This book presents a unified approach to a rich and rapidly evolving research domain at the interface between statistical physics, theoretical computer science/discrete mathematics, and coding/information theory. It is accessible to graduate students and researchers without a specific training in any of these fields. The selected topics include spin glasses, error correcting codes, satisfiability, and are central to each field. The approach focuses on large random instances, adopting a common probabilistic formulation in terms of graphical models. It presents message passing algorithms like belief propagation and survey propagation, and their use in decoding and constraint satisfaction solving. It also explains analysis techniques like density evolution and the cavity method, and uses them to study phase transitions.


A single nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center in diamond is a prime candidate for a solid-state quantum magnetometer capable of detecting single nuclear spins with prospective application to nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at the nanoscale. Nonetheless, an NV magnetometer is still less accessible to many chemists and biologists, as its experimental setup and operational principle are starkly different from those of conventional NMR. Here, we design, construct, and operate a compact tabletop-sized system for quantum sensing with a single NV center, built primarily from commercially available optical components and electronics. We show that our setup can implement state-of-the-art quantum sensing protocols that enable the detection of single $^{13}$C nuclear spins in diamond and the characterization of their interaction parameters, as well as the detection of a small ensemble of proton nuclear spins on the diamond surface. This article providing extensive discussions on the details of the setup and the experimental procedures, our system will be reproducible by those who have not worked on the NV centers previously.


The diabetes epidemic is now expected by the year 2050 to become a global pandemic with approx. 592 million affected in both the developed and developing world. The treatment of diabetes by insulin therapy has been the focus for many diabetics with the improvement and prevention of various diseases such as cardiovascular disease, kidney disease and neurodegeneration. The global nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) epidemic has now become of major concern to diabetes with critical interest in insulin therapy to reverse and stabilize autoimmune disease with relevance to NAFLD and the diabetes pandemic. Dietary components that activate anti-aging genes improve insulin therapy and should be assessed with specific amounts and doses of Indian spices consumed that may not interfere with insulin therapy and induce mitophagy in various diseases. Food quality, appetite control and core body temperature are critical to maintain insulin therapy with unhealthy diets linked to NAFLD and diabetes. Genomic medicine and dietary activators are essential to maintain insulin therapy and prevent toxic immune reactions with relevance to NAFLD and diabetes management.


After tracing the antecedents of the concept and considering its intersection in social innovation research, we put forward the argument that the Anthropocene concept points to three areas of thought that are strategically imperative and must be accelerated if social innovation theory and practice is to prove transformative and respond to the challenges associated with the Anthropocene. First, we contend that the current debate on social innovation for sustainability lacks a deeper focus on human-environmental interactions and the related feedbacks, which will be necessary to understand and achieve large-scale change and transformations to global sustainability. Many innovations focus on only the social or the ecological, and we believe a more integrated approach will be needed moving forward. Second, social innovation research must confront the path-dependencies embedded within systems, and we propose that the act of "bricolage," which recombines existing elements in novel ways, will be essential, rather than single variable solutions, which currently dominate social innovation discussions. Finally, we put forward the idea that confronting the cross-scalar nature of the Anthropocene requires revisiting both the scope and temporal nature of social innovations that are most typically focused upon by scholars and funders alike. We believe the concept of the Anthropocene creates new opportunities for social innovation scholars to imagine new possibilities.


The introduction of virtual or remote jury trials in response to the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a remarkable natural experiment with one of our nation's central democratic institutions. Although it is not a tightly controlled experimental study, real world experiences in this natural experiment offer some insights about how key features of trial by jury are affected by a virtual procedure. This article surveys the landscape of virtual jury trials. It examines the issues of jury representativeness, the adequacy of virtual jury selection, the quality of decision making, and the public's access to jury trial proceedings. Many have expressed concern that the digital divide would negatively affect jury representativeness. Surprisingly, there is some preliminary evidence that suggests that virtual jury selection procedures lead to jury venires that are as diverse, if not more diverse, than pre-pandemic jury venires. Lawyers in a demonstration project reacted favorably to virtual voir dire when it was accompanied by expansive pretrial juror questionnaires and the opportunity to question prospective jurors. A number of courts provided public access by live streaming jury trials. How a virtual jury trial affects jurors' interpretations of witness testimony, attorney arguments, and jury deliberation remain open questions.


Abstract The adsorption of DL-alanine at pH 4, 6 and 8 by a soil allophane has been determined. Two sets of experiments were carried out: (1) in which the allophane had been kept in a moist state throughout; and (2) in which the mineral had previously been dried at 50°C. In both instances, the adsorption isotherms showed three distinct regions as the concentration of alanine in solution was increased: (1) an initial, nearly linear, rise at low equilibrium concentrations; (2) a levelling off to a plateau at intermediate concentrations; and (3) a steep linear increase at high concentrations. For comparable concentrations of alanine in solution, adsorption decreased in the order pH 6 > pH 8 > pH 4. Irrespective of pH, however, more alanine was adsorbed by the 'wet' allophane than by its 'dry' counterpart. These observations are interpreted in terms of the morphology and aggregation of allophane unit particles together with the pll-dependent charge characteristics of allophane and alanine. The results are compared with published data on the adsorption of alanine by montmorillonite.


ABSTRACT The prevalence of allergy is markedly low in children growing up on farms. An increasing number of studies indicate that the timing of food introduction may affect allergy development. We aimed to investigate if protection against allergy in farm environments may be mediated through differences in food-introduction practices between farm and non-farm families, using an explorative approach. Twenty-eight farm and 37 non-farm children were included in the FARMFLORA birth cohort. Practices of breastfeeding and introduction of formulas and complementary foods were collected by questionnaires at 6, 12, and 18 months of age. Allergy was diagnosed by pediatricians at 3 years of age. The only difference in food-introduction practices observed between farm and non-farm children was an earlier introduction of nuts in farmers (median month: 11 [IQR: 8–6] in farmers, 15 [12–19] in non-farmers). One farm child (4%) and 10 non-farm children (27%) were allergic at 3 years of age. Lower risk of allergy development was associated with early exclusive breastfeeding (continuous variable; OR = 0.59, 95% CI: 0.39–0.89), but also having received eggs (OR = 0.08, 95% CI: 0.13–0.54) and fish (logistic regression not applicable, P = 0.01 in likelihood ratio testing [χ2]) at 10 months of age or earlier compared to later. Our results were not affected by reverse causation, as judged by a questionnaire sent to the families in retrospect. Timing of introduction of complementary foods is unlikely to contribute to the lower risk of allergy among farm children. Although early exclusive breastfeeding was associated with a lower rate of allergy development, postponed introduction of complementary foods might increase the risk of developing allergy. Owing to the limited sample size, our results are only indicative, but support prior findings.


The fractionation of the plasma proteins human serum albumin (HSA) and human immunoglobulins (HIgG) using the combination of two newly developed techniques, pulsed sample injection technique and carrier phase ultrafiltration (CPUF), is discussed in this paper. The effects of pH and ionic strength on the transmission of a single protein (i.e., either HSA or HIgG) through 100 and 300 kDa MWCO polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were quantified using the pulsed sample injection technique. The experimental results thus obtained suggested that it would be possible to fractionate these proteins by optimizing the solution pH and ionic strength. With 100 and 300 kDa PES membranes, effective separation of HSA and HIgG was achieved by CPUF using suitable conditions, i.e., pH 4.7 and low salt concentration. The fractionation of HSA and HIgG by "reverse selectivity" using 300 kDa membranes was also examined.


The ideal fee structure aligns the incentives of the investor with those of the fund manager. Mutual funds typically only charge a management fee that is a proportion of the funds under management. Hedge funds, on the other hand, generally change an incentive fee that is a fraction of the fund's return each year in excess of the high-water mark. The justification generally given for these incentive fees is that they provide the manager with the incentive to target absolute returns. As these incentive fees can be considered a call option on the performance of the fund, it is possible that the managers' incentives might vary according to the delta of this option. A number of articles have examined the optimal investment strategies of money managers in the presence of incentive fees within theoretical frameworks with seemingly conflicting results. Using a large database of hedge fund returns, the authors examine the risk taking behavior of hedge fund managers in response to both their past returns relative to their high-water mark and their past returns relative to their peer group. An attempt is made to reconcile these results with the theoretical frameworks proposed.


Precocious male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) parr were investigated in eastern, central and western areas of insular Newfoundland. The percent precocity varied in different areas, but Placentia Bay samples generally had a higher incidence. The proportions of male parr maturing increased beyond age 1+. Limited evidence indicated that precocity at age 0+ is rare. -- Maturing males were larger than immature males at 1+ in all samples and significantly larger in one sample. Older precocious males were not larger than immature males of the same age indicating that maturity begins earlier in fast growing fish but that growth consequently slows down. Faster growth appeared to be related to precocity within a particular system but this relationship was not especially apparent in comparisons between systems Overlap of 95% confidence intervals placed around eviscerated weights (calculated from regression equations) at corresponding lengths indicated no difference between weights for mature and immature parr. However the length-weight relationship was lower for precocious (spent) smolt than for immature smolt in larger length classes. -- Sex ratios of each age group of the samples were often found to differ significantly from 1:1. Possible causes for these deviations are discussed in terms of sex-related distribution patterns and mortality of precocious parr. Evidence is presented from certain sex ratios and from a tagging program that precocious males move upstream to spawn and circumstantial evidence indicates that they spawn with adult females. -- Sex ratios in freshwater following the smolt run and of the smolt run indicates that most precocious parr do not migrate as smolts. The younger parr (1+ and 2+) may mature again while it appears most 3+ and older parr have a high mortality. -- Existing data indicate that rivers with a high percentage of sexually precocious males have a corresponding high percentage of adult females, most likely as a result of few male smolt.


The use of digital technology by older adults has improved in recent years in response to the need for their functional adaptation to an increasingly technological social context. Understanding this type of technological adaptation has recently become an important field of inquiry in both social and gerontological studies. Working within this framework, the aim of this study is to identify the main determinants that influence the intention of older people to use digital technology in their daily lives, using the Technological Acceptance Model. A study was carried out with the participation of 1155 people over 65 years of age in Spain. Confirmatory Factor Analysis and structural equation models (SEM) were performed. The results show that the TAM is a useful model to explain the intention of older adults to use Digital Technology, showing a high predictive power, highlighting Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use as the main predictor variables.


A unique interdisciplinary foundation for real-world problem solvingStochastic search and optimization techniques are used in a vast number of areas, including aerospace, medicine, transportation, and finance, to name but a few. Whether the goal is refining the design of a missile or aircraft, determining the effectiveness of a new drug, developing the most efficient timing strategies for traffic signals, or making investment decisions in order to increase profits, stochastic algorithms can help researchers and practitioners devise optimal solutions to countless real-world problems.Introduction to Stochastic Search and Optimization: Estimation, Simulation, and Control is a graduate-level introduction to the principles, algorithms, and practical aspects of stochastic optimization, including applications drawn from engineering, statistics, and computer science. The treatment is both rigorous and broadly accessible, distinguishing this text from much of the current literature and providing students, researchers, and practitioners with a strong foundation for the often-daunting task of solving real-world problems.The text covers a broad range of todayвЂTMs most widely used stochastic algorithms, including:Random searchRecursive linear estimationStochastic approximationSimulated annealingGenetic and evolutionary methodsMachine (reinforcement) learningModel selectionSimulation-based optimizationMarkov chain Monte CarloOptimal experimental designThe book includes over 130 examples, Web links to software and data sets, more than 250 exercises for the reader, and an extensive list of references. These features help make the text an invaluable resource for those interested in the theory or practice of stochastic search and optimization.


Active involvement of youth in agriculture is necessary for sustainable agricultural systems but is currently a challenge in many areas. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative participatory research methods, this study analyses rural youth's realities, perspectives and aspirations in dryland Agricultural Livelihood Systems (ALSs) in the Midelt Province, Morocco, with a particular focus on gender. The data collected are an important first step in understanding the target group and working with youth to identify and develop appropriate programmatic interventions to improve their livelihoods and rural futures. Prior to expressing their aspirations for their rural life and career, the youth first raised the issue of unfulfilled primary needs: access to education, potable water, heath care, and lack of infrastructure in their villages. The issue of outmigration from rural areas is controversial and not so widespread. The youth's dream village is envisioned as a rural place where people have a more comfortable life with their own families, farming better and more sustainably rather than seeking a job in urban areas. To support the youth's aspirations and their willingness to stay in agriculture, there is a need for infrastructural and regulatory interventions and specific training in agricultural practices targeting and engaging youth.


In this thoughtful, affectionate collection of interviews and letters spanning three decades, beloved poet Gary Snyder talks with South African writer and scholar Julia Martin. Over this period many things changed decisively--globally, locally, and in their personal lives--and these changing conditions provide the back story for a long conversation. It begins in the early 1980s as an intellectual exchange between an earnest graduate student and a generous distinguished writer, and becomes a long-distance friendship and an exploration of spiritual practice. At the project's heart is Snyder's understanding of Buddhism. Again and again, the conversations return to an explication of the teachings. Snyder's characteristic approach is to articulate a direct experience of Buddhist practice rather than any kind of abstract philosophy. In the version he describes here, this practice finds expression not primarily as an Asian import or a monastic ideal, but in the specificities of a householder's life as lived creatively in a particular location at a particular moment in history. This means that whatever "topic" a dialogue explores, there is a sense that all of it is about practice--the spiritual-social practice of a contemporary poet.


The design of voting rules is traditionally guided by desirable axioms. Recent work shows that, surprisingly, the axiomatic approach can also support the generation of explanations for voting outcomes. However, no bounds on the size of these explanations is given; for all we know, they may be unbearably tedious. We prove, however, that outcomes of the important Borda rule can be explained using O(m) steps, where m is the number of alternatives. Our main technical result is a general lower bound that, in particular, implies that the foregoing bound is asymptotically tight. We discuss the significance of our results for AI and machine learning, including their potential to bolster an emerging paradigm of automated decision making called virtual democracy.


This thesis examines the effects of the Workers' Educational Association of Toronto (WEA) on social change in Canada between 1917-1945. This study attempts to establish the social importance of this organization in the history of adult education in Canada. The WEA was an educational organization that attempted to provide a link between labour and learning by making educational opportunities available to the working class. The data for this study were obtained from an analysis of the Ontario and Canadian WEA archives. The thesis first examines the history of the WEA and demonstrate its place in the history of adult education in Canada. Secondly, this study suggests that the WEA was the impetus for change in Canada, and in particular for Toronto's working class. The study found that the WEA used a form of critical pedagogy to achieve its goals which brought about social change. This study reinforces the usefulness of critical pedagogy as an approach for adult education when social change is an objective.


Signs and symptoms of this condition usually begin in late childhood with an episode of acute pancreatitis. A sudden (acute) attack can cause abdominal pain, fever, nausea, or vomiting. An episode typically lasts from one to three days, although some people may experience severe episodes that last longer. Hereditary pancreatitis progresses to recurrent acute pancreatitis with multiple episodes of acute pancreatitis that recur over a period of at least a year; the number of episodes a person experiences varies. Recurrent acute pancreatitis leads to chronic pancreatitis, which occurs when the pancreas is persistently inflamed. Chronic pancreatitis usually develops by early adulthood in affected individuals. Signs and symptoms of chronic pancreatitis include occasional or frequent abdominal pain of varying severity, flatulence, and bloating. Many individuals with hereditary pancreatitis also develop abnormal calcium deposits in the pancreas (pancreatic calcifications) by early adulthood.


Ufrieda Ho's compelling memoir describes with intimate detail what it was like to come of age in the marginalized Chinese community of Johannesburg during the apartheid era of the 1970s and 1980s. The Chinese were mostly ignored, as Ho describes it, relegated to certain neighborhoods and certain jobs, living in a kind of gray zone between the blacks and the whites. As long as they adhered to these rules, they were left alone. Ho describes the separate journeys her parents took before they knew one another, each leaving China and Hong Kong around the early1960s, arriving in South Africa as illegal immigrants. Her father eventually became a so-called \u201cfahfee man,\u201d running a small-time numbers game in the black townships, one of the few opportunities available to him at that time. In loving detail, Ho describes her father's work habits: the often mysterious selection of numbers at the kitchen table, the carefully-kept account ledgers, and especially the daily drives into the townships, where he conducted business on street corners from the seat of his car. Sometimes Ufrieda accompanied him on these township visits, offering her an illuminating perspective into a stratified society. Poignantly, it was on such a visit that her father-who is very much a central figure in Ho's memoir-met with a tragic end. In many ways, life for the Chinese in South Africa was self-contained. Working hard, minding the rules, and avoiding confrontations, they were able to follow traditional Chinese ways. But for Ufrieda, who was born in South Africa, influences from the surrounding culture crept into her life, as did a political awakening. Paper Sons and Daughters is a wonderfully told family history that will resonate with anyone having an interest in the experiences of Chinese immigrants, or perhaps any immigrants, the world over.


Abstract. It is increasingly being recognized that gender inequality is a critical factor fuelling the HIV epidemic in India and elsewhere in the world. To undertake a research and programmatic review to understand how gender has been integrated in existing HIV interventions in India and to highlight the challenges associated with gender mainstreaming to propose recommendations to fill the gaps. Review of literature both published and grey along with exploration of selected HIV program both HIV focused (targeted interventions) and non HIV focused programs interventions across the country.  While gender mainstreaming as a process finds mention in program plans and priorities, efforts to operationalize gender within HIV prevention programs have not been easy. This is largely due to the structure of programs which are target driven and defined. While efforts to reduce structural vulnerability of women to HIV like violence against women have been introduced in some targeted interventions, they are largely perceived as 'additional components' which put emphasis on service delivery. The lack of gender sensitive indicators presents another challenge for most programs. To reduce the vulnerability and risk of women to HIV, current HIV programming in India should expand its focus from only 'risk reduction' to include 'vulnerability reduction' measures as well so that structural inequities that emanate from gendered relations are addressed within programs. In this effort, men along with women should be seen as allies leading this process.  In addition, gender indicators should be developed that are mapped regularly along with service delivery indicators to measure impact of program. A robust monitoring and evaluation mechanism should be considered a critical part of project design and delivery.        Key words: Gender, gender mainstreaming, HIV/AIDS, gender based violence, vulnerability, risk reduction.


Understanding the impact of workshops that include mobile demonstrations for describing technical applications can be useful when planning an Extension program on new energy technologies. We used a mobile demonstration in a workshop that provided information on small-scale on-farm biodiesel production. Evaluation of the workshop outcomes identified significant increases in attendees' perceptions, awareness, interest, and knowledge related to the topic. On the basis of our process for planning and conducting the workshop and the results of the evaluation, we recommend implementing a well-distributed needs assessment and using a mobile demonstration to present technology that is economically feasible to use. The workshop we describe can be used as a model for other Extension programs.


Over the past decades, caching has become the key technology used for bridging the performance gap across memory hierarchies via temporal or spatial localities; in particular, the effect is prominent in disk storage systems. Applications that involve heavy I/O activities, which are common in the cloud, probably benefit the most from caching. The use of local volatile memory as cache might be a natural alternative, but many well-known restrictions, such as capacity and the utilization of host machines, hinder its effective use. In addition to technical challenges, providing cache services in clouds encounters a major practical issue (quality of service or service level agreement issue) of pricing. Currently, (public) cloud users are limited to a small set of uniform and coarse-grained service offerings, such as High-Memory and High-CPU in Amazon EC2. In this paper, we present the cache as a service (CaaS) model as an optional service to typical infrastructure service offerings. Specifically, the cloud provider sets aside a large pool of memory that can be dynamically partitioned and allocated to standard infrastructure services as disk cache. We first investigate the feasibility of providing CaaS with the proof-of-concept elastic cache system (using dedicated remote memory servers) built and validated on the actual system, and practical benefits of CaaS for both users and providers (i.e., performance and profit, respectively) are thoroughly studied with a novel pricing scheme. Our CaaS model helps to leverage the cloud economy greatly in that 1) the extra user cost for I/O performance gain is minimal if ever exists, and 2) the provider's profit increases due to improvements in server consolidation resulting from that performance gain. Through extensive experiments with eight resource allocation strategies, we demonstrate that our CaaS model can be a promising cost-efficient solution for both users and providers.


We review recent developments in directly modulated lasers (DMLs) with low operating energy for datacom and computercom applications. Key issues are their operating energy and the cost for employing them in these applications. To decrease the operating energy, it is important to reduce the active volume of the laser while maintaining the cavity Q-factor or photon lifetime in the cavity. Therefore, how to achieve high-reflectivity mirrors has been the main challenge in reducing the operating energy. In terms of the required output power from the lasers, the required input power into the photodetector and the transmission distance determine the lower limit of laser active volume. Therefore, the operating energy and output power are in a trade-off relationship. In designing the lasers, the cavity volume, quantum well number, and optical confinement factor are critical parameters. For reducing the cost, it is important to fabricate a large-scale photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising DMLs, an optical multiplexer, and monitor photodetectors because the lower assembly cost reduces the overall cost. In this context, silicon (Si) photonics technology plays a key role in fabricating large-scale PICs with low cost, and heterogeneous integration of DMLs and Si photonics devices has attracted much attention. We will describe fabrication technologies for heterogeneous integration and experimental results for DMLs on a Si substrate.


Understanding the issue of specificity imposed in the interactions of SH3 domains has largely been addressed in studies investigating the interaction of proline-rich amino acid sequences derived from potential ligands for these domains. Although the interaction with this motif forms an essential platform in the binding of SH3 domains, in many cases little specificity is observed and the difference in affinity for so-called specific and nonspecific proline-rich sequences is not great. Furthermore, the binding interface between an SH3 domain and a protein ligand appears to encompass more interactions than are represented by that involving the proline-rich motif. Here we investigate the issue of specificity from the opposite point of view; namely, how does a ligand recognize different SH3 domains? We present the crystal structure of the unbound SH3 domain from hemopoietic cell kinase (Hck) which is a member of the Src family of tyrosine kinases. This structure reveals that, unlike the structures of other Src kinase SH3 domains, the RT loop region is highly mobile and lacks a network of hydrogen bonds that is elsewhere apparent. The RT loop has been shown to form a major part of the binding interface between SH3 domains and HIV-1 Nef. Thermodynamic data, derived from isothermal titration calorimetry, for the binding of Hck SH3 to HIV-1 Nef show that the binding of Hck (KD = 1.5 microM) is approximately an order of magnitude tighter than those of other Src family kinases that were investigated (Fyn, Lck, and Src). This increase in affinity is attributed to, among other effects, the inherent flexibility in the RT loop which does not require breaking the network of hydrogen bonds to adopt the conformation required for binding.


The enormous number of commensal bacteria in the lower intestine of vertebrates share abundant molecular patterns used for innate immune recognition of pathogenic bacteria. We show that, even though commensals are rapidly killed by macrophages, intestinal dendritic cells (DCs) can retain small numbers of live commensals for several days. This allows DCs to selectively induce IgA, which helps protect against mucosal penetration by commensals. The commensal-loaded DCs are restricted to the mucosal immune compartment by the mesenteric lymph nodes, which ensures that immune responses to commensal bacteria are induced locally, without potentially damaging systemic immune responses.


Moral opposition by medical professionals to participation in the process of sentencing for capital crimes, including refusals to provide medical treatment, may compromise the integrity of the legal process. The most aggravated forms of homicide are now punishable by death in thirty-seven states, and more than 2,000 condemned prisoners currently await execution. Many mental health professionals have participated in the process by which these sentences have been imposed and carried out while others have refused to participate. Mental health professionals who are morally opposed to the death penalty may decline, for that reason alone, to conduct forensic assessments of capital defendants or condemned prisoners, or to treat prisoners who are deemed "incompetent for execution." To participate in this process, they argue, would be to legitimize a morally objectionable social policy or to become an accomplice in its administration. I will refer to this line of argument, which is rooted in the individual practitioner's own moral views, as "conscientious abstention." Arguments for abstention have also been formulated in terms of professional ethics. For example, it is often said that fundamental ethical precepts of the health professions, such as primum non nocere, are violated when the skills of the physician or psychologist are used in a manner that could aid the state's quest for a death sentence or facilitate an execution. The ethical argument against professional participation in capital cases should be carefully scrutinized. Accepting the view that abstention is ethically required would bind all practitioners, not only those who have moral doubts about the death penalty. If, as a consequence, testimony by physicians and psychologists were unavailable in capital cases, the legal system would be deprived of clinical evidence that is often essential to fair and reliable administration of the law. This would be especially problematic when capital defendants or condemned prisoners would rely on such evidence as grounds for leniency. Moreover, if the abstaining physician or psychologist is employed by the state, his or her legal fights may turn on whether the refusal to participate is rooted in a recognized ethical proscription or instead in personal scruples against the death penalty. Although the state probably is not permitted to require unethical conduct as a condition for continued professional employment, an employee who declines to carry out assigned responsibilities on grounds of personal conscience probably may be lawfully discharged. Pre-Sentence Evaluations We should first consider the view that participation in any aspect of a capital case, including the capital sentencing process, is ethically objectionable. It is sometimes argued that the principle of nonmaleficence, the duty not to inflict harm, is fundamentally contravened by any professional interaction with a client that might elicit information or opinion that could be used to support a death sentence. (1) However, this same premise could be deployed against professional participation in any criminal case, when information elicited during an evaluation (and opinion based on this information) could support a criminal conviction and imprisonment. If the death penalty is regarded as different from other punishments only in degree, it would seem that clinical participation in capital cases is, in principle, no more (or less) problematic than forensic participation in any criminal cases.(2) Assuming that the principle of nonmaleficence has some weight in the forensic setting, (3) the special sensitivity to participation in capital cases, when registered by a person who has no qualms about participation in noncapital cases, rests on the belief that the death penalty is qualitatively different from other forms of punishment (The Supreme Court's death penalty jurisprudence, which has erected safeguards in capital cases that have no application to noncapital cases, rests on this same widely shared belief. …


Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method and specific absorption rate (SAR) are employed here to study the relationship between the radiation of a mobile handset and the human being health. Nowadays, much more attention has been paid to the simulations for the effects of RF radiation on the particular organs, such as the eyes or the ears because they are more sensitive and more near to the working mobile. In the paper, the simulation of the RF fields is focused on the eyes model and the eyes with glasses of metal frame respectively. A planar inverted F antenna is used as an exposure source at 900 MHz. Under this case, the intensity of the electrical field is calculated and analyzed. Also, SAR is utilized to evaluate the absorption of the organs to the radiation. Through the simulation, the peak values of SAR per 1 G tissue at the radiating power being 600 mW are obtained. It is concluded that when people are wearing glasses of metal framework, the peak value of SAR is shown to be a little higher than the safety limits. It is suggested that the radiation from the mobile handset do more harmful effect on the eyes with the glasses of metal frameworks.


Minimalism in the U.S. during the 60s is closely associated with the Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body. Although it pervades both Robert Morris's apologia for Minimalism in his Notes On Sculpture essays as well as the counter attack of his most articulate critic, Michael Fried, by the end of the decade phenomenology becomes a tainted word for the likes of Robert Smithson and Dan Graham. What the artistic intelligencia of late 60s seems to balk at is the apparent emphasis in phenomenology on presence and the unity of the perceived Gestalt reflecting a unified subject. However, not only do the generative models of Minimalism contradict this emphasis, there is a strand of phenomenological thinking, especially prominent in the late Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Francois Lyotard's first major book, Discourse, Figure, which in relating the sensible to the ideal, the visual to textual, bridges the apparent divide between Minimalism's primary structures and Conceptual art's propositional formats and instiutional critiques. Taking the Belgian artist Joelle Tuerlinckx's practice as heir to both the minimalist and conceptual frameworks, this paper will use a reading of her work to illustrate the benefits of revisiting phenomenology to read post-conceptual art perceptually and Minimalism textually. Often consisting of accumulations of objects and signs, her exhibitions rearrange collections of elements from previous shows and other contexts. As a consequence, the items displayed oscillate between being perceived as present within the current situation and system of display on the one hand, and reading as a quotation of another instance and context on the other. Where the former quality evidences a debt to minimalism, the later draws the Conceptual heritage closer. In particular, this paper explores the iterative structure of Tuerlinckx's work and begins to map out the aspects of phenomenological analysis that apply to it. In Limited Inc. Jacques Derrida called iteration 'an ideal concept', but added that it is 'the concept that marks the essential and ideal limit of all pure idealisation'. The iteration of a term or object within a series, or across media and exhibitions, in Tuerlinckx's work exemplifies Derrida's philosophical take on the term. On the one hand, it produces a movement towards an ideal identity – the 'dematerialised' idea of classic Conceptual Art. On the other hand, it simultaneously alters the meaning or perception of the element, causing it to oscillate between text and perception, or figure and ground. This returns the object from its identification with an idea to the empirical facitity of contigent perception – a return of a phenomenological dimension, itself altered by iteration.


Although concurrent conditions such as complications and comorbidities are common in people with diabetes, both are often omitted from studies of the quality of diabetes preventive care. This systematic review of the literature on the quality of diabetes preventive care assesses not only trends in the reporting of and adjusting for complications and comorbidities, but also the limitations of current measures of complications and comorbidities. This review identified 34 studies in which the quality of diabetes preventive care was assessed with process measures and complications or comorbidities were reported. More often than not, the studies identified the presence of certain complications or comorbidities, counted complications or comorbidities, or used comorbidity indices to measure morbidity. While earlier studies reported the prevalence of complications or comorbidities, more recent studies use complications or comorbidities as covariates in regression models. Despite this progress, the effects of complications and comorbidities on care processes are unclear because of cross-study variation among measures of complications and comorbidities and because very few studies address the independent effects of complications and comorbidities. Effective measures of complications and comorbidity are necessary to evaluate the quality of diabetes preventive care, particularly for patients with concurrent conditions. Current reported measures of complications and comorbidities may not address constructs related to quality, underscoring the need for a methodology that is better than the approaches now documented in the literature.


This paper outlines a method for exploring learning in educational practice. The suggested method combines an explicit learning theory with robust methodological steps in order to explore aspects of learning in school physical education. The design of the study is based on sociocultural learning theory, and the approach adds to previous research within the field, both in terms of the combination of methods used and the claims made in our studies. The paper describes a way of collecting and analysing the retrieved data and discusses and illustrates the results of a study using this combination of explicit learning theory and robust methodological steps.


Abstract The voter strength of right-wing populist parties is regularly attributed either to a feeling of threat from a high proportion of local foreigners or to the lack of opportunities for contact between the majority and the minority. This contribution is theoretically based on a synthesis of these perspectives, known as the Halo effect. Accordingly, it is not so much the local size of the local population, which is perceived as foreign, but rather its relative proportion in the surrounding countryside, which leads to a diffuse feeling of threat. The electoral success of the Swiss People's Party (SVP) at the level of the Swiss municipalities serves as a basis for the empirical investigation, which is conducted alternatively with the proportions of the foreign and Muslim population. For both groups, spatial multilevel regression models provide indications of a coexistence of direct negative effects of minority populations on the share of the SVP (in the sense of the contact hypothesis) and of Halo effects, with the direct effects appearing to be somewhat more pronounced. Socio-structural factors can reduce these correlations (high unemployment neutralises the negative effect of the proportion of foreigners) or intensify these correlations (a higher income level accentuates the Halo effect for Muslims).


The purposes of this study were to identify the levels of communication skills and the levels of self-concept among the UTM final year TESL students as well as to identify the relationship between these two variables. The scope of the communication skills was based on the skills evident during the MUET speaking examination. Five components were used for the self-concept variables namely physical self, moral-ethical self, personal self, family self and lastly social self. The sample consisted of 33 final year TESL students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia where two instruments were used to measure their levels of communication skills and their levels of self-concept. MUET speaking skill scores were used to measure the respondents' levels of communication skills while Tennessee Self-Concept Scale Test (1965) was used to measure their levels of self-concept. A number of statistical analyses were employed in order to analyze the data including descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation. From this research it was found that the majority of the final year TESL students possess high level of communication skills and high level of self-concept. The Pearson correlation revealed that there was no significant correlation between the respondents' self-concept and communication skills. In conclusion, this research investigates the influence of self-concept in the final year TESL students' communication skills.


Not only was Waterloo one of the most decisive battles ever fought, was also a crucial event in European political and social history, ending over 20 years of conflict and bringing to his knees one of Europe's most extraordinary and challenging figures Napoleon Bonaparte. This intriguing book shows through contemporary prints how Bonaparte was seen from across the English Channel where hostile propaganda was tempered by admiration for his military and administrative talents. Featuring works from the British Museums world - renowned collection of political satires, including examples by the greatest masters of the genre, James Gillray, Thomas Rowlandson and George Cruikshank, the authors examine in detail the se fascinating and humorous prints. French satires showing the British in relation to Bonaparte are also included alongside portraits of Bonaparte and his family made for the British market. Attitudes to Bonaparte were coloured by political tensions in Britain as highlighted in satires of Charles James Fox, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Lord Holland and other radicals. French, German, Russian and Spanish copies of British prints demonstrate the wide dissemination of prints and the admiration of continental artists for British satirists. From portraits of the handsome young general to the resplendent Emperor to the cast of his death mask, this book explores crucial events of Bonaparte's career and the period including: Nelsons triumph in the battle of the Nile in 1798; the 14 months of peace after the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802 when British tourists flocked to Paris; the invasion scare of 1803 that generated much bravado in propagandist prints; the death of Nelson at the moment of victory at Trafalgar in 1805; the Russian campaign of 1812 followed by other military defeats during 1813, culminating in Napoleons exile to Elba in 1814; his 100 days in power in 1815, followed by Waterloo and exile to St Helena. Bonaparte and the British reveals the stories behind the prints, explaining how satire was used as propaganda and how the artists worked. With stunning illustrations showing the intricately detailed prints in full colour this book brings to life a key period in European history.


From 2003 to 2006, I worked as a writing center tutor at a small, private, liberal arts college. I was the "traditional" college student while I worked at the writing center: I was between the ages of 19 and 22 and a middle-class Caucasian woman. During my three years working as a tutor at the Moravian College and Theological Seminary Writing Center, other tutors and I faced our biggest challenges while working with Moravian Seminary students–graduate students at the seminary studying to become affiliated with the Moravian Church. These students were typically many years older than the tutors. As younger tutors, we often felt that these older student-writers did not value our input on their writing.


This doctoral study set out to explore how parents of children with statements of special educational needs and disability (SEND) made their decisions with regards to school placement. It aimed to explore both how these decisions were made and parents' perceptions of how well the schools, that they had placed their children in, were meeting their needs. The perceptions and views of these parents are given voice in this research. The project is very topical as sweeping changes (Part three of The Children and Families Act 2014 (DfE), the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations (DfE, 2014) and the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0-25 (DfE, 2014)) have recently been brought in with the aim, at least in theory, to reform the SEND system and give children, young people (up to the age of 25) and their families greater control and choice. This research is also very relevant at a time when there is an exponential increase in the numbers of academies and free schools, with their own admission procedures and curriculum.

Through the use of a pragmatic approach, using surveys (n=65) and semi-structured interviews (n=20), a range of views, across three Local Authorities in the South East of England, were collected and analysed. The main findings indicate that for many parents, despite their resources, social capital and education, finding a school that they felt could meet their child's needs was a difficult task. To find a mainstream school, within their local community, that could support their child's educational and social needs was virtually impossible for all but a small minority of participants. Parents whose children were diagnosed with a statement for Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) found it particularly difficult to find suitable schooling whether in a mainstream school, a special school or a specialist unit. A range of difficulties were identified, including in the areas of communication, between parents and providers, school curricula and funding. Some of the difficulties identified may be addressed by the new legislation and guidance, giving greater control and choice, others require schools and LA to work more collaboratively and flexibly with families. Other recommendations include improving LA practices, with regards to information and guidance about schools; and more effective teacher and head teacher training. However, on a more positive note, there were some schools, in the primary sector, which did manage to successfully meet the needs of some of the children. This indicates that such an ideal is achievable.


Two new differential class-AB operational transconductance amplifiers (OTAs) for SC circuits that operate with a supply voltage of less than two transistor threshold voltages are introduced. They make use of a new class-AB pseudodifferential pair to generate signal currents much larger than quiescent currents. Both OTAs have been designed to operate with a supply voltage of V/sub DD/=1.1 V, using a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS technology. Simulation results for a load capacitance (C/sub L/) of 1 pF show 15 MHz gain-bandwidth product with a quiescent power consumption of 10 /spl mu/W.


Although constant technology scaling has resulted in considerable benefits, smaller device dimensions, higher operating temperatures and electric fields have also contributed to faster device aging due to wearout. Not only does this result in the shortening of processor lifetimes, it leads to faster wearout resultant performance degradation with operating time. Instead of taking a reactive approach towards reliability awareness, we propose a pre-emptive route toward wearout mitigation. Given the significant thermal and stress variation across the components of microprocessors, in this work we focus on one of the most likely candidates for overheating and hence reliability failures, the register file. We propose different wearout-aware compiler-directed register assignment techniques that distribute the stress induced wearout throughout the register file, with the aim of improving the lifetime of the register file, with negligible performance overhead. We compare our results with a state-of-the-art thermal-aware compilation scheme to show the clear advantage our proposed wearout-aware scheme has over thermal-aware schemes in terms of lifetime improvement that can reach up to 20% for Bias Temperature Instability.


The concept of reputation has been used in every field of economic research, given its capacity to affect the outcome of all economic and financial transactions. The theoretical debate on reputation is very rich, but the mechanisms of reputation building have not been explored enough from the empirical viewpoint. In this paper we investigate the determinants of firm reputation taking into consideration the interactions between individual and collective reputation. This paper is one of the first attempts to provide robust evidence on the determinants of firm reputation using a large set of controls applied to a database not affected by self-selection bias. In fact, we constructed a new database containing the "universe" of wineries located in four regions of the North-West of Italy with an established national reputation and focus on the determinants of the «jump» from national to international reputation. Our research confirms the prediction of the theoretical literature and shows the positive effect of firm age, size, investments and producer's intrinsic motivations, and of collective reputation on individual firm reputation. Cooperatives seem to decrease their reputation when the number of associated members rises, due to free-riding and traceability problems. In contrast with previous research, relying on well-known external consultants does not acquire any outside reputation. Finally, by comparing the regression results on the determinants of national and international reputation it emerges the relevance of the mechanisms of the evaluation process: the higher proximity to the wineries of a national observer permits a better and more technical knowledge of the quality provided, allowing small "niche" producers with very low productivity to emerge and be known. For the same reason, the national classification system (i.e. the DOCG system) exerts a significant effect only on the international reputation of wineries, but not on the national one where the effect of collective reputation (i.e. the reputation of single denominations like Barolo) seems to prevail.


This paper views key competencies through a sociocultural lens to discuss the role they have played as agents of change in The New Zealand Curriculum and their as yet unrealised potential to stimulate further change. It draws on several exploratory studies to describe broad types of action and change which the key competencies have afforded, tracing several recursive cycles of professional learning during which understanding of the role key competencies might play in curriculum change became elaborated in deeper and more nuanced ways.


It has recently become apparent that criticism has fallen on hard times. Either commodification is deemed to have killed it off, or it has become institutionally routine. This book explores contemporary approaches which have sought to renew criticism's energies in the wake of a 'theatrical turn' in recent visual arts practice, and the emergence of a 'performative' arts writing over the past decade or so. Issues addressed include the 'performing' of art's histories; the consequences for criticism of embracing boredom, distraction and other 'queer' forms of (in)attention; and, the importance of exploring writerly process in responding to aesthetic experience. Bringing together newly commissioned work from the fields of art history, performance studies, and visual culture with the writings of contemporary artists, "After Criticism" provides a set of experimental essays which demonstrate how 'the critical' might live on as a vital and efficacious force within contemporary culture.


As a graduation project at a design school in Stockholm, a piece of furniture to be used for retreats in the public space was exhibited. It was named 'The Cocoon' and was a reclining chair covered with a bubble-like construction made out of cloth and steel. The exhibition was a starting point for a number of journeys. In the years to come, the Cocoon reached museums, exhibition halls, newspapers and magazines throughout the world. In this article, we track the travels and illustrate the transformations of the Cocoon. We seek to understand spacing activities behind the travels and view the travels from a spatial perspective focusing on the relation between transportation and transformation, of emptiness, form and content.


In this article we revisit the concept of social remittances. First, we show how people's experiences before migrating strongly influence what they do in the countries where they settle; this, in turn, affects what they remit back to their homelands. Second, just as scholars differentiate between individual and collective economic remittances, we also distinguish between individual and collective social remittances. While individuals communicate ideas and practices to each other in their roles as friends, family members or neighbours, they also communicate in their capacity as organisational actors, which has implications for organisational management and capacity-building. Finally, we argue that social remittances can scale up from local-level impacts to affect regional and national change and scale out to affect other domains of practice.


Abstract. The oceans currently take up around a quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by human activity. While stored in the ocean, this CO2 is not influencing Earth's radiation budget; the ocean CO2 sink therefore plays an important role in mitigating global warming. CO2 uptake by the oceans is heterogeneous, with the subpolar North Atlantic being the strongest CO2 sink region. Observations over the last 2 decades have indicated that CO2 uptake by the subpolar North Atlantic sink can vary rapidly. Given the importance of this sink and its apparent variability, it is critical that we understand the mechanisms behind its operation. Here we explore the combined natural and anthropogenic subpolar North Atlantic CO2 uptake across a large ensemble of Earth System Model simulations, and find that models show a peak in sink strength around the middle of the century after which CO2 uptake begins to decline. We identify different drivers of change on interannual and multidecadal timescales. Short-term variability appears to be driven by fluctuations in regional seawater temperature and alkalinity, whereas the longer-term evolution throughout the coming century is largely occurring through a counterintuitive response to rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. At high atmospheric CO2 concentrations the contrasting Revelle factors between the low latitude water and the subpolar gyre, combined with the transport of surface waters from the low latitudes to the subpolar gyre, means that the subpolar CO2 uptake capacity is largely satisfied from its southern boundary rather than through air–sea CO2 flux. Our findings indicate that: (i) we can explain the mechanisms of subpolar North Atlantic CO2 uptake variability across a broad range of Earth System Models; (ii) a focus on understanding the mechanisms behind contemporary variability may not directly tell us about how the sink will change in the future; (iii) to identify long-term change in the North Atlantic CO2 sink we should focus observational resources on monitoring lower latitude as well as the subpolar seawater CO2; (iv) recent observations of a weakening subpolar North Atlantic CO2 sink may suggest that the sink strength has peaked and is in long-term decline.


This thesis deals with the interpretation of compact extragalactic radio sources in the context of the twin-beam model with a particular emphasis on the role of special-relativistic kinematical and dynamical effects. Various such effects are investigated, both in a general manner and in application to specific observed phenomena. Among the observed phenomena which are interpreted in this way are: i) Apparent superluminal flux variations, i.e., variations which occur on timescales short compared with the light travel time across the apparent source. It is shown that this and other spectral effects could be attributed to relativistic expansion of the source, and that objections raised against the relativistic interpretation (Terrell 1977) are model-dependent and do not apply in general. ii) Apparent superluminal separation of source components. It
is shown that in a relativistic jet model where the radio emission originates both from the quasi-steady jet itself and from behind shock waves which travel with relativistic speeds in the jet,
the source could display apparent superluminal expansion in which the moving component (associated with a shock) and the stationary component (associated with the optically-thick core of the jet) would have comparable, Doppler-boosted fluxes. The shocks could either propagate in the jet or arise behind dense clouds which
are accelerated by the supersonic flow. The origin as well as the kinematical and radiative properties of the clouds are discussed, and it is proposed that the bright knots observed in certain jets, such as the jet in M87, could in fact correspond to dense accelerated clouds. iii) Rapid swings in the observed polarization position angle. It is shown that synchrotron sources which accelerate to (or decelerate from) relativistic speeds could display rapid swings in the observed polarization position angle of up to 180° as a result of the relativistic aberration effect. This mechanism is suggested for the large swing observed in the BL Lac object AO 0235+164 (Ledden and Aller 1978). It is argued that the majority of bright compact sources
are observed along lines of sight making small (≲ 10°) angles to the jet velocity. On the basis of this hypothesis, a unified interpretation of compact, variable radio sources and of extended double radio sources is presented. More generally, it is suggested that active galactic nuclei may have two types of emission: an isotropic, fairly steady, unpolarized optical continuum, and a beamed, variable, strongly polarized synchrotron component associated with a relativistic jet. The sequence: radio-quiet quasars, radio-loud quasars, and blazars (i.e., optically-violent variable quasars and BL Lac objects) would then correspond to similar sources which are viewed at progressively decreasing angles to their jet axes. Model synchrotron and inverse-Compton spectra for resolved jets and for unresolved inhomogeneous jets are calculated, taking into account the effect of synchrotron - radiation losses, and applied to the interpretation of the spectra of BL Lac objects. The possible contribution of beamed sources to the diffuse x-ray and γ-ray background is also discussed. In addition, the steady two-dimensional flow of an ideal compressible fluid is studied in the context of special-relativistic gas dynamics. The Newtonian equations for potential flow are generalized, and it is found that they can have the same form in the Newtonian and the relativistic regimes if their parameters are defined in the local rest-frame of the fluid. The Mach number thus defined is shown to have the same properties as its Newtonian analog. The Newtonian equations for oblique plane shock waves are similarly generalized in certain cases (which include, in particular, the· extreme-relativistic limit). Several applications of these results, particularly to the study of relativistic jets, are suggested.


Slotting allowances are fees paid by manufacturers to get access to retailers' shelf space. Although the main attention towards slotting allowances has been within the grocery industry, slotting allowances have also been applied within e.g. e-commerce and mobile telephony. In these industries we observe that distributors have large market power due to their control of access to the customers.We analyze how shifting bargaining power from manufacturers to retailers and the use of slotting allowances affect consumers' surplus and channel profit when the manufacturer undertakes non-contractible retail sales effort (through e.g. advertising, promotions and product quality control). We show that with a simple linear wholesale tariff consumers are better off if the retailer has the bargaining power than if it belongs to the manufacturer. With retail bargaining power a change from a linear wholesale tariff to slotting allowances harms the consumers and increases channel profit. As a consequence, the welfare effects of slotting allowances are ambiguous. 1We would like to thank Derek Clark and seminar participants at the University of Tromso and at the 14th International Conference on Retailing and Service Science, San Francisco, for valuable comments


The Arctic continental shelf seas hold a globally significant source of freshwater that impacts Arctic Ocean stratification, circulation, and climate. This freshwater can be injected below the surface mixed layer by intense turbulent kinetic energy dissipation events, as resolved by Laptev Sea microstructure observations. The tides provide a major source of energy that can be dissipated and hence drive diapycnal mixing in the Laptev Sea.
Multiyear ADCP mooring records from locations across the shelf reveal that semidiurnal tides are dominated by theM2 and S2 constituents, with the largest amplitudes on the outer shelf. Throughoutmost of the shelf, tides are clockwise polarized and sheared by stratification, as characteristic near the M2 critical latitude. Interannual variations of the tidal and shear structures on the inner shelf aremainly determined by the stratification-setting Lena River freshwater plume. In all locations,M2 tides are enhanced under sea ice, and therefore changes in the seasonal ice cover may lead to changes in tides and water column structure. The main conclusions of this study are that (i) tides play a comparatively greater role year-round on the outer shelf relative to the inner shelf; (ii) a sea ice reduction will overall decrease the predictability of the currents, especially on the inner shelf; and (iii) the freshwater distribution directly impacts diapycnal mixing by setting the vertical tidal structure. These combined effects imply that future sea ice loss will increase the variability and vertical mixing of freshwater, particularly on the inner shelf, where the Lena River first enters the Laptev Sea.


Echolocating bats (Eptesicus fuscus) can detect changes as small as 500 nanoseconds in the arrival time of sonar echoes when these changes appear as jitter or alternations in arrival time from one echo to the next. The psychophysical function relating the bat's performance to the magnitude of the jitter corresponds to the half-wave rectified cross-correlation function between the emitted sonar signals and the echoes. The bat perceives the phase or period structure of the sounds, which cover the 25- to 100-kilohertz frequency range, as these are represented in the auditory system after peripheral transformation. The acoustic image of a sonar target is apparently derived from time-domain or periodicity information processing by the nervous system.


A quantitative method was used to explore the financial performance of the listed firms on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The number of firms explored was 196 out of a possible 206 (two firms are subsidiaries of one of the firm, and others are insurance firms excluded). The listed firms were observed from 2009-2014 to understand their status in the market, and the direction they are headed towards. The financial data were gathered from the published annual reports of the respective firms and the financial statements from the Kuwait Stock Exchange website. The results, using the Altman Z-score model for the period 2009-2014, show that approximately 39.46% of the firms on average were safe; approximately 25.94% of the firms on average were distressed; approximately 15.90% of the firms on average were in a grey area; and approximately 18.71% firms on average had no available data. The bankruptcy rate could not be justified using the Zmijewski score model due to the inconclusive results and the absence of bankruptcy laws in the State of Kuwait. This paper provides insight into the financial distress level in Kuwait. The level of distress shows that major changes are necessary within firms and operations are not running smooth. Bankruptcy laws are required for firms operating in distress. This exploration is a stepping-stone for potential investors by showing the most profitable sectors for investment and for future researchers to predict accurate bankruptcy rates in the State of Kuwait.


The objective of this study was to investigate and to determine the effectiveness of specific Stability Exercises (SE)on the muscles of the neck in comparison with Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation exercises (PNFE) in the cross-sectional area of deep cervical flexor muscles and to examine the improvement of disability and pain in patients with chronic neck pain. This randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted on 44 patients with chronic neck pain in 2016. The patients were randomly divided into two SE and (PNFE) groups (each containing 22 subjects). The pain of patients was assessed using VisualAnalogScale(VAS) questionnaire(VAS) and the disability was assessed using Neck Disability Index(NDI)questionnaire, and cross-sectional area of deep cervical flexor muscles in the right side was assessed using ultrasonography before treatment training and 8 weeks after the start of training. Treatment program for both groups was 8 weeks (6 sessions per week and two sessions per day) with repetition of specified trainings. Variance analysis, independent t-test, and paired t-test were used to compare results before and after treatment between groups and within groups .The mean pain score in both SE (P<0.001) and PNFE (P<0.001) groups was declined. Mean NDI in both SE (P<0.001) and PNFE (P<0.001) groups showed a significant decrease. The mean cross-sectional area of deep cervical flexor muscles of patients in SE group and PNFE group increased while the increase in PNFE group (P=0.09) was not significant but in SE group was statistically significant (P=0.008).This study revealed that both methods of SE and PNFE in patients with chronic neck pain reduced pain and disability, but SE had better effects. Although cross-sectional area of deep cervical flexor muscles increased in both treatment groups, but the increase in cross-sectional area of deep flexor muscles in SE group was significant.


News and Views of the Current Research * Technology Management Scene When the three hijacked airliners destroyed the World Trade Center and part of Pentagon last September 11, the United States may well have entered a new stage in its technological history. A new war had to be fought with new tools involving new applications of science, new types of advanced technologies and new sets of ideas. It would be a long war, President Bush and his team told the country, before saying that the U.S. would eventually win. But victory may well come slowly, and piecemeal. New ideas are needed to protect the country against technological acts of terrorism, capture or kill terrorist masterminds, conduct new forms of espionage, penetrate and dismantle dedicated terrorist networks, and build Islamic economies while modernizing their social structures. All these will require a good deal of scientific thinking and will take some time. Observers called the attack a failure of U.S. intelligence agencies to communicate among themselves in detecting and tracking 11 smart, technically educated, ideologically committed hijackers. What was so shocking was that these individuals would give up their lives in their murderous assertion that the U.S. was as vulnerable to savagery as the poorest, most ill-governed country. One analyst called the attacks "Globalization's Chernobyl." A RAND Corp. study, "Networks and Netwars," called the crisis a "new spectrum of conflict" involving flexible-even collapsible-networks of terrorists with efficient communications; "multihubs of spiderhead designs," as the report put it. Planning the Response Figuring out how to fight such elusive enemies over the long term was the main reason why two weeks after the attacks, the presidents of the three National Academies (Science, Engineering, and Institute of Medicine) called together a group of policy experts and officials in Washington, D.C. to map out how the country's academic research and engineering establishments might help out. The Academies had already produced 26 separate reports on such terrorist threats and solutions as airline passenger security, R&D needed to combat chemical and biological terrorism, preventing bombings, protection of office buildings, and scientific information for national security. The ideas contained in those reports weren't unique to the Academies. Many groups and commissions that have studied terrorism over the years had been urging the government to get serious about using the best technologies to protect the country from biological, chemical, nuclear, and other forms of attack. Time and again they pointed to vulnerabilities of individuals, crowds, families, buildings, planes, water supplies, factories, power plants, and other crucial segments of society and the economy. The U.S. government did set up various bodies such as the Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Numerous consulting groups and think tanks established terrorist programs and consulting services. But not much government spending was committed to actually protecting the United States, eliminating sources of terrorism, or simply understanding its roots. What did happen, though, was that a community of technically qualified terrorism experts did become established inside and outside the government. On Sept. 26, 2001, the presidents of each of the three Academies asked Lewis M. Branscomb, of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and Richard D. Klausner former head of the National Cancer Society, to pull together the effort. As NAS president Bruce Alberts put it, "We decided to jump-start some activities by using two million dollars of our own endowment money. We had Jack Marburger [John D. Marburger, president Bush's science adviser] and Norm Neureiter [Norman Neureiter, science adviser to the Secretary of State], there to make sure what we would eventually propose would be useful. …


Hyperglycaemia and hypoglycaemia are common in preterm infants and are associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Continuous glucose monitoring is widely used to target glucose control in adults and children, but not in neonates.

 To evaluate the role of continuous glucose monitoring in the preterm infant.

 The REAl-time Continuous glucose moniToring in neonatal intensive care project combined (1) a feasibility study, (2) a multicentre randomised controlled trial and (3) a pilot of 'closed-loop' continuous glucose monitoring. The feasibility study comprised a single-centre study (n = 20). Eligibility criteria included a birthweight ≤ 1200 g and aged ≤ 48 hours. Continuous glucose monitoring was initiated to support glucose control. The efficacy and safety outcomes guided the design of the randomised controlled trial. The randomised controlled trial comprised a European multicentre trial (n = 182). Eligibility criteria included birthweight ≤ 1200 g and aged ≤ 24 hours. Exclusion criteria included any lethal congenital abnormality. Continuous glucose monitoring was initiated to support glucose control within 24 hours of birth. In the intervention group, the continuous glucose monitoring sensor provided real-time data on glucose levels, which guided clinical management. In control infants, the continuous glucose monitoring data were masked, and glucose level was managed in accordance with standard clinical practice and based on the blood glucose levels. The primary outcome measure was the percentage of time during which the sensor glucose level was within the target range of 2.6–10 mmol/l. Secondary outcome measures included mean sensor glucose level, the percentage of time during which the sensor glucose level was within the target range of 4–8 mmol/l, the percentage of time during which the sensor glucose level was in the hyperglycaemic range (i.e. > 15 mmol/l) and sensor glucose level variability. Safety outcomes included hypoglycaemia exposure. Acceptability assessment and health economic analyses were carried out and further exploratory health outcomes were explored. The mean percentage of time in glucose target range of 2.6–10 mmol/l was 9% higher in infants in the continuous glucose monitoring group (95% confidence interval 3% to 14%; p = 0.002), and the mean time in the target range of 4–8 mmol/l was 12% higher in this group (95% confidence interval 4% to 19%; p = 0.004). There was no difference in the number of episodes of hypoglycaemia. Exploratory outcomes showed a reduced risk of necrotising enterocolitis in the intervention arm (odds ratio 0.33, 95% confidence interval 0.13 to 0.78; p = 0.01). Health economic analyses demonstrated that continuous glucose monitoring was cost-effective on the basis of the cost per additional case of adequate glucose control between 2.6 and 10 mmol/l. The 'closed-loop' study was a single-center pilot study, with eligibility criteria including a birthweight of ≤ 1200 g and aged ≤ 48 hours. Infants underwent continuous glucose monitoring for the first week of life (n = 21), with those in the intervention group receiving closed-loop insulin delivery between 48 and 72 hours of age. The primary outcome of percentage of time in the target range (i.e. sensor glucose 4–8 mmol/l) increased from a median of 26% (interquartile range 6–64%) to 91% (interquartile range 78–99%) during closed-loop insulin delivery (p < 0.001).

 These studies have not defined the optimal targets for glucose control or the best strategies to achieve them in these infants.

 Studies are needed to evaluate the longer-term impact of targeting glucose control on clinical outcomes.

 Continuous glucose monitoring in extremely preterm infants can improve glucose control, with closed-loop insulin delivery having further potential to target glucose levels. Staff and parents felt that the use of continuous glucose monitoring improved care and the results of the health economic evaluation favours the use of continuous glucose monitoring.

 Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN12793535.

 This project was funded by the Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation (EME) programme, a MRC and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) partnership. This will be published in full in Efficacy and Mechanism Evaluation; Vol. 8, No. 16. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information. Medtronic plc provided some MiniMed™ 640G systems and Nova Biomedical (Waltham, MA, USA) provided point-of-care devices.


The federal government devotes over a trillion dollars each year to tax provisions that pursue "nontax" goals. Scaling back these tax expenditures should be a high priority. Yet one-size-fits-all limits are often proposed, and are not good policy. Each tax expenditure generates its own mix of positive externalities and private benefits (or "programmatic benefits"). To choose the right limit, we should consider what programmatic benefits we would lose. The goal should be to reap programmatic benefits at lower cost. Different strategies are appropriate for each tax expenditure, including: tightening the definition of favored conduct; focusing on claimants who are easiest to motivate; favoring claimants who use the subsidy more effectively; calibrating how much favored activity we subsidize; and changing the government agency that administers the subsidy. We also should account for excess burden and distribution. Does repeal or a limit influence labor or savings decisions? Does it affect planning and administrative costs? Does it bring is closer to the distribution we want?In addition to proposing this three-part framework for limiting tax expenditures, which focuses on programmatic benefits, excess burden, and distribution, this Article also analyzes seven different limits. They have very different effects. For example, a "cap" eliminates the subsidy for high levels of favored activity. In contrast, a "floor" disallows the subsidy for low levels. "Haircuts," "maximum fractions," and "phaseouts" preserve the subsidy for both high and low levels of favored activity, but in weakened form. Each limit offers a different mix of strengths and weaknesses, making it a better fit for some tax expenditures than others.Like limits, tax expenditures also vary in systematic ways. This Article identifies an important distinction among them. For some tax expenditures, marginal benefits vary only with the activity level of all claimants in the aggregate; for others, marginal benefits also vary with the activity level of each claimant. When we subsidize green energy, for instance, the aggregate is our main concern; the goal is to replace as much carbon-based energy as possible, and it matters less who is doing so (as long as they do it well enough). In contrast, when we subsidize health insurance, we care a lot about how much insurance each individual has. The difference between what this Article calls "aggregate" subsidies (like green energy) and "individually-based" subsidies (like health insurance) can influence the type of limit we want. For example, caps are likely to be a better fit for individually-based subsidies than aggregate ones, since we care more about how much each claimant claims.This Article also makes a number of other recommendations, including: first, the subsidy rate often should vary for different tax expenditures; second, instead of using "basket limits" that govern a group of tax expenditures, we should tailor a separate limit for each one; and third, the subsidy rate often should vary with income.


The paper examines methods for calculating energy surpluses through anaerobic digestion and gives some examples of the practical application of these in crop-based systems. The surplus energy is the balance between that produced as a usable energy source and that used in crop production, conversion of the biomass into biogas, and conversion of biogas into a usable form: these are the direct energy inputs. The energy balance also takes into account the embedded energy used in the construction of machinery and buildings and for their repair and maintenance: the indirect energy inputs. The area of land available for fuel production is finite and therefore the energy yield is best considered on a per hectare basis. This allows comparison of energy conversion efficiency where the biomass yield for that area may vary depending on a range of inputs, e.g. rate of fertiliser application or irrigation requirements. It also allows direct comparison between different crop species or varieties within a single species. For an accurate energy balance analysis direct and indirect energy requirements have to be established for all the stages in the crop-based energy production cycle.


The reflection of a laser pulse from a mirror moving close to the speed of light could in principle create an X-ray pulse with unprecedented high brightness owing to the increase in photon energy and accompanying temporal compression by a factor of $4\gamma^2$, where $\gamma$ is the Lorentz factor of the mirror. While this scheme is theoretically intriguingly simple and was first discussed by A. Einstein more than a century ago, the generation of a relativistic structure which acts as a mirror is demanding in many different aspects. Recently, the interaction of a high intensity laser pulse with a nanometer thin foil has raised great interest as it promises the creation of a dense, attosecond short, relativistic electron bunch capable of forming a mirror structure that scatters counter-propagating light coherently and shifts its frequency to higher photon energies. However, so far, this novel concept has been discussed only in theoretical studies using highly idealized interaction parameters. This thesis investigates the generation of a relativistic electron mirror from a nanometer foil with current state-of-the-art high intensity laser pulses and demonstrates for the first time the reflection from those structures in an experiment. To achieve this result, the electron acceleration from high intensity laser nanometer foil interactions was studied in a series of experiments using three inherently different high power laser systems and free-standing foils as thin as 3nm. A drastic increase in the electron energies was observed when reducing the target thickness from the micrometer to the nanometer scale. Quasi-monoenergetic electron beams were measured for the first time from ultrathin ($\leq$5nm) foils, reaching energies up to ~35MeV. The acceleration process was studied in simulations well-adapted to the experiments, indicating the transition from plasma to free electron dynamics as the target thickness is reduced to the few nanometer range. The experience gained from those studies allowed proceeding to the central goal, the demonstration of the relativistically flying mirror, which was achieved at the Astra Gemini dual beam laser facility. In this experiment, a frequency shift in the backscatter signal from the visible (800nm) to the extreme ultraviolet (~60nm) was observed when irradiating the interaction region with a counter-propagating probe pulse simultaneously. Complementary to the experimental observations, a detailed numerical study on the dual beam interaction is presented, explaining the mirror formation and reflection process in great depth, indicating a $>10^4$ fold increase in the backscatter efficiency as compared to the expected incoherent signal. The simulations show that the created electron mirrors propagate freely at relativistic velocities while reflecting off the counter-propagating laser, thereby truly acting like the relativistic mirror first discussed in Einstein's thought experiment. The reported work gives an intriguing insight into the electron dynamics in high intensity laser nanofoil interactions
and constitutes a major step towards the coherent backscattering from a relativistic electron mirror of solid density, which could potentially generate bright bursts of X-rays on a micro-scale.


In this paper the author argues that urbanisation should be understood as a global historical process driven primarily by population dynamics stimulated by technological and institutional change. In particular, disease control and expanded access to surplus energy supplies are necessary and sufficient conditions for urbanisation to occur given historical evidence of an inherent human propensity to agglomerate. Economic development, which has traditionally been viewed as the primary driving force behind urbanisation, can accelerate the process but is not a necessary condition for it to occur. Informed by this historically-grounded theory of urbanisation, a range of qualitative and quantitative evidence is used to explain the stylised facts of sub-Saharan Africa's urban transition, namely the late onset of urbanisation in Africa vis-a-vis other major world regions, the widely noted but inadequately explained phenomenon of 'urbanisation without growth' observed in Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, and the historically unprecedented rates of urban population growth seen in the region throughout the late twentieth century.


Multi-layered social networks consist of the fixed set of nodes linked by multiple connections. These connections may be derived from different types of user activities logged in the IT system. To calculate any structural measures for multi-layered networks this multitude of relations should be coped with in the parameterized way. Two separate algorithms for evaluation of shortest paths in the multi-layered social network are proposed in the paper. The first one is based on pre-processing -- aggregation of multiple links into single multi-layered edges, whereas in the second approach, many edges are processed 'on the fly' in the middle of path discovery. Experimental studies carried out on the DBLP database are presented as well.


The gravitational field of a laser pulse of finite lifetime, is investigated in the framework of linearized gravity. Although the effects are very small, they may be of fundamental physical interest. It is shown that the gravitational field of a linearly polarized light pulse is modulated as the norm of the corresponding electric field strength, while no modulations arise for circular polarization. In general, the gravitational field is independent of the polarization direction. It is shown that all physical effects are confined to spherical shells expanding with the speed of light, and that these shells are imprints of the spacetime events representing emission and absorption of the pulse. Nearby test particles at rest are attracted towards the pulse trajectory by the gravitational field due to the emission of the pulse, and they are repelled from the pulse trajectory by the gravitational field due to its absorption. Examples are given for the size of the attractive effect. It is recovered that massless test particles do not experience any physical effect if they are co-propagating with the pulse, and that the acceleration of massless test particles counter-propagating with respect to the pulse is four times stronger than for massive particles at rest. The similarities between the gravitational effect of a laser pulse and Newtonian gravity in two dimensions are pointed out. The spacetime curvature close to the pulse is compared to that induced by gravitational waves from astronomical sources.


This thesis explores the strategies of ignorance and uncertainty employed by UK regulators, practitioners and policymakers during the controversy over whether selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants such as Prozac contribute to suicidal and homicidal reactions in some users. Empirically, the thesis is based on archival research, textual analysis, and interviews with UK policymakers and clinicians involved with efforts to determine the safety of SSRIs. By analyzing these materials with methodological and conceptual tools from the fields of science studies and the sociology of reason and objectivity, the thesis demonstrates the following four findings. First, drawing on the case of SSRIs, I demonstrate that many policymakers within the UK's National Health Service are frustrated with their inability to access clinical trial data necessary for developing treatment guidelines. Second, I argue that problems surrounding access to clinical trial data illustrate weaknesses within evidence-based medicine, a model of medicine that has become dominant in the UK and internationally over the past three decades. Third, I argue that when practitioners and policymakers wish to criticize the socio-political factors that make it difficult to access clinical trial data, their dissent must be limited to the universe of numbers, a phenomena which I term the "moral authority of objectivity" in medicine. Fourth, drawing on interviews with expert advisors to the MHRA, I argue that, in the case of SSRIs, regulators employed a strategic use of ignorance in order to absolve themselves of liability in not disclosing the knowledge of adverse effects when they first learned of them. This final finding has theoretical implications for recent studies of uncertainty and ignorance. I suggest that the SSRI controversy illuminates the regulatory value of inconsistent, uncertain and contradictory facts. The usefulness of uncertainty lies in its performative nature: uncertainty creates a demand for solutions to the ambiguity which it perpetuates, often consolidating the authority of those who have advanced a position of uncertainty to begin with.


Parkinson's disease (PD), affecting about 1% of the population over 60 years old,
is the second most common neurodegenerative disease. Although the majority of
PD cases are sporadic, mutations in a number of genes are known to cause or
increase the risk of developing PD. Studying the function of these genes can shed
light on our understanding of the molecular mechanisms contributing to both
familial and sporadic forms of PD. This thesis is focused on two of these genes:
PINK1 and LRRK2.
Mutations in the PINK1 gene are the second most common cause of autosomal
recessive forms of PD. PINK1 is a serine/threonine kinase with a mitochondrial
targeting sequence. Studies have suggested a neuroprotective role for PINK1 and
loss of PINK1 function can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction, increased
oxidative stress, altered mitochondrial fission/fusion and autophagy. In this study,
I have investigated the effects of PINK1 deficiency on mitochondrial and cellular
function as well as brain and skeletal muscle pathology using a PINK1 knockout
(KO) mouse model. Although aged PINK1 KO mice don't develop obvious
pathological changes (e.g. neurodegeneration or abnormal protein aggregation),
PINK1 KO leads to impaired mitochondrial respiration in both midbrain neurons
and skeletal myocytes. The difference in cellular energy metabolism between
these two cell types determines their different responses to PINK1 deficiency in
terms of mitochondrial membrane potential and calcium regulation, which may
explain the selective vulnerability of neurons to PINK1 associated PD. In addition to this work, I have also studied the expression and distribution of
putative LRRK2 substrates, ERM (ezrin, radixin and moesin) proteins, in PD
brains compared to healthy controls. Mutations in the LRRK2 gene are the most
common cause of autosomal dominant forms of PD. LRRK2 is a large protein
kinase with multiple functional domains. ERM proteins have been demonstrated
as putative LRRK2 substrates by in vitro assays. In this study, I examined the
expression levels and distribution of moesin and phospho-ERM proteins in
post-mortem PD brains and found that the level of phospho-ERM was increased
in striatum from sporadic PD brains compared to controls. Furthermore,
phospho-ERM proteins were localized to Lewy bodies, one of the main PD
pathological hallmarks, in both IPD brains and brains of PD patients carrying the
G2019S LRRK2 mutation. These results suggest that ERM proteins might play a
role in the pathogenesis of PD.


Rho GTPases are molecular switches that regulate many aspects of cell physiology. A number of Rho GTPases are essential for the formation of new vessels from pre-existing ones, a process known as angiogenesis. RhoJ/TCL belongs to the Cdc42 subfamily of Rho GTPases. Previous bioinformatic and primary cell line analyses identified RhoJ as being highly expressed in endothelial cells. The aim of this project was to investigate the expression pattern and endothelial function of RhoJ, particularly in the processes necessary for angiogenesis. Silencing RhoJ with siRNA impaired tube formation and migration. On the cellular level, RhoJ knockdown increased focal adhesions, actin stress fibres and collagen gel contraction, suggesting increased actomyosin contractility. Pharmacological inhibition of ROCK and myosin II, two regulators of actomyosin contractility, restored motility and tube formation after RhoJ knockdown. RhoJ localised to blood vessels of developing mice and in various human normal and pathological tissues. In zebrafish embryos RhoJ was not expressed in endothelial cells, instead RhoJ was expressed in the musculature where it was involved in regulating somite formation. This study is the first to describe a role for RhoJ as a negative regulator of focal adhesion numbers and actomyosin contractility and to demonstrate a critical role of this Rho GTPase in endothelial cell migration and tube formation, thus identifying a potential new player in angiogenesis.


Accepting the philosophical premise that numbers exist, as per
Quine (1948), is ontologically different to accepting that numbers
have a fixed reality. This differential is the essence of the reality of
numbers as they are applied to indigenous populations. In First World
colonised nations such as Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada
and the United States, the question is not just 'are these numbers real',
but also 'how are these numbers deployed and whom do they serve'.
The reality query is not of the numbers themselves but of what they
purport to portray. Numbers, configured as population or population sample data, are
not neutral entities. Rather, social and population statistics are better
understood as human artefacts, imbued with meaning. And, in their
current configurations, the meanings re.fleeted in statistics are primarily
drawn from the dominant social norms, values and racial hierarchy of
the society in which they are created. As such, in colonising nation-states,
statistics applied to indigenous peoples have a raced reality that
is perpetuated and normalised through their creation and re-creation (Walter 2010; Walter & Andersen 2013). The numerical format of these
statistics and their seemingly neutral presentation, however, elide
their social, cultural and racial dimensions. In a seemingly unbroken
circle, dominant social norms, values and racial understandings
determine statistical construction and interpretations, which then
shape perceptions of data needs and purpose, which then determine
statistical construction and interpretation, and so on. Just as important
is that the accepted persona of statistics on indigenous people operates
to conceal what is excluded: the culture, interests, perspectives and
alternative narratives of those they purport to represent-indigenous
peoples. This chapter investigates how Australia's racial terrain permeates
statistics on Indigenous Australians. I examine the shape and context
of these statistics as currently 'done' in Australia (Walter & Andersen
2013) and also the absences-how they are 'not done'. Within this,
I interrogate the construction and dissemination of the contemporary
Australian statistical Indigene and its wider social and cultural
contexts and consequences. The chapter also challenges researchers
to consider how reversing the analytical lens to generate data
conceptualised through an Indigenous methodological framework
might alter the narrative, concepts, discourse and, ultimately, policy
directions of Indigenous Australia.