The purpose of this study was to determine if UNCG study abroad students were being prepared for and participating in sustainable tourism practices. The literature review includes an examination of the current trends in study abroad and international education, and a brief history of sustainable tourism. Additionally, an overview of the theoretical base of the study is provided along with an assessment of the efficacy of code of ethics and visitor education programs. The researchers reviewed current pre-departure study abroad handbooks and programs designed to prepare students for their trip abroad and compared these tools to the current mission statements of higher education and international program centers. This research is a catalyst for creating support for educational programming of sustainable tourism practices for study abroad students by identifying the lack of current studies in this research area and identifying the need for there to be more research. This study also emphasizes the need for the development of programming and establishes the theoretical foundation and framework for the development of educational programming tool that can be used to prepare study abroad students to participate in sustainable tourism practices.


HBO's hit series A GAME OF THRONES is based on George R R Martin's internationally bestselling series A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE, the greatest fantasy epic of the modern age. A STORM OF SWORDS: STEEL AND SNOW is the FIRST part of the third volume in the series. 'Martin has captured the imagination of millions' Guardian Winter approaches Westeros like an angry beast. The Seven Kingdoms are divided by revolt and blood feud. In the northern wastes, a horde of hungry, savage people steeped in the dark magic of the wilderness is poised to invade the Kingdom of the North where Robb Stark wears his new-forged crown. And Robb's defences are ranged against the South, the land of the cunning and cruel Lannisters, who have his younger sisters in their power. Throughout Westeros, the war for the Iron Throne rages more fiercely than ever, but if the Wall is breached, no king will live to claim it.


Maberly and Pierce (2004) re-examine the work of Bouman and Jacobsen (2002) that documents significantly lower monthly stock market returns over the period May to October than over the period November to April. The finding has been called the Halloween effect and is present to varying degrees in most equity markets worldwide. Maberly and Pierce focus on the Halloween effect in the United States and contend it is driven by two negative-return outliers. We argue that controlling for two outliers is somewhat arbitrary. We apply robust regression methods—including all the data but limiting the influence of extreme returns—to the estimation of the Halloween effect in the United States. Contrary to the Maberly and Pierce findings, our results indicate statistical significance of a Halloween effect in the U.S. at levels similar to those originally reported in Bouman and Jacobsen.


The main goal of this work is to examine various aspects of `inelastic continuum mechanics': first, fundamental aspects of a general finite deformation theory based on a multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient with special emphasis on the incompatibility of the so-called intermediate configuration are discussed in detail. Moreover, various balance of linear momentum representations together with the corresponding volume forces are derived in a configurational mechanics context. Subsequent chapters are consequently based on these elaborations so that the applied multiplicative decomposition generally serves as a fundamental modelling concept in this work; after generalised strain measures are introduced, a kinematic hardening model coupled with anisotropic damage, a substructure evolution framework as well as two different growth and remodelling formulations for biological tissues are presented.


The Old Ways is the stunning fourth book by acclaimed nature writer Robert Macfarlane. Shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize 2012. Following the tracks, holloways, drove-roads and sea paths that form part of a vast ancient network of routes criss-crossing the British Isles and beyond, Robert Macfarlane discovers a lost world - a landscape of the feet and the mind, of pilgrimage and ritual, of stories and ghosts; above all of the places and journeys which inspire and inhabit our imaginations. "Really do love it. He has a rare physical intelligence and affords total immersion in place, elements and the passage of time: wonderful". (Antony Gormley). "A marvellous marriage of scholarship, imagination and evocation of place. I always feel exhilarated after reading Macfarlane". (Penelope Lively). "Macfarlane immerses himself in regions we may have thought familiar, resurrecting them newly potent and sometimes beautifully strange. In a moving achievement, he returns our heritage to us". (Colin Thubron). "Every Robert MacFarlane book offers beautiful writing, bold journeys...With its global reach and mysterious Sebaldian structure, this is MacFarlane's most important book yet". (David Rothenberg, author of Survival of the Beautiful and Thousand Mile Song). "Luminous, possessing a seemingly paradoxical combination of the dream-like and the hyper-vigilant, The Old Ways is, as with all of Macfarlane's work, a magnificent read. Each sentence can carry astonishing discovery". (Rick Bass, US novelist and nature writer). "The Old Ways confirms Robert Macfarlane's reputation as one of the most eloquent and observant of contemporary writers about nature". (Scotland on Sunday). "Sublime writing ...sets the imagination tingling ...Macfarlane's way of writing [is] free, exploratory, rambling and haphazard but resourceful, individual, following his own whims, and laying an irresistible trail for readers to follow". (Sunday Times). "Macfarlane relishes wild, as well as old, places. He writes about both beautifully ...I love to read Macfarlane". (John Sutherland, Financial Times). "Read this and it will be impossible to take an unremarkable walk again". (Metro).


(a) Any interested person shall have the right to petition for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of rules published in this part. Any such petition will be considered in a reasonable time. Prompt notice shall be given of the denial in whole or in part of any petition. Except in affirming a prior denial or when the denial is self-explanatory the notice shall be accompanied by a brief statement of the reasons therefor. (b) Any advisory committee member or any other aggrieved person may file a written complaint with the Assistant Secretary alleging noncompliance with the rules in this part. Any complaint must be timely filed, but in no case shall any complaint be filed later than thirty (30) days following the day on which the act of alleged noncompliance occurred. Any complaint shall be acted upon promptly and a written notice of the disposition of the complaint shall be provided to the complainant. (c) Complaints and petitions should make reference to this § 1912a.14 and be filed and addressed as follows:


In this third, fully revised edition, the 10 volume Encyclopedia of Language and Education offers the newest developments, including an entirely new volume of research and scholarly content, essential to the field of language teaching and learning in the age of globalization. In the selection of topics and contributors, the Encyclopedia reflects the depth of disciplinary knowledge, breadth of interdisciplinary perspective, and diversity of sociogeographic experience in the language and education field.  Throughout, there is an inclusion of contributions from non-English speaking and nonwestern parts of the world, providing truly global coverage. Furthermore, the authors have sought to integrate these voices fully into the whole, rather than as special cases or international perspectives in separate sections.  The Encyclopedia is a necessary reference set for every university and college library in the world that serves a faculty or school of education, as well as being highly relevant to the fields of applied and socio-linguistics. The publication of this work charts the further deepening and broadening of the field of language and education since the publication of the first edition of the Encyclopedia in 1997 and the second edition in 2008.


The work presented in this thesis investigated interactions of selected biophysical processes that affect zooplankton ecology at smaller scales. In this endeavour, the extent of changes in swimming behaviour and fluid disturbances produced by swimming Daphnia in response to changing physical environments were quantified. In the first research question addressed within this context, size and energetics of hydrodynamic trails produced by Daphnia swimming in non-stratified still waters were characterized and quantified as a function of organisms' size and their swimming patterns.
The results revealed that neither size nor the swimming pattern of Daphnia affects the width of induced trails or dissipation rates. Nevertheless, as the size and swimming velocity of the organisms increased, trail volume increased in proportional to the cubic power of Reynolds number, and the biggest trail volume was about 500 times the body volume of the largest daphnids. Larger spatial extent of fluid perturbation and prolonged period to decay caused by bigger trail volumes would play a significant role in zooplankton ecology, e.g. increasing the risk of predation.
The study also found that increased trail volume brought about significantly enhanced total dissipated power at higher Reynolds number, and the magnitudes of total dissipated power observed varied in the range of (1.3-10)X10-9 W.
Furthermore, this study provided strong evidence that swimming speed of Daphnia and total dissipated power in Daphnia trails exceeded those of some other selected zooplankton species.
In recognizing turbulence as an intrinsic environmental perturbation in aquatic habitats, this thesis also examined the response of Daphnia to a range of turbulence flows, which correspond to turbu-lence levels that zooplankton generally encounter in their habitats. Results indicated that within the range of turbulent intensities to which the Daphnia are likely to be exposed in their natural habitats, increasing turbulence compelled the organisms to enhance their swimming activity and swim-ming speed. However, as the turbulence increased to extremely high values (10-4 m2s-3), Daphnia began to withdraw from their active swimming behaviour. Findings of this work also demonstrated that the threshold level of turbulence at which animals start to alleviate from largely active swimming is about 10-6 m2s-3. The study further illustrated that during the intermediate range of turbu-lence; 10-7 - 10-6 m2s-3, kinetic energy dissipation rates in the vicinity of the organisms is consistently one order of magnitude higher than that of the background turbulent flow.
Swarming, a common conspicuous behavioural trait observed in many zooplankton species, is considered to play a significant role in defining freshwater ecology of their habitats from food exploitation, mate encountering to avoiding predators through hydrodynamic flow structures produced by them, therefore, this thesis also investigated implications of Daphnia swarms at varied abundance & swarm densities on their swimming kinematics and induced flow field.
The results showed that Daphnia aggregated in swarms with swarm densities of (1.1-2.3)x103 L-1, which exceeded the abundance densities by two orders of magnitude (i.e. 1.7 - 6.7 L-1). The estimated swarm volume decreased from 52 cm3 to 6.5 cm3, and the mean neighbouring distance dropped from 9.9 to 6.4 body lengths. The findings of this work also showed that mean swimming trajectories were primarily horizontal concentric circles around the light source. Mean flow speeds found to be one order of magnitude lower than the corresponding swimming speeds of Daphnia. Furthermore, this study provided evidences that the flow fields produced by swarming Daphnia differed considerably between unidirectional vortex swarming and bidirectional swimming at low and high abundances respectively.


The Annual Mary Lou Fulton Mentored Research Conference showcases some of the best student research from the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences. The mentored learning program encourages undergraduate students to participate in hands-on and practical research under the direction of a faculty member. Students create these posters as an aide in presenting the results of their research to the public, faculty, and their peers.


One of the fundamental problems in computational structural biology is the prediction of RNA secondary structures from a single sequence. To solve this problem, mainly two different approaches have been used over the past decades: the free energy minimization (MFE) approach which is still considered the most popular and successful method and the competing stochastic context-free grammar (SCFG) approach. While the accuracy of the MFE based algorithms is limited by the quality of underlying thermodynamic models, the SCFG method abstracts from free energies and instead tries to learn about the structural behavior of the molecules by training the grammars on known real RNA structures, making it highly dependent on the availability of a rich high quality training set. However, due to the respective problems associated with both methods, new statistics based approaches towards RNA structure prediction have become increasingly appreciated. For instance, over the last years, several statistical sampling methods and clustering techniques have been invented that are based on the computation of partition functions (PFs) and base pair probabilities according to thermodynamic models. A corresponding SCFG based statistical sampling algorithm for RNA secondary structures has been studied just recently. Notably, this probabilistic method is capable of producing accurate (prediction) results, where its worst-case time and space requirements are equal to those of common RNA folding algorithms for single sequences.
The aim of this work is to present a comprehensive study on how enriching the underlying SCFG by additional information on the lengths of generated substructures (i.e. by incorporating length-dependencies into the SCFG based sampling algorithm, which is actually possible without significant losses in performance) affects the reliability of the induced RNA model and the accuracy of sampled secondary structures. As we will see, significant differences with respect to the overall quality of generated sample sets and the resulting predictive accuracy are typically implied. In principle, when considering the more specialized length-dependent SCFG model as basis for statistical sampling, a higher accuracy of predicted foldings can be reached at the price of a lower diversity of generated candidate structures (compared to the more general traditional SCFG variant or sampling based on PFs that rely on free energies).


Courts and commentators often conceive of litigation and arbitration as dichotomous regimes for civil dispute resolution. Two new decisions from the Supreme Court provide the occasion to rethink this conventional view. In Shady Grove v. Allstate Insurance, the Court acknowledges that a class action often alters dramatically the incidence of claiming but, for purposes of the Rules Enabling Act, the Court deems this effect to be merely "incidental." In Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds, however, the Court deems the use of class-wide arbitration to be such a "fundamental" change as to lie outside the authority of arbitrators in the face of contractual silence as to class treatment.This Article – for the annual Federal Courts, Practice & Procedure issue of the Notre Dame Law Review – urges a more synthetic understanding of litigation and arbitration. For all their differences, the Court's accounts of class treatment under the Rules Enabling Act and the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) evidence a deep, but undertheorized, convergence. Shady Grove is the latest of the Court's efforts to map the proper relationship between federal and state law under the Erie and Hanna doctrines. This Article explains how the Court's arbitration jurisprudence has come to replicate key structural features of the Erie and Hanna doctrines in litigation. The Article then underscores the transnational dimensions of arbitration in our modern world of globalized commerce – one that frames in a new light the holding in Stolt-Nielsen within the context of the Court's thinking about extraterritoriality and transnational recognition of judgments in litigation. The Article then turns to a case now before the Court – AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion – concerning an arbitration clause that would waive the opportunity for consumers to participate in either a class action or a class arbitration. The Article explains how the approach of the lower courts in Concepcion presents the Supreme Court with the counterpart, in the arbitration setting, to the mistaken application of state law rightly overturned in Shady Grove under the Hanna doctrine. Such a view nonetheless would afford ample latitude for contextual, Erie-like analysis of other arbitration clauses with class waivers tantamount to exculpatory clauses. The Article concludes by situating its synthetic conception of litigation and arbitration within ongoing debate over the proposed Arbitration Fairness Act.


The most important questions anyone can ask are: Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much? What has this to do with me? Finally, who sent him to his death? The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus was God' s Son. The suffering was unsurpassed, but the whole message of the Bible leads to this answer.Why did Christ suffer and die? The central issue of Jesus' death is not the cause, but the meaning— God' s meaning. That is what this book is about. John Piper has gathered from the New Testament fifty reasons. Not fifty causes, but fifty purposes -- in answer to the most important question that each of us must face: What did God achieve for sinners like us in sending his Son to die?


What could be better than the bestselling "Schaum's Outline" series? For students looking for a quick nuts-and-bolts overview, it would have to be "Schaum's Easy Outline" series. Every book in this series is a pared-down, simplified, and tightly focused version of its predecessor. With an emphasis on clarity and brevity, each new title features a streamlined and updated format and the absolute essence of the subject, presented in a concise and readily understandable form. Graphic elements such as sidebars, reader-alert icons, and boxed highlights stress selected points from the text, illuminate keys to learning, and give students quick pointers to the essentials.It is designed to appeal to underprepared students and readers turned off by dense text. Cartoons, sidebars, icons, and other graphic pointers get the material across fast. Concise text focuses on the essence of the subject. It delivers expert help from teachers who are authorities in their fields. It is perfect for last-minute test preparation. It is so small and light that they fit in a backpack!


End-user programmers, those who write code but lack formal training in computer science, are often reliant on various tools such as API documentation or searching the Web for information in order to complete a specific task. This study examines the information foraging behaviors of a group of web and graphic designers engaged in a series of code modification tasks. We find that users were largely unsuccessful in their foraging activities, with few information seeking events resulting in noticeable changes to participants' source code. Participants viewed remarkably few results generated by their queries and rarely refined queries multiple times. However, these kinds of activities were positively correlated with task success metrics. We conclude with a discussion of the study's results and their implications on the design of future programming environments and search tools for end-user programmers.


Researchers frequently studied the casual relationships of other-regarding preferences by applying experimental methods in bilateral settings (e.g., dictator game and ultimatum game). We use a framed experiment on taxes to study preferences for redistribution in a multi-person setting. We find presence of heterogeneous preferences with a substantial share of tax rate choices in line with both payoff maximization and other-regarding preferences. Notably, our data is not consistent with inequality aversion but points to other forms of other-regarding preferences, as fairness and altruism. By manipulating how subjects are assigned to a given level of pre-tax income, we vary the individual entitlements. We find a difference in the willingness to redistribute income when comparing the treatment where pre-tax income is assigned by relative performance in a production task (a general knowledge quiz) to the treatment where pre-tax income is assigned by luck. We do not find any significant difference in comparison to the intermediate treatment where pre-tax income is assigned by a combination of luck and performance. The perception of a "fair" tax is different depending on whether subjects' pre-tax income is below or above average, which is in line with a fairness bias. Finally, subjects not knowing whether their pre-tax income is below or above the average when choosing the tax rate behave as if they were more other-regarding.


Harvesting of silage maize in late autumn on waterlogged soils may result in several ecological problems such as soil compaction and may subsequently be a major threat to soil fertility in Europe. It was hypothesized that perennial energy crops might reduce the vulnerability for soil compaction through earlier harvest dates and improved soil stability. However, the performance of such crops to be grown on soil that are periodically waterlogged and implications for soil chemical and microbial properties are currently an open issue. Within the framework of a two-year pot experiment we investigated the potential of the cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum L.), Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), giant knotweed (Fallopia japonicum × bohemica), tall wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum), and reed canary grass (Phalaris arundinacea) for cultivation under periodically waterlogged soil conditions during the winter half year and implications for soil chemical and biological properties. Examined perennial energy crops coped with periodical waterlogging and showed yields 50% to 150% higher than in the control which was never faced with waterlogging. Root formation was similar in waterlogged and non-waterlogged soil layers. Soil chemical and microbial properties clearly responded to different soil moisture treatments. For example, dehydrogenase activity was two to four times higher in the periodically waterlogged treatment compared to the control. Despite waterlogging, aerobic microbial activity was significantly elevated indicating morphological and metabolic adaptation of the perennial crops to withstand waterlogged conditions. Thus, our results reveal first evidence of a site-adapted biomass production on periodical waterlogged soils through the cultivation of perennial energy crops and for intense plant microbe interactions.


All of us are aware of the changes in the information field during the last years. We all see the paradigm shift coming up and have some idea how it will challenge our profession in the future. But how the road to excellence - in education of information specialists in the future - will look like? There are different models (new and old ones) for reorganising the structure of education: * Integration * Specialisation * Step-by step-model * Modul System * Network System / Combination model The paper will present the actual level of discussion on building up a new curriculum at the Department of Information and Communication (IK) at the FH Hannover. Based on the mission statement of the department »Education of information professionals is a part of the dynamic evolution of knowledge society« the direction of change and the main goals will be presented. The different reorganisation models will be explained with its objectives, opportunities and forms of implementation. Some examples will show the ideas and tools for a first draft of a reconstruction plan to become fit for the future. This talk has been held at the German-Dutch University Conference »Information Specialists for the 21st Century« at the Fachhochschule Hannover - University of Applied Sciences, Department of Information and Communication, October 14 -15, 1999 in Hannover, Germany.


This Article develops justifications for protections against the disclosure of private information. An extensive body of scholarship has attacked such protections as anathema to the Information Age, where the free flow of information is championed as a fundamental value. This Article responds to two general critiques of disclosure protections: (1) that they inhibit freedom of speech, and (2) that they restrict information useful for judging others. Regarding the free speech critique, the Article argues that not all speech is of equal value; speech of private concern is less valuable than speech of public concern. The difficulty, however, is distinguishing between public and private concerns. Traditional approaches include deferring to the media, distinguishing between public and private figures, and looking to the nature of the information disclosed. However, these approaches are flawed. Instead, we should focus on the relationships in which information is transferred and the uses to which information is put. The propriety of disclosures depends upon their purpose, not merely on the type of information disclosed. The Article analogizes to the law of evidence, in which certain information is admissible for some purposes but not others and then examines the values of free speech and argues that privacy often furthers the same ends, demonstrating that free speech should not always prevail in the balance. Next, the Article tackles the judgment and trust critique, which views personal information as essential for making judgments about whether to trust people with whom one associates. Although personal information can help facilitate judgments about other people, the Article contends that these judgments are often made quickly and out of context. In short, more information does not necessarily lead to more accurate judgments. The Article also contends that privacy protects against certain rational judgments that society may want to prohibit (such as employment decisions based on genetic information). The Article then responds to commentators who argue that gossip is valuable because it helps educate us about human nature and argues that the value of concealing one's past can, in many circumstances, outweigh the benefits of disclosure.


This paper surveys the field of reinforcement learning from a computer-science perspective. It is written to be accessible to researchers familiar with machine learning. Both the historical basis of the field and a broad selection of current work are summarized. Reinforcement learning is the problem faced by an agent that learns behavior through trial-and-error interactions with a dynamic environment. The work described here has a resemblance to work in psychology, but differs considerably in the details and in the use of the word "reinforcement." The paper discusses central issues of reinforcement learning, including trading off exploration and exploitation, establishing the foundations of the field via Markov decision theory, learning from delayed reinforcement, constructing empirical models to accelerate learning, making use of generalization and hierarchy, and coping with hidden state. It concludes with a survey of some implemented systems and an assessment of the practical utility of current methods for reinforcement learning.


"Cultural Revolution Culture", often denigrated as nothing but propaganda, not only was liked in its heyday but continues to be enjoyed today. A Continuous Revolution sets out to explain its legacy. By considering Cultural Revolution propaganda art-music, stage works, prints and posters, comics, and literature - from the point of view of its longue duree, Barbara Mittler suggests that Cultural Revolution propaganda art was able to build on a tradition of earlier art works, and this allowed for its sedimentation in cultural memory and its proliferation in contemporary China. Taking the aesthetic experience of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) as her base, Mittler juxtaposes close readings and analyses of cultural products from the period with impressions given in a series of personal interviews conducted in the early 2000s with Chinese from diverse class and generational backgrounds. By including much testimony from these original voices, Mittler illustrates the extremely multifaceted and contradictory nature of the Cultural Revolution, both in terms of artistic production and of its cultural experience.


This paper examines how the production of payment services impacts the franchise value of banks. It also explores whether analysis are incorrectly measuring the performance of the banking sector and failing to realize the full importance of payments-driven revenues to banks. In initial empirical analysis, we find limited evidence to suggest that higher payments-driven revenues are associated with higher franchise value. We find, also, that estimates of productive efficiency change dramatically for a small number of banks heavily involved in payments services. We find evidence to suggest that traditional efficiency estimates that exclude nontraditional bank activities inaccurately measure the relative performance of some types of BHCs. We infer from these results that estimation of efficiency must take into account the different mix of traditional and nontraditional activities in which banks engage.


When Syrian President Bashar al-Assad came to power upon his father's death in 2000, many in- and outside Syria held high hopes that the popular young doctor would bring long-awaited reform, that he would be a new kind of Middle East leader capable of guiding his country toward genuine democracy. David Lesch was one of those who saw this promise in Assad. A widely respected Middle East scholar and consultant, Lesch came to know the president better than anyone in the West, in part through a remarkable series of meetings with Assad between 2004 and 2009. Yet for Lesch, like millions of others, Assad was destined to disappoint. In this timely book, the author explores Assad's failed leadership, his transformation from bearer of hope to reactionary tyrant, and his regime's violent response to the uprising of his people in the wake of the Arab Spring. Lesch charts Assad's turn toward repression and the inexorable steps toward the violence of 2011 and 2012. The book recounts the causes of the Syrian uprising, the regime's tactics to remain in power, the responses of other nations to the bloodshed, and the determined efforts of regime opponents. In a thoughtful conclusion, the author suggests scenarios that could unfold in Syria's uncertain future.


The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Open Archives Initiative Metadata Harvesting Project sought to test the viability of a search portal containing aggregated metadata for cultural heritage resources harvested using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH). Metadata was collected from 39 providers, including museums, archives, libraries, historical societies, consortiums, and digital libraries. Some resources existed in digital formats, such as .JPG images. Other resources were analog objects and were represented digitally through the metadata. The paper documents a pilot user test with a small group of K-12 teachers-in-training. The users were asked to use the portal to locate primary source materials for use in the classroom. The results highlight the challenges posed by aggregations of heterogeneous metadata for both users and service providers. Areas for further investigation and approaches for more in-depth studies are suggested.


Although she is eminent primarily as the prize-winning author of classic works of fiction, Eudora Welty is notable also as an astute literary critic. Her essays on the art of fiction and on the writers who enlarged the range of the short story and the novel are definitive pieces. Her distinguished book reviews, along with her critical essays, augment her reputation for being one of the most discerning author-critics in literary America. This collection of her book reviews manifests the connecting of her penetrating eye with her responsive intellect in forming sympathetic judgments of the books she reviewed. Between 1942 and 1984 Welty wrote sixty-seven reviews of seventy-four books. Fifty-eight of these appeared in the New York Times Book Review , and others in the Saturday Review of Literature, Tomorrow, theHudson Review, the New York Post, and the Sewanee Review. The reviewed books include novels, short story collections, books of essays, biographies and memoirs, books of letters, children's books, books of ghost stories, photography books, books of literary criticism, and books of World War II art. Over nearly half a century she reviewed books by some of the foremost authors of her time: Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, V.S. Pritchett, Colette, Isak Dinesen, E.B. White, E.M. Forster, J.D. Salinger, Ross Macdonald, Patrick White, S.J. Perelman, Annie DIllard, Elizabeth Bowen, and Katherine Anne Porter. A Writer's Eye includes all of Welty's book reviews, even one published in the <New York TImes Book Review under the pseudonym "Michael Ravenna." SIxteen of the reviews were collected previously in Welty's The Eye of the Story (1978). In this collection Pearl Amelia McHaney's introduction records the history of Welty's career in book reviewing and illuminates the honestly and compassion with which Welty wrote reviews. Welty's keen vision, her wit, and her refined style make these "monuments to interruption," a phrase she wrote in description of Virginia Woolf's essays and reviews, an important record of her literary standards and special interests. They show us as well how book reviewing consumed a large measure of creative time that she customarily devoted to fiction writing. Placed beside her authoritative critical essays, this volume enhances Welty's considerable literary stature and completes the image of Eudora Welty as a consummate woman of letters.


To what extent are placebo effects real, common, and quantifiable? Placebos are simple chemicals not known to have any significant physiological or therapeutic effects—but packaged as though they do. In the design of clinical trials, they are often used as a base-line control for the testing of new drugs or therapies (although it is true, as pointed out in this book, that more appropriate controls would be those medications or therapies that are the best available to date). Ben Goldacre believes, in the light of admittedly impressive evidence presented in a key chapter, that placebo effects are powerful and important. He examines ethical concerns associated with the deliberate use of placebos in mainstream treatment approaches, as well as the risks to the public of having charlatans (who are good at maximising placebo effects) mixing their real messages with selfserving false ones. But these are not the central issues and this leaves him with several unresolved interpretations and unsatisfactory explanations. As a result, his main 'bad science' thesis is effectively diluted—readers may end up wondering if the shenanigans of the faith-based health industry are really so injurious, if induced faith alone is half the battle in countering the unpleasant symptoms of many illnesses. Goldacre is a 34-year-old British doctor and broadcaster who writes the regular 'Bad Science' column in The Guardian. His book is very wittily, forcefully and convincingly written. He is a missionary for straight thinking—the book is, amongst other things, a beautifully articulated and clear primer on the basic statistics used in well-executed clinical trials. And he does not scruple to look for, find and follow up on cupboard-sequestered skeletons, including a number that have been exposed in the law courts. In particular, he goes for the jugular of super-rich, pill-purveying 'experts' with shady qualifications, who he thinks have succeeded in enslaving the media and the gullible public on matters of health and safety. Bad Science is both an excellent read, and an important public contribution that should be required reading for newspaper editors, science journalists, health educators, and pharmaceutical executives. Goldacre examines a number of illustrative, high-profile health stories of the recent period. These include officially promoted 'brain gym' sessions in U.K. schools based on highly improbable mechanisms of induced brain oxygenation; wonder-working cosmetics; and fish-oil pills to make schoolchildren cleverer en masse. Most damaging of all have been unverified, yet successfully contested, claims of a causal connection between mass vaccination and autism. These have already lowered vaccination uptake rates sufficiently to have increased the prevalence of some serious childhood infectious diseases, such as mumps and measles. Goldacre has a very poor opinion of the kinds of 'science journalism' practised by the mass media in which he detects conspiracies involving journalists whom he believes to be ignorant of science, on the one hand, and industry, particularly Big Pharma, on the other. He believes this has resulted from the prohibition in the U.K. and elsewhere of direct advertising by drug companies, which has led to sometimes corrupt, indirect approaches to journalists. These result in apparently well-researched but often 'gushing' and uncritical narrative reports on the dramatic efficacy of the drugs in question. This is a very serious charge, and not one that newspaper editors will relish. South African newspaper editors will surely want to reassure the local public that no such practices are permitted here. Another local stakeholder which will want to reassure us is the pharmaceutical industry, the subject of another chapter entitled 'Is Mainstream Medicine Evil?' Goldacre pulls no punches in analysing the ways in which hard-pressed drug executives create the conditions under which many of their new super-pills will sell as blockbusters. This is not pleasant stuff, especially combined with the preceding notions of media collusion and general public brain-washing. Even the scholarly professional literature is sullied, according to Goldacre, by the apparently frequent omission (non-publication) of studies reporting negative results. Goldacre reminds me of Richard Dawkins, in being a very bright, sharptongued writer with a well thought-out axe to grind. In The God Delusion, Dawkins ended with a rather fuzzy hypothesis in which he posits that (near-universal) religious tendencies have emerged as a by-product of mental capacities which have evolved under natural selection. Here Goldacre marvellously builds a convincing case for evidence-based health care, shows us that ordinary people can readily understand its basic principles, and then allows his treatment of the placebo effect to complexify an otherwise clear-cut situation. Perhaps they are both right in their interpretations, but this particular reader has been distracted from the main messages in both cases. One message that certainly mustn't be lost is that lame and unclear expositions of evidence-based conclusions concerning disease prevention and personal health promotion are dangerous. They open up the extensive space filled by the modern equivalents of snake-oil salespersons, whose domain and profitability has been greatly enhanced by the vast reach and questionable ethics of modern media. Wieland Gevers Emeritus Professor in medical biochemistry, University of Cape Town, and associate editor for medical science for the SAJS. e-mail: email@example.com 22 South African Journal of Science 105, January/February 2009 Book Reviews


This article introduces the concept of care poverty, defined as inadequate coverage of care needs resulting from an interplay between individual and societal factors, and examines its level and predictors among the 75+ population in Finland. The data come from a survey conducted in
 2010 and 2015. Despite the universalistic goals of the Finnish care system, 26 percent of respondents with limitations in daily activities faced care poverty with regard to instrumental activities of daily living; the activities of daily living care poverty rate was 17 percent. Concerning
 instrumental activities of daily living, care poverty was associated with income level, health status and living arrangements, while such connections were not found for personal care (activities of daily living).


The notion that human behavior is influenced by environmental conditions is not novel, though this dynamic is often overlooked and underappreciated in the construction of buildings and cities. Particularly in the field of sustainable or green building, focus is directed toward the impact of building-related human behavior on the environment. However, in a reciprocal manner, as humans build we create our own environment which embodies a specific set of ideas, influencing occupants over the lifespan of a building. The lessons locked in mortar and floor plans both limit and encourage certain human behaviors. This educational relationship offers a powerful opportunity for designers to create a crystallized pedagogy that encourages and informs occupants in sustainable patterns of living.


On the coldest morning of the year, Vicki Myron found a tiny, bedraggled kitten almost frozen to death in the night drop box of the library where she worked, and her life -- and the town of Spencer, Iowa -- would never be the same. Vicki was a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm and an alcoholic, abusive husband. But her biggest challenge as the new head librarian in Spencer was to raise the spirits of a small, out-of-the-way town mired deep in the farm crisis of the 1980s. Dewey, as the townspeople named the kitten, quickly grew into a strutting, adorable library cat whose antics kept patrons in stitches, and whose sixth sense about those in need created hundreds of deep and loving friendships. As his fame grew, people drove hundreds of miles to meet Dewey, and people all over the world fell in love with him. Through it all, Dewey remained a loyal companion, a beacon of hope not just for Vicki, but for the entire town of Spencer as it slowly, steadily pulled itself up from the worst financial crisis in its long history. Dewey won hearts and proved to everyone he encountered that unconditional love comes in many forms.


Pain in the joint Most commonly affected joints are those of the knee, hip, hand, or spine Pain usually increases when the joint is used or stressed Pain is usually decreased by resting the joint May be described as a dull, achy pain or a sharper, stabbing sensation Stiffness Stiffness can make everyday activities difficult, such as leaning down to pick something up, putting on shoes, opening a jar, walking, or climbing stairs. Stiffness occurs first thing in the morning is common, usually lasting under 30 minutes after you resume activity. Stiffness after any period of inactivity is common (such as after sitting still for a couple of hours in a movie theater or on an airplane). Stiffness decreases your range of motion, so that you can't bend or unbend a joint as far as you normally could. You may have a feeling of instability in the joint. For example, your knee may feel as if it is going to buckle underneath you. You may feel or hear a grating or creaking sound when you bend or unbend your joint. Your joint may develop an abnormal appearance: It may appear inflamed, red, swollen. It may appear misaligned or misshapen.


Rhodopsin proteins perform two cellular key functions: signaling of external stimuli and ion transport. Examples of both functional types are found in the family of archaeal rhodopsins, namely the proton pump bacteriorhodopsin, the chloride pump halorhodopsin and the photoreceptor sensory rhodopsin II. For these three membrane proteins, highresolution X-ray structures are available, allowing a theoretical investigation in atomic detail. In this thesis, calculations are presented based on a continuum electrostatics approach using a finite-difference discretization of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation. The results can be divided into three parts. One of the interesting features of rhodopsin proteins is the extreme range over which the absorption maximum of their chromophore retinal is tuned. This characteristic and the precision of the tuning mechanism is a fundamental requirement for color vision. Using the archaeal rhodopsins as model systems, this work aims at advancing the understanding of the inter-protein absorption shift. The presented results demonstrate that the electrostatic interactions of the protein with the retinal are a major determinant of the inter-protein shift. The differences in electrostatic potential that the proteins cause at the retinal could be assigned to seven residues. A generalized model of a quantum mechanical particle in a box including the electrostatic potential as a parameter allows a qualitative description of the absorption maxima. Bacteriorhodopsin has become one of the most important model systems in the field of bioenergetics. This is due to its relative simplicity making it amenable to experimental and theoretical studies. Here, the probability of functionally relevant protonation states is calculated to characterize the available structures. The protonation behavior of the key residues of proton transfer and the correlation between the protonation of these residues is analyzed. The results show that with respect to the protonation the bR, K, L and M1 intermediate state are well represented by the available structures, while the M2, N and O intermediate state are less well represented. An algorithm is introduced that determines a gap-free list of the lowest energy states. Such a list allows to analyze the ensemble of states accessible to a system in a certain energy range and, thus, can provide useful insight into the functional mechanism. The newly developed algorithm, termed X-DEE, is based on the dead-end elimination theorem. The X-DEE algorithm is applicable to a wide range of problems, for instance in protein design attempts. Here, X-DEE is successfully applied to bacteriorhodopsin to obtain gap-free lists of the lowest energy protonation states.


Building industry is a significant contributor to a majority of environmental issues. Design, construction, operation and disposal of buildings and cities also impact social and economic standards. Building industry's triple and high interaction with the human development requires professionals within the industry to reevaluate their development approaches. This requires designers such as architects and engineers, as well as the builders to understand the basics of sustainable development and how it has been and can be incorporated into their professions. Many resources in this area focus on the technical aspect of sustainability as an effort to train professionals in sustainable applications. However, sustainability is a more complicated concept that evolves based on time, location, and intent. Thus it is critical for building professionals to evaluate sustainability and sustainable development at a conceptual level, which can allow them to make better decisions in a continuously changing global world. This paper introduces the philosophical concepts behind sustainability in the built environment and specifically focuses on the role of builders, designers, and owners in the implementation of these concepts.


Plant traits – the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants and their organs – determine how primary producers respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, influence ecosystem processes and services and provide a link from species richness to ecosystem functional diversity. Trait data thus represent the raw material for a wide range of research from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology to biogeography. Here we present the global database initiative named TRY, which has united a wide range of the plant trait research community worldwide and gained an unprecedented buy‐in of trait data: so far 93 trait databases have been contributed. The data repository currently contains almost three million trait entries for 69 000 out of the world's 300 000 plant species, with a focus on 52 groups of traits characterizing the vegetative and regeneration stages of the plant life cycle, including growth, dispersal, establishment and persistence. A first data analysis shows that most plant traits are approximately log‐normally distributed, with widely differing ranges of variation across traits. Most trait variation is between species (interspecific), but significant intraspecific variation is also documented, up to 40% of the overall variation. Plant functional types (PFTs), as commonly used in vegetation models, capture a substantial fraction of the observed variation – but for several traits most variation occurs within PFTs, up to 75% of the overall variation. In the context of vegetation models these traits would better be represented by state variables rather than fixed parameter values. The improved availability of plant trait data in the unified global database is expected to support a paradigm shift from species to trait‐based ecology, offer new opportunities for synthetic plant trait research and enable a more realistic and empirically grounded representation of terrestrial vegetation in Earth system models.


Bureaucratic reform is a priority of donor organizations, including the World Bank, but is notoriously difficult to implement. In many countries, politicians have little interest in the basic financial and personnel management systems that are essential to political oversight of bureaucratic performance. To explain this, this paper presents a new perspective on the political economy of bureaucracy. Politicians in some countries belong to parties that are organized to allow party members to act collectively to limit leader shirking. This is particularly the case with programmatic parties. Such politicians have stronger incentives to pursue public policies that require a well-functioning public administration. Novel evidence offers robust support for this argument. From a sample of 439 World Bank public sector reform loans in 109 countries, the paper finds that public sector reforms are more likely to succeed in countries with programmatic political parties.


We present an automated approach for high-quality preview of feature-film rendering during lighting design. Similar to previous work, we use a deep-framebuffer shaded on the GPU to achieve interactive performance. Our first contribution is to generate the deep-framebuffer and corresponding shaders automatically through data-flow analysis and compilation of the original scene. Cache compression reduces automatically-generated deep-framebuffers to reasonable size for complex production scenes and shaders. We also propose a new structure, the indirect framebuffer, that decouples shading samples from final pixels and allows a deep-framebuffer to handle antialiasing, motion blur and transparency efficiently. Progressive refinement enables fast feedback at coarser resolution. We demonstrate our approach in real-world production.


This paper undertook a structural analysis of the youth labor force in Uganda by documenting their location in the Ugandan economy by residence, region, sector, and employment status. The data were obtained from the Uganda National Household Surveys 2002/03, 2005/06 and 2009/10. We find that the youth population structure of the country poses a big challenge in an effort to create employment, particular for the youth. The majority of the youth labor force is located in the rural compared to the urban areas of the country. Whereas we find quite impressive labor force participation rates and the employment population ratio, they do not necessarily reflect more and better employment opportunities because of the high degree of informality where most of the youth are underemployed. Over 90% of the youth were employed in the informal sector outside agriculture with slightly more female youth than their male counterparts. The quality of the youth labor in terms of education is improving though will lower attainment rates at postsecondary level, however, the quality of the youth labor force is higher in urban than in rural areas. An increase in self-employment is observed which is an indication of high rate of job creation is in the informal economy. Consequently, there is a limited participation of the youth in professional and technical occupations and in paid employment. By gender, it's surprising to observe that there more female youth employed as professionals compared to their male counterparts. However, it is noteworthy that the percentage of both male and female youth employed as professionals is on average less than 1%. Connected to this is the finding that there is a higher proportion of the youth labor force employed in agriculture despite its dismal contribution to GDP. Whereas the country experienced sectoral shifts in GDP composition, with the services and manufacturing sector becoming more important than agriculture, there are no sectoral shifts in employment with agriculture remaining the main employer of the youth labor force. Very low youth unemployment rates are observed suggesting a significant time underemployment. Additionally, there is a significant proportion of the youth that are skill underemployed; their educational attainment was higher than the educational level required by their current main jobs. Youth unemployment problem is more of an urban phenomenon with a higher proportion of the youth unemployed in Kampala compared to other regions. Our findings suggest that increasing labor productivity in agricultural as well as in the non-agricultural informal sector where the majority of the youth are located might help to solve the youth unemployment and underemployment predicaments. There is also need to ensure access to cheap finance by the youth, practical education, secure premises for informal businesses, and design policies to slow down the current population growth rates.


This article presents a study that seeks to examine the use of e-journals by the health care professionals of HMPCME and that of print journals which can be availed at the behest of library at Pramukhswami Medical College(PSMC), Karamsad, Gujarat-India. From this survey it was found that most of the research scholars i.e. (Doctors, Physicians, Medical officers, Interns, Post Graduate students, Residents) are referring to e-journals, as well as print journals from their departmental library as well as computer center in the central library. The main aim of consulting these journals is for retrieving information regarding research, dissertation, presentations, seminars, lectures, treatment protocols for unusual cases and journal clubs etc and largely to update their own knowledge. However, this study also reveals several inherent problems especially with the use of e-journals e.g. Computer illiteracy, lack of computer training, inability of retrieving particular/relevant health based information via various advanced databases like MD-Consult, EBSCO, ProQuest, Science Direct etc. Other mechanical deficits like slow downloading, slow connectivity, and subjective strain to eyes are also present while using e-journals. Moreover problems regarding subscription for a particular time phase are highlighted.


In the literature on complexity theory it has been noted that the increasing interdependence, non-linearity, and adaptiveness of social and other systems require forms of representation that can accommodate such complexity. In this essay I argue for examining the possibilities of cartography (mapmaking) in and of educational theory and research. Cartography offers alternative forms of representation that are better suited to capturing complexity. The performativity of cartographic representations, moreover, produces different knowledge. I present four features of educational theory, research, and practice that suggest the relevance of cartography. The first is the widespread use of narrative models of representation and interpretation. Narrative discourse typically emphasizes temporality; maps are an alternative or complementary discourse that visualize and help to examine the spatial character of educational experience. The second feature is that spatial metaphors abound in educational discourse, including the recently ubiquitous metaphor of the web or network. Cartographic discourse is well suited for representing, interpreting, and critiquing these metaphors. The third feature is the increased use of hyperlinked information in educational theory and practice. Maps are better suited to capture and to enable the questioning of the rhizomatic interconnections of hypertextual reading and writing practices than more linearly organized discourse. The fourth feature of education is that it is a social institution that plays a central role in the social positioning of subjects. When the discursive and physical mechanisms through which students and teachers are separated, categorized, ranked, and assessed are cartographically represented and analyzed, new questions can emerge about these mechanisms of power.


Abstract
The main theme of this thesis is about Graph Coloring Applications and Defining Sets in Graph Theory.
As in the case of block designs, finding defining sets seems to be difficult problem, and there is not a general conclusion. Hence we confine us here to some special types of graphs like bipartite graphs, complete graphs, etc.
In this work, four new concepts of defining sets are introduced:
• Defining sets for perfect (maximum) matchings
• Defining sets for independent sets
• Defining sets for edge colorings
• Defining set for maximal (maximum) clique
Furthermore, some algorithms to find and construct the defining sets are introduced. A review on some known kinds of defining sets in graph theory is also incorporated, in chapter 2 the basic definitions and some relevant notations used in this work are introduced.
chapter 3 discusses the maximum and perfect matchings and a new concept for a defining set for perfect matching.
Different kinds of graph colorings and their applications are the subject of chapter 4.
Chapter 5 deals with defining sets in graph coloring. New results are discussed along with already existing research results, an algorithm is introduced, which enables to determine a defining set of a graph coloring.
In chapter 6, cliques are discussed. An algorithm for the determination of cliques using their defining sets. Several examples are included.


The application of CAE is continually gaining in importance in all areas of engine development. This is especially true for the simulation of the casting process as well as for the following heat treatment. Although the durability analysis of the finished component has long been an established part of the development process, CAE-technologies for the simulation of the manufacturing process have only recently come into focus. The advantages of simulation at an early stage are obvious. Only by using the simulation of the manufacturing process is it possible to determine the distribution of inhomogeneous mechanical properties (hardness, elongation and yield strength) as well as residual stresses and to consider these properties in the design optimization process, especially in FEM calculations. The quality of the CAE analysis is significantly improved, therefore the full potential of the cast material can be taken advantage of in early design stages. On the other hand, through the optimization of heat treatment using simulation, the performance of the engine can, for example, be increased without cost-intensive design changes within the existing design concept. In this paper the involved companies, using selected examples from continuing R&D projects, will illustrate the potential to reduce the development time while simultaneously increasing the quality of the component. The methodology of simulating the casting process has been integrated as a key technology into the development process of cylinder heads and blocks at Ford Motor Company and has led to a significant reduction in development times and costs.


Masonboro Island is a 13 km long undeveloped barrier island located within a sand deficient southwestern portion of Onslow Bay. The island is situated along major storm tracks and is chronically impacted by tropical and extra-tropical storm events (HOSIER and CLEARY, 1977). The response of the island to storms is a function of the pre-storm condition of the island, the lack of sand in the offshore environment, the influence of adjacent inlets, and the underlying geology (CLEARY et al., 1999). Masonboro Island provides an exemplary setting to study changes in barrier island morphology and shoreline change in response to inlet modifications, geologic framework, and storm impact because the island is undeveloped, remains relatively unnourished, and is flanked by two modified inlets.
A GIS based study utilizing aerial photography was used to ascertain shoreline change occurring during 1938 – 2002. The island was divided into a northern, central, and southern segment based on distinct erosional characteristics. Masonboro Island experienced island wide erosion during the 64-year study period. The northern segment, which includes the fillet adjacent to Masonboro Inlet, eroded an average distance of 43 m. The central segment had net shoreline erosion of 110 m, while an area of shoreline within the central reach that was perched on a paleo-interfluve eroded only 106 m. The greatest amount of shoreline change was 164 m of erosion, which occurred along the southern segment of the island adjacent to Carolina Beach Inlet.
Short-term analysis (1.3 yr.) of a 2.5 km section of the island/estuary related the influence of a small Pleistocene interfluve to morphological changes within the area. Vibracore data from the estuary behind this area indicate that the Holocene fill is relatively shallow and ranged in thickness from greater than 4 m over the infilled valleys to less than 1.5 m over the interfluves. The network of interfluves extends from the mainland, beneath the estuary, and is overridden by the island. Survey data indicate that the shoreline perched on the interfluve was restricted to ~17 m of erosion compared to an average of ~30 m to either side. The profile of this entire section was lowered in elevation, and approximately 53,000 m3 of material were removed from the area.
The lowered profile made this section of the island increasingly vulnerable to overwash. The coarse grained nature of existing washover fans prevented the regrowth of new dunes. Petrologic analyses indicated that the source of the coarse grained material was a sandy limestone found along the shoreface of the southern two-thirds of the island. Further analyses indicated that the limestone was similar in nature to the coquina facies of the Neuse Formation intermittently exposed in the region.


Optimization is defined as the mathematical procedures involved in effecting optimality. It is also a collection of mathematical principles and methods used for solving quantitative problems in many disciplines. In business, optimization is finding an alternative with the most cost effective or highest achievable performance under given constraints by maximizing desired factors and minimizing undesired ones. The purpose of optimization is therefore to achieve the best design relative to a set of prioritized criteria or constraints which include maximizing factors such as productivity, strength, reliability, longevity, efficiency and utilization. Mathematical model attempts to optimize (maximize or minimize) an objective function without violating resource constraints. Various optimization techniques are used to achieve optimality of systems. The objective of the paper is to employed appropriate optimization techniques in worked examples to achieve optimality of systems.


Introduction. Book I: Java Basics. Chapter 1: Welcome to Java. Chapter 2: Installing and Using Java Tools. Chapter 3: Working with TextPad. Chapter 4: Using Eclipse. Book II: Programming Basics. Chapter 1: Java Programming Basics. Chapter 2: Working with Variables and Data Types. Chapter 3: Working with Numbers and Expressions. Chapter 4: Making Choices. Chapter 5: Going Around in Circles (Or, Using Loops). Chapter 6: Pulling a Switcheroo. Chapter 7: Adding Some Methods to Your Madness. Chapter 8: Handling Exceptions. Book III: Object--Oriented Programming. Chapter 1: Understanding Object--Oriented Programming. Chapter 2: Making Your Own Classes. Chapter 3: Working with Statics. Chapter 4: Using Subclasses and Inheritance. Chapter 5: Using Abstract Classes and Interfaces. Chapter 6: Using the Object and Class Classes. Chapter 7: Using Inner Classes. Chapter 8: Packaging and Documenting Your Classes. Book IV: Strings, Arrays, and Collections. Chapter 1: Working with Strings. Chapter 2: Using Arrays. Chapter 3: Using the ArrayList Class. Chapter 4: Using the LinkedList Class. Chapter 5: Creating Generic Collection Classes. Book V: Programming Techniques. Chapter 1: Programming Threads. Chapter 2: Network Programming. Chapter 3: Using Regular Expressions. Chapter 4: Using Recursion. Book VI: Swing. Chapter 1: Swinging into Swing. Chapter 2: Handling Events. Chapter 3: Getting Input from the User. Chapter 4: Choosing from a List. Chapter 5: Using Layout Managers. Book VII: Web Programming. Chapter 1: Creating Applets. Chapter 2: Creating Servlets. Chapter 3: Using Java Server Pages. Chapter 4: Using JavaBeans. Book VIII: Files and Databases. Chapter 1: Working with Files. Chapter 2: Using File Streams. Chapter 3: Database for $100, Please. Chapter 4: Using JDBC to Connect to a Database. Chapter 5: Working with XML. Book IX: Fun and Games. Chapter 1: Fun with Fonts and Colors. Chapter 2: Drawing Shapes. Chapter 3: Using Images and Sound. Chapter 4: Animation and Game Programming. Index.


The German Energiewende is a deliberate transformation of an established industrial economy towards a nearly CO2-free energy system accompanied by a phase out of nuclear energy. Its governance requires knowledge on how to steer the transition from the existing status quo to the target situation (transformation knowledge). The energy system is, however, a complex socio-technical system whose dynamics are influenced by behavioural and institutional aspects, which are badly represented by the dominant techno-economic scenario studies. In this paper, we therefore investigate and identify characteristics of model studies that make agent-based modelling supportive for the generation of transformation knowledge for the Energiewende. This is done by reflecting on the experiences gained from four different applications of agent-based models. In particular, we analyse whether the studies have improved our understanding of policies' impacts on the energy system, whether the knowledge derived is useful for practitioners, how valid understanding derived by the studies is, and whether the insights can be used beyond the initial case-studies. We conclude that agent-based modelling has a high potential to generate transformation knowledge, but that the design of projects in which the models are developed and used is of major importance to reap this potential. Well-informed and goal-oriented stakeholder involvement and a strong collaboration between data collection and model development are crucial.


Advances in the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are urgently required if we are to meet international targets for elimination by the year 2030. Here we demonstrate how routine clinical data can be harnessed through an unbiased electronic pipeline, showcasing the significant potential for amassing large clinical data sets that can help to inform advances in patient care and provide insights that may help to inform new cure strategies. Our cohort from a large UK hospital includes adults from diverse ethnic groups that have previously been underrepresented in the literature. By tracking two protein biomarkers that are used to monitor chronic HBV infection, we provide new insights into the timelines of HBV clearance, both on and off treatment. These results contribute to improvements in individualized clinical care and may provide important clues into the immune events that underpin disease control. ABSTRACT HBsAg and HBeAg have gained traction as biomarkers of control and clearance during chronic hepatitis B virus infection (CHB). Improved understanding of the clearance correlates of these proteins could help inform improvements in patient-stratified care and advance insights into the underlying mechanisms of disease control, thus underpinning new cure strategies. We collected electronic clinical data via an electronic pipeline supported by the National Institute for Health Research Health Informatics Collaborative (NIHR HIC), adopting an unbiased approach to the generation of a robust longitudinal data set for adults testing HBsAg positive from a large UK teaching hospital over a 6-year period (2011 to 2016 inclusive). Of 553 individuals with CHB, longitudinal data were available for 319, representing >107,000 weeks of clinical follow-up. Among these 319 individuals, 13 (4%) cleared HBsAg completely. Among these 13, the HBsAg clearance rate in individuals on nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) therapy (n = 4 [31%]; median clearance time,150 weeks) was similar to that in individuals not on NA therapy (n = 9 [69%]; median clearance time, 157 weeks). Those who cleared HBsAg were significantly older and less likely to be on NA therapy than nonclearers (P = 0.003 and P = 0.001, respectively). Chinese ethnicity was associated with HBeAg positivity (P = 0.025). HBeAg clearance occurred in individuals both on NA therapy (n = 24; median time, 49 weeks) and off NA therapy (n = 19; median time, 52 weeks). Improved insights into the dynamics of these biomarkers can underpin better prognostication and patient-stratified care. Our systematized approach to data collection paves the way for scaling up efforts to harness clinical data to address research questions and support improvements in clinical care. IMPORTANCE Advances in the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection are urgently required if we are to meet international targets for elimination by the year 2030. Here we demonstrate how routine clinical data can be harnessed through an unbiased electronic pipeline, showcasing the significant potential for amassing large clinical data sets that can help to inform advances in patient care and provide insights that may help to inform new cure strategies. Our cohort from a large UK hospital includes adults from diverse ethnic groups that have previously been underrepresented in the literature. By tracking two protein biomarkers that are used to monitor chronic HBV infection, we provide new insights into the timelines of HBV clearance, both on and off treatment. These results contribute to improvements in individualized clinical care and may provide important clues into the immune events that underpin disease control.


In the contemporary business milieu and "era of customer", delivering quality service is a sine qua non in ongoing strategy of most business firms and constitutes integral ingredient for success and survival in present day´s competitive environment. This study investigates the role that service quality plays in the Ghanaian banking sector and its impact on service delivery. A sample of 400 customers encompasses four major indigenous and foreign banks. SERVQUAL dimensions of service quality were used to structure the questionnaire. William L. Boyd, Myron Leonard, and Charles White's Standard Instrument for weighting of rating of service quality attributes was the sampling procedure adopted. Data collected was analyzed using one sample T- test of the mean weighted differences between perception and expectation of customers. This, in an attempt to determine whether there is a significant gap between expectation and perception at 5% level of significance. Empirical findings from this study show that gaps exist between customers' expectations and perceptions of service delivery in all the banks even though the banks performed better on the tangibility dimension. Despite this observation, the banks retained their customers. This study, therefore, concludes that where a gap exists between customer expectation and perception of service delivery, service quality is perceived as low and customer dissatisfaction results. However, dissatisfied customers did not necessarily defect. The study therefore confirms the theory that service quality is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for maintaining strong relationship with customers.


Application of lactic acid probiotic bacteria in health food diversification currently is progressing rapidly. It is encouraged the study of searching the potential strains from local resources (Ponorogo Residence) namely noni fruits (badeg pace) and noni wine. Aims of this study were to perform the isolation, identification, and production of probiotic Lactobacillus sp. JR64 fermentation process as a producer of Omega-6 (ω-6) lowering cholesterol and design of probiotic creamy product. Beginning stages of research was strains isolating and in-vitro testing, the best result were used in molecular identification technology development for the production of metabolites through the manipulation of environmental variation of glucose 20 g / l, 30 g / l and 40 g / l that influenced the substrate concentration of linoleic acid productivity. The result of new isolates isolation showed that isolates that obtained from noni wine, Lactobacillus plantarum JR64, was potential as probiotic condidate. The effieciency of fermentation substrates using Yx/s and Yp /s in the exponential phase was the highest value for the fermentation of 24 hours of Yx/ s; 17.03% and Y p/s; 74.72%, while the results of design and the best formulation for viability cells of lactobacillus plantarum probiotics JR64 was composed of 15 g and 50g butter 15 g icing sugar as well as during storage of the refrigerant temperature was 8.92 x 108 CFU / ml.


This paper attempts to formalize and to address the 'leakproofing' of the Singularity problem presented by David Chalmers. The paper begins with the definition of the Artificial Intelli- gence Confinement Problem. After analysis of existing solutions and their shortcomings, a protocol is proposed aimed at making a more secure confinement environment which might delay potential negative effect from the technological singularity while allowing humanity to benefit from the superintelligence.


During a workshop demonstrating Electrophotonic Imaging based on the Gas Discharge Visualization technique, a series of experiments were conducted using Reconnective Healing, group intention focused on effecting the energy of a vial of water, and a novel use of a didgeridoo for sound therapy. The EPC/GDV techniques show the effects of the healing and group intention activities. In addition, the ambient energetic activity of the workshop room was monitored during various eras, using the new antenna device that has been added to the Electrophotonic Imaging/Gas Discharge Visualization camera system. Interesting variation in the ambient energy was observed among the various eras with different workshop activities.


This article discusses the development and impact of an information literacy (IL) collaborative initiative undertaken by a module leader and library staff at Sheffield Business School (at Sheffield Hallam University) to improve business students' web searching skills, in order to support their academic work and develop the IL skills required by future employers.  It considers the use of a range of interactive learning activities in a lecture setting - not the preferred setting for information skills - coupled with a web-based research assessment and student reflection on the development of their web searching skills. Student feedback and reflective practice is reviewed and ways of further developing activities to address student feedback and promote further student engagement are suggested.


Modern agriculture is a dominant land use in Europe, although it has been associated with negative effects on biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. One species-rich insect group in agro-ecosystems is the Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies); however, the populations of a number of Lepidoptera species are currently declining. The aims of this thesis were to assess the amount and structure of field margins in agricultural landscapes, study the effects of realistic field margin input rates of agrochemicals (fertilizer and pesticides) on Lepidoptera, and provide information on moth pollination services.
In general, field margins are common semi-natural habitat elements in agro-ecosystems; however, data on the structure, size, and width of field margins is limited. An assessment in two German agricultural landscapes (4,000 ha each) demonstrated that many of the evaluated field margins were less than 3 m wide (Rhineland‐Palatinate: 85% of margin length; Brandenburg: 45% margin length). In Germany, risk mitigation measures (such as buffer zones) to reduce pesticide inputs to terrestrial non-crop habitats do not have to be established by farmers next to narrow field margins. Thus, narrow field margins receive inputs of agrochemicals, especially via overspray and spray drift. These field margins were used as a development habitat for caterpillars, but the mean abundance of caterpillars was 35 – 60% lower compared with that in meadows. Caterpillars were sensitive to realistic field margin input rates of insecticide (pyrethroid, lambda-cyhalothrin) in a field experiment as well as in laboratory experiments. Moreover, 40% fewer Hadena bicruris eggs were observed on Silene latifolia plants treated with this insecticide compared with control plants, and the flowers of these insecticide-treated plants were less likely to be pollinated by moths. In addition, realistic field margin input rates of herbicides can also affect Lepidoptera. Ranunculus acris L. plants treated with sublethal rates of a sulfonylurea herbicide were used as host plants for Mamestra brassicae L. caterpillars, which resulted in significantly lower caterpillar weights, increased time to pupation, and increased overall development time compared with caterpillars feeding on control plants. These results might have been caused by lower nutritional value of the herbicide-treated plants or increased concentrations of secondary metabolites involved in plant defense. Fertilizer applications slightly increased the caterpillar abundance in the field experiment. However, fertilizers reduce plant diversity in the long term and thus, most likely, also reduce caterpillar diversity.
Moths such as Noctuidae and Sphingidae have been observed to act as pollinators for numerous plant species, including a number of Orchidaceae and Caryophyllaceae. Although in temperate agro-ecosystems moths are less likely to act as the main pollinators for crops, they can pollinate non-crop plants in semi-natural habitats. Currently, the role of moths as pollinators appears to be underestimated, and long-term research focusing on ecosystems is necessary to address temporal fluctuations in their abundance and community composition.
Lepidoptera represent a diverse organism group in agricultural landscapes and fulfill essential ecosystem services, such as pollination. To better protect moths and butterflies, agrochemical inputs to (narrow) field margins habitats should be reduced, for example, via risk mitigation measures and agro-environmental schemes.


Computational materials simulations have traditionally focused on individual phenomena: grain growth, crack propagation, plastic flow, etc. However, real materials behavior results from a complex interplay between phenomena. In this project, the authors explored methods for coupling mesoscale simulations of microstructural evolution and micromechanical response. In one case, massively parallel (MP) simulations for grain evolution and microcracking in alumina stronglink materials were dynamically coupled. In the other, codes for domain coarsening and plastic deformation in CuSi braze alloys were iteratively linked. this program provided the first comparison of two promising ways to integrate mesoscale computer codes. Coupled microstructural/micromechanical codes were applied to experimentally observed microstructures for the first time. In addition to the coupled codes, this project developed a suite of new computational capabilities (PARGRAIN, GLAD, OOF, MPM, polycrystal plasticity, front tracking). The problem of plasticity length scale in continuum calculations was recognized and a solution strategy was developed. The simulations were experimentally validated on stockpile materials.


Network contention has a significantly adverse effect on the performance of parallel applications with increasing size of parallel machines. Machines of the petascale era are forcing application developers to map tasks intelligently to job partitions to achieve the best performance possible. This paper presents a framework for automated mapping of parallel applications with regular communication graphs to two and three dimensional mesh and torus networks. This framework will save much effort on the part of application developers to generate mappings for their individual applications. One component of the framework is a process topology analyzer to find regular patterns and if found, to determine the dimensions of the communication graphs of applications. The other component is a suite of heuristic techniques for mapping 2D object grids to 2D and 3D processor meshes. The framework chooses the best heuristic from the suite for a given object grid and processor mesh pair based on the hop-bytes metric. We show performance improvements using the framework, for a 2D Stencil benchmark in MPI and the Weather Research and Forecasting model running on the IBM Blue Gene/P. We also compare our algorithms with others discussed in literature.


[1] Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a pollutant and major greenhouse gas and its radiative forcing is still uncertain. Inadequate understanding of processes related to O3 production, in particular those natural ones such as lightning, contributes to this uncertainty. Here we demonstrate a new effect of aerosol particles on O3production by affecting lightning activity and lightning-generated NOx (LNOx). We find that lightning flash rate increases at a remarkable rate of 30 times or more per unit of aerosol optical depth. We provide observational evidence that indicates the observed increase in lightning activity is caused by the influx of aerosols from a volcano. Satellite data analyses show O3is increased as a result of aerosol-induced increase in lightning and LNOx, which is supported by modle simulations with prescribed lightning change. O3production increase from this aerosol-lightning-ozone link is concentrated in the upper troposphere, where O3 is most efficient as a greenhouse gas. In the face of anthropogenic aerosol increase our findings suggest that lightning activity, LNOx and O3, especially in the upper troposphere, have all increased substantially since preindustrial time due to the proposed aerosol-lightning-ozone link, which implies a stronger O3 historical radiative forcing. Aerosol forcing therefore has a warming component via its effect on O3 production and this component has mostly been ignored in previous studies of climate forcing related to O3and aerosols. Sensitivity simulations suggest that 4–8% increase of column tropospheric ozone, mainly in the tropics, is expected if aerosol-lighting-ozone link is parameterized, depending on the background emission scenario. We note, however, substantial uncertainties remain on the exact magnitude of aerosol effect on tropospheric O3 via lightning. The challenges for obtaining a quantitative global estimate of this effect are also discussed. Our results have significant implications for understanding past and projecting future tropospheric O3forcing as well as wildfire changes and call for integrated investigations of the coupled aerosol-cloud-chemistry system.


The aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate whether the German term "shrinking city" is appropriate to depopulating Polish cities. In order to do so an attempt to define the currently still vague notion of "shrinking city" was made. The urban development of Eastern Germany was thoroughly examined both in a short term perspective and in a wide historical as well as international context, with the Polish urban development used as reference. 25 cities (kreisfreie Stadte) in Eastern Germany and depopulating Polish cities: Łodź and the Metropolis Silesia were chosen as case studies.
On the basis of the gathered information a "shrinking city" in Eastern Germany was defined as a city with a long-lasting population decrease coupled with over-dimensioned, growth-oriented development policies carried out for decades. Such a development path is triggering negative consequences in the spatial, economic and also demographic dimension, which tend to intensify each other.
 The thesis postulates that the definition of the "shrinking city in Eastern Germany" is not appropriate to depopulating cities in Poland. Polish cities are characterized by a short-lasting population decrease and this trend is not triggering negative spatial and economic consequences. Oversized growth development policies were never present in the cities and they still suffer from great deficiencies in housing and other basic infrastructure, which derive from the socialist period. Furthermore, radical de-economization, known from Eastern German cities, did not occur in the Polish cities. Both Łodź and the Metropolis Silesia remain main production centers of the country.
This doctoral thesis presents a contradictory view to contemporary publications on "shrinking cities", in which this phenomenon is regarded as having occurred suddenly after the collapse of the socialism. It proved that "shrinking cities" in Eastern Germany are not the outcome of short-lasting processes, but are deeply rooted in the past. Moreover, they represent a very distinct development pattern that highly differentiates from the one found in Central Eastern Europe and the one in Western Europe. In this way the doctoral thesis provided a new, critical approach to the discourse on "shrinking cities" in Germany. It also draws attention to the importance of the historical analysis in cities' development research, particularly in cross border studies. In time of European integration peculiarities resulting from centuries of different spatial, economic and social development paths should not be underestimated.


Winner of the British Army Military Book of the Year 2011 The story of one of the most brutal battles in modern history - fought at a major turning point of the Second World War. Kohima. In this remote Indian village near the border with Burma, a tiny force of British and Indian troops faced the might of the Imperial Japanese Army. Outnumbered ten to one, the defenders fought the Japanese hand to hand in a battle that was amongst the most savage in modern warfare. A garrison of no more than 1,500 fighting men, desperately short of water and with the wounded compelled to lie in the open, faced a force of 15,000 Japanese. They held the pass and prevented a Japanese victory that would have proved disastrous for the British. Another six weeks of bitter fighting followed as British and Indian reinforcements strove to drive the enemy out of India. When the battle was over, a Japanese army that had invaded India on a mission of imperial conquest had suffered the worst defeat in its history. Thousands of men lay dead on a devastated landscape, while tens of thousands more Japanese starved in a catastrophic retreat eastwards. They called the journey back to Burma the 'Road of Bones', as friends and comrades committed suicide or dropped dead from hunger along the jungle paths. Fergal Keane has reported for the BBC from conflicts on every continent over the past 25 years, and he brings to this work of history not only rigorous scholarship but a raw understanding of the pitiless nature of war. It is a story filled with vivid characters: the millionaire's son who refused a commission and was awarded a VC for his sacrifice in battle, the Roedean debutante who led a guerrilla band in the jungle, and the General who defied the orders of a hated superior in order to save the lives of his men. Based on original research in Japan, Britain and India, 'Road of Bones' is a story about extraordinary courage and the folly of imperial dreams.


The 2018 second quarter edition of the Quarterly Business Review (QBR) provides management with a status of the Bank's performance. The QBR reports on outputs, lending program priorities and organizational indicators on a quarterly basis to allow management to monitor progress in achieving corporate results. This periodic monitoring supports evidence-based decision making and allows for timely identification of deviations from targets and enables effective implementation of measures to address them.


From the Publisher:
With all the whiz, bang, pop and shimmer of a glowing arcade, The Ultimate History of Video Games reveals everything you ever wanted to know and more about the unforgettable games that changed the world, the visionaries who made them, and the fanatics who played them. From the arcade to television and from the PC to the handheld device, video games have entranced kids at heart for nearly 30 years. And author and gaming historian Steven L. Kent has been there to record the craze from the very beginning.

This engrossing book tells the incredible tale of how this backroom novelty transformed into a cultural phenomenon. Through meticulous research and personal interviews with hundreds of industry luminaries, you'll read firsthand accounts of how yesterday's games like Space Invaders, Centipede, and Pac-Man helped create an arcade culture that defined a generation, and how today's empires like Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts have galvanized a multibillion-dollar industry and a new generation of gamers. Inside, you'll discover:

• The video game that saved Nintendo from bankruptcy
• The serendipitous story of Pac-Man's design
• The misstep that helped topple Atari's $2 billion-a-year empire
• The coin shortage caused by Space Invaders
• The fascinating reasons behind the rise, fall, and rebirth of Sega
• And much more!

Entertaining, addictive, and as mesmerizing as the games it chronicles, this book is a must-have for anyone who's ever touched a joystick.


The sexually transmitted disease known as "The French Pox," a forerunner of modern syphilis, represented a significant departure from early modern European knowledge of disease. Particularly distinctive was the gendered nature of the disease; females were labeled responsible for the formation of disease and thus associated with the moral corruption of the pox. This article examines the roots of this societal sexism in the Christian Pauline theory, using the binary between male and female to appreciate the development of the pox and the social differentiation that occurred as a result of its contagion.


Abstract In Slovakia, modern Cultural Studies of English-speaking countries have been integrated into university curricula since the 1990s. However, there is a fundamental difference in the role CLIL plays in teaching "realia" (alternatively: cultural studies, country studies and area studies) for philological students and for business students of non-philological faculties. While philological students study realia with primary linguistic and cultural goals (i.e. to learn new words, terminology, context and comparative cultural aspects), non-philological students' goals are business oriented (i.e. allow a successful graduate to function effectively in a new business environment). That affects the methodology, teaching procedure and assessment of both disciplines in debate.


Publisher Rights Statement: Copyright © 2010 Cain et al. This article is distributed under the terms of an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike–No Mirror Sites license for the first six months after the publication date (see http://www.rupress.org/terms). After six months it is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/).


This article considers how the composition and gravamen of a charged crime can affect the parties' willingness and ability to engage in plea bargaining. Most of the prevailing descriptions of plea bargaining ignore or discount the importance of charge content in plea negotiations. In fact, one leading commentator has likened crimes to widgets insofar as plea bargaining is concerned. In developing its counter-thesis, this article reviews seven years of federal conviction data, focusing on those crimes that produce the most and fewest trials relative to how often they are alleged; the most and fewest acquittals at trial; and the most and fewest plea bargains that involve a substantial alteration in charges. Overall, the data demonstrate that the character of and circumstances that surround a particular offense can catalyze or frustrate plea bargaining. Similar information to that utilized in and gleaned from this study, it is also argued, can and should be considered in connection with the adoption of new crimes and the re-evaluation of existing offenses. This information would provide legislatures with insight into how a proposed crime is likely to be utilized, and how current crimes are being used.


With global revenue surpassing twenty-five billion dollars annually, organic agriculture is a highly visible and rapidly growing component of agricultural production. In Organic Agriculture: A Global Perspective, Paul Kristiansen, Acram Taji, and John Reganold, and their international group of contributors scientifically review key aspects of organic agriculture. At the intersection of research, education, and practice, the contributors look at the organic agricultural movement's successes and limitations.

The first half of this book critically evaluates the agricultural production of both plants and livestock in organic farming systems. All major aspects of organic agriculture are explored, including historical background and underlying principles, soil-fertility management, crop and animal production, breeding strategies, and crop protection. This global and comprehensive overview also addresses the economic, social, and political aspects of organic farming. These include economics and marketing; standards and certification; environmental impacts and social responsibility; and research, education, and extension.

The book is a unique and timely science-based international work documenting current practices in organic agriculture and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. For more than two decades, research into organic methods by mainstream scientists has generated a large body of information that can now be integrated and used for assessing the actual impacts of organic farming in a wide range of disciplines. The knowledge of selected international experts has been combined in one volume, providing a comprehensive review of organic farming globally.

Researchers, teachers, extensionists, students, primary producers and others around the world who are interested in sustainable agriculture will find this book to be a valuable and reliable resource.

Features
* Presents a scientific analysis of organic farming practices
* Integrates production, economic and social issues
* Features an international team of contributors


• On 31 May World No Tobacco Day was launched at the Japanese Ministry of Health in Tokyo. This year's theme focused on the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. Women are a major target for the tobacco industry as it attempts to recruit new users to replace those who will quit or die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death and kills more than five million people every year, about 1.5 million of whom are women. At the launch, the World Health Organization (WHO) presented a new publication: Gender, women and the tobacco epidemic. • On 3 June 2010, the Countdown to 2015 decade report (2000–2010): taking stock of maternal, newborn & child survival was launched at the Women Deliver conference in Washington, DC, United States of America. The 2010 report examines 68 countries where more than 95% of all maternal and child deaths occur. The report calls for more political action and investment to develop basic services that could save millions of lives a year.