"Neither a "Starting Linux" book nor a dry reference manual, this book has a lot to offer to those coming to Fedora from other operating systems or distros." -- Behdad Esfahbod, Fedora developer This book will get you up to speed quickly on Fedora Linux, a securely-designed Linux distribution that includes a massive selection of free software packages. Fedora is hardened out-of-the-box, it's easy to install, and extensively customizable - and this book shows you how to make Fedora work for you.Fedora Linux: A Complete Guide to Red Hat's Community Distribution will take you deep into essential Fedora tasks and activities by presenting them in easy-to-learn modules. From installation and configuration through advanced topics such as administration, security, and virtualization, this book captures the important details of how Fedora Core works--without the fluff that bogs down other books and help/how-to web sites. Instead, you can learn from a concise task-based approach to using Fedora as both a desktop and server operating system.In this book, you'll learn how to:Install Fedora and perform basic administrative tasksConfigure the KDE and GNOME desktopsGet power management working on your notebook computer and hop on a wired or wireless networkFind, install, and update any of the thousands of packages available for FedoraPerform backups, increase reliability with RAID, and manage your disks with logical volumesSet up a server with file sharing, DNS, DHCP, email, a Web server, and moreWork with Fedora's security features including SELinux, PAM, and Access Control Lists (ACLs)Whether you are running the stable version of Fedora Core or bleeding-edge Rawhide releases, this book has something for every level of user. The modular, lab-based approach not only shows you how things work-but also explains why--and provides you with the answers you need to get up and running with Fedora Linux.Chris Tyler is a computer consultant and a professor of computer studies at Seneca College in Toronto, Canada where he teaches courses on Linux and X Window System Administration. He has worked on systems ranging from embedded data converters to Multics mainframes.


Examining the largest prisoner-of-war handling operation in U.S. history, this book offers a meticulous account of the myriad history, this book offers a meticulous account of the myriad problems as well as the impressive successes that came with problems as well as the impressive successes that came with housing 371,000 German POWs on American soil during World War II. Antonio Thompson draws on extensive archival research to probe the various ways in which the U.S. government strove to comply with the Geneva Convention s mandate that enemy prisoners be moved from the war zone and given food, shelter, and clothing equal to that provided for American soldiers.While the prisoners became a ready source of manpower for the labor- starved American home front and received small wages in return, their stay in the United States generated more than a few difficulties, which included not only daunting logistics but also violence within the camps. Such violence was often blamed on Nazi influence and control; however, as Thompson points out, only a few of the prisoners were actually Nazis. Because the Germans had cobbled together military forces that included convicts, their own POWs, volunteers from neutral nations, and conscripts from occupied countries, the bonds that held these soldiers together amid the pressures of combat dissolved once they were placed behind barbed wire. When these men in German uniform, who were not always Germans, donned POW garb, their former social, racial, religious, and ethnic tensions quickly reemerged.To counter such troubles, American authorities organized various activities including sports, arts, education, and religion within the POW camps; some prisoners even participated in an illegal denazification program created by the U.S. government. Despite the problems, Thompson argues, the POW-housing program proved largely successful, as Americans maintained their reputation for fairness and humane treatment during a time of widespread turmoil."


In this review, we provide a historical overview of the simulation of tropical cyclones (TCs) in climate models, from the first attempts in the 1970s to the current state‐of‐the‐art models. We discuss the status of TC simulation across multiple time scales, from intraseasonal, seasonal, and decadal, to climate change. One of the limitations on the simulation of TCs in climate models has been, and continues to be, balancing the high resolution necessary to accurately simulate TCs themselves with the need to run simulations for many years and using many ensemble members. Several approaches to inferring TC activity indirectly, rather than relying on the models own under‐resolved TCs, are reviewed, including the use of TC genesis indices based on the large‐scale environment and downscaling methods such as the use of regional climate models and statistical–dynamical techniques. We also provide an update on the status of climate change projections from the current class of models, where it is feasible to directly track the model's TCs. While there has been great progress in the capability of climate models to simulate TCs and provide useful forecasts and projections across multiple time scales, there remains much work to be done. We list some of the sources of uncertainty and model sensitivity, describe where improvements are necessary, and provide a few suggestions for promising research directions. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:211–237. doi: 10.1002/wcc.373


Neuroimaging provides a method to locate areas of the brain active when organisms perceive or respond to sensory events or carry out a wide variety of tasks. The methods have made it possible to examine where in the brain cognitive and emotional systems are located, thus providing new approaches to understanding normal and pathological human information processing. Positron emission tomography accomplishes this by detecting concentrations of radioactive oxygen, glucose, or neurotransmitter molecules in the brain. High-density multichannel electrical activity recorded from the scalp electroencephalogram supplements important information about the time course of these neurophysiological events. Functional magnetic resonance imaging allows to measure the blood oxygenation level in the brain during carrying out a wide variety of tasks. Recent methodological advances are moving beyond the localisation of task-related activations to functional connectivity of remote brain areas and detection of patterns of remote brain areas in a variety of states and tasks.

Key Concepts:

Neuroimaging provides methods to locate areas of the human brain that are active during certain tasks or behaviours.

PET and functional MRI allow to map functional anatomy of the human brain noninvasively in healthy volunteers.

Mapping electrical activity of the human brain can supply important additional information about the time course of these local brain activations in various tasks or behaviours.

Later approaches to functional mapping of the human brain function by fMRI have focussed on the connectivity of remote brain areas.

Newest approaches to the functional mapping of the human brain focus on multiple pattern recognition algorithms to try to characterise each task or behavioural act by a pattern or set of multiple remote brain areas active at the moment.

Keywords:

neuroimaging;
human brain;
cognitive functions;
functional magnetic resonance imaging;
positron emission tomography


Written by the founder and executive director of the Quality Assurance Institute, which sponsors the most widely accepted certification program for software testing Software testing is a weak spot for most developers, and many have no system in place to find and correct defects quickly and efficiently This comprehensive resource provides step-by-step guidelines, checklists, and templates for each testing activity, as well as a self-assessment that helps readers identify the sections of the book that respond to their individual needs Covers the latest regulatory developments affecting software testing, including Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404, and provides guidelines for agile testing and testing for security, internal controls, and data warehouses CD-ROM with all checklists and templates saves testers countless hours of developing their own test documentation Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.


In noncooperative networks users make control decisions that optimize their own performance measure. Focusing on routing, we devise two methodologies for architecting noncooperative networks, that improve the overall network performance. These methodologies are motivated by problem settings arising in the provisioning and the run time phases of the network. For either phase, Nash equilibria characterize the operating point of the network. The goal of the provisioning phase is to allocate link capacities that lead to sys-temwide eecient Nash equilibria. In general, the solution of such design problems is counterintuitive, since adding link capacity might lead to a degradation of user performance. We show that, for systems of parallel links, such paradoxes cannot occur and the optimal solution coincides with the solution in the single-user case. We derive some extensions to general network topologies. During the run time phase, a manager controls the routing of part of the network ow. The manager is aware of the noncooperative behavior of the users and makes its routing decisions based on this information while aiming at improving the overall system performance. We obtain necessary and suucient conditions for enforcing an equilibrium that coincides with the global systemwide optimum, and indicate that these conditions are met in many cases of interest.


Aims. Photometric data of galaxies covering the rest-frame wavelength range from far-UV to far-IR make it possible to derive galaxy properties with a high reliability by fitting the attenuated stellar emission and the related dust emission at the same time. Methods. For this purpose we wrote the code CIGALE (Code Investigating GALaxy Emission) that uses model spectra composed of the Maraston (or PEGASE) stellar population models, synthetic attenuation functions based on a modified Calzetti law, spectral line templates, the Dale & Helou dust emission models, and optional spectral templates of obscured AGN. Depending on the input redshifts, filter fluxes were computed for the model set and compared to the galaxy photometry by carrying out a Bayesian-like analysis. CIGALE was tested by analysing 39 nearby galaxies selected from SINGS. The reliability of the different model parameters was evaluated by studying the resulting expectation values and their standard deviations in relation to the input model grid. Moreover, the influence of the filter set and the quality of photometric data on the code results was estimated. Results. For up to 17 filters with effective wavelengths between 0.15 and 160  μ m, we find robust results for the mass, star formation rate, effective age of the stellar population at 4000 A, bolometric luminosity, luminosity absorbed by dust, and attenuation in the far-UV. Details of the star formation history (excepting the burst fraction) and the shape of the attenuation curve are difficult to investigate with the available broad-band UV and optical photometric data. A study of the mutual relations between the reliable properties confirms the dependence of star formation activity on morphology in the local Universe and indicates a significant drop in this activity at about 10 11 $M_{\odot}$ towards higher total stellar masses. The dustiest galaxies in the SINGS sample are present in the same mass range. On the other hand, the far-UV attenuation of our sample galaxies does not appear to show a significant dependence on star formation activity. Conclusions. The results for our SINGS test sample demonstrate that CIGALE can be a valuable tool for studying basic properties of galaxies in the near and distant Universe if UV-to-IR data are available.


Earning growth is one of the company's goals in accounting report. Dividend payment is assumed to have a link in the change of the profit in the following year. Pecking Order Theory revealed that a change in dividend will give a negative impact towards profit change. However, this statement contradicts to Zhou and Rulland's research (2006) which showed that dividend payout has a positive impact towards profit change in the following year. This research is in accordance with signaling theory which describes that dividend is a reflection of a good performance from the company, thus, it will invite investors to increase their investment share. With the increase in the investment, the company is expected to expand and increase its profit. The research is conducted in Indonesia towards all emitents in the manufactory sub sector by taking 95 research samples from companies that paid dividend in 2007, 2008,2009, and 2010. The research type is quantitative research with double regression analysis instrument. The dependent variable is the change of profit while the independent variable is dividend payout. Variable controls in this research are ROA, leverage, and size.The result of the research shows that dividend payout does not significantly influence the change of profit even though the number of co-efficient regression is positive. ROA and leverage variables significantly influence the change of profit while Size variable does not significantly influence it. In the maturity and stable level, the company will find it hard to increase the profit even though dividend payment is high.


Roman Polanski (b. 1933) arrived on the international scene in 1962 with his first feature film, Knife in the Water, and his face would be on the cover of Time magazine by the end of that year. His vibrant, disturbing, and often violent films--including the psychological thriller Rosemary's Baby, the film noir classic Chinatown, and the somber Holocaust drama The Pianist--have entertained and sometimes infuriated audiences. Stylistically unsettling and thematically varied, Polanski's films have established him as one of the most talented and controversial European filmmakers of his generation. Polanski's life has been troubled. He survived the Krakow ghetto and the Holocaust, but his mother died at Auschwitz. His wife Sharon Tate was brutally murdered in 1968 by members of Charles Manson's cult. After years of success in the United States, he fled the country in 1978 when he was convicted for having sex with a minor. He hasn't returned to America since that time. In Roman Polanski: Interviews, the acclaimed director talks openly about how incidents in his life have and have not influenced his artistic vision. This collection of interviews spans nearly forty years and comprises translations from French, German, and Spanish newspapers and magazines and transcripts of British and American television and radio appearances.


The major element, trace element, and isotopic composition of mid‐ocean ridge basalt glasses affected by the Azores hotspot are strongly correlated with H2O content of the glass. Distinguishing the relative importance of source chemistry and potential temperature in ridge‐hotspot interaction therefore requires a comprehensive model that accounts for the effect of H2O in the source on melting behavior and for the effect of H2O in primitive liquids on the fractionation path. We develop such a model by coupling the latest version of the MELTS algorithm to a model for partitioning of water among silicate melts and nominally anhydrous minerals. We find that much of the variation in all major oxides except TiO2 and a significant fraction of the crustal thickness anomaly at the Azores platform are explained by the combined effects on melting and fractionation of up to ∼700 ppm H2O in the source with only a small thermal anomaly, particularly if there is a small component of buoyantly driven active flow associated with the more H2O‐rich melting regimes. An on‐axis thermal anomaly of ∼35°C in potential temperature explains the full crustal thickness increase of ∼4 km approaching the Azores platform, whereas a ≥75°C thermal anomaly would be required in the absence of water or active flow. The polybaric hydrous melting and fractionation model allows us to solve for the TiO2, trace element and isotopic composition of the H2O‐rich component in a way that self‐consistently accounts for the changes in the melting and fractionation regimes resulting from enrichment, although the presence and concentration in the enriched component of elements more compatible than Dy cannot be resolved.


The inclusion of symmetrical tetramethylammonium cation (TEMA) by the water soluble calixarene hosts 1–8 was studied at neutral pH by 1H NMR spectroscopy and compared with that of the ditopic trimethylanilinium cation (TMA). The hosts blocked in the cone conformation and bearing sulfonate groups at the upper rim (2, 3, 5, 7 and 8) bind selectively the aromatic portion of TMA, whereas compound 4 which lacks sulfonate groups interacts only with the charged head group of TMA. The conformationally mobile compound 1 and the partial cone calixarene 6 include TMA cation in an unselective fashion. TEMA is complexed by hosts 1–7, but not by the tetraether-tetrasulfonate receptor 8. The binding constants for all the systems, as determined by 1H NMR spectroscopy, show that inclusion is favoured by the presence of the sulfonate groups and that the complexes of the conformationally mobile receptor 1 with both guests are more stable. The thermodynamic parameters of inclusion determined by direct calorimetry for 2–TEMA and 4–TEMA systems show that in both cases the inclusion process is enthalpically driven and that the greater stability constant observed for 2–TEMA with respect to that of 4–TEMA mainly results from a less unfavourable entropic contribution, suggesting that in the 2–TEMA complex the charged sulfonate groups cause a better desolvation of the host–guest system upon inclusion.


The use of movies provides educators with a valuable tool for presenting information as learners are able to benefit from the powerful images being presented before them. The purpose of this study was to identify the value of the use of movies as a teaching tool. This was an exploratory study aimed at identifying characteristics of movie use as an educational device in recreation, parks, and tourism classes. In this study, respondents (n = 67) indicated that the use of movies in the classroom was supported, and the findings of this study suggest that most instructors provided advance preparation activities and reflection activities on the use of movies, and their relationship to the curricular topics. Additionally, future considerations regarding using movies as a teaching tool and the educational value associated with purposeful inclusion of movies into curricular efforts are identified.


The Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is very often visualized by applying Ultsch's Unified Distance Matrix (UMatrix) shading and labeling the cells of the 2-D grid with training data observations nearest to that node in feature space. Although powerful and the de facto standard visualization for SOMs, this does not provide for two key pieces of information when considering real world data mining applications: (a) While the U-Matrix indicates the location of possible clusters on the map, it typically does not accurately convey the size of the underlying data population within these clusters. (b) When mapping training data observations onto the 2-D grid of the SOM it often occurs that multiple observations are mapped onto a single cell of the grid. Simply labeling the observations on a single cell does not provide any insights of the feature-space distribution of observations within that cell and in practical data mining applications it is often desirable to understand the distribution or "goodness of fit" of the observations as they are mapped to the individual SOM cells. We address these problems with two complementary innovations. First, we increase or decrease the 2-D size of each cell according to the number of data elements it contains; an approach derived from the cartogram techniques in geography. Second, we determine the within-cell location of each datum according to its similarity in n-dimensional feature space to each of the neighboring nodes that surround it on the 2-D SOM grid. When multiple observations are mapped to a single cell then the plot locations will convey a sense of the data distribution within that cell. One way to view plotting of the data distribution within a cell is as a visualization of the quantization error of the map. Finally, we found that these techniques lend themselves to additional applications and uses within the context of SOMs and we will explore them briefly. KeywordsSelf organizing feature maps; Data visualization; Data mining; cartogram


'The role of identity in African politics' explains that identity politics are symptoms of Africa's underdevelopment, not the cause, and the prominence of such political mobilization reflects much deeper structural problems facing many post-colonial states. Before the colonial era, African societies were based on notions of identity, such as the family, ancestral lineage, the clan, or the community. Colonial rule forced together different communities (some of which were traditionally hostile to each other) and was mainly responsible for producing the situation found today where very few nation states exist. Colonial authorities concretized differences among and between the subjugated and the de-colonization period further contributed to the politicization of identity.


The Foundation Phase (FP) is a Welsh Assembly Government, national reform covering the combined 3-5 Early Years and Key Stage 1 provision (children aged between three and seven). In September 2004, the first stage of the pilot commenced in 41 pilot settings across the 22 local authorities in Wales for 3-5 year olds only. The 41 pilot settings will continue in 2005-2006 with Year 1 children (and some Year 2 children where mixed classes are operating) coming on board in the maintained sector and similarly Year 2 in 2006-2007. The Foundation Phase proposes a continuum of learning for children from the ages of 3 to 7. The new curriculum is based on the current Desirable Outcomes for Children's Learning before Compulsory School Age (ACCAC 2000), and links in with the Programmes of Study and focus statements currently in the National Curriculum for KS1. It contains seven areas of learning (AOL), which are: personal and social development and well-being; language, literacy and communication; mathematical development; bilingualism and multicultural understanding; knowledge and understanding of the world; physical development creative development The Foundation Phase advocates children learning through first hand experiential activities and play and places a child's personal and social development and well-being at the heart of the curriculum. The Monitoring and Evaluation of the Effective Implementation of the Foundation Phase (MEEIFP) project is an evaluative study, commissioned and funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. This is the first year of a two-year evaluation, which is focused on implementation. Throughout the evaluation the MEEIFP team has worked closely with all the pilot settings and has consulted widely with all major stakeholders as well as some Welsh early years specialists.


Abstract. We report on airborne Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) measurements of NO2 tropospheric columns above South Asia, the Arabic peninsula, North Africa, and Italy in November and December 2009. The DOAS instrument was installed on an ultralight aircraft involved in the Earth Challenge project, an expedition of seven pilots flying on four ultralight aircraft between Australia and Belgium. The instrument recorded spectra in limb geometry with a large field of view, a set-up which provides a high sensitivity to the boundary layer NO2 while minimizing the uncertainties related to the attitude variations. We compare our measurements with OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2) tropospheric NO2 products when the latter are available. Above Rajasthan and the Po Valley, two areas where the NO2 field is homogeneous, data sets agree very well. Our measurements in these areas are 0.1 ± 0.1 to 3 ± 1 × 1015 molec cm−2 and 2.6 ± 0.8 × 1016 molec cm−2, respectively. Flying downwind of Riyadh, our NO2 measurements show the structure of the megacity's exhaust plume with a higher spatial resolution than OMI. Moreover, our measurements are larger (up to 40%) than those seen by satellites. We also derived tropospheric columns when no satellite data were available if it was possible to get information on the visibility from satellite measurements of aerosol optical thickness. This experiment also provides a confirmation for the recent finding of a soil signature above desert.


Below a grainy photograph of the author, then eighty years old, the back dust jacket of Mysterious Press's 1990 revised hardcover edition of Eric Ambler's The Dark Frontier (1936), the first of his eighteen novels, proclaims that he "virtually created the modern espionage story." More than a decade later, copywriters for Black Lizard paperback reprints of ten other Ambler texts, all published in the Vintage Crime series, (1) hedged their bet with a boilerplate caption averring that he "is often said to have invented the modern suspense novel" and thereby "paved the way for [...] John [l]e Carre, Len Deighton, and Robert Ludlum." Allowing for the hyperbole to which such blurbs are notoriously prone, their different ways of categorizing Ambler's fiction suggest his work's elusive quality. In 1972, emphasizing the murky taxonomy of popular subgenres, Julian Symons argued that "the detective story, along with the police story, the spy story, and the thriller, makes up part of the hybrid creature we call sensational literature" (4). Whether we regard Ambler's achievement as a permutation of the nineteenth-century adventure tale or novel of intrigue, he remains undervalued as a surprisingly cunning craftsman of narrative technique. The few scholars who have discussed Ambler at length concur that, as World War II approached, he intentionally set out to transform the conventional thriller that had ensured widespread success for such precursors as John Buchan, Dornford Yates, and particularly E. Phillips Oppenheim, the prolific and self-styled "prince of storytellers." (2) During the thirties their subgenre's reputation was none too high. "Unlike classical detective novels," observes Peter Lewis, "most thrillers did not possess even a modicum of literary respectability and were generally regarded as true pulp" (11). What Ambler found especially repugnant in Oppenheim's productions, as well as those churned out by his numerous imitators, was their predilection for pasteboard heroes and villains caught up in melodramatic plots. (3) From the vantage point of his ironically titled Here Lies: An Autobiography half a century later, Ambler makes clear why, setting out in 1935 to compose The Dark Frontier as a parody, he was convinced that "the thriller had nowhere to go but up" (121): It was the villains who bothered me most. Power-crazed or coldly sane, master criminals or old-fashioned professional devils, I no longer believed a word of them. Nor did I believe in their passions for evil and plots against civilization. As for their world conspiracies, they appeared to me no more substantial than toy balloons, over-inflated and squeaky to the touch, with sad old characters rattling about inside like dried peas. The hero did not seem to matter much. He was often only a fugitive, a hare to the villain's hounds, prepared in the end to turn pluckily and face his pursuers. He could be a tweedy fellow with steel-grey eyes and gun pads on both shoulders or a moneyed dandy with a taste for adventure. He could also be a xenophobic ex-officer with a nasty anti-Semitic streak. None of that really mattered. All he really needed to function as hero was abysmal stupidity combined with superhuman resourcefulness and unbreakable knuckle bones. (120-21) At a time when he was absorbed by the writings of Carl Gustav Jung, Friedrich Nietzsche, Oswald Spengler, and Fyodor Dostoevsky, what Ambler derogates as "antique fantasies" of "the old secret[-]service adventure thriller" seemed ludicrously superannuated (Dark Frontier xiii). Fueled by an impulse to debunk such stereotypes, his inaugural novel therefore features protagonist Professor Henry J. Barstow, an acclaimed but timid physicist at the University of London who, after an unsought invitation to accept a post as technical adviser to international armaments manufacturer Cator and Bliss, finds himself mesmerized by a potboiler extolling the daring exploits of "Conway Carruthers, Department Y. …


The multimedia capabilities of mobile phones are rapidly increasing in recent years. It is now common that users can send and retrieve images over mobile phones. Image searching and retrieval is fundamentally becoming an important operation and yet there isn't any efficient and effective way to do this over mobile phones. The situation is particularly more acute when users attempt to access a content provider with a large collection of image contents. Any aimless browsing of the images will translate into air-time costs. Therefore, an efficient and effective mechanism to retrieve images over mobile phones must be sought.

In this paper, we attempt to advance this area of mobile multimedia by providing a data model as well as a query model for searching images efficiently and effectively. The data model is a semantically rich structure for representing any salient features in the image contents. XML Schema is used to model the data structure and a number of examples are illustrated in this paper. The query model works intimately with the data model and it goes beyond simple Boolean type queries. The query model supports ranked queries from the repository of image contents. The most precisely matched images will be delivered first. Users can browse the ranked images through the logical expression of the query over mobile phones. The system architecture to support the indexing and retrieval of images in our data and query model over mobile devices is described. As the popularity of micro-browsers on mobile phones capable of retrieving XTHML-MP pages over WAP gateways increase, it provides an ideal opportunity for us. We can bridge the wireless world with the Internet world seamlessly. A simulation of the concepts using XTHML-MP with WAP 2.0 is provided.


The aim of the present research is to identify human subjective response (health and comfort) to the micro-thermal environment established by integration of individually controlled localized chilled beam and chilled ceiling (LCBCC) system and to compare its performance with the performance of mixing ventilation combined with chilled ceiling (CCMV).Experiments were carried out in mock-up of an office (4.1 m × 4.0 m × 3.1 m, L× W× H) with one person under two summer temperature conditions (26 °C and 28 °C). To mimic direct solar radiation in the room, five radiative panels on the wall together with electrical sheets on the half of the floor were used. The test room was set-up with two desks, as two workstations, and one laptop on each table. The main workstation (WS1) was located close to the simulated window. The second work station (WS2) was placed in the opposite side of the room. The room was equipped with two types of ventilating and cooling systems. The first system consisted of a localized active chilled beam (LCB) unit together with chilled ceiling (CC) panels. The LCB was installed above the WS1 to create micro-environment around the occupant sitting at the desk. The supply flow rate from the LCB could be adjusted by the occupant within the range of 10 L/s to 13 L/s by means of a desk-mounted knob. The integration of mixing ventilation (MV) system and chilled ceiling panels was the second ventilating and cooling strategy. Twenty- four subjects (12 female and 12 male) were exposed to different indoor environment established by two cooling systems. Each experiment session lasted 120 min and consisted of 30 min acclimatization period and 90 min exposure period. The performance of the systems was identified and compared by physical measurements of the generated environment and the response of the human subjects.The study showed that perceived air quality (PAQ), overall thermal sensation (OTS) acceptability and local thermal sensation (LTS) acceptability clearly improved inside the micro-environment by using LCBCC system. Moreover, at the main workstation, OTS and LTS votes were close to "neutral" thermal sensation (ASHRAE seven point scale) when LCBCC system was used. However, OTS and LTS votes increased to the "slightly warm" side of the scale by applying CCMV system which implied the better cooling performance of the LCBCC system. Acceptability of work environment apparently increased under the room condition generated by LCBCC system.In agreement with human subjective study, the results from physical measurements and thermal manikin study showed that uniform thermal condition was generated all over the room. Air and operative temperature distribution was almost uniform with no difference higher than 1 °C between the measured locations in the room. Thus, both LCBCC and CCMV systems performed equally well outside of the micro-environment region. The use of the chilled ceiling had impact on the airflow interaction in the room and changed the airflow pattern. It can be concluded that the combination of convective and radiative systems can be considered as an efficient strategy to generate acceptable thermal condition in rooms.


Separation for O wave and X wave is a very important job in interpretation of ionograms, which is premise for automatic scaling. In this paper, a new digital method for separating O wave and X wave is presented, based on a numerical synthesizing technique, which is different from using image recognition to separate trace O and trace X in the ionograms, and from using the electrical method to synthesize and detect circularly polarized waves. By replacing analog phase shifters and switches in existing ionosonde with digital phase shifters with different initial phase, 0°, +90°, −90°, circularly polarized waves are synthesized digitally within the range of 1-30 MHz, which eliminates the nonlinearity and expands the bandwidth of the ionosonde, and there is no need to switch the analog switches continuously. The new method has been successfully applied to CAS-DIS ionosonde and testing results show that the new digital method is capable of separating O wave and X wave well.


Practical Applications Summary In Analyzing the Evidence: Are Multiclass Mutual Funds the Right Choice? in the Spring 2020 edition of The Journal of Index Investing, Jonathan Handy of Western Kentucky University, Jonathan Ricketts of Furman University, and Thomas Smythe of Florida Gulf Coast University review the empirical and academic literature on multiclass mutual funds and draw conclusions about the suitability of such funds for investors. The authors trace the history of these investment products and examine the considerable body of evidence that multiclass funds have governance issues and incur substantial, if not excessive, expenses. Although the multiclass framework may broaden investor options, it also inherently leads to agency problems. Fund advisors often face conflicts of interest between themselves and their clients. They may be motivated to recommend a class of mutual fund shares that is inappropriate for a client but may be the most profitable for the advisor to sell. Moreover, investors are confused by the categorization schemes of multiclass funds and their associated fees. Advisors and fund managers themselves are often not fully conversant with the characteristics of the multiclass funds they are touting. The systemic weaknesses of the multiclass-fund framework should prompt reconsideration or even eschewal of these products by investors and advisors alike. TOPICS: Financial crises and financial market history, mutual fund performance


Wild oat (Avena sterilis ssp. ludoviciana (Durieu) Nyman) is considered the most difficult-to-control winter weed in the northern grain region (NGR) of Australia particularly following the adoption of no-till conservation agriculture and the enhanced reliance on herbicides for weed control. A diversity of survival mechanisms is responsible for its persistence in no-till conservation cropping. Among them long-term, variable seed dormancy is the most important. A number of environmental stresses (for example drought) are known to affect the seed dormancy status. We hypothesized that the increasing frequency of hot and dry period in late winter/early spring season in the NGR might help to mature and shed less dormant wild oat seeds before the wheat crop is harvested. This early shedding of highly germinable seed better aids persistence in no-till conservation cropping systems. Our research showed that soil water stress applied at seed development stage resulted in lower number (16–22% less) of early maturing (5–20 days earlier) less dormant (28% less) seeds compared with control plants. This observation was made for a number of biotypes either coming from within one location or between locations within the NGR. Thus, the frequent hot and dry period at the time of seed development in the NGR is responsible for production of less dormant Avena sterilis ssp. ludoviciana seeds where no-till conservation cropping is helping to retain these seeds on the top soil. Under favourable germination conditions in the following season these less dormant seeds will immediately be available to re-infest the autumn/winter-sown wheat crop.


In a laser-plasma wakefield accelerator, the ponderomotive force of an ultrashort high intensity laser pulse excites a longitudinal wave or plasma bubble in a way similar to the excitation of a wake wave behind a boat as it propagates on the water surface. Electric fields inside the plasma bubble can be several orders of magnitude higher than those available in conventional RF-based particle accelerator facilities which are limited by material breakdown. Therefore, if an electron bunch is properly phase-locked with the bubble's acceleration field, it can gain relativistic energies within an extremely short distance. Here, in the bubble regime we show the generation of stable and reproducible sub GeV, and GeV-class electron beams. Supported by three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, our experimental results show the highest acceleration gradients produced so far. Simulations suggested that the plasma bubble elongation should be minimized in order to achieve higher electron beam energies.


The Fifth Consultative Committee Meeting on Large Marine Ecosystems (LMEs) was held on 3-4 March 2003. The consultation was convened by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO, the US Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). It was sponsored by IUCN and hosted by IOC at the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) headquarters, Paris, France. The meeting was co-chaired by IOC Executive Secretary, Dr. Patricio Bernal and Dr. Kenneth Sherman of NOAA-NMFS. The agenda and a list of attendees are given in Annexes I and II.


The boreal landscape is a complex, spatio-temporally varying mosaic of forest and mire landscape elements that control surface water hydrology and chemistry. Here, we assess long-term water quality time series from three nested headwater streams draining upland forest (C2), peat/mire (C4) and mixed (C7) (forest and mire) catchments. Acid deposition in this region is low and is further declining. Temporal trends in weather and runoff (1981–2008), dissolved organic carbon concentration [DOC] (1993–2010) and other water quality parameters (1987–2011) were assessed. There was no significant annual trend in precipitation or runoff. However, runoff increased in March and declined in May. This suggested an earlier snowmelt regime in recent years. Significant monotonic increasing trends in air temperature and length of growing season suggested a decrease in snowfall and less spring runoff. Stream [DOC] was positively correlated with some trace metals (copper, iron and zinc) and negatively with several other chemical parameters (e.g. sulfate, conductivity, calcium). Both sulfate and conductivity showed declining trends, while a significant increase was observed in pH during winter and spring. Calcium and magnesium showed monotonic decreasing trends. The declining trajectories of stream base cation and sulfate concentrations during other times of the year were not accompanied by changes in pH and alkalinity. These results indicate subtle effects of recovery from acidification. Water temperature increased significantly both annually and in most months. A simultaneous monotonic increase in iron (Fe) and [DOC] in autumn suggests co-transport of Fe-DOC in the form of organometallic complexes. A monotonic increase in UV absorbance in most months without co-occurring changes in DOC trend suggests a shift in DOC quality to a more humic-rich type. The observed increase in soil solution [DOC] and subtle trends in stream [DOC] suggest that climate rather than recovery from acidification is the dominant driver of DOC trends in the Svartberget catchment.


This thesis includes two phases. The Phase I is about the Challenge Lab process, which is applied to
identify a research topic as a leverage point for moving towards sustainable urban development. Sin
ce
overcoming sustainability challenges needs interorganizational collaboration and user involvement, the
Phase II focuses on these issues.
In the Phase II, HSB Living Lab was selected as a case study for investigating collaboration in the
living lab conte
xt. In order to effectively manage the collaboration, a structural process, which could
be influenced by interests of partners, is needed. Moreover, a shared understanding of the context is
important for collective actions. Therefore, the aims of the thesi
s are to investigate why the partners
are collaborating in the HSB living lab project (considering both organizational and interorganizational
level) and how they understand the living lab approach as an open innovation collaboration setting. As
the main r
esearch method, semi
-structured interviews were conducted with representatives of the
partner organizations in the HSB Living Lab. Based on the findings, firstly, it can be concluded that
each partner concerns itself with fulfillment of self
-interests as a
reason for collaborating.
Nevertheless, partners share their self
-interests in three areas: brand awareness, relationship with
partners, and access to external knowledge for learning. In the level of interorganizational domain, the
sustainability issue has high potential to be considered as the problem that has gathered all them
together, but it is not well formulated. Furthermore, the common goal of collaboration is not clarified.
Secondly, the partners have a basic shared understanding of living lab as a
 platform for testing
solutions, and getting ideas from partners and users. However, the processes of working with partners
and involving users are not clear for them. Finally, the importance of acknowledging self
-interests,
identifying common problem, and
clarifying collective goals should not be underestimated since these
issues can influence on structuring the processes in the living lab. Meanwhile, structuring the
processes could enable partners to have a better understanding of the collaboration context.


We investigate whether it is possible to synthesize the control law for a discrete event dynamic system, using a polynomial representation of the system and controller. By working through a relatively simple example we propose a synthesis method based on the polynomial representation and repeated Grobner basis computations. The supervisor objective is given in terms of forbidden states and the controller should actively be able to avoid these. We reduce the manifold of solutions by imposing a weighting function on the state space and by proposing a priority among the actuators. In this way we can improve the computational performance and we can also control the system towards a desired state, which is our control objective. The computational load lies in the design phase where we use Grobner bases. The resulting controller description is suited for red time applications since the computations needed are evaluations of a limited number of polynomials. During the design phase we also obtain a polynomial describing where in the state space the computed control law is valid. This makes it possible to examine controllability and supervisability of the system.


Abstract We examined how disturbances by Siberian marmots (Marmota sibirica) and associated spatial heterogeneity of foraging patterns and soil properties affect trait variations in five dominant perennial grasses (including sedges) in a Mongolian grassland. Using four continuous traits (leaf height, leaf area, leaf mass per area, and root length) of each grass species, we compared species and plot mean trait values and species' niche breadth (calculated on the basis of species' traits) between sites with and without marmots. At sites with marmots, investment in leaves was not favored, probably because of the prevalence of foraging, with the result that plot mean values of leaf height and area were smaller than at control sites. Niche breadth values for leaf area and leaf mass per area were greater at marmot sites, probably due to the spatially heterogeneous patterns of foraging. We observed greater values of species and plot mean root length values at marmot sites. We suggest that the modification of soil physicochemical properties by marmot burrowing, defecation, and urination might enhance root growth for ensuring physical stability of plant bodies and increasing the rate of nutrient acquisition. Niche breadth value for root length was greater at marmot sites, probably due to the spatial heterogeneity of soil properties. Quantification of trait distributions among plant species may help to explain the different plant adaptive mechanisms in relation to external drivers, such as disturbance.


Many predictions of the economic and social costs of a modern-day pandemic are based on the effects of the influenza pandemic of 1918. Despite killing 675,000 people in the United States and 40 million worldwide, the influenza of 1918 has been nearly forgotten. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the influenza pandemic of 1918 in the United States, its economic effects, and its implications for a modern-day pandemic. The paper provides a brief historical background as well as detailed influenza mortality statistics for cities and states, including those in the Eighth Federal Reserve District, that account for differences in race, income, and place of residence. Information is obtained from two sources: (i) newspaper articles published during the pandemic and (ii) a survey of economic research on the subject.


Abstract One important issue for practitioners and academicians is that there are almost no platforms based on analytical models for testing the impact of various architectural and design modifications for intelligent network interface cards (NICs). Simulations are typically time consuming, especially for experimenting with different scenarios and what-if analysis. In this research, we study the performance of an NIC called Myrinet developed by Myricom. We develop an open queueing network model to predict its performance and compare the analytical results with the simulations. The reason that there are very few analytical models is that the performance-analysis problem is enormously complex. In particular, the problem is a combination of (a) multiclass queueing network with class switching, (b) polling system with limited service discipline, and (c) finite-capacity queues with blocking. These three issues have been treated only in isolation in the literature. However, the problem becomes much harder when all three issues are simultaneously present. One of the key contributions of this work is an analytical approximation of this complex system. From an analytical modelling standpoint, we observe that making simplifying assumptions to analyze nodes that are not bottlenecks does not greatly affect performance. The main findings of this research are the bottlenecks of the queueing network, utilizations of the various nodes, and performance measures such as the expected delay. The model as well as findings can be used to test the performance impact of various enhancements to the operation of NICs.


This paper surveys the empirical literature on shareholder voting, specifically on votes related to contested and uncontested director elections and on management proposals. While much of current theory depicts shareholder votes as an ineffective control on the board's decision making, the empirical literature paints a more nuanced picture. When a proxy contest breaks out, shareholders wield immense influence. These contests tend to have significant benefits for the corporation, including facilitating a change in management, reducing unnecessary liquidity, and prompting the payout of dividends. Even in uncontested director elections, shareholders' decisions to vote for or withhold their vote reflect the company's performance. The decision to withhold has some albeit slight impact on improving corporate performance going forward.
Finally, the evidence suggests that shareholders seriously scrutinize management proposals, instead of blindly following management. ISS and institutional investors have led the charge in this area. For votes on mergers and acquisitions, shareholders do not block all bad acquisitions but do push the scales towards maximizing company value. For management compensation proposals, shareholders appear largely unconcerned with the company's performance but deeply concerned with how the plan dilutes share value. Overall, shareholder voting plays a significant role in corporate management that deserves further research.


The development of enclosure fires; the essence, characteristics, hazard, prevention and control of flashover; characteristics of modem buildings and flashover in them; and distinction between backdraught and flashover were all summarized. The basic theories of flashover, major variables, research methods, means of identifying and predicting
flashover, characteristics of extrusive flames, and the application of studies of flashover in existing practice were all reviewed. Current problems of flashover were discussed and some comments on existing knowledge made.
Compartment fire experiments were described and results given. Some analytical methods used in the thesis such as error analysis, multiple linear regression analysis, dynamic response analysis and Fourier analysis were introduced. Primary data was used to study the synchronism between flashover indicators, the effects of thermal inertia of lining materials on temperature history and the development of enclosure fires when changing vent size.
A fresh regression analysis was performed to update the MQH method to include modem compartment materials with a wider span of thermal inertia. Some theoretical developments of the MQH method were then presented and tested. According to these developments and based on 101 fresh experiments, some new and improved correlations were gained. The error analyses of these correlations and relevant comparisons and discussions were given.
The heat transfer of extrusive flame was theoretically analyzed and experimentally studied. A method was proposed for calculating the radiant heat flux to external surfaces from hot gas and extrusive flame, and an experimental study was made to examine the validity of the method. Results show current practice in combating fire spread between buildings is reasonable, but that the contribution of radiant heat from extrusive flame is non-negligible for extreme circumstances. Research into the combustion of exterior wall cladding caused by extrusive flame was also described. Dynamic response and Fourier analysis of hot gas layer temperature histories has led to new proposals for early warning of flashover during a fire. As a result, some new methods of predicting the temperature history and flashover likelihood of enclosure fires were put forward.


We present experimental results for the performance over satellite and long range wireless (WiMax) links of the new TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) congestion control mechanism from the Datagram Congestion Control Protocol (DCCP) proposed for use with real-time traffic. We evaluate the performance of the standard DCCP/CCID3 algorithm and identify two problem areas: the measured DCCP/CCID3 rate is inferior to the rate achievable with standard TCP and a significant rate oscillation continuously occurs making the resulting rate variable even in the short term. We analyse the links and identify the potential causes, i.e. long and variable delay and link errors. As a second contribution, we propose a change in the DCCP/CCID3 algorithm in which the number of feedback messages is increased from the currently standard of at least one per return trip time. Although it is recognised that the increase in control traffic may decrease the overall efficiency, we demonstrate that the change results in higher data rates which are closer to what is achievable with TCP on those networks and that the overhead introduced remains acceptable.


Although oribatid mites are essential to the decomposition of plant tissues in modern temperate forests by assisting conversion of primary productivity to soil organic matter, little is known of their paleoecologic history. Previously there has been scattered and anecdotal evidence documenting oribatid mite detritivory in Pennsylvanian plant tissues. This study evaluates the incidence of oribatid mite damage for seven major coal-ball deposits from the Illinois and Appalachian sedimentary basins, representing a 17 million year interval from the Euramerican tropics. Although this interval contains the best anatomically preserved plant tissues with oribatid mite borings in the fossil record, coeval oribatid mite body-fossils are absent. By contrast, the known body-fossil record of oribatid mites commences during the Middle Devonian, but does not reappear until the Early Jurassic, at which time mite taxa are modern in aspect. All major plant taxa occurring in Pennsylvanian coal swamps, including lycopsids, sphenopsids, ferns, seed ferns and cordaites, were consumed by oribatid mites. Virtually every type of plant tissue was used by mites, notably indurated tissues such as bark, fibrovascular bundles and especially wood, as well as softer seed megagametophytic and parenchymatic tissues within stems, roots and leaves. Significant evidence also exists for secondary consumption by mites of tissues in macroarthropod coprolites. Our data indicate that oribatid mites consumed dead, aerially-derived plant tissues at ground level, as well as root-penetrated tissues substantially within the peat. Oribatid mites were important arthropod decomposers in Pennsylvanian coal swamps of Euramerica. The wood boring functional-feeding-guild was expanded by insects into above-ground, live trees during the early Mesozoic. New food resources for insect borers resulted from penetration of live tissues such as cambium and phloem, and the invasion of heartwood and other hard tissues mediated by insect-fungus symbioses. Termites and holometabolous insects were prominent contributors to this second wave of wood-boring, exploiting gymnosperms and angiosperms as both detritivores and herbivores. An earlier emplacement of oribatid mites as detritivores of dead plant tissues continued to the present, but without a documented trace-fossil record.


Social work developed from Christian caring and a eudaimonic desire for a worthwhile life. Although ethics continue to underpin the discipline, contemporary complexities of post-modernism, globalism and managerialism are destabilising the universalist moral intentions of practice and subsequently demotivating eudaimonic drives. Cultural and context-specific relativist influences are promoting an ethics of 'fitting in' which, without critical analysis, betrays client best interests by favouring formulaic absolutes. Alternative, relationist theory can support a critically reflective and care-ethics-driven practice that is motivating, clearer and focused on ontological consideration of dynamic client, practitioner and environmental needs. It can thus help social workers to situate themselves and achieve personal and professional transformation.


Plants of Gamenya wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were grown in pots of a Cu-deficient sand at two levels of Cu (deficient and sufficient), and harvested on days 13, 22, 28 and 38. In 50 per cent of the pots in each Cu treatment, the oldest leaf and leaf 2 of the main stem were shaded when they reached full expansion.

The Cu content of the oldest leaf of Cu-sufficient, unshaded plants was high at day 13 and declined rapidly to day 38. That of Cu-deficient, unshaded plants was initially relatively low and declined much more slowly, so that at day 38 it resembled that of Cu-sufficient plants. Shading the oldest leaf accelerated the loss of its Cu in both Cu-deficient and Cu-sufficient plants. The effects of shading and of Cu supply on the loss of Cu from the oldest leaf paralleled their effects on the loss of N and chlorophyll. The results suggest that most of the Cu in the oldest leaf does not move out until the leaf senesces.

In Cu-deficient plants retention of Cu by old green leaves accentuated Cu deficiency. The release of Cu, resulting from shading the old leaves of Cu-deficient plants, stimulated the growth of new leaves. In Cu-sufficient plants, shading depressed growth.


Microseismic visualization systems present complex 3D data of small seismic events within oil reservoirs to allow experts to explore and interact with that data. Yet existing systems suffer several problems: 3D spatial navigation and orientation is difficult, and selecting 3D data is challenging due to the problems of occlusion and lack of depth perception. Our work mitigates these problems by applying both proxemic interactions and a spatial input device to simplify how experts navigate through the visualization, and a painting metaphor to simplify how they select that information.


Postsecondary education plays a critical role in building a strong workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields. The U.S. postsecondary education system, however, frequently loses many potential STEM graduates through attrition. An increasing portion of STEM leavers are top performers who might have made valuable additions to the STEM workforce had they stayed in STEM fields. Using data from the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09), this study tracks a cohort of beginning bachelor's degree students over 6 years, providing a close look at STEM attrition among a group of high-performing college students. Capitalizing on the transcript data collected through BPS:04/09, this study also examines STEM coursetaking, detailing how participation and performance in undergraduate STEM coursework are associated with students' departure from STEM fields. The study finds that about a quarter of high-performing beginning bachelor's degree students entered STEM fields (i.e., declared a STEM major) during their enrollment between 2003 and 2009, and a third of these entrants had left STEM fields by spring 2009. The results of multinomial probit regression analysis indicate that students' intensity of STEM coursework in the first year and their performance in STEM courses may have played an important role in their decisions to switch majors out of STEM fields.


This essay reviews Richard Nagareda's Mass Torts in a World of Settlement. Nagareda argues that the settlement of a mass tort is an act of governance because it involves the exchange of rights to sue of large classes of plaintiffs for a compensation regime. Some source of legitimacy must give plaintiffs' attorneys, who lack contractual relationships with these plaintiffs, the power to alter these pre-existing rights as fixed by substantive law. Litigation-centered ideals of due process, Nagareda concludes, fall short because they emphasize individual autonomy and thus preclude the sort of mandatory representation settlement requires. He turns to rulemaking to solve the problem of legitimate governance. Agencies should adopt mass tort settlements as public rules.Masterfully dissecting most of the major mass tort settlements of the past decade, Nagareda convincingly explains how and when mass torts settle, as well as why these settlements often fail. Where Nagareda's otherwise realist account takes a formalist turn is with his claim that plaintiffs have pre-existing rights to sue fixed by substantive law. I argue that a realist account of rights to sue includes procedural avenues for their attempted vindication, as well as their substantive contours, as essential components. This account supports the entity theory of the class action that treats the class as something different than merely an assemblage of individual litigants. The entity theory in turn justifies less scrupulous attention to the due process rights of individual class members. Since these due process rights have often precluded settlement, the entity theory offers a theoretical avenue around some of the difficulties that Nagareda believes justifies a turn to rulemaking.


We applied the coda-derived source spectrum method of Mayeda et al. (2003) to earthquakes in and around the Korean peninsula. After empirical calibra- tions, we derived source spectra of the earthquakes. From the coda-derived spectra, we estimated valuable source parameters such as the seismic moment, corner frequency, and radiated energy for small events with Mw <3:5. We derived simple linear relation- ships between the coda spectral amplitudes and local magnitudes reported from the Korea Meteorological Administration and Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources. These relationships can be used to estimate stable local magnitudes for future earthquakes using a small number of stations. To investigate whether the earth- quakes occurring in this region obey self-similarity, we examined the scaling relation- ships between dynamic and static source parameters, such as the corner frequency, radiated energy, and scaled energy versus seismic moment. The scaling relationship between the corner frequency and seismic moment showed clear nonself-similarity with a scaling parameter of 0.54; this value is more or less consistent with previous results for different regions. Scaling relations of radiated energy and scaled energy versus the seismic moment also show size-dependent behavior that cannot be explained by self-similarity; this result implies that the rupture dynamics of small and large earthquakes are different in this region. Our observation provides further evidence supporting the nonself-similarity of earthquakes.


J N Stinson

Dr J N Stinson, University of Toronto and Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; email@example.com

What are the self-management needs of adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and the acceptability of a web-based self-management programme?

Descriptive exploratory qualitative study.

4 rheumatology clinics in paediatric tertiary care centres in Canada.

36 adolescents 12–20 years of age (mean age 15 y, 67% women) who had JIA. Exclusion criteria were major cognitive impairment and comorbid medical or psychiatric illness.

Adolescents participated in individual semi-structured interviews lasting 20–40 minutes (n = 25) or focus groups lasting 40–75 minutes (n = 11). Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analysed for themes using an iterative process.

Adolescents developed self-management strategies by "letting go" of parents or care providers who had previously managed their disease. 2 main strategies were acquiring knowledge and skill to manage the disease and experiencing understanding through social support . (1) Acquiring knowledge and skill to manage the disease involved …


If women make different economic decisions than men on average, then an increase in women's influence in the political and economic spheres of society might change economic outcomes. In this note, we focus on the impact of female enfranchisement on fiscal policy outcomes. We present a simple median voter model and show that if women have different economic preferences than men, then female enfranchisement leads to a change in government budget deficits..


A new empirical equation is proposed for predicting critical flow velocity in slurry-transporting horizontal pipelines. An analysis of the settling velocity of solid particles, including the effect of solid particle concentration, is undertaken because of this parameter's importance. This study builds on a previous study carried out to consider the settling velocity of a single solid particle in clear-water condition, which is actually different from the real physics of the hydrotransport phenomenon of the solid particles. Two earlier proposed methods are applied to the calculation of the settling velocity of a solid particle, including the effect of solid particle concentration within the suspending fluid. The most appropriate method for slurry transportation among these two methods is discussed and used in the analysis of critical flow velocity. The new proposed equation is based on analysis of data from the experiments as well as data from the earlier studies. A unique feature of the proposed equation is that it can be applied to noncohesive, uniform, and nonuniform coarse solid particles. In a comparison of prediction accuracy with four existing relationships, the proposed equation was found to give significantly better agreements with the observed data. Therefore, it can be stated that the new equation can safely be used by designers in the problems of slurry transportation.


Salient region detection in images is very useful for image processing applications like image compressing, image segmentation, object detection and recognition. In this paper, an improved approach to detect salient region is presented . The proposed method can generate a robust saliency map and extract salient regions with precise boundaries. In the proposed method, local saliency, global saliency and rarity saliency of three kinds of low-level feature contrast of intensity, color and orientation are used to compute the visual saliency. A new feature integration strategy is proposed in this paper. This method can select features and compute the weights of the features dynamically by analyzing the effect of different features on the saliency. Then a more robust saliency map is obtained. It has been tested on many images to evaluate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed method. We also compare our method with other salient region detection methods and our method outperforms other methods in detection results.


Satisfying multiple stakeholder expectations and, in some cases, stakeholder issues is perceived as a major challenge the companies face. Despite this challenge, corporate social response activities have not been well documented in the empirical literature and have so far attracted relatively limited attention from researchers interested in the field (e.g., de la Cruz Deniz-Deniz, 1999; de la Cruz Deniz-Deniz & Garcia-Falcon, 2002). One of the main causes of this situation is closely related to the lack of a scale for measuring the social response activities among companies. In light of this gap in the corporate social response literature, the main objective of this study is to refine and validate the psychometric properties of a social response scale and to create a scaled-down version suitable for companies, and in particular for multinational corporations (MNCs). The refined scale is based on the prior literature and administrated to a sample of 251 subsidiaries operating in Tunisia. The scale has four dimensions. In quantitative analyses these dimensions highlight high reliability and satisfactory validity. Research contributions are provided based on the study findings. Limitations are also presented and discussed along with suggestions for research. DOI: 10.15458/85451.15


Systemic banking crises are a threat to all countries whatever their development level. They can entail major fiscal costs that can undermine the sustainability of public finances. More than anywhere else, however, a number of euro-area countries have been affected by a lethal negative feedback loop between banking and sovereign risk, followed by disintegration of the financial system, real economic fragmentation and the exposure of the European Central Bank. Recognising the systemic dimension of the problem, the Euro-Area Summit of June 2012 called for the creation of a banking union with common supervision and the possibility for the European Stability Mechanism to recapitalise banks directly.


Throughout the world today the areas occupied by many natural habitats
are undergoing two types of change. Firstly, the total area occupied
by natural habitats is shrinking and secondly, formerly continuous
natural habitats are being fragmented into disjunctive pieces. Both
these processes have important consequences for the future of the world's
plant and animal species. To preserve natural diversity it is critical,
therefore, that the present methods of conserving wildlife be reviewed
and that careful planning of reserves be undertaken, based on appropriate
ecological principles.
A comparison may be drawn between a nature reserve and an oceanic island
from the point of view that each is surrounded by a zone of inhospitable
habitat which acts as a barrier to dispersal for many species. Considerable
progress has been made over the last decade towards an understanding of
the functioning of oceanic island systems, particularly as regards the
maximum number of species that an island may support without threat of
extinction to any species. Application of this knowledge may provide
a basis for understanding what to expect from reserves and, most importantly,
may offer a method for determining the minimum size of a reserve needed to
maintain the diversity of plant and animal species characteristic of that
habitat type.
To date, studies in the field of island biogeography have concentrated on
natural islands with little attention given to the habitat islands created
by man in clearing land for agricultural and commercial activities. The
aim of the present study is to investigate the species-area relationship
for a series of islands of dry sclerophyll forest on the Tasmanian mainland
and to compare the findings of this study with previous studies undertaken
on oceanic islands.
The implications of establishing a similarity between the two types of
islands are far-reaching. It is hoped that this and other similar studies
will serve to emphasize the special features of habitat islands and that,
in future, more attention will be given to the planning of reserves in
accordance with island biogeographical principles. Thus determination
of the most suitable size and shape of a reserve, as well as planning for
an integrated system of reserves which functions in the most effective
way possible, may be achieved.

Apart from being of general significance the study is also important at
the local level. In Tasmania, as in other places of the world, the natural
environment is being fragmented as land is cleared to make way for urban
and rural development. In the past the dry sclerophyll forest has been
the habitat type most heavily exploited for these purposes and, more
recently, has been subject to further pressure from the woodchip industry.
Furthermore, whilst provision has been made for the conservation of
other vegetation types within the State adequate reservation of areas of
dry sclerophyll forest has failed to occur. For these reasons it is
imperative that the present situation regarding the dry solerophyll
reserve system in Tasmania be examined and the need to establish
additional reserves be investigated as soon as possible.
The desirability of having large-sized reserves to ensure maintenance
of species diversity has been emphasized by several authors recently
(Willis 1974; Diamond 1975; Moore and Hooper 1975; Sullivan and Shaffer
1975; Terborgh 1975). Few authors, however, have actually suggested
dimensions. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to demonstrate
experimentally the concept of minimum reserve size; nevertheless there
have been some attempts, using a variety of approaches, to determine the
size of a reserve required to maintain a particular taxon or group of
species. These studies will be discussed further in the following
chapter but it is important to emphasize that none of the authors have
adopted the approach of the present study, in making use of the island
nature of reserves and applying the corresponding biogeographic principles.
In order to understand why the field study was conducted and how the
results of the study could be used to determine the area requirements for
a dry sclerophyll reserve, it is necessary to trace the development of
the theory of island biogeography and to examine the arguments which have
been advanced in applying these principles to the design and management of
nature reserves. This review introduces the field study where the planning
and executing of the study are described in detail.
To develop a method for determining the size requirements of a reserve
it was not necessary to conduct lengthy studies and, accordingly, all
field work could be completed within a year by three workers. The
apparent brevity of this study sets it apart from other more detailed
pieces of scientific work but does not detract from the validity of
the methods used or from the results obtained.

The results of this study are analysed and a minimum area, which would
preserve the diversity of dry sclerophyll species,is suggested. The
exploitation of the forest, both past and present, is then examined
and the existing reserve system is also assessed. The need for augmenting
this system is emphasized and some areas, which in biological terms may
be appropriate for reservation, are discussed. It should be pointed out,
however, that there are many other aspects which need to be considered
before reserving an area but which are essentially beyond the scope of
this report. The responsibility of dealing with these factors lies
with those agencies which are involved in the planning Of reserves at
the government level.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is one of the techniques capable of detecting human brain function noninvasively. Although many fMRI studies have adopted echo-time (TE) of 30 to 40 ms aiming to maximize blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal change, large distortion and signal dropout occur near air-filled spaces such as frontal sinus in functional imaging because of the magnetic field irregularities. Theoretically, shorter TE could decrease the magnetic distortion and signal dropout near air. However, it has not been determined whether short TE of less than 30 ms may affect the statistical t value of functional image, which is the most important factor to evaluate results of fMRI study. In the present study, we assessed whether shorter TE can be utilized for fMRI study of the human brain. Nineteen healthy volunteers were scanned using fMRI during finger tapping and viewing checker-circle tasks. Signal dropout near the sinus, statistical t value, percent signal change, and modified temporal signal to noise ratio (mtSNR) of functional images were evaluated in the primary motor cortex and primary visual cortex while TE was varied between 20 and 35 ms. Signal dropout was the smallest at a TE of 20 ms, whereas there was no significant effect of TE on the statistical t value both in the primary motor cortex and in the primary visual cortex activity. These findings suggest that 20 ms is the optimal TE value in the range of 20 ms to 35 ms for fMRI.


[Excerpt] "It is refreshing to read an environmental diatribe where the writer has both the authority of a world expert and a willingness to compromise to pursue realistic solutions. Wilson is a Harvard biology professor, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and a director of the Nature Conservancy. In The Future of Life, he presents a succinct evaluation of the great ecological issues of our day, focusing on the rapid pace of species extinctions, and on the promise of finding a balance between conservation and human activity that will bring the extinctions to a halt."


Abstract The legitimacy of nonsubstance addictions has received increased attention from clinicians, researchers and the general population as more and more individuals report symptoms consistent with impairment of impulse control. The clinical presentation of these disorders is varied, as compulsive activities may include: gambling, eating, sex, shopping, use of the Internet or videogames or even exercising, working or falling in love. As such, there is great controversy in diagnosing, treating or even naming these conditions, as many of these behaviors are daily rituals instrumental to our ultimate survival. Historically, the phrase "impulse control disorders" described these conditions but many researchers and clinicians also use the term "behavioral addictions," "process addictions" or "impulsive-compulsive behaviors" to report behavioral pathology. This review summarizes the data of each of these behavioral addictions from epidemiology to neurobiology to treatment options. Research suggests similarities between natural and drug reward processing but clinical evidence supports the utilization of treatment modalities for these behavioral conditions that can sometimes differ from traditional drug treatment.


The majority of OWL ontologies in the emerging SemanticWeb are constructed from properties that lack domain and range constraints. Constraints in OWL are different from the familiar uses in programming languages and databases. They are actually type assertions that are made about the individualswhich are connected by the property. Because they are type assertions these assertions can add vital information to the individuals involved and give information on how the defining property may be used. Three different automated generation techniques are explored in this research: disjunction, least-common named subsumer, and vivification. Each algorithm is compared for the ability to generalize, and the performance impacts with respect to the reasoner. A large sample of ontologies from the Swoogle repository are used to compare real-world performance of these techniques. Using generated facts is a type of default reasoning. This may conflict with future assertions to the knowledge base. While general default reasoning is non-monotonic and undecidable a novel approach is introduced to support efficient contraction of the default knowledge. Constraint generation and default reasoning, together, enable a robust and efficient generation of domain and range constraints which will result in the inference of additional facts and improved performance for a number of Semantic Web applications.


Although the dominant political ideology in Scotland between 1707 and the present, unionism has suffered serious neglect. One of the most distinguished Scottish historians of our time looks afresh at this central theme in Britain's history, politics and law, and traces the history of Scottish unionist ideas from the early sixteenth century to the present day. Colin Kidd demonstrates that unionism had impeccably indigenous origins long predating the Union of 1707, and that it emerged in reaction to the English vision of Britain as an empire. Far from being the antithesis of nationalism, modern Scottish unionism has largely occupied a middle ground between the extremes of assimilation to England or separation from it. At a time when the future of the Scottish union is under scrutiny as never before, its history demands Colin Kidd's lucid and cogent examination, which will doubtless generate major debate, both within Scotland and beyond.


When I told people in Bristol that I was writing this book everyone asked the same two questions: 'Have you actually met Banksy?' and 'Does he know you are writing this book?' Answer to the first: 'Possibly; but how would I know?'; answer to the second: 'Probably, but why do you think it's important?' These and other frequently asked questions – and my cryptic responses – reveal several things about us and Banksy: first, our continuing fascination with this most secretive of public artists; secondly, a begrudging respect at times bordering on genuine affection for his role as a spokesman on contemporary matters; and thirdly, the British fascination with the 'whodunnit', who exactly is this person about whom so much is apparently known but who chooses anonymity and absence over visibility and instant recognition. Banksy's absence throws down a blatant challenge to our cult of instant celebrity. His is the missing face from the weekly glossy gossip mags; a global 'name' who simply refuses to reveal himself; the empty seat on the ubiquitous chat show.


Most animals actively avoid predators. If such a reaction reduces competitive ability, for example by reducing food intake, predator presence can lead to trait-mediated indirect effects. Because predator avoidance typically leads to reduced growth rather than reduced survival, its effect on population processes is difficult to assess. This is especially true for organisms with complex life-cycles, where predator avoidance during one stage is expected to lead to traitmediated indirect effects if it has effects reaching into the following life stages. I experimentally investigated the effect of caged (thus non-lethal) dragonfly larvae on the competition between tadpoles of two frog species (Rana lessonae and R. esculenta) and on juvenile frog survival during the subsequent terrestrial stage. In response to caged predators, R. lessonae delayed metamorphosis more than R. esculenta, but they both metamorphosed heavier. These differences suggest the possibility of a competitive disadvantage for R. lessonae in the presence of predators, which could lead to trait-mediated indirect effects. However, the presence of predators did not modify competitive effects and had no measurable consequences on terrestrial survival. Regardless of the presence of predators, competition during the larval stage had large effects on metamorphosis and led to strongly decreased survival in the subsequent terrestrial stage. These results suggest that trait-mediated indirect effects are not important in this system, because the predator reaction of the tadpoles in both species had no measurable effect on the following life stage and, therefore, probably no strong effect on community dynamics.


Serum follicular-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) as determined by radioimmunoassay, were correlated with sexual development in 29 patients with hypopituitarism (ages 14.2-29.9 yr).16 of 25 idiopathic hypopituitary patients (20 males and 5 females) exhibited some degree of sexual development. Stage III of sexual development or beyond was achieved by 12 of the 16. Of 13 patients with growth hormone (GH), adrenocortical-stimulating hormone (ACTH), and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) deficiency, 8 did not develop beyond stage I. In contrast, five of six patients with GH deficiency without ACTH or TSH deficiency developed to stage III of sexual development or beyond. The mean (+/-sd) serum LH concentration while in stage I (4.3 +/-0.9 mIU/ml) of eight patients (seven males and one female) who developed beyond stage I was significantly (P < 0.005) greater than the mean serum LH concentration (2.3 +/-0.9 mIU/ml) in nine patients (seven males and two females) who had not developed beyond stage I. Mean serum FSH concentrations were not different. Three of four males with organic hypopituitarism did not develop beyond stage I of sexual development. Serum FSH and LH concentrations in the idiopathic and organic hypopituitary patients were more compatible with stage of sexual development than with age. A serum LH concentration below the range of normal for stage I of sexual development in a prepubertal patient suggests that the patient will remain sexually infantile as an adult.


Nucleic acid amplification methods (PCR) were investigated for the detection of Campylobacter species in foods and environmental waters. A novel species-specific PCR was adapted into a high-throughput, colorimetric end-stage detection format (PCR ELISA). The sensitivity of detection of the PCR ELISA assay was equivalent to one genome copy and was demonstrated to be 100-fold more sensitive than a conventional gel electrophoresis-based PCR method.
The novel species-specific PCR assay was adapted into a quantitative real-time format (TaqMan) for accurate quantification of the numbers of C. jejuni cells present in food samples. Quantification was demonstrated over six orders of magnitude between 1.2 x 101 to 1.2 x 107 genome equivalents per reaction, with a limit of detection of 10
genome equivalents.
The PCR ELISA and real-time PCR assays were validated for the specific and sensitive detection of C. jejuni and C. coil in naturally contaminated food and environmental water samples. Methods for the extraction of DNA from foods and enrichment cultures were investigated and an optimised method (PrepMan) determined. The PCR ELISA and real-time PCR assays significantly reduced the time taken for the detection of C. jejuni and C. co/i in foods and waters to seven hours and two and a half hours respectively.
Previous studies have indicated that detection of mENA by reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) may reflect viability in the detected organism. RT-PCR assays were m developed for the detection of thee C. jejuni mRNA targets, DNase treatment of
extracted RNA was optimised and appropriate controls for RT-PCR in bacteria established. The assays were applied to the detection of heat-killed and chlorine-killed cell suspensions with diflerentiation between viable and heat-killed cells being
demonstrated. However, problems with target-dependent variations in the halilives of the mRNA targets were identified which have major implications for the use of RT-PCR to establish the viability of contaminating pathogens in processed food samples.
The PCR ELISA and real-time PCR assays are high-throughput methods for the sensitive and specific detection of C. jejuni and C. coli in foods, and are an important model for other foodborne pathogens.


GILL, S.A., J.A. DAVIDSON and M.P. RAUPP. 1990. Oil's well. Am. Nurseryman 171(3): 72-77. Increasingly the green industry is turning to integrated pest monitoring, application of short-residual or pest-specific products, and resistant plants. Horticultural oils are an important part of this trend. Horticultural oils were reformulated in the early 1980's, making summer applications more feasible. SunSpray Ultra-Fine Spray Oil is an effective pesticide with low leaf-burning potential. However, researchers must document its safety for nursery stock before many nurserymen will incorporate it in their summer pest-control programs. We developed an experimental procedure testing repeated applications of a 2 percent formulation of SunSpray 6E Plus for phytotoxicity on 52 taxa of nursery trees. In Maryland, many insect pests are active from May through August. Since these are the primary months of damaging insect activity, we chose these months to evaluate potential phytotoxic burn. Our conclusion is that 2 percent summer oil applications are safe for use on nursery stock to control insect and mite pests.


'A pair of Mary-Jane-style shoes appears on the cover of Karen Babayan's book Blood Oranges Dipped In Salt, 20121. Satin gleams in the light and deep shadows draw the eye to the edge of a projected image. Turn the book over and this projected image is the family photograph featured on the back. It has been cropped, showing two figures from the waist down, standing perhaps in a back garden. One is a girl, the other is an adult woman: they are both wearing the same 1920's style shoe. They stand close together in a way that suggests there is a close family link between them. An initial impression of the shoes worn by the woman and on the front cover is that they could be one-and-the-same. This leads to a closer look. There is the trace of another photograph inside them: imprinted into the soles is a bride in one and a groom in the other. They have now become wedding shoes.

The shoes and the photograph of two female relatives are key to the reading of Blood Oranges Dipped In Salt. Images are used sparingly by the artist, and appear at particular points in the book – the beginning and the end. They are visual bookends to a series of family narratives. These narratives are not presented through conventional linear time, but one that circulates back and forth, organised through chapter titles taken from a short poem by a great-great-great-aunt. The historical timeline is 1604 to 2011; the geographical cover is England, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Armenia and Canada. The book presents seven generations of stories, which together track what it means to be Armenian; to know history however distance or speculative; to retain yet re-invent identity in the face of displacement and even genocide; and to not forget. Although these stories are conveyed through the printed word, many of the stories have their foundations in the traditions of oral history, and as the book unfolds, the reader becomes aware that the artist is taking the reader on another journey. This is through an archive, a family archive where stories are clearly shaped, as the artist describes, by 'loss, displacement, migration, immigration and assimilation.' Although not shown in the book, family photographs and albums have nevertheless been crucial to the telling, and retelling of some of these stories that the artist describes as 'oral family heirlooms'.


We analyze the relative contents and internal spatial elemental distribution of Fe, Ni and S in minerals within selected individual chondrules of a fragment of the Allende chondrite, as derived from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) - energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) analyses. Chondrules were selected to cover the range of micromagnetic properties in terms of hysteresis coercivity and magnetization ratios. Variation in micromagnetic properties appear correlated to the external and internal morphologies and mineralogical assemblages. In order to identify the distribution of mineral assemblages characterized by Fe, Ni and S, a mathematical technique for image analysis was applied to the SEM-EDS images. The resulting compositional images display the complexity in composition and microstructural morphologies of individual chondrules. Chondrule c27b is characterized by Fe-rich minerals and is Ni and S poor, although Ni and S appear concentrated within a Fe-rich rim. Chondrule c40b, formed by barred olivine, is Fe poor and has low contents of Ni and S; Fe is homogeneously distributed within the olivine crystals. Chondrule c53b has a spherical shape, except for a partly preserved Fe-rich rim that forms a bulge; minerals with higher contents of Fe, Ni and S are observed in the chondrule interior. Chondrule c55b, of porphyritic olivine type, has a more complex morphology, characterized by variable Fe, Ni and S compositional distribution and characteristic mineral assemblages. Results confirm that closely spaced chondrules within given sectors of Allende meteorite have major differences in elemental content and distribution, in addition to differences in shape, size, texture and mineralogy, which support the idea that chondrules underwent distinct thermal, shock, alteration and evolutionary histories, related to chondrule formation and alteration processes, in the early stages of evolution of the planetary system.


This is the first part of a five-volume history of broadcasting in the UK. Together the volumes give an authoritative account of the rise of broadcasting in this country. Though naturally largely concerned with the BBC it does give a general history of broadcasting, not simply an institutional history of the BBC. The Birth of Broadcasting covers early amateur experiments in wireless telephony in America and in England, the pioneer days at Writtle in Essex and elsewhere, and the coming of organized broadcasting and its rapid growth during the first four years of the BBC's existence as a private Company before it became a public Corporation in January 1927. Briggs describes how and why the Company was formed, the scope of its activities and the reasons which led to its conversion from a business enterprise into a national institution. The issues raised between 1923 and 1927 remain pertinent today. The hard bargaining between the Post Office, private wireless interests, and the emergent British Broadcsting Company is discussed in illuminating details, together with the remarkable opposition with which the Company had to contend in its early days. Many sections of the opposition, including a powerful section of the press, seemed able to conceive of broadcasting only as competing with their own interests, never as complementing or enlarging them. One of the main themes of this volume is that of the gradual forging of the instruments of public control, and particular attention is paid to the Crawford Report (1926) from which the Corporation arose. During this period all the characteristics of the Corporation first appeared - particularly its reputation for publc service and impartiality. Briggs also examines the background of wireless as an invention and considers its impact on society. He has much to say about personalities and programmes as well as policies.


The JSTOR database now includes well over 2 million pages from 61 important journals in 13 academic disciplines. Additional journal content is being digitized at a rate of more than 100,000 pages per month. More than 320 libraries in the United States and Canada have become participating institutions, providing support for the creation, maintenance and growth of this database. Outside of North America, we have established a mirror site in the United Kingdom. Through a novel collaborative relationship with the Joint Information Systems Committee, the JSTOR database is now being made available to over 20 higher education institutions in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland from a mirror site at the University of Manchester. In addition, plans are underway to establish a second overseas mirror site in Budapest, Hungary to serve institutions in Eastern Europe and Russia. As each day passes, new opportunities are presented to us to extend the reach of this enterprise. It is an exciting and challenging time.


Intercollegiate amateur athletics in the US largely bars student-athletes from sharing in any of the profits generated by their participation, which creates substantial economic rents for universities. These rents are primarily generated by men's football and men's basketball programs. We characterize these economic rents using comprehensive revenue and expenses data for college athletic departments between 2006 and 2019, and we estimate rent-sharing elasticities to measure how rents flow to women's sports and other men's sports and lead to increased spending on facilities, coaches' salaries, and other athletic department personnel. Using complete roster data for every student-athlete playing sports at these schools in 2018, we find that the rent-sharing effectively transfers resources away from students who are more likely to be black and more likely to come from poor neighborhoods towards students who are more likely to be white and come from higher-income neighborhoods. To understand the magnitude of the available rents, we calculate a wage structure for college athletes using the collective bargaining agreements in professional sports leagues as a benchmark. We also discuss how our results help understand how universities have responded to recent threats to these rents arising from litigation, legislation, and the global coronavirus pandemic.


Central banks have won in credibility as from the mid-eighties by keeping inflation under control. However, confidence in low inflation might have encouraged agents to excessive risk-taking, leading asset prices to rise. Moreover, the belief in a Federal Reserve guarantee against a sharp market decline spread across US markets as from the nineties. This belief, commonly referred to as the Greenspan put, raised again the question about the role of asset prices in monetary policy decisions. The problem is addressed by modeling the reaction of the Fed to stockmarket deviations from fundamentals over the period stretching from August 1987 to October 2008, which corresponds to the periods where Greenspan until January 2006 and Bernanke from thereon were chairmen. A Taylor rule describing the Fed's nominal feedback rule to inflation and economic activity on a monthly basis is extended to take account of asset prices. The indicators considered are deflation and volatility in stock prices. Furthermore, a Markov switching process allows to capture contemporaneous as well as forward-looking monetary policy responses to asset prices over the period. We find out that taking asset price deflation improves the Taylor rule fit by some 8%. In periods when the Fed was actively pursuing an expansive or restrictive monetary policy, its reaction to volatility or deflation of financial markets was significant. We also see that the reaction of the Fed to asset prices was greater during financial crises, especially when modeling a forward-looking decision process. Agents' confidence in a stronger response of the US central bank to significant market declines urging to an easing of monetary conditions in their favour was therefore not unfounded.