U.S. agriculture faces significant changes in local patterns of precipitation and temperature over the next century, with implications for regional water cycling and water availability. The effects of climate change on food production, farmer livelihoods, and consumer welfare will depend on the direction, magnitude, and rate of change in local weather conditions, as well as on the ability of the agricultural sector to adapt to changing yield and productivity patterns, production costs, and resource availability. Of particular interest is whether producer adaptation is limited, or even enhanced, by regional changes in water availability for irrigation. This analysis focuses on cropping allocations and shifts in irrigated and dryland crop area as two potential responses to climate change in U.S. fieldcrop production. Despite higher temperatures and much regional variation in production response, U.S. irrigated fieldcrop acreage and water used for irrigation tend to decline with long-term climate change. Driving the decline in water use are changes in crop growth due to temperature stress, changes in growing-season precipitation, and shifts in surface-water supply availability. Changes in the relative profitability of dryland and irrigated agriculture will increase irrigation demand in some major irrigated regions and reduce demand in others.


Abstract Geological evidence shows that the ice sheet and climate in Antarctica has changed considerably since the onset of glaciation around 34 million years ago. By analysing this evidence, important information concerning processes responsible for ice sheet growth and decay can be determined, which is vital for appreciating future changes in Antarctica. Geological records are diverse and their analyses require a variety of techniques. They are, however, essential for the establishment of hypotheses regarding past Antarctic changes. Numerical models of ice and climate are useful for testing such hypotheses, and in recent years there have been several advances in our knowledge relating to ice sheet history gained from these tests. This paper documents five case studies, employing a full range of techniques, to exemplify recent insights into Antarctic climate evolution from modelling ice sheet inception in the earliest Oligocene to quantifying Neogene ice sheet fluctuations and process-led investigations of recent (last glacial) changes.


Most cancer patients may need external beam radiotherapy at certain times. Sufficient exposure of malignant cells and better avoidance of surrounding healthy tissues are necessary in order to minimise damage to non-cancerous regions. Therefore,
accurate patient positioning and proper radiation directions as well as dose distributions are crucial. A vital part of external beam radiotherapy is the geometric verification of treatment delivery. This thesis extensively studied three-dimensional
(31)) to two-dimensional (2D) image registration methods. The author has proposed two novel methods to register computerised tomography (CT) based volume image data acquired for treatment planning with orthogonal planar images acquired at treatment simulation, which are able to recover the transformation errors in full six degrees of freedom (three translations and three rotations).
The first proposed method is a novel feature-based method. It is based on automatic or semi-automatic extraction of object contours from the orthogonal X-ray images, matching with the 3D contours automatically extracted from the planning CT data. The registration is based on the Z-bnffer projection algorithm and the iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm. The novelty of the method proposed by the author is that: with the depth information of the projected features from the 3D model retained by the Z-bnffer method and the correspondence points found by ICP method, the 2D correspondence points are back projected to 3D space. Then the 3D-2D registration can be solved as a 3D-3D registration problem which enables
the cost function to be easily built and optimised. The proposed method has been evaluated using simulated data as well as phantom data. For the simulated data, the root-mean-square (RMS) registration errors were 0.70 mm + 0.21 mm for
translations and 0.49° + 0.46° for rotations with the capture range up to 18 mm (measured by mean target registration error (mTRE)). For the phantom data, the alignment errors were found to vary from 0.04 mm to 3.3 mm with an average of
1.27 mm for translation, and to vary from 0.02° to 1.64° with an average of 0.82° for rotation. The accuracy compares favourably against some of the other feature-based registration methods, and the computational cost is significantly lower than intensity-based registration methods.
Another significant contribution of this research work is the proposed hybrid 3D-2D image registration framework. The novel framework is distinct from other methods by combining the advantages from both feature-based methods and intensity based methods. It can be performed fully automatically which consists of two stages. The first stage is a coarse registration procedure, which is based on the idea of region based segmentation. It enables a fast and rough alignment that can successfully reduce the searching range for the subsequent fine registration. In the fine registration stage, an accelerated digitally reconstructed radiograph (DRR) generation method based on iso-region leaping method is proposed. Based on the generation of a series of region of interest (ROl) bone structure DRRS along the projected anatomical features, the proposed method is computationally effIcient, with registration error less than 0.5 mm measured by rnTRE. The capture range was up to 50 mm for the tested simulated data. For the evaluated phantom data sets from different parts of body, the proposed method was also able to achieve an acceptable registration accuracy with 2.15 mm + 0.82 mm (measured by mTRE). By providing a comparable registration accuracy, the proposed method was shown to be computationally more
efficient than other software based methods (i.e. conventional ray casting method and accelerated ray casting based on pre-computations). In addition, an easy-to-use graphic user interface (GUI) was developed which enables the proposed framework to be further evaluated and compared with current clinical software.


Five experiments investigated listeners9 capacities for perceiving polytonality, in which materials from more than one key are employed simultaneously. The stimulus materials were based on a particularly striking example of polytonal writing from Stravinsky9s Petroushka; it outlines in arpeggiated form the tonic triads of two maximally distant major keys, C and F# major. The first experiment demonstrates, using the probe-tone technique, that the two component voices presented in isolation establish the expected keys and that when they are combined some influence of both keys is felt. The second and third experiments indicate, however, that when presented dichotically the two components cannot be separated perceptually; this is attributed to the two voices having the same rhythmic and contour patterns and being sounded in the same pitch range. The fourth experiment replicated the findings of the first three, using listeners very familiar with the particular passage. The final experiment tested an alternative theoretical account, the octatonic collection. Probe-tone ratings following an octatonic scale did not account satisfactorily for the data for the musical passage, but the hierarchy of priorities proposed by Van den Toorn (1983) fit the data better than the major key profiles, especially for the experienced listeners.


An advanced active power filter for the compensation of instantaneous harmonic current components in nonlinear current loads is presented in this paper. A novel signal processing technique using an adaptive neural network algorithm is applied for the detection of harmonic components generated by nonlinear current loads and it can efficiently determine the instantaneous harmonic components in real time. The validity of this active filtering processing system to compensate current harmonics is substantiated via simulations.


This article traces the genesis of the principle of legacy as it has featured in Olympic discourse, and become enshrined in the expressed philosophy of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), so shaping elements in the process of bidding by cities to stage the Olympic Games, in both their winter and summer manifestations. The article shows how Olympic bidders have increasingly mobilised the idea of legacy, and how event by event over the last quarter of a century, evaluation of the significance of an Olympic Games has been centrally shaped by the legacy debate, in a multitude of applications and contexts. Particular aspects of legacy are focused upon, with reference to new studies, from city impacts to volunteers and workers, spatial politics and communities to gender discourse, and protest and publics. The article is flavoured by a running commentary on legacy claims by academics, politicians and IOC careerists concerning the London 2012 Summer Olympics, and considers the bidding rhetoric of cities beyond Rio de Janeiro 2016, through to Tokyo 2020. In conclusion, it is argued that despite the embeddedness of the legacy idea in Olympic discourse, the reality is that legacy will prove elusive without long-term planning before Olympic events, and remain unproven without systematic post-event research over realistically extended periods. Critical social science remains essential to such an understanding of the gap between legacy claims and the realities of the recurring Olympic narratives.


This is a work concerned with the increasing processes of social exclusion in cities nowadays. In approaching this phenomenon, the research highlights how people interact with their institutional environments. This is also, perhaps centrally, an investigation into the possibility to engage an individual perspective to understand the transformation in urban experience, which is orienting society to new uses and forms of exclusion. Following the perspective deployed by the so-called "sociology of individuals" in French sociology or "reengagement of agency" in the Anglo-Saxon world; I claim that individuals as well as collectives are gaining increasing power to question and re-organize institutions. This re-organization, in the case of socio-urban institutions, is no guarantee for major levels in integration, cohesion, and equality. Unfortunately, social institutions are becoming hard in its exclusionary capabilities under people intervention during the last four decades.
I believe that urban sociology is a field of struggle between different perspectives competing to "make sense" of social phenomena in cities. The orientation supported in this research is just one on many and it follows the roots of people and their life experiences within cities and how they influence the processes that shape the city. The last formulation is possibly not the clearest, because as we all know, references to "inhabitants" are presented in every variant of urban sociology. Nevertheless, there are not many variants focusing on peoples' capability to influence institutional environments and by this way affecting the urban condition in which they find themselves. The particular institution selected for this study is the "School".
This thesis is organized around two parts: part one includes the conceptual framework, methodological approach, and historical contextualization; part two describes three case studies produced to analyse the forms of and the relations between individuals and school institution. Part one starts from a premise: within the context of declining welfare State in the case of industrialized countries, an important part of urban studies focuses on economic and spatial restructuration. Confronted with the same situation, a part of social sciences shifts to the individuals' agency and social uncertainty. This research is embedded in the last theoretical description presented above, thus, because it tries to observe urban processes from the perspective of the individual and outside of developed economies. In this sense, Latin America represents a fundamental reference because urban conditions are historically marked by weak institutional arrangements to integrating people and large levels of marginality and exclusion among population. In this scenario individuals' practices around inclusion-exclusion have an essential meaning in everyday life.
Part two offers three study cases in which the relation between individuals and school institutions has been analyzed for the Metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile (MAS). Using different methodological resources an exhaustive account on three levels is presented: i) geo-referencing State intervention in public policies connected with neighborhood and schools to understand the form and extent of socio-urban exclusion in MAS, ii) narrative biographies applied to parents with children attending primary school, in order to reconstruct the familiar process of school selection and describing its impacts on the stabilization of school as an exclusionary device, and iii) autoethnography to describe in detail the temporal dimension involved in stabilizing actions which reinforces social mechanisms of urban integration-exclusion during the last three decades in Chile.
A key argument advanced by this research proposes that: the way in which the idea of integration is enacted by people in their biographical careers imprints changes on the institutional orientation and by this way, contributes to the reorganization urban life. The high level of social exclusion in Santiago de Chile is not accountable without considering transformation in all socio-urban institutions, especially the school. No family considers social integration with people from a low social, economical or cultural background as relevant orientation for school selection. This particularity of the Chilean social reality is not derivable from any big capitalistic or modernization processes impacting our cities.
Within the light of the thesis findings, I conclude that socio-urban institutions logics must be reassessment under the influences of people actions and representations. I also propose a consideration to major complementarities between urban studies and urban-institutions analysis. The school institutions is not just a sectorial field reserved to the researcher in education, on the contrary, it represent a key entrance to address people's experience in their institutional urban environments. The re-emergence of social and urban movements in 2010, under the "Arab Spring" or the "Chilean Student Movements", is not only a demonstration in the public space as result of major global trends. These situations are in essence, for this research, individuals gathering together and calling for recognition and autonomy inside institutional environment that tends to reject them. Similar situation was the focus of the Latin American urban sociology research, within the focus on grassroots and urban social movements at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s.
In both cases, socio-urban institutions, unaware of recognition requirements claimed by inhabitants, are not beyond individual or collective reach. My main concern is to show that socio-urban institutions are constantly re-shaped as a result of individual action, what makes the difference, is the spirit that we all, socially, imprint on the logics of our socio-urban institutions, moving them to inclusion or exclusion.


Microwave radiometry is a suitable technique to measure atmospheric temperature profiles with high temporal resolution during clear sky and cloudy conditions. In this study, we included cloud models in the inversion algorithm of the microwave radiometer TEMPERA (TEMPErature RAdiometer) to determine the effect of cloud liquid water on the temperature retrievals. The cloud models were built based on measurements of cloud base altitude and integrated liquid water (ILW), all performed at the aerological station (MeteoSwiss) in Payerne (Switzerland). Cloud base altitudes were detected using ceilometer measurements while the ILW was measured by a HATPRO (Humidity And Temperature PROfiler) radiometer. To assess the quality of the TEMPERA retrieval when clouds were considered, the resulting temperature profiles were compared to two years of radiosonde measurements. The TEMPERA instrument measures radiation at 12 channels in the frequency range from 51 to 57 GHz, corresponding to the left wing of the oxygen emission line complex. When the full spectral information with all the 12 frequency channels was used, we found a marked improvement in the temperature retrievals after including a cloud model. The chosen cloud model influenced the resulting temperature profile, especially for high clouds and clouds with a large amount of liquid water. Using all 12 channels however presented large deviations between different cases, suggesting that additional uncertainties exist in the lower, more transparent channels. Using less spectral information with the higher, more opaque channels only also improved the temperature profiles when clouds where included, but the influence of the chosen cloud model was less important. We conclude that tropospheric temperature profiles can be optimized by considering clouds in the microwave retrieval, and that the choice of the cloud model has a direct impact on the resulting temperature profile.


This paper evaluates the impact of public employment on private sector activity using the relocation of the German federal government from Berlin to Bonn in the wake of the Second World War as a source of exogenous variation. To guide our empirical analysis, we develop a simple economic geography model in which public sector employment in a city can crowd out private employment through higher wages and house prices, but also generates potential productivity and amenity spillovers. We find that relative to a control group of cities, Bonn experiences a substantial increase in public employment. However, this results in only modest increases in private sector employment with each additional public sector job destroying around 0.2 jobs in industries and creating just over one additional job in other parts of the private sector. We show how this finding can be explained by our model and provide several pieces of evidence for the mechanisms emphasised by the model.


A new method of predicting the solar heat gain through complex fenestration systems involving nonspecular layers such as shades or blinds has been examined in a project jointly sponsored by ASHRAE and DOE. In this method, a scanning radiometer is used to measure the bidirectional radiative transmittance and reflectance of each layer of a fenestration system. The properties of systems containing these layers are then built up computationally from the measured layer properties using a transmission/multiple-reflection calculation. The calculation produces the total directional-hemispherical transmittance of the fenestration system and the layer-by-layer absorbances. These properties are in turn combined with layer-specific measurements of the inward-flowing fractions of absorbed solar energy to produce the overall solar heat gain coefficient. The method has been applied to one of the most optically complex systems in common use, a venetian blind in combination with multiple glazings. A comparison between the scanner-based calculation method and direct system calorimetric measurements made on the LBL MoWiTT facility showed good agreement, and is a significant validation of the method accuracy and feasibility.


The National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease (NSF for CHD) sets out clinical targets for both primary and secondary prevention but dietary and lifestyle measures remain a vitally important population-based approach to CHD prevention. Though CHD mortality is falling in the UK, a greater focus on lifestyle measures could help to accelerate this fall and to address ethnic and social class differences in CHD. "Emerging evidence - a multidisciplinary approach" was the theme of the Diet and Heart Health Symposium, held in London in October 2002. A number of recognised dietary and lifestyle measures which the public can make are highlighted in this report. For example, on page S3 of this report we see a summary of the potential impact of a range of dietary measures on blood lipids and lipoproteins, indicating how small but multiple changes by individuals can result in a useful summation of effects. Soya protein has now been added to this list with the recent approval of a health claim for soya protein and cholesterol reduction in the UK. The approval process for such health claims recently granted in the UK by the approval body, the Joint Health Claims Initiative (JHCI), is highlighted. The promotion of these measures requires a coordinated multidisciplinary approach, and the evolving field of public health nutrition will be pivotal in improving effectiveness. How best to communicate such messages to the public is far from clear, however. The symposium was organised by HEART UK (Hyperlipidaemia Education and Research Trust), the new union between the Family Heart Association and the British Hyperlipidaemia Association. The event was funded by an educational grant from Alpro, manufacturers of soya products.


The quest for energy efficiency leads to the development of highly efficient power transmissions for vehicles. Gears are some of the most rugged and durable torque transmitters among machine elements. Friction between sliding surfaces at gear teeth is one major source of power loss. To increase efficiency and reduce damage accumulation in gears has always been a background motivation to this thesis. It focuses on the frictional performance of manufactured gear surfaces with emphasis on the effect of surface topography and the orientation of its lay. To achieve the goal of this work, a test rig was designed and constructed. The rig makes it possible to examine gear tooth friction on double crowned rollers. Five alternative gear-finishing processes are implemented in roller surface preparation. They comprise grinding, shotpeening, phosphating, chemical deburring and DLC coating. Theoretically, a friction model is suggested which helps to explain some of the testing results. Advanced surface metrology techniques and statistical tools are implemented in identifying surface features that influence friction. The result demonstrates that surface topography is a significant factor affecting the lubricated frictional behaviour. For ground-finishing, the smoother the surfaces are finished, the lower friction coefficient they show. Chemical deburring and DLC coating as well as certain degrees of phosphating provide minimum friction coefficient and improved load carrying capacity, which are competitive to fine-ground finishing. Properly designed lay combinations of meshing gear surfaces can minimise friction and improve gear transmission efficiency. Theoretically, the friction coefficient can be explained by means of a combination of the slide-to-roll ratio and the real mean contact pressure within the range of loads considered in this thesis. Finally, features that correlate surface topography to friction are identified.


In this paper, the output regulation problem is investigated, which consists of building a controller to asymptotically steer the output of a saturated linear systems to a given reference signal despite external disturbances. Particularly, for saturated systems subject to periodically time-dependent exosytem, a K-step asymptotically regulatable region was characterized by a set of all the initial states of the plant and the exosytem. Improved internal model principles were constructed on the balance between the state convergence rate and the control of all the initial state. Finally, a state feedback controller was designed to ensure exponential output regulation in the regulatable region with disturbance rejection. Simulation examples were given to illustrate the effectiveness of proposed method. The results show these systems can go into stable rapidly and periodically.


Extinction directions in a medium M may be found by using a polarizer P, a Nakamura half-shade H, and an analyzer A. These components are set up with P and A crossed and so that monochromatic light passes in turn through P, M, H, and A to enter a microscope focused on the dividing line of H. The extinction directions are found by rotating M until the field of view is of uniform brightness: they coincide then with the vibration directions of P and A. This method is considered in detail, and it is shown on theoretical grounds that, for media having a phase difference less than π/2, increased sensitivity results when a quarter-wave plate Q is inserted, in zero azimuth with respect to the vibration direction of P, between M and H. The calculated increase for very small phase differences is considerable: experiment confirms this. A comparison is made with a method in which H is a half-shade of the Bravais type and Q is omitted. The present arrangement serves also as a sensitive compensator for the measurement of optical phase differences and it is, therefore, particularly suitable for measurements, such as occur in flow birefringence studies, where both extinction angles and the magnitude of the birefringence are required. This application is discussed.


During the Survey year, the New York Court of Appeals issued important opinions with respect to strict compliance for service of process, the foreign object exception under CPLR 214-a, and disclosure against corporate employees. The Court also imposed sanctions for the first time under Part 130 of the Uniform rule, and ruled that issue preclusion could be given to a criminal conviction to preclude subsequent civil litigation. In addition the Court recognized that substituted service could be used against a criminal contemnor. New York appellate courts issued instructive decisions regarding long-arm jurisdiction, forum non conveniens, and discovery of surveillance videos. The Legislature also enacted amendments that affect General Municipal Law 205(e), preferences, Article 78, traverse hearings, court-annexed arbitration, defaults, health care proxies, and forfeiture. The Governor also signed legislation affecting notices of claim and statutes of limitation in wrongful death actions against a variety of public authorities. There were also several important federal decisions and federal legislation of which the New York bench and bar should be aware. The United States Supreme Court issued opinions pertaining to personal and subject matter jurisdiction.The Court also made important rulings with respect to venue, res judicata, discovery, and Rule 11 sanctions. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit adopted a uniform federal statute of limitations for private securities claims and clarified use of the sixty day service toll in federal courts. The court also analyzed what constitutes "doing business" under CPLR 301. Finally, on December 1, 1990, President Bush signed into law the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990. The Act implements recommendations of the Federal Courts Study Committee and changes practice in federal court in a number of important areas .There were also important developments regarding mandatory continuing legal education and mandatory pro bono.


The plant hormone auxin plays a central role in the growth and development of plants.
Auxin acts in a concentration dependent manner and polar cell-to-cell transport of this
hormone determines its distribution in the tissues of plants. This polar auxin transport is
mediated by several families of auxin transporters, including the PIN FORMED (PIN) auxin
efflux carriers that determine the direction of transport by their polar localization at the
plasma membrane. The plasma membrane abundance and polarity of PINs (and thereby
of polar auxin transport) is regulated by their post-translational modification, of which
phosphorylation is best studied. PIN proteins in Arabidopsis consist of two transmembrane
domains separated by a 'long' (PIN1,2,3,4,6,7) or by a 'short' (PIN5,8) hydrophilic loop.
Phosphorylation of 'long' PINs in their central hydrophilic loop by the AGC3 kinases
PINOID, WAG1 and WAG2 triggers shootward (apical) or outer-lateral polarity. The AGC1-
type D6 kinases also phosphorylate the PIN hydrophilic loop, however this was reported
to result in auxin transport activation rather than subcellular polarity establishment.
Here we investigate the conservation and phylogeny of AGC3 and D6 kinases and their
phosphorylation sites in PINs from the earliest land plants to flowering plants. In early
land plants, many of the same proteins and conserved motifs can be found, however it is
in monocots and dicots that conservation of PIN phosphorylation by AGC3 and D6 kinases
is strongest. The expansion and increased conservation of AGC3 and D6 kinases and PINs
in later lineages such as monocot and dicot flowering plants, is in line with their important
role in the formation of reproductive organs and in the tropic growth responses that allow
plants to adapt to changes in their environment.


Across the animal kingdom it has been observed that outcomes of conflicts are influenced by past experiences, whereby previous winners are likely to keep winning and losers are likely to lose again. These so-called "winner and loser effects" are hypothesized to result from factors such as information acquisition and endocrine responses following the initial bouts. This paper applies the understanding of this phenomenon to a novel domain: patterns of winning and losing in Major League Baseball (MLB) double headers. By accessing archival data available from www.espn.com, we report on the incidence of a single team winning both games (sweeps) versus each team winning one game (splits) in MLB double headers over the last 13 years. Consistent with previous research on winner and loser effects, we show that sweeps are significantly more common than splits and that there is a home field advantage in this context. Results indicate that disparity in opponent quality or skill, as measured by the difference in team records outside the double header match, was not a significant predictor of whether the outcome resulted in a split or a sweep. In contrast to our hypotheses, there was no difference in the margin of victory in games between sweeps and splits. Overall these results add to the existing literature on winner and loser effects, provide a framework for pursuing further research in MLB, and suggest that winner and loser effects may be present across a variety of other forms of human social interaction.


The applications of mid-Cretaceous (Aptian-Cenomanian) nannofossils in biostratigraphy and palaeoceanography have been advanced based on four specific studies from India, UK, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A biostratigraphic study on outcrop samples from two new sections in the Cauvery Basin (SE India) has significantly improved stratigraphic resolution in the basin using the recent zonation schemes of Bown et al. (1998) and Burnett (1998). In addition to highlighting problems associated with a few marker species for the Cenomanian, the Albian/Cenomanian and Cenomanian/Turonian boundaries have been examined with respect to their nannofossil proxies. Qualitative comparisons of coeval assemblages from India with those from three other palaeogeographical settings (England, France and the Pacific) have confirmed the overall cosmopolitan nature of Albian nannofloras, in which provinces such as the Tethyan, Boreal and Austral cannot be clearly differentiated. A palaeoclimatic study of a short section in the Gault Clay (S. England) suggests a major warming event starting at the mid-/Late Albian boundary in the Weald of the Anglo-Paris Basin. The cold-water species, Repagulum parvidentatum, gives strong evidence for this warming event by showing a rapid decline in its percentage abundance, which precisely coincides with a light oxygen isotope peak and the influx of Tethyan ammonites. A sharp productivity rise based on the well-known fertility index, Zeugrhabdotus noeliae, is found to be concomitant with the warming event. A palaeoceanographic study of the Early Albian OAElb event in the western North Atlantic (Leg 171B), based on its nannofossil productivity record and geochemical data, supports the increased productivity model as a plausible mechanism for this anoxic event. A similar study on the Pacific Ocean (Leg 198, Shatsky Rise) shows a marked temporal variation in the abundance distribution of productivity- related taxa (e.g., Biscutum constans, Zeugrhabdotus noeliae) in relation to the OAEla (Early Aptian) and OAElb (Early Albian) events. Possible explanations for this variation have been proposed, in light of the heightened submarine volcanism in the Pacific during the mid-Cretaceous. Watznaueria is found to be the most abundant taxon in all mid-Cretaceous assemblages and its dominance is considered to be independent of preservation, indicating its broad palaeoecological tolerance rather than resistance to dissolution. On the basis of taxonomic observations, four new species have been erected: Calculites karaiensis, Loxolithus bicyclus, Manivitella fibrosa and Tranolithus simplex.


Mobility issues are the typical sequelae of "tunnel vision" (severe peripheral visual field loss), and manifest in the difficulty patients have detecting and avoiding obstacles during locomotion. We examined the behavior of seven patients with tunnel vision (6°-27° visual fields) and six normally sighted individuals as they walked toward a visible goal in a virtual environment with or without an obstacle present. Each obstacle was a pole 1.8m tall and either stationary or moving across the path of the participant. Stationary obstacles appeared at a distance of 4 or 6m and an angle of 1° from the path to the goal. The moving obstacles crossed the participant's path at 4 or 6m while moving at a constant speed (50%, 70% or 90% of the participant's preferred walking speed). All obstacles appeared after participants walked 1m, and participants pressed a button when they detected an obstacle. Based on detection rates for short 1.2m obstacles (Kiefer et al., 2012), the patients were divided into two subgroups: (1) a low-detection group and (2) a high-detection group. We simulated individual locomotor trajectories using Fajen & Warren's (2003) steering dynamics model. RMSE between the model and human heading time series revealed no significant differences between the normally sighted (M = 0.28° +/- 0.01°), low-detection (M = 0.36° +/- 0.04°) and high-detection (M = 0.30° +/- 0.03°) groups with stationary obstacles; simulations with moving obstacles are ongoing. There was a trend toward greater variability in RMSE for both patient groups compared to the normally sighted group. The results indicate that tunnel vision patients have different detection strategies (Kiefer et al.), but once an obstacle is detected their locomotor behavior is similar to normally sighted pedestrians. Patients appear to exhibit noisier trajectories, perhaps due to difficulty tracking the obstacle as they fixate and steer toward the goal. Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2013 Language: en


The explosion of time series data in recent years has brought a flourish of new time series analysis methods, for forecasting, clustering, classification and other tasks. The evaluation of these new methods requires either collecting or simulating a diverse set of time series benchmarking data to enable reliable comparisons against alternative approaches. We propose GeneRAting TIme Series with diverse and controllable characteristics, named GRATIS, with the use of mixture autoregressive (MAR) models. We simulate sets of time series using MAR models and investigate the diversity and coverage of the generated time series in a time series feature space. By tuning the parameters of the MAR models, GRATIS is also able to efficiently generate new time series with controllable features. In general, as a costless surrogate to the traditional data collection approach, GRATIS can be used as an evaluation tool for tasks such as time series forecasting and classification. We illustrate the usefulness of our time series generation process through a time series forecasting application.


A new structure of RF control of plasma for electric propulsion has been proposed. With excitation characteristics of a helical antenna and propagation characteristics of waves with rotating field, both plasma production and ion heating will be expected simultaneously by employing a single helical antenna. Basic experiments to examine the proposed structure have been performed, showing consistent results with expected scenario.


Abstract— Studies of two separate stones of the CV3 chondrite Vigarano have revealed the presence of previously unreported occurrences of calcite. In the first stone, calcite occurs as thin veins in a type B CAI. In contrast, observations of the second stone, which was recovered one month after its fall, show three calcite occurrences: networks of veins, vesicle fillings in the fusion crust, and pseudomorphic replacement of augite associated with a porphyritic olivine chondrule. The most common occurrence is as veins ranging in thickness from <1 μm to 25 μm and extending for more than several hundred μm. Some veins crosscut the fusion crust and are connected to a carbonate coating on the exterior of the meteorite. Extensive minor element zoning occurs in carbonate masses, indicating variations in the fluid composition and/or redox potential during carbonate growth. Based on the textural evidence and a comparative study with carbonate veins in the CV3 chondrite Leoville, we conclude that the veins are terrestrial in origin. We propose a model for rapid carbonate formation in which calcite precipitation is driven by hydrolysis and oxidation in the meteorite interior that move the fluid composition to alkaline values. In addition, both stones also contain minor occurrences of carbonate that are not readily explained by terrestrial alteration. Minor carbonate in a type B CAI occurs in the first stone and calcite occurs as pseudomorphic replacement of augite in the second stone. Both of these occurrences appear to be preterrestrial, probably asteroidal in origin.


In a recent paper [1], we introduced "dynamical dark matter," a new framework for dark-matter physics, and outlined its underlying theoretical principles and phenomenological possibilities. Unlike most traditional approaches to the dark-matter problem which hypothesize the existence of one or more stable dark-matter particles, our dynamical dark-matter framework is characterized by the fact that the requirement of stability is replaced by a delicate balancing between cosmological abundances and lifetimes across a vast ensemble of individual dark-matter components. This setup therefore collectively produces a time-varying cosmological dark-matter abundance, and the differ-ent dark-matter components can interact and decay throughout the current epoch. While the goal of our previous paper was to introduce the broad theoretical aspects of this framework, the purpose of the current paper is to provide an explicit model of dynamical dark matter and demonstrate that this model satisfies all collider, astrophysical, and cosmological constraints. The results of this paper therefore constitute an "existence proof" of the phenomenological viability of our overall dynamical dark-matter framework, and demonstrate that dynamical dark matter is indeed a viable alternative to the traditional paradigm of dark-matter physics. Dynamical dark matter must therefore be considered alongside other approaches to the dark-matter problem, particularly in scenarios involving large extra dimensions or string theory in which there exist large numbers of particles which are neutral under Standard-Model symmetries.


Ajax is at the heart of the Web 2.0 revolution. It isn't a technology but, rather, is a technique that leverages other technologies and techniques, such as CSS, XML, DHTML, and XHTML. Many Web designers and programmers would like to incorporate Ajax in their projects because of the amazing functionality it can add to a Web site, but they can't because of the steep learning curve. That's where this book steps in. It makes learning Ajax fun and easy -- a great place to start! Visual QuickProject Guides focus on a single project. In this case the project is creating a business employee directory, like an address book. What's being created is a better, new kind of Web site.


The widespread availability of Web 2.0 technologies such as Facebook and Twitter has led to the adoption in a number of community engagement projects. Unfortunately, the breath and depth of these web technologies leads to a disjointed and incoherent adoption. In light of the above, there is a need for a model to structure its planning and execution. In this article, we present a model to assist community engagement projects. The model comprises of four crucial dimensions: functional quality, degree of psychological attachment, hedonic attitude of members and amount of social relationships. We discuss how each dimension can leverage on Web 2.0 technology capabilities in the context of uniS—the Information and Communications Faculty in a leading Australian University. The emphasis on community engagement follows for one, strategic recommendations proposed through Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) reviews. Given this, we discuss two specific initiatives currently in place at UniS that attempts to improve community engagement. The implications of this article are twofold. For educators, it recommends a set of considerations for establishing and designing community engagement programs and initiatives for higher education. For managers, it proposes a tool for systematically evaluating engagement success of initiatives within a community of practice.


Cancer immunoprevention is achieved through promoting antitumor immune surveillance to block tumor formation and progression. Following the success of prophylactic vaccines against human papillomavirus (HPV) in preventing HPV-associated cancer, immunopreventive cancer vaccines targeting tumor antigens have been increasingly evaluated against cancers of noninfectious origin. While advances in cancer immunotherapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have clearly shown that the host immune system can mount effective antitumor immunity against tumor antigens when immune checkpoints are optimally blocked, the use of ICIs in the prevention setting has not been widely explored because of concerns of ICI-associated adverse events. In this issue of Cancer Prevention Research, Chung and colleagues demonstrate that the human cirrhotic liver harbors neoantigens, which accumulate further as the disease progresses to hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), suggesting that cirrhotic liver may be susceptible to ICI therapy. Utilizing an established mouse model of carcinogen-induced liver fibrosis and HCC, they show that intermittent intervention by ICI, anti-mouse PD-1 (CD279) antibody, can prevent the progression of the precancerous stage of cirrhosis to HCC accompanied by increased T-cell infiltrates in the liver parenchyma. Importantly, there were no overt ICI-associated toxicities in the treated mice, indicating that safe dosing regimens could be established. This work is both significant and timely, opening the door to future studies, where the utility of ICI therapy can be further investigated not only in cirrhosis but other high-risk precancerous conditions. In this perspective, we discuss the implications of their findings, and the challenges and potential opportunities for use of ICIs for cancer immunoprevention. See related article by Chung et al., p. 911


Background and Purpose: Birth of a mentally retarded child is a significant challenge in every family and is associated with the possibility of parental stress and depression. This study aimed to evaluate the self-concept of mothers with educable mentally retarded (EMR) children. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 40 mothers with EMR children in the only special primary school for these children in Aran & Bidgol city in Isfahan, Iran. Data were collected using self-concept questionnaires. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test in SPSS V.13. Results: In this study, total score of the self-concept of mothers was 29.95±7.60, which was relatively desirable. In addition, a significant correlation was observed between the age of children (P=0.02) and family income status (P=0.01) with the scores of maternal self-concept. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, higher family income and increased age of EMR children are associated with higher self-concept of mothers. It is recommended that future studies be performed on larger sample sizes in this regard.


In this paper we describe a paradigm for content-focused matchmaking, based on a recently proposed model for constraint acquisition and satisfaction. Matchmaking agents are conceived as constraint-based solvers that interact with other, possibly human, agents (Customers). The Matchmaker provides potential solutions ("suggestions") based on partial knowledge, while gaining further information about the problem itself from the other agent through the latter's evaluation of these suggestions. The dialog between Matchmaker and Customer results in iterative improvement of solution quality, as demonstrated in simple simulations. We also show empirically that this paradigm supports "suggestion strategies" for finding acceptable solutions more efficiently or for increasing the amount of information obtained from the Customer. This work also indicates some ways in which the tradeoff between these two metrics for evaluating performance can be handled.


Translation from Spanish to English by T.A. Zuur and The Language Workshop Received: 30-08-11 Accepted: 15-09-11 Abstract Gastroesophageal refl ux disease (GERD) is a frequent cause of consultations with gastroenterologists. Extradigestive symptoms such as chronic coughing, laryngitis and chest pain are frequently associated with GERD. Chronic laryngitis is one of the symptoms most often associated with GERD, yet various studies which have used monitoring esophageal pH as a diagnostic tool have not found any clear association between chronic laryngitis and refl ux. Moreover, studies which have treated patients suspected of having chronic laryngitis caused by refl ux with proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have had had rates of therapeutic failures. Symptoms continue to persist in these patients despite adequate inhibition of acid secretion. To date, no evidence exists of the association between chronic laryngitis and GERD, much less evidence of a causal relation. We consider that, although GERD may be responsible for some episodes of chronic laryngitis, it is not the illness most frequently associated with it, and in the many cases in which GERD has been reasonably ruled out, other potential causes must be investigated.


This article considers how the field of voluntary sector studies (VSS) in the UK emerged. Drawing on published and unpublished documents as well as on semi-structured interviews with people involved in the early development of VSS, a timeline of key events is suggested. The analysis reveals both social and cognitive elements in the field's development and considers the broader policy and institutional context within which key events of the VSS field occurred.


ABSTRACT The growth of Smartphone usage, increased acceptance of electronic learning (E-learning), the availability of high reliability mobile networks and need for flexibility in learning have resulted in the growth of mobile learning (M-learning). This has led to a tremendous interest in the acceptance behaviors related to M-learning users among the information systems researchers. Despite a large amount of significant research in the field of M-learning, the measurement of user acceptance of M-learning has not received attention. This research study intends to develop and validate a survey that measures users' acceptance of M-learning. A total sample of 806 university and higher college students from different institutes in Oman participated in this study. This research study was conducted in two stages. The first stage using a sample size of 388 students initiated a generic questionnaire, and examined factorial validity and reliability. The second stage that was conducted using different sample of 418 students employed confirmatory factor analysis to establish factorial validity and measurement invariance. A correlated six-factor model (Flexibility, Suitability, Enjoyment, Efficiency, Economic and Social) was fit using maximum likelihood estimation. The internal consistency and item reliability of Mobile Learning Acceptance Measure was found to be at acceptable level for both samples.


CONTEXT
No large-scale posttraumatic stress disorder drug trials have been conducted to evaluate treatment effects beyond 12 weeks outside of those with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the efficacy of venlafaxine extended release (ER), a serotonin norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor, in posttraumatic stress disorder.

DESIGN
6-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

SETTING
International study at 56 sites. Patients Adult outpatients (N = 329) with a primary diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder as defined in the DSM-IV, symptoms for 6 months or longer, and a 17-item Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale score of 60 or higher. Intervention Patients randomly assigned to receive flexible doses of venlafaxine ER (37.5-300 mg/d) or placebo for 24 weeks.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary measure was the change from baseline in the Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale score. Secondary measures included remission, defined as a Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale score of 20 or lower, and changes in symptom cluster scores, frequency of remission, and time to remission. Measures of stress vulnerability, resilience, depression, quality of life, functioning, and global illness severity were also taken.

RESULTS
Mean changes from baseline in Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale total scores at end point were -51.7 for venlafaxine ER and -43.9 for placebo (P = .006). Improvement was significantly greater for the venlafaxine ER group than for the placebo group in cluster scores for reexperiencing (P = .008) and avoidance/numbing (P = .006), but not for hyperarousal. Remission rates were 50.9% for venlafaxine ER and 37.5% for placebo (P = .01). The venlafaxine ER group also showed significantly greater improvement at end point than the placebo group (P<.05) on all other reported outcome measures. The mean maximum daily dose of venlafaxine ER was 221.5 mg/d. Withdrawal rates were similar between groups with no significant difference in dropouts attributable to adverse events.

CONCLUSION
In this study, venlafaxine ER was effective and well tolerated in short-term and continuation treatment of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder.


Background and purpose Fractures are most common in youth and in the elderly, with differences in incidence over time and between regions. We present the fracture pattern in a population of youths ≤ 19 years of age, who were seen at Umea University Hospital, Sweden. Material and methods All injuries seen at the hospital have been recorded in a database since 1993. The data include variables such as age, sex, date, type of injury, mechanism of injury, and treatment. For the period 1993–2007, there were 10,203 injury events that had resulted in at least 1 fracture. Results The incidence for the whole period was 201/10 4 person years. The incidence increased by 13% during the period 1998–2007, when we were able to control for registration errors. The most common fracture site was the distal forearm. The most common type of injury mechanism was falling. The peak incidence occurred at 11–12 years in girls and at 13–14 years in boys, with a male-to-female incidence ratio of 1.5. We found variations in mechanisms and activities at injury with age, and over time. Interpretation Fractures are caused by a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic factors that vary with age. We believe the increase in incidence is partly explained by changes in children's activity patterns over time. Further research may help to identify preventive measures to reduce the number of fractures, in particular those involving hospital care, surgical treatment, and—most importantly—long-term impairment.


ABSTRACT The spot commodities market exhibits both extreme volatility and price spikes, which lead to heavy-tailed distributions of price change and autocorrelation. This article uses various Lévy jump models to capture these features in a panel of agricultural commodities observed between January 1990 and February 2014. The results show that Levy jump models outperform the continuous Gaussian model. Our results prove that assuming a constant volatility or even a deterministic volatility and drift structure of agricultural commodity spot prices is not realistic and is less efficient than the stochastic assumption. The findings demonstrate an interesting correlation between volatility and jumps for a given commodity i, but no relationship between the volatility of commodity i and the probability of jumps of commodity j.


Knowing Women is a study of same-sex desire in West Africa, which explores the lives and friendships of working-class women in southern Ghana who are intimately involved with each other. Based on in-depth research of the life histories of women in the region, Serena O. Dankwa highlights the vibrancy of everyday same-sex intimacies that have not been captured in a globally pervasive language of sexual identity. Paying close attention to the women's practices of self-reference, Dankwa refers to them as 'knowing women' in a way that both distinguishes them from, and relates them to categories such as lesbian or supi, a Ghanaian term for female friend. In doing so, this study is not only a significant contribution to the field of global queer studies in which both women and Africa have been underrepresented, but a starting point to further theorize the relation between gender, kinship, and sexuality that is key to queer, feminist, and postcolonial theories. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.


Abstract An increase in training intensity and the number of active participants and competitors in figure skating has been accompanied by an increasing frequency of injuries. The aim of this study was to investigate whether different brands of skates as well as the usage of the skates modify the kinetics and kinematics of the landing impact from a jump. New Graf Edmonton (NG), old used Graf Edmonton (OG) and new Edea Concerto (NE) skates were compared. Twelve participants completed six jump trials from 30 cm and 50 cm high boxes, respectively in all three skates and landed on a section of artificial ice placed on a laboratory floor. Landing kinematics (Oqus4 system, Qualisys, Sweden) and kinetics (force plate: Kistler, Switzerland; insoles: Pedar, Novel, Germany) were examined. Each participant acted as their own control for statistical comparison between the skates. The results confirmed that the kinetics and kinematics of the landing are affected by wearing different skates. During landing impacts in NG, participants had significantly greater dorsiflexion at initial contact (IC) and peak dorsiflexion of the ankle, peak flexion of the knee and also greater in-skate plantar forces (PF) than in NE, which may increase the risk of injury. In OG, participants had significantly greater peak flexion of knee and longer time from IC to first peak dorsiflexion (TP) of the ankle than in NG. The differences observed may be due to the different construction designs, such as height of the heel, used materials, and stiffness of the skates, which may affect injury occurrence.


The former Soviet empire spanned eleven time zones and contained half the world's forests; vast deposits of oil, gas and coal; various ores; major rivers such as the Volga, Don and Angara; and extensive biodiversity. These resources and animals, as well as the people who lived in the former Soviet Union – Slavs, Armenians, Georgians, Azeris, Kazakhs and Tajiks, indigenous Nenets and Chukchi – were threatened by environmental degradation and extensive pollution. This environmental history of the former Soviet Union explores the impact that state economic development programs had on the environment. The authors consider the impact of Bolshevik ideology on the establishment of an extensive system of nature preserves, the effect of Stalinist practices of industrialization and collectivization on nature, and the rise of public involvement under Khrushchev and Brezhnev, and changes to policies and practices with the rise of Gorbachev and the break-up of the USSR. (Less)


A series of dihalo- and bis-aroyl-substituted benzo[1,2-b:6,5-b′]dithiophene-4,5-diones were synthesized, and their electronic, electrochemical, and electrical properties investigated. Synthetic strategies to increase (i) the conjugation length of the base molecular structure – through introduction of thiophene units bearing electronically neutral substituents (hydrogen or alkyl groups) or strong electron-withdrawing pentafluorobenzoyl group(s) – and (ii) the electron affinity – by moving to a benzo[1,2-d:4,3-d′]bis(thiazole)-4,5-dione structure – were developed. Molecular packing in the single crystal was studied by single-crystal X-ray structural analysis, and this information was subsequently used in the determination of the electronic band structures, densities of states (DOS), effective transfer integrals, and effective charge-carrier masses via density functional theory (DFT) methods. The charge-carrier transport properties of the benzo[1,2-b:6,5-b′]dithiophene-4,5-dione and benzo[1,2-d:4,3-d′]bis(thiazole)-4,5-dione derivatives were investigated through the fabrication and characterization of organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) via both solution-processed and vacuum-deposited films. 2,7-Bis-pentafluorobenzoyl-benzo[1,2-b:6,5-b′]dithiophene-4,5-dione (10a) exhibited field-effect behavior with an average electron mobility μe = 4.4 (±1.7) × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1 when the active layer was vacuum-deposited, and a larger μe= 6.9 × 10−3 cm2 V−1 s−1 when the active layer was solution-processed. These results are in stark contrast with the DFT-determined electronic band structure and effective mass, which indicate that the material possesses good intrinsic charge-carrier transport characteristics. The combined results reveal the importance of thin-film processing and that further processing refinements could lead to improved device performance. Only one material with benzo[1,2-d:4,3-d′]bis(thiazole)-4,5-dione core, 2,7-bis-(4-n-hexyl-thiophene-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-d:4,3-d′]bis(thiazole)-4,5-dione (19d), showed average μe = 8.2 × 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1 in OFET with solution-processed active layer. Unexpectedly, measurable hole transport was observed for 2,7-bis-(5-n-nonyl-thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:6,5-b′]dithiophene-4,5-dione (19b) (μh = 8.5 × 10−5 cm2 V−1 s−1) and 2,6-bis-(thiophen-2-yl)-3,5-di-n-hexyl-4H-cyclopenta[1,2-b:5,4-b′]dithiophen-4-one (30a) (μh = 3.7 × 10−4 cm2 V−1 s−1).


Abstract Interpretive communities can read a media text in different ways. The present article examines how various interpretive communities of young adults in Norway perceive the action serial 24's portrayal of a Muslim family. It investigates the understandings and attitudes informants express in their conversations about the Muslim 'next door neighbour terrorist' stereotype, and sheds light on how 24's text can mobilize stereotypes and facilitate stereotyping among viewers. The findings reveal different patterns of reception. The ethnic Norwegian participants found gratifications in 24's storyline, while a majority of the Norwegian Muslims found it unpleasant and offensive. An important contribution to the fear that the stereotype evoked in the ethnic Norwegians was related to the challenge and tension it created in the negotiation process of categorization. The category 'Muslim' triggered a powerful response, and the conversation veered off in a xenophobic direction. This is an example of how an interpretive community modified its perception of the stereotype through socially patterned readings.


We address the implications of GAFA's choice of points of interconnection in the global North versus the global South to understand the degree to which the global South is underserved, if at all. We find that more than twice as many countries in the global South have no GAFA presence at all than countries in the global North. Apple has approximately 92% of its points of interconnection in the North, followed by Amazon (82.5%), Facebook (73%), and Google (72%). We assert that regulatory authorities investigate the information infrastructure to understand the implications of GAFA's market concentration at a global level.


This paper will discuss the political and social climate in Bahrain one year after the Arab Spring came to the country on February 14, 2011. The paper is divided into three main parts in order to give background and context. First, the paper will discuss the various iterations of inequality in Bahrain. Second, the governmental and international responses to the 2011 unrest and government crackdown on protests will be discussed. Lastly, a discussion will intend to tie the themes running throughout the paper together and discuss the future of Bahrain.


This Article argues that Lincoln reframed U.S. rhetoric and practice of international law in ways that subordinated customary international law and elevated general principles of law and treaty commitments. It explains that this reconceptualization was based on Lincoln's constitutional theory, through which the U.S. was transformed from a plural a sui generis institutional arrangement in the community of states, a Madisonian hybrid, into a singular nation-state performing a sui generis role in the community of states. After explaining the shift in constitutional theory and practice and international law theory and practice, the Article argues that these two shifts were in turn grounded on Lincoln's ethical commitment to reasoning from first principles, rather than social practice, leavened with modest self-doubt and humility in the exercise of reason. Under Lincoln's view, the United States would serve as an exemplar of a particular kind of society and the kind of person Lincoln thought normatively superior, a vehicle for the formation of a kind of person he believed made such a society possible, and perhaps even a force in the world for the progressive and universal realization of those ideals. Much as Lincoln's achievement was to refashion the American state, Lincoln's vision of American sovereignty made possible and necessary an entirely new approach to international law in which the American state re-defined its relation to the world and its ethical mission coupling reason with restraint in ways from which we can still learn today.


The Trial of the Major War Criminals at Nuremberg, the personalities associated with the trial, the verdicts rendered, and criticisms directed toward both those verdicts and the tribunal itself have generated a multitude of historical works. However, few historians have explored the American print media's coverage of the trial and even fewer have studied how a newspaper's disposition towards the trial reflected that publication's political ideology and influenced the newspaper's coverage of the trial itself. For this reason, it is the objective of this thesis to examine this neglected area, thus contributing to the scholarship of the first Nuremberg Trial. The newspapers chosen for assessment reflect varying degrees of ideological affiliation and are somewhat diverse geographically. Of the five publications selected, two, The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Daily Tribune, were recognized to be solid supporters of the political right. Likewise, during the period examined, the other publications, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times, were considered politically moderate to liberal in their ideology. This study examines editorials, columns (both unique to the specific publication and those syndicated nationally), and letters to the editor dedicated to the trial, in conjunction with the actual reports filed by the newspaper's correspondents and wire services. This thesis also examines the regularity of each newspaper's coverage of the trial and its selection of the information published within its pages, including a comparison with the other publications. After an intense examination of the materials listed above, this study finds that there exists a strong correlation between the political ideology associated with the individual newspapers and their disposition towards the trial, a bias that often manifested itself in the newspaper's coverage of the proceedings. As one might expect, those publications considered traditionally moderate to liberal endorsed the trial and viewed it as a positive step towards strengthening international law and establishing global security. Those newspapers often identified as being politically conservative questioned the trial's legitimacy, believing that its mechanisms were anathematic to western legal principles and infringed on national sovereignty.


Structural changes were studied over time of a smooth muscle tissue (opossum esophagus circular muscle) exposed in various compartments of a functioning single sucrose gap. The tissues in the Krebs-perfused compartment were qualitatively normal, possessing nerve profiles with little damage, normal appearing smooth muscle and interstitial cells of Cajal as well as gap junctions between muscle cells and interstitial cells. However, in the sucrose compartment tissues had serious damage to smooth muscle, interstitial cells and nerves, and normal gap junctions disappeared. There was also damage to all these structures in tissues exposed to KCl, but most striking was the disappearance of most interstitial cells. These studies raise serious questions about the assumptions underlying the basis for functioning of multicellular tissues in the sucrose gap.


Section 5(m) of the Federal Trade Commission Act promises to greatly enhance the Commission's consumer protection role. For the first time in its history, the FTC is empowered to enforce the law of deceptive trade practices, embodied in its rules and case determinations, through civil penalty actions against firms that are not themselves subject to Commission cease and desist orders. It is far from clear, however, how section 5(m) will work in practice, for the statute is ambiguous on many important questions and silent on others. In this article Mr. Bickart identifies and examines certain major problems with the statute that the courts and the Commission will soon confront.


A lawsuit filed in federal court in Atlanta, Georgia, in February 1982 by two private ophthalmologists and seven prospective patients charges a group of academic physicians with attempting to monopolize radial keratotomy, a surgical procedure for correcting myopia, by labeling it experimental and urging restraint in its use. The parties have agreed to a settlement involving a payment of $250,000 by the defendants and a statement that the procedure is effective in qualified patients and should no longer be considered experimental. A second suit, brought by nine physicians in federal court in Chicago in June 1984, accuses the American Academy of Ophthamology of attempting to control the procedure. The broader issue at stake is how new surgical prdocedures should be evaluated before they are brought into widespread use. In the case of radial kerototomy, a large-scale clinical trial funded by the National Eye Institute is proceeding as planned despite the legal controversy.


Adaptive beamforming antennas open a new venue for research to achieve high data rates. Such antennas are of interest at higher frequencies, especially at millimeter-waves. Millimeter-wave band ranges from 30 GHz 300 GHz. There is an ample bandwidth available in this spectrum. However, due to the significant path loss at high frequencies, there is a need for better error correction schemes and adaptive beam-forming antennas for this frequency band. The goal of our research is to design a novel adaptive beamforming smart antenna that is low cost, compact, power-efficient and less complex. Based on our recently awarded US patent, we have devised a novel beamforming technique in which phased array and parasitic array approaches are used in conjunction with each other. Conventionally, phased array or switched array techniques are used in smart antennas for beam-steering. In phased array antennas each antenna element has a separate excitation. Therefore, such antennas are costly and impractical for use in everyday communication devices. Switched array antennas are cost-effective and simple to implement, but the antenna beam can only be formed at a predefined location. Our proposed novel beamforming technique is based on a mathematical model. After mathematical modeling, the antenna is simulated in Ansoft High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). Results of the simulated model in Ansoft HFSS and the mathematical model are in close agreement with each other, Ansoft HFSS uses the finite element method (FEM) for complex electromagnetic computations. Antenna design consists of two circular arrays of six parasitic elements. Each array has an vii active element in its center and there is a fixed phase difference between excitation currents to the active elements. The beam is steered either by changing the phase difference between excitation currents to the active elements or by changing reactance of the parasitic elements. Our technique is novel as this is the first time switched parasitic array and phased array approaches are efficiently used in conjunction with each other. After mathematical modeling and simulations, two antennas are designed and tested. The first antenna is centered at 2.5 GHz. This antenna is used for proof of concept. The second antenna is centered at 28 GHz. The 28 GHz band will play a key role in the next generation of wireless networks, i.e., 5G. The antenna hardware testing results are also in line with the mathematical and the simulated models. This dissertation aims to provide an overview of smart adaptive beamforming antenna design, propose a mathematical model for novel hybrid beamforming, present the application of the proposed antenna in satellite communication and airborne communication, and demonstrate the validity of the design via software simulations and hardware testing.


We pursue the analysis of a set of generalized DGMLY sum rules for the electro-magnetic chiral parameters at order $e^{\mathrm{2}}p^{\mathrm{2}}$ and discuss implications for effective lagrangians with resonances. We exploit a formalism in which charge spurions are introduced and treated as sources. We show that no inconsistency arises from anomalies up to quadratic order in the spurions. We focus on the sum rules associated with QCD 4-point correlators which were not analyzed in detail before. Convergence properties of the sum rules are deduced from a general analysis of the form of the counterterms in the presence of electromagnetic spurions. Following the approach in which vector and axial-vector resonances are described with antisymmetric tensor fields and have a chiral order, we show that the convergence constraints are violated at chiral order four and can be satisfied by introducing a set of terms of order six. The relevant couplings get completely and uniquely determined from a set of generalized Weinberg sum-rule relations. An update on the corrections to Dashen's low-energy theorem is given.


Family caregiving has been conceptualised as a career that is characterised by key stages, one of which is the end of caregiving and the transition into the post-caregiving period. This transition is an integral part of former carers' experiences and is when interactions with service providers tend to come to an end. This transition can be challenging with former carers reporting a lack of support and loss of purpose together with poor health and financial hardship. Despite these challenges however, there are indications that with appropriate support, this transition can also offer opportunities arising from the personal growth and development experienced while a carer. Drawing on data from a small exploratory study conducted in the UK, this paper explores the transition made by former carers. Data analysis was guided by the principles of ground theory. The iterative approach of constantly comparing data enabled the emergence and identification of common themes and core categories. Findings highlight the difficulties that former carers experience during this transition with feelings of loss, loneliness and compromised employment opportunities being key features. The need for support in the post-caregiving phase emerges as a significant issue with former carers feeling abandoned and lacking motivation to move forward in their lives. Adaptation to a non-caregiving life is shaped by age and the level of support that is received. However, some former carers found that knowledge and skills gained through caregiving, enabled them to explore new opportunities for paid and unpaid work, thus expanding their horizons. Findings suggest that former carers are potentially a valuable and under-used resource: that policy and service providers should focus on empowering former carers, facilitating their resilience and provide continuing support.


The spatiotemporal dynamics of morphological, orthographic, and semantic processing were investigated in a primed lexical decision task in French using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The goal was to investigate orthographic and semantic contributions to morphological priming and compare these effects with pure orthographic and semantic priming. The time course of these effects was analyzed in anatomically defined ROIs that were selected according to previous MEG and fMRI findings. The results showed that morphological processing was not localized in one specific area but distributed over a vast network that involved left inferior temporal gyrus, left superior temporal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and left orbitofrontal gyrus. Second, all morphological effects were specific, that is, in none of the ROIs could morphology effects be explained by pure orthographic or pure semantic overlap. Third, the ventral route was sensitive to both the orthographic and semantic "part" of the morphological priming effect in the M350 time window. Fourth, the earliest effects of morphology occurred in left superior temporal gyrus around 250 msec and reflected the semantic contribution to morphological facilitation. Together then, the present results show that morphological processing is not just an emergent property of processing form or meaning and that semantic contributions to morphological facilitation can occur as early as 250 msec in the left superior temporal gyrus.


Fat Chance! Obesity and the Transition from Unemployment to Employment This paper focuses on estimating the magnitude of any potential weight discrimination by examining whether obese job applicants in Germany get treated or behave differently from non-obese applicants. Based on two waves of rich survey data from the IZA Evaluation dataset, which includes measures that control for education, demographic characteristics, labor market history, psychological factors and health, we estimate differences in job search behavior and labor market outcomes between obese/overweight and healthy weight individuals. Unlike other observational studies which are generally based on obese and nonobese individuals who might already be at different points in the job ladder (e.g., household surveys), in our data, individuals are newly unemployed and all start from the same point. The only subgroup we find in our data experiencing any possible form of labor market discrimination is obese women. Despite making more job applications and engaging more in job training programs, we find some indications that they experienced worse (or at best similar) employment outcomes than healthy weight women. Obese women who found a job also had significantly lower wages than healthy weight women. JEL Classification: I10, I12, J23, J70


Over the years, Christian historiography has overlooked Carrie Judd Montgomery's (1858-1946) significant contribution to both the Divine Healing movement and Pentecostalism. Her 1879 healing account, early healing homes, and contribution to the formation of the doctrine of healing in the atonement make her one of the most influential people in the American Divine Healing movement. Following her 1908 tongues experience, Montgomery additionally impacted early Pentecostalism by spreading its themes throughout her networks and introducing many significant leaders to the Pentecostal Spirit baptism. An analysis of Montgomery's writings from 1880-1920 reveal that the prayer of faith in James 5 and healing in the atonement were two of the major foundations in her theology of healing. Further, her pneumatology reveals that she actively pursued the fullness of the Spirit, also at times referred to as "Spirit baptism," both before and after her own 1908 tongues experience. While speaking in tongues enhanced her spirituality and added a new flavor to her ministry, it did not produce any major shifts within her theology of healing. In light of her experiences with the Spirit throughout the years, a present day approach for revivals and a proposed redefinition of the Pentecostal Spirit baptism are presented.


We use monads to relax the atomicity requirement for data in a database. Depending on the choice of monad, the database fields may contain generalized values such as lists or sets of values, or they may contain exceptions such as various types of nulls. The return operation for monads ensures that any ordinary database instance will count as one of these generalized instances, and the bind operation ensures that generalized values behave well under joins of foreign key sequences. Different monads allow for vastly different types of information to be stored in the database. For example, we show that classical concepts like Markov chains, graphs, and finite state automata are each perfectly captured by a different monad on the same schema.


Risk management is crucial for optimal portfolio management. One of the fastest growing areas in empirical finance is the expansion of financial derivatives. The purpose of this special issue on "Risk Management and Financial Derivatives" is to highlight some areas in which novel econometric, financial econometric and empirical finance methods have contributed significantly to the analysis of risk management, with an emphasis on financial derivatives, specifically conditional correlations and volatility spillovers between crude oil and stock index returns, pricing exotic options using the Wang transform, the rise and fall of S&P500 variance futures, predicting volatility using Markov switching multifractal model: evidence from S&P100 index and equity options, the performance of commodity trading advisors: a mean-variance-ratio test approach, forecasting volatility via stock return, range, trading volume and spillover effects: the case of Brazil, estimating and simulating Weibull models of risk or price durations: an application to ACD models, valuation of double trigger catastrophe options with counterparty risk, day of the week effect on the VIX a parsimonious representation, equity and CDS sector indices: dynamic models and risk hedging, the probability of default in collateralized credit operations, risk premia in multi-national enterprises, solving replication problems in a complete market by orthogonal series expansion, downside risk management and VaR-based optimal portfolios for precious metals, oil and stocks, and implied Sharpe ratios of portfolios with options: application to Nikkei futures and listed options.


We perform an extensive study of the influence of nuclear weak interactions on core-collapse supernovae, paying particular attention to consistency between nuclear abundances in the equation of state (EOS) and nuclear weak interactions. We compute properties of uniform matter based on the variational method. For inhomogeneous nuclear matter, we take a full ensemble of nuclei into account with various finite-density and thermal effects and directly use the nuclear abundances to compute nuclear weak interaction rates. To quantify the impact of a consistent treatment of nuclear abundances on CCSN dynamics, we carry out spherically symmetric CCSN simulations with full Boltzmann neutrino transport, systematically changing the treatment of weak interactions, EOSs, and progenitor models. We find that the inconsistent treatment of nuclear abundances between the EOS and weak interaction rates weakens the EOS dependence of both the dynamics and neutrino signals. We also test the validity of two artificial prescriptions for weak interactions of light nuclei and find that both prescriptions affect the dynamics. Furthermore, there are differences in neutrino luminosities by ∼10% and in average neutrino energies by 0.25–1 MeV from those of the fiducial model. We also find that the neutronization burst neutrino signal depends on the progenitor more strongly than on the EOS, preventing a detection of this signal from constraining the EOS.


Selective effects of different ligands provide insights into the structural plasticity of receptor signaling. The β2-adrenergic receptor (β2AR) is a G protein–coupled receptor that recognizes diverse ligands to trigger signaling in the cell. Besides binding G proteins, activated β2AR can be phosphorylated and bind arrestin, which redirects signaling to other pathways. Some β2AR ligands are "biased" in that they differentially activate G protein or arrestin signaling. Liu et al. (see the Perspective by Sprang and Chief Elk) used fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance (19F-NMR) spectroscopy to examine conformational changes associated with a range of ligands and discovered that biased ligands caused differential shifts in equilibrium between two conformational states—the G protein binding state and the arrestin binding state—and thus provide a basis for rational design of pharmacological ligands. J. J. Liu, R. Horst, V. Katritch, R. C. Stevens, K. Wüthrich, Biased signaling pathways in β2-adrenergic receptor characterized by 19F-NMR. Science 335, 1106–1110 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text] S. R. Sprang, J. Chief Elk, Structural origins of receptor bias. Science 335, 1055–1056 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


To make effective decisions in novel environments with long-horizon goals, it is crucial to engage in hierarchical reasoning across spatial and temporal scales. This entails planning abstract subgoal sequences, visually reasoning about the underlying plans, and executing actions in accordance with the devised plan through visual-motor control. We propose Compositional Foundation Models for Hierarchical Planning (HiP), a foundation model which leverages multiple expert foundation model trained on language, vision and action data individually jointly together to solve long-horizon tasks. We use a large language model to construct symbolic plans that are grounded in the environment through a large video diffusion model. Generated video plans are then grounded to visual-motor control, through an inverse dynamics model that infers actions from generated videos. To enable effective reasoning within this hierarchy, we enforce consistency between the models via iterative refinement. We illustrate the efficacy and adaptability of our approach in three different long-horizon table-top manipulation tasks.


For understand how will be the television in the next future it is necessary to observe the main trends of recent times. The article looks at what happened in the fields of public financing, advertising and pay-tv subscription, and it suggests that future will not be very happy for them; in fact the analyzed trends show that their growth will be short or, in some case, there will be a decrease. However in the next future traditional television companies will need big resources to face growing competition. Another issue is how is television audience changing. A growing part of the audience needs more freedom and flexibility in the choices, and  video on demand offers better condition of consumption to the viewers. Today Netflix is the more video on demand successfull company model,  and it is yet operating in hundreds of countries. This  model is analized to explain the main factors that make Netflix grow more and more. One of those factors is that Netflix uses big data algorithms to undestand the subscribers tastes, interests, needs, and then suggests the contents better corresponding to their desires. The last part of the article looks at some contraddictions that european public Institutions must face when they want to regulate these new television models. From one side the risk of companies like Netflix is that they will increase in Europe the consumption of television contents produced in Usa, in contraddiction with European Union policy, that should put limits to this expansion. But from the other side those companies will strongly push the traffic growth of new telecommunications networks, and consequentely the incomes growth. And the broadband netwok development is an European strategic objective, currently  slowed down by the high investment needed.


Like theories of punishment, theories of reverse (positive) discrimination can usefully be divided into forward-looking (teleological) ones and backward-looking (compensatory/retributive) ones. One example of the former type of theory is Dworkin's, who defends the policy on the ground that it will (perhaps) produce 'a more equal society'. Another is Sher's, who defends it on the ground that it increases equality of opportunity. This essay is an examination of the latter type of theory. Compensatory discrimination is related, then, to discrimination thus: discrimination is the genus, of which reverse discrimination is a species, of which compensatory discrimination is a sub-species. It will be convenient to proceed by examining successively the ideas of discrimination, of compensation, and of compensatory discrimination.


DEPOSITION OF TANTALUM ON STEEL BY SPUTTERING by Bhavin Shah Recent interest in tantalum deposition comes from two different applications. One is in microelectronics where thin tantalum films (< 1 μm) are used as diffusion barrier layers for copper interconnects. The other involves its application as a material for corrosion and wear resistant coating on surfaces that are subjected to high stresses and harsh chemical and erosive environments. This thesis is a part of the investigation done at the Ion Beam and Thin Film Research Laboratory at NJIT to study the deposition conditions and properties of tantalum thin films. It includes the design and construction of Planar D.C. Magnetron Sputtering System and Cylindrical D. C. Magnetron Sputtering System for deposition on the planar and cylindrical surfaces of steel, respectively. The electrical characteristics of the cylindrical system were tested in a range of pressures and conditions for initiation and maintaining of discharge were established. The successful completion of planar magnetron system was demonstrated by deposition of tantalum films. The quality of these films has improved with refining of the deposition system and the process procedure. Tantalum films deposited in the planar magnetron sputtering system had thickness in the range of 4000 A 6000 A. As a part of a pilot study, the films were analyzed using profilometry, Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Rutherford Backscattering Techniques (RBS). The characteristics of the films were strongly dependent on the surface preparation and the residual gas in the deposition chamber. The presence of oxygen and water vapor in the residual gas results in films containing substantial amount of oxygen. Proper cleaning of steel substrates is essential for film integrity and adhesion. Surface preparation, including steel polishing, also influences crystallinity of the films. Typically, alpha and beta tantalum phases are present but there are indications that under controlled conditions pure alpha phase can be formed. DEPOSITION OF TANTALUM ON STEEL BY SPUTTERING


Abstract In the early Miocene, endemic North American amphicyonids of the subfamily Daphoeninae evolved a lineage of large beardogs adapted for prey pursuit over open terrain. Three species comprise this lineage, here placed in the genus Daphoenodon, subgenus Borocyon Peterson, 1910, the sister subgenus to the daphoenine beardog Daphoenodon (Daphoenodon). These species (Borocyon robustum, B. niobrarensis, B. neomexicanus, n. sp.) are distinguished by limbs modified for fore–aft motion and parasagittal alignment contributing to a lengthened stride. These adaptive features are most evident in the terminal species, B. robustum, where the forelimb is conspicuously elongated. The species of Borocyon increase in body size from small B. neomexicanus, known only from the latest Arikareean of northern New Mexico, through earliest Hemingfordian B. niobrarensis from western Nebraska and southeast Wyoming, to B. robustum, likely the keystone predator of its guild. Borocyon robustum (∼100–150 kg) was the most widely distributed, occurring during the early Hemingfordian from the Pacific Northwest through the Great Plains to the Florida Gulf Coast. Regional aridity prevalent in the North American midcontinent during the Arikareean may have contributed to the emergence of Borocyon by providing an appropriate niche for a long-legged, open-country predator. The skeleton of Borocyon robustum, based on composite elements acquired over many decades, reveals a carnivoran unlike any living pursuit predator. The species displays a mosaic of postcranial features that parallel limb elements of both highly evolved cursors (Canis lupus, Acinonyx jubatus) and large, ambush felids (Panthera leo, P. tigris). Skeletal traits contributing to its efficient locomotion include: proportionately lengthened forelimbs, the parasagittal radioulnar articulation with the humerus, an elongate radius and ulna, a modified carpal structure, and paraxonic elongate metapodials of the fore- and hindfoot, as well as details of the anatomy of femur, tibia, and proximal tarsals. These postcranial features indicate a large digitigrade predator with a number of anatomical parallels in the forelimb to running pursuit predators such as the wolf, but there are also musculoskeletal adaptations of the shoulder and hindlimb that compare with those of large, living felids. Skull, dentition, and mandibular anatomy are similar to those of living wolves. However, Borocyon robustum, on average a much larger carnivore, placed even greater emphasis on a pattern of dental occlusion and toothwear suggesting both carnivory and durophagous habits. Physiological attributes of Borocyon that may have contributed significantly to its adaptive program as a pursuit predator remain unknown.


The Metropolitan City of Naples, as in the art. 1 of its Statute, aims «to restore the environment, to regenerate and reorder the urban tissue, to safeguard the common goods, guaranteeing their access, to reorganize the territorial polycentrism, overcrossing the center-periphery dichotomy and to promote the civil, social, cultural and economic development, enanching the diversities and the territorial excellences». In the Statute (at Article 35), the Metropolitan City is expected to provide coordination and general territorial planning by means of the Metropolitan Territorial Plan, consisting of a structural and an operational component, with measures of "urban equalization". The structural component defines the vision of the territory, while the operational one programmes the actions of metropolitan interest to be implemented by the metropolitan city as well as the indications for the municipalities of the metropolitan city over a three-year period. In December 2017, the proposal for the Territorial coordination plan was adopted, which substantially recovers the Provincial Territorial Coordination Plan of 2007, repealing certain parts. The TCP of the metropolitan city of Naples is based on the redevelopment of the existing patrimony as a way of contrasting land consumption, in line with government plans. The main strategic elements of the plan, in fact, are the conservation and enhancement of the environmental, natural, cultural and landscape heritage, the adaptation of the housing supply, concentrating it only on the margins or within already established sites – densification –, and the enhancement and re-articulation of the urban system in a polycentric and reticular key. It is therefore, from this perspective, that this article seeks to elaborate a number of reflections on the possible "future of urban rent" in the context of the metropolitan spaces of Naples, where the "potential" of the value of abandoned land in peripheral and/or peri- urban areas assumes a strategic role in the processes of regeneration and densification envisaged by the TCP. In terms of TCP operation, the principle should be to "expropriate" as little as possible, making use of the "equalization instrument" to ensure economic operators the necessary profit (an "interest in doing").


Objective Few data exist on the virological response to antiretroviral therapy of individuals infected with African HIV-1 subtypes. Our objective was to compare the response, in our clinic, of African HIV-1-infected patients with their British and European contemporaries treated with the same regimes. Design The St Mary's Hospital HIV database was used to identify drug-naive African and European patients starting a highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen. Methods HIV-1 subtype was determined by phylogenetic analysis of pol sequences. Kaplan–Meier survival analysis was used to estimate the proportion of patients achieving undetectable viral loads (< 500 copies/ml). The longer-term response to therapy was assessed by changes in CD4 cell counts and viral loads from baseline. Results A total of 265 patients were classified as 'European' and 97 as 'African', confirmed by sequence. The time to first undetectable viral load was similar for the two groups (P = 0.9). Although there were no statistically significant differences in the CD4 cell count responses (P = 0.11), there was evidence of an increase in viral load after 9 months for the African group, resulting in a widening viral load gap between the two cohorts; the effect of ethnic group was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusion The initial virological and immunological responses of the African and European cohorts to HAART were similar; although the longer-term virological response was poorer in the African cohort, which may be related to adherence. On the basis of these findings, there is no justification for withholding HAART from Africa on virological grounds.


In a less widely known contribution, Bela Martos (1966, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) introduced a generalized notion of concavity that is closely related to what is nowadays known as r-concavity in the operations research literature, and that is identical to what is nowadays known as ρ-concavity in the economics literature. The present paper aims at making the original contribution accessible to a wider audience and illustrating its importance from a modern perspective. To this end, we offer a translation of those parts of Martos (1966) that are directly related to generalized concavity. Reviewing the virtues of r-concavity and ρ-concavity, we find a surprisingly short proof of the univariate Prekopa-Borell theorem. We also survey a number of applications of the considered concepts in operations research and economics.


More than fifty years after the first post-colonial Southeast Asian regional conference on legal education, commentators and educators do not necessarily agree on the appropriate curricular balance between theory, doctrine, and practice, or what role the government should play in directing the orientation of legal studies and careers in Indonesia's law schools. The author argues in favor of legal education that is rich in experiential learning and integrates the involvement of practitioners and doctrinal faculty. This objective may be a relatively new reality in Indonesia, but also one that needs revitalization in other Southeast Asian nations and beyond. This article lays out the contemporary debate in Indonesia over the composition and direction of legal education, asserting that consistent with best practices, learning practical skills in analysis, advocacy, and professionalism—including clinical methods—should be integrated into the program. Moreover, Indonesia's recently adopted Legal Aid Law presents an opportunity for students and staff at publicly funded law schools to become more actively involved in delivering legal assistance to the indigent. If faculties are not sufficiently resourced, they should more effectively employ lawyers and judges in an adjunct capacity, particularly in a practicum or other co-teaching model. Finally, the author argues that the State should play a guiding role in developing a cadre of social-