Despite its original intended use, which was very different, WORDNET is used more and more today as an ontology, where the hyponym relation between word senses is interpreted as a subsumption relation between concepts. In this article, we discuss the general problems related to the semantic interpretation of WORDNET taxonomy in light of rigorous ontological principles inspired by the philosophical tradition. Then we introduce the DOLCE upper-level ontology, which is inspired by such principles but with a clear orientation toward language and cognition. We report the results of an experimental effort to align WORDNET'S upper level with DOLCE. We suggest that such alignment could lead to an "ontologically sweetened" WORD-NET, meant to be conceptually more rigorous, cognitively transparent, and efficiently exploitable in several applications.


Law schools face increasing pressure to improve instruction in practice-oriented skills. One of the most important of these skills is legal writing. The existing literature on legal writing contains various rules and suggestions as to how legal writers can improve their writing skills. Yet it lacks an adequate theoretical account of the fundamental nature of good legal writing. As a result, legal writers are left without a conceptual framework to ground the individual rules and suggestions. This article attempts to fill the theoretical void in the literature by offering a systematic analysis of what it is for a legal document to be well-written. It starts by examining a foundational conceptual issue, which is what legal writers mean when they say that a legal document is well-written. It argues that legal readers judge a document to be well-written if the writing helps them make the decisions they need to make in the course of their professional duties. The article then provides an analysis of the fundamental qualities that enable legal writing to do this, concluding that there are three such qualities: clarity, conciseness, and the ability to appropriately engage the reader. The article explains why each of these qualities is essential to good legal writing, and it examines the tools good writers use to make their writing clear, concise, and engaging. Lastly, the article examines what it is that distinguishes the very best writing in the field, arguing that great legal writing is not just writing that is especially clear, concise, and engaging, but is instead writing characterized by a separate quality, elegance, that is aesthetic in nature. The article then goes on to explore what it is that makes such writing elegant, and whether it is desirable for legal writers to strive for elegance in their own writing. The article concludes by briefly considering the pedagogical implications of the analysis discussed in the previous sections.


Zoonotic pathogens often infect several animal species, and gene flow among populations infecting different host species may affect the biological traits of the pathogen including host specificity, transmissibility and virulence. The bacterium Campylobacter jejuni is a widespread zoonotic multihost pathogen, which frequently causes gastroenteritis in humans. Poultry products are important transmission vehicles to humans, but the bacterium is common in other domestic and wild animals, particularly birds, which are a potential infection source. Population genetic studies of C. jejuni have mainly investigated isolates from humans and domestic animals, so to assess C. jejuni population structure more broadly and investigate host adaptation, 928 wild bird isolates from Europe and Australia were genotyped by multilocus sequencing and compared to the genotypes recovered from 1366 domestic animal and human isolates. Campylobacter jejuni populations from different wild bird species were distinct from each other and from those from domestic animals and humans, and the host species of wild bird was the major determinant of C. jejuni genotype, while geographic origin was of little importance. By comparison, C. jejuni differentiation was restricted between more phylogenetically diverse farm animals, indicating that domesticated animals may represent a novel niche for C. jejuni and thereby driving the evolution of those bacteria as they exploit this niche. Human disease is dominated by isolates from this novel domesticated animal niche.


This Article proposes that the property concept, when reduced to its basic principles, is a foundational element and a useful lens for evaluating and understanding the whole of Anglo-American private law even though the discrete disciplines — property, tort, and contract — have their own separate and distinct existence.In this Article, a broad property concept is not focused just on things or on sticks related to things but instead is defined as relating to all things owned. These things may include one's self and all the key elements associated with this broader set of things owned — including the right to exclude, ownership, dominion, authority, and the sic utere maxim — normally segregated to our discussions of property law but that should be considered equally necessary to contract and tort law.In examining these property concepts, this Article goes further to contend that ownership in the self has a vital place in the property discussion. Every legal system must decide the level of protection or recognition of property in the self before it can make any decision on what rules to create in relation to real property, tort or contract. The rules in all three develop on their own but each can be measured from their consistency or deviation from a starting base of absolute property ownership in the self. Once we understand that the platform for each of these areas of law is based in the property concept, so too can we then have a metric for discussion to evaluate deviations from pure property principles that develop in each doctrine (or separate discipline) thereby allowing us to also isolate the most unique characteristics attributable only to a discrete subject like contract or tort. But understanding that the property concept is at the base of all three legal species — property, contract and tort — is nonetheless the necessary starting point for an understanding of any of them.


We used fMRI to establish whether attention to touch enhances somatosensory cortical activity. Subjects received somatosensory and visual stimulation and were instructed to attend selectively to one modality during alternating stimulus detection periods interspersed with rest periods during which no stimulus was delivered. The maximum signal change for each task versus rest was measured in anatomically defined regions of interest for each subject. Attended touch produced greater signal change than unattended touch in primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortex. In contrast to the conclusions of some previous studies, we found that the enhancement of activation with attention was at least as great in S1 as in S2. The attentional effect was unilateral in S1 and bilateral in S2 and the somatosensory insula.


On a hot summer day in 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses a moment's flirtation between her older sister, Cecilia, and Robbie Turner, the son of a servant and Cecilia's childhood friend. But Briony's incomplete grasp of adult motives–together with her precocious literary gifts–brings about a crime that will change all their lives. As it follows that crime's repercussions through the chaos and carnage of World War II and into the close of the twentieth century, Atonement engages the reader on every conceivable level, with an ease and authority that mark it as a genuine masterpiece.


Abstract: Generalized single-atom Maxwell-Bloch equations for optically dense media are derived taking into account non-cooperative radiative atom-atom interactions. Applying a Gaussian approximation and formally eliminating the degrees of freedom of the quantized radiation field and of all but a probe atom leads to an effective time-evolution operator for the probe atom. The mean coherent amplitude of the local field seen by the atom is shown to be given by the classical Lorentz-Lorenz relation. The second-order correlations of the field lead to terms that describe relaxation or pump processes and level shifts due to multiple scattering or reabsorption of spontaneously emitted photons. In the Markov limit a non-linear and nonlocal single-atom density matrix equation is derived. To illustrate the effects of the quantum corrections we discuss amplified spontaneous emission and radiation trapping in a dense ensemble of initially inverted two-level atoms and the effects of radiative interactions on intrinsic optical bistability in coherently driven systems.


One of the central questions in free speech jurisprudence is what activities the First Amendment encompasses. This Article considers that question in the context of an area of increasing importance – algorithm-based decisions. I begin by looking to broadly accepted legal sources, which for the First Amendment means primarily Supreme Court jurisprudence. That jurisprudence provides for very broad First Amendment coverage, and the Court has reinforced that breadth in recent cases. Under the Court's jurisprudence the First Amendment (and the heightened scrutiny it entails) would apply to many algorithm-based decisions, specifically those entailing substantive communications. We could of course adopt a limiting conception of the First Amendment, but any nonarbitrary exclusion of algorithm-based decisions would require major changes in the Court's jurisprudence. I believe that First Amendment coverage of algorithm-based decisions is too small a step to justify such changes. But insofar as we are concerned about the expansiveness of First Amendment coverage, we may want to limit it in two areas of genuine uncertainty: editorial decisions that are neither obvious nor communicated to the reader, and laws that single out speakers but do not regulate their speech. Even with those limitations, however, an enormous and growing amount of activity will be subject to heightened scrutiny absent a fundamental reorientation of First Amendment jurisprudence.


Abstract. The volatile organic compound (VOC) distribution in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) and its evolution as it is uplifted and transported out of the MCMA basin was studied during the 2006 MILAGRO/MIRAGE-Mex field campaign. The results show that in the morning hours in the city center, the VOC distribution is dominated by non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) but with a substantial contribution from oxygenated volatile organic compounds (OVOCs), predominantly from primary emissions. Alkanes account for a large part of the NMHC distribution in terms of mixing ratios. In terms of reactivity, NMHCs also dominate overall, especially in the morning hours. However, in the afternoon, as the boundary layer lifts and air is mixed and aged within the basin, the distribution changes as secondary products are formed. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry) model and MOZART (Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers) were able to approximate the observed MCMA daytime patterns and absolute values of the VOC OH reactivity. The MOZART model is also in agreement with observations showing that NMHCs dominate the reactivity distribution except in the afternoon hours. The WRF-Chem and MOZART models showed higher reactivity than the experimental data during the nighttime cycle, perhaps indicating problems with the modeled nighttime boundary layer height. A northeast transport event was studied in which air originating in the MCMA was intercepted aloft with the Department of Energy (DOE) G1 on 18 March and downwind with the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) C130 one day later on 19 March. A number of identical species measured aboard each aircraft gave insight into the chemical evolution of the plume as it aged and was transported as far as 1000 km downwind; ozone was shown to be photochemically produced in the plume. The WRF-Chem and MOZART models were used to examine the spatial extent and temporal evolution of the plume and to help interpret the observed OH reactivity. The model results generally showed good agreement with experimental results for the total VOC OH reactivity downwind and gave insight into the distributions of VOC chemical classes. A box model with detailed gas phase chemistry (NCAR Master Mechanism), initialized with concentrations observed at one of the ground sites in the MCMA, was used to examine the expected evolution of specific VOCs over a 1–2 day period. The models clearly supported the experimental evidence for NMHC oxidation leading to the formation of OVOCs downwind, which then become the primary fuel for ozone production far away from the MCMA.


Abstract. Aircraft observations made off the coast of northern Chile in the Southeastern Pacific (20° S, 72° W; named Point Alpha) from 16 October to 13 November 2008 during the VAMOS Ocean-Cloud- Atmosphere-Land Study-Regional Experiment (VOCALS-REx), combined with meteorological reanalysis, satellite measurements, and radiosonde data, are used to investigate the boundary layer (BL) and aerosol-cloud-drizzle variations in this region. On days without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences, the BL at Point Alpha was typical of a non-drizzling stratocumulus-topped BL. Entrainment rates calculated from the near cloud-top fluxes and turbulence in the BL at Point Alpha appeared to be weaker than those in the BL over the open ocean west of Point Alpha and the BL near the coast of the northeast Pacific. The cloud liquid water path (LWP) varied between 15 g m −2 and 160 g m −2 . The BL had a depth of 1140 ± 120 m, was generally well-mixed and capped by a sharp inversion without predominately synoptic and meso-scale influences. The wind direction generally switched from southerly within the BL to northerly above the inversion. On days when a synoptic system and related mesoscale costal circulations affected conditions at Point Alpha (29 October–4 November), a moist layer above the inversion moved over Point Alpha, and the total-water mixing ratio above the inversion was larger than that within the BL. The accumulation mode aerosol varied from 250 to 700 cm −3 within the BL, and CCN at 0.2 % supersaturation within the BL ranged between 150 and 550 cm −3 . The main aerosol source at Point Alpha was horizontal advection within the BL from south. The average cloud droplet number concentration ranged between 80 and 400 cm −3 . While the mean LWP retrieved from GOES was in good agreement with the in situ measurements, the GOES-derived cloud droplet effective radius tended to be larger than that from the aircraft in situ observations near cloud top. The aerosol and cloud LWP relationship reveals that during the typical well-mixed BL days the cloud LWP increased with the CCN concentrations. On the other hand, meteorological factors and the decoupling processes have large influences on the cloud LWP variation as well.


The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in the flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the sun which was bound in to convert the air into tree. And in the ash is the small remnant of the part which did not come from air, that came from the solid earth, instead. These are beautiful things, and the content of science is wonderfully full of them. They are very inspiring, and they can be used to inspire others. —Richard Feynman (Feyman 1969, p. 319)


1950s West Coast style exuded "cool" from the smooth, hypnotic strains of a Miles Davis riff; Richard Neutra's elegant, modernist residences; the hard-edged paintings of Helen Lundeberg and Karl Benjamin. This richly illustrated volume casts a fresh eye on Fifties West Coast style with illuminating commentary from a variety of perspectives. Designed to echo the period it celebrates, this catalogue explores modernist innovations in art, architecture, design, film and music. Prominent cultural critics write on an array of topics - Thomas Hine about the culture of cool; Elizabeth Smith on domestic aspects of the period's architecture; Francis Colpitt on hard-edged abstract painting; Dave Hickey on jazz; Bruce Jenkins on the crossover between animation and experimental film. The result is a multi-faceted exploration of the 1950s West Coast zeitgeist in all its colour, creativity, and cool.


Self-medication is of great public health importance as it often bypasses regulatory mechanisms to assure quality of health care. Nevertheless there are no established standards on how to assess self-medication. We therefore intended to systematically retrieve questionnaires and survey tools used to capture self-medication, with the aim to identify the scope of information investigated in this context and commonalities between the tools. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on questionnaires used for self-medication assessment by searching PubMed and Web of Science databases using the combinations of following keywords; self-medication, self-prescription, non-prescription, questionnaire. Truncation was used to ensure retrieval of all possible variations of search terms. The search was limited to articles published between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2015, human studies and English language. Duplicate and irrelevant studies were excluded from the final review. A total of 158 studies were included in the review. Studies were from diverse geographical locations, most of the studies were from Nigeria 16 (10.1%) followed by India 10 (6.3%) and Iran 8 (5%). Forty-three studies (27.2%) focused on antibiotic self-medication. Majority of the studies (106; 67%) were done with adult populations. The components addressed by the questionnaires covered: reasons for self-medications in 147 (93%) studies, purchasing source in 136 (86%) studies, medical conditions to be treated in 153 (96.8%) studies, adverse events in 67 (42.4%) studies, use of prescribing information in 24 (15.1%) studies and antibiotic resistance awareness in 20 (46.5%) antibiotic studies. For 74 (46.8%) studies, survey questionnaires were self-administered and most studies (57; 36%) were done at homes of respondents. Thirty-seven (23.4%) studies did not report any recall period for self-medication practices. Study response rates varied from 17.9% to 100%, and while validity of the study questionnaire was reported for 100 (63.3%) studies, 15 (9.5%) studies reported reliability test of the study questionnaire. There is a large variety of questionnaires being used for investigating self-medication practices making comparability and meta-analyses very difficult. It is desirable to have a basic set of standardized survey questions on this topic to make available for future research groups in this field.


The indirect effect of aerosols via liquid clouds is investigated by comparing aerosol and cloud characteristics from the Global Climate Model CAM-Oslo to those observed by the MODIS instrument onboard the TERRA and AQUA satellites http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov). The comparison is carried out for 15 selected regions ranging from remote and clean to densely populated and polluted. For each region, the regression coefficient and correlation coefficient for the following parameters are calculated: Aerosol Optical Depth vs. Liquid Cloud Optical Thickness, Aerosol Optical Depth vs. Liquid Cloud Droplet Effective Radius and Aerosol Optical Depth vs. Cloud Liquid Water Path. Modeled and observed correlation coefficients and regression coefficients are then compared for a 3-year period starting in January 2001. Additionally, global maps for a number of aerosol and cloud parameters crucial for the understanding of the aerosol indirect effect are compared for the same period of time. Significant differences are found between MODIS and CAM-Oslo both in the regional and global comparison. However, both the model and the observations show a positive correlation between Aerosol Optical Depth and Cloud Optical Depth in practically all regions and for all seasons, in agreement with the current understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions. The correlation between Aerosol Optical Depth and Liquid Cloud Droplet Effective Radius is variable both in the model and the observations. However, the model reports the expected negative correlation more often than the MODIS data. Aerosol Optical Depth is overall positively correlated to Cloud Liquid Water Path both in the model and the observations, with a few regional exceptions.


Andre Roussimoff is known as both the lovable giant in The Princess Bride and a heroic pro-wrestling figure. He was a normal guy who'd been dealt an extraordinary hand in life. At his peak, he weighed 500 pounds and stood nearly seven and a half feet tall. But the huge stature that made his fame also signed his death warrant. Box Brown brings his great talents as a cartoonist and biographer to this phenomenal new graphic novel. Drawing from historical records about Andre's life as well as a wealth of anecdotes from his colleagues in the wrestling world, including Hulk Hogan, and his film co-stars (Billy Crystal, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, etc), Brown has created in Andre the Giant, the first substantive biography of one of the twentieth century's most recognizable figures.


Responding to globalization and its effects on education and research development, the Thai government decided to push all public universities to become autonomous and establish a system of quality assurances. The establishment of quality assurances has had a large impact on many Thai instructors, especially in new public universities. Thai instructors are now forced to more focus on conducting research because the number of research publications is regarded as one of the main criteria for quality universities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the key factors, at the individual and university levels, which impact on the instructors' behavior in conducting research of the full-time instructors in the faculty of Management Science from the Rajabhat Universities in Thailand. The current study will help explain how and why the instructors accept or refuse to conduct research and provide insight into the salient factors motivating the instructors to produce more research by conducting HLM. Data were collected from 694 participants at 37 institutions via a questionnaire survey. The findings revealed that there was no difference among these 37 universities on behavior in conducting research. The key factors statistically influencing behavior in conducting research of the instructors were facilitating conditions, academic degree, social influence, and usefulness as well as ease of conducting research that the instructors perceived. This study gained 46% of effect size.


From one of the world's leading thinkers and speakers on creativity and self-fulfillment, a breakthrough book about talent, passion, and achievement The element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the element, they feel most themselves and most inspired and achieve at their highest levels. "The Element" draws on the stories of a wide range of people, from ex-Beatle Paul McCartney to Matt Groening, creator of "The Simpsons"; from Meg Ryan to Gillian Lynne, who choreographed the Broadway productions of "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera"; and from writer Arianna Huffington to renowned physicist Richard Feynman and others, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: The diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities. With a wry sense of humor, Ken Robinson looks at the conditions that enable us to find ourselves in the element and those that stifle that possibility. He shows that age and occupation are no barrier, and that once we have found our path we can help others to do so as well. "The Element" shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.


Over the past decade, worldwide production of illicit drugs has risen dramatically: opium and marijuana production has roughly doubled and coca production tripled. Street prices of cocaine and heroin have fallen significantly in the past 20 years, reflecting increased availability. Despite apparent national political resolve to deal with the drug problem, inherent contradictions regularly appear between U.S. anti-drug policy and other national policy goals and concerns. The mix of competing domestic and international pressures and priorities has produced an ongoing series of disputes within and between the legislative and executive branches concerning U.S. international drug policy. One contentious issue has been the Congressionally-mandated certification process, an instrument designed to induce specified drug-exporting countries to prioritize or pay more attention to the fight against narcotics businesses.


For years, legal theory scholars have been obsessed with two dominant normative accounts: law and economics and individual rights. Recently, however, an old normative theory has resurfaced. Virtue theory, grounded in Aristotelian practical philosophy, has begun to receive attention from both historians and legal philosophers. In the past year, a small group of theorists has made a dramatic move: they have attempted to apply virtue theory to problems in contemporary law, in the form of a new "virtue jurisprudence." Thus far, virtue jurisprudence scholars have limited their work to public law subjects. This article makes a substantial new contribution by extending virtue jurisprudence to a central area of private law: contracts. Why contract law? This article contends that several difficult challenges in contract jurisprudence remain unresolved because neither law and economics nor rights theorists have been successful in accounting for the actual desires of contracting parties. For example, current theoretical frameworks fail to fully explain contract's duality as both an economic and social institution. They fail to account for parties' interest in both wealth maximization and justice. Virtue jurisprudence accounts for these critical dualities better than either law and economics or individual rights. Accordingly, this article suggests that virtue jurisprudence may reframe how both theorists and courts think about "the parties' intent," which is a foundational concept in any contract case.This article takes on several tasks. It explains virtue theory in ways that show its relevance to contract law. It lays out a historical case for the importance of virtue theory to political liberalism and free markets. It explores several sites where current theoretical approaches do not fully capture contracting parties' intent. Finally, it shows how virtue jurisprudence may offer a superior descriptive, and normative, account of intent-based doctrines in contract law.


Progress in integrated photonics enables development of integrated photonics circuits with new unique properties, circuits of the future, and overcomes current limits in information and communication technologies. The packaging of photonic integrated circuits is necessary for taking them out of research laboratories into real implementation in the information and communication technology applications. Telecom optical fibers are still being the best transmission medium of digital data and analogue signals for long distance applications. The effective coupling of optical radiation between telecom optical fiber with ten microns core dimension and photonic integrated circuits optical waveguides with submicron dimensions are necessary. To address these challenges, we present our concept of photonics integrated circuit packaging with radio frequency, direct current and fiber array ports with automated active alignment system.


Mastering Bitcoin is essential reading for everyone interested in learning about bitcoin basics, the technical operation of bitcoin, or if you're building the next great bitcoin killer app or business. From using a bitcoin wallet to buy a cup of coffee, to running a bitcoin marketplace with hundreds of thousands of transactions, or collaboratively building new financial innovations that will transform our understanding of currency and credit, this book will help you engineer money. You're about to unlock the API to a new economy. This book is your key. This book will help you learn everything you need to know about decentralized digital money, which is one of the most exciting technical revolutions in decades. Just as the Internet has transformed dozens of industries - from media and entertainment to retailing, travel and many more - decentralized digital money, in the form of crypto-currencies, has the ability to transform the foundations of money, credit and financial services. It also has the power to transform other social activities and institutions that we don't usually associate directly with money, such as corporations, governance, voting and the law. As the first successful digital currency, bitcoin is the natural starting point for anyone interested in decentralized digital money, its implications and applications. Mastering Bitcoin describes the technical foundations of bitcoin and other cryptographic currencies, from cryptography basics, such as keys and addresses, to the data structures, network protocols and the consensus mechanism ("mining") that underpin bitcoin. Each technical topic is explained with user stories, elegant analogies and examples, and code snippets illustrating the key concepts. The first two chapters offer a broad and accessible introduction to bitcoin that is intended for all audiences, from new non-technical users to investors and business executives seeking to better understand bitcoin. The remainder of the book dives into the technical details of bitcoin's operation and is aimed at professional developers, engineers, software and systems architects, systems administrators and technically-minded people interested in the inner workings of bitcoin and comparable crypto-currencies. Mastering Bitcoin is intended to be used as a reference book for technical professionals, as a self-study guide for bitcoin entrepreneurs, and as a textbook for university courses on bitcoin and digital currencies. Bitcoin is still in its infancy, and yet it has already spawned a multi-billion dollar, global economy that is growing exponentially. Both new and established companies are adding bitcoin as a payment method, and investors are funding a flurry of new bitcoin and related startups. Mastering Bitcoin can help you become part of this vibrant new economy. The time to get started is now.


Purpose of review Strains of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica are amongst the most commonly identified invasive bacterial pathogens in resource-poor settings, and cause significant mortality, particularly in children. In this study we review recent progress in the development of vaccines against S. Typhi, S. Paratyphi and nontyphoidal Salmonella for children. Recent findings Typhoid remains common and S. Paratyphi A is increasingly recognized as a cause of enteric fever in Asia. In rural Africa, nontyphoidal salmonellae are among the most common invasive bacterial infections, although S. Typhi predominates in some urban centres. Licensed vaccines against typhoid have moderate but useful efficacy but neither of the two available vaccines can be used in infants. Although Ty21a may afford some cross-protection against S. Paratyphi B, there are no vaccines that specifically target paratyphoid or any nontyphoidal Salmonella. Several live attenuated vaccines are under development and may offer some advantages over Ty21a. Vi-conjugate vaccines should offer children excellent protection from typhoid once licensed. Summary There are few effective vaccines against Salmonella sp. and those that do exist target only one serovar, S. Typhi. Research is urgently needed to combat emerging agents of enteric fever such as S. Paratyphi A as well as nontyphoidal serovars, which commonly cause invasive disease in Africa.


Aby Warburg (1866-1929) is best known as the originator of the discipline of iconology and as the founder of the institute that bears his name. His followers included such celebrated art historians of the twentieth century as Erwin Panofsky, Edgar Wind, and Fritz Saxl. But his heirs developed, for the most part, a domesticated iconology based on the interpretation of symbolic material. As Phillippe-Alain Michaud shows in this important book, Warburg's own project was remote from any positivist or neo-Kantian ambitions. Nourished on the work of Nietzsche and Burckhardt, Warburg fashioned a "critical iconology" to reveal the irrationality of the image in Western culture. Opposing the grand teleological narratives of art inaugurated by Vasari, Warburg's method operated through historical anachronisms and discontinuities. Using "montage-collision" to create textless collections of images, he brought together pagan artifacts and masterpieces of Florentine Renaissance art, ancient Near East astrology and the Lutheran Reformation, Mannerist festivals and the sacred dances of Native Americans. Michaud insists that for Warburg, the practice of art history was the discovery within the art work itself of fracture, contradictions, tensions, and the energies of magic, empathy, totemism, and animism. Challenging normative accounts of Western European classicism, Warburg located the real sources of the Renaissance in the Dionysian spirit, in the expression of movement and dance, in the experience of trance personified in the frenzied nymph or ecstatic maenad.Aby Warburg and the Image in Motion is not only a book about Warburg but a book written with him; Michaud uses Warburg's intuitions and discoveries to analyze other categories of imagery, including the daguerreotype, the chronophotography of Etienne-Jules Marey, early cinema, and the dances of Loie Fuller. It will be essential reading for anyone concerned with the origins of modern art history and the visual culture of modernity.


After the great discovery of Henri Becquerel, the term "radiation" begins to acquire meaning. Since that time (nearly a century ago) the perception for radiation oscillated between extremely negative and extremely positive. Today, we are aware that the radiation can be harmful but also it can be extremely useful. Enjoying the benefits, provided by the radiation, we must be informed, attentive and disciplined. Otherwise the radiation can lead to disastrous consequences.


This report summarises the findings of a case study project on growing clean-tech cluster activity in the Negev region of Israel as part of a series of reviews on Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development carried out by the Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The review examines entrepreneurship, SMEs and local development in the Negev in the south of Israel, where there is strong potential for the growth of significant clean-tech industry cluster activity, involving a critical mass of firms, human capital, research organisations, support infrastructure and associated formal and informal linkages. This report looks at the ways in which such capacity can be strengthened by public policies, including investment in centres of research excellence and specialised testing facilities, creation of spaces for innovation exchange, and the introduction of a green strategy and eco-city approach. The analysis provides guidance and policy recommendations on how best to support the emergence and expansion of clean-tech cluster activity that will enhance economic development capacity in the region while contributing to national green growth objectives.


Growing evidence suggests that preservice candidates receive better coaching and are more instructionally effective when they are mentored by more instructionally effective cooperating teachers (CTs). Yet teacher education program leaders indicate it can be difficult to recruit instructionally effective teachers to serve as CTs, in part because teachers worry that serving may negatively impact district evaluation scores. Using a unique data set on over 4,500 CTs, we compare evaluation scores during years these teachers served as CTs with years they did not. In years they served as CTs, teachers had significantly better observation ratings and somewhat better achievement gains, though not always at significant levels. These results suggest that concerns over lowered evaluations should not prevent teachers from serving as CTs.


This book features the history of the Tri-County Chapter of the American Red Cross, which was chartered in Hereford in 1917, one month after the start of WWI. The history includes year by year summaries, as well as lists of officers and board of directors, correspondence, and financial reports.


A major novel from the internationally bestselling author of 'The Joy Luck Club', 'The Kitchen God's Wife' and 'The Hundred Secret Senses'. LuLing Young is in her eighties, and finally beginning to feel the effects of old age. Trying to hold on to the evaporating past, she begins to write down all that she can remember of her life as a girl in China. Meanwhile, her daughter Ruth, a ghostwriter for authors of self-help books, is losing the ability to speak up for herself in front of the man she lives with. LuLing can only look on, helpless: her prickly relationship with her daughter does not make it easy to discuss such matters. In turn, Ruth has begun to suspect that something is wrong with her mother: she says so many confusing and contradictory things. Ruth decides to move in with her ailing mother, and while tending to her discovers the story LuLing wrote in Chinese, of her tumultuous life growing up in a remote mountain village known as Immortal Heart. LuLing tells of the secrets passed along by her mute nursemaid, Precious Auntie; of a cave where dragon bones are mined and where Peking Man was discovered; of the crumbling ravine known as the End of the World, where Precious Auntie's bones lie, and of the curse that LuLing believes she released through betrayal. Like layers of sediment being removed, each page unfolds into an even greater mystery: Who was Precious Auntie, whose suicide changed the path of LuLing's life? Set in contemporary San Francisco and pre-war China, 'The Bonesetter's Daughter' is an excavation of the human spirit. With great warmth and humour, Amy Tan gives us a mesmerising story of a mother and daughter discovering together that what they share in their bones through history and heredity is priceless beyond measure.


The gateway south of South Africa allows the exchange of water masses between the Indian/Pacific Oceans (warm surface water masses) and the Atlantic (cold deep and bottom water masses). This heat transfers maintains the global conveyor belt. Hence the South African continental margin represents an important gateway, whose detailed evolution is not yet fully understood. A compilation of the evolution of the oceanic circulation within the South African gateway since the Early Eocene on the basis of seismic reflection data is put forward and discussed. The effect of a proto-AABW can be found in the southern Cape Basin and south of South Africa as early as Early Eocene-Early Oligocene. In the period Early Oligocene-Middle Miocene a current equivalent to AAIW/Agulhas Retroflection leaves its oldest traces identifiable on the eastern Agulhas Plateau. Indications for the Benguela Current can be found in the Cape Basin in Middle Miocene times. With the onset of NADW in the period Middle Miocene-Early Pliocene the branch of AABW flowing through the Agulhas Passage is weakened and finally deflected to the south in Early Pliocene-Holocene times.


The first 40 days after the birth of a child offer an essential and fleeting period of rest and recovery for the new mother. Based on author Heng Ou's own postpartum experience with zuo yuezi, a set period of "confinement," in which a woman remains at home focusing on healing and bonding with her baby, The First Forty Days revives the lost art of caring for the mother after birth. As modern mothers are pushed to prematurely "bounce back" after delivering their babies, and are often left alone to face the physical and emotional challenges of this new stage of their lives, the first forty days provide a lifeline̶a source of connection, nourishment, and guidance. The book includes 60 simple recipes for healing soups; replenishing meals and snacks; and calming and lactation-boosting teas, all formulated to support the unique needs of the new mother. In addition to the recipes, this warm and encouraging guide offers advice on arranging a system of help during the postpartum period, navigating relationship challenges, and honoring the significance of pregnancy and birth. The First Forty Days, fully illustrated to feel both inspiring and soothing, is a practical guide and inspirational read for all new mothers and mothers-to-be̶the perfect ally during the first weeks with a new baby.


The thesis studies change points in absolute time for censored survival data with some contributions to the more common analysis of change points with respect to survival time. We first introduce the notions and estimates of survival analysis, in particular the hazard function and censoring mechanisms. Then, we discuss change point models for survival data. In the literature, usually change points with respect to survival time are studied. Typical examples are piecewise constant and piecewise linear hazard functions. For that kind of models, we propose a new algorithm for numerical calculation of maximum likelihood estimates based on a cross entropy approach which in our simulations outperforms the common Nelder-Mead algorithm.

Our original motivation was the study of censored survival data (e.g., after diagnosis of breast cancer) over several decades. We wanted to investigate if the hazard functions differ between various time periods due, e.g., to progress in cancer treatment. This is a change point problem in the spirit of classical change point analysis. Horvath (1998) proposed a suitable change point test based on estimates of the cumulative hazard function. As an alternative, we propose similar tests based on nonparametric estimates of the hazard function. For one class of tests related to kernel probability density estimates, we develop fully the asymptotic theory for the change point tests. For the other class of estimates, which are versions of the Watson-Leadbetter estimate with censoring taken into account and which are related to the Nelson-Aalen estimate, we discuss some steps towards developing the full asymptotic theory. We close by applying the change point tests to simulated and real data, in particular to the breast cancer survival data from the SEER study.


NOTE: A Chinese translation of this paper is available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1429722.Corporate governance (gongsi zhili) is a concept whose time seems definitely to have come in China. Chinese definitions of corporate governance in the abstract tend to cover the system regulating relationships among all parties with interests in a business organization, usually spelling out shareholders as a particularly important group. But Chinese corporate governance discourse in practice focuses almost exclusively on agency problems, and within only two types of firms: state-owned enterprises (SOEs), particularly after their transformation into one of the corporate forms provided for under the Company Law, and listed companies, which must be companies limited by shares (CLS) under the Company Law. This article discusses Chinese corporate governance in this narrow sense, and attempts to explain some perplexing features of its discourse, laws, and institutions (abbreviated hereinafter as "corporate governance laws and institutions" or CGLI).A fundamental dilemma of Chinese CGLI stems from the state policy of maintaining a full or controlling ownership interest in enterprises in several sectors. The state wants the enterprises it owns to be run efficiently, but not solely for the purpose of wealth maximization. A necessary element of state control of an enterprise is the use of that control for purposes such as the maintenance of urban employment levels, direct control over sensitive industries, or politically-motivated job placement.This in turn creates several problems. First, many of these goals are not easily measured and there is no obvious way of balancing them one against the other. This creates monitoring difficulties. Second, the policy of continued state involvement sets up a conflict of interest between the state as controlling shareholder and other shareholders. In using its control for purposes other than value maximization, the state exploits minority shareholders who have no other way to benefit from their investment.The major theme of this article is that the state wants to make SOEs operate more efficiently by subjecting them to a new and different set of rules - the rules of organization under the "modern enterprise system". Policymakers then find, however, that they must change and adjust the rules to take account of continuing state ownership. Moreover, the need to provide for the special circumstances of state-sector enterprises ends up hijacking the entire Company Law, so that instead of state-sector enterprises being made more efficient by being forced to follow the rules for private-sector enterprises (the original ambition), potential private-sector enterprises are hamstrung by having to follow rules that make sense only in a heavily state-invested economy.


Scientists have shown in literally thousands of studies that the p53 gene deserves its reputation as "the guardian of the genome." It calls to action an army of other genes in the setting of aried cell stresses, permitting repair of damaged DNA or promoting cell death when the cell damage is too great. A key net effect of p53's action is to prevent development of cancerous cells. Now, University of Michigan Medical School scientists provide the most thorough evidence yet that p53 also regulates a trio of genes from the realm of so-called "junk" genes - the roughly 97 percent of a cell's genetic material whose function is only beginning to be understood. The study shows that "in the 'junk' lies treasure, in terms of critical knowledge about how normal cells stifle cancer or succumb to it," says Guido Bommer, M.D., the lead author of results, published in a recent issue of the journal Current Biology. "The findings in the study offer new insights into specific mechanisms by which the expression of hundreds to thousands of genes and proteins is altered in the roughly 50 percent of cancers that carry mutations in the p53 tumor suppressor gene," says Eric Fearon, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and deputy director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Fearon is also a member of the Editorial Board of Cancer Biology and Therapy. Scientists continue to mine for details of what goes wrong when p53 is defective and cannot perform its tumor-fighting duties. The U-M study is one of four recent studies from labs around the world showing that p53 normally gets support from members of a small family of micro RNA genes. The studies are part of a larger effort to understand the function of micro RNA (miRNA for short). Scientists have long known the importance of messenger RNA (mRNA), which carries protein-making instructions. However, until recently, little was known about micro RNA genes. It is now well recognized that miRNAs regulate the levels of mRNAs, and/or the levels of the proteins produced from mRNAs. The U-M research team studied the roles of the three genes that make up the miRNA34 family. They showed that the miRNA34 genes work in concert with p53, then went on to explore which other genes the family regulates. They found the miRNA34 genes showed pronounced effects on other genes that control the timing of cell proliferation and division. They also found that the miRNA34 gene family regulated the levels of the Bcl-2 protein, a key factor that enhances a cell's resistance to death-inducing stimuli. The team went on to determine if expression of the miRNA34 genes was compromised in human lung cancer cells. "We found that expression of two of the miRNA34 genes was lost in almost two-thirds of lung adenocarcinomas," says Bommer. Adenocarcinomas represent the most common type of non-small cell lung cancer, which is the most frequently diagnosed type of lung cancer. When expression of the miRNA34 genes was restored in lung cancer cells, some of the aberrant growth properties were inhibited. The discoveries of the role of micro RNAs in tumor suppression could have implications for future cancer therapies. It's important to note that micro RNAs alone are not likely to offer new cancer treatment or prevention agents, says Fearon, who is the Emanual N Maisel Professor of Oncology, Professor of Internal Medicine, Professor of Pathology and Professor of Human Genetics at the U-M Medical School. "However, because of the small size of mature miRNAs, there is optimism that it may be possible to deliver modified nucleic acids that might mimic the effect of the miRNAs," he says. If modified nucleic acids were to p rove effective in more laboratory studies, he adds, they might be pursued further in clinical trials as anti- cancer agents, either alone or more likely in combination with other anti-cancer agents. In addition to Bommer and Fearon, other U-M authors include: Isabelle Gerin, Ph.D.; Ying Feng, Ph.D.; Andrew J Kaczorowski, B.S.; Rork Kuick, Ph.D.; Robert E Love , B.S.; Yali Zhai, M.D., Ph.D.; Thomas J Giordano, M.D., Ph.D.; Zhaohui S Qin, Ph.D.; Bethany B Moore, Ph.D.; Ormond A MacDougald, Ph.D.; and Kathleen R Cho, M..D., Ph.D. Written by Anne Rueter


We describe a scheme for time integration of mass-spring systems that makes use of a solver based on block coordinate descent. This scheme provides a fast solution for classical linear (Hookean) springs. We express the widely used implicit Euler method as an energy minimization problem and introduce spring directions as auxiliary unknown variables. The system is globally linear in the node positions, and the non-linear terms involving the directions are strictly local. Because the global linear system does not depend on run-time state, the matrix can be pre-factored, allowing for very fast iterations. Our method converges to the same final result as would be obtained by solving the standard form of implicit Euler using Newton's method. Although the asymptotic convergence of Newton's method is faster than ours, the initial ratio of work to error reduction with our method is much faster than Newton's. For real-time visual applications, where speed and stability are more important than precision, we obtain visually acceptable results at a total cost per timestep that is only a fraction of that required for a single Newton iteration. When higher accuracy is required, our algorithm can be used to compute a good starting point for subsequent Newton's iteration.


Composed in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, Attar's great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvellous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic doctrine of Sufism an esoteric system concerned with the search for truth through God it describes the consequences of the conference of the birds of the world when they meet to begin the search for their ideal king, the Simorgh bird. On hearing that to find him they must undertake an arduous journey, the birds soon express their reservations to their leader, the hoopoe. With eloquence and insight, however, the hoopoe calms their fears, using a series of riddling parables to provide guidance in the search for spiritual truth. By turns witty and profound, The Conference of the Birds transforms deep belief into magnificent poetry.


This study analyzes the impact of judicial inefficiency on small businesses in Peru. It is based on the hypothesis that chronic problems in the region's judicial systems have negative consequences on the development of micro, small and medium-sized businesses. The analysis focuses, first, on the relationship between small businesses and the legal system. Secondly, it looks at decisions made by small businesses to mitigate the effects of poor performance by the courts. Lastly, it identifies several ways in which judicial inefficiency is transferred to the business sector. The analysis also attempts to quantify the economic impact of judicial inefficiency.


Everyone has heard of Albert Einstein but what exactly did he do? How much do kids really know about Albert Einstein besides the funny hair and genius label? For instance, do they know that he was expelled from school as a kid? Finally, here's the story of Albert Einstein's life, told in a fun, engaging way that clearly explores the world he lived in and changed.


Early winter ozone mixing ratios in the Arctic middle stratosphere show an interannual variability of about 10%. We show that ozone variability in early January is caused by dynamical processes during Arctic polar vortex formation in autumn (September to December). Observational data from satellites and ozone sondes are used in conjunction with simulations of the chemistry and transport model ATLAS to examine the relationship between the meridional and vertical origin of air enclosed in the polar vortex and its ozone amount. For this, we use a set of artificial model tracers to deduce the origin of the air masses in the vortex in January in latitude and altitude in September. High vortex mean ozone mixing ratios are correlated with a high fraction of air from low latitudes enclosed in the vortex and a high fraction of air that experienced small net subsidence (in a Lagrangian sense). As a measure for the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation and meridional mixing in autumn, we use the Eliassen-Palm flux through the mid-latitude tropopause averaged from September to November. In the lower stratosphere, this quantity correlates well with the origin of air enclosed in the vortex and reasonably well with the ozone amount in early winter.


The Supreme Court's use of dictionaries, virtually non-existent before 1987, has dramatically increased during the Rehnquist and Roberts Court eras to the point where as many as one-third of statutory decisions invoke dictionary definitions. The increase is linked to the rise of textualism and its intense focus on ordinary meaning. This Article explores the Court's new dictionary culture in depth from empirical and doctrinal perspectives. Among our findings are (a) while textualist justices are the highest dictionary users, purposivist justices invoke dictionary definitions with comparable frequency; (b) dictionary use is especially heavy in the criminal law area, serving what we describe as a Notice function; (c) dictionary use overall is strikingly ad hoc and subjective. We demonstrate how the Court's patterns of dictionary usage reflect a casual form of opportunistic conduct: the justices almost always invoke one or at most two dictionaries, they have varied individual brand preferences from which they often depart, they seem to use general and legal dictionaries interchangeably, and they lack a coherent position on citing to editions from the time of statutory enactment versus the time the instant case was filed.The Article then conducts a detailed doctrinal review, leading to an innovative functional analysis of how the justices use dictionaries: as way stations when dictionary meanings are indeterminate or otherwise unhelpful; as ornaments when definitions are helpful but of marginal weight compared with more traditional resources like the canons, precedent, legislative history, or agency deference; and as barriers that preclude inquiry into or reliance on other contextual resources, especially legislative history and agency guidance. Ornamental opinions (the largest category) typically locate dictionary analysis at the start of the Court's reasoning, subtly conveying that the lexicographic method should matter more than other interpretive resources. Barrier opinions would have been inconceivable prior to 1987 but now occur with disturbing frequency: they elevate the justices' reliance on definitions in a radically acontextual manner, ignoring persuasive interpretive evidence from the enactment process and from agency experience. Finally, the Article analyzes whether the Court's patterns of inconsistent dictionary usage, and its tendency to cherry-pick definitions that support results reached on other grounds, distinguish dictionaries from high-profile interpretive resources such as canons and legislative history that have been criticized on a similar basis. We contend that dictionaries are different from a normative vantage point, essentially because of (i) how both wings of the Court have promoted them by featuring definitions frequently and prominently in opinions, and (ii) how dictionaries are effectively celebrated as an independently constituted source of objective meaning (unlike the canons as judicial branch creations and legislative history as a congressional product). Yet our findings demonstrate that the image of dictionary usage as heuristic and authoritative is a mirage. This contrast between the exalted status ascribed to dictionary definitions and the highly subjective way the Court uses them in practice reflects insufficient attention to the inherent limitations of dictionaries, limitations that have been identified by other scholars and by some appellate judges. Further, the justices' subjective dictionary culture is likely to mislead lawyers faced with the responsibility to construct arguments for the justices to review. The Article concludes by offering a three-step plan for the Court to develop a healthier approach to its dictionary habit.


What went wrong and how can America become second to none in industrial productivity? This long awaited study by a team of top notch MIT scientists and economists - the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity - takes a hard look at the recurring weaknesses of American industry that are threatening the country's standard of living and its position in the world economy. Made in America identifies what is best and worth replicating in American industrial practice and sets out five national priorities for regaining the productive edge.Unlike other studies that prescribe macroeconomic cures, Made in America focuses on the reorganization and effective integration of human resources and new technologies within the firm as a principal driving force for long term growth in productivity.Made in America examines the relationship between human resources and technological change in detail and singles out the most significant productivity weaknesses from the myriad causes that are typically cited. These include shortA-time horizons and a preoccupation with the bottom line, outdated strategies that focus excessively on the domestic market, lack of cooperation within and among U.S. firms, neglect of human resources, technological failures in translating discoveries to products, and a mismatch between governmental actions and the needs of industry. Looking ahead Made in America asserts that industrial performance would improve substantially simply by building on what is best in U.S. industry. It describes representative systems of production that can serve as models of best industrial practice for niche producers, price competitive specialized producers, and flexible mass producers.Among the goals singled out as national priorities are the creation of a new economic citizenship that involves wellA-educated workers as active partners in the reproduction process, a new strategic focus on production, finding a better balance between cooperation and individualism, learning to live in an increasingly international economy, and making proper provision for the future both in terms of capital and human resources.The findings and goals of Made in America are based on such measures of productivity performance as product quality, innovativeness, time to market, and service in eight manufacturing sectors - semiconductors, computers, and office equipment; automobiles; steel; consumer electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals; textiles; machine tools; and commercial aircraft. These measures revealed a large gap between the best and average U.S. practice.Michael L. Dertouzos. is Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Director of MIT's Laboratory of Computer Science. Robert M. Solow is Institute Professor of Economics, and Richard K. Lester is Associate Professor of Nuclear Engineering,


American federalism contemplates that states will retain a significant degree of autonomy so that state power can serve as a meaningful counterweight to national power. It is often said that states exercise this function through extraconstitutional processes centered on the political party system. That is, states influence the content of national law and protect themselves from undesirable exercises of national power by using the mechanisms of internal party processes. If this process is to work properly, however, states must retain considerable political autonomy, for the possibility of state objection to exercises of national power is merely theoretical if state political processes are not sufficiently independent of their national counterparts to enable the state to adopt and assert ends or interests different from those asserted by the national government. The evidence, however, suggests strongly that the growth of national political parties during and since the early nineteenth century created a two-way street. Parties not only offered states a way to influence national politics, but also created a reverse pathway by which national politics could influence, and in many cases overawe, any independent state-level politics. As a result, the same extraconstitutional pathways that provided states a means to protect themselves from national domination simultaneously eroded the political autonomy necessary for states to maintain the kind of independent wills contemplated by the federal arrangement. This does not mean that states lack entirely the capacity to stand up to the federal government, but it does mean that their ability to do so is limited, not necessarily for lack of power but for lack of autonomous control over their political agendas and positions. This in turn suggests a much chastened conception of what it might mean for a subnational government to have the ability to "check" national power.


This paper deals with the energy consumption and the evaluation of the performance of air supply systems for a ventilated room involving high- and low-level supplies. The energy performance assessment is based on the airflow rate, which is related to the fan power consumption by achieving the same environmental quality performance for each case. Four different ventilation systems are considered: wall displacement ventilation, confluent jets ventilation, impinging jet ventilation and a high level mixing ventilation system. The ventilation performance of these systems will be examined by means of achieving the same Air Distribution Index (ADI) for different cases.The widely used high-level supplies require much more fan power than those for low-level supplies for achieving the same value of ADI. In addition, the supply velocity, hence the supply dynamic pressure, for a high-level supply is much larger than for low-level supplies. This further increases the power consumption for high-level supply systems.The paper considers these factors and attempts to provide some guidelines on the difference in the energy consumption associated with high and low level air supply systems. This will be useful information for designers and to the authors' knowledge there is a lack of information available in the literature on this area of room air distribution.The energy performance of the above-mentioned ventilation systems has been evaluated on the basis of the fan power consumed which is related to the airflow rate required to provide equivalent indoor environment. The Air Distribution Index (ADI) is used to evaluate the indoor environment produced in the room by the ventilation strategy being used. The results reveal that mixing ventilation requires the highest fan power and the confluent jets ventilation needs the lowest fan power in order to achieve nearly the same value of ADI.


In the United States, health care technology has contributed to rising survival rates, yet health care spending relative to GDP has also grown more rapidly than in any other country. We develop a model of patient demand and supplier behavior to explain these parallel trends in technology growth and cost growth. We show that health care productivity depends on the heterogeneity of treatment effects across patients, the shape of the health production function, and the cost structure of procedures such as MRIs with high fixed costs and low marginal costs. The model implies a typology of medical technology productivity: (I) highly cost-effective "home run" innovations with little chance of overuse, such as anti-retroviral therapy for HIV, (II) treatments highly effective for some but not for all (e.g. stents), and (III) "gray area" treatments with uncertain clinical value such as ICU days among chronically ill patients. Not surprisingly, countries adopting Category I and effective Category II treatments gain the greatest health improvements, while countries adopting ineffective Category II and Category III treatments experience the most rapid cost growth. Ultimately, economic and political resistance in the U.S. to ever-rising tax rates will likely slow cost growth, with uncertain effects on technology growth.


This paper examines the link between information technology (IT) and the U.S. productivity revival in the late 1990s. Industry-level data show a broad productivity resurgence that reflects both the production and the use of IT. The most IT-intensive industries experienced significantly larger productivity gains than other industries and a wide variety of econometric tests show a strong correlation between IT capital accumulation and labor productivity. To quantify the aggregate impact of IT-use and IT-production, a novel decomposition of aggregate labor productivity is presented. Results show that virtually all of the aggregate productivity acceleration can be traced to the industries that either produce IT or use IT most intensively, with essentially no contribution from the remaining industries that are less involved in the IT revolution.


The Rails framework empowers developers with unprecedented levels of productivity by embracing principles such as convention over configuration and dont repeat yourself. This paradigm is even apparent at the community level, where developers regularly share their custom framework extensions by way of Rails plugins feature. Plugins offer a way for developers to extend the core Rails framework with their own custom features, allowing for rapid integration of features such as authentication, user ratings, and search. Practical Rails Plugins shows you how to capitalize upon the wide variety of plugins at your disposal by guiding you through their integration into a number of interesting projects. Youll learn how to rapidly augment projects involving asynchronous video transcoding, geocoding and mapping, content management, community ratings, and PDF generation. Youll also learn how to create and distribute your own plugins. The ultimate guide to building powerful web sites faster using Rails plugins Demonstrates how to use popular plugins within a number of practical (and fully functional) projects and miniapplications Shows you how to create and distribute your own plugins What youll learn Install and manage your plugin collection. Effectively manage the development process using plugins for browser testing, model augmentation, and data validation. Use plugins to expand your applications abilities, adding features such as OpenID authentication, file attachment handling, graphing and charting, and full text search. Create and distribute your own plugins for use by other community members! Who is this book for? Rails developers interested in taking advantage of plugins to streamline application development.


This work presents a disconnected transaction model able to cope with the increased complexity of longliving, hierarchically structured, and disconnected transactions. We combine an Open and Closed Nested Transaction Model with Optimistic Concurrency Control and interrelate flat transactions with the aforementioned complex nature. Despite temporary inconsistencies during a transaction's execution our model ensures consistency.


Jeffrey D. Sachs is one of the world's most perceptive and original analysts of global development. In this major new work he presents a compelling and practical framework for how global citizens can use a holistic way forward to address the seemingly intractable worldwide problems of persistent extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and political-economic injustice: sustainable development.

Sachs offers readers, students, activists, environmentalists, and policy makers the tools, metrics, and practical pathways they need to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. Far more than a rhetorical exercise, this book is designed to inform, inspire, and spur action. Based on Sachs's twelve years as director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, his thirteen years advising the United Nations secretary-general on the Millennium Development Goals, and his recent presentation of these ideas in a popular online course, The Age of Sustainable Development is a landmark publication and clarion call for all who care about our planet and global justice.


Joy and heartbreak combine in this bittersweet tale of a champion greyhound's journey through life - and from owner to owner... "The sack wasn't just drifting gently along like everything else, it was turning of its own accord. There was definitely something inside it, struggling against the side of the plastic bag, kicking at it, squeaking and squealing in terror. He had no idea what it might be, only that it was alive and in danger of drowning." When Patrick saves a litter of greyhound puppies from the canal, he can't bear to hand them all over to the RSPCA. He pleads with his parents: couldn't he just keep one of them? But nothing will convince them and Patrick cries himself to sleep - only to be woken by a greyhound puppy licking his face! Patrick christens his puppy Best Mate, and that's what he becomes. Patrick's favourite thing is to watch Best Mate running at full stretch on the heath, a speeding bullet, a cheetah-dog. Until one day Best Mate is kidnapped by a greyhound trainer, and begins a new life as a champion race dog. Suzie, the greyhound trainer's step-daughter, loves Best Mate on first sight and gives him a new name, Bright Eyes. But what will happen when he can't run any more?


Keywords and keyphrases have many useful roles as document surrogates and descriptors, but the manual production of keyphrase metadata for large digital library collections is at best expensive and time-consuming, and at worst logistically impossible. Algorithms for keyphrase extraction like Kea and Extractor produce a set of phrases that are associated with a document. Though these sets are often utilized as a group, keyphrase extraction is usually evaluated by measuring the quality of individual keyphrases. This paper reports an assessment that asks human assessors to rate entire sets of keyphrases produced by Kea, Extractor and document authors. The results provide further evidence that human assessors rate all three sources highly (with some caveats), but show that the relationship between the quality of the phrases in a set and the set as a whole is not always simple. Choosing the best individual phrases will not necessarily produce the best set; combinations of lesser phrases may result in better overall quality.


ABSTRACT This article brings diaspora studies into a fruitful conversation with linguistic anthropology by examining the relationships among the formation of Sikh diasporic subjects, images of tortured bodies, quotidian Internet practices, and state-sponsored terror in India. The fleeting emergence of an enunciative subject of diaspora within a single poetic performance compels an examination of the impact of violence and gender normativity for those who self-identify as Sikh. Diaspora may be understood more productively as a globally mobile category of identification rather than a community of individuals dispersed from a homeland, and the "context" of diaspora may be understood through its production of disparate temporalities (anteriorities, presents, futurities) and subjects.


This article shows how equity research in mathematics education can be decentered by reporting the "voices" of mathematically successful African American male students as they recount their experiences with school mathematics, illustrating, in essence, how they negotiated the White male math myth. Using poststructural theory, the concepts discourse, person/identity, and power/agency are redefined or reinscribed. The article also shows that using a poststructural reinscription of these concepts, a more complex analysis of the multiplicitous and fragmented robust mathematics identities of African American male students is possible—an analysis that refutes simple explanations of effort. The article concludes, not with "answers," but with questions to facilitate dialogue among those who are interested in the mathematics achievement and persistence of African American male students—and equity and justice in the mathematics classroom for all students.


The book is the first to apply David Brazil's Discourse Intonation systems (prominence, tone, key and termination) to the study of a corpus of authentic, naturally-occurring spoken discourses. The Hong Kong Corpus of Spoken English (prosodic) is made up of approximately one million words consisting of four sub-corpora of equal size, namely academic, conversation, business and public. The participants are all adults and typically have either Cantonese or English as their first language. The four Discourse Intonation systems are described in terms of how the system works and how they are manifested in the corpus, both across the sub-corpora and also across speakers in the corpus. The book is accompanied with a CD containing the prosodically transcribed corpus together with iConc which is the software designed and written specifically to interrogate the HKCSE (prosodic). The issues raised and discussed are all of importance in Conversation Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Discourse Intonation, Pragmatics, and Intercultural Communication.


This article considers whether there is a specific demand for migrant domestic workers in the UK, or for workers with particular characteristics that in theory could be met by citizens. It discusses how immigration status can make it easier not only to recruit domestic workers, but also to retain them. `Foreignness' may also make the management of the employment relation easier with employers anxious to discover a coincidence of interest with the worker. Employers are not only looking for generic `foreignness' however, but typically also seek particular nationalities or ethnicities of worker, which can raise difficulties for agencies who are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of `race'.


This is the updated version of 'the' teacher training course for teachers and trainee teachers preparing for the Cambridge ESOL Teaching Knowledge Test (TKT). It includes everything you need to prepare for the test. The second edition contains three brand new model TKT practice tests, new tips for preparing for the TKT, an additional unit on approaches to language teaching tested in the TKT, completely rewritten tasks in every unit, and revised ELT terms and concepts matching the latest Cambridge ESOL TKT Glossary. This best-selling course has been written in collaboration with Cambridge ESOL by a team of experienced TKT writers. It provides a comprehensive and reliable package for TKT candidates, as well as for teachers preparing for other initial teacher training qualifications and those on in-service training programmes. This course is also available in an online version. Select 'TKT Online' from the menu on the left for further information.


Regular expressions are an extremely powerful tool for manipulating text and data. They are now standard features in a wide range of languages and popular tools, including Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, VB.NET and C# (and any language using the .NET Framework), PHP, and MySQL. If you don't use regular expressions yet, you will discover in this book a whole new world of mastery over your data. If you already use them, you'll appreciate this book's unprecedented detail and breadth of coverage. If you think you know all you need to know about regular expressions, this book is a stunning eye-opener.As this book shows, a command of regular expressions is an invaluable skill. Regular expressions allow you to code complex and subtle text processing that you never imagined could be automated. Regular expressions can save you time and aggravation. They can be used to craft elegant solutions to a wide range of problems. Once you've mastered regular expressions, they'll become an invaluable part of your toolkit. You will wonder how you ever got by without them.Yet despite their wide availability, flexibility, and unparalleled power, regular expressions are frequently underutilized. Yet what is power in the hands of an expert can be fraught with peril for the unwary. Mastering Regular Expressions will help you navigate the minefield to becoming an expert and help you optimize your use of regular expressions.Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition, now includes a full chapter devoted to PHP and its powerful and expressive suite of regular expression functions, in addition to enhanced PHP coverage in the central "core" chapters. Furthermore, this edition has been updated throughout to reflect advances in other languages, including expanded in-depth coverage of Sun's java.util.regex package, which has emerged as the standard Java regex implementation.Topics include:A comparison of features among different versions of many languages and toolsHow the regular expression engine worksOptimization (major savings available here!)Matching just what you want, but not what you don't wantSections and chapters on individual languagesWritten in the lucid, entertaining tone that makes a complex, dry topic become crystal-clear to programmers, and sprinkled with solutions to complex real-world problems, Mastering Regular Expressions, Third Edition offers a wealth information that you can put to immediate use.Reviews of this new edition and the second edition: "There isn't a better (or more useful) book available on regular expressions." --Zak Greant, Managing Director, eZ Systems"A real tour-de-force of a book which not only covers the mechanics of regexes in extraordinary detail but also talks about efficiency and the use of regexes in Perl, Java, and .NET...If you use regular expressions as part of your professional work (even if you already have a good book on whatever language you're programming in) I would strongly recommend this book to you." --Dr. Chris Brown, Linux Format"The author does an outstanding job leading the reader from regex novice to master. The book is extremely easy to read and chock full of useful and relevant examples...Regular expressions are valuable tools that every developer should have in their toolbox. Mastering Regular Expressions is the definitive guide to the subject, and an outstanding resource that belongs on every programmer's bookshelf. Ten out of Ten Horseshoes." --Jason Menard, Java Ranch


This paper applies urban and environmental sociological theory to survey data on self-reported sustainable consumption practices, using a matched sample of central city and suburban residents in Edmonton, Alberta. We use cluster analysis to create an ordinal typology of four types of consumers, conduct an analyses of variance to characterize the resultant clusters, and perform logistic regression to predict the net effect of urban and neighborhood context on sustainable consumption practices. We find that neighborhood and environmental attitude are the strongest predictors of sustainable consumption practices. We conclude by arguing many sustainable activities are more difficult to incorporate into daily routine when residing in the suburban neighbourhood. While suburban residents may feel strongly that they should consume less, their geographic location appears to significantly constrain their ability to meaningfully reduce their own consumption. This urban Canadian case study has implications for middle class environmental practices in other North American urban and suburban settings.


Is there any difference between an exclusive copyright license and an assignment? Many believe that any distinction between the two was obliterated by the Copyright Act of 1976, which included the term "exclusive license" within the statutorily-defined term "transfer of copyright ownership." In the much-criticized decision Gardner v. Nike, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that while the statute granted exclusive copyright licensees the "protection and remedies" accorded to "copyright owners" by the 1976 Act, it did not abrogate the preexisting presumption that copyright licenses are not transferable without the consent of the licensor.This article takes the position that Gardner's critics are mistaken, and that there is a strong case the Ninth Circuit's decision was both correct as a matter of statutory interpretation and consistent with the legislative history. More fundamentally, I argue that Gardner's critics are making a number of mistaken assumptions in their thinking about ownership and divisibility, assumptions that underlie and explain their erroneous reading of the statute. Properly understood, the policy of divisible copyright is perfectly compatible with the view that exclusive licenses are nontransferable ownership interests. Moreover, there are reasons to think Gardner may be beneficial as a matter of copyright policy, because on the margins it should tend to reduce fragmentation of title and enhance authorial control.


A report is only useful if those who receive it understand what it means. Knowing how to use Crystal Reports gives you the edge in producing reports from your database that really are crystal clear. Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies is a quick and easy guide to get you going with the latest version of this bestselling report-writing software. In fact, its so popular that previous editions have made it a bestseller too. Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies gives you just what you should know to produce the reports youll need most often, including how to: Pull specific information from your database, sort and group it, and find the details you need Use dynamic or cascading prompts Troubleshoot and print reports and save time with templates View reports on your LAN Write formulas to retrieve specific information Create and update OLAP reports Format reports, control page breaks, and even add graphics or Flash files Enhance your reports with charts and maps Use Crystal Reports in the enterprise Theres also a companion Web site with sample reports from the book and links to sites with more related information. With Crystal Reports 2008 For Dummies by your side, youll soon be able to create reports from simple to spectacular, whenever the need arises.


As countries negotiate a new climate agreement for the United Nations climate conference in December 2015, a groundswell of climate actions is emerging as cities, regions, businesses and civil society groups act on mitigation and adaptation, independently, with each other and with national governments and international organizations. The Paris conference provides a historic opportunity to establish a framework to catalyse, support, and steer these initiatives. Without such a framework, 'bottom-up' climate governance runs the risk of failing to deliver meaningful results. Social science research highlights the need for a comprehensive approach that promotes ambition, experimentation and accountability, and avoids unnecessary overlaps. This article specifies functions and design principles for a new, comprehensive framework for sub- and nonstate climate actions that could provide effective coordination.


Adjusted analysis: when groups differ on baseline characteristics (eg, age), analyses of outcome data are statistically modified to account for these differences. Blinding (masking): in an experimental study, refers to whether patients, clinicians providing an intervention, people assessing outcomes, and/or statisticians were aware or unaware of the group to which patients were assigned. In the design section of Evidence-Based Nursing abstracts of treatment studies, the study will be identified as blinded, with specification of who was blinded; unblinded, if all parties were aware of patients' group assignments; or blinded (unclear) if the authors did not report or provide us with an indication of who was aware or unaware of patients' group assignments. Concealment of randomisation: concealment of randomisation is specified in the design section of Evidence-Based Nursing abstracts of treatment studies as follows: allocation concealed (deemed to have taken adequate measures to conceal allocation to study group assignments from those responsible for assessing patients for entry in the trial [ie, central randomisation; numbered, opaque, sealed envelopes; sealed envelopes from a closed bag; numbered or coded bottles or containers; drugs prepared by the pharmacy; or other descriptions that contain elements convincing of concealment]); allocation not concealed (deemed to have not taken adequate measures to conceal allocation to study group assignments from those responsible for assessing patients for entry in the trial [ie, no concealment procedure was undertaken, sealed envelopes that were not opaque, or other descriptions that contain elements not convincing of concealment]); unclear allocation concealment (the authors did not report or provide a description of an allocation concealment approach that allowed for the classification as concealed or not concealed). Confidence interval (CI): quantifies the uncertainty in measurement; usually reported as 95% CI, which is the range of values within which we can be 95% sure that the true value for the whole population lies. Crossover trial: a method of comparing 2 interventions in which patients are switched to the alternative intervention after a specified period of time. Dose response: indicates that a relation exists, such that increasing doses or duration of treatment results in increased frequency or intensity of outcomes (eg, as the dosage of a medication increases, so does the magnitude of pain reduction). Fixed effects model: gives a summary estimate of the magnitude of effect in meta-analysis. It takes into account within-study variation but not between-study variation and hence is usually not used if there is significant heterogeneity. Grounded theory: an approach to collecting and analysing qualitative data with the aim of developing theories grounded in real world observations. Hermeneutic phenomenology: the study of the methodological principles of interpretation by using narrative texts to explain a phenomenon. Heterogeneity: the degree to which the effect estimates of individual studies in a meta-analysis differ significantly. Inductive analysis: often used in qualitative research, this type of analysis begins with specific observations from which generalisa tions are developed; opposite to deductive analysis, often used in quantitative research, which begins with the abstract (eg, general laws or hypotheses) from which logical deductions about specific things are made. Intention to treat analysis (ITT): all patients are analysed in the groups to which they were randomised, even if they failed to complete the intervention or received the wrong intervention. Logistic regression: a statistical technique that predicts the probability of a dichotomous dependent variable (eg, dead or alive) using, typically, a combination of continuous and categorical independent variables. Median: the value of the middle observation in a sample. That is, if the data from 99 people were ordered from high to low, the median would be the value of the 50th observation. Meta-analysis: a method for combining the results of several independent studies so that an overall summary statistic can be calculated. Multiple case study approach: a non-experimental study design involving a series of cases; the cases may be individuals, groups, or organisations; data are collected and analysed from these multiple sources (cases). Number needed to treat (NNT): number of patients who need to be treated to prevent 1 additional negative event (or to promote 1 additional positive event); this is calculated as 1/absolute risk reduction (rounded to the next whole number), accompanied by the 95% confidence interval. Odds ratio (OR): describes the odds of a patient in the experimental group having an event divided by the odds of a patient in the control group having the event or the odds that a patient was exposed to a given risk factor divided by the odds that a control patient was exposed to the risk factor. Phenomenology: an approach to inquiry that emphasises the complexity of human experience and the need to understand that experience holistically as it is actually lived. Power: the ability of a study to detect an actual effect or difference of a given size (eg, a 10% difference) between groups; it has to do with the adequacy of sample size. Before a study begins, researchers often calculate the number of participants required to detect a postulated difference between 2 groups. If a study has insufficient power (ie, sample size is too small), actual differences between groups may not be detected. Relative risk (RR): proportion of patients experiencing an outcome in the treated (or exposed) group divided by the proportion experiencing the outcome in the control (or unexposed) group. Relative risk reduction (RRR): the proportional reduction in outcome rates of bad events between experimental and control participants; it is reported as a percentage (%). Weighted: statistical analysis accounts for differences in certain important variables. 1 Dawson-Saunders B, Trapp RG. Basic and clinical biostatistics. Norwalk: Appleton and Lange, 1994. 2 Adler AS, Clark R. How it's done:an invitation to social research. Scarborough: Wadsworth, 1999. 3 Mulrow CD, Oxman AD, editors. Cochrane Collaboration handbook (updated September 1997). In: Cochrane Library, 4, 1997. Oxford: Update Software. 4 Polit DE, Hungler BP. Nursing research: principles and methods. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1995. 5 Talbot LA. Principles and practice of nursing research. St Louis: Mosby, 1995.


Prophet or messiah, the figure of Jesus serves as both the bridge and the barrier between Christianity and Islam. In this accessible and thoughtful book, Muslim scholar and popular commentator Mona Siddiqui takes her reader on a personal, theological journey exploring the centrality of Jesus in Christian-Muslim relations. Christian and Muslim scholars have used Jesus and Christological themes for polemical and dialogical conversations from the earliest days to modern times. The author concludes with her own reflections on the cross and its possible meaning in her Muslim faith. Through a careful analysis of selected works by major Christian and Muslim theologians during the formative, medieval, and modern periods of both religions, Siddiqui focuses on themes including revelation, prophecy, salvation, redemption, sin, eschatology, law, and love. How did some doctrines become the defining characteristics of one faith and not the other? What is the nature of the theological chasm between Christianity and Islam? With a nuanced and carefully considered analysis of critical doctrines the author provides a refreshingly honest counterpoint to contemporary polemical arguments and makes a compelling contribution to reasoned interfaith conversation.


Abstract Commercially produced vermiculite insulation from Libby, Montana, contains trace levels of asbestiform amphibole, which is known to cause asbestos-related diseases. When vermiculite insulation is found in a building, evaluation for its potential asbestos content traditionally involves collecting a sample from an attic or wall and submitting it for time-consuming analyses at an off-site laboratory. The goal of this study was to determine if in situ near-infrared reflectance measurements could be used to reliably identify the source of vermiculite ore and therefore its potential to contain asbestos. Spectra of 52 expanded ore samples, including attic insulation, commercial packing materials, and horticultural products from Libby, Montana; Louisa, Virginia; Enoree, South Carolina; Palabora, South Africa; and Jiangsu, China, were measured with a portable spectrometer. The mine sources for these vermiculite ores were identified based on collection location, when known, and on differences in elemental composition as measured by electron probe microanalysis. Reflectance spectra of the insulation samples show vibrational overtone and combination absorptions that vary in wavelength position and relative intensity depending on elemental composition and proportions of their constituent micas (i.e., vermiculite ore usually consists of a mixture of hydrobiotite and vermiculite mineral flakes). Band depth ratios of the 1.38/2.32, 1.40/1.42, and 2.24/2.38 μm absorptions allow determination of a vermiculite insulation's source and detection of its potential to contain amphibole, talc, and/or serpentine impurities. Spectroscopy cannot distinguish asbestiform vs. non-asbestiform amphiboles. However, if the spectrally determined mica composition and mineralogy of an insulation sample is consistent with ore from Libby, then it is likely that some portion of the sodic-calcic amphibole it contains is asbestiform, given that all of the nearly two dozen Libby vermiculite insulation samples examined with scanning electron microscopy in this study contain amphiboles. One sample of expanded vermiculite ore from multiple sources was recognized as a limitation of the spectral method, therefore an additional test (i.e., 2.24 μm absorption position vs. 2.24/2.38 μm band depth ratio) was incorporated into the spectral method to eliminate misclassification caused by such mixtures. With portable field spectrometers, the methodology developed can be used to determine vermiculite insulation's source and estimate its potential amphibole content, thereby providing low-cost analysis with onsite reporting to property owners.


Galen of Pergamum (129--?199/216), physician to the court of the emperor Marcus Aurelius, was a philosopher, scientist, and medical historian, a theoretician and practitioner, who wrote forcefully and prolifically on an astonishing range of subjects and whose impact on later eras rivaled that of Aristotle. Galen synthesized the entirety of Greek medicine as a basis for his own doctrines and practice, which comprehensively embraced theory, practical knowledge, experiment, logic, and a deep understanding of human life and society. New to the Loeb Classical Library is Method of Medicine, a systematic and comprehensive account of the principles of treating injury and disease and one of Galen's greatest and most influential works. Enlivening the detailed case studies are many theoretical and polemical discussions, acute social commentary, and personal reflections.


"Igniting a Generation in the Life of the Spirit" Throughout Scripture, fire often symbolizes the presence, power, and work of God. And ultimately, God s fire is meant to explode within his people as a passion for him and his purposes. Ignite the hearts of the next generation with the Word of God when you give them this youth Bible that s packed with helpful information on living the Christian life in the fullness of the Spirit. Created by Life Publishers International.SPECIAL FEATURES Trusted NIV translation Concordance Themefinders track 12 important topics through the Scripture Book introductions with note-taking space Extensive bottom-of-page notes 45 in-text maps and charts Easy-to-use detailed cross-reference system More than 80 key issue articles Commentary from a Pentecostal perspective Subject index for topical studies Glossary of practical definitions of terms and concepts 7-point black letter type"