption of meaning at work

'Branded Lives explodes the myth that a brand must, or even can stand for one unified, easily communicated message. While warning of the dangers of managing to preserve this myth, the book also celebrates the plurality of brand meanings generated by those employed to serve both the brand and the customer. I recommend reading this book in its entirety. If you are like me, your reading will bring a refreshing fullness to the experience of brands and branding and many new insights.' - Mary Jo Hatch, University of Virginia, US. © Matthew J. Brannan, Elizabeth Parsons and Vincenza Priola 2011. All rights reserved.

Urban politics and the social practices of critique and justification:conceptual insights from French pragmatism

Recent times have witnessed a growing belief in urban spaces as 'assemblages' produced through interwoven and spatially differentiated forces that converge at particular sites. There is also continuing interest in the nature of neoliberal tendencies and the rise of post-politics and democracy in urban governance. These accounts typically lack attention towards the comprehensive conceptualization of the heterogeneous logics and mechanics of relations and negotiations between actors. This paper seeks to advance these perspectives by exploring the potential contribution of French pragmatism thinking to how social life is produced through practical dialogue between actors through critique, argumentation and justification. © The Author(s) 2012.

A data structure for improved gp analysis via efficient computation and visualisation of population measures

Population measures for genetic programs are defined and analysed in an attempt to better understand the behaviour of genetic programming. Some measures are simple, but do not provide sufficient insight. The more meaningful ones are complex and take extra computation time. Here we present a unified view on the computation of population measures through an information hypertree (iTree). The iTree allows for a unified and efficient calculation of population measures via a basic tree traversal. © Springer-Verlag 2004.

Universities Masters World Cup Soccer:integrated sports science research and implementation of an international masters soccer community

Ageing populations with greater wellness and athletic expectations require quality sports and active living experiences in order to increase and sustain participation levels. Responding to the diverse needs and circumstances of Masterslveterans players is a complex and multi-faceted process. While sports science contributions have been very effective at enhancing active living in a variety of youth and adult sports events, very little has been documented regarding their efficacy in events for Masterslveteran players. This paper draws upon action research to examine the growth and development of a unique Masters World Cup 6-0-side Soccer Tournament, involving representative teams from twelve nations. lntegrated sports science concepts and strategies were employed to develop quality soccer experiences. Longitudinal data suggest that fostering a community of practice is critical to the success of Masters soccer programs. In addition to critical leadership contributions, an eclectic range of age-appropriate and responsive soccer experiences are essential to ensure that Masters events meet the diverse needs and circumstances of the players.

Parallel between Definition of Chess Playing Program and Definition of AI

In this report we will explain some earlier papers [1, 2] which are about definition of Artificial Intelligence and about perfect AI. The definition of AI is intuitive in [1] and formal in [2]. The perfect AI is a program that satisfies the definition for AI but which is absolutely useless because of the combinatory explosion. Most people do not understand these papers because they never saw AI and that is why for them the notion of AI is too abstract. In this report we will make parallel between definition of chess playing program and definition of AI. Of course, the definition of chess playing program is useless because people already know what this is. Anyway, we will give you this definition because its construction follows closely the construction of the definition of AI. Also the results are almost the same with the only difference that we can optimise the perfect chess playing program in order to obtain a real chess playing program, but for the moment we cannot optimise the perfect AI in order to obtain a real AI. In this report we will not speak about AI. The only matter which we will observe will be about chess playing programs. If you understand the construction and the results about chess playing programs then you can read the papers [1, 2] and to see similar results about AI.