Voltage stability is an incredibly important concept in power systems engineering. Voltages can become unstable due to numerous reasons, but the most common reason is when the power generation and load gap is too large. In the worst case scenario, voltage instability can cause voltage collapse. Voltage collapse refers to the shutdown of a power system due to its inability to maintain adequate bus voltage levels. When the event of voltage collapse begins in a power system, circuit protection systems can become unstable and inoperable.

With the increasing complexity of the world's power transmission networks, it is becoming more and more difficult to analyse and maintain power system stability. This report looks at how four voltage stability analysis methods, namely, the Voltage Change Index (VCI), the Voltage Collapse Proximity Indicator (VCPI), Continuation Power Flow (CPF) and the New Voltage Stability Index (NVSI), can be used in conjunction with synchrophasor measurements to analyse voltage stability and detect voltage collapse.

Results show that the NVSI is the best analysis method as it can detect the voltage collapse point as well as give a good indication of the voltage stability of a system. The VCPI can predict voltage collapse under specific scenarios, but it does not effectively show how close the system is to voltage collapse at a given operating point. The VCI was determined to not be useful in detecting voltage collapse, but it does, however, provide a useful bus ranking system that lists each load bus from 'strongest' to 'weakest' which in turn provides an indication of relative bus voltage stability levels. The CPF method was found to not work well with synchrophasor measurements.


Darren Shan, the vampire's assistant, must clear his name and avenge the death of Gavner Purl. Can a half-vampire outwit a Vampire Prince? Betrayed by Kurda and reeling from the brutal slaying of Gavner, the vampire's assistant, Darren Shan, finds himself branded a traitor and hunted by the vampire clan. Will Darren's failure to complete the Trials mean banishment for Mr Crepsley and execution for himself? Or can Darren return to the home of the damned and exact revenge? But Darren comes to realise that there is more than revenge at stake - the vampire clan must combat the rise of the Vampaneze Lord, or see his ascension mark the end of thousands of years of vampire rule...


Data Analytics (BDA) is a crucial component of high-performing e-commerce businesses. In South Africa, where SMMEs are key contributors to economic growth, it is crucial to understand the resources and capabilities they should have in place to adopt BDA and positively impact their business performance. This paper aims to review current literature detailing organisational resources, BDA, and its impact on the business performance of South African e-commerce Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) and develop a conceptual framework. While various studies show the impact of BDA on business performance in large organisations, and developed and developing economies, the impact it has on business performance, as well as that of organisational resources and entrepreneurial orientation dimensions on South African e-commerce SMMEs, is not well explored. This research adopted a deductive approach, using a systematic approach to literature, 411 journal and conference proceedings articles were retrieved from 2016 to date. 15 articles were selected after analyses and synthesis through a narrative literature approach. Key organisational resources that enable the use of BDA were identified from the literature and used to develop a conceptual framework that can be used for future studies using empirical data. This research is in progress and the preliminary findings were derived through a literature review, that highlights organisational resources such as IT infrastructure, IT human resources, financial resources, risk-taking, innovativeness and proactiveness as relevant to the usage of BDA and its influence on business performance.


We present the expanded boundary integral method for solving the planar Helmholtz problem, which combines the ideas of the boundary integral method and the scaling method and is applicable to arbitrary shapes. We apply the method to a chaotic billiard with unidirectional transport, where we demonstrate the existence of doublets of chaotic eigenstates, which are quasi-degenerate due to time-reversal symmetry, and a very particular level spacing distribution that attains a chaotic Shnirelman peak at short energy ranges and exhibits Gaussian Unitary Ensemble (GUE) like statistics for large energy ranges. We show that, as a consequence of such particular level statistics or algebraic tunnelling between disjoint chaotic components connected by time-reversal operation, the system exhibits quantum current reversals.


Avian malaria is a vector-borne disease whose effects on reproductive success and life history strategies are poorly understood. Avian malaria likely has consequences on carotenoid metabolism and color display in many species of birds. Carotenoid deposition in feathers and the associated yellow, orange, and red feather colorations are often used to evaluate individual quality. We analyzed feathers and tissues from specimens of a woodpecker species, Sphyrapicus ruber, collected from California and Oregon in 2012. This species is known to contract avian malaria and has several carotenoid-based plumage patches on its body. Infected individuals had a higher percentage of red, carotenoid-based plumage on the breast region but a lower concentration of carotenoids deposited in feathers, compared to indidivuals not infected with avian malaria. We suggest that avian malaria influences carotenoid metabolism and that the type of carotenoid being deposited in feathers is more important, biologically, than overall carotenoid concentrations. With the vectors of avian malaria experiencing range changes, our work helps shed light on how avian malaria may affect avian life strategies.


A 4-year-old neutered female domestic shorthair was evaluated for mentation changes and left prosencephalic signs. This imaging report describes the imaging findings for this patient. A diagnosis of a cryptococcal mass was made based on imaging and additional diagnostics. Complete resolution of the mass was demonstrated by follow-up imaging. This report serves as a reminder that masses associated with cryptococcal infection should be included on the differential list for cats with intracranial masses. In addition, this report provides evidence that large intracranial cryptococcal masses may resolve with long-term medical therapy.


Can food be both national and global at the same time? What happens when a food with a national identity travels beyond the boundaries of a nation? What makes a food authentically national and yet American or broader global? With these questions in mind, Sonia Ryang explores the world of Korean food in four American locations, Iowa City, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Hawaii (Kona and Honolulu). Ryang visits restaurants and grocery stores in each location and observes Korean food as it is prepared and served to customers. She analyzes the history and evolution of each dish, how it arrived and what it became, but above all, she tastes and experiences her food - four items to be specific - naengmyeon cold noodle soup; jeon pancakes; galbi barbecued beef; and bibimbap, rice with mixed vegetable. In her ethnographic journey, Ryang discovers how the chewy noodles from Pyongyang continue to retain their texture and yet are served differently in different locales. Jeon pancakes become completely decontextualized in the United States and metamorphosed into a portable and packable carry-out food. American consumers are unaware of the pancakeAEs sacred origin.In Hawaii, Ryang fi nds that it is the Vietnamese restaurant that serves unexpectedly delicious galbi barbecued meat. Intertwined in the complex colonial and postcolonial contexts, Korean galbi and Japanese yakiniku can be found side by side on the streets of Honolulu frequented by both the locals and tourists. In writing Eating Korean in America: Gastronomic Ethnography of Authenticity , Sonia Ryang is as much an eater as a researcher. Her accounts of the cities and their distinctive take on Korean food are at once entertaining and insightful, yet deeply moving. Ryang challenges the reader to stop and think about the food we eat every day in close connection to colonial histories, ethnic displacements, and global capitalism.


This paper discusses voltage-controlled M-M relaxation oscillator with analytical and circuit simulations. The introduced circuit has two different configurations based on the polarities of memristor; whether they are in the same direction or in the opposite direction. The Analytical formulas are function of the reference voltage such as the oscillation frequency and oscillation conditions for each case are derived with some numerical examples. The circuit simulations are introduced to validate the mathematical concepts as well as the effect of the reference voltage which can be used in frequency modulation application. A comparison between the two oscillators is presented versus different parameters. Finally, similar discussion based on asymmetric voltage controlled oscillator is introduced where different frequency ranges can be obtained.


While (significantly), its origin pre-dates the 9/11 attacks of 2001, since then the term 'new terrorism' has gained wide currency to describe what is seen as a massive shift in the scale, scope, nature, purpose and cause of non-state political violence in various parts of the world (Burnett & Whyte:2005; Hoffman:1995: 280–1; Lacquer:1999: 4). As part of the lexicon of the 'global war on terror' the concept of 'new terrorism' has been deployed to lend justification to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the emergence of various anti-terrorist and counter-insurgency policies and measures introduced in the US, the UK and elsewhere.

As Anthony Field (2009: 197) has suggested, 'the dichotomy between "traditional" and "new" terrorism is the central analytical device of the "new terrorism" concept. 'New terrorists' are presented as a more dangerous threat than 'traditional terrorists' because they are more 'pathological' and 'fanatical' (Lacquer:1999: 226), motivated by religious and/or essentially non-rational imperatives, are unlimited by moral constraint and have immutable and non-negotiable goals (Burnett & Whyte:2005; Field:2008).

In Britain the dichotomy between 'traditional' and 'new terrorists' has tended to contrast, either implicitly or explicitly, the nature of contemporary 'Islamist terrorism' with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and their role in the 30 years of conflict in and about Northern Ireland. In so doing, the discursive construction of Irish republicanism and the IRA has undergone something of a partial revision in (at least amongst sections of) British political and media representations and been employed to legitimise the extension the State's 'counter-terror' powers.

What this paper will consider is the manner in which this is quite different to the representation of Irish republicanism by the state and mainstream media throughout the three decades of the conflict. Instead, the actions of the IRA and the views of Irish republicans were typically presented as being variously irrational in origin, non-political in intent and absolutist in nature. More akin, in other words, to the way that Islamists may be represented today than in contrast to the same. In illuminating continuities rather than contrasts in the representation of a supposedly non-political, 'fanatical' terrorist 'Other', the aim of this paper is therefore to critique and challenge the logic of 'new terrorism' discourse through the prism of the changing representation of Irish republicanism.
..


The basis of research aims to determine the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, especially on the factors that trigger online purchase decisions made. This study is a comparative study because it compares the effect of Online Promotion (X1) and Lifestyle (X2) Online Purchasing Decisions (Y) between the areas of Tangerang City and South Tangerang. The research questionnaire was distributed within 11 days and obtained 165 valid respondents. The questionnaire was processed using the SPSS 20 program, and from the validity test results it turns out that only 38 statements are valid. From other test results, it was found that the statement was constant, normally distributed and did not occure heteroscedastidity and multicollinearity in the two regression equations formed in each region. The relationship between variables in each region is not very strong. The results obtained are that all hypotheses are proven, namely: Online Promotion and Lifestyle Influence on Purchasing Decisions, as well as proven that there are differences in influencing factors in the two regions. The difference that occurs is in Tangerang City the dominant purchasing decision is influenced by the Online Promotion offered, while in South Tangerang the two factors affect equally.


The West Virginia mine war of 1920-21, a major civil insurrection of unusual brutality on both sides, even by the standards of the coal fields, involved thousands of union and nonunion miners, state and private police, militia, and federal troops. Before it was over, three West Virginia counties were in open rebellion, much of the state was under military rule, and bombers of the U.S. Army Air Corps had been dispatched against striking miners.The origins of this civil war were in the Draconian rule of the coal companies over the fiercely proud miners of Appalachia. It began in the small railroad town of Matewan when Mayor C. C. Testerman and Police Chief Sid Hatfield sided with striking miners against agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency, who attempted to evict the miners from company-owned housing. During a street battle, Mayor Testerman, seven Baldwin-Felts agents, and two miners were shot to death.Hatfield became a folk hero to Appalachia. But he, like Testerman, was to be a martyr. The next summer, Baldwin-Felts agents assassinated him and his best friend, Ed Chambers, as their wives watched, on the steps of the courthouse in Welch, accelerating the miners rebellion into open warfare.Much neglected in historical accounts, "Thunder in the Mountains" is the only available book-length account of the crisis in American industrial relations and governance that occured during the West Virginia mine war of 1920-21."


Information systems researchers frequently face quandaries in their professional lives. We present the results of a study of academic IS researchers that assesses their judgments and the prevalence of 29 questionable research-related behaviors. We find that the focus and stages of researchers' careers influence their judgments of these behaviors. Membership in the Association for Information Systems (AIS) and adherence to the AIS Code of Research Conduct are also associated with IS researchers' judgments. There is strong evidence to suggest that IS researchers expect to engage in questionable behaviors more in the future than they report having done in the past. As a result of the study, we recommend that the IS community revisit the AIS Code of Research Conduct on a regular basis and take active steps to both educate its members on professional normative standards and to uphold the standards of our community.


Podemos, meaning "We Can," is one of the most exciting developments taking place on the left in Europe today. For years politics in Spain had been dominated by two parties: the conservative the People's Party (Partido Popular or PP), headed by Mariano Rajoy, and the Socialist Workers Party of Spain (PSOE), led by Pedro Sánchez. But, in the last election held in December of 2015, the new left party Podemos won five million votes, fundamentally votes by the lower classes against the economic elites and their austerity plans. That represents 20% of the electorate, and 69 out of 350 seats in the house of deputies.[1]


ABSTRACT This is the first efficacy study using the experimental goat model, a natural host of tuberculosis (TB), to evaluate the efficacy of heterologous Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) prime followed by boosting with a replication-deficient adenovirus expressing the antigen Ag85A (AdAg85A). Three experimental groups of 11 goat kids each were used: BCG vaccinated, BCG vaccinated and AdAg85A boosted, and nonvaccinated. Twenty-two goat kids were vaccinated with ∼5 × 105 CFU of BCG (week 0), and 11 of them were boosted at week 8 with 109 PFU of AdAg85A. At week 14, all goats were challenged by the endobronchial route with ∼1.5 × 103 CFU of Mycobacterium caprae. The animals were euthanized at week 28. Cellular and humoral immunity induced by vaccination and M. caprae infection was measured throughout the study. After challenge BCG-AdAg85A-vaccinated animals exhibited reduced pathology compared to BCG-vaccinated animals in lungs and in pulmonary lymph nodes. There were significant reductions in bacterial load in both groups of vaccinated goats, but the reduction was more pronounced in prime-boosted animals. Antigen-specific gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and humoral responses were identified as prognostic biomarkers of vaccination outcome depending on their correlation with pathological and bacteriological results. As far as we know, this is the first report using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) to measure vaccine efficacy against pulmonary TB in an animal model. The use in vaccine trials of animals that are natural hosts of TB may improve research into human TB vaccines.


For decades it seemed clear that EC competition law was enforceable effectively at the national level, and ECJ case law has continued to bear this out. In recent years, however, the Commission has been proposing harmonization of national rules of procedure in competition cases, implying that procedural autonomy is insufficient on its own to produce an effective enforcement system in this area. As the authors of this book clearly demonstrate, this suggests a binary system governing the enforcement of EC Articles 81 and 82: namely, that led by the Commission through directives and eventual regulations, and that built on ECJ principles in areas not dealt with by such Community instruments. This book describes and analyzes not only the specific Commission recommendations, but also the manner and extent to which these recommendations are or may be implemented in civil procedure. In particular, the authors consider changes which may be required if these recommendations are incorporated into Dutch and English rules of civil procedure. Also addressed are elements of procedure not mentioned by the Commission but which might usefully be considered in the context of ECJ principles of effectiveness, equivalence and effective judicial protection of rights. At the heart of the study is a detailed analysis of the Commission White Paper on Damages Actions and the Commission Staff Working Paper, both issued early in 2009. The in-depth analysis ranges over procedural aspects of such elements as the following: - standing; - disclosure and access to evidence; - burden of proof; - fault/no fault; - costs of damages actions; - injunctions; - civil versus administrative enforcement; - limitations; - leniency programmes; - collective actions; - confidentiality; and - forms of compensation. Anticipating as it does a looming impasse in European competition law, this remarkable book sheds defining light on the real implications of EC competition law for parties to damages actions, not only in the national systems studied but for all Member States. For practitioners and jurists it offers a particularly useful approach to the handling of cases involving European competition law, and also serves as a guide to current trends and as a clarification of doctrine.


Gold and Jade Filled Halls: A Cognitive Linguistic Study of Financial and Economic Expressions in Chinese and German provides various linguistic vehicles, such as gold, the stock market, animals, and plants to observe daily expressions which benefit cultural communication and language learning.


For watching omnidirectional movies via HMD, turning the head is the most relevant and natural input technique to choose the visible part of the movie. However, there is a need for additional interactivity in cinematic virtual reality (CVR), e.g. for navigating the movie, for nonlinear story lines or for communication with other viewers watching a movie together. The input device should not disturb the viewing experience and the viewer should not be primarily aware of it. We present a design space based on numerous methods in literature and our own experiences. As a result of the design space we describe interaction techniques which meet the challenges of cinematic virtual reality. For doing this, various dimensions of the design space will be combined. The most promising method, eye-based head gestures, is described in more detail and was implemented for CVR. The conducted user study will be analyzed in future work.


This article examines the Chinese experience with adult guardianship, focusing in particular on the regimes in Hong Kong and China. As jurisdictions in which the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ('UNCRPD') applies, a key question is whether the adult guardianship regimes in these jurisdictions can be considered compliant with the principles of the UNCRPD, specifically those in Article 12. The adult guardianship regimes in both jurisdictions are in essence substitute decision-making regimes and are therefore not consistent with the interpretation of Article 12 by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, or what is described as the 'strong interpretation' in this article. The question remains, however, as to whether they might be nonetheless considered compliant with what is described in this article as the 'weak interpretation'. This article explores supported decision-making, the concept of capacity and the existence and sufficiency of safeguards in each of the two regimes, concluding that neither regime can be considered compliant even using the weak interpretation of Article 12. Reflections on the way forward are discussed.


Since the Hague Convention in 1899, the law has required soldiers to be trained in LOAC. Indeed, disseminating the law of war and training soldiers to fight in accordance with the law is central to the effective implementation of LOAC. Training is, of course, prospective in nature; it is about taking measures in advance of military operations to maximize adherence to the law and minimize violations. At the other end of the spectrum lies accountability — efforts after the fact to identify, prosecute and punish those responsible for international crimes. As in other legal regimes, enforcement and accountability for violations of LOAC are key to effective implementation of and adherence to the law. This article explores the intersection between training and enforcement in the context of international criminal prosecutions. Neither training nor prosecution alone can fulfill the crucial need to maximize compliance with the law. Criminal prosecution, whether at the national or international level, plays a critical deterrent role, but will not be sufficient on its own to ensure protection of civilians. Training and other mechanisms for dissemination and education are key tools to ensure compliance with the law before and during armed conflict, to help prevent crimes from being committed in the first place. In the end, coordinated and concerted efforts across the spectrum of LOAC implementation — from training to accountability — are essential to promote LOAC's key objectives: protect civilians, minimize unnecessary suffering and enable effective military operations.
At a much more specific level, however, training and accountability intersect directly in the context of criminal prosecutions where LOAC training — the fact of training, the lack of training, or the quality of training — plays a role in the prosecution of, or sentencing for, crimes before an international tribunal. Similarly, LOAC training has also proven to be relevant in assessing a state's responsibility for violations of LOAC. Although rarely the determinative factor in assessing responsibility, LOAC training factors into the accountability and responsibility paradigms in several different ways. Understanding how and why LOAC training matters in the accountability context — for command responsibility, for mitigation or aggravation in sentencing, and even for state responsibility — is thus one more useful consideration in emphasizing the importance and purpose of training. Ultimately, the intersection between training and accountability highlights that no commander, no state, and no soldier can be a bystander, but rather must take the necessary steps to ensure that anyone under her command or acting on its behalf is equipped and dedicated to applying the law.


This paper examines income and consumption based measures of poverty for those 65 and over between 1972 and 2004. This study contributes to the existing literature on poverty in several ways. First, we construct consumption based measures of poverty that improve upon measures used in previous studies. In particular, we develop better measures of consumption of durables including vehicles and housing and we incorporate the value of health insurance into our measure of consumption. Second, we provide estimates of consumption based poverty for those 65 and over using the most recent data through 2004. Third, we examine the effect on poverty trends of alternative price indices, equivalence scales, and resource sharing units (the family or household). Fourth, in addition to poverty rates, which focus on the cumulative distribution function at a single point, we also study extreme poverty, near poverty and poverty gaps in order to examine more fully the trends in well-being of older individuals.


A growing number of case reports cite serious health complications linked to the cocaine adulterant, levamisole and women are disproportionately affected; however, the clinical effects are not well established. Between April and October of 2010, we conducted a cross-sectional study among 222 homeless and unstably housed women (116 human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]-infected and 106 HIV-uninfected). Immune markers and behavioral factors were compared in separate models by cocaine and levamisole exposure. Overall, 63% of participants were toxicology positive for cocaine/benzoylecgonine, 85% of whom also tested positive for levamisole. Differences in immune markers did not reach levels of significance among HIV-uninfected persons. Compared to HIV-infected persons who were negative for both cocaine and levamisole, the adjusted odds of low white blood cell count were significantly higher among HIV-infected persons positive for both (p = 0.03), but not for those positive for cocaine only. Neutrophil count and HIV viral load did not differ by cocaine and levamisole status among HIV-infected persons. In a separate model, the adjusted odds of testing positive for levamisole were higher among African American women compared to Caucasian and Asian women (p = 0.02). In the context of high levamisole prevalence, results suggest that decreased immune function as a result of levamisole exposure occurs mainly in individuals who are already immune compromised (e.g., HIV-positive), and race/ethnicity appears to be an important factor in understanding levamisole exposure among cocaine-using women. While larger and geographically diverse studies are needed to elucidate these initial findings, results suggest that levamisole may be one mechanism of immune dysfunction in HIV-infected cocaine-using women.


Variable valve timing (VVT) systems allow for the perfect combination of performance increase, better economy and improved emission control. The components used in a VVT system are typically highly complex in design and challenging to manufacture. Therefore, successful large volume production of high-tolerance VVT components requires a metal powder that continuously delivers high quality and consistent results. The powder solution has to be properly designed to optimize powder handling and processing conditions to fulfill product quality and performance requirements at the total lowest cost for the producers in their manufacturing. With all these aspects in mind a metal powder mix concept specifically engineered for manufacturing of high precision VVT components has been developed and will be presented in this paper.


The thesis focuses on the emergence of e-democracy in the UK between 1999 and 2013. It examines the part that policy actors have played in shaping the agenda. Emphasis is placed on how e-democracy is understood by those charged with developing initiatives and implementing government policy on e-democracy. Previous research on e-democracy has focused largely on the impact of Web technologies on political systems and/or on how, why and to what degree, citizens participate. Less attention is paid to what happens inside government, in how policy actors' conceive public engagement in the policy process. Their perceptions and shared understandings are crucial to the commissioning, implementation, or deflection of participatory opportunities. This thesis is concerned with exploring how policy actors experience, interpret and negotiate e-democracy policy and practices and their perceptions of citizen involvement in the policy process. Competing discourses shape institutional expectations of e-democracy in the UK. The research examines how policy actors draw upon wider discourses such as the modernisation of government and the emphasis on transparency. It analyses understandings of technologies in government and the effects of relational interactions and linkages in policy and practice. The thesis draws on fieldwork in the UK from 23 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and participant observation data with a range of policy actors: civil servants from several government departments, government advisors and participation practitioners. In conjunction with interviews, documentary analysis was carried out on government documents, published between1999 and 2013. These focused on the role of Web technologies in government and include policy papers, advisory reports, audit reports and guidance for civil servants. Documentary analysis was combined with interviews and participant observation to compare the stated aims of e-democracy with the constraints and opportunities experienced by policy actors in their work. The findings highlight how contested interpretations of participation and differing approaches to technology affect the design, management and evaluation of projects. Such interpretations and contestations are not developed in isolation but emerge as actors come together in different spaces and configurations. Probing the relationships, motivations and perceptions of government insiders provides new insights about the development of e-democracy within the institutional context in the UK.


We demonstrate a powerful and practical spectral interferometer with near-field scanning microscopy (NSOM) probes for measuring the spatiotemporal electric field of tightly focused ultrashort pulses with high spatial and spectral resolution. Our measurements involved numerical apertures as high as 0.44 and yielded the spatiotemporal field at and around the foci produced by two microscope objectives and several different lenses. For the first time, we measure the spatiotemporal field of the Bessel-like X-shaped pulse caused by spherical aberrations and a "fore-runner pulse" due to chromatic aberrations. We observed spatial features smaller than 1 microm and verified these results with non-paraxial simulations.


We demonstrate two-photon optical beam-induced current (2P-OBIC) microscopy of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We utilized a Ti:Sapphire femtosecond laser source operating at 800 nm to derive the 2P-OBIC signal from a 605 nm band-gap LED. The spatial confinement of free carrier generation only at the focus and the quadratic dependence of the 2P-OBIC signal on excitation power are the key principles in two-photon excitation. As a consequence, superior image quality evident in the 2P-OBIC images of LEDs are obtained. These features decrease the linear absorption and wide-angle scattering effects plaguing single-photon optical beam-induced current (1P-OBIC) technique, thereby increasing the resolution of the imaging system in the axial and lateral directions. Thus, the attainment of good axial discrimination in the LED samples is obtained even without a confocal pinhole. In addition, 2P-OBIC images reveal local variations in free carrier densities which are not evident in the single-photon excitation.


Sensor networks are fundamentally constrained by the difficulty and energy expense of delivering information from sensors to sink. Our work has focused on garnering additional significant energy improvements by devising computationally-efficient lossless compression algorithms on the source node. These reduce the amount of data that must be passed through the network and to the sink, and thus have energy benefits that are multiplicative with the number of hops the data travels through the network.Currently, if sensor system designers want to compress acquired data, they must either develop application-specific compression algorithms or use off-the-shelf algorithms not designed for resource-constrained sensor nodes. This paper discusses the design issues involved with implementing, adapting, and customizing compression algorithms specifically geared for sensor nodes. While developing Sensor LZW (S-LZW) and some simple, but effective, variations to this algorithm, we show how different amounts of compression can lead to energy savings on both the compressing node and throughout the network and that the savings depends heavily on the radio hardware. To validate and evaluate our work, we apply it to datasets from several different real-world deployments and show that our approaches can reduce energy consumption by up to a factor of 4.5X across the network.


In Ecuador, DINAGE (known today as the Servicio Geológico Nacional) and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources have discovered a huge allophane deposit covering an area of >4000 km2. This study presents the results from an investigation of a 16-m thick vertical sequence from this deposit, supposedly the weathering product of two different volcanic ash deposits. In particular, the distribution of alkali metals within the uppermost layer indicates that the weathering process is still ongoing.According to the mineralogical composition, an allophane-rich layer (allophane facies) could be distinguished from the underlying halloysite-rich layer (halloysite facies). A 2-m thick transition zone is characterized by the presence of gibbsite and intermediate specific surface area values. Only a few imogolite fibers could be identified (by scanning electron microscopy), indicating the dominance of allophane over imogolite in the allophane facies. Single allophane particles were investigated by atomic force microscopy, though this method was less accurate than transmission electron microscopy with respect to the determination of the primary particle diameter. Carbon isotope analysis (14C) suggested an age of ∼20,000 y for the allophane layer.Within the allophane facies, a 4-m thick layer occurs containing 70–80 wt.% allophane with an N2-BET specific surface area of >300 m2/g. Based on infrared and energy-dispersive X-ray diffraction measurements, an Al/Si ratio of 1.3–1.4 was established for this allophane, which is between Al-rich and Si-rich allophane. The allophane layer may be of economic value due to the large allophane content, the small amount of organic matter, and the significant thickness of the deposit.


The objectives of this study were: 1) to determine the amount of costs, revenues, profits, and profitability value of tofu agroindustry in Pekanbaru. 2) to determine the level of efficiency of tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru. 3) to determine the added value of tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru. This research was conducted from June 2012 until December 2012. The data collection technique was cencus technique. The respondents of this research were all active tofu entrepreneurs in Pekanbaru. This research used qualitative and quantitative methods. The analysis scopes of this research were costs, revenues, profits, profitability, efficiency, and added values analysis. The results of this research showed that the average total cost of tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru was Rp.69,228,509.33 per month. Total revenues of tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru was Rp.96.147.690,00 per month. Total Profit of tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru was Rp.26,919,181.00 per month. The number 38.88 percent of Profitability value meant that tofu agro industry in Pekanbaru was a profitable industry because the value of profitability > 0. 1.39 Ratio of R / C value meant that every Rp.1.00 costs in the production process of tofu will provide 1.39 times profit. The average added value of small size tofu was Rp.7.607,69/kg. The average added vaue of medium size tofu was Rp.5.578,80/kg. Keywords : Tofu, agroindustry, efficiency, added value


In the early Monday morning of April 10, 1999, sits Joseph Flemming in
front of the classy window of NOL (Neptune Orient Lines Ltd.) air-conditioned
penthouse. Joseph was holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee while staring far
to appreciate Singapore's natural scenic view of the early sun rising. Below,
contradicting to the natural view, a bunch of executives were rushing across the
busy traffic just right in front of the NOL Group's landmark building, a high rise of
21 floors building.
It was 8:45 am in the morning, and Joseph Flemming, a newly appointed
two-month-old CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of NOL Group, was already keen to
get down to his job. He likes to work as early as 7:45 am every morning and
more often than not on weekends as well. Joseph Flemming, a man in his mid-
60, who believes in getting results through hard work, was commented by a
former colleague in Maersk Lines, another world's top ranking shipping lines, as a
workaholic, being very hands on, open to suggestions and critiques, impatient to
get things done, always on the look for opportunity and way to get thing done
better.
The enchanting, high rise morning view was really a bonus for Joseph to
start off his daily routine early.


Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is the most common familial genetic disease of the heart (1/500 to 1/1000), as well as the most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young people and athletes. Because a timely diagnosis may help to prevent sudden death, it is important for internists and general practitioners to be aware of the clinical features of the disease. The morphological and functional features of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy include marked and asymmetric left ventricular hypertrophy, a non-dilated left ventricular cavity, and preserved systolic function. Left ventricular outflow obstruction at rest is present in about 20% of patients.1–3 The clinical course is heterogeneous. Many patients remain asymptomatic throughout life, others develop severe heart failure or atrial fibrillation, and some die suddenly, often at a young age and in the absence of previous symptoms.1–3 We critically re-examine and place in perspective the most appropriate therapeutic strategies for the management of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

This review is based on the main studies on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy published in recent years, as well as on the clinical experience of doctors and investigators with particular knowledge of this disease. The treatment strategies reported in the expert consensus document on hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from the American College of Cardiology and the European Society of Cardiology are also incorporated in this article.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is usually suspected after marked electrocardiographic abnormalities or a heart murmur have been identified during routine clinical evaluation, or because of recent development of dyspnoea or palpitations.1–3 The diagnosis is established by the echocardiographic identification of a hypertrophied and non-dilated left ventricle in the absence of other cardiovascular diseases capable of producing a similar magnitude of hypertrophy1–4 (fig 1). In a minority of patients with electrocardiographic abnormalities suggestive of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the echocardiogram may fail …


A major criticism of the place conditioning procedure for studying conditioned drug reward is that it is relatively insensitive to large quantitative shifts in drug dose (i.e., dose effects are all or none). Experiment 1 demonstrated this lack of sensitivity using a wide range of intravenous (IV) cocaine doses (0.1, 0.3, 0.45, 0.6, 0.9, or 1.2 mg/kg). Rats had cocaine repeatedly paired with one distinct end compartment of a 3 compartment apparatus; vehicle was administered in the other end compartment. In a subsequent drug-free choice test, the 0.45 to 1.2 mg/kg doses of cocaine conditioned a place preference. The magnitude of the effect did not differ. Experiment 2 used a modified version of this standard place conditioning method. In this alternative method termed reference-dose procedure, a fixed dose of cocaine (reference dose) was repeatedly paired with one end compartment (i.e., 0.45 mg/kg); the comparison dose of cocaine was administered in the other end compartment (vehicle, 0.6, or 1.2 mg/kg). Preference for the comparison-dose compartment increased with dose—a graded doseeffect curve. In contrast to the standard procedure, the reference-dose procedure revealed that the conditioned rewarding effect of 1.2 mg/kg of cocaine was greater than that of 0.45 mg/kg. This increase in sensitivity to conditioned reward with the reference-dose procedure will likely increase the utility of the place conditioning method as a preclinical model, as well as a procedure for studying processes mediating associatively-motivated choice behavior.


Characterisation of UPMR 43, UPMR 44 and X was conducted.
Morphological studies of colonies showed that all strains gave a relatively large
gummy, watery, translucent or whitely opaque colour on a modified glutamate agar.
Intrinsic antibiotic resistance (IAR) patterns of all strains indicated that they were
resistant to ampicillin of up to 50 mg/l but susceptible to streptomycin, tetracycline
and kanamycin at concentrations of 25, 15 and 10 mg/l, respectively. The growth
characteristics of UPMR.43 and UP"MR.44 (in a modified glutamate medium (GM) and peptone medium (PA)) was studied using shake flask method. UPMR43 grew
better in GM compared to PA but the reverse was true for UPMR44. PA
significantly reduced the cell concentration and affected growth characteristic. The
generation times for both strains in both media were less than 6 h indicating that
they were fast growers. The banding pattern of total DNA of three strains digested
with EcoRI showed that they were very similar.
A large plasmid, subject to confirmation was detected in UPMR44 using
Hirsch method and one small plasmid in UPMR43 using Casse method. A 13.5 kb
BamHI and a 7.0 kb EcoRI DNA fragment from total DNA extracts of all local
strains were detected in Southern blot experiments using probes carrying the
nifHDK genes of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Azotobacter vinelandii. The results
showed that the nif genes of the Azorhizobium strains were detectable using the
heterologous nif probes from K. pneumoniae and A. vinelandii. The similar results
obtained from colony morphology, generation time, IAR patterns, total DNA
restriction patterns and DNA-DNA hybridisation of the three strains studied suggests
that they may be the same strain. The obtained results also showed that local strains
have a similar characteristics with A. caulinodans ORS571. Strain X may be
considered a unique strain since S. rostrata was easily infected although it is not
native to Malaysia. It is postulated that this strain may have an alternative host plant.


The performance of a photovoltaic (PV) installation is affected by its tilt and azimuth angles, because these parameters change the amount of solar energy absorbed by the surface of the PV modules. Therefore, this paper demonstrates the impact of the azimuth angle on the energy production of PV installations. Two different PV sites were studied, where the first comprises PV systems installed at –13°, –4°, +12° and +21° azimuth angles in different geographical locations, whereas the second PV site included adjacent PV systems installed at –87°, –32°, +2° and +17° azimuth angles. All the investigated PV sites were located in Huddersfield, UK. In summary, the results indicate that PV systems installed between –4° and +2° presented the maximum energy production over the last 4 years, while the worst energy generation were observed for the PV system installed at an azimuth angle of –87°. Finally, the probability projections for all observed azimuth angles datasets have been assessed. Since PV systems are affected by various environmental conditions such as fluctuations in the wind, humidity, solar irradiance and ambient temperature, ultimately, these factors would affect the annual energy generation of the PV installations. For that reason, we have analysed the disparities and the probability of the annual energy production for multiple PV systems installed at different azimuth angles ranging from –90° to +90° degrees, and affected by different environmental conditions. These analyses are based on the cumulative density function modelling technique as well as the normal distribution function.


The Great Firewall of China (GFW) has long used DNS packet injection to censor Internet access. In this work, we analyze the DNS injection behavior of the GFW over a period of nine months using the Alexa top 1M domains as a test list. We first focus on understanding the publicly routable IPs used by the GFW and observe groups of IPs used to filter specific sets of domains. We also see a sharp decline in public IPs injected by the GFW in November 2019. We then fingerprint three different injectors that we observe in our measurements. Notably, one of these injectors mirrors the IP TTL value from probe packets in its injected packets which has implications for the use of TTL-limited probes for localizing censors. Finally, we confirm that our observations generally hold across IP prefixes registered in China.


Purpose: Therapeutic regimens for adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL) are limited with unsatisfactory results, thereby warranting development of novel therapies. This study investigated antitumor activity and toxicity of alemtuzumab with regard to response, duration of response, progression-free survival, and overall survival in patients with human T-cell lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1)-associated ATL. Experimental Design: Twenty-nine patients with chronic, acute, and lymphomatous types of ATL were enrolled in a single-institution, nonrandomized, open-label phase II trial wherein patients received intravenous alemtuzumab 30 mg three times weekly for a maximum of 12 weeks. Results: Twenty-nine patients were evaluable for response and toxicity. The overall objective response was 15 of 29 patients [95% confidence interval (CI), 32.5%–70.6%]. The 15 patients who responded manifested a median time to response of 1.1 months. Median response duration was 1.4 months for the whole group and 14.5 months among responders. Median progression-free survival was 2.0 months. Median overall survival was 5.9 months. The most common adverse events were 2 with vasovagal episodes (7%) and 3 with hypotensive episodes (10%), leukopenia (41%) grade 3 and (17%) grade 4, lymphocytopenia (59%) grade 3, neutropenia (31%) grade 3, anemia (24%), and thrombocytopenia (10%). All patients developed cytomegalovirus antigenemia (CMV). Three were symptomatic and all responded to antiviral therapy. Grade 3 or 4 infections were reported in 4 (14%) of patients. Conclusions: Alemtuzumab induced responses in patients with acute HTLV-1–associated ATL with acceptable toxicity, but with short duration of responses. These studies support inclusion of alemtuzumab in novel multidrug therapies for ATL. Clin Cancer Res; 23(1); 35–42. ©2016 AACR.


Before the deep learning revolution, many perception algorithms were based on runtime optimization in conjunction with a strong prior/regularization penalty. A prime example of this in computer vision is optical and scene flow. Supervised learning has largely displaced the need for explicit regularization. Instead, they rely on large amounts of labeled data to capture prior statistics, which are not always readily available for many problems. Although optimization is employed to learn the neural network, the weights of this network are frozen at runtime. As a result, these learning solutions are domain-specific and do not generalize well to other statistically different scenarios. This paper revisits the scene flow problem that relies predominantly on runtime optimization and strong regularization. A central innovation here is the inclusion of a neural scene flow prior, which uses the architecture of neural networks as a new type of implicit regularizer. Unlike learning-based scene flow methods, optimization occurs at runtime, and our approach needs no offline datasets -- making it ideal for deployment in new environments such as autonomous driving. We show that an architecture based exclusively on multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) can be used as a scene flow prior. Our method attains competitive -- if not better -- results on scene flow benchmarks. Also, our neural prior's implicit and continuous scene flow representation allows us to estimate dense long-term correspondences across a sequence of point clouds. The dense motion information is represented by scene flow fields where points can be propagated through time by integrating motion vectors. We demonstrate such a capability by accumulating a sequence of lidar point clouds.


Contemporary Africa is still struggling with the legacies of slavery, apartheid, colonialism and the deleterious impact of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) and now globalisation. Some parts of postcolonial Africa have attempted to set up ministries of economic development. Others have concentrated on attracting on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) whilst some others have early on realised that the state and private capital should work hand in hand for development. But these different approaches have not always necessarily had the results that are necessary for development. To make matters more complicated, the continent have to struggle in a context where trade remains inequitable and finding a niche for themselves remains a difficult task. The main reason behind this failure is that development has been seen and interpreted within the narrow confines of economic growth. So rethinking economic growth at the continent level has become imperative and different stakeholders have an important role to play in the process. In South Africa, during many decades, black people experienced a segregationist politics of a white minority. In 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) promised to create a better South Africa for all. Various ANC governments since then have adopted many economic programmes with the aim to halve by 2014 poverty and unemployment especially among the Historically Disadvantaged Individuals (PDI). However, recent studies in South Africa showed that inequality is widening despite the acceptable levels of economic growth. Reports showed that an overwhelming share of the change in the economy over time explained by high economic growth will continue to be without any improvement of the lives of marginalized ones unless there are changes in wealth distribution within the different layers of the South African population. Therefore, pro-poor economic growth must be developed in order to achieve the expected results of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the South African context. The paper seeks to develop some variables (investment in physical and human capital for example) needed to be included in the structure of South African development theories, which will assist development practitioners to determine the sources of growth and inequality, and ultimately develop strategies aiming at halving inequalities in the country.


Introduction: NO is an important mediator in vascular reactions especially in pulmonary circulation. Oral compounds can act by NO mediated pathways, but addressing the effect of pulsed inhaled NO (iNO) directly on the airways and pulmonary vasculature is worthwhile. Therefore a proof of concept study was performed using FRI to quantify blood vessel caliber directly from CT images. Method: During 20min pulsed iNO (30 mcg/kg IBW/hr) was administered via nasal cannula in 6 COPD patients with PAH. Patients underwent a HRCT scan with contrast before and after iNO. Using FRI, blood vessel and associated lobe volumes were quantified. Oxygen saturation and blood pressure were monitored and patients were requested about their subjective feelings. Results: Blood vessel volume increased by 7.06±5.37% after iNO. A strong correlation (Ω=0.57, p=0.002) was obtained between ventilation and vasodilation, suggesting that regions with better ventilation experience more vasodilation and that with a pulse system iNO is directed towards ventilated zones. Patients did not develop oxygen desaturation, remained normotensive and perceived an improvement in dyspnea sensation.
 Conclusion: Pulsed iNO has a profound effect on the pulmonary vessels caliber and FRI can be used to detect these changes. Vasodilation is highly correlated with ventilation. The effect of upper airway resistance and of NO and oxygen inhalation will be subject of future studies.


The Article 9 changes address two fundamental issues relevant to securitization transaction participants: (i) the characterization of the asset transfer, and (ii) the clarity and certainty of the process taken to perfect the transferee's interest in the assets. These changes will eliminate some of the uncertainty that asset-backed security investors and securitization originators face. What the Article 9 changes will also do, however, when read in conjunction with the amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, will be to allow certain financial market participants to avoid participation in the bankruptcy process, notwithstanding their provision of financing to a debtor in bankruptcy. A consequence of these changes is our unwitting abandonment of two socially desirable objectives inherent in the bankruptcy process: (i) the reorganization of potentially viable businesses, and (ii) the equality of distribution of a debtor's assets among creditors. Accordingly, securitization, under the combined Revised Article 9/Bankruptcy scheme, may become the most effective judgment proofing mechanism for those debtors able to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, the impact of such a mechanism will not be felt merely by the parties consenting to the securitization transaction, but by all the participants in the credit markets, as well as all those affected by a firm's business. The Bankruptcy Code amendments affirmatively carving out from the definition of the debtor's estate certain securitized assets, notwithstanding the circumstances surrounding their transfer, will result in fewer assets available for distribution to a bankrupt firm's other creditors. The significance and substantive importance of the definition of what assets are included in the debtor's bankruptcy estate to the commercial markets cannot be overstated.


Static timing analysis provides the basis for setting the clock period of a microprocessor core, based on its worst-case critical path. However, depending on the design, this critical path is not always excited and therefore dynamic timing margins exist that can theoretically be exploited for the benefit of better speed or lower power consumption (through voltage scaling). This paper introduces predictive instruction-based dynamic clock adjustment as a technique to trim dynamic timing margins in pipelined microprocessors. To this end, we exploit the different timing requirements for individual instructions during the dynamically varying program execution flow without the need for complex circuit-level measures to detect and correct timing violations. We provide a design flow to extract the dynamic timing information for the design using post-layout dynamic timing analysis and we integrate the results into a custom cycle-accurate simulator. This simulator allows annotation of individual instructions with their impact on timing (in each pipeline stage) and rapidly derives the overall code execution time for complex benchmarks. The design methodology is illustrated at the microarchitecture level, demonstrating the performance and power gains possible on a 6-stage OpenRISC in-order general purpose processor core in a 28nm CMOS technology. We show that employing instruction-dependent dynamic clock adjustment leads on average to an increase in operating speed by 38% or to a reduction in power consumption by 24%, compared to traditional synchronous clocking, which at all times has to respect the worst-case timing identified through static timing analysis.


This report presents both theoretical and experimental studies of a wheeled mobile system that incorporates a number of intelligent and robust closed-loop control schemes. The system may actually represent an automated material-handling transporter that can be effectively used in a manufacturing or industrial environment. An integrated kinematic and dynamic control with embedded intelligent algorithms were the main approaches employed for the robust motion control of a mobile manipulator (MM) comprising a differentially driven wheeled mobile base platform with a two-link planar arm mounted on top of the platform. The study emphasizes on the integrated kinematic and dynamic control strategy of the schemes in which the former serving as the outer most control loop is used to manipulate the trajectory components while the latter constituting the inner active force control (AFC) loop is implemented to compensate the dynamic effects including the bounded known or unknown disturbances and uncertainties while the system is executing trajectory tracking tasks. The proposed intelligent schemes considered in the study are the fuzzy logic (FL) and knowledge-based system (KBS) strategies that are incorporated into the AFC schemes to automatically estimate the inertia matrix of the system necessary to trigger the disturbance rejection capability. A virtual mobile system was also designed and included in the study to demonstrate the system capability to operate effectively in a virtual computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) environment. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed schemes were investigated through a rigorous simulation study and later complemented with experimental results obtained through a number of experiments performed on a fully developed working prototype in a laboratory setting. A number of disturbances in the form of vibratory and impact forces are deliberately introduced into the system to evaluate the system performances. The investigation clearly demonstrates the excellent robustness feature of the proposed control scheme compared to other systems considered in the study.


We propose a computationally efficient random walk on a convex body which rapidly mixes and closely tracks a time-varying log-concave distribution. We develop general theoretical guarantees on the required number of steps; this number can be calculated on the fly according to the distance from and the shape of the next distribution. We then illustrate the technique on several examples. Within the context of exponential families, the proposed method produces samples from a posterior distribution which is updated as data arrive in a streaming fashion. The sampling technique can be used to track time-varying truncated distributions, as well as to obtain samples from a changing mixture model, fitted in a streaming fashion to data. In the setting of linear optimization, the proposed method has oracle complexity with best known dependence on the dimension for certain geometries. In the context of online learning and repeated games, the algorithm is an efficient method for implementing no-regret mixture forecasting strategies. Remarkably, in some of these examples, only one step of the random walk is needed to track the next distribution.


Abstract. Lateral carbon flux through river networks is an important and poorly-understood component of the global carbon budget. This work investigates how temperature and hydrology control the production and export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory in Pennsylvania, USA. We applied the catchment-scale hydro-biogeochemical reactive transport model BioRT-Flux-PIHM to simulate the DOC dynamics. We estimated the daily DOC production rate (Rp; the sum of local DOC production rates in individual modeling grid cell) and the daily DOC export rate (Re; the product of concentration and discharge at the stream outlet) to downstream ecosystems. Simulations showed that Rp varied by less than an order of magnitude and primarily hinged on seasonal temperature change. In contrast, Re varied by more than three orders of magnitude with a strong dependence on discharge and hydrological connectivity. During summer, high temperatures led to high atmospheric water demand (and evapotranspiration) that dried and disconnected hillslope to stream. Rp reached its maximum but Re was at its minimum. The stream only exported DOC from the organic-poor groundwater and from soil water in the narrow organic-rich swales with enriched DOC such that DOC accumulated in the catchment. During the wet period (winter and spring), Rp reached its minimum but Re peaked because the stream was re-connected to a greater uphill area, flushing out the stored DOC. The model reproduced the observed concentration discharge (C–Q) relationship characterized by a flushing-dilution pattern with a rise in concentrations to a maximum (flushing) at a threshold discharge and then followed a general dilution with concentrations decreasing with discharge. This pattern was explained by the comparable contribution of organic-poor deeper groundwater and soil water from organic-rich swales at the minimum flow, maximized percentage contribution of soil water from organic-rich swales at the low flow regime, and increased contribution of uphill soil water interflow from uphill with less DOC at the high flow regime. This pattern persisted regardless of DOC production rate as long as the contribution of deeper groundwater flow remained low ( 18 %, the flushing-dilution C–Q pattern shifted towards a flushing-only pattern with DOC concentrations increasing with discharge. This study illustrates the temporal asynchrony of DOC production, mostly controlled by temperature, and DOC export, primarily governed by hydrological flow paths at the catchment scale. The occurrence of warmer and more extreme hydrological events in the future could accentuate this asynchrony, with major lateral export of DOC dominated by a few major storm events whereas DOC is produced and stored in the catchment in the prolonged drought periods.


We report the surface-enhanced Raman (SERS) spectra of morphine in silver colloid, and study the silver colloid enhanced effects on the Raman scattering of morphine. The Raman bands of morphine are assigned to certain molecule vibrations. The broad band in the long-wavelength region of the electronic absorption spectra of the sol with added adsorbent at certain concentrations has been explained in terms of the aggregation of the colloidal silver particles. The potential applications of SERS in quantitative measurement of the morphine samples are demonstrated. By using a proper Raman band of morphine, the detection limit of morphine in silver sol is found to be 1.5 ng/ml. The result suggests that it is of great significance to use SERS in illicit drug morphine inspection.


We contribute a shape-shifting wall display that dynamically changes its physical shape to support particular individual and group activities. Our current prototype comprises three vertical slim screens, each mounted on a mobile robot. Different shapes are created by controlling the position and angle of each robot. Examples include: (1) a flat wall display for collaboratively sharing visual content; (2) three separated screens for individual work; (3) a concave screen that provides a more immersive and private experience; (4) a convex screen that supports a mix of individual and group work, (5) tilted screens, and others. Shape-changing is controlled explicitly or implicitly. Explicit control occurs when a collaborator indicates a desired shape via a hand gesture. Implicit control occurs when the system infers a change in the group's context, e.g., as determined from a change in the screen's contents, or by monitoring the spatial relations between participants around the display (via proxemics and F-formations). Several interaction scenarios illustrate how a shape-changing display is used in practice. Author


The introduction of biomimicry as a theme in the classroom has some significant advantages when developing a STEAM curriculum. This growing field has many natural overlaps between the different disciplines within STEAM. There are many fascinating stories surrounding biomimicry connecting nature to simple solutions for many of our most difficult problems, especially related to the sustainability of our planet. Biomimicry cannot but help capture the imagination of our students. Author/Artist Bio Steve Pauls holds a joint position between Fresno Pacific University and the AIMS Center for Math and Science. Over the years he has taught a wide variety of courses in science and mathematics both in the traditional Undergraduate Program and the STEM and Mathematics Educational Graduate Program at FPU. For the AIMS Center Steve is a senior science researcher and is concentrating on the cognitive processes of learning focused specifically on visuospatial learning in K-12 education. Steve continue to research new ways of integrating cross-disciplinary topics and pedological methods into the classroom. He also has an interest in woodworking, ceramics, cartooning, and integrating microcircuit/sensor technology into the STEAM curriculum. Dr. Pauls received his Bachelors of Science degrees in Chemistry and Physics from Bethel College in Kansas and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Kansas University.


Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique contains a musical representation of evil that is rooted in a long history of the concept of evil in Western culture. This concept has varied with time and ideological change, giving rise to a rich and complex symbolism of evil which would have influenced Berlioz in his compositional choices and can still inform our own interpretations of the symphony. It is the perpetuation of past symbolisms of evil that makes this possible. This thesis contextualises the Symphonie fantastique in relation to the Western cultural symbolism of evil, exploring a number of areas of this symbolism, tracing the history in which they are founded, and identifying how they manifest themselves in the symphony and might influence an interpretation of the work. The symbolisms of deviation and disorder are reflected in the deviation from musical rules, the use of chaotic music, and the musical intimation of bodily disorder. The body itself, in its correlation with sex and juxtaposition with "civilised reason," provides a symbolism of evil which can be read in the corporeal nature of the music, particularly its reliance on dance rhythms. The body is also implicated in the symbolism of malconformation in which the ugliness associated with evil and the grotesque can be identified in many aspects of the music. The symbolism of triviality in this symphony is problematic in relation to the otherness associated with evil, particularly the feminine other. Not only does the symphony reflect these symbolisms of evil, it also contributes to their perpetuation, assisting in their establishment as a seemingly natural corollary of evil. That the symbolism might not correlate with our current concept of evil makes it important that we recognise the context of the symbols, the morality that they reflect and the vilifications they naturalize.


Some smokable herbal mixtures under the brand name Spice drugs have been sold on the Internet and in specialised shops (smart shops) since 2004. The mixtures are advertised as an exotic incense blend which releases a rich aroma and not for human consumption. When smoked, Spice drugs products have been reported by products have been reported by some users to have effects similar to those of cannabis. Spice drugs have received intensive attention in drug forums due to the possibility to obtain a non legal substitute of cannabis. Forensic analyses have found different potent synthetic cannabinoid agonists in some Spice drugs products, as JWH-018, CP 47497, JWH-073 and HU-210. There are few data about its pharmacological properties in animals, but nothing about its toxicity. At present, almost nothing is known about the pharmacology, toxicology and safety profile of such compounds in humans, except the opinions of consumers in internet forums. Neither the herbal ingredients of Spice drugs, nor any of the synthetic cannabinoids found in them, are internationally controlled under the 1961 or 1971 UN drug control conventions. Some European countries have recently taken legal actions to ban or otherwise control Spice drugs products and related compounds. These cannabinoid substances can be considered as new products to be added to the list of 'designer drugs'.


China has been highly successful in electrifying rural areas in the past half century. Institutional structure and its reform are important for investment and, therefore, development of rural electrification. Over time, there have been three major institutional changes initiated by the central government; When the People's Republic was founded in 1949, it was short of capital, technology and management professionals to promote rural electrification, so rural electricity had a separate administrative system from the urban areas. From 1949 to 1977, China established a comprehensive vertical system of rural electricity administration under strict central planning. At the end of the 1970s, with the adoption of economic reform policy, the central government handed over the management of the local electricity system to local government. County level has proved the most effective implementation unit for both planning and project implementation of the rural electricity system. From 1998 to 2002, the central government has been separating local electricity supply from local governments to facilitate the commercial operation of the utility market. After 2002, the rural electricity system was merged with the urban system, forming an integrated national electricity administrative system in China. Copyright Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences 2006.


Auditory neurons encode stimulus history, which is often modelled using a span of time-delays in a spectro-temporal receptive field (STRF). We propose an alternative model for the encoding of stimulus history, which we apply to extracellular recordings of neurons in the primary auditory cortex of anaesthetized ferrets. For a linear-non-linear STRF model (LN model) to achieve a high level of performance in predicting single unit neural responses to natural sounds in the primary auditory cortex, we found that it is necessary to include time delays going back at least 200 ms in the past. This is an unrealistic time span for biological delay lines. We therefore asked how much of this dependence on stimulus history can instead be explained by dynamical aspects of neurons. We constructed a neural-network model whose output is the weighted sum of units whose responses are determined by a dynamic firing-rate equation. The dynamic aspect performs low-pass filtering on each unit's response, providing an exponentially decaying memory whose time constant is individual to each unit. We find that this dynamic network (DNet) model, when fitted to the neural data using STRFs of only 25 ms duration, can achieve prediction performance on a held-out dataset comparable to the best performing LN model with STRFs of 200 ms duration. These findings suggest that integration due to the membrane time constants or other exponentially-decaying memory processes may underlie linear temporal receptive fields of neurons beyond 25 ms. AUTHOR SUMMARY The responses of neurons in the primary auditory cortex depend on the recent history of sounds over seconds or less. Typically, this dependence on the past has been modelled by applying a wide span of time delays to the input, although this is likely to be biologically unrealistic. Real neurons integrate the history of their activity due to the dynamical properties of their cell membranes and other components. We show that a network with a realistically narrow span of delays and with units having dynamic characteristics like those found in neurons, succinctly models neural responses recorded from ferret primary auditory cortex. Because these integrative properties are widespread, our dynamic network provides a basis for modelling responses in other neural systems.


Background: Suicidal behaviour is highly prevalent and increasing at an alarming rate among all socio-demographic groupings in South Africa. Approximately 9.5% of all unnatural deaths in young people in South Africa are due to suicide. The ratio of non-fatal suicide attempts to attempts with fatal outcomes varies between 20:1 and 40:1 depending on the geographical region and the community composition being studied. Although depression is a common co-existing finding in many studies involving patients with suicidal behaviour, current evidence suggests that it is either not detected or it is inappropriately managed in clinical practice. Aim: This study compared self-reported perceived and objectively assessed personal physical and mental well-being of adults attempting suicide and being admitted to two local community-based public hospitals in South Africa. Method: Validated questionnaires were used to elicit relevant data from 688 adults attempting suicide and being admitted to two community-based public hospitals in Durban which was analysed using SPSS®. Results: The majority of participants were female, single, younger age group, unemployed, low education and low income level. Only 30.3% of participants reported long-standing illnesses lasting more than 6 months. The majority perceived their physical and mental health to be normal. However, an objective assessment revealed a large number of participants to be suffering from varying levels of depression. Conclusion: The study population comprised mainly the younger age group in both sexes, and showed that depression is an important co-morbid risk factor in suicidal behaviour in this and other groups. This finding cannot be ignored, and the authors endorse the call for a scaling up of screening strategies to diagnose depression, and for an improved prevention and management framework.


More complex environmental mixtures have been evaluated for mutagenic activity at the hisD3052 allele of Salmonella, primarily in strain TA98, than in any other target or mutation assay. Using colony probe hybridization to detect a common hot spot deletion, followed by polymerase chain reaction and DNA sequencing, we have generated 10 mutation spectra from three classes of mixtures (i.e., urban air, cigarette smoke condensate, and municipal waste incinerator emissions). The mutation spectra are distinctly different among the three classes of mixtures; however, the spectra for samples within the same class of mixture are similar. In addition to the hot spot mutation, the mixtures induce complex mutations, which consist of a small deletion and a base substitution. These mutations suggest a mechanism involving misinsertion of a base opposite a DNA adduct followed by a slippage and mismatch. A role for DNA secondary structure also may be the basis for the mutational site specificity exhibited by the various mixtures. The results suggest that unique mutation spectra can be generated by different classes of complex mixtures and that such spectra are a consequence of the dominance of a particular chemical class or classes within the mixture. The problems associated with this type of research are discussed along with the potential value of mutation spectra as a tool for exposure and risk assessment.


Moter mellom natt og dag (Meetings between night and day) was my Professional Integration Project (PIP). It was a musical collaborative performance implemented in three kindergartens in the municipality of Fjell, outside of Bergen on the west coast of Norway, between March 17th and March 19th 2015. The target audience for the performance was children aged three years and under. The performance consisted of 10 folk songs from the countries of Norway, Sweden and Malawi. In addition I employed voice improvisation accompanied by small instruments such as djembe, an mbira, a glockenspiel and a rain stick. The performance integrated a visual presentation of pictures taken by photographer Ingvild Festervoll Melien.In the findings I present my relation to the audience, the roles of the adults in the kindergarten, the difference between being a musician and not a teacher in the audience setting, my aspects of time and digital media, how participation and interaction were integrated in the performance, and how the collaboration with photographer Melien functioned, as well as describe my own development in regards to new acquired skills and experiences. The findings are presented through my own reflection, and through discussions where I point to literature concerning perspectives on children and arts.My conclusion shows that I have managed to create a successful musical collaboration performance in terms of developing my own artistry and engaging with the target audience of children between 0-3 years, in a performance especially created and designed for them. It also points to ways for how I can continue developing as an artist making performance for small children, and how these aspects also are transferable to other areas for musical performance.


Adapting Western self-critical discourse, the Arab Egyptian intellectual Abdelwahab Elmessiri (1938-2008) attempted to Islamize modernity; however, he did this ironically via Western critique itself. This paper follows a comparative approach to show how Elmessiri's construction of the duality of immanence (Western modernity) and transcendence (Islamic monotheism) is based on the critiques introduced by Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) and Zygmunt Bauman (1925- ). However, while Bauman saw the role of critical theory as the modest comment on human experience, Elmessiri and Voegelin uncovered the dominance of immanence in Western modernity so as to contrast it with Islamic monotheism and the Christian humanistic legacy, respectively. The critiques introduced by Elmessiri and Voegelin reach their climax when modernity is compared to a form of heretical Gnosticism.


How are causal judgements such as 'The ice on the road caused the traffic accident' connected with counterfactual judgements such as 'If there had not been any ice on the road, the traffic accident would not have happened'? This volume throws new light on this question by uniting, for the first time, psychological and philosophical approaches to causation and counterfactuals. Traditionally, philosophers have primarily been interested in connections between causal and counterfactual claims on the level of meaning or truth-conditions. More recently, however, they have also increasingly turned their attention to psychological connections between causal and counterfactual understanding or reasoning. At the same time, there has been a surge in interest in empirical work on causal and counterfactual cognition amongst developmental, cognitive, and social psychologists--much of it inspired by work in philosophy. In this volume, twelve original contributions from leading philosophers and psychologists explore in detail what bearing empirical findings might have on philosophical concerns about counterfactuals and causation, and how, in turn, work in philosophy might help clarify the issues at stake in empirical work on the cognitive underpinnings of, and relationships between, causal and counterfactual thought.


In offering his diagnosis of Europe's ailing banking sector, Daniel Gros finds that it is undercapitalised, too large and populated by too many players without a viable long-term business model. In his view, it is the combination of the last two factors that is the most worrying and he warns that any major problem could overburden public budgets, making the sector, with total liabilities over 250% of GDP, possibly "too big to be saved".


Power circuit temperature monitoring based on distributed temperature sensing (DTS) is used worldwide. Applications include real time temperature monitoring of high voltage power cables, including direct buried, duct bank, submarine and distribution cable installations. The benefits of this technology, as applied to power cable monitoring, are outlined. International trends towards the specification of real time dynamic rating systems, based on IEC 60287, are described. Also included is the application of DTS to power cable tunnels, where in addition to power cable monitoring, tunnel ambient temperature and fire detection are achieved within a single system. Applications of the technology to overhead lines, substations, and other plant are described.


Volunteer computing
 uses computers volunteered by the general public to do distributed scientific computing.
 Volunteer computing
 is being used in high-energy physics, molecular biology, medicine, astrophysics, climate study, and other areas. These projects have attained unprecedented computing power. However, with the development of information technology, the traditional defense system cannot deal with the unknown security problems of
 volunteer computing
 . At the same time, Cyber Mimic Defense (CMD) can defend the unknown attack behavior through its three characteristics: dynamic, heterogeneous, and redundant. As an important part of the CMD, the dynamic scheduling algorithm realizes the dynamic change of the service centralized executor, which can enusre the security and reliability of CMD of
 volunteer computing
 . Aiming at the problems of passive scheduling and large scheduling granularity existing in the existing scheduling algorithms, this article first proposes a scheduling algorithm based on time threshold and task threshold and realizes the dynamic randomness of mimic defense from two different dimensions; finally, combining time threshold and random threshold, a dynamic scheduling algorithm based on multi-level queue is proposed. The experiment shows that the dynamic scheduling algorithm based on multi-level queue can take both security and reliability into account, has better dynamic heterogeneous redundancy characteristics, and can effectively prevent the transformation rule of heterogeneous executors from being mastered by attackers.


Development theory, policy and practice have undergone considerable change since the end of Second World War 1945. In this period development has increasingly come to be understood as a process that must involve the "poor". And within development discourse, there is little disagreement that disabled people are amongst the poorest (Elwan, 1999; Katsui, 2007). According to the Asian Development Bank (2000:1), "poverty and disability reinforce each other." However, although poverty affect both men and women worldwide (Welch, 2002), available literature on women and poverty (Buvinic, 1997; Omar, 2011) suggest that women"s lives are characterised by increased poverty levels when compared to their male counterparts. This is largely due to women's subordinate status, which is compounded by the presence of impairment (Welch, 2002). This study explores the experiences of disabled people in development processes in Binga, a district of Zimbabwe shaped by Tonga culture and characterised by political oppression and isolation.

Twenty disabled adults in three wards contributed accounts of their life experiences in narrative interviews. Interviews were also held with government officers, traditional community leaders (chiefs, councillors) and a representative of a national disability organization to elicit their understanding and awareness of disabled people"s participation in development processes. Four focus group discussions with disabled and non-disabled people were held and six village and ward committee meetings observed to gain a deeper understanding of public attitudes to disabled people.

Despite the modernising effects of globalisation in Zimbabwe, Tonga cultural beliefs still dominated understanding about the causes and implications of bodily impairment. Disabled people summarily defined and subjected to negative stereotyping, experienced pernicious social exclusion from community life, starting with low family expectations and aspirations, limited access to education and persistent exclusion from opportunities to take responsibility as citizens of their own communities. But employing Sen's capability framework, conceptualisation of development as freedom and considerations of justice, brings new insights not only into understanding disabled people"s experiences of exclusion, but also possible ways in which disabled people could be included in the development processes of villages and wards in which they live.


Cell transplantation is emerging as a potential therapeutic option for LGMD due to its ability to aid in repair and regeneration of dystrophic muscles. Our aim was to study the benefit of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) in LGMD. We administered a 39 year old LGMD male with autologous BMMNCs intramuscularly and intrathecally twice followed by rehabilitation. His muscle power in all limbs was below functional level with proximal weakness more than distal. Functional Independence Measure (FIM) score was 114. Over a period of 18 months, muscle power increased gradually with improvements in functional activities. FIM score was maintained indicating a halt in the progression of disease. 36 months after second dose of transplantation, patient's condition was maintained with no deterioration in quality of life. This report provides early evidence of beneficial effects of autologous BMMNCs coupled with rehabilitation in halting the disease progression and functional improvement in LGMD.


Composite structure, a feature of Freud's dreamwork theory, is relevant to understanding cinematic works in which a range of viewpoints and narratives, dense and diverse themes, highly distinguishable productive elements (here, sound and cinematography) coalesce under a powerful 'binding' concept. In the case of what I have termed cine de choque, that concept is the car crash and, more specifically, the Spanish word choque, which can be translated as crash, shock or clash. This category of film refers to a number of recent works (from the late 1990s onwards) by Spanish-speaking directors in which car crashes feature strongly both as pivotal plot devices and as linguistic metaphors informing the aesthetics of the films in question. These films include Alejandro Amenabar's Abre los ojos (1997), Julio Medem's Los amantes del circulo polar (1998), Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 21 Grams (2003) and Lucrecia Martel's La mujer sin cabeza (2010). Here, I deal specifically with the relevance of composite structure to the narrative aesthetics of Gonzalez Inarritu's Amores perros (2000), referring also to the theories of Gilles Deleuze on shock and violence, those of Sergei Eisenstein on organic unity and those of Christian Metz on the 'filmic state'. As well as discussing the movement of the film's aesthetic and thematic content from physical to emotional choque, I explore the dimensions of the crash as a plot device, a symbol of the clash between humanity and modernity and, ultimately, the way in which it is significant as much for what it fails to cause (resolution by figures of authority) as for what it triggers in the lives of the characters.


The term genetic resources, or germplasm, refers to propagating material of plants and animals, including seeds, pollen, vegetative propagules and animal semen. It can also encompass whole plants and animals, in their role as reservoirs of genetic material. Germplasm forms the basis of plant and animal reproduction, and thus of the conservation and generation of genetic diversity. Although germplasm conservation is usually thought of as a tool for making the diversity of crops and their wild relatives available to plant breeders, it is now recognised as having equally important roles in the reintroduction of traditional crops to farm fields or gardens, or of wild species to wild habitats. In theory, germplasm and ethnobiology should be closely interlinked. Plant germplasm, for example, has two central attributes that are relevant to ethnobiology: use, and threatened conservation status. A significant proportion of all plants fall directly within the 'useful plants' brief of the ethnobotanist. Karl Hammer et al. (2003: 242) have estimated that about 122,000 of the world's approximately 300,000 known higher plant species are useful as crops or crop wild relatives, and there are probably tens of thousands of species that humans can use for other purposes. The vulnerable status of a significant proportion of plants is not disputed: between a quarter and a third of all plant species are threatened by extinction, and massive losses of agricultural biodiversity have occurred over the past 50 years. For ethnobiology, a discipline much concerned with sustainable development, germplasm conservation is clearly central. Yet, the three most-used ethnobotany manuals barely mention germplasm or genebanks, and the same is true of almost all ethnobotanical papers (Martin, 1995; Alexiades, 1996; Anderson et al., 2011). In this chapter we have two aims. The first is to orientate ethnobiologists in the variety of techniques used to preserve germplasm. Although it is now widely accepted that an approach that uses and integrates all of these will be most successful in preserving biodiversity, publications still tend to cover just one technique. Here, we touch on all, although giving most attention to seed genebanks. Second, we put forward some suggestions on how the ethnobiologist can integrate genebank collections into their research and practice. We expect these will also be useful to institutional germplasm curators seeking to take a more ethnobotanical approach to collections. In this chapter, we give details of storage practices for plant and animal germplasm at the United States' National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation, but in general we avoid giving too much detail on collecting and curation, as these topics are well covered in guides, many available online.


This paper addresses utilization of proportional-plus derivative (PD) control algoritluns for time-optimal control of flexible-robots. Flexibility is modeled using one mode of vibration with negligible structural damping. Two novel methods for time-optimal control were derived and closed form equations for tuning the required PD gains were obtained. The resulting controllers were used to control a high-speed flexible-robot for minimum settling time in response to a step angular motion command. Similarly, for the sake of comparison, three other techniques were used to control the same flexible robot arm. The first used multi-switch bang-bang control technique. The second used PD approach in which the gains are computed through locating the dominant poles as far left as possible in the left hand side of the complex plane. The third approach used multi-switch bang-bang control followed by PD control. Uncertainties were introduced in the model to evaluate robustness of the methods. Results obtained showed that the novel techniques out performed the other ones.


The article deals about the results of a study of school-based Assessment of Prior Learning of adults who have enrolled as students in a VET college in order to qualify for occupations as skilled workers. Based on examples of VET teachers' methods for assessing the students' prior learning in the programs for gastronomes, respectively child care assistants the article discusses two issues in relation to Assessment of Prior Learing: the encounter of practical experience and school-based knowledge and the validity and reliability of the assessment procedures. Through focusing on the students' knowing that and knowing why the assessment is based on a scholastic perception of the students' needs for training, reflecting one of the most important challenges in Assessment of Prior Learning: how can practical experience be transformed into credits for the knowledge parts of the programs? The study shows that by combining several Assessment of Prior Learning methods and comparing the teachers' assessments the teachers respond to the issues of validity and reliability. However, validity and reliability might be even further strengthened, if the competencies are well defined, if the education system is aware of securing a reasonable balance between knowing how, knowing that, and knowing why, and if the teachers are adequately trained for the assessment procedures.


We present a general method for constructing radar transmit pulse trains and receive filters for which the radar point-spread function in delay and Doppler, given by the cross-ambiguity function of the transmit pulse train and the pulse train used in the receive filter, is essentially free of range sidelobes inside a Doppler interval around the zero-Doppler axis. The transmit pulse train is constructed by coordinating the transmission of a pair of Golay complementary waveforms across time according to zeros and ones in a binary sequence P. The pulse train used to filter the received signal is constructed in a similar way, in terms of sequencing the Golay waveforms, but each waveform in the pulse train is weighted by an element from another sequence Q. We show that a spectrum jointly determined by P and Q sequences controls the size of the range sidelobes of the cross-ambiguity function and by properly choosing P and Q we can clear out the range sidelobes inside a Doppler interval around the zero-Doppler axis. The joint design of P and Q enables a tradeoff between the order of the spectral null for range sidelobe suppression and the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver output. We establish this trade-off and derive a necessary and sufficient condition for the construction of P and Q sequences that produce a null of a desired order.


With this practical book, you will attain a solid understanding of threads and will discover how to put this powerful mode of programming to work in real-world applications.The primary advantage of threaded programming is that it enables your applications to accomplish more than one task at the same time by using the number-crunching power of multiprocessor parallelism and by automatically exploiting I/O concurrency in your code, even on a single processor machine. The result: applications that are faster, more responsive to users, and often easier to maintain. Threaded programming is particularly well suited to network programming where it helps alleviate the bottleneck of slow network I/O.This book offers an in-depth description of the IEEE operating system interface standard, POSIXAE (Portable Operating System Interface) threads, commonly called Pthreads. Written for experienced C programmers, but assuming no previous knowledge of threads, the book explains basic concepts such as asynchronous programming, the lifecycle of a thread, and synchronization. You then move to more advanced topics such as attributes objects, thread-specific data, and realtime scheduling. An entire chapter is devoted to "real code," with a look at barriers, read/write locks, the work queue manager, and how to utilize existing libraries. In addition, the book tackles one of the thorniest problems faced by thread programmers-debugging-with valuable suggestions on how to avoid code errors and performance problems from the outset.Numerous annotated examples are used to illustrate real-world concepts. A Pthreads mini-reference and a look at future standardization are also included.


Clinicians should recognise that older patients are often sexually active and, therefore, at risk of sexually transmitted infections. Syphilis and HIV are two such infections with particular relevance in an older population, since the morbitity of other infections mainly affects fertility, which is of little worry in older patients. Since 1998, diagnoses of syphilis have been increasing in the UK, and late effects of earlier epidemics may be seen as untreated, latent, or symptomatic syphilis. In the case of HIV, effective antiviral treatment has increased the lifespan of patients and an increasing number of new diagnoses are made in older patients.