A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg,
in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
Johannesburg,


Pyrrhotite (Fe1-xS) is a non-stoichiometric iron monosulfide common in terrestrial rocks, ore deposits, and many extraterrestrial materials. The non-stoichiometry due to metal vacancies relates to a variety of composition-dependent crystallographic superstructures, but little of the existing structural and microstructural complexity has been explored yet. This thesis investigates the occurrences and nature of pyrrhotite superstructures, examines the related nanoand microstructural phenomena, and explores their effects on chemical reactivity. The goal is to comprehend the relations of the nanoscale real structure of pyrrhotite to its physicochemical properties. A central tool in these studies is analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which has been extensively used to study terrestrial and extraterrestrial samples. In three studies, published or submitted as scientific research articles, it is shown that structural complexity of pyrrhotites is a widespread feature in terrestrial and extraterrestrial materials and is strongly interrelated with its physicochemical properties and environments of formation and alteration. A new model based on translation interface modulation is being introduced to provide a realistic description of the structural state of natural NC-pyrrhotites. Novel insights into the thermodynamically stable phase assemblages in the Fe-S system at ambient temperatures are presented and the crystallography and connected thermochemistry of pyrrhotites are deployed to reach new conclusions about the petrogenetic history of chondritic meteorites and the alteration processes they were involved in. Finally, an experimental alteration study reveals for the fist time quantitatively that the vacancy superstructures and anisotropy of pyrrhotites have tremendous effects on their kinetic behaviors during dissolution under acidic and oxidizing conditions. Intrinsic reactivity differences between 4Cand NC-pyrrhotite are clearly resolved and discusses in the framework of the newly established structure model.


GENDER DIFFERENCE VARIABLES PREDICTING EXPERTISE IN LECTURE NOTE-TAKING Lindsay A. Reddington Lecture note-taking is an important study strategy used by a majority of college students to record important information presented in class. Research suggests that there may be gender differences in note-taking and test taking. However, previous research on lecture note-taking has only examined gender differences, or used gender as an anecdotal variable, in post-hoc analyses. This is the first dissertation to investigate gender differences in lecture note-taking directly. More specifically, the primary purpose of this dissertation was to determine if gender differences in lecture note-taking exist, and if they do, to examine the cognitive and motivational variables that might explain them. A second purpose was to determine if there might be gender related differences in test performance. This research is an extension of research on lecture note-taking expertise (Peverly, Ramaswamy, Brown, Sumowski, Alidoost, & Garner, 2007), in which a reanalysis of their data found that females wrote faster than males, had higher quality notes, higher semantic retrieval scores, and performed better on written recall of the lecture (Reddington et al., 2006). A sample of 139 undergraduate students took notes from a prerecorded lecture, and were later allowed to review their notes before taking a test of written recall. The independent variables included transcription fluency, working memory, verbal ability, conscientiousness, and goal orientation. The dependent variables were note quality and written recall. All procedures were group administered. Results indicated that females recorded more information in notes and recall than males. Females also performed significantly better on measures of transcription fluency, working memory, verbal ability, and conscientiousness. Note quality was significantly predicted by verbal ability, gender, and the gender x verbal ability interaction, while written recall was significantly predicted by transcription fluency, mastery goal orientation, and the gender x conscientiousness interaction. Future research should continue to focus on examining potential gender differences associated with note-taking and test performance.


The neurodegenerative disorder Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the cause of approximately 60% of the world's 35 million patients suffering from dementia. Current research focuses here are on association with other diseases such as diabetes type 2 (T2DM), possible genetic markers, specific signal transduction pathways within the brain and potential protein modification, because the pathogenesis and etiology of AD are still not fully understood. Specifically association of T2DM with AD came to the focus with the so-called "Rotterdam study" in 1999, indicating that T2DM doubles the risk of developing AD. In the meantime, it is known that the prevalence rate in patients with T2DM is 30%. Drugs commonly used in the treatment of T2DM such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors gamma (PPARγ) agonists show improvement of the cognitive abilities in patients with early stage of dementia, with potential therapeutically relevance. Therefore it is important not only to investigate a link between these diseases, but also to investigate the insulin signaling pathway in the brain of AD patients. In order to investigate this complex issue in more details and demonstrate additional links between T2DM and AD, the present study used several basic biological methods to clarify the question: "Is impaired insulin signaling pathway within the brain crucial for the development of AD?" from several points of view. The methods used in this work have been i) an analysis of single nucleotide (SNP) polymorphism of the insulin-degrading enzyme gene (IDE) in relation to risk of AD and / or of T2DM, ii) post-mortem histochemical studies of brain tissue of patients with only AD, with AD combined with T2DM and with only T2DM compared with an age-matched control group, and iii.) investigations of neurochemical pathways and gene/protein expression changes of a human cell culture as a consequences of amyloid β (Aβ) treatment. After analysis of the IDE SNP polymorphism in the selected VITA (Vienna Trans Danube Aging) cohort disease-specific effects were discovered. The upstream polymorphism (IDE2) was found to influence AD risk in a protective manner, while the downstream polymorphism (IDE7) modified the T2DM risk. Based on the SNP results, the presented study delineate the model that IDE promoter and 3" untranslated region/downstream variation can have different effects on IDE expression, maybe a relevant endophenotype with disorder-specific effects on AD and T2DM susceptibility. Furthermore, the human post-mortem studies could show that both AD as well as T2DM patients had a significantly lower density of the insulin receptor (IR) in the hippocampus, whereas a significantly increased density of inactive phosphorylated PPARγ has been found and this persisted even in patients with both diseases. Summarizing the histological study, it was possible to reveal common histological features of AD and T2DM, but no direct connection between the two diseases. Although AD is nowadays not only characterized by amyloid-containing plaque deposits and by the hyperphosphorylation of tau protein, the excessive Aβ42 presence in the brains of AD patients is still playing a key role. Up to date it is still not entirely clear which physical form of Aβ42 is responsible for the development of AD. The present work investigated, what impact has the state of aggregation of Aβ42 on genes and proteins of the insulin signaling pathway and the amyloid cascade. It could be shown that the oligomeric variant enhanced specifically the gene and protein expression of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK) 3β and also the enzyme activity was significantly increased, but has in turn strongly inhibited the IR gene and protein expression. Additionally, the effect of Aβ42 on monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) was examined. An effect of both aggregated forms of Aβ42 had on enzyme activity was discovered. However, the fibrillar variants led to significantly increased activity of MAO-B while the oligomeric variants inhibited the enzyme activity. Several previous studies have demonstrated the involvement of increased MAO-B activity in AD, but the present work provides for the first time a direct link between the states of aggregation of Aβ42 to enzyme activity. Finally the results of the presented thesis can be summarized to following conclusion: Although AD and T2DM sharing some degrees of common features, still there is a lack of direct association, and therefore the diseases must be considered more independent rather than linked. But the impaired cerebral insulin signaling pathway seems to be another manifested hallmark of AD.


Absorbing aerosols (AAs) such as black carbon (BC) or dust absorb incoming solar radiation, perturb the temperature structure of the atmosphere, and influence cloud cover. Previous studies have described conditions under which AAs either increase or decrease cloud cover. The effect depends on several factors, including the altitude of the AA relative to the cloud and the cloud type. We attempt to categorize the effects into several likely regimes. Cloud cover is decreased if the AAs are embedded in the cloud layer. AAs below cloud may enhance convection and cloud cover. AAs above cloud top stabilize the underlying layer and tend to enhance stratocumulus clouds but may reduce cumulus clouds. AAs can also promote cloud cover in convergent regions as they enhance deep convection and low level convergence as it draws in moisture from ocean to land regions. Most global model studies indicate a regional variation in the cloud response but generally increased cloud cover over oceans and some land regions, with net increased low-level and/or reduced upper level cloud cover. The result is a net negative semi-direct effect feedback from the cloud response to AAs. In some of these climate model studies, the cooling effect of BC due to cloud changes is strong enough to essentially cancel the warming direct effects.


Autoethnography is an emerging qualitative research method that allows the author to write in a highly personalized style, drawing on his or her experience to extend understanding about a societal phenomenon. Autoethnography is grounded in postmodern philosophy and is linked to growing debate about reflexivity and voice in social research. The intent of autoethnography is to acknowledge the inextricable link between the personal and the cultural and to make room for nontraditional forms of inquiry and expression. In this autoethnography, the author explores the state of understanding regarding autoethnography as a research method and describes the experience of an emerging qualitative researcher in learning about this new and ideologically challenging genre of inquiry.


This study investigates how the choice of analysis method for card sorting studies affects the suggested information structure for websites. In the card sorting technique, a variety of methods are used to analyse the resulting data. The analysis of card sorting data helps user experience (UX) designers to discover the patterns in how users make classifications and thus to develop an optimal, usercentred website structure. During analysis, the recurrence of patterns of classification between users influences the resulting website structure. However, the algorithm used in the analysis influences the recurrent patterns found and thus has consequences for the resulting website design. This paper draws an attention to the choice of card sorting analysis and techniques and shows how it impacts the results. The research focuses on how the same data for card sorting can lead to different website structures by generating different set of classifications. It further explains how the agreement level between the users can change for similar data due to the choice of analysis.


In the efficient social choice problem, the goal is to assign values, subject to side constraints, to a set of variables to maximize the total utility across a population of agents, where each agent has private information about its utility function. In this paper we model the social choice problem as a distributed constraint optimization problem (DCOP), in which each agent can communicate with other agents that share an interest in one or more variables. Whereas existing DCOP algorithms can be easily manipulated by an agent, either by misreporting private information or deviating from the algorithm, we introduce M-DPOP, the first DCOP algorithm that provides a faithful distributed implementation for efficient social choice. This provides a concrete example of how the methods of mechanism design can be unified with those of distributed optimization. Faithfulness ensures that no agent can benefit by unilaterally deviating from any aspect of the protocol, neither information-revelation, computation, nor communication, and whatever the private information of other agents. We allow for payments by agents to a central bank, which is the only central authority that we require. To achieve faithfulness, we carefully integrate the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves (VCG) mechanism with the DPOP algorithm, such that each agent is only asked to perform computation, report information, and send messages that is in its own best interest. Determining agent i's payment requires solving the social choice problem without agent i. Here, we present a method to reuse computation performed in solving the main problem in a way that is robust against manipulation by the excluded agent. Experimental results on structured problems show that as much as 87% of the computation required for solving the marginal problems can be avoided by re-use, providing very good scalability in the number of agents. On unstructured problems, we observe a sensitivity of M-DPOP to the density of the problem, and we show that reusability decreases from almost 100% for very sparse problems to around 20% for highly connected problems. We close with a discussion of the features of DCOP that enable faithful implementations in this problem, the challenge of reusing computation from the main problem to marginal problems in other algorithms such as ADOPT and OptAPO, and the prospect of methods to avoid the welfare loss that can occur because of the transfer of payments to the bank.


Total columnar water vapor (CWV), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ozone (O3) are derived from a newly developed, hyperspectral airborne Sun‐sky spectrometer (4STAR) for the first time during the two intensive phases of the Two‐Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) in summer 2012 and winter 2013 aboard the DOE G‐1 aircraft. We compare results with coincident measurements. We find 0.045 g/cm2 (4.2%) negative bias and 0.28 g/cm2 (26.3%) root‐mean‐square difference (RMSD) in water vapor layer comparison with an in situ hygrometer and an overall RMSD of 1.28 g/m3 (38%) water vapor amount in profile by profile comparisons, with differences distributed evenly around zero. RMSD for O3 columns average to 3%, with a 1% negative bias for 4STAR compared with the Ozone Measuring Instrument along aircraft flight tracks for 14 flights during both TCAP phases. Ground‐based comparisons with Pandora spectrometers at the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, showed excellent agreement between the instruments for both O3 (1% RMSD and 0.1% bias) and NO2 (17.5% RMSD and −8% bias). We apply clustering analysis of the retrieved products as a case study during the TCAP summer campaign to identify variations in atmospheric composition of elevated pollution layers and demonstrate that combined total column measurements of trace gas and aerosols can be used to define different pollution layer sources, by comparing our results with trajectory analysis and in situ airborne miniSPLAT (single‐particle mass spectrometer) measurements. Our analysis represents a first step in linking sparse but intense in situ measurements from suborbital campaigns with total column observations from space.


Since the first millennium BCE, nomads of the Eurasian steppe have played a key role in world history and the development of adjacent sedentary regions, especially China, India, the Middle East, and Eastern and Central Europe. Although their more settled neighbours often saw them as an ongoing threat and imminent danger--"barbarians," in fact--their impact on sedentary cultures was far more complex than the raiding, pillaging, and devastation with which they have long been associated in the popular imagination. The nomads were also facilitators and catalysts of social, demographic, economic, and cultural change, and nomadic culture had a significant influence on that of sedentary Eurasian civilisations, especially in cases when the nomads conquered and ruled over them. Not simply passive conveyors of ideas, beliefs, technologies, and physical artefacts, nomads were frequently active contributors to the process of cultural exchange and change. Their active choices and initiatives helped set the cultural and intellectual agenda of the lands they ruled and beyond. This volume brings together a distinguished group of scholars from different disciplines and cultural specializations to explore how nomads played the role of "agents of cultural change." The beginning chapters examine this phenomenon in both east and west Asia in ancient and early medieval times, while the bulk of the book is devoted to the far flung Mongol empire of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This comparative approach, encompassing both a lengthy time span and a vast region, enables a clearer understanding of the key role that Eurasian pastoral nomads played in the history of the Old World. It conveys a sense of the complex and engaging cultural dynamic that existed between nomads and their agricultural and urban neighbours, and highlights the non-military impact of nomadic culture on Eurasian history. Nomads as Agents of Cultural Change illuminates and complicates nomadic roles as active promoters of cultural exchange within a vast and varied region. It makes available important original scholarship on the new turn in the study of the Mongol empire and on relations between the nomadic and sedentary worlds.


Consider the following case (Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Rapp, 997 So.2d 1098, 1101 (Fla. 2008)): A Jews-for-Jesus bulletin publishes a report, falsely implying that a Jewish woman became "a believer in the tenets, the actions, and the philosophy of Jews for Jesus." Does this publication constitute defamation? What makes a statement defamatory? Should defamatoriness be determined in accordance with the views of the general non-Jewish community, with those of the Jewish minority, or with a normative ethical commitment? Our Article aims to provide the answers. Part I demonstrates that the definition of defamatoriness in common law jurisdictions is essentially empirical, and distinguishes between the two leading tests — the English test and the American test. Section A shows that English courts have embraced the general community test, whereby a statement is defamatory if considered so by the public at large. The traditional English test, which relies on empirical observations, at least de jure, consists of a normative constraint. A statement is defamatory if considered so by the general community, taking into account only the views of "right thinking" people. Section B shows that American courts have generally endorsed the sectorial test, whereby a statement is defamatory if considered so by a substantial and respectable minority. This test integrates two constraints. On the quantitative level, although a statement can be defamatory if it prejudices a person in the eyes of a minority, that minority must be substantial. A single individual or a very small group of persons with peculiar views will not suffice. On the qualitative level, a statement may be defamatory if considered so by a mere minority, provided that it is a "respectable" one. The court will reject the sectorial standard if it does not comply with the normative threshold. A third possible empirical test, whereby the defamatory potential of a statement may be tested within a small group (the small group test), has not been adopted in any jurisdiction, and will not be presented in Part I. However, Part II demonstrates that it is economically preferable to both the English and the American tests.Part II conducts two separate economic analyses of the alternative empirical tests for defamation. In the first analysis, we use a theorem from the economic field of social choice to study the relationship between the view of the community and the views of the individuals who comprise the community. We show that if the former is derived from the latter, and the derivation satisfies several normatively desirable properties, then the derivation must be done according to the unanimity rule: A statement may be considered defamatory only when all individuals in the relevant community consider it so. Because this rule is implausible except in the case of the small group test, it suggests that both the English general community test and the American sectorial test lack a solid theoretical foundation. In the second analysis, we study the costs and benefits associated with the various tests. We show that the important costs involved are the chilling effect and the problem of strategic action, and that the American sectorial test may have constituted a reasonable tradeoff between these concerns. We then argue that the fault requirement introduced in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. should apply to both the falsity and the defamatory nature of the statement. Under this interpretation, the fault requirement ameliorates the chilling effect. As a result, the American sectorial test is no longer optimal, and it would be preferable from the standpoint of economic efficiency to adopt the small group test in its place.


Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize On a desert island in the heart of the Galapagos archipelago, where Darwin received his first inklings of the theory of evolution, two scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have spent twenty years proving that Darwin did not know the strength of his own theory. For among the finches of Daphne Major, natural selection is neither rare nor slow: it is taking place by the hour, and we can watch. In this dramatic story of groundbreaking scientific research, Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin's finches and come up with a new understanding of life itself. The Beak of the Finch is an elegantly written and compelling masterpiece of theory and explication in the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould. With a new preface.


Parallel programs are more difficult to develop and reason about than sequential programs. There are two broad classes of parallel programs: (1) programs whose specifications describe ongoing behavior and interaction with an environment, and (2) programs whose specifications describe the relation between initial and final states. This thesis presents a simple, structured approach to developing parallel programs of the latter class that allows much of the work of development and reasoning to be done using the same techniques and tools used for sequential programs. In this approach, programs are initially developed in a primary programming model that combines the standard sequential model with a restricted form of parallel composition that is semantically equivalent to sequential composition. Such programs can be reasoned about using sequential techniques and executed sequentially for testing. They are then transformed for execution on typical parallel architectures via a sequence of semantics-preserving transformations, making use of two secondary programming models, both based on parallel composition with barrier synchronization and one incorporating data partitioning. The transformation process for a particular program is typically guided and assisted by a parallel programming archetype, an abstraction that captures the commonality of a class of programs with similar computational features and provides a class-specific strategy for producing efficient parallel programs. Transformations may be applied manually or via a parallelizing compiler. Correctness of transformations within the primary programming model is proved using standard sequential techniques. Correctness of transformations between the programming models and between the models and practical programming languages is proved using a state-transition-based operational model. This thesis presents: (1) the primary and secondary programming models, (2) an operational model that provides a common framework for reasoning about programs in all three models, (3) a collection of example program transformations with arguments for their correctness, and (4) two groups of experiments in which our overall approach was used to develop example applications. The specific contribution of this work is to present a unified theory/practice framework for this approach to parallel program development, tying together the underlying theory, the program transformations, and the program-development methodology.


Numerical experiments with a coupled model have been carried out to test the heat-pump hypothesis for ENSO. The hypothesis states that the level of ENSO activity is controlled by the meridional differential surface heating over the Pacific: either an enhanced surface heating over the equatorial region or an enhanced cooling over the subtropical/extratropical ocean may result in a regime with stronger ENSO events. Moreover, ENSO may be a mechanism that regulates the long-term stability of the coupled equatorial ocean-atmosphere system. The results from the numerical experiments are shown to be consistent with this hypothesis. A stronger tropical heating or a stronger subtropical/extratropical cooling tends to increase the contrast between the SST in the tropical western Pacific warm-pool and the temperature of the equatorial thermocline water and thereby destabilize the coupled equatorial ocean-atmosphere system. In response, a regime with stronger ENSO events sets in. The stronger ENSO events transport more heat downward and poleward, cooling the warm-pool SST and warming the equatorial thermocline water. In the presence of ENSO, the difference between the time-mean warm-pool SST and the time-mean temperature of the equatorial thermocline water is found to be insensitive to changes in the external forcing.


"In this volume of short essays, Barry Schwabsky reveals himself to be a critic of uncommon range and erudition. Walter Benjamin's views on color, E. H. Gombrich's theory of perception, Mel Bochner's and Liz Kotz's narratives of Conceptualism, and Sarah Thornton's peregrinations in the "art world" are but a few of the topics explored in this volume. In an era of hyper-specialization and rigid academic protocols, Schwabsky revives a form of criticism one imagined barely existed— a criticism of varied interests and passionate opinions.
—James Meyer, author of Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties

By weaving together evocative and often uncharted episodes from art history, literature, and philosophy, a critical poetic emerges, and an offense of interference and reworked perspectives surfaces from Schwabsky's essays. Unconcerned with categorical methodologies or totalizing approaches to criticism, Schwabsky writes with nonsequential energy that obliges both artists and critics to complexity, curiosity, and courage.
—Michelle Grabner, artist and professor, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Like many of the best critics, Schwabsky has the ability to describe things so precisely that no explicit evaluation is necessary. Every time an idea is introduced, it is allowed to hold the reader's attention for the time it takes to ground a judgment, and no longer. This gentle rhythm gives the essays an unillusioned clarity and undogmatic authority rarely found in writing about art.
—Malcolm Bull, author of Anti-Nietzsche and University Lecturer in Fine Art at Oxford University " -- publisher's website


Nowadays, the vast majority of scholars agree that in the Greek democracy there was never something analogous to the modern concept of human rights. This essay examines whether classical democracy was, as in the Modern Age, preceded or accompanied by the development of the notion of natural law, common to all mankind and based on dignity's natural equality among individuals. The pages that follow investigate texts by some VI-V B.C. philosophers and theoreticians that either show some evidence of an account of human progress or an outline of the hypothetical idea of the social contract, or that analysed the political develop- ment on the basis of the νόμος-φύσις anthithesis. It's impossible to find the existence of individual guarantees in Athenian democracy previous and above the power of the δῆμος and, in the same way, there existed no Greek liberal thought that could have served as basis for that legal definition.


Over the past several months, the proliferation of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) has been hailed as a potent defense against the rising cost and insular culture of attending a traditional college. The courses, which are generally taught by experts with affiliations to elite universities, are characterized by their unique pedagogy and unlimited enrollment. To date, no course has been accepted for transfer credit at a major on-campus institution; however some administrators and higher-education experts predict their gradual integration into university curriculum. This article examines the MOOC phenomenon, identifying aspects that academic librarians should consider in the coming years, including how these courses interact with scholarly resources and library services. Methods for integrating library services in these courses are evaluated, with recommendations for the best course of action.


The profession of teaching is unique because of the extent to which a teacher becomes involved in the lives of their "clients". The level of care required to support students well can be intense, confusing, and overwhelming. Relationships co-evolve within an ever-changing process and care is considered an essential aspect of complex relationships between students and teachers. While we do have many standard guidelines to help us, such as codes of ethics, rules, and policies, this paper examines their limitations. The ethics of care require more than standards or guidelines. To mitigate these limitations, we offer a more complex way of thinking as a way to navigate the dynamic disequilibrium of caring relationships. In the process, we emphasize the need for caring teachers to embrace their own vulnerability. This way of thinking provides us with an ecological ethical approach for engaging in professional relationships that promotes respect, safety, and self-worth for all involved.


Given two $r$-graphs $G$ and $H$, an $H$-decomposition of $G$ is a partition of the edge set of $G$ such that each part is either a single edge or forms a graph isomorphic to $H$. The minimum number of parts in an $H$-decomposition of $G$ is denoted by $\phi_H^r (G)$. By a $2$-edge-decomposition of an $r$-graph we mean an $H$-decomposition for any fixed $r$-graph $H$ with exactly 2 edges. In the special case where the two edges of $H$ intersect in exactly $1,2$ or $r-1$ vertices these 2-edge-decompositions will be called bowtie , domino and kite respectively. The value of the function $\phi_H^r(n)$ will be obtained for bowtie, domino and kite decompositons of $r$-graphs.


Studies indicate the educational needs of highly gifted students are best met through accelerated learning. It is difficult to recognize very young children that are suited for an accelerated curriculum because younger students frequently lack school records or portfolios used to identify gifted students. This study examined the accuracy of cognitive ability and achievement tests in predicting academic achievement by the end of second grade, correlating test results and final grade averages collected from sixteen children ages five to six who entered a public school program for high-ability learners in kindergarten. A multiple regression analysis indicated the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence produced the highest mean IQ score and a strong correlation with reading achievement. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test contributed in small part to the prediction of academic achievement. The Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test and the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test-Second Edition had negative correlations with final grade averages, indicating they are not predictors of academic achievement for these students.


This paper describes the concept for and lessons from the development and field-testing of an open, interoperable communications infrastructure to support automating demand response (DR). Automating DR allows greater levels of participation and improved reliability and repeatability of the demand response and customer facilities. Automated DR systems have been deployed for critical peak pricing and demand bidding and are being designed for real time pricing. The system is designed to generate, manage, and track DR signals between utilities and Independent System Operators (ISOs) to aggregators and end-use customers and their control systems.


Reader and Context: A Reception Study of Afrikaans Romance Readers
This article highlights the gains of approaches other than that of text analysis to the study of literature.
The romance is a literary genre that developed in Western culture mainly in English speaking countries. Romantic love is the essence of romantic fiction and romances focus primarily on the love and romantic relationship between a man and a woman and have optimistic and emotionally satisfying endings. Until quite recently the idea of reading a romance often evoked derision, and there was a general assumption that the novels were read by less educated and less sophisticated women. However, romance publishing is big business in the West and also in South Africa and the question thus arises as to why this genre is singled out for ridicule. This article, which is based on a readership study of Afrikaans readers of romance novels, seeks to understand this phenomenon. After a short overview of research perspectives that focus on the association of the reader with the text, the context and results of the readership study are discussed. The study was undertaken on behalf of a South African publishing house and focuses on the demography of Afrikaans-speaking romance readers, their overall reading practices and the reasons for reading romances. The investigation was loosely based on Radway's seminal study on readers of romances as discussed in her book Reading the Romance (1983). Questionnaires were included in a consignment of romances sent to members of romance book clubs. The questionnaires included, inter alia, the questions of why the respondents read romances and why these novels are preferred, or are felt to be "better" to read, than other books.
One of the main themes that emerged from the responses was the women's need to escape from the unsatisfactory realities of everyday life. This corresponds directly with results obtained from other studies of the genre. However, a surprising difference with existing studies also emerged when the responses regarding what respondents were escaping from were analysed. In spite of the patriarchal environment in which Afrikaans speaking women in South Africa find themselves, this was not, as was predominant in other studies, mentioned as a reason/factor from which to escape. Instead, the South African women overwhelmingly indicated that they read romance novels to escape from the realities of rampant crime and violence touching upon their everyday lives.
The main contribution of this readership study therefore, in which Afrikaans romance readers indicate that through their reading of romance novels they manage to escape from an unsatisfactory, crime-ridden reality, is that it clearly shows the close relationship between reader, text and socio-historical realities. It furthermore demonstrates that literature can also be studied for the role it plays in the life of the reader and how the reader, by means of romance texts, may cope with such contexts and/or realities.


We present a novel approach for interactively synthesizing motions for characters navigating in complex environments. We focus on the runtime efficiency for motion generation, thereby enabling the interactive animation of a large number of characters simultaneously. The key idea is to precompute search trees of motion clips that can be applied to arbitrary environments. Given a navigation goal relative to a current body position, the best available solution paths and motion sequences can be efficiently extracted during runtime through a series of table lookups. For distant start and goal positions, we first use a fast coarse-level planner to generate a rough path of intermediate sub-goals to guide each iteration of the runtime lookup phase.We demonstrate the efficiency of our technique across a range of examples in an interactive application with multiple autonomous characters navigating in dynamic environments. Each character responds in real-time to arbitrary user changes to the environment obstacles or navigation goals. The runtime phase is more than two orders of magnitude faster than existing planning methods or traditional motion synthesis techniques. Our technique is not only useful for autonomous motion generation in games, virtual reality, and interactive simulations, but also for animating massive crowds of characters offline for special effects in movies.


The capital intensive nature of clean energy technologies suggests that manufacturing clean energy equipment has the potential to support state and local economic development efforts. However, manufacturing siting decisions tend to be complex and multi-variable decision processes that require in-depth knowledge of specific markets, the logistical requirements of a given technology, and insight into global clean tech trends. This presentation highlights the potential of manufacturing in supporting economic development opportunities while also providing examples of the financial considerations affecting manufacturing facility siting decisions for wind turbine blades and solar PV. The presentation also includes discussion of other more qualitative drivers of facility siting decisions as gleaned from NREL industry interviews and discusses strategies state and local policymakers may employee to bolster their chances of successfully attracting clean energy manufacturers to their localities.


Entrepreneurship and start-up activities are seen as a key response to recent upheavals in the media industry: Newly founded ventures can act as important drivers for industry transformation and renewal, pioneering new products, business models, and organizational designs (e.g. Achtenhagen, 2017; Buschow & Laugemann, 2020).
In principle, media students represent a crucial population of nascent entrepreneurs: individuals who will likely become founders of start-ups (Casero-Ripolles et al., 2016). However, their willingness to start a new business is generally considered to be rather low (Goyanes, 2015), and for journalism students, the idea of innovation tends to be conservative, following traditional norms and professional standards (Singer & Broersma, 2020). In a sample of Spanish journalism students, Lopez-Meri et al. (2020) found that one of the main barriers to entrepreneurial intentions is that students feel they lack knowledge and training in entrepreneurship.
In the last 10 years, a wide variety of entrepreneurship education courses have been set up in media departments of colleges and universities worldwide.
These programs have been designed to sensitize and prepare communications, media and journalism students to think and act entrepreneurially (e.g. Caplan et al., 2020; Ferrier, 2013; Ferrier & Mays, 2017; Hunter & Nel, 2011). Entrepreneurial competencies
and practices not only play a crucial role for start-ups, but, in imes of digital transformation, are increasingly sought after by legacy media companies as well (Kung, 2015).
At the Department of Journalism and Communication Research, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media, Germany, we have been addressing these developments with the "Media Entrepreneurship" program. The course, established in 2013, aims to provide fundamental knowledge of entrepreneurship, as well as promoting students' entrepreneurial thinking and behavior. This article presents the pedagogical approach of the program and investigates learning outcomes. By outlining and evaluating the Media Entrepreneurship program, this article aims to promote good practices of entrepreneurship education in communications, media and journalism, and to reflect on the limitations of such programs.


Summary Ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) production leading to ectopic ACTH syndrome accounts for a small proportion of all Cushing's syndrome (CS) cases. Thymic neuroendocrine tumors are rare neoplasms that may secrete ACTH leading to rapid development of hypercortisolism causing electrolyte and metabolic abnormalities, uncontrolled hypertension and an increased risk for opportunistic infections. We present a unique case of a patient who presented with a mediastinal mass, revealed to be an ACTH-secreting thymic neuroendocrine tumor (NET) causing ectopic CS. As the diagnosis of CS from ectopic ACTH syndrome (EAS) remains challenging, we emphasize the necessity for high clinical suspicion in the appropriate setting, concordance between biochemical, imaging and pathology findings, along with continued vigilant monitoring for recurrence after definitive treatment. Learning points: Functional thymic neuroendocrine tumors are exceedingly rare. Ectopic Cushing's syndrome secondary to thymic neuroendocrine tumors secreting ACTH present with features of hypercortisolism including electrolyte and metabolic abnormalities, uncontrolled hypertension and hyperglycemia, and opportunistic infections. The ability to undergo surgery and completeness of resection are the strongest prognostic factors for improved overall survival; however, the recurrence rate remains high. A high degree of initial clinical suspicion followed by vigilant monitoring is required for patients with this challenging disease.


Carolina bays are a unique geomorphologic entity located along the Atlantic coastal plain. Even without the benefit of an overhead view, they have been noted as a distinct feature of the coastal plain as first described by the South Carolina Geological Survey of South Carolina in 1848. The first aerial photographs in the 1930 coastal South Carolina region revealed that the unique depression wetlands were more than just a strange local phenomenon. Aerial photos enabled observers to see qualities in addition to their relative distribution that make them unique: their oval shape, northwest to southeast orientation and the presence of raised sand rims along their eastern and southeastern edges in many instances.
Being such a distinctive surface feature and recognized for their ecological value, it would seem that Carolina bays would have been defined within their own map coverage across the Atlantic Coastal plain. However, just two statewide inventories have been completed for South Carolina and Georgia, and one for North Carolina has never been conducted. While previous inventories have employed onscreen digitization with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in order to inventory bays, researchers have raised concerns over how individuals define Carolina bay as a geographic entity. The differences in human perception make the classification of geographic entities that exist on a continuum such as Carolina bays a challenge and may have contributed to widely varying estimates of their numbers.
In order to explore the classification issues related to Carolina bays, and the usefulness of geographic ontology and cartographic modeling for inventory, a cartographic model was constructed for use within the Ocean Bay quad in Francis Marion National Forest in Berkeley and Charleston Counties, South Carolina. To test the model's selective ability, a comparison was made between Carolina bay features that a researcher selected and bays identified by a cartographic model. The model positively identified 76 percent of Carolina bays that a researcher identified in an image within a single quadrangle. The approach used in this model showed that the initial identification rule of any pixel within a bay's border counted as a positive identification was inadequate. Other aspects not accounted for, including false positive identification, neither researcher nor model being able to identify a bay, or bays that the model was able to select that the researcher was not were added into a subsequent model. Results from the amended model show fewer researcher identified instances of Carolina bays, but a slightly higher rate of mutual identification by the model and the researcher. With these complications in mind, a similar approach was taken with Bladen County North Carolina, but with significant revisions.
A cartographic model was created for Bladen County North Carolina in which bay characteristics were selected from the North Carolina Gap Analysis Program (GAP) land use/landcover dataset, the Soil Survey Geographic Database (SSURGO) and National Wetlands Inventory (NWI). The predictive ability of the model was assessed by manually selecting Carolina bays from a high resolution image and comparing the manually selected bays with the model identifications. In order to remedy the issue of forcing all instances of bays into one of two categories (either an object is a bay or it is not), a ranking system was developed that was based upon a core/radial cognitive model, and the approach taken with the Savannah River Ecology Lab (SREL) inventory. The rule for positive identification was changed from a single pixel to a visual estimation of 50 percent coverage of a Carolina bay. As a whole, the predictive model identified 57 percent of the features also identified manually by the researcher, but the bay ranking system gives a different breakdown of how well the model worked within each category: exemplar (86 percent), less distinct (79 percent), bay-like (53 percent), and destroyed (19 percent) show significant differences. In addition to the ranking system, other attributes were assessed, such as the presence or absence of a sand rim, water visibility, overlap, diverging, long axis length and orientation.
The analysis shows that the model has the potential to identify well defined bays with at least 50 percent areal coverage, and as such offers the first iteration of a computational ontology for the Carolina bays of Bladen County, North Carolina. Results from this research may provide a basis for modeling the entire range of Carolina bays, defining one of the most curious features of the Atlantic Coastal Plain and uniting differing definitions under one digital concept.


Ensemble of printed silk. The full-length dress is of silk with a printed design of abstract flower forms in red, blue, purple, white, yellow and green on a black ground. It has a rounded neckline and long sleeves which have fabric covered snaps at the wrists. The bodice is seamed and fitted, and the skirt is slightly A-line, flaring to hem. Center back closure, top third is hook-and-eyes, the lower two-thirds is a zipper. The dress is fully lined in black silk. Designer's label sewn inside bodice near waist: "Givenchy". Underneath label is a second label with handwritten notation "48245". The matching coat is of the same print on a heavier weight silk. It is full-length, with a standing collar which has internal wiring for support. The sleeves are full-length, and it has a center front opening which secures with a single fabric-covered snap just below collar. The coat is unlined. Designer's label sewn inside coat at right near waist: "Givenchy". Underneath label is a second label with handwritten notation "48246"

This ensemble was made for the donor to wear to the wedding of Maria del Carmen Martinez-Bordiu y Franco, (1951- ) granddaughter of General Franco, to Don Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cadiz (1936 - 1989), son of Infante Jaime of Spain, Duke of Segovia and grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. The wedding took place in the chapel of El Pardo Palace, Madrid, on 8th March 1972.

The donor noted: "It was designed by Monsieur Givenchy especially for me. Balenciaga was alive, though he had closed his house, and Givenchy consulted with him on this outfit. You can see Balenciaga's line to it. ... Givenchy had the two distinct fabrics printed in the same design -- one for dress and one for coat. He said it must look like the light shining through the stained glass windows of the Chapel."

The ensemble has a matching pair of shoes by Roger Viver made of fabric in the same print.


Most of the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide result from the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production. Photosynthesis has long been recognized as a means, at least in theory, to sequester anthropogenic carbon dioxide. Aquatic microalgae have been identified as fast growing species whose carbon fixing rates are higher than those of land-based plants by one order of magnitude. Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), Aquasearch, and the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute at the University of Hawaii are jointly developing technologies for recovery and sequestration of CO{sub 2} from stationary combustion systems by photosynthesis of microalgae. The research is aimed primarily at demonstrating the ability of selected species of microalgae to effectively fix carbon from typical power plant exhaust gases. This report covers the reporting period 1 January to 31 March 2001 in which Aquasearch tested 24 different species of microalgae for growth at three different temperatures. Eleven species were analyzed for the presence of high-value pigments. Most of the algae analyzed were good sources of industrially valuable pigments. Analysis of the methods for introducing and dissolving CO{sub 2} in the commercial bioreactor was begun this quarter.


In "At Home", Bill Bryson applies the same irrepressible curiosity, irresistible wit, stylish prose and masterful storytelling that made "A Short History of Nearly Everything" one of the most lauded books of the last decade, and delivers one of the most entertaining and illuminating books ever written about the history of the way we live. Bill Bryson was struck one day by the thought that we devote a lot more time to studying the battles and wars of history than to considering what history really consists of: centuries of people quietly going about their daily business - eating, sleeping and merely endeavouring to get more comfortable. And that most of the key discoveries for humankind can be found in the very fabric of the houses in which we live. This inspired him to start a journey around his own house, an old rectory in Norfolk, wandering from room to room considering how the ordinary things in life came to be. Along the way he did a prodigious amount of research on the history of anything and everything, from architecture to electricity, from food preservation to epidemics, from the spice trade to the Eiffel Tower, from crinolines to toilets; and on the brilliant, creative and often eccentric minds behind them. And he discovered that, although there may seem to be nothing as unremarkable as our domestic lives, there is a huge amount of history, interest and excitement - and even a little danger - lurking in the corners of every home.


The main objective of this study was to test chemistry students' competence, throughout the entire BSc course at North-West University (Mafikeng Campus), in the use of the important and widely applicable strategy of explaining the facts, principles and laws of chemistry in terms of the properties of the constituent sub-microscopic particles. Seventeen questions were used for systematically testing all basic aspects of chemistry. The aspects tested included the following: the types of particles present and their properties in various types of matter (e.g. metals, non-metals, ionic compounds, covalent compounds, mixtures, gases, liquids, solids, solutions); the changes in the nature, arrangement and properties of the particles during both physical and chemical changes; the explanation of physical and chemical properties of substances in terms of the properties of the constituent particles. Student performance was consistently bad and it did not improve as they progressed from year to year in their BSc course. More than half of them (average performance in all questions) had difficulty in answering the questions. Analysis of students' answers suggested that most students' difficulties were due to their not identifying clearly the problem that had to be solved and their not using the relevant principles and reasoning to solve the problems. Instead, most students tried to solve problems by recalling knowledge, procedures and solutions they had learnt. The lack of improvement from year to year indicates the need for continuously training students in the sub-microscopic approach to interpretations and explanations throughout the BSc course, and not just in the first year as is done presently.


The article gives information on English language teaching schemes in Indian classrooms for foreign students. The teacher monitors as facilitator and instructor. The trainees were trained in the four macro skills, LSRW. I taught some topics in three skills, namely, writing, listening and reading (just three, not speaking skills) to Chinese students in VIT University. The other skill speaking was trained by other teachers among the four. Students were trained to listen to English words and passages, to read the comprehension passages and answer the questions, and to coach basic grammar and revising it. More over, beginners were also guided to learn technical words related to their respective disciplines (major subjects) other than English words. For example, Chinese students posed a query to the faculty to explain on technical words and terms of their main subjects in English, for instance, B.Sc Computer Science (under graduate programme) students wished to learn about the word data. Since, the English Oxford Dictionary meaning is 'facts or statistics used for reference or analysis', but in the field of Computer Science, the word means "information processed by a computer". So, there arouse a need to help them in distinguishing the different meanings of the word. In addition to, many students were not familiar with English. Thus through the above said way of facilitating, they acquired a good knowledge by varied types of expressions to master their particular subjects. It was a moment to state that they had come from China to India to obtain the nuances of English language. They undertook and were gradually expertised at specific courses in English medium of instruction, perhaps to get degree. Teacher's a few lesson plans (how the practices are conducted in listening, reading and writing skills) as well as some parts in allotted syllabus (listening to songs, passages, writing a paragraph and essay, picture-story writing and write about yourself, reading the passage and writing) were discussed in the current paper. Role of the teacher and student were explained in detail. Therefore, the abstract would portray how the beginners were trained, taught, convinced, persuaded and managed by a tutor to reach the goal of English language teaching to Chinese students.


A fundamental goal of computer vision is the development of systems capable of carrying out scene interpretation while taking into account all the available knowledge. In this article, we focus on how the interpretation task can be aided by the expected scene information (such as map knowledge), which, in most cases, would not be in registration with the perceived scene. The proposed approach is applicable to the interpretation of scenes with three-dimensional structures as long as it is possible to generate the equivalent two-dimensional orthogonal or perspective projections of the structures in the expected scene. The system is implemented as a two-panel, six-level blackboard and uses the Dempster-Shafer formalism to accomplish inexact reasoning in a hierarchical space. Inexact reasoning involves exploiting, at different levels of abstraction, any internal geometric consistencies in the data and between the data and the expected scene. As they are discovered, these consistencies are used to update the system's belief in associating a data element with a particular entity from the expected scene.


This work examines the ways in which YouTube videos inform audiences about international news, issues, and events. As new media increasingly becomes the public's primary news source, research has produced conflicting contentions of how, and to whom, information is conveyed. Some studies have found Twitter and Facebook to be important tools for social organization and facilitating political involvement. Others, however, assert that these media act as echo chambers, reinforcing preexisting views rather than providing new information or perceptions. This research analyzes videos pertaining to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict to reveal how they provide information. The findings show that the methods – empirical and visceral – used to frame information in YouTube videos correspond to the narratives supported by the uploaders. Additionally, the results indicate YouTube videos are watched by a heterogeneous public and have the potential to transcend selective exposure and present viewers with new information and perspectives.


ABSTRACT Ever since Jeremy Bentham wrote his scathing critique of the law of evidence, both philosophers and legal scholars have criticized the exclusionary rules of evidence, arguing that formal rules excluding entire classes of evidence for alleged unreliability violate basic epistemological maxims mandating that all relevant evidence be considered. Although particular pieces of evidence might be excluded as unreliable, they argue, it is a mistake to make such judgments for entire categories, as opposed to making them only in the context of particular pieces of evidence offered for specific purposes. This paper challenges these claims, arguing that rule-based exclusions serve similar purposes to those served by rules in rule-consequentialist moral theories, and that, even more importantly, they are entirely consistent with the exclusionary nature of legal rules in general. Indeed, once we see the role that exclusionary rules might serve in legal epistemology, we can see that they might have a role to play in epistemic appraisal more generally.


I was asked to give a visionary talk about the future applications of Artificial Intelligence technology; but I should warn you that I'm actually not very good as a visionary. Most of my predictions about what will happen in the industry don't come true even though they ought to. So I'm not going to tell you what the future holds; what I will do is to point out some of the technological trends that are at work. The outline of the talk is as follows: I'll start off by looking at the previous IAAI conferences and reflect on what we've learned from them. Then I'll look at what's changing in the hardware base that sets the context for all the computer applications we do. I think that will lead to interesting new viewpoints. Next I'll sketch what applications might arise from this new viewpoint. Finally, I'll discuss how the development of practical applications ought to interact with the scientific enterprise of trying to understand intelligence, in particular, human intelligence.


This paper examines the current state of immigrant small business research (ISBR) in Sweden, discusses the main trends in the field and presents the key texts that represent these trends. It is noted that research in the 1990s was largely influenced by the current political agenda, while academic communication between Swedish and international ISBR on the one hand, and Swedish ISBR and Swedish 'mainstream' small business research (SBR) on the other were conspicuous by their absence. Besides, only a few researchers in the field were able to conduct their research in a systematic manner or with stable and long-term funding of research teams. The situation has changed in the 2000s. This period was characterized by increased academic interest in immigrants' small businesses. Researchers dealing with ISBR wanted to free themselves from the current political agenda as well as from the focus on domestic priorities in terms of research questions and methodology. This has resulted in a large number of published policy-critical texts. At the same time the research interest shifted towards the previously neglected aspects of immigrants' small businesses, such as immigrant women in business, young immigrants and immigrant entrepreneurship in the high-tech sector. These studies were based both on ambitious quantitative survey and on refined qualitative micro-studies. This critical review concludes with the discussion of a possible future research agenda for ISBR.


CONTEXT
In recent decades, there has been a rapid and substantial increase in tobacco consumption in China, particularly by men, but little is known from local epidemiologic studies about the pattern of smoking-related deaths.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the current health effects of cigarette smoking in Shanghai, China.

DESIGN
Prospective observational study of mortality in relation to cigarette smoking.

SETTING
Eleven factories in urban Shanghai.

SUBJECTS
A total of 9351 adults (6494 men and 2857 women) aged 35 to 64 years at baseline survey during the 1970s.

OUTCOME MEASURES
All-cause and cause-specific mortality.

RESULTS
During an average follow-up of 16 years, 881 men and 207 women died. Among men, 61% had described themselves as current cigarette smokers at baseline, and their overall mortality was significantly greater than that of nonsmokers (relative risk [RR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2-1.7; P<.001). The excess was almost twice as great (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.5-2.2 [corrected]; P<.001) among the men who had begun smoking before the age of 25 years and was significantly associated with the number of cigarettes smoked (P<.001 for trend) after adjustment for other major risk factors. The chief sources of the excess were lung cancer (RR, 3.8; 95% CI, 2.1-6.8; P<.001), esophageal cancer (RR, 3.6; 95% CI, 1.2-10.5; P=.02), liver cancer (RR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.1-3.7; P=.03), coronary heart disease (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.0-3.2; P=.04), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (RR, 2.5; 95% CI, 1.4-4.4; P<.01). Among the men in this Chinese population, about 20% (95% CI, 12%-29%) of all deaths during the study period could be attributed to cigarette smoking. Of these deaths, one third involved lung cancer, one third involved other cancers, and one third involved other diseases. Only 7% of women described themselves as current cigarette smokers at baseline, but among them there was also a statistically significant excess of overall mortality (RR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.2-2.5; P<.01).

CONCLUSIONS
Cigarette smoking is already a major cause of death in China, and among middle-aged Shanghai men, about 20% of all deaths during the 1980s were due to smoking. The excess was greatest among men who began smoking before the age of 25 years, about 47% of whom would, at 1987 mortality rates, die between the ages of 35 and 69 years (compared with only 29% of nonsmokers). These estimates reflect the consequences of past smoking patterns. The future health effects of current smoking patterns are likely to be greater because of the recent large increase in cigarette consumption, particularly at younger ages, in China.


We focus on a quantitative assessment of rigid labor markets in an environment of stable monetary policy. We ask how wages and labor market shocks feed into the inflation process and derive monetary policy implications. Towards that aim, we structurally model matching frictions and rigid wages in line with an optimizing rationale in a New Keynesian closed economy DSGE model. We estimate the model using Bayesian techniques for German data from the late 1970s to present. Given the pre-euro heterogeneity in wage bargaining we take this as the first-best approximation at hand for modelling monetary policy in the presence of labor market frictions in the current European regime. In our framework, we find that labor market structure is of prime importance for the evolution of the business cycle, and for monetary policy in particular. Yet shocks originating in the labor market itself may contain only limited information for the conduct of stabilization policy.


Combinatorial optimization is a diverse area of mathematics. It concerns optimization on feasible regions defined by discrete sets, graphs, hypergraphs, matroids, etc. . . which all have a large number of applications. They occur in virtually all domains of human activity since humans always want to do things easier, faster, consume less resources, etc. . . This thesis concerns three applied problems within combinatorial optimization. The first paper generalizes previous optimal upper bounds on the minimum Euclidean distance for phase-shift keying (PSK) block codes, that are explicit in the parameters alphabet size, block length and code size. There is a strong connection between high minimum Euclidean distance and good error-correcting capabilities. The bounds are generalized in several respects, such as from codes on symmetric PSK to codes on asymmetric PSK. They are also generalized to other types of noise than Gaussian, allowing more efficient block codes when noise is non-Gaussian. We provide examples of codes on asymmetric PSK that have higher minimum Euclidean distance than any comparable codes on symmetric PSK.Several classes of codes are shown to be optimal among codes on symmetric PSK since their Euclidean distance coincides with the bound. The second paper considers a parallel computer system with m identical computers,where we study optimal performance precaution for one possible computer crash. We anticipate that some computer may crash, and restrict the cost in such a situation. How costly is such a precaution when no crash occurs? We set a restriction that the completion time of a parallel program after a crash is at most a factor r + 1 larger than if we use an optimal allocation with m - 1 computers. This is an r-dependent restriction of the set of allocations of a program. Then the worst-case ratio of the optimal r-dependent completion time in the case of no crash and the unrestricted optimal completion time defines a function f(r,m). In the paper we establish upper and lower bounds of the worst-case cost function f(r,m) and characterize worst-case programs. The third paper considers the problem of Map Matching (MM), i.e. matching time and location measurements of a vehicle to a route in a road network. The paper presents a probabilistic algorithm for MM based on a second order hidden Markov model (HMM), as opposed to first order HMMs which are usually used. This allows a more detailed analysis of the data while preserving algorithmic complexity O(n). Both measurement densities and transition probabilities are determined with respect to Kolmogorov's third axiom, which in this context implies that the probabilities are additive over a partition of a road segment.


Abstract. A method is presented for the evaluation of the exhaust emissions of marine traffic, based on the messages provided by the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which enable the positioning of ship emissions with a high spatial resolution (typically a few tens of metres). The model also takes into account the detailed technical data of each individual vessel. The previously developed model was applicable for evaluating the emissions of NOx, SOx and CO2. This paper addresses a substantial extension of the modelling system, to allow also for the mass-based emissions of particulate matter (PM) and carbon monoxide (CO). The presented Ship Traffic Emissions Assessment Model (STEAM2) allows for the influences of accurate travel routes and ship speed, engine load, fuel sulphur content, multiengine setups, abatement methods and waves. We address in particular the modeling of the influence on the emissions of both engine load and the sulphur content of the fuel. The presented methodology can be used to evaluate the total PM emissions, and those of organic carbon, elemental carbon, ash and hydrated sulphate. We have evaluated the performance of the extended model against available experimental data on engine power, fuel consumption and the composition-resolved emissions of PM. We have also compared the annually averaged emission values with those of the corresponding EMEP inventory, As example results, the geographical distributions of the emissions of PM and CO are presented for the marine regions of the Baltic Sea surrounding the Danish Straits.


This 'little history' takes on a very big subject: the glorious span of literature from Greek myth to graphic novels, from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Harry Potter. John Sutherland is perfectly suited to the task. He has researched, taught, and written on virtually every area of literature, and his infectious passion for books and reading has defined his own life. Now he guides young readers and the grown-ups in their lives on an entertaining journey 'through the wardrobe' to a greater awareness of how literature from across the world can transport us and help us to make sense of what it means to be human. Sutherland introduces great classics in his own irresistible way, enlivening his offerings with humor as well as learning: Beowulf, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, the Romantics, Dickens, Moby Dick, The Waste Land, Woolf, 1984, and dozens of others. He adds to these a less-expected, personal selection of authors and works, including literature usually considered well below 'serious attention' - from the rude jests of Anglo-Saxon runes to The Da Vinci Code. With masterful digressions into various themes - censorship, narrative tricks, self-publishing, taste, creativity, and madness - Sutherland demonstrates the full depth and intrigue of reading. For younger readers, he offers a proper introduction to literature, promising to interest as much as instruct. For more experienced readers, he promises just the same.


Some of the classical orthogonal polynomials such as Hermite, Laguerre, Charlier, etc. have been shown to be the generating polynomials for certain combinatorial objects. These combinatorial interpretations are used to prove new identities and generating functions involving these polynomials. In this paper we apply Foata's approach to generating functions for the Hermite polynomials to obtain a triple lacunary generating function. We define renormalized Hermite polynomials $h_n(u)$ by $$\sum_{n= 0}^\infty h_n(u) {z^n\over n!}=e^{uz+{z^2\!/2}}.$$ and give a combinatorial proof of the following generating function: $$ \sum_{n= 0}^\infty h_{3n}(u) {{z^n\over n!}}= {e^{(w-u)(3u-w)/6}\over\sqrt{1-6wz}} \sum_{n= 0}^\infty {{(6n)!\over 2^{3n}(3n)!(1-6wz)^{3n}} {z^{2n}\over(2n)!}}, $$ where $w=(1-\sqrt{1-12uz})/6z=uC(3uz)$ and $C(x)=(1-\sqrt{1-4x})/(2x)$ is the Catalan generating function. We also give an umbral proof of this generating function.


Something scary is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere twenty years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. While Emily is working hard at school and getting A's, her brother Justin is goofing off. He's more concerned about getting to the next level in his videogame than about finishing his homework. Now, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than twenty years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home. He shows how social, cultural, and biological factors have created an environment that is literally toxic to boys. He also presents practical solutions, sharing strategies which educators have found effective in re-engaging these boys at school, as well as handy tips for parents about everything from homework, to videogames, to medication.


The investigation presented in this report was conducted for the purpose of determining the distribution and magnitude of water pressures likely to be experienced on seaplane hulls in service. It consisted of the development and construction of apparatus for recording water pressures lasting one one-hundredth second or longer and of flight tests to determine the water pressures on a UO-1 seaplane float under various conditions of taxiing, taking off, and landing. The apparatus developed was found to operate with satisfactory accuracy and is suitable for flight tests on other seaplanes. The tests on the UO-1 showed that maximum pressures of about 6.5 pounds per square inch occur at the step for the full width of the float bottom. Proceeding forward from the step the maximum pressures decrease in magnitude uniformly toward the bow, and the region of highest pressures narrows toward the keel. Immediately abaft the step the maximum pressures are very small, but increase in magnitude toward the stern and there once reached a value of about 5 pounds per square inch. (author).


ONE-VOLUME INTRODUCTION TO COMPUTER SECURITY Clearly explains core concepts, terminology, challenges, technologies, and skills Covers todays latest attacks and countermeasures The perfect beginners guide for anyone interested in a computer security career Chuck Easttom brings together complete coverage of all basic concepts, terminology, and issues, along with all the skills you need to get started. Drawing on 20+ years of experience as a security instructor, consultant, and researcher, Easttom helps you take a proactive, realistic approach to assessing threats and implementing countermeasures. Writing clearly and simply, he addresses crucial issues that many introductory security books ignore, while addressing the realities of a world where billions of new devices are Internet-connected. This guide covers web attacks, hacking, spyware, network defense, security appliances, VPNs, password use, and much more. Its many tips and examples reflect new industry trends and the state-of-the-art in both attacks and defense. Exercises, projects, and review questions in every chapter help you deepen your understanding and apply all youve learned. Whether youre a student, a professional, or a manager, this guide will help you protect your assetsand expand your career options. Learn how to Identify and prioritize potential threats to your network Use basic networking knowledge to improve security Get inside the minds of hackers, so you can deter their attacks Implement a proven layered approach to network security Resist modern social engineering attacks Defend against todays most common Denial of Service (DoS) attacks Halt viruses, spyware, worms, Trojans, and other malware Prevent problems arising from malfeasance or ignorance Choose the best encryption methods for your organization Compare security technologies, including the latest security appliances Implement security policies that will work in your environment Scan your network for vulnerabilities Evaluate potential security consultants Master basic computer forensics and know what to do if youre attacked Learn how cyberterrorism and information warfare are evolving


The changing world of IT services opens the chance to more tightly integrate digital long-term preservation into systems, both for commercial and end users. The emergence of cloud offerings re-centralizes services, and end users interact with them remotely through standardized (web-)client applications on their various devices. This offers the chance to use partially the same concepts and methods to access obsolete computer environments and allows for more sustainable business processes. In order to provide a large variety of user-friendly remote emulation services, especially in combination with authentic performance and user experience, a distributed system model and architecture is required, suitable to run as a cloud service, allowing for the specialization both of memory institutions and third party service providers. The shift of the usually non-trivial task of the emulation of obsolete software environments from the end user to specialized providers can help to simplify digital preservation and access strategies. Besides offering their users better access to their holdings, libraries and archives may gain new business opportunities to offer services to a third party, such as businesses requiring authentic reproduction of digital objects and processes for legal reasons. This paper discusses cloud concepts as the next logical step for accessing original digital material. Emulation-as-a-Service (EaaS) fills the gap between the successful demonstration of emulation strategies as a long term access strategy and it's perceived availability and usability. EaaS can build upon the ground of research and prototypical implementations of previous projects, and reuse well established remote access technology. In this article we develop requirements and a system model, suitable for a distributed environment. We will discuss the building blocks of the core services as well as requirements regarding access management. Finally, we will try to present a business model and estimate costs to implement and run such a service. The implementations of EaaS will influence future preservation planning in memory institutions, as it shifts the focus on object access workflows.


Embedded systems are becoming more and more important in today's life in many ways. They can be found in dishwashers, mobile phones, coffee machines, PDAs, etc. Although there is no common definition of what an embedded system is, it can be generally defined as a special-purpose information processing system, containing both: software and hardware. Embedded systems are integrated in a larger systems which interact with environment for achieving a set of predefined tasks or applications. In general, embedded systems are characterized by resources scarcity, among which energy is becoming more and more important (especially the energy consumed by the processor). The energy consumed by an embedded system is strongly influenced by the software running on it (the embedded software). That is why it is crucial to explore the software characteristics that have an influence on the energy consumption, and to understand how this influence could be represented. In order to realize this task, there is a need for the construction of a reliable measurement platform for energy consumption by embedded devices. The target of this work is to design and implement a framework for measuring energy consumption of embedded software. This framework is based on the XScale architecture, a popular Intel platform designed for energy aware applications. The framework has a software repository which contains a number of programs (user-defined) that are supposed to run on the mentioned platform. These program codes are the input of the framework. Automated measurements for energy consumption are performed on all programs for gathering the required information. In the context of this work, a first evaluation of the framework was performed to make an initial check its quality.


Provides an abstract of the tutorial presentation and a brief professional biography of the presenter. The complete presentation was not made available for publication as part of the conference proceedings.


Buzzeo, Toni, and David Small. One Cool Friend . New York : Dial Books for Young Readers, 2012. Print. Hailing from Michigan, former teacher and children's librarian Toni Buzzeo has been writing children's literature since 1995. Ms. Buzzeo has published over 20 picture books and has written or co-written curriculum support materials and professional books for teachers and teacher librarians. One Cool Friend was named a 2013 Caldecott Honor book. Eliot, "a very proper young man" politely asks his father, "May I have a penguin?" His father acquiesces and Eliot takes home a unique memento of his visit to the aquarium. A humorous and unexpected adventure unfolds as Magellan, Eliot's new pet penguin, gets settled in his new home. The interactions between Eliot and his father are entertaining and full of double meaning. David Small's clever illustrations and strategic use of colour and texture provide hints to the surprise ending. Although targeted at children aged 5-9, readers of all ages will enjoy this book, gleaning different meanings from the illustrations and text. This story invites repeated readings; readers are sure to pick up details that they missed previously. Highly recommended: 4 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Maria Tan Maria is a Public Services Librarian at the University of Alberta's H. T. Coutts Education Library. She enjoys travelling and visiting unique and far-flung libraries. An avid foodie, Maria's motto is, "There's really no good reason to stop the flow of snacks".


In the midst of spiraling ecological devastation, multispecies feminist theorist Donna J. Haraway offers provocative new ways to reconfigure our relations to the earth and all its inhabitants. She eschews referring to our current epoch as the Anthropocene, preferring to conceptualize it as what she calls the Chthulucene, as it more aptly and fully describes our epoch as one in which the human and nonhuman are inextricably linked in tentacular practices. The Chthulucene, Haraway explains, requires sym-poiesis, or making-with, rather than auto-poiesis, or self-making. Learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying together on a damaged earth will prove more conducive to the kind of thinking that would provide the means to building more livable futures. Theoretically and methodologically driven by the signifier SF—string figures, science fact, science fiction, speculative feminism, speculative fabulation, so far— Staying with the Trouble further cements Haraway's reputation as one of the most daring and original thinkers of our time.


Over the past two decades, the way we learn has changed dramatically. We have new sources of information and new ways to exchange and to interact with information. But our schools and the way we teach have remained largely the same for years, even centuries. What happens to traditional educational institutions when learning also takes place on a vast range of Internet sites, from Pokemon Web pages to Wikipedia? This report investigates how traditional learning institutions can become as innovative, flexible, robust, and collaborative as the best social networking sites. The authors propose an alternative definition of "institution" as a "mobilizing network"--emphasizing its flexibility, the permeability of its boundaries, its interactive productivity, and its potential as a catalyst for change--and explore the implications for higher education. The Future of Thinking reports on innovative, virtual institutions. It also uses the idea of a virtual institution both as part of its subject matter and as part of its process: the first draft of the book was hosted on a Web site for collaborative feedback and writing. The authors use this experiment in participatory writing as a test case for virtual institutions, learning institutions, and a new form of collaborative authorship. The finished version is still posted and open for comment. This book is the full-length report of the project, which was summarized in an earlier MacArthur volume, The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age.


As video games have evolved, the focus on impressive graphics and surround-sound has become increasingly prominent. Stepping away from their roots, video games have toned down the interaction and put the cinematic parts of the experience on the forefront. However, some games stand outside the norm, taking down the sound-level to a minimum, even going as far as removing text entirely. In my essay, I explore the functions of silence, specifically in two works: the computer game Machinarium, and 2001: A Space Odyssey, the film, along with the novel. By analyzing these works, I highlight how silence can have widely different effects on how the users experience the work. Employing different techniques, the authors manipulate the experience, using visuals as well as audio to increase the sense of immersion and connectedness to the characters on screen. In my essay, the close ties between video games and film is central, and it discusses how the former has been influenced by the latter. Comparing the use of silence to techniques found in literature, I discover surprisingly many similarities to the narrative techniques used there. My research shows that video games employing silence can, even while being influenced by more cinematic media, still retain its core essentials and provide an experience that encourages exploration and imagination of the individual user.


The ichthyological collections brought together in various parts of New Guinea by staff members of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie in 1954 and 1955 (cf. Boeseman, 1963), contain a series of scorpion-fishes which are here described as a new species, representing a new genus. Cheroscorpaena genus novum Mainly characterized by the, in the Scorpaenidae unique, pectoral fins, which consist of nine rays connected by a membrane, followed ventrally by three entirely detached simple rays of about the same length as the main fins. The type and hitherto only species of this genus is: Cheroscorpaena tridactyla species nova (pl. 1) D XIII. 7 or 8, A III. 6 or 7, Ρ i. 8-i-i-i, V I. 5, C 8 to 10 (branched rays only), gill-rakers on outer branchial arch 7 or 8 + 1 + 16 to 20, scales very small, 85 to 90 on body longitudinally, pores in lateral line about 28. A for a member of the family Scorpaenidae fairily slender fish, depth 3.1 to 3.3 in standard length; greatest width 1.6 to 1.8 in greatest depth. Anterior profile almost straight from the blunt snout to the first dorsal spine (in the largest specimen slightly curved, concave on the snout, convex on the nape); outline of back moderately convex towards the tail; outline of body ventrally only slightly convex, with the deepest part of the body between the 2nd and 3rd dorsal spines and the basis of the ventral fins. Head fairly large, 2.7 to 2.8 in standard length, with a more or less triangular outline. Snout blunt, anterior part vertical; eye small, its diameter about 7 in head and 2.5 in snout. Nostrils large, the posterior one in front of lower half of eye, the anterior one in advance of the posterior one and


Abstract. The wet removal of black carbon aerosol (BC) in the atmosphere is a crucial factor in determining its atmospheric lifetime and thereby the vertical and horizontal distributions, dispersion on local and regional scales, and the direct, semi-direct and indirect radiative forcing effects. The in-cloud scavenging and wet deposition rate of freshly emitted hydrophobic BC will be increased on acquisition of more-hydrophilic components by coagulation or coating processes. The lifetime of BC is still subject to considerable uncertainty for most of the model inputs, which is largely due to the insufficient constraints on the BC hydrophobic-to-hydrophilic conversion process from observational field data. This study was conducted at a site along UK North Norfolk coastline, where the BC particles were transported from different regions within Western Europe. A hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyser (HTDMA) was coupled with a single particle soot photometer (SP2) to measure the hygroscopic properties of BC particles and associated mixing state in real time. In addition, a Soot Particle AMS (SP-AMS) measured the chemical compositions of additional material associated with BC particles. The ensemble of BC particles persistently contained a less-hygroscopic mode at a growth factor (gf) of around 1.05 at 90% RH (dry diameter 163 nm). Importantly, a more-hygroscopic mode of BC particles was observed throughout the experiment, the gf of these BC particles extended up to ~1.4–1.6 with the minimum between this and the less hygroscopic mode at a gf ~1.25, or equivalent effective hygroscopicity parameter κ ~0.1. The gf of BC particles (gf BC ) was highly influenced by the composition of associated soluble material: increases of gf BC were associated with secondary inorganic components, and these increases were more pronounced when ammonium nitrate was in the BC particles; however the presence of secondary organic matter suppressed the gf BC below that of pure inorganics. The Zdanovskii-Stokes-Robinson (ZSR) mixing rule captures the hygroscopicity contributions from different compositions within ±30% compared to the measured results, however is subject to uncertainty due to the complex morphology of BC component and potential artefacts associated with semivolatile particles measured with the HTDMA. This study provides detailed insights on BC hygroscopicity associated with its mixing state, and the results will importantly constrain the microphysical mixing schemes of BC as used by a variety of high level models. In particular, this provides direct evidence to highlight the need to consider ammonium nitrate ageing of BC particles because this will result in particles becoming hydrophilic on much shorter timescales than for sulphate formation, which is often the only mechanism considered.


Texts by Tal Adler, Eva Blimlinger, Andrea B. Braidt, Jasmina Cibic, Das Kollektiv, Zsuzsi Flohr, Eduard Freudmann, Timea Junghaus, Jakob Krameritsch, Jean-Paul Martinon, Suzana Milevska, Helge Mooshammer, Peter Mortenbock, Trevor Ngwane, Karin Schneider, Primrose Sonti, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Working Group Four Faces of Omarska

On Productive Shame, Reconciliation, and Agency prompts a unique crossdisciplinary inquiry into the productive potential of the affect of shame. This book contests the ontological understanding of shame and the psychoanalytical interpretation of it based on personal traumatic experiences linked to lack, loss, memory repression, and absence. Rather, the book builds on complex issues (initially proposed by Paul Gilroy) that concern the coming to terms with a grim colonial and imperial past: How can one deal with the personal and collective memories of "paralyzing guilt" after dreadful atrocities and genocides? How can such negative experiences be transformed into "productive shame" (not only for the perpetrators but also for the victims and witnesses)?

This collection of essays, discussions, and interviews reflects on the intersection of the historicity, materiality, and structures behind culturally constructed race and racism, anti-Semitism, anti-Romaism, and queer shame across different disciplines, fields, and theories (for example, in philosophy, art and art history, visual culture, architecture, curating, postcolonial history, gender and queer studies). Various case studies and artistic projects employing collaborative and participatory research methods are analyzed as practices that empower the process of turning shame into productive agency. The ensuing role of productive shame is to prevent the recurrence of the institutional structures, patterns, and events that are responsible and constitutive of racism, and has been contextualized in recent debates on political responsibility and reconciliation in Europe and Africa.


Trial and error and the use of highly time-consuming methods are often necessary for investigation and characterization of nonlinear systems. However, for the rather common case where a nonlinear system has linear relations between many of its degrees of freedom there are opportunities for more efficient approaches. The aim of this thesis is to develop and validate new efficient simulation and experimental methods for characterization of mechanical systems with localized nonlinearities. The purpose is to contribute to the development of analysis tools for such systems that are useful in early phases of the product innovation process for predicting product properties and functionality. Fundamental research is combined with industrial case studies related to metal cutting. Theoretical modeling, computer simulations and experimental testing are utilized in a coordinated approach to iteratively evaluate and improve the methods. The nonlinearities are modeled as external forces acting on the underlying linear system. In this way, much of the linear theories behind forced response simulations can be utilized. The linear parts of the system are described using digital filters and modal superposition, and the response of the system is recursively solved for together with the artificial external forces. The result is an efficient simulation method, which in conjunction with experimental tests, is used to validate the proposed characterization methods. A major part of the thesis addresses a frequency domain characterization method based on broad-band excitation. This method uses the measured responses to create artificial nonlinear inputs to the parameter estimation model. Conventional multiple-input/multiple-output techniques are then used to separate the linear system from the nonlinear parameters. A specific result is a generalization of this frequency domain method, which allows for characterization of continuous systems with an arbitrary number of localized zero-memory nonlinearities in a structured way. The efficiency and robustness of this method is demonstrated by both simulations and experimental tests. A time domain simulation and characterization method intended for use on systems with hysteresis damping is also developed and its efficiency is demonstrated by the case of a dry-friction damper. Furthermore, a method for improved harmonic excitation of nonlinear systems using numerically optimized input signals is developed. Inverse filtering is utilized to remove unwanted dynamic effects in cutting force measurements, which increases the frequency range of the force dynamometer and significantly improves the experimental results compared to traditional methods. The new methods form a basis for efficient analysis and increased understanding of mechanical systems with localized nonlinearities, which in turn provides possibilities for more efficient product development as well as for continued research on analysis methods for nonlinear mechanical structures.


Even bad code can function. But if code isnt clean, it can bring a development organization to its knees. Every year, countless hours and significant resources are lost because of poorly written code. But it doesnt have to be that way.Noted software expert Robert C. Martin, presents a revolutionary paradigm with Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Martin, who has helped bring agile principles from a practitioners point of view to tens of thousands of programmers, has teamed up with his colleagues from Object Mentor to distill their best agile practice of cleaning code on the fly into a book that will instill within you the values of software craftsman, and make you a better programmerbut only if you work at it.What kind of work will you be doing? Youll be reading codelots of code. And you will be challenged to think about whats right about that code, and whats wrong with it. More importantly you will be challenged to reassess your professional values and your commitment to your craft. Clean Code is divided into three parts. The first describes the principles, patterns, and practices of writing clean code. The second part consists of several case studies of increasing complexity. Each case study is an exercise in cleaning up codeof transforming a code base that has some problems into one that is sound and efficient. The third part is the payoff: a single chapter containing a list of heuristics and smells gathered while creating the case studies. The result is a knowledge base that describes the way we think when we write, read, and clean code.Readers will come away from this book understandingHow to tell the difference between good and bad codeHow to write good code and how to transform bad code into good codeHow to create good names, good functions, good objects, and good classesHow to format code for maximum readability How to implement complete error handling without obscuring code logicHow to unit test and practice test-driven developmentWhat smells and heuristics can help you identify bad codeThis book is a must for any developer, software engineer, project manager, team lead, or systems analyst with an interest in producing better code.