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Objective Concussion symptoms normally resolve within 7–10 days but vertigo, dizziness and balance dysfunction persist in 10–30% of cases causing significant morbidity. This study systematically evaluated the evidence supporting the efficacy, prescription and progression patterns of vestibular rehabilitation therapy (VRT) in patients with concussion. Design Systematic Review, guided by PRISMA guidelines and presenting a best evidence synthesis. Data sources Electronic databases PubMed (1949 to May 2015), CINAHL (1982 to May 2015), EMBASE (1947 to May 2015), SPORTDiscus (1985 to May 2015), Web of Science (1945 to May 2015) and PEDRO (1999 to May 2015), supplemented by manual searches and grey literature. Eligibility criteria for study selection Article or abstract of original research, population of patients with concussion/mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) with vestibular symptoms, interventions detailing VRT, measurement of outcomes pre-VRT/post-VRT. Study type was not specified. Results Following a double review of abstract and full-text articles, 10 studies met the inclusion criteria: randomised controlled trial (n=2), uncontrolled studies (n=3) and case studies (n=5). 4 studies evaluated VRT as a single intervention. 6 studies incorporated VRT in multimodal interventions (including manual therapy, strength training, occupational tasks, counselling or medication). 9 studies reported improvement in outcomes but level I evidence from only 1 study was found that demonstrated increased rates (OR 3.91; 95% CI 1.34 to 11.34; p=0.002) of medical clearance for return to sport within 8 weeks, when VRT (combined with cervical therapy) was compared with usual care. Heterogeneity in study type and outcomes precluded meta-analysis. Habituation and adaptation exercises were employed in 8 studies and balance exercises in 9 studies. Prescription and progression patterns lacked standardisation. Conclusions Current evidence for optimal prescription and efficacy of VRT in patients with mTBI/concussion is limited. Available evidence, although weak, shows promise in this population. Further high-level studies evaluating the effects of VRT in patients with mTBI/concussion with vestibular and/or balance dysfunction are required.


Objective: Calculate the cost of treatment of pressure ulcers, inpatient falls and medication errors in Acibadem Healthcare Group (AHG) hospitals. Method: The cost of treatment of patients developing pressure ulcers by stages, inpatient falls by groups and total medication errors in AHG hospitals was calculated for 2014. These costs were gathered through pricing department. Population: All patients developing pressure ulcers, inpatient falls and medication errors in 12 hospitals of AHGin 2014. Findings and Results: As a result of cost analysis conducted in AHG, it was established that for pressure ulcers the cost of nursing care was minimum $11.6 and maximum $30, the cost of hospital accommodation (bed & room) was $862 to $6,039 and the cost ranges of wound care products, physician consultation (per visit), surgical intervention, medications, laboratory tests were from $9.6 to $192.7, $92.5 to $127.2, $138 to $16,190, $57.8 to $7,709 and $75.5 respectively. It was concluded that the total cost of pressure ulcers by stages were in the range of $1,242 to $104,247. For inpatient falls, it was found that the cost of nursing care was minimum $7.7 and maximum $154.2, the cost of hospital accommodation (bed & room) was $575 to $862.7 and the cost ranges of 2-3 days follow-up, 3-4 days follow-up, physician consultation (per visit), imaging, surgical intervention, medications and supplies and intensive care follow-up were from $285.6 to $428.3, $862.3 to $1,150, $92.5 to $127.2, $1,497 to $1,575, $298.8 to $19,275, $78.6 and $771 to $1,735 respectively. The total cost of inpatient falls by groups was in the range of $3,162 to $14,706. The total cost of medication errors for AHG was determined as $67,697.


The influence of colonialism and race on the development of African literature has been the subject of a number of studies. The effect of patriarchy and gender, however, and indeed the contributions of African women, have up until now been largely ignored by the critics. Contemporary African Literature and the Politics of Gender is the first extensive account of African literature from a feminist perspective. In this first radical and exciting work Florence Stratton outlines the features of an emerging female tradition in African fiction. A chapter is dedicated to each to the works of four women writers: Grace Ogot, Flora Nwapa, Buchi Emecheta and Mariama Ba. In addition she provides challenging new readings of canonical male authors such as Chinua Achebe, Ngugi wa Thiongo'o and Wole Soyinka. Contemporary African Literature and the Politics of Gender thus provides the first truly comprehensive definition of the current literary tradition in Africa.


BACKGROUND
Renal artery stenosis (RAS) has a high prevalence in older patients, especially in the context of general atherosclerosis. It is frequently associated with resistant hypertension and impaired renal function and their attendant consequences. The issue whether revascularization via percutaneous renal angioplasty and stenting (PRA/S) can benefit these patients remains unsettled.

OBJECTIVE
To present a case series of patients with refractory hypertension and RAS undergoing PRA/S and also to provide an extensive review of the literature on the current status of PRA/S for resistant hypertension.

METHODS
Data of all consecutive patients undergoing PRA/S by a single operator over 1 year were prospectively collected. These were 9 patients with hypertension refractory to drug therapy who also had other clinical cardiac problems that led to their hospitalization, including flash pulmonary edema and coronary artery disease. They were all receiving ≥3 antihypertensive drugs and renal angiography revealed critical RAS (unilateral in 3 and bilateral in 6). In addition, an extensive literature review of the topic was carried out in PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar.

RESULTS
PRS was successful in all 9 high-risk RAS patients with resistant hypertension (5 men, mean age 71 years) without complications and helped in bringing under control their elevated blood pressure (BP) and in maintaining their renal function over a mean of 21 months. Literature review of this controversial topic indicates that in carefully selected patients, PRA/S may play an important role in controlling BP, alleviating symptoms and perhaps preventing renal failure, albeit without concrete evidence of significantly affecting hard end-points of renal events, major cardiovascular events and death. Randomized controlled studies (RCTs), including a large one (CORAL trial), although heavily criticized, have not provided evidence in favor of revascularization. Although RCTs are rather neutral, a multitude of prospective, observational cohort studies, comparing the outcomes of patients after PRA/S have demonstrated significant improvement in systolic and diastolic BP in about two thirds and improvement and/or stabilization in renal function in 30-40% of patients undergoing PRA/S. Nevertheless, the issue remains unsolved and a subject of future studies for further more definitive settlement. Suggestions have been made to adopt physiological and functional renal lesion assessment that may enhance patient selection, at least for RAS cases of moderate lesion severity. Based on this small case series and on exhaustive literature review, an algorithm for approaching patients with significant RAS is herein proposed.

CONCLUSION
In high-risk RAS patients with truly resistant hypertension, flash pulmonary edema, and/or rapid deterioration of renal function, PRA/S, a procedure with currently high technical success, may constitute the only viable option. Importantly, despite the unfavorable results of RCTs, current guidelines have not yet changed and clinicians should continue to abide by them. They recommend PRA/S as a reasonable option for patients with hemodynamically significant (especially ostial) RAS and uncontrolled, resistant or malignant hypertension, recurrent, unexplained congestive heart failure or pulmonary edema or unstable angina.


The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of dentist-patient communication via social media on dental anxiety and to determine the appropriate timing of such communications. In this randomized, double-blinded and controlled trial, we used Instagram's quick replies system to answer patients' questions to alleviate dental anxiety for patients undergoing impacted teeth extraction under local anesthesia. Patients were assigned randomly into four groups according to the timing of such communications: only after (group 1, n = 36), only before (group 2, n = 35), before and after the operation (group 3, n = 36), and a control group who received no communication on social media (group 4, n = 36). Dental anxiety was evaluated one week before (pre-op) and after the operation (post-op) using recognized assessment scales -the Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), and Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The results showed that the post-op values of group 4 had higher anxiety scores than the groups 2 and 3 according to VAS (p < 0.05). Within the groups, the anxiety levels showed a decreasing trend after surgery according to MDAS and VAS scores (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that communication with patients before the operation is sufficient to reduce their dental anxiety.


This paper studies the aggregate economic effects of diversity policies such as affirmative action in college admission. If agents are constrained in the side payments they can make, the free market allocation displays excessive segregation relative to the first-best. Affirmative action policies can restore diversity within colleges but also affect incentives to invest in pre-college scholastic achievement. Affirmative action policies that are achievement-based can increase aggregate investment and income, reduce inequality, and increase aggregate welfare relative to the free market outcome. They may also be more effective than decentralized policies such as cross-subsidization of students by colleges.


It is complex and obviously different for the production characteristics of CO2 water-alternating-gas (WAG) flooding in tight reservoir and influenced by quite a few factors. Therefore, the prediction of oil production is a key matter of efficient development of CO2 WAG to be solved in tight reservoirs. In order to cope with this issue, in this paper, the production characteristics of CO2 WAG flooding are analyzed and classified in tight oil reservoir of block A as an example. On this basis, properties of reservoir, fracture factors, and operational factors are taken into account and the sensitivity of the influencing factors is carried out. Subsequently, the gray relation analysis is used to confirm the primary influencing factors. Finally, the evaluated model is established to predict oil production rapidly. The results illustrate that the wells of CO2 WAG flooding in tight reservoirs can be divided into four types of fluid production characteristics. The production is affected by permeability, reservoir thickness, amount of sand entering the ground, amount of liquid entering the ground, gas/water ratio, the injection rate, injection pressure, permeability variation coefficient, water sensitive index, acid sensitive index, and expulsion pressure. And the primary influencing factors are the amount of sand entering the ground, reservoir thickness, and amount of liquid entering the ground. The oil production can be predicted quickly based on the relation between production and comprehensive evaluation factor of production. The average relative error between the predicted results and the actual production is 8%, which proves the reliability and accuracy of this method.


In this issue of the Hastings Center Report, E. Haavi Morreim analyzes the appropriateness of a restrictive information dissemination policy that was implemented during the clinical trial of the AbioCor artificial heart by AbioMed, the device's manufacturer and trial sponsor. During the trial, some prominent critics compared it to a "gag order restricting public debate about a device that had been financed with millions of public dollars" and alleged that the company's predominant motive was to protect its business interests. Morreim urges consideration of the controversial events as a case study to illuminate the larger issues surrounding the relationship between scientific research and the media. She maintains that disclosure of moment-by-moment, patient-centered details should be discouraged because patient privacy cannot adequately be protected. Moreover, because the information is anecdotal and often competitively distorted, it does not support valid judgments about the interventions value, and its release risks the integrity of the research trial. Morreim identifies a complicated web of stakeholders in addition to "the public," and she recommends that sponsoring corporations and their collaborators formulate a disclosure policy at the outset of a trial that includes, at a minimum, periodic reports of material, cumulative data. Sharing the plan encourages collegiality among collaborators, manages the expectations of the press and the public, and enables patients and their families to be counseled about what information will be released (with and without their consent) and what factors patients and families themselves should consider before releasing information independently. Morreim cautions against drawing universal conclusions from the "intensely human-interest" AbioCor case study because it is not typical of "mainstream clinical research." Her warning inspires the question, why not? Does the sensational nature of a high-profile trial justify special disclosure rules? Certainly the heightened level of human interest calls for a media policy, some plan for handling inquiries about patients. None is needed in the typical, "non-intensely human-interest" research setting, in which no one asks for information. But imagine if someone did. What should be the response of an investigator of, say, a Phase 3 chemotherapeutic agent, to a reporter who asserts, "Tell me how your patients are doing today ... Of course I won't run their names, but I'd like to know their creatinine and albumin levels. I'll be checking in daily. …


Hip Hotels: Budget. Doesn't that sound too good to be true? But true it is. All the ingredients that make a HIP HOTEL - fantasy, originality, style, location - are available at less than astronomical rates, if only you know where to look. No less surprising is that they are truly global in range. Urban or remote, historic or post-industrial, Sunset Boulevard or Australian outback: take your pick. These are hotels created by enthusiasts, and it shows. They include an original canal house on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, a collection of thatched huts overlooking a black-sand beach in Bali, a palace in the heart of the Marrakesh medina, and a vast converted power plant in Hamburg, its massive stilled machinery looming like sculpture over the interiors. Budget or not, style doesn't get more authentic than this. So plunge in and discover for yourself this latest fabulous - and fabulously affordable - collection of HIP HOTELS.


The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake (ML =7 .3) which occurred in central Taiwan marks the island's largest inland seismic event of the twentieth century. The Chi-Chi earthquake had three notable characteristics: 1) its source depth was very shallow (8 km), with aftershocks distributed in a semi-circular belt surrounding the Peikang basement high; 2) it triggered a 90 km long, north-south trending, active fault (the Chelungpu fault), mostly of the thrust type. Its hanging wall side suffered much larger distortions than the foot wall side; and 3) the fault trace bent toward the northeast at its northern tip 50 km away from the source, where the largest surface rupture occurred (9.8 m). We suggest that the thin-skinned thrust model would be the most suitable to explain the behavior of the Chi-Chi earthquake. The overall decollement surface might not be too deep (20 km?), which would redistribute the tectonic pressure to a weak near-surface layer, this could be the Chinshui Shale (10 km?) which activated the brittle layer-coupled fault even before the accumulation of earthquake stress in the near area was 'mature' or 'adequate'. By using the aftershock data and other observations, we attempt to reconcile the different aspects of the Chi-Chi earthquake based on the thin-skinned model. Many inferences emerge as remarkably reasonable, that match the observations quite well. However, a deep seismic reflection study or deep well drilling is definitely required to better evaluate the model.


It is frequently said that humor does not travel well, and wordplay, which is inseparably connected to humor, poses particular problems for the translator as it is intrinsically linked to the source language and culture, and consequently is often described as untranslatable. The translator's task is further complicated when instances of wordplay are encountered in audiovisual texts due to the constrained and semiotic nature of the medium. The aim of this paper is to examine the translation strategies applied to wordplay in the English subtitles of the French film Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis [Boon 2008]. To do this, instances of wordplay in the source text and the target text were classified according to the typology of wordplay as proposed by Delabastita (1996), and subsequently analyzed using the General Theory of Verbal Humor (GTVH) (Attardo and Raskin 1991) in order to contrast the differences between source text and target text instances of wordplay. The findings show the trends in the application of translation strategies and demonstrate that GTVH, albeit with some modifications, is a useful analytical tool in the context of audiovisual translation in that it could show how the puns evolved in translation and therefore give a better understanding of wordplay to aid the choice of translation strategy. As long as a narrow view of equivalence is avoided, this study demonstrates that the translation of wordplay is possible even within the polysemiotic structures of audiovisual texts.


The technique for automated ultrasonic inspection of pipeline girth welds is based on the so-called zonal discrimination approach, commonly used today in the oil & gas industry. For each project, qualification of the inspection equipment and procedure according to DNV standards (DNV OS F101, DNV recommended practice: DNV RP F118) and TOTAL internal specifications, is required to ensure inspection performance. Some of the qualification tests based on the inspection of defective welds are costly and time consuming. Moreover these tests don't provide the opportunity to thoroughly investigate the influence of several parameters such as wall thickness variations, sound properties, beam characteristics, and defect orientation on the probability of detection (PoD) and sizing accuracy. For these reasons, introducing modeling into the qualification work to replace part of the tests currently performed and add other relevant tests that would otherwise be excluded brings added value to the qualification process. The first stage of the project was to qualify the use of a modeling tool to simulate Phased-Array UT inspections performed with the PipeWizard system. To do so, results of qualification tests performed for a project on pipe welded sections exhibiting both machined (typically notches and flat bottom holes) and real weld defects (typically lack of fusion, lack of penetration, porosities, etc.) were used. EXTENDE modeled the qualification mock-ups and the UT inspection procedure with CIVA software. Then, calculations were performed to compare simulations and experiments. The results of this first study are a promising beginning to the use of CIVA calculations in the qualification process of UT inspection of pipeline girth-welds, particularly for PoD and sizing accuracy evaluations.


This paper extends Hopenhayn and Rogerson's analysis of firing taxes by introducing a flexible form of capital and considering transitionary dynamics. The paper finds that capital is not important for understanding the long run and welfare effects of firing taxes. However, capital is crucial for determining the short run consequences of eliminating this type of policy.


Background: Several reports have demonstrated that prolongation of the QT interval is associated with sudden cardiac death (SCD). However, it is unknown whether any of the components within the QT interval are responsible for its association with SCD. Methods and Results: We examined the association of the individual QT-interval components (R-wave onset to R-peak, R-peak to R-wave end, ST-segment, T-wave onset to T-peak, and T-peak to T-wave end) with SCD in 12 241 participants (54±5.7 years; 26% black; 55% women) from the ARIC study (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities). The QT interval and its components were measured at baseline (1987–1989) from 12-lead ECGs. SCD cases were adjudicated by a group of physicians through December 31, 2012. During a median follow-up of 23.6 years, a total of 346 cases of SCD were identified. Although prolongation of the QT interval was associated with a 49% increased risk of SCD (hazard ratio, 1.49; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–2.18), only the T-wave onset to T-peak component (per 1-SD increase: hazard ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–1.34) was associated with SCD and not any of the other components in separate models. When all of the QT-interval components were included in the same model, T-wave onset to T-peak remained the strongest predictor of SCD (per 1-SD increase: hazard ratio, 1.21; 95% confidence interval, 1.06–1.37). Conclusions: The risk of SCD with the QT interval is driven by prolongation of the T-wave onset to T-peak component. This suggests that shifting the focus from the overall QT interval to its individual components will refine SCD prediction in the community.


Production of good Koji primarily depends upon the selection of substrate materials and fermentative microflora, which together influence the characteristic flavor and aroma. Herein, we performed comparative metabolomic analyses of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and primary metabolites for Koji samples fermented individually with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens and Aspergillus oryzae. The VOCs and primary metabolites were analyzed using headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) followed by gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC-TOF-MS). In particular, alcohols, ketones, and furans were mainly detected in Bacillus-fermented Koji (Bacillus Koji, BK), potentially due to the increased levels of lipid oxidation. A cheesy and rancid flavor was characteristic of Bacillus Koji, which is attributable to high content of typical 'off-flavor' compounds. Furthermore, the umami taste engendered by 2-methoxyphenol, (E,E)-2,4-decadienal, and glutamic acid was primarily detected in Bacillus Koji. Alternatively, malty flavor compounds (2-methylpropanal, 2-methylbutanal, 3-methylbutanal) and sweet flavor compounds (monosaccharides and maltol) were relatively abundant in Aspergillus-fermented Koji (Aspergillus Koji, AK). Hence, we argue that the VOC profile of Koji is largely determined by the rational choice of inocula, which modifies the primary metabolomes in Koji substrates, potentially shaping its volatolome as well as the aroma characteristics.


House dust mite (HDM) protease allergens, through cleavages of critical surface proteins, drastically influence the initiation of the Th2 type immune responses. However, few human protein substrates for HDM proteases have been identified so far, mainly by applying time-consuming target-specific individual studies. Therefore, the identification of substrate repertoires for HDM proteases would represent an unprecedented key step toward a better understanding of the mechanism of HDM allergic response. In this study, phage display screenings using totally or partially randomized nonameric peptide substrate libraries were performed to characterize the extended substrate specificities (P5–P4′) of the HDM proteases Der p 1, Der p 3 and Der p 6. The bioinformatics interface PoPS (Prediction of Protease Specificity) was then applied to define the proteolytic specificity profile of each protease and to predict new protein substrates within the human cell surface proteome, with a special focus on immune receptors. Specificity profiling showed that the nature of residues in P1 but also downstream the cleavage sites (P′ positions) are important for effective cleavages by all three HDM proteases. Strikingly, Der p 1 and Der p 3 display partially overlapping specificities. Analysis with PoPS interface predicted 50 new targets for the HDM proteases, including 21 cell surface receptors whose extracellular domains are potentially cleaved by Der p 1, Der p 3 and/or Der p 6. Twelve protein substrate candidates were confirmed by phage ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). This extensive study of the natural protein substrate specificities of the HDM protease allergens unveils new cell surface target receptors for a better understanding on the role of these proteases in the HDM allergic response and paves the way for the design of specific protease inhibitors for future anti-allergic treatments.


This paper examines an unexpected pattern of change related to the Resultative and Degree Modifier constructions np1 scare np2 sick/np be (literally) scared sick in the light of comparable diachronic changes (Margerie 2011). While some resultative constructions of the form np1 vb np2 xp//np be adj xp were historically reanalysed into Degree Modifier constructions, the data concerning the micro-constructions under study do not suggest a similar pathway. Rather, it seems that they were shaped analogically on the model of formally and functionally similar extant constructions, thus supporting Fischer's (2010, inter alia ) emphasis on the crucial role of the synchronic linguistic system in language change.


This paper investigates shareholder voting in the UK. The Directors' Remuneration Report (DRR) Regulations of 2002 gave shareholders a mandatory non-binding vote on boardroom pay. First, using data on about 50,000 resolutions over the period 2002 to 2007 we find that less than 10% of shareholders abstain or vote against the mandated Directors' Remuneration Report (DRR) resolution. Second, investors are more likely to vote against DRR resolutions compared to non-pay resolutions. Third, shareholders are more likely to vote against general executive pay resolutions, such as stock options, long term incentive plans and bonus resolutions compared to non-pay resolutions. Forth, firms with higher CEO pay attract greater voting dissent. Fifth, there is little evidence that CEO pay is lower in firms that previously experienced high levels of shareholder dissent. In addition, there is little evidence that the equity pay-mix, representing better owner-manager alignment, is greater in such firms. Currently, we find limited evidence that, on average, 'say on pay' materially alters the subsequent level and design of CEO compensation.


How can Marx's ideas help us with the problem of how to make new revolutionary beginnings in a time when the counterrevolution is ascendant, without losing sight of the need to prepare for the equally crucial question of what happens after the revolution? Capitalism has taken various forms as it developed, with the latest shaped by its endemic crisis since the mid-1970s generated by its falling rate of profit. Throughout these stages, the humanism and dialectic of Capital remain prime determinants of allowing Marxist responses not to stop at economic analyses but to release, rather than inhibiting, new revolutionary subjects and directions. Critical for the present moment is to take up Marx's humanism and dialectic as crucial dimensions of his philosophy of revolution in permanence. This encompasses not alone the famous March 1850 Address to the Communist League, but also the full trajectory of Marx's revolutionary life and thought from the 1844 Economic-Philosophic Manuscripts through Capital to the new moments of Marx's last decade as expressed in his writings on Russia and his Ethnological Notebooks. We trace Marx's theoretical/philosophical concept of permanent revolution in a number of his writings, to confront how various post-Marx Marxists addressed or ignored this dimension of Marx's thought, and explore whether this concept can be seen as central to Marx's body of thought, and can assist in the dual task of needed revolutionary transformation – the destruction of the old (negation) and the construction of the new (the negation of the negation).


In this classic text, martial arts icon Fumio Demura demonstrates with hundreds of detailed photographs and illustrations the fluid striking, blocking, twisting, and pinching techniques of this simple but versatile weapon. He delves into the nunchaku's history, explores its complex relationship with karate, and explains how to care for the weapon. No study of karate would be complete without nunchaku training, and no karate should be without this must-have manual.


Colonizations of islands are often associated with rapid morphological divergence. We present two previously unrecognized cases of dramatic morphological change and niche shifts in connection with colonization of tropical forest-covered islands. These evolutionary changes have concealed the fact that the passerine birds madanga, Madanga ruficollis, from Buru, Indonesia, and São Tomé shorttail, Amaurocichla bocagii, from São Tomé, Gulf of Guinea, are forest-adapted members of the family Motacillidae (pipits and wagtails). We show that Madanga has diverged mainly in plumage, which may be the result of selection for improved camouflage in its new arboreal niche, while selection pressures for other morphological changes have probably been weak owing to preadaptations for the novel niche. By contrast, we suggest that Amaurocichla's niche change has led to divergence in both structure and plumage.


A numerical model that simulates sediment oxygen levels and demand (SOLD) was developed and tested against field data. The model accounts for changes in sediments due to advection, diffusion, chemically and biologically mediated redox reactions, and other chemical transformations. The microbial degradation of organic matter and the interactions of the subsequent chemical constituents are described using appropriate stoichiometric relationships. Sediment oxygen demand (SOD) is computed from fluxes of oxygen and reduced compounds across the sediment-water interface. To test the the model, simulations were compared against published data obtained from lake sediments. The model results displayed reasonable agreement with the measurements. The model was used to examine some of the major factors that affect the sediment oxygen demand. Results show that although fluxes of methane and ammonia increase with an increasing C rain rate, the oxygen flux remains almost constant for the simulations conducted. For an increase in bioturbation and/or temperature, however, all fluxes increase significantly. The oxygen concentration at the sediment/water interface also affects the SOD significantly, especially the fraction of the total SOD that is due to the flux of oxygen into the sediments. The fraction of the SOD that is due to the oxidation of ammonia increases with increasing oxygen concentration at the sediment/water interface, while the fraction associated to the methane release and its oxidation decreases slightly because more organic C is oxidized aerobically. The contribution of reduced manganese, iron, and sulfide to the SOD are relatively low, due to their precipitation with other chemical species.


One of the key pieces of information which biomedical text mining systems are expected to extract from the literature are interactions among different types of biomedical entities (proteins, genes, diseases, drugs, etc.). Different types of entities might be considered, for example protein-protein interactions have been extensively studied as part of the Bio Creative competitive evaluations. However, more complex interactions such as those among genes, drugs, and diseases are increasingly of interest. Different databases have been used as reference for the evaluation of extraction and ranking techniques. The aim of this paper is to describe a machine-learning based reranking approach for candidate interactions extracted from the literature. The results are evaluated using data derived from the Pharm GKB database. The importance of a good ranking is particularly evident when the results are applied to support human curators.


In the wake of the resource constraints for external farm inputs faced by farmers in developing countries, sustainable agriculture that relies on renewable local or farm resources presents desirable options for enhancing agricultural productivity. In this study, we used plot-level data from the semi-arid Tigray region of Ethiopia to investigate the factors influencing farmers' decisions to adopt sustainable agricultural production practices, with a particular focus on conservation tillage and compost. While there is heterogeneity with regard to the factors that influence the choice to use either tillage or compost, results from a multinomial logit analysis underscored the importance of both plot and household characteristics on adoption decisions. In particular, we found that poverty and access to information, among other factors, impact the choice of farming practices significantly. We also found evidence that the impact of gender on technology adoption is technology-specific, while the significance of plot characteristics indicated that the decision to adopt particular technologies is location-specific. Furthermore, the use of stochastic dominance analysis supported the contention that sustainable farming practices enhance productivity. They even proved to be superior to use of chemical fertilizers—justifying the need to investigate factors that influence adoption of these practices and to use this knowledge to formulate policies that encourage adoption.


Late career is often seen as a more vulnerable life-stage in the labour market, in which workers may experience a deterioration in job quality. Using a life course perspective and longitudinal data, this article analyses the vulnerability associated with late career by focusing on four occupational dimensions: working-time, career continuity, retirement timing and income change. The research is carried out using data from Switzerland, a country where the age profile of the labour force is an increasing issue. The paper also adopts a cumulative disadvantage perspective to examine the impact of previous work and family life experiences on work life vulnerability at older age. Our data come from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARELIFE). The paper uses cluster analysis, sequence analysis and ordered logistic regression. Results show that women with previous family responsibilities resulting in long-term unemployment or caring, often with health complications, are more likely to be vulnerable to deterioration in job quality in late career. This suggests that experiences in the last period of the working life may be just as gendered as earlier periods.


Synergetics is the study of systems in which individual sub-systems act co-operatively.
In particular, we are interested as to how this co-operation on a microscopic scale can
lead to the formation of macroscopic spatial structures or patterns.
Synergetic pattern recognition is a non-conventional form of pattern recognition
which is modelled on these synergetic pattern formation systems. Indeed the paradigm
of synergetic pattern recognition states that pattern recognition is a type of pattern
formation.
This thesis is split into two parts. In Part A we introduce synergetic pattern
recognition. A review of the current range of synergetic pattern recognition systems
leads to a recognition of two major weaknesses in the current crop of synergetic pattern
recognition algorithms, so we introduce a number of generalised pattern formation
models which extend the capabilities of synergetic pattern recognition.
We also investigate the concept of synergetic learning whereby learning is considered
as a type of pattern formation. During a review of the current approach to this
task we recognise a number of problems and solve them with an important observation
concerning the dependence between variables. The new learning algorithm which
results is a significant improvement over the current approach.
In Part B of this work, we discuss the possible application of synergetic pattern
recognition to the task of view-based pose estimation, which is the challenge of estimating
the angles at which an image has been rotated, without reference to a full
model of the object.
Synergetic pattern recognition has not been used to solve this problem previously,
so following a review of the view-based pose estimation literature, we introduce two new
approaches to pose estimation based on synergetic pattern recognition. Comparison
of the results found by the various techniques on a standard dataset reveal a number
of common issues, foremost among which is the need to make a compromise between
the precision of a system's estimate and the amount of time taken to produce the
estimate.
This observation leads to the most exciting finding of this work. We describe
a new approach, not just to view-based pose estimation, but to the general field of
pattern analysis, which we call explicit inversion. The reason for the name is that
we have replaced the problem of numerically inverting a high-dimensional, unknown
equation with analytically inverting a known, low-dimensional equation. Comparison
with other approaches shows that this new approach yields comparable accuracy to
current algorithms but with a dramatic reduction in calculation times. For datasets
used in this dissertation, the increase in speed was between one to two orders of magnitude.
We then apply our algorithms to the real-world task of tracking the pose of an
aircraft. While a number of attempts have been made previously, this is the only
approach which shows promise of being able to track aircraft pose in real-time.


The Renaissance endeavors to formulate medical theory (Theorica ) in logical terms acquired formal definition by mid‑17 th century as the so-called "Medical Institutions". The first such institution, Physiology, dealt with the conformation of the human body in health ("natural state"). Pathology was the other side of the coin, i.e., the study of the "contra-natural" state of the human body. Maintenance of health (Hygiene) and eradication of disease (Therapeutics) depended on the action of agencies neutral by themselves (the traditional six "non naturals"), which were used according to logical rules: similars preserve, contraries heal. In parallel, the practical side of medicine (Practica ) consisted since remote times in lists of signs arranged "from head to toes", in addition to fevers, followed by corresponding treatments. The first reunion of Theorica  and Practica is attributed to H. Boerhaave (1668-1738), which made him "the teacher for the whole of Europe". In the present article, I discuss the doctrine of hygienic and therapeutic indications formulated by Boerhaave from the perspective of his "double empirical-‑rational method".


This Article examines the development of the U.S. Supreme Court's free exercise and anti-establishment jurisprudence in the Rehnquist Court and into the Roberts Court. It demonstrates the profound impact that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist had on that jurisprudence, effectively leading the Court to adopt his previously expressed view that both the Free Exercise and Establishment Clause had been construed too broadly in terms of restricting government action. Hence, the Rehnquist Court reversed years of precedent by holding that that religious exemptions from general secular laws were not required as a matter of free exercise, and it cut back severely on anti-establishment precedent requiring the government to remain strictly neutral in matters of religious aid or sponsorship. These developments have meant that religious accommodations now depend principally on statutory rights granted by legislatures, and that government is now free to act more boldly in supporting or sponsoring religious endeavors. In short, the role of religion in the nation's public life will now be determined to a much greater extent by democratic choices than judicially-imposed mandates.This Article also shows that the Roberts Court is extending these trends in significant ways. It will argue that construing religious exemptions as a matter of statutory intent rather than constitutional mandate has caused the Court, contrary to what might be expected, to read them much more expansively for both majority and minority faiths. This, in turn, will lead to a greater clash between free exercise and anti-discrimination rights, particularly in areas such as same-sex rights. But it will be contended that legislatures are better positioned to adjust these conflicts than judges. It will also demonstrate that Rehnquist Court precedents have emboldened the Roberts Court to further loosen restrictions on government support or sponsorship of religion. At the same time, however, that Court has prohibited government monitoring of which benefits flow to what religious groups — resulting in de facto preferences flowing to majoritarian religious sects at various geo-political levels. It will conclude that this trend would likely trouble the generally anti-sectarian generation that adopted the Establishment Clause, threatening a de facto reestablishment of religion.


This paper studies computational methods for adaptive growth seen in human design processes through a relatively simple yet explicit example in the context of robotic fabrication. The proposed experiment uses an industrial robot arm to produce structures by stacking unit bricks without hard-coded instructions ("blueprints") from the outset. The paper further explores how such implementations can be applied to architectural design and speculates as to the possibilities of open frameworks for design using computational methods.


The book argues for a shift of orientation in architectural thought, from what the building is to what it does; it also shows that the workings or the reality of the individual work (the room, building, garden, or landscape) cannot be understood apart its wider milieu, the environment in which it finds orientation. We tend to think of buildings as rather static or inert objects; buildings win praise for their stability. What's more, we also tend to assume each building is a discrete work that can be fully explained by the intentions of its designer and the techniques of its builders. These accounts aren't wrong, just partial. An important argument of this book is that conception and construction only explain the work's pre-history, not its manner of existing in the world, its ways of variously resisting and allowing the impress or effect of the forces that animate the wider location. Leatherbarrow describes what happens to an architectural work once it is exposed to the world, how it behaves among others, "on the street." This is important because that exposure or behavior strongly affects what we know of and like about buildings.


The behavior of beam-to-column connections in composite rigid frames is examined and the results of tests on ten specimens are presented. The steel beams are connected to concrete slabs by welded studs and are subjected to negative moment. The columns are of encased I-section bent about the major axis. The steel core components are attached with typical welded connections. It is shown that effective composite action can be realized in the beam at the inner face of exterior columns. The rotation capacity at the column face is generally satisfactory and is limited by buckling of the compression flange. The column encasement is effective in assisting the core web to resist the connection shear force. With proper design of slab and encasement, the ultimate moment capacity can be almost doubled as compared with that of the bare steelwork.


The book provides an up-to-date overview of turbulent flow research in the areas of simulation and modelling. Starting with a review of the spectral dynamics of homogenous and inhomogenous turbulent flows, succeeding chapters deal with numerical simulation techniques, renormalization group methods and turbulent closure modelling. Each chapter is authored by recognized leaders in their respective fields, and each provides a thorough and cohesive treatment of the subject.


. PURPOSE: Fouremployedyoungadultswhosurvivedbraincancerparticipatedinanevaluationofbarrierstotheircontinued employment and career development. METHOD: A trained interviewer completed the Work Experience Survey (WES) in teleconsultation sessions with each participant to identify his or her: (a) barriers to worksite accessibility, (b) difficulties performing essential functions of his or her job, (c) concerns regarding job mastery, and (d) extent of job satisfaction. RESULTS: Resulting largely from the medical and psychosocial sequelae of their illnesses (especially cognitive and mobility impairments), participants reported a wide range of difficulties in performing essential functions of their jobs (5 to 19) that have the potential to significantly affect their productivity. Job mastery problems reflected outcomes associated with cancer such as 'believing that others think I do a good job' and 'having the resources (e.g., knowledge, tools, supplies, and equipment) needed to do the job.' Other job mastery concerns reflected idiosyncratic aspects of a specific job setting such as 'being able to speak with my supervisor about promotion.' CONCLUSIONS: Although all four participants expressed a strong desire to continue and advance in their careers, they reported significant barriers to job satisfaction that must be addressed in order for that to happen. The interviewer concluded the WES interview by recommending a job accommodation plan, which included suggestions from Job Accommodation Network (JAN) consultants. IMPLICATIONS: The WES can be used in psychosocial treatment planning to offer guidelines for young adult CNS survivors to follow in requesting job modifications and assistive technology to improve career development and employment outcomes.


Channel equalisers are used in digital communication receivers to mitigate the effects of inter symbol interference (ISI) and inter user interference in the form of co-channel interference (CCI) and adjacent channel interference (ACI) in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). An equaliser uses a large part of the computations involved in the receiver. Linear equalisers based on adaptive filtering techniques have long been used for this application. Recently, use of nonlinear signal processing techniques like artificial neural networks (ANN) and radial basis functions (RBF) have shown encouraging results in this application. This thesis
presents the development of a nonlinear fuzzy system based equaliser for digital communication receivers.
The fuzzy equaliser proposed in this thesis provides a parametric implementation of symbolby-symbol maximum a-posteriori probability (MAP) equaliser based on Bayes's theory. This MAP equaliser is also called Bayesian equaliser. Its decision function uses an estimate of the noise free received vectors, also called channel states or channel centres. The fuzzy equaliser developed here can be implemented with lower computational complexity than the RBF implementation of the MAP equaliser by using scalar channel states instead of channel states. It also provides schemes for performance tradeoff with complexity and schemes for subset centre
selection. Simulation studies presented in this thesis suggests that the fuzzy equaliser by using only 10%-20% of the Bayesian equaliser channel states can provide near optimal performance.
Subsequently, this fuzzy equaliser is modified for CCI suppression and is termed fuzzy–CCI equaliser. The fuzzy–CCI equaliser provides a performance comparable to the MAP equaliser designed for channels corrupted with CCI. However the structure of this equaliser is similar to the MAP equaliser that treats CCI as AWGN. A decision feedback form of this equaliser which uses a subset of channel states based on the feedback state is derived. Simulation studies presented in this thesis demonstrate that the fuzzy–CCI equaliser can effectively remove CCI without much increase in computational complexity. This equaliser is also successful in removing
interference from more than one CCI sources, where as the MAP equalisers treating CCI as AWGN fail. This fuzzy–CCI equaliser can be treated as a fuzzy equaliser with a preprocessor for CCI suppression, and the preprocessor can be removed under high signal to interference ratio condition.


ABSTRACTNatural and anthropogenic chloride aerosols make up a significant fraction of atmospheric particulate matter and play important roles in the boundary layer chemistry. Here we provide a review of the mixing characteristics of chloride aerosols and the subsequent atmospheric implications, which are rarely considered in current field and modeling studies. Single-particle analytical techniques have shown that a large fraction of chlorides mix internally with other components, in particular inorganic salts and organic matters, instead of existing separately. In marine and coastal regions, high proportions of chloride aerosols usually mix with inorganic substances (e.g., Mg, Ca, K, N, S), while small quantities of them are coated by organic matter. In forest, grassland, and agricultural areas, most chlorides in biomass burning particles mix with or are coated by organics. In industrialized urban areas, the chloride aerosols often co-exist with heavy/transition metals (e.g., Zn, Pb) and are coated by organic materials in aged plumes. Moreover, secondary chlorides also mix with mineral dusts, nitrates, and sulfates. The mixing of chloride aerosols with insoluble substances can inhibit their hygroscopic properties, which in turn affects the cloud condensation nuclei activation and heterogeneous reactivity. The encasing of chloride aerosols within light-absorbing substances changes their optical properties and subsequently causes atmospheric warming. This paper emphasizes the complexity of the mixing of chloride aerosols, as well as the potential atmospheric implications thereof, and proposes some research topics deserving future study.


The proliferation of Internet-connected mobile and situated digital devices combined with the ubiquity of online collaboration and interaction exposes the need to review the ownership models for data and digital infrastructures that increasingly perform as politicised resources in everyday life. Viewing geography as an important aspect to the socio-cultural context within which potential new forms of 'bottom-up' online participation are performed, this thesis analyses the practices surrounding the ownership of, as well as the participation in urban planning through the various information communication technologies (ICTs) encountered in decisions affecting the material context of cities. In two ethnographic studies of information systems in municipal planning, technology-supported citizen participation is analysed. First, participation records for 597 citizens in a three-year planning process in Lancaster (UK) are used to reconstruct the geographic patterns of participation in relation to places. Then, through 21 participant interviews, the genealogy of municipal planners' establishment of an infrastructure for participation is outlined and associated practices of participation analysed. Finally, as a critique of possible technical interventions, the challenges of linking various actors' practices through geospatial technologies are scrutinised in two cases from Helsinki (Finland) and Aarhus (Denmark). From each study recommendations for design interventions are drawn. The findings suggest that 'local' participation draws on the materiality of various places. We find that formal participation processes and infrastructures used accounted poorly for the spatial constellation of material context and local actors who exerted a low influence within established formal participation process. To develop technical interventions that support distributing ownership of participation to various local groups within established institutional practices, human computer interactionists need to carefully consider established rules and roles used in both domains, the formal institutions and the many informally-organised actors involved. It is suggested that planners' role shifts beyond that of a mediator towards that of a facilitator for local actors' ownership of participation processes, wherein the need for economies of scale and technological compatibility in applying technical interventions may perform as boundaries for sustainable technical interventions. It suggests the scope for third parties to aid this process.


Water use in agriculture by different cropping systems is of interest
in determining crop water use efficiency of different tillage practices
that will lead to reduced crop production risk. Lysimeters are considered
the standard for evapotranspiration (ET) measurements; however,
these units are often not replicated and are few in number at
any given location. Our objective was to determine if a simple Bowen-ratio
system with nonexchanging psychrometers could provide accurate
measurements of ET from lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus) in a
semiarid climate. The study was conducted in 1993 and 1994 on two
adjacent 180- by 180-m fields with weighing lysimeters (1.68 by 1.68
by 1.83 m) located in the center of each field, on a Williams loam
(fine-loamy, mixed Typic Argiboroll) soil near Sidney, MT. A Bowen-ratio
system comprised of two nonexchanging psychrometers and
anemometers at 0.25 and 1.25 m above the plant canopy surface was
placed in the lentil field along with a net radiometer and soil heat
flux plate. Precipitation during the growing season from planting to
swathing was 367 mm in 1993 and 227 mm in 1994. In 1993, soil
water content of the lysimeter was greater than the field after large
precipitation events around Day of Year (DOY) 210, even though
the lysimeter was drained. After this time, the lysimeter ET exceeded
that measured by the Bowen-ratio system. Agreement was closer in
1994, when precipitation was near normal and there was no excess
soil water in the lysimeter. Cumulative ET totals from the lysimeter
were reflective of the seasonal precipitation patterns. Differences
between the lysimeter and Bowen-ratio occurred when there was
excess precipitation and inadequate drainage from the lysimeter. Half-hourly
ET fluxes from lysimeter and Bowen-ratio values agreed to
within 10% throughout the season. Bowen-ratio systems with nonexchanging
psychrometers can provide satisfactory estimates of daily
and seasonal ET and can be used to estimate ET in semiarid climates.


The semiconductor tracker (SCT) is one of the tracking systems for charged particles in the ATLAS detector. It consists of 4088 silicon strip sensor modules. During Run 2 (2015$-$2018) the Large Hadron Collider delivered an integrated luminosity of 156 fb$^{-1}$ to the ATLAS experiment at a centre-of-mass $pp$ collision energy of 13 TeV. The instantaneous luminosity and pile-up conditions were far in excess of those assumed in the original design of the SCT detector. Due to improvements to the data acquisition system, the SCT operated stably throughout Run 2. It was available for 99.9% of the integrated luminosity and achieved a data-quality efficiency of 99.85%. Detailed studies have been made of the leakage current in SCT modules and the evolution of the full depletion voltage, which are used to study the impact of radiation damage to the modules.


This book is structured into three parts and nine chapters. The main thrust of Part I is to explore the key characteristics of the four major sub-systems of society- polity, community, culture and economy- and their impacts on the legitimacy of law in the first four chapters. Part II investigates the cascading effects of corruption on political, communal, cultural, and economic systems of society in four chapters respectively. The last part of this volume draws the causal nexus between corruption and the illegitimacy of law, putting forward possible response strategies. With discussions bridging legal, sociological, economic and political theories, this book will be a useful resource for a wide range of audiences in different disciplines, such as Law, Sociology, Political science, Economics, Development studies, and Public policy.


In April 1609, King Philip III of Spain signed an edict denouncing the Muslim inhabitants of Spain as heretics, traitors, and apostates. Later that year, the entire Muslim population of Spain was given three days to leave Spanish territory, on threat of death. In a brutal and traumatic exodus, entire families and communities were obliged to abandon homes and villages where they had lived for generations, leaving their property in the hands of their Christian neighbors. In Aragon and Catalonia, Muslims were escorted by government commissioners who forced them to pay whenever they drank water from a river or took refuge in the shade. For five years the expulsion continued to grind on, until an estimated 300,000 Muslims had been removed from Spanish territory, nearly 5 percent of the total population. By 1614 Spain had successfully implemented what was then the largest act of ethnic cleansing in European history, and Muslim Spain had effectively ceased to exist. "Blood and Faith" is celebrated journalist Matthew Carr's riveting chronicle of this virtually unknown episode, set against the vivid historical backdrop of the history of Muslim Spain. Here is a remarkable window onto a little-known period in modern Europe - a rich and complex tale of competing faiths and beliefs, of cultural oppression and resistance against overwhelming odds.


Adapting Cotton Comes to Harlem: From Inter- to Intraracial ConflictDescribing his novels as the "most militant prose ever printed to condemn American racism" (qtd. in Hochkeppel 28), Chester Himes was inevitably disappointed with the penumbral adaptation of his 1965 novel Cotton Comes to Harlem (Ossie Davis, 1970). The task of adapting the novel changed hands almost as many times as the bail of cotton pivotal to its plot. Himes himself wrote what he called a "quickie" version of the screenplay, which producer Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., rejected and paid him "practically nothing for" (qtd. in Williams 51). Goldwyn was also interested in using Amid Baraka as screenwriter but did not accept his terms. Final credit for the project would go to Arnold Perl and Ossie Davis. According to Himes, Perl's initial treatment "had some stuff...that was really offensive. The treatment of the blacks in there was so offensive" (52). It was Davis who tried to develop a "black orientation" in Perl's treatment which Himes felt "much improved" the script, yet the film remains a contradictory, contested site, far from the "jet black" essentialism with which Life reporter Rudolph Chelminski promoted it in 1970 (Chelminski 58).The plot of the novel centers on the detectives Grave Digger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson's pursuit of $87,000 stolen from a Harlem Back-to-Africa rally by white gunmen, who get away in a delivery truck. The Reverend Deke O'Malley, a.k.a Deke O'Hara, ironically imprisoned for tax evasion after he betrayed his racketeer bosses, collected the $87,000 from subscribers whom he conned into believing were purchasing a passage to Africa. Lieutenant Anderson assigns Jones and Johnson to keep O'Malley alive because of political pressure to prevent a race riot. O'Malley disappears after the delivery truck, which he and his men pursue in an armored truck, crashes, spilling a bale of cotton picked up by Uncle Bud, a homeless person who collects junk. When Jones and Johnson arrive at the scene of the accident, they suspect that the theft was set up by O'Malley and become outraged that he would cheat the people of Harlem, described as a "city of the homeless" often displaced from the South by whites seeking to avenge desegregation (26). O'Malley does not know what has happened to the money, however, and, on the ran, is warned that the police are on his trail when he telephones his girlfriend, Iris. He hides out with Mabel Hill, one of his followers whom he seduces, and arranges for Barry Waterfield to betray the subscribers by selling a list of their names to the leader of the racist Back-to-the-Southland movement, Colonel Robert L. Calhoun, who opposes the Back-to-Africa project. Just after the rally, Calhoun opens a storefront on Seventh Avenue in order to attract African Americans with propaganda for cotton picker jobs in the South, arguing that returning blacks to the South is "for their own good" (58). After making a deal with Calhoun, Waterfield notices a wanted sign for a bale of cotton displayed in the window of the Back-to-the-Southland office. Uncle Bud sells the bale of cotton to a junk dealer, Goodman, whose workman, Josh, arranges to sell it to Calhoun. Meanwhile, Iris tricks a police guard, escapes, and murders Mabel Hill when she finds her with O'Malley. O'Malley beats Iris brutally and escapes, but is trailed by the police after Iris reveals Barry Waterfield's name. When O'Malley and Waterfield rendezvous with Calhoun to sell the list, Waterfield is murdered and Jones and Johnson arrest O'Malley. After Josh is discovered stabbed to death, Jones and Johnson realize the bail of cotton is the missing link in the investigation. Calhoun leads a Back-to-the-Southland parade across 130th Street which Jones and Johnson break up to prevent conflict with the Black Muslims and O'Malley's Back-to-Africa followers. While being transferred to the magistrate's court surrounded by over a thousand of his devotees, O'Malley escapes with two of his gunmen, Freddy and Four-Four. …


Amid the uncertainty over U.S. immigration policy, one fact is sending a chill through U.S. higher education: Some U.S. graduate programs in engineering, Science has learned, are seeing a sharp drop this year in the number of applications from international students. University administrators worry that the declines, as much as 30% from 2016 levels in some programs, reflect heightened fears among foreign-born students that the United States is tightening its borders. Given the timing, the officials suspect the cause is President Donald Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric during the campaign and his election, rather than the White House's 27 January travel ban against seven Muslim-majority countries, which is now in legal limbo. A continued downturn, officials say, could threaten U.S. global leadership in science and engineering by shrinking the pool of talent available to carry out academic research. It could also hinder innovation in industry, given that most foreign-born engineering students take jobs with U.S. companies after graduation.


We show that the very characteristics of educational systems generate social segmentation. A stylised educational framework is constructed in which everyone receives a compulsory basic education and can subsequently choose between direct working, vocational studies and university. There is a selection for entering the university which consists of a minimum human capital level at the end of basic education. In the model, an individual's human capital depends (i) on her/his parents' human capital, (ii) on her/his schooling time, and (iii) on public expenditure for education. There are three education functions corresponding to each type of study (basic, vocational, university). Divergences in total educational expenditure, in its distribution between the three studies and in the selection severity, combined with the initial distribution of human capital across individuals, can result in very different social segmentations and generate under education traps (situations in which certain dynasties remain unskilled from generation to generation) at the steady state. We finally implement a series of simulations that illustrate these findings in the cases of egalitarian and elitist educational systems. Assuming the same initial distribution of human capital between individuals, we find that the first system results in two-segment stratification, quasi income equality and no under education trap whereas the elitist system generates three segments, significant inequality and a large under education trap


SBI-0206965, originally identified as an inhibitor of the autophagy initiator kinase ULK1, has recently been reported as a more potent and selective AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) inhibitor relative to the widely used, but promiscuous inhibitor Compound C/Dorsomorphin. Here, we studied the effects of SBI-0206965 on AMPK signalling and metabolic readouts in multiple cell types, including hepatocytes, skeletal muscle cells and adipocytes. We observed SBI-0206965 dose dependently attenuated AMPK activator (991)-stimulated ACC phosphorylation and inhibition of lipogenesis in hepatocytes. SBI-0206965 (≥25 μM) modestly inhibited AMPK signalling in C2C12 myotubes, but also inhibited insulin signalling, insulin-mediated/AMPK-independent glucose uptake, and AICA-riboside uptake. We performed an extended screen of SBI-0206965 against a panel of 140 human protein kinases in vitro, which showed SBI-0206965 inhibits several kinases, including members of AMPK-related kinases (NUAK1, MARK3/4), equally or more potently than AMPK or ULK1. This screen, together with molecular modelling, revealed that most SBI-0206965-sensitive kinases contain a large gatekeeper residue with a preference for methionine at this position. We observed that mutation of the gatekeeper methionine to a smaller side chain amino acid (threonine) rendered AMPK and ULK1 resistant to SBI-0206965 inhibition. These results demonstrate that although SBI-0206965 has utility for delineating AMPK or ULK1 signalling and cellular functions, the compound potently inhibits several other kinases and critical cellular functions such as glucose and nucleoside uptake. Our study demonstrates a role for the gatekeeper residue as a determinant of the inhibitor sensitivity and inhibitor-resistant mutant forms could be exploited as potential controls to probe specific cellular effects of SBI-0206965.


While African-American and Asian-American entrepreneurs are the subject of several studies on ethnic entrepreneurship, Latino immigrant entrepreneurs are relatively neglected. Previous research shows that non-immigrant ethnic minorities tend to earn more as employees than as entrepreneurs, but the reverse is true for many immigrants. Despite the fact that immigrants from Latin American to the United States have shown a propensity to become self-employed and hold skills that often lead to success in the entrepreneurial market, their income as entrepreneurs is lower than other ethnic groups. This study shows that most of this disparity is linked to languagability. If they are bilingual in Spanish and English with strong English skills, Latino immigrants to America, like other immigrant groups, earn more on average as entrepreneurs than as employees.


Voids in copper lines are a common failure mechanism in the back end of line (BEOL) of integrated circuits manufacturing, affecting chip yield and reliability. As subsequent process nodes continue to shrink metal line dimensions, monitoring and control of these voids gain more and more importance [1]. Currently, there is no quantitative in-line metrology technique that allows voids to be identified and measured. This work aims to develop a new method to do so, by combining scatterometry (also referred to as Optical Critical Dimension or Optical CD) and low-energy x-ray fluorescence (LE-XRF), as well as machine learning techniques. By combining the inputs from these tools in the form of hybrid metrology, as well as with the incorporation of machine learning methods, we create a new metric, referred to as Vxo, to characterize the quantity of void. Additionally, the results are compared with inline electrical test data, as higher amounts of voids were expected to increase the measured resistivity. This was not found to be the case, as the impact of the voids was much less of a factor than variation in the cross-sectional area of the lines.


This study aimed to evaluate the effect of agents inducing water and saline stress on the seed germination and early growth and antioxidant activity in sunflower seedlings. Sunflower seeds, cv. M735, were germinated on moistened paper in solutions with osmotic potentials of 0.0, -0.2, -0.4 and -0.8 MPa induced by PEG 6000 and NaCl. The germination test was conducted with four samples of 100 seeds and four replicates per treatment, in a germination chamber at 25 oC without light. We evaluated the final percentage and speed of germination index, and the initial growth and activity of antioxidant enzymes in sunflower seedlings. Water stress induced by PEG 6000 increased the percentage of seeds germinated in the potential of -0.2 MPa, on the other hand, for NaCl in the potential of -0.8 MPa, there was a significant reduction. For this same potential, there was also a reduction in the rate of seed germination speed index in both conditioning agents. For the parameters of growth, shoot length decreased linearly with increasing concentrations of PEG 6000 and NaCl. As for the dry mass of leaves and roots and root length, this effect was more significant only in the potential of -0.8 MPa. The enzymes SOD, APX and CAT activity tended to be lower in seedlings originating from seeds in PEG 6000. In the presence of NaCl, the activity of SOD in the leaves increased significantly in the three tested for potential witnesses. For APX and CAT increase was observed at potentials of -0.2 and -0.4 MPa. In the roots there was no significant difference. An analysis of the evaluated parameters indicates that sunflower cv M735, under the conditions tested, showed tolerance to drought stress and salt until the potential of -0.4 MPa.


Narrowly focused task and domain specific AI has been applied successfully for more than twenty five years, and has produced immense value in industry and government. It doesn't lead directly to artificial general intelligence (AGI), but it does have real problem solving value. It is useful to note that many of the reasons why some otherwise meritorious AI applications fail have nothing to do with the AI per se, but rather, with systems engineering and organizational issues. For example: the domain expert is pulled out to work on more critical projects; the application champion rotates out of his/her position; or the sponsor changes priorities. A system may not make it past an initial pilot test for logistical vs. substantive technical reasons. Some embedded AI systems may work well for years on a software platform that is orphaned and porting it would be prohibitively expensive. A system may work well in a pilot test, but it might not scale for huge numbers of users without extensive performance optimization. The core AI system may be great but the user interface could be suboptimal. The delivered application system might work well, but it could be hard to maintain internally. The system may work according to the sponsor's requirements, but it might not be applied to the part of the problem that delivers the largest economic results; or the system might not produce enough visible organizational benefits to protect it in subsequent budget battles. Alternatively, the documented results may be quite strong, but may not be communicated effectively across organizational boundaries. All software projects are vulnerable to one or more of these problems. The fact that some software projects have a relatively small percentage of their total code in embedded AI methods doesn't make them an exception. However, knowing about these potential problems could help AI project teams to be proactive about avoiding them whenever possible.


Powerful online visualizations can make unobservable scientific phenomena visible and improve student understanding. Instead, they often confuse or mislead students. To clarify the impact of molecular visualizations for middle school students we explored three design variations implemented in a Web-based Inquiry Science Environment (WISE) unit on thermodynamics: Observation, Research Guidance, or Critique. We tested these variations in an inquiry unit designed following the knowledge integration framework to promote coherent understanding. Seven middle school classes (205 students) and their two teachers participated in the study. Students studying each version of the unit made significant gains on knowledge integration items designed to measure coherent understanding of thermodynamics. Compared to Research Guidance, the Critique condition was more successful, especially in helping students conduct consequential experiments. Embedded assessments revealed that students who critiqued a confounded experiment were more successful in conducting valid experiments than students who did not critique. In addition, the combination of critique and virtual experimentation increased student ability to connect molecular and observable phenomena. These results suggest design guidelines to help future designers. Specifically, preceding experimentation with critique activities helps students distinguish among existing and new ideas. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50: 858–886, 2013


Top-k query processing is an important building block for ranked retrieval, with applications ranging from text and data integration to distributed aggregation of network logs and sensor data. Top-k queries operate on index lists for a query's elementary conditions and aggregate scores for result candidates. One of the best implementation methods in this setting is the family of threshold algorithms, which aim to terminate the index scans as early as possible based on lower and upper bounds for the final scores of result candidates. This procedure performs sequential disk accesses for sorted index scans, but also has the option of performing random accesses to resolve score uncertainty. This entails scheduling for the two kinds of accesses: 1) the prioritization of different index lists in the sequential accesses, and 2) the decision on when to perform random accesses and for which candidates.The prior literature has studied some of these scheduling issues, but only for each of the two access types in isolation. The current paper takes an integrated view of the scheduling issues and develops novel strategies that outperform prior proposals by a large margin. Our main contributions are new, principled, scheduling methods based on a Knapsack-related optimization for sequential accesses and a cost model for random accesses. The methods can be further boosted by harnessing probabilistic estimators for scores, selectivities, and index list correlations. In performance experiments with three different datasets (TREC Terabyte, HTTP server logs, and IMDB), our methods achieved significant performance gains compared to the best previously known methods.


LALEVIC, B., B. SIVCEV, V. RAICEVIC, Z. RANKOVIC VASIC, N. PETROVIC and M. MILINKOVIC, 2013. Environmental impact of viticulture: biofertilizer influence on pruning and wine waste. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 19: 1027-1032 The global wine and table grape industry, with annual sales exceeding US$100 billion, generates large quantities of cane pruning waste each year. This pruning is usually composted or burned as waste, often with a net cost incurred to the winery. Microorganisms, soil organisms or enzymes can degrade the "end-use" grapevine waste. In the European Waste Catalogue grapevine, waste is indexed as plant waste and as a part of biowaste. Since grapevine waste is subject to the aerobic treatment process, it is compost. Grapevine waste is subject to an anaerobic treatment process or treated by other methods, including mixtures with other materials like grape mark before/after treatment. The aim of this paper is to investigate quality and quantity of the compost types made of pruning waste, grape mark, and the mixture of both. Preparation of microbial fertilizers consists of the Bacillus and Pseudomonas straining and their placement, at an adequate amount, in all assemblage. Results indicate that the microbial biomass causes the improvement of natural degradation.


The growth in the number of tourist arrivals in Spain in recent years has had significant economic repercussions; yet, little has been reported about its negative impact. This study goes some way to rectifying this by estimating the impact of tourist activity on crime rates in the Spanish provinces during the period 2000-2008. We use both 2-SLS and GMM techniques in a panel data framework to overcome the various challenges posed by estimating this relationship, namely, controlling for the unobserved characteristics of the provinces, and accounting for both the possible endogeneity of the tourist variable and the inertia of criminal activities. The results show that tourist arrivals have a positive and significant impact on crimes against both property and the person.


People are beginning to demand a higher standard of user experience (UX) quality from the software systems they use in their business and personal lives, and companies are looking to UX to help drive business value and increase brand strength. Effective UI provides a complete roadmap to building groundbreaking software centered on UX quality, including how to generate management support, employing product management strategies proven to deliver greater success, and how to manage the design, engineering, staffing, and business considerations that must be centered on the user's needs and working effectively in tandem all throughout the project. With a focus on UX, software can exceed expectations by:Accounting for how people work with, think about, and consume information. Establishing richer means of collaboration and communication Reducing frustration by streamlining complex tasks and creating more intuitive processes. Generating more engaging and interactive experiences between consumers and businesses, or between businesspeople and their information systems. Powerfully differentiating products, services, and brands to create a competitive advantage.For business and product managers trying to get innovative products funded and successfully built, for software professionals struggling to advance the cause of better UX, and for anyone else who needs to effectively advocate for and deliver on the promise of higher quality software, Effective UI is a comprehensive, valuable resource.


Introduction: Interoperability is needed when the Hospital Information System (HIS) data should be combined and shared with different systems. This study was aimed to determine the semantic and technical interoperability of hospital information systems of Iranrs health care centers and propose guidelines to create and develop interoperability of these centers. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on companies, which were qualified to receive performance appraisal certificate of HIS softwares from statistics and information technology office of health ministry. Standard questionnaire and checklist were used to collect information in the first and second steps. List of companies, which provided and produced HIS in Iran, was obtained, and then a self-administered questionnaire was sent for them. Then, a health care center was selected from each company randomly, and its current HIS interoperability was evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16. Results: Based on the results, all companies were used Microsoft windows and SQL server database in their HIS with consideration to technical interoperability. Also, the most frequent corporate programming language was Visual C Sharp (46.7) and Visual Basic (40), respectively. From semantic interoperability aspect, the most frequent terminology systems were ICD-10 (86.7), ICD-9CM (66.7), and CPT (66.7), respectively. For standard messaging, 60, 46.7 and 33.3 used XML, DICOM, and HL7 in order. Conclusion: Health system interoperability is divided into two semantic and technical parts. At the present, there is not any standard for electronic health record (EHR) to provide full interoperability. HIS templates should be provided in order to make a national standard for EHR. Therefore, it is necessary to have standard template for semantic and technical interoperability in EHR national exchanges.


A writer of enormous impact on Chinese literary history, Tao Yuanming 陶淵明 (ca. 365–427) became a cultural symbol through his deep and pervasive influence on generations of scholar-officials. What emerged was the image of an individual pure and high-minded, freethinking in spirit, reconciled to poverty, and upholding "ineptitude." Through a survey of the mu Tao 慕陶 (idolizing Tao) phenomenon in Chinese cultural history, this essay discusses the process by which Tao assumed the status of a wenhua fuhao 文化符號 (cultural symbol) and explores the factors that made it possible. Specifically, this essay maintains that Tao achieved this exemplary role through the cultural work of later scholar-officials who reimagined, constructed, and selectively formulated a paradigmatic character-type on top of the base supplied by his own core character. Finally, this essay discusses the international and contemporary significance of Tao Yuanming.


Recently, there has been considerable concern among art educators and cultural policy makers to promote art education in Hong Kong. The launch of the new curriculum of a discipline-based character in 1996 generated debate in the art education circle of Hong Kong. There were diverse opinions on the rationale for teaching art. Concern was expressed about the present constraints of art teaching related to teachers' ability and school administration poses another important issue that seems to inhibit further developments. This paper reports part of the findings of a study on art teachers' concepts of teaching. It explores the concepts of about 20 secondary art teachers in Hong Kong. Several categories of teaching are derived from interviews: aesthetic development, moral development, intellectual development, expression and therapy, and intellectual and aesthetic development. A scheme is developed which can be used to analyze teachers' concepts as education in or through art on a continuum from subject to learner centred.


The recent financial crisis triggered an increasing demand for financial regulation to counteract the potential negative economic effects of the evermore complex operations and instruments available on financial markets. As a result, insider trading regulation counts amongst the relatively recent but particularly active regulation battles in Europe and overseas. Claims for more transparency and equitable securities markets proliferate, ranging from concerns about investor protection to global market stability. The internationalization of the world's securities market has challenged traditional notions of regulation and enforcement.

Considering that insider trading is currently forbidden all over Europe, this study follows a law and economics approach in identifying how this prohibition should be enforced. More precisely, the study investigates first whether criminal law is necessary under all circumstances to enforce insider trading; second, if it should be introduced at EU level.

This study provides evidence of law and economics theoretical logic underlying the legal mechanisms that guide sanctioning and public enforcement of the insider trading prohibition by identifying optimal forms, natures and types of sanctions that effectively induce insider trading deterrence. The analysis further aims to reveal the economic rationality that drives the potential need for harmonization of criminal enforcement of insider trading laws within the European environment by proceeding to a comparative analysis of the current legislations of height selected Member States. This work also assesses the European Union's most recent initiative through a critical analysis of the proposal for a Directive on criminal sanctions for Market Abuse.

Based on the conclusions drawn from its close analysis, the study takes on the challenge of analyzing whether or not the actual European public enforcement of the laws prohibiting insider trading is coherent with the theoretical law and economics recommendations, and how these enforcement practices could be improved.


To understand the issues involved, leading lawyers and economists examine various facets of the child support system from a law and economics perspective. They consider the incentives faced by both custodial and non-custodial parents, and search for policy actions that are more incentive-compatible for all participants. The assumptions underlying current child support guidelines are discussed, as are the ways in which child support payments affect family structure, teenage delinquency and income disparities between parents.


The Arctic Social Indicators (ASI) project, an endorsed project of the Arctic Council, is aimed at devising a small set of indicators that reflect key aspects of human development in the Arctic. The indicators must be manageable in terms of measurement and affordable in regard to labor and material resources as the objective is to use them in monitoring change in human development in the region over time. As to insure that the devised indicators are good representatives, the project also seeks to "test" them with existing data and in discussion with representatives from various communities of the Arctic. The ASI and its working process is the focus of this thesis, where the methods of literature research, participant-observation and interviews, were used. The author attended the first ASI workshop, as well as a meeting of the Sustainable Development Working Group (SDWG) of the Arctic Council under which the ASI is being developed. The ASI was discussed with representatives of indigenous organizations as to hear their opinions on the ASI process as well as on how indigenous peoples should be included. An achievement of the first ASI workshop was a selection of six domains for which indicators needed to be selected. Further achievements were a selection of criteria for use in finding the best suited indicators as well as a selection of preliminary indicators for three of the six domains. Discussions at the SDWG meeting regarding the ASI were positive as well as indigenous respondents were positive towards the ASI domains. Regarding the consultation process, suggestions were on using the Indigenous Peoples Secretariat of the Arctic Council, as well as a suggestion was on the ASI members going to the basic community to talk to the locals.


Heterogeneous parallel computing combines general purpose processors with accelerators to efficiently execute both sequential control-intensive and data-parallel phases of applications. Existing programming models for heterogeneous parallel computing impose added coding complexity when compared to traditional sequential shared-memory programming models for homogeneous systems. This extra code complexity is assumable in supercomputing environments, where programmability is sacrificed in pursuit of high performance. However, heterogeneous parallel systems are massively reaching the desktop market (e.g., 425.4 million of GPU cards were sold in 2009), where the trade-off between performance and programmability is the opposite. The code complexity required when using accelerators and the lack of compatibility prevents programmers from exploiting the full computing capabilities of heterogeneous parallel systems in general purpose applications. This dissertation aims to increase the programmability of CPU - accelerator systems, without introducing major performance penalties. The key insight is that general purpose application programmers tend to favor programmability at the cost of system performance. This fact is illustrated by the tendency to use high-level programming languages, such as C++, to ease the task of programming at the cost of minor performance penalties. Moreover, currently many general purpose applications are being developed using interpreted languages, such as Java, C# or python, which raise the abstraction level even further introducing relatively large performance overheads. This dissertation also takes the approach of raising the level of abstraction for accelerators to improve programmability and investigates hardware and software mechanisms to efficiently implement these high-level abstractions without introducing major performance overheads. Heterogeneous parallel systems typically implement separate memories for CPUs and accelerators, although commodity systems might use a shared memory at the cost of lower performance. However, in these commodity shared memory systems, coherence between accelerator and CPUs is not guaranteed. This system architecture implies that CPUs can only access system memory, and accelerators can only access their own local memory. This dissertation assumes separate system and accelerator memory and shows that low-level abstractions for these disjoint address spaces are the source of poor programmability of heterogeneous parallel systems. A first consequence of having separate system and accelerator memories are the current data transfer models for heterogeneous parallel systems. In this dissertation two data transfer paradigms are identified: per-call and double-buffered. In these two models, data structures used by accelerators are allocated in both, system and accelerator memories. These models differ on how data between accelerator and system memories is managed. The per-call model transfers the input data needed by accelerators before accelerator calls, and transfers back the output data produced by accelerators on accelerator call return. The per-call model is quite simple, but might impose unacceptable performance penalties due to data transfer overheads. The double-buffered model aims to overlap data communication and CPU and accelerator computation. This model requires a relative quite complex code due to parallel execution and the need of synchronization between data communication and processing tasks. The extra code required for data transfers in these two models is necessary due to the lack of by-reference parameter passing to accelerators. This dissertation presents a novel accelerator-hosted data transfer model. In this model, data used by accelerators is hosted in the accelerator memory, so when the CPU accesses this data, it is effectively accessing the accelerator memory. Such a model cleanly supports by-reference parameter passing to accelerator calls, removing the need to explicit data transfers. The second consequence of separate system and accelerator memories is that current programming models export separate virtual system and accelerator address spaces to application programmers. This dissertation identifies the double-pointer problem as a direct consequence of these separate virtual memory spaces. The double-pointer problem is that data structures used by both, accelerators and CPUs, are referenced by different virtual memory addresses (pointers) in the CPU and accelerator code. The double-pointer problem requires programmers to add extra code to ensure that both pointers contain consistent values (e.g., when reallocating a data structure). Keeping consistency between system and accelerator pointers might penalize accelerator performance and increase the accelerator memory requirements when pointers are embedded within data structures (e.g., a linked-list). For instance, the double-pointer problem requires increasing the numbers of global memory accesses by 2X in a GPU code that reconstructs a linked-list. This dissertation argues that a unified virtual address space that includes both, system and accelerator memories is an efficient solution to the double-pointer problem. Moreover, such a unified virtual address space cleanly complements the accelerator-hosted data model previously discussed. This dissertation introduces the Non-Uniform Accelerator Memory Access (NUAMA) architecture, as a hardware implementation of the accelerator-hosted data transfer model and the unified virtual address space. In NUAMA an Accelerator Memory Collector (AMC) is included within the system memory controller to identify memory requests for accelerator-hosted data. The AMC buffers and coalesces such memory requests to efficiently transfer data from the CPU to the accelerator memory. NUAMA also implements a hybrid L2 cache memory. The L2 cache in NUAMA follows a write-throughwrite-non-allocate policy for accelerator hosted data. This policy ensures that the contents of the accelerator memory are updated eagerly and, therefore, when the accelerator is called, most of the data has been already transferred. The eager update of the accelerator memory contents effectively overlaps data communication and CPU computation. A write-backwrite-allocate policy is used for the data hosted by the system memory, so the performance of applications that does not use accelerators is not affected. In NUAMA, accelerator-hosted data is identified using a TLB-assisted mechanism. The page table entries are extended with a bit, which is set for those memory pages that are hosted by the accelerator memory. NUAMA increases the average bandwidth requirements for the L2 cache memory and the interconnection network between the CPU and accelerators, but the instantaneous bandwidth, which is the limiting factor, requirements are lower than in traditional DMA-based architectures. The NUAMA architecture is compared to traditional DMA systems using cycle-accurate simulations. Experimental results show that NUAMA and traditional DMA-based architectures perform equally well. However, the application source code complexity of NUAMA is much lower than in DMA-based architectures. A software implementation of the accelerator-hosted model and the unified virtual address space is also explored. This dissertation presents the Asymmetric Distributed Shared Memory (ADSM) model. ADSM maintains a shared logical memory space for CPUs to access data in the accelerator physical memory but not vice versa. The asymmetry allows light-weight implementations that avoid common pitfalls of symmetrical distributed shared memory systems. ADSM allows programmers to assign data structures to performance critical methods. When a method is selected for accelerator execution, its associated data objects are allocated within the shared logical memory space, which is hosted in the accelerator physical memory and transparently accessible by the methods executed on CPUs. ADSM reduces programming efforts for heterogeneous parallel computing systems and enhances application portability. The design and implementation of an ADSM run-time, called GMAC, on top of CUDA in a GNU/Linux environment is presented. Experimental results show that applications written in ADSM and running on top of GMAC achieve performance comparable to their counterparts using programmer-managed data transfers. This dissertation presents the GMAC system, evaluates different design choices, and it further suggests additional architectural support that will likely allow GMAC to achieve higher application performance than the current CUDA model. Finally, the execution model of heterogeneous parallel systems is considered. Accelerator execution is abstracted in different ways in existent programming models. This dissertation explores three approaches implemented by existent programming models. OpenCL and the NVIDIA CUDA driver API use file descriptor semantics to abstract accelerators: user processes access accelerators through descriptors. This approach increases the complexity of using accelerators because accelerator descriptors are needed in any call involving the accelerator (e.g., memory allocations or passing a parameter to the accelerator). The IBM Cell SDK abstract accelerators as separate execution threads. This approach requires adding the necessary code to create new execution threads and synchronization primitives to use of accelerators. Finally, the NVIDIA CUDA run-time API abstract accelerators as Remote Procedure Calls (RPC). This approach is fundamentally incompatible with ADSM, because it assumes separate virtual address spaces for accelerator and CPU code. The Heterogeneous Parallel Execution (HPE) model is presented in this dissertation. This model extends the execution thread abstraction to incorporate different execution modes. Execution modes define the capabilities (e.g., accessible virtual address space, code ISA, etc) of the code being exe