This research for this thesis was conducted to develop a framework which supports the automatic configuration of project-specific software development processes by selecting and combining different technologies: the Process Configuration Framework. The research draws attention to the problem that while the research community develops new technologies, the industrial companies continue only using their well-known ones. Because of this, technology transfer takes decades. In addition, there is the fact that there is no solution which solves all problems in a software development project. This leads to a number of technologies which need to be combined for one project.
The framework developed and explained in this research mainly addresses those problems by building a bridge between research and industry as well as by supporting software companies during the selection of the most appropriate technologies combined in a software process. The technology transformation gap is filled by a repository of (new) technologies which are used as a foundation of the Process Configuration Framework. The process is configured by providing SPEM process pattern for each technology, so that the companies can build their process by plugging into each other.
The technologies of the repository were specified in a schema including a technology model, context model, and an impact model. With context and impact it is possible to provide information about a technology, for example, its benefits to quality, cost or schedule. The offering of the process pattern as output of the Process Configuration Framework is performed in several stages:
I Technology Ranking:
1 Ranking based on Application Domain, Project & Impact
2 Ranking based on Environment
3 Ranking based on Static Context
II Technology Combination:
4 Creation of all possible Technology Chains
5 Restriction of the Technology Chains
6 Ranking based on Static and Dynamic Context
7 Extension of the Chains by Quality Assurance
III Process Configuration:
8 Process Component Diagram
9 Extension of the Process Component Diagram
10 Instantiation of the Components by Technologies of the Technology Chain
11 Providing process patterns
12 Creation of the process based on Patterns
The effectiveness and quality of the Process Configuration Framework have additionally been evaluated in a case study. Here, the Technology Chains manually created by experts were compared to the chains automatically created by the framework after it was configured by those experts. This comparison depicted that the framework results are similar and therefore can be used as a recommendation.
We conclude from our research that support during the configuration of a process for software projects is important especially for non-experts. This support is provided by the Process Configuration Framework developed in this research. In addition our research has shown that this framework offers a possibility to speed up the technology transformation gap between the research community and industrial companies.


Isolating the voice of a specific person while filtering out other voices or background noises is challenging when video is shot in noisy environments, using a single microphone. For example, video conferences from home or office are disturbed by other voices, TV reporting from city streets is mixed with traffic noise, etc. We propose audio-visual methods to isolate the voice of a single speaker and eliminate unrelated sounds. Face motions captured in the video are used to estimate the speaker's voice, which is applied as a filter on the input audio. This approach avoids using mixtures of sounds in the learning process, as the number of such possible mixtures is huge, and would inevitably bias the trained model.


OBJECTIVE: To estimate the association between prediagnostic levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of chronic systemic inflammation, and subsequent development of ovarian cancer. METHODS: A multicenter, nested, case–control study was conducted, including women who developed ovarian cancer (case patients) and women who were cancer-free (controls) from the following cohorts: CLUE ("Give us a CLUE to cancer and heart disease") cohorts of Washington County, Maryland, the Columbia, Missouri Serum Bank, and the Island of Guernsey Prospective Study, United Kingdom. A total of 167 incident invasive epithelial ovarian cancer cases were identified and each matched to an average of two controls on cohort, age, race, menopausal status, time since last menstrual period, current hormone use, date of recruitment, and time of day of blood draw. Baseline serum samples were assayed for CRP concentrations, and estimates of risk associated with CRP levels were assessed using conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: Ovarian cancer risk was positively associated with increasing CRP concentrations. The risk of developing ovarian cancer among women in the highest third of the distribution of CRP compared with those in the lowest third was 1.72 (95% confidence interval 1.06–2.77), with evidence of an increasing risk with increasing concentration of CRP (P trend=0.02). Similar associations were observed using established clinical CRP cutpoints for heart disease risk (odds ratio 2.03, 95% confidence interval 1.20–3.47 for 3–10 mg/L compared with less than 1 mg/L, P trend=.008). If this association is causal, roughly 23% of ovarian cancer cases are attributed to chronic inflammation as indicated by elevated CRP concentrations. CONCLUSION: Higher circulating CRP concentrations in women who subsequently developed ovarian cancer support the hypothesized role of chronic inflammation in ovarian carcinogenesis. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II


Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have found, in laboratory studies, that the experimental drug ABT-737 which has shown promise in some cancers, can destroy acute myeloid leukemia (AML) blast, progenitor and even stem cells that are often resistant to standard chemotherapy treatment. The drug was powerful in its own right, the researchers say, but they found that some AML cells were themselves resistant to ABT-737, so they added another drug that knocked out this secondary resistance. Together, these agents may provide a powerful therapy against AML, and could form the basis of a new way to treat the cancer, say the scientists, whose study was published in the November 14, 2006 issue of the journal, Cancer Cell. "The combination of these two experimental drugs provides the highest synergistic action I have ever seen against acute myeloid leukemia cells," said the study's lead author, Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the Departments of Stem Cell Transplantation and Leukemia. Dr. Andreeff is also a member of the Editorial Board of Cancer Biology and Therapy. Although the study was done in laboratory cell cultures and AML cells obtained from patients, Andreeff said he hopes that a combination of these two agents could be tested in eligible patients when they receive standard chemotherapy treatment. "ABT-737 would overcome resistance to chemotherapy that we often see in AML therapy, and the second drug would overcome resistance to ABT-737," he said. "ABT-737 represents a completely new class of agents that could have a major impact on a number of cancers, and we have now seen that AML will likely be among them," Andreeff added. The successful use of ABT-737 in animal models of human small-cell lung cancer and cancers of the lymph system were reported in 2005 by researchers from Abbott Laboratories, which developed the compound. The agent works by manipulating members of the BCL-2 family of proteins, which includes both pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic molecules. (Apoptosis is a process whereby a cell kills itselfbecause it is seriously injured or growing out of control). ABT-737 targets the best-known member of the group, also called BCL-2, which is a cell "survival" protein that is over-expressed in many types of cancer. This protein prevents a cell from committingapoptosis by latching on to other BCL-2 family member proteins that promote cell death, thus rendering them ineffective. ABT-737, however, was engineered to fit tightly on to BCL-2, occupying that binding space so that the other pro-apoptotic proteins can function and promote cell death. In this study, Andreeff and a team of researchers found that ABT-737 "potently" kills AML cell lines as well as blast cells taken from AML patients. "Most importantly, our results demonstrated killing of theprogenitor and stem cells responsible for production of AML, which makes this a truly innovative treatment for different leukemias and cancer," Andreeff said. However, AML cells in which another anti-apoptotic protein known as MCL-1 is over expressed did not die, which makes this protein a "resistance factor" to ABT-737 and to standard chemotherapy, he said. "In myeloid leukemia, MCL-1 can be more important than BCL-2 because when a cell has a significant amount of MCL-1, many drugs don't work," said Andreeff. In fact, he added, patients whose cells over-express MCL-1 were found by his group to have a poorer outcome. So, the researchers added an experimental drug, a MAP-kinase inhibitor, to knock down MCL-1 expression, and found that this inhibitor also worked to inhibit cells in which BCL-2 is phosphorylated, which can switch a protein on or off. "ABT-737 had diminished effects against cells with phosphorylated BCL-2, which was restored by combination with a MAPK inhibitor," Andreeff said. The study helps refine the understanding of the effects of ABT-737 on cancer cells, he said.By using knock-out technology, the researchers also found that in leukemia cells, ABT-737 was dependent on two proteins called BAX and BAK to trigger apoptosis. Other researchers have said that the critical partner to ABT-737 was a similar protein known as BIM. "Both of these proteins poke holes in a cell mitochondria and release proteins that initiate cell death, but it is important to know that BAX and BAK are the important players," he said. Andreeff said that the next step for M. D. Anderson researchers is to test ABT-737 in patients with leukemias. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute, through a large Program Project Grant, headed by Andreeff. The first author was Dr. Marina Konopleva, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Stem Cell Transplantation. Working with M. D. Anderson researchers were scientists from The Universityof Texas Health Science Center at Houston, the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center, East Carolina University, the University of Michigan and Burnham Institute for Medical Research.


The World Energy Council (WEC) is the principal impartial network of leaders and practitioners promoting an affordable, stable and environmentally sensitive energy system for the greatest benefit of all. Formed in 1923, WEC is the UN-accredited global energy body, representing the entire energy spectrum, with more than 3000 member organisations located in over 90 countries and drawn from governments, private and state corporations, academia, NGOs and energy related stakeholders. WEC informs global, regional and national energy strategies by hosting high-level events, publishing authoritative studies and working through its extensive member network to facilitate the world's energy policy dialogue.


This 44-year-old man with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) Type IV presented with hemiparesis and the Gerstmann syndrome. Left carotid artery (CA) angiography revealed a dissecting aneurysm with severe stenosis located in the common CA; the lesion was successfully treated with a stent graft. The patient's clinical course after endovascular surgery was uneventful, without occurrence of megacolon. The literature for spontaneous CA dissection in EDS Type IV cases is reviewed and points for investigation and treatment are discussed.


This study examines the effectiveness of asynchronous communication in facilitating historical discussions among adolescents, with a specific focus on the ways in which teachers can affect this process. Threaded discussion board posts and teacher-student email correspondence from a five-week American history summer course are analyzed and triangulated with interview and observational data as part of a single case study. Using a social constructivist framework, the results suggest that the students in this particular course did not critically engage in discussions of a historical nature and often relied on unsubstantiated opinions that rarely challenged preexisting or canonical notions of history. The results also suggest that the teacher's actions or lack thereof may have contributed to the perfunctory social experience that students received. Although this study only serves as one example of K-12 e-learning, the findings offer implications for teaching and learning social studies within online environments.


*Cities cover just 2% of the world's surface, but consume 75% of the world's resources *Global food production increased by 145% in the last 4 decades of the 20th century - yet an estimated 800 million people are still hungry *In 2005 British supermarkets sent half a million tonnes of edible food to landfill - the whole food sector put together sent 17 million tonnes *100 years ago, the average Brit ate 25kg of meat each year - now it's 80kg (and for Americans, 124kg) *One quarter of the British population is obese - one in three meals we eat is a ready meal. WHY? The relationship between food and cities is fundamental to our every day lives. Food shapes cities, and through them, it moulds us - along with the countryside that feeds us. The gargantuan effort necessary to feed cities arguably has a greater social and physical impact on us and our planet than anything else we do. Yet few of us are conscious of the process and we rarely stop to wonder how food reaches our plates. Hungry City examines the way in which modern food production has damaged the balance of human existence, and reveals that we have yet to resolve a centuries-old dilemma - one which holds the key to a host of current problems, from obesity, the inexorable rise of the supermarkets, to the destruction of the natural world. Carolyn Steel follows food on its journey - from the land (and sea) to market and supermarket, kitchen to table, waste-dump and back again - exploring the historical roots and the contemporary issues at each stage of food's cycle. She shows how our lives and our environment are being manipulated but explains how we can change things for the better. Original, inspiring and written with infectious enthusiasm and belief, Hungry City illuminates an issue that is fundamental to us all.


Businesses cluster to achieve agglomeration benefits. However, research in developing countries suggests that the economic environment limits small business' propensity to benefit from agglomerations. The study examines the location, networking patterns, formal structures and owner characteristics of 1256 micro businesses from ten industries and thirteen sample areas in Toluca, Mexico. First, the thesis analyses whether clustering has a positive impact on the success rates of the surveyed enterprises, e.g. higher sales per employee. On an industry scale only Retail benefits from agglomerations economies. However, results of the neighborhood data show that specific areas benefit from urbanization economies. Overall, the study finds that businesses located within agglomerations, have higher levels of formalization, networking and professional training, hence constituting a more sophisticated base for economic development. Conclusions can be drawn for development policies and programs, arguing for a more differentiated approach of small business development depending on business location and cluster characteristics.


In an increasingly competitive environment, suppliers are now seen as an important source of innovation. Long-term partnerships enable companies to access the knowledge of suppliers to optimize their business. "Procurement 4.0" is one of the concepts that come to the fore when talking about digitalization of business processes. The major aim of this research is to discuss a conceptual model of "Procurement 4.0" and its potential to rethink the management of supplier relationships, which will be one of the main future tasks of procurement. The paper is based on a factual-analytical research approach that serves to continuously specify and supplement the elements of the frame of reference: Two challenging concepts, "Procurement 4.0" and Supplier Relationship Management, are merged to contribute to the fact that purchasing is indispensable as an "interface" within a global supply chain to reap the benefits of digitization. The factors that prove to be obstacles to digital supplier relationship management along the digital supplier journey e.g. lack of guidelines, approaches or tools and a lack of understanding of the importance of long-term relationships are reflected within the identified technologies of digital transformation. A comprehensive analysis of the given situation within digital supplier relationship management in Germany is provided. The most important digital supplier touchpoints are discussed in order to develop a traditional supplier relationship towards a digital relationship management. Thus, this paper succeeds in illustrating how the innovative concept of a supplier journey can be implemented in practice to counteract the future, entrepreneurial challenges.


Legal regulation of the family focuses on two canonical relationships: marriage and parenthood. Courts, legislatures, and scholars routinely take family law's concentration on just two family ties to be so commonsensical as to require no explicit discussion or explanation. Yet marriage and parenthood are not the only family relationships that can be central to family life. Family law's reflexive orientation around marriage and parenthood diverts attention and scrutiny from considering how the law should regulate and protect other family ties. For instance, the sibling relationship is a crucial, yet noncanonical family tie. Family law views children almost exclusively through the lens of children's relationships with their parents, rather than the lens of children's relationships with their siblings. The law offers siblings only modest and sporadic protection, too often permitting adoption and parental divorce or death to separate siblings and sometimes leave them with no right to contact each other or even learn of each other's existence. But siblings can be vital sources of support, love, nurturing, and stability for children, and family law could and should do much more to safeguard sibling ties when they are threatened. This essay uses the example of sibling relationships, which have received remarkably little legal attention, to explore the law's treatment of noncanonical family relationships and to consider some of the reform possibilities that emerge when we free ourselves from the assumption that family law should focus narrowly on marriage and parenthood.


The Civil War thrust millions of men and women--rich and poor, soldiers and civilians, enslaved and free--onto the roads of the South. During four years of war, Southerners lived on the move. In the hands of Yael A. Sternhell, movement becomes a radically new means to perceive the full trajectory of the Confederacy's rise, struggle, and ultimate defeat. By focusing not only on the battlefield and the home front but also on the roads and woods that connected the two, this pioneering book investigates the many roles of bodies in motion. We watch battalions of young men as they march to the front, galvanizing small towns along the way, creating the Confederate nation in the process. We follow deserters straggling home and refugees fleeing enemy occupation, both hoping to escape the burdens of war. And in a landscape turned upside down, we see slaves running toward freedom, whether hundreds of miles away or just beyond the plantation's gate. Based on a vast array of documents, from slave testimonies to the papers of Confederate bureaucrats to the private letters of travelers from all walks of life, Sternhell unearths the hidden connections between physical movements and their symbolic meanings, individual bodies and entire armies, the reinvention of a social order and the remaking of private lives. Movement, as means of liberation and as vehicle of subjugation, lay at the heart of the human condition in the wartime South.


Employee wellness programs are popular among employers because they have the potential to lead to positive outcomes for the employees and the organization. Moving from a public policy to local implementation, or the process of "operationalizing," presents a challenge within most organizations. The case study presented here provides an illustration of one public university?s attempt to interpret and apply a state policy to implement a wellness program for its employees. It features a description of the policy, a description of the context in which the policy is implemented and provides observations of the challenges and successes implementing the policy, lessons learned, and future directions.


The First International Workshop on Rough Sets: State of the Art and Perspectives was held on 2-4 September 1992 in Kiekrz, Poland. To stimulate the discussion, the participation was limited to 40 researchers who are involved in fundamental research in rough set theory and its extensions, logic for approximate reasoning, machine learning, knowledge representation and transfer, and applications of rough set methodology. The workshop focused primarily on applications of the basic idea of the approximate definition of a set and its consequences in other areas of science and engineering. Applications discussed at the workshop included machine learning, medical diagnosis, fault detection, medical image processing, neural net training, database organization, drug research, and digital circuit design.


Enjoy an irresistible feast of humour and discover the joys of French rural living with Peter Mayle's bestselling, much-loved account of "A Year In Provence". Peter Mayle and his wife did what most of us only imagine doing when they made their long-cherished dream of a life abroad a reality: throwing caution to the wind, they bought a glorious two hundred year-old farmhouse in the Luberon Valley and began a new life. In a year that begins with a marathon lunch and continues with a host of gastronomic delights, they also survive the unexpected and often hilarious curiosities of rural life. From mastering the local accent and enduring invasion by bumbling builders, to discovering the finer points of boules and goat-racing, all the earthy pleasures of Provencal life are conjured up in this enchanting portrait.


Cutting-edge techniques for finding and fixing critical security flaws Fortify your network and avert digital catastrophe with proven strategies from a team of security experts. Completely updated and featuring 12 new chapters, Gray Hat Hacking: The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, Fourth Edition explains the enemys current weapons, skills, and tactics and offers field-tested remedies, case studies, and ready-to-deploy testing labs. Find out how hackers gain access, overtake network devices, script and inject malicious code, and plunder Web applications and browsers. Android-based exploits, reverse engineering techniques, and cyber law are thoroughly covered in this state-of-the-art resource. Build and launch spoofing exploits with Ettercap and Evilgrade Induce error conditions and crash software using fuzzers Hack Cisco routers, switches, and network hardware Use advanced reverse engineering to exploit Windows and Linux software Bypass Windows Access Control and memory protection schemes Scan for flaws in Web applications using Fiddler and the x5 plugin Learn the use-after-free technique used in recent zero days Bypass Web authentication via MySQL type conversion and MD5 injection attacks Inject your shellcode into a browser's memory using the latest Heap Spray techniques Hijack Web browsers with Metasploit and the BeEF Injection Framework Neutralize ransomware before it takes control of your desktop Dissect Android malware with JEB and DAD decompilers Find one-day vulnerabilities with binary diffing


About the book: Crime: Local and Global and its sister text Criminal Justice: Local and Global are two new teaching texts that aim to equip the reader with a critical understanding of the globally contested nature of 'crime' and 'justice'. Through an examination of key concepts and criminological approaches, the books illuminate the different ways in which crime is constructed, conceived and controlled. International case studies are used to demonstrate how 'crime' and 'justice' are historically and geographically located in terms of the global/local context, and how processes of criminalisation and punishment are mediated in contemporary societies. Crime: Local and Global covers the way local events (such as prostitution) have wider aspects than previously thought. Links with people traffickers, international organised crime and violence cannot be ignored any longer. Each crime or area of activity selected within this text has a global reach, and is made ever more possible due to the way globalisation has opened up markets, both legitimate and illegitimate.

The book's approach and scope emphasises that we can no longer view 'crime' as something which occurs within certain jurisdictions, at certain times and in particular places. For example, the chapter on cybercrime highlights the 'illegal' acts that can be perpetrated by second lifers, anywhere in the world, but are they a crime?


You should worry about your legacy later in your career, at the edge of retirement--right? Not according to Robert Galford and Regina Maruca. In Your Leadership Legacy, these authors argue that thinking about your legacy now makes you a better leader today. Based on stories of top leaders who have shaped successful careers, the book explores the art of "legacy thinking," helping you to formulate a legacy that will exert a positive effect on your work immediately. The authors provide a disciplined approach to framing your legacy, as well as shaping it over time. They start with the idea that your legacy is defined by how others approach work and life as a result of having worked with you. They then demonstrate how to assess your current impact on those around you, strengthen that impact, and pass along the best of yourself in the process. While many leaders "find themselves" and hone their work accordingly only after a major life crisis, Your Leadership Legacy enables all leaders to craft their work and build their legacy unburdened by such crises, and to experience personal satisfaction and achievement throughout their working lives.


Generic skills play a vital role in increasing the employability and marketability of a student. As for the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, UKM, some of these skills are imparted in the assignment given to students called Open Ended Laboratory (OEL). In this OEL assignment, students are required to propose an experiment title based on the general topic given for that particular semester. The students, working in groups of 3 to 4 students, need to determine the objectives, apparatus and methods as well as execute the experiment. A report including results, discussion, conclusion and references is submitted for evaluation. The final presentation of students' work is organised in a competition poster presentation format. Skills such as communication (oral and written), organisation, teamwork, innovation and creativity were evaluated for this assignment. We discovered that these skills can be nurtured by looking at the marks given by the judges and peer assessment matrices.


The new novel from internationally acclaimed author Paulo Coelho - a dramatic story of love, life and death that shows us all why every second of our existence is a choice we all make between living and dying. Veronika has everything she could wish for. She is young and pretty, has plenty of boyfriends, a steady job, a loving family. Yet she is not happy; something is lacking in her life, and one morning she decides to die. She takes an overdose of sleeping pills, only to wake up some time later in the local hospital. There she is told that her heart is damaged and she has only a few days to live. The story follows Veronika through these intense days as to her surprise she finds herself experiencing feelings she has never really felt before. Against all odds she finds herself falling in love and even wanting to live again...


This essay analyzes the benefits of a tort system in which commercial and governmental first-party insurers acquire complete ownership and control over the prosecution and proceeds of their insureds' prospective tort claims. Under the regime of unlimited subrogation ("US"), insurers would treat tortious injury like any other covered risk thus paying an insured only for pecuniary loss (e.g., medical costs, lost income, etc.) according to standard policy (or program) terms. In return, insureds would receive payment in the form of reduced premiums (or taxes) or other financial benefits, equaling the aggregate average amount the insurer expects to recover in tort damages. US would replace the governing common law and statutory bars against insurers taking a subrogation or assignment interest beyond the amount that would reimburse them for payments made or promised the inured. In particular, US would allow subrogation of personal injury claims in full, including the potential recovery of non-pecuniary, punitive, and other damages in excess of the insurance benefits received by the insured. Allowing insureds to transfer ownership of potential tort claims to first-party insurers will directly improve insureds' welfare on three dimensions: 1. Insurance: Reducing insurance premiums not only makes risk averse individuals wealthier in their uninjured condition, but also negates the compulsory "premium" (pass-through) they pay to prospective defendants through adjusted product- and labor-prices for unwanted "tort insurance" against non-pecuniary harm. 2. Deterrence: Tort liability promotes deterrence goals, including through price effects, without need for compromising insurance goals; indeed, law enforcement will be enhanced by harnessing the litigation advantages of first-party insurers: risk-neutrality, scale economies, and the investment incentives of outright ownership of tort claims. 3. Administrative Productivity: Processing of tort claims would be streamlined - with insurers also serving as mass tort class action representatives - reducing costs not only on plaintiffs' side but also for defendants and the courts. In the long-term, there is the promise of three broader benefits. First, first-party insurer ownership of potential tort claims could catalyze an ex ante claims-market, in which consortia of lawyers and other investors would compete against insurers to purchase and prosecute prospective tort claims. Competitive ex ante claims markets (including secondary markets for claim re-sale and aggregation) provide the most efficient and effective means of achieving the deterrence ends of tort liability and generating the highest clearing price for sellers of potential tort claims. Second, the emergent ex ante claims market would establish both incentives and framework for first-party and liability insurers (joined by potential business defendants) to effect substantive and procedural tort reforms by contract. Finally, by rendering the tort system more efficient, the ex ante claims market would set the stage for legislatures to enact discretely targeted, theoretically sound reforms.


The acclaimed Pelican Shakespeare series edited by A. R. Braunmuller and Stephen Orgel The legendary Pelican Shakespeare series features authoritative and meticulously researched texts paired with scholarship by renowned Shakespeareans. Each book includes an essay on the theatrical world of Shakespeare s time, an introduction to the individual play, and a detailed note on the text used. Updated by general editors Stephen Orgel and A. R. Braunmuller, these easy-to-read editions incorporate over thirty years of Shakespeare scholarship undertaken since the original series, edited by Alfred Harbage, appeared between 1956 and 1967. With definitive texts and illuminating essays, the Pelican Shakespeare will remain a valued resource for students, teachers, and theater professionals for many years to come. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. "


This volume contains a new translation, with a historical introduction by the translators, of two works written under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus. Through Climacus, Kierkegaard contrasts the paradoxes of Christianity with Greek and modern philosophical thinking. In "Philosophical Fragments" he begins with Greek Platonic philosophy, exploring the implications of venturing beyond the Socratic understanding of truth acquired through recollection to the Christian experience of acquiring truth through grace. Published in 1844 and not originally planned to appear under the pseudonym Climacus, the book varies in tone and substance from the other works so attributed, but it is dialectically related to them, as well as to the other pseudonymous writings.The central issue of "Johannes Climacus" is doubt. Probably written between November 1842 and April 1843 but unfinished and published only posthumously, this book was described by Kierkegaard as an attack on modern speculative philosophy by "means of the melancholy irony, which did not consist in any single utterance on the part of Johannes Climacus but in his whole life. . . . Johannes does what we are told to do--he actually doubts everything--he suffers through all the pain of doing that, becomes cunning, almost acquires a bad conscience. When he has gone as far in that direction as he can go and wants to come back, he cannot do so. . . . Now he despairs, his life is wasted, his youth is spent in these deliberations. Life does not acquire any meaning for him, and all this is the fault of philosophy." A note by Kierkegaard suggests how he might have finished the work: "Doubt is conquered not by the system but by faith, just as it is faith that has brought doubt into the world!."


The goal of this work is to develop a simulation-based algorithm, allowing the prediction
of the effective mechanical properties of textiles on the basis of their microstructure
and corresponding properties of fibers. This method can be used for optimization of the
microstructure, in order to obtain a better stiffness or strength of the corresponding fiber
material later on. An additional aspect of the thesis is that we want to take into account the microcontacts
between fibers of the textile. One more aspect of the thesis is the accounting for the thickness of thin fibers in the
textile. An introduction of an additional asymptotics with respect to a small parameter,
the relation between the thickness and the representative length of the fibers, allows a
reduction of local contact problems between fibers to 1-dimensional problems, which
reduces numerical computations significantly.

A fiber composite material with periodic microstructure and multiple frictional microcontacts
between fibers is studied. The textile is modeled by introducing small geometrical
parameters: the periodicity of the microstructure and the characteristic
diameter of fibers. The contact linear elasticity problem is considered. A two-scale
approach is used for obtaining the effective mechanical properties.

The algorithm using asymptotic two-scale homogenization for computation of the
effective mechanical properties of textiles with periodic rod or fiber microstructure
is proposed. The algorithm is based on the consequent passing to the asymptotics
with respect to the in-plane period and the characteristic diameter of fibers. This
allows to come to the equivalent homogenized problem and to reduce the dimension
of the auxiliary problems. Further numerical simulations of the cell problems give
the effective material properties of the textile.

The homogenization of the boundary conditions on the vanishing out-of-plane interface
of a textile or fiber structured layer has been studied. Introducing additional
auxiliary functions into the formal asymptotic expansion for a heterogeneous
plate, the corresponding auxiliary and homogenized problems for a nonhomogeneous
Neumann boundary condition were deduced. It is incorporated into the right hand
side of the homogenized problem via effective out-of-plane moduli.

FiberFEM, a C++ finite element code for solving contact elasticity problems, is
developed. The code is based on the implementation of the algorithm for the contact
between fibers, proposed in the thesis.
Numerical examples of homogenization of geotexiles and wovens are obtained in the
work by implementation of the developed algorithm. The effective material moduli
are computed numerically using the finite element solutions of the auxiliary contact
problems obtained by FiberFEM.


This paper shows how two well established software programs can be used to determine the electrical machine performance and the temperature rise within the machine parts using a permanent magnet interior rotor synchronous machine as an example. Both software packages, STAR-CCM+ providing an engineering process code for solving problems involving fluid flow, conjugate heat transfer and solid stress and SPEED the specialized analysis tool for the design of electric machines such as motors, generators and alternators including the drive with inverters and their control, are developed by CD-adapco. In the latest versions of the 2 packages a link was established to exchange the data needed from SPEED to STAR-CCM+. The process is presented in more detail in this paper.


This paper investigates whether preference interactions can explain why risk preferences change over time and across contexts. We conduct an experiment in which subjects accept or reject gambles involving real money gains and losses. We introduce within-subject variation by alternating subjectively liked music and disliked music in the background. We find that favourite music increases risk-taking, and disliked music suppresses risk-taking, compared to a baseline of no music. Several theories in psychology propose mechanisms by which mood affects risktaking, but none of them fully explain our results. The results are, however, consistent with preference complementarities that extend to risk preference.


The present dissertation contains the theoretical studies performed on the topic of a high energy deposition in matter. The work focuses on electronic excitation and relaxation processes on ultrafast timescales. Energy deposition by means of intense ultrashort (femtosecond) laser pulses or by means of swift heavy ions irradiation have a certain similarities: the final observable material modifications result from a number of processes on different timescales. First, the electronic excitation by photoabsorption or by ion impact takes place on subfemtosecond timescales. Then these excited electrons propagate and redistribute their energy interacting among themselves and exciting secondary generations of electrons. This typically takes place on femtosecond timescales. On the order of tens to hundreds femtoseconds the excited electrons are usually thermalized. The energy exchange with the lattice atoms lasts up to tens of picoseconds. The lattice temperature can reach melting point; then the material cools down and recrystalizes, forming the final modified nanostructures, which are observed experimentally. The processes on each previous step form the initial conditions for the following step. Thus, to describe the final phase transition and formation of nanostructures, one has to start from the very beginning and follow through all the steps.
The present work focuses on the early stages of the energy dissipation after its deposition, taking place in the electronic subsystems of excited materials. Different models applicable for different excitation mechanisms will be presented: in the thesis I will start from the description of high energy excitation (electron energies of \(\sim\) keV), then I shall focus on excitations to intermediate energies of electrons (\(\sim\) 100 eV), and finally coming down to a few eV electron excitations (visible light). The results will be compared with experimental observations.
For the high energy material excitation assumed to be caused by irradiation with swift heavy ions, the classical Asymptotical Trajectory Monte-Carlo (ATMC) is applied to describe the excitation of electrons by the impact of the projectile, the initial kinetics of electrons, secondary electron creation and Auger-redistribution of holes. I first simulate the early stage (first tens of fs) of kinetics of the electronic subsystem (in silica target, SiO\(_2\)) in tracks of ions decelerated in the electronic stopping regime. It will be shown that the well pronounced front of excitation in the electronic and ionic subsystems is formed due to the propagation of electrons, which cannot be described by models based on diffusion mechanisms (e.g. parabolic equations of heat diffusion). On later timescales, the thermalization time of electrons can be estimated as a time when the particle- and the energy propagation turns from the ballistic to the diffusive one. As soon as the electrons are thermalized, one can apply the Two Temperature Model. It will be demonstrated how to combine the MC output with the two temperature model. The results of this combination demonstrate that secondary ionizations play a very important role for the track formation process, leading to energy stored in the hole subsystem. This energy storage causes a significant delay of heating and prolongs the timescales of lattice modifications up to tens of picoseconds.
For intermediate energies of excitation (XUV-VUV laser pulse excitation of materials) I applied the Monte-Carlo simulation, modified where necessary and extended in order to take into account the electronic band structure and Pauli's principle for electrons within the conduction band. I apply the new method for semiconductors and for metals on examples of solid silicon and aluminum, respectively.
It will be demonstrated that for the case of semiconductors the final kinetic energy of free electrons is much less than the total energy provided by the laser pulse, due to the energy spent to overcome ionization potentials. It was found that the final total number of electrons excited by a single photon is significantly less than \(\hbar \omega / E_{gap}\). The concept of an 'effective energy gap' is introduced for collective electronic excitation, which can be applied to estimate the free electron density after high-intensity VUV laser pulse irradiation.
For metals, experimentally observed spectra of emitted photons from irradiated aluminum can be explained well with our results. At the characteristic time of a photon emission due to radiative decay of \(L-\)shell hole (\(t < 60\) fs), the distribution function of the electrons is not yet fully thermalized. This distribution consists of two main branches: low energy distribution as a distorted Fermi-distribution, and a long high energy tail. Therefore, the experimentally observed spectra demonstrate two different branches of results: the one observed with \(L-\)shell radiation emission reflects the low energy distribution, the Bremsstrahlung spectra reflects high energy (nonthermalized) tail. The comparison with experiments demonstrated a good agreement of the calculated spectra with the experimentally observed ones.
For the irradiation of semiconductor with low energy photons (visible light), a statistical model named the "extended multiple rate equation" is proposed. Based on the earlier developed multiple rate equation, the model additionally includes the interaction of electrons with the phononic subsystem of the lattice and allows for the direct determination of the conditions for crystal damage. Our model effectively describes the dynamics of the electronic subsystem, dynamical changes in the optical properties, and lattice heating, and the results are in very good agreement with experimental measurements on the transient reflectivity and the fluence damage threshold of silicon irradiated with a femtosecond laser pulse.


The numerical calculation of character values as well as Kronecker coefficients can efficently be carried out by means of character polynomials. Yet these polynomials do not seem to have been given a proper role in present day literature or software. To show their remarkable simplicity we give here an "umbral" version and a recursive combinatorial construction. We also show that these polynomials have a natural counterpart in the standard Hecke algebra ${\cal H}_n(q\, )$. Their relation to Kronecker products is brought to the fore, as well as special cases and applications. This paper may also be used as a tutorial for working with character polynomials in the computation of Kronecker coefficients.


There is no one better qualified to tell us about the failures of the American financial system and the grotesque abuses that have taken place in recent years than John Bogle, who as founder and former chief executive of the Vanguard mutual funds group has seen firsthand the innermost workings of the financial industry. A zealous advocate for the small investor for more than fifty years, Bogle has championed the restoration of integrity in industry practices. As an astute observer and commentator, he knows that a trustworthy business and financial complex is essential to America's continuing leadership in the world and to social and economic progress at home. This book tells not just a story about what went wrong but, more important, the story of why we lost our way and of how we can right our course. Bogle argues for a return to a governance structure in which owners' capital that has been put at risk is used in their interests rather than in the interests of corporate and financial managers. Given that ownership is now consolidated in the hands of relatively few large mutual and pension funds, the specific reforms Bogle details in this book are essential as well as practical. Every investor, analyst, Wall-Streeter, policy maker, and businessperson should read this deeply informed book.


The Mediterranean distributions of two species of anglerfish, the blackbellied anglerfish (Lophius budegassa) and the white anglerfish (Lophius piscatorius), were analysed from trawl survey data (MEDITS project – Spain, France, Italy and Greece) from 2006 to 2015 implementing a Delta model approach with residuals autocovariate boosted regression trees. Sea bottom temperature (SBT), sea bottom salinity (SBS), bathymetry, slope of the seabed and distance to the coast were considered possible predictors. The results show that the locations with a higher presence, abundance and biomass of L. budegassa are those with a depth range between 150 to 300 m, with an SBT range between 17.5 and 18.5°C, and SBS of 37-38 PSU. Similarly, L. piscatorius shows a higher probability of presence, abundance and biomass in location with a bathymetry range of 200-400 m, an SBT of 17.5°C to 18.5°C and an SBS of 36.5 to 37.5. Our results identify preference habitats for the anglerfishes in the Mediterranean Sea such as the Aegean Sea, the Gulf of Lions, south and southeast Spain and the northwestern Ionian Sea. In general terms, these findings enhance our understanding of the differences in the spatio-temporal distribution of these two species, providing useful information that can help their fisheries management and conservation.


Resorts have become important to American society and its economy; one in eight Americans is now employed by the tourism industry. Yet despite the ubiquity of hotels, little has been written about those who labor there. Drawing on eight years of participant observation and in-depth interviews, the renowned ethnographers Patricia A. Adler and Peter Adler reveal the occupational culture and lifestyles of workers at five luxury Hawaiian resorts. These resorts employ a workforce that is diverse in gender, class, ethnicity, and nationality. Hawaiian resort workers, like those in nearly all resorts, consist of four groups. New immigrants hold difficult and dirty low-status jobs for little pay. Locals provide an authentic Polynesian flavor for guests, a ready pool of youthful high-turnover employees, and a population trapped in a place that offers few occupational alternatives. Managers tend to be middle-class, college-educated young and middle-aged men from the mainland whose lifestyles are occupationally transient. Seekers, mostly young, white, and from the mainland as well, escape to paradise seeking adventure, warmth, extreme sports, or some alternate life experiences. The Adlers describe the work, lives, and careers of these four groups that labor in organizations that never close, with shifts scheduled around the clock and around the year. Paradise Laborers adds to the growing interest in the global flow of labor, as these immigrant workers display different trends in gendered opportunities and mobility than those exhibited by other groups. The authors propose a political economy of tourist labor in which they compare the different expectations and rewards of organizations, employees, and local labor markets. Patricia A. Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado and Peter Adler is Professor of Sociology at the University of Denver. Their many books include Peer Power: Preadolescent Culture and Identity and Backboards and Blackboards: College Athletes and Role Engulfment.


The CoWriter activity involves a child in a rich and complex interaction where he has to teach handwriting to a robot. The robot must convince the child it needs his help and it actually learns from his lessons. To keep the child engaged, the robot must learn at the right rate, not too fast otherwise the kid will have no opportunity for improving his skills and not too slow otherwise he may loose trust in his ability to improve the robot' skills. We tested this approach in real pedagogic/therapeutic contexts with children in difficulty over repeated long sessions (40-60 min). Through 3 different case studies, we explored and refined experimental designs and algorithms in order for the robot to adapt to the troubles of each child and to promote their motivation and self-confidence. We report positive observations, suggesting commitment of children to help the robot, and their comprehension that they were good enough to be teachers, overcoming their initial low confidence with handwriting.


The major pollutants emitted from spark ignition (SI) engine are carbon mono oxide (CO) and un-burnt hydrocarbons (UBHC). If the engine is run with alcohol, aldehydes have to be checked also. These are hazardous and cause health problems to human beings but also have impact on environment. Hence control of these pollutants call for immediate attention. Copper of thickness 300 microns is coated over piston crown, and indie portion of cylinder liner and cylinder head of the spark ignition engine. Investigations have been carried out for controlling pollutants from two strokes, 2.2 kW brake power at the rated speed of 3000 rpm, copper coated spark ignition engine fitted with catalytic converter with different catalysts such as sponge iron and manganese ore run with gasohol (blend of 20% ethanol and 80% gasoline by volume). The influence of parameters of catalytic converter (such as void ratio, mass of catalyst, airflow rate, temperature of injected air) and parameters of engine (such as brake power and equivalence ratio) on these emissions are studied. A microprocessor-based analyzer is used for the measurement of CO/UBHC in the exhaust of the engine. Aldehydes are measured by DNPH (dinitrophenyl hydrazine) method. Catalytic parameters are found to show strong influence on reduction of the pollutants in the exhaust. Copper coated spark ignition engine (CCE) with gasohol operation reduced the exhaust emissions considerably when compared to conventional engine (CE) with pure gasoline operation.


Alarmists argue that the United States urgently needs more and better-trained scientists to compete with the rest of the world. Their critics counter that, far from facing a shortage, we are producing a glut of young scientists with poor employment prospects. Both camps have issued reports in recent years that predict the looming decline of American science. Drawing on their extensive analysis of national data sets, Yu Xie and Alexandra Killewald have welcome news to share: American science is in good health. "Is American Science in Decline?" does reveal areas of concern, namely scientists' low earnings, the increasing competition they face from Asia, and the declining number of doctorates who secure academic positions. But the authors argue that the values inherent in American culture make the country highly conducive to science for the foreseeable future. They do not see globalization as a threat but rather a potential benefit, since it promotes efficiency in science through knowledge-sharing. In an age when other countries are catching up, American science will inevitably become less dominant, even though it is not in decline relative to its own past. As technology continues to change the American economy, better-educated workers with a range of skills will be in demand. So as a matter of policy, the authors urge that science education not be detached from general education.


painted in January, 1946
"A grotesque male nude dominates Will to Power, his gritty roughness, burly proportions, inlaid stone teeth, and glass fragments for eyes giving him a fierce and threatening air. But the figure's aggressive machismo is itself threatened by the very stance he assumes: hands held behind the back, his gesture is either one of unexpected receptivity or of helpless captivity. The title refers to a central tenet of Nazi ideology, taken from the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. But in a single deft stroke, Dubuffet's caricature mocks Fascism's claims to authority as it emasculates romanticized male aggression.

Dubuffet's painting style, which he called Art Brut [more] (raw art), was contrary to everything expected of a painter in the French tradition and dealt a serious blow to the usual aesthetic assumptions. Inspired by graffiti and art made by the mentally ill, Dubuffet insisted that his protest was against specious notions of beauty "inherited from the Greeks and cultivated by magazine covers." In Triumph and Glory, the female nude—treated by most artists with veneration—receives no more charitable treatment than her male counterpart in Will to Power. One of 36 female nudes known as the Corps des dames series, she lacks psychological presence and personal identity, and could easily be perceived as an abomination.

While the art of "primitive" cultures and unschooled practitioners was of special importance to Dubuffet, he was also interested in a disparate array of found objects and materials. Door with Couch Grass, an assemblage of several paintings that he cut down and pieced together to represent a wall, doorstep, and the ground, typifies his insatiable interest in found patterns, textures, and materials. The extraordinary range of techniques that Dubuffet employed in this work includes creating successive layers of paint by shaking a brush over the painting and covering it with a spray of tiny droplets, scattering sand over the surface, and scratching it with the tines of a fork. In his attempt to rehabilitate values and materials dismissed by Western aesthetics, what mattered to Dubuffet was unbridled energy, spontaneity, and truth to self—and with them, a spirit of insubordination and impertinence."

Jan Avgikos -- from http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/movement_work_md_Art_Brut_42_4.html
accessed 5/18/2004


Abstract. Using Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) and sub-orbital measurements from the 2006 INTEX-B/MILAGRO field campaign, in this study we explore MISR's ability to map different aerosol air mass types over the Mexico City metropolitan area. The aerosol air mass distinctions are based on shape, size and single scattering albedo retrievals from the MISR Research Aerosol Retrieval algorithm. In this region, the research algorithm identifies dust-dominated aerosol mixtures based on non-spherical particle shape, whereas spherical biomass burning and urban pollution particles are distinguished by particle size. Two distinct aerosol air mass types based on retrieved particle microphysical properties, and four spatially distributed aerosol air masses, are identified in the MISR data on 6 March 2006. The aerosol air mass type identification results are supported by coincident, airborne high-spectral-resolution lidar (HSRL) measurements. Aerosol optical depth (AOD) gradients are also consistent between the MISR and sub-orbital measurements, but particles having single-scattering albedo of a0.7 at 558 nm must be included in the retrieval algorithm to produce good absolute AOD comparisons over pollution-dominated aerosol air masses. The MISR standard V22 AOD product, at 17.6 km resolution, captures the observed AOD gradients qualitatively, but retrievals at this coarse spatial scale and with limited spherical absorbing particle options underestimate AOD and do not retrieve particle properties adequately over this complex urban region. However, we demonstrate how AOD and aerosol type mapping can be accomplished with MISR data over complex urban regions, provided the retrieval is performed at sufficiently high spatial resolution, and with a rich enough set of aerosol components and mixtures.


A #1 bestseller from coast to coast, "Den of Thieves" tells the full story of the insider-trading scandal that nearly destroyed Wall Street, the men who pulled it off, and the chase that finally brought them to justice. Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the eighties biggest names on Wall Street Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions, until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America s most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice. Based on secret grand jury transcripts, interviews, and actual trading records, and containing explosive new revelations about Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky written especially for this paperback edition, "Den of Thieves" weaves all the facts into an unforgettable narrative a portrait of human nature, big business, and crime of unparalleled proportions."


Doctrine is at the center of law and legal analysis. This Article argues that we have fundamentally misunderstood its nature. The conventional approach to legal doctrine focuses on theory and applications. What is the doctrine designed to do and how does it function? But many doctrines cannot be adequately understood or evaluated under the conventional model because they contain an additional, hidden element. They are built on foundational facts: potentially contested factual assumptions embedded in the doctrinal structure itself. Foundational facts are judges' generalized and invisible intuitions about how the world works. Whether a defendant acted in a particular way out of a particular motive are decisional, rather than foundational, facts. But the likelihood of actors in defendant's position acting that way or having that motive are foundational facts, and doctrinal rules - including burdens of proof and standards of review - will be structured differently depending on whether judges assume a high or low likelihood. Foundational facts thus drive doctrine. Without an understanding of a doctrine's foundational facts, we cannot adequately understand the doctrine and its changes over time. Foundational facts only come to light when doctrine shifts, seemingly inexplicably and often without judicial acknowledgment that anything has changed. That doctrinal shift serves as a cue to look for changed foundational assumptions that might be driving the doctrinal change. Identifying those foundational facts, in turn, allows us to better understand and evaluate both the doctrine and its underlying assumptions.


ISO 16363:2012, Space Data and Information Transfer Systems - Audit and Certification of Trustworthy Digital Repositories (ISO TRAC), outlines actions a repository can take to be considered trustworthy, but research examining whether the repository's designated community of users associates such actions with trustworthiness has been limited. Drawing from this ISO document and the management and information systems literatures, this paper discusses findings from interviews with 66 archaeologists and quantitative social scientists. We found similarities and differences across the disciplines and among the social scientists. Both disciplinary communities associated trust with a repository's transparency. However, archaeologists mentioned guarantees of preservation and sustainability more frequently than the social scientists, who talked about institutional reputation. Repository processes were also linked to trust, with archaeologists more frequently citing metadata issues and social scientists discussing data selection and cleaning processes. Among the social scientists, novices mentioned the influence of colleagues on their trust in repositories almost twice as much as the experts. We discuss the implications our findings have for identifying trustworthy repositories and how they extend the models presented in the management and information systems literatures.


During El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, the atmospheric response to sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the equatorial Pacific influences ocean conditions over the remainder of the globe. This connection between ocean basins via the ''atmospheric bridge'' is reviewed through an examination of previous work augmented by analyses of 50 years of data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction- National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP-NCAR) reanalysis project and coupled atmospheric general circulation (AGCM)-mixed layer ocean model experiments. Observational and modeling studies have now established a clear link between SST anomalies in the equatorial Pacific with those in the North Pacific, north tropical Atlantic, and Indian Oceans in boreal winter and spring. ENSO-related SST anomalies also appear to be robust in the western North Pacific during summer and in the Indian Ocean during fall. While surface heat fluxes are the key component of the atmospheric bridge driving SST anomalies, Ekman transport also creates SST anomalies in the central North Pacific although the full extent of its impact requires further study. The atmospheric bridge not only influences SSTs on interannual timescales but also affects mixed layer depth (MLD), salinity, the seasonal evolution of upper-ocean temperatures, and North Pacific SST variability at lower fre- quencies. The model results indicate that a significant fraction of the dominant pattern of low-frequency (.10 yr) SST variability in the North Pacific is associated with tropical forcing. AGCM experiments suggest that the oceanic feedback on the extratropical response to ENSO is complex, but of modest amplitude. Atmosphere- ocean coupling outside of the tropical Pacific slightly modifies the atmospheric circulation anomalies in the Pacific-North America (PNA) region but these modifications appear to depend on the seasonal cycle and air- sea interactions both within and beyond the North Pacific Ocean.


The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for the need for population level interventions to smoking cessation and tobacco control in the developing countries. Health information systems (HIS) have made a significant role over the years in both the developed and developing countries. In order to provide a comprehensive health risk assessment profile for populations in the developing countries, however, there is an urgent need to develop epidemiological surveillance data to be integrated within HIS. This is principally important for health surveillance data on structure, process, risk factors, and outcome of cancer, given the economic, clinical and public health burden of cancer particularly in low- and middle-income developing countries. A comprehensive approach to cancer prevention and control in the developing countries should involve systematic and timely epidemiological surveillance. Such surveillance systems should be established keeping in mind the unique socio-economic, environmental, and cultural influences on cancer incidence in the developing countries.


We describe a new encryption technique that is secure in the standard model against chosen ciphertext attacks. We base our method on two very efficient Identity-Based Encryption (IBE) schemes without random oracles due to Boneh and Boyen, and Waters.Unlike previous CCA2-secure cryptosystems that use IBE as a black box, our approach is very simple and compact. It makes direct use of the underlying IBE structure, and requires no cryptographic primitive other than the IBE scheme itself. This conveys several advantages. We achieve shorter ciphertext size than the best known instantiations of the other methods, and our technique is as efficient as the Boneh and Katz method (and more so than that of Canetti, Halevi, and Katz). Further, our method operates nicely on hierarchical IBE, and since it allows the validity of ciphertexts to be checked publicly, it can be used to construct systems with non-interactive threshold decryption.In this paper we describe two main constructions: a full encryption system based on the Waters adaptive-ID secure IBE, and a KEM based on the Boneh-Boyen selective-ID secure IBE. Both systems are shown CCA2-secure in the standard model, the latter with a tight reduction. We discuss several uses and extensions of our approach, and draw comparisons with other schemes that are provably secure in the standard model.


This paper contributes to the emerging literature at the border between AI and cognitive neuroscience, analyzing the resource constraints that shape brain function. The brain is conceptualized as a set of areas that collaborate to perform complex cognitive tasks. Both (1) computation within individual areas and (2) communication between collaborating areas are viewed as resource-consuming activities. The efficient deployment of limited resources is formalized as a Linear Programming problem which the brain is hypothesized to solve on a moment-by-moment basis. A model of language processing is analyzed within this framework and found to exhibit resource utilization profiles consistent with those observed in functional neuroimaging studies of humans.


We find that there is no supersymmetric flavor/CP problem, {mu}-problem, cosmological moduli/gravitino problem or dimension four/five proton decay problem in a class of supersymmetric theories with O(1) GeV gravitino mass. The cosmic abundance of the nonthermally produced gravitinos naturally explains the dark matter component of the universe. A mild hierarchy between the mass scale of supersymmetric particles and electroweak scale is predicted, consistent with the null result of a search for the Higgs boson at the LEP-II experiments. A relation to the strong CP problem is addressed. We propose a parametrization of the model for the purpose of collider studies. The scalar tau lepton is the next to lightest supersymmetric particle in a theoretically favored region of the parameter space. The lifetime of the scalar tau is of O(1000) seconds with which it is regarded as a charged stable particle in collider experiments. We discuss characteristic signatures and a strategy for confirmation of this class of theories at the LHC experiments.


The parables of Jesus are puzzling sayings and stories with world-transforming potential. Parables for Preachers offers an understanding of how parables work and a fresh variety of possible meanings not only for Jesus's original audience and for the early Christians for whom Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote but also for contemporary Christians as well. The Gospel parables are analyzed in the order in which they appear in the Lectionary, making this book an indispensable resource for preachers, teachers, catechists, liturgy planners, and Bible study groups. Barbara Reid is Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. She is the author of Matthew in the New Collegeville Bible Commentary series as well as Choosing the Better Part? Women in the Gospel of Luke, both published by Liturgical Press.


Geo Information Systems (GIS) are standard tools in the Earth sciences whenever different geographic data sets must be combined. GIS became increasingly popular in the field of planetary research as well, due to the increasing amount of data from recent planetary missions, in particular to Mars. However, as the available GIS packages are designed for the standard terrestrial coordinate systems, several obstacles have to be overcome to implement a geodetic accurate and consistent database for other solar system bodies. In the past decade, parameters describing the rotation and shape of Mars have changed several times. Therefore, today, the digital data products available to the science community incorporate several different reference surfaces and map projections. In this paper we describe the required steps to integrate Digital terrain Models (DTMs) and images of Mars Global Surveyor, Viking mosaics, and supplementary geologic information in a single database under the open source GIS GRASS (Geographic Resources Analysis Support System) environment. The different possible reference frames are discussed. The derived GIS database is currently being used to map the global distribution of tectonic faults on Mars. Finally, there are excellent prospects to use GRASS GIS for the analysis and geologic interpretation of image data from the High Resolution Stereo Camera aboard Mars Express. As the software and its source code are released under a free license, scientists may take the opportunity to gather work experience with a planetary GIS at no costs and with the opportunity to modify the software to their specific needs. * Corresponding author


The three principle and intertwining security threats in the North of Mali are trafficking (drugs, arms, cigarettes, cars, etc.), rebellious uprisings and terrorist activity. Any attempts at maintaining law and order are undermined by the fragility of state structures, and the lack of equipment and infrastructure for the armed forces. These threats also weaken the socioeconomic fabric of local communities and Malian national and territorial unity.

The Malian government endeavours to address these challenges by adopting and implementing security and anti-terrorism policies, as well as social and economic development programmes. External partners support the Malian government in its efforts through a variety of joint anti-terrorism and development policies aiming to strengthen the state's operational capacity in the region. Furthermore, local communities work alongside state actors in the development and securitisation of Northern Mali by employing traditional conflict-management mechanisms (intercommunity and interclan solidarity systems). This strategy builds strong links that considerably reduce the risk of open conflict and contributes to the establishment of a multilevel shared governance system.


Continuous stochastic control theory has found many applications in optimal investment. However, it lacks some reality, as it is based on the assumption that interventions are costless, which yields optimal strategies where the controller has to intervene at every time instant. This thesis consists of the examination of two types of more realistic control methods with possible applications. In the first chapter, we study the stochastic impulse control of a diffusion process. We suppose that the controller minimizes expected discounted costs accumulating as running and controlling cost, respectively. Each control action causes costs which are bounded from below by some positive constant. This makes a continuous control impossible as it would lead to an immediate ruin of the controller. We give a rigorous development of the relevant theory, where our guideline is to establish verification and convergence results under minimal assumptions, without focusing on the existence of solutions to the corresponding (quasi-)variational inequalities. If the impulse control problem can be characterized or approximated by (quasi-)variational inequalities, it remains to solve these equations. In Section 1.2, we solve the stochastic impulse control problem for a one-dimensional diffusion process with constant coefficients and convex running costs. Further, in Section 1.3, we solve a particular multi-dimensional example, where the uncontrolled process is given by an at least two-dimensional Brownian motion and the cost functions are rotationally symmetric. By symmetry, this problem can be reduced to a one-dimensional problem. In the last section of the first chapter, we suggest a new impulse control problem, where the controller is in addition allowed to invest his initial capital into a market consisting of a money market account and a risky asset. The costs which arise upon controlling the diffusion process and upon trading in this market have to be paid out of the controller's bond holdings. The aim of the controller is to minimize the running costs, caused by the abstract diffusion process, without getting ruined. The second chapter is based on a paper which is joint work with Holger Kraft and Frank Seifried. We analyze the portfolio decision of an investor trading in a market where the economy switches randomly between two possible states, a normal state where trading takes place continuously, and an illiquidity state where trading is not allowed at all. We allow for jumps in the market prices at the beginning and at the end of a trading interruption. Section 2.1 provides an explicit representation of the investor's portfolio dynamics in the illiquidity state in an abstract market consisting of two assets. In Section 2.2 we specify this market model and assume that the investor maximizes expected utility from terminal wealth. We establish convergence results, if the maximal number of liquidity breakdowns goes to infinity. In the Markovian framework of Section 2.3, we provide the corresponding Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equations and prove a verification result. We apply these results to study the portfolio problem for a logarithmic investor and an investor with a power utility function, respectively. Further, we extend this model to an economy with three regimes. For instance, the third state could model an additional financial crisis where trading is still possible, but the excess return is lower and the volatility is higher than in the normal state.


Teach the course YOU want in LESS TIME! In today's fast-moving, mobile environment, the GO! with Office 2016 series focuses on the job skills needed to succeed in the workforce. With job-related projects that put Microsoft Office into context, students learn the how and why at the moment they need to know, all in the appropriate Microsoft procedural syntax. For Office 2016, the hallmark guided-practice to skill-mastery pathway is better than ever. Students have many opportunities to work live in Microsoft office to apply the skills they've learned. In addition, instructional projects are now available as grader projects in MyITLab, so students can work live in Office while receiving auto-graded feedback. These high-fidelity simulations match the text and provide an effective pathway for learning, practicing, and assessing their abilities. After completing the instructional projects, students can apply their skills with a variety of progressively challenging projects that require them to solve problems, think critically, and create on their own. New GO! Collaborate with Google projects allow students to apply their skills to a new environment that is already popular in many workplaces. Integrated Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) objectives make GO! your one resource for learning Office, gaining critical productivity skills, and prepare for MOS certification. Also available with MyITLab MyITLab is an online homework, tutorial, and assessment program designed for Information Technology (IT) courses, to engage students and improve results. HTML5 Simulation exercises and Live-in-Application Grader projects come with the convenience of auto-grading and instant feedback, so students learn more quickly and effectively, and build the critical skills needed for college and career success. Digital badges allow students to showcase their Microsoft Office or Computer Concepts competencies, keeping them motivated and focused on their future careers. Note: You are purchasing a standalone product; MyITLab does not come packaged with this content. Students, if interested in purchasing this title with MyITLab, ask your instructor for the correct package ISBN and Course ID. Instructors, contact your Pearson representative for more information.


There is a Threat Lurking Online with the Power to Destroy Your Finances, Steal Your Personal Data, and Endanger Your Life. In Spam Nation, investigative journalist and cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs unmasks the criminal masterminds driving some of the biggest spam and hacker operations targeting Americans and their bank accounts. Tracing the rise, fall, and alarming resurrection of the digital mafia behind the two largest spam pharmacies-and countless viruses, phishing, and spyware attacks-he delivers the first definitive narrative of the global spam problem and its threat to consumers everywhere. Blending cutting-edge research, investigative reporting, and firsthand interviews, this terrifying true story reveals how we unwittingly invite these digital thieves into our lives every day. From unassuming computer programmers right next door to digital mobsters like "Cosma"-who unleashed a massive malware attack that has stolen thousands of Americans' logins and passwords-Krebs uncovers the shocking lengths to which these people will go to profit from our data and our wallets. Not only are hundreds of thousands of Americans exposing themselves to fraud and dangerously toxic products from rogue online pharmacies, but even those who never open junk messages are at risk. As Krebs notes, spammers can-and do-hack into accounts through these emails, harvest personal information like usernames and passwords, and sell them on the digital black market. The fallout from this global epidemic doesn't just cost consumers and companies billions, it costs lives too. Fast-paced and utterly gripping, Spam Nation ultimately proposes concrete solutions for protecting ourselves online and stemming this tidal wave of cybercrime-before it's too late."Krebs's talent for exposing the weaknesses in online security has earned him respect in the IT business and loathing among cybercriminals... His track record of scoops...has helped him become the rare blogger who supports himself on the strength of his reputation for hard-nosed reporting." -Bloomberg Businessweek


[1] As more information about global aerosol properties has become available from remotely sensed retrievals and in situ measurements, it is prudent to evaluate this new information, both on its own and in the context of satellite retrieval algorithms. Using the climatology of almucantur retrievals from global Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) Sun photometer sites, we perform cluster analysis to determine aerosol type as a function of location and season. We find that three spherical-derived types (describing fine-sized dominated aerosol) and one spheroid-derived types (describing coarse-sized dominated aerosol, presumably dust) generally describe the range of AERONET observed global aerosol properties. The fine-dominated types are separated mainly by their single scattering albedo (ω0), ranging from nonabsorbing aerosol (ω0 ∼ 0.95) in developed urban/industrial regions, to moderately absorbing aerosol (ω0 ∼ 0.90) in forest fire burning and developing industrial regions, to absorbing aerosol (ω0 ∼ 0.85) in regions of savanna/grassland burning. We identify the dominant aerosol type at each site, and extrapolate to create seasonal 1° × 1° maps of expected aerosol types. Each aerosol type is bilognormal, with dynamic (function of optical depth) size parameters (radius, standard deviation, volume distribution) and complex refractive index. Not only are these parameters interesting in their own right, they can also be applied to aerosol retrieval algorithms, such as to aerosol retrieval over land from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. Independent direct-Sun AERONET observations of spectral aerosol optical depth (τ) are consistent the spectral dependence of the models, indicating that our derived aerosol models are relevant.


After a short introduction to the basic ideas of lattice Boltzmann methods and a brief description of a modern parallel computer, it is shown how lattice Boltzmann schemes are successfully applied for simulating fluid flow in microstructures and calculating material properties of porous media. It is explained how lattice Boltzmann schemes compute the gradient of the velocity field without numerical differentiation. This feature is then utilised for the simulation of pseudo-plastic fluids, and numerical results are presented for a simple benchmark problem as well as for the simulation of liquid composite moulding.


Plotinus (204/5 270 CE) was the first and greatest of Neoplatonic philosophers. His writings were edited by his disciple Porphyry, who published them many years after his master's death in six sets of nine treatises each (the Enneads). Plotinus regarded Plato as his master, and his own philosophy is a profoundly original development of the Platonism of the first two centuries of the Christian era and the closely related thought of the Neopythagoreans, with some influences from Aristotle and his followers and the Stoics, whose writings he knew well but used critically. He is a unique combination of mystic and Hellenic rationalist. His thought dominated later Greek philosophy and influenced both Christians and Moslems, and is still alive today because of its union of rationality and intense religious experience. In his acclaimed edition of Plotinus, Armstrong provides excellent introductions to each treatise. His invaluable notes explain obscure passages and give reference to parallels in Plotinus and others.


In this excellent outline of Christian ethics, Robin W. Lovin achieves a balance between the questions and issues which form the core of the study of ethics and the life situations from which those questions arise. Eschewing a sectarian approach which dismisses other understandings of the moral life, Lovin nonetheless lays claim to a specifically Christian understanding of ethics. He begins with basic Christian convictions about the reality of God and human redemption and weaves these convictions into the fabric of moral concerns that are widely shared in contemporary society. He takes note of the problems that arise when Christians try to act on or enforce their convictions in a pluralistic society and recognizes the variety of theological and moral beliefs that are held within the Christian community, as well as in the wider society.


Dementia patients may benefit from a promising new treatment called Cerebrolysin, according to the results of a systematic review published in The Cochrane Library. The authors brought together the most up-to-date evidence on Cerebrolysin as a treatment for vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is a common form of dementia caused by damage to the network of blood vessels supplying the brain. Some of the symptoms are similar to those associated with Alzheimer's disease and stroke but in particular those with vascular dementia often experience difficulty thinking quickly, concentrating and communicating, as well as seizures and severe confusion.1 There is currently no definitive treatment for vascular dementia. Cerebrolysin is a drug treatment made from pig brain proteins that has produced positive results against vascular dementia, although inconsistently. The researchers reviewed data from six randomized controlled trials involving 597 people in total. All were given Cerebrolysin intravenously in different daily concentrations and for different treatment periods, from a few weeks to three years, depending on the trial. Compared to standard care alone or placebos, Cerebrolysin significantly improved cognitive function, which was assessed with scales testing recall, arithmetic or other cognitive abilities. It had a small positive effect on patients' overall clinical state. There was also some suggestion that longterm treatment was associated with greater benefits, although only two trials looked at long-term effects. ''Our review suggests that Cerebrolysin can help improve cognitive and global function in patients with mild to moderate severity vascular dementia,'' said researcher Li He of the Department of Neurology at Sichuan University in Sichuan, China. ''The results are promising but due to low numbers of trials, inconsistencies between trials, risk of bias in the way some of the trials were conducted and lack of long-term follow-up, we cannot yet recommend Cerebrolysin as a routine treatment for vascular dementia.'' None of those involved in studies reported serious side effects due to taking the drug and non-serious side effects were no more common in those who took the drug compared to control groups. ''This indicates to us that Cerebrolysin is safe and well tolerated by patients with vascular dementia,'' said He. ''But the fact that it has to be given in regular intravenous infusions means it could be impractical for use on a large scale.'' (Source: EurekAlert! A service of AAAS and Wiley). Study identifies protein that contributes to cognitive decline in Alzheimer's


The design of the 5G cellular network should take account of the emerging services with divergent quality of service requirements. For instance, a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is required to facilitate the local data exchange and therefore improve the automation level in automated driving applications. In this paper, we inspect the performance of two different air interfaces (i.e., LTE-Uu and PC5) which are proposed by the third generation partnership project to enable the V2X communication. With these two air interfaces, the V2X communication can be realized by transmitting data packets either over the network infrastructure or directly among traffic participants. In addition, the ultra-high reliability requirement in some V2X communication scenarios cannot be fulfilled with any single transmission technology (i.e., either LTE-Uu or PC5). Therefore, we discuss how to efficiently apply multi-radio access technologies (multi-RAT) to improve the communication reliability. In order to exploit the multi-RAT in an efficient manner, both the independent and the coordinated transmission schemes are designed and inspected. Subsequently, the conventional uplink is also extended to the case where a base station can receive data packets through both the LTE-Uu and PC5 interfaces. Moreover, different multicast-broadcast single-frequency network area mapping approaches are also proposed to improve the communication reliability in the LTE downlink. Last but not least, a system level simulator is implemented in this paper. The simulation results do not only provide us insights on the performances of different technologies but also validate the effectiveness of the proposed multi-RAT scheme.


The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other UF/IFAS Extension publications, contact your county's UF/IFAS Extension office.


The Museum of Modern Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 203

More than three thousand Bell-47D1 helicopters were made in the United States and sold in forty countries between 1946 and 1973, when production ceased. While the Bell-47D1 is a straightforward utilitarian craft, its designer, Young, who was also a poet and a painter, consciously juxtaposed its transparent plastic bubble with the open structure of its tail boom to create an object whose delicate beauty is in-separable from its efficiency. That the plastic bubble is made in one piece rather than in sections joined by metal seams sets the Bell-47D1 apart from other helicopters. The result is a cleaner, more unified appearance.

The bubble also lends an insectlike appearance to the hovering craft, which generated its nickname, the "bug-eyed helicopter." It seems fitting, then, that one of the principal uses of the Bell-47D1 has been for pest control in crop dusting and spraying. It has also been used for traffic surveillance and for the delivery of mail and cargo to remote areas. During the Korean War, it served as an aerial ambulance.

Awarded the world's first commercial helicopter license by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (now the FAA), the Bell-47D1 weighs 1,380 pounds. Its maximum speed is 92 miles per hour and its maximum range 194 miles. It can hover like a dragonfly at altitudes up to 10,000 feet.


Abstract : FASTUS is a system for extracting information from free text in English, and potentially other languages as well, for entry into a database, and potentially for other applications. It works essentially as a cascaded, nondeterministic finite state automaton. There are four steps in the operation of FASTUS. In Step (1) sentences are scanned for certain trigger words to determine whether further processing should be done. In Step (2) noun groups, verb groups, and prepositions and some other particles are recognized. The input to Step (3) is the sequence of phrases recognized in Step (2); patterns of interest are identified in Step (3) and corresponding incident structures are built up. In Step (4) incident structures that derive from the same incident are identified and merged, and these are used in generating database entries. FASTUS is an order of magnitude faster than any comparable system; it can process a news report in an average of less than eleven seconds. This translates directly into fast development time. In the three and a half weeks between its first use and the MUC-4 evaluation in May 1992, we were able to build up its domain knowledge to a point where it was among the leaders in the evaluation.


This paper suggests that avoiding the ecological fallacy is - under certain circumstances - possible. One problem in (cross-cultural) research is that there are often two levels of theorizing (individual and country) that needs to be taken into account when data are being analyzed and conclusions are drawn. Typically, as is the case with Hofstede's (1980) well-known research, cultural values are measured on country level. Consequently, researchers who make causal inferences from such group data to individual behaviors are making the ecological fallacy, i.e they (most often) wrongly assume that relationships observed for groups necessarily hold for individuals. If, however, a method could be found that could help determining how individuals behave from the study of aggregated data, the usefulness of Hofstede's research (and research on aggregated data in general) from a manager's point of view would definitely increase. In this paper the problem of the ecological fallacy, as well as different methods of avoiding it is discussed, and a particular solution of the problem is suggested.


Sports and technology are two male-dominated realms, a characteristic that leaves
less room for women to become involved. Fantasy sports, gaining popularity on the
Internet, combine sports and technology. This thesis explores the ways online fantasy
sports offer a unique playing field for both genders and an opportunity for true equality
within that space. This exploration is accomplished through ideological discussion of
sports and technology and rhetorical analysis of online fantasy sport websites and other
online material by means of sport/gender and feminist theories.
Scholars argue that sports and technology influence gender identity development.
Male hegemony continues to thrive in sports because of existing stereotypes. Fantasy
sports may eliminate many of these stereotypes because they are played online and, thus,
certain aspects of the physical world do not apply. Also, trends show the gender gap in
technology is decreasing, which disrupts male hegemony, yet technology still remains a
male-dominated world. Studies indicate that women exhibit technological competence,
yet come across barriers preventing them from becoming involved in computer
technologies. The barriers and stereotypes of both technology and sports may be
eliminated through knowledge and education, especially by encouraging a conscious
awareness of gendered-thinking and the limitations of this thinking.
Fantasy sports are currently male-dominated, yet there are few, if any,
psychological or physical reasons why women cannot become involved in this activity.
The exclusionary rhetoric of many fantasy sport websites hinders the involvement of
women because women are often degraded or ridiculed for their interest in sports on
certain fantasy sport websites. Yet many women are expressing an interest in fantasy sports, evident through websites such as Femmefan.com. This thesis outlines proposed
characteristics of a female-oriented fantasy sport website, which might foster more
female participation in fantasy sports. Conscious efforts to promote fantasy sports
towards the female population could help decrease the gender gap in sports and
technology and provide equality in the fantasy sport environment.


We investigate, using the 2002 US Health and Retirement Study, the factors influencing individuals� insecurity and expectations about terrorism, and study the effects these last have on households� portfolio choices and spending patterns. We find that females, the religiously devout, those equipped with a better memory, the less educated, and those living close to where the events of September 2001 took place worry a lot about their safety. In addition, fear of terrorism discourages households from investing in stocks, mostly through the high levels of insecurity felt by females. Insecurity due to terrorism also makes single men less likely to own a business. Finally, we find evidence of expenditure shifting away from recreational activities that can potentially leave one exposed to a terrorist attack and towards goods that might help one cope with the consequences of terrorism materially (increased use of the car) or psychologically (spending on personal care products by females in couples).


An estimated 5 million Americans suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and live diminished lives in which they are compelled to obsess about something or to repeat a similar task over and over. Traditionally, OCD has been treated with Prozac or similar drugs. The problem with medication, aside from its cost, is that 30 percent of people treated don't respond to it, and when the pills stop, the symptoms invariably return. In Brain Lock, Jeffrey M. Schwartz presents a simple four-step method for overcoming OCD that is so effective, it's now used in academic treatment centers throughout the world. Proven by brain-imaging tests to actually alter the brain's chemistry, this method doesn't rely on psychopharmaceuticals. Instead, patients use cognitive self-therapy and behavior modification to develop new patterns of response to their obsessions. In essence, they use the mind to fix the brain. Using the real-life stories of actual patients, Brain Lock explains this revolutionary method and provides readers with the inspiration and tools to free themselves from their psychic prisons and regain control of their lives.


In 1743, Voltaire writes to Scipione Maffei his intention to translate Merope, a drama the Italian playwright had composed thirty years before and that Voltaire deemed worthy of the French stage due to its treatment of the classic heroine and its adherence to classical norms. However, Voltaire later claims that due to flaws in Maffei's work, he will write his own version of the play. This petty incident stirred a long-lived and animated debate over which dramatist had adhered more closely to the principles of classical theatre and whose country could claim its primacy in European theatre. In my paper, I use this episode to illustrate how translation shapes and is shaped by source and target cultures, and how it determines what is peripheral and what is central to intercultural debates. I argue that both Voltaire and Maffei struggle to assert their position as leading "translators" of classical Greek theatre and eminent interlocutors in the debate over form and content of modern drama. My paper will use Voltaire's translational faux pas to reflect on the larger issues of how translation situates itself in the middle of cultural hierarchies and how it fashions national identity, cultural pertinence, national subordination, and notions of cultural peripheries and centers, all topics that lie at the heart of contemporary translation studies