The symmetric $m$-th power of a graph is the graph whose vertices are $m$-subsets of vertices and in which two $m$-subsets are adjacent if and only if their symmetric difference is an edge of the original graph. It was conjectured that there exists a fixed $m$ such that any two graphs are isomorphic if and only if their $m$-th symmetric powers are cospectral. In this paper we show that given a positive integer $m$ there exist infinitely many pairs of non-isomorphic graphs with cospectral $m$-th symmetric powers. Our construction is based on theory of multidimensional extensions of coherent configurations.


Three instructional strategies were examined to assist field-dependent children to compensate for cognitive limitations in memory storage capacity and system flexibility. The interpretive study was conducted with field-dependent (FD) 7-year-old children within an analytical movement education curriculum taught by a field-independent (FI) teacher. Research questions examined (a) the extent to which the strategies increased the learning behaviors of FD children and (b) the perceptions of the FD children when learning using the strategies. Children were tested using the Children's Embedded Figures Test to determine their cognitive styles. Observations and interviews were collected over a four-month period. Emergent themes were analyzed using constant comparison. Results indicated that the Explicit Organization strategy facilitated the memory organization and storage of FD children. The Variable Format and the Student Pairing strategies appeared to contribute to active learning by enhancing the interest and motivation of FD children. FD children were more involved in the tasks increasing their ability to focus mental energy necessary for system flexibility. Discussion centered on the FD children's modification of the Student Pairing strategy to decrease demands on memory storage capacity and preclude the development of memory access strategies.


This supplement takes the guesswork out of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It explains HIPAA in simple terms and puts it in the setting of the physician's office. Covering Title I, Health Insurance Reform, and Title II, Administrative Simplification, this guide emphasizes the importance of compliance with HIPAA and describes the repercussions if a practice does not comply. It also dispels some of the myths surrounding HIPAA. Taking compliance one step further, it also describes the importance of complying with the fraud and abuse policy of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) Office of Inspector General (OIG). This guide is especially useful for insurance billers and medical coders.


This volume presents ten visual essays that reflect on the historical, cultural and socio-political legacies of empires. Drawing on a variety of visual genres and forms, including photographs, illustrated advertisements, stills from site-specific art performances and films, and maps, the book illuminates the contours of empire's social worlds and its political legacies through the visual essay. The guiding, titular metaphor, sharpening the haze, captures our commitment to frame empire from different vantage points, seeking focus within its plural modes of power. We contend that critical scholarship on empires would benefit from more creative attempts to reveal and confront empire. Broadly, the essays track a course from interrogations of imperial pasts to subversive reinscriptions of imperial images in the present, even as both projects inform each author's intervention.


Advances in Immunology, a long-established and highly respected publication, presents current developments as well as comprehensive reviews in immunology. Articles address the wide range of topics that comprise immunology, including molecular and cellular activation mechanisms, phylogeny and molecular evolution, and clinical modalities. Edited and authored by the foremost scientists in the field, each volume provides up-to-date information and directions for the future.
Key features:
* Contributions from leading authorities * Informs and updates on all the latest developments in the field


A practical guide to the new economy that is transforming the way we live, work, and play. Uber. Airbnb. Amazon. Apple. PayPal. All of these companies disrupted their markets when they launched. Today they are industry leaders. Whats the secret to their success? These cutting-edge businesses are built on platforms: two-sided markets that are revolutionizing the way we do business. Written by three of the most sought-after experts on platform businesses, Platform Revolution is the first authoritative, fact-based book on platform models. Whether platforms are connecting sellers and buyers, hosts and visitors, or drivers with people who need a ride, Geoffrey G. Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne, and Sangeet Paul Choudary reveal the what, how, and why of this revolution and provide the first owners manual for creating a successful platform business. Platform Revolution teaches newcomers how to start and run a successful platform business, explaining ways to identify prime markets and monetize networks. Addressing current business leaders, the authors reveal strategies behind some of todays up-and-coming platforms, such as Tinder and SkillShare, and explain how traditional companies can adapt in a changing marketplace. The authors also cover essential issues concerning security, regulation, and consumer trust, while examining markets that may be ripe for a platform revolution, including healthcare, education, and energy. As digital networks increase in ubiquity, businesses that do a better job of harnessing the power of the platform will win. An indispensable guide, Platform Revolution charts out the brilliant future of platforms and reveals how they will irrevocably alter the lives and careers of millions.


This volume presents state-of-the-art empirical studies working in a paradigm that has become known as human behavioral ecology. The emergence of this approach in anthropology was marked by publication by Aldine in 1979 of an earlier collection of studies edited by Chagnon and Irons entitled Evolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective. During the two decades that have passed since then, this innovative approach has matured and expanded into new areas that are explored here. The book opens with an introductory chapter by Chagnon and Irons tracing the origins of human behavioral ecology and its subsequent development. Subsequent chapters, written by both younger scholars and established researchers, cover a wide range of societies and topics organ-ized into six sections. The first section includes two chapters that provide historical background on the development of human behavioral ecology and com-pare it to two complementary approaches in the study of evolution and human behavior, evolutionary psychology, and dual inheritance theory. The second section includes five studies of mating efforts in a variety of societies from South America and Africa. The third section covers parenting, with five studies on soci-eties from Africa, Asia, and North America. The fourth section breaks somewhat with the tradition in human behavioral ecology by focusing on one particularly problematic issue, the demographic transition, using data from Europe, North America, and Asia. The fifth section includes studies of cooperation and helping behaviors, using data from societies in Micronesia and South America. The sixth and final section consists of a single chapter that places the volume in a broader critical and comparative context. The contributions to this volume demonstrate, with a high degree of theoretical and methodological sophistication--the maturity and freshness of this new paradigm in the study of human behavior. The volume will be of interest to anthropologists and other professions working on the study of cross-cultural human behavior.


This article analyses the Constitutional Court's treatment of property interests in the face of state regulation to gain an understanding of the type of state interference that is justifiable in terms of section 25(1) of the Bill of Rights. This is done by examining the Constitutional Court's dicta relating to the meaning of deprivation and how these inform the meaning of property in the constitutional context. The methodology that the Constitutional Court has formulated to assess if state interference complies with the provisions of section 25 is explained to show the type of state regulation that has been found legitimate. We then consider how this understanding of constitutional property and the state's legitimate exercise of its inherent police power interact in the setting of intellectual property by contrasting the various policy objectives underlying the different statutory regimes governing intellectual property. This theoretical analysis is then applied to two contemporary examples of feasible state interference with existing intellectual property interests, namely the proposed plain packaging measures which severely restrict the use of tobacco trade marks, and a fair dealing exception allowing the use of copyright works for the purpose of parody. These examples serve to illustrate the context and manner in which intellectual property interests may come before the Court and the necessary differentiation with which these interests should be treated. The appropriate judicial assessment of the true impact that state action could have on vested property interests is explained and contrasted with the balancing exercise that is employed at the earlier stage of policy making. This discussion is concluded by highlighting some of the interpretational issues that will arise and how some constitutional values could be curtailed in the absence of legislative intervention.


High throughput arrays for the simultaneous genotyping of thousands of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have made the rapid genetic characterisation of plant genomes and the development of saturated linkage maps a realistic prospect for many plant species of agronomic importance. However, the correct calling of SNP genotypes in divergent polyploid genomes using array technology can be problematic due to paralogy, and to divergence in probe sequences causing changes in probe binding efficiencies. An Illumina Infinium II whole-genome genotyping array was recently developed for the cultivated apple and used to develop a molecular linkage map for an apple rootstock progeny (M432), but a large proportion of segregating SNPs were not mapped in the progeny, due to unexpected genotype clustering patterns. To investigate the causes of this unexpected clustering we performed BLAST analysis of all probe sequences against the 'Golden Delicious' genome sequence and discovered evidence for paralogous annealing sites and probe sequence divergence for a high proportion of probes contained on the array. Following visual re-evaluation of the genotyping data generated for 8,788 SNPs for the M432 progeny using the array, we manually re-scored genotypes at 818 loci and mapped a further 797 markers to the M432 linkage map. The newly mapped markers included the majority of those that could not be mapped previously, as well as loci that were previously scored as monomorphic, but which segregated due to divergence leading to heterozygosity in probe annealing sites. An evaluation of the 8,788 probes in a diverse collection of Malus germplasm showed that more than half the probes returned genotype clustering patterns that were difficult or impossible to interpret reliably, highlighting implications for the use of the array in genome-wide association studies.


In machine translation, document alignment refers to finding correspondences between documents which are exact translations of each other. We define pseudo-alignment as the task of finding topical--as opposed to exact--correspondences between documents in different languages. We apply semisupervised methods to pseudo-align multilingual corpora. Specifically, we construct a topic-based graph for each language. Then, given exact correspondences between a subset of documents, we project the unaligned documents into a shared lower-dimensional space. We demonstrate that close documents in this lower-dimensional space tend to share the same topic. This has applications in machine translation and cross-lingual information analysis. Experimental results show that pseudo-alignment of multilingual corpora is feasible and that the document alignments produced are qualitatively sound. Our technique requires no linguistic knowledge of the corpus. On average when 10% of the corpus consists of exact correspondences, an on-topic correspondence occurs within the top 5 foreign neighbors in the lower-dimensional space while the exact correspondence occurs within the top 10 foreign neighbors in this this space. We also show how to substantially improve these results with a novel method for incorporating language-independent information.


When Michael J. Behe's first book, "Darwin's Black Box, " was published in 1996, it launched the intelligent design movement. Critics howled, yet hundreds of thousands of readers -- and a growing number of scientists -- were intrigued by Behe's claim that Darwinism could not explain the complex machinery of the cell. Now, in his long-awaited follow-up, Behe presents far more than a challenge to Darwinism: He presents the evidence of the genetics revolution -- the first direct evidence of nature's mutational pathways -- to radically redefine the debate about Darwinism. How much of life does Darwin's theory explain? Most scientists believe it accounts for everything from the machinery of the cell to the history of life on earth. Darwin's ideas have been applied to law, culture, and politics. But Darwin's theory has been proven only in one sense: There is little question that all species on earth descended from a common ancestor. Overwhelming anatomical, genetic, and fossil evidence exists for that claim. But the crucial question remains: "How" did it happen? Darwin's proposed mechanism -- random mutation and natural selection -- has been accepted largely as a matter of faith and deduction or, at best, circumstantial evidence. Only now, thanks to genetics, does science allow us to seek direct evidence. The genomes of many organisms have been sequenced, and the machinery of the cell has been analyzed in great detail. The evolutionary responses of microorganisms to antibiotics and humans to parasitic infections have been traced over tens of thousands of generations. As a result, for the first time in history Darwin's theory can be rigorously evaluated. The results are shocking. Although it can explain marginal changes in evolutionary history, random mutation and natural selection explain very little of the basic machinery of life. The "edge" of evolution, a line that defines the border between random and nonrandom mutation, lies very far from where Darwin pointed. Behe argues convincingly that most of the mutations that have defined the history of life on earth have been nonrandom. Although it will be controversial and stunning, this finding actually fits a general pattern discovered by other branches of science in recent decades: The universe as a whole was fine-tuned for life. From physics to cosmology to chemistry to biology, life on earth stands revealed as depending upon an endless series of unlikely events. The clear conclusion: The universe was designed for life.


This report presents a specification for the Portals 4.0 network programming interface. Portals 4.0 is intended to allow scalable, high-performance network communication between nodes of a parallel computing system. Portals 4.0 is well suited to massively parallel processing and embedded systems. Portals 4.0 represents an adaption of the data movement layer developed for massively parallel processing platforms, such as the 4500-node Intel TeraFLOPS machine. Sandia's Cplant cluster project motivated the development of Version 3.0, which was later extended to Version 3.3 as part of the Cray Red Storm machine and XT line. Version 4.0 is targeted to the next generation of machines employing advanced network interface architectures that support enhanced offload capabilities. 3


The purpose of this research was to use the dual-task paradigm to examine the effect of a secondary reaction time task on free throw performance and to determine the point of peak attentional demand during the free throw process. Thirty subjects, ranging in age from 18 to 62 years (M = 23.9 + 8.3), with at least two years basketball experience at the high school level comprised the sample. After baseline measures, each subject completed 40 free throw trials. During the free throw, the participant was instructed to respond verbally to a sound stimulus to determine reaction time (RT). The sound stimulus was administered at one of 4 probe position (PP) conditions or was not administered (catch trial condition). Repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant difference in performance as a function of condition (probe position), suggesting that participants were able to keep the free throw as the primary task, assigning it the most attentional weight. Given these results, any increases or decreases in reaction time performance across probe positions could be attributed to an increase or decrease in attentional demand, respectively. A second repeated measures analysis showed a significant difference in reaction time as a function of condition. Tests of simple contrasts showed that reaction time at probe position (PP)1 and PP2 were significantly higher than baseline reaction time. These results suggest that the pre-shot routine (PP1) requires the greatest attentional demand, followed by the first upward motion of the ball.


German-American relations have been impacted by the war in Ukraine for reasons that have to do with domestic and foreign policy challenges. Germany is struggling with its responsibilities to increased expectations in Washington and within the European Union. The responses in Berlin to the Russian invasion of Ukraine have resulted in tensions within Europe as Germany tries to shape its policies around what Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called the Zeitenwende (turning point) of German foreign policy. The u.s. has also signaled its expectations that Germany needs to be a partner in sharing the burden of confronting Russian threats in Ukraine and Europe. Another challenge for German-American relations is emerging around relations with China, which may generate friction across the Atlantic as the United States seeks to confront China on the global stage while Germany remains tightly connected to China as its largest trade partner. How and why Germany and the United States need each other is in transition.


This research examines ultrasonic vocalization (USV) emission by infant prairie voles (Microtus ochrogaster). Rodent pups of many species emit USVs (Anderson, 1954), commonly in response to stressors such as isolation and hypothermic conditions (Allin & Banks, 1971; Oswalt & Meier, 1975). Much research has been conducted to examine the use of these ultrasounds as the basis of a communication system between offspring and parents (Zippelius & Schleidt, 1956), and the malleability of USV production by infant rodents (Bell, et al., 1972; Blake, 1992) suggests high susceptibility of ultrasounds to ontogenetic selection. USV production by prairie voles has been compared to a sympatric species, the montane vole (Microtus montanus), in several studies (Blake, 2002; Rabon, et al., 2001; Shapiro & Insel, 1990) and prairie voles have been found to produce ultrasounds at a higher rate, a finding which has been attributed to the different mating systems of the two species. Prairie voles exhibit a monogamous mating system, biparental care of pups, tenacious nipple attachment by pups, and litter overlap, all contributing to sibling competition among the young of this species (Gilbert (1995). In contrast, montane voles mate polygynously, only the dam cares for the pups, and there is no tenacious nipple attachment or litter overlap, suggesting reduced sibling competition. In the current study, data indicate that prairie voles show no differences in ultrasound production by the heaviest and lightest pups in a small litter. However, in large litters, where pup number may exceed the number of functional nipples the dam provides, the lightest pup produces USVs at a much higher rate than the heaviest pup. It is suggested that this difference is reflective of the relatively large difference in deprivation level in large litters between the pups at the two weight extremes. This finding is related to the avian begging literature, which also includes some examples of mammalian begging. It is hypothesized that prairie voles may beg by using ultrasounds as an honest signal of need to the dam and then by engaging in a scramble competition with littermates for access to nipples when the dam nurses.


In Ersilia, to establish the relationships that sustain the city's life, the inhabitants stretch strings from the corners of the houses, white or black or gray or black-an-white according to whether they mark a relationship of blood, of trade, authority, agency. When the strings become so numerous that you can no longer pass among them, the inhabitants leave: the houses are dismantled; only the strings and their supports remain. From a mountainside, camping with their household goods, Ersilia's refugees look at the labyrinth of taut strings and poles that rise in the plain. That is the city of Ersilia still, and they are nothing. They rebuild Ersilia elsewhere. They weave a similar pattern of strings which they would like to be more complex and at the same time more regular than the other. Then they abandon it and take themselves and their houses still farther away. Thus, when travelling in the territory of Ersilia, you come upon the ruins of abandoned cities, without the walls which do not last, without the bones of the dead which the wind rolls away: spiderwebs of intricate relationships seeking a form. —Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities (2)


The different phases of quantum chromodynamics at finite temperature are studied. To this end the nonperturbative quark propagator in Matsubara formalism is determined from its equation of motion, the Dyson-Schwinger equation. A novel truncation scheme is introduced including the nonperturbative, temperature dependent gluon propagator as extracted from lattice gauge theory. In the first part of the thesis a deconfinement order parameter, the dual condensate, and the critical temperature are determined from the dependence of the quark propagator on the temporal boundary conditions. The chiral transition is investigated by means of the quark condensate as order parameter. In addition differences in the chiral and deconfinement transition between gauge groups SU(2) and SU(3) are explored. In the following the quenched quark propagator is studied with respect to a possible spectral representation at finite temperature. In doing so, the quark propagator turns out to possess different analytic properties below and above the deconfinement transition. This result motivates the consideration of an alternative deconfinement order parameter signaling positivity violations of the spectral function. A criterion for positivity violations of the spectral function based on the curvature of the Schwinger function is derived. Using a variety of ansatze for the spectral function, the possible quasi-particle spectrum is analyzed, in particular its quark mass and momentum dependence. The results motivate a more direct determination of the spectral function in the framework of Dyson-Schwinger equations. In the two subsequent chapters extensions of the truncation scheme are considered. The influence of dynamical quark degrees of freedom on the chiral and deconfinement transition is investigated. This serves as a first step towards a complete self-consistent consideration of dynamical quarks and the extension to finite chemical potential. The goodness of the truncation is verified first at vanishing chemical potential. Interestingly, besides good agreement of the transition temperatures with lattice QCD calculations, the different deconfinement criteria of the dual condensate and of the Schwinger-function yield similar results. In the following, the effects of a finite quark chemical potential are studied. These calculations allow for a first insight on the dual condensate at finite chemical potential beyond mean-field calculations in phenomenological models. In addition, a possibility to include the back-reaction of long-range fluctuations in the vicinity of a second order phase transition is elaborated. In the scaling region constraints for a self-consistent solution arise from an analytic investigation.


The purpose of this article is to describe our experience using a qualitative team approach and predetermined theoretical framework to assess sensibility of a newly developed HIV disability questionnaire. Two interviewers conducted structured qualitative interviews with 22 adults living with HIV, asking participants how well the questionnaire characterized the disability they experienced living with HIV. Data collection and analysis occurred over six stages with four analysts who met throughout. Strengths of our approach included the ability to assess the sensibility of the questionnaire from the perspective of adults living with HIV, collect and analyze data across multiple sites, establish a systematic team analytical process, and enhance rigour through multiple coding, team reflexivity, and interviewer and analyst triangulation. Challenges included increased resources required to coordinate and implement this approach, differential recruitment rates, initial divergent analytical styles, and the potential to miss emerging codes given the structured nature of the analysis. This article offers a methodological process for researchers to use a qualitative team approach with directed content analysis to assess the sensibility of a new health status questionnaire.


In this important book, Dr. Laura Schlessinger shows men and women that they can have a Good Life no matter how Bad their Childhood. For each of us, there is a connection between our early family dynamics and experiences and our current attitudes and decisions. Many of the people Dr. Laura has helped did not realize how their histories impacted their adult lives, or how their choices in people, repetitive situations, and decisions -- even their emotional reactions -- were connected to those early negative experiences, playing a major role in their current unhappiness. For these people and millions like them, too much time is dedicated to repeating the ugly dynamics of childhood in a vain attempt to repair or cope with deep hurt and longings. Too often they use their emotional pain to control others or excuse their own inappropriate and destructive behaviors. Some turn to therapy, only to find themselves trapped in their self-pitying victim mode, robbed of optimism, confidence, and growth. Dr. Laura will help you realize that no matter what circumstances you came from or currently live in, you are ultimately responsible for how you react to them. The acceptance of this basic truth is the source of your power to secure the Good Life you long for. In her signature straightforward style, with real-life examples, Dr. Laura shows you what you will gain by not being satisfied with an identity as a victim, or even as a survivor -- but striving to be a victor! In "Bad Childhood -- Good Life," Dr. Laura will guide you to accept the truth of the assaults on your psyche and soul, understand your unique coping style and how it impacts your daily thoughts and actions, and help you embrace a life of more peace and happiness. ""Bad Childhood -- Good Life"" comes from a compassionate and personal place. Dr. Laura also reveals some of her own experiences with a difficult childhood and what efforts it took to attain a Good Life. She writes, "My resilience has paid off, and I'm doing the best I can with what I've got." Now you can, too.


Published posthumously with Northanger Abbey in 1817, Persuasion crowns Jane Austen's remarkable career. It is her most passionate and introspective love story. This richly illustrated and annotated edition brings her last completed novel to life with previously unmatched vitality. In the same format that so rewarded readers of Pride and Prejudice: An Annotated Edition, it offers running commentary on the novel (conveniently placed alongside Austen's text) to explain difficult words, allusions, and contexts, while bringing together critical observations and scholarship for an enhanced reading experience. The abundance of color illustrations allows the reader to see the characters, locations, clothing, and carriages of the novel, as well as the larger political and historical events that shape its action. In his Introduction, distinguished scholar Robert Morrison examines the broken engagement between Anne Elliot and Frederick Wentworth, and the ways in which they wander from one another even as their enduring feelings draw them steadily back together. His notes constitute the most sustained critical commentary ever brought to bear on the novel and explicate its central conflicts as well as its relationship to Austen's other works, and to those of her major contemporaries, including Lord Byron, Walter Scott, and Maria Edgeworth. Specialists, Janeites, and first-time readers alike will treasure this annotated and beautifully illustrated edition, which does justice to the elegance and depth of Jane Austen's time-bound and timeless story of loneliness, missed opportunities, and abiding love.


This thesis analyzes how the Sacred Harp adapted to become a unique musical tradition culturally and geographically specific to the America South. By applying methods from the Geography of Religion and Music Geography fields with contributions from Atlantic History and Ecomusicology, an uncommon perspective emerges as a regional network of shape-notes reveal how it became Sacred Harp over time. Originating in England, psalter hymnals reach the American colonies through the Puritan culture. Once in the New England region the psalters become shape-notes. Eventually the Great Awakenings and Better Music Movement force shape-notes out of the North and they journey along the Great Wagon Road through the Appalachia backcountry. With their migration shape-notes become adopted in the Scots-Irish churches that are scattered throughout the region. The family ways of the Scots-Irish solidify the continuation of shape-notes which result in the emergence of the Sacred Harp. Due to the singing families that dominate this tradition Sacred Harp has survived to the present and has redistributed itself across the nation, practiced and loved by many others.


Orientation : The positive organisation creates a framework in which its elements can be investigated in relation to the retention of talent.
Research purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate if leader empowering behaviour can positively impact on role clarity, psychological empowerment and work engagement, with the final outcome being the retention of talent.
Motivation for the study : In the ever changing work environment organisations place great emphasis on their human capital. The positive organisation utilises specific elements to optimise human capital's potential. It is therefore important to identify the elements contributing to a positive organisation as well as the elements which lead to the retention of talent.
Research design, approach and method : A survey research design was used. A convenience sample (n = 179) was taken from a business unit in a chemical organisation. The Leader Empowering Behaviour Questionnaire, Measures of Role Clarity and Ambiguity Questionnaire, Measuring Empowerment Questionnaire, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Intention to Leave Scale were administered.
Main findings : Leader empowering behaviour, role clarity and psychological empowerment predicted work engagement. Role clarity interacted with competence to affect employees' dedication and interacted with the development of employees to affect absorption. Work engagement predicted employees' intention to leave.
Practical / managerial implications : Organisations should foster the elements of a positive organisation if they want to retain their talent.
Contribution / value-add : The results of this research contribute to scientific knowledge about the effects of a positive organisation on retention.


Yields on sovereign and municipal bonds are largely determined by perceptions of default risk. The traditional providers of default risk assessments are the credit rating agencies, which have of late suffered damaged reputations. The author, a former Senior Director at Moody's Analytics, argues that rating agency assessments of government bonds suffer from a failure to use modern social science research methods. He contends that economists and other academics are better suited to the task of estimating the likelihood of government bond defaults. Economists can provide an alternative source of analysis by collecting and analyzing time series of fiscal data and building simulations of future revenues and expenditures. To encourage more academics to enter this field, the author is contributing historical data and an open-source simulation platform.


Foreword. Introduction. Part I: Settling into a Green Gadget Mindset. Chapter 1: Mother Nature's Green-Eyed View of Gadgets. Chapter 2: Practicing Green Gadget Living. Part II: Getting Green with Gadgets You Own. Chapter 3: Saving Money (and the Planet) with Rechargeable Batteries. Chapter 4: Maximizing Energy Savings for Your Portable Gadgets. Chapter 5: Energy Savings All Around the House. Part III: Minimizing Your Computer's Carbon Footprint. Chapter 6: Your Computer's Energy Use. Chapter 7: Reducing Energy Consumption in Windows. Chapter 8: Conserving Power with Your Mac's Energy-Saver Settings. Part IV: Acquiring Green Gadgets and Gear. Chapter 9: Knowing the Difference Between Truly Green and Greenwash Hype. Chapter 10: Choosing Green Mac and Windows Computers. Chapter 11: Buying Green Mobile Phones and Handheld Gadgets. Chapter 12: Getting Green Gadgets for on the Go. Chapter 13: Adding Green Gadgets around the House. Part V: Ridding Yourself of Gadgets the Green Way. Chapter 14: Donating, Gifting, and Selling Unwanted Gadgets. Chapter 15: Erasing Your Personal Information before Getting Rid of Gadgets. Chapter 16: Recycling and Properly Disposing of Hopelessly Useless Gadgets. Part VI: The Part of Tens. Chapter 17: Ten Cool Green PC Peripherals and Accessories. Chapter 18: Ten Green Gadget Designs. Chapter 19: Ten Green Gadget Buying Tips. Chapter 20: Ten Frequently Asked Questions about Green Gadgets. Index.


Suing actual infringers is passe in copyright law. In the digital environment, the real stakes lie in suing those who facilitate infringement by others. There is of course a good reason copyright owners are filing such suits. They see themselves as under threat from a flood of cheap, easy copies and a dramatic increase in the number of people who can make those copies. The high volume of illegal uses, and the low return to suing any individual, make it more cost-effective to aim as far up the chain as possible. From the perspective of the movie industry, it's easier and more effective to shut down Napster than to sue the millions of people who traded files illegally on Napster. So far, the courts have been willing to go along, shutting down a number of innovative services in the digital music realm.In this article, we argue that unrestricted liability for anyone who is in any way involved with copyright infringement is a bad idea. Indirect liability is a continuum, in which acts most closely related to infringement and with the fewest affirmative benefits are the easiest to condemn. Going after makers of technology for the uses to which their technologies may be put threatens to stifle innovation. The fundamental difficulty is that while courts can make decisions about direct infringement on a case-by-case basis, lawsuits based on indirect liability necessarily sweep together both socially beneficial and socially harmful uses of a program or service, either permitting both uses or condemning both. Optimal digital copyright policy would do two things: stop deterring innovators, and permit cost-effective enforcement of copyright in the digital environment. In this paper, we suggest at least two possible alternatives that might provide ways out of the digital copyright morass. Both alternatives stem from the basic economics of copyright enforcement. It is not currently cost-effective for copyright owners to sue individual infringers, because there are tens of millions of them, because lawsuits are expensive, and because each infringer would be liable only for minimal damages. They are happy to sue facilitators instead, because there are fewer of them and both damages and the benefits of injunctive relief are substantial. Copyright owners have no incentive to permit optimal innovation by facilitators, because they do not benefit from that innovation except indirectly. Individual infringers in turn have no incentive to change their behavior or to subscribe to fee-based services, because they suffer none of the costs of infringement. One solution is to change the incentives of individuals. Because individual users of peer-to-peer (p2p) networks know that it is extremely unlikely they will be sued, economic theory suggests that the only way to effectively deter infringement is to increase the effective sanction substantially for those who are caught. Were the government to begin criminally prosecuting selected users of peer-to-peer services - or were the RIAA to sue end users in earnest - it could have a substantial deterrent effect on many illegal users. Selective prosecution has other advantages as well - the government could target the relatively few keystone providers of illegal files on p2p sites, and those are precisely the users who are least likely to be engaged in fair use. While particular prosecutions won't stop illegal file trading altogether, copyright owners have never been able to prevent all piracy. All they need to do is reduce piracy enough that they can make a return on their investment.Another solution is to change the incentives of copyright owners to sue individual infringers by reducing the cost of such a suit. One such approach would be a levy system. Levies on equipment or services have the virtue of permitting automatic collection of royalties, reducing the enforcement cost dramatically, but at the cost of taxing legal as well as illegal uses. A levy solves the enforcement problem at the front end, but it is similar in many ways to the current approach of suing facilitators. The main difference is that under a levy system the copyright owner is protected by a compulsory license rather than a property rule. An alternative proposal to reduce the cost of enforcement is to create some sort of quick, cheap arbitration system that enables copyright owners to get some limited relief against abusers of p2p systems. The existing domain name trademark arbitration system is a model in some respects - its speed and low cost - but a cautionary tale in others - its lack of process protections. Such a system would permit low-cost enforcement of copyright infringement against direct infringers, reducing the need for content owners to sue facilitators. Relative to levies, an arbitration system would trade off some increase in cost for accuracy, targeting only those making illegal uses rather than all users of computers or p2p networks. It would be fairer than selective criminal prosecution, because the burden would fall more evenly on each wrongdoer, rather than imposing stark punishment on a few in order to serve society's interest in deterring the rest. The system could also be designed to improve accuracy relative to the binary choice the courts face in indirect infringement cases today. We could design the system so that it is limited to clear cases. We could also build in a defense for arguable fair uses, so that a user who could prove they were space-shifting CDs they already own would have a defense.


The effect of ingesting charcoal-broiled beefburgers (CBB) on the liver functions and nonenzymatic antioxidant levels in human blood was examined in twenty-nine healthy individually males (mean age 21.65 ± 1.32 years, range 20.32 - 22.42 years), non-smokers and had no occupational exposure to PAHs, who consumed two charcoal grilled beefburger per day (mean weight 70 gmper each) at lunch time over 28 consecutive days. The mean daily intake of PAH during the consumption period was 3431 ng and the mean daily intake of PAH per kg body wt/day was 46 ng. Blood samples were collected from each subject 7, 14, 21 and 28 days before, during, and after the beefburgers consumption period. glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT), glutamic-pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were significantly higher in serum of subjects during CBB consumption period compared with those of before CBB consumption ones. All of the enzyme activities still increased upper the baseline levels, before CBB consumption period, by four week after charcoal broiled meat consumption ended. In contrary, the levels of non-enzymatic antioxidants include albumin (ALB), glutathione in serum (GSH-S) and erythrocytes (GSH-E) were significantly lower in subjects during CBB consumption period compared with those of before CBB consumption ones. All of the non-enzymatic antioxidant levels decreased to near baseline levels, before CBB consumption period, by four week after charcoal broiled meat consumption ended. Results suggested that non-enzymatic antioxidants defense system of serum and erythrocytes was depressed and the erythrocytes as well as liver cells were exposed to oxidant stress due to oral exposure of PAH.


A synthesis of the stratigraphy of the Maastrichtian Stage in its extended type area, that is, southern Limburg (the Netherlands), and adjacent Belgian and German territories, is presented with a brief historical overview. Quarrying activities at the large quarry complex of ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group will officially come to an end on July 1, 2018. However, the stratotype section below the Lichtenberg farmstead and directly behind the main office building at the Lage Kanaaldijk (Maastricht), will be preserved, as will various faces within the quarry complex. Strata of Maastrichtian age include the Vijlen, Lixhe 1-3 and Lanaye members of the Gulpen Formation, as well as the Valkenburg, Gronsveld, Schiepersberg, Emael, Nekum and Meerssen members of the Maastricht Formation. The lower Maastrichtian portion is comparatively poorly preserved, being characterised by frequent reworking; only elements of the Belemnella obtusa, Belemnella sumensis and/or Belemnella cimbrica zones (the two last-named representing the traditional Belemnella occidentalis Zone) have been recorded. Belemnitella junior and Belemnitella lwowensis define the upper Maastrichtian, both first appearing in interval 4 of the Vijlen Member. At the ENCI-HeidelbergCement Group quarry, the lower/upper Maastrichtian boundary is placed at c. 5 m above the Zonneberg Horizon on benthic foraminifer evidence; strontium isotope data are in agreement. The highest portion of the Meerssen Member (uppermost IVf-6 and IVf-7) is missing from the type section; this part of the sequence is exposed at the former Curfs quarry (Geulhem), the Berg en Terblijt Horizon being equated with the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg boundary).


Structural analysis of the Zaghouan-Ressas Structural Belt (ZRSB) of NE Tunisia, based upon detailed field mapping and Landsat TM image interpretation, has shown there to be a definite link between uplift across the area and the development of a mid Miocene aged, thin-skinned Tunisian Atlas thrust belt. The construction of balanced cross-sections through the ZRSB has proved that it is possible to generate the major structures of this belt by invoking a combination of an early fault-propagation fold, a foreland propagating duplex structure and a later out-of-sequence thrust that propagates in the hanging-wall of the earlier fold. Balancing of sections across the ZRSB, however, was complicated by the presence of several, previously noted (along and across strike) lateral facies variations, particularly in the Mesozoic sequence. This thesis has confirmed the presence of these facies variations and has shown that their distribution has had a direct bearing on thrust-belt evolution.
In order to understand the effects of the main lateral thickness and lithostratigraphic variations on the mid Miocene structural evolution of the ZRSB, a modern interpretation of their origins has been made, based upon an investigation of the pre-thrusting tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the region. It has been established that, from the mid-Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous, the ZRSB was the site of a northeast/southwest-trending basin margin with a major depocentre to the northwest and a long standing palaeohigh to the east. This palaeogeographic setting is thought to have resulted in thick accumulations of Lower Cretaceous sediments to the northwest of the line of the ZRSB while non-deposition and/or condensed sedimentation took place to the east of this line. The presence of unconformity surfaces, and the fact that large parts of the Lower Cretaceous sequence are missing to the east of the ZRSB, has confirmed this hypothesis. Two pre-thrust stratigraphic templates were constructed that took account of Mesozoic lateral facies variations across the ZRSB. These templates have been used as a constraint on the restoration of balanced cross-sections, thereby proving a relationship between the locations of Mesozoic basin margin structures and the characteristics and evolution of the ZRSB.
All thrust-related structures in the Zaghouan area have been dissected by a series of steep fractures. At least three distinct post-thrust fault trends have been established. The movement histories associated with these faults are extremely complex and long-lived, and no simple explanation exists for their evolution. A model has been devised that invokes alternation of extension in two, perpendicular directions, as the result of independent, but competing, deformational processes: one as the result of orogenic collapse and the other related to transtension in the Sicily channel. By noting the presence of pre-existing fault trends and by allowing for an overlap in time between the two tensional stresses acting alternately, the orientations and kinematic histories of the post-thrust faulting can be reproduced.
The interpretations made in this thesis are summarised through their use as a constraint upon a new plate tectonic model for the evolution of the central and western Mediterranean region. This model shows that the complex Mesozoic structural and stratigraphic evolution of northern Tunisia was not dominated simply by crustal stretching on the south Tethyan margin, as previously thought, but rather has been controlled by an interaction of Tethyan stretching, leading to the development of north/south-east/west-trending structures, and intraplate rifting between Europe and Africa, giving rise to northeast/southwest - northwest/southeast-trending structures. Subsequent structural and stratigraphic development in northern Tunisia is shown to be intimately related to the effects that the overall stress regime between the major plates has had through the reactivation of these pre-existing trends. Miocene to recent evolution of the region, however, is shown to have been largely controlled by the development and movements of microplates in the western Mediterranean.


This thesis deals with the application of binomial option pricing in a single-asset Black-Scholes market and its extension to multi-dimensional situations. Although the binomial approach is, in principle, an efficient method for lower dimensional valuation problems, there are at least two main problems regarding its application: Firstly, traded options often exhibit discontinuities, so that the Berry- Esseen inequality is in general tight; i.e. conventional tree methods converge no faster than with order 1/sqrt(N). Furthermore, they suffer from an irregular convergence behaviour that impedes the possibility to achieve a higher order of convergence via extrapolation methods. Secondly, in multi-asset markets conventional tree construction methods cannot ensure well-defined transition probabilities for arbitrary correlation structures between the assets. As a major aim of this thesis, we present two approaches to get binomial trees into shape in order to overcome the main problems in applications; the optimal drift model for the valuation of single-asset options and the decoupling approach to multi-dimensional option pricing. The new valuation methods are embedded into a self-contained survey of binomial option pricing, which focuses on the convergence behaviour of binomial trees. The optimal drift model is a new one-dimensional binomial scheme that can lead to convergence of order o(1/N) by exploiting the specific structure of the valuation problem under consideration. As a consequence, it has the potential to outperform benchmark algorithms. The decoupling approach is presented as a universal construction method for multi-dimensional trees. The corresponding trees are well-defined for an arbitrary correlation structure of the underlying assets. In addition, they yield a more regular convergence behaviour. In fact, the sawtooth effect can even vanish completely, so that extrapolation can be applied.


History textbooks, like all textbooks, play an important role in the facilitation of learning. They act as vehicles by means of which past knowledge legitimated by government and related authorities, as contained in the curriculum, is presented to school-going youth. Textbooks are by nature powerful and authoritative because they are approved by government and other authorities. As a result, school-going youth are likely to consider the way women and men are portrayed in history textbooks as unquestionable and historically truthful. Having reported on findings of empirical studies on women in history textbooks from, amongst others, Taiwan; the United States; the United Kingdom; Russia and South Africa, we conclude that women are underrepresented, misrepresented and marginalised in history textbooks. Women are portrayed as historically unimportant and incapable, contributing little to society outside of the domestic sphere. We furthermore argue that this type of portrayal sends powerful messages to the youth about men and women in history and in contemporary society.


Asahi Kasei Medical Co., Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan) is a world leader in research, development, and production of devices and systems for blood treatment and purification based on advanced membrane separation and adsorption technologies. It serves the global market with dialysis products and therapeutic apheresis devices, such as membrane type plasma separators, plasma component separators, leukocytapheresis columns, and immunoadsorption columns. Asahi Kasei Medical's core competence is in blood related polymer technologies, materials technologies, and blood analysis technologies. The Research and Development Division is developing next-generation products based in these technologies for fields ranging from extracorporeal therapy to organ function diagnosis and artificial organs. Now, as always, Asahi Kasei Medical is dedicated to serving and advancing medical therapy for the preservation and enhancement of human life. Website: http://www.asahikasei-medical.com


From the bestselling author of "The Know-It-All" comes a fascinating and timely exploration of religion and the Bible.Raised in a secular family but increasingly interested in the relevance of faith in our modern world, A.J. Jacobs decides to dive in headfirst and attempt to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one full year. He vows to follow the Ten Commandments. To be fruitful and multiply. To love his neighbor. But also to obey the hundreds of less publicized rules: to avoid wearing clothes made of mixed fibers; to play a ten-string harp; to stone adulterers.The resulting spiritual journey is at once funny and profound, reverent and irreverent, personal and universal and will make you see history's most influential book with new eyes. Jacobs's quest transforms his life even more radically than the year spent reading the entire "Encyclopedia Britannica" for "The Know-It-All." His beard grows so unruly that he is regularly mistaken for a member of ZZ Top. He immerses himself in prayer, tends sheep in the Israeli desert, battles idolatry, and tells the absolute truth in all situations - much to his wife's chagrin.Throughout the book, Jacobs also embeds himself in a cross-section of communities that take the Bible literally. He tours a Kentucky-based creationist museum and sings hymns with Pennsylvania Amish. He dances with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and does Scripture study with Jehovah's Witnesses. He discovers ancient biblical wisdom of startling relevance. And he wrestles with seemingly archaic rules that baffle the twenty-first-century brain.Jacobs's extraordinary undertaking yields unexpected epiphanies and challenges. A book that will charm readers both secular and religious, "The Year of Living Biblically" is part Cliff Notes to the Bible, part memoir, and part look into worlds unimaginable. Thou shalt not be able to put it down.


This paper evaluates the implementation of Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols suitable for massive access connectivity in 5G multi-service networks. The access protocol extends multi-packet detection receivers based on Physical Layer Network Coding (PLNC) decoding and Coded Random Access protocols considering practical aspects to implement one-stage MAC protocols for short packet communications in mMTC services. Extensions to enhance data delivery phase in two-stage protocols are also proposed. The assessment of the access protocols is extended under system level simulations where a suitable link to system interface characterization has been taken into account.


In this work, I seize on the movements of language engaged in the confusions of qualitative research. I examine the impressions and effects of a researcher's desires, in which language serves simultaneously as a point of alienation, and as an imperfect enunciatory tool forever directed at satisfaction. Provoking a haunted analysis of autobiographical place, I also dwell in the poetic influences of topographical reading. The result is a methodological inquiry into the ways we move when we do educational re-search, and the curricular paths that languages help to inscribe in this performance.


Social Security benefits are currently provided as a lifelong benefit stream, though some workers would be willing to trade a portion of their annuity streams in exchange for a lump sum amount. This paper explores whether allowing people to receive a lump sum as a payment for delayed retirement rather than as an addition to their lifetime Social Security benefits might induce them to work longer. We model the factors that influence how people trade off a Social Security stream for a lump sum, and we also examine the consequences of such tradeoffs for work, retirement, and life cycle wellbeing. Our base case indicates that workers given the chance to receive their delayed retirement credit as a lump sum payment would boost their average retirement age by l.5-2 years. This will interest policymakers seeking to reform the Social Security system without raising costs or cutting benefits, while enhancing the incentives to delay retirement.


Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. But the sector is underperforming in many countries in part because women, who are often a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy, face constraints that reduce their productivity. In this paper we draw on the available empirical evidence to study in which areas and to what degree women participate in agriculture. Aggregate data shows that women comprise about 43 percent of the agricultural labor force globally and in developing countries. But this figure masks considerable variation across regions and within countries according to age and social class. Time use surveys, which are more comprehensive but typically not nationally representative, add further insight into the substantial heterogeneity among countries and within countries in women's contribution to agriculture. They show that female time-use in agriculture varies also by crop, production cycle, age and ethnic group. A few time-use surveys have data by activity and these show that in general weeding and harvesting were predominantly female activities. Overall the labor burden of rural women exceeds that of men, and includes a higher proportion of unpaid household responsibilities related to preparing food and collecting fuel and water. The contribution of women to agricultural and food production is significant but it is impossible to verify empirically the share produced by women. Women's participation in rural labour markets varies considerably across regions, but invariably women are over represented in unpaid, seasonal and part-time work, and the available evidence suggests that women are often paid less than men, for the same work. Available data on rural and agricultural feminization shows that this is not a general trend but mainly a sub-Saharan Africa phenomena, as well as observed in some sectors such as unskilled labor in the fruit, vegetable and cut-flower export sector. This paper re-affirms that women make essential contributions to agriculture and rural enterprises across the developing world. But there is much diversity in women's roles and over-generalization undermines policy relevance and planning. The context is important and policies must be based on sound data and gender analysis.


The general hostility of courts towards workers' collective action is well documented, but even against that standard the restrictive approach of the British Columbia Court of Appeal stands out. Although this trend first became apparent in a series of cases before World War II in which the court treated peaceful picketing as unlawful and narrowly interpreted British Columbia's Trade Union Act (1902), which limited trade unions' common law liability, this study will focus on the court's post-War jurisprudence. The legal environment for trade union activity was radically altered during World War II by PC 1003, which provided unions with a procedural mechanism for acquiring collective bargaining rights and imposed a duty on employers to recognize and bargain in good faith with certified unions. At the end of the war, all provinces, including British Columbia, enacted collective bargaining legislation based on this model. The law, however, did not alter the judicially created common law rules governing collective action. As a result, important questions about the interaction between the statutory regime and the common law were unresolved. As trade union membership grew and labour militancy increased, the British Columbia Court of Appeal was soon given the opportunity to address these issues and in a series of decisions handed down through the 1950s and 1960s it narrowly limited the ambit for lawful workers' collective action. The Social Credit government largely supported the court's approach but when the first NDP government in British Columbia was elected in 1972 it stripped the court of its power to regulate picketing and transferred it to an administrative board. This chapter will examine the court's work during this period and investigate the reasons for the court's approach, taking into account the economic, social and political context of British Columbia as well as considering the backgrounds and attitudes of the members of the court during this period.


"We examine the spatial determinants of the prevalence of poverty for small spatially defined populations in rural Malawi. Poverty prevalence was estimated using a small-area poverty estimation technique. A theoretical approach based on the risk chain conceptualization of household economic vulnerability guided our selection of a set of potential risk and coping strategies — the determinants of our model — that could be represented spatially. These were used in two analyses to develop global and local models, respectively. In our global model—a spatial error model — only eight of the more than two dozen determinants selected for analysis proved significant. In contrast, all of the determinants considered were significant in at least some of the local models of poverty prevalence. The local models were developed using geographically weighted regression. Moreover, these models provided strong evidence of the spatial nonstationarity of the relationship between poverty and its determinants. That is, in determining the level of poverty in rural communities, where one is located in Malawi matters. This result for poverty reduction efforts in rural Malawi implies that such efforts should be designed for and targeted at the district and subdistrict levels. A national, relatively inflexible approach to poverty reduction is unlikely to enjoy broad success." Authors' Abstract


Once upon a time fairy tales weren't meant just for children, and neither is Angela Carter's Book of Fairy Tales. This stunning collection contains lyrical tales, bloody tales and hilariously funny and ripely bawdy stories from countries all around the world- from the Arctic to Asia - and no dippy princesses or soppy fairies. Instead, we have pretty maids and old crones; crafty women and bad girls; enchantresses and midwives; rascal aunts and odd sisters. This fabulous celebration of strong minds, low cunning, black arts and dirty tricks could only have been collected by the unique and much-missed Angela Carter. Illustrated throughout with original woodcuts.


Recent years have seen a significant increase in the criminal penalties associated with possession of child pornography. The new severity appears to be premised on arguments that blur the distinction between those who possess images of child pornography and those who sexually abuse children. In particular, sentences have been increased based on arguments that possession of pornography is equivalent to or worse than child sex abuse, arguments that viewing child pornography increases the risk that an individual will sexually abuse a child, and arguments that those who possess child pornography are abusing children undetected. This Article identifies instances where possession of child pornography and child sex abuse have been conflated, critically evaluates the arguments that promote such conflation, and identifies independent concerns with conflation. Specifically, it argues that blurring the distinction between the two crimes allows us to continue to misperceive child sex abuse as a stranger-danger issue, and that when law enforcement statistics aggregate possession and child sex abuse, then the public may be misled into believing that law enforcement is successfully battling child sex abuse, when that is not the case. The Article concludes that the modern trend of increasing sentences for possession of child pornography ought to be reviewed, and it suggests several possible areas of reform.


Changes in labor markets over the past 30 years suggest upcoming changes in the distribution of wealth at retirement. Baby boom cohorts have spent the majority of their prime earnings years in a labor market with increased earnings inequality. This paper investigates how changes in lifetime earnings distributions affect the distribution of retirement wealth among cohorts retiring over the next decade. I use data from the Health and Retirement Study from 1992 to 2004 to estimate the relationship between lifetime earnings, pre-retirement private wealth and Social Security wealth. I show that changes in the lower half of the male earnings distribution explain a substantial portion of changes in the distribution of pre-retirement wealth. Growth in women's earnings across the cohorts do not offset these declines in wealth associated with male earnings. When pensions are added to the measure of wealth, the role of earnings is even larger, reflecting a strong correlation between changes in earnings across these cohorts and changes in the values of their employer-provided pensions. These pension changes do not appear to operate via changes in pension structures (defined benefit versus defined contribution). The present value of wealth from future Social Security benefits, in contrast, grows in real terms throughout most of the distribution. At the bottom of the male distribution of Social Security wealth, reductions in lifetime earnings limit this growth in real benefits, while at the top of the distribution earnings growth amplifies expected growth in Social Security wealth.


In a networked system, the communication system is indispensable but often the weakest link w.r.t. performance and reliability. This, particularly, holds for wireless communication systems, where the error- and interference-prone medium and the character of network topologies implicate special challenges. However, there are many scenarios of wireless networks, in which a certain quality-of-service has to be provided despite these conditions. In this regard, distributed real-time systems, whose realization by wireless multi-hop networks becomes increasingly popular, are a particular challenge. For such systems, it is of crucial importance that communication protocols are deterministic and come with the required amount of efficiency and predictability, while additionally considering scarce hardware resources that are a major limiting factor of wireless sensor nodes. This, in turn, does not only place demands on the behavior of a protocol but also on its implementation, which has to comply with timing and resource constraints.

The first part of this thesis presents a deterministic protocol for wireless multi-hop networks with time-critical behavior. The protocol is referred to as Arbitrating and Cooperative Transfer Protocol (ACTP), and is an instance of a binary countdown protocol. It enables the reliable transfer of bit sequences of adjustable length and deterministically resolves contest among nodes based on a flexible priority assignment, with constant delays, and within configurable arbitration radii. The protocol's key requirement is the collision-resistant encoding of bits, which is achieved by the incorporation of black bursts. Besides revisiting black bursts and proposing measures to optimize their detection, robustness, and implementation on wireless sensor nodes, the first part of this thesis presents the mode of operation and time behavior of ACTP. In addition, possible applications of ACTP are illustrated, presenting solutions to well-known problems of distributed systems like leader election and data dissemination. Furthermore, results of experimental evaluations with customary wireless transceivers are outlined to provide evidence of the protocol's implementability and benefits.

In the second part of this thesis, the focus is shifted from concrete deterministic protocols to their model-driven development with the Specification and Description Language (SDL). Though SDL is well-established in the domain of telecommunication and distributed systems, the predictability of its implementations is often insufficient as previous projects have shown. To increase this predictability and to improve SDL's applicability to time-critical systems, real-time tasks, an approved concept in the design of real-time systems, are transferred to SDL and extended to cover node-spanning system tasks. In this regard, a priority-based execution and suspension model is introduced in SDL, which enables task-specific priority assignments in the SDL specification that are orthogonal to the static structure of SDL systems and control transition execution orders on design as well as on implementation level. Both the formal incorporation of real-time tasks into SDL and their implementation in a novel scheduling strategy are discussed in this context. By means of evaluations on wireless sensor nodes, evidence is provided that these extensions reduce worst-case execution times substantially, and improve the predictability of SDL implementations and the language's applicability to real-time systems.


The present situation of control engineering in the context of automated production can be described as a tension field between its desired outcome and its actual consideration. On the one hand, the share of control engineering compared to the other engineering domains has significantly increased within the last decades due to rising automation degrees of production processes and equipment. On the other hand, the control engineering domain is still underrepresented within the production engineering process. Another limiting factor constitutes a lack of methods and tools to decrease the amount of software engineering efforts and to permit the development of innovative automation applications that ideally support the business requirements.
This thesis addresses this challenging situation by means of the development of a new control engineering methodology. The foundation is built by concepts from computer science to promote structuring and abstraction mechanisms for the software development. In this context, the key sources for this thesis are the paradigm of Service-oriented Architecture and concepts from Model-driven Engineering. To mold these concepts into an integrated engineering procedure, ideas from Systems Engineering are applied. The overall objective is to develop an engineering methodology to improve the efficiency of control engineering by a higher adaptability of control software and decreased programming efforts by reuse.


Kate Chase was said to be the most beautiful and the most intelligent woman of her age. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, is remembered today as Lincoln's secretary of the treasury and as a chief judge of the U. S. Supreme Court. In his own time, Chase was considered one of the nation's political giants; Abraham Lincoln described him as "one and a half times bigger than any other man" he had ever known. Carl Schurz's summary still echoes today: "More than anyone else he looked the great man. Tall, broad-shouldered, and proudly erect, . . . he was a picture of intelligence, strength, courage and dignity. He looked as you would wish a statesman to look."Throughout his political career, Chase sought ways to better the position of African Americans. A man of deep convictions, he publicly and consistently advocated voting rights for African Americans as early as 1845. While his political affiliations often shifted, to the end of his life he was consistent in his advocacy of universal male suffrage for African Americans. While his lieutenants were negotiating for his election by the legislature to the U.S. Senate, Chase insisted that part of the "deal" would be the repeal of Ohio's Black Laws, which discriminated against African Americans.Chase devoted much of his legal talent to creating a nationwide legal strategy by which slavery would be divorced from the national government and be solely dependent upon local government. His policy was summed up in his antislavery slogan: "Freedom National, Slavery Local." As Harold Hyman noted, "for a tumultuous one-third of a century [Chase] was the antislavery crusaders' premier legal strategist."In spite of Chase's egalitarian sentiments on race that our stereotypes suggest would be a hindrance to his political career, he was twice elected governor of the State of Ohio, twice elected to the U.S. Senate, and served as secretary of the treasury under President Lincoln. As Les Benedict has observed, Chase was a serious and important contender for the nomination of president of the United States in every election from 1856 through 1872. As chief justice of the United States, Chase is chiefly remembered for his nationalistic opinion in Texas v. White and his dissent in the Legal Tender Cases. His judicial reputation no doubt suffered from Felix Frankfurter's conclusion that his commerce clause opinions were of no value to the modern era and the negative assessment of Chase's chief justiceship by Frankfurter student and protege Charles Fairman. Modern biographers have offered a significantly more balanced assessment of Chase.Chase participated in some of the most important constitutional cases of his times, including authoring majority opinions in seven of the court's major Reconstruction cases. This article explores the influence that Kate Chase may have had on her father's dissent without opinion in the Fourteenth Amendment case of Bradwell v. Illinois.


A positive affection of human health by nutrition is of high interest, especially for bioactive compounds which are consumed daily in high amounts. This is the case for chlorogenic acids (CGA) ingested by coffee. This molecule class is associated with several possible beneficial health effects observed in vitro that strongly depend on their bioavailability. So far factors influencing bioavailability of CGA such as dose, molecule structure and site of absorption haven´t been investigated sufficiently.
Therefore we performed an in vivo dose-response study with ileostomists, who consumed three different nutritional doses of CGA ingested as instant coffee (4,525 (HIGH); 2,219 (MEDIUM); 1,053 (LOW) μmol CGA). CGA concentrations were determined in ileal fluid, urine and plasma. Furthermore, we conducted an ex vivo study with pig jejunal mucosa using the Ussing chamber model to confirm the in vivo observations. Individual transfer rates of CGA from coffee were investigated, namely: caffeoylquinic acid (CQA), feruloylquinic acid (FQA), caffeic acid (CA), dicaffeoylquinic acid (diCQA) and QA at physiological concentrations (0.2–3.5 mM). Samples were analyzed by HPLC-DAD, -ESI-MS and -ESI-MS/MS.
About ⅔ of the ingested CGA by coffee consumption were available in the colon dose independent. Nevertheless, the results showed that the consumption of higher CGA doses leads to a faster ileal excretion. This corresponds to a plasma AUC0-8h for CGA and metabolites of 4,412 ± 751 nM*h0-8-1 (HIGH), 2,394 ± 637 nM*h0-8-1 (MEDIUM) and 1,782 ± 731 nM*h0-8-1 (LOW) respectively, and a renal excretion of 8.0 ± 4.9% (HIGH), 12.1 ± 6.7% (MEDIUM) and 14.6 ± 6.8% (LOW). Moreover interindividual differences in gastrointestinal transit times were related to differences in total CGA absorption. Thus the variety of patient´s physiology is a decisive bioavailability factor for CGA uptake. This is corroborated ex vivo by a direct proportional relationship of incubation time with absorbed CGA amount.
The consumption of high CGA doses influences the metabolism pattern as an increasing glucuronidation was observed with consumption of increasing CGA doses. However, the different CGA doses have only minor effects on the overall bioavailability which was confirmed ex vivo by a non-saturable passive diffusion of 5-CQA. Furthermore, we identified in the Ussing chamber an active efflux secretion for 5-CQA that decreases its bioavailability and the physicochemical properties of the CGA subgroups as an important bioavailability factor. Transferred amount in increasing order: diCQA, trace amounts; CQA ≈ 1%; CA ≈ 1.5%; FQA ≈ 2%; and QA ≈ 4%.
Altogether, the consumption of increasing CGA doses by coffee had a minor effect on oral bioavailability in ileostomists, such as a slightly increased glucuronidation. Thus, the consumption of high amounts of CGA from coffee in the daily diet is not limiting the CGA concentrations at the site of possible health effects in the human body. However, according to the patient´s physiology the interindividual gastrointestinal transit time which is possibly influenced by dose is influencing CGA bioavailability. Moreover, ex vivo CGA absorption is governed by diffusion as an absorption mechanism corroborating an unsaturable uptake in vivo and by the individual physicochemical properties of CGA.


Despite an increasing number of women entering the economics profession during recent decades, it is still dominated by men. This paper summarizes the situation in academic economics in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and Sweden (substantial appendices, not previously available in English, detail the situation in Sweden). Women constitute about a third of the PhD graduates in each country, but their share of the economics full professors is still between 5 and 9 percent. Compared to other academic fields, economics has the greatest gender discrepancy in career attainment. We discuss various reasons for the under-representation of women, and call for continued efforts to increase the presence of women.


How natural disasters affect politics in developing countries is an important question, given the fragility of fledgling democratic institutions in some of these countries as well as likely increased exposure to natural disasters over time due to climate change. Research in sociology and psychology suggests traumatic events can inspire pro-social behavior and therefore might increase political engagement. Research in political science argues that economic resources are critical for political engagement and thus the economic dislocation from disasters may dampen participation. We argue that when the government and civil society response effectively blunts a disaster's economic impacts, then political engagement may increase as citizens learn about government capacity. Using diverse data from the massive 2010–11 Pakistan floods, we find that Pakistanis in highly flood-affected areas turned out to vote at substantially higher rates three years later than those less exposed. We also provide speculative evidence on the mechanism. The increase in turnout was higher in areas with lower ex ante flood risk, which is consistent with a learning process. These results suggest that natural disasters may not necessarily undermine civil society in emerging developing democracies.


Hold On to Your Dreams is the first biography of the musician and composer Arthur Russell, one of the most important but least known contributors to New York's downtown music scene during the 1970s and 1980s. With the exception of a few dance recordings, including "Is It All Over My Face?" and "Go Bang! #5," Russell's pioneering music was largely forgotten until 2004, when the posthumous release of two albums brought new attention to the artist. This revival of interest gained momentum with the issue of additional albums and the documentary film Wild Combination . Based on interviews with more than seventy of his collaborators, family members, and friends, Hold On to Your Dreams provides vital new information about this singular, eccentric musician and his role in the boundary-breaking downtown music scene.

Tim Lawrence traces Russell's odyssey from his hometown of Oskaloosa, Iowa, to countercultural San Francisco, and eventually to New York, where he lived from 1973 until his death from AIDS-related complications in 1992. Resisting definition while dreaming of commercial success, Russell wrote and performed new wave and disco as well as quirky rock, twisted folk, voice-cello dub, and hip-hop-inflected pop. "He was way ahead of other people in understanding that the walls between concert music and popular music and avant-garde music were illusory," comments the composer Philip Glass. "He lived in a world in which those walls weren't there." Lawrence follows Russell across musical genres and through such vital downtown music spaces as the Kitchen, the Loft, the Gallery, the Paradise Garage, and the Experimental Intermedia Foundation. Along the way, he captures Russell's openness to sound, his commitment to collaboration, and his uncompromising idealism.


Cities across the United States increasingly are debating the best way to use vacant "infill" lots. The community garden movement is one of the major contenders for the space, as are advocates for small public "pocket" parks and other green spaces. To allocate the land most efficiently and fairly, local governments need sound research about the value of such gardens and parks to their host communities. At the same time, cities are looking for new ways of financing the development and maintenance of public garden and park space. Some have turned to tax increment financing to generate resources, other are introducing impact fees or special assessments to cover the costs of urban parks. In order to employ such financing mechanisms, both policy concerns and legal constraints require local governments to base their charges on sound data about the impacts green spaces have on the value of the neighboring properties that would be forced to bear the incidence of the tax or fee. Despite the clear public policy need for such data, our knowledge about the impacts community gardens and other such spaces have on surrounding neighborhoods is quite limited. No studies have focused specifically on community gardens, and those that have examined the property value impacts of parks and other open space are cross-sectional studies inattentive to when the park opened, so that it is impossible to determine the direction of the causality of any property value differences found. The existing literature also has paid insufficient attention to qualitative differences among the parks studied and to differences in characteristics of the surrounding neighborhoods that might affect the parks' impacts. Applying hedonic methods to a unique data set of all property sales in New York City over several decades, we compared the prices of properties within a given distance of community gardens to prices of comparable properties outside the designated ring, but still located in the same neighborhood. By examining whether and how this difference changed once a community garden was established, we account for any systematic differences between the sites used for community gardens and other land in the neighborhood, thus resolving questions about the direction of causality and helping to disentangle the specific effects of community gardens from other contemporaneous changes occurring across neighborhoods and properties in the city We find that the opening of a community garden has a statistically significant positive impact on residential properties within 1000 feet of the garden, and that the impact increases over time. We find that gardens have the greatest impact in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. Higher quality gardens have the greatest positive impact. Finally, we find that the opening of a garden is associated with other changes in the neighborhood, such as increasing rates of homeownership, and thus may be serving as catalysts for economic redevelopment of the community. The Effect of Community Gardens On Neighboring Property Values Vicki Been and Ioan Voicu


This foreword to the Michigan Law Review's 2013 Survey of Books Related to the Law considers the history of the American legal treatise in light of the well-known criticisms of legal scholarship published by Judge Harry Edwards in 1992. As part of his critique, Edwards characterized the legal treatise as "[t]he paradigm of practical legal scholarship." In his words, treatises "create an interpretive framework; categorize the mass of legal authorities in terms of this framework; interpret closely the various authoritative texts within each category; and thereby demonstrate for judges or practitioners what 'the law' requires." Part I examines the origins of the legal treatise and its early importance to the U.S. lawyers; Part II the impact that the massive growth in published case law had on the treatise during the latter part of the nineteenth century; and Part III the implications for the treatise of shifts from print to electronic formats in the twentieth century. The Foreword concludes by speculating briefly on the continuing need for the treatise in light of Edwards's concerns and its place in the digital legal information environment.


The numerical simulation of microstructure models in 3D requires, due to enormous d.o.f., significant resources of memory as well as parallel computational power. Compared to homogeneous materials, the material hetrogeneity on microscale induced by different material phases demand for adequate computational methods for discretization and solution process of the resulting highly nonlinear problem. To enable an efficient/scalable solution process of the linearized equation systems the heterogeneous FE problem will be described by a FETI-DP (Finite Element Tearing and Interconnecting - Dual Primal) discretization. The fundamental FETI-DP equation can be solved by a number of different approaches. In our approach the FETI-DP problem will be reformulated as Saddle Point system, by eliminating the primal and Lagrangian variables. For the reduced Saddle Point system, only defined by interior and dual variables, special Uzawa algorithms can be adapted for iteratively solving the FETI-DP saddle-point equation system (FETI-DP SPE). A conjugate gradient version of the Uzawa algorithm will be shown as well as some numerical tests regarding to FETI-DP discretization of small examples using the presented solution technique. Furthermore the inversion of the interior-dual Schur complement operator can be approximated using different techniques building an adequate preconditioning matrix and therewith leading to substantial gains in computing time efficiency.


This paper reviews the empirical literature assessing the effects of subsidies for professional sports franchises and facilities. The evidence reveals a great deal of consistency among economists doing research in this area. That evidence is that sports subsidies cannot be justified on the grounds of local economic development, income growth or job creation, those arguments most frequently used by subsidy advocates. The paper also relates survey evidence showing that economists in general oppose sports subsidies. In addition to reviewing the empirical literature, we describe the economic intuition that probably underlies the strong consensus among economists against sports subsidies.


An inspirational story of a boy who loved the stars so much, he decided to catch one of his very own. The beautifully illustrated, original debut picture book from shining talent Oliver Jeffers. There once was a boy who loved stars so much that he wished he had one of his very own. Every night he watched the stars in the sky from his bedroom window and dreamed of how he could be their friend and how they could play hide-and-go-seek together. So, one day, he decided to set about catching a star of his very own...


For the first time, a book exists that compiles all the information candidates need to apply for their first Network security analysts job, or to apply for a better job. What you'll find especially helpful are the worksheets. It is so much easier to write about a work experience using these outlines. It ensures that the narrative will follow a logical structure and reminds you not to leave out the most important points. With this book, you'll be able to revise your application into a much stronger document, be much better prepared and a step ahead for the next opportunity. The book comes filled with useful cheat sheets. It helps you get your career organized in a tidy, presentable fashion. It also will inspire you to produce some attention-grabbing cover letters that convey your skills persuasively and attractively in your application packets. After studying it, too, you'll be prepared for interviews, or you will be after you conducted the practice sessions where someone sits and asks you potential questions. It makes you think on your feet! This book makes a world of difference in helping you stay away from vague and long-winded answers and you will be finally able to connect with prospective employers, including the one that will actually hire you. This book successfully challenges conventional job search wisdom and doesn't load you with useful but obvious suggestions ('don't forget to wear a nice suit to your interview,' for example). Instead, it deliberately challenges conventional job search wisdom, and in so doing, offers radical but inspired suggestions for success. Think that 'companies approach hiring with common sense, logic, and good business acumen and consistency? ' Think that 'the most qualified candidate gets the job? ' Think again! Time and again it is proven that finding a job is a highly subjective business filled with innumerable variables.


Change of ecosystems and the associated loss of biodiversity is among the most important environmental issues. Climate change, pollution, and impoundments are considered as major drivers of biodiversity loss. Organism traits are an appealing tool for the assessment of these three stressors, due to their ability to provide mechanistic links between organism responses and stressors, and consistency over wide geographical areas.
Additionally, traits such as feeding habits influence organismal performance and ecosystem processes. Although the response of traits of specific taxonomic groups to stressors is known, little is known about the response of traits of different taxonomic groups to stressors. Additionally, little is known about the effects of small impoundments on stream ecosystem processes, such as leaf litter decomposition, and food webs.
After briefly introducing the theoretical background and objectives of the studies, this thesis begins by synthesizing the responses of traits of different taxonomic groups to climate change and pollution. Based on 558 peer-reviewed studies, the uniformity (i.e., convergence) in trait response across taxonomic groups was evaluated through meta-analysis (Chapter 2). Convergence was primarily limited to traits related to tolerance.
In Chapter 3, the hypothesis that small impoundments would modify leaf litter decomposition rates at the sites located within the vicinity of impoundments, by altering habitat variables and invertebrate functional feeding groups (FFGs) (i.e., shredders), was tested. Leaf litter decomposition rates were significantly reduced at the study sites located immediately upstream (IU) of impoundments, and were significantly related to the abundance of invertebrate shredders.
In Chapter 4, the invertebrate FFGs were used to evaluate the effect of small impoundments on stream ecosystem attributes. The results showed that heterotrophic production was significantly reduced at the sites IU. With regard to food webs, the contribution of methane gas derived carbon to the biomass of chironomid larvae was evaluated through correlation of stable carbon isotope values of chironomid larvae and methane gas concentrations.
The results indicated that the contribution of methane gas derived carbon into stream benthic food web is low. In conclusion, traits are a useful tool in detecting ecological responses to stressors across taxonomic groups, and the effects of small impoundments on stream ecological integrity and food web are limited.


This landmark biography of celebrated Romantic poet John Keats explodes entrenched conceptions of him as a delicate, overly sensitive, tragic figure. Instead, Nicholas Roe reveals the real flesh-and-blood poet: a passionate man driven by ambition but prey to doubt, suspicion, and jealousy; sure of his vocation while bitterly resentful of the obstacles that blighted his career; devoured by sexual desire and frustration; and in thrall to alcohol and opium. Through unparalleled original research, Roe arrives at a fascinating reassessment of Keats' entire life, from his early years at Keates's Livery Stables through his harrowing battle with tuberculosis and death at the age of 25. Focusing on crucial turning points, Roe finds in the locations of Keats' poems new keys to the nature of his imaginative quest. Roe is the first biographer to provide a full and fresh account of Keats' childhood in the City of London and how it shaped the would-be poet. The mysterious early death of Keats' father, his mother's too-swift remarriage, living in the shadow of the notorious madhouse Bedlam - all these affected Keats far more than has been previously understood. The author also sheds light on Keats' doomed passion for Fanny Brawne, his circle of brilliant friends, hitherto unknown City relatives, and much more. Filled with revelations and daring to ask new questions, this book now stands as the definitive volume on one of the most beloved poets of the English language.


As new information is introduced and environmental changes occur, Plant Biology continues to develop and evolve as a science. Updated and revised to keep pace with these developments, the Fifth Edition of Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology provides a modern and comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of botany while retaining the important focus of natural selection, analysis of botanical phenomena, and diversity. Students are first introduced to topics that should be most familiar (plant structure), proceed to those less familiar (plant physiology and development), and conclude with topics that are likely least familiar to the introductory student (genetics, evolution, and ecology). Mauseth is sure to provide the latest material on molecular biology and plant biotechnology in an effort to keep pace with these advancing areas of study. All sections are written to be self-contained allowing for a flexible presentation of course material. Key Features: - Includes new content on molecular biology, plant biotechnology, and the most recent coverage of taxonomy and phylogeny of plants. - Now available with a new electronic laboratory manual. - Plants Do Things Differently boxes help students understand and compare plant biology with human biology. - End-of-chapter study guide includes nearly 50 or more questions in each chapter, urging students to test themselves on the most important points in the chapter. - Alternatives boxes encourage students to think expansively about alternative aspects of plant biology that are more advantageous in certain conditions.


Although now forgotten, organized markets in commodities like grain, cotton, sugar, coffee and spices became firmly established in London and Liverpool in the nineteenth century. These markets were stimulated by the rising volume of international trade, as Britain became the first industrial nation, a major importer of these commodities and a centre for organising their distribution elsewhere, especially in Europe. The story of these markets, and the role of law in their operation, is fascinating in itself. However, it also enables us to test some ideas about markets against the reality of what were, for a time, some of the leading physical and futures markets in commodities in the world. The first part of this article outlines key features in the organisation and operation of these markets; the second part concentrates on the central, if uncelebrated, functions of clearing and settling transactions in these markets; and finally there is a discussion of market integrity and the role of law in curbing abuse.


Software developers are often unsure of the exact name of the API method they need to use to invoke the desired behavior. Most state-of-the-art documentation browsers present API artefacts in alphabetical order. Albeit easy to implement, alphabetical order does not help much: if the developer knew the name of the required method, he could have just searched for it in the first place. In a context where multiple projects use the same API, and their source code is available, we can improve the API presentation by organizing the elements in the order in which they are more likely to be used by the developer. Usage frequency data for methods is gathered by analyzing other projects from the same ecosystem and this data is used then to improve tools. We present a preliminary study on the potential of this approach to improve the API presentation by reducing the time it takes to find the method that implements a given feature. We also briefly present our experience with two proof-of-concept tools implemented for Smalltalk and Java.


This study examined the genre of undergraduate mathematical proof writing by asking mathematicians and undergraduate students to read 7 partial proofs and identify and discuss uses of mathematical language that were out of the ordinary with respect to what they considered conventional mathematical proof writing. Three main themes emerged: First, mathematicians believed that mathematical language should obey the conventions of academic language, whereas students were either unaware of these conventions or unaware that these conventions applied to proof writing. Second, students did not fully understand the nuances involved in how mathematicians introduce objects in proofs. Third, mathematicians focused on the context of the proof to decide how formal a proof should be, whereas students did not seem to be aware of the importance of this factor.


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