We investigated the mass-to-light vs. color relations (MLCRs) derived from the spatially resolved star formation history of a sample of 452 galaxies observed with integral field spectroscopy in the CALIFA survey. We derived the stellar mass (M⋆) and the stellar mass surface density (Σ⋆) from the combination of full spectral fitting (using different sets of stellar population models) with observed and synthetic colors in optical broad bands. This method allows obtaining the radial structure of the mass-to-light ratio (M/L) at several wavelengths and studying the spatially resolved MLCRs. Our sample covers a wide range of Hubble types from Sc to E, with stellar masses ranging from M⋆ ∼ 108.4 to 1012 M⊙. The scatter in the MLCRs was studied as a function of morphology, stellar extinction, and emission line contribution to the colors. The effects of the initial mass function (IMF) and stellar population models in the MLCRs were also explored. Our main results are that (a) the M/L ratio has a negative radial gradient that is steeper within the central 1 half-light-radius (HLR). It is steeper in Sb-Sbc than in early-type galaxies. (b) The MLCRs between M/L and optical colors were derived with a scatter of ∼0.1 dex. The smallest dispersion was found for the combinations (i, g − r) and (R, B − R). Extinction and emission line contributions do not affect the scatter of these relations. Morphology does not produce a significant effect, except if the general relation is used for galaxies redder than (u − i) > 4 or bluer than (u − i)< 0. (c) The IMF has a large effect on MLCRs, as expected. The change from a Chabrier to a Salpeter IMF produces a median shift of ∼0.29 dex when mass loss from stellar evolution is also taken into account. (d) These MLCRs are in agreement with previous results, in particular for relations with g and r bands and the B and V Johnson systems.


There are many benefits to a company when they have access to good field failure data. Most of the benefits are categorized as saving money. At the same time, most of the expenditure to get good failure data is already being spent. Given an incremental cost of improving data collection quality and better data analysis, the nice benefits could be achieved. Good high quality field failure data has often been described as the ultimate source of failure data. However, not all field failure studies are high quality. Some field studies simply do not have the needed information. Some field studies make unrealistic assumptions. The results can be quite different depending on methods and assumptions. Some methods produce optimistic results that can result in bad designs and unsafe processes. This paper presents some common field failure analysis techniques, shows some of the limitations of the methods and describes important attributes of a good field failure data collection system.


Abstract: Flying foxes are animals of extraordinary ecological and economic importance throughout forests of the Old World tropics Nearly 200 species play an essential role as forest pollinators and seed dispersers, yet they are frequently misunderstood intensely persecuted and exceptionally vulnerable to extinction Their role in the propagation of numerous important plants remains virtually uninvestigated. However, our review of already available literature demonstrates that at least 289 plant species rely to vatying degrees on large populations of flying foxes for propagation. These plants, in addition to their many ecological contributing produce some 448 economically valuable products. The fact that flying foxes are increasingly threaten and that few baseline data exist on population trends is cause for concern Many appear to be in severe decline, and several species are already extinct. We present initial observations on flying fox importance and survival threats in hopes of highlighting research and conservation needs.


The complementary techniques of high-resolution electron backscatter diffraction (HREBSD), crystal plasticity finite element modelling and the inverse method of eigenstrain are utilized for evaluating stresses resulting from the mismatch in thermal expansivities of a nickel single crystal containing a carbide particle. The EBSD method is employed to measure the complete residual elastic strain tensor on the free surface of the nickel matrix around a particular carbide particle. With these experimental results, the 3D inverse problem of eigenstrain is reconstructed to determine the complete residual stresses local to the particle at the sub-surface of the sample. A gradient-enhanced crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) model has been developed for the same sample and loading conditions, and detailed comparisons of the eigenstrain and CPFE predicted stresses at the sub-surface of the sample are presented. In addition, free-surface residual elastic strains measured by HR-EBSD and predicted by the CPFE model are compared. Free-surface results show very good agreement, but some differences are apparent for sub-surface results. The eigenstrain technique relies on the assumption of uniform plastic strain in the direction normal to the free surface, and the CPFE approach provides an assessment of this assumption. The free-surface effects of 3D particle depth are also assessed.


A method to improve time resolution in 3D contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) is proposed. A temporal basis based on prior knowledge of the contrast flow dynamics is applied to a sequence of image reconstructions. In CE-MRA a contrast agent (gadolinium) is injected into a peripheral vein and MR data is acquired as the agent arrives in the arteries and then the veins of the region of clinical interest. The acquisition extends over several minutes. Information is effectively measured in 3D k-space (spatial frequency space) one line at-atime. That line may be along a Cartesian grid line in k-space, a radial line or a spiral trajectory. A complete acquisition comprises many such lines but in order to improve temporal resolution, reconstructions are made from only partial sets of k-space data. By imposing a basis for the temporal changes, based on prior expectation of the smoothness of the changes in contrast concentration with time, it is demonstrated that a significant reduction in artifacts caused by the under-sampling of k-space can be achieved. The basis is formed from a set of gamma variate functions. Results are presented for a simulated set of 2D spiral-sampled CE-MRA data.


Background Comorbidity among childhood mental health symptoms is common in clinical and community samples and should be accounted for when investigating etiology. We therefore aimed to uncover latent classes of mental health symptoms in middle childhood in a community sample, and to determine the latent genetic and environmental influences on those classes. Methods The sample comprised representative cohorts of twins. A questionnaire-based assessment of mental health symptoms was used in latent class analyses. Data on 3223 twins (1578 boys and 1645 girls) with a mean age of 7.5 years were analyzed. The sample was predominantly non-Hispanic Caucasian (92.1%). Results Latent class models delineated groups of children according to symptom profiles–not necessarily clinical groups but groups representing the general population, most with scores in the normative range. The best-fitting models suggested 9 classes for both girls and boys. Eight of the classes were very similar across sexes; these classes ranged from a "Low Symptom" class to a "Moderately Internalizing & Severely Externalizing" class. In addition, a "Moderately Anxious" class was identified for girls but not boys, and a "Severely Impulsive & Inattentive" class was identified for boys but not girls. Sex-combined analyses implicated moderate genetic influences for all classes. Shared environmental influences were moderate for the "Low Symptom" and "Moderately Internalizing & Severely Externalizing" classes, and small to zero for other classes. Conclusions We conclude that symptom classes are largely similar across sexes in middle childhood. Heritability was moderate for all classes, but shared environment played a greater role for classes in which no one type of symptom predominated.


One-dimensional nanomaterials are widely used in electrocatalysis owing to their high charge transfer efficiency. In this work, Co–Fe alloy nanochains are presented as efficient catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. The nanochains with uniform nanospheres coupled to each other can range up to several micrometers. A metal–metal oxide heterostructure is attained when the alloy is exposed to the air or oxidized by the electrochemical process. The metal can inject electrons into the surface oxide, which changes the work function of the oxide and improves its catalytic efficiency. Series of samples with different compositions (Co, Co7Fe3, Co5Fe5, Co3Fe7, and Fe) were prepared and the effect of Fe/Co ratio on the catalytic activity was studied. Co7Fe3 exhibits the optimal performance with an onset point of 1.50 V (vs. RHE) and an overpotential of 365 mV at 10 mA cm−2. The nanochains also exhibit excellent stability with 92.0% current retention after a long-term chronoamperometry test. Cobalt-based alloys with other metals (Ti, Nb, and Mo) are synthesized by the same method and they have also shown promising application in the oxygen evolution reaction.


In the present work, we report on the effects of the implantation temperature on the formation of bubbles and extended defects in Ne+-implanted Si(001) substrates. The implantations were performed at 50 keV to a fluence of 5x1016 cm-2, for distinct implantation temperatures within the 250°C≤Ti≤800°C interval. The samples are investigated using a combination of cross-sectional and plan-view Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) observations and Grazing Incidence Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (GISAXS)measurements. In comparison with similar He implants, we demonstrate that the Ne implants can lead to the formation of a much denser bubble system.


Progress in artificial intelligence and related forms of automation technologies threatens to reverse the gains that developing countries and emerging markets have experienced from integrating into the world economy over the past half century, aggravating poverty and inequality. The new technologies have the tendency to be labor-saving, resource-saving, and to give rise to winner-takes-all dynamics that advantage developed countries. We analyze the economic forces behind these developments and describe economic policies that would mitigate the adverse effects on developing and emerging economies while leveraging the potential gains from technological advances. We also describe reforms to our global system of economic governance that would share the benefits of AI more widely with developing countries.


Improves standard assessments of many commercially valuable fish species as Blue line snapper Lutjanus coeruleolineatus, is considered as an important commercial species harvested in the traditional fishery in the Sultanate of Oman. This will increase our knowledge in fish industry management. The present investigation of some biological aspects of Blue line snapper including male-female sex ratio, condition factor (Kn), gonado somatic index (GSI), length at first maturity for both sexes and developmental stages of ovary. Histological changes during the annual reproductive cycle and the stage of maturity of the ovary of Blue line snapper, L. coeruleolineatus are reported. Random collection of the species (449 males and 529 females) were taken monthly from Dhofar Governorate off the coast of the Arabian Sea at the period from March 2015 to February 2016. The results of this study reported male-female sex ratio was significantly different (P<0.05) from 1:1with dominate of females. The average monthly condition factor (Kn) values showed quite similar trend for both sexes with a slight higher values for females. The gonado somatic indices (GSI) data indicate that L. coeruleolineatus has prolonged breeding season from August to January with two peaks occurring in October and January. The length at first maturity was 28.1 ± 0.0 cm for males and 29.7 ± 0.0 cm for females. In this study five developmental stages of ovary of L. coeruleolineatus are recognized during development.


Drawing on Indigenous peoples' struggles against settler colonialism, Theft Is Property! reconstructs the concept of dispossession as a means of explaining how shifting configurations of law, property, race, and rights have functioned as modes of governance, both historically and in the present. Through close analysis of arguments by Indigenous scholars and activists from the nineteenth century to the present, Robert Nichols argues that dispossession has come to name a unique recursive process whereby systematic theft is the mechanism by which property relations are generated. In so doing, Nichols also brings long-standing debates in anarchist, Black radical, feminist, Marxist, and postcolonial thought into direct conversation with the frequently overlooked intellectual contributions of Indigenous peoples.


We describe our clinical question answering system implemented for the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC 2016) Clinical Decision Support (CDS) track. We submitted five runs using a combination of knowledge-driven (based on a curated knowledge graph) and deep learning-based (using key-value memory networks) approaches to retrieve relevant biomedical articles for answering generic clinical questions (diagnoses, treatment, and test) for each clinical scenario provided in three forms: notes, descriptions, and summaries. The submitted runs were varied based on the use of notes, descriptions, or summaries in association with different diagnostic inferencing methodologies applied prior to biomedical article retrieval. Evaluation results demonstrate that our systems achieved best or close to best scores for 20% of the topics and better than median scores for 40% of the topics across all participants considering all evaluation measures. Further analysis shows that on average our clinical question answering system performed best with summaries using diagnostic inferencing from the knowledge graph whereas our key-value memory network model with notes consistently outperformed the knowledge graph-based system for notes and descriptions. ∗The author is also affiliated with Worcester Polytechnic Institute (email@example.com). †The author is also affiliated with Northwestern University (firstname.lastname@example.com). ‡The author is also affiliated with Brandeis University (firstname.lastname@example.com).


This paper looks at the blockages to the publication of children's literature caused by the intellectual climate of the postwar era, through a case study of the editorial policy of Hachette, the largest publisher for children at this time. This period witnessed heightened tensions surrounding the social and humanitarian responsibilities of literature. Writers were blamed for having created a culture of defeatism, and collaborationist authors were punished harshly in the purges. In the case of children's literature, the discourse on responsibility was made more urgent by the assumption that children were easily influenced by their reading material, and by the centrality of the young to the discourse on the moral reconstruction of France. As the politician and education reformer Gustave Monod put it: "penser l'avenir, c'est penser le sort des enfants et de la jeunesse." These concerns led to the expansion of associations and publications dedicated to protecting children and promoting "good" reading matter for them, and, famously, to the 1949 law regulating publications for children, which banned the depiction of crime, debauchery and violence that might demoralise young readers. Using the testimonials of former employees, along with readers' reports and editorial correspondence preserved in the Hachette archives, this paper will examine how individual editorial decisions and self-censorship strategies were shaped by the 1949 law with its attendant discourse of moral panic on children's reading, and how national concerns for future citizens were balanced with commercial imperatives.


With the strong expansion of the installed renewable energy over the last years, the relevance of weather forecasts for operating the German power system has considerably increased. In that context, rare but important events like the solar eclipse on the morning of 20 March 2015 pose an additional challenge when operating the power system, as it affects the photovoltaic (PV) power production by inducing strong gradients in the feed-in. In order to maintain grid stability, the uncertainties associated with the eclipse have been estimated in advance for planning necessary precautions. Especially the maximum gradients in PV-power were of importance for the provision of balancing energy. Numerical weather prediction (NWP) is very suited for this assessment, as it allows to consider the complex mechanisms occurring in the atmosphere. Thus the impact of the eclipse on meteorological parameters which affect the PV-power generation were evaluated. Sensitivity studies with NWP models have been conducted in order to assess the reduction in short wave radiation and temperature during the total solar eclipse months before the actual event. For this purpose, model simulations with the non-hydrostatic COSMO models from the German Weather Service (DWD) have been performed over Germany and Europe. As the weather situation and especially the cloud cover during the eclipse could not be known in advance, a realistic worst case (clear sky conditions) and a best case (overcast conditions) scenario were simulated over Germany. Thereof the PV-power production has been estimated and analyzed for the different scenarios. The NWP model data from the sensitivity studies are openly distributed (doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.839163). As near real-time NWP simulations considering the solar eclipse were conducted a few days prior to the event, they are herein validated with measurements. Furthermore, the actual PV-power production and actions taken by the TSOs during the solar eclipse are stated.


We exploit a unique natural experiment to structurally estimate the information frictions associated with switching costs. Specifically, we study a Chilean policy that simplified and standardized the presentation of loan characteristics in contracts and quotes. Using administrative data from the banking regulator, we exploit how this policy change affected the price-sensitivity in consumer decisions to identify the reduction in information frictions. We then incorporate this estimate into a dynamic structural model to explore the link between reduced informational frictions and welfare in long-term market equilibrium. We find that, after the policy, information frictions fell around 10 percent, which translated into an interest reduction of 180 basis points. We estimate a welfare improvement for consumers of 15 percent in the long run.


Objectives: To evaluate the impact of a positive herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) serological test on psychosocial functioning among people with no known history of genital herpes. Methods: Individuals (age 14–30 years) without a history of genital herpes were recruited from an urban university setting and sexually transmitted diseases (STD), primary care, and adolescent clinics. Participants completed a questionnaire addressing psychological functioning, psychosocial adjustment, and perceived quality of sex and were offered free HSV-2 antibody testing. 33 HSV-2 positive people and 60 HSV-2 negative people demographically matched from the same source of recruitment were re-evaluated at a 3 month follow up visit. HSV-2 positive participants also completed a genital herpes quality of life (GHQOL) measure. Results: Of the 33 who were HSV-2 seropositive, four did not recall their diagnosis. In comparing those who were HSV-2 positive with those who were negative, repeated measures analysis of variance indicated there were no significant differences over time on any of the measures. None the less, many HSV-2 positive individuals indicated that the diagnosis had a notable impact on their quality of life. Also, among the HSV-2 positive people, lower GHQOL at the 3 month follow up was predicted by higher interpersonal sensitivity (r = −0.44, p<0.05), lower social support (r = 0.40, p<0.05), and quality of sex (r = 0.62, p<0.01) at baseline. Conclusions: A diagnosis of asymptomatic HSV-2 infection does not appear to cause significant lasting psychological difficulties. Those for whom the diagnosis had the greatest impact were interpersonally vulnerable before the diagnosis. These results suggest that assessment of interpersonal distress may be important to include as part of pretest and post-test counselling.


This paper models the empirical phenomenon of persistent "…fifty-…fifty "probability judgements within a dynamic non-additive Savage framework. To this purpose I construct a model of Bayesian learning such that an agent's probability judgement is characterized as the solution to a Choquet expected utility maximization problem with respect to a conditional neo-additive capacity. Only for the non-generic case in which this capacity degenerates to an additive probability measure, the agent's probability judgement coincides with the familiar estimate of a Bayesian statistician who minimizes a quadratic (squared error) loss function with respect to an additive posterior distribution. In contrast, for the generic case in which the capacity is non-additive, the agent's probability judgements converge through Bayesian learning to the unique fuzzy probability measure that assigns a 0:5 probability to any uncertain event.


New single-source integral equation (SSIE) of computational electromagnetics has been recently proposed. Unlike the previously known SSIEs which are derived from traditional surface integral equations (IE) through elimination of either electric or magnetic equivalent current, the new SSIE is obtained from the volume IE stated for homogeneous objects. Thus far, the novel electric field SSIE has been demonstrated to be applicable to the problems of magneto-quasi-statics with both homogeneous and layered medium background. It has been also successfully applied to both the scalar and vector problems of full-wave scattering on homogeneous penetrable 2D scatterers. This paper overviews the novel SSIE and problems to which it has been successfully applied to.


Background: REM sleep behaviour disorder (RBD) and migraine are two different disorders that originate from the brainstem. Aim: To examine the relationship between the two diseases. Settings and Design: Patients attending the neurology clinics of Istanbul Medipol University, Medipol Kosuyolu Hospital and Karabuk University. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in two parts: in the first part, migraine patients were assessed for RBD with a screening questionnaire (RBDSQ). Patients with a score of 5 or higher, meaning they were diagnosed with 'dream-enacting behaviour', were called on the phone and recommended to undergo a polysomnography (PSG). In the second part of the study, the patients who agreed to participate were taken a one-night PSG to assess RBD. Results: Of the 230 people who answered the RBDSQ, 51 (22.2%) scored 5 or higher. One hundred ninety-one (83%) were women and 39 (17%) were men. Eleven patients agreed to take PSG. Six (54.5%) were diagnosed with RBD. Statistical analysis: The data were evaluated with SPSS 16.0. Student's t tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were used to compare the two independent groups and chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. Conclusions: Among migraine sufferers, which are common in society, the prevalence of RBD is high. The problem of misdiagnosis may be due to the mild clinical symptoms of RBD in females, who are predominant among those with migraine.


Pathogens causing pneumonia utilize the complement regulator vitronectin to evade complement-mediated killing. Although vitronectin is associated with several chronic lung diseases, the role of bronchoalveolar vitronectin in pneumonia has not been studied. This study sought to reveal the involvement of vitronectin in the bronchoalveolar space during pneumonia, to assess the effect of outer membrane vesicles and endotoxin on vitronectin release, and to determine whether bacterial pathogens utilize pulmonary vitronectin for evasion. Vitronectin was analyzed in cell-free bronchoalveolar lavage fluid harvested from patients with pneumonia (n = 8) and from healthy volunteers after subsegmental endotoxin instillation (n = 13). Vitronectin binding by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Haemophilus influenzae was analyzed, and subsequent complement evasion was assessed by serum challenge. The effects of outer membrane vesicles on vitronectin production in mouse lungs and human type II alveolar epithelial cells (A549) were determined. We detected increased vitronectin concentrations in lavage fluid during pneumonia (p = 0.0063) and after bronchial endotoxin challenge (p = 0.016). The capture of vitronectin by bacteria significantly reduced complement-mediated lysis. Following challenge with vesicles, vitronectin was detected in mouse bronchoalveolar space, and mouse alveolar epithelial cells in vivo as well as A549 cells in vitro contained increased levels of vitronectin. Taken together, outer membrane vesicles and endotoxin from Gram-negative bacteria induce vitronectin, which is released into the bronchoalveolar space, and used for evasion of complement-mediated clearance.


Democratic values and basic rights in Turkey are hanging by a thread. Over the past eighteen months the rule of law, civil liberties and freedoms have been eroded which has left many Turks anxious over the direction in which their country is heading.
With Turkey's accession negotiations de facto frozen, the EU finds itself with little leverage over Ankara. Calls of concern have fallen on deaf ears as Turkey's leadership has become increasingly belligerent, with its EU related narrative overflowing with resentment. Because Turkey's accession negotiations are irreversibly intertwined with Turkey-EU cooperation in other areas, this has had a negative impact on the broader relationship between both sides. Recent examples include the issue of foreign fighters traveling from Europe to Syria via Turkey. Each side has accused the other of not doing enough to stem the flow. Likewise, following the decision of Russian President, Vladimir Putin, to ban the import of agricultural goods from countries that have placed sanctions on Moscow, the EU asked Turkey to demonstrate solidarity, as a "candidate country", and not to increase exports of agricultural products to Russia. Turkey rejected this request and is reportedly working on strengthening trade ties with Moscow.
Turkey remains an important partner in a number of key areas including trade, energy, foreign and security policy and migration. At a time when the EU faces crises in both its Eastern and Southern neighbourhoods, a reliable and predictable Turkey, with which it can cooperate in the Black Sea and Middle East neighbourhoods is crucial. Hence the vision and plans of the EU's new leadership, in particular new Foreign Policy Chief, Federica Mogherini, and Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, how to shape relations with Ankara is particularly significant. The Union's current policy is counterproductive and is further eroding trust and cooperation rather than enhancing it. It needs to be turned around.


The modular specification of non-functional properties of systems is a current challenge of Software Engineering, for which no clear solution exists. However, in the case of Domain-Specific Languages some successful proposals are starting to emerge, combining model-driven techniques with aspect-weaving mechanisms. In this paper we show one of these approaches in practice, and present the implementation we have developed to fully support it. We apply our approach for the specification and monitoring of non-functional properties us- ing observers to a case study, illustrating how generic observers defining non- functional properties can be defined in an independent manner. Then, correspon- dences between these observers and the domain-specific model of the system can be established, and then weaved into a unified system specification using an ATL model transformation. Such a unified specification can also be analyzed in a nat- ural way to obtain the required non-functional properties of the system.


In this paper, two multiple description coding schemes are developed, based on prediction-induced randomly offset quantizers and unequal-deadzone-induced near-uniformly offset quantizers, respectively. In both schemes, each description encodes one source subset with a small quantization stepsize, and other subsets are predictively coded with a large quantization stepsize. In the first method, due to predictive coding, the quantization bins that a coefficient belongs to in different descriptions are randomly overlapped. The optimal reconstruction is obtained by finding the intersection of all received bins. In the second method, joint dequantization is also used, but near-uniform offsets are created among different low-rate quantizers by quantizing the predictions and by employing unequal deadzones. By generalizing the recently developed random quantization theory, the closed-form expression of the expected distortion is obtained for the first method, and a lower bound is obtained for the second method. The schemes are then applied to lapped transform-based multiple description image coding. The closed-form expressions enable the optimization of the lapped transform. An iterative algorithm is also developed to facilitate the optimization. Theoretical analyzes and image coding results show that both schemes achieve better performance than other methods in this category.


Work contexts shape conditions for work. Teachers working in Indigenous school contexts face conditions different from teachers working in mainstream schools. Challenging working conditions for these teachers result in high teacher turnover, making it even more difficult for already disadvantaged students to progress. From a social justice perspective, this disruption in learning requires looking at the working conditions for teachers in Indigenous school contexts. Using interviews, this article examines how non-Indigenous teachers working in Indigenous school contexts in Australia experience their working conditions. The interviews reveal 'learning gaps' that seem to be associated with their lack of opportunities to develop context-specific professional knowledge.


Price dispersion, i.e. a homogeneous product being sold at different prices by different sellers, is among the most replicated findings in empirical economics. The paper assesses the extent and determinants of spatial price dispersion for 14 perfectly homogeneous food products in more than 400 retailers in a market characterized by the persistence of a large number of relatively small traditional food stores, side by side large supermarkets. The extent of observed price dispersion is quite high, suggesting that monopolistic competition prevails as a result of the heterogeneity of consumers and services offered. When prices in an urban area (where the spatial concentration of sellers is much higher and consumer search costs significantly lower) are compared with those in smaller towns and rural areas, differences in search costs and the potentially higher degree of competition do not yield lower prices; quite the contrary, they are, on average, higher in the urban area for 11 of the 14 products considered. Supermarkets proved to be often, but not always, less expensive than traditional retailers, although average savings from food shopping at supermarkets were extremely low. Finally, the results of the study suggest that retailers have different pricing strategies; these differences emerge both at the firm level and for supermarkets within the same chain. The results presented in the paper suggest that what is important in explaining price dispersion is the contemporaneous heterogeneity of retailers (in terms of services) and consumers (in terms of search and shopping preferences), which makes it possible for a monopolistic competition structure of the market to emerge and for small traditional food retailers to remain in business.


The concept of an immigration industrial complex draws from previous work on the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex. All three of these complexes point to the ways that the interests of government bureaucracies, corporate elites, and politicians shape laws and policies. This article explains how the undocumented status of migrants provides advantages to at least three groups: (a) media pundits who make their careers railing against 'illegal aliens'; (b) politicians who use undocumented migrants as scapegoats; and (c) contractors who profit from massive immigration enforcement expenditures. The disenfranchised status of undocumented migrants enhances the ability of each of these groups to benefit from their presence. This confluence of interests explains why Congress has not enacted viable immigration policies that effectively deal with the 'problem' of illegal immigration. This is the second in a two-part series on the immigration industrial complex.


A series of 2-methyl-1H-benzimidazole hydrazide derivatives have been synthesized, purified and the structures of these heterocycles have been characterized on the basis of spectral analysis (IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR and Mass). Test compounds were tested for antimycobacterial potentials using alamar blue assay method (ABA) and luciferase reporter phage assay (LRPA) against the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Some of the compounds are found to possess remarkable antimycobacterial potentials proving their equipotency with that of the standard marketed chemotherapeutic agent, isoniazid.


12 May 2016 Abstract Introduction: Aging increases the probability of the concurrent incidence of osteoporosis and hypertension. It is demonstrated that antihypertensive drugs can affect bone metabolism. The object of this study was to evaluate the effects of antihypertensive medication on bone mineral density of maxilla and mandible in males over 50 years old using CBCT. Methods: In this analytical cross-sectional study, 174 CBCT images belong to males over 50 years old were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. According to the history of using antihypertensive drugs by the patients, these images set into three groups: control group who did not have any history of hypertension, beta blocker users group (at least 5 years) and calcium-channel blocker users group (at least 5 years). Bone mineral density in each jaw was obtained in four regions using CBCT and the mean of these four values in each jaw was taken as the mean mineral density of that jaw. One-way ANOVA analysis and Tukey post hoc test were used to compare the mean values. Results: In beta blocker group, the mean of mineral density of all regions of maxilla except for incisor region was significantly greater than that for the control group. The difference between these two groups in mandible was statistically significant only at the mean of lower jaw. There was no statistically significant difference between the control group and the calcium-channel blocker group at all regions of maxilla and mandible. Conclusion: It may be preferred to use beta blockers instead of calcium channel blockers to control hypertension in the patients at


Abstract We prove that uniqueness of the stationary chain, or equivalently, of the $g$-measure, compatible with an attractive regular probability kernel is equivalent to either one of the following two assertions for this chain: (1) it is a finitary coding of an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) process with countable alphabet; (2) the concentration of measure holds at exponential rate. We show in particular that if a stationary chain is uniquely defined by a kernel that is continuous and attractive, then this chain can be sampled using a coupling-from-the-past algorithm. For the original Bramson–Kalikow model we further prove that there exists a unique compatible chain if and only if the chain is a finitary coding of a finite alphabet i.i.d. process. Finally, we obtain some partial results on conditions for phase transition for general chains of infinite order.


Background: There are a large number of viruses spread by mosquitoes, many of which cause debilitating, often fatal, neurological disease such as acute encephalitis. In this study we have used two different neurotropic viruses: Semliki Forest virus (SFV), and West Nile virus (WNV), both of which can cause severe panencephalitis in the mouse. The influx of leukocytes into the infected tissues is mediated by chemokines and is believed to be important for virus clearance. To date, we have only limited insights into the precise nature of chemokine involvement, and an improved understanding of these important axes provides a new target for the development of novel therapies. Hypothesis: Based on previous studies investigating the role of chemokines during neuroinflammation it was hypothesised that chemokines and other cytokines are highly upregulated during viral encephalitis, and the blockade of selected chemokine receptors would lead to altered disease outcome. It was also hypothesised that chemokine receptors would present plausible targets for the treatment of viral encephalitis. Results: To test these hypotheses, the chemokine expression pattern and the kinetics of chemokine mediated leukocyte recruitment during viral encephalitis were analysed in unprecedented detail by TaqMan low density array, and flow cytometry, respectively, and key chemokine receptor were identified as therapeutic targets. Both SFV and WNV exhibited a similar pattern of chemokine upregulation, although WNV induced significantly higher fold expression. The key chemokines upregulated were CCL2, 3, 5, 7, CXCL9 and CXCL10. The upregulation of chemokines coincided with leukocyte influx into the CNS. After identifying the key chemokines upregulated during viral encephalitis, next a selected panel of chemokine receptor antagonists was utilized to evaluate the hierarchy and relative importance of distinct chemokine receptors for CNS leukocyte influx, viral clearance, neuropathogenesis and host survival. We identified the CXCR3 axis as being the key instigator of CNS inflammation in response to alphavirus infection, placing it at the top of a hierarchal cascade that is followed by CCR2 and CCR5. Critically, inhibition of both CXCR3 and CCR2 simultaneously, significantly improved host survival to otherwise lethal encephalitis. Conclusion: These data suggest that chemokine receptors represent plausible therapeutic targets for viral encephalitis.


Many indicators and market evidence suggest that there are still sizable potentials for cost-effective investments into energy efficiency in the eight post-communist new EU member states. However, as long as the governments of these countries still struggle with economic revival and huge budget deficits, it is unlikely that a generous amount of state funds will be directed towards tapping these potentials. Market-based instruments, therefore, offer an attractive alternative to deliver energy efficiency as opposed to hard-toobtain subsidies. A study commissioned by the European Parliament and executed by Central European University has examined, among others, the role and potential role of new economic instruments in promoting sustainable energy pathways in the new member states. The present paper explores the effect flexible mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol may have on energy efficiency, fuel switch and the development of renewable energy sources in this region. These eight countries are chief candidates for hosting Joint Implementation projects and for participating in International Emission Trading schemes, which may assist the implementation and financing of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and fuel switching projects. The article reviews the potentials and barriers to Joint Implementation, and the conditions under which International Emission Trading can influence the energy use of the selling country. The research has also examined the different strategies the host countries chose to adopt towards the application of these instruments, and the impact of the strategies on short- and medium term energy sustainability. The paper concludes that the flexibility mechanisms may play a positive but rather limited role in the sustainable energy development of the region, and that due to the barriers to JI the emphasis may shift towards emission trading. If emission trading transactions are carried out through innovative mechanisms tied to sustainable development goals, it may play an important role in mobilising the energy efficiency potentials of these countries.


In Cognitive Radio (CR), secondary radios are allowed to use the spectrum allocated to primary radios (PR) only if the spectrum is sensed to be unused by the PR users. Cooperative spectrum sensing is a sensing methodology in which secondary users send their detection results to a central fusion node for global decision. It has been shown that for single node detection, SNR wall provides a hard threshold on the sensed SNR for robust signal detection. In this paper, asymptotic performance of cooperative spectrum sensing with Hard Decision Combining (HDC) will be studied under noise uncertainty. It is first shown that under noise uncertainty, SNR wall is yet a substantial constraint on the performance of the cooperative spectrum sensing when applying HDC. We then show that k-out-of-n fusion rule with finite k (e.g., "OR" rule) does not result in robust detection of the PR signal, even for SNR values greater than SNR wall. Finally, it is shown that for SNR values greater than the SNR wall, the PR signal can be robustly detected by the k-out-of-n fusion rule with finite n − k (e.g., "AND" rule).


Rural women entrepreneurs in Uganda continue to face multiple challenges that impede their enterprise growth and expansion, despite pragmatic interventions from government and non-state actors to enhance entrepreneurship. Uganda's female managed nonfarm household enterprises continue to be micro, informal and face bottlenecks to access high credit to grow their business as they do not have the necessary collateral that formal credit institutions demand. Hence, many resort to borrowing from locally managed community or village credit associations to start or grow their businesses and yet, these financing mechanisms are limited. The Uganda Women Entrepreneurship Programme (UWEP) should therefore ensure that the distribution of funds is equitable taking into consideration the heterogeneities across spatial areas, region, education level and size of business enterprise.


Oil reserves are declining all over the world. Nevertheless the age of oil is probably bound to last for several years still, even though the growth of the world energy consumption will lead to a faster depletion than the one we are experiencing today. The possibility of avoiding new oil and energy crises will depend upon the oil industry's ability to find new fields and, above all, on mankind's ability to achieve an optimum exploitation of the currently available resources. The search of new fields is very expensive and the probability of finding new highly productive formations is small. The development of efficient technologies for oil extraction and processing to apply to existing fields is very important to extend their profitability. After being extracted, crude oil is a mixture of gases and liquids which need to be separated and purified, before being injected into their respective pipelines. In general, those operations are carried out on site. Since approximately 40% of the world production of oil comes from the sea (a percentage expected to increase in the next years), the need to economize on the space of the equipment is important. In addition, the growing attention to heavy and extra heavy oils raises a question on how they can be efficiently produced. In the light of this, the electrostatic separation (often denoted as electrocoalescence) of crude oil emulsions is an important tool which, despite recent developments, still has a great potential. It is a cost-effective solution to guarantee the required export oil quality, and to increase the process efficiency on the platforms by allowing a quick discharge of the water in excess. This work was developed within the aims of the project "Electrocoalescence II – Criteria for an efficient process in real crude oil systems", the continuation of a former project in which the fundamental mechanisms active in the electrocoalescence process were identified for model systems. The new purpose was to link this knowledge to realistic conditions and waterin- oil emulsions, and this thesis contributes to this challenge. Paper 1 addresses the rheological behaviour of different water-in-crude oil emulsions, under varying shear conditions, and exposed to a DC electrical field. Paper 2 investigates the reasons for the formation of an extremely stable emulsion on an off-shore field and discusses the advantages given by a commercial electrocoalescer (the VIEC, from Aibel AS) for its resolution and for reducing the demulsifier consumption. Solid particles are believed to play an important role in the stability behaviour of emulsions, not only enhancing the mechanical properties of the W/O interfaces, but also increasing the medium viscosity and thus hindering the sedimentation of water droplets. Paper 3 clarifies the influence of particle wettability and concentration on the electrostatic separation efficiency, highlighting the role played by the oil asphaltene fraction. Paper 4 demonstrates the great potential of electrocoalescence on the treatment of heavy oil emulsions. In fact, by using a commercial technology (the HTVIEC, from Aibel AS), the process performances can be maintained reducing the heat requirements. It is also shown that the electrocoalescer can be placed into the 1st stage separator, even in case of water continuous inlet conditions. Paper 5 aims to achieve a better understanding of the electrocoalescence process under AC fields, by a close comparison between experiments and theoretical predictions. Two additional reports were developed within the aim of the project. Report 1 investigates the possibility to apply electrocoalescence for the desalting operation on heavy crude oil emulsions. The experiments are carried out on a medium scale rig equipped with an electrostatic device, prototype of a commercial product (the CEC™ from Aker Kvaerner). Report 2 (not included in this thesis) describes the improvements made on the rheometer used in Paper 1. These were performed to eliminate the presence of electric field enhancements and to introduce electric diagnosis into the rheometer cup.


This study examined trends along a gradient of fishing intensity in an artisanal coral reef fishery over a 10-year period along 75 km of Kenya's most populated coastline. As predicted by Malthusian scenarios, catch per unit effort (CPUE), mean trophic level, the functional diversity of fished taxa, and the diversity of gear declined, while total annual catch and catch variability increased along the fishing pressure gradient. The fishery was able to sustain high (approximately 16 Mg x km(-2) x yr(-1)) but variable yields at high fishing pressure due to the dominance of a few productive herbivorous fish species in the catch. The effect of two separate management strategies to overcome this Malthusian pattern was investigated: fisheries area closure and elimination of the dominant and most "competitive" gear. We found that sites within 5 km of the enforced closure showed significantly lower total catch and CPUE, but increased yield stability and trophic level of catch than predicted by regression models normalized for fishing effort. Sites that had excluded illegal beach seine use through active gear management exhibited increased total catch and CPUE. There was a strong interaction between closure and gear management, which indicates that, for closures to be effective at increasing catch, there must be simultaneous efforts at gear management around the periphery of the closures. We propose that Malthusian effects are responsible for the variation in gear and catch and that active management through reduced effort and reductions in the most competitive gear have the greatest potential to increase the functional and trophic diversity and per-person productivity.


Evans chronicles the stories of African American women who struggled for and won access to formal education, beginning in 1850, when Lucy Stanton, a student at Oberlin College, earned the first college diploma conferred on an African American woman. In the century between the Civil War and the civil rights movement, a critical increase in black women's educational attainment mirrored unprecedented national growth in American education. Evans reveals how black women demanded space as students and asserted their voices as educators - despite such barriers as violence, discrimination, and oppressive campus policies - contributing in significant ways to higher education in the United States. She argues that their experiences, ideas, and practices can inspire contemporary educators to create an intellectual democracy in which all people have a voice. Among those Evans profiles are Anna Julia Cooper, who was born enslaved yet ultimately earned a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne, and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of Bethune-Cookman College. Both women's philosophies raised questions of how human and civil rights are intertwined with educational access, scholarly research, pedagogy, and community service. This first complete educational and intellectual history of black women carefully traces quantitative research, explores black women's collegiate memories, and identifies significant geographic patterns in America's institutional development. Evans reveals historic perspectives, patterns, and philosophies in academia that will be an important reference for scholars of gender, race, and education.


At low density, population growth rates of dioecious zooplankton depend on the encounter rate of potential mates, resulting in a demographic Allee effect and a critical density for population establishment and persistence. Empirical evidence confirms a critical density for the calanoid copepod Hesperodiatomus shoshone, but existing estimates of the critical density span an order of magnitude. Combining three‐dimensional video analysis of mating behavior with life history data from natural populations we estimated H. shoshone critical density to be 0.44–1.44 m−3. The critical density was highly dependent on body size, primarily as a result of the latter's influence on swimming speed. Swimming speed also depended on temperature, increasing > 25% as temperature increased from 5°C to 16°C. Rapid swimming (1.25–2.4 cm s−1) and the ability to follow pheromone trails greatly improved the ability of H. shoshone to find mates. The large effect of temperature on mating behavior means that environmental variation can have a major effect on critical density and indicates that recovery or colonization events may be more likely to succeed in warmer lakes and/or warmer years. Considering the potential for critical densities to vary with environmental conditions is important for understanding how these thresholds determine population establishment and persistence in sexually reproducing aquatic organisms and other populations subject to Allee effects.


VALCHEVA, A. and G. VALCHEV, 2007. The distribution of moulds of genus Fusarium in basic cereals used in production of combined feed. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 13: 99-104 The aim of the present investigation is to evaluate the presence of mycotoxins Zearalenon and Deoxinivalenol as natural contaminators of the basic cereal components of combined feed in this country – maize, wheat, barley and oats. A total of 281 samples, including maize 104, wheat 103, barley 39 and oats 35, stock cereals from 2003 – 2005 crops had been evaluated. More favorable substrates for their accumulation had been maize, wheat and barley, while for oats the presence was established only in some of investigated years. The average concentrations of Zearalenon for maize vary between 398 and 838 μg/kg, for wheat between 450 and 884 μg/kg, for barley between 320 and 378 μg/kg, for oats between 250 and 350 μg/kg. The average concentrations of Deoxinivalenol for maize vary between 237 and 372 μg/kg, for wheat between 336 and 678 μg/kg, for barley between 250 and 333 μg/kg, and for oats 250 μg/kg.


This article uses a mid-century text to reengage a late-1970s concept to answer a new century question. The authors return to Alvin Gouldner's classic (1954) study Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy to reexamine the "coupling" concept in contemporary institutionalism in a way that engages the following question: How do new institutional forms emerge? Based on Gouldner's detailed observations of work in a gypsum mine, the authors argue that coupling processes are key mechanisms in the emergence of institutional forms. Examining coupling as a dynamic process and activity helps us to understand how the institution of bureaucracy emerged in the gypsum mine and interacted with previous social orders of authority and control. Gouldner's account of coupling at the mine is a story of formal and informal power struggles and active conflict over meaning, bringing the process of local institutional formation into sharp relief.


Several papers have attempted to estimate and document the impact of conflict on several education, health and socioeconomic outcomes. One lesson from the past research is the heterogeneity in the effect of violent conflict across and within countries. In this paper we attempt to estimate the casual impact of conflict in Nigeria on welfare related outcomes. The 2009 insurgence of Boko Haram and the Fulani herdsmen versus farmers conflicts have led to a significant increase in violent conflict in the North Eastern and Central parts of Nigeria. However, bouts of violent conflict have existed in different communities across the country since independence. We estimate the average effect of violent conflict exposure on welfare, across Nigeria using the three waves of the Nigerian General Household Survey (GHS) panel combined with The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED). Employing a fixed effect approach, our results suggest that recent and long term exposure to conflict increased the incidence, intensity and severity of poverty in Nigeria. In addition we find that exposure to violent conflict also decreased household income.


Introduction Unresolved legal problems can entrench disadvantage and increase social exclusion unless legal assistance is made available to members of the community (McClelland, 2009). "As a lawyer, and even more so as a local member, I have met a number of people who have been unable to address a small legal problem before it escalates. Often this is because they don't know what to do or where to go", (McClelland, 2009) asserts. Legal information is considered one of the essential ingredients for effective justice to be done in any democratic society. In our day-to-day life, legal issues have become part and partial of our environment. The ever-increasing number of legal cases in the country has enormously led to petitions in court by various people with hope that they will be backed up by lawyers. However, it is worth noting that timely access to the right kind of legal information determines the performance of any legal officer in any judicial process. It is on that basis that this paper examines the legal information seeking behavior of the legal practitioners, the lawyers in Uganda. Conceptual Background A lawyer is a person learned in the law as an attorney, counsel or solicitor, a person licensed to practice law. Working as a lawyer represents the practical application of legal theory and knowledge to solve real problems or to advance the interests of those who retain (i.e. hire) lawyers for legal services. The role of a lawyer varies significantly across legal jurisdictions and therefore can be treated here in only the most general terms (Blacks Law Dictionary, 2004). Generally as noted by Fowler (2007), Lawyers work primarily in the legal culture, with its extensive rules and procedures requiring the right kind of legal information. Lawyers operate in information intensive environment. Everything they do, whether providing legal advice, representing a client in court, or drafting a legal document requires information (Otike and Mathews, 2000). According to Ademola (1994), the legal profession is a highly book reading profession. The importance of information to a lawyer is reiterated by Bello (1994). He argues that books are the tools of trade of the legal profession. Thus, of all the professions, law has the largest collection of books because a well-stocked reference law library is important to a lawyer, as well as to the judge in administration of justice. A lawyer will always make a poor submission if he does not refer to legal authorities, and a judgment will not be as rich without referring to previously decided cases as authorities. Makri (2008) observes that Law is a highly knowledge-intensive domain and obtaining accurate and up-to-date legal information can mean the difference between winning or losing cases. Legal information is therefore paramount to the success of the judicial system. Okello-Obura, (1998) defines legal information as the requirement or right established by law, which resides in all electronics and written records. The history of legal information or literacy in Uganda can be traced right from the colonial days when Uganda was under the imperial rule of Britain. Britain issued four African orders in council for most of her African protectorates in 1894. These orders in council established a system of governance that among other things established a legal system. In Uganda the major order in council was the 1902 one which introduced a dual legal system. This system, as Harvey (1975) states, allowed the native institutions based on customary law to exist only with the colonial legal system only if the customs were not repugnant to justice and morality or inconsistent with any order in council ordinance. Since then, legal information has continued to be produced by academicians, lawmakers and government, calling for an analysis of its usage by the consumers. The Issue at Hand Many practicing lawyers fail to articulate cases and provide proper back up to their clients in the courts of laws which compels one to ask whether it is lack of competence or lack of reliable legal information. …


A new conceptualization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is presented as a means of asserting and maintaining corporate control in the face of political, economic, and social challenges. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) applied different strategies to maintain control of its Iranian assets in the face nationalist demands—political and covert mechanisms, market based, resource access controls, and CSR programs. This paper investigates the third, and least explored, strand of their strategy. It identifies managerial strategies for CSR engagement with respect to three corresponding interest groups: politicians and diplomats, shareholders, and local employees, drawing on a variety of previously unused archival sources. From prior studies it is unclear whether the AIOC's CSR programs, for example, in employment and housing, were motivated by social improvement, its business agenda, or responses to legislative pressures from the Iranian government. A detailed examination of CSR policy and private correspondence between AIOC's senior executives about their negotiations with the Iranian government shows that they engaged in and reported voluntary CSR activities to strengthen their reputation and negotiating position but refused to compromise on aspects of CSR that threatened the existing managerial hierarchy of control. This interpretation is supported by a content analysis of the company's annual reports in the years before and after nationalization, revealing a choice of topics and language intended to support its self-presentation as a socially concerned employer. The results of this study have wider implications for understanding CSR reporting as a corporate strategy to enhance negotiating and bargaining positions.


Approved hepatitis B virus (HBV) therapies include interferon-alpha and nucleos(t)ide analogues. Lamivudine (LVD) is a nucleoside analogue and following long term LVD therapy, resistance emerges in a significant number of patients. Entecavir (ETV) is a novel deoxyguanosine analogue with potent activity against HBV in chronically infected patients. ETV is highly efficacious in treating nucleoside naive and LVD refractory patients. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of ETV drug resistance in LVD treated/ETV naive (study group) and in untreated naive (control group) patients with chronic B hepatitis. DNA sequencing was applied to 80.-250. amino acid positions on HBV polymerase gene to investigate the ETV resistance and also HBV genotype and HBV polymerase gene overlapped S-gene segment mutations. Primary LVD and ETV drug resistance were detected in 37 (42.6%) and 4 (4.5%) of 87 patients, respectively in the study group. rtT184A, rtT1841 and rtT1845 mutations were found related to primary ETV resistance. In these patients also rtL180M and rtQ215S mutations were detected as compensatory mutations and YVDD and YIDD variants were observed at the 204. amino acid codon position. None of the patients in the control group had LVD or ETV resistance. Two of the patients in the study group had mutations at the positions sG145R and sC137G in the overlapped S-gene segment. However, mutations at the overlapped S-gene segment were not affected by the mutations associated with ETV resistance. All of the patients in the study and the control group were of HBV genotype D. The results obtained from this study may guide the treatment choices with ETV in chronic HBV patients treated with LVD and developed resistance to LVD.


The TCV tokamak is equipped with high-power (4.5MW), real-time-controllable EC systems and flexible shaping, and plays an important role in fusion research by broadening the parameter range of reactor relevant regimes, by investigating tokamak physics questions and by developing new control tools. Steady-state discharges are achieved, in which the current is entirely self-generated through the bootstrap mechanism, a fundamental ingredient for ITER steady-state operation. The discharge remains quiescent over several current redistribution times, demonstrating that a self-consistent, " bootstrap-aligned " equilibrium state is possible. Electron ITB regimes sustained by EC current drive have also been explored. MHD activity is shown to be crucial in scenarios characterised by large and slow oscillations in plasma confinement, which in turn can be modified by small Ohmic current perturbations altering the barrier strength. In studies of the relation between anomalous transport and plasma shape, the observed dependences of the electron thermal diffusivity on triangularity (direct) and collisionality (inverse) are qualitatively reproduced by nonlinear gyro-kinetic simulations and shown to be governed by TEM turbulence. Parallel SOL flows are studied for their importance for material migration. Flow profiles are measured using a reciprocating Mach probe by changing from lower to upper single null diverted equilibria and shifting the plasmas vertically. The dominant, field-direction-dependent Pfirsch-Schlüter component is found to be in good agreement with theoretical predictions. A field-direction-independent component is identified and is consistent with flows generated by transient over-pressure due to ballooning-like interchange turbulence. Initial high-resolution infrared images confirm that ELMs have a filamentary structure, while fast, localised radiation measurements reveal that ELM activity first appears in the X-point region. Real-time control techniques are currently being applied to EC multiple independent power supplies and beam launchers, e.g. to control the plasma current in fully non-inductive conditions, and the plasma elongation through current broadening by far-off-axis heating at constant shaping field.


Background and Aims: Retention of junior doctors in specialties such as critical care is difficult, especially in resource-limited settings. This study describes the profile of junior doctors in adult state intensive care units in Sri Lanka, a lower middle-income country. Materials and Methods: This was a national cross-sectional survey using an anonymous self-administered electronic questionnaire. Results: Five hundred and thirty-nine doctors in 93 Intensive Care Units (ICUs) were contacted, generating 207 responses. Just under half of the respondents (93, 47%) work exclusively in ICUs. Most junior doctors (150, 75.8%) had no previous exposure to anesthesia and 134 (67.7%) had no previous ICU experience while 116 (60.7%) ICU doctors wished to specialize in critical care. However, only a few (12, 6.3%) doctors had completed a critical care diploma course. There was a statistically significant difference (P < 0.05) between the self-assessed confidence of anesthetic background junior doctors and non-anesthetists. The overall median competency for doctors improves with the length of ICU experience and is statistically significant (P < 0.05). ICU postings were less happy and more stressful compared to the last non-ICU posting (P < 0.05 for both). The vast majority, i.e., 173 (88.2%) of doctors felt the care provided for patients in their ICUs was good, very good, or excellent while 71 doctors (36.2%) would be happy to recommend the ICU where they work to a relative with the highest possible score of 10. Conclusion: Measures to improve training opportunities for these doctors and strategies to improve their retention in ICUs need to be addressed.


The food supply to a growing world population is based on grain crops, which are harvested for their seeds. Therefore, understanding the process of seed development and its regulation has been important to increase production. This has become even more relevant and important as grain production reaches a plateau post green revolution and food security for an ever-increasing population becomes more pressing. This study focuses on altering seed size via manipulation of the endosperm, an important component of the seed that not only nourishes the developing embryo and provides the majority of our food. A classic study done by crossing different ploidies of Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana) results in changes to endosperm-led growth as a consequence of altered parental genome ratios in the endosperm specifically. Increased paternal contribution results in an enlarged endosperm, and a heavier seed, whereas increased maternal contribution has the opposite effect. Whole genome transcript profiling using microarray analysis of siliques generated by interploidy crosses identified A. thaliana genes namely: PHE1, PHE2, AGL40, AGL62, AGL28, AGL45, CKX2, MAPK10, E2L2, GA1, CYCD4;1, CYCD4;2, GA20OX5, GA-regulated and AT5G46950, that are positively associated with endosperm overgrowth. In order to verify the role of these genes in endosperm proliferation, knock in (KI) which causes gene over-expression and knock out (KO) which results in gene inactivation, strategies were used. Constitutive over-expression of CKX2, MAPK10, and E2L2 showed abnormal vegetative and floral phenotypes, whereas targeted endosperm-specific over-expression of PHE2 and GA1 showed an increase in seed size and/or fertility. KI plants of AGL40, AGL62, AGL45, CYCD4;1, CYCD4;2, GA20OX5, GA-regulated and AT5G46950 did not result in any obvious phenotypic effects under normal growth conditions. KO mutant plants namely: phe1, phe2, agl40, agl62, agl28 and agl45, as single individual mutants were also indistinguishable to wild type plants in non-seed phenotypes. Embryo sac area, individual seed weight and total seed yield data obtained from a phe1 line showed a smaller embryo sac area, lighter seed and reduced total seed yield. Loss of function of agl62 showed precocious endosperm cellularisation and seed lethality. It is nearly impossible to generate phe1/phe2 double mutants due to a very tight linkage between these genes (on the chromosome physically the two genes lie next to each other) and hence doubles, triples and quadruple mutants where appropriate were made with either phe1 or phe2 in combination with other mutant lines of the MADS family of transcription factors. None of the double mutant combination tested had obvious developmental defects. However, the triple mutant phe1/phe1::agl40/agl40 ::agl45/agl45 and the quadruple mutant phe2/phe2::agl40/agl40::agl45/agl45 ::agl28/agl28 showed abnormal embryo and endosperm development which resulted to seed death. This indicates a functional redundancy among these MADS box genes. However, it is unclear how PHE1, PHE2, AGL40, AGL45 and AGL28 act to affect embryo and endosperm development. This result confirms that these genes are positively associated with endosperm over-proliferation as growth promoters and function in some cases as singly or as participants in a complex to control seed development. Thus manipulating expression of genes involved in endosperm development in A. thaliana and the potential use of this knowledge in crop plants provides us with a route to improvement of crop yields.


This paper focuses on the resilient scheduling of parallel jobs on high-performance computing (HPC) platforms to minimize the overall completion time, or makespan. We revisit the classical problem while assuming that jobs are subject to transient or silent errors, and hence may need to be re-executed each time they fail to complete successfully. This work generalizes the classical framework where jobs are known offline and do not fail: in the classical framework, list scheduling that gives priority to longest jobs is known to be a 3-approximation when imposing to use shelves, and a 2-approximation without this restriction. We show that when jobs can fail, using shelves can be arbitrarily bad, but unrestricted list scheduling remains a 2-approximation. The paper focuses on the design of several heuristics, some list-based and some shelf-based, along with different priority rules and backfilling strategies. We assess and compare their performance through an extensive set of simulations, using both synthetic jobs and log traces from the Mira supercomputer.


Social interactions may encourage the cooperative behaviours by triggering either self-image concerns (when one sees others' decisions without being seen) or social-image concerns (when one's decision is seen by others). A laboratory experiment is designed to compare these two concerns directly, using a four-players finitely repeated public goods experiment on two directed star networks, self-image and social-image networks. The comparison of the players voluntary contributions in both types of networks reveals that their contributing behaviours are statistically indistinguishable. However, the players who belong to the self-image network are more willing to conform with the group behaviours, meaning that they will increase (reduce) the contributions if theirs are below (above) their groups average. Furthermore, I also find evidence that the contributing behaviours are more stable in the self-image networks than in the social-image network.


This paper describes a neural network-based design similarity measure for a variant fixture planning approach. The goal is to retrieve, for a new product design, a useful fixture from a given set of existing designs and their fixtures. However, since calculating each fixture's feasibility and then determining the necessary modifications for infeasible fixtures would require too much effort, the approach searches quickly for the most promising fixtures. The proposed approach uses a design similarity measure to find existing designs that are likely to have useful fixtures. The use of neural networks to generate design similarity measures is explored. This paper describes the backpropagation algorithm for network learning and highlights some of the implementation details involved. The neural network-based design similarity measure is compared against other measures that are based on a single design attribute.


A heavy-duty diesel engine operating case producing no engine-out smoke was studied using combined simultaneous optical diagnostics. The case was close to a typical low-load modern diesel operating point without EGR. Parallels were drawn to the conceptual model by Dec and results from high-pressure combustion vessels. Optical results revealed that no soot was present in the upstream part of the jet cross-section. Soot was only observed in the recirculation zones close to the bowl perimeter. This indicated very slow soot formation and was explained by a significantly higher air entrainment rate than in Dec's study. The local fuel-air equivalence ratio, Φ, at the lift-off length was estimated to be 40% of the value in Dec's study. The lower Φ in the jet produced a different Φ-T history, explaining the soot results. The increased air entrainment rate was mainly due to smaller nozzle holes and increased TDC density. Furthermore, increased injection pressure was believed to reduce the residence time in the jet, thus reducing the soot formation. OH was detected at the periphery of the jet, upstream of the location where fuel started to react on the jet centerline. The OH region extended relatively far into the jet, further supporting the conclusion of a less fuel-rich jet in the current case. Partially oxidized fuel (POF) was found at the center of the jet, downstream of the lift-off position. This indicated that the temperature needed to start chemical reactions inside the jet had not been obtained at the lift-off position. The high-temperature reaction zone at the periphery thus added heat over a distance before POF was observed on the centerline.


A Figbash is Not a Fantod: Preparing the John A. Carollo Edward Gorey Collection for Exhibit at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

Marguerite Simpson, December 10, 2010. LIS 653 / Seminar in Archival Studies; Supervisor: Deborah Dunn; Instructor: Dr. Andrew Wertheimer.

Collection Overview: Donated incrementally to Hamilton Library by passionate Gorey collector John A. Carollo, beginning in 1998. Currently managed by the Special Research Collections (SRC), a new entity dedicated to making the treasures of the library available to student, faculty, and public researchers. Carollo's gift to Hamilton constitutes the most comprehensive public collection of the prolific author/artist's work in the world. Materials include: Monographs; Coffee mugs; A fur coat; Postcards; Books arts materials; Hand sewn stuffed animals; Serials; LPs; Fine art prints; Original cover art; Calendars; Jewelry; An umbrella; And more!

The Exhibit; Preliminary Preparation: Reconciling the inventory, Condition reports, Controlled vocabulary; Exhibit Preparation: During Selection, After Selection – Organization, Preparation.

Cooperation as Our Key to Success: Preparation of this collection for exhibit would have been impossible without Hamilton's dedicated staff and willing volunteers coming together in a library-wide effort. For example, cataloging graciously rushed many items to ensure that they were properly catalogued before being loaned, and the University Archives allowed us use of their facilities for selection and treatment activities.


NASA's Long Duration Exposure Facility (LDEF) has provided an extensive record of the meteoroid environment in low Earth orbit. LDEF's combination of fixed orientation, large collecting area, and long lifetime imposes constraints on the absolute flux of potentially hazardous meteoroids. The relative impact rate on each of LDEF's fourteen surfaces arises from the underlying velocity distribution and directionality of the meteoroid environment. For the first time, we model the meteoroid environment encountered by LDEF over its operational lifetime using NASA's Meteoroid Engineering Model Release 2 (MEMR2) and compare the model results with the observed craters of potentially hazardous meteoroids (i.e. crater diameters larger than approximately 0.75 mm). We discuss the extent to which the observations and model agree and how the impact rates across all of the LDEF surfaces may be utilized to help calibrate future versions of MEM.


Genomics, so fashionable today, is only half of the secret of life. The other half of the secret is shape, form, morphogenesis and metamorphosis. The gene may prescribe what is synthesised, but the proteins appear and operate in a pre-existing environment which they then change. The first step towards life is the appearance of a micelle, a spherical membrane, a surface which separates the world into inside and outside.
We are here concerned with surfaces, with a particular subset of two-dimensional manifolds embedded in three-dimensional Euclidean space, namely the non-self-intersecting, periodic minimal surfaces of cubic symmetry, which separate the world into two regions as an infinite plane would do, but with much more complex topologies. Like the Platonic solids , these cubic surfaces are geometrical absolutes and have distinctive topologies but entail no arbitrary parameters . The objective is to enumerate at least some of these surfaces, for probably an infinite number answer to this description, to draw attention to their geometry and to point to some of their applications and occurrences on various scales between mega-engineering and nano-technology. These objects are solutions looking for problems.


The widespread uptake of platform strategies turns many vendors of enterprise software into curators of an ecosystem of firms that collaboratively develop and commercialize a shared technology. As a platform owner's effectiveness in integrating knowledge across ecosystem participants will distinguish it from its competitors, we investigate the management of development‐related knowledge across firm boundaries. Our exploratory, multiple‐case study of 4 platforms illustrates how "knowledge boundaries" emerge between platform owners and complementors. We observe that knowledge boundaries are influenced by a platform's functional extent, interface design, and evolutionary dynamics, which create differences, dependencies, and novelty of development knowledge, resulting in qualitatively distinct types of knowledge boundaries. To overcome knowledge boundaries, platform owners provide various resources at the boundary, including information portals, documentation, helpdesks, and alignment workshops. We observe that in shaping these resources, platform owners face a trade‐off between providing knowledge at the right scope, while allowing for the scalability of knowledge resources for the entire ecosystem. Depending on their scope and scale, we classify knowledge boundary resources as broadcasting, brokering, and bridging, each representing qualitatively distinct patterns in managing knowledge in platform ecosystems. We conclude with implications for researchers and managers.


A continuous roll-to-roll compatible blade-coating method for multi-layers of general organic semiconductors is developed. Dissolution of the underlying film during coating is prevented by simultaneously applying heating from the bottom and gentle hot wind from the top. The solvent is immediately expelled and reflow inhibited. This method succeeds for polymers and small molecules. Uniformity is within 10% for 5 cm by 5 cm area with a mean value of tens of nanometers for both organic light-emitting diode (OLED) and solar cell structure with little material waste. For phosphorescent OLED 25 cd/A is achieved for green, 15 cd/A for orange, and 8 cd/A for blue. For fluorescent OLED 4.3 cd/A is achieved for blue, 9 cd/A for orange, and 6.9 cd/A for white. For OLED with 2 cm by 3 cm active area, the luminance variation is within 10%. Power conversion efficiency of 4.1% is achieved for polymer solar cell, similar to spin coating using the same materials. Very-low-cost and high-throughput fabrication of efficient ...


»From an Individual to the European Integration, Discussion on the Future of Europe - Liber Amicorum in Honour of Prof. Dr. emer. Silvo Devetak on the Occasion of his 80-ies Birthday« is a tremendous collection of articles dedicated to Prof. Dr. emer. Silvo Devetak. The nationally and internationally estimated scholars, from eleven states, have written significant articles. These estimated scholars are academics, researchers, colleagues and friends, who shared common ideas, visions, work and research (some for decades) with Professor Devetak. In their articles, which are dedicated to the wide opus of the field of interest of Professor Devetak, they discuss, argue, analyse or overview the topics especially related to public international law, human rights, minorities and EU neighbourhood policy.


This study examined how parental cultural orientations and family process are related among Korean immigrant parents (272 mothers and 164 fathers, N = 436) and how the relationship varies across fathers and mothers. Multiple scales were used to assess bilinear and multidimensional cultural orientation toward both the culture of origin and mainstream culture. The dimensions of language, identity, and cultural participation as well as the number of years living in the United States were analyzed. The main findings include the following: (a) parents who maintain heritage culture orientation were more likely to preserve traditional parenting values and practices, (b) parental host culture orientation largely had no effect on traditional parenting, but some elements of the host culture orientation were in fact associated with stronger endorsements of traditional parenting, (c) each dimension of acculturation differentially related to traditional parenting, and (d) significant relationships were more pronounced among parenting values than practices. These patterns were largely similar across mothers and fathers. Although some mixed findings suggest the complexity of the hypothesized relationships, the present study findings highlight the importance of bilinear and multidimensional acculturation and core versus peripheral elements of culture in family process. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.


Deep reinforcement learning (RL) agents often fail to generalize beyond their training environments. To alleviate this problem, recent work has proposed the use of data augmentation. However, different tasks tend to benefit from different types of augmentations and selecting the right one typically requires expert knowledge. In this paper, we introduce three approaches for automatically finding an effective augmentation for any RL task. These are combined with two novel regularization terms for the policy and value function, required to make the use of data augmentation theoretically sound for actor-critic algorithms. Our method achieves a new state-of-the-art1on the Procgen benchmark and outperforms popular RL algorithms on DeepMind Control tasks with distractors. In addition, our agent learns policies and representations which are more robust to changes in the environment that are irrelevant for solving the task, such as the background. Our code is available at https://github.com/rraileanu/auto-drac.


This paper summarizes current knowledge of the distribution of obsidian in prehistoric Bohemia (Czech Republic). In terms of this raw material's distribution, Bohemia is a peripheral area, and it is also the westernmost part of its regular archaeological occurrence. Because of its rarity within the specified area, it is possible to identify this material quite easily even in earlier archaeological literature, and together with new discoveries, to create a coherent picture of its distribution. So far, only two locations in Bohemia have been described where the processing of raw obsidian material is documented. Both these sites are located in the eastern part of the study area; in terms of location these are the closest sites to the anticipated sources. The sites are dated to a later stage of the Stroked Pottery culture. Because no such processing sites are known from other periods, we believe it was mainly the distribution of entire blanks and pre-prepared cores that took place at that time.
Furthermore, our study discusses the original sources of obsidian in terms of the region that is being monitored. In accordance with the aims of our investigation, the selected obsidian artefacts were subjected to geochemical analysis to identify their origins. The peak of the distribution is the period of the Stroked Pottery culture (4900–4500/4400 cal BC). The basic outcome of the geochemical analysis is the identification of at least two sources of raw material in the Carpathian source area.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of this study was to examine social and psychological factors associated with the use and nonuse of violence among Black adolescents living in a community with a high level of violent crime.

METHODS
Adolescents (n = 225, 44% male) 11 to 19 years of age living in or around nine housing projects in an urban area were administered an anonymous questionnaire.

RESULTS
Self-reported use of violence was associated with exposure to violence and personal victimization, hopelessness, depression, family conflict, previous corporal punishment, purpose in life, self-assessment of the probability of being alive at age 25, and age and was higher among males.

CONCLUSIONS
These data support the hypothesis that exposure to violence is associated with adolescents' self-reported use of violence. However, adolescents with a higher sense of purpose in life and less depression were better able to withstand the influence of exposure to violence in the home and in the community.


The bones and joints in the skeletal system are composed of diverse cell types, including vascular niches, bone cells, connective tissue cells and mineral deposits and regulate whole-body homeostasis. The capacity of maintaining strength and generation of blood lineages lies within the skeletal system. Bone harbours blood and immune cells and their progenitors, and vascular cells provide several immune cell type niches. Blood vessels in bone are phenotypically and functionally diverse, with distinct capillary subtypes exhibiting striking changes with age. The bone vasculature has a special impact on osteogenesis and haematopoiesis, and dysregulation of the vasculature is associated with diverse blood and bone diseases. Ageing is associated with perturbed haematopoiesis, loss of osteogenesis, increased adipogenesis and diminished immune response and immune cell production. Endothelial and perivascular cells impact immune cell production and play a crucial role during inflammation. Here, we discuss normal and maladapted vascular niches in bone during development, homeostasis, ageing and bone diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. Further, we discuss the role of vascular niches during bone malignancy.


The increasing use of polymer-based materials (PBMs) across all types of industry has not been matched by sufficient improvements in understanding of polymer tribology: friction, wear, and lubrication. Further, viscoelasticity of PBMs complicates characterization of their behavior. Using data from micro-scratch testing, it was determined that viscoelastic recovery (healing) in sliding wear is independent of the indenter force within a defined range of load values. Strain hardening in sliding wear was observed for all materials-including polymers and composites with a wide variety of chemical structures-with the exception of polystyrene (PS). The healing in sliding wear was connected to free volume in polymers by using pressure-volume-temperature (P-V-T) results and the Hartmann equation of state. A linear relationship was found for all polymers studied with again the exception of PS. The exceptional behavior of PS has been attributed qualitatively to brittleness. In pursuit of a precise description of such, a quantitative definition of brittleness has been defined in terms of the elongation at break and storage modulus-a combination of parameters derived from both static and dynamic mechanical testing. Furthermore, a relationship between sliding wear recovery and brittleness for all PBMs including PS is demonstrated. The definition of brittleness may be used as a design criterion in selecting PBMs for specific applications, while the connection to free volume improves also predictability of wear behavior.


The advancesin communicationa nd computert echnology and the availability
of the Internet have made it possible that people can do most of their banking
transactions from a remote location even without having the need to visit their
local branch. With the growing reputation of Bahrain as a financial centre in
the Arabian Gulf region, existing banks face intensive competition from new
comers which made the banking industry in Bahrain opt for a more aggressive
approach in the development of new online banking services.
This thesis reports key findings from an empirical study of the Bahraini
banking customer experiences with the adoption of online banking. It
provides an understanding of what and how the specific factors influence the
decision making process of the bank customers whether or not to bank on the
Internet in the Bahraini context. It utilises a theoretical model to examine the
intent to adopt online banking service. Using an amalgamated model adapted
from two models in the fields of technology research and technology
acceptance, this research analysed the relationships between the intention to
adopt online banking services and the attitude toward online banking use,
subjective norm toward online banking use, selected user perceptions
(perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived risk, perceived
behavioural control) and selected user characteristics (age and income).
A questionnaire was employed to collect the data for this research and path
analysis was used to analyse the relationships between the proposed model
variables. Out of the 13 original model hypotheses, 9 were confirmed.
However, the overall model was found to be weak in explaining the
relationships regardless of their significance. Furthermore, current non-users
were segmented and a binary logistic regression was used to predict the
possibility of future adoption among this segment. It was concluded that
about 88% of current non-users are predicted to be future online banking
users in Bahrain.
In general, the behavioural intention to adopt online banking service in
Bahrain was found to be driven primarily by attitudes toward online banking
services, and customers' perceived behavioural control. The practical and
theoretical implications of these findings are discussed. In summary, this
research helps to identify perceptions and factors that explain the intention to
adopt online banking service. These factors may be important to the banks
and policy makers who wish to encourage the widespread adoption of online banking services in Bahrain


The development of alternative details to manage water intrusion at the window-wall interface has produced a number of novel approaches to detailing the interface between the window and the adjacent wall assembly. Many of these approaches advocate the need to provide drainage at the rough opening of the window subsill, given that the window components themselves are susceptible to water entry over their expected life. Depending on the types of windows used and the cladding into which the windows are installed, there arise different methods to provide drainage that may also affect air leakage through the assembly. This in turn may give rise to the formation of condensation along the window, at the sill, or along the window sash and glazing panels. Hence, there is a need to determine if, under cold weather conditions, specific interface details that incorporate sill pans provide a potential for condensation on the window components in which air leakage paths may be prominent at the sill or elsewhere on the window assembly. The paper reports on a laboratory evaluation of conditions suitable for the formation of condensation at the window frame perimeter of the interface assembly as a function of both temperature deferential and air leakage rate across the test assembly. A summary of the laboratory test protocol is provided, which includes a description of the test setup and apparatus, fabrication details of the specimen, information on instrumentation and calibration, and experimental results for one type of window (flange window). In parallel, preliminary simulation results were presented and compared to those obtained from the experiment using the commercially available thermal software BISCO.


The way that most research universities across North America teach science to undergraduates is worse than ineffective, says Carl Wieman. It9s unscientific. A Nobel Prize–winning physicist turned science educator, Wieman doesn9t understand why institutions of higher education would disregard decades of research showing the superiority of student-centered, active learning over the traditional 50-minute lecture. Wieman has spent the past 15 years applying the science of learning to how undergraduate science courses are taught, making impressive strides in changing how individual faculty members teach. Those changes have translated into big improvements in student learning.


Pursuant to Part IVA and section 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) corporations are prohibited from engaging in 'unconscionable' and 'misleading or deceptive' conduct. The statutory provisions are not limited to consumer transactions but extend to cover the pre-contractual and contractual relationships entered into between commercial parties themselves. In recent times, concerns have been raised that the provisions are causing widespread uncertainty among business persons, resulting in much complex and costly litigation. This paper explores the rationale for including private commercial conduct within the scope of Part IVA and section 52, finding that the unifying theme of 'commercial morality' underpins judicial and legislative activity in this regard.


Africa's development in the next millennium must be research driven. Only socio-cultural and economic investigation can provide the vital data necessary to arrive at sound, wellinformed policies governing development for all facets of society. Given that most of Africa remains rural and illiterate, the issue of which language is to be a medium of research is especially crucial. Verbal communication is often the only option that trained researchers have to obtain information and attain their research goals. Indeed, this is the only method through which scientists and administrators may seek to influence social or collective behaviour and direct it toward development objectives. This paper contends, therefore, that development research in Africa has failed to make substantial improvements in the quality of life for the majority, mainly because development theory and practice have failed to exploit local languages as media for research and development work. Although, as a result of colonialism, European languages are part and parcel of Africa's heritage, these languages remain foreign for the majority of ordinary people, for whom development is intended. Language is never simply a neutral instrument to convey meaning, but rather a culturally subjective system reflecting peoples' worldview. Language symbolizes the common beliefs and psychological make-up of the community from which it springs1. For Africa, the use of language in social research and policy must consider the mobilization of human resources for development. No meaningful change can occur without the full participation of the masses. The importance of speaking to people in their own languages cannot be over-stressed.