Feminist geography emerged in Australia in the 1980s, spurred on by the local Women's Liberation Movement and inspired by the academic activism emanating from England, Canada, and the United States. Producing critical evaluations of male-dominated geography departments, curriculum, and journals, feminist geographers proceeded to stake claims in each of these spheres while also substantially revising the content of geographical research. There were significant interventions into urban, social, cultural, and economic geography and in environmental discourses, as well as into the gendered research process. Having arrived, identified, and addressed these issues, the discipline was critiqued and transformed over the 1980s and 1990s. Crucial to the strength of this critique were key individuals, the Gender and Geography Group within the Institute of Australian Geographers, and the role played by journals such as Geographical Research and the Australian Geographer in providing spaces for feminist work. However, as the new century dawned, the agenda changed and the anger and urgency dissipated as the broader and university contexts altered. It was a period of consolidation, as feminist insights and approaches were focused on key subject areas – such as the home, identity, and sexuality – and became more mainstream. However, is this work and the presence of women in the academy an indication of success or of co-option? This paper will trace these various shifts – from the arrival to the mainstreaming of feminist geography – and analyse what might be read as a retreat from feminist politics and practice within the discipline in Australia. I will conclude by re-stating the case to advance a new feminist agenda in the face of continuing gender inequality within the academy, in Australia, and across the globe.


In this article I defend the traditional interpretations of Kant's
Formula of a Law of Nature from recent attacks levelled by Faviola
Rivera-Castro, James Furner, Ido Geiger, Pauline Kleingeld and Sven
Nyholm. After a short introduction, the article is divided into four main
sections. In the first, I set out the basics of the three traditional interpretations,
the Logical Contradiction Interpretation, the Practical Contradiction
Interpretation and the Teleological Contradiction Interpretation.
In the second, I examine the work of Geiger, Kleingeld and Nyholm:
these three commentators reject the traditional interpretations entirely,
but I argue that this rejection is ill-founded. In the third and fourth, I
take a detailed look at Furner's work, work in which he seeks to revise
(rather than reject) the traditional interpretations. I argue that, despite his
more modest aims, Furner's revision is also ill-founded.


The term "ontology", as is well enough known, is of seventeenth-century vintage. According to current research, it first appears in the year 1613. By the end of the century it had waxed firm in common recognition. Through the influence of Christian Wolff in the following century, the eighteenth, it quickly became standard in the school tradition for the science of being in general, the science of being qua being. In its morphology the term showed clearly enough that it was meant to designate a science that bore upon being in the widest range of the notion. In that tenor it was described at the time as metaphysica de ente, philosophia de ente, doctrina de ente, or entis scientia, in the sense that "being" denoted its proper subject matter (objectum proprium) more correctly than did "metaphysics".' Accordingly, it was intended to imply that "being", tout court, was to be regarded as the object of a philosophical science quite as "soul", for instance, played the role of object for psychology.


An atmospheric-pressure laser-induced chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor has been developed that is capable of continuously depositing carbon protective films on moving optical fibers from several hydrocarbon precursors. The relationship between operating parameters and the carbon deposition temperature was investigated experimentally and the results indicate that they are highly dependent on the laser power density and the fiber's drawing velocity. A computational heat transfer model was developed to calculate the fiber surface temperature during deposition and to provide a deeper understanding of the fundamental principles that govern laser heating and the carbon CVD processes. The surface temperatures obtained from experiments are compared with the calculated temperature in order to validate the numerical model.Copyright © 2004 by ASME


Water uptake, respiration and exudation are some of the biological functions fulfilled by plant roots. They drive plant growth and alter the biogeochemical parameters of soil in the vicinity of roots, the rhizosphere. As a result, soil processes such as water fluxes, carbon and nitrogen exchanges or microbial activity are enhanced in the rhizosphere in comparison to the bulk soil. In particularly, the exudation of mucilage as a gel-like substance by plant roots seems to be a strategy for plants to overcome drought stress by increasing soil water content and soil unsaturated hydraulic conductivity at negative water potentials. Although the variations of soil properties due to mucilage are increasingly understood, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms in the pore space leading to such variations is lacking.
The aim of this work was to elucidate the gel properties of mucilage in the pore space, i.e. interparticulate mucilage, in order to link changes of the physico-chemical properties in the rhizosphere to mucilage. The fulfilment of this goal was confronted to the three following challenges: The lack of methods for in situ detection of mucilage in soil; The lack of knowledge concerning the properties of interparticulate mucilage; The unknown relationship between the composition and the properties of model substances and root mucilage produced by various species. These challenges are addressed in several chapters.
In a first instance, a literature review picked information from various scientific fields about methods enabling the characterization of gels and gel phases in soil. The variation of soil properties resulting from biohydrogel swelling in soil was named the gel effect. The combined study of water entrapment of gels and gel phases in soil and soil structural properties in terms of mechanical stability or visual structures proved promising to disentangle the gel effect in soil.
The acquired methodical knowledge was used in the next experiments to detect and characterize the properties of interparticulate gel. 1H NMR relaxometry allows the non-invasive measure of water mobility in porous media. A conceptual model based on the equations describing the relaxation of water protons in porous media was developed to integrate the several gel effects into the NMR parameters and quantify the influence of mucilage on proton relaxation. Rheometry was additionally used to assess mucilage viscosity and soil microstructural stability and ESEM images to visualize the network of interparticulate gel. Combination of the results enabled to identify three main interparticulate gel properties: The spider-web effect restricts the elongation of the polymer chains due to the grip of the polymer network to the surface of soil particles. The polymer network effect illustrates the organization of the polymer network in the pore space according to the environment. The microviscosity effect describes the increased viscosity of interparticulate gel in contrast to free gel. The impact of these properties on soil water mobility and microstructural stability were investigated. Consequences on soil hydraulic and soil mechanical properties found in the literature are further discussed.
The influence of the chemical properties of polymers on gel formation mechanism and gel properties was also investigated. For this, model substances with various uronic acid content, degree of esterification and amount of calcium were tested and their amount of high molecular weight substances was measured. The substances investigated included pectic polysaccharides and chia seed mucilage as model polymers and wheat and maize root mucilage. Polygalacturonic acid and low-methoxy pectin proved as non-suitable model polymers for seed and root mucilage as ionic interactions with calcium control their properties. Mucilage properties rather seem to be governed by weak electrostatic interactions between the entangled polymer chains. The amount of high molecular weight material varies considerably depending on mucilage´s origin and seems to be a straight factor for mucilage's gel effect in soil. Additionally to the chemical characterization of the high molecular weight compounds, determination of their molecular weight and of their conformation in several mucilages types is needed to draw composition-property profiles. The variations measured between the various mucilages also highlight the necessity to study how the specific properties of the various mucilages fulfill the needs of the plant from which they are exuded.
Finally, the integration of molecular interactions in gel and interparticulate gel properties to explain the physical properties of the rhizosphere was discussed. This approach offers numerous perspectives to clarify for example how water content or hydraulic conductivity in the rhizosphere vary according to the properties of the exuded mucilage. The hypothesis that the gel effect is general for all soil-born exudates showing gel properties was considered. As a result, a classification of soil-born gel phases including roots, seeds, bacteria, hyphae and earthworm's exuded gel-like material according to their common gel physico-chemical properties is recommended for future research. An outcome could be that the physico-chemical properties of such gels are linked with the extent of the gel effect, with their impact on soil properties and with the functions of the gels in soil.


Book synopsis: This volume explores the imagery of slaves and enslavement – white as well as black – in early modern Europe.

Long before the abolitionist movement took up the theme, European art abounded in images of slaves – chained, subjected, subdued figures. Often these enslaved figures were meant to be symbolic, for slavery was widely invoked as a metaphor in both religious and secular contexts. The ancient Roman iconography of triumphalism, with its trophies and caryatids, provided a crucial impetus to this imagery, particularly for Renaissance artists who developed their own variations. Here the use of classical models had a peculiar force, since nudity, the attribute of antique heroes and idealized abstractions, was the mark of the Mediterranean galley slave. It was also to become the condition of the enslaved and transported African.

The poignant sculptures of naked black Africans on Italian monuments of the seventeenth century are Ottoman galley slaves, representatives of the Islamic enemy along with their Turkish companions. But with the expansion and extension of the trade in enslaved Africans among the nations of Europe, African blackness became in itself a sign of slavery in European art. Fashionable portraits increasingly showed young and servile blacks, sometimes wearing silver slave collars, paying tribute to the status or supposed beauty of their masters and mistresses. This imagery often presents itself as playfully metaphorical, even though the slavery of Africans so portrayed could be literal enough. Unsurprisingly, there was little demand for representations of the slave trade. In the few cases in which African slaves in colonial situations became the subject-matter of paintings, they were generally depicted as part of an imperialist and 'civilizing' mission, or accommodated to picturesque formulae, distant from the uncomfortable realities of life on the plantation. Indeed – as the case of Spain especially demonstrates – the representation of slaves in art is never proportionate to their numerical presence in slave-owning societies. It is only with abolitionism that the slave trade and its injustices becomes an artistic theme, provoking the visual counter-propaganda that is charted in the coda to this collection.


Francis Alys is one of the world's leading contemporary artists and was born in Belgium in 1959. After studying architecture in Venice he moved to Mexico City, where he has lived and worked for almost two decades. Alys works in many media, including performance, painting, animation, slides, video and drawing, and at scales from the humblest work on paper to the monumental staged performance. Much of his work draws on the life in the streets around his studio, where people sleep, eat, and make a living. He closely observes these activities while making walks through the city, which are often the genesis of future ideas. His collaborations have involved participants as varied as Mexican sign-painters and British Guardsmen. In 2002, he enlisted the help of 500 volunteers for a performance entitled "When Faith Moves Mountains", in which an attempt was made to move a large sand dune one foot from its original position with the aid of shovels. Featuring an introductory essay by Mark Godfrey, an interview with Alys by Klaus Biesenbach and descriptions of works in the exhibition written by Alys and Cuauhtemoc Medina, the book will also include responses from a wide range of critics and commentators. Published to accompany the largest and most important retrospective exhibition yet staged of Alys' work, this will not be a conventional monograph, but will, in the spirit of Alys' wandering practice, more closely resemble a guidebook than an exhibition catalogue.


In the past three years, the Educational Psychologist (EP) profession has undergone significant developments as a result of the revised Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Code of Practice (Department for Education, 2014). Two specific changes outlined in the SEND Code of Practice underpin the purpose of this research. The first was the change in terminology from Behaviour, Emotional and Social Development (BESD), to Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH), as one of the four broad categories of identified SEND. The second change was the extended age range of which the SEND Code of Practice now relates to: 16-25 years. The aim of this research was to explore how college staff co-constructed SEMH needs in their setting, to offer a valuable insight as to how EPs can best support similar settings in the future. Existing literature highlighted an absence of EP research on SEMH needs in post-16 education, or how college settings conceptualise SEMH needs. This study used a Discourse Analysis approach to explore how participants in a focus group (6 staff members in a sixth form college) co-constructed SEMH needs through their discourses, and a social constructionist epistemology underpinned the approach to this study. The identification of dominant and suppressed discourses illustrated variation in the staff members' talk, suggesting the difficulties and dilemmas that arose when co-constructing a term such as SEMH. Emphasis placed on various discourses of SEMH was seen to impact on practice, highlighting the importance in identifying dominant and suppressed discourses of SEMH in educational settings. The college setting was seen to hinder and support SEMH needs simultaneously, and contrasts between disempowering and empowering students and staff to manage SEMH needs were explored. The emotional energy required to work with adolescent students was highlighted, and the extent to which discourses of pathologising students with SEMH needs functioned to defend against social anxiety, was also explored. The role of reflexivity throughout the research process, strengths and limitations of the study, and implications for EP practice were discussed.


In a Molecular Solar-Thermal Energy Storage (MOST) system, solar energy is converted to chemical energy using a compound that undergoes reversible endothermic photoisomerization. The high-energy photoisomer can later be converted back to the parent compound and the excess energy is released as heat. One of the most studied MOST systems is based on fulvalene-tetracarbonyl-diruthenium, and this paper demonstrates, for the first time, the possibility to tune the photochemical properties of this system by positive steric hindrance working on the fulvalene unit.


This work is a critical study on the performance of non-conforming boundary elements in three-dimensional elastomechanics. The pervasive way of implementing the boundary element method nowadays appears to be through the use of conforming elements. These elements have the nodes used for collocation of the field variables placed along the perimeter, usually in coincidence with the nodes used for describing the geometry. In contrast, non-conforming elements have the collocation nodes arranged inside the element so that interelement continuity of the field variables is not, in general, assured. The reasons for continuing use of non-conforming elements in the boundary element method are two-fold: First, simplification in the assembly and solution of the system equations and second, easy computation of the 'free' and Cauchy principal value terms appearing in the integral equations. Non-conforming elements are not able to compete with conforming elements in terms of accuracy of the solution and economy in the final size of the system equations.


As a result of high-throughput ADME screening, early metabolite identification, and exploration of novel chemical entities, low-intrinsic-clearance compounds continue to increase in drug discovery portfolios. Currently available in vitro tools have limited resolution below a certain intrinsic clearance value, which can lead to overestimation of clearance and dose and underestimation of half-life. Significant advances have been made in recent years and novel approaches have been developed to address the challenges of low clearance in drug discovery, such as the hepatocyte relay method, use of qNMR-based standards of biosynthesized drug metabolites to permit monitoring metabolite formation, coculture hepatocyte systems, and the time depending modeling approach. Future development in the field will enable faster, more precise, and lower cost profiling of the properties of low-clearance compounds for intrinsic clearance, metabolite identification, and reaction phenotyping.


Objective. Neonates spend most of their time asleep. Sleep of preterm infants evolves rapidly throughout maturation and plays an important role in brain development. Since visual labelling of the sleep stages is a time consuming task, automated analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) to identify sleep stages is of great interest to clinicians. This automated sleep scoring can aid in optimizing neonatal care and assessing brain maturation. Approach. In this study, we designed and implemented an 18-layer convolutional neural network to discriminate quiet sleep from non-quiet sleep in preterm infants. The network is trained on 54 recordings from 13 preterm neonates and the performance is assessed on 43 recordings from 13 independent patients. All neonates had a normal neurodevelopmental outcome and the EEGs were recorded between 27 and 42 weeks postmenstrual age. Main results. The proposed network achieved an area under the mean and median ROC curve equal to 92% and 98%, respectively. Significance. Our findings suggest that CNN is a suitable and fast approach to classify neonatal sleep stages in preterm infants.


We demonstrate 4-channel, 2GHz weighted addition in a silicon microring filter bank. Accurate analog weight control becomes more difficult with increasing number of channels, N, as feedback approaches become impractical and brute force feedforward approaches take O(2N) calibration measurements in the presence of inter-channel dependence. We introduce model-based calibration techniques for thermal cross-talk and cross-gain saturation, which result in a scalable O(N) calibration routine and 3.8 bit feedforward weight accuracy on every channel. Practical calibration routines are indispensible for controlling large-scale microring systems. The effect of thermal model complexity on accuracy is discussed. Weighted addition based on silicon microrings can apply the strengths of photonic manufacturing, wideband information processing, and multiwavelength networks towards new paradigms of ultrafast analog distributed processing.


This biodiversity study of natural food production to supporting the communities upstream of Chi River Basin aims at collecting the name and species of natural food plants in the forest around the upstream areas of Chi River Basin. This is a phenomenal study of species and potential benefits of forest food. Qualitative methodology was mainly used to collect data; the study relied on the knowledge of the local people had to recall the local data, which significantly focused on the species of natural food plant. The study site was located in the Nongbuadaeng district of Chaiyaphum province, Thailand. It was found that almost all the villagers in the Isaan region (northeastern Thailand) are in the agricultural sector, growing cash crops, such as cassava and sugarcane, the farming of which has affected deforestation and therefore natural food production since the forest is the source of local food. The research focused on species of natural food plants in the community upstream of the Chi River Basin. The information of natural food production biodiversity is in a database for use as guidelines for introducing natural conservation in food security planning with sustainable livelihood in the future. The biodiversity of natural food production to support the community in the upstream forest of the Chi River Basin has 109 species, which can be separated into the following categories: tree (22.9%), plant in wetlands (20.18%), climber (19.27%), mushroom (19.27%), shrub and annual crops (12.84%), and bamboo (5.50%). The taste of natural food plant production includes 5 tastes: tasteless, bitter, astringent, sour, and spicy, and how plants are used for food depends on the species of plant. However, almost all natural food in the forest are seasonal products; for example, the bamboo shoot villagers can collect the whole year, while fruits primarily flourish between August and September.


Central aspects of carbon and sulfur biogeochemistry were studied along a transect extending from an unvegetated mudflat into a Spartina anglica salt marsh. Conditions along the transect differed with respect to tidal elevation, sediment characteristics, vegetation coverage, and benthic macrofauna abundance. Dark sediment O2 uptake and CO2 emission at the highly bioturbated mudflat were low and relatively unaffected by tidal coverage. Sulfate reduction accounted for 30–60% of the daily CO2 emission from the open mudflat sediment. Sediment O2 uptake within the nonbioturbated and vegetated marsh was up to seven times higher during air exposure than during inundation, whereas the difference in CO2 emissions always was less than a factor of 2. The contribution of sulfate reduction to CO2 production was low (<21%) and decreased progressively with tidal elevation as a result of the oxidizing capacity of S. anglica roots in the vegetated marsh. The boundary between the mudflat and the retreating marsh is a unique environment. High near‐surface pore‐water concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) above the marsh cliff and highly elevated total carbon dioxide (TCO2) pore‐water concentrations at both sides of the cliff during air exposure coincided with extremely high TCO2 emissions and apparent respiratory quotients (up to 14) only below the marsh cliff during inundation. We propose that substantial seepage of DOC‐poor and HCO2−‐rich pore water may have occurred from the elevated marsh to the unvegetated sediment below during low tide followed by massive release of HCO3− during high tide. Accordingly, sulfate reduction accounted for more than the TCO2 release above the marsh cliff, but only for about 40% below the cliff. Mineralization rates and pathways in salt–marsh sediments vary considerably on small spatial and temporal scales and are dependent on inundation frequency as well as the composition and distribution of flora and fauna.


In 2004, the first self-assessment modules (SAMs) went online as a resource for fulfilling the part II requirement of Maintenance of Certification for Family Physicians (MC-FP). As time has gone by, Diplomates have occasionally asked about the process the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) uses for revising and updating the content of the SAMs. Given the pace of change in medical knowledge, ABFM staff has found it necessary to employ multiple strategies to keep the SAMs current.

In an effort to obtain automated summaries of knowledge updates, our information specialist has worked with a physician to identify sets of search terms, called hedges, for use in the MedLINE/PubMed My NCBI tool available at the National Library of Medicine's PubMed website (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/). This site allows users to create and store literature search strategies that will run on a periodic basis to retrieve recent information on a given topic. These searches have been developed for every SAM item, and the staff reviews the results on a regular basis to identify significant new content or changes to existing information.

A second strategy is to have a member of the knowledge team that developed the SAM review the complete set of questions. Those that are no longer accurate or current are modified or replaced accordingly. In addition, some questions are removed to make room for new ones that reflect important developments.

Since Diplomates are permitted to repeat a SAM for MC-FP credits after 5 years have elapsed, a more in-depth review of the SAM is performed every 5 years by members of the original development team, as well as by new additions to the group, with a goal of replacing at least one-third of the questions.

Finally, the commenting feature accessible to Diplomates after completing the SAM questions has also proven to be a helpful tool for keeping SAMs up to date. As with the hedges, staff members review this feedback on a regular basis. In addition to providing input regarding ambiguous or controversial content, these comments can also alert our staff to content that has become outdated because of new recommendations or studies.

After a physician has revised or replaced a question, the changes go to the Content Development department. The new or revised content is then edited and incorporated into the department's database. From there, the new content is exported to the IT department, where it is moved into another database. The editors then review the questions once more in the format used on the Web., Cnce approved, the changes are deployed to our website.

While complex and labor-intensive, these strategies have served to keep the SAMs current and assure our Diplomates that the content remains dynamically responsive to the changing field of family medicine!


Multidisciplinary team (MDT) is of paramount importance in the approach to patients with head and neck cancer. Its aim is to provide the best diagnostic work-up, tumor staging, and treatment. Furthermore, the prognosis of patients who are managed by MDT is usually better. MDT has a great value in all presentation settings. The role of the pathologist in the team is of utmost importance, in particular with regards to information provided on Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) status, which has a well acknowledged independent prognostic value mainly in oropharyngeal carcinoma. In early stage disease, namely in T1-2 N0 M0 patients, the meetings within the MDT mainly involve surgeons and radiation therapists. Surgery represents the mainstay of treatment, while radiation therapy is a suitable alternative, in particular in patients with advanced age, poor performance status and comorbidities. In locally advanced disease, surgeons, medical oncologists and radiotherapists are the key people, since different approaches have been carried out. In operable patients, adjuvant chemoradiation is indicated when resection margins are involved or close, or in presence of extracapsular nodal spread. Concurrent chemoradiotherapy, preceded or not by induction chemotherapy, is the favourite approach in this setting when surgery is strictly not indicated. In recurrent/metastatic disease chemotherapy and best supportive care are the main options, although local treatments, such as reirradiation and salvage surgery, are also worth considering. The standard chemotherapy treatment has finally evolved after about 30 years, and strong efforts are being pursued to further improve the outcome, mainly with the addition of new drugs.


ABSTRACT The costs of living with wildlife are assessed using Namibian subsistence farmers' willingness to pay (WTP) for deterrents to attacks on crops and livestock. A utility-theoretic approach jointly estimates household WTP for deterrent programs in two 'currencies': maize and cash. This has a double payoff. Use of a non-cash staple increases respondent comprehension and provides more information about preferences, improving the accuracy of results. The household shadow value of maize is also identified. Significant costs from living with elephants and other types of wildlife are demonstrated. Compensation for farmers may be warranted on equity and efficiency grounds. Uncontrolled domestic cattle generate even higher costs to farmers than wildlife, highlighting the need to clarify property rights among these farmers.


The objective of this study is to compare the effectiveness of three algorithms that estimate discharge from remotely sensed observables (river width, water surface height, and water surface slope) in anticipation of the forthcoming NASA/CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. SWOT promises to provide these measurements simultaneously, and the river discharge algorithms included here are designed to work with these data. Two algorithms were built around Manning's equation, the Metropolis Manning (MetroMan) method, and the Mean Flow and Geomorphology (MFG) method, and one approach uses hydraulic geometry to estimate discharge, the at‐many‐stations hydraulic geometry (AMHG) method. A well‐calibrated and ground‐truthed hydrodynamic model of the Ganges river system (HEC‐RAS) was used as reference for three rivers from the Ganges River Delta: the main stem of Ganges, the Arial‐Khan, and the Mohananda Rivers. The high seasonal variability of these rivers due to the Monsoon presented a unique opportunity to thoroughly assess the discharge algorithms in light of typical monsoon regime rivers. It was found that the MFG method provides the most accurate discharge estimations in most cases, with an average relative root‐mean‐squared error (RRMSE) across all three reaches of 35.5%. It is followed closely by the Metropolis Manning algorithm, with an average RRMSE of 51.5%. However, the MFG method's reliance on knowledge of prior river discharge limits its application on ungauged rivers. In terms of input data requirement at ungauged regions with no prior records, the Metropolis Manning algorithm provides a more practical alternative over a region that is lacking in historical observations as the algorithm requires less ancillary data. The AMHG algorithm, while requiring the least prior river data, provided the least accurate discharge measurements with an average wet and dry season RRMSE of 79.8% and 119.1%, respectively, across all rivers studied. This poor performance is directly traced to poor estimation of AMHG via a remotely sensed proxy, and results improve commensurate with MFG and MetroMan when prior AMHG information is given to the method. Therefore, we cannot recommend use of AMHG without inclusion of this prior information, at least for the studied rivers. The dry season discharge (within‐bank flow) was captured well by all methods, while the wet season (floodplain flow) appeared more challenging. The picture that emerges from this study is that a multialgorithm approach may be appropriate during flood inundation periods in Ganges Delta.


Optimal control of a diesel-electric powertrain in transient operation is studied. The attention is on how generator limits affect the solution, as well as how the addition of a small energy storage can assist in the transients. Two different types of problems are solved, minimum fuel and minimum time, with different generator limits as well as with and without an extra energy storage. In the optimization both the output power and engine speed are free variables. For this aim a 4-state mean value engine model is used together with models for the generator and energy storage losses. The considered transients are steps from idle to target power with different amounts of freedom, defined as requirements on produced energy, before the requested power has to be met. For minimum fuel transients the energy storage remains virtually unused for all requested energies, for minimum time it does not. The generator limits are found to have the biggest impact on the fuel economy, whereas an energy storage could significantly reduce the response time.


The theory of argumentation is a rich, interdisciplinary area of research straddling the fields of artificial intelligence, philosophy, communication studies, linguistics and psychology. In the last few years, significant progress has been made in understanding the theoretical properties of different argumentation logics. However, one major barrier to the development and practical deployment of argumentation systems is the lack of a shared, agreed notation or 'interchange format' for argumentation and arguments. In this paper, we describe a draft specification for an argument interchange format (AIF) intended for representation and exchange of data between various argumentation tools and agent-based applications. It represents a consensus 'abstract model' established by researchers across fields of argumentation, artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems. In its current form, this specification is intended as a starting point for further discussion and elaboration by the community, rather than an attempt at a definitive, all-encompassing model. However, to demonstrate proof of concept, a use case scenario is briefly described. Moreover, three concrete realizations or 'reifications' of the abstract model are illustrated.


Neurogenetic disorders represent a wide spectrum of diseases defined as "clinical diseases caused by a defect in one or more genes, which affects the differentiation and function of the neuroectoderm and its derivates": they can be divided into type 1 (when they result from a malfunction of a gene expressed in the neuroectoderm) or type 2 (in which neurological manifestations are caused indirectly by an abnormal gene not expressed in the nervous system);1 most of them can be classified in the group of 'rare diseases'. Neurology has benefited from the genetic advances over the last three decades, transforming our understanding of nervous system disorders. Although the first clinical descriptions of certain neurogenetic disorders were reported in the nineteenth century, the first gene discoveries date back to the 1980s; since then, many genes have been identified with mutations implicated in an increasing number of neurogenetic disorders. It has been estimated that brain disorders may represent 60–70% of the total genetic disorders in clinical child neurology.2 In 2013, the total number of entries for genetic diseases in the OMIM website was 21 565 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Omim/mimstats.html). This growth of discovered disease-causing gene mutations leads to difficulties in the classification of genetically heterogeneous hereditary diseases, especially in many neurogenetic disorders.

After informal discussions with many clinicians in different meetings, we came to the conclusion that classifications in most neurogenetic disorders (among which Charcot–Marie–Tooth (CMT) diseases, hereditary spastic paraplegias (SPG) or hereditary cerebellar ataxias (HCA)) are poorly understood by non-expert physicians who are in the front line of management of patients with these disorders. We, therefore, conducted a literature search on classifications of these disorders mainly focusing on the papers published in the last five years as molecular genetics has made considerable strides over this period. We came to the conclusion that no decisive advance …


We provide a unified framework for measuring bilateral exports of value added. We outline a general methodology that encompasses the measures introduced by Johnson and Noguera (2012) (value added consumed abroad) and Los et al. (2016) (value added in exports), to which we refer as VAX-C and VAX-D, respectively. In addition we suggest a novel third measure, VAX-P, which indicates the value added used abroad in the final stage of production. We show that they can all be derived with the method of hypothetical extraction in a general input-output model. This is helpful in comparing and contrasting their characteristics. As a corollary, we show that for VAX-C and VAX-P the sum of bilateral measures is equal to the corresponding aggregate measure, but that this is generally not true for VAX-D. We illustrate all measures with empirical examples computed on the basis of the World Input-Output Database. These indicators can found at www.wiod.org.


In the animal kingdom, various forms of swarming enable groups of autonomous individuals to transform uncertain information into unified decisions which are probabilistically beneficial. Crossing scales from individual to group decisions requires dynamically accumulating signals among individuals. In striking parallel, the mammalian immune system is also a group of decentralized autonomous units (i.e. cells) which collectively navigate uncertainty with the help of dynamically accumulating signals (i.e. cytokines). Therefore, we apply techniques of understanding swarm behavior to a decision-making problem in the mammalian immune system, namely effector choice among CD4+ T helper (Th) cells. We find that incorporating dynamic cytokine signaling into a simple model of Th differentiation comprehensively explains divergent observations of this process. The plasticity and heterogeneity of individual Th cells, the tunable mixtures of effector types that can be generated in vitro, and the polarized yet updateable group effector commitment often observed in vivo are all explained by the same set of underlying molecular rules. These rules reveal that Th cells harness dynamic cytokine signaling to implement a system of quorum sensing. Quorum sensing, in turn, may confer adaptive advantages on the mammalian immune system, especially during coinfection and during coevolution with manipulative parasites. This highlights a new way of understanding the mammalian immune system as a cellular swarm, and it underscores the power of collectives throughout nature.


This study empirically examines diffusion of labor standards from origin to host countries by investigating whether better labor standards of MNCs' origin countries are correlated with higher wages of workers in host countries in Africa. MNCs originating from countries with more rights of association and collective bargain and those coming from countries with unions that have strong wage bargaining power are found to pay significantly higher wages to their workers in host countries. These findings highlight that, although domestic policies and institutions may be important determinants of labor-related standards, they do not operate in isolation from external influences coming from origin countries.


With the European Neighborhood Policy, the EU's relationship with the countries of the South Caucasus has achieved a new quality. These countries now have a concrete legal foundation on which to stand in their relationship with the EU. However, up until now the EU has not been taking adequate advantage of its opportunity. The EU is not a geo-strategic player with military power, who that will destroy itself in the struggle over a "sphere of infl uence". However its principles and institutions, which are based upon liberal ideas, are a shining example for the three countries. On this basis, the EU is able to and has to play its part in the development of long-term peace and prosperity in the South Caucasus. WEAKNESS AS AN OPPORTUNITY: EU POLICY IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS


The scale of the fighting on the Eastern Front in 1914 is reasonably familiar but the Russian campaign of 1914, apart from Tannenberg, is poorly understood. The Russian Army's military strategy, the choices it made, what it was trying to achieve, why and how, are not well known. This article will analyse Russian strategy and operations in a thematic rather than narrative manner, placing the Russian conduct of operations in the context of Russian military thinking at the time. It will argue that the relative importance of the East Prussian and Galician Operations has been misunderstood, especially the Russian operations in northern Galicia. In late August 1914, the Russian Army faced strategic catastrophe on the entire Eastern Front, not because of events in East Prussia, but in northern Galicia where the chronic lack of correlation between ends and means in Russian military strategy became acute. The Russian high command's desire to launch a third operation into eastern Germany, in August 1914, distorted Russian strategy to the point where the Russian Army flirted with catastrophe in northern Galicia, a brush with disaster that rescued Russian strategy from its own illusions, enabling them to defeat the Austrians and force the German Army into a sustained two- front war.


This paper analyses the gender wage gaps by education throughout the wage distribution in Spain using individual data from the ECHP (1999). Quantile regressions are used to estimate the wage returns to the different characteristics at the more relevant percentiles and a suitable version of the Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition is then implemented to estimate the component of the gender gap not explained by different characteristics. Our main findings are twofold. First, in contrast with the steep pattern found for other countries, the flatter evolution of the gap found in Spain hides a composition effect when the sample is split by education. On the one hand, for the group with college/tertiary education, we find a higher unexplained gap at the top than at the bottom of the distribution, in accordance with the conventional glass ceiling hypothesis. On the other, for the group with lower education, the gap is much higher at the bottom than at the top of the distribution. We label this novel pattern as glass floors and argue that it is due to statistical discrimination exerted by employers in view of the low participation rate of women in this group. Such a hypothesis is confirmed when using the panel structure of the ECHP.


Adversarial training is one of the main defenses against adversarial attacks. In this paper, we provide the first rigorous study on diagnosing elements of adversarial training, which reveals two intriguing properties.
First, we study the role of normalization. Batch normalization (BN) is a crucial element for achieving state-of-the-art performance on many vision tasks, but we show it may prevent networks from obtaining strong robustness in adversarial training. One unexpected observation is that, for models trained with BN, simply removing clean images from training data largely boosts adversarial robustness, i.e., 18.3%. We relate this phenomenon to the hypothesis that clean images and adversarial images are drawn from two different domains. This two-domain hypothesis may explain the issue of BN when training with a mixture of clean and adversarial images, as estimating normalization statistics of this mixture distribution is challenging. Guided by this two-domain hypothesis, we show disentangling the mixture distribution for normalization, i.e., applying separate BNs to clean and adversarial images for statistics estimation, achieves much stronger robustness. Additionally, we find that enforcing BNs to behave consistently at training and testing can further enhance robustness.
Second, we study the role of network capacity. We find our so-called "deep" networks are still shallow for the task of adversarial learning. Unlike traditional classification tasks where accuracy is only marginally improved by adding more layers to "deep" networks (e.g., ResNet-152), adversarial training exhibits a much stronger demand on deeper networks to achieve higher adversarial robustness. This robustness improvement can be observed substantially and consistently even by pushing the network capacity to an unprecedented scale, i.e., ResNet-638.


Before the 1940s, ninety per cent of Mennonites in North America lived on farms. Fifty years later, less than ten per cent of Mennonites continue to farm and more than a quarter of the population - the largest demographic block - are professionals. Mennonite teenagers are forced to contend with a broader definition of community, as parochial education systems are restructured to compete in a new marketplace. Women are adopting leadership roles alongside men. Many Mennonites have embraced modernity. Leo Driedger explores the impact of professionalism and individualism on Mennonite communities, cultures, families, and religion, particularly in light of the scholarly work of futurists Alvin and Heidi Tofler, which has described the shift from a homogeneous industrial society to a diversified electronic society. Driedger contends that Mennonites are in a unique position in meeting the electronic challenge, having entered modern society relatively recently. He traces trends in Mennonite life by reviewing such issues as the shift from farming to professionalism, the role of mass media, the role of active leadership, and increased social interaction. Menonites face many of the other challenges that religious minorities in North America encounter in the move to modernity, and this study provides in-depth insights into this transition.


The Peterson Center on Healthcare is a non-profit organization dedicated to making higher quality, more affordable healthcare a reality for all Americans. The organization is working to transform U.S. healthcare into a high-performance system by finding innovative solutions that improve quality and lower costs and accelerating their adoption on a national scale. Established by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the Center collaborates with stakeholders across the healthcare system and engages in grant-making, partnerships, and research.


The aim of this study was to identify and compare the developmental pathway between elite and non-elite youth soccer players. 30 elite players from state team and 30 non-elite players from university team participated in this study. The Participation History Questionnaire (PHQ) was used to determine soccer related activities undertaken by the athletes throughout their career. There were significant differences at certain age milestones (age first started to play soccer; started training; started to compete). The elite players accumulated significant differences on types of activities at age range 13-15 years and 16-22 years while for non-elite group showed a significant difference at types of activities at all age range (6-12, 13-15 and 16-22). The elite players participated in less other-sports than the non-elite soccer players. In conclusion, the elite players followed the early specialisation pathway by concentrating on soccer and significantly increased their structured soccer related activities from 16 years onwards. The non-elite players followed the early diversification pathway but did not attain the level as the elites in adulthood. Future investigation on the microstructure of the soccer activities is suggested to examine how these players engaged in those activities.


INTRODUCTION : The decision to either salvage or amputate a mangled extremity poses great challenge to a surgeon.Different scoring systems were therefore developed to aid orthopaedic surgeons in this decision,eitherto contemplate amputation or proceed to salvage a mangled extremity. Of these scoring systems, the mangled extremity severity score (MESS) is mostly used.However,the high predictive accuracy reported by its developers has not been replicated by other authors. This study was carried out to validate the use of this scoring system in Nigeria and by extension, Africa. PATIENTS MATERIALS AND METHOD :The study was a hospital based prospective descriptive one which studied all patients with mangled extremities that were admitted into the Accident and Emergency room of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi- Araba, from April 2014 to March 2015. Injured patients with mangled extremities were resuscitated and relevant investigations conducted. The MESS was calculated at presentation in the emergency room by two senior doctors in orthopaedic and trauma units (not lower than senior registrar cadres) independently and an average score calculated, rounded up to the nearest positive integer and documented.Type of treatment offered was based on the experience of the managing consultants. Patients' progresses were monitored and functional outcomes documented. All data generated during the study were analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS inc. Chicago, Illinois. version 21.0.Year of release - 2012). RESULTS : Twenty-nine mangled extremities in 27 patients were studied.The male: female ratio was 3.5:1.Age of patients ranged between 21-70 years with a mean age of 39.9 ±12.3years. Nineteen (65.5%) extremities were salvaged while 10(34.5%) were primarily amputated. Average MESS of all mangled limbs reviewed was 8.1+ 2.6 with scores that ranged from 3 to 13. The mean MESS for limb salvage was 7.0 +2.2while that for primary amputation was 10.1+2.0(P value- 0.01).MESS in this study had a sensitivity of 90%,specificity of 47.4%,positive predictive value of 47.4%, negative predictive value of 90%.AUROC in this study was 0.853.The cost of treatment, number of surgeries, and duration of hospital stay were higher in those with Salvaged limbs.The functional outcome for salvaged upper and lower extremities were better than for those whose limbs were amputated.Level of satisfaction was better in the limbs salvaged group than for those who had ablative surgery with statistical significance (P value- .000). CONCLUSION : This study validated the clinical utility of MESS in predicting the need for amputation in patients with mangled extremity injuries but it had a low predictive accuracy for extremities that would eventually enter the limb salvage pathway.Therefore,when contemplating limb salvage for a patient with mangled extremity,in addition to the result of the MESS score,the surgeons experience cannot be overemphasized. KEY WORDS : Open fracture,mangled limb,amputation,MESS score,classification


The classical control techniques for regulating the active and reactive power delivery in doubly fed induction generators (DFIG), for wind power applications, are normally based on voltage oriented control (VOC) strategies. Among these algorithms, those that work in a synchronous reference frame, attached to the magnetic flux vector, became very popular. In spite of the good behaviour of such algorithms their performance depends highly on an accurate detection of the stator flux position, something that can be critical under unbalanced or distorted grid voltage conditions. This paper presents a new VOC strategy able to control the operation of a DFIG in the αβ reference frame, with no need of flux position estimation, something that conducts to a more simple and robust algorithm. In order to evaluate the advantages of this new control proposal, namely VOC-RRF, their performance will be compared with the response obtained with a classical VOC algorithm by means of PSCAD/EMTDC® simulation models. Finally the behaviour of both strategies will be tested in a real setup.


The problem of allocating processes of a Grid application to compute servers can be formulated as a distributed search problem. The goal is to allocate an application's processes to those compute servers that can provide the required Quality of Service and can execute the processes in a cost-efficient way. We present a protocol to identify compute servers that can execute the application with minimal cost and provide the required Quality of Service for the application. Relying on a heuristic search algorithm, the protocol makes use of statistical data of the compute servers' efficiency in past process executions.


Enterprise companies use spatial data for decision optimization and gain new insights regarding the locality of their business and services. Industries rely on efficiently combining spatial and business data from different sources, such as data warehouses, geospatial information systems, transactional systems, and data lakes, where spatial data can be found in structured or unstructured form. In this demonstration we present the spatial functionality of Amazon Redshift and its integration with other Amazon services, such as Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL and Amazon S3. We focus on the design and functionality of the feature, including the extensions in Redshift's state-of-the-art optimizer to push spatial processing close to where the data is stored.


PT. Harpindo Jaya Majapahit is one of official Yamaha's dealer in Semarang city
who offer various product of Yamaha's motorcycle. One of product who offer is Yamaha
Mio. As exponent the automatic scuter in Indonesia, Yamaha Mio try to survive as a market
leader. One of effort is credit purchase that has purpose to give lightness and ease
consumen to have Yamaha Mio. But competition in motorcycle business is very tight, it sign
by alot of automatic scuter who produced by competitor. Involvement competitir make
lowering percentage of credit purchase Yamaha Mio on PT. Harpindo Jaya Majapahit
Semarang in 2(two) last years(2006-2007). This research aim to know influence price and service into decision of credit
purchase Yamaha Mio in PT. Harpindo Jaya Majapahit Semarang. Population in this
research are they who bought Yamaha Mio in credit in PT. Harpindo Jaya Majapahit
Semarang and ever done service in same place. To the number of sample which used in this
research amount to 100 people. The sampling technique the used is non probability
sampling. Intake of sample done with method of purposive sampling.
The data analysis technique which used in this research is correlation of product
moment used to measure relation between two variables, coefficient of determination used
to know the level of contribution of independent variable to dependent variable, linear
regression modestly used to know strength of influence of independent variable to
dependent variable by partial, and doubled linear regression which used to know influence
between two independent variables by simultaneous to dependent variable.
The result of research indicate that price variable have influence (by partial) to
decision credit purchase Yamaha Mio equal to 0,264 or 26,4%, service variable also have
influence (by partial) to decision credit purchase Yamaha Mio equal to 0,344% or 33,4%,
and price variable and service variable have influence by together (simultaneous) to
variable of equal to decision credit purchase Yamaha Mio 0,447 or 44,7%. Researcher suggest for accelerate administration and product delivery because it
influential to decision credit. Another effort that PT. Harpindo Jaya Majapahit Semarang
can do to fill consumer expectation are by give pleasure and easily when transaction,
example with increase the hospitality, friendly and ability to handle the complain by dealer
staff and mechanic's staff and also more flexible in administration term that must to fulfill.
Availability variation and product color make consumer free to choose. Select a
professional leasing company to join with dealer, especially in velocity administration
service also very influential into consumer decision purchase.


Book synopsis: Contemporary Literary and Cultural Theory: The Johns Hopkins Guide is a clear, accessible, and detailed overview of the most important thinkers and topics in the field. Written by specialists from across disciplines, its entries cover contemporary theory from Adorno to �i�ek, providing an informative and reliable introduction to a vast, challenging area of inquiry. Materials include newly commissioned articles along with essays drawn from The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism, known as the definitive resource for students and scholars of literary theory and for philosophical reflection on literature and culture.


Virtual environments are an important aspect of serious games for heritage. However navigable three-dimensional (3D) environments can be costly and resource-intensive to create and for users to run. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach using "constrained virtual environments", which present an environment through a series of reduced fidelity two-dimensional (2D) scenes without exhaustive detail. We describe the development of a constrained virtual environment to replicate a 3D environment from a serious game concerning ancient Mesopotamian history. An exploratory experiment discovered that participants experienced a similar sense of presence in the constrained environment to that of the 3D environment and rated the two games to be of similar quality. Participants were equally likely to pursue further information on the subject matter afterwards and collected more information tokens from within the constrained environment. A subsequent interview with a museum expert explored opportunities for such games to be implemented in museum displays, and based on the experiences and issues encountered, a preliminary set of guidelines was compiled for implementing future constrained virtual environments within serious games for heritage.


UNLABELLED
The main objective of the study was to determine the psychometric properties (mainly, validity and reliability) of the French language version of the brief Quality of Life Interview (QoLI). That instrument evaluates both the subjective and objective aspects of quality of life.

METHODS
128 patients fulfilling the DSM IV criteria for schizophrenia were included. Quality of life was evaluated using the brief QoLI. Schizophrenic symptoms were evaluated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). The validity of the internal structure of the QoLI was investigated by means of item analysis, study of the correlations between the items and between the item-dimensions and principal component analysis addressing the subjective fields. The validity of the external structure was mainly investigated through the nomological validity study. The reliability of the scale was evaluated by studying the internal consistency. In addition, the acceptability of the scale was documented.

RESULTS
The results of the study of the validity of the internal structure confirmed the pertinence of the pre-defined fields, particularly the subjective fields. Only some of the subjective fields of the QoLI showed significant correlations with the PANSS sub-scales. The acceptability of the scale was satisfactory.

CONCLUSIONS
The psychometric properties of the French language version of the brief QoLI appeared satisfactory. The brief QoLi was shown to be an easily used instrument for assessment of the various objective and subjective aspects of the quality of life of schizophrenic patients.


There is a growing understanding of the role that bedrock weathering can play as a source of nitrogen (N) to soils, groundwater and river systems. The significance is particularly apparent in mountainous environments where weathering fluxes can be large. However, our understanding of the relative contributions of rock-derived, or geogenic, N to the total N supply of mountainous watersheds remains poorly understood. In this study, we develop the High-Altitude Nitrogen Suite of Models (HAN-SoMo), a watershed-scale ensemble of process-based models to quantify the relative sources, transformations, and sinks of geogenic and atmospheric N through a mountain watershed. Our study is based in the East River Watershed (ERW) in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The East River is a near-pristine headwater watershed underlain primarily by an N-rich Mancos Shale bedrock, enabling the timing and magnitude of geogenic and atmospheric contributions to watershed scale dissolved N-exports to be quantified. Several calibration scenarios were developed to explore equifinality using >1600 N concentration measurements from streams, groundwater, and vadose zone samples collected over the course of four years across the watershed. When accounting for recycling of N through plant litter turnover, rock weathering accounts for approximately 12% of the annual dissolved N sources to the watershed in the most probable calibration scenario (0–31% in other scenarios), and 21% (0–44% in other scenarios) when considering only "new" N sources (i.e. geogenic and atmospheric). On an annual scale, instream dissolved N elimination, plant turnover (including cattle grazing) and atmospheric deposition are the most important controls on N cycling.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether specific values of or changes in temperature, white blood cell count, or neutrophil percentage were predictive of bloodstream infection in burn patients.

DESIGN
Retrospective review of electronic records.

SETTING
Intensive care center at the US Army Institute of Surgical Research Burn Center.

PATIENTS
Burn patients with blood cultures obtained from 2001 to 2004.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Temperature recorded at the time blood cultures were obtained; highest temperature in each 6-hour interval during the 24 hours prior to this; white blood cell count and neutrophil percentage at the time of obtaining the blood culture and during the 24 hours preceding the blood culture; demographic data; and total body surface area burned.

RESULTS
A total of 1063 blood cultures were obtained from 223 patients. Seventy-three people had 140 blood cultures from which microorganisms were recovered. Organisms that were recovered from blood cultures included 80 that were gram negative, 54 that were gram positive, 3 that were mixed gram positive/gram negative, and 3 yeasts. Although white blood cell count and neutrophil percentage at the time of the culture were statistically different between patients with and patients without bloodstream infection, receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed these values to be poor discriminators (receiver operating characteristic curve area = 0.624). Temperature or alterations in temperature in the preceding 24-hour period did not predict presence, absence, or type of bloodstream infection.

CONCLUSIONS
Temperature, white blood cell count, neutrophil percentage, or changes in these values were not clinically reliable in predicting bloodstream infection. Further work is needed to identify alternative clinical parameters, which should prompt blood culture evaluations in this population.


Over the past two decades, topics related to social inequality have come to dominate public discourse in Japan. Over the same time span, the number of Japanese who experience socioeconomic anxiety in their everyday life has increased. Analysis of data from a nationwide survey carried out by the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in 2009 shows that an increase of social risks is not only perceived as something affecting others, but that strong socioeconomic anxieties and fears of social isolation spread throughout all strata of Japanese society. While status differences prove to be only weakly associated with a variation in insecurities, the positive impact of trust resources is strong. However, as levels of trust, especially in governmental welfare, are low, they cannot fully develop their protective function. It seems as if Japan has not yet managed the transition from a society based on assurance to a society based on trust (Yamagishi, 1999).


In this study, three Danish sites having the longest (1990-2004) time-series of ozone measurements were analysed on inter-annual, monthly and diurnal cycle variability as well as elevated and lowered ozone concentration events were identified. The atmospheric trajectory (HYSPLIT) and dispersion (HIRLAM + CAMx) models were employed to study dominating atmospheric transport patterns associated with elevated events and to evaluate spatio-temporal variability of ozone specific episode and typical seasonal patterns for Denmark. It was found that generally inter-annual variability has a positive trend, and events with low ozone concentration (≤10 μg/m3) continued to diminish. On a monthly scale, the highest and lowest mean concentrations are observed in May and November-December, respectively. The elevated concentrations (≥120 μg/m3) are observed during March-September. On a diurnal cycle, it is observed mostly during 13-16 of local time, and more frequent (ten-fold) compared with nighttime-early morning hours. For ozone elevated events, several sectors (or pathways of atmospheric transport) were identified depending on the sites' positions, showing the largest (39%) number of such events associated with the north-western sector, and lowest (13% each)—southwestern and northern sectors. For each site, less than 60 events showed very high concentrations (≥180 μg/m3). Among 12 episodes, one longest elevated episode (19-21 Jun 2000) simultaneously registered at all sites and characterized by dominating transport from the south-southwestern sector, low wind speed, clear-sky, and multiple inversions was studied using modelling tools. For this episode, both measurements and modeling (trajectory and dispersion) results showed a relatively good agreement.


We fabricated grating-based Fabry–Perot (FP) interferometers by photowriting a pair of Bragg gratings with a spacing of a few millimeters in a germanosilicate fiber. The measured free spectral range (FSR) of the FP filters is found to vary with the frequency in the spectral range of the filters. Relative FSR variation reaches values close to 10%. An analytical model is presented and compared with a coupled-mode theory in a matrix approach. The computations and the experimental results demonstrate that the main FSR variation (10%) is due to the spectral modification of the reflection coefficients of the two gratings. The relative FSR variation that is due to the propagation effective-index modification is found to be close to 10−5. A comparison between a grating-based FP filter photowritten in a fiber and a bulk FP filter is presented.


Teachers in mainstream schools are increasingly confronted with children with severe emotional and behavioural difficulties, for whose performance and effect on the rest of the class they are held accountable. Often exclusion seems to be the only option. This book shows that it is not. It provides a concise, clearly written guide to the major approaches which can be used to deal with emotional and behavioural difficulties - their possibilities and their pitfalls. It will be invaluable reading for special needs coordinators, individual teachers reflecting on the issue in their own classrooms and heads wishing to establish whole school approaches to the problem.


Medicaid occupies a special place among government programs for the poor. Public support for Medicaid is broader and deeper than for other safety net programs because the consequences of inadequate medical care can be much more immediate and severe than those of a lack of money or even food. That may be one reason voters have heretofore accepted the rapidly growing tax burden Medicaid imposes. Medicaid is now larger than Medicare (the federal health program for the elderly and disabled) and is the single largest item in state budgets, even larger than elementary and secondary education. To curb this growing financial burden, states (led by Tennessee) are dropping hundreds of thousands of eligible individuals from their programs. Congress has resolved to reduce federal Medicaid spending by nearly 1 percent over the coming five years and has created a commission to recommend short-term savings and long-term structural reforms. Yet Medicaid imposes additional hidden costs. Like all means-tested government programs, Medicaid discourages work and charitable effort among the taxpayers who fund it, while discouraging self-sufficiency and encouraging dependence among beneficiaries. Medicaid also imposes costs that stem from overuse of medical care, increasing costs for private payers, and giving patients poorerquality care than they could obtain with private coverage. As it did with federal cash assistance, Congress should: (1) cap federal Medicaid spending, (2) block grant federal funds to the states, and (3) allow states full flexibility to define eligibility and benefits under their Medicaid programs. States should use that flexibility to target Medicaid assistance to the truly needy, reduce dependence, reduce crowd-out of private effort, and promote competitive private markets for medical care and insurance. That means withdrawing assistance from those who are most able to obtain coverage elsewhere and deregulating health care and health insurance markets so they can meet that need. Providing efficient medical care to the poor without fostering dependence is a delicate balancing act, and many of the costs incurred by getting it wrong don't get a line item in the federal budget. Reforming Medicaid along the lines of the 1996 welfare law would allow the states to strike a better balance for all involved. Medicaid's Unseen Costs


Abstract Blood meal analysis (BMA) from ticks allows for the identification of natural hosts of ticks (Acari: Ixodidae). The aim of this study is to identify the blood meal sources of field collected on-host ticks using PCR analysis. DNA of four genera of ticks was isolated and their cytochrome b (Cyt b) gene was amplified to identify host blood meals. A phylogenetic tree was constructed based on data of Cyt b sequences using Neighbor Joining (NJ) and Maximum Parsimony (MP) analysis using MEGA 5.05 for the clustering of hosts of tick species. Twenty out of 27 samples showed maximum similarity (99%) with GenBank sequences through a Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) while 7 samples only showed a similarity range of between 91–98%. The phylogenetic trees showed that the blood meal samples were derived from small rodents (Leopoldamys sabanus, Rattus tiomanicus and Sundamys muelleri), shrews (Tupaia glis) and mammals (Tapirus indicus and Prionailurus bengalensis), supported by 82–88% bootstrap values. In this study, Cyt b gene as a molecular target produced reliable results and was very significant for the effective identification of ticks' blood meal. The assay can be used as a tool for identifying unknown blood meals of field collected on-host ticks.


The effect of salt stress (NaCl) on shoot height (cm), root length (cm), dry and fresh weight (g), chlorophyll a and b, total chlorophyll (mg -1 ) and carotenoid amount was investigated in this study. In addition, the positive effects of Ca +2 (20 mM) were also investigated. Triticum durum Desf. Mirzabey, Kunduru-1149, and DH-6 and DH-8, derived from Kunduru-1149 using wide hybridization, were used as plant materials in this study. Arnon-Hoagland solution was used as food source for the plants and various NaCl concentrations (0, 50, 150 and 200 mM) and Ca +2 (as CaCl 2 ) were added to Arnon-Hoagland solution. The research was completed at the end of the fifth week and the effect of NaCl on the root length of genotypes was found to be significant (P<0.05). Ca +2 caused an increase in root length in all NaCl applications, except for the 200 mM NaCl, whereas shoot height decreased with increasing salt concentration, except for the 50 mM NaCl. This character also increased with Ca +2 application significantly. Dry and fresh weight of the plant decreased with increasing salt concentration. Ca +2 ameliorated dry and fresh weight of the plant at 50 mM NaCl in all the genoypes and NaCl doses, except for the Kunduru-1149 and DH-6. The highest increase in total chlorophyll amount was found in 50 mM NaCl + CaCl 2 in DH-8 (from 17.29 to 20.14 mg g -1 ). However, the rate of increase in the amount of carotenoid by the addition of Ca +2 was also determined for each genotype. Key words : Triticum durum Desf., salinity, calcium, chlorophyll, carotenoid.


Recently, the synthesis of bioconjugates combining tunable properties of polymers with the functionalities of proteins has aroused great interest in the biomaterials community. In this research, thermally-responsive polymer chains with pendant lysozyme molecules were prepared via a "grafting to" approach. The enzyme molecules were anchored to the polymer backbones through covalent bonds. The influences of the number of pendant enzyme molecules and the salt concentration on the thermal-responsive properties of the bioconjugates were investigated. With an increase in the number of pendant lysozyme molecules, the cloud point (TCP) shifts to a higher temperature. The TCPs of the bioconjugates decrease with an increase in the salt concentration. In aqueous solutions, the bioconjugate molecules make core–shell structures at a temperature below TCP due to the unfavorable interaction between the polymer chains and the enzyme molecules. The bioconjugates are able to self-assemble into mesoglobules at temperatures above TCP. The secondary structure and bioactivity of the enzyme on the assembled structures were basically maintained.


STUDY DESIGN
Correlation between a lesion of the spinal cord that elicits increased signal intensity (ISI) on magnetic resonance images (MRIs) and the outcome of conservative treatment for cervical compressive myelopathy was retrospectively investigated.

OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether ISI could predict the outcome of conservative treatment for cervical compressive myelopathy.

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA
It is unknown whether ISI is related to the outcome of conservative treatment for cervical compressive myelopathy.

METHODS
Fifty-two patients with mild cervical myelopathy underwent conservative treatment with a cervical brace. The compressive lesions were spondylosis in 29 patients, disc herniation in 12, and an ossification of the longitudinal ligament in 11. They also underwent MRI (1.5 T), and ISI was evaluated on T2-weighted sagittal and axial images. The ISI areas were classified as focal or multisegmental. Thirty-nine patients underwent follow-up MRI after a mean interval of 2 years, 4 months. The transverse area of the spinal cord was also measured on T2-weighted axial images. The outcome of conservative treatment was assessed using the Japanese Orthopedic Association Score (JOA score). Patients showing either an improvement in the JOA score or with a JOA score of 15 or more were considered to have a satisfactory outcome.

RESULTS
The average JOA score was 14.0 +/- 1.4 (range, 10-16) before conservative treatment and 14.4 +/- 1.9 (range, 10-17) at follow-up. The average gain in the JOA score was 0.4 points +/- 1.9 (range, -5 to +6). The outcome was satisfactory in 36 patients (69%). An area of ISI was observed in 34 patients (65%) before treatment (24 focal and 10 multisegmental). A satisfactory outcome was obtained in 78% of the patients without ISI, in 63% of those with focal ISI, and in 70% of those with multisegmental ISI. No statistically significant difference was seen among these three groups in the percentages of patients with satisfactory outcome, JOA scores before and after treatment or transverse spinal cord area. Of the 39 patients who were re-examined by MRI, 28 showed an area of ISI. The ISI regressed in five patients (18%). Satisfactory outcome was obtained in all 5 patients with regression of ISI, in 16 (70%) of the 23 patients without regression of ISI, and in 10 (91%) of the 11 patients without ISI apparent on the the first images (difference, not significant).

CONCLUSIONS
Increased signal intensity was not related to a poor outcome of conservative treatment or severity of myelopathy in the patients with mild cervical myelopathy.


Strategy games are a popular part of today's management training in education and business. Complex economic interrelationships can be illustrated and interdependencies of economic decisions can be more easily understood. Most business games work with a discrete time model, i.e., decisions are made once for an entire time period; usually one fiscal year. Possible drawbacks of the discrete time modelling on the planning and control processes, on the presentation of effect timelines and on the learner's comprehension of interrelationships in companies are discussed. The authors hypothesise that a continually-controlled strategy game would greatly increase the simulation's applicability to real-world business. Among other advantages of a continually-controlled strategy game, errors in the planning process could be corrected and an early warning system could be implemented. The well-known problem of myopic business decisions at the end of the game could be resolved by linking success in the game with the sustainable development of the simulated company. This article's results are backed by experience as well as the results of a survey at Pforzheim University.


The authors illustrate the concept of integrating an already proven development support environment with a minimal Ada programming support environment by two-way transformations: code generation and code feedback. The concept implemented for the EPOS software engineering environment, originally together with the DEC Ada programming environment, is generalized to allow interfacing of EPOS with all standard Ada programming environments. It provides consistent Ada life cycle support, and allows reuse of designs and concepts from previous avionics, electronics and engineering projects at a high level of abstraction.<<ETX>>


Decentralization, in the form of mesh networking and blockchain, two promising technologies, is coming to the telecommunications industry. Mesh networking allows wider low‐cost Internet access with infrastructures built from routers contributed by diverse owners, whereas blockchain enables transparency and accountability for investments, revenue, or other forms of economic compensations from sharing of network traffic, content, and services. Crowdsourcing network coverage, combined with crowdfunding costs, can create economically sustainable yet decentralized Internet access. This means that every participant can invest in resources and pay or be paid for usage to recover the costs of network devices and maintenance. While mesh networks and mesh routing protocols enable self‐organized networks that expand organically, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts enable the economic coordination among network providers and consumers. We explore and evaluate two existing blockchain software stacks, Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) and Ethereum geth with Proof of Authority (PoA) intended as a local lightweight distributed ledger, deployed in a real city‐wide production mesh network and in laboratory network. We quantify the performance and bottlenecks and identify the current limitations and opportunities for improvement to serve locally the needs of wireless mesh networks, without the privacy and economic cost of relying on public blockchains.


Children's rights law is often studied and perceived in isolation from the broader field of human rights law. This volume explores the inter-relationship between children's rights law and more general human rights law in order to see whether elements from each could successfully inform the other. Children's rights law has a number of distinctive characteristics, such as the emphasis on the 'best interests of the child', the use of general principles, and the inclusion of 'third parties' (e.g. parents and other care-takers) in treaty provisions. The first part of this book questions whether these features could be a source of inspiration for general human rights law. In part two, the reverse question is asked: could children's rights law draw inspiration from developments in other branches of human rights law that focus on other specific categories of rights holders, such as women, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, or older persons? Finally, the interaction between children's rights law and human rights law – and the potential for their isolation, inspiration or integration – may be coloured or determined by the thematic issue under consideration. Therefore the third part of the book studies the interplay between children's rights law and human rights law in the context of specific topics: intra-family relations, LGBTQI marginalization, migration, media, the environment and transnational human rights obligations.


In our recurring blog "Inbox" we share comments from physicians and practice administrators telling us what keeps them awake at night.


Developing an effective lentiviral vaccine has been an elusive goal, largely due to immune evasion mechanisms of lentiviruses. Lentiviral envelope (Env) proteins pose a major obstacle to vaccine development due to extreme antigenic variation, but research with equine infectious anemia virus (EIAV) has indicated Env to be a primary determinant of vaccine efficacy. We have developed an attenuated EIAV vaccine capable of protecting horses from disease after homologous challenge. However, when variant challenge strains with divergent Env proteins are utilized, vaccine protection is incrementally decreased with increasing divergence from the homologous Env. I hypothesize there may be Env-specific immune responses associated with vaccine protection and believe antigenic variation may have profound effects on immune recognition. Utilizing thymidine incorporation and chromium release assays on PBMC from vaccinated horses challenged with the homologous strain, I identified broadly reactive regions of Env recognized by T-helper and CTL cells. With PBMC from vaccinated ponies challenged with divergent EIAV strains I identified Env-specific immune responses associated with vaccine protection from disease. Although I was unable to correlate antibody neutralization with protection, I found one T-helper and eight CTL peptide responses associated with vaccine protection. Three of the CTL peptides were located in variable domains of Env. To understand the effects of variation on immune recognition, I utilized sera and PBMC from vaccinated and variant infected ponies to analyze the cross-reactivity of humoral and cellular immune responses. Due to limited proliferative activity, I was unable to fully analyze the effects of Env variation on lymphoproliferation; however, CTL analysis indicated Env variation had profound effects on immune recognition in EIAV vaccinated and infected ponies. The most remarkable effects of Env variation were observed in in vitro neutralization assays, where there was no detectable cross-reactivity of neutralizing antibodies. Collectively, these results indicate that eliciting key immune responses to more conserved regions of the EIAV Env may be crucial in developing an effective EIAV vaccine. The peptide-specific responses identified in this dissertation could serve as important targets for future EIAV vaccines and this analysis may be a valuable complement to ongoing work in SIV and HIV.


BACKGROUND
The presence and size of a pericardial effusion in pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and its association with outcome is unclear.

METHODS
In this single-center cohort study of 577 patients with group 1 PAH seen between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2005, all patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography and were followed for ≥ 5 years. Echocardiography-guided pericardiocentesis was performed as needed.

RESULTS
Pericardial effusions on index echocardiography occurred in 150 patients (26%); 128 patients had small and 22 had moderate-sized or larger effusions. Most of the moderate or greater effusions occurred in patients who had connective tissue disease (82%). Mean right atrial pressure was 13.4 ± 4.4 mm Hg (no effusion), 15.1 ± 4.4 mm Hg (small effusion), and 17.0 ± 4.0 mm Hg (moderate or greater effusion) (P < .0001). Median survival for patients with moderate or greater effusion, mild effusion, or no effusion was 11.3 months, 42.3 months, and 76.5 months, respectively. Four of the 22 patients with moderate or greater pericardial effusions eventually required echocardiography-guided pericardiocentesis because of clinical and echocardiographic evidence of hemodynamic impact. When drained, the effusions were large (858 ± 469 mL) and generally serous. All pericardiocenteses were performed cautiously under echocardiographic guidance by a highly experienced echocardiologist, with low immediate morbidity and mortality.

CONCLUSIONS
Pericardial effusions are relatively common but rarely of hemodynamic significance in patients with PAH. However, even modest degrees of pericardial fluid are associated with a significant increase in mortality and appear to reflect the presence of associated collagen vascular disease and high right atrial pressure.


This study focuses on the constraints, adaptations and innovations in the livelihoods of Orma pastoralists. The fieldwork took place with families around Tiltila, Waldena and Kalalani over a period of 9 months in 2007/08. The position of pastoralist peoples in East Africa is characterised by social, political and economic marginalisation, weak land tenure, and declining per capita livestock holdings, while their shrinking grazing lands are widely regarded to be on the front line of climate change, both in terms of climate impacts and biofuel/agribusiness land pressure. The dearth of good quality data on pastoralist populations and livelihoods is widely cited as one of the fundamental barriers to improving the effectiveness of development support in the drylands. This study seeks to address these knowledge gaps for Orma pastoralists, while contributing to the body of theory on pastoralist livelihood dynamics. Data on the effects of wealth, education and food aid on household mobility were analysed using a theory of asset threshold dynamics. An adapted typology of livelihood strategies was developed to interpret and structure the data. Using child mortality as a proxy for respondent health, the impacts of wealth and mobility status on families' health were explored. In the context of an almost total lack of data on community redistribution of food aid, both for the Orma and for East African pastoralists more generally, the study provides empirical data on de facto community food aid allocation patterns. The study also examines a controversial large-scale expropriation of land in Tana River (subsidised under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism) which will undermine the capacity of Orma pastoralists and other minority groups, to adapt to increased and more extreme environmental variability. In an environment in which enrolment in formal education is very low (particularly for girls), the study found that community nursery schools represent a relatively recent (and thus far undocumented) innovation organised and funded by groups of parents. The data demonstrates unprecedented levels of female enrolment despite cost constraints faced by least wealthy families. It is therefore suggested that incorporation of the community nursery model into the basic literacy element of the proposed national distance learning strategy, offers significant potential for addressing 'Education For All' in Kenya's drylands.


According to census projections, by 2050 nearly one in three U.S. residents will be Latino, and the overwhelming majority of these will be of Mexican descent. This dramatic demographic shift is reshaping politics, culture, and fundamental ideas about American identity. Neil Foley, a leading Mexican American historian, offers a sweeping view of the evolution of Mexican America, from a colonial outpost on Mexico s northern frontier to a twenty-first-century people integral to the nation they have helped build.Mexicans have lived in and migrated to the American West and Southwest for centuries. When the United States annexed those territories following the Mexican-American War in 1848, the unequal destinies of the two nations were sealed. Despite their well-established presence in farm fields, workshops, and military service, Mexicans in America have long been regarded as aliens and outsiders. Xenophobic fantasies of a tidal wave of Mexicans overrunning the borders and transforming real America beyond recognition have inspired measures ranging from Operation Wetback in the 1950s to Arizona s draconian SB 1070 anti-immigration law and the 700-mile security fence under construction along the U.S.-Mexican border today. Yet the cultural, linguistic, and economic ties that bind Mexico to the United States continue to grow."Mexicans in the Making of America" demonstrates that America has always been a composite of racially blended peoples, never a purely white Anglo-Protestant nation. The struggle of Latinos to gain full citizenship bears witness to the continual remaking of American culture into something more democratic, egalitarian, and truer to its multiracial and multiethnic origins."


Metabolic adaptation, and in particular the modulation of carbon assimilatory pathways during disease progression, is thought to contribute to the pathogenicity of Candida albicans. Therefore, we have examined the global impact of glucose upon the C. albicans transcriptome, testing the sensitivity of this pathogen to wide-ranging glucose levels (0.01, 0.1, and 1.0%). We show that, like Saccharomyces cerevisiae, C. albicans is exquisitely sensitive to glucose, regulating central metabolic genes even in response to 0.01% glucose. This indicates that glucose concentrations in the bloodstream (approximate range 0.05-0.1%) have a significant impact upon C. albicans gene regulation. However, in contrast to S. cerevisiae where glucose down-regulates stress responses, some stress genes were induced by glucose in C. albicans. This was reflected in elevated resistance to oxidative and cationic stresses and resistance to an azole antifungal agent. Cap1 and Hog1 probably mediate glucose-enhanced resistance to oxidative stress, but neither is essential for this effect. However, Hog1 is phosphorylated in response to glucose and is essential for glucose-enhanced resistance to cationic stress. The data suggest that, upon entering the bloodstream, C. albicans cells respond to glucose increasing their resistance to the oxidative and cationic stresses central to the armory of immunoprotective phagocytic cells.


This paper examines Jesuit drama in 18th century Innsbruck. Its continuing success, its radical shift towards secular subjects and inherent tensions with political authorities seem to be unusual features. Before a final assessment can be made, however, we need to know much more about 18th century Jesuit drama in general. This period has been much neglected in research on the topic so far.


Context. Modern code review tools such as Gerrit have made available great amounts of code review data from different open source projects as well as other commercial projects. Code reviews are used to keep the quality of produced source code under control but the stored data could also be used for evaluation of the software development process.Objectives. This thesis uses machine learning methods for an approximation of review expert's performance evaluation function. Due to limitations in the size of labelled data sample, this work uses semisupervised machine learning methods and measure their influence on the performance. In this research we propose features and also analyse their relevance to development performance evaluation.Methods. This thesis uses Radial Basis Function networks as the regression algorithm for the performance evaluation approximation and Metric Based Regularisation as the semi-supervised learning method. For the analysis of feature set and goodness of fit we use statistical tools with manual analysis.Results. The semi-supervised learning method achieved a similar accuracy to supervised versions of algorithm. The feature analysis showed that there is a significant negative correlation between the performance evaluation and three other features. A manual verification of learned models on unlabelled data achieved 73.68% accuracy. Conclusions. We have not managed to prove that the used semisupervised learning method would perform better than supervised learning methods. The analysis of the feature set suggests that the number of reviewers, the ratio of comments to the change size and the amount of code lines modified in later parts of development are relevant to performance evaluation task with high probability. The achieved accuracy of models close to 75% leads us to believe that, considering the limited size of labelled data set, our work provides a solid base for further improvements in the performance evaluation approximation.


Climate change and urbanization have resulted in several societal challenges for urban areas. Nature-based solutions (NBS) have been positioned as solutions for enhancing urban resilience in the face of these challenges. However, the body of conceptual and practical knowledge regarding NBS remains fragmented. This study addresses this gap by means of a systematic review of the literature, to define NBS as a theoretical concept; its broader significance with respect to societal challenges; the key stakeholders in NBS planning, implementation and management; and major barriers to and enablers of NBS uptake. The results of this review reveal that, despite a lack of consensus about the definition of NBS, there is a shared understanding that the NBS concept encompasses human and ecological benefits beyond the core objective of ecosystem conservation, restoration or enhancement. Significant barriers to and enablers of NBS are discussed, along with a proposed strategic planning framework for successful uptake of NBS.


Front crawl is an alternating swimming stroke technique in which different phases of arm movement induce changes in acceleration of limbs and body. This study proposes a new approach to use inertial body worn sensors to estimate main temporal phases of front crawl. Distinctive features in kinematic signals are used to detect the temporal phases.These temporal phases are key information sources of qualitative and quantitative evaluation of swimming coordination, which have been assessed previously by video analysis. The present method has been evaluated upon a wide range of coordination and showed a difference of 4.9% with video based system. The results are in line with video analysis inter-operator variability yet offering an easy-to-use system for trainers.


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The objective of the MindsTogether project has been to provide decision makers with evidencebased
information about effective models for mental health and addiction services. The project
consisted of a literature review, expert interviews, general public survey, and focus group work
with experts by experience. A draft of the effective mental health and substance abuse service
models was openly available for comments on the Ota kantaa public participation portal.
Emphasising service models that are evidence-based or established good practices is highlighted
as a key perspective in the report. The opportunities to reform mental health and substance abuse
services that new operating models, which are person-centred and support inclusion and peer experience,
have created also emerges as a main finding. Existing evidence supports integration of basic mental health and substance use services with primary care. A multi-stakeholder approach, which includes complementary services provided by the third sector, is recommended. According
to the analysis, investing in mental health services and mental health promotion enables a significant
reduction of indirect costs, like production costs, caused by mental health problems.


This work describes a novel locality-aware structured peer-to-peer (P2P) overlay network, referred to as LAPTOP. One important aspect of constructing a structured P2P network is how to reduce the maintenance overheads while maintaining efficient routing and network locality. LAPTOP organizes nodes into a treebased overlay network in a self-organizing manner and builds the routing table by taking network locality into account. The tree-based overlay network enables LAPTOP to utilize the parental relation to reduce the overheads of overlay maintenance. Moreover, LAPTOP adopts proximity neighbor selection (PNS) in the routing table construction to achieve low routing latency. Mathematical analysis and simulations are conducted to evaluate the efficiency and scalability of LAPTOP. The mathematical analysis performed here demonstrates that the routing table size of a node is bounded by logd N ×(d1), the routing path length is bounded by logd N, and the joining and leaving overhead is bounded by d logd N, where N denotes the number of nodes in the system and d represents the maximum degree of each node on the overlay tree. Our simulation results show that the average path stretch and routing path length are just 1.48 and 3.8, respectively, in a system of 100 000 nodes with a maximum degree of 16 . Compared to previous research, the proposed LAPTOP approach reduces overlay maintenance overheads while still providing efficient routing.