In today's information society the vast technical progress and the sinking cost of information and communication technology provide new opportunities for information supply, and new technical support for communication and cooperation over distance. These trends also entail challenges such as supplying information that is adequate for a particular person in a specific situation as well as managing communication among geographically distributed parties efficiently. Context-aware systems that use sensors in order to analyse their environment and to adapt their behaviour. Yet, adequate tools for developing sensor-based infrastructures are missing. We have designed and developed Sens-ation, an open and generic service-oriented platform, which provides powerful, yet easy-to-use, tools to software developers who want to develop context-aware, sensor-based infrastructures. The service-oriented paradigm of Sens- ation enables standardised communication within individual infrastructures, between infrastructures and their sensors, but also among distributed infrastructures. On a whole, Sens- ation facilitates the development allowing developers to concentrate on the semantics of their infrastructures, and to develop innovative concepts and implementations of context-aware systems.


According to accepted wisdom, new paradigms of regulation are upon us. This Article challenges this conception. It revisits the work of the leading regulator and theoretician of regulation in post-Civil War U.S., Charles Francis Adams, Jr., and argues that contemporary regulation reverts to Adams' theory of regulation, rather than introducing a revolutionary chapter to the intellectual history of regulation in the United States. The Article operates on three levels. On one level, it offers a new interpretation of Adams' seminal theory by revealing the hold that Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism had on his work. On another level, the article uncovers the influence evolutionary thinking had on the rise of the American administrative state in general, and on the work of one of its greatest regulators in particular. Finally, in exposing the imprint of Social Darwinism in Adams' theory of regulation and connecting this theory to present models of regulation, the Article unearths and explores key theoretical foundations of much of contemporary thinking and practice in the field of administrative regulation. Thus, the Article reveals that the legacy of Social Darwinism, which originated in nineteenth century U.S. regulation, persists to this day.


Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins was the most important federalism decision of the Twentieth Century. Justice Brandeis's opinion for the Court stated unequivocally that "[e]xcept in matters governed by the Federal Constitution or by acts of Congress, the law to be applied in any case is the law of the state. . . . There is no federal general common law." Seventy-five years later, however, Erie finds itself under siege. Critics have claimed that it is "bereft of serious intellectual or constitutional support" (Michael Greve), based on a "myth" that must be "repressed" (Craig Green), and even "the worst decision of all time" (Suzanna Sherry). Other scholars, such as Caleb Nelson and Michael Green, have been less damning in their conclusions but nonetheless raised serious questions about Erie's reasoning. Out in the real world, Erie's restrictive vision of federal lawmaking has been undermined and circumvented by unfettered executive lawmaking and expansive theories of federal common law. This article undertakes to rescue Erie from its critics. Rather than reinventing the case's rationale, I argue that Justice Brandeis's reasoning was fundamentally sound. Although the case Erie overruled — Swift v. Tyson — was surely correct when decided, Justice Brandeis rightly read the Rules of Decision Act to foreclose the broad practice of "general federal common law" that had arisen by the end of the nineteenth century. And Brandeis was right to worry about divergence between the law applied in state and federal courts sitting within the same jurisdiction. Most important, Erie announced a constitutional principle of judicial federalism — that federal courts may not make law on their own, even in areas where Congress could legislate. This principle forms the intellectual core of modern federalism doctrine, which is primarily concerned with procedural and political limits on national lawmaking. More ambitiously, I hope that by shoring up Erie's intellectual foundations this essay may lend support to the vision of limited federal lawmaking that Erie embodied — that is, one in which the federal separation of powers reinforces federalism by limiting the occasions on which federal lawmaking may displace state law. That vision is of more than theoretical import. Its implications may govern practical controversies ranging from the domestic force of customary international law to the preemptive effect of federal regulatory policies on state tort law. Likewise, in an era of resurgent dynamism at the state level, Erie's respect for the preservation of state prerogatives in the absence of a federal legislative consensus takes on renewed importance.


When analyzing the consequences of and remedies for discrimination against African Americans, courts and scholars characterize African Americans as a minority. This Article shows that the traditional approach is wrong: When it mattered, when the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were enacted and for decades after, African Americans were a majority or controlling plurality in the states where most lived. African American-backed majoritarian governments controlled the South after the Civil War; while in power, they enacted strong civil rights laws and created a public education system. These policies were reversed, and segregation imposed, not because African Americans were a minority, destined to lose in the majoritarian political process, but rather through elimination of democratic politics and imposition of minority rule. African Americans and their white allies were stripped of their electoral majority through fraud, violence and illegal disenfranchisement. This Article argues that the most important harm African Americans suffered was something that the law has until now overlooked: Loss of the right to control the governments of several Southern states. This injury means that current African Americans disadvantage likely rests on a constitutional violation; Jim Crow could not have happened had democracy functioned as provided in the Constitution. Consideration of African American majority status also sheds new light on the counter-majoritarian difficulty. In reviewing measures oppressing African Americans, the Court did not have to balance majority rule against minority rights; instead, majority rule and constitutional rights both militated toward invalidation of laws passed by a minority to oppress the majority.


Remaining faithful to the conceptual underpinnings of philosophy, methodological approach, and language can present researchers with dilemmas when a researcher exercises the freedom to choose mixed-method approaches to make meaning from inquiry. In this article, the author explores one approach to maintaining consistency while deriving outcomes that are trustworthy and have authenticity. She demonstrates how a researcher can remain grounded in the world of the research subject and thereby maintain authenticity and transferability. The discussion of computer-aided data management by programs such as NVivo illustrates how these tools can be usefully employed in constructivist methods to assist the researcher with the extensive bulk of qualitative research data.


Learn all about the Nikon D7000?the fun and friendly For Dummies way!Whether you?re a digital camera beginner or an experienced photographer, this is the book you need to get the most out of the Nikon D7000, the update to Nikon?s popular D90 model. The helpful tips and tricks in this fun and easy guide will get you quickly up to speed on the D7000?s 16-megapixel sensor, 1080 HD video capabilities, eight-frames-per-second burst, improved ISO, and much more. Helps you get every bit of functionality out of the Nikon D7000 cameraWalks you through its exciting new features, including the 16-megapixel sensor, 1080 HD video, 8-frames-per-second burst, improved ISO, and 39 autofocus pointsGuides you through the basics and beyond on lighting, exposure, focus, and color Reviews the important steps of getting photos from the camera to a PC, developing an effective file system, and sharing photos via print or onlineShares photo-retouching tips and unique features of the camera that can be applied to various shooting situationsShoot stills, shoot video, and shoot, you?re a professional photographer! It all starts here, with this great guide.


In this article, we present the software architecture of a new generation of advisory systems using Intelligent Agent and Semantic Web technologies. Multi-agent systems provide a well-suited paradigm to implement negotiation processes in a consultancy situation. Software agents act as clients and advisors, using their knowledge to assist human users. In the presented architecture, the domain knowledge is modeled semantically by means of XML-based ontology languages such as OWL. Using an inference engine, the agents reason, based on their knowledge to make decisions or proposals. The agent knowledge consists of different types of data: on the one hand, private data, which has to be protected against unauthorized access; and on the other hand, publicly accessible knowledge spread over different Web sites. As in a real consultancy, an agent only reveals sensitive private data, if they are indispensable for finding a solution. In addition, depending on the actual consultancy situation, each agent dynamically expands its knowledge base by accessing OWL knowledge sources from the Internet. Due to the standardization of OWL, knowledge models easily can be shared and accessed via the Internet. The usefulness of our approach is proved by the implementation of an advisory system in the Semantic E-learning Agent (SEA) project, whose objective is to develop virtual student advisers that render support to university students in order to successfully organize and perform their studies.


Let's say you have a killer app idea for iPhone and iPad. Where do you begin? Head First iPhone and iPad Development will help you get your first application up and running in no time. You'll not only learn how to design for Apple's devices, you'll also master the iPhone SDK tools -- including Xcode -- and Objective-C programming principles to make your app stand out. Whether you're a seasoned Mac developer who wants to jump into the App store, or someone with strong object-oriented programming skills but no Mac experience, this book is a complete learning experience for creating eye-catching, top-selling iPhone and iPad applications. * Install the iPhone OS SDK and get started using XCode * Put Objective-C core concepts to work, including message passing, protocols, properties, and memory management * Take advantage of iPhone OS patterns such as datasources and delegates * Preview your applications in the Simulator * Build more complicated interactions that utilize multiple views, data entry/editing, and rotation * Work with the iPhone's camera, GPS, and accelerometer * Optimize, test, and distribute your application We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First iPhone and iPad Development has a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep.


The thesis at hand evaluates Open Source Business Process Management (BPM) Systems in the context of the R4eGov1 Project. The provision of concepts and tools to support and enable interoperability in pan-European networks of pubic administrations is one of the major objectives that R4eGov is aiming at. Thereby a strong focus lies on the interoperability of cross-organizational processes from the viewpoint of modeling, execution and monitoring. BPM can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of cross-organizational processes by restructuring them towards the needs of the entities involved. BPM is dependent on BPM systems that combine technologies of process modeling, business process analysis and execution along with their integration into adequate runtime environments and rule engines. The evaluation that is performed within the thesis investigates how far BPM systems can support several requirements of interoperability that have been developed by the R4eGov project. It also targets at analyzing those BPM system according to generic requirements on BPM and software tools. The investigation is build upon common BPM theories and standards for modeling business processes. It describes the origin and interdependencies of BPM and Workflow Management (WfM), highlighting similarities and differences from the technological and historical perspective. Moreover, it introduces web service standards and technologies that are used to build service-oriented architectures allowing greater flexibility in BPM. In addition the thesis introduces methods and best practices to evaluate software tools. It contains an evaluation framework for BPM tools that has been based on the software product evaluation standard ISO/IEC 14598. The evaluation framework comprises the definition of an R4eGov scenario and a catalogue of criteria for evaluating a set of selected Open Source BPM systems. The definition of the catalogue of criteria is build upon generic requirements on BPM systems and those that are specifically to R4eGov. The chosen methods and the core elements of the evaluation framework will be applied to the selected BPM systems Intalio BPMS,NetBeans IDE, and JBoss jBPM. Finally the results of the applied R4eGov scenario and of the applied catalogue of criteria are being discussed by highlighting individual strengths and weaknesses of the systems.


We live in an increasingly complex and interconnected world. Where technology, and its potential benefits and risks, are not bound by, and do not respect, jurisdictional borders. A world that sees technological innovation as being an integral component of the Anthropocene, and resilience as being fundamental to our—and the environment's—ability to flourish. With the age of the Anthropocene now upon us, there is increasing pressure on policy makers and scientists alike to develop robust agendas for socio-technical integration approaches, to innovate responsibly, and evaluate policy tools, methods and outcomes in real-time. Bringing together contributions and perspectives from the multidisciplinary S.NET community, Responsibility and Emerging Technologies: Experiences, Education and Beyond critically examines the responsible research and innovation policy landscape for emerging technologies. The volume, and its authors, highlight the fundamental roles that reflection, education and evaluation play, and the significance of culture at every step of the process.


Any model of corporate governance must answer two basic sets of questions: (1) Who decides? In other words, when push comes to shove, who has ultimate control? (2) Whose interests prevail? When the ultimate decisionmaker is presented with a zero sum game, in which it must prefer the interests of one constituency class over those of all others, whose interests prevail? On the means question, prior scholarship has almost uniformly favored either shareholder primacy or managerialism. This article argues that control - the power and right to exercise decisionmaking fiat - is vested neither in the shareholders nor the managers, but in the board of directors. According to this "director primacy" model, the corporation is a vehicle by which the board of directors hires various factors of production. The board of directors thus is not a mere agent of the shareholders, but rather is a sui generis body - a sort of Platonic guardian - serving as the nexus of the various contracts making up the corporation. As a positive theory of corporate governance, director primacy thus claims that fiat - centralized decisionmaking - is the essential attribute of efficient corporate governance. As a normative theory of corporate governance, director primacy claims that resolving the resulting tension between authority and accountability is the central problem of corporate law. On the ends question, prior scholarship has tended to favor either shareholder primacy or various forms of stakeholderism. Again, director primacy rejects both approaches. Although shareholder primacy and the shareholder wealth maximization norm are often conflated, one can have the latter without necessarily endorsing the former. Hence, this article argues that director decisionmaking primacy can be reconciled with a contractual obligation on the board's part to maximize the value of the shareholders' residual claim.


In this work, a series of ab-initio calculations based on density functional theory is presented. We investigated the properties of water and the inclusion complexes of cyclodextrins with various guest compounds such as phenol, aspirin, pinacyanol chloride dye and binaphtyl molecules in the environment of water as solvent. Our investigation of water includes the cluster units of water, the bulk properties of the liquid water and the crystalline ice structure. Some equilibrium structures of water clusters were prepared and their binding energies were calculated with the self-consistency density functional tight binding (SCC-DFTB) method. The global minimum water clusters of TIP4P classical modelled potential were also calculated using the DFTB method and Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP). All results show a non-linear behaviour of the binding energy per water molecule against water cluster size with some anomalies found for the lower clusters between 4 and 8 molecules.
We also calculated the melting temperatures of these water clusters having solid-like behaviour by heating. Though, the melting region of the heated structures is not well defined as a result of the pronounced fluctuations of the bonding network of the system giving rise to fluctuations in the observed properties, but nevertheless the range where the breakdown occurs was defined as the melting temperature of the clusters. The bulk properties of the liquid, such as radial distribution functions, calculated with the VASP method show good agreement with neutron diffraction scattering data with respect to positions and height of the peaks. The DFTB method gives good positions of the peaks but with too broad peaks due the approximations on which the method relies, which makes it less accurate. Due to the complexity of the hydrogen bonding network, it is difficult to obtain the real ice structure by mere cooling liquid water under normal condition without imposing external constraints such as extreme external pressure or electric field. A special rule of proton ordering was followed in order to prepare the real ice structure for our calculations. We succeeded in preparing a hexagonal tetrahedrally coordinated type of ice. The statical properties of this ice were calculated as well as the phonon spectra. The results were compared with neutron diffraction data and other available ab-initio} calculations.
The molecular dynamics simulations of inclusion complexes of beta-cyclodextrin with each of these guest molecules, phenol and aspirin show the encapsulation which are in good agreement with dichroism measurements. The inclusion complex of a dimer calculation of pinacyanol dye with some droplet of water inside gamma-cyclodextrin shows structural properties which can be ascribed to the experimental observation of UV/CD spectra of the chromophores, in which there is a split of the excited states of the monomer units. The calculations on chiral molecules of binaphtyl-beta-cyclodextrin complex shows a longitudinal axis as preferred axis of entry of the binaphtyl during the inclusion process rather than an axial propagation in agreement with circular dichroism measurements.
The investigated chiral separation ability of beta-cyclodextrin on the enantiomeric pair of this compound R and S, which differ in symmetry only by reflection, shows that the S-enantiomer has lower energy than the R-enantiomer as revealed by our ab-initio calculations.


The paper presents the results of a novel experiment testing the effects of environment complexity on strategic behavior, using a centipede game. Behavior in the centipede game has been explained either by appealing to failures of backward induction or by calling for preferences that induce equilibria consistent with observed behavior. By manipulating the way in which information is provided to subjects we show that reduced availability of information is sufficient to shift the distribution of take-nodes further from the equilibrium prediction. On the other hand, similar results are obtained in a treatment where reduced availability of information is combined with an attempt to elicit preferences for reciprocity, through the presentation of the centipede as a repeated trust game. Our results could be interpreted as cognitive limitations being more effective than preferences in determining (shifts in) behavior in our experimental centipede. Furthermore our results are at odds with the recent ones in Cox and James (2012), suggesting caution in generalizing their results. Reducing the availability of information may hamper backward induction or induce myopic behavior, depending on the strategic environment.


This monograph addresses the problem of "real-time" curve fitting in the presence of noise, from the computational and statistical viewpoints. It examines the problem of nonlinear regression, where observations are made on a time series whose mean-value function is known except for a vector parameter. In contrast to the traditional formulation, data are imagined to arrive in temporal succession. The estimation is carried out in real time so that, at each instant, the parameter estimate fully reflects all available data.Specifically, the monograph focuses on estimator sequences of the so-called differential correction type. The term "differential correction" refers to the fact that the difference between the components of the updated and previous estimators is proportional to the difference between the current observation and the value that would be predicted by the regression function if the previous estimate were in fact the true value of the unknown vector parameter. The vector o proportionality factors (which is generally time varying and can depend upon previous estimates) is called the "gain" or "smoothing" vector.The main purpose of this research is to relate the large-sample statistical behavior of such estimates (consistency, rate of convergence, large-sample distribution theory, asymptotic efficiency) to the properties of the regression function and the choice of smoothing vectors. Furthermore, consideration is given to the tradeoff that can be effected between computational simplicity and statistical efficiency through the choice of gains.Part I deals with the special cases of an unknown scalar parameter-discussing probability-one and mean-square convergence, rates of mean-square convergence, and asymptotic distribution theory of the estimators for various choices of the smoothing sequence. Part II examines the probability-one and mean-square convergence of the estimators in the vector case for various choices of smoothing vectors. Examples are libera ly sprinkled throughout the book. Indeed, the last chapter is devoted entirely to the discussion of examples at varying levels of generality.If one views the stochastic approximation literature as a study in the asymptotic behavior of solutions to a certain class of nonlinear first-order difference equations with stochastic driving terms, then the results of this monograph also serve to extend and complement many of the results in that literature, which accounts for the authors' choice of title.The book is written at the first-year graduate level, although this level of maturity is not required uniformly. Certainly the reader should understand the concept of a limit both in the deterministic and probabilistic senses (i.e., almost sure and quadratic mean convergence). This much will assure a comfortable journey through the first fourth of the book. Chapters 4 and 5 require an acquaintance with a few selected central limit theorems. A familiarity with the standard techniques of large-s mple theory will also prove useful but is not essential. Part II, Chapters 6 through 9, is couched in the language of matrix algebra, but none of the "classical" results used are deep. The reader who appreciates the elementary properties of eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and matrix norms will feel at home.MIT Press Research Monograph No. 42


An important aspect of managing African conservation areas involves understanding how large herbivores affect woody plant growth. Yet, data on growth rates of woody species in savannas are scarce, despite its critical importance for developing models to guide ecosystem management. What effect do browsing and season have on woody stem growth? Assuming no growth happens in the dry season, browsing should reduce stem growth in the wet season only. Secondly, do functional species groups differ in stem growth? For example, assuming fine-leaved, spiny species' growth is not compromised by carbon-based chemical defences, they should grow faster than broad-leaved, chemically defended species. Dendrometers were fixed at 20 cm in height on the main stems of 244 random plants of six woody species in three plots (all large herbivores excluded, partial exclusion, and control) and observed from late 2006 to early 2010. Average monthly increment (AMI) per dendrometer and season (dry, wet) was calculated and the interaction between plot and season tested per species, controlling for initial stem girth. AMIs of Combretum apiculatum, Dichrostachys cinerea and Grewia flavescens were zero in the dry season, whilst those of Acacia exuvialis, Acacia grandicornuta and Euclea divinorum were either positive or negative in the dry season. Wet-season AMI of D. cinerea and dry-season AMI of G. flavescens tended to be reduced by browser exclusion. Net AMI (sum of the seasonal AMIs) was tested per species, but results suggested that only D. cinerea tended to be affected by browser exclusion. The results also suggested that stem radial growth of some fast-growing species is more prone to reduction by browser exclusion than the growth of other species, potentially reducing their competitiveness and increasing their risk of extirpation. Finally, the usefulness of grouping woody species into simple functional groups (e.g. fine-leaved vs. broad-leaved) for ecosystem management purposes in savannas requires further consideration. Conservation implications: Growth rates of woody plants are important parameters in savanna models, but data are scarce. Monitoring dendrometers in manipulative situations over several years can help fill that gap. Results of such studies can be used to identify species prone to high risk of extirpation.


There is a body of literature that attests to Russian influence in the early development of Harbin, China, Edmonton's twin city, and northern Manchuria generally. What is not acknowledged in this literature, however, is that the "Russian" presence in Manchuria drew on considerable Ukrainian participation. This article explains why scholars of Manchuria have tended to refer to the settlers from the European parts of the Russian Empire only as "Russians" rather than distinguishing them according to their real national compartments. Then, by drawing on little known sources, an examination of the background to Ukrainian settlement in the region, the evolution of the community there, and the emergence of separate Ukrainian organizations, follows.


No one can escape a sense of awe when reflecting on the workings of the mind: we see, we hear, we feel, we are aware of the world around us. But what is the mind? What do we mean when we say we are "aware" of something? What is this peculiar state in our heads, at once utterly familiar and bewilderingly mysterious, that we call awareness or consciousness? In Physics in Mind, eminent biophysicist Werner R. Loewenstein argues that to answer these questions, we must first understand the physical mechanisms that underlie the workings of the mind. And so begins an exhilarating journey along the sensory data stream of the brain, which shows how our most complex organ processes the vast amounts of information coming in through our senses to create a coherent, meaningful picture of the world. Bringing information theory to bear on recent advances in the neurosciences, Loewenstein reveals a web of immense computational power inside the brain. He introduces the revolutionary idea that quantum mechanics could be fundamental to how our minds almost instantaneously deal with staggering amounts of information, as in the case of the information streaming through our eyes. Combining cutting-edge research in neuroscience and physics, Loewenstein presents an ambitious hypothesis about the parallel processing of sensory information that is the heart, hub, and pivot of the cognitive brain. Wide-ranging and brimming with insight, Physics in Mind breaks new ground in our understanding of how the mind works.


We prove that for all $\ell \ge 3$ and $\beta >0$ there exists a sparse oriented graph of arbitrarily large order with oriented girth $\ell$ and such that any $1/2 + \beta$ proportion of its arcs induces an oriented cycle of length $\ell$. As a corollary we get that there exist infinitely many oriented graphs with vanishing density of oriented girth $\ell$ such that deleting any $1/\ell$-fraction of their edges does not destroy all their oriented cycles. The proof is probabilistic.


Much of earlier work on predictive models for accidents has been focused on rural traffic or urban intersections. This work has aimed at identifying and investigating possible improvements to predictive models for accidents on urban links. A special focus has been on the accidents of vulnerable road users. The possible improvements investigated have been: a) the use of exposure data for vulnerable road users, b) the use of actual vehicle speeds, c) to separate vehicle accidents into single vehicle and multiple vehicle accidents and model each type separately. The study involved eight Swedish cities, of which six were included in the development of accident models. In addition to police-reported traffic accidents, data for the models were collected in specific field studies and partly from the cities. The study shows that the inclusion of exposure data for vulnerable road users in the models for vulnerable road users? accidents greatly improves the predictive ability of the models. Vehicle speeds were found to be very difficult to use in the models as vehicle speeds are highly correlated with most of the other variables and make the model coefficients unstable. The separate modelling of single and multiple vehicle accidents failed partly as the single vehicle accidents were too few for constructing sound models. The models for multiple vehicle accidents developed, however, had a better predictive ability than models for all vehicle accidents. Land use was the next important explanatory variable for most accident types after the exposure variables. Accident models were developed with one data set and validated with another data set. The models performed very well in prediction by explaining between 71% and 81% of the systematic variation in the validation data. The validation indicated that exponents were 0.5 for both the flows of pedestrians and motor vehicles in models for accidents involving vulnerable road users, and 1.0 for the motor vehicle flow exponent in the models for motor vehicle accidents. For bicyclist accidents the correct exponent for bicyclist flows is likely to be somewhat lower than 0.5, close to 0.35. The study also recommended practical uses for the models, listed the lessons learned from the modelling as well as proposed a number of topics for further research. (Less)


A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERJim Ottaviani returns with an action-packed account of the three greatest primatologists of the last century: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas. These three ground-breaking researchers were all students of the great Louis Leakey, and each made profound contributions to primatology and to our own understanding of ourselves. Tackling Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas in turn, and covering the highlights of their respective careers, "Primates" is an accessible, entertaining, and informative look at the field of primatology and at the lives of three of the most remarkable women scientists of the twentieth century. Thanks to the charming and inviting illustrations by Maris Wicks, this is a nonfiction graphic novel with broad appeal."


A recent evaluation of the potential raising of Clanwilliam Dam included an assessment of whether the operation of the dam would meet the flow quality and quantity requirements for the protection of the downstream river and its estuary, taking Olifants/Doring River basin-level considerations into account. The implications of meeting the ecological Reserve of the Olifants River downstream of Clanwilliam Dam to Bulshoek Weir, downstream of Bulshoek Weir to the confluence with the Doring River, and at the estuary, were assessed in terms of the impact on system yield. Some adjustments were made to the ecological Reserve to maximise the yield from a raised Clanwilliam Dam, in return for protection of the vitally important Doring River. Irrigation releases from Clanwilliam Dam were also restructured so that they met the ecological Reserve requirement for small floods of short duration to promote spawning in Clanwilliam yellowfish ( Labeobarbus capensis). The assessments presented demonstrate that small adjustments in the requirements that form the ecological Reserve can greatly enhance the possibility, and reduce the costs, of successful implementation.


This study looked at the effect of the global financial meltdown on the Nigerian money market. To start with, it identified the major problems associated with the Global financial crisis and its effects on the Nigeria economy. As the crisis affect trade and investment flows, the Nigerian money market have so far triggered a rebound and allayed panic about the systemic financial collapse. The Ordinary Least Square (OLS) technique of regression analysis was adopted in analyzing the empirical data for Non-crisis period from 2000-2005 and the crisis period from 2006-2009 after necessary adjustment were carried out on the relevant data. Money supply/Gross Domestic Product (which stands as proxy for the impact of the Global financial meltdown) serves as the dependent variable while other money market indicators (TBs, CPs, Bas, CDs, BLR and INF) serve as the explanatory variables in the first and second models. The findings from the empirical analysis showed that in the non-crisis era (2000-2005) the explanatory variables all met apriori expectation. However, in the crisis era, only the coefficient of inflation retained its apriori sign. This implies that economic activities were adversely affected by the global financial meltdown as seen in the adverse effect on financial deepening. This in turn has a corresponding effect on the Nigerian money market, thus dis-stabilizing its indicators. This can be attributed to the failure of the Nigerian money market regulator to fulfill its primary responsibilities of supplying needed funds to critical sectors where such funds are needed during the period of financial crisis. This study therefore recommends that adequate procedures for handling systemic crisis should be drawn up promptly in preparation for contingencies. Monetary authorities should identify the vulnerabilities of the money market and safeguard its effectiveness as a means of reducing the further effects of the financial meltdown on Nigerian economy at large.


The phase diagram of strongly interacting matter is one of the most exciting subjects of modern particle physics. Theoretically strongly interacting matter is described by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). At finite temperatures and densities two phase transitions are expected: the restoration of chiral symmetry and the deconfinement transition. In the standard scenario one expects the existence of a critical end point in the corresponding QCD phase diagram. Besides lattice gauge simulation, only applicable at vanishing chemical potential, calculations using effective models are the only way to access arbitrary regions of the QCD phase diagram. These models are constructed on the basis of the chiral symmetry of QCD. One of these effective models is the linear sigma model (LsM) supplemented by fermionic freedom. We have investigated the influence of various parameters and the axial anomaly on the restoration of the chiral symmetry and the existence and position of the critical end point in a LsM with three quark flavors. The chiral critical surface confirms the standard scenario of the QCD phase diagram. The investigated model includes no gluonic degrees of freedom and is therefore unable to describe effects associated with the confinement property of QCD. One possibility to include these effects is the coupling of the "Polyakov loop" to the fermionic degrees of freedom resulting in the Polyakov-Quark-Meson (PQM) model. In this model the relation of the two phase transitions was considered. In particular, it was investigated whether both transitions occur along one common phase boundary. At vanishing chemical potential a simultaneous transition is preferred. However, at finite chemical potential both transitions split and chiral symmetry is restored before the deconfinement transition. This leads to a quarkyonic phase in the PQM model. Generally, the chiral transition occurs at higher temperatures in the model with included confinement effects. In addition, various thermodynamic properties of strongly interacting matter were investigated. With the PQM model recent lattice data have been reproduced. The size of the critical region in the vicinity of the critical end point was investigated. Its shape can be explained by different values of the critical exponents for different paths towards the critical end point that we have explicitly calculated. An extrapolation technique, to extend results from lattice calculations to finite chemical potential, is based on a Taylor expansion of the pressure. A new technique has been developed to evaluate high coefficients with high precision. In combination with the possibility to calculate the thermodynamic potential in the PQM model at finite chemical potential, this allows us for the first time to test the method in a realistic model for strongly interacting matter. It turns out that even with the 24th coefficient one cannot reliably estimate the position of the critical endpoint.


In 1998, the conservative provocateur Ann Coulter made waves when she wrote that President Clinton should be either impeached or assassinated. Coulter was roundly - and rightly - condemned for suggesting that the murder of the President might be justified, but her conceptual linking of presidential impeachment and assassination was not entirely unfounded. Indeed, Benjamin Franklin had made the same linkage over two hundred years earlier, when he noted at the Constitutional Convention that, historically, the removal of "obnoxious" chief executives had been accomplished by assassination. Franklin suggested that a proceduralized mechanism for removal - impeachment - would be preferable. This Article for the first time takes Franklin's comments seriously, viewing impeachment as closely tied to assassination. The Article first unpacks Franklin's statement by analyzing what were, for Franklin and his contemporaries, two paradigm cases of just killings of chief magistrates: those of Julius Caesar and Charles I. From these cases, it draws an understanding of the substantive law of presidential impeachment - or, put differently, it argues that we ought to understand impeachable offenses as (what might otherwise be) assassinable offenses. The Constitution's innovation in executive removal lay in pairing this older substantive law with new procedures meant to domesticate it and to mitigate the drawbacks associated with political murder. The Article then traces the interaction of these substantive and procedural features at two key moments for the American presidency: the assassination of Abraham Lincoln followed closely by the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton. The Article then concludes by briefly discussing the impeachability of Richard Nixon.


Student athletes balance academic, social, and athletic demands, often leading to increased levels of stress and poor sleep. This study explores the relationship between sleep quality, sleep hygiene, and psychological distress in a sample of student athletes. Ninety-four student athletes completed the six-item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), Sleep Hygiene Practice Scale, and four components from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Age, gender, and sport were also collected. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index revealed that 44.7% of student athletes received ≥6.5 hr of sleep each night; 31% of athletes showed signs of severe mental illness according to the K6. Stepwise regression predicted K6 scores with the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Sleep Hygiene Practice Scale scores as independent variables. A significant model accounting for 26% of the variation in K6 scores emerged; sleep schedule and sleep disturbances were significant predictors. Athletic staff should highlight the importance of sleep for mental health; suggestions on how to help athletes are provided.


Cyclists are more likely to be injured in fatal crashes than motorised vehicles. To gain detailed and precise behav-ioural data of road users, i.e. trajectories, a measuring campaign was conducted. Therefore, a black-spot for accidents with cyclists in Berlin, Germany was selected. The traffic has been detected by a fully automated traffic video analysis system continuously for twelve hours. The video surveillance system is capable of automatically extracting trajectories, classifying road user types and precise determining and positioning of conflicts and accidents. Additionally, pre-conflict and pre-accident situations could be analysed to provide further in-depth understanding of accident causation. The evaluation of the measuring campaign comprised the investigation of traffic parameters, e.g. traffic flow, as well as traffic-safety related parameters based on Surrogate Safety Measures (SSM). Furthermore, the spatial and temporal distributions of conflicts involving cyclists were determined. As a result, three possible conflict clusters could be identified, of which one cluster could be confirmed by detailed video analysis, showing conflicts caused by right turning vehicles.


In this article, the author discusses the problem of ensuring equality and non-descrimination in a legal system. Equality and non-descrimination constitute universally recognized standards in the protection of human rights. At the same time, one can hardly assert that the universal community has put an end to discrimination. The author considers the problem as applied to the Russianlegal system. The standard is incorporated in the Russian Constitution and in Russian legislation. However, ensuring equality and non-descrimination still remains topical in Russia. Based on his analysis of legislation and judicial practice, the author concludes that the problem reveals itself on the levels of both law-making and law application, the latter including administration of justice. As one of the conclusions, the author raises a question: is legal discrimination inherent in a legal system like other negative phenomena, such as delinquency, incoherencies, lacunas, defects, conflicts of legal norms and breaches of law-making procedural rules?


Hypothetical bias is one of the main issues bedeviling the field of nonmarket valuation. The general criticism is that survey responses reflect how people would like to behave, rather than how they actually behave. In our study of climate change and emissions reductions, we took advantage of the increasing bulk of evidence from psychology and economics that addresses the effects of making promises, in order to investigate the effect of an oath script in a contingent valuation survey. The survey was conducted in Sweden and China, and its results indicate that an oath script has significant effects on respondent behavior in answering willingness-to-pay (WTP) questions, some of which vary by country. In both countries, the share of zero WTP responses and extremely high WTP responses decreases when an oath script is used, which also results in lower variance. In China, the oath script also reduces the average WTP, cutting it by half in certain instances. We also found that the oath script has different impacts on various respondent groups. For example, without the oath script, Communist party members in China are more likely than others to have a positive WTP for emissions reductions, but with the oath script, there is no longer any difference between the groups.


"The purpose of this study was to evaluate compensatory biomechanical patterns in the lower extremity created by restricted knee flexion and ankle dorsiflexion when performing squats. Forty two healthy subjects (21 men, 21 women; 22.5 (4.5) years, 73.8 (17.8) kg, 167.5 (12.5) cm) participated in the study. Data were collected using a force plate and a 3-d electromagnetic tracking device for bilateral lower extremity analyses. Three parallel squats were performed in non braced, right knee restricted and right ankle restricted conditions. Dependent measures were hip, knee and ankle total joint displacement and work done on the hip, knee and ankle during the eccentric portion of the squat. Three repeated measures ANOVAs compared lower extremity kinematics between conditions, while one repeated measure ANOVAs evaluated lower extremity kinetics. Mean hip, knee and ankle ROM was reported, as was sagittal plane work done on the hip, knee and ankle for each condition and limb. The primary findings of this study indicate hip and ankle flexion displacement significantly decreased in the contralateral (non-braced) limb during the ankle joint restricted condition. Ipsilateral (braced) limb hip, knee and ankle flexion significantly decreased during the knee restricted condition, while ipsilateral knee and ankle flexion decreased during the ankle restricted condition. Lower extremity sagittal plane energetic changes occurred in the ipsilateral knee and ankle when the knee joint was restricted and at the ipsilateral ankle in the ankle restricted condition. Relative and absolute shifts in work done on the hip, knee and ankle when compared to the non braced squat were observed. This study may best serve as a general sagittal plane model for clinicians and coaches to reference when using the parallel squat in patients/athletes with knee and ankle dysfunction. This has practical significance to clinicians as these substitutions in work could result in overuse (secondary) injury to the compensatory site or insufficient loading to the dysfunctional site, rendering it weak and susceptible to additional primary injury or limiting the athletes maximal performance. "--Abstract from author supplied metadata.


Dionysius of Halicarnassus was born before 53 BCE and went to Italy before 29 BCE. He taught rhetoric in Rome while studying the Latin language, collecting material for a history of Rome, and writing. His Roman Antiquities began to appear in 7 BCE. Dionysius states that his objects in writing history were to please lovers of noble deeds and to repay the benefits he had enjoyed in Rome. But he wrote also to reconcile Greeks to Roman rule. Of the 20 books of Roman Antiquities (from the earliest times to 264 BCE) we have the first 9 complete; most of 10 and 11; and later extracts and an epitome of the whole. Dionysius studied the best available literary sources (mainly annalistic and other historians) and possibly some public documents. His work and that of Livy are our only continuous and detailed independent narratives of early Roman history. Dionysius was author also of essays on literature covering rhetoric, Greek oratory, Thucydides, and how to imitate the best models in literature. The Loeb Classical Library publishes a two-volume edition of the critical essays; the edition of Roman Antiquities is in seven volumes.


Inventory of records of Lamar County housed in the Lamar County Courthouse in Paris, Texas. Begins with an introduction and explanation of the roles of various county government offices. Describes the records of the Commissioners Court, County Judge, County Clerk, County Court, County Attorney, District Clerk, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Tax Assessor-Collector, Treasurer, and Auditor.
Also provides a list of Lamar County records and an index.


Intraocular pressure (IOP) is a highly heritable risk factor for primary open-angle glaucoma and is the only target for current glaucoma therapy. The genetic factors which determine IOP are largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study for IOP in 11,972 participants from 4 independent population-based studies in The Netherlands. We replicated our findings in 7,482 participants from 4 additional cohorts from the UK, Australia, Canada, and the Wellcome Trust Case-Control Consortium 2/Blue Mountains Eye Study. IOP was significantly associated with rs11656696, located in GAS7 at 17p13.1 (p = 1.4×10−8), and with rs7555523, located in TMCO1 at 1q24.1 (p = 1.6×10−8). In a meta-analysis of 4 case-control studies (total N = 1,432 glaucoma cases), both variants also showed evidence for association with glaucoma (p = 2.4×10−2 for rs11656696 and p = 9.1×10−4 for rs7555523). GAS7 and TMCO1 are highly expressed in the ciliary body and trabecular meshwork as well as in the lamina cribrosa, optic nerve, and retina. Both genes functionally interact with known glaucoma disease genes. These data suggest that we have identified two clinically relevant genes involved in IOP regulation.


Despite recent progress in AI planning, many benchmarks remain challenging for current planners. In many domains, the performance of a planner can greatly be improved by discovering and exploiting information about the domain structure that is not explicitly encoded in the initial PDDL formulation. In this paper we present and compare two automated methods that learn relevant information from previous experience in a domain and use it to solve new problem instances. Our methods share a common four-step strategy. First, a domain is analyzed and structural information is extracted, then macro-operators are generated based on the previously discovered structure. A filtering and ranking procedure selects the most useful macro-operators. Finally, the selected macros are used to speed up future searches.

We have successfully used such an approach in the fourth international planning competition IPC-4. Our system, Macro-FF, extends Hoffmann's state-of-the-art planner FF 2.3 with support for two kinds of macro-operators, and with engineering enhancements. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our ideas on benchmarks from international planning competitions. Our results indicate a large reduction in search effort in those complex domains where structural information can be inferred.


eHealth is an emerging area that boosts up with advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Due to variety of eHealth solutions developed by different IT firms with no proper shared standards, interoperability issue is then raised. Blekinge County healthcare organizations use two different systems MAGNA CURA and SYStem Cross. The two systems work well in their own scope. But these systems often need to communicate and coordinate for exchange of patients' information which leads to the problem of interoperability. The aim of this research study is to provide fast and reliable peer-to-peer solution for exchange of patient information so as to achieve interoperability among healthcare organizations. This proposed solution is tested as a middleware between MAGNA CURA and SYStem Cross currently used by Blekinge County healthcare organizations. A qualitative approach including in-depth literature review and a semi-structured face-to-face interview has been used for understanding the context of research problem. We have tested our approach through an executable prototype. The prototype is implemented using JXTA platform. We have learned that Blekinge healthcare is decentralized and heterogonous in nature. For such kind of environment, peer-to-peer communication approach is suggested. According to the test result, the suggested syntactic level interoperability between the two mentioned systems has been achieved.


This is an account for the combinatorially minded reader of various categories of directed and undirected graphs, and their analogies with the category of sets. As an application, the endomorphisms of a graph are in this context not only composable, giving a monoid structure, but also have a notion of adjacency, so that the set of endomorphisms is both a monoid and a graph. We extend Shrimpton's (unpublished) investigations on the morphism digraphs of reflexive digraphs to the undirected case by using an equivalence between a category of reflexive, undirected graphs and the category of reflexive, directed graphs with reversal. In so doing, we emphasise a picture of the elements of an undirected graph, as involving two types of edges with a single vertex, namely 'bands' and 'loops'. Such edges are distinguished by the behaviour of morphisms with respect to these elements.


Wind industry has been challenged by premature subsystem/component failures. Various reliability data collection efforts have demonstrated their values in supporting wind turbine reliability and availability research & development and industrial activities. However, most information on these data collection efforts are scattered and not in a centralized place. With the objective of getting updated reliability statistics of wind turbines and/or subsystems so as to benefit future wind reliability and availability activities, this report is put together based on a survey of various reliability databases that are accessible directly or indirectly by NREL. For each database, whenever feasible, a brief description summarizing database population, life span, and data collected is given along with its features & status. Then selective results deemed beneficial to the industry and generated based on the database are highlighted. This report concludes with several observations obtained throughout the survey and several reliability data collection opportunities in the future.


Trinidad Carnival is a multifaceted festival that emerged out of slavery as a form of rebellion against the oppressive European colonialism of Trinidad (Hill, 1962). Traditionally, masquerade costumes embodied socio-political characters meant to mock or critique the slave-holders. However, today the majority of costumes have shifted to a more global costume form consisting of "bikini, beads, and feathers" (Mason, 1998). This modern day costume reflects a shift to a predominantly younger masquerade population. The "bikini, beads, and feathers" style is also representative of tensions in Trinidad society about the nature of the Carnival celebration today. The focus is now on the younger generation, who are heavily influenced by global styles and fashion, reflected in their preference for a "Las Vegas Showgirl" style masquerade costume (Scher, 2002). Carnival and its costumes are being produced as part of the global economy, with outside influences helping to shape how Trinidad celebrates its Carnival. In this study, the "bikini, beads, and feathers" masquerade costume is positioned as central to the Carnival experience, and the focus is on understanding the voices of the younger generation, currently a gap in existing literature. To accomplish this goal, this study employs an ethnographic methodology to explore the lived experiences of a broad demographic of Carnival participants. A multi-method data collection approach, including depth interviews, participant observation, journals, and visual documentation, is used to ensure depth and scope of data. Thirty-four participants were chosen through a purposive sampling approach. Participants included males and females, aged 22 to 63, and were engaged in a range of Carnival activities, from masquerade to costume production. Data were analyzed for commonalities and differences that surfaced across participants' experiences, which were then used to structure a thematic interpretation. Four conceptual areas contextualize the issues impacting present day Carnival celebrations: Embodying the Culture of Trinidad, Aesthetics and the Carnival Experience, The Economics of Experience, and Experiences in Social Context. Each area serves to address the broader issues surfacing from participants' lived experiences. They also help to shed light on the impact of the younger generation on present day Carnival celebrations and in particular, masquerade costume. A second level of interpretation was then developed to theorize masquerade costume as key to understanding Carnival as lived experience. This study posits that the "bikini, beads, and feathers" style masquerade costume is essentially the voice of the younger generation. This style reflects how Trinidad society has changed and the extent to which Carnival has become a global product. Therefore, this study sheds light on the critical importance of dress to understanding the cultural phenomenon that is Carnival. Areas of potential further research, including implications of the "bikini, beads, and feathers" for the "authenticity" and internationalization of the Trinidad Carnival experience are discussed.


The following fictional case is intended as a learning tool within the Pathology Competencies for Medical Education (PCME), a set of national standards for teaching pathology. These are divided into three basic competencies: Disease Mechanisms and Processes, Organ System Pathology, and Diagnostic Medicine and Therapeutic Pathology. For additional information, and a full list of learning objectives for all three competencies, see http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/2374289517715040.1


Based on information derived from 85 case studies across all EU Member States and other sources, the project outlines the features peculiar to SMEs in their anticipation and management of restructuring, explores the main drivers of change and analyses the factors influencing successful restructuring. It offers some insight into how restructuring impacts on workers and the company itself and sets out several policy pointers for future action. This is the country report for the United Kingdom.


Criticisms of endogenous growth models with flat rate taxes have highlighted two features that are not substantiated by the data. These models generally imply: (1) that economic growth must fall with the share of government expenditures in output across countries, and (2) that one-time shifts in marginal tax rates should instantenously lead to similar shifts in output growth. In contrast, we show that allowing for heterogeneous households and progressive taxes into otherwise conventional linear growth models radically changes these predictions. In particular, economic growth does not have to fall, and may even increase, with the share of government expenditures in output across countries. Moreover, discrete permanent shifts in tax policy now lead to protracted transitions between balanced growth paths. Both of these findings hold whether or not government expenditures are thought to be productive and better conform to available empirical evidence. JEL Classification: E13, O23


From the Publisher:
As we move into the twenty-first century the most important question for businesses everywhere is: What are we going to do about the Internet? The two most qualified people in the country to answer that question may be Al Ries and Laura Ries. Not only are they the authors of the BusinessWeek bestseller The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, they are also consultants to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.
This book is the result of their hands-on work with both large and small companies as well as Internet start-ups and established Internet brands. Brash, bold, and mercifully succinct, The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is the definitive text for businesses eager to jump on the Internet expressway.
In the book you'll learn why:
The Internet can be a business or a medium for your brand, but not both. Interactivity is the single most important ingredient of any Internet site. The kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name. Being second in a category is tantamount to being nowhere. You have to be fast. You have to be first. You have to be focused. Everyone is talking about convergence while just the opposite is happening.
The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding will also give you tangible information on how to successfully build your company, product, service, or self into a hot and profitable brand on the Internet. Specifically you'll learn how to:
Build a brand that will dominate a category over an extended period of time. Find a proper name (instead of a common one) for your Website. Take your brand into the global marketplace. Avoid the biggest mistake in Internet branding: the belief that you can do everything. Take advantage of the transformations that will occur in all aspects of life, thanks to the power of the Internet.
With characteristic counterculture observations and signature marketing savvy, Ries and Ries bring their expertise to branding on the Internet, the most challenging problem in the world of marketing today. No one who wants to turn a brand into a global phenomenon should ignore their sage advice.


In the wake of the recent financial crisis, several commentators have suggested a transaction tax on financial markets. The potential consequences of such a tax could be hazardous to the financial markets affected as well as to the economy. In this paper, we review the relevant theoretical and empirical literature and apply our findings to estimate the possible impact of a transaction tax on U.S. futures market activity as well as its utility as potential tax revenue. We find that the impact of a transaction tax on market activity (trading volume, bid-ask spread, and price volatility) will determine the potential of such a tax as a source of government revenue. We also find that the current estimated elasticity of trading volume with respect to a transaction tax in the U.S. futures markets is much higher than those reported in the extant literature and those used by the government in such computation. We show that a transaction tax on futures trading will not only fail to generate the expected tax revenue, it will likely drive business away from U.S. exchanges and toward untaxed foreign markets. A review of the literature and estimates contained here indicates that there is an inverse relationship between transaction cost (bid-ask spread) and trading volume; to the extent that a transaction tax increases costs, trading volumes will likely fall. There is also a positive relationship between transaction cost and price volatility, suggesting that the imposition of a transaction tax could actually increase financial market fragility, increasing the likelihood of a financial crisis rather than reducing it. Perversely, the imposition of a financial transaction tax could have results that are exactly the opposite of those hoped for by its proponents.


A configuration $(p_q, n_k)$ is a collection of $p$ points and $n$ straight lines in the Euclidean plane so that every point has $q$ straight lines passing through it and every line has $k$ points lying on it. A configuration is astral if it has precisely $\lfloor {q+1\over2} \rfloor$ symmetry classes (transitivity classes) of lines and $\lfloor{k+1\over2} \rfloor$ symmetry classes of points. An even astral configuration is an astral configuration configuration where $q$ and $k$ are both even. This paper completes the classification of all even astral configurations.


Health promotion and education efforts often are designed to promote behavior changes among clients, students, or participants. The primary emphasis of health promotion has been the initial behavior change process, with little attention directed to follow-up or aftercare. The relapse prevention model (RP) presents a strategy to enhance the likelihood of maintaining a behavior change using methods clearly rooted in social learning theory. This article provides an overview of the RP model and examples of the implication of RP for health promotion and education programs.
ealth education has been defined as any combination of learning experiences designed to facilitate voluntary adaptations of behavior.1 Thus, the primary emphasis has been on prevention or early intervention to help people to maintain healthy lifestyles or to change behaviors to reduce risk prior to a diseased state. Theoretical underpinnings of health education have focused on how learning takes place and how learning leads to influencing behavior.2 Health education efforts have not been directly involved in the treatment or the rehabilitation of individuals with regard to maladaptive behavior, however, the two fields draw from the same theories to explain, prevent, and/or remediate behaviors related to health.
This article addresses the relapse prevention model (RP), including the basic tenets of the model, as it relates to treatment of maladaptive behaviors. Finally, additional skills proposed by the RP model that may be utilized in health education programs are suggested.


Currently, we are in the midst of a reexamination of chief executive officer (CEO) remuneration that has more than the usual amount of energy and substance. While much of the fury over CEO pay has been aimed at executives associated with accounting scandals and collapses in the prices of their company's shares, the controversies over GE CEO Jack Welch and NYSE CEO Richard Grasso signal a watershed. In their cases the competence and performance of both men were unquestioned: the issue seems to be the perception that they received "too much" and that there was inadequate disclosure.
We provide, history, analysis and over three dozen recommendations for reforming the system surrounding executive compensation.
Section I introduces a conceptual framework for analyzing remuneration and incentives in organizations. We then analyze the agency problems between managers and shareholders and between board members and shareholders, and discuss how well designed pay packages can mitigate the former while well designed corporate governance policies and processes can mitigate the latter. We say "mitigate" because no solutions will eliminate these agency problems completely. Since bad governance can easily lead to value destroying pay practices our discussion includes analyses of corporate governance as well as pay design. Because optimal remuneration policies cannot be designed and managed without consideration of the powerful relations and interactions between the financial markets and the firm, its top-level executives and the board, we devote significant space to these factors.
Section II offers a brief history of executive remuneration from 1970 to the present. Section III examines and explains the forces behind the US-led escalation in share options. We argue that boards and managers falsely perceive stock options to be inexpensive because of accounting and cash-flow considerations and, as a result, too many options have been awarded to too many people.
Section IV defines and discusses the agency costs of overvalued equity as the source of recent corporate scandals. Agency problems associated with overvalued equity are aggravated when managers have large holdings of stock or options. Because neither the market for corporate control or the usual incentive compensation systems can solve the agency problems of overvalued equity, they must be resolved by corporate governance systems. And few governance systems were strong enough to solve the problems. As the overvalued equity problem illustrates, while remuneration can be a solution to agency problems, it can also be a source of agency problems.
Section V discusses several widespread problems with pay processes and practices, and suggests changes in both corporate governance and pay design to mitigate such problems: including problems with the appointment and pay-setting process, problems with equity-based pay plans, and problems with the design of traditional bonus plans. We show how traditional plans encourage managers to ignore the cost of capital, manage earnings in ways that destroy value, and take actions to deceive investors and capital markets.
Section VI defines and analyzes a new concept: what we call the Strategic Value Accountability issue. This is the accountability for making the link between strategy formulation and choice and the value consequences of those choices - basically the link between internal managers and external capital markets. The critical importance of this accountability, its assignment, and its implications for performance measurement and remuneration have long been unrecognized and therefore ignored in most organizations.
Section VII analyzes the complex relationships between managers, analysts, and the capital market, the incentives firms have to manage earnings to meet or beat analyst forecasts, and shows how managers playing the earnings-management game systematically erode the integrity of their organization and destroy organizational value. We highlight the puzzling equilibrium in this market that seems to suggest collusion between analysts and managers at the expense of investors - an area that is ripe for further research.


The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination protects a person from being compelled to provide a testimonial communication that is incriminating in nature. In a number of cases starting to wind through state and federal courts, the government has sought to compel suspects and defendants to provide passwords and encryption keys despite claims of Fifth Amendment Privilege by witnesses and suspects. For example, in a Colorado case, the government sought to compel the defendant to enter a password into a laptop or otherwise provide access to encrypted data stored on her computer. The government apparently believed that the encrypted computer files contained evidence of fraudulent real estate transactions. Encryption means the process by which a person changes plain, understandable information into unreadable letters and numbers using a mathematical algorithm. Encrypted data is accessible only through the use of a password or encryption key. The use of encryption technology by consumers has grown in recent years; computer and software manufacturers consider disk encryption a basic computer security measure and include disk encryption tools as a standard feature on most new computers. Recent cases have focused on information stored on portable devices such as cell phones or computers. Because these devices are easy to steal or lose, consumers commonly use passwords to limit access to the devices, and encryption to prevent any unauthorized users from accessing sensitive data.The government may gain access to password protected electronic devices and encrypted data through a number of legal means. In many cases, the government may have seized the electronic devices after executing a search warrant. In other cases, the government may have conducted a warrantless search of password protected electronic devices and encrypted data under an applicable exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement. Most recently, the third party service providers received subpoenas from law enforcement or private entities to provide information stored for users by the third party service providers. This article addresses the question of whether the Fifth Amendment prevents the government from forcing a witness to provide a password or encryption key to permit access to digital files. The Fifth Amendment generally protects citizens from being compelled to give incriminating testimony. The privilege extends not only to "answers that would in themselves support a conviction," but also includes statements "which would furnish a link in the chain of evidence" needed by the prosecution. The question of whether passwords and encryption keys are covered by the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination turns on courts' views of the nature of this information. The privilege against self-incrimination is limited to "testimonial" evidence, or evidence that, explicitly or implicitly, provides or discloses information. The privilege does not apply to physical evidence, such as fingerprints or blood samples. This issue has appeared infrequently in courts. The few courts to address this issue have generally concluded that the provision of a password on encryption key is testimonial because the provision of this information is essentially an admission that the person had possession and control over, and access to, the computer, files, or data. Yet this is not the end of the analysis. Some of the early publications concerning this issue suggested that circumstances where suspects will successfully raise Fifth Amendment challenges to government efforts to compel the production of passwords and encryption keys were likely to be "rare." A significant basis for this hypothesis was that, in many cases, production of the incrimination evidence would be exempt from Fifth Amendment protections under the foregone conclusion doctrine. Under the foregone conclusion doctrine, the provision of information is not subject to the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when the existence and location of information are known to the government, and the act of providing the evidence adds little or nothing to the government's case. The foregone conclusion doctrine has been applied in limited instances to encrypted files stored on laptops and personal computers. However, recent changes in the technological landscape suggest that this issue is likely to become more prevalent in future litigation. The use of cloud computing services to store documents and images has grown significantly. Users of cloud services are less likely to actually save images and documents on handheld or personal devices but, instead, use handheld or personal devices to access images and documents saved on remote computers. In those situations, the possession of an encryption key or password may become important in order for the government to show ownership or access to records, websites or communications. As a result, suspects and defendants may be successful in arguing that the foregone conclusion doctrine does not make the privilege against self-incrimination inapplicable.


Summary We report the case of a 70-year-old previously healthy female who presented acutely to the Accident and Emergency department with left-sided vasomotor symptoms including reduced muscle tone, weakness upon walking and slurred speech. Physical examination confirmed hemiparesis with VIIth nerve palsy and profound hepatomegaly. A random glucose was low at 1.7 mmol/l, which upon correction resolved her symptoms. In hindsight, the patient recalled having had similar episodes periodically over the past 3 months to which she did not give much attention. While hospitalized, she continued having episodes of symptomatic hypoglycaemia during most nights, requiring treatment with i.v. dextrose and/or glucagon. Blood tests including insulin and C-peptide were invariably suppressed, in correlation with low glucose. A Synacthen stimulation test was normal (Cort (0′) 390 nmol/l, Cort (30′) 773 nmol/l). A computed tomography scan showed multiple lobulated masses in the abdomen, liver and pelvis. An ultrasound guided biopsy of one of the pelvic masses was performed. Immunohistochemistry supported the diagnosis of a gastrointestinal stromal tumour (GIST) positive for CD34 and CD117. A diagnosis of a non islet cell tumour hypoglycaemia (NICTH) secondary to an IGF2 secreting GIST was confirmed with further biochemical investigations (IGF2=96.5 nmol/l; IGF2:IGF1 ratio 18.9, ULN <10). Treatment with growth hormone resolved the patient's hypoglycaemic symptoms and subsequent targeted therapy with Imatinib was successful in controlling disease progression over an 8-year observation period. Learning points NICTH can be a rare complication of GISTs that may manifest with severe hypoglycaemia and neuroglucopenic symptoms. NICTH can masquerade as other pathologies thus causing diagnostic confusion. Histological confirmation of GIST induced NICTH and exclusion of other conditions causing hypoglycaemia is essential. Mutational analysis of GISTs should be carried out in all cases as it guides treatment decision. Tailored management of hypoglycaemia, in this case using growth hormone and targeted cyto-reductive therapy, minimizes the risk of possible life-threatening complications.


The increasing complexity of modern SoC designs makes tasks of SoC formal verification
a lot more complex and challenging. This motivates the research community to develop
more robust approaches that enable efficient formal verification for such designs.
It is a common scenario to apply a correctness by integration strategy while a SoC
design is being verified. This strategy assumes formal verification to be implemented in
two major steps. First of all, each module of a SoC is considered and verified separately
from the other blocks of the system. At the second step – when the functional correctness
is successfully proved for every individual module – the communicational behavior has
to be verified between all the modules of the SoC. In industrial applications, SAT/SMT-based interval property checking(IPC) has become widely adopted for SoC verification. Using IPC approaches, a verification engineer is able to afford solving a wide range of important verification problems and proving functional correctness of diverse complex components in a modern SoC design. However, there exist critical parts of a design where formal methods often lack their robustness. State-of-the-art property checkers fail in proving correctness for a data path of an industrial central processing unit (CPU). In particular, arithmetic circuits of a realistic size (32 bits or 64 bits) – especially implementing multiplication algorithms – are well-known examples when SAT/SMT-based
formal verification may reach its capacity very fast. In cases like this, formal verification
is replaced with simulation-based approaches in practice. Simulation is a good methodology that may assure a high rate of discovered bugs hidden in a SoC design. However, in contrast to formal methods, a simulation-based technique cannot guarantee the absence of errors in a design. Thus, simulation may still miss some so-called corner-case bugs in the design. This may potentially lead to additional and very expensive costs in terms of time, effort, and investments spent for redesigns, refabrications, and reshipments of new chips.

The work of this thesis concentrates on studying and developing robust algorithms
for solving hard arithmetic decision problems. Such decision problems often originate from a task of RTL property checking for data-path designs. Proving properties of those
designs can efficiently be performed by solving SMT decision problems formulated with
the quantifier-free logic over fixed-sized bit vectors (QF-BV).

This thesis, firstly, proposes an effective algebraic approach based on a Grobner basis theory that allows to efficiently decide arithmetic problems. Secondly, for the case of custom-designed components, this thesis describes a sophisticated modeling technique which is required to restore all the necessary arithmetic description from these components. Further, this thesis, also, explains how methods from computer algebra and the modeling techniques can be integrated into a common SMT solver. Finally, a new QF-BV SMT solver is introduced.


In location-based, mobile continual query (CQ) systems, two key measures of quality-of-service (QoS) are: freshness and accuracy. To achieve freshness, the CQ server must perform frequent query reevaluations. To attain accuracy, the CQ server must receive and process frequent position updates from the mobile nodes. However, it is often difficult to obtain fresh and accurate CQ results simultaneously, due to 1) limited resources in computing and communication and 2) fast-changing load conditions caused by continuous mobile node movement. Hence, a key challenge for a mobile CQ system is: How do we achieve the highest possible quality of the CQ results, in both freshness and accuracy, with currently available resources? In this paper, we formulate this problem as a load shedding one, and develop MobiQual-a QoS-aware approach to performing both update load shedding and query load shedding. The design of MobiQual highlights three important features. 1) Differentiated load shedding: We apply different amounts of query load shedding and update load shedding to different groups of queries and mobile nodes, respectively. 2) Per-query QoS specification: Individualized QoS specifications are used to maximize the overall freshness and accuracy of the query results. 3) Low-cost adaptation: MobiQual dynamically adapts, with a minimal overhead, to changing load conditions and available resources. We conduct a set of comprehensive experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of MobiQual. The results show that, through a careful combination of update and query load shedding, the MobiQual approach leads to much higher freshness and accuracy in the query results in all cases, compared to existing approaches that lack the QoS-awareness properties of MobiQual, as well as the solutions that perform query-only or update-only load shedding.


In more advanced animals, the senses are constantly at work, making the animal aware of stimuli—such as light, or sound, or the presence of a chemical substance in the external environment—and monitoring information about the organism's internal environment. All bilaterally symmetric animals have a sensory system, and the development of any species' sensory system has been driven by natural selection; thus, sensory systems differ among species according to the demands of their environments. The shark, unlike most fish predators, is electrosensitive—that is, sensitive to electrical fields produced by other animals in its environment. While it is helpful to this underwater predator, electrosensitivity is a sense not found in most land animals.


The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is likely to have been subject of a very dynamic activity during its history as most of its base is grounded below present sea-level and, thus, is sensitive to climatic changes. Its collapse would result in a global sea-level rise of 3-5 m. The reconstruction and quantification of partial or complete WAIS collapses in the geological past will provide necessary constraints for ice-sheet models predicting its future behaviour and resulting sea-level rise. Large uncertainties exist regarding the chronology, extent, rates and spatial and temporal variability of past advances and retreats of the WAIS across the continental shelves. These uncertainties are mainly due to the lack of drill information. By using a ship-mounted shallow drilling device, e.g. the MeBo system, a series of core samples can be drilled on the shelf of the Amundsen Sea Embayment (ASE) where high-quality seismic data reveal seaward-dipping sediment sequences covered only by a thin veneer of glacial till. In a transect drilling strategy, a series of cores from the oldest sequences close to the bedrock-basin boundary in the south to the youngest sequences in the north of the western and eastern ASE shelf can be sampled. Based on the seismic results, it is expected that up to 800 m of the sedimentary column can be sampled by shallow transect drilling. Further cores can be drilled in grounding zone wedges in order to understand the processes controlling the ice flow and timing of the last glacial cycle.


Face verification involves determining whether a pair of facial images belongs to the same or different subjects. This problem can prove to be quite challenging in many important applications where labeled training data is scarce, e.g., family album photo organization software. Herein we propose a principled transfer learning approach for merging plentiful source-domain data with limited samples from some target domain of interest to create a classifier that ideally performs nearly as well as if rich target-domain data were present. Based upon a surprisingly simple generative Bayesian model, our approach combines a KL-divergence based regularizer/prior with a robust likelihood function leading to a scalable implementation via the EM algorithm. As justification for our design choices, we later use principles from convex analysis to recast our algorithm as an equivalent structured rank minimization problem leading to a number of interesting insights related to solution structure and feature-transform invariance. These insights help to both explain the effectiveness of our algorithm as well as elucidate a wide variety of related Bayesian approaches. Experimental testing with challenging datasets validate the utility of the proposed algorithm.


This fascinating book offers a new perspective on the architectural history of the Second World War, which in previous accounts has most often been viewed as a hiatus between peaceful periods of production. Jean-Louis Cohen contends instead that during the years between the bombings of Guernica in 1937 and of Hiroshima in 1945, specific advances were fundamental to the process of modernization and led to the definitive supremacy of modernism in architecture. Centering the discussion on ten main themes, the author investigates various aspects of architecture's mobilization in the war years, as well as the trajectories of individual architects. He analyzes architectural developments worldwide and takes into account each of the major participants in the war, including the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and the Soviet Union. The book not only focuses on plans, buildings, and technological inventions but also examines the many types of visual representation used for war purposes, enhanced by a rich array of more than 300 illustrations.


Although throughout the history of anthropology the ethnography of urban societies was never an important topic, investigations on cities in Africa contributed to the early theoretical development of urban studies in social sciences. As the ethnography of rural migrants in towns made clear, cultural diversity and creativity are foundational and permanent elements of urban cultures in Africa (and beyond). Currently, two new aspects complement these insights: 1) Different forms of mobility have received a new awareness through the concept of transnationalism. They are much more complex, including not only rural–urban migration, but also urban–urban migration, and migrations with a destination beyond the continent. 2) Urban life-worlds also include the appropriation of globally circulating images and lifestyles, which contribute substantially to the current cultural dynamics of cities in Africa. These two aspects are the reasons for the high complexity of urban contexts in Africa. Therefore, whether it is still appropriate to speak about the "locality" of these life-worlds has become questionable. At the same time, these new aspects explain the self-consciousness of members of urban cultures in Africa. They contribute to the expansive character of these societies and to the impression that cities in Africa host the most innovative and creative societies worldwide.


Although extensive safety measures and safe working procedures have been applied to improve and secure metal working machines, they still put their operators at risk. These risks might often result from manipulation errors, in particular if safety measures are ignored. In this contribution, a safety evaluation strategy has been developed that applies VR and mixed reality technologies to investigate the usability of working machines. An automatically controlled machine tool was simulated and connected to a real input panel, usually employed in industrial settings. However, Human-Machine Interfaces are sometimes built in a way that does not prevent the operator from cognitive misinterpretations which in turn might result in mistakes. To take that into account, a control program for a lathe was altered by hiding a typical programming mistake in the lines of code. Subjects were given the task to evaluate the program in single step mode and to report abnormalities while running the simulated lathe, comparable to new control program checks at real machines. An evaluation of the study demonstrated that even experienced metal workers accepted the simulation and reacted as if the given task was real. Behavioural data of considered subjects showed comparable profiles and most subjects rated the VR- based approach as a reasonable means for investigating work safety problems.


There is a growing awareness and interest in the development of culturally competent health knowledge. Drawing on experience using a qualitative approach to elicit information from Mandarin- or Cantonese-speaking participants for a colorectal cancer prevention study, the authors describe lessons learned through the analysis process. These lessons include benefits and drawbacks of the use of coders from the studied culture group, challenges posed by using translated data for analysis, and suitable analytic approaches and research methods for cross-cultural, cross-language qualitative research. The authors also discuss the implications of these lessons for the development of culturally competent health knowledge.


American law on marriage can be crafted in one of two ways: from "within" and from "without." Despite its ascendancy today, an outside-in method of lawmaking is destined to make significant mistakes due to a failure to rely on and take seriously human anthropology. By ignoring anthropological evidence, modern family law relies instead on a disfigured "freedom" divorced from two crucial elements: truth and solidarity. In contrast, an inside-out method of lawmaking, as proposed by Alfonso Cardinal Lopez Trujillo, orients its laws toward real freedom linked to truth and solidarity and therefore limits its laws to those that reflect anthropological evidence about the nature of human persons and of human unions. The latter method's chances for success are better today than ever before thanks to the availability of a greater depth and range of this type of evidence. Focusing specifically on lawmaking regarding the indis/solubility of adult sexual relationships, this article proposes and examines categories of evidence for exploring an anthropology of human marriage, describes the mistaken anthropology underlying the proposal of modern family law authors to dethrone marriage, analyzes the flaws of their outside-in approach, and suggests ways to bridge the differences between the two methods of lawmaking, while also acknowledging the obstacles to such an effort.


Bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella-, Shigella- and Vibrio species are known to be common causative agents for diarrhoeal disease in humans. This study aimed to develop a culture-independent PCR assay for the detection of bacterial pathogens present in human faecal samples collected using a less intrusive faecal collection technique, the Bio-wipe kit. A multiplex-PCR (m-PCR) was optimised targeting the E. coli mdh gene, the Salmonella IpaB gene, the Vibrio sodB gene, and the Ial and IpaH genes present in entero-invasive E. coli and Shigella spp. The influence of the DNA extraction method, and sensitivity and specificity of the m-PCR and the Bio-wipe storage conditions on the detection of the bacterial pathogens was investigated. A guanidium thiocyanate DNA extraction method used with laboratory-prepared spin columns could successfully extract DNA from 93% of the samples analysed. The m-PCR could successfully identify and differentiate between the various pathogens tested and was specific for the selected pathogens. Faecal matter was successfully recovered from used Bio-wipes and the bacterial DNA could be detected from these samples at concentrations of 10 cfu. Bacterial DNA could be recovered from the Bio-wipes 5 to 10 d after use when the Bio-wipes were stored at 30°C and 14 d after usage when stored at ambient temperature. Thus the Bio-wipe kit, along with the m-PCR, can be used for collection and detection of bacterial pathogens during outbreaks and in rural settings.


"A methodology to produce disaggregated estimates of inequality is implemented in three developing countries: Ecuador, Madagascar, and Mozambique. These inequality estimates are decomposed into progressively more disaggregated spatial units and the results in all three countries are suggestive that even at a very high level of spatial disaggregation, the contribution of within-community inequality to overall inequality remains very high. The results also indicate there is a considerable amount of variation across communities in all three countries. The basic correlates of local-level inequality are explored, and it is consistently found that geographic characteristics are strongly correlated with inequality, even after controlling for demographic and economic conditions." Authors' Abstract


The dispersions of dipolar (Damon-Eshbach modes) and exchange-dominated spin waves are calculated for in-plane-magnetized thin and ultrathin cubic films with (111) crystal orientation and the results are compared with those obtained for the other principal planes. The properties of these magnetic excitations are examined from the point of view of Brillouin light scattering experiments. Attention is paid to the study of the spin-wave frequency variation as a function of the magnetization direction in the film plane for different film thicknesses. Interface anisotropies and the bulk magnetocrystalline anisotropy are considered in the calculation. A quantitative comparison between an analytical expression obtained in the limit of small film thickness and wave vector and the full numerical calculation is given.


This study analyzes 843 protests occurring between January 2006 and July 2013 in 87 countries covering over 90% of world population. The paper focuses on: (i) major grievances driving world protests (ii) who is demonstrating, what protest methods they use, and who are they opposed to (iii) achievements and repression of social movements in the short term, and (iv) the main policy demands of world demonstrators. The paper calls for policy-makers to listen, whether messages are articulate or communicate only through frustration and violence.


Background: The performance of academic medical centers (AMCs) differs from that of other hospitals because AMCs must combine the delivery of patient care with teaching and research. Purpose: This study investigates the effects of strategic group membership as opposed to other structural determinants on the performance of AMCs. Methodology: We used data from 24 German AMCs and applied data envelopment analysis with superefficiency to measure the performance of AMCs by considering AMC-specific inputs and outputs for patient care, teaching, and research. We used cluster analysis to identify strategic groups and applied regression analysis to explore their impact on performance. Results: Our results reveal two strategic groups based on a specialization either in teaching or in research. The strategic group that specialized in research showed significantly better performance; structural variables did not play a major role. Practice Implications: The results provide an important justification for managers to develop suitable strategic concepts for AMCs. If low organizational efficiency is detected, managers need to consider analyzing whether their AMC belongs to an appropriate strategic group. An emphasis on research may increase overall efficiency.


This paper takes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of children's mental health in post-World War Two Britain. It combines medical history with textual analysis of children's literature to reveal a notable disjuncture between historical and literary images of mental health in the young. The central research question addressed in this paper is why did this disjuncture exist? Medical literature reveals a major concern about mental ill-health in children from the end of the nineteenth century, when the eugenic and Child Study Movements began to identify and chart physical and mental levels of attainment. Provision for child 'idiots' or 'mental defectives' was debated in the context of mental health legislation through the early part of the nineteenth century, as well as in discussions over education. The School Medical Service, and later, the large-scale evacuation of children into the countryside in the 1940s, highlighted the amount of mental fragility, nervous anxiety, and ill-health among the young, and also demonstrated the emotional impact of separation from parents, although it was not yet fully articulated in these terms. The medical community and those interested in social and educational policy were thus very well aware of maladjustment, nervous anxiety and 'mental deficiency' among children, although these problem remained socially stigmatised for some time. At the same time, however, these concerns were repressed in published literature for children where the stress was on health and vitality (for example, in the novels of Enid Blyton, Malcolm Saville, C.S. Lewis and Arthur Ransom), as it were, re-building a national self-confidence in the light of 'having won the war and lost the peace'. Mental health per se does not emerge in children's literature until the late twentieth century where Bawden in 'Carrie's War' (1970), Magorian in 'Goodnight Mr Tom' (1981) and Morpurgo in 'Private Peaceful' (2003) write themes current in the present day back into history. This disjuncture in the treatment of children's mental health in medical history and literature has not been highlighted before, and is explained via a longer-term contextualisation of the history of child health.