Mercosur reflects, as many other Regional Integration Processes do, the consequences of a process of Nation-State mutation, as this Nation-State seems incapable of keeping acting as the vital regulator of social life. Nevertheless, the perception of this mutation persists anchored on Nation-State interpretations' patterns. The institutional cartography that emerges from this situation encloses some inconsistencies and incompatibilities between: on the one hand, the real demands of social actors and economic agents; and, on the other hand, the de facto political institutions shaped. This article proposes to investigate how governance has been transformed within Mercosur. It focus on the intricate and complex relations between regional, national and, particularly, sub-national levels. It is composed by two parts: the first seeks to situate the problem of the relationship between legitimacy, democracy, and accountability in the sphere of regional governance and the action of sub-national actors; the second, under this prism, inquires, empirically, about the BrazilianArgentinean connections and about the institutional design and relationship networks in Mercosur.


THIS series gives readers the opportunity to consider and contribute to discussion of some of the ethical dilemmas that can arise in veterinary practice. Each month, a case scenario is presented, followed by discussion of some of the issues involved. In addition, a possible way forward is suggested; however, there is rarely a cut-and-dried answer in such cases, and readers may wish to suggest an alternative approach. This month's dilemma, 'Immediate dispatch?', was submitted and discussed by Richard Brown. Readers with comments to contribute are invited to send them as soon as possible, so that they can be considered for publication in the next issue. Discussion of the dilemma 'The mating game', which was published in the April issue of In Practice, appears on page 263. The series is being coordinated by Siobhan Mullan, of the University of Bristol. It is hoped it will provide a framework that will help practices find solutions when facing similar dilemmas.


An Automatic Level Controller (ALC) for speech signals embedded in additive noise requires Voice Activity Detection (VAD) to avoid noise amplification. The VAD is generally computationally intensive. This paper explores a less computational-intensive ALC, which uses a Proportional Integral (PI) controller for detecting voice activity. The PI controller tracks the energy variation of the signal by means of detecting rapid variations of the signal envelope. The segments that show a low variation of energy are detected as noise. Further, this paper describes gain calculation for amplification of a speech segment using an Integral controller. The speech signal energy is estimated by a second PI controller which follows signal envelope and thus provides the amplitude error that needs to be corrected.


We present Cider, an operating system compatibility architecture that can run applications built for different mobile ecosystems, iOS or Android, together on the same smartphone or tablet. Cider enhances the domestic operating system, Android, of a device with kernel-managed, per-thread personas to mimic the application binary interface of a foreign operating system, iOS, enabling it to run unmodified foreign binaries. This is accomplished using a novel combination of binary compatibility techniques including two new mechanisms: compile-time code adaptation, and diplomatic functions. Compile-time code adaptation enables existing unmodified foreign source code to be reused in the domestic kernel, reducing implementation effort required to support multiple binary interfaces for executing domestic and foreign applications. Diplomatic functions leverage per-thread personas, and allow foreign applications to use domestic libraries to access proprietary software and hardware interfaces. We have built a Cider prototype, and demonstrate that it imposes modest performance overhead and runs unmodified iOS and Android applications together on a Google Nexus tablet running the latest version of Android.


Iran Occupational Health http://ioh.iums.ac.ir Iran Occupational Health. 2020 (4 Apr);17:1. Original Article Lighting and color temperature assessment in the office workplaces and relationship to visual fatigue Rostam Golmohammadi, (*Corresponding author), Professor, Department of Occupational Health, School of Health and Center for Health Sciences Research, Hamedan University of Medical Sciences, Hamedan, Iran. email@example.com Zahra Pirmoradi, MSc, Department of Occupational Hygiene, School of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran Majid Motamedzadeh Torghabeh, Professor, Department of Ergonomics, School of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran Javad Fardmal, Professor, Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran


Milan Kundera, a Czech emigre writer, living in Paris and now writing in French, is (in)famous for his tight and obsessive authorial control. He has said many times that he did not trust translators to translate his works accurately and faithfully. The various translations of his novel Žert (The Joke) exemplify this point. The novel has been translated into English, French, and many other languages more than once, depending on Kundera's dissatisfaction with a particular translation (which, at first, he would support). Thus, there followed a cascade of translations (namely in French and English) as Kundera would eventually become dissatisfied even with the latest "definitive" translated version. As he famously says in an interview regarding the 1968 French translation of Žert, "rage seized me". From then on, Kundera showed displeasure at any translator who, however briefly, would impersonate the author and take some license in translating Kundera's work. Further, Kundera decided that only his full authorial involvement in the process would ascertain "the same authenticity" of his translations as the original Czech works. Kundera thus becomes the omnipresent, omnipotent author, himself impersonating God controlling his own creation. Finally, Kundera takes extreme measures and translates Žert into French himself. The resulting translation surprised many – editing changes are plentiful but apparent only to those who can compare the original Czech text with Kundera's own translation. Kundera's stance is conflicting, as he denies creativity to other translators but as the auto-translator, Kundera freely rewrites, rather than just retranslates, his own works. By exploring the convoluted and complex history of translations of Kundera's works, I will try to illuminate the reasons behind Kundera's posture. I will support my discussion by analyzing not only well known Kundera's statements, but also those less quoted which, as I have discovered, are rather crucial to understanding Kundera's position.


Its widely predicted that mobile phones and tablets will overtake desktop PCs as the most common Web access devices within the next two or three years. Adobe is responding to this dramatic shift by focusing on new tools to develop websites for multiple platforms with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in Dreamweaver CS5.5. In particular, Dreamweaver engineers have been working closely with the developers of jQuery, the de-facto standard JavaScript framework, to develop jQuery Mobile. This is a new JavaScript/CSS framework designed to create websites and applications that work consistently in all major mobile platforms, including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian (Nokia). This book explores in depth the integration of jQuery Mobile in Dreamweaver, together with other new features aimed at building websites that work across multiple devices.Using a series of practical examples, the book will show how to optimize an existing website for display in desktops, tablets, and mobile phones, using CSS media queries. Readers will also learn how to create a dedicated mobile site using jQuery Mobile. Although Dreamweaver will generate much of the necessary code automatically, the book will explain the structure of jQuery Mobile websites and web applications, so that developers can go beyond the basics to add custom functionality and design features. The book will also utilize the core jQuery framework, demonstrating how the new jQuery code hinting in Dreamweaver CS5.5 speeds up the development process for experienced developers and acts as a learning aid for those new to jQuery. Readers will learn how to convert a jQuery Mobile web application into a native app (that can be loaded on an iPhone or Android device) using PhoneGap, another open source framework.


High economic costs may potentially result from climate change. More intense and frequent storms, droughts and floods may cause extensive damage to physical capital, for example due to rising sea levels and storm surges in heavily-populated coastal areas.

The current economic crisis has not weakened Europe's commitment to combatting climate change and promoting sustainable development. But there are concerns that the costs of Europe's transition to a low-carbon economy will reduce job growth and that the European Union's targets for reducing energy consumption conflict with its target for increasing employment.

Cedefop's study Skills for a low-carbon Europe explores scenarios for achieving a sustainable and energy-efficient economy at the same time as employment growth.


In this dissertation we present analysis of macroscopic models for slow dense granular flow. Models are derived from plasticity theory with yield condition and flow rule. Corner stone equations are conservation of mass and conservation of momentum with special constitutive law. Such models are considered in the class of generalised Newtonian fluids, where viscosity depends on the pressure and modulo of the strain-rate tensor. We showed the hyperbolic nature for the evolutionary model in 1D and ill-posed behaviour for 2D and 3D. The steady state equations are always hyperbolic. In the 2D problem we derived a prototype nonlinear backward parabolic equation for the velocity and the similar equation for the shear-rate. Analysis of derived PDE showed the finite blow up time. Blow up time depends on the initial condition. Full 2D and antiplane 3D model were investigated numerically with finite element method. For 2D model we showed the presence of boundary layers. Antiplane 3D model was investigated with the Runge Kutta Discontinuous Galerkin method with mesh addoption. Numerical results confirmed that such a numerical method can be a good choice for the simulations of the slow dense granular flow.


Academic coping describes the profile of responses children and adolescents utilize when they encounter challenges, obstacles, setbacks, and failures in their scholastic work. Coping is one of multiple strands of research from a variety of subareas within educational and developmental science that share a common interest in this topic, including work on academic resilience, buoyancy, mastery versus helplessness, tenacity, perseverance, and productive persistence, as well as adaptive help seeking, self-regulated learning, and emotion regulation. These approaches focus on the responses (including emotions and goal-directed behaviors) students actually undertake on the ground when they encounter academic difficulties in their daily lives; patterns of action can be contrasted with the belief systems, motivations, or skill sets that underlie these responses.
 Since the mid 1980s, several dozen studies have examined academic coping in children and youth from 2nd to 12th grade (ages 7–18), including samples from 29 countries (Skinner & Saxton, 2019). These studies have identified multiple adaptive ways of dealing with academic stress, including problem solving, help seeking, and comfort seeking. These responses are considered productive because they allow students to gather resources and strategies, and so re-engage in demanding tasks with renewed purpose, vigor, and effectiveness. Multiple maladaptive ways of coping have also been identified, such as escape, rumination, or blaming others. These are considered unproductive because when enacted in response to academic demands, they are more likely to trigger disaffection, amplify distress, or provoke negative reactions from social partners.
 In general, research indicates that students normatively show a profile of coping that is high in adaptive strategies (especially problem solving, help seeking, and support seeking) and low in maladaptive responses. Studies find that students' adaptive coping is linked to their academic functioning and success, including their educational performance, engagement, persistence, and adjustment to school transitions. In contrast, maladaptive coping is linked to a pattern of poor academic performance, disengagement, and school-related burnout. Students cope more adaptively when they possess motivational assets (such as self-efficacy, relative autonomy, or sense of belonging) and experience interpersonal supports from their parents, teachers, and peers. Studies documenting developmental trends suggest normative improvements in the coping repertoire during elementary school. However, over the transition to middle school in early adolescence, many adaptive ways of coping decline while reliance on maladaptive responses generally increases. Starting in middle adolescence, these problematic trends stabilize, and some studies indicate renewed improvement in coping, especially problem solving.
 Current research on academic coping faces theoretical, methodological, and applied challenges: (a) theoretically, more comprehensive conceptualizations are needed that integrate coping perspectives with social contextual, motivational, and developmental approaches; (b) methodologically, standard measures are needed that focus on core categories of academic coping, and that utilize allocation scoring; and (c) to further applied work, additional studies are needed that describe and explain normative and differential age-graded changes in adaptive and maladaptive coping across childhood and adolescence. Researchers who study academic coping believe that this work has much to offer educational theories, research, and interventions aimed at understanding how to help children and adolescents develop the capacity to deal constructively with the obstacles and problems they will inevitably encounter during their educational careers.


Publisher version made available in accordance with the Publisher's Policy. "This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author. This is in accordance with the BOAI definition of open access".


In James Patterson's blockbuster series, fourteen-year-old Maximum Ride, better known as Max, knows what it's like to soar above the world. She and all the members of the "flock"--Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman and Angel--are just like ordinary kids--only they have wings and can fly. It may seem like a dream come true to some, but their lives can morph into a living nightmare at any time...like when Angel, the youngest member of the flock, is kidnapped and taken back to the "School" where she and the others were experimented on by a crew of wack jobs. Her friends brave a journey to blazing hot Death Valley, CA, to save Angel, but soon enough, they find themselves in yet another nightmare--this one involving fighting off the half-human, half-wolf "Erasers" in New York City. Whether in the treetops of Central Park or in the bowels of the Manhattan subway system, Max and her adopted family take the ride of their lives. Along the way Max discovers from her old friend and father-figure Jeb--now her betrayed and greatest enemy--that her purpose is save the world--but can she?


Detail, cupola on variant of model "Jonquille" (1425 sq. ft.); The First Nations Garden (one of the gardens of the Montreal Botanical Garden) commemorates the 300th anniversary of the Great Peace, a 1701 treaty uniting French settlers and the indigenous people of Montreal. It is designed to help visitors discover the culture of the first inhabitants of North America. The pavilion is a museum within the garden. Sheltering less than 2% of the garden grounds (which is 10,000 sq meters total), the pavilion is mostly outdoor space. Half of the built spaces are located underground to further reduce the influence of the new building on the existing setting. The new building was sited to retain all existing trees and maintain a relatively open terrain in an attempt to integrate the building and the site. The undulating roof recalls a wisp of smoke through the trees. Outdoor displays sheltered by the roof are framed by two indoor spaces at opposite ends of the pavilion – exhibition and orientation spaces at one end, public washrooms and a meeting space at the other. Landscape architecture by Williams Asselin Ackaoui et Associates Inc. Source: ArchDaily; http://www.archdaily.com/ (accessed 5/7/2014)


The University of Koblenz-Landau would like to apply for participation in the RoboCup Mixed Reality League in Suzhou, China 2008. Our team is composed of ten team members and two supervisors. All members are graduate students of Computational Visualistics. Our supervisors are Ph.D. candidates currently researching in the working groups of artificial intelligence and computer graphics.


The implementation of MiFID lead to fragmentation of trading in European equities. We analyze information processing for a sample of Swiss stocks on the Swiss exchange and on Chi-X, the largest multilateral trading facility. According to Hasbrouck information shares, the determination of a leading market is not conclusively possible. By applying an autoregressive conditional intensity (ACI) model that explicitly takes the asynchronous structure of order arrivals into account, we find strong evidence that Chi-X is the leading market in terms of intensity based information shares.


Demand response (DR) is an effective tool which resolves inconsistencies between electric power supply and demand. It further provides a reliable and credible resource that ensures stable and economical operation of the power grid. This paper introduces systematic definitions for DR and demand side management, along with operational differences between these two methods. A classification is provided for DR programs, and various DR strategies are provided for application in air conditioning and refrigerating systems. The reliability of DR is demonstrated through discussion of successful overseas examples. Finally, suggestions as to the implementation of demand response in China are provided.


This edited volume is the first scholarly tome exclusively dedicated to Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of the literary chronotope. This concept, initially developed in the 1930s and used as a frame of reference throughout Bakhtin's own writings, has been highly influential in literary studies. After an extensive introduction that serves as a 'state of the art', the volume is divided into four main parts: Philosophical Reflections, Relevance of the Chronotope for Literary History, Chronotopical Readings and Some Perspectives for Literary Theory. These thematic categories contain contributions by well-established Bakhtin specialists such as Gary Saul Morson and Michael Holquist, as well as a number of essays by scholars who have published on this subject before. Together the papers in this volume explore the implications of Bakhtin's concept of the chronotope for a variety of theoretical topics such as literary imagination, polysystem theory and literary adaptation; for modern views on literary history ranging from the hellenistic romance to nineteenth-century realism; and for analyses of well-known novelists and poets as diverse as Milton, Fielding, Dickinson, Dostoevsky, Papadiamandis and DeLillo.


The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution recognizes a laissez-faire policy toward speech and the press. The Framers of the Bill of Rights worried that the self-interest of politicians fostered suppression of speech. In contrast, some constitutional theorists have argued that the Constitution empowers, rather than restricts, the federal government to manage speech in order to attain the values implicit in the First Amendment.The government managed broadcast speech for some time, in part through the Fairness Doctrine, which was said to promote balanced public debate and "an uninhibited marketplace of ideas." The history of the Fairness Doctrine confirms the validity of the concerns of the Framers of the First Amendment, because federal officials and their agents used and sought to use the Fairness Doctrine to silence critics of three presidencies. Broadcasters adapted to the Fairness Doctrine by avoiding controversial speech, thereby chilling public debate on vital matters.The Federal Communications Commission is proposing to manage broadcast speech by imposing localism requirements, including content requirements and advisory boards to oversee managing stations. This proposal limits the editorial independence of license holders to serve the public interest. The history of the Fairness Doctrine suggests that federal officials who make and enforce such policies are more concerned with limiting political debate than they are with advancing local concerns or the public interest. Like the Fairness Doctrine, the FCC's localism initiative poses the risk of restricting speech. Our unhappy experience with the Fairness Doctrine suggests that imposing localism mandates on broadcasters is unlikely to serve the public interest in constitutional propriety and uninhibited political debate.


BACKGROUND
Epidemiologic data suggest that diet is a risk factor in the etiology of gastric cancer. However, the role of dietary fatty acids, a modifiable risk factor, remains relatively unexplored.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine the association of plasma phospholipid fatty acid concentrations, as biomarkers of exogenous and endogenously derived fatty acids, with the risk of gastric adenocarcinoma in a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Europe Gastric Cancer (EPIC-EURGAST).

DESIGN
Fatty acids were measured by gas chromatography in prediagnostic plasma phospholipids from 238 cases matched to 626 controls by age, sex, study center, and date of blood donation. Conditional logistic regression models adjusted for Helicobacter pylori infection status, BMI, smoking, physical activity, education, and energy intake were used to estimate relative cancer risks.

RESULTS
Positive risk associations for gastric cancer were observed in the highest compared with the lowest quartiles of plasma oleic acid (OR: 1.72; 95% CI: 1.01, 2.94), di-homo-γ-linolenic acid (OR: 1.92; 95% CI: 1.10, 3.35), α-linolenic acid (OR: 3.20; 95% CI: 1.70, 6.06), and the ratio of MUFAs to saturated fatty acids, as an indicator of stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 enzyme activity (OR: 1.40; 95% CI: 0.81, 2.43). An inverse risk association was observed with the ratio of linoleic to α-linolenic acid (OR: 0.37; 95% CI: 0.20, 0.66).

CONCLUSION
These data suggest that a specific prediagnostic plasma phospholipid fatty acid profile, characterized mainly by high concentrations of oleic acid, α-linolenic acid, and di-homo-γ-linolenic acid, which presumably reflect both a complex dietary pattern and altered fatty acid metabolism, may be related to increased gastric cancer risk.


While patent assertion entities ("PAEs" or patent "trolls") have received a lot of attention, little of it has focused on the distributional impacts of their demands. The impact of PAEs on startups is crucial, because startups contribute to job creation and innovation, making them potential targets and sources of patents. To assess the impact of trolls on startups, I analyzed a comprehensive database of patent litigations from 2006 to the present, conducted a non-random survey of 223 tech company startups, 79 of which had received a demand, and interviewed nearly twenty entities with relevant knowledge of startup patent issues.I find that although large companies tend to dominate patent headlines, most unique defendants to troll suits are small. Companies with less than $100M annual revenue represent at least 66% of unique defendants to troll suits and at least 55% of unique defendants in troll suits make $10M per year or less. Suing small companies appears distinguish PAEs from operating companies, who sued companies with less than $10M per year of revenue only 16% of the time, based on unique defendants. Of survey responses that had received a demand (N=79), a large percentage reported a "significant operational impact": delayed hiring or achievement of another milestone, change in the product, a pivot in business strategy, shutting down a business line or the entire business, and/or lost valuation. The smaller the company, the more likely it was to report one or more significant operational impacts. To the extent patent demands "tax" innovation, then, they appear to do so regressively, with small companies targeted more as unique defendants, and paying more in time, money and operational impact, relative to their size, than large firms. 40% of survey respondents stated that they were being targeted because of their use of another's or a widely available technology.Yet an operational change was not the only response to a demand: 22% of responders reported that, to resolve the demand, their primary response was to "do nothing," while 35% fought the demand, and 18% settled it. Based on available information, costs were highest when fighting in court was the primary response (with average expenditures of $857K (N=7)); settling cost an average of $340K (n=12) and fighting out of court cost $168K (N=18), on average (Table 1). Small companies can also benefit from a robust market in patents, both as sellers and buyers. An estimated 50% of NPE patents come from companies with less than $200M in revenue. Patent sales can support the ongoing business, and 4% of survey responders said they had monetized their patents, and another 20% said that they had considered it. Yet while the conditions of a majority of sales is unknown, they often take place when the company is in distress or transition, as growing young companies often lack the inclination, time, or extra patents to monetize their intellectual property. When patents are sold under firesale conditions, investors, creditors, and patent focused companies share in the profits, reducing the direct returns to the inventive entity. Growing companies can also benefit from the patent marketplace as buyers, buying patents from the marketplace "on-demand" and overcoming some of the advantages of incumbents. What can be done to decrease the harms of patent assertion and increase the benefits of a robust patent market to small companies and startups? Focusing exclusively on the first question, I present new data that suggest that a number of the reforms put in place over the last year, including by the America Invents Act, are having a positive impact. Fewer defendants are being named in patent suits. The new post-grant review provisions will reduce the leverage of patent plaintiffs in some cases. However, some of these reforms are out of the reach of startups. Prior user rights benefit older companies against younger patents, but don't help new start-ups. Startup companies are cash-poor, but challenging issued patents is expensive and time-consuming. Reforms to reduce the cost of litigation defense are laudable, and likely deter some suits from being brought in the first place, but don't reach small companies against whom litigation is threatened, but not brought. Increasing the cost of software patents would limit the number of patents but would also disadvantage startups that patent, relative to large companies and PAEs with large budgets. The distributional impacts of reforms need to be kept in mind, and I suggest some alternative reforms for the consideration of the courts, Congress, and the market.


Predictive functions for milk yield, dry matter intake, and phosphorous-manure derived from the National Research Council 2001 and the present study were incorporated in the development of a multiple objective dairy feed formulation software program (MoF-Dairy Edition-2010); that attempted to optimise feed cost, milk yield and profits while minimising Phosphorous-excretion in manure. Important objects in the feed milling industry considered in the program development were feed millers, dairy farmers, and government feed policy regulatory guidelines. The multi-objective formulation approach comprises hierarchical design levels which include data, model, tools, and output layers. Program database objects are manipulated using VB.NET programming language within a Microsoft .NET Framework Environment. Users interact with the program by providing individual details after which a customer system instance is created. Program formulation inputs are entered through VB forms linked to the core simulation model layer (Microsoft SQL Server Database) to automatically calculate and generate nutrient requirements in accordance with NRC, 2001 for the particular cow or cow production groups under specified production performance parameters. The final solution is obtained by allowing the program to solve for the most feasible combination of available ingredients under the imposed formulation, ingredient as well as nutrient constraints. Program outputs include tailor-made reports on feed formulae; and the accompanying physical nutrient compositions and nutrient deviation analysis; potential unit and gross P-manure environmental pollution, and business economic analysis; detailing concentrate supplementation rates per cow per milking as well as the corresponding projected daily milk profit margins.


To date, the biological soil crusts (BSCs) of southern Africa are thought to be dominated mainly by cyanobacteria, with the exception of the lichen fields of the Namib Desert. Because soil microorganisms can physically modify, maintain or create habitat for other organisms – including soil biota and plants – they have been considered ecosystem engineers. Therefore, the presence of BSCs may be a good indicator of ecosystem resilience. Although BSCs are found throughout the world, recent work has suggested that the absence of BSCs in the fynbos of South Africa may be as a result of the inherent acidity of soils. We surveyed one area within the fynbos biome for the presence of BSCs and determined the relative cover of vegetation and different crust types. We found a widespread presence (up to 80% of surface soil) of BSC communities in fynbos soils. We conclude that soil acidity may not be a constraining factor in the development of BSCs in fynbos soils and that previous reports on the absence of BSCs in fynbos soils may have been based on insufficient field observations. We encourage future studies in this region in order to determine the currently unexplored spatial distribution of soil microbial communities and the taxonomic composition of microorganisms in fynbos soils.


Advances in 3D visualization and physics-based simulation technology make it possible for game developers to create compelling, visually immersive gaming environments that were only dreamed of years ago. But today's game players have grown in sophistication along with the games they play. It's no longer enough to wow your players with dazzling graphics; the next step in creating even more immersive games is improved artificial intelligence, or AI. Fortunately, advanced AI game techniques are within the grasp of every game developer--not just those who dedicate their careers to AI. If you're new to game programming or if you're an experienced game programmer who needs to get up to speed quickly on AI techniques, you'll find AI for Game Developers to be the perfect starting point for understanding and applying AI techniques to your games. Written for the novice AI programmer, AI for Game Developers introduces you to techniques such as finite state machines, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and many others, in straightforward, easy-to-understand language, supported with code samples throughout the entire book (written in C/C++). From basic techniques such as chasing and evading, pattern movement, and flocking to genetic algorithms, the book presents a mix of deterministic (traditional) and non-deterministic (newer) AI techniques aimed squarely at beginners AI developers. Other topics covered in the book include: Potential function based movements: a technique that handles chasing, evading swarming, and collision avoidance simultaneouslyBasic pathfinding and waypoints, including an entire chapter devoted to the A* pathfinding algorithmAI scriptingRule-based AI: learn about variants other than fuzzy logic and finite state machinesBasic probabilityBayesian techniques Unlike other books on the subject, AI for Game Developers doesn't attempt to cover every aspect of game AI, but to provide you with usable, advanced techniques you can apply to your games right now. If you've wanted to use AI to extend the play-life of your games, make them more challenging, and most importantly, make them more fun, then this book is for you.


Imagine history as an open work. A network of limitless interrelations in which uncertainty is a positive feature. Imagine its openness, its incompleteness. Imagine history as a work in motion, displaying an intense mobility and a kaleidoscopic capacity to suggest itself in constantly renewed aspects to its consumers.[2]

In 1962, Italian philosopher Umberto Eco coined the term open work to describe aesthetic practices where authors arrange their work so that the audience is exposed not to a single definitive order, but to a myriad of possibilities: an "unfinished" work which they are invited to complete. The open work thus has a halo of infiniteness, always promising future perceptions and demanding a higher degree of collaboration from the public throughout the creative process.

If openness and indeterminacy are true possibilities for the production of history, how then does history make its subjects? If given the opportunity to be a history-teller, how does one make relevant the collective memories, personal narratives and inner worlds located within the margins of history? Furthermore, would this reconstruction of the past ever challenge current historiography, its methods of inclusion and omission?

Haitian anthropologist Michel-Rolph Trouillot claims that alongside professional historians, there are other participants in the production of history that, even though they might not destabilize systems of power, add complexity to its production. It is this kind of radical suggestion of re-imagining the writing of history as an open work, a participatory experience, to which the eighth edition of the Goteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art is devoted.

The Biennale will examine ways in which systems of power have used tactics of amnesic oblivion and silence as a political strategy. The project will look at work by artists who interfere with history-making by rescuing events and their protagonists from historical oblivion and seek to open up the readings of contemporary history. Moreover, A story within a story… will explore history as a radical act by focusing on socially engaged projects, which interrogate notions of collective memory and publicness from transnational and transhistorical perspectives.

Taking the notion of open work as both a conceptual backdrop and curatorial methodology, GIBCA 2015 will question the structure of biennials themselves as systems of power and propose instead to engage with a "series of acts of conscious freedom."[3] This project invites artists, thinkers and cultural producers, together with members of civil society and public authority – from Scandinavia and across the globe – to partake in various initiatives enquiring the meaning and production of history.


Phosphatases (AP, E.C. 220.127.116.11) are hydrolytic enzymes that naturally hydrolyse phosphomonoesters but in a so-called transphosphorylation reaction these enzymes are also able to transfer a phosphate group from phosphorylated compounds to alcoholic functions. This transphosphorylation catalysed by acid phosphatases using pyrophosphate as a phosphate donor has been studied in some detail. However, the acidic pH optimum of these enzymes limits some of their applications. The catalytic features of alkaline phosphatase are similar to the acid phosphatases and its alkaline pH optimum suggests a possible application of this enzyme in phosphorylation reactions which need to be carried out at higher pH. Here we explore the synthetic potential of bovine intestine alkaline phosphatase (AP) in the phosphorylation of dihydroxyacetone (DHA) and glycerol using pyrophosphate (PPi) as phosphate donor. The phosphorylated compounds are intermediates in two multi-enzymatic cascade reactions for the synthesis of carbohydrates. The yields of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and glycerol-1-phosphate at pH 8 (2.6 mM and 2.2 mM, respectively) were comparable to the results obtained with the acid phosphatases at pH 4. Nevertheless, when the cascade reactions were carried out at pH 8, very low conversions were measured due to inactivation of the alkaline phosphatase by the product phosphate. To circumvent this inhibition, the alkaline phosphatase was immobilized on aldehyde-activated beads (Sepabeads EC-HA). The immobilization greatly diminished the inhibition by phosphate, and the immobilized alkaline phosphatase at pH 8 gave the same conversions in the cascade reaction starting from DHA as obtained with the acid phosphatase at pH 6. However, the immobilized enzyme was active for only one catalytic cycle and the beads could not be reused.


Abstract. The indirect effect of aerosols on climate is highly uncertain and limits our ability to assess anthropogenic climate change. The foundation of this uncertainty is uncertainty in the number of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN), which itself stems from uncertainty in aerosol nucleation, primary emission and growth rates. In this paper, we use a global general circulation model with aerosol microphysics to assess how the uncertainties in aerosol nucleation, emission and growth rates affect our prediction of CCN(0.2%) concentrations. Using several nucleation rate parameterizations that span six orders of magnitude of globally averaged nucleation rates, the tropospheric average CCN(0.2%) concentrations vary by 17% and the boundary layer average vary by 12%. This sensitivity of tropospheric average CCN(0.2%) to the nucleation parameterizations increases to 33% and 20% when the total primary emissions are reduced by a factor of 3 and the SOA condensation rates are increased by a factor of 3.5, respectively. These results show that it is necessary to better understand global nucleation rates when determining CCN concentrations. When primary emissions rates are varied by a factor of 3 while using a binary nucleation parameterization, tropospheric average CCN(0.2%) concentrations also vary by 17%, but boundary layer average vary by 40%. Using the fastest nucleation rate parameterization, these changes drop to 3% and 22%, respectively. These results show the importance of reducing uncertainties in primary emissions, which appear from these results to be somewhat more important for CCN than the much larger uncertainties in nucleation. These results also show that uncertainties in nucleation and primary emissions are more important when sufficient condensable material is available to grow them to CCN sizes. The percent change in CCN(0.2%) concentration between pre-industrial times and present day does not depend greatly on the nucleation rate parameterization used for our base case scenarios; however, because other factors, such as primary emissions and SOA, are uncertain in both time periods, this may be a coincidence.


Circles Disturbed brings together important thinkers in mathematics, history, and philosophy to explore the relationship between mathematics and narrative. The book's title recalls the last words of the great Greek mathematician Archimedes before he was slain by a Roman soldier--"Don't disturb my circles"--words that seem to refer to two radically different concerns: that of the practical person living in the concrete world of reality, and that of the theoretician lost in a world of abstraction. Stories and theorems are, in a sense, the natural languages of these two worlds--stories representing the way we act and interact, and theorems giving us pure thought, distilled from the hustle and bustle of reality. Yet, though the voices of stories and theorems seem totally different, they share profound connections and similarities.

 A book unlike any other, Circles Disturbed delves into topics such as the way in which historical and biographical narratives shape our understanding of mathematics and mathematicians, the development of "myths of origins" in mathematics, the structure and importance of mathematical dreams, the role of storytelling in the formation of mathematical intuitions, the ways mathematics helps us organize the way we think about narrative structure, and much more.

 In addition to the editors, the contributors are Amir Alexander, David Corfield, Peter Galison, Timothy Gowers, Michael Harris, David Herman, Federica La Nave, G.E.R. Lloyd, Uri Margolin, Colin McLarty, Jan Christoph Meister, Arkady Plotnitsky, and Bernard Teissier.


A new edition of the bestselling guide-now updated to cover the latest hacks and how to prevent them! It's bad enough when a hack occurs-stealing identities, bank accounts, and personal information. But when the hack could have been prevented by taking basic security measures-like the ones described in this book-somehow that makes a bad situation even worse. This beginner guide to hacking examines some of the best security measures that exist and has been updated to cover the latest hacks for Windows 7 and the newest version of Linux. Offering increased coverage of Web application hacks, database hacks, VoIP hacks, and mobile computing hacks, this guide addresses a wide range of vulnerabilities and how to identify and prevent them. Plus, you'll examine why ethical hacking is oftentimes the only way to find security flaws, which can then prevent any future malicious attacks. Explores the malicious hackers's mindset so that you can counteract or avoid attacks completely Covers developing strategies for reporting vulnerabilities, managing security changes, and putting anti-hacking policies and procedures in place Completely updated to examine the latest hacks to Windows 7 and the newest version of Linux Explains ethical hacking and why it is essential Hacking For Dummies, 3rd Edition shows you how to put all the necessary security measures in place so that you avoid becoming a victim of malicious hacking.


A system plan is the design of a total reserve system covering the full range of ecosystems and communities found in a particular country, identifying the range of purposes of protected areas and the relationships among the system components (i.e. individual areas, protected areas and other land uses), and different sectors and levels of society. Highlighting key linkages with other aspects of economic development, it should show how various stakeholders can interact and co-operate to support effective and sustainable management of protected areas, and help to establish priorities. A valuable resource for all those involved with national system planning


The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) of the Morris Library at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIU) collects and preserves unique and rare historical materials in selected subject areas, and promotes the use of these materials by the SIU community, scholars, and the public. Its goal is to advance scholarship and further the educational, research, and service missions of the university. SCRC is located on the first floor of Morris Library, near the east entrance.


Even film diehards have a tough time resisting the instant gratification of the digital camera. Today's digital cameras are more affordable then ever before, and they deliver high quality images that are a snap to share. Plus, you can take risks with a digital camera you never would with a film camera. You waste nothing; there's no film required, and because you only print the pictures you need, digital photography is cost effective and environmentally friendly. But to take full advantage of a digital camera, you need to be an experienced photographer and an expert at digital photography too. With more than 15 years of experience as a photojournalist, author Derrick Story brings you Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Edition. For everyone who owns or will own a digital camera (and that pretty much means everyone!), this is the perfect on-the-go guide for taking top-notch digital photos.In this third edition of the bestselling pocket guide, Story expands on the basic photography techniques that he introduced in earlier editions, including an explanation of each camera component and what it does, tips for choosing just the right settings for your needs, and much more. This indispensable guide covers everything from how to shoot sports action, close ups, and night shots, to dealing with image resolution, archiving, and memory cards.Affordable and portable, Digital Photography Pocket Guide, 3rd Edition offers full-color photographs, screen shots, and line art illustrating all the topics in the guide's three main sections ("Digital Camera Components," "Standard Camera Functions," and "How Do I?"). Contents are labeled A to Z for quick reference. There's also a comprehensive table of contents and index so you'll waste no time flipping to the specific information you need--whether you want to transfer images, make a QuickTime movie, or just figure out what purpose that mystery setting on your camera serves. There's even a section of easy-to-read reference tables for quick look-up of white balance settings, exposure compensation, camera mode explanations, and plenty more.


For at least a decade, and especially since the banking catastrophe, much public commentary has asserted or implied that the American criminal justice system unjustly privileges individuals who commit crimes in corporations and financial markets. This Article demonstrates that this claim is not so, at least not in the ways commonly believed. Law and practice controlling sentencing, evidence, and criminal procedure cannot persuasively be described as privileging the white collar offender. Substantive criminal law makes charges easier to bring and harder to defend against in white collar cases. Enforcement institutions, and the political economy in which they exist, include features that both shelter corporate offenders and heighten their exposure. Corporate actors enjoy a large advantage in legal defense resources relative to others. That advantage, however, does not pay off as measurably as one might expect. Both in general and as applied to recent events in the banking sector, the claim of privilege can be sustained only by showing that basic American arrangements of criminal law and policing have been misguided. A fully developed argument would fault the justice system for failing to treat illegal behavior within firms as requiring omnipresent policing, looser definitions of criminality, the harshest of punishments, and rethinking of rights to counsel. Those who believe corporate offenders are privileged might have a cause. But they should confront the magnitude of their claims. And they should be aware of complications that follow from overreliance on punishment to deal with intractable problems of regulatory control.


Navigating in a previously unknown environment and recognizing naturally occurring text in a scene are two important autonomous capabilities that are typically treated as distinct. However, these two tasks are potentially complementary, (i) scene and pose priors can benefit text spotting, and (ii) the ability to identify and associate text features can benefit navigation accuracy through loop closures. Previous approaches to autonomous text spotting typically require significant training data and are too slow for real-time implementation. In this work, we propose a novel high-level feature descriptor, the "junction", which is particularly well-suited to text representation and is also fast to compute. We show that we are able to improve SLAM through text spotting on datasets collected with a Google Tango, illustrating how location priors enable improved loop closure with text features.


"IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND information?†is the question that participants in this symposium were asked to address. I come to the question as an historian of economic thought who has studied the Austrian tradition, and in particular the contributions of F.A. Hayek, who is remembered among information theorists for his early writings on "the knowledge problem.†An analysis of his work may be helpful in grappling with the question of this symposium. In an earlier paper I looked at differing interpretations of the socialist calculation debate and the current prospects for market socialism, and linked to issues of information and knowledge (Caldwell 1997). My remarks here draw in part on that paper.


A set of permutations ${\cal F} \subseteq S_n$ is min-wise independent if for any set $X \subseteq [n]$ and any $x \in X$, when $\pi$ is chosen at random in ${\cal F}$ we have ${\bf P} \left(\min\{\pi(X)\} = \pi(x)\right) = {{1}\over {|X|}}$. This notion was introduced by Broder, Charikar, Frieze and Mitzenmacher and is motivated by an algorithm for filtering near-duplicate web documents. Linear permutations are an important class of permutations. Let $p$ be a (large) prime and let ${\cal F}_p=\{p_{a,b}:\;1\leq a\leq p-1,\,0\leq b\leq p-1\}$ where for $x\in [p]=\{0,1,\ldots,p-1\}$, $p_{a,b}(x)=ax+b\pmod p$. For $X\subseteq [p]$ we let $F(X)=\max_{x\in X}\left\{{\bf P}_{a,b}(\min\{p(X)\}=p(x))\right\}$ where ${\bf P}_{a,b}$ is over $p$ chosen uniformly at random from ${\cal F}_p$. We show that as $k,p \to\infty$, ${\bf E}_X[F(X)]={{1}\over {k}}+O\left({(\log k)^3}\over {k^{3/2}}\right)$ confirming that a simply chosen random linear permutation will suffice for an average set from the point of view of approximate min-wise independence.


These Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne EPFL, n° 1062 (1992) Reference doi:10.5075/epfl-thesis-1062Print copy in library catalog Record created on 2005-03-16, modified on 2016-08-08


Constrained blackbox optimization is a difficult problem, with most approaches coming from the mathematical programming literature. The statistical literature is sparse, especially in addressing problems with nontrivial constraints. This situation is unfortunate because statistical methods have many attractive properties: global scope, handling noisy objectives, sensitivity analysis, and so forth. To narrow that gap, we propose a combination of response surface modeling, expected improvement, and the augmented Lagrangian numerical optimization framework. This hybrid approach allows the statistical model to think globally and the augmented Lagrangian to act locally. We focus on problems where the constraints are the primary bottleneck, requiring expensive simulation to evaluate and substantial modeling effort to map out. In that context, our hybridization presents a simple yet effective solution that allows existing objective-oriented statistical approaches, like those based on Gaussian process surrogates and expected improvement heuristics, to be applied to the constrained setting with minor modification. This work is motivated by a challenging, real-data benchmark problem from hydrology where, even with a simple linear objective function, learning a nontrivial valid region complicates the search for a global minimum. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


504 with respect to employment according to the procedures established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 29 CFR part 1613 pursuant to section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 791). (c) The Executive Director shall be responsible for coordinating implementation of this section. Complaints may be sent to the General Counsel, Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporaton, 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Suite 1220 North, Washington, DC 20004–1730. (d) The agency shall accept and investigate all complete complaints for which it has jurisdiction. All complete complaints must be filed within 180 days of the alleged act of discrimination. The agency may extend this time period for good cause. (e) If the agency receives a complaint over which it does not have jurisdiction, it shall promptly notify the complainant and shall make reasonable efforts to refer the complaint to the appropriate government entity. (f) The agency shall notify the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board upon receipt of any complaint alleging that a building or facility that is subject to the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4151–4157), or section 502 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. 792), is not readily accessible to and usable by handicapped persons. (g) Within 180 days of the receipt of a complete complaint for which it has jurisdiction, the agency shall notify the complainant of the results of the investigation in a letter containing— (1) Findings of fact and conclusions of law; (2) A description of a remedy for each violation found; and (3) A notice of the right to appeal. (h) Appeals of the findings of fact and conclusions of law or remedies must be filed by the complainant within 90 days of receipt from the agency of the letter required by § 909.170(g). The agency may extend this time for good cause. (i) Timely appeals shall be accepted and processed by the head of the agency. (j) The head of the agency shall notify the complainant of the results of the appeal within 60 days of the receipt of the request. If the head of the agency determines that additional information is needed from the complainant, he or she shall have 60 days from the date of receipt of the additional information to make his or her determination on the appeal. (k) The time limits cited in paragraphs (g) and (j) of this section may be extended with the permission of the Assistant Attorney General. (l) The agency may delegate its authority for conducting complaint investigations to other Federal agencies, except that the authority for making the final determination may not be delegated to another agency.


In the presence of challenges arise from ageing populations, increasing incidence of chronic diseases, high health care cost, rapid changes in technological equipment and medical knowledge, eHealth offers tremendous abilities to develop and deliver health care services to the end user that is both seamless and integrated according to the needs and requirements of individuals. Even though the prospective of eHealth is accepted in academia as well as among policy-makers, health care planners and health care practitioners, the implementation of its applications has appeared to be difficult then expectations. In order for successful implementation of eHealth, it is necessary to offer eHealth services according to the citizens and patients expectations. The purpose of this study was to investigate citizens' accessing the eHealth services in the county of Blekinge by identifying the accessible, currently accessed, projected and imagined eHealth services. The knowledge from this study would be supportive to the regional health authorities to understand the citizens' needs and requirements for a successful delivery of eHealth services in county of Blekinge. In the first phase through extensive review of the literature the eHealth services which are more in health care practices within European countries were identified. On the basis of findings of first phase interviews were conducted to know strategies plans regarding eHealth services. After analysis of interviews, questionnaire was conducted to know the citizens opinions about eHealth services. The authors find that, after understanding the success criteria of effectively running eHealth services within European countries, many eHealth services could be implemented successfully in the county of Blekinge. The rules of interoperability among Hospitals, GP's, Primary Cares and Dental Services would provide substantial benefits to citizens and they can access the eHealth services whenever and wherever they want. Moreover in future citizens would have eHealth services according to their expectation.


ZbornToy - the after effects plugin
The debut product of Frischluft is made to lead a line of tools that introduce a new meaning to depth in compositing. The ZbornToy has the ability to extract a maximum of information out of simple depth images and allows you to not only light and texture them, but to refract backgrounds, cast caustic reflection back onto the background and a whole lot more.

The design of ZbornToy has the amount of parameters reduced to a minimum, while still providing a vast amount of control over every aspect of it. The goal has been to achieve the performance and feel of a full blown render engine when it comes to the results. Yet it is ment to be not only easily accessible, but fast and fluent so that it is fun and even playful to use.

Lighting supports shadows and soft shadows and is kept within the plugin for a maximum portability to other compositing packages that support after effects plugins. Sources of light are by means of a direct light, a point light and environmental illumination. The environmental illumination is based on panoramic or spherical maps. It includes occlusion approximations and independent reflection settings. The reflection is directly tied together with the shading section and gets diffused and colored according the surface definitions.

The shading section offers a set of innovations that simplify the shading process dramatically, while keeping the look of the surfaces stunningly coherent. For example, defining the glossiness of a surface requires nothing more than to dial or texture the glossiness parameter. Everything related to the look of a glossy surface automatically responds accordingly based on both mathematical and artistic understanding of the required process. The amount of paramters is destilled down to a minimum while maintaining a maximum of flexibility to easily create all sorts of materials ranging from the usual plastics over metal to particularely skin, supporting translucency in the easiest to use ways ever.

And all of the above is computing practically at realtime. Taking advantage of After Affect's adaptive previews, you can dial in your paramters and adjust lighting and textures while looking at the results. We are very used to having medium resolution renders (800x800) done within 1 to 3 seconds per frame.

A final quality section allows for high profile results through a set of innovations in reading and projecting refractions and alternative oversampling options.


Over the past century, Americans who own property—homeowners, landlords, businesspeople of all kinds, even nonprofit organizations such as churches and charities—have found themselves increasingly entangled in a web of regulatory restrictions that have limited what they can do with their property. Imposed in the name of an amorphous "public interest," those restrictions have often been unwarranted and severe, resulting in untold personal and financial losses. By century's end they had led to the birth of the property rights movement and to a call for both legislative and judicial redress. The movement is likely only to grow in the 21st century. America's founding principles are grounded in the idea of private property. It is property, after all, that enables individuals and organizations to exercise their other rights and enjoy the liberty that property affords. With the rise of the regulatory state during the Progressive Era, however, those rights were increasingly compromised, especially after the Supreme Court upheld restrictive zoning in 1926. That decision opened the door to a host of "permitting" regimes—federal, state, and local—the effect of which has been to tell owners that they can use their property only after they have been authorized to do so by government. That placed immense and often arbitrary power in the hands of government, leaving owners to face a long and expensive series of procedural and substantive hurdles before they could enjoy their property rights. Although the Court has checked some of those restrictions in recent years, owners still bear the brunt of the burden of justifying their rights. What is worse, the Court recently upheld the government's taking and transfer of homes from owners to private redevelopers, hoping their projects would create jobs and tax revenues. To try to address those problems, about half of the states have enacted laws to protect private owners' rights to use their property. While most require government agencies simply to "assess" whether their actions might impinge on property rights, a few provide for compensation to owners and curtail abusive takings, while many more are considering such legislation. At the federal level, Congress has considered three forms of legislation: measures that would require such assessments; measures that would provide statutory compensation for certain federal agency actions; and measures that would remove procedural roadblocks that frustrate efforts by owners to challenge federal, state, and local regulations of property. To date, however, none of those federal efforts has succeeded. The property rights movement needs to continue to build on its successes. To be effective, however, it must adopt a principled approach. It must reunite America with its common law and constitutional heritage, which affirms that individuals have rights in their property and property in their rights. Finally, it must recognize that the ultimate protection for private property will be found in reducing government to its legitimate functions. The Birth of the Property Rights Movement


Background/Context Determining John Dewey's exact influence on civic and social education during the early 20th century has been one of the most vexing issues facing curriculum historians. Generally speaking, interpretations of Dewey's work and influence have been plagued by four recurring methodological limitations: First, historians tend to interpret Dewey's work philosophically rather than historically. Second, they use their philosophically constructed Dewey to judge the fidelity of past educators against the standard of Dewey's "true" vision. Third, historians assume that because they have read all of Dewey's major and obscure works on education, the reformers of the past must (or should) have done so also. Fourth, historians assume rather than demonstrate Dewey's direct influence on others. Purpose To overcome these limitations, this historical study traces the influence of John Dewey on the discourse of civic and social education during the formative years of the progressive education movement by focusing on the received Dewey. By examining the specific ways in which Dewey's ideas were used by his contemporaries and peers, the author demonstrates that Dewey's words were often employed in various and conflicting ways to support a number of different curricular agendas. Specifically, the author argues that divisions between proponents of social justice and social efficiency, which play such a central role in the historical literature on progressive education, were not necessarily apparent to Dewey's contemporaries who cited him. In fact, Dewey's philosophy was often used specifically to assuage the gaps between these seemingly conflicting educational goals and objectives. Research Design The author focuses his inquiry specifically on the curriculum materials and discourse of secondary social and civic education. He focuses qualitatively on the various ways in which Dewey was cited and used by leading and lesser-known civic and social educators during the formative years of the American curriculum, with particular focus on uses of Dewey to support social efficiency and social justice. In the tradition of historiography, the findings are reported in a chronological narrative. Findings/Conclusions Although the evidence presented is merely suggestive, a few summative assertions regarding Dewey's influence on educators during the first half of the 20th century can be made. First, Dewey was often used by contemporaries to reconcile positivistic social science with pragmatic philosophy. Second, although Graham (1995) identified Democracy and Education as "the Bible of the educational reform movement then emerging," there were in fact numerous Dewey texts cited, often without any reference to others. Third, Dewey's philosophy was used to support reform agendas aimed at social control and social adjustment as well as social reconstruction and social justice. To say that Dewey was used primarily in support of just one (or none) of these goals is a misrepresentation.


M. Stamm: Polymer Surface and Interface Characterization Techniques.- P. Muller-Buschbaum: Structure Determination in Thin Film Geometry Using Grazing Incidence Small-Angle Scattering.- M. Muller: Vibrational Spectroscopic and Optical Methods.- D. Pleul and F. Simon: X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy.- D. Pleul and F. Simon: Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.- K. Grundke: Characterization of Polymer Surfaces by Wetting and Electrokinetic Measurements - Contact Angle, Interfacial Tension, Zeta Potential.- K. Schneider: Mechanical Properties of Polymers at Surfaces and Interfaces.- P. Busch and R. Weidisch: Interfaces Between Incompatible Polymers.- M. Muller: Liquid-Liquid and Liquid-Vapor Interfaces in Polymeric Systems.- M. Nitschke: Plasma Modification of Polymer Surfaces and Plasma Polymerization.- S. Minko: Grafting on Solid Surfaces: "Grafting to" and "Grafting from" Methods.- C. Bellmann: Surface Modification by Adsorption of Polymers and Surfactants.- A. Sydorenko: Nanostructures in Thin Films from Nanostructured Polymeric Templates: Self-Assembly.- D. Pospiech: Influencing the Interface in Polymer Blends by Compatibilization with Block Copolymers.- C. Werner: Interfacial Phenomena of Biomaterials.-


The unauthorized immigration population on U.S. territory is estimated to stand at 11.5 million. What is to be done about this population? This question might be addressed by the currently uncertain efforts at comprehensive immigration reform. No reform, however, can obviate the need to think about the deportation conundrum – that is, about whether and when deportation is the appropriate response to widespread violations of immigration law. The public debate gravitates towards the misleading opposition of "mass deportation" and "amnesty." These labels focus unduly on the level of enforcement, or the question of how many people should be deported and how many allowed to remain. This question fails to capture the substantive reasons that lead people to oppose or welcome immigrants in their vicinity and misconceives what is actually at stake in deportation policy. Deportation serves a dual function: it is a screening mechanism and a system of penalties for legal violations. Both of these functions dictate the need to prioritize enforcement on some basis that reflects the perceived costs and benefits that accompany immigrant presence. This Article argues that centrally crafted and nation-wide priorities turn out to be poor proxies for sorting immigrants on the relevant bases. The nature of the consequences of immigrant presence most relevant to priority setting calls for sub-federal participation in this task. Under the status quo, states and localities cannot meaningfully assert their own priorities, but they can overwhelm federal authorities with enforcement requests or obstruct federal enforcement through non-cooperation. In this way, all disagreements between the levels of government culminate in a stand-off regarding levels of enforcement. Opening alternative avenues for sub-federal actors to take part in priority-setting would exploit the sub-federal comparative advantage, and refocus the national debate on the questions about deportation that matter most.


This paper concerns the social process of mobility control in four West African countries: Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Ghana. Mobility has long been an important aspect of West African social, cultural, and political life, although now mobile people cross the borders of what are relatively newly-defined nation-states. Most migration research in this region considers international boundaries as merely theoretical and unimportant to the lives of migrants, and empirical research on borders focuses on the ethnic groups living in border zones. This study explores everyday enforcement of international and internal mobility control, and the ways in which mobile Africans respond to and resist the actions of security agents. I do this using ethnographic evidence gathered when traveling over 10,000 miles in Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, and Côte d'Ivoire over a period of nine months. Data were gathered through participant observation at 23 international borders in West Africa, and 175 security control checkpoints in total. This evidence is supplemented by twenty-nine interviews with transportation workers across the four countries studied. Based on the notion that border interactions entail important socio-economic, cultural, and political processes affecting individuals differently based on their social positions, this paper explores the roles and responsibilities of transportation workers in assisting Africans to negotiate border crossings. Augmenting the traditional social science literature on migrant networks with an approach proposed by development economists, this paper shows that transportation workers play an essential, institutionalized role in mobility control in West Africa. It demonstrates the strength of weak ties and the need for a re-conceptualization of migrant networks that is more attuned to the realities of an African context.


Aim We measured meningococcal serogroup C (MenC)-specific memory B-cell responses in infants by Enzyme-Linked Immunospot (ELISpot) following different MenC conjugate vaccine schedules to investigate the impact of priming on immune memory. Methods Infants aged 2 months were randomised to receive 1 or 2 doses of MenC-CRM197 at 3 or 3 and 4 months, 1 dose of MenC-TT at 3 months, or no primary MenC doses. All children received a Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)-MenC booster at 12 months. Blood was drawn at 5, 12, 12 months +6 days and 13 months of age. Results Results were available for 110, 103, 76 and 44 children from each group respectively. Following primary immunisations, and prior to the 12-month booster, there were no significant differences between 1- or 2-dose primed children in the number of MenC memory B-cells detected. One month following the booster, children primed with 1 dose MenC-TT had more memory B-cells than children primed with either 1-dose (p = 0.001) or 2-dose (p<0.0001) MenC-CRM197. There were no differences in MenC memory B-cells detected in children who received 1 or 2 doses of MenC-CRM197 in infancy and un-primed children. Conclusions MenC-specific memory B-cell production may be more dependent on the type of primary vaccine used than the number of doses administered. Although the mechanistic differences between MenC-CRM197 and MenC-TT priming are unclear, it is possible that structural differences, including the carrier proteins, may underlie differential interactions with B- and T-cell populations, and thus different effects on various memory B-cell subsets. A MenC-TT/Hib-MenC-TT combination for priming/boosting may offer an advantage in inducing more persistent antibody. Trial Registration EU Clinical Trials Register 2009-016579-31 ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01129518


A 42-year-old male presented with a one-week history of palpitations and sweating episodes. The only significant history was of longstanding idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Initial ECG demonstrated a sinus tachycardia. Thyroid function testing, undertaken as part of the diagnostic workup, revealed an un-measureable thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and free thyroxine (T4). Upon questioning the patient reported classical thyrotoxic symptoms over the preceding weeks. Given the persistence of symptoms free tri-iodothyronine (T3) was measured and found to be markedly elevated at 48.9 pmol/L (normal range: 3.1–6.8 pmol/L). No goitre or nodular disease was palpable in the neck. Historically there had never been any amiodarone usage. Radionucleotide thyroid uptake imaging (123I) demonstrated significantly reduced tracer uptake in the thyroid. Upon further questioning the patient reported purchasing a weight loss product online from India which supposedly contained sibutramine. He provided one of the tablets and laboratory analysis confirmed the presence of T3 in the tablet. Full symptomatic resolution and normalised thyroid function ensued upon discontinuation of the supplement. Learning points: Free tri-iodothyronine (T3) measurement may be useful in the presence of symptoms suggestive of thyrotoxicosis with discordant thyroid function tests. Thyroid uptake scanning can be a useful aid to differentiating exogenous hormone exposure from endogenous hyperthyroidism. Ingestion of thyroid hormone may be inadvertent in cases of exogenous thyrotoxicosis. Medicines and supplements sourced online for weight loss may contain thyroxine (T4) or T3 and should be considered as a cause of unexplained exogenous hyperthyroidism.


Principles of International Economic Law gives a comprehensive overview of the central topics in international economic law, with an emphasis on the interplay between the different economic and political interests on both the international and domestic levels. The book sets the classic topics of international economic law, WTO law, investment protection, commercial law, and monetary law in context with human rights, environmental protection, good governance, and the needs of developing countries. It thus provides a concise picture of the current architecture of international economic law. Topics covered range from codes of conduct for multinational enterprises, to the human rights implications of the exploitation of natural resources. The book demonstrates the economic foundations and economic implications of legal frameworks. It puts into profile the often complex relationship between, on the one hand, international standards on liberalization and economic rationality and, on the other, state sovereignty and national preferences. It describes the new forms of economic cooperation which have developed in recent decades, such as the growing number of transnational companies in the private sector, and forms of cooperation between states such as the G8 or G20. Providing a perfect introductory text to the field of international economic law, the book thoroughly analyses legal developments within their wider political, economic, or social context.


Generate Verilog and VHDL code for FPGA and ASIC designs HDL CoderTM generates portable, synthesizable Verilog® and VHDL® code from MATLAB® functions, Simulink® models, and Stateflow® charts. The generated HDL code can be used for FPGA programming or ASIC prototyping and design. HDL Coder provides a workflow advisor that automates the programming of Xilinx® and Altera® FPGAs. You can control HDL architecture and implementation, highlight critical paths, and generate hardware resource utilization estimates. HDL Coder provides traceability between your Simulink model and the generated Verilog and VHDL code, enabling code verification for high-integrity applications adhering to DO-254 and other standards.


This team-taught survey course will examine the history of the visual arts in the Western world from Ancient Egypt (ca. 3000 BC) to the end of the Gothic era in Europe (ca. 1400 AD). The course will focus primarily on developments in the "major arts" of architecture, sculpture and painting, although other media, such as ceramics, jewelry and small-scale metalwork, and textiles will also be addressed. In lecture and discussion sections, we will approach the individual works of art with two specific goals in mind: 1) to understand the works of art in terms of their formal structure, artistic innovations, and stylistic development, and 2) to situate the works into their specific historical and cultural contexts in order to understand better how different societies lived and perceived the world around them. GenEd S&H & WC Credit CAS E S& H C redi t &


More and more, Canadian educators are being told that literacy development can occur across subject areas of the curriculum. Few studies have focused on whether this applies to core French as a second language (CF). This article reports on a study investigating the literacy teaching practices of Ontario primary core French teachers ( n = 3), focusing  mainly on the practices of Christine, whose activities, strategies and perspectives highlight the potential for CF instruction to echo literacy principles taught in homeroom English (L1) classrooms, and for both languages to benefit. Context-specific constraints identified by all participating teachers will also be discussed.


On November 30, 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc. on the question, "Are human genes patentable?" For over 150 years Supreme Court decisions have excluded from the federal patent power laws of nature and physical phenomena. The words "invention," "new" and "useful" in §101 are consistent with these exclusions from the federal patent power, so they are not the result of a judicially active court limiting the will of Congress. The conclusions of Judges Lourie and Moore in Myriad Genetics that the isolated DNA segments of claim 1 constitute patentable subject matter disregard the Supreme Court's decisions in Chakrabarty and Funk Brothers on products derived from nature. "Isolation" is not an inventive step changing an unpatentable physical phenomenon into patentable subject matter. Claim 1 is effectively an unpatentable claim on a human gene.Turning to claim 2, even if the isolated cDNA segments do not - under Chakrabarty and Funk Brother - constitute a patentable product, under Prometheus the isolated cDNA segments claim an unpatentable law of nature - the genetic code. Since no inventive step has been added to the genetic code in claim 2, the cDNA of claim 2 constitutes unpatentable subject matter under Prometheus. The Federal Circuit's disregard in Myriad Genetics of the laws of nature threatens to eviscerate the public domain of basic scientific knowledge. The inventive step requirement of Prometheus promises to protect that public domain.


Perhaps no member of the legal academy in America is more controversial than John Yoo. For his role in producing legal opinions authorizing what is thought by many to be abusive treatment of detainees as part of the Bush Administration's "Global War on Terror," some have called for him to be subjected to professional discipline, others have called for his criminal prosecution. This paper raises a different question: whether John Yoo – and his like – ought to be teaching law. The paper also asks whether the prevailing view in the legal academy today that champions the theoretician over those versed in professional norms bears some responsibility for the problematic legal work performed by Professor Yoo during his tenure in the United States Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel. John Yoo provides something of a case study in the problems in legal education today. As a scholar, Professor Yoo is considered something of a superstar; he has been described as "a leading scholar on the relationship of international law to constitutional commands." Even so; he teaches at a law school – an entity engaged in preprofessional education. Prior to tenure in the Bush Administration, Professor Yoo had little experience in the practice of the law; as we will see, this makes him typical of the current generation of legal educators. Professor Yoo also represents something of a natural experiment of a type that we rarely see – the unusual case of a leading legal scholar with the limited professional experience typical of his generation who leaves the academy and practices law on a regular basis. When Professor Yoo actually practiced law, he made quite a hash of things. It is remarkable that the legal academy could regard as something of a superstar an individual who proves unable to practice – at an acceptable level – the profession for which he is training his students. Professor Yoo's case is unusual in that he took the rare step of leaving the academic cocoon and venturing into a position where his professional deficiencies were likely to be exposed, but there is reason to believe that his lack of professional judgment is common among the scholars of his generation. All of this suggests that there is something deeply wrong with the state of legal education today. This article begins by illustrating the deficiencies in the legal work of Professor Yoo during his service in the Department of Justice. It then explain why those deficiencies cast grave doubt on Professor Yoo's qualifications to teach law. The article concludes by observing that Professor Yoo's case illustrates the problems that inheres with the legal academy's decision to champion the theoretician as teacher instead of those who have developed the kind of professional judgment so critical to success in the practice of law.


This study examines the process of information transmission in futures prices of bullion (gold and silver) and metals (aluminum, copper, and zinc) between India, represented by MCX, and its global counterparts trading platforms, such as COMEX, LME, and SHFE, for the period of 2005 to 2012. Structural breaks are identified for all sample series, which capture the impact of the recent economic crisis on these commodity markets. The price discovery results confirm that there is a long-term equilibrium relationship among the futures prices of examined trading platforms in each commodity series, with the exception of aluminum. The MGARCH results of volatility spillovers indicate that, in the case of bullion, MCX seems to be more dominant than COMEX, implying that it is no longer a satellite market, while in case of metals, LME seems to play the dominant role followed by MCX and SHFE. The research contributes to the commodity market literature for emerging economies.


In a post hoc analysis of samples collected in 2009, we determined seroprevalence of parvovirus 4 (PARV4) among elderly Cameroonians. PARV4 seropositivity was associated with receipt of intravenous antimalarial drugs, intramuscular streptomycin, or an intramuscular contraceptive, but not hepatitis C virus seropositivity. Findings suggest parenteral acquisition of some PARV4 infections.


What separates your mind from an animal's? Maybe you think it's your ability to design tools, your sense of self, or your grasp of past and future-all traits that have helped us define ourselves as the planet's preeminent species. But in recent decades, these claims have eroded, or even been disproven outright, by a revolution in the study of animal cognition. Take the way octopuses use coconut shells as tools; elephants that classify humans by age, gender, and language; or Ayumu, the young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame. Based on research involving crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, whales, and of course chimpanzees and bonobos, Frans de Waal explores both the scope and the depth of animal intelligence. He offers a firsthand account of how science has stood traditional behaviorism on its head by revealing how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. People often assume a cognitive ladder, from lower to higher forms, with our own intelligence at the top. But what if it is more like a bush, with cognition taking different forms that are often incomparable to ours? Would you presume yourself dumber than a squirrel because you're less adept at recalling the locations of hundreds of buried acorns? Or would you judge your perception of your surroundings as more sophisticated than that of a echolocating bat? De Waal reviews the rise and fall of the mechanistic view of animals and opens our minds to the idea that animal minds are far more intricate and complex than we have assumed. De Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal-and human-intelligence.


I examine the process that led to major reforms in agriculture in Sweden, culminating in 1990. Economists were largely responsible for putting the issue on the agenda. Using a public choice perspective, they reformulated the debate. Who benefited, who paid, and what were the true costs? The reformulation illuminated an "iron triangle†—farmers and their interest organizations, politicians, and the bureaucracy. When the new policy coalition gained the initiative, connections and support from the Ministry of Finance were critical, and led to a new will reaching the Prime Minister and finally into the bureaucracy itself, the Ministry of Agriculture. Economists and others overcame the iron triangle. Enlightened discourse played no small role in overcoming resistance.


A method is presented to define unique continuum states for the two-center Dirac Hamiltonian. In the spherical limit these states become the familiar angular-momentum eigenstates of the radial Coulomb potential. The different states for a fixed total energy \ensuremath{\Vert}E\ensuremath{\Vert}gm may be distinguished by considering the asymptotic spin-angular distribution of states with unique scattering phases. The first numerical solutions of the two-center Dirac equation for continuum states are presented.


One of the main open problems in secret sharing is the characterization of the ideal access structures. This problem has been studied for several families of access structures with similar results. Namely, in all these families, the ideal access structures coincide with the vector space ones and, besides, the optimal information rate of a non-ideal access structure is at most $2/3$. An access structure is said to be $r$-homogeneous if there are exactly $r$ participants in every minimal qualified subset. A first approach to the characterization of the ideal $3$-homogeneous access structures is made in this paper. We show that the results in the previously studied families can not be directly generalized to this one. Nevertheless, we prove that the equivalences above apply to the family of the sparse $3$-homogeneous access structures, that is, those in which any subset of four participants contains at most two minimal qualified subsets. Besides, we give a complete description of the ideal sparse $3$-homogeneous access structures.


Research on American political institutions correctly emphasizes the ascendency of presidential power over the last century. Nevertheless, Congress possesses tools to influence how the executive branch shapes public policy. I examine how the use of limitation riders in appropriations laws allows Congress to affect the substance of bureaucratic decisions when Congress otherwise would not have much traction with the bureaucracy: under divided government. In examining the history of limitation riders that forbade the issuance of bureaucratic regulations from 1989 to 2009, I find support for this perspective. The findings suggest that, although Congress may be at a disadvantage in shaping law and policy relative to the president in many cases, its constitutionally protected spending authority continues to promote its ability to influence the executive branch.


This paper studies bank regulation in the presence of deposit insurance, where banks have private information on their own ability and their investment strategy. Banks choose the mean and variance of their portfolio return. Regulators wish to control banks' risk choice, even though all agents are risk neutral and there are no deadweight costs of bank failure, because high risk adversely affects banks' ex ante incentives along other dimensions. Regulatory tools studied are capital requirements and return-contingent fines. Regulators can seek to separate bank types by offering a menu of contracts. We use numerical methods to study the properties of the model with two different bank types. Without fines, capital requirements only have limited ability to separate bank types. When fines are added, separation is much easier. Fine schedules and capital requirements are tailored to bank type. Low quality banks are fined when they produce high returns in order to control risk-taking behavior. High quality banks face fines on lower returns to prevent low-type banks from pretending they are high quality. Combining state-contingent fines with capital regulation significantly improves upon pure capital regulation.


We use data from several waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances to document credit and debit card ownership and use across US demographic groups. We then present recent theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of credit and debit card behavior. Utilization rates of credit lines and portfolios of card holders present several puzzles. Credit line increases initiated by banks lead households to restore previous utilization rates. High-interest credit card debt co-exists with substantial holdings of low-interest liquid assets and with accumulation of retirement assets. Although available evidence disputes ignorance of credit card terms by card holders, credit card rates do not respond to competition. There is a rising trend in bankruptcy and delinquency, partly attributable to an increased tendency of households to declare bankruptcy associated with reduced social stigma, ease of procedures, and financial incentives. Co-existence of credit card debt with retirement assets can be explained through self-control hyperbolic discounting. Strategic default motives contribute partly to observed co-existence of credit card debt with low-interest liquid assets. A framework of 'accountant-shopper' households, in which a rational accountant tries to control an impulsive shopper, seems consistent with both types of co-existence and with observed utilization of credit lines.


Renewable generation is growing at a rapid rate due to the incentives available and the aggressive renewable portfolio standard targets implemented by state governments. Distributed generation in particular is seeing the fastest growth among renewable energy projects, and is directly related to the incentives. Hawaii has the highest electricity costs in the country due to the high percentage of oil burning steam generation, and therefore has some of the highest penetration of distributed PV in the nation. The High Penetration PV project on Oahu aims to understand the effects of high penetration PV on the distribution level, to identify penetration levels creating disturbances on the circuit, and to offer mitigating solutions based on model results. Power flow models are validated using data collected from solar resources and load monitors deployed throughout the circuit. Existing interconnection methods and standards are evaluated in these emerging high penetration scenarios. A key finding is a shift in the level of detail to be considered and moving away from steady-state peak time analysis towards dynamic and time varying simulations. Each level of normal interconnection study is evaluated and enhanced to a new level of detail, allowing full understanding of each issue.


This study seeks to explore whether or not information professionals who deal consistently with various technologies are familiar with Facebook and are ready to incorporate it within their organizations. The current study uses the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), a well-known theory for explaining individuals' technology behaviors, as well as the "Big Five" model of personality, as theoretical bases from which to predict factors that may influence the adoption of Facebook by information professionals within their organizations. The research was conducted in Israel during the first semester of the 2013 academic year and encompassed two groups of information professionals: librarians, and information specialists. Researchers used five questionnaires to gather the data. Findings indicate that this study has expanded current research about the TAM by examining it within the context of Facebook, focusing on the variable of perceived enjoyment. In addition, the research findings confirm that the TAM (in its modified version), as well as other personality characteristics, significantly predict the likelihood of Facebook use, and highlight the importance of personality characteristics when considering technology acceptance. Researchers recommend that directors of information organizations be familiar with both the TAM and the issue of personality characteristics. These factors may help them choose the most appropriate employees, as well as understand and supervise threatened and/or unmotivated workers.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the health-related quality of life and presence of hip or knee pain according to whether or not people had had previous hip or knee arthroplasty.

STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING
Cross-sectional survey representing randomly selected sample of 5500 elderly (65+) people. Pain prevalence rates obtained from standard screening questions. Standard pain severity ratings obtained for each hip and knee.

RESULTS
People with a past arthroplasty had worse health status compared to other people (p < 0.001 for all but two SF-36 dimensions). Hip or knee pain was more prevalent amongst people with past hip or knee replacement than amongst those without (62.5% versus 36.5% respectively; following adjustment for age and sex: Mantel-Haenszel combined odds ratio = 2.90, 95% CI 2.30-3.68, p < 0.001). More replaced knee joints were symptomatic than replaced hip joints (OR = 1.62, p = 0.022).

CONCLUSIONS
Elderly people with a past hip or knee arthroplasty have significantly greater health and social care needs than other people--especially those related to pain and mobility. This may reflect the generalised nature of the underlying disease process.


In this ongoing study, I examine associations among scientists by analyzing scholarly publication data and Internet hyperlink relationships using a social network analysis framework. Unlike other studies of collaboration, this study does not start with an extant network of scientists who share a research focus, but rather groups who are networked for purposes of public and political engagement. I have chosen as my nodes two presumed "networks" of scientists: the group of 16 scientists who authored a January 27th', 2012 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal which suggested concerns about climate change were being exaggerated, and the group of 38 scientists who authored a response piece (supporting climate change science) on February 1st.

I have chosen climate science because of its scientific complexity that is of necessity interdisciplinary, and its scrutiny by non-expert publics. Building on the theoretical foundations of social epistemology, I examine how notions of the role of shared practices in engendering trust and knowledge-sharing among expert groups can be applied when the lines between expert and non-expert are contested in high-visibility public arenas. In exploring some of those questions, this study aims to discover if a social network methodology combining co-authorship data and hyperlink data can reveal patterns of association and engagement with traditional (e.g., scholarly publications) vs. non-traditional (e.g., web sites or blog articles) methods of communication and legitimation.

This study is intended as part of a larger research trajectory examining the role of social associations in influencing credibility and information trust decisions in areas where expert and non-experts must meet and negotiate shared meanings. These findings could suggest future directions for collaborative data sharing practices as well as support theoretical work in understanding how trust and credibility are granted in networked information environments.