The vast majority of kids in the developed world finish high school--but not in the United States. More than a million kids drop out every year, around 7,000 a day, and the numbers are rising. Dropping Out offers a comprehensive overview by one of the country's leading experts, and provides answers to fundamental questions: Who drops out, and why? What happens to them when they do? How can we prevent at-risk kids from short-circuiting their futures? Students start disengaging long before they get to high school, and the consequences are severe--not just for individuals but for the larger society and economy. Dropouts never catch up with high school graduates on any measure. They are less likely to find work at all, and more likely to live in poverty, commit crimes, and suffer health problems. Even life expectancy for dropouts is shorter by seven years than for those who earn a diploma. Rumberger advocates targeting the most vulnerable students as far back as the early elementary grades. And he levels sharp criticism at the conventional definition of success as readiness for college. He argues that high schools must offer all students what they need to succeed in the workplace and independent adult life. A more flexible and practical definition of achievement--one in which a high school education does not simply qualify you for more school--can make school make sense to young people. And maybe keep them there.


One of the legal giants in American history is Charles Hamilton Houston. To modern lawyers he is still obscure, but some recognition of his extraordinary legal talent came during the nation's celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.Although Houston died over four years before the Supreme Court issued its historic opinion in Brown, he was widely recognized as the architect of that decision, which banned segregation in public school education. Prior to his death, Houston had worked on litigation to eradicate segregation in education since the early 1930's. Houston's first major victory in this effort was in Pearson v. Murray, when he, along with Thurgood Marshall and William I. Gosnell, successfully challenged the racial exclusion policy at the University of Maryland School of Law. The Pearson case was also the first major victory in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) legal assault on "Jim Crow." The legal significance of Houston's civil rights work, however, has obscured his impact on other areas of the law. This is particularly true with regard to his impact on the criminal justice system. During his remarkable career that spanned only about a quarter century, Houston engaged in litigation that still affects some of the most important areas of criminal justice in the nation. This article is an effort to identify a few of those major areas and recognize Houston's rightful place among the criminal justice legends of the twentieth century.His impact on the law of jury selection, capital punishment, right to counsel, police interrogation and mental state defenses have set the standard for the most important criminal justice jurisprudence in the nation's courts. Although he was not the first lawyer to address these important issues, he certainly had as great an impact on their development as he did on the civil rights work which has been the most visible part of his legacy.In his brief career his criminal law case choices reflected his profound concern for the criminally accused. Further, his selection of controversial issues, difficult cases and visionary strategies foreshadowed both the modern criminal justice landscape and laid out the battle ground for current criminal justice disputes. Houston's work defies easy categorization. While he was obviously concerned with equal protection under the law involving issues of race he also embraced structures which provided more general fairness in criminal law.From examining Houston's criminal law work in all criminal cases that either resulted in or were appeals from reported cases, I have concluded that there are several important characteristics that suggest when Houston would invest his time and talent in a criminal case. It was not simply a question of fame or assignment and certainly not money.Rather, Houston selected extremely difficulty criminal cases to test the system and advance important principles of fairness and justice that he determined to be worthwhile. In the same manner that he approached his systematic Jim Crow strategy, he also attacked the criminal justice system with vigor and passion.The principles that motivated Houston's choice of criminal justice issues and cases are when one or more of the following circumstances existed:(1) Penalty was severe without adequate process;(2) Panel of the jury included no African-Americans;(3) Proof of the criminal case without sufficient integrity of the fact finding process;(4) Police procedures executed without adequate accountability in obtaining confessions; and when the(5) Purpose of the prosecution lacked adequate structural limitations.


The growth in commercial transactions with Mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Taiwan region (Taiwan) as well as the economic integration in the entire area have lead to an increase in disputes. Considering the importance of arbitration as a mechanism for resolving commercial disputes in the area, the paper discusses whether a substantial clash between their legal frameworks for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards can be observed. After a critical analysis, the paper concludes that these frameworks are either subject to or modelled on the New York Convention. Yet, each has a distinct approach to the implementation, and dissimilarities arise. Furthermore, the specific legal framework for the recognition and enforcement of Mainland China awards in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and vice versa, still raises some concerns and is not fully reliable.


Abstract. To better understand the processing of biogenic VOCs (BVOCs) in the pine forests of the US Sierra Nevada, we measured HCHO at Blodgett Research Station using Quantum Cascade Laser Spectroscopy (QCLS) during the Biosphere Effects on Aerosols and Photochemistry Experiment (BEARPEX) of late summer 2007. Four days of the experiment exhibited particularly copious HCHO, with midday peaks between 15–20 ppbv, while the other days developed delayed maxima between 8–14 ppbv in the early evening. From the expansive photochemical data set, we attempt to explain the observed HCHO concentrations by quantifying the various known photochemical production and loss terms in its chemical budget. Overall, known chemistry predicts a factor of 3–5 times less HCHO than observed. By examining diurnal patterns of the various budget terms we conclude that, during the high HCHO period, local, highly reactive oxidation chemistry produces an abundance of formaldehyde at the site. The results support the hypothesis of previous work at Blodgett Forest suggesting that large quantities of oxidation products, observed directly above the ponderosa pine canopy, are evidence of profuse emissions of very reactive volatile organic compounds (VR-VOCs) from the forest. However, on the majority of days, under generally cooler and more moist conditions, lower levels of HCHO develop primarily influenced by the influx of precursors transported into the region along with the Sacramento plume.


The World Wide Web provides an abundant source of medical information. This information can assist people who are not healthcare professionals to better understand health and illness, and to provide them with feasible explanations for symptoms. However, the Web has the potential to increase the anxieties of people who have little or no medical training, especially when Web search is employed as a diagnostic procedure. We use the term cyberchondria to refer to the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web. We performed a large-scale, longitudinal, log-based study of how people search for medical information online, supported by a survey of 515 individuals' health-related search experiences. We focused on the extent to which common, likely innocuous symptoms can escalate into the review of content on serious, rare conditions that are linked to the common symptoms. Our results show that Web search engines have the potential to escalate medical concerns. We show that escalation is associated with the amount and distribution of medical content viewed by users, the presence of escalatory terminology in pages visited, and a user's predisposition to escalate versus to seek more reasonable explanations for ailments. We also demonstrate the persistence of postsession anxiety following escalations and the effect that such anxieties can have on interrupting user's activities across multiple sessions. Our findings underscore the potential costs and challenges of cyberchondria and suggest actionable design implications that hold opportunity for improving the search and navigation experience for people turning to the Web to interpret common symptoms.


Winner of the NBCC Award for General Nonfiction Named on Amazon's Best Books of the Year 2015--Michael Botticelli, U.S. Drug Czar (Politico) Favorite Book of the Year--Angus Deaton, Nobel Prize Economics (Bloomberg/WSJ) Best Books of 2015--Matt Bevin, Governor of Kentucky (WSJ) Books of the Year--Slate.com's 10 Best Books of 2015--Entertainment Weekly's 10 Best Books of 2015 --Buzzfeed's 19 Best Nonfiction Books of 2015--The Daily Beast's Best Big Idea Books of 2015--Seattle Times' Best Books of 2015--Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015--St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Best Books of 2015--The Guardian's The Best Book We Read All Year--Audible's Best Books of 2015--Texas Observer's Five Books We Loved in 2015--Chicago Public Library's Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 In 1929, in the blue-collar city of Portsmouth, Ohio, a company built a swimming pool the size of a football field; named Dreamland, it became the vital center of the community. Now, addiction has devastated Portsmouth, as it has hundreds of small rural towns and suburbs across America--addiction like no other the country has ever faced. How that happened is the riveting story of Dreamland. With a great reporter's narrative skill and the storytelling ability of a novelist, acclaimed journalist Sam Quinones weaves together two classic tales of capitalism run amok whose unintentional collision has been catastrophic. The unfettered prescribing of pain medications during the 1990s reached its peak in Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, its new, expensive--extremely addictive--miracle painkiller. Meanwhile, a massive influx of black tar heroin--cheap, potent, and originating from one small county on Mexico's west coast, independent of any drug cartel--assaulted small town and mid-sized cities across the country, driven by a brilliant, almost unbeatable marketing and distribution system. Together these phenomena continue to lay waste to communities from Tennessee to Oregon, Indiana to New Mexico. Introducing a memorable cast of characters--pharma pioneers, young Mexican entrepreneurs, narcotics investigators, survivors, and parents--Quinones shows how these tales fit together. Dreamland is a revelatory account of the corrosive threat facing America and its heartland.


Bar-el, Dan. That One Spooky Night . Toronto: Kids Can Press. 2012.  Print. Especially appealing during the Halloween season or for those students who appreciate a good semi-scary story any time of the year, That One Spooky Night delivers three off-the-wall short and spooky tales.  Child protagonists who are all far from pillars of good behaviour set the stage for a more comedic and less truly scary approach to the zany horrors that happen to them.  In Broom With A View , a young girl chooses a witch costume for Halloween but accidentally switches brooms with a real witch.  On Halloween night, the broom whisks her away to its real owner, a cheeky but good-hearted witch who shows her younger counterpart how to really have fun on Halloween night without being a brat.  In 10,000 Tentacles Under the Tub , two mischievous brothers, who, after a night of getting into trouble and almost overwhelming their father with their misbehaviour, find themselves locked in an epic battle in the underwater world they discover at the bottom of their bathtub.  In The Fang Gang , four girls terrorize local children until they find themselves facing a foursome of real vampires in disguise who give them a dose of their own medicine. Illustrator David Huyck's use of muted colours and soft edges throughout the book serve to both unify the stories and transmit an ethereal quality to the images.  The different colour schemes used in each story are particularly effective for transporting the reader into foreign, underwater worlds and sinister vampire lairs.  Wordless panels are interspersed throughout, further drawing the reader into sullen moods which effectively contrast the zany storyline making That One Spooky Night an entertaining read for upper primary and intermediate readers. Recommended: 3 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Annabelle Pendry Annabelle Pendry loves her job as Teacher Librarian at Mount Pleasant Elementary in Vancouver, BC.


In my craft or sullen art Exercised in the still night When only the moon rages And the lovers lie abed With all their griefs in their arms, I labour by singing light Not for ambition or bread Or the strut and trade of charms On the ivory stages But for the common wages Of their most secret heart. Not for the proud man apart From the raging moon I write On these spindrift pages Nor for the towering dead With their nightingales and psalms But for the lovers, their arms Round the griefs of the ages, Who pay no praise or wages Nor heed my craft or art.


I go on this great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us? If there be not, we are in a wretched situation. No theoretical checks, no form of government, can render us secure. To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea. If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend on their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.1


Great achievements are rarely accompanied by quick success. This is because revolutionary ideas normally involve a wider range of problems than at first thought. After a period of fair and unfair criticism there follows a period of sober and fruitful discussion. Only after this comes the time of practical application and final development of the new idea. The Coase Theorem is now at its final stage of development. This is confirmed by the recent emergence of studies that I believe to be very promising involving qualitative measurements of transaction costs of exchange and the history of their changes over the centuries. In some of the studies, the view is expressed that the form of ownership of production facilities depends on the amount of transaction costs. With that said we are only one step away from the important conclusion that with a sufficiently high level of transaction costs and a low level of labor productivity, private ownership is not possible and a firm must be very large and may occupy the entire area of a state. This may be the reason why there were powerful centralized economies run by a czar, a king, a feudal lord or a pharaoh. The complex irrigation systems of the Nile required constant joint efforts of tens and hundreds of thousands of people under the central leadership and control of a supreme ruler. This was the only way to achieve a maximum level of production and an acceptable standard of living and have protection from foreign enemies in those times. This and other conclusions, which I hope deserve a certain amount of attention, form the basis of this essay.


Why are a select few service firms better at what they do - year in and year out - than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal "service excellence" books fails to address this key question. In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, Banc One, Waste Management, USAA, MBNA, Intuit, British Airways, Taco Bell, Fairfield Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the Merry Maids subsidiary of ServiceMaster employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity. The strongest relationships the authors discovered are those between (1) profit and customer loyalty; (2) employee loyalty and customer loyalty; and (3) employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Moreover, these relationships are mutually reinforcing; that is, satisfied customers contribute to employee satisfaction and vice versa. Here, finally, is the foundation for a powerful strategic service vision, a model on which any manager can build more focused operations and marketing capabilities. For example, the authors demonstrate how, in Banc One's operating divisions, a direct relationship between customer loyalty measured by the "depth" of a relationship, the number of banking services a customer utilizes, and profitability led the bank to encourage existing customers to further extend the bank services they use. Taco Bell has found that their stores in the top quadrant of customer satisfaction ratings outperform their other stores on all measures. At American Express Travel Services, offices that ticket quickly and accurately are more profitable than those which don't. With hundreds of examples like these, the authors show how to manage the customer-employee "satisfaction mirror" and the customer value equation to achieve a "customer's eye view" of goods and services. They describe how companies in any service industry can (1) measure service profit chain relationships across operating units; (2) communicate the resulting self-appraisal; (3) develop a "balanced scorecard" of performance; (4) develop a recognitions and rewards system tied to established measures; (5) communicate results company-wide; (6) develop an internal "best practice" information exchange; and (7) improve overall service profit chain performance. What difference can service profit chain management make? A lot. Between 1986 and 1995, the common stock prices of the companies studied by the authors increased 147%, nearly twice as fast as the price of the stocks of their closest competitors. The proven success and high-yielding results from these high-achieving companies will make The Service Profit Chain required reading for senior, division, and business unit managers in all service companies, as well as for students of service management.


This Article is the final installment in a three-part project that presents a comprehensive challenge to lingering legal distinctions between physical and mental illness in the context of health insurance. The first installment in this series narrowly inquired as to whether the postpartum mood disorders should be classified as physical or mental illnesses in a range of health law contexts, including the context of health insurance. The second installment was broader in scope and challenged a number of federal provisions that allow publicly- and privately-funded health care programs and plans to provide mental health insurance benefits that are less comprehensive than their physical counterparts. The second installment also proposed comprehensive federal reforms, including the extension of federal mental health parity law to individuals who do not currently benefit from mental health parity law. This third and final Article undertakes an important correction of state mental health parity law. The first section of this Article examines in detail the mental health parity laws of four states: Idaho, Maryland, Nevada, and Vermont. I categorize these states' divergent mental health parity laws by their breadth and depth of application, whether they mandate the option or inclusion of mental health and substance use disorder benefits, and the extent to which parity between physical and mental health benefits is required in all rates, terms, and conditions. The second section of this Article justifies and proposes amendments that would not only conform these and other state laws to minimum federal requirements, but would also expand state mental health parity law to all health plans subject to state insurance regulation, require inclusion of mental health and substance use disorder benefits in such plans, and eliminate artificial "biologically-based" and "severe mental illness" distinctions. The third section of this Article offers a uniform mental health parity law for consideration by state legislatures.


As early as one week after beginning treatment for brain tumors, a new imaging analysis method was able to predict which patients would live longer, researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found. Scans showing gliomas that did not (left) and did (right) respond to treatment. Top images are parametric response maps superimposed onto pre-treatment MRIs. Graphs show distribution of relative cerebral blood volume for entire tumor volume. The method uses a standard magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, protocol to monitor changes over time in tumor blood volume within individual voxels of the image, rather than a composite view of average change within the tumor. This parametric response map allowed researchers to see specific areas in which tumor blood volume increased or decreased, that may have canceled each other out when looking at the changes as an average. Results of the study appeared in the advance online edition of Nature Medicine. "What we have potentially is a generalized analytical approach that we can use to quantify treatment intervention in patients," says study author Brian Ross, Ph.D., professor of radiology and biological chemistry at the U-M Medical School and co-director of the Molecular Imaging ProgramM at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. The researchers looked at 44 people with high-grade glioma, a type of brain tumor, who were treated with chemotherapy and radiation. Each participant underwent MRIs before treatment, and one week and three weeks after starting treatment. The researchers then looked at the relative cerebral blood volume and the relative cerebral blood flow of the tumor to analyze voxel-wise changes among the serial scans. Looking at standard comparisons using averages, the scans indicated no change one week and three weeks into treatment. But, using the parametric response map approach, the researchers were able to show changes in the tumor's blood volume and blood flow after one week that corresponded to the patient's overall survival. "We're seeing treatment response earlier into the treatment, and responses that couldn't be detected at all looking at average changes. We could detect this after just one week, which is amazing for brain tumors," says study author Craig Galbán, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology at the U-M Medical School. High grade gliomas have a high mortality rate, with people surviving only an average of 12 months after diagnosis. Typically, patients receive six to seven weeks of treatment, followed by a traditional MRI scan six weeks after completing therapy to determine if the tumor shrank. If the cancer did not respond to the treatment, a new approach may be tried. The researchers believe this approach might also be useful with other imaging techniques such as PET and CT scans.


A harmonic oscillator subject to a parametric pulse is examined. The aim of the paper is to present a new theory for analysing transitions due to parametric pulses. The new theoretical notions which are introduced relate the pulse parameters in a direct way with the transition matrix elements. The harmonic oscillator transitions are expressed in terms of asymptotic properties of a companion oscillator, the Milne (amplitude) oscillator. A traditional phase-amplitude decomposition of the harmonic-oscillator solutions results in the so-called Milne's equation for the amplitude, and the phase is determined by an exact relation to the amplitude. This approach is extended in the present analysis with new relevant concepts and parameters for pulse dynamics of classical and quantal systems. The amplitude oscillator has a particularly nice numerical behavior. In the case of strong pulses it does not possess any of the fast oscillations induced by the pulse on the original harmonic oscillator. Furthermore, the new dynamical parameters introduced in this approach relate closely to relevant characteristics of the pulse. The relevance to quantum mechanical problems such as reflection and transmission from a localized well and mechanical problems of controlling vibrations is illustrated.


LEAFY (LFY) is a functional candidate for variation in resource allocation in Arabidopsis lyrata. We isolated and characterized LFY alleles from A. lyrata individuals from Spiterstulen Norway, Plech Germany, Ithaca N.Y., USA, and Mayodan N.C, USA. We found numerous coding polymorphisms, insertions, and deletions that were only in certain populations or locations with the majority of the variation in the European populations. Our data supports the idea that Central Europe has served as refugia for A. lyrata. We identified two possible miRNAs, one in all North American individuals and one in some European individuals. We also found a Little Athila retro-element in a European population. Our population genetics analyses found evidence that the majority of the polymorphisms in A. lyrata are deleterious and have not been eliminated by natural selection. Our research suggests that the power of genetic drift in small, out-crossing populations has a similar effect to inbreeding in larger populations. Deleterious mutations that would normally be eliminated by natural selection are kept at high frequencies and may reach fixation at a faster rate.


Hyperacute changes in cerebral blood flow during cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion are important determinants of injury. Cerebral blood flow is regulated by neurovascular coupling, and disruption of neurovascular coupling contributes to brain plasticity and repair problems. However, it is unknown how neurovascular coupling is affected hyperacutely during cerebral ischaemia and reperfusion. We have developed a remote middle cerebral artery occlusion model in the rat, which enables multi-modal assessment of neurovascular coupling immediately prior to, during and immediately following reperfusion. Male Wistar rats were subjected to remote middle cerebral artery occlusion, where a long filament was advanced intraluminally through a guide cannula in the common carotid artery. Transcallosal stimulation evoked increases in blood flow, tissue oxygenation and neuronal activity, which were diminished by middle cerebral artery occlusion and partially restored during reperfusion. These evoked responses were not affected by administration of the thrombolytic alteplase at clinically used doses. Evoked cerebral blood flow responses were fully restored at 24 h post–middle cerebral artery occlusion indicating that neurovascular dysfunction was not sustained. These data show for the first time that the rat remote middle cerebral artery occlusion model coupled with transcallosal stimulation provides a novel method for continuous assessment of hyperacute neurovascular coupling changes during ischaemia and reperfusion, and offers unique insight into hyperacute ischaemic pathophysiology.


This paper presents a preliminary framework to describe how advanced controls can support multiple modes of operations including both energy efficiency and demand response (DR). A general description of DR, its benefits, and nationwide status is outlined. The role of energy management and control systems for DR is described. Building systems such as HVAC and lighting that utilize control technologies and strategies for energy efficiency are mapped on to DR and demand shedding strategies are developed. Past research projects are presented to provide a context for the current projects. The economic case for implementing DR from a building owner perspective is also explored.


Judges are human and experience emotion when hearing cases, though the standard account of judging long has denied that fact. In the post-Realist era it is possible to acknowledge that judges have emotional reactions to their work, yet our legal culture continues to insist that a good judge firmly puts those reactions aside. Thus, we expect judges to regulate their emotions, either by preventing emotion's emergence or by walling off its influence. But judges are given precisely no direction as to how to engage in emotional regulation. This Article proposes a model for judicial emotion regulation that goes beyond a blanket admonition to "put emotion aside." While legal discourse on judicial emotion has been stunted, scientific study of the processes of emotion regulation has been robust. By bringing these literatures together for the first time, the Article reveals that our legal culture does nothing to promote intelligent judicial emotion regulation and much to discourage it. An engagement model for managing judicial emotion promises to reverse this maladaptive pattern. It provides concrete tools with which judges may prepare realistically for emotional situations they necessarily will encounter, respond thoughtfully to emotions they cannot help but feel, and integrate lessons from such emotions into their behavior. Importantly, the medical community has begun to pursue just such a program to promote competent emotion regulation by doctors. The engagement model is far superior to all its alternatives. Other regulation strategies, such as avoidance, are fundamentally incompatible with judges' professional responsibilities. Suppressing the expression and experience of emotion—encouraged by the status quo—is costly and normatively undesirable. Suppression is unrealistic, exacerbates cognitive load, impairs memory, and can paradoxically increase emotion's influence while rendering that influence less transparent. The judicial-engagement model, in contrast, leverages the best of what the psychology of emotion regulation has to offer. It puts a name to what extraordinary judges already are doing well and makes it available to all judges. By setting aside not judicial emotion but, rather, the crude manner in which we have asked judges to manage it, we stand materially to improve the quality of judging.


When turmoil strikes world monetary and financial markets, leaders invariably call for 'a new Bretton Woods' to prevent catastrophic economic disorder and defuse political conflict. The name of the remote New Hampshire town where representatives of forty-four nations gathered in July 1944, in the midst of the century's second great war, has become shorthand for enlightened globalization. The actual story surrounding the historic Bretton Woods accords, however, is full of startling drama, intrigue, and rivalry, which are vividly brought to life in Benn Steil's epic account. Upending the conventional wisdom that Bretton Woods was the product of an amiable Anglo-American collaboration, Steil shows that it was in reality part of a much more ambitious geopolitical agenda hatched within President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Treasury and aimed at eliminating Britain as an economic and political rival. At the heart of the drama were the antipodal characters of John Maynard Keynes, the renowned and revolutionary British economist, and Harry Dexter White, the dogged, self-made American technocrat. Bringing to bear new and striking archival evidence, Steil offers the most compelling portrait yet of the complex and controversial figure of White--the architect of the dollar's privileged place in the Bretton Woods monetary system, who also, very privately, admired Soviet economic planning and engaged in clandestine communications with Soviet intelligence officials and agents over many years. A remarkably deft work of storytelling that reveals how the blueprint for the postwar economic order was actually drawn, The Battle of Bretton Woods is destined to become a classic of economic and political history.


The estimation of conditional quantiles has become an increasingly important issue in insurance and financial risk management. The stylized facts of financial time series data has rendered direct applications of extreme value theory methodologies, in the estimation of extreme conditional quantiles, inappropriate. On the other hand, quantile regression based procedures work well in nonextreme parts of a given data but breaks down in extreme probability levels. In order to solve this problem, we combine nonparametric regressions for time series and extreme value theory approaches in the estimation of extreme conditional quantiles for financial time series. To do so, a class of time series models that is similar to nonparametric AR-(G)ARCH models but which does not depend on distributional and moments assumptions, is introduced. We discuss estimation procedures for the nonextreme levels using the models and consider the estimates obtained by inverting conditional distribution estimators and by direct estimation using Koenker-Basset (1978) version for kernels. Under some regularity conditions, the asymptotic normality and uniform convergence, with rates, of the conditional quantile estimator for strong mixing time series, are established. We study the estimation of scale function in the introduced models using similar procedures and show that under some regularity conditions, the scale estimate is weakly consistent and asymptotically normal. The application of introduced models in the estimation of extreme conditional quantiles is achieved by augmenting them with methods in extreme value theory. It is shown that the overal extreme conditional quantiles estimator is consistent. A Monte Carlo study is carried out to illustrate the good performance of the estimates and real data are used to demonstrate the estimation of Value-at-Risk and conditional expected shortfall in financial risk management and their multiperiod predictions discussed.


This
article proves the existence of a hyper-precise global numerical
meta-architecture unifying, structuring, binding and controlling the billion
triplet codons constituting the sequence of
single-stranded DNA of the entire human genome. Beyond the evolution and
erratic mutations like transposons within the genome, it's as if the memory of
a fossil genome with multiple symmetries persists. This recalls the "intermingling" of information characterizing the
fractal universe of chaos theory. The result leads to a balanced and perfect
tuning between the masses of the two strands of the huge DNA molecule that
constitute our genome. We show here how codon populations forming the
single-stranded DNA sequences can constitute a critical approach to the
understanding of junk DNA function. Then, we suggest revisiting certain methods
published in our 2009 book "Codex Biogenesis". In fact, we demonstrate here how
the universal genetic code table is a powerful analytical filter to
characterize single-stranded DNA sequences constituting chromosomes and
genomes. We can then show that any genomic DNA sequence is featured by three numbers,
which characterize it and its 64 codon populations with correlations greater
than 99%. The number "1" is
common to all sequences, expressing the second law of Chargaff. The other 2
numbers are related to each specific DNA sequence case characterizing life
species. For example, the entire human genome is characterized by three remarkable
numbers 1, 2, and Phi = 1.618 the golden ratio. Associated with each of these
three numbers, we can match three axes of symmetry, then "imagine" a kind of
hyperspace formed by these codon populations. Then we revisit the value (3-Phi)/2
which is probably universal and common to both the scale of quarks and atomic
levels, balancing and tuning the whole human genome codon population. Finally,
we demonstrate a new kind of duality between "form and substance" overlapping
the whole human genome: we will show that—simultaneously with the duality
between genes and junk DNA—there is a second layer of embedded hidden structure
overlapping all the DNA of the whole human genome, dividing it into a second
type of duality information/redundancy involving golden ratio proportions.


In the study of the algebra $\mathrm{NCSym}$ of symmetric functions in noncommutative variables, Bergeron and Zabrocki found a free generating set consisting of power sum symmetric functions indexed by atomic partitions. On the other hand, Bergeron, Reutenauer, Rosas, and Zabrocki studied another free generating set of $\mathrm{NCSym}$ consisting of monomial symmetric functions indexed by unsplitable partitions. Can and Sagan raised the question of finding a bijection between atomic partitions and unsplitable partitions. In this paper, we provide such a bijection.


United States antitrust policy is said to promote some version of economic welfare. 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. One important welfare debate is whether antitrust should adopt a "consumer welfare" principle rather than a more general "total welfare" principle.The simple version of the consumer welfare test is not a balancing test. If consumers are harmed by reduced output or higher prices resulting from the exercise of market power, then this fact trumps any offsetting gains to producers. In this sense the consumer welfare test is easier to administer on a case by case basis than general welfare tests that may have to trade consumer losses and producer gains against each other.The volume and complexity of the academic debate on the general welfare vs. consumer welfare question creates an impression of policy significance that is completely belied by the case law. 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. Second, 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, one is hard pressed 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. In sum, courts invariably apply a consumer welfare test.In the paradigm cases that are commonly used as illustrations in this debate, all consumers either gain or lose from a practice. Often things are not that simple. Many practices affect different consumers in different ways, making the computation of net effects very difficult. Among such practices are (1) variable proportion ties; (2) ties that result in interproduct price discrimination; (3) tying and bundled discounts of imperfect complements; (4) vertical restraints and other practices used to facilitate third degree price discrimination; and (5) resale price maintenance which causes nominally higher prices but produces services that are more valuable to some customers than to others.When a practice causes both consumer harm and consumer benefit but net effects are unknown, producer gains may become more relevant, particularly if they result from significant production efficiencies.


An intimate and revealing collection of photographs of astonishingly beautiful, iconic, and undiscovered mid-century interiors. Among significant mid-century interiors, none are more celebrated yet underpublished as the homes created by architects and interior designers for themselves. This collection of newly commissioned photographs presents the most compelling homes by influential mid-century designers, such as Russel Wright, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, Charles and Ray Eames, and Eva Zeisel, among others. Intimate as well as revelatory, Williamson's photographs show these creative homes as they were lived in by their designers: Walter Gropius's historic Bauhaus home in Massachusetts; Albert Frey's floating modernist aerie on a Palm Springs rock outcropping; Wharton Esherick's completely handmade Pennsylvania house, from the organic handcarved staircase to the iconic furniture. Personal and breathtaking by turn--these homes are exemplary studies of domestic modernism at its warmest and most creative.


Text describes action on various war fronts: Jap advance lines cut -- U.S. bombers in India -- Jap defeat in China -- Tribute to team work -- Tokyo raid confirmed -- Axis attack forecast -- Subs in St. Lawrence -- Plan relief corps -- WAAC bill passes -- State laws 'brake' war -- Deal at Martinique -- Raid Jap settlements -- Peru's president here -- Freight by plane -- Gas rationing starts -- Indies fliers here -- British announce war casualties -- R.A.F. pushes attacks -- Gort to Malta command -- Mission to Africa -- Spring offensive on -- Norway plant wrecked.

Large world map is keyed to text and illustrates time zones around the world.

Inset map shows German and Russian advances near the Black Sea.

Includes photographs: Lt. Gen. Stillwell -- Vice Pres. Wallace -- Lt. Gen. Somervell -- New bombs piled underground awaiting delivery -- Lord Gort -- Russian troop answer the Nazi assault -- British troops practice street fighting tactics.

Includes 1 cartoon.


The socio-political status of Roma (Gypsy) minorities living in present-day Ukraine has been constructed by the continuation of flawed ethnic policies established during communism, directed at integrating gypsies into the general Soviet lifestyle, while simultaneously confusing their cultural identity.  Although Soviet policies did not specifically aim to discriminate against the Roma, they did not help maintain their specific culture either. Due to the ambiguity of the Soviet state's approach, many of the Roma living in western Russia and Ukraine were left with options of either assimilating into a 'new', proletarian Soviet lifestyle and gaining some sense of 'nationhood'; adversely, they could continue maintaining their highly criticized lifestyle of nomadism and traditional labor.  Assimilation provoked a backlash from non-Roma Soviet citizens who wanted to maintain their segregation from the Roma, as well as from fellow Roma who viewed assimilation as an abandonment of Romani identity. \ In the past twenty years, the Roma throughout Ukraine have been faced with problems of unemployment, social exclusion, racial violence and increasing stigmatization. Moveover, the dissolving of the Soviet Union has left both assimilated and unassimilated Roma unsure of their place in new and continually changing social and political spaces. As social and cultural relations evolve over time, the Roma must create their unique place within them. This paper will look at the Roma's place within Soviet Ukraine and their contemporary status within modern day Ukraine.


In 2001, Shimozono and White gave a description of the domino Schensted algorithm of Barbasch, Vogan, Garfinkle and van Leeuwen with the "color-to-spin" property, that is, the property that the total color of the permutation equals the sum of the spins of the domino tableaux. In this paper, we describe the poset of domino Fibonacci shapes, an isomorphic equivalent to Stanley's Fibonacci lattice $Z(2)$, and define domino Fibonacci tableaux. We give an insertion algorithm which takes colored permutations to pairs of tableaux $(P,Q)$ of domino Fibonacci shape. We then define a notion of spin for domino Fibonacci tableaux for which the insertion algorithm preserves the color-to-spin property. In addition, we give an evacuation algorithm for standard domino Fibonacci tableaux which relates the pairs of tableaux obtained from the domino insertion algorithm to the pairs of tableaux obtained from Fomin's growth diagrams.


The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate a job embedded professional development program at a PK-8 school in southeastern North Carolina. The model was based on definitions and standards built by such experts as No Child Left Behind, the ILLS, and the National Council of Staff Development. These standards were employed to analyze the program's success as well. The program was planned to be job embedded and of a seven month duration. Its focus was clarified by a needs assessment given to stakeholders with administrative support. The school employed consultants from the University of North Carolina, who partnered with the school in program direction. Evaluation was the result of both formative and summative analysis of data gathered through interviews, surveys and student assessment during the seven month period. Analysis of data illustrated that professional development that is job embedded, sustained in nature, employs input from stakeholders and is facilitated by community partnerships, can be a catalyst for school change in both students and teachers. It is recommended that professional development defined and built in such a way be used by curriculum and instructional specialists as a vehicle of delivery for institutional growth and development.


Objective To assess persistence of immunity to hepatitis B (HBV) in primary school children vaccinated following perinatal exposure. Design Serological survey. Setting Five UK sites (Berkshire East, Birmingham, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire). Participants Children from 3 years 4 months to 10 years of age (mean age 6.2 years), vaccinated against HBV from birth following perinatal exposure. Interventions A single booster dose of the paediatric formulation of a recombinant HBV vaccine. Main outcome measures Titres of antibody against hepatitis B Surface Antigen (anti-HBs) measured immediately before and 21–35 days after the HBV vaccine booster. Results Prebooster anti-HBs titres were >10 mIU/ml in 84.6% of children (n=26; 95% CI 65.1 to 95.6%). All children (n=25, 95% CI 86.3 to 100%) had titres >100 mIU/ml after the booster. Conclusions This study of antibody persistence among UK children born to hepatitis B infected women, immunised with a 3-dose infant schedule with a toddler booster suggests sustained immunity through early childhood. These data should prompt further studies to address the need for a preschool booster. Trial registration Eudract Number 2008-004785-98.


Background/Context Testing accommodations have been widely utilized as a way of increasing the validity of content assessments for English language learner (ELL) students. However, concerns have also arisen regarding the appropriateness of accommodation use, including the accessibility and fairness of accommodations. While many states have developed ELL-specific accommodation policies and guidelines, little research has been available on how the accommodation policies are carried out in practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The present study investigated two states' accommodation policies, specifically for the states' respective large-scale Grade 8 math assessments, and conducted a case study to examine teachers' understanding of the policies and uses. The study aimed to identify issues to consider for an appropriate use of accommodations and provide useful information for policymakers to improve their accommodation policies. Research Design The study utilized a qualitative method employing teacher surveys and interviews. The survey and interview instruments were developed based on previous literature and experts' feedback. The interview transcripts were coded by two researchers using a systematic coding scheme. Descriptive statistics of the responses were computed to observe trends across and within districts and schools. The results were also compared between states or between ELL and math teachers when applicable. Conclusions/Recommendations Despite the limitation of the small sample in this study, the findings of the study offer practical implications for policymakers and educators in the use of accommodations for ELL students. The study found considerable variation reported by teachers with regard to the perception of accommodation decision makers, selection criteria, and the types of accommodations allowed in each state's math assessment. This variation raised serious concerns regarding the adequacy of the accommodation uses and the comparability of accommodated test results across schools. In this paper, we discussed a number of possible reasons for teachers' reported difficulty in keeping up with state policies: (a) lack of clear guidelines in making accommodation decisions and implementing accommodations in a standardized way, (b) lack of or limited opportunities in receiving information and communicating about accommodations among decision makers and teachers, and (c) limited resources and logistical difficulties. To support an appropriate use of accommodations for teachers, we recommend that states make efforts to provide comprehensive, operationalized guidelines for ELL accommodations, monitor the use of the guidelines, and hold regular professional meetings for ELL and content teachers.


I discuss the physics of non-Abelian plasmas which are locally anisotropic in momentum space. Such momentum-space anisotropies are generated by the rapid longitudinal expansion of the matter created in the first 1 fm/c of an ultrarelativistic heavy ion collision. In contrast to locally isotropic plasmas anisotropic plasmas have a spectrum of soft unstable modes which are characterized by exponential growth of transverse chromo-magnetic/-electric fields at short times. This instability is the QCD analogue of the Weibel instability of QED. Parametrically the chromo-Weibel instability provides the fastest method for generation of soft background fields and dominates the short-time dynamics of the system. The existence of the chromo-Weibel instability has been proven using diagrammatic methods, transport theory, and numerical solution of classical Yang-Mills fields. I review the results obtained from each of these methods and discuss the numerical techniques which are being used to determine the late-time behavior of plasmas subject to a chromo-Weibel instability.


The value-adding contribution of human resources departments in organisations has often been questioned. The objective of this study was to compare the perceptions of human resource practitioners in a global petrochemical company concerning expected and real contributions to business performance with those of their internal clients. The results showed that human resource practitioners and their line customers agree on the importance of the human resources roles that enable business performance, indicating that human resource practitioners have a good understanding of their job requirements. However, both human resource practitioners and their line customers perceive the performance of human resource practitioners to be average, which is lower than the expected level of performance as indicated by importance scales.


Slavery is illegal throughout the world, yet more than twenty-seven million people are still trapped in one of history's oldest social institutions. Kevin Bales' disturbing story of slavery today reaches from brick kilns in Pakistan and brothels in Thailand to the offices of multinational corporations. His investigation of conditions in Mauritania, Brazil, Thailand, Pakistan, and India reveals the tragic emergence of a "new slavery," one intricately linked to the global economy. The new slaves are not a long-term investment as was true with older forms of slavery, explains Bales. Instead, they are cheap, require little care, and are disposable. Three interrelated factors have helped create the new slavery. The enormous population explosion over the past three decades has flooded the world's labor markets with millions of impoverished, desperate people.The revolution of economic globalization and modernized agriculture has dispossessed poor farmers, making them and their families ready targets for enslavement. And rapid economic change in developing countries has bred corruption and violence, destroying social rules that might once have protected the most vulnerable individuals. Bales' vivid case studies present actual slaves, slaveholders, and public officials in well-drawn historical, geographical, and cultural contexts. He observes the complex economic relationships of modern slavery and is aware that liberation is a bitter victory for a child prostitute or a bondaged miner if the result is starvation. Bales offers suggestions for combating the new slavery and provides examples of very positive results from organizations such as Anti-Slavery International, the Pastoral Land Commission in Brazil, and the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan.He also calls for researchers to follow the flow of raw materials and products from slave to marketplace in order to effectively target campaigns of "naming and shaming" corporations linked to slavery. "Disposable People" is the first book to point the way to abolishing slavery in today's global economy.


Factory Records' fame and fortune were based on two bands - Joy Division and New Order - and one personality - that of its director, Tony Wilson. At the height of the label's success in the late 1980s, it ran its own club, the legendary Hacienda, had a string of international hit records, and was admired and emulated around the world. But by the 1990s the story had changed. The back catalogue was sold off, top bands New Order and Happy Mondays were in disarray, and the Hacienda was shut down by the police. Critically acclaimed on its original publication in 1996, this book tells the complete story of Factory Records' spectacular history, from the label's birth in 1970s Manchester, through its '80s heyday and '90s demise. Now updated to include new material on the re-emergence of Joy Division, the death of Tony Wilson and the legacy of Factory Records, it draws on exclusive interviews with the major players to give a fascinating insight into the unique personalities and chaotic reality behind one of the UK's most influential and successful independent record labels.


Clinical diagnosis of pathological conditions is accomplished regularly via the recording and subsequent analysis of a physiological variable from a subject. Problems with current common practice centre around the obtrusive and rigid nature of this process. These include the length, timing and location of the diagnostic recording session, transfer of data to clinical staff, liaison between clinical staff and subjects and the integration of such diagnostic check-ups into the overall health care process. We have designed a modular diagnostic monitor that is centered around a wearable computer system which, when integrated into a suitable computer network and database architecture, is capable of addressing the above problems. The system is modular, allowing researchers and practitioners to utilise various sensor modules, reconfigure the unit in terms of its on-board storage and wireless telemetry capabilities, select the appropriate level of data preprocessing (before archiving data) and choose the appropriate level and nature of feedback to the subject. The system is GRID enabled, supporting e-clinical-trials. GRID clients can display live data, historical data, or perform data mining.


This article presents contributions in the field of path planning for industrial robots with 6 degrees of freedom. This work presents the results of our research in the last 4 years at the Institute for Process Control and Robotics at the University of Karlsruhe. The path planning approach we present works in an implicit and discretized C-space. Collisions are detected in the Cartesian workspace by a hierarchical distance computation. The method is based on the A* search algorithm and needs no essential off-line computation. A new optimal discretization method leads to smaller search spaces, thus speeding up the planning. For a further acceleration, the search was parallelized. With a static load distribution good speedups can be achieved. By extending the algorithm to a bidirectional search, the planner is able to automatically select the easier search direction. The new dynamic switching of start and goal leads finally to the multi-goal path planning, which is able to compute a collision-free path between a set of goal poses (e.g., spot welding points) while minimizing the total path length.


This paper revisits the key success factors of new product development by investigating a software-intensive product development project, which is presented in form of a detailed qualitative case study. The result reconfirms the existing wisdom that factors like top management sponsorship, presence of a heavy-weight project manager, close cross-functional collaboration and communication, skill routines and supporting tools used during the project execution as well as unambiguous and systematic product concept are essential enablers for the product development project to become a success. The case study has also revealed a number of additional aspects such as management competences in geographical coordination, complementary incentive system and contract management which, if managed insufficiently, may lead to unsatisfactory performance of the product development. Innovation managers in software industry may therefore pay attention to them, in order to improve the product development quality.


Machine learning is everywhere in today's NLP, but by and large machine learning amounts to numerical optimization of weights for human designed representations and features. The goal of deep learning is to explore how computers can take advantage of data to develop features and representations appropriate for complex interpretation tasks. This tutorial aims to cover the basic motivation, ideas, models and learning algorithms in deep learning for natural language processing. Recently, these methods have been shown to perform very well on various NLP tasks such as language modeling, POS tagging, named entity recognition, sentiment analysis and paraphrase detection, among others. The most attractive quality of these techniques is that they can perform well without any external hand-designed resources or time-intensive feature engineering. Despite these advantages, many researchers in NLP are not familiar with these methods. Our focus is on insight and understanding, using graphical illustrations and simple, intuitive derivations. The goal of the tutorial is to make the inner workings of these techniques transparent, intuitive and their results interpretable, rather than black boxes labeled "magic here".

The first part of the tutorial presents the basics of neural networks, neural word vectors, several simple models based on local windows and the math and algorithms of training via backpropagation. In this section applications include language modeling and POS tagging.

In the second section we present recursive neural networks which can learn structured tree outputs as well as vector representations for phrases and sentences. We cover both equations as well as applications. We show how training can be achieved by a modified version of the backpropagation algorithm introduced before. These modifications allow the algorithm to work on tree structures. Applications include sentiment analysis and paraphrase detection. We also draw connections to recent work in semantic compositionality in vector spaces. The principle goal, again, is to make these methods appear intuitive and interpretable rather than mathematically confusing. By this point in the tutorial, the audience members should have a clear understanding of how to build a deep learning system for word-, sentence- and document-level tasks.

The last part of the tutorial gives a general overview of the different applications of deep learning in NLP, including bag of words models. We will provide a discussion of NLP-oriented issues in modeling, interpretation, representational power, and optimization.


In Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2010 that securities fraud suits could not be brought under Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act against foreign defendants by foreign plaintiffs who bought their securities outside the United States (so called, "f-cubed," securities litigation). The Court held that Section 10(b) reaches only fraud in connection with the, "purchase or sale of a security listed on an American stock exchange, and the purchase or sale of any other security in the United States." Congress responded to Morrison with Section 929P of the Dodd-Frank Act, which gives federal courts jurisdiction over some similar cases if they are brought by the SEC or the Department of Justice (DOJ).This article discusses alternative explanations for why Congress used extraterritorial jurisdiction language in Section 929P instead of directly addressing the reach of Section 10(b) on the merits, and whether as a result Section 929P does nothing more than confer jurisdiction on federal courts that the Morrison opinion already recognized courts have over all Section 10(b) cases. This article also discusses whether Section 929P reinstates for SEC and DOJ suits some of the case law in the courts of appeals that was overturned by Morrison, and if so, how that case law is to be applied. This article discusses whether Section 929P is retroactive, and how Section 929P likely will be used by the SEC and DOJ in insider trading and other cases. Finally, this article discusses whether Section 929P was necessary given the SEC's already expansive enforcement authority under Section 10(b) and whether Congress should have taken the opportunity to address other more pressing post-Morrison issues in Dodd Frank. These issues include the status under Morrison of securities listed both in the United States and outside the United States, and the status of off-exchange traded security-based swap agreements, as well as other private transactions where identifying a transaction location is not as easy as it is for exchange traded securities.


Thomas Oden provides a modern commentary on the pastoral letters grounded in the classical, consensual tradition of interpretation. Oden utilizes the best and most accurate research concerning the historical, literary, and philological aspects of the pastoral letters. He addresses tough issues: the role of women in worship, problems of the rich and poor, the relation between servants and masters, policies concerning support of elderly widows, and how to handle church disruptions.Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching is a distinctive resource for those who interpret the Bible in the church. Planned and written specifically for teaching and preaching needs, this critically acclaimed biblical commentary is a major contribution to scholarship and ministry.


In this paper a semilinear parabolic PDE for the control of solenoid valves is presented. The distributed parameter model of the cylinder becomes nonlinear by the inclusion of saturation effects due to the material's B/H-curve. A flatness based solution of the semilinear PDE is shown as well as a convergence proof of its series solution. By numerical simulation results the adaptability of the approach is demonstrated, and differences between the linear and the nonlinear case are discussed. The major contribution of this paper is the inclusion of saturation effects into the magnetic field governing linear diffusion equation, and the development of a flatness based solution for the resulting semilinear PDE as an extension of previous works [1] and [2].


A tree ring-width record spanning from AD 1377—1998 was developed from Tibetan juniper (Cupressus gigantea) growing at sites north of the deep gorge of the Yarlung Tsangbo River of southeast Tibet. A linear regression model between ring width and mean January—June temperature accounts for 35% of January—June temperature variance for the period 1961—1998. Based on this model, we reconstructed January—June temperature variation history for the study region during the past 622 years. Warm conditions occurred during AD 1385—1418, 1443—1466, 1482—1501, 1523—1548, 1570s, 1705—1759, 1770—1790, 1851—1888, 1910s, and 1938—1965, and periods of relatively cold years are identified for AD 1419—1442, 1470s, 1502—1522, 1550—1569, 1610—1640, 1680—1700, 1760s, 1791—1850, 1900s and 1965—1995. Spatial correlation between tree rings and observed temperatures indicates that the reconstruction is representative of temperature change for southeast Tibet. Regional cold conditions during AD 1625, 1685, 1760, 1800—1850, 1890—1930 and 1965—1995, and warm conditions during 1710, 1730—1750, 1850—1890 and 1930—1960 can be identified in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Our reconstruction shows good agreement with modelled regional temperatures derived from an ECHO-G model simulation. Common cold periods around 1470, 1685 and 1845 corresponding to the Spörer Minimum, the Maunder Minimum and the Dalton Minimum periods of low solar activity and increased volcanic activity were identified, indicating that solar and volcanic activity played an important role in temperature change of this region. The discrepancy between modelled and reconstructed temperatures was noted around 1965, reflecting that temperature decrease in the late 20th century (1965—1995) is anomalous.


Background Silent brain infarcts are common in patients at increased risk of stroke and are associated with a poor prognosis. In patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis, similar adverse associations were claimed, but the impact of previous infarction or symptoms on the beneficial effects of carotid endarterectomy is not clear. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of prior cerebral infarction in patients enrolled in the Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial, a large trial with 10-year follow-up in which participants whose carotid stenosis had not caused symptoms for at least six months were randomly allocated either immediate or deferred carotid endarterectomy. Methods The first Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial included 3120 patients. Of these, 2333 patients with baseline brain imaging were identified and divided into two groups irrespective of treatment assignment, 1331 with evidence of previous cerebral infarction, defined as a history of ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack > 6 months prior to randomization or radiological evidence of an asymptomatic infarct (group 1) and 1002 with normal imaging and no prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (group 2). Stroke and vascular deaths were compared during follow-up, and the impact of carotid endarterectomy was observed in both groups. Results Baseline characteristics of patients with and without baseline brain imaging were broadly similar. Of those included in the present report, male gender and hypertension were more common in group 1, while mean ipsilateral stenosis was slightly greater in group 2. At 10 years follow-up, stroke was more common among participants with cerebral infarction before randomization (absolute risk increase 5.8% (1.8–9.8), p = 0.004), and the risk of stroke and vascular death was also higher in this group (absolute risk increase 6.9% (1.9–12.0), p = 0.007). On multivariate analysis, prior cerebral infarction was associated with a greater risk of stroke (hazard ratio = 1.51, 95% confidence interval: 1.17–1.95, p = 0.002) and of stroke or other vascular death (hazard ratio = 1.30, 95% confidence interval: 1.11–1.52, p = 0.001). At 10 years, greater absolute benefits from immediate carotid endarterectomy were seen in those patients with prior cerebral infarction (6.7% strokes immediate carotid endarterectomy vs. 14.7% delayed carotid endarterectomy; hazard ratio 0.47 (0.34–0.65), p = 0.003), compared to those lower risk patients without prior cerebral infarction (6.0% vs. 9.9%, respectively; hazard ratio 0.61 (0.39–0.94), p = 0.005), though it must be emphasized that the first Asymptomatic Carotid Surgery Trial was not designed to test this retrospective and non-randomized comparison. Conclusions Asymptomatic carotid stenosis patients with prior cerebral infarction have a higher stroke risk during long-term follow-up than those without prior cerebral infarction. Evidence of prior ischemic events might help identify patients in whom carotid intervention is particularly beneficial.


What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn science with understanding? What do science educators, teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, and school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? Ready, Set, Science! guides the way with an account of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning science in kindergarten through eighth grade. Based on the recently released National Research Council report Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8, this book summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sciences and builds detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators. Ready, Set, Science! is filled with classroom case studies that bring to life the research findings and help readers to replicate success. Most of these stories are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities that teachers grapple with every day. They show how teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of representational tools. This book will be an essential resource for science education practitioners and contains information that will be extremely useful to everyone A-A'A1/2including parents A-A'A1/2directly or indirectly involved in the teaching of science.


This study provides a preliminary examination of the efficacy of the Reflected Best Self Exercise. We conducted a field quasi-experiment with 108 adolescent leaders assigned to a 2 × 2 design: (1) valence of feedback (i.e., strengths-only versus strengths and improvement-oriented) and (2) source of feedback (i.e., professional (e.g., teachers, coaches, bosses) only versus professional and personal (e.g., friends and family)). By ANOVA, support was found for the hypothesis that feedback from the combination of professional and personal sources is associated with more positive emotional, agentic, and relational resources than feedback from only professional sources. Little support was found for the hypothesis that strengths-based feedback generates more positive emotional, agentic, or relational resources. Limitations, implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.


Consepts of Microsoft Unity is one of the series of books covering various topics of science, technology and management published by London School of Management Studies. The book will cover the introduction to the Topic and can be used as a very useful course study material for students pursuing their studies in undergraduate and graduate levels in universities and colleges and those who want to learn the topic in brief via a short and complete resource. We hope you find this book useful is shaping your future career, Please send us your enquiries related to our publications to firstname.lastname@example.com London School of Management Studies www.lsms.org.uk


The breadth of scientific and technological interests in the general topic of photochemistry is truly enormous and includes, for example, such diverse areas as microelectronics, atmospheric chemistry, organic synthesis, non-conventional photoimaging, photosynthesis, solar energy conversion, polymer technologies, and spectroscopy. This Specialist Periodical Report on Photochemistry aims to provide an annual review of photo-induced processes that have relevance to the above wide-ranging academic and commercial disciplines, and interests in chemistry, physics, biology and technology. In order to provide easy access to this vast and varied literature, each volume of Photochemistry comprises sections concerned with photophysical processes in condensed phases, organic aspects which are sub-divided by chromophore type, polymer photochemistry, and photochemical aspects of solar energy conversion. Volume 34 covers literature published from July 2001 to June 2002. Specialist Periodical Reports provide systematic and detailed review coverage in major areas of chemical research. Compiled by teams of leading authorities in the relevant subject areas, the series creates a unique service for the active research chemist, with regular, in-depth accounts of progress in particular fields of chemistry. Subject coverage within different volumes of a given title is similar and publication is on an annual or biennial basis.


This booklet gives an overview of terminal and area forecasts as they relate to aviation. According to the scope notes on the title page, it includes an "Explanation of the information provided on terminal and area forecasts; to include valid time, forecast weather, and hazards to flight." The text also has self-evaluation questions printed throughout, with the answers printed on the last page.


Ethmalosa fimbriata is a very abundant species in marine and estuarine waters of Senegal. It is caught only by artisanal fisheries. Some aspects of its reproduction are studied in order to provide some contribution to a rational and sustainable management of the fishery. To evaluate the reproduction of Ethmalosa fimbriata , the sex ratio, the size at first maturity, the evolution of sexual maturity stages and the gonadosomatic index (GSI) were used. The results show that the sex ratio is 46% of males and 54% of females in the estuary while at sea it is 42% of males against 58% of females. Size at first maturity is 16.2 cm for males and 17.5 cm for females in the estuary , while at sea these sizes are respectively equal to 17.2 and 18.7 cm for females and males. The main breeding periods are during the cold season in the estuary and the hot season at sea. Ethmalosa fimbriata is a species with small eggs and high fecundity. The absolute and relative fecundity are higher in the estuary than at sea.


BACKGROUND
Telehealth shows promise for supporting patients in managing their long-term health conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, it is currently unclear how patients, and particularly older people, may benefit from these technological interventions.

AIM
To explore patients' expectations and experiences of using a mobile telehealth-based (mHealth) application and to determine how such a system may impact on their perceived wellbeing and ability to manage their COPD.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Embedded qualitative study using interviews with patients with COPD from various community NHS services: respiratory community nursing service, general practice, and pulmonary rehabilitation.

METHOD
An embedded qualitative study was conducted to which patients were recruited using purposive sampling to achieve maximum variation. Interviews were carried out prior to receiving the mHealth system and again after a 6-month period. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.

RESULTS
The sample comprised 19 patients (aged 50-85 years) with varied levels of computer skills. Patients identified no difficulties in using the mHealth application. The main themes encapsulating patients' experience of using the mHealth application related to an increased awareness of the variability of their symptoms (onset of exacerbation and recovery time) and reassurance through monitoring (continuity of care).

CONCLUSION
Patients were able to use the mHealth application, interpret clinical data, and use these within their self-management approach regardless of previous knowledge. Telehealth interventions can complement current clinical care pathways to support self-management behaviour.


Lifeboats are important for the safety of crew on oil platforms and marine vessels. Their design has so far been mostly based on experimental studies. However, the large number of factors which influence the loads on the lifeboat structure and its occupants makes optimization studies by experimental means both time-consuming and expensive. Besides, many effects cannot be studied at laboratory scale due to the inability to match all similarity parameters, and certain conditions cannot be realized in a laboratory. Numerical simulations based on modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods could complement experimental studies if proven to be sufficiently accurate and efficient. The aim of this study is to demonstrate that this indeed is the case: comparisons between experimental data and simulation results performed by the authors so far indicate that the achieved accuracy in numerical simulations is comparable to the accuracy of experiments. It is also shown that a simulation of one drop test can be performed with sufficient accuracy in one day on a single core of a personal computer. Together with a computational method which uses overlapping grids to simplify the handling of lifeboat motion and specification of initial and boundary conditions, parametric studies of lifeboat water entry have thus become practicable.


We examine the anthropogenically forced climate response for the 21st century representative concentration pathway (RCP) emission scenarios and their extensions for the period 2101–2500. The experiments were performed with ModelE2, a new version of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Sciences (GISS) coupled general circulation model that includes three different versions for the atmospheric composition components: a noninteractive version (NINT) with prescribed composition and a tuned aerosol indirect effect (AIE), the TCAD version with fully interactive aerosols, whole‐atmosphere chemistry, and the tuned AIE, and the TCADI version which further includes a parameterized first indirect aerosol effect on clouds. Each atmospheric version is coupled to two different ocean general circulation models: the Russell ocean model (GISS‐E2‐R) and HYCOM (GISS‐E2‐H). By 2100, global mean warming in the RCP scenarios ranges from 1.0 to 4.5°C relative to 1850–1860 mean temperature in the historical simulations. In the RCP2.6 scenario, the surface warming in all simulations stays below a 2°C threshold at the end of the 21st century. For RCP8.5, the range is 3.5–4.5°C at 2100. Decadally averaged sea ice area changes are highly correlated to global mean surface air temperature anomalies and show steep declines in both hemispheres, with a larger sensitivity during winter months. By the year 2500, there are complete recoveries of the globally averaged surface air temperature for all versions of the GISS climate model in the low‐forcing scenario RCP2.6. TCADI simulations show enhanced warming due to greater sensitivity to CO2, aerosol effects, and greater methane feedbacks, and recovery is much slower in RCP2.6 than with the NINT and TCAD versions. All coupled models have decreases in the Atlantic overturning stream function by 2100. In RCP2.6, there is a complete recovery of the Atlantic overturning stream function by the year 2500 while with scenario RCP8.5, the E2‐R climate model produces a complete shutdown of deep water formation in the North Atlantic.


This volume contains two texts that crossed the Mediterranean in Late Antiquity. "The Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius" was one of the first works composed in response to the Arab invasions and the establishment of the Muslim empire in the seventh century. In a matter of decades, it was translated from its original Syriac into Greek and from Greek into Latin. (Both the Greek and Latin texts are presented here.) The Apocalypse enjoyed immense popularity throughout the Middle Ages, informing expectations of the end of the world, responses to strange and exotic invaders like the Mongols and Turks, and even the legendary versions of the life of Alexander the Great. "An Alexandrian World Chronicle" (Excerpta Latina Barbari) was considered important by no less a humanist than Joseph Scaliger. He recognized it as a representative of an early stage in the Christian chronicle tradition that would dominate medieval historiography. The original Greek text may have been a diplomatic gift from the court of Justinian to a potential ally among Frankish royalty, translated two centuries later by the Franks themselves in their efforts to convert the pagan Saxons. In addition to presenting a universal chronicle with a comprehensive ethnography and geography, the Excerpta offer a Euhemeristic narrative of the gods and another account of Alexander.


This is the first study which provides a strategic view on the empowering of the EP by the member states. Compared to the consultation procedure, in which the Council adopts Commission proposals, the EP has become a co-legislator in the codecision procedure, in which it usually promotes an integrationist position favouring policy change. According to this supranational scenario, most scholars conclude that member states intend to increase the legitimacy of the EU rather than their benefits from legislative outcomes. For some authors the empowering of the EP is even a significant example of the limits and deficits of rational choice theory. From a strategic perspective, however, this study clarifies that member states can benefit from introducing the codecision procedure in the supranational scenario. When the parliament can hardly figure out the complex configuration in the Council, member states can strategically misrepresent their pivotal member's 'true' position and present a minority proposal in the conciliation bargains that is more closely located to the status quo. Under these conditions, the introduction of the codecision procedure has several advantages for the member states; in particular it improves the benefits of member states vis-à-vis solutions under the consultation procedure, in which a better informed Commission makes a proposal that must find the support only of a qualified majority of member states.


An innovative 0D predictive combustion model for the simulation of the HRR (heat release rate) in DI diesel engines was assessed and implemented in a 1D fluid-dynamic commercial code for the simulation of a Fiat heavy duty diesel engine equipped with a Variable Geometry Turbocharger system, in the frame of the CORE (CO2 reduction for long distance transport) Collaborative Project of the European Community, VII FP. The 0D combustion approach starts from the calculation of the injection rate profile on the basis of the injected fuel quantities and on the injection parameters, such as the start of injection and the energizing time, taking the injector opening and closure delays into account. The injection rate profile in turn allows the released chemical energy to be estimated. The approach assumes that HRR is proportional to the energy associated with the accumulated fuel mass in the combustion chamber. This procedure allows an accurate calculation of different combustion parameters important for engine calibration, such as MFB50 (50% of fuel burned mass fraction crank angle).


In 1995 the European Union adopted a Directive on data protection. Article 25 of this Directive compels all EU member countries to adopt data protection legislation and to prevent the transfer of personal data to non-EU member countries ("third countries") that do not provide an adequate level of data protection. Article 25 results in the Directive having extra-territorial effect and exerting an influence in countries outside the EU. Like South Africa, New Zealand is a "third" country in terms of the EU Directive on data protection. New Zealand recognised the need for data protection and adopted a data protection Act over 15 years ago. The focus of this article is on the data protection provisions in New Zealand law with a view to establishing whether South Africa can learn any lessons from them. In general, it can be said that although New Zealand law does not expressly recognise a right to privacy, it has a data protection regime that functions well and that goes a long way to providing adequate data protection as required by the EU Directive on data protection. Nevertheless, the EU has not made a finding to that effect as yet. The New Zealand data protection act requires a couple of amendments before New Zealand might be adjudged 'adequate'. South Africa's protection of the right to privacy and identity is better developed and more extensive than that of New Zealand. Privacy is recognised and protected in the law of delict and by the South African Constitution. Despite South Africa's apparently high regard for the individual's right to privacy and identity and our well-developed common and constitutional law of privacy, South Africa does not meet the adequacy requirement of the EU Directive, because we do not have a data protection Act. This means that South African participants in the information technology arena are at a constant disadvantage. It is argued that South Africa should follow New Zealand's example and adopt a data protection law as soon as possible.


Isogonal polyhedra are those polyhedra having the property of being vertex-transitive. By this we mean that every vertex can be mapped to any other vertex via a symmetry of the whole polyhedron; in a sense, every vertex looks exactly like any other. The Platonic solids are examples, but these are bounded polyhedra and our focus here is on infinite polyhedra. When the polygons of an infinite isogonal polyhedron are all planar and regular, the polyhedra are also known as sponges, pseudopolyhedra, or infinite skew polyhedra. These have been studied over the years, but many have been missed by previous researchers. We first introduce a notation for labeling three-dimensional isogonal polyhedra and then show how this notation can be combinatorially used to find all of the isogonal polyhedra that can be created given a specific vertex star configuration. As an example, we apply our methods to the $\{4, 5\}$ vertex star of five squares aligned along the planes of a cubic lattice and prove that there are exactly 15 such unlabeled sponges and 35 labeled ones. Previous efforts had found only 8 of the 15 shapes.


The paper examines the importance of painting for Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. Painting, as the celebration of visibility, is an important supplement to that project. It is a way of exploring the possibilities of embodied perception that does not rely on linguistic concepts. That is, in painting we can encounter a philosophy of vision that is performed and understood in terms of vision as embodied perception. Since in his phenomenology Merleau-Ponty is in search of a primitive contact with the lived world prior to the level of explicit reflection, painting provides a suitable example of such contact that cannot be fully explained through the use of language. "Cezanne's Doubt" presents the similarity between the methods and goals of phenomenology and those of painting. "Eye and Mind" articulates the ontological significance of visibility. The contribution of painting to phenomenology is not in the explication of the former by the latter and its use as an example. Rather, painting pursues the same goals without the use of language, something that the philosophical discipline on its own cannot do.


During the past forty years, thousands of studies have been carried out on the subject of happiness. Some have explored the levels of happiness or dissatisfaction associated with typical daily activities, such as working, seeing friends, or doing household chores. Others have tried to determine the extent to which income, family, religion, and other factors are associated with the satisfaction people feel about their lives. The Gallup organization has begun conducting global surveys of happiness, and several countries are considering publishing periodic reports on the growth or decline of happiness among their people. One nation, tiny Bhutan, has actually made "Gross National Happiness" the central aim of its domestic policy. How might happiness research affect government policy in the United States--and beyond? In The Politics of Happiness, former Harvard president Derek Bok examines how governments could use the rapidly growing research data on what makes people happy--in a variety of policy areas to increase well-being and improve the quality of life for all their citizens. Bok first describes the principal findings of happiness researchers. He considers how reliable the results appear to be and whether they deserve to be taken into account in devising government policies. Recognizing both the strengths and weaknesses of happiness research, Bok looks at the policy implications for economic growth, equality, retirement, unemployment, health care, mental health, family programs, education, and government quality, among other subjects. Timely and incisive, The Politics of Happiness sheds new light on what makes people happy and how government policy could foster greater satisfaction for all.


This is the fifth volume of a projected six-volume Vulgate Bible. Compiled and translated in large part by Saint Jerome at the turn of the fifth century ce, the Vulgate Bible permeated the Western Christian tradition through the twentieth century. It influenced literature, art, music, and education, and its contents lay at the heart of Western theological, intellectual, artistic, and political history through the Renaissance. At the end of the sixteenth century, professors at a Catholic college first at Douay, then at Rheims, translated the Vulgate Bible into English to combat the influence of Protestant vernacular Bibles. Volume V presents the twelve minor prophetical books of the Old Testament, as well as two deuterocanonical books, 1 and 2 Maccabees. While Jewish communities regarded the works of the twelve minor prophets as a single unit (the Dodecapropheton), the Vulgate Bible treats them individually in accordance with Christian tradition. The themes of judgment and redemption featured prominently in the major prophets (Volume IV) are further developed by the minor prophets. The books of 1 and 2 Maccabees conclude the volume. Their doctrinal controversies and highly influential martyrdom narratives anticipate the development of Christian hagiography both as a genre and as a theological vehicle.


This Article presents a developmental theory of children's constitutional rights that focuses on the fundamental role of children's rights in the socialization process leading to adult autonomy. The long history of denying children the full range of constitutional rights has its roots in a choice theory of rights that understands rights as deriving from the decision-making autonomy of the individual. From the perspective of choice theory, children do not enjoy most constitutional rights because they lack the capacity for autonomous choice. Choice theory not only justifies the long history of denying children rights, but it also serves to explain the recent but growing number of modern Supreme Court cases in which children's constitutional rights have been recognized. Choice theory regards these newly recognized rights as "autonomy rights," that is, adult rights given to older children based on their increasing capacity for autonomous choice. As explained in this Article, choice theory falls short as a theory of children's constitutional rights for two reasons. First, as a descriptive matter, choice theory is simply too narrow. As choice theorists would acknowledge, the theory does not address whole categories of existing rights where the decision-making autonomy of the right-holder is not in issue. Even more limiting, choice theory has no conceptual apparatus for defining children's rights in terms of children's future autonomy or for conceiving of children's rights in socializing terms. Second, as a psychology of decision-making, choice theory rests on an excessively rationalist model of decision-making that ignores numerous core aspects of mature, autonomous choice. Psychological research on decision-making illuminates the broad range of mental skills – cognitive, emotional, and imaginative – that children must acquire in order to become autonomous decision makers. By associating autonomous choice with critical thinking skills learned in school, choice theory ignores the non-cognitive attributes of choice and the family caregiving essential to their development.This Article proposes a developmental theory of children's constitutional rights that overcomes the descriptive and psychological limitations of prevailing choice theory while preserving its central commitment to individual autonomy. The developmental theory's core insight into the importance of caregiving to children's future autonomy supports recognizing children's fundamental constitutional rights in the caregiving relationship. As described in this Article, children's caregiving rights take three basic forms. First are children's rights under the Due Process Clause to be free from state intervention into established caregiving relationships. Second are children's rights arising under other constitutional provisions where the rights at issue touch upon their caregiving interests. Third, and most far-reaching, are children's affirmative constitutional rights to a minimum level of caregiving services from the state. This final category of rights focuses the debate on state support for the caregiving relationships children need to become autonomous adults and citizens. In elaborating a developmental theory of children's constitutional rights, this Article aims to secure children's rightful place as full members and future autonomous participants in the constitutional scheme.


It was evaluated the heavy metal content (Cu, Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb) in biota and sediment of an artificial beach (Paraiso) and a natural beach (El Lenguado), both located in San Jorge bay, northern Chile. The results were used to compare both systems, the degree of fulfillment of national and international environmental regulations, and the effect of the construction of the artificial beach on the level of metal contamination historically existing in that area. Equidistant stations were located at each beach in which the organisms were extracted, that ranged from the intertidal to the subtidal. Sediment samples were taken at each beach and slopes were determined with the Emery method. The granulometric analysis evidenced the predominance of medium sand in El Lenguado beach, and medium and fine sand in Paraiso beach. The organic matter content was greater in El Lenguado. In Paraiso beach were determined 5 phylum/superclass, grouped in 19 taxa, while in El Lenguado were found 4 phylum/superclass grouped in 22 taxa. The metal content in sediments and in the majority of organisms shows higher values in Paraiso beach. This results along with the Chilean and American quality norms suggest an evident deterioration of the environmental quality of Paraiso beach, which is demonstrated by an increase in the concentrations of these metals from its construction, which exceed the established limits by both norms.


Since the end of the 1970s, the United States has seen a dramatic increase in economic inequality. While the United States has long been among the most unequal of the world's rich economies, the economic and social upheaval that began in the 1970s was a striking departure from the movement toward greater equality that began in the Great Depression, continued through World War II, and was a central feature of the first 30 years of the postwar period. This is not due to chance circumstances but is the direct result of a set of policies designed first and foremost to increase inequality.