24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep explores some of the ruinous consequences of the expanding non-stop processes of twenty-first-century capitalism. The marketplace now operates through every hour of the clock, pushing us into constant activity and eroding forms of community and political expression, damaging the fabric of everyday life. Jonathan Crary examines how this interminable non-time blurs any separation between an intensified, ubiquitous consumerism and emerging strategies of control and surveillance. He describes the ongoing management of individual attentiveness and the impairment of perception within the compulsory routines of contemporary technological culture. At the same time, he shows that human sleep, as a restorative withdrawal that is intrinsically incompatible with 24/7 capitalism, points to other more formidable and collective refusals of world-destroying patterns of growth and accumulation.


This Analysis mainly predicts the sarcasm sentiment detection of twitter. As detecting sarcasm in sentimental analysis is one of the most challenging task. Opinion mining is adopted for this study which covers various linguistic phenomenon such as positive, negative, sarcastic, ironic etc. Where it is possible to analyse the sentiments for text data from a very popular micro blogging website Twitter. Sarcasm is a type of dialect where ordinarily, the speaker expressly states the opposite of what is actually meant. Instilled with purposeful equivocalness and nuance, detection sarcasm is a difficult errand, even for human beings. This is due to the absence of vocal prompts and outward appearances and is generally lost in the content. For humans it's very difficult to identify the vocal inflection. Sarcasm detection without vocal cues is very complicated task in hand. The existing state of art solutions in sentimental analysis and sarcasm scope detection has been investigated. Moreover, a corpus of social media data with linguistic negation has been developed and an enhanced framework for sarcasm detection has been developed and assessed .And the results are not accurate by this means making it a machine learning algorithm to detect sarcasm sentiment. Hence, proved that by including a combined approach of hyperbole, emoticons, lexical analysis, contrast can achieve better accuracy when compared to usage of only linguistic features. However, exactness and strength of results are frequently influenced by false sentiments that are of sarcastic in nature and this is regularly left unnoticed. Designed a machine learning algorithm for sarcasm detection in content by utilizing the existing work and add improvisations on it. By breaking down the qualities and shortcomings of the existing models, it is to develop a new model that will accomplish better results.


Modifications in a benthic community, induced by an experimental transplant of seagrass (Cymodocea nodosa Ucria), were studied in an area located in the southern basin of the Lagoon of Venice. Two surveys, carried out in March and September 1996, indicated that species composition and numerical dominants changed with season, with increasing dissimilarity between the transplanted meadow and the surrounding area. The latter was used as a control area and was characterised by the presence of pleustophytic algae (Ulva rigida, Gracilaria verrucosa, Chaetomorpha linum). Comparison with a natural C. nodosa bed showed that, only two vegetative seasons after transplant, seagrass performance and the structure of the macrobenthic community were quite similar to those recorded in a natural meadow. The experiment demonstrated the importance of C. nodosa transplant in the Lagoon of Venice and the changes induced in the whole benthic community by the introduction of seagrass in an area previously lacking it.


Gerhardstein, Renner, and Rovee-Collier (1999) reported an investigation of pop-out in infant visual search with targets differing in colour from the distractors. They varied the perceptual distance between target and distractors and their categorical relationship. Targets were either in the same category as distractors or in a different category. They reported that at 3 months, infants showed increased pop-out as perceptual distance increased, but there was no categorical effect. Here, we argue that their stimuli were not adequate to address these issues. Use of incandescent light rather than the normal illuminant C differentially affected the perceptual differences among their stimuli, and there may have been an unintended category boundary present in an intended within category pair. We argue that these faults in the stimuli can account for their pattern of results. They were aware of the possible consequences of using incandescent light and ran a preliminary study on adults comparing category membership and perceived similarity among their stimuli under incandescent light and illuminant C. They report that the illuminant had no effect. We replicated and extended their adult study and found that there were effects of the illuminant as well as evidence consistent with the unintended boundary. Reasons for the discrepant results are discussed, and the requirements for a valid investigation outlined.


Protecting the register value and its data buses is crucial to reliable computing in high-performance microprocessors due to the increasing susceptibility of CMOS circuitry to soft errors induced by high-energy particle strikes. Since the register file is in the critical path of the processor pipeline, any reliable design that increases either the pressure on the register file or the register file access latency is not desirable. In this paper, we propose to exploit narrow-width register values, which present the majority of the generated values, for duplicating a copy of the value within the same data item, called in-register duplication (IRD), eliminating the requirement of additional copy registers. The datapath pipeline is augmented to efficiently incorporate parity encoding and parity checking such that error recovery is seamlessly supported in IRD and the parity checking is overlapped with the execution stage to avoid increasing the critical path. Our experimental evaluation using the SPEC CINT2000 benchmark suite shows that IRD provides superior read-with-duplicate (RWD) and error detection/recovery rates under heavy error injection as compared to previous reliability schemes


Machine condition monitoring has become a vital component of maintenance programs
in machine intensive operations, such as the mining, mineral processing and manufacturing
industries. Vibration and oil analysis have become the two most commonly
used techniques for fault detection and tracking. These techniques are generally used
independently as expert knowledge is required in each field, and due to a lack of understanding
about how to integrate them. However, numerous case studies of machine
failures have reported on the benefit of a correlated approach. This project focused
on the development of an analytical strategy that, for the first time analyses vibration
data in conjunction with oil and wear debris data for machine health assessment.

In order to achieve the goal of developing a strategy for correlated application of
vibration, oil and wear particle analysis using artificial intelligence, a number of project
objectives were identified. The project objectives were to investigate the fault detection
abilities of condition monitoring techniques as a basis for developing a correlated strategy,
and finally to implement this strategy using artificial intelligence. These objectives
were collated into a project plan that consisted of a comprehensive survey of condition
monitoring techniques and correlation investigation, correlation strategy development,
expert system development and a testing phase.

The project was performed in a number of stages to allow the progress to be monitored.
The first stage comprised a thorough literature review to ascertain the current
research status in the condition monitoring field, as well as confirming the project objectives.
The second and third stages were concerned with the preparation of spur and
worm gearbox laboratory test rigs, and the operation of suitable experiments. The
measured condition monitoring data allowed the fault detection of the vibration, oil and wear particle analysis techniques to be assessed. The data was also used for verification
of the correlation strategy developed in stage four. Stage five was concerned
with the development of three expert systems for vibration analysis, oil and wear particle
analysis, and correlated condition analysis respectively. The expert system for
correlated condition analysis was constructed using the correlation strategy of stage
four of the project. All expert systems were thoroughly tested using laboratory and
industry derived data to verify correct operation.

The outcomes of this research project contribute to the current academic knowledge
of the condition monitoring field, as well as provide industry with potential economic
and environmental benefits. The novel strategy for correlation of vibration, oil and
wear particle analysis techniques, as well as the demonstration of the effectiveness of
the developed expert systems are contributed to the academic research community.
The expert systems include additional innovative features such as a fault root-cause
analysis algorithm, and a new strategy for machine remaining lifetime estimation using
a wear approach that can be updated using condition monitoring data. The fully
functional expert system software package complete with user interface is contributed
to the industry partner Industrial and Technical Services for potential future commercialisation.

The developments of this project can provide significant benefits to the mining, mineral
processing and manufacturing industries if the project outcomes are implemented.
The correlated condition monitoring strategy allows improved early fault detection,
more reliable fault diagnosis and the ability to perform root-cause analysis, compared
to conventional vibration, oil and wear particle analysis. These advances combine to
improve the efficiency of the maintenance program resulting in increasing machine uptime,
reduced maintenance costs and lower environmental impact. The adoption of
the project developments could therefore ultimately improve the profitability of the
venture, and help Australian operations to remain financially viable on a global scale.


An H-2K/IA recombinant mouse strain was used to map the genes within the H-2 complex which determine the ability to respond in cell-mediated lympholysis (CML) to low doses of trinitrophenyl-self (TNP-self). It was found that gene(s) which map to the K region are involved in regulation of CML response to low-dose TNP-self. It was also found that CML response to TNP recognized in association with H-2Dq was not detectable in this recombinant. These findings are discussed with respect to the involvement of the H-2K and H-2D regions by structural and/or regulator gene functions.


Political empowerment, social justice, and environmental resilience are increasingly upheld alongside flavor and quality as criteria of "good" foods. However, these criteria cannot be simply assessed through taste tests—one cannot determine from a bite of chocolate whether the cacao it contains was tended by child slaves in the Ivory Coast or fairtrade farmers in Ghana. In order to reinvent these global commodities, to rediscover the small farmers hidden behind bulk purchasing and corporate branding, consumers today increasingly rely on a variety of twenty-first-century tools, technologies, and labels. This article explores one of these instruments, questioning the relative merits of the product rating system provided by GoodGuide, an internet-based tool designed to help consumers with product research, and comparing it to the fairtrade labels that are more familiar to most coffee drinkers. GoodGuide's greatest strength is how it assesses a product from crop to cup, capturing multiple and diverse factors within global supply chains. However, in comparison to fairtrade labeling, GoodGuide employs quantitative metrics and opaque rating criteria that inadequately capture the complexity of smallholder coffee production in places like Guatemala. It also fails to promote food citizenship in a meaningful way. One key part of reinventing foods is intentionally placing people at the heart of the provisioning system. Therefore, it is important to question the extent to which new tools and technologies for assessing the relative "goodness" of foods promote food citizenship and food-related behaviors that support, rather than threaten, the development of a democratic, economically just, and environmentally sustainable food system.


Abstract Every GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phone, also called 2G mobile phone and every UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) phone, aka 3G mobile phone requires a smart card to connect and function in the mobile network. This smart card is called SIM, which stands for Subscriber Identity Module. In fact, this module contains the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and credentials that are necessary for the identification and authentication of the subscriber. Without the SIM the user will not be allowed to connect to the mobile network and hence not able to make or receive phone calls. As a smart card the SIM is a tampered resistant microprocessor card with its own operating system, storage and built-in security features that prevent unauthorized individual to access, retrieve, copy or modify the subscriber IMSI and credentials. Abuses of subscriber's account and fraudulent accesses to the mobile network can hence be avoided. Furthermore, as a removable and autonomous module the SIM introduces great flexibility since the user can easily move the SIM to other mobile phones or replace a SIM with another one. So far, the smart card and its content, the SIM are bound together and called SIM. With the advances in wireless and storage technology, new demands have arisen. Because of cumbersome task of opening machines and installing the removable SIM, the M2M applications are designed with pre-installed SIM application. The M2M applications based on the cellular networks with the ability of installing the user subscription have advantages and disadvantages for a certain stakeholder. This master's thesis provides the multiple alternative solutions to this installation and also describe the SIM evolutions i.e. eUICC and soft SIM to give a comprehensive view of the SIM's situation. The thesis also presents the security assessment of these evolutions which are different with the current removable SIM.


We present an automatic approach for the task of reconstructing a 2-D floor plan from unstructured point clouds of building interiors. Our approach emphasizes accurate and robust detection of building structural elements and, unlike previous approaches, does not require prior knowledge of scanning device poses. The reconstruction task is formulated as a multiclass labeling problem that we approach using energy minimization. We use intuitive priors to define the costs for the energy minimization problem and rely on accurate wall and opening detection algorithms to ensure robustness. We provide detailed experimental evaluation results, both qualitative and quantitative, against state-of-the-art methods and labeled ground-truth data.


Melting anomalies in the Earth's upper mantle have often been attributed to the presence of mantle plumes that may originate in the lower mantle, possibly from the core‐mantle boundary. Globally, mantle plumes exhibit a large range in buoyancy flux that is proportional to their temperature and volume. Plumes with higher buoyancy fluxes should have higher temperatures and experience higher degrees of partial melting. This excess heat in mantle plumes could reflect either (1) an enrichment of the heat‐producing elements (HPE: U, Th, K) in their mantle source leading to an increase of heat production by radioactive decay, (2) material transport from core to mantle (either advective or diffusive), or (3) conductive heat transport across the core‐mantle boundary. The advective/diffusive transport of heat may result in a physical contribution of material from the core to the lower mantle. If core material is incorporated into the lower mantle, mantle plumes with a higher buoyancy flux should have higher core tracers, e.g., increased 186Os, 187Os, and Fe concentrations. Geophysical and dynamic modeling indicate that at least Afar, Easter, Hawaii, Louisville, and Samoa may all originate at the core‐mantle boundary. These plumes encompass the whole range of known buoyancy fluxes from 0.9 Mg s−1 (Afar) to 8.7 Mg s−1 (Hawaii), providing evidence that the buoyancy flux is largely independent of other geophysical parameters. In an effort to explore whether the heat‐producing elements are the cause of excess heat we looked for correlations between fractionation‐corrected concentrations of the HPE and buoyancy flux. Our results suggest that there is no correlation between HPE concentrations and buoyancy flux (with and without an additional correction for variable degrees of partial melting). As anticipated, K, Th, and U are positively correlated with each other (e.g., Hawaii, Iceland, and Galapagos have significantly lower concentrations than, e.g., Tristan da Cunha, the Canary Islands, and the Azores). We also find no correlation between Fe and buoyancy flux. The apparent lack of correlations suggests that excess heat may be a result of conductive heat contribution from the core or from the adjacent boundary layer. Thus, the formation of mantle plumes along the core‐mantle boundary may be largely controlled by distance of enriched material from the core‐mantle boundary.


Objective: HIV-associated sensory neuropathy (HIV-SN) remains common in HIV+ individuals receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART), even though neurotoxic antiretroviral drugs (e.g. stavudine) have been phased out of use. Accumulating evidence indicates that the neuropathy is immune-mediated. We hypothesize that chemokines produced locally in the skin promote migration of macrophages and T cells into the tissue, damaging cutaneous nerves causing HIV-SN. Design: We assessed chemokine receptor expression on infiltrating CD14+ and CD3+ cells around cutaneous nerves in standardized skin biopsies from HIV-SN+ patients (n = 5), HIV-SN− patients (n = 9) and healthy controls (n = 4). Methods: The AIDS Clinical Trials Group Brief Peripheral Neuropathy Screen was used to assess Indonesian HIV+ patients receiving ART without stavudine (case definition: bilateral presence of at least one symptom and at least one sign of neuropathy). Distal leg skin biopsies were stained to visualize chemokine receptors (CCR2, CCR5, CXCR3, CXCR4, CX3CR1), infiltrating CD3+ and CD14+ cells, and protein-gene-product 9.5 on nerves, using immunohistochemistry and 4-colour confocal microscopy. Results: Intraepidermal nerve fibre density was variable in patients without HIV-SN and generally lower in those with HIV-SN. CX3CR1 was more evident on CD14+ cells whereas CCR2, CCR5, CXCR3 and CXCR4 were more common on CD3+ cells. Expression of CX3CR1, CCR2 and CCR5 was more common in HIV-SN+ patients than those without HIV-SN. CXCR3 and CXCR4 were upregulated in all HIV+ patients, compared with healthy controls. Conclusion: Inflammatory macrophages expressing CX3CR1 and T cells expressing CCR2 and CCR5 may participate in peripheral nerve damage leading to HIV-SN in HIV+ patients treated without stavudine. Further characterization of these cells is warranted.


A diffusive gradients in thin films technique (DGT) device using thiol-modified carbon nanoparticle (SH-CNP) suspension as the liquid binding phase and cellulose acetate membrane as the diffusive layer was evaluated for determination of Hg2+ in water. Laboratory DGT validation experiments gave linear mass uptake over time (R2 ≥ 0.99) for Hg2+ in solutions of different concentrations. The effect of pH, ionic strength and potential interfering ions on Hg2+ binding with DGT devices was investigated. The results showed that the gathering amount of SH-CNPs-DGT for Hg2+ reached the maximum when the pH of solution was close to neutral and the ionic strength of solution and co-existing potential interfering ions such as Cd2+, Cr3+, Cu2+ and Pb2+ had no significant effect on gathering of SH-CNPs-DGT for Hg2+. Finally, validation of the SH-CNPs-DGT devices was undertaken for Hg2+ in spiked local water systems (Dongpu Reservoir and Nanfei River). For in situ measurements in Nanfei River water, the average labile Hg concentrations were 0.091 ± 0.009, 0.053 ± 0.003, and 0.071 ± 0.006 μg L−1 for three, six and seven days, respectively, which were lower than the value obtained by using ICP-MS, as DGT only measures ionic mercury and labile mercury species but direct measurement measures total mercury including inert organic species and large colloids.


Abstract. Soil loss is commonly estimated using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE). Since RUSLE is an empirically based soil-loss model derived from surveys on plots, the high spatial and temporal variability of erosion in Mediterranean environments and scale effects mean that it is necessary to evaluate the model in other spatial units such as the microcatchment. In this study, a series of topographic and soil surveys was carried out on a microcatchment of 6.7 ha in a mountainous area under no-tillage farming with bare soil in order to examine spatial and temporal results produced by RUSLE. GPS measurements of the microrelief height differences were used in a control area in the microcatchment to compare observed erosion and deposition with RUSLE predictions. Erosion points located in certain areas correlate very closely with RUSLE predictions, while the distribution of deposition points showed no correlations with RUSLE predictions. Secondly, a time series of daily rainfall data was used to calculate annual erosivity values, which were fitted to an appropriate distribution function. It was determined that the rainfall distribution best fitted the Pearson type III distribution function. Next, efforts were made to quantify the long term erosion and to check the suitability of the land-use and management under different thresholds of tolerance. It was found that values of erosivity in the study area with a return period of 10 years generate a mean annual erosion of 5 t ha−1 yr−1. On the study scale, RUSLE allowed us to locate the most erosive areas and to combine the suitability of the soil land-use and the management with the frequency of the annual erosivity. In addition, an annual sediment delivery ratio of approximately 47% was estimated for the period 2005–2006.


esculentum, mechanical conditioning, plug production Abstract. During production of plug transplants, the high plant density results in rapid stem elongation as plants compete for light. The resulting tall, weak-stemmed plants are difficult to transplant and are easily damaged. One technique that can prevent excessive elongation is mechanical stimulation by brushing. Wide adoption of brushing is limited by a lack of information on how plants respond to variations in applying the technique. Our investigation examined how tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Oh8245) seedling growth responded to varying doses of mechanical stimulation, varying intervals between brush strokes during stimulation, time of day that stimulation was applied, and growth stage at which application started. Seedlings were grown in 288-cell flats at 2100 plants/m 2 . Daily doses from 0 to 40 brush strokes were applied from canopy closure until the nontreated plants reached a canopy height of 15 cm. The final height was reduced by ≈20% for all brushed treatments, with little further effect with >10 strokes/d. Intervals between strokes as long as 10 minutes resulted in the same reduction in the rate of stem elongation as the same daily dose applied in one continuous treatment. Treatments were similarly effective whether applied in the morning or late afternoon. Treatments begun at a canopy height of 6 (canopy closure), 8, or 10 cm gave similar reductions in the rate of stem elongation. Plants grew 6 mm·d-1 when they were not treated and 3 mm·d -1 when treated. Therefore, the final height was directly related to the number of treatment days. Stimulation appears to be sensed and integrated over at least half an hour and the reduction in the rate of stem elongation expressed over the subsequent daily cycle of growth. All results indicate that there is substantial flexibility in applying brushing for controlling elongation in tomato transplants.


Community based rehabilitation of offenders (probation and parole system) has got tremendous significance in criminal justice system as the world has sharply moved away from retributive to rehabilitative justice. The author has tried to explore the gaps between the concept, comparing and contrasting it with "what works" in the situation of probation and parole systems in Pakistan. There are many stipulated rules available in the country for release of offenders on probation and parole. Correctional treatment of offenders being on probation and parole has been assigned to Reclamation and Probation departments in all four provinces of Pakistan which are, unfortunately, facing almost the same problems in legal, financial, professional and technical matters. Above all, probation and parole officers lack professional orientation, conceptual clarity, motivational work environment, innovative correctional skills and training. It reveals the fact that the probation and parole system has been a neglected area of criminal justice system in Pakistan. Research-based suggestions for reinvigorating the probation and parole system in Pakistan are also included.


RELATE: Relationship Evaluation of the Individual, Family, Cultural, and Couple Contexts* The purpose of this article is to present the conceptual model underlying RELATE, a relationship evaluation instrument, and to describe how this instrument can be used by instructors, clinicians, and therapists. The RELATE model contains measures of the 4 primary contexts of a couple's experience: the individual, the family, the culture, and the couple. The model includes some of the primary variables in Gottman's marital cascade and has been evaluated for reliability and validity. Examples of how to use the instrument and model are illustrated for couples, educators, and clinicians. Key Words: assessment, couples, premarital relationships. It is challenging to capture the dynamics of couple relationships. Scholars have used interviews, observations, surveys, tasks, and even physiological measures to attempt to understand the quality of relationships. One group of scholars, the RELATE Institute (RI, previously the Marriage Study Consortium), was formed in 1979 by a diverse group of researchers, clinicians, and educators, dedicated to the dual goals of strengthening and understanding premarital and marital relationships. Over the last 20 years, members of the RI have grappled with trying to measure the complexities of adult romantic relationships from a variety of different angles. In addition, the RI has searched for ways to present data in a manner that is useful to couples and the family professionals who work with them. Through this endeavor, three versions of a comprehensive instrument and accompanying feedback tool have been published. The most recent version of the instrument is the RELATionship Evaluation Questionnaire (RELATE; Holman, Busby, Doxey, Klein, & Loyer-Carlson, 1997). This article describes the development of the conceptual model from which RELATE was derived and discusses how the model and instrument can be used by educators, clinicians, and researchers. The Development of the RELATE Model The RELATE model was developed by reviewing over 50 years of research that delineated the important premarital predictors of later marital quality and stability. The comprehensive review of research on premarital predictors of marital quality by Larson and Holman (1994) was a foundational document for RELATE. Table I lists the main findings from this review. Since the 1994 review, new research indicated additional constructs to include in the model (Gottman, 1994; Karney & Bradbury, 1995). These new additions are listed in bold in the table. This list of constructs was used to develop items included in the instrument. The couple process model extensively studied and researched by Gottman, providing one of the best models for the prediction of marital success or failure, was included as part of the couple constructs. Over time, as new research emerges, the constructs in RELATE will continue to evolve. Researchers have recently emphasized the need to develop relationship models that are more comprehensive and that include constructs that (a) target trait-like characteristics of partners, and (b) capture behavioral exchanges between partners (Bradbury, Campbell, & Fincham, 1995). Because of the comprehensive nature of RELATE, it contains extensive measures of both types of constructs, as well as measures of family background, culture, and values. Whereas the initial scales included in the instrument came from existing research and from previous versions of RELATE, there is a conceptual model that organizes the numerous subcategories and suggests relationships between the constructs assessed via the scales. The systemic model underlying RELATE suggests that relationships are developed and maintained within a series of contexts or subsystems (Bradbury & Fincham, 1987, 1988, 1991), as noted in Figure 1. Although numerous contexts can be measured, the most important ones for premarital and marital relationships include the individual, familial, cultural, and couple contexts (Holman & Associates, 2000; Larson & Holman, 1994). …


As microbolometer pixel dimensions for infrared imagers continue to decrease, the need for full-wave analysis in the design process is enhanced. Using reflectance as the validation point, an electromagnetic model of a dual-layer microbolometer pixel design was created for a 25 μm pixel design, and an in-depth study of the design was performed. With this model validated, further explorations were completed with a reduced size pixel. While simulating multiple variations of specific parameters, such as bridge thickness, upper and lower cavity heights, and different absorber configurations, a new evaluation metric of dissipated power in the structure was studied. This metric, provided by finite element analysis, provides great insight into absorption properties within the microbolometer structure, properties that cannot be directly measured but that are critical to the functionality of the pixel design. In this paper parametric analysis of microbolometer pixel designs are presented via both reflectance and dissipated power full-wave analysis.


Computer visualization can effectively deliver instructions to a user whose task requires understanding of a real world scene. Consider the example of surgical telementoring, where a general surgeon performs an emergency surgery under the guidance of a remote mentor. The mentor guidance includes annotations of the operating field, which conventionally are displayed to the surgeon on a nearby monitor. However, this conventional visualization of mentor guidance requires the surgeon to look back and forth between the monitor and the operating field, which can lead to cognitive load, delays, or even medical errors. Another example is 3D acquisition of a real-world scene, where an operator must acquire multiple images of the scene from specific viewpoints to ensure appropriate scene coverage and thus achieve quality 3D reconstruction. The conventional approach is for the operator to plan the acquisition locations using conventional visualization tools, and then to try to execute the plan from memory, or with the help of a static map. Such approaches lead to incomplete coverage during acquisition, resulting in an inaccurate reconstruction of the 3D scene which can only be addressed at the high and sometimes prohibitive cost of repeating acquisition.Augmented reality (AR) promises to overcome the limitations of conventional out-of-context visualization of real world scenes by delivering visual guidance directly into the user's field of view, guidance that remains in-context throughout the completion of the task. In this thesis, we propose and validate several AR visual interfaces that provide effective visual guidance for task completion in the context of surgical telementoring and 3D scene acquisition.A first AR interface provides a mentee surgeon with visual guidance from a remote mentor using a simulated transparent display. A computer tablet suspended above the patient captures the operating field with its on-board video camera, the live video is sent to the mentor who annotates it, and the annotations are sent back to the mentee where they are displayed on the tablet, integrating the mentor-created annotations directly into the mentee's view of the operating field. We show through user studies that surgical task performance improves when using the AR surgical telementoring interface compared to when using the conventional visualization of the annotated operating field on a nearby monitor. A second AR surgical telementoring interface provides the mentee surgeon with visual guidance through an AR head-mounted display (AR HMD). We validate this approach in user studies with medical professionals in the context of practice cricothyrotomy and lower-limb fasciotomy procedures, and show improved performance over conventional surgical guidance. A comparison between our simulated transparent display and our AR HMD surgical telementoring interfaces reveals that the HMD has the advantages of reduced workspace encumbrance and of correct depth perception of annotations, whereas the transparent display has the advantage of reduced surgeon head and neck encumbrance and of annotation visualization quality. A third AR interface provides operator guidance for effective image-based modeling and rendering of real-world scenes. During the modeling phase, the AR interface builds and dynamically updates a map of the scene that is displayed to the user through an AR HMD, which leads to the efficient acquisition of a five-degree-of-freedom image-based model of large, complex indoor environments. During rendering, the interface guides the user towards the highest-density parts of the image-based model which result in the highest output image quality. We show through a study that first-time users of our interface can acquire a quality image-based model of a 13m $\times$ 10m indoor environment in 7 minutes.A fourth AR interface provides operator guidance for effective capture of a 3D scene in the context of photogrammetric reconstruction. The interface relies on an AR HMD with a tracked hand-held camera rig to construct a sufficient set of six-degrees-of-freedom camera acquisition poses and then to steer the user to align the camera with the prescribed poses quickly and accurately. We show through a study that first-time users of our interface are significantly more likely to achieve complete 3D reconstructions compared to conventional freehand acquisition. We then investigated the design space of AR HMD interfaces for mid-air pose alignment with an added ergonomics concern, which resulted in five candidate interfaces that sample this design space. A user study identified the aspects of the AR interface design that influence the ergonomics during extended use, informing AR HMD interface design for the important task of mid-air pose alignment.


Taking an approach to the subject that is suitable for a broad readership, Discrete Mathematics: Proofs, Structures, and Applications, Third Edition provides a rigorous yet accessible exposition of discrete mathematics, including the core mathematical foundation of computer science. The approach is comprehensive yet maintains an easy-to-follow progression from the basic mathematical ideas to the more sophisticated concepts examined later in the book. This edition preserves the philosophy of its predecessors while updating and revising some of the content. New to the Third EditionIn the expanded first chapter, the text includes a new section on the formal proof of the validity of arguments in propositional logic before moving on to predicate logic. This edition also contains a new chapter on elementary number theory and congruences. This chapter explores groups that arise in modular arithmetic and RSA encryption, a widely used public key encryption scheme that enables practical and secure means of encrypting data. This third edition also offers a detailed solutions manual for qualifying instructors. Exploring the relationship between mathematics and computer science, this text continues to provide a secure grounding in the theory of discrete mathematics and to augment the theoretical foundation with salient applications. It is designed to help readers develop the rigorous logical thinking required to adapt to the demands of the ever-evolving discipline of computer science.


Medication errors are amongst the most frequently occurring health care related incidents and have the potential to lead to life-threatening harm to patients. An incident reporting system is a traditional approach to improvement of patient safety and entails the retrieval of information from incident reports. This not only provides a better understanding of causes and contributing factors but also enables the collection of data on the severity of incidents, system deficiencies and the role of human factors in safety incidents. Medication error reporting systems are often developed as a part of larger incident reporting systems which deal with other types of incidents. Although a rise in the prevalence of medication errors has led to an increased demand for medication error reporting, little is known about characteristics and limitations of medication error reporting systems. The authors broach the subject of medication error reporting systems and propose a more robust and standardized approach.


Over the last two decades the Chinese government has conducted an unprecedented and rapid transformation of its banking system. These changes are especially noteworthy because they are emerging against a backdrop of great global, as well as internal, financial turmoil. Moreover, the Chinese banking transformation is picking up steam at the very time China is increasingly flexing its political muscle on the global stage. These remarks argue that the current internal transformation of the Chinese banking system is inextricably intertwined with China's rise in the global financial arena. They further argue that China's unique banking structure and recent experiences can provide many insights into how future financial crises may be averted. Furthermore, in addition to being fascinating in its own right, the manner in which China is utilizing its new banking structure to parlay itself into a position of greater political power constitutes one of the largely untold stories of the current global financial crisis. This banking transformation is also particularly significant in light of its distinctive structure among contemporary financial powers. One unique aspect of the Chinese banking system is the way it straddles the lines between the private and public spheres in ways unfamiliar to western banking systems. As the recent financial crisis has demonstrated, these tensions between public and private in the financial realm are also manifesting in traditionally market-based regimes. China, however, is charting the opposite path from most western regimes — China is moving away from a largely public banking model to a more privatized model, albeit one with "Chinese Characteristics." The development of the modern Chinese banking system, and specifically the emergence of its current mixed public/private banking structure, has received altogether too little attention in the West. The successes and failures of the internal Chinese transition thus offers important lessons to other countries and policymakers as the current global banking crisis deepens. The Chinese banking transformation also has larger, more long-term global implications. While China is ostensibly just modernizing its banking system, purportedly conducting its own brand of market reform, in reality China has taken advantage of the robustness of its banking system to strengthen its own financial power, both subtly and explicitly, as banking structures in other countries struggle and weaken. In particular, China is attempting to use its financial might to extract financial and political concessions from other countries. Several recent financial developments highlight China's growing power and their broader implications for the global financial arena. Finally, in an era where many countries, scholars, and key financial and political players are proposing a myriad of "solutions" to financial problems and crises, a broader dialogue is required over the range of potential solutions to systems such as China's, where such solutions may ultimately emerge. We all must be concerned with the question set forth in the tile of these remarks — are China's banking reforms aimed simply at domestic modernization or are they an integral part of China's bid for global political and financial power?


A key challenge in a surveillance system is the object detection task. Object detection in general is a non-trivial problem. A sub-problem within the broader context of object detection which many researchers focus on is face detection. Numerous techniques have been proposed for face detection. One of the better performing algorithms is proposed by Viola et. al. This algorithm is based on Adaboost and uses Haar features to detect objects. The main reason for its popularity is very low false positive rates and the fact that the classi er network can be trained for any detection task. The use of Haar basis functions to represent key object features is the key to its success. The basis functions are organized as a network to form a strong classi er. To detect objects, this technique divides each input image into non-overlapping sub-windows and the strong classi er is applied to each sub-window to detect the presence of an object. The process is repeated at multiple scales of the input image to detect objects of various sizes. In this thesis we propose an object detection system that uses object segmentation as a preprocessing step. We use Mixture of Gaussians (MoG) proposed by Stau er et.al. for object segmentation. One key advantage with using segmentation to extract image regions of interest is that it reduces the number of search windows sent to detection task, thereby reducing the computational complexity and the execution time. Moreover, owing to the computational complexity of both the segmentation and detection algorithms we used in the system, we propose hardware architectures for accelerating key computationally intensive blocks. In this thesis we propose hardware architecture for MoG and also for a key compute intensive block within the adaboost algorithm corresponding to the Haar feature computation.


Local road practitioners across the country play a critical role in addressing crash risks at the local level and may be able to identify the specific or unique conditions that contribute to crashes within their jurisdictions. The Local Road Safety Plan (LRSP) offers a foundation for consensus and focus. It defines key emphasis areas and strategies that impact local rural roads and provides a framework to accomplish safety enhancements at the local level. The LRSP helps communities take a proactive stance in reducing and preventing local road fatalities and injuries. This document guides the development of an LRSP.


Algal blooms in lake waters are frequently associated with elevated nutrient levels, in particular phosphorus. Here we show, with long-term data from Sweden's largest lake, Lake Vänern, that total phytoplankton biomass has significantly increased since the 1980s at the same time as total phosphorus and inorganic nitrogen concentrations have significantly decreased (non-parametric Mann-Kendall test: P < 0.01). Lake Vänern was not the only lake showing such a pattern: evaluating long-term data from 13 small oligotrophic reference lakes revealed the same pattern. Other synchronous changes observed in Sweden's oligotrophic lakes included strongly decreasing sulfate concentrations and increasing water temperatures. We found that alkalinity, water temperatures, silica and sulfate concentrations were the strongest predictors for total phytoplankton biomass at all three sites in Lake Vänern when we used partial least squares regression models with 11 input variables. From our results, we suggest that decreasing acidity in combination with increasing water temperatures has been more important for phytoplankton growth than total phosphorous and nitrogen concentrations. Thus, we conclude that phytoplankton biomass in oligotrophic small and large lakes is strongly associated with climate and atmospheric depositional changes, and consequently needs to be managed beyond catchment scales.


The growing popularity of small civilian drones has generated a wide array of complex and unprecedented regulatory challenges. Many of these challenges, such as that of keeping drones away from manned aircraft, are matters that the Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") is clearly authorized and well equipped to address. However, several other drone policy challenges relate solely to drones' potential to disrupt landowners' privacy and to otherwise interfere with activities on the ground. The nature and severity of these conflicts often varies greatly depending on a drone's specific location: drone uses that are welcomed in some city neighborhoods may be prohibitively disruptive in others. The FAA, a centralized federal agency, lacks the information and resources necessary to effectively regulate these inherently local drone use issues in every corner of the country. Recognizing this fact, states and cities are increasingly crafting their own drone laws. Soon, some municipalities might even find it beneficial to adopt drone zoning ordinances that specifically restrict where, when, and under what conditions civilian drones may fly within their jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the FAA has taken the position that it holds exclusive regulatory authority over nearly every aspect of civilian drone activity — a position that threatens to preclude the development of valuable state and local drone policies. What aspects of drone activity could be better regulated at the state or local level than at the federal level? And what principles should guide municipal governments as they craft drone policies for their own communities? This Article tackles these questions, highlighting the potential merits of greater state and local involvement in drone law and identifying foundational principles and concepts for the pioneering design of drone zoning ordinances.


The paper reviews the basics of SiC bulk growth by the physical vapor transport (PVT) method and discuss current and possible future concepts to improve crystalline quality. In-situ process visualization using x-rays, numerical modeling and advanced doping techniques will be briefly presented which support growth process optimization. The "pure" PVT technique will be compared with related developments like the so called Modified-PVT, Continuous-Feeding-PVT, High-Temperature-CVD and Halide-CVD concepts. Special emphasis will be put on dislocation generation and annihilation and concepts to reduce dislocation density during SiC bulk crystal growth. The dislocation study is based on a statistical approach. Rather than following the evolu-tion of a single defect, statistic data which reflect a more global dislocation density evolution are interpreted. In this context a new approach will be presented which relates thermally induced strain during growth and dislocation patterning in networks.


Objectives Drosophila melanogaster (the 'fruit fly') is commonly used in genetic research, but there is only one report of IgE-associated allergy in exposed workers. 4 newly identified cases prompted us to examine the extent of this problem in a university laboratory. Our aim in this study is to determine the prevalence and determinants of sensitisation to fruit flies in a population of exposed workers. Methods In a cross-sectional study, we surveyed 286 employees working in a department carrying out research involving D. melanogaster. Sensitisation was assessed by specific IgE measurement in serum and examined in relation to symptoms and to estimated exposure to fruit flies. Results The overall prevalence of specific sensitisation was 6% with a clear relationship to increasing frequency/intensity of exposure (p trend<0.001). Work-related eye/nose, chest or skin symptoms were reported by substantial proportions of participants but for most of these there was no evidence of specific sensitisation to fruit fly. The overall prevalence of any work-related symptoms and sensitisation was 2.4%, rising to 7.1% in those working in high exposure groups. Conclusions We were able to demonstrate, for the first time, a clear exposure–response relationship between fruit fly exposure and specific sensitisation. Facilities housing fruit flies should carefully consider methods to reduce exposure levels in the workplace.


The article focuses on the axiological aspects of consciousness under conditions of the development of contemporary media culture and e-culture. Relying on theories of mediaphilosophy the author considers the media as a main factor of the determination of human value in the information society. The research is aimed at eliciting the peculiarities of modern media culture in the context of an existential and axiological approach that enables the determination of the effect the development of the mediasphere in modern culture has on the world of human values. In this case, media (mediasphere) is understood in its broad sense as a sphere of electronic communication with diverse forms of appearance and electronic mass media, generating the global information space. The author suggests the analysis of the penetration of communication e-culture (and its forms) and media-culture. The author argues that the values of media-culture (freedom, personality orientation, pragmatism, and other) developed under the conditions of information and ethic pluralism, which give a person more responsibility of spiritual choice.


Conservation of natural resources through sustainable ecosystem management and development is the key to our secured future. The management of ecosystem involves inventorying and monitoring, and applying integrated technologies, methodologies and interdisciplinary approaches for its conservation. Hence, now it is even more critical than ever before for the humans to be environmentally literate. To realise this vision, both ecological and environmental education must become a fundamental part of the education system at all levels of education. Currently, it is even more critical than ever before for the humankind as a whole to have a clear understanding of environmental concerns and to follow sustainable development practices. The degradation of our environment is linked to continuing problems of pollution, loss of forest, solid waste disposal, and issues related to economic productivity and national as well as ecological security. Environmental management has gained momentum in the recent years with the initiatives focussing on managing environmental hazards and preventing possible disasters.
Environmental issues make better sense, when one can understand them in the context of one's own cognitive sphere. Environmental education focusing on real-world contexts and issues often begins close to home, encouraging learners to understand and forge connections with their immediate surroundings. The awareness, knowledge, and skills needed for these local connections and understandings provide a base for moving out into larger systems, broader issues, and a more sophisticated comprehension of causes, connections, and consequences.
Environmental Education Programme at CES in collaboration with Karnataka Environment Research Foundation (KERF) referred as 'Know your Ecosystem' focuses on the importance of investigating the ecosystems within the context of human influences, incorporating an examination of ecology, economics, culture, political structure, and social equity as well as natural processes and systems. The ultimate goal of environment education is to develop an environmentally literate public. It needs to address the connection between our conception and practice of education and our relationship as human cultures to life-sustaining ecological systems. For each environmental issue there are many perspectives and much uncertainty. Environmental education cultivates the ability to recognise uncertainty, envision alternative scenarios, and adapt to changing conditions and information. These knowledge, skills, and mindset translate into a citizenry who is better equipped to address its common problems and take advantage of opportunities, whether environmental concerns are involved or not.


Using the opportunity of Japan's recent enactment of hate speech legislation, this article engages in a comparative examination of three different approaches to finding the right balance between legal limits on hate speech and the right to freedom of expression. The Japanese and American systems have struggled to find both a sufficiently important purpose to justify hate speech laws, or an appropriate limiting principle to narrow their scope. Neither system views hate speech laws as implicating equal protection rights, and so the balance is heavily in favor of freedom of speech. The American doctrine views hate speech laws as justifiable only if they can come within other ill-fitting categories of lesser-protected speech, which are mostly concerned with imminent violence rather than equality or discrimination. Japan has enacted hate speech laws too weak to impact freedom of expression at all.
The Canadian approach does not find the perfect equilibrium, but it suggests a better way to strike the balance. Drawing on this comparative review, the article argues that hate speech laws should be enacted with the object and purpose of fulfilling the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and equal treatment. Such laws would thus be narrowly drawn to prevent the fostering of hatred that would in turn lead to increased discrimination against identifiable groups, which are themselves defined in terms of the prohibited grounds of discrimination in the constitutional right to equality. The laws would address, and take seriously, the principal harms caused by hate speech — to the members of such groups, to the principles of equality, and to freedom of expression itself. But this objective also constitutes a compelling state interest, and a constitutionally informed basis for tailoring the hate speech laws narrowly, thus reducing to a justifiable minimum their impact on the right to freedom of expression. The right balance, then, is to be found in understanding and reconciling this tension between two constitutional rights.


This article is based upon a textual analysis of Ralph Bunche's writings since 1940 to determine the nature, scope, and significance of his educational philosophy of the discipline of political science. From this textual analysis of his writings, the article finds that five major intellectual categories emerged from his writings and notes; whether those categories were original ones and/or whether they were modifications of categories already in existence. After having evaluated the original and secondary nature of these categories, this article indicates that Bunche's educational philosophy created a different perspective and vision for the discipline. Herein lays his great contribution. Embedded in Ralph Bunche's writings and organizational practices is a unique and exceptional conceptualization of political science as a discipline. This conceptualization and vision, which we shall call an educational philosophy, is not to be found in a single coherent and comprehensive publication, document, and/or volume. Yet, it does exist in his wide and diverse and scattered writings and leadership roles and practices in the Howard University Department of Political Science, the presidency of the American Political Science Association, positions at the U.S. Department of State, and in leadership positions at the United Nations. It is also to be found in his four research memoranda for the Gunnar Myrdal report, An American Dilemma, and in his field research in South Africa (Edgar, 1992; Grantham, 1973). Here, in these sundry works, Bunche left an intellectual record, and it is possible to delineate from that record of scholarship and field studies his conceptualization of Political Science as a discipline that challenges, contrasts, and diverges sharply with the dominant and consensus one now describing the discipline. DATA AND METHODOLOGY Bunche delivered his presidential address to the American Political Science Association (APSA) in Chicago, Illinois on September 9, 1954 which just happened to be the 50th anniversary of the organization (Bunche, 1954). Using this unique moment in time, as well as this historic occasion (of being the first African American to serve as President of the APSA), this President told the membership that the nation state and the international community had certain problem areas, which merited greater attention from the discipline of political science (Bunche, 1954). Among the problems that Bunche noted were "the problem of colonialism, particularly of colonial Africa"; the fear, intolerance, suspicion, and confusion emanating from racial demagogues; and the second-class citizenship emerging from racial segregation, White supremacy, and disenfranchisement (Bunche, 1954, p. 969). In Bunche's view, these grave problems had been ignored by the discipline. These pressing problem areas facing the profession and society threatened both freedom and democracy (Bunche, 1954). But perhaps most importantly is not Bunche's identification of these problems, but what they offer in terms of insights into the mind of a public intellectual who happens to be an African American political scientist. Undergirding these poignant remarks and suggestions is a vision and perspective of the discipline of political science that, while borne of the past and present, offers a course correction and reform for the future. To see this vision and perspective with its proposed reforms for an academic discipline and professional organization, this study will begin with a textual analysis of Bunche's post-1940 writings and delineate from those works and the appropriate secondary sources the seminal intellectual categories of his educational philosophy. Moreover, the study will reconstruct, from these categories of ideas and reflections, a systematic and holistic portrait of Bunche's desired political science education. 1940 was chosen as the point of departure for this study because in this Special Issue there is an article by Jonathan Scott Holloway which offers an excellent exposition of Bunche's intellectual ideas from the early 1930s until the 1940s. …


This paper presents a complete axiomatization of Monadic Second-Order Logic (MSO) over infinite trees. MSO on infinite trees is a rich system, and its decidability ("Rabin's Tree Theorem") is one of the most powerful known results concerning the decidability of logics. By a complete axiomatization we mean a complete deduction system with a polynomial-time recognizable set of axioms. By naive enumeration of formal derivations, this formally gives a proof of Rabin's Tree Theorem. The deduction system consists of the usual rules for second-order logic seen as two-sorted first-order logic, together with the natural adaptation In addition, it contains an axiom scheme expressing the (positional) determinacy of certain parity games. The main difficulty resides in the limited expressive power of the language of MSO. We actually devise an extension of MSO, called Functional (Monadic) Second-Order Logic (FSO), which allows us to uniformly manipulate (hereditarily) finite sets and corresponding labeled trees, and whose language allows for higher abstraction than that of MSO.


This research addresses the issue of variability within the Middle Dorset (2000-1100 B.P.) culture on the island of Newfoundland and on the island of Saint-Pierre in the French Archipelago of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Practice theory provides the conceptual framework to interpret variability and it is argued that the variability expressed in the Middle Dorset material record reflects the existence of distinct regional traditions. The comparative study of specific aspects of the lithic technology at eight Middle Dorset sites identified a strong process of regional specialization in the technological practices of these Palaeoeskimo people. Raw material use-patterns indicate a strong reliance on regionally available raw materials. Stylistic analysis also identifies discrete stylistic trends. Endblades take an emblematic role as most sites produced distinct and recognizable endblade types. With a few exceptions, the data reveal a high degree of technological homogeneity within individual sites and scarce evidence of contact between sites. At a larger scale, the evidence also indicates faint contact between Newfoundland/Saint-Pierre and Labrador Middle Dorset groups. In this research, the author suggests that the distinct regional technological practices reflect traditions of discrete territorially-defined social groups, much like the historical muit groups in the Arctic. The picture proposed for the Newfoundland/Saint-Pierre region is one of a number of contemporaneous Middle Dorset groups, each living in discrete territories with their own technological traditions and specific developmental histories.


This chapter reports on a study that takes a problem-drive approach to answer the question "What do Mexican Spanish university writers 'do' when they write in Spanish, their L1, and in English, their L2?" This ethnographic study examines learners' writing practices in their educational environment. Data collection includes learner and participant observation accounts, classroom observations, and textbook analyses. In Part I, the sociocultural context of the Mexican university is described, followed by a functional discourse analysis of one representative example from a multilingual student's essay. Part II discusses the educational setting, literacy training, and writing instruction from both teachers' and learners' perspectives. This chapter informs teachers and other language education professionals about multilingual writers in EFL contexts.


Practical Aspects of High-Level Parallel Programming Computational Science applications are more and more complex to develop and require more and more computing power. Parallel and grid computing are solutions to the increasing need for computing power. High level languages offer a high degree of abstraction which ease the development of complex systems. Being based on formal semantics, it is even possible to certify the correctness of critical parts of the applications. Algorithmic skeletons, parallel extensions of functional languages, such as Haskell and ML, or parallel logic and constraint programming, parallel execution of declarative programs such SQL queries, etc. have produced methods and tools that improve the price/performance ratio of parallel software, and broaden the range of target applications. This special issue of presents recent work of researchers in these fields. These articles are extended and revised versions of papers presented at the first international workshop on Practical Aspects of High-Level Parallel Programming (PAPP), affiliated to the International Conference on Computational Science (ICCS 2004). The PAPP workshops focus on practical aspects of high-level parallel programming: design, implementation and optimization of high-level programming languages and tools (performance predictors working on high-level parallel/grid source code, visualisations of abstract behaviour, automatic hotspot detectors, high-level GRID resource managers, compilers, automatic generators, etc.), applications in all fields of computational science, benchmarks and experiments. The PAPP workshops are aimed both at researchers involved in the development of high level approaches for parallel and grid computing and computational science researchers who are potential users of these languages and tools. One concern in the development of parallel programs is to predict the performances of the programs from the source code in order to be able to optimize the programs or to fit the resources needed by the programs to the resources offered by the architecture. In their paper, Evaluating the performance of pipeline-structured parallel programs with skeletons and process algebra , Anne Benoit et al., propose a framework to evaluate the performance of structured parallel programs with skeletons and process algebra. Frederic Gava in External Memory in Bulk-Synchronous Parallel ML provides an extension of the Bulk Synchronous Parallel ML library by input/output operations on disks, together with an extension of the Bulk Synchronous Parallel model. Another direction of research is to set constraints on the resources used by the programs. Stephen Gilmore et al. designed and developed the Camelot language which is a resource-bounded functional programming language which compiles to Java byte code to run on the Java Virtual Machine. Their paper Extending resource-bounded functional programming languages with mutable state and concurrency extends Camelot to include language support for Camelot-level threads and extends the existing Camelot resource-bounded type system to provide safety guarantees about the heap usage of Camelot threads. Franck Pommereau's previous work is about high-level Petri nets with a notion of time, called causal time, used for the specification and the verification of systems with time constraints. In his paper Petri nets as Executable Specifications of High-Level Timed Parallel Systems he presents a step forward the use of this formalism for execution purposes: an algorithm for the execution of a restricted class of high-level Petri nets with causal time. High-level programming languages aim at easing the programming of systems. This should not hinder the predictability and the efficiency of programs. Joel Falcou and Jocelyn Serot designed a high-level library C++ for the programming of the SIMD component of the Power PC processors, which is much simpler to use that lower level specific libraries but with a very good efficiency. Their EVE library is thus a very good practical choice for the programming of such hardware. I would like to thank all the people who made the PAPP workshop possible: the organizers of the ICCS conference, the other members of the programme committee: Rob Bisseling (Univ. of Utrecht, The Netherlands), Matthieu Exbrayat (Univ. of Orleans, France), Sergei Gorlatch (Univ. of Muenster, Germany), Clemens Grelck (Univ. of Luebeck, Germany), Kevin Hammond (Univ. of St. Andrews, UK), Zhenjiang Hu (Univ. of Tokyo, Japan), Quentin Miller (Miller Research Ltd., UK), Susanna Pelagatti (Univ. of Pisa, Italy), Alexander Tiskin (Univ. of Warwick, UK). I also thank the other referees for their efficient help: Martin Alt, Frederic Gava and Sven-Bodo Scholz. Finally I thank all authors who submitted papers for their interest in the workshop, the quality and variety of research topics they proposed. Frederic Loulergue , Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale d'Orleeans, University of Orleans, rue Leonard de Vinci, B.P. 6759 F-45067 ORLEANS Cedex 2, France


An elastic finite-element analysis of the African intraplate stress field is used to determine constraints on the stress state resulting from variations in the gravitational potential energy of the lithosphere ( U 1) produced by lateral density variations. The modeling is constrained by 150 stress indicators extracted from the World Stress Map Project data set. Lateral variations in U 1 are calculated by using a simple lithospheric density model that is consistent with observed geoid anomalies across mid-ocean ridges and continental margins. Predicted tectonic stresses in the oceanic regions of the African plate range from tension along the mid-ocean ridges (9 MPa) to compression in the ocean basins (10 MPa). Continental regions near sea level are in a near-neutral state of stress. There are large extensional stresses present in the Ethiopian highlands (15 MPa), the East African rift (9 MPa), and southern Africa (8 MPa). The general agreement between the predicted and the observed stress fields suggests that the principal long-wavelength features of the intraplate stress field, including the observed extension in eastern and southern Africa, can be explained in terms of stresses arising from lithospheric density variations without appeal to poorly determined sublithospheric processes. The state of stress in continental regions with elevations greater than 70 m is predicted to be extensional, providing an alternative source of continental tension that has important implications for the dynamics of continental breakup.


The codification of the pronunciation of -ig is arguably the most overtly prescriptive convention of Standard German. In this contribution, the pronunciation of -ig is investigated in Standard Austrian German (SAG) as spoken in Vienna and in the Viennese dialect (VD). SAG speakers predominantly make use of the stop pronunciation. To some extent, VD speakers also apply the fricative pronunciation in word-final position. The results for SAG and VD speakers are compared with the pronunciation of -ig as produced by news anchors, who are often regarded as model speakers, and thus as representatives of a standard language. News anchors use the fricative pronunciation more frequently, especially in the word-final position of numerals. Since the pronunciation habits of news anchors deviate considerably from the usage of SAG speakers, a codification based on the speech of news anchors would go counter to the general usage in Austria.


We investigate the impact of student work experience on later hiring chances. To completely rule out potential endogeneity, we present a field experiment in which various forms of student work experience are randomly disclosed by more than 1000 fictitious graduates applying for jobs in Belgium. Theoretical mechanisms are investigated by estimating heterogeneous treatment effects by the relevance and timing of revealed student work experience. We find that neither form of student work experience enhances initial recruitment decisions. For a number of candidate subgroups (by education level and occupation type), even an adverse effect is found.


This essay will dismantle about the
utilization of editing techniques in an action scene in road action
films in Malaysia. An action scene in films will look more
dramatic and could provide optimum effect if appropriate
editing techniques are used. It is not solely depending on the
acting, visual and audio. However, editing techniques must be
emphasized by the director and editor in producing a scene. The
director and editor must be aware and know the suitability on
the utilization of editing techniques in an action scene so that the
desired effects could be achieved. Many researches have been
conducted regarding the cinematography in films in Malaysia.
Nonetheless, there is still a lack of emphasis on editing
techniques. Thus, this article will focus on the editing techniques
used through road action scenes by looking thoroughly on the
suitability of their utilization in these road action scenes.
Analysis is done by discussing into details based on the analysis
method through continuous watching by viewing in stop motion,
which is examining the pictures of each scene in the road action
films in Malaysia, frame by frame.


This paper considers optimization problems where nodes of a network have access to summands of a global objective. Each of these local objectives is further assumed to be an average of a finite set of functions. The motivation for this setup is to solve large scale machine learning problems where elements of the training set are distributed to multiple computational elements. The decentralized double stochastic averaging gradient (DSA) algorithm is proposed as a solution alternative that relies on: (i) The use of local stochastic averaging gradients. (ii) Determination of descent steps as differences of consecutive stochastic averaging gradients. Strong convexity of local functions and Lipschitz continuity of local gradients is shown to guarantee linear convergence of the sequence generated by DSA in expectation. Local iterates are further shown to approach the optimal argument for almost all realizations. The expected linear convergence of DSA is in contrast to the sublinear rate characteristic of existing methods for decentralized stochastic optimization. Numerical experiments on a logistic regression problem illustrate reductions in convergence time and number of feature vectors processed until convergence relative to these other alternatives.


The design space of In-Vehicle information systems for autonomous cars is an unexplored area, inviting interaction designers to explore various solutions for delivering an innovative autonomous driving experience. A big challenge is keeping the driver in the loop of the driving task being able to efficiently and safely control the car in a higher level, leaving the tedious operating tasks to be handled by automation. The information system should provide sufficient and proper feedback in order to build thorough understanding of automation's actions, even while the driver is accessing infotainment features.
A design solution is proposed in this thesis, which aims to establish a convenient way for controlling autonomous cars and at the same time enables the user to control tertiary features unrelated with the driving task. A visual tablet interface was implemented, enabling the driver to control the car in tactical level, assigning commands for changing lanes, turning at intersections, overtaking vehicles and changing the speed. The solution also provides a menu for accessing tertiary features related to infotainment control, by maintaining output functions and visual feedback which intend to keep the driver aware of the autonomous driving task. An overlay cover was also built to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of the tactical control by making the interface more intuitive. The goal of this thesis is to evaluate a tablet interface solution in the context of semi-autonomous driving, in terms of usability and user experience examining also human feelings towards automation, namely trust and controllability.


Abstract Objectives The aim was to define sub-optimal response to TNF inhibitors (TNFi), compare long-term drug survival rates and identify predictors of sub-optimal response in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) patients in a UK cohort. Methods All axSpA patients attending two centres who commenced TNFi between 2002 and 2016 were included. Routinely recorded patient data were reviewed retrospectively. Patients with paired BASDAI at baseline, 3 and/or 6 months were included for analysis. Sub-optimal response was defined as achieving a ≥ 2-point reduction in BASDAI but not BASDAI50, post-treatment BASDAI remaining at ≥4, and in the opinion of the treating physician these patients demonstrated a meaningful clinical response. Results Four hundred and ninety-nine patients were included: 82 (16.4%) patients were classified as having a sub-optimal response; 64 (78%) males, 78 (95.1%) AS and 55/67 (82.1%) HLA-B27 positive. Results are reported as the mean (s.d.). Time to diagnosis was 10 (8.6) years, age at diagnosis was 37 (11.7) years, and age at initiating index TNFi was 48 (11.1) years. Individual index TNFi were Humira (adalimumab, n = 41, 50%), Enbrel (etanercept, n = 27, 32.9%), Remicade (infliximab, n = 5, 6.1%), Simponi (golimumab, n = 3, 3.7%) and Cimzia (certolizumab pegol, n = 6, 7.3%). The rate of attrition was greater among sub-optimal responders at 2 and 5 years (P < 0.05), but not at 10 years (P = 0.06), compared with responders. Older age at initiation of TNFi was a predictor of sub-optimal response (odds ratio 1.04, 95% CI 1.01, 1.09, P < 0.05). Conclusion A significant proportion of patients continued TNFi despite demonstrated sub-optimal response. Further research needs to be undertaken in order to understand this group.


Centrifugal compressors are versatile machines that many industries employ for a wide range of different applications, including the production of highly compressed gases. During the last decades, comprehensive research was conducted on the impact of high-pressure operating conditions on the vibrational behavior of radial compressors. In various studies, acoustic modes building up in the side cavities were found to be a potential source of high cycle fatigue. Nowadays, it is well-known that an increase in gas pressure levels leads to a more pronounced fluid-structure interaction between the side cavities and the impeller resulting in a frequency shift of the acoustic and structural modes. In a recently published paper, the authors presented a generalized model which can predict this behavior. As it is not always possible to avoid operating close to or accelerating through a resonance, it is crucial to know the damping present within the system. Currently, only a few publications concentrate on the damping of radial impellers. Therefore, the authors present measurement data acquired from a test rig at the University of Duisburg-Essen, which reveals the damping behavior of a disk under varying operating conditions. Two surrogate models are proposed to predict the identified damping behavior. The first one is based solely on a one-dimensional piston model and the second approach uses an enhanced version of the generalized method. Finally, the measurement data is used to validate both surrogate systems.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) negatively regulate the expression of target genes at the post-transcriptional level. Little is known about the crosstalk between miRNAs and transcription factors (TFs). Here we provide data suggesting that the interaction patterns between TFs and miRNAs can influence the biological functions of miRNAs. From this global survey, we find that a regulated feedback loop, in which two TFs regulate each other and one miRNA regulates both of the factors, is the most significantly overrepresented network motif. Mathematical modeling shows that the miRNA in this motif stabilizes the feedback loop to resist environmental perturbation, providing one mechanism to explain the robustness of developmental programs that is contributed by miRNAs. Furthermore, on the basis of a network motif profile analysis, we demonstrate the existence of two classes of miRNAs with distinct network topological properties. The first class of miRNAs is regulated by a large number of TFs, whereas the second is regulated by only a few TFs. The differential expression level of the two classes of miRNAs in embryonic developmental stages versus adult tissues suggests that the two classes may have fundamentally different biological functions. Our results demonstrate that the TFs and miRNAs extensively interact with each other and the biological functions of miRNAs may be wired in the regulatory network topology.


Background - Chickpeas are a common constituent of many ethnic diets and are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), dietary fibre and resistant starch. However, little information is available regarding the effects of regular chickpea consumption and their health effects.

Objective - To compare the effects of a diet supplemented with chickpeas to a wheat-supplemented diet of similar fibre content and a wheat based diet of low fibre content on serum lipids, glucose tolerance, satiety and bowel function.

Design - Twenty-seven free-living adults followed two randomized, crossover dietary interventions each of five weeks duration. The chickpea diet included canned chickpeas (140g/day), bread and biscuits containing 30% chickpea flour. The diets were isoenergetic to the participants' usual diet, matched for macronutrient content and controlled for dietary fibre. Following on from the second randomised intervention, a sub-group of 18 participants underwent a third lower-fibre wheat diet. End of the diet comparisons were made by repeated measures ANOVA for serum total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein (LDL-C), glucose and insulin concentrations. Perceived bowel health and satiety were also measured.

Outcomes - Reductions in serum TC of 0.25 mmol/L (p< 0.01) and LDL-C of 0.20 mmol/L (p=0.02) following the chickpea diet compared to the wheat diet. An unintended significant increase in PUFA and corresponding decrease in MUFA consumption occurred during the chickpea diet and statistical adjustment for this reduced the effect on serum lipids by about 50%. There was no significant difference in glucose tolerance. Perceived general bowel health improved significantly during the chickpea diet although there was considerable individual variation. Greater satiety was reported by some participants but was not significantly different between the diets.

Conclusions - The small but significant decrease in serum TC and LDL-C during the chickpea diet compared to the wheat diet was partly due to unintentional changes in macronutrient intake occurring because of chickpea ingestion, but could still provide a valuable health benefit.


Heart rate is believed to be a primary determinant of atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) release; however, we postulated that V wave wall stress is the main signal for ANF release during volume loading. Conscious dogs were volume loaded with 1,000 ml of saline while the heart rate was allowed to vary and on another day while the heart was paced at 240 beats/min. During volume loading, plasma ANF increased from 58 +/- 10 to 221 +/- 31 pg/ml (P < 0.05), and heart rate increased from 97 +/- 3 to 182 +/- 9 beats/min. During pacing, plasma ANF increased from 42 +/- 8 to 85 +/- 10 pg/ml. A wave atrial pressures were increased during pacing and were fixed due to contraction against a closed atrioventricular valve. Volume loading increased plasma ANF to 180 +/- 25 pg/ml. V wave atrial pressure increased markedly, and V wave atrial wall stress increased from 25 +/- 10 to 131 +/- 44 and from 7 +/- 4 to 116 +/- 25 g/cm2, respectively. A wave pressure and wall stress were not increased by volume loading. V wave wall stress and ANF were significantly correlated. V wave atrial wall stress accounts for the majority of change in plasma ANF (60%), while tachycardia and A wave wall stress account for a smaller fraction (40%) of change.


The article deals with the manifold mentions of Egypt in the Hebrew Bible. Among them are many negative views, especially in the Exodus narrative, which originated in the Northern Kingdom and reached Judah after 722 BCE. Prophetic oracles also condemn Egypt and the attempts of Judean kings in the 8th to 6th century BCE to seek help in Egypt against the Assyrians. Later texts show a positive image of Egypt, especially the Joseph story, which probably originated in the Egyptian Diaspora. Other texts, such as 2 Chronicles 35 and Isaiah 19, also pursue this positive attitude towards Egypt. The article further discusses borrowings of Egyptian texts (Amenemope and the Tale of the Two Brothers) in the Hebrew Bible.


Seismo−electromagnetic signals (SES) are anomalous electromagnetic signals generated as a response to the propagation of a mechan− ical perturbation within the subsoil. Fluid presence plays a key role in determining SES generation and characteristics, therefore SES study could be useful for subsoil characterization. In a more general framework, it can give insight about the role of fluids in the earthquake generation and seismic wave propagation. A systematic study on SES and the related data analysis techniques is fundamental to define the characteristics of these signals which are superimposed to the natural electromagnetic field induced by the external variable magnetic field. To this aim, the Pollino seismic swarm was a great opportunity because continuous MagnetoTelluric (MT) data were recorded in a period in which numerous seismic events of various magnitudes occurred. During the observational period, SES have also been recorded in correspondence to earthquakes far from the MT stations over 800 km. In this paper, we present a procedure aimed to improve the SES detectability and gather as much information as possible on these sig− nals. The procedure is especially tuned for the analysis of MT time series and is based on the application of the Continuous Wavelet Trans− form (CWT) and frequency filters. As will be shown, the operational scheme allows minimizing the background variability of the MT signal facilitating SES detection and the characterization in terms of amplitude and duration.


Purpose There have been few studies on gender difference in the impact of a urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR) within the normal range on the risk of hypertension. We evaluated whether the association between the UACR below the microalbuminuria range and the incident risk of hypertension is different between men and women. Materials and Methods A total of 1173 individuals (442 men and 731 women) aged 40 to 70 years without hypertension was examined at baseline (2005–2008) and followed (2008–2011). We defined the UACR as the amount of albumin (mg/dL) divided by creatinine (g/dL) in randomly voided urine. The subjects were classified according to UACR tertile. Results During an average of 2.6 years of follow-up, 57 men (12.9%) and 66 women (9.0%) developed hypertension. In multivariable-adjusted models, the odds ratio for new-onset hypertension comparing the highest and lowest tertiles of UACR was 1.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.85–3.94] in men and 2.69 (95% CI 1.27–5.73) in women. In stratified analyses by menopausal status, higher tertiles of UACR were associated with an increased risk of incident hypertension in postmenopausal women. Conclusion Higher normal UACR levels were associated with an increased risk of incident hypertension in women. The UACR could have a clinical role in predicting the development of hypertension.


We reevaluate the systematics and geologic setting of terrestrial, lunar, Martian, and asteroidal "impactites" resulting from single or multiple impacts. For impactites derived from silicate rocks and sediments, we propose a unified and updated system of progressive shock metamorphism. "Shock‐metamorphosed rocks" occur as lithic clasts or melt particles in proximal impactites at impact craters, and rarely in distal impactites. They represent a wide range of metamorphism, typically ranging from unshocked to shock melted. As the degree of shock metamorphism, at a given shock pressure, depends primarily on the mineralogical composition and the porosity of a rock or sediment sample, different shock classification systems are required for different types of planetary rocks and sediments. We define shock classification systems for eight rock and sediment classes which are assigned to three major groups of rocks and sediments (1) crystalline rocks with classes F, M, A, and U; (2) chondritic rocks (class C); and (3) sedimentary rocks and sediments with classes SR, SE, and RE. The abbreviations stand for felsic (F), mafic (M), anorthositic (A), ultramafic (U), sedimentary rocks (SR), unconsolidated sediments (SE), and regoliths (RE). In each class, the progressive stages of shock metamorphism are denominated S1 to Sx. These progressive shock stages are introduced as: S1–S7 for F, S1–S7 for M, S1–S6 for A, S1–S7 for U, S1–S7 for C, S1–S7 for SR, S1–S5 for SE, and S1–S6 for RE. S1 stands for "unshocked" and Sx (variable between S5 and S7) stands for "whole rock melting." We propose a sequence of symbols characterizing the degree of shock metamorphism of a sample, i.e., F‐S1 to F‐S7 with the option to add the tabulated pressure ranges (in GPa) in parentheses.


Background Despite the decades-long use of Bacillus atrophaeus var. globigii (BG) as a simulant for biological warfare (BW) agents, knowledge of its genome composition is limited. Furthermore, the ability to differentiate signatures of deliberate adaptation and selection from natural variation is lacking for most bacterial agents. We characterized a lineage of BGwith a long history of use as a simulant for BW operations, focusing on classical bacteriological markers, metabolic profiling and whole-genome shotgun sequencing (WGS). Results Archival strains and two "present day" type strains were compared to simulant strains on different laboratory media. Several of the samples produced multiple colony morphotypes that differed from that of an archival isolate. To trace the microevolutionary history of these isolates, we obtained WGS data for several archival and present-day strains and morphotypes. Bacillus-wide phylogenetic analysis identified B. subtilis as the nearest neighbor to B. atrophaeus. The genome of B. atrophaeus is, on average, 86% identical to B. subtilis on the nucleotide level. WGS of variants revealed that several strains were mixed but highly related populations and uncovered a progressive accumulation of mutations among the "military" isolates. Metabolic profiling and microscopic examination of bacterial cultures revealed enhanced growth of "military" isolates on lactate-containing media, and showed that the "military" strains exhibited a hypersporulating phenotype. Conclusions Our analysis revealed the genomic and phenotypic signatures of strain adaptation and deliberate selection for traits that were desirable in a simulant organism. Together, these results demonstrate the power of whole-genome and modern systems-level approaches to characterize microbial lineages to develop and validate forensic markers for strain discrimination and reveal signatures of deliberate adaptation.


This current study focuses its investigation on the skill-based language learning strategies by junior high school students in Indonesia. The purposes of this study are (1) to measure the intensity of use of learning strategy in learning writing skill, (2) to examine the correlation among the strategy categories of learning writing skill, and (3) to compare the use of learning strategies of learning writing by successful and less successful learners. The data were obtained from 257 students from two schools in Malang by administering a questionnaire from O'Malley and Chamot (1990). The strategies are classified into cognitive, metacognitive, and social/affective strategies. The result of the statistical analysis shows that the overall use of strategies of learning writing skill by Indonesian junior high school students is at moderate level (2.65) with cognitive strategies reported at the highest use (2.80). It is also revealed a strong correlation among the three learning strategies – cognitive, metacognitive, and social/affective with cognitive and metacognitive at the strongest correlation (.60<r<.80). In addition, this study does not find a sufficient proof that successful and less successful learners are significantly different in using the learning strategies in learning writing skill. The findings of this research then imply the need to engage the students with strategies to learn writing skill in order that they can maximize the strategy use. This can be done by incorporating strategies-based instruction in the classroom.


One hundred and sixteen students from an Italian university took part in a two-person social dilemma game with a European bogus partner. The main aim of the research was to test the effect that an individual's level of European social identification has on his/her cooperative behavior with a partner from another European nation. An additional aim was to explore the different effects of the cognitive and affective dimensions of European social identity. Our research also meant to test the role of trust, which for our purposes is defined here as participants' positive expectation about the cooperative behavior of their European partner. Our results showed that the cognitive dimension of European social identity has a significant direct effect on cooperation, while the affective dimension has an indirect effect mediated by trust. We concluded by discussing the results in relation to different theoretical models, and explored several practical implications.


The latitudinal diversity gradient predicts higher species richness at lower latitudes. Here, we utilize the data from a long-term monitoring with malaise traps to analyse if spider communities in Sweden are affected by geographic gradients and if these effects hold independent of forest type. The species richness and the effective number of species in spider communities were not significantly related to the latitudinal gradient. The effective number of species and the taxonomic distinctness of spider communities were related to longitude, with a higher number, but fewer related species in western parts of Sweden. The species and family composition were significantly related to latitude independent of forest type, with a dominance of Linyphiidae individuals and species in the north. Our study demonstrates the suitability of malaise trap sampling to contribute to a better understanding of local spider communities, as several rare and locally new species were recorded in this study.


Between 1903 and 1905 Miss Nina Frances Layard conducted exemplary excavations of an outstanding Palaeolithic site on plateau gravels above Ipswich. Here, Palaeolithic humans gathered around the edges of an erstwhile lake and/or river, leaving behind stone tools and manufacturing waste. Many remarkable pictures emerge from this book: of the excavator, an Edwardian lady of great determination and skill; of the site itself, which might well have been on a par with Boxgrove had it been discovered today; of the piecing together of Miss Layard's lost archive by Steven Plunkett; of the meeting of two enthusiasts and their decision to write this book - and last but by no means least - of the remarkable archaeological evidence. The authors have assembled a jigsaw of magnificent proportions: their detective work has enabled them to return a neglected but truly significant site to its rightful place in the canon of British Palaeolithic archaeology.


This article is based on research to establish the degree to which training was responsible for return on investment where superior technology was in use. It underlined four basic criteria for return on investment. Through a case study, the significance of training was highlighted and noteworthy benefits were reaped. All levels of management should get involved in the quest for return on investment by addressing their relevant concerns and passions. Technology should also be designed to be user friendly and responsive to visitor interests to increase customer loyalty. Propositions are made to the challenges envisaged and lessons learned.


The January 25th Egyptian revolution was initiated in the public square and defeated in the courts. In the months following the forced resignation of longtime president Hosni Mubarak, a protracted power struggle ensued between a people demanding self-governance and a chronically authoritarian regime. As the various stakeholders within the "deep state" realized their political disadvantage in mass street mobilizations by youth activists and opposition groups, they strategically transferred the conflict to the courts. Cognizant of Mubarak's success in co-opting significant portions of the judiciary, the military-led interim government trusted the judges to deploy thin notions of rule of law to quash Egyptians' demands for substantive justice and populist democracy. Thus, an assessment of Egypt's so-called January 25th Revolution warrants an inquiry into the role that courts played in the retrenchment of a centralized, authoritarian state and what ultimately became a stillborn revolution. In the heady days following Mubarak's forced resignation, youth activists and the Muslim Brotherhood had few qualms with litigating the revolution. In the 1990s, the judiciary had been the only state institution that dared to check executive powers through rights-protective rulings and public condemnations of fraud in the 2005 parliamentary elections. Indeed, the Egyptian judiciary had a long history of fighting for its independence from executive branch interference such that both secular activists and Muslim Brotherhood supporters viewed it as a liberal institution that would side with their calls for social justice. What transpired since 2011, however, has exposed the fallacy of these assumptions and called into question the liberal underpinnings of Egypt's judiciary. In the end, the judges' self-ascribed roles as the guardians of social order and political stability has proven to be more rhetorical than substantive. Accordingly, this article examines how a critical mass of Egyptian judges have strayed from the judiciary's liberal roots dating back to the 19th century, resulting in the legitimation of the same authoritarian regime but for a new military elite coalition at the helm. Through mass death sentences of Muslim Brotherhood (MB) leaders and alleged supporters, convictions of dissident journalists, and punitive sentences of youth activists for protesting; the judiciary has signaled support for illiberal authoritarian practices that systematically quash personal, political, and legal liberty.