An essential guide for anyone who conducts research on the internetincluding librarians, teachers, students, business professionals, and writersthis fully revised handbook details what users must know to take full advantage of internet search tools and resources. From the latest online tools to the new and enhanced services offered by standbys such as Google, the major search engines and their myriad of possibilities are thoroughly discussed. This revamped fourth edition also features chapters on fact-checking sites and popular social networking sites as well as a collection of up-to-date screenshots for visual reference. For those with little to moderate searching experience, friendly, easy-to-follow guidelines to the world of Web research are provided, while experienced searchers will discover new perspectives on content and techniques.


This study deals with the optimal control problems of the glass tube drawing processes where the aim is to control the cross-sectional area (circular) of the tube by using the adjoint variable approach. The process of tube drawing is modeled by four coupled nonlinear partial differential equations. These equations are derived by the axisymmetric Stokes equations and the energy equation by using the approach based on asymptotic expansions with inverse aspect ratio as small parameter. Existence and uniqueness of the solutions of stationary isothermal model is also proved. By defining the cost functional, we formulated the optimal control problem. Then Lagrange functional associated with minimization problem is introduced and the first and the second order optimality conditions are derived. We also proved the existence and uniqueness of the solutions of the stationary isothermal model. We implemented the optimization algorithms based on the steepest descent, nonlinear conjugate gradient, BFGS, and Newton approaches. In the Newton method, CG iterations are introduced to solve the Newton equation. Numerical results are obtained for two different cases. In the first case, the cross-sectional area for the entire time domain is controlled and in the second case, the area at the final time is controlled. We also compared the performance of the optimization algorithms in terms of the solution iterations, functional evaluations and the computation time.


The global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting deterioration in many countries' public finances have increased the risk of sovereign debt crises. Although crisis prevention remains paramount, these developments have made it imperative to re-examine the adequacy of the current toolkit for crisis management and resolution, in a context where changes in the creditor base and in the composition of public debt instruments have brought about new challenges in terms of reduced transparency and additional barriers to achieving inter-creditor equity. This report focuses on the international architecture for sovereign debt restructurings (SODRs), as seen through the lenses of the International Monetary Fund (IMF or "the Fund") and with a special attention to the role that the Fund can play in facilitating orderly restructuring processes. It provides a set of findings and recommendations in relation to certain key elements of the Fund's lending framework that have important ramifications on SODR processes, namely debt sustainability assessments (DSAs), the exceptional access policy (EAP) for financing above normal access limits, and the criteria for lending to countries with payments arrears to private creditors (LIA) or official bilateral creditors (LIOA). It also considers other indirect channels through which the Fund can affect SODRs, including its support for enhancing the transparency and public disclosure of sovereign debt information, its collaboration with the Paris Club and the G20 debt-related initiatives, the promotion of contractual standards for sovereign debt, and the monitoring of relevant legislative developments.


The science of how people produce and perceive speech, phonetics has an array of real-world applications, from helping engineers create an authentic sounding Irish or Canadian accent for a GPS voice, to assisting forensics investigators identifying the person whose voice was caught on tape, to helping a film actor make the transition to the stage. Phonetics is a required course among students of speech pathology and linguistics, and it's a popular elective among students of telecommunications and forensics. The first popular guide to this fascinating discipline, Phonetics For Dummies is an excellent overview of the field for students enrolled in introductory phonetics courses and an ideal introduction for anyone with an interest in the field.


Since 2008, excess liquidity – defined as the sum of holdings of central bank reserves in excess of reserve requirements and holdings of equivalent central bank deposits – has tended to accumulate in specific euro area countries and in a small, slowly changing group of credit institutions. Despite the stability of the concentration of excess liquidity in specific countries over time, the relevance of individual drivers has changed. First, risk aversion has played a much smaller role in explaining the concentration since 2013 than it did at the time of "flight-to-quality" phenomena in the period 2010-12. Second, the location of the relevant market infrastructures (i.e. central securities depositories, securities settlement systems and TARGET2 accounts) used by counterparties that sold assets to the Eurosystem has been a more important driver directing flows in the period 2015-16. In addition, the more recent concentration of excess liquidity is explained by the combination of a number of factors, such as banks following strict internal credit limits, investment incentives created by yield differences across the euro area and the "home bias" in euro area government bond holdings. Overall, the net cross-border flows of liquidity that resulted also determined TARGET2 balances. At the individual bank level, when controlling for banks' capital, non-performing loans, credit risk and profitability, excess liquidity holdings in relation to total assets are found to be higher for smaller and better-capitalised banks, and for banking groups with liquidity centralised at the head institution. In addition, participation in Eurosystem longer-term refinancing operations and deposit inflows are associated with liquidity accumulation. Finally, new regulatory initiatives such as the liquidity coverage ratio are explained to be creating incentives to hold or not to distribute liquidity, thereby affecting its distribution. JEL Classification: E44, E50, G01, G28, D39, E41


Agriculture (as measured by share of gross domestic product and employment) is a significant economic sector in seven Central and South Asian countries: Afghanistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. All of these countries are net food importers. Some have experienced successive years of drought, which has contributed to noticeable declines in agricultural output and the need to increase commodity imports. The United Nations' World Food Program reports that both Afghanistan and Tajikistan are currently in need of emergency food assistance to cover sizable food deficits. The food outlook in Afghanistan is made uncertain by ongoing military conflict.


This thesis develops a novel target-oriented inversion framework that uses wavefields as carriers of information to image both lowand high-wavenumber components of the earth model in complex geological settings, such as subsalt regions. The lowwavenumber component of the earth model is often known as background velocity, whereas the high-wavenumber component of the earth model is often known as reflectivity. I address the problem of reflectivity imaging with target-oriented wavefield least-squares migration, and the problem of velocity estimation with target-oriented wavefield tomography. Reflectivity images of the subsurface are commonly produced by prestack depth migration. When the overburden is complex and the reflectors are unevenly or insufficiently illuminated, the migration operator alone is inadequate to provide an optimal image. I tackle the problem of distorted illumination in reflectivity imaging by wavefield least-squares migration. I formulate least-squares migration in the image domain and solve it in a target-oriented fashion. In the image-domain formulation, explicit computation of the Hessian operator (the resolution function that measures the illumination deficiency of the imaging system) is the most important and challenging step. I develop a novel method based on phase encoding to efficiently and accurately compute the target-oriented Hessian operator. By design, the phase-encoded Hessian converges to the exact Hessian either deterministically (for plane-wave phase encoding) or statistically (for random phase encoding), while having the important advantages that no Green's functions need to be stored during computation and that v the number of wavefield propagations is also drastically reduced. The target-oriented Hessian operator is then used to recover the reflectivity by iterative inverse filtering. I regularize the inversion with dip constraints, which naturally incorporate interpreted geological information into the inversion. Accurate imaging of the reflectivity also requires an accurate background velocity model. High-quality velocity model-building in complex geology requires wavefieldbased velocity analysis to properly model band-limited wave phenomena. However, the high cost and lack of flexibility of target-oriented model-building prevent this method from being widely used in practice. I overcome the cost and flexibility issues of wavefield-based migration velocity analysis by developing target-oriented wavefield tomography. Target-oriented wavefield tomography is achieved by synthesizing a new data set specifically for velocity analysis. The new data set is generated based on an initial unfocused target image and by a novel application of generalized Born wavefield modeling, which correctly preserves velocity kinematics by modeling both zero and non-zero subsurface-offsetdomain images. The new data set can be synthesized for a chosen target region with velocity inaccuracies. The reduced data size and computation domain, therefore, greatly improve the efficiency and flexibility of wavefield tomography, allowing fast and interpretation-driven interactive wavefield-based velocity analysis, where different geological scenarios or hypotheses can be tested in quasi-real time. The proposed target-oriented inversion framework successfully estimates subsalt velocities and recovers subsalt reflectivities from distorted illumination from 2-D synthetic and 3-D field data.


An Introduction to Neural Networks falls into a new ecological niche for texts. Based on notes that have been class-tested for more than a decade, it is aimed at cognitive science and neuroscience students who need to understand brain function in terms of computational modeling, and at engineers who want to go beyond formal algorithms to applications and computing strategies. It is the only current text to approach networks from a broad neuroscience and cognitive science perspective, with an emphasis on the biology and psychology behind the assumptions of the models, as well as on what the models might be used for. It describes the mathematical and computational tools needed and provides an account of the author's own ideas. Students learn how to teach arithmetic to a neural network and get a short course on linear associative memory and adaptive maps. They are introduced to the author's brain-state-in-a-box (BSB) model and are provided with some of the neurobiological background necessary for a firm grasp of the general subject. The field now known as neural networks has split in recent years into two major groups, mirrored in the texts that are currently available: the engineers who are primarily interested in practical applications of the new adaptive, parallel computing technology, and the cognitive scientists and neuroscientists who are interested in scientific applications. As the gap between these two groups widens, Anderson notes that the academics have tended to drift off into irrelevant, often excessively abstract research while the engineers have lost contact with the source of ideas in the field. Neuroscience, he points out, provides a rich and valuable source of ideas about data representation and setting up the data representation is the major part of neural network programming. Both cognitive science and neuroscience give insights into how this can be done effectively: cognitive science suggests what to compute and neuroscience suggests how to compute it.


The increasing development of pan-national and supra-national institutions and 'states' such as the European Union implies that comparative cross-national research will become both a more frequent and fruitful research exercise. After all, there is the assumption that data will be consistent and easily available, thought policy contexts are increasingly shared and co-terminous. However, this may not always be the case. Reflecting on a European Union and Nuffield Foundation project, which considered the experience of migrant children and, conducted in Greece, Portugal, Sweden and the UK, the author highlights that, as with any study concerning childhood and youth, qualitative and quantitative methodologies remain 'culture-bound'. Tracing examples from the developing sociology of childhood, this article suggests that in as much as we recognise the cultural specificity of childhood, so too must we acknowledge that research methodologies are a product of, and embedded within, particular national/cultural contexts. It concludes that, even at the fundamental level of analysing data, culture, ethics and research methodology are closely interconnected and cannot easily be separated into discrete universally understood categories.


This paper presents an agent-based model for simulating wind power systems on multiple time scales. The aim is to generate a flexible model that allows us to simulate the output of a wind farm. The model is developed using multiparadigm modelling, combining different approaches such as agent-based modelling, discrete events and dynamic systems. First, the theoretical background concerning the basic models for wind speed generation and power turbines is explained, as well as the fundamentals of agent-based modelling. After that, the implementation of these models is illustrated. In the next step, some sample simulations are shown and the application of the model is discussed. The proposed model aims to represent the wind power production by modelling wind farms consisting of wind turbine units on different time scales, taking into account fluctuating wind speeds and technical reliability. The model is able to compute the aggregated output power of the wind farm influenced by different random factors and can thus recreate a realistic power unit to be used in integral energy system simulations.


[1] The TC4 mission in Central America during summer 2007 examined convective transport into the tropical UTLS and the evolution of cirrus clouds. The tropical tropopause layer (TTL) circulation is dominated by the Asian monsoon anticyclone and westward winds that stretch from the western Pacific into the Atlantic. During TC4, TTL westward flow over Central America was stronger than normal. Incidence of cold clouds over the Central American region was the third lowest out of 34 years sampled. The major factor was an incipient La Nina, specifically anomalously cold temperatures off the Pacific Coast of South America. Weakness in the low level Caribbean jet caused a shift in the coldest clouds from the Caribbean to the Pacific side of Central America. The character of tropopause temperature variability was that of upward propagating waves generated by local and nonlocal convection. These waves produced tropopause temperature variations of 3 K, with peak-to-peak variations of 8 K. At low levels in Central America, flow from the Sahara desert predominated; further south, the air came from the Amazon region. Convectively influenced air in the upper troposphere came from Central America, the northern Amazon region, the Atlantic ITCZ, and the North American monsoon. In the TTL, Asian and African convection affected the observed air masses. North of 10N in the Central American TTL, African and Asian convection may have contributed as much to the air masses as Central and South American convection. South of 8N, Asian and African convection had far less impact.


Kids who grew up with Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy picture books can spend some quality time with their BFF because Nancy Clancy is now starring in her own chapter books! Fancy Nancy: Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth is the first in a series of delightful middle-grade mysteries. Sassy Fancy Nancy is now a detective. Told in the third-person narrative, when one of Nancy's classmate's most special possessions disappears from school, it's up to her to save the day. With the help of her friend Bree, she follows the clues to an unexpected source. Fans of Nancy Drew's Clue Crew will be happy to see a new Nancy join the ranks of super sleuths. Robin Preiss Glasser illustrates Nancy's story with liveliness, wit, and fanciness. Supports the Common Core State Standards


Texas Republicans have been thinking waaaaay too small. The redistricting battles of 2003-2004 are nothing compared to the powerful political potential posed by Texas's prerogative, confererred by an Act of Congress, to divide itself into five states. A relatively obscure provision of the 1845 Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States provides that [n]ew States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter by the consent of said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution. This Essay argues, building on our earlier work concerning the constitutionality of the creation of West Virginia, that Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution permits new states to be carved out of existing ones, with the consent of Congress and the states involved. The New States language of the 1845 Joint Resolution, the Texas Tots provision, constitutes the still-operative, legally-valid grant of Congress's consent to Texas's subdivision into five states. All that remains is for Texas to take up Congress's standing offer.


Abstract The search for Dyson Spheres has been propelled not only by the hope of discovering intelligent alien life, but by humanity's ever-increasing need for energy. However, the Dyson Sphere is not a practical design, requiring too much matter to build and too much energy to stabilize. Here we discuss the various designs of a Dyson Sphere and propose the Solar Wind Power (SWP) Satellite, a simplistic, self-sustaining system that draws power from the solar wind and uses a laser to fire energy to collectors (on space stations, bases, etc.) positioned anywhere in the Solar System. While a small SWP Satellite can provide an estimated 2 MW of power, larger (or networks of) satellites could provide terawatts of power or more. The cost of the SWP Satellite would be relatively cheap – it primarily consists of shaped copper, with only a few complex systems onboard. Detection of such a satellite would be difficult using current technology, because at this time we can only detect solar wind deviations of up to 10−13 MS yr−1, while a 2 MW satellite would only divert 10−34 MS yr−1. Thus, only very large SWP Satellites could possibly be detected.


Energy management on a residential level can provide supplementary load shifting flexibility for upcoming smart grids, supporting increased energy efficiency by aligning load with surplus energy generated from renewables. This paper presents results from the EIT Digital Project HEGRID, in which a multicommodity test-bed has been evaluated in Karlsruhe, Germany. The system architecture is based on the EF-Pi framework (Energy Flexibility Platform and Interface) and integrates different energy carriers (natural gas, electricity, heat). We present the device driver architecture, user interface, simulation capabilities, and energy management through drivers of device categories. Our experiments validate this multi-commodity scenario and its components in a real device test-bed and provide lessons learned from a prototype implementation of the entire stack, thus decoupling hardware-specific devices through software drivers from energy management.


Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed or implied in the Journal are those of the authors and should not be construed as carrying the official sanction of the Department of Defense, Air Force, Air Education and Training Command, Air University, or other agencies or departments of the US government. This article may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission. If it is reproduced, the Air and Space Power Journal requests a courtesy line.


We describe a new Bayesian click-through rate (CTR) prediction algorithm used for Sponsored Search in Microsoft's Bing search engine. The algorithm is based on a probit regression model that maps discrete or real-valued input features to probabilities. It maintains Gaussian beliefs over weights of the model and performs Gaussian online updates derived from approximate message passing. Scalability of the algorithm is ensured through a principled weight pruning procedure and an approximate parallel implementation. We discuss the challenges arising from evaluating and tuning the predictor as part of the complex system of sponsored search where the predictions made by the algorithm decide about future training sample composition. Finally, we show experimental results from the production system and compare to a calibrated Naive Bayes algorithm.


CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI /MI: CNHI) is a global leader in the capital goods sector with established industrial experience, a wide range of products and a worldwide presence. Each of the individual brands belonging to the Group is a major international force in its specific industrial sector: Case IH, New Holland Agriculture and Steyr for tractors and agricultural machinery; Case and New Holland Construction for earth moving equipment; Iveco for commercial vehicles; Iveco Bus and Heuliez Bus for buses and coaches; Iveco Astra for quarry and construction vehicles; Magirus for firefighting vehicles; Iveco Defence Vehicles for defence and civil protection; and FPT Industrial for engines and transmissions. More information can be found on the corporate website: www.cnhindustrial.com


Offshore wind is a clean, renewable source of energy and can be an economic driver in the United States. To better understand the employment opportunities and other potential regional economic impacts from offshore wind development, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded research that focuses on four regions of the country. The studies use multiple scenarios with various local job and domestic manufacturing content assumptions. Each regional study uses the new offshore wind Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) model, developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This fact sheet summarizes the potential economic impacts for the Mid-Atlantic region.


Physicalism is the idea that if everything that goes on in the universe is physical, our consciousness and feelings must also be physical. Ever since Descartes formulated the mind-body problem, a long line of philosophers has found the physicalist view to be preposterous. According to John Perry, the history of the mind-body problem is, in part, the slow victory of physical monism over various forms of dualism. Each new version of dualism claims that surely something more is going on with us than the merely physical. In this book Perry defends a view that he calls antecedent physicalism. He takes on each of three major arguments against physicalism, showing that they pose no threat to antecedent physicalism. These arguments are the zombie argument (that there is a possible world inhabited by beings that are physically indiscernible from us but not conscious), the knowledge argument (that we can know facts about our own feelings that are not just physical facts, thereby proving physicalism false), and the modal argument (that the identity of sensation and brain state is contingent, but since there is no such thing as contingent identity, sensations are not brain states).


Fast-forward (FF) was the most successful automatic planner in the Fifth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Planning and Scheduling (AIPS '00) planning systems competition. Like the well-known hsp system, FF relies on forward search in the state space, guided by a heuristic that estimates goal distances by ignoring delete lists. It differs from HSP in a number of important details. This article describes the algorithmic techniques used in FF in comparison to hsp and evaluates their benefits in terms of run-time and solution-length behavior.


We revisit representation theory in type $A,$ used previously to establish that the dissimilarity vectors of phylogenetic trees are points on the tropical Grassmannian variety. We use a different version of this construction to show that the space of phylogenetic trees $K_n$ maps to the tropical varieties of every flag variety of $GL_n(\mathbb{C}).$ Using this map, we find a tropical function on the space of phylogenetic trees for each semistandard tableaux, and we show that the functions satisfy the tropicalized equations which cut out $GL_n(\mathbb{C})$ flag varieties.


Fifty residential electric water heaters and 150 new residential clothes dryers were modified to respond to signals received from underfrequency, load-shedding appliance controllers. Each controller monitored the power-grid voltage signal and requested that electrical load be shed by its appliance whenever electric power-grid frequency fell below 59.95 Hz. The controllers and their appliances were installed and monitored for more than a year at residential sites at three locations in Washington and Oregon. The controllers and their appliances responded reliably to each shallow underfrequency event—an average of one event per day—and shed their loads for the durations of these events. Appliance owners reported that the appliance responses were unnoticed and caused little or no inconvenience for the homes' occupants.


The purpose of this article is to explain the concept of Nature that founds the ideas and actions of the Peasant Women's Movement, and to reflect on the possibilities of dialogue between militants and intellectuals. For this it must take into account that, while academic feminism is strongly influenced by the deconstructionist lines of thought, farming women sustain the idea, based on a deeply religious vision, of a natural identification between women and Nature. In pointing out possibilities for dialogue, the paper underlines the importance of lines of thought connected with the sociology of comprehension.


Gender-labor historians have long searched for external explanations for the limitations women encountered in the U.S. labor movement, particularly in studies of the Progressive and Inter-war Era. Yet since the formation of the woman's experience hinges on the coalescence of varying female identities, it is critical to analyze the interaction and rapport between internal female networks. This gendered analysis is therefore less honed on the interaction between the sexes, and more mindful of those struggles taking place amongst women themselves. As such, it articulates three discreet and occupationally based female identities that each strived toward ameliorating the conditions of labor and employment: working and middle-class wage earners, housewives, and social reformers. This case study of Minnesota analyzes how each respective female identity experienced and conceptualized the state's labor movement, considering both their collective values, as well as their disjunctions. Recognizing that in Minnesota there was no straight or singular path for women's labor activity, this study investigates each varying approach. It argues that as a result of both real and perceived differences, female networks remained isolated and lacked cohesive action, inhibiting women from gaining sufficient power to define the movement, and marginalizing their influence. This analysis pays particular attention to activist behaviors such as unionized strikes and protests; consumer and auxiliary organizing; and social reform action. Drawing upon a variety of sources, including the existing gender-labor historiography, media representations in newspapers, and archives of social, labor and women's organizations, this critical study of Minnesota lends state-level insight into the national tableau of gender- labor scholarship.


Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this monograph provides a survey and analysis of the rules concerning intellectual property rights in China. It covers every type of intellectual property right in depth - copyright and neighbouring rights, patents, utility models, trademarks, trade names, industrial designs, plant variety protection, chip protection, trade secrets, and confidential information. Particular attention is paid throughout to recent developments and trends. The analysis approaches each right in terms of its sources in law and in legislation, and proceeds to such legal issues as subject matter of protection, conditions of protection, ownership, transfer of rights, licences, scope of exclusive rights, limitations, exemptions, duration of protection, infringement, available remedies, and overlapping with other intellectual property rights. The book provides a clear overview of intellectual property legislation and policy, and at the same time offers practical guidance on which sound preliminary decisions may be based. Lawyers representing parties with interests in China will welcome this very useful guide, and academics and researchers will appreciate its value in the study of comparative intellectual property law.


Objective To identify shared and differential molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (AT) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) and APS associated with SLE (APS plus SLE). Methods 129 patients (42 APS, 31 APS plus SLE and 56 SLE) and 61 healthy donors were included. Microarray expression profiling was performed in monocytes. RT-PCR of selected genes and western blot were used to validate microarray data. Clinical and inflammatory parameters were also analysed. Results Compared with controls, 555, 1224 and 518 genes were differentially expressed in monocytes from SLE, APS plus SLE and APS patients, respectively. Approximately 25–30% of differentially expressed genes were related to AT and CVD. Each disease displayed a specific AT/CVD/Inflammation-related gene signature. Compared with SLE, APS showed alterations in mitochondria biogenesis and function and oxidative stress. Besides the interferon signature, found in APS plus SLE and SLE patients, various genes mediating atherosclerotic/inflammatory signalling were also differentially expressed in APS plus SLE. IgG-anticardiolipin (aCL) titres independently predicted both atherosclerotic and thrombosis in APS plus SLE. Moreover, a significant correlation of IgG-aCL titres with mRNA levels of certain inflammatory molecules in monocytes was further noticed. In vitro treatment of monocytes with IgG-aCL promoted an increase in the expression of the genes most significantly changed in APS plus SLE versus healthy donors. Conclusions Gene expression profiling allows the segregation of APS, APS plus SLE and SLE, with specific signatures explaining the pro-atherosclerotic and pro-thrombotic alterations in these highly related autoimmune diseases.


The onset and spread of COVID-19 forced an accelerated shift to remote communication and online teaching, generating new challenges and opportunities for kinesiology. As a result of the pandemic situation, redefined collaborative models independently emerged among kinesiology departments in two systems, California State University and the Pennsylvania State University. These models built community; addressed geographic and size challenges associated with meeting in-person; empowered sharing of ideas, resources, best practices, and emotional support; and guided our campus communities to success. We suggest that these collaborative models can be used in the future as platforms to improve kinesiology student's success by facilitating professional development, integration, sharing, problem solving, and social support.


The Department of Transportation is amending its Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) rules to apply to foreign carriers. The final rule also adds new provisions concerning passengers who use medical oxygen and passengers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. The rule also reorganizes and updates the entire ACAA rule. The Department will respond to some matters raised in this rulemaking by issuing a subsequent supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking.


Abstract. MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites have provided a rich dataset of aerosol information at a 10 km spatial scale. Although originally intended for climate applications, the air quality community quickly became interested in using the MODIS aerosol data. However, 10 km resolution is not sufficient to resolve local scale aerosol features. With this in mind, MODIS Collection 6 includes a global aerosol product with a 3 km resolution. Here, we evaluate the 3 km product over the Baltimore–Washington D.C., USA, corridor during the summer of 2011 by comparing with spatially dense aerosol data measured by airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) and a network of 44 sun photometers (SP) spaced approximately 10 km apart, collected as part of the DISCOVER-AQ field campaign. The HSRL instrument shows that AOD can vary by over 0.2 within a single 10 km MODIS pixel, meaning that higher resolution satellite retrievals may help to better characterize aerosol spatial distributions in this region. Different techniques for validating a high-resolution aerosol product against SP measurements are considered. Although the 10 km product is more statistically reliable than the 3 km product, the 3 km product still performs acceptably with nearly two-thirds of MODIS/SP collocations falling within an expected error envelope with high correlation (R > 0.90), although with a high bias of ~ 0.06. The 3 km product can better resolve aerosol gradients and retrieve closer to clouds and shorelines than the 10 km product, but tends to show more noise, especially in urban areas. This urban degradation is quantified using ancillary land cover data. Overall, we show that the MODIS 3 km product adds new information to the existing set of satellite derived aerosol products and validates well over the region, but due to noise and problems in urban areas, should be treated with some degree of caution.


Radiologic Procedure Rating Comments RRL* CT paranasal sinuses without IV contrast 9 ☢☢ CT cone beam paranasal sinuses without contrast 7 ☢☢ CT paranasal sinuses with IV contrast 5 ☢☢ MRI maxillofacial without IV contrast 4 O MRI maxillofacial without and with IV contrast 4 O CT paranasal sinuses without and with IV contrast 1 ☢☢☢ X-ray paranasal sinuses 1 ☢ SPECT or SPECT/CT paranasal sinuses 1 ☢☢☢


Japan has developed a unique corporate governance structure over centuries, often in response to changes or crises in history. Recently, the loss and scandals have pushed the defects of the existing corporate governance mechanism into the spotlight. To answer whether the Japanese model will and should change, I need to understand how this system came into being and what has made a great impact on its development. Arguably, legal, political and cultural systems have promoted and shaped the Japanese model of corporate governance in particular ways. First, this essay finds that the Japanese corporate governance was historically heavily influenced by its legal origin, which has not been taken as a direct reason but an indirect reason. The courts in Civil Law countries could not resist governments' power and therefore gave politics opportunities to influence the development of the Japanese corporate governance directly. Second, the strong political forces favored financial institutions in corporate governance finance and employees during the war years and occupation but currently, these political influences are weak or have disappeared and central planning structure is discredited. It is time for Japan to make certain changes. Third, Japan has undertaken massive reforms of the corporate governance mechanism from the 1990s but it could not drop everything that is deeply rooted in its traditional culture. Hence, it is proposed that the keiretsu system and the lifetime employment should not disappear in the future albeit certain reforms are necessary in Japan.


By the late 1960s and early 1970s, reeling from a wave of urban uprisings, politicians finally worked to end the practice of redlining. Reasoning that the turbulence could be calmed by turning Black city-dwellers into homeowners, they passed the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, and set about establishing policies to induce mortgage lenders and the real estate industry to treat Black homebuyers equally. The disaster that ensued revealed that racist exclusion had not been eradicated, but rather transmuted into a new phenomenon of predatory inclusion.
Race for Profit uncovers how exploitative real estate practices continued well after housing discrimination was banned. The same racist structures and individuals remained intact after redlining's end, and close relationships between regulators and the industry created incentives to ignore improprieties. Meanwhile, new policies meant to encourage low-income homeownership created new methods to exploit Black homeowners. The federal government guaranteed urban mortgages in an attempt to overcome resistance to lending to Black buyers – as if unprofitability, rather than racism, was the cause of housing segregation. Bankers, investors, and real estate agents took advantage of the perverse incentives, targeting the Black women most likely to fail to keep up their home payments and slip into foreclosure, multiplying their profits. As a result, by the end of the 1970s, the nation's first programs to encourage Black homeownership ended with tens of thousands of foreclosures in Black communities across the country. The push to uplift Black homeownership had descended into a goldmine for realtors and mortgage lenders, and a ready-made cudgel for the champions of deregulation to wield against government intervention of any kind.
Narrating the story of a sea-change in housing policy and its dire impact on African Americans, Race for Profit reveals how the urban core was transformed into a new frontier of cynical extraction.


An anthology of 102 poems expressing solidarity with the refugees who are currently receiving so little welcome as they take to boats and rafts to cross the Mediterranean and make their way with difficulty through Europe. Readers are invited to take a view of the situation which is not governed by the fear and hatred whipped up by the language of media and many politicians.

The book has been produced in the East Midlands by an editorial committee, typesetter and publisher working free of charge, and the initial print costs were covered by a crowdfunding campaign. All proceeds from sales of the book will be shared between the charities: Medecins Sans Frontieres, Leicester City of Sanctuary and Nottingham Refugee Forum.

Contributors include: Alan Baker, Kathleen Bell, A.C. Clarke, Kerry Featherstone, Chrissie Gittins, Mark Goodwin, Tania Hershman, Siobhan Logan, Emma Lee, Carol Leeming, Joanne Limburg, Aoife Mannix, Roy Marshall, Hubert Moore, Thomas Orszag-Lund, Simon Perril, Sheenagh Pugh, Mahendra Solanki, Maria Taylor, Rory Waterman, Gregory Woods, and Siobhan Logan


Using slim holes (diameter < 15 cm) for geothermal exploration and small-scale power production can produce significant cost savings compared to conventional rotary-drilling methods. In addition, data obtained from slim holes can be used to lower the risks and costs associated with the drilling and completion of large-diameter geothermal wells. As a prime contractor to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Sandia National Laboratories has worked with industry since 1992 to develop and promote drilling, testing, and logging technology for slim holes. This paper describes the current status of work done both in-house and contracted to industry. It focuses on drilling technology, case histories of slimhole drilling projects, data collection and rig instrumentation, and high-temperature logging tools.


The purpose of this article is to review qualitative inquiries examining the perspectives of students with disabilities toward physical education (PE) published from 2014 to 2019, as an update to the 2015 review by Haegele and Sutherland. Keyword searches were used to identify articles from nine electronic databases, and seven articles met all inclusion criteria. The seven selected articles were subjected to a narrative analysis, and three thematic clusters emerged: (a) an "inconvenience": the PE teacher's influence on quality of experience, (b) "we play together and I like it": friendships central to the quality of PE experience, and (c) "no lift access to the gym": barriers to successful participation. Findings from this review support the notion that students with disabilities may have positive experiences in PE if they are offered appropriate modifications and accommodations and are provided with increased kind and supportive interactions with staff and peers.


Sherman Smith saw the most terrible thing happen. At first he tried to forget about it, but soon something inside him started to bother him. He felt nervous for no reason. Sometimes his stomach hurt. He had bad dreams. And he started to feel angry and do mean things, which got him in trouble. Then he met Ms. Maple, who helped him talk about the terrible thing that he had tried to forget. Now Sherman is feeling much better. This gently told and tenderly illustrated story is for children who have witnessed any kind of violent or traumatic episode, including physical abuse, school or gang violence, accidents, homicide, suicide, and natural disasters such as floods or fire. An afterword by Sasha J. Mudlaff written for parents and other caregivers offers extensive suggestions for helping traumatized children, including a list of other sources that focus on specific events.


The objective of this study was to evaluate in vitro synergy of extracts from Picralima nitida, Cylicodiscus gabunensis, Cassia arereh and Trichilia emetica and known antimicrobial agents against clinical isolate of vibrio cholerae. The in vitro antibacterial activity of plant-extracts was evaluated alone and in combination with standard antibiotics against Vibrio cholerae using disc-diffusion and microdilution method. Only antibiotics acting by inhibiting proteins synthesis shown strong bactericidal activity with inhibition zone diameter ranging from 11 ± 0.0 to 26 ± 0.6 mm. we also noticed that methanolic extract of Cassia arereh and Trichilia emetica and ethyl acetate extract of Cassia arereh contain bioactive compounds. These extracts were effective anticholeric agents with MIC ranging between 12.207 and 97.656 µg/ml and MBC between 48.828 and 781.25 µg/ ml. Cassia arereh extract showed the greatest activity with MIC and MBC values of 12.207 and 48.828 µg/ ml respectively. Synergism was observed between antimicrobial agents and the best anticholeric plant-extract with significant reduction in the MICs of antibiotics against the strains tested. Administration of both compounds together resulted in an MIC ranging from 0.078 to 10 µg/ ml which represents a 2 to 16-fold reduction in the MICs of the antibiotics tested alone. This change in MIC was noticed even with antibiotics showed weak antibacterial activity.


Three separate studies involving researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill confirm a gene that suppresses tumor cell growth also plays a key role in aging. The researchers found increasing concentration, or expression, of the gene p16INK4a in older cells; these aging cells worked poorly compared to young cells and remembered their "age" even when transferred from old mice to young mice. The cells of mice bred without the gene showed less sluggishness as the animals aged and continued to function in a manner more similar to cells from younger mice. Teams from the medical schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Michigan and Harvard University observed these results in pancreatic islet cells and brain and blood stem cells. The findings indicate that disparate cell types share a common aging mechanism and suggest that aging-related diseases such as diabetes result from a failure of cell growth, said Dr. Norman E. Sharpless, co-author on the three studies and an assistant professor of medicine and genetics at the UNC School of Medicine. "The studies indicate that certain stem cells lose their ability to divide and replace themselves with age as the expression of p16INK4a increases," said Sharpless, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The trio of reports were published online Sept. 6, 2006 in the journal Nature. The study led by Sharpless focused on p16INK4a effects on the function of pancreatic islet cells. Islet cells are responsible for insulin production and secretion. Because p16INK4a stops cancer cells from dividing and demonstrates increased expression with age, the scientists suspected the gene played a similar role in aging. The researchers developed strains of mice that were either deficient in p16INK4a (the gene was deleted, or 'knocked out") or genetically altered to have an excess of the protein to a degree seen in aging. According to Sharpless, islet proliferation persisted in p16INK4a-deficient animals as they aged, "almost as if they were younger animals." In mice with an excess of p16INK4a, "islet cells aged prematurely; they stopped dividing early." "This suggests that if we could attenuate p16INK4a expression in some way in humans, it could lead to enhanced islet re-growth in adults and a possible new treatment for diabetes," Sharpless said. Similar results were found in the other studies, which focused on brain stem cells and blood stem cells. The Michigan researchers, led by Dr. Sean Morrison, examined the role played by p16INK4a in neural stem cells, progenitor cells that can form new neurons and other brain cells. The team showed that p16INK4a increases markedly in those cells with aging. Moreover, p16INK4a-deficient neural stem cells work better and don't age to the same extent that wild-type (normal) stem cells do, Sharpless said. Dr. Janakiraman Krishnamurthy, lead author of the UNC study and a postdoctoral scientist in the Sharpless lab, was a co-author of the Michigan report. The Harvard team, led by Dr. David Scadden, studied the role of p16INK4a in hematopoietic stem cells, which proliferate continuously during the adult lifespan and produce massive amounts of new blood cells on an hourly basis. Their results suggest that p16INK4a is the molecular basis for an old-age "signal" previously observed in blood stem cells. The Harvard study also showed that blood stem cells from old mice lacking p16INK4a functioned better than old cells from wild-type mice, suggesting p16INK4a causes aging of these cells as well. Sharpless cautions that any promise of a potential new aging treatment based on p16INK4a should include two important caveats. "First, even though old mice lacking p16INK4a show enhanced stem cell function, they do not live longer. This is because p16INK4a is an important cancer-suppressor gene, and mice lacking p16INK4a develop more cancers than old, normal mice," he said. "Secondly, in all three studies, p16INK4a loss was associated with an improvement in some but not all of the consequences of aging. There are clearly things in addition to p16INK4a that contribute to aging. We don't yet know what they are." However, the gene may prove immediately useful as a biomarker for studies of aging, Sharpless said. "If you were going to calorically restrict yourself or take green tea or resveratrol every day for years in an effort to prevent aging, wouldn't you like some evidence that these not entirely benign things were having a beneficial effect? Now we have a biomarker that can directly test the effects of such things," he said. UNC filed a patent on the use of p16INK4a as a biomarker of human aging in 2004. Co-inventors of the patent are Sharpless and Krishnamurthy. Other authors of the UNC study are UNC graduate student Matthew R. Ramsey; Dr. Keith L. Ligon, pathologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston; Chad Torrice, technician in the Sharpless lab; Dr. Angela Koh, postdoctoral scientist at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School; and Dr. Susan Bonner-Weir, also of the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School. The UNC research was supported by grants from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Foundation for Cancer Research, the Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholars in Aging Research Program, the Ellison Medical Foundation, and the National Institute of Aging, a component of the National Institutes of Health.


We argue in this paper that neighborhoods are highly relevant for the types of issues at the heart of regional science. First, residential and economic activity takes place in particular locations, and particular neighborhoods. Many attributes of those neighborhood environments matter for this activity, from the physical amenities, to the quality of the public and private services received. Second, those neighborhoods vary in their placement in the larger region and this broader arrangement of neighborhoods is particularly important for location choices, commuting behavior and travel patterns. Third, sorting across these neighborhoods by race and income may well matter for educational and labor market outcomes, important components of a region's overall economic activity. For each of these areas we suggest a series of unanswered questions that would benefit from more attention. Focused on neighborhood characteristics themselves, there are important gaps in our understanding of how neighborhoods change – the causes and the consequences. In terms of the overall pattern of neighborhoods and resulting commuting patterns, this connects directly to current concerns about environmental sustainability and there is much need for research relevant to policy makers. And in terms of segregation and sorting across neighborhoods, work is needed on better spatial measures. In addition, housing market causes and consequences for local economic activity are under researched. We expand on each of these, finishing with some suggestions on how newly available data, with improved spatial identifiers, may enable regional scientists to answer some of these research questions.


This article presents the results of groundwater site evaluation scheme and quality assessment of coastal aquifers in Calabar, South-eastern Nigeria based on ground water potential index (GWPI) scale, developed for this study. The GWPI consists of ten input parameters, namely: lithofacies (L), aquifer thickness (b), transmissivity (T), storativity (S), specific capacity (SC), static water level (SWL), formation resistivity (FR), chloride (Cl) contents, total dissolved solids (TDS) and Escherichia coli (E-coli). The groundwater potential index (GWPI) is computed as the sum of the products of weights and ratings assigned to each of the input parameters. The GWPI index varying between 20 and 60, is divided into three classes: high (> 40), medium (30-40), and low (< 30). The GWPI index, is then used to demarcate the study area into three hydrogeologic ground water potential zones. These are: (i) Northern zone 1 (transitional, low GWPI) (ii) Central zone 2 (coastal plain sands, high GWPI) (iii) Southern zone 3 (coastal alluvium, medium GWPI). The central zone 2 has the highest GWPI rating. The implication of this rating is that the aquifers in the central and southern zones 2 and 3 are more prolific water bearing than the transitional zone 1 that lies between the Coastal Plain Sands and the argillaceous sediments of the Calabar Flank. This is in agreement with the mean specific capacity (SC) and transmissivity (T) recorded for the central (355.6 m3/d/m, 2640 m2/d); southern (150.0 m3/d/m; 2150 m2/d) and northern (52.1 m3/d/m, 750 m2/d) zones respectively. Lithofacies, saturated thickness of the aquifer, static water level, transmissivity and storativity are the most important parameters which influence ground water availability in the study area. The GWPI results further reveal that E-coli (3-50counts/100ml), chloride (Cl-) (2.5-21.0mg/l) and static water level (SWL) (2.3-28.7m) remain the most significant parameters that contribute to groundwater pollution particularly in the southern zone of the study area. In the near future, water quality in aquifer will be affected due to poor management of human waste-disposal/salt water intrusion, thereby limiting the availability of potable water for domestic and industrial uses.


The structures of various mutants of T4 lysozyme have been determined in 25 non-isomorphous crystal forms. This provides an unusually diverse data base to compare the structures and dynamics of a closely related set of proteins in different crystal packing environments. In general, the more tightly packed crystals diffract better than those that are highly hydrated although the wild-type crystal form is an exception. The ability of the protein to form a relatively open but stable lattice may help explain why many of the mutants crystallize in this form. In different crystalline environments, the lysozyme molecules associate with 2-fold, 3-fold, 4-fold, and 5-fold symmetry, as well as with various types of screw associations. A "back-to-back" dimeric association, and a "head-to-tail" 2(1) screw association, are especially common, each occurring in more than half a dozen crystal forms. The 4-fold and 5-fold modes of association are closely related and provide an example of quasi-equivalent association as envisaged by Caspar and Klug. In different crystal environments the lysozyme molecules display a range of over 50 degrees in the hinge-bending angle between the amino and carboxy-terminal domains. Large variations in the hinge-bending angle are observed not only for lysozymes with mutations in the hinge region, but for molecules with mutations far from this site. This suggests that hinge-bending is an intrinsic property of the lysozyme molecule and is not an artifact due to mutation. As the hinge-bending angle increases about 15 degrees beyond that seen in wild-type there is a distinct conformations change in the side-chains of five residues in the hinge-bending region. Changes in the backbone are localized near residues 13, 59 and 80, but do not include significant changes in (phi, psi). Comparison of the different structures indicates that crystal contacts perturb the backbone structure of the protein by 0.2 to 0.5 A. These perturbations are of the same magnitude for helices and beta-sheet strands, suggesting that protein structures can be defined and maintained equally well by hydrogen-bonding (i.e. strand-strand) or by non-hydrogen-bonding (i.e. helix-helix) interactions. The discrepancies between the lysozyme structures in different crystallographic environments are in line with other comparisons of independently determined protein crystal structures. They suggest that protein structures in general are subject to low energy changes in conformation of 0.2 to 0.5 A.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Abstract. We use retrievals of aerosol extinction from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) onboard the CALIPSO satellite to examine the vertical, horizontal and temporal variability of tropospheric Arctic aerosols during the period 2006–2012. We develop an empirical method that takes into account the difference in sensitivity between daytime and nighttime retrievals over the Arctic. Comparisons of the retrieved aerosol extinction to in situ measurements at Barrow (Alaska) and Alert (Canada) show that CALIOP reproduces the observed seasonal cycle and magnitude of surface aerosols to within 25 %. In the free troposphere, we find that daytime CALIOP retrievals will only detect the strongest aerosol haze events, as demonstrated by a comparison to aircraft measurements obtained during NASA's ARCTAS mission during April 2008. This leads to a systematic underestimate of the column aerosol optical depth by a factor of 2–10. However, when the CALIOP sensitivity threshold is applied to aircraft observations, we find that CALIOP reproduces in situ observations to within 20% and captures the vertical profile of extinction over the Alaskan Arctic. Comparisons with the ground-based high spectral resolution lidar (HSRL) at Eureka, Canada, show that CALIOP and HSRL capture the evolution of the aerosol backscatter vertical distribution from winter to spring, but a quantitative comparison is inconclusive as the retrieved HSRL backscatter appears to overestimate in situ observations by a factor of 2 at all altitudes. In the High Arctic (>70° N) near the surface ( −1 ), followed by a sharp decline and a minimum in May–September (1–4 Mm −1 ), thus providing the first pan-Arctic view of Arctic haze seasonality. The European and Asian Arctic sectors display the highest wintertime extinctions, while the Atlantic sector is the cleanest. Over the Low Arctic (60–70° N) near the surface, CALIOP extinctions reach a maximum over land in summer due to boreal forest fires. During summer, we find that smoke aerosols reach higher altitudes (up to 4 km) over eastern Siberia and North America than over northern Eurasia, where they remain mostly confined below 2 km. In the free troposphere, the extinction maximum over the Arctic occurs in March–April at 2–5 km altitude and April–May at 5–8 km. This is consistent with transport from the midlatitudes associated with the annual maximum in cyclonic activity and blocking patterns in the Northern Hemisphere. A strong gradient in aerosol extinction is observed between 60° N and 70° N in the summer. This is likely due to efficient stratocumulus wet scavenging at high latitudes combined with the poleward retreat of the polar front. Interannual variability in the middle and upper troposphere is associated with biomass burning events (high extinctions observed by CALIOP in spring 2008 and summer 2010) and volcanic eruptions (Kasatochi in August 2008 and Sarychev in June 2009). CALIOP displays below-average extinctions observed from August 2009 through May 2010, which appear to be linked with a strongly negative Arctic Oscillation index.


A well-known theorem of Goldberg and West states that two thieves can always split a necklace containing an even number of beads from each of $k$ types fairly by at most $k$ cuts. We prove that if we can use at most $k-1$ cuts and fair splitting is not possible then the thieves still have the following option. Whatever way they specify two disjoint sets $D_1, D_2$ of the types of beads with $D_1\cup D_2\neq\emptyset$, it will always be possible to cut the necklace (with $k-1$ cuts) so that the first thief gets more of those types of beads that are in $D_1$ and the second gets more of those in $D_2$, while the rest is divided equally. The proof combines the simple proof given by Alon and West to the original statement with a variant of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem due to Tucker and Bacon.


Today marriage-based entitlements are considered part and parcel of marriage itself. This was not always the case. Mining hundreds of handwritten administrative records, executive branch reports, and federal statutes, this Article traces the origins of public marriage-based entitlements to an underexamined and surprisingly broad-scale system of early nineteenth-century federal military pensions and land grants that provided financial assistance to tens of thousands of widows. The story of widows' military subsidies challenges claims to laissez-faire liberalism's particular hold on the nineteenth century and, as important, evidences the complex mutually constitutive relationship between marriage law and social provision for women. While traditionally marriage had worked to insulate the polity from women's financial needs by assigning liability for women's support to husbands and their estates, with the creation of marriage-based entitlements marriage also became a potential doorway to public support. This, in turn, shaped the legal construction of marriage itself. This Article demonstrates how, in an early instance of bureaucratic disentitlement, the administrators charged with adjudicating women's subsidy claims systematically resisted the capacious conception of marriage used by contemporary courts and narrowed the legal definition of marriage, in part to protect the public purse from women's claims. The story of early nineteenth-century marriage-based entitlements provides a critical perspective on the relationship between social provision and marriage more generally. Modern marriage critics emphasize that the liberal state has traditionally deployed the private family as a means of protecting the state from women's financial needs and has used expansive conceptions of marriage and marriage-like relationships to achieve that end. However, the historical evidence presented in this Article shows that marriage has also long been used as a conduit for public support of significant classes of women. In that context, the state has tended to narrow the definition of marriage - also in order to limit the state's responsibility for women's dependency. Ultimately, by providing ample evidence of marriage's protean qualities, this Article demonstrates how the state has shaped the metes and bounds of marriage and the family at least in part in response to the pressure created by different legal liability rules and systems of social provision. And it has done so while preserving and sustaining the image of marriage's transhistorical and enduring stability as a socio-legal institution that privatizes women's dependency.


In 2008, OECD released one multi-national report about one important survey of its twenty-two member countries, the title of this report is "Improving School Leadership: Volume 1 Policy and Practice". This report analyzed one specific common trend of its members, which is the "unique gender divide among school principals and teachers". That meaning of this phenomenon is, in the context of school education in some OECD countries, the ratio of female teachers among all teachers is much higher than male teachers. However, the contrast point is, the ratio of female school principals is significant lower than male principals. This phenomenon is especially significant in the East Asia countries. For example, the percentage of female school principals is significantly lower than male principals when we observed the longitudinal trend in Taiwan. In Japan, the ratio of female teachers in primary schools is 62.7% and the ratio of female teachers in junior high schools is 54.8%, but the ratio of female primary school principals in Japan is only 17.9% of the total principals. When we look at the ratio of female principals in junior high schools in Japan, it is even lower; the ratio is only 5%. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to explore the unique gender divide among school principals and teachers in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. The research methods include document analysis and descriptive statistical analysis. The statistical data is collected from Ministry of Education in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. The supplemental data is collected from OECD dataset. This study compares the gender distribution among school teachers and principals in these three countries. In the last section of this study, we discuss the findings and their relationships with social cultures in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea. Policy and practice implications are offered to rethink the hindrance of female teachers' promotion. How to enhance female teachers' participation in school leadership is another important issue for future studies.


UGT1A1 is the main enzyme involved in the hepatic and tumoral inactivation of SN-38, an anticancer agent used in first line treatment of metastasic colorectal cancer. UGT1A1 genetic factors determine response to irinotecan therapy. We hypothesised that an epigenetic mechanism, more specifically methylation, is involved in tumoral regulation of UGT1A1 levels. Specific CpG islands in the UGT1A1 gene are hypermethylated and linked to the repression of gene expression and to lower levels of SN-38 glucuronidation in colon tumor cells in vitro. In addition, methylation of specific CpG was linked to lower expression of UGT1A1 gene in primary colon tumors from patients. Our data support that methylation profile of the UGT1A1 gene determine SN-38 tumoral concentration and may help to predict tumoral response to irinotecan.


The dominant view of antitrust policy in the United States is that it is intended to promote some version of economic welfare. More specifically, antitrust promotes allocative efficiency by ensuring that markets are as competitive as they can practicably be, and that firms do not face unreasonable roadblocks to attaining productive efficiency, which refers to both cost minimization and innovation.The distribution concern that has dominated debates over United States antitrust policy over the last several decades is whether antitrust should adopt a "consumer welfare" principle rather than a more general neoclassical "total welfare" principle. In The Antitrust Paradox Robert Bork famously argued that antitrust law should adopt what he termed a "consumer welfare" standard for illegality, but then equated this standard with general welfare. "Total welfare" refers to the aggregate value that an economy produces, without regard for way that gains or losses are distributed.The consumer welfare test is not a balancing test, in the sense that one must attempt to measure efficiency gains and losses and net them out. Under the test, if consumers are harmed (either by reduced output or product quality, or by higher prices resulting from the exercise of market power), then this fact trumps any offsetting gains to producers and, presumably, to others. Theoretically, even a minor injury to consumers outweighs significant efficiency gains. In this sense the consumer welfare test can be easier to administer on a case by case basis than general welfare tests. Even the consumer welfare test can be difficult to administer, however, when a practice impacts different groups of consumers differently. Practices that involve price discrimination, such as variable proportion ties or patent field of use restrictions, typically have this result. The volume and complexity of the academic debate on the antitrust welfare definition creates an impression of policy significance that is completely belied by the case law, and largely by government enforcement policy. Few if any decisions have turned on the difference. In fact, antitrust policy generally applies both tests in the following sense. First, the economic analysis from the dominant Harvard and Chicago schools of antitrust is consistently concerned with general welfare, although the schools entertain different assumptions about the robustness of markets and the merits of intervention. Harvard School antitrust economists began to look at total welfare consequences at least as early as the 1930s. The Chicago School has likewise consistently followed a total welfare approach, ignoring distributional concerns and focusing on the extent to which practices are likely to impose welfare losses in the neoclassical sense.However, if the evidence in a particular case indicates that a challenged practice facilitates the exercise of market power, resulting in output that is actually lower and prices that are actually higher, then tribunals uniformly condemn the restraint without regard to offsetting efficiencies. Indeed, I have not been able to find a single appellate decision that made a fact finding that a challenged practice resulted in lower market wide output and higher prices, but that also went on to approve the restraint because proven efficiencies exceeded consumer losses.


Understanding the structure of a graph along with the structure of its subgraphs is important for several problems in graph theory. Two examples are the Reconstruction Conjecture and isomorph-free generation. This paper raises the question of which pairs of groups can be represented as the automorphism groups of a graph and a vertex-deleted subgraph. This, and more surprisingly the analogous question for edge-deleted subgraphs, are answered in the most positive sense using concrete constructions.


Pervasive and networked computers have dramatically reduced the cost of collecting and distributing large datasets. In this context, machine learning algorithms that scale poorly could simply become irrelevant. We need learning algorithms that scale linearly with the volume of the data while maintaining enough statistical efficiency to outperform algorithms that simply process a random subset of the data. This volume offers researchers and engineers practical solutions for learning from large scale datasets, with detailed descriptions of algorithms and experiments carried out on realistically large datasets. At the same time it offers researchers information that can address the relative lack of theoretical grounding for many useful algorithms. After a detailed description of state-of-the-art support vector machine technology, an introduction of the essential concepts discussed in the volume, and a comparison of primal and dual optimization techniques, the book progresses from well-understood techniques to more novel and controversial approaches. Many contributors have made their code and data available online for further experimentation. Topics covered include fast implementations of known algorithms, approximations that are amenable to theoretical guarantees, and algorithms that perform well in practice but are difficult to analyze theoretically.ContributorsLeon Bottou, Yoshua Bengio, Stephane Canu, Eric Cosatto, Olivier Chapelle, Ronan Collobert, Dennis DeCoste, Ramani Duraiswami, Igor Durdanovic, Hans-Peter Graf, Arthur Gretton, Patrick Haffner, Stefanie Jegelka, Stephan Kanthak, S. Sathiya Keerthi, Yann LeCun, Chih-Jen Lin, Gaelle Loosli, Joaquin Quinonero-Candela, Carl Edward Rasmussen, Gunnar Ratsch, Vikas Chandrakant Raykar, Konrad Rieck, Vikas Sindhwani, Fabian Sinz, Soren Sonnenburg, Jason Weston, Christopher K. I. Williams, Elad Yom-TovLeon Bottou is a Research Scientist at NEC Labs America. Olivier Chapelle is with Yahoo! Research. He is editor of Semi-Supervised Learning (MIT Press, 2006). Dennis DeCoste is with Microsoft Research. Jason Weston is a Research Scientist at NEC Labs America.


Cholera remains a significant cause of mortality in developing countries. Outbreaks of the disease are associated with poverty, lack of potable water and poor sanitation. The survival and persistence of Vibrio cholerae in water has been shown to depend on physico-chemical factors. We studied water sources in Bepanda, an overcrowded neighbourhood in Douala, Cameroon, with limited access to portable water and very poor sanitary conditions as reservoirs of V. cholerae . We analysed 318 samples from various sources (well, tap, stream) from February to July 2009 using standard microbiological techniques and characterised isolates serologically using the polyvalent O1/O139 antisera. Susceptibility to antibiotics previously used for cholera treatment in Douala was studied using the disk diffusion method. Physico-chemical factors (temperature, pH and salinity) that could maintain the endemicity of the organism were analysed using standard methods. Eighty-seven (27.4%) samples were contaminated, with high isolation rates being obtained from streams (52.4%) and wells (29.8%). The number of isolates was significantly higher ( P < 0.05) in the rainy season (35.5%). We detected 23 (24%) O1 serogroup isolates in streams and wells, whilst 64 (66.6%) were non-O1/non-O139. Temperature and salinity correlated positively with the occurrence of the organisms. All isolates were susceptible to fluoroquinolones but high resistance rates to trimethoprim or sulfamethozaxole and tetracycline were observed. Vibrio cholerae is endemic in Bepanda with O1 and non-O1/non-O139 serogroups co-existing in the streams and wells hence the possibility of future outbreaks of cholera if sanitation and drinking water quality are not improved. Temperature and salinity are amongst the factors maintaining the endemicity of the organism.


Get the latest edition of the bestselling PC book on the planet! What better way to make friends with your new PC than with this new edition of the bestselling PC book in the world? PCs For Dummies, Windows 7 Edition explains the latest Windows operating system in a refreshingly jargon-free way that's loaded with good humor and great help. Discover how to make your PC safe for your kids, get in touch with your digital life, use flash drives, learn about green computing, and much more. Dan Gookin, author of the original DOS For Dummies, helped launch the worldwide popularity of the series; his books have been translated in 32 languages and have more than 12 million copies in print This guide gets you up to speed on the latest PC hardware and software and covers all the innovations and changes in Windows 7, all without the boring jargon Covers making your PC safe for kids, organizing your digital life, green computing, storage on memory cards and flash drives, online photo sharing, and much more Make your life easier the Dummies way with PCs For Dummies, Windows 7 Edition.


The epic story of Jerusalem told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it. Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today's clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the 'centre of the world' and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem's biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women - kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores - who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem. Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime's study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique chronicle of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice - in heaven and on earth.


Identifying reusable legacy code able to implement SOA services is still an open research issue. This master thesis presents an approach to identify legacy code for service implementation based on dynamic analysis and the application of data mining techniques. rnrnAs part of the SOAMIG project, code execution traces were mapped to business processes. Due to the high amount of traces generated by dynamic analyses, the traces must be post-processed in order to provide useful information. rnrnFor this master thesis, two data mining techniques - cluster analysis and link analysis - were applied to the traces. First tests on a Java/Swing legacy system provided good results, compared to an expert- allocation of legacy code.


Adopted as the undisputed Perl bible soon after the first edition appeared in 1991, Programming Perl is still the go-to guide for this highly practical language. Perl began life as a super-fueled text processing utility, but quickly evolved into a general purpose programming language thats helped hundreds of thousands of programmers, system administrators, and enthusiasts, like you, get your job done.In this much-anticipated update to "the Camel," three renowned Perl authors cover the language up to its current version, Perl 5.14, with a preview of features in the upcoming 5.16. In a world where Unicode is increasingly essential for text processing, Perl offers the best and least painful support of any major language, smoothly integrating Unicode everywhereincluding in Perls most popular feature: regular expressions. Important features covered by this update include:New keywords and syntax I/O layers and encodings New backslash escapes Unicode 6.0 Unicode grapheme clusters and properties Named captures in regexes Recursive and grammatical patterns Expanded coverage of CPAN Current best practices


With Building Information Modeling (BIM) prominently used in Architecture Engineering Construction (AEC) industry, the main focus of this innovative technology lies on those professionals such as architects, engineers, managers, etc., wherein a vulnerable interested party, construction workers especially low-skilled workers, has been inadvertently ignored. Noticed that the shortage of skilled workers becomes an escalating challenge and traditional training methods have flaws when confronting this challenge in construction sector, the emerging of new instructional methods, which are including instructional video and BIM-based learning environment, can otherwise bring some new ideas to help solve such shortage problem.

The intent of this research is to design a training program for low-skilled construction workers to improve their construction skills, which includes its training content "instructional videos" and its delivery medium "mobile application". The methodology of this research adopts "design-oriented approach" and its research method belongs to quantitative research method. In the thesis, the design and development process of its concept and system for this training program are presented. After statistic analysis of questionnaire results which comes from a survey on construction workers, the favorable and unfavorable aspects about this instructional video are revealed, which confirms the functionality of instructional video on low-skilled workers. In the end, limitations and suggested future works for this research have been clarified.


Numerical study of aerodynamic characteristics in steady laminar supersonic flow over a double wedge airfoil is carried out using commercially available finite element based CFD tool COMSOL Multiphysics. The aerodynamic characteristics of double wedge airfoil like lift and drag are analyzed by solving Navier-Stokes equations in the flow field for various thickness to chord ratios (t_c) and angle of attack α at free stream Mach number M=2.5. In the present work the high Mach number flow module with pseudo time stepping methodology and adaptive gridding technique is used to obtain a steady state solution by marching in time and to capture the shocks occurring in the flow field. The simulation were performed for 21 cases and for each case the Euler solution was first obtained and then was made as the initial condition for viscous simulation. The aerodynamic coefficients such as CL, CD and CP are evaluated from both shock expansion theory and numerical simulation of Navier-Stokes for double wedge airfoil with free stream Mach number M=2.5 for different configurations. The CL and CD graphs were obtained from COMSOL Multiphysics simulations for various configurations of airfoil ref Figure1 and Figure2 respectively also for specific cases surface plots of pressure are plotted for t_c=0.1 and angle of attack α=4degrees and 12degrees ref Figure3 and Figure4. The solution obtained from numerical simulation performed with FEM tool COMSOL Multiphysics is in good agreement with shock-expansion theory indicating the fundamental flow field behavior to be same. The error between Shock expansion theory and compressible viscous flow theory indicates the viscous and wake effects that exist in reality and thus COMSOL Multiphysics mimics the realistic effects to acceptable standards providing the users a platform to simulate high Mach number flow along with other required physics.


This paper examines the impact of increased corporate mobility on corporate lawmaking in the European Union (EU). More specifically, we seek an answer to a simple question: Has the increased mobility which arose from the implementation of the Societas Europaea (SE) and the path-breaking decisions of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) led to an outbreak of regulatory competition and the emergence of a Delaware-like member state in Europe? Two types of corporate mobility are distinguished: (1) the incorporation mobility of start up firms and (2) the reincorporation mobility of established firms. As to incorporation mobility, the Centros triad of cases makes it possible for start-up firms to incorporate in a foreign jurisdiction. Many entrepreneurs have taken advantage of this new freedom of establishment. However, recent data from Germany and The Netherlands indicate declining numbers of such foreign incorporations over time. Moreover, Centros-based incorporation mobility is a rather trivial phenomenon, economically speaking. The actors in question seek only to minimize costs of incorporation. National lawmakers have been responding, amending their statutes to lower these costs. But, because out of pocket cost minimization at the organization stage operates as only a secondary motivation of 'choice-of-business-form' decisions, there arise no competitive pressures that cause national legislatures to engage in thorough-going reform addressed to corporate governance more generally. As to reincorporation mobility, which concerns the migration of the statutory seat of a firm incorporated in one member state to another member state, the SE has opened the door, but not widely enough to serve as a catalyst for company law arbitrage. Reincorporation mobility is still far from generally available in the EU. As a result, competitive pressures do not yet motivate changes in the fundamental governance provisions of national corporate law regimes.


"Law and Ethics for Medical Careers, Fifth Edition", provides an overview of the laws and ethics you should know to help you give competent, compassionate care to patients that is within acceptable legal and ethical boundaries. The text can also serve as a guide to help you resolve the many legal and ethical questions you may reasonably expect to face as a student and, later, as a health care practitioner. The text features pertinent legal cases, anecdotes, and sidebars related to health-related careers. Content has been updated and special attention has been paid to legislation affecting health care.


OBJECTIVE
To develop an indicator of maternal near miss as a proxy for maternal death and to study its association with maternal factors and perinatal outcomes.

METHODS
In a multicenter cross-sectional study, we collected maternal and perinatal data from the hospital records of a sample of women admitted for delivery over a period of two to three months in 120 hospitals located in eight Latin American countries. We followed a stratified multistage cluster random design. We assessed the intra-hospital occurrence of severe maternal morbidity and the latter's association with maternal characteristics and perinatal outcomes.

FINDINGS
Of the 97,095 women studied, 2964 (34 per 1000) were at higher risk of dying in association with one or more of the following: being admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), undergoing a hysterectomy, receiving a blood transfusion, suffering a cardiac or renal complication, or having eclampsia. Being older than 35 years, not having a partner, being a primipara or para > 3, and having had a Caesarean section in the previous pregnancy were factors independently associated with the occurrence of severe maternal morbidity. They were also positively associated with an increased occurrence of low and very low birth weight, stillbirth, early neonatal death, admission to the neonatal ICU, a prolonged maternal postpartum hospital stay and Caesarean section.

CONCLUSION
Women who survive the serious conditions described could be pragmatically considered cases of maternal near miss. Interventions to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality should target women in these high-risk categories.


"The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" is an original classic by Beatrix Potter. Beatrix Potter's famous tale of a naughty squirrel who loses his tail is as popular today as it was when it was first published over 100 years ago. Join Nutkin, his brother Twinkleberry and all his cousins as they make their way over to Owl Island to gather nuts. See what happens when Old Brown, the terrifying owl guardian of the island decides he has had enough of silly Nutkin's cheekiness! Ouch!! Beatrix Potter is regarded as one of the world's best-loved children's authors of all time. From her first book, "The Tale of Peter Rabbit", published by Frederick Warne in 1902, she went on to create a series of stories based around animal characters including "Mrs. Tiggy-winkle", "Benjamin Bunny", "Jemima Puddle-duck", "Mr. Jeremy Fisher" and "Tom Kitten". Her humorous, lively tales and beautiful illustrations have become a natural part of childhood. With revenue from the sales of her books, Beatrix Potter bought a farm - Hill Top - in the English Lake District, where she later became a farmer and prize-winning sheep breeder. She launched the now vast merchandise programme by patenting the very first Peter Rabbit doll in 1903. The product range continues to grow today with licences around the world including baby clothing and bedding, nursery decor products and collectables. Upon her death, Beatrix Potter left 14 farms and over 4000 acres of Lake District farmland to the National Trust so that the place that she loved would remain undeveloped and protected for future generations to enjoy. Today Beatrix Potter's original 23 tales are still published by Frederick Warne, alongside a wide range of other formats including baby books, activity books and gift and sound books. "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin" is number two in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books. Look out for the rest! "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"; "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin"; "The Tailor of Gloucester"; "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny"; "The Tale of Two Bad Mice"; "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle"; "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher"; "The Tale of Tom Kitten"; "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck"; "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies"; "The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse"; "The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes"; "The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse"; "The Tale of Mr. Tod"; and "The Tale of Pigling Bland". It also includes: "The Tale of Samuel Whiskers"; "The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan"; "The Tale of Ginger and Pickles"; "The Tale of Little Pig Robinson"; "The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit"; "The Story of Miss Moppet"; "Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes"; and, "Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes".


Abstract A fundamental outcome of modern nuclear theory is the prediction of the "island of stability" in the region of hypothetical superheavy elements. A significant enhancement in nuclear stability at approaching the closed shells with Z = 114 (possibly 120 and 122) and N = 184 is expected for the nuclei with large neutron excess. For this reason, for the synthesis of nuclei with Z = 112-116 and 118, we chose the reactions 238U, 242,244Pu, 243Am, 245,248Cm, and 249Cf + 48Ca, which are characterized by fusion products with a maximal neutron excess. The formation and decay properties of the heaviest nuclei were registered with the use of a gas-filled recoil separator installed at a 48Ca-beam of the heavy-ion cyclotron. The new nuclides mainly undergo sequential α-decay, which ends with spontaneous fission (SF). The total time of decay ranges from 0.5 ms to ~1 d, depending on the proton and neutron numbers in the synthesized nuclei. The atomic number of the new elements 115 and 113 was confirmed also by an independent radiochemical experiment based on the identification of the neutron-rich isotope 268Db (TSF ~ 30 h), the final product in the chain of α-decays of the odd-odd parent nucleus 288115. The comparison of the decay properties of 29 new nuclides with Z = 104-118 and N = 162-177 gives evidence of the decisive influence of the structure of superheavy elements on their stability with respect to different modes of radioactive decay. The investigations connected with the search for superheavy elements in Nature are also presented. The experiments were carried out at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (JINR, Dubna) in collaboration with the Analytical and Nuclear Chemistry Division of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (USA).


The perennial Adobe Creative Suite bestsellerfully updated for the latest version Featuring eight books in one, this All-in-One For Dummies guide covers the key features and tools that you need to know in order to understand how to use each individual program within the Adobe Creative SuiteInDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Flashto its fullest potential. Within the nearly 1,000 pages, youll find creative inspiration as well as tips and techniques to sharpen you productivity. Dedicates a minibook to each of the programs within the latest version of Adobe Creative Suite 5InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flashas well as a minibook devoted to Creative Suite basics Serves as a one-stop learning opportunity for each product inside the Design Premium Suite Walks you through creating print and Web-based marketing or advertising materials or other publications Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium All-in-One For Dummies is a premium resource on the latest version of the Adobe Creative Suite.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a family of 19- to 25-nucleotides small non-coding RNAs that play important roles in regulation of many developmental processes in animals and plants, including flower development. In this study, the cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum L . ) genetic male sterile (GMS) line and its maintainer line were used to detect miRNAs related to male sterility. Using a bioinformatic approach and miRNA microarray analysis, we identified 33 potential miRNAs belonging to 27 families in cotton. miRNA microarray and quantitative real-time PCR assays showed that miRNAs expressed differently at the sporogenous cell, pollen mother cell and pollen grain stages between the cotton GMS and its maintainer line. These cotton miRNAs may regulate 35 potential target genes involved in cotton growth and development, signal transduction and metabolism pathways. The expressions of four targets were contrary to the expression of their corresponding miRNAs. These findings enhance our understanding of the roles of miRNAs during fertile and sterile anther development.


HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS: AFTER THE FEAST is the SECOND part of the fifth volume in the series. 'Vivid, rich, multi-layered and utterly addictive' Daily Express. The future of the Seven Kingdoms hangs in the balance. In King's Landing the Queen Regent, Cersei Lannister, awaits trial, abandoned by all those she trusted; while in the eastern city of Yunkai her brother Tyrion has been sold as a slave. From the Wall, having left his wife and the Red Priestess Melisandre under the protection of Jon Snow, Stannis Baratheon marches south to confront the Boltons at Winterfell. But beyond the Wall the wildling armies are massing for an assault...On all sides bitter conflicts are reigniting, played out by a grand cast of outlaws and priests, soldiers and skinchangers, nobles and slaves. The tides of destiny will inevitably lead to the greatest dance of all.


In the past decade, many information and communication technology (ICT) projects in Indian agriculture have emerged, either substituting or supporting extension services by providing farmers with access to agricultural information. ICTs have the potential to reach many farmers with timely and accessible content. But the content that the ICTs deliver has more relevance if it is localized and context specific, as this improves the value and actionability of the information, which can have important impacts on farm management. The localization of content is influenced by how the ICT projects access, assess, apply, and deliver content. This paper examines the content development and management processes occurring in six well-known ICT projects in Indian agriculture. There are important lessons to be learned from a case study of this process. Content management and development through ICTs is important to examine because public extension services may be able to increase their efficiency and effectiveness by using these tools to support their work with farmers. Though there are differences in scale and mechanisms of delivery and feedback, all of the case study projects use a network of experts in relevant fields to provide content, though the extent of localization varies. Despite the best efforts of these and many other e-agriculture initiatives in India, there is no easy way for their collective knowledge to be tapped, tracked, and put to use across the different platforms. In fact, there is a critical missing link to bridge the gaps between local or parochial access and serving public needs. To mainstream such ICT efforts and knowledge management in agriculture for rural livelihoods, it is necessary to put in place a centralized search engine, or harvester, to access the decentralized and dispersed digital agricultural information repositories and network of experts.


This paper presents the electron and photon energy calibration obtained with the ATLAS detector using about 36 fb$^{-1}$ of LHC proton-proton collision data recorded at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV in 2015 and 2016. The different calibration steps applied to the data and the optimization of the reconstruction of electron and photon energies are discussed. The absolute energy scale is set using a large sample of $Z$ boson decays into electron--positron pairs. The systematic uncertainty in the energy scale calibration varies between 0.03% to 0.2% in most of the detector acceptance for electrons with transverse momentum close to 45 GeV. For electrons with transverse momentum of 10 GeV the typical uncertainty is 0.3% to 0.8% and it varies between 0.25% and 1% for photons with transverse momentum around 60 GeV. Validations of the energy calibration with $J/\psi \rightarrow e^+e^-$ decays and radiative $Z$ boson decays are also presented.


'Who is a nurse?' and 'What is nursing?' seem to be simple questions yet the answers are strangely elusive. This book explores the variations in structure and organization of the nursing workforce across fourteen different countries in Europe. This diversity, and the reasons for it, are of more than academic interest. The work of nurses has always had a critical impact on patient outcomes. As health systems shift radically in response to rising demand, the role of nurses becomes even more important.The lessons learned from comparative case-study analysis demonstrate wide variation in every dimension of the workforce. It examines what a nurse is; nurse-to-doctor and nurse-to-population ratios; the education, regulation and issuing of credentials to nurses; and the planning of the workforce. While comparative analysis across countries brings these differences into sharp relief, it also reveals how the EU functions as an important 'binding agent', drawing these diverse elements together into a more coherent whole.This book is part of a two-volume study on the contributions that nurses make to strengthening health systems. This is the first time that the topic of nursing has been dealt with at length within the Observatory Health Policy Series. The aim is to raise the profile of nursing within health policy and draw the attention of decision-makers.Volume 1 is a series of national case studies drawn from Belgium, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The countries were chosen as the subject of a large EU-funded study of nursing (RN4Cast). Lithuania and Slovenia were added to provide broader geographical and policy reach. Volume 2 will provide thematic analysis of important policy issues such as quality of care, workforce planning, education and training, regulation and migration.