A recently proposed model of the Dirac electron, which has been shown to describe several observed properties of the particle correctly, is in the present paper shown to be also able to explain quantum interference by classical probabilities. According to this model, the electron is not point-like, but rather an "entity with structure", formed by a fast periodic motion of a "light-like object", whose momentum (p) causes the angular momentum responsible for the spin, and whose energy (E = pc) is equal to the energy of the electron, mc. A qualitative description of the model is given, together with the quantitative formulae that allow to discuss interference. Applied to the experimental situation of the "two-slit" experiment, the formulae yield the same time dependence of the detection probability as the quantum mechanical treatment, and hence the same interference pattern. In contrast to quantum mechanics, the pattern is due to "particle interference" rather than to "wave interference". No wave-particle paradox arises. The merits of the model are summarized, and its physical content discussed.


Coastal aquifers are globally subject to considerable stress. The population density is often high in coastal areas, and in addition, the coastal plains often have good agricul-tural soils demanding irrigation. While a portion of the irrigation can be provided by rivers, local groundwater is also used adding to the water requirement. Many coastal aquifers are large with a slow turnover of the groundwater and recharge is difficult to assess. This review is aimed at giving an overview of the hydrochemistry with an emphasis of giving insight into the groundwater recharge and the sustainability of the groundwater quality. The past climate history has given an imprint of hydrochemistry of especially coastal aquifers.


This scoping literature review examines the topic of interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision. Interdisciplinary doctoral research programs are expanding in response to encouragement from funding agencies and enthusiasm from faculty and students. In an acknowledgement that the search for creative and innovative solutions to complex problems is best addressed through interdisciplinary collaborations, research-intensive universities are increasingly encouraging interdisciplinary projects and programs. The expansion of interdisciplinary research to the context of doctoral research may impact several core components of the doctorate: the enactment of the student–supervisor relationship, the process of forming and working with a supervisory committee, and the process and outcomes of doctoral research. In order to ensure that interdisciplinary doctoral supervision occurs in a positive and effective way, it is necessary to understand the distinct needs and challenges of interdisciplinary students and their supervisors, through scholarship about this phenomenon.


Anthony Kelly was a physicist turned materials scientist and a Vice Chancellor with a penetrating mind, tremendous energy and formidable powers of organizational engagement with both people and data. A deep understanding of the strength of materials, building up from metal crystals and their imperfections through ceramic materials, brought him into the burgeoning field of composites. In this subject, through his own pioneering research, comprehensive knowledge and long-standing inspirational role, he was a seminal figure. Through challenging times he was a very successful, reforming and long-serving Vice Chancellor at the University of Surrey and the mainspring in setting up their Research Park. Remarkably, however, he kept his own research going and continued to be very active long after his retirement, stimulating colleagues of all ages and lighting up with his interventions many a scientific meeting or more general encounter.


In recent years, historians studying the United States in the mid-nineteenth century have made increasing use of popular writings to identify attitudes and beliefs. One genre of writing which has been largely overlooked by scholars of history is the convent narrative. These texts criticized convents and claimed that American nuns suffered imprisonment and abuse. Numerous examples of this genre, including both avowedly fictional novels and purported real-life autobiographies, were published in the United States between 1850 and 1870. Detailed study of these works uncovers a rich seam of evidence of popular attitudes to a range of political, religious and social forces, including republicanism, Catholicism, immigration, urbanization, industrialization, slavery and the role of women. This study analyzes and compares the themes, ideologies and techniques found in these texts. It will relate these to their wider context, and will examine the role the texts played in transmitting and reinforcing the beliefs and opinions of their authors. Close study of the narratives reveals that their authors were primarily concerned, not with the religious implications of convents and Catholicism (although these did alarm these authors), but, first and foremost, with the safety and stability of the American republic. The creators of convent narratives believed that the republic was under siege from anti-republican forces working to undermine the American way of life on a number of different fronts. These concerns are manifested repeatedly in the convent narratives. Where previously this genre has been overlooked by historians, except as a straightforward manifestation of lurid and sensationalistic anti-Catholic nativism, this study analyzes the deeper ideals and ideologies which these documents reveal, and establishes a basis for further exploration,


Background: New occupational hazards and risks are emerging in our progressively globalized society, in which ageing, migration, wild urbanization and rapid economic growth have led to unprecedented biological, chemical and physical exposures, linked to novel technologies, products and duty cycles. A focus shift from worker health to worker/citizen and community health is crucial. One of the major revolutions of the last decades is the computerization and digitization of the work process, the so-called "work 4.0", and of the workplace. Objectives: To explore the roles and implications of Big Data in the new occupational medicine settings. Methods: Comprehensive literature search. Results: Big Data are characterized by volume, variety, veracity, velocity, and value. They come both from wet-lab techniques ("molecular Big Data") and computational infrastructures, including databases, sensors and smart devices ("computational Big Data" and "digital Big Data"). Conclusions: In the light of novel hazards and thanks to new analytical approaches, molecular and digital underpinnings become extremely important in occupational medicine. Computational and digital tools can enable us to uncover new relationships between exposures and work-related diseases; to monitor the public reaction to novel risk factors associated to occupational diseases; to identify exposure-related changes in disease natural history; and to evaluate preventive workplace practices and legislative measures adopted for workplace health and safety.


The Planteome project is a centralized online plant informatics portal which provides semantic integration of widely diverse datasets with the goal of plant improvement. Traditional plant breeding methods for crop improvement may be combined with next-generation analysis methods and automated scoring of traits and phenotypes to develop improved varieties. The Planteome project (www.planteome.org) develops and hosts a suite of reference ontologies for plants associated with a growing corpus of genomics data. Data annotations linking phenotypes and germplasm to genomics resources are achieved by data transformation and mapping species-specific controlled vocabularies to the reference ontologies. Analysis and annotation tools are being developed to facilitate studies of plant traits, phenotypes, diseases, gene function and expression and genetic diversity data across a wide range of plant species. The project database and the online resources provide researchers tools to search and browse and access remotely via APIs for semantic integration in annotation tools and data repositories providing resources for plant biology, breeding, genomics and genetics. Keywords—ontology; traits phenotype; semantic; data integration,


In England the birth prevalence of bilateral per manent childhood hearing impairment (PCHI) of >40 dB HL is approximately 1:1000 live births but almost doubles up to the age of 9 years.1 The latter is accounted for by cases of PCHI that were not screened as part of the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP) or were false nega tives, as well as children with acquired hearing loss and those with late onset or progressive deafness. In some areas the prevalence can be two to three times this figure.2 About 40% of children with PCHI have additional health or developmental problems, and about 20% of this population have more than two problems.3 In the developed world, at least 50% of PCHI has a genetic aetiology with environmental causes (which may include adverse perinatal factors, for example, extreme prematurity, hyperbilirubinaemia, aminoglycoside drugs, hypoxia, meningitis and congenital infections) and head trauma accounting for a further 25%. In the remaining 25% no cause for the deafness is found following aetiological investigation.4

A number of events have influenced how and when the aetiology of PCHI should be investigated. These include the introduction of the NHSP and its quality assessment programme which includes a standard that relates to implementation of best practice in aetiological investigation of deafness. Each local NHSP screening site has a lead clinician who is responsible for the aetiological investigation.5 Training for lead clinicians in aetiological investigation is provided by the NHSP.

Advances in the field of molecular genetics have also had a major impact which will continue in the future with "next generation" sequencing technologies. Advances in inner ear imaging techniques have also contributed significantly to aetiological investigation of many cases of PCHI. Research into the contribution of both symptomatic and asymptomatic cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection to PCHI …


Arguably the most fundamental of trade‐offs in life‐history evolution is the increase in natural mortality resulting from sexual maturity and reproduction. Despite its central importance, this increase in mortality, a survival cost, garners surprisingly little attention in fish and fisheries modeling studies. We undertook an exploratory analysis to evaluate the consequences of this omission for life‐history projections. To this end, we developed a simulation approach that integrates quantitative genetics into the ecological dynamics of a fish population and parameterized the model for Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua, L.). When compared to simulations in which the mortality of immature and mature individuals is equal, the inclusion of a survival cost results in larger asymptotic body size, older age at maturity, and larger size at maturity. We also find that measures of population productivity (spawning stock biomass, recruits‐per‐spawner) are overestimated if the survival cost is excluded. This sensitivity of key metrics of population growth rate and reproductive capacity to the magnitude of the survival cost of reproduction underscores the need to explicitly account for this trade‐off in projections of fish population responses to natural and anthropogenic environmental change, including fisheries.


Wind generation's contribution to supporting peak electricity demand is one of the key questions in wind integration studies. Differently from conventional units, the available outputs of different wind farms cannot be approximated as being statistically independent, and hence near-zero wind output is possible across an entire power system. This paper will review the risk model structures currently used to assess wind's capacity value, along with discussion of the resulting data requirements. A central theme is the benefits from performing statistical estimation of the joint distribution for demand and available wind capacity, focusing attention on uncertainties due to limited histories of wind and demand data; examination of Great Britain data from the last 25 years shows that the data requirements are greater than generally thought. A discussion is therefore presented into how analysis of the types of weather system which have historically driven extreme electricity demands can help to deliver robust insights into wind's contribution to supporting demand, even in the face of such data limitations. The role of the form of the probability distribution for available conventional capacity in driving wind capacity credit results is also discussed.


Recent rapid development in Qatar has brought awareness and recognition of the importance to catalogue, describe and preserve its biodiversity. Traditional methods of using morphological characteristics for species identification, although important, requires years of experience and is in need of complete specimens before identity is certain. Recent worldwide endeavor of DNA barcoding by using a segment of the mitochondrial gene cytochrome oxidase c 1 (CO1) to describe all species in the world, has gained recognition and popularity. In this student-centered research supported by Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP) of Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), the objective is to sequence the barcoding gene CO1 of the lizards in Qatar and to compare the sequence among closely related species to facilitate future identification. The final results of this study will make available the barcode sequences of CO1 to be included in the GenBank database. Lizard species were collected across Qatar and photographs were taken for appropriated morphological identification. About 0.5 cm3 of muscle tissues were obtained from each specimen for DNA extraction. Currently between 8 to 12 different primer pairs suggested in literature and primer pair combinations were used for 7 species and a variety of programs of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were employed in order to amplify the segment of gene of about 650 bp. Among the successfully amplified sequences from the 7 species currently analyzed, three species, Trachylepis septemtaeniata, Mesalina brevirostris, and Uromastyx aegyptia produced PCR products. To eliminate the presence of multiple sequences in the PCR product, PCR fragments were ligated to cloning vector in order to amplify one single sequence for each species. The current total success rate (<43%) based on the primer sequences obtained from publish results and from internal primers developed in this study further supports that the universal primers for reptiles are difficult to develop due to deep phylogenetic divergence. Future studies seeking universal primers should focus on candidate genes that evolve more slowly than CO1 gene to ensure higher homology of sequences among the reptilian species.


Inland waters are an important habitat for flora and fauna and are also used for aesthetic, recreational, and industrial needs; therefore, monitoring the current state of freshwaters and applying measures to improve water quality are of high importance. To have an efficient monitoring system that could cover large areas, the use of remote sensing data is crucial. In this study the suitability of the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Imager data is tested for observing cyanobacteria bloom events in the eutrophic lakes and retrieving the chlorophyll-a concentration – an indicator of phytoplankton biomass. The analysis is carried out using data from four lakes in Lithuania – two eutrophic blooming lakes and two oligo-mesotrophic non-blooming lakes. The results showed that reflectances are higher in the eutrophic lakes than in the oligo-mesotrophic lakes due to the presence of an optically active constituent, namely, chlorophyll-a pigment. We tested empirical equations for chlorophyll-a concentration retrieval in eutrophic lakes derived in other studies to check whether they could be used without adaptation to local conditions. Most of the equations performed well (R2 = 0.5–0.8); however, they had high RMSEs = 17–53 μg L–1. The equation used with the bottom of atmosphere data CHL8_L2A (R2 = 0.76) had the lowest RMSE = 9 μg L–1. In addition, we derived empirical equations for eutrophic lakes in Lithuania. The equations that were based on the Sentinel-2 band ratio B5/B4 and the three band (B4, B5, and B8A) expression performed the best (R2 = 0.77–0.79) and had lower RMSE = 7 μg L–1 than empirical equations from other studies. A larger in situ dataset could improve the algorithm performance in retrieving the chlorophyll-a concentration. The first attempts to map water quality parameters in eutrophic lakes in Lithuania using the data received from the Sentinel-2 MSI sensor show good results, as the changes in reflectance, caused by the changes in chlorophyll-a concentration, can be seen from satellite images.


Geosynthetics, in the form of three dimensional geocell mattresses has emerged as a promising technique to improve the performance of foundations. This study pertains to the development of a mathematical formulation to predict the behaviour of footings (Strip and Circular footings) resting on geocell reinforced granular layer overlying soft soil. To obtain the approximate behaviour of the geocell reinforced system contact pressure distribution of the geocell reinforced bed was considered. The approach based on contact pressure distribution is demonstrative in understanding the pattern of bearing capacity improvement but for exact predictions of the same, numerical investigations using foundation models or experimental studies have to be conducted. Pasternak model was used to represent the geocell reinforced-footing system as it considers the material properties of geocell - subsoil system. Linear and nonlinear responses were considered to account for the behaviour at low and high settlements respectively. The predictions of the Pasternak model were found to hold good for lower range of settlements. The necessity of improvement of the model was understood since Pasternak model doesn't account for the confining stresses that act on the geocell system from which it derives its major strength. Hence, the stress dependent behaviour was also analyzed later in the research to fully understand the behaviour of geocell reinforced systems. To check the efficiency and applicability of the proposed models the results were validated in several ways (Theoretical, numerical, experimental validation) which indicated good agreement.


Electrically conductive paper was prepared via in-situ chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrrole by using ferric chloride as an oxidant and p-toluenesulfonic acid (PTSA) as a dopant. The deposition of polypyrrole (PPy) on the fiber surface was verified by ATR-FTIR and SEM analyses. Pyrrole concentration had a significant effect on the surface resistivity of conductive paper, especially when the pyrrole concentration was less than 1.8 g·L-1. The conductivity of the PPy-coated paper could be controlled by adjusting pyrrole concentration. The threshold concen-tration of pyrrole was 1.2 g·L-1 when the molar ratio of dopant to pyrrole was 2:1. Very little polymerization reaction in solution occurred when pyrrole concentration was less than 2.5 g·L-1. The pyrrole concentration should reach a higher value to prepare a relatively stable conductive paper with lower resistivity. The XPS results showed that the amount of the PPy coating increased, while the doping level first decreased then increased with the increase of pyrrole concentration. The SEM-EDXA results showed that there was no difference in the amount of PPy coated between the outer surface and the internal wall, but the doping level of the outer surface was higher than that of the internal wall.


Several long-standing theories intersect in discussing the impact of community characteristics and of the mass media. The structural pluralism model popularized by Tichenor and his colleagues says that social structure influences how mass media operate in communities because they respond to how power is distributed in the social system, whereas the linear model says that the increasing size of a community's population leads to more social differentiation and diversity and corresponding increases in subcultures with their own beliefs, customs, and behaviors. Recently, there has been a concern about how changes in society have led to a decline in organizational activity and the network of relationships and trust that constitute "social capital." This article examines the impact of population and diversity (using census data) on individuals' media use, interpersonal discussion and civic engagement (measured in a national survey), and the relationship among these variables. Analysis of a structural model provides evidence that the "linear hypothesis" can be combined with structural pluralism, with size—measured by population—impacting diversity, which influences the relationships that people have with their community. Concurrently, social categories influence people's communication patterns and community relationships, and communication impacts civic engagement.


The distinctions between adversarial and inquisitorial systems and between common and civil law have been central to comparative criminal procedure. Comparativists and historians have written on the history of these systems. The predominant account is that the inquisitorial system originated in continental Europe around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries when the Catholic Church and individual secular jurisdictions established professional bureaucracies to prosecute and adjudicate crime, authorized the initiation of legal process by public officials, and adopted a system of legal proof and legal torture. As for the adversarial system, the predominant account states that it originated in the eighteenth century when English law and judges gradually authorized the participation of professional defense attorneys in felony trials, which gradually led to the adoption of common law rules of evidence and to the redefinition of the role of judges as passive umpires, among other changes.I want to write a different history of these categories: an intellectual history or genealogy about how the adversarial and inquisitorial systems and common and civil law became central categories of comparative criminal procedure. Rather than asking when the adversarial and inquisitorial systems' rules and institutional features originated, I am interested in a different set of questions, such as: 1) when, how and why judges, legal practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars around the world started to think that the contrast between Anglo-American and continental European jurisdictions was central to the comparative understanding of criminal process; 2) when, how and why judges, practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars started to think that the doctrinal and institutional differences between Anglo-American and continental European criminal processes were based on different epistemological paradigms for how the legal process does or should produce truthful verdicts; 3) when, how and why judges, practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars started to think that these legal and institutional differences could be explained through or were associated with differences between Anglo-American and continental European societies and cultural values and with different conceptions of the state; and 4) when, how and why judges, legal practitioners, policy-makers, and scholars started to use the adversarial and inquisitorial categories as a way to make sense of the differences between Anglo-American and continental European jurisdictions.In this chapter, I want to start writing this genealogy or intellectual history by analyzing Sir John Fortescue and his book De Laudibus Legum Angliae, that he wrote between 1468 and 1471. I argue here that Fortescue made at least five crucial contributions to comparative criminal procedure that have survived to this day. First, he was among the very first to concentrate on analysis of the differences between criminal process in civil law and English common law and to offer a specific conceptualization to capture these differences. Second, Fortescue used the distinction between civil law and English common law in both a descriptive and a normative sense, and argued for the superiority of the English legal process. In addition, Fortescue claimed that England's criminal process was superior to the civil law's criminal process because it was more accurate. Fourth, Fortescue argued that there is a relationship between common law and civil law criminal processes and the societies in which they operate. As a consequence, he claimed that English criminal process could not be transplanted to other jurisdictions. Finally, Fortescue claimed that there is a close relationship between the criminal processes in common law and civil law and types of political authority.Unearthing these intellectual origins and writing a genealogy of comparative criminal procedure make apparent that this field is a historical construction and may open new ways to think about the criminal process from a global perspective.


Living wage laws are touted as anti-poverty measures. Yet they apply to only a small fraction of workers, most commonly covering only employers with city contracts. The apparent contradiction between broad anti-poverty goals and narrow coverage suggests that goals other than poverty reduction may partly underlie living wage campaigns. This paper considers the hypothesis that living wage laws act to maintain or increase rents among unionized municipal workers. By raising the wages that city contractors would have to pay, living wage laws may reduce the incentives for cities to contract out work that would otherwise be done by unionized municipal employees, hence increasing the bargaining power of municipal unions and leading to higher wages for their members. The evidence presented here, from an analysis of CPS data for 1996–2000, indicates that the wages of unionized municipal workers are indeed increased as a result of living wage laws covering contractors.


A framework for the analysis of stochastic models of chemical systems for which the deterministic mean-field description is undergoing a saddle-node infinite period (SNIPER) bifurcation is presented. Such a bifurcation occurs for example in the modelling of cell-cycle regulation. It is shown that the stochastic system possesses oscillatory solutions even for parameter values for which the mean-field model does not oscillate. The dependence of the mean period of these oscillations on the parameters of the model (kinetic rate constants) and the size of the system (number of molecules present) is studied. Our approach is based on the chemical Fokker-Planck equation. To get some insights into advantages and disadvantages of the method, a simple one-dimensional chemical switch is first analyzed, before the chemical SNIPER problem is studied in detail. First, results obtained by solving the Fokker-Planck equation numerically are presented. Then an asymptotic analysis of the Fokker-Planck equation is used to derive explicit formulae for the period of oscillation as a function of the rate constants and as a function of the system size.


A map showing the proposed extension of the Malmesbury railway line from the Kalabas Kraal Station, passing close to Hopefield, crossing the Great Berg River, through Piquetberg and ending close to Grey's Pass, with farms, rivers, roads and commonage. The map shows Malmesbury and the villages of Darling, Hopefield, Piquetberg and Porterville, and covers the field cornetcies of Groene Kloof West, Groene Kloof East, Middel Zwartland, Voor Riebeeks Kasteel, Zwartland and Zout Rivier. The proposed railway stations are: Michiel Heyns Kraal, Klipfontein, Darling, Cochara, Uilenkraal, Hopefield, Rondekuil, Visschers Kraal, Middel Kraal, Wittewater, Piquetberg, Meintjes Kraal, Elands Vlei, Dwars in de Weg, Eendekuil and The Rest. Some colour. Scale 1/2 inch to 1 mile. Scale 1 2/8 inch to 1000 Cape roods.


Many artificial intelligence techniques rely on heuristic search through large spaces. Because the computational effort required to search through these spaces reduces the applicability of the techniques, a number of parallel and distributed approaches to search have been introduced to improve the performance of certain aspects of the search process. However, theoretical and experimental results have shown that the effectiveness of parallel search algorithms can vary greatly from one search problem to another. In this paper we investigate the use of uncertainty reasoning to choose the parallel search techniques that maximize the speedup obtained by parallel search. The approach described here is implemented in the EUREKA system, an architecture that includes diverse approaches parallel search. When a new search task is input to the system, EUREKA gathers information about the search space and automatically selects the appropriate search strategy. Because the gathered information is uncertain and incomplete, we use a belief network to model the influence of problem features on speedup and select strategies that will yield the best performance. We present preliminary results on search problems drawn from the Fifteen Puzzle domain.


Abstract. Data quality is the primary concern for researchers working on citizen science projects. The collected data by citizen science participants are heterogeneous and therefore must be validated. There are several validation approaches depending on the theme and objective of the citizen science project, but the most common approach is the expert review. While expert validation is essential in citizen science projects, considering it as the only validation approach can be very difficult and complicated for the experts. In addition, volunteers can get demotivated to contribute if they do not receive any feedback regarding their submissions. This project aims at introducing an automatic filtering mechanism for a biodiversity citizen science project. The goals of this project are to first use an available historical database of the local species to filter out the unusual ones, and second to use machine learning and image recognition techniques to verify if the observation image corresponds with the right species type. The submissions that does not successfully pass the automatic filtering will be flagged as unusual and goes through expert review. The objective is on the one hand to simplify validation task by the experts, and on the other hand to increase participants' motivation by giving them real-time feedback on their submissions. Finally, the flagged observations will be classified as valid, valid but uncommon, and invalid, and the observation outliers (rare species) can be identified for each specific region.


AIM
The aim of this study was to define the learning curve for positive surgical margin (PSM) rate and operative time (OT) for robotic assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP); while the learning curve appears shorter for surgical safety for RALP compared to other surgical modalities, this has not been well established for the above parameters.

METHODS
We performed a retrospective cohort study of 3794 patients who underwent RALP between Jan 2003 and Sep 2009 by three surgeons (DL, PW, AKT) from three centers (UPenn, Karolinska, Cornell). Mean overall PSM rates and mean overall OT were calculated for all three surgeons at intervals of 50 RALPs per surgeon, and learning curves for these means were fit using a loess method. R version 2.71 was used for all statistical analysis.

RESULTS
The learning curve for PSM rates for all patients demonstrated improvements continued with increasing surgeon experience, with over 1600 cases required to get a PSM rate <10%. When pT3 patients were evaluated, the learning curve started to plateau after 1000-1500 cases. Mean OT plateaued after 750 cases though with further surgical experience the OTs started to climb again.

CONCLUSION
The learning curve for RALP is not as short as previously thought, and a large number of cases are needed to get PSM rates and OTs to a minimum. This suggests that RALP should be performed by high volume surgeons in order to optimize patient outcomes.


Abstract. As a part of the project Mediterranean Network to Assess and Upgrade Monitoring and Forecasting Activity in the Region (MAMA) we implemented a high resolution nested hydrodynamic model (1/40° horizontal grid, 16 sigma levels) for the coastal, shelf and open sea areas off the Lebanese coast, East Levantine Basin of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The Lebanese Shelf Model (LSM) is a version of the Princeton Ocean Model (POM). It is nested in a coarse resolution model the Aegean Levantine Eddy Resolving Model (1/20° horizontal grid, 25 sigma levels), ALERMO, that covers the Eastern Mediterranean. The nesting is one way so that velocity, temperature, and salinity along the open boundaries are interpolated from the relevant coarse model variables. Numerical simulations have been carried out under climatological surface and lateral forcing. Due to the relatively small domain, the results closely follow the simulation of the intermediate model with more details especially over the narrow shelf region. Simulations reproduce main circulation features and coastal circulation characteristics over the eastern Levantine shelf. This paper describes the modeling system setup, compares the simulations with the corresponding results of the coarse model ALERMO, and with the observed climatological circulation characteristics in the Levantine Basin off the Lebanese coast.


The synthesis of the potentially hexadentate ditopic ligand L1, which contains both N-donor and crown ether binding units, is described. Reaction of L1 with Zn(II) results in the formation of a dinuclear double helicate ([Zn2(L1)2](ClO4)4), which has been structurally characterized. In the solid state, each ligand splits into two tridentate binding domains with two Zn(II) ions coordinated by two bridging ligands in a double helicate arrangement. This complex can further react with s-block metal ions via the crown ether unit resulting in the structurally characterized zinc-containing helicate [Zn2(L1)2Ba2](ClO4)8. Ligand recognition studies of this helicate with a ligand that does not contain the crown ether unit but does contain the same N-donor array (L2) demonstrates, via both 1H NMR and ESI-MS studies, that a ligand recognition process does occur and the major species observed are the homoleptic species ([Zn2(L1)2](ClO4)4 and [Zn2(L2)2](ClO4)4). Addition of barium ions to the mixture increases the amount of the heteroleptic species ([Zn2(L1)(L2)](ClO4)4) present, resulting in an equal amount of homoleptic and heteroleptic species. This change in ligand recognition properties is attributed to electrostatic effects.


Let me first begin by thanking Paul Zahl for his very provocative paper on the relationship of law, sin, and grace in Christian theology and the implications of that relationship for our Christian living. My response to this paper begins with what for me is a fundamental theological assumption which shapes the way we do theology, and hence how we attempt to discern the meaning of God's revelation. This assumption has to do with the contextuality of God's very revelation. God's revelation is contextual. This means at least two things: first, if God's revelation is revelatory-that is, disclosing something to human beings about who God is-then God must come to us in a way in which we can perceive that revelation; otherwise, it is not revelation at all. And so it is, that which may be universal reveals itself particularly. God enters into particular contexts of human history in order to make God's self known to those whom God has created. This leads to the second aspect of the contextuality of God's revelation which I would like to highlight this afternoon: the context into which God enters is itself revelatory. The context of divine revelation is a part of the revelation itself. Just as God's revelation reveals something about the historical context into which God enters, so too does the context of God's disclosure reveal something about God. Thus, to appreciate the meaning and significance of God's revelation to us, we must take seriously the context of that revelation, for it is a part of the revelation itself. In this regard, we can affirm several things about the revelation of God: first, it is not synonymous with our understandings of or theologizing about God; second, it is not synonymous with the context into which God enters; and third, God transcends God's very revelation, yet and finally, the God we know, the God we experience is the one we know through divine revelation, which is not to be understood apart from its very context. So it is for me that the first step toward understanding God's universal significance is an appreciation for the particularity of God's revelation. With this said, what then are the implications for this discussion about law as it comes down to us in Matthew's version of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount? What are the implications for who we are in relation to this law/laws handed down in this sermon? If there is enduring meaning to what Jesus pronounced during this sermon, then we are compelled to take into consideration the historical context in which this sermon took place, as well as the context of the Matthean gospellers as they reported this mountaintop revelation. To do anything less would be to fall prey to either casuistry, a strict legalism, or to perceiving the law as having some ultimate normative meaning, and in the process missing the radicality of the Sermon on the Mount itself. Thus, in taking the context seriously, what might be the significance of God's revelation to us as it is disclosed in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount? Let me only suggest a couple of things in broad strokes, for a more thorough discussion would take me far beyond the bounds of my time limit, as it would indeed require the kind of exegesis that perhaps I as a theologian am not equipped to do. Nevertheless, what are the theological broad strokes found in this Sermon on the Mount? To be sure, Matthew is addressing his gospel not to outsiders who might accuse Christians of rejecting the law, but to insiders who are struggling in some respects to understand the relationship of Christian discipleship and Torah observance. What Matthew suggests is not that Jesus abolishes the law or affirms the status quo, but that Jesus fulfills the law through his very life and ministry, that is he fulfills it by calling Christians to a higher law, the law of God. …


By storing data about citizens for the purposes of service provision, private and public organizations have disempowered the people they serve, shifting the balance of power toward themselves as data holders. Through three co-production engagements involving families receiving "early help" support from their local authority and support workers involved in supplying this care, we have identified existing data usage practices, explored the impact of those practices upon the supported families, and co-designed new and improved approaches - both technological and practice-based - that are perceived to offer families fairer treatment, greater influence, and to benefit from better decision-making. Our findings show that by applying Human-Data Interaction and giving supported families direct access to see and manipulate their own data, both during and outside of the support engagement, the locus of decision-making could be shifted towards the data subject.


This paper examines the impact over the life course of early childhood growth failure as measured by achieved height at 36 months. It uses data collected on individuals who participated in a nutritional supplementation trial between 1969 and 1977 in rural Guatemala and who were subsequently reinterviewed between 2002 and 2004. It finds that individuals who did not suffer growth failure in the first three years of life complete more schooling, score higher on tests of cognitive skill in adulthood, have better outcomes in the marriage market, earn higher wages and are more likely to be employed in higher-paying skilled labor and white-collar jobs, are less likely to live in poor households, and, for women, fewer pregnancies and smaller risk of miscarriages and stillbirths. Growth failure has adverse impacts on body size and several dimensions of physical fitness in adulthood but does not have marked effects on risk indicators of cardiovascular and related chronic diseases. These results provide a powerful rationale for investments that reduce early-life growth failure.


Abstract We employ a Monte Carlo-based optimization scheme called generalized simulated annealing to invert first-arrival times for velocities. We use "dense" common depth point (CDP) data with high multiplicity, as opposed to traditional refraction surveys with few shots. A fast finite-difference solution of the eikonal equation computes first-arrival travel times through the velocity models. We test the performance of this optimization scheme on synthetic models and compare it with a linearized inversion. Our tests indicate that unlike the linear methods, the convergence of the simulated-annealing algorithm is independent of the initial model. In addition, this scheme produces a suite of "final" models having comparable least-square error. These allow us to choose a velocity model most in agreement with geological or other data. Exploiting this method9s extensive sampling of the model space, we can determine the uncertainties associated with the velocities we obtain. We use the optimization procedure on first-arrival times picked from two sets of field shot records. One is the data set from COCORP Death Valley line 9, which traverses the central Basin and Range province in California and Nevada. The other data set is marine reflection data collected by the EDGE consortium across the Hosgri fault, offshore California. In both cases, the velocities in the region undergo rapid lateral changes, and our technique images these variations with little a priori information.


The explosion in workload complexity and the recent slow-down in Moore's law scaling call for new approaches towards efficient computing. Researchers are now beginning to use recent advances in machine learning in software optimizations, augmenting or replacing traditional heuristics and data structures. However, the space of machine learning for computer hardware architecture is only lightly explored. In this paper, we demonstrate the potential of deep learning to address the von Neumann bottleneck of memory performance. We focus on the critical problem of learning memory access patterns, with the goal of constructing accurate and efficient memory prefetchers. We relate contemporary prefetching strategies to n-gram models in natural language processing, and show how recurrent neural networks can serve as a drop-in replacement. On a suite of challenging benchmark datasets, we find that neural networks consistently demonstrate superior performance in terms of precision and recall. This work represents the first step towards practical neural-network based prefetching, and opens a wide range of exciting directions for machine learning in computer architecture research.


Clustering in high-dimensional spaces is a difficult problem which is recurrent in many domains, for example in image analysis. The difficulty is due to the fact that high-dimensional data usually live in different low-dimensional subspaces hidden in the original space. This paper presents a family of Gaussian mixture models designed for high-dimensional data which combine the ideas of dimension reduction and parsimonious modeling. These models give rise to a clustering method based on the Expectation-Maximization algorithm which is called High-Dimensional Data Clustering (HDDC). In order to correctly fit the data, HDDC estimates the specific subspace and the intrinsic dimension of each group. Our experiments on artificial and real datasets show that HDDC outperforms existing methods for clustering high-dimensional data.


Lung cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors worldwide. According to the GLOBOCAN 2012 published by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) under the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2012 there were about 1.80 million new lung cancer cases and 1.60 deaths (1). In China, data from ten tumor registries showed that the morbidity and mortality of lung cancer have increased by 1.63% (1.30% in males and 2.34% in females, P<0.05) annually from 1988 to 2005 (2). The mortality rate of lung cancer has increased by 465% in China than 30 years ago, and about 600,000 people die of lung cancer each year (2,3).


Celiac disease (CD), a common heritable chronic inflammatory condition of the small intestine caused by permanent intolerance to gluten/gliadin (prolamin), is characterized by a complex interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Developments in proteomics have provided an important contribution to the understanding of the biochemical and immunological aspects of the disease and the mechanisms involved in toxicity of prolamins. It has been demonstrated that some gliadin peptides resistant to complete proteolytic digestion may directly affect intestinal cell structure and functions by modulating gene expression and oxidative stress. In recent years, the creation of the two research fields Nutrigenomics and Nutrigenetics, has enabled the elucidation of some interactions between diet, nutrients and genes. Various dietary components including long chain ω-3 fatty acids, plant flavonoids, and carotenoids have been demonstrated to modulate oxidative stress, gene expression and production of inflammatory mediators. Therefore their adoption could preserve intestinal barrier integrity, play a protective role against toxicity of gliadin peptides and have a role in nutritional therapy of celiac disease.


In-depth and comprehensive, this official Microsoft RESOURCE KIT delivers the information you need to plan, deploy, and administer Remote Desktop Services in Windows Server 2008 R2. You get authoritative technical guidance from those who know the technology best-leading industry experts and members of the Microsoft Desktop Virtualization Team. Coverage includes scenarios for Remote Desktop Services (formerly known as Terminal Services), virtualizing roles, setting up Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RDVS), managing application compatibility, customizing and locking down the user experience, using Windows PowerShell for configuration and management, administering security features, deploying a farm, publishing resources, managing sessions, and other life cycle issues. In addition, the RESOURCE KIT CD features a fully searchable electronic version of the book, along with sample scripts, white papers, links to tools and videocasts, and other essential resources. A Note Regarding the CD or DVD The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to firstname.lastname@example.com.


Meta-learning can extract an inductive bias from previous learning experience and assist the training of new tasks. It is often realized through optimizing a meta-model with the evaluation loss of task-specific solvers. Most existing algorithms sample non-overlapping $\mathit{support}$ sets and $\mathit{query}$ sets to train and evaluate the solvers respectively due to simplicity ($\mathcal{S}$/$\mathcal{Q}$ protocol). Different from $\mathcal{S}$/$\mathcal{Q}$ protocol, we can also evaluate a task-specific solver by comparing it to a target model $\mathcal{T}$, which is the optimal model for this task or a model that behaves well enough on this task ($\mathcal{S}$/$\mathcal{T}$ protocol). Although being short of research, $\mathcal{S}$/$\mathcal{T}$ protocol has unique advantages such as offering more informative supervision, but it is computationally expensive. This paper looks into this special evaluation method and takes a step towards putting it into practice. We find that with a small ratio of tasks armed with target models, classic meta-learning algorithms can be improved a lot without consuming many resources. We empirically verify the effectiveness of $\mathcal{S}$/$\mathcal{T}$ protocol in a typical application of meta-learning, $\mathit{i.e.}$, few-shot learning. In detail, after constructing target models by fine-tuning the pre-trained network on those hard tasks, we match the task-specific solvers and target models via knowledge distillation.


Visualising History explores and contextualises the results of practice-led research into interactive media undertaken as part of a FUSION knowledge transfer project. The University of Ulster collaborated with the internet company, MOR Solutions, Drogheda in a cross-border creative and digital media economic development project as part of the Northern Ireland Peace Process. The project has produced two prototype pilot demonstrators providing interactive mobile heritage guides to the Drogheda Viaduct (built in 1855) and the site of the Battle of the Boyne (BOTB) of 1690: each demonstrator possessing individual and unique characteristics. For the Viaduct production the research team was able resort to a wealth of visual material (photographs, railway timetables, museum artefacts etc.) as well as interviews with local inhabitants. In contrast the battle-site research, although involving extant paintings and engravings, is primarily concerned with written accounts, yet these have been visualised with the aid of Irish Arms, a professional historical re-enactment group; Millmount Museum, Drogheda and with the co-operation and permission of the Republic of Ireland's Office of Public Works (responsible for the BOTB site). The overall aim of the productions is to enable visitors to historical sites to access multi-perspective, contested or contradictory histories and conjecture: from points of view of bridge designers and railway workers or generals, foot-soldiers or "camp followers"; from the wider strategic, domestic and Europe-wide political perspectives to everyday practicalities. Using the prototype Irish heritage guides as case studies, the paper explores of the wider theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects of the re-presentation of contested histories, identity and their contemporary political ramifications.


Evaluation is a systematic determination of a subject's merit, worth and significance, using criteria governed by a set of standards. It can assist an organization, program, project or any other intervention or initiative to assess any aim, realisable concept/proposal, or any alternative, to help in decisionmaking; or to ascertain the degree of achievement or value in regard to the aim and objectives and results of any such action that has been completed.The primary purpose of evaluation, in addition to gaining insight into prior or existing initiatives, is to enable reflection and assist in the identification of future change.


The Russian automotive industry is closely linked with the global one, and the financial economic crisis has strengthened these links even more. The paper provides an overview of the major trends taking place in the Russian automotive industry with a special emphasis on the structure of the automotive value chain and the trends in global automotive industry, including a shift of automobile manufacturing locations from developed countries to emerging markets and an increasing role of auto components suppliers. The author identified three main segments of the automotive cross-border value chain in Russia, such as assembly, supply of auto components, sales and aftermarket; and notes that all of them do not get high level of value added. To improve its position in the automotive value chain Russia needs to change the current vertical specialization of Russian original equipment suppliers (OESs) and enhance localization of foreign manufacturers.


Research question: This research comes to examine the impact of FDI inflow on average wage and on employment in Serbia in the period 2005-2017. Motivation: FDI tendentiously increases the economic growth rates, taking into consideration the fact that developed economies benefit from FDI because their local institutions are more productive, while developing countries benefit from "pieces" of FDI, i.e., dissemination of technology and rarely evoke some relevant progress in economic growth. Despite the growing research in the FDI field, the scientific literature on average wage and employment in relation to FDI Inflow in Serbia is limited, which is the motivation to conduct this research. Idea: Therefore, the aim of this research is to estimate the relationship between FDI Inflow and average wage and employment. Data: The data are obtained from the official sites of the National Bank of Serbia and from the Statistical Office of Serbia. Tools: The methodology used is the multiple Linear Regression Model, applying the IBM SPSS software, in order to identify the impact of FDI Inflow on average wage and on employment using time lags. Findings: The results prove the absence of significant impact of FDI inflow on average wage and on employment within the country. The highest positive impact of FDI inflow appears to be in the year the inflow occurs for average wage, and in the second year of FDI inflow performance for employment. Contribution: This paper contributes to the awareness of low impact of FDI inflow on average wage and on employment in Serbia. Moreover, this research covers the gap in the literature in the field of FDI inflow in relation to average wage and employment within the country


We outline a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model with trend extrapolation in asset pricing that we fit to quarterly U.S. macroeconomic time series with Bayesian techniques. To be more precise, we modify the DSGE model in Smets and Wouters (2007) by incorporating asset traders who use a mix of fundamental analysis and trend extrapolation in asset pricing. We conclude that trend extrapolation in asset pricing is quantitatively relevant, statistically significant and results in a substantial improvement of the model's fit to the data. We also find that the strength in trend extrapolation is much stronger during the Great Moderation than it was prior to this period. Moreover, allowing for asset mispricing leads to more pronounced hump-shaped dynamics of the asset price and investment. Thus, asset price misalignments should be an important ingredient in DSGE models that aim to understand business cycles dynamics in general and the interaction between the real and financial sectors in particular.


Municipal housing companies create extensive outcome for the public by achieving benefits in economical, social and environmental areas. Surrounded by multiple internal and external stakeholders like municipal holding, council, authorities, tenants, employees, suppliers and service providers, the housing companies have to cope with various demands. Not only should their activities contribute to such diverse areas as social welfare, regional economy and ecology, but they are often asked to also realize considerable profits to reduce budget deficits of the municipality. Fulfilling these different and partly contradictory expectations at the same time is a challenge. Multiple and conflicting objectives combined with a lack of transparency concerning targeted and actual performance of activities whose monetary value is hardly measurable make corporate management difficult. Thus, the fundamental pre-requisite for managing a municipal housing company effectively is a clearly formulated target system. Within the last years some housing companies with focus on social and public housing started measuring their financial, social and ecological performance and communicating their added value for the public. The concept of iurban returni tries to calculate a monetary value of the performance of housing companies for a municipality. Besides, a network of European housing companies developed a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report with standardized performance indicators to communicate their performance in various areas. However, both approaches are focused on measuring existing activities. A target system addressing the different stakeholder expectations and supporting an overall effectiveness and efficiency of the company does not yet exist. Therefore, an approach for a sustainable stakeholder management for housing companies is presented. At first, an analysis of the stakeholders and their expectations towards the company is conducted. Based on the resulting overview of expectations target conflicts can be identified. They build the basis for a balance of interests leading to a target system for the effective management of the company. In a further step, a controlling system can be implemented and an appropriate communication plan to stakeholders can be established. The first phases of this stakeholder management concept were applied to a German municipal housing company which had been pioneer in publishing a CSR report within the European housing network. The suggested approach is presented with examples of this case study.


Objective: To study the relation between platelet parameters and severe postpartum haemorrhage (SPPH). Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Birth centre of the University Medical Centre Utrecht. Population: 23,205 deliveries between 2009 and 2017. Methods: The predictors platelet count, mean platelet volume (MPV), plateletcrit, platelet distribution width (PDW), and immature platelet fraction (IPF) were measured within 72 hours prior to delivery. Multiple imputation was performed for missing data. Odds ratios were adjusted (aOR's) for maternal age, multiple gestation, macrosomia, induction of labour, and preeclampsia. Main outcome measures: Severe postpartum haemorrhage (≥1,000mL of blood loss within 24 hours after delivery) Results: Of the 2,402 (10.4%) women with thrombocytopenia (<150*109/L), 10.3% developed SPPH, compared to 7.6% of women with a normal platelet count (aOR: 1.34, 95%-CI: 1.14–1.57). Women with a platelet count of <50*109/L were most at risk (aOR of 2.19 (1.01-4.72)) compared to the reference group with normal platelet counts; the aOR was 1.20 (0.77-1.87) for the 50-99*109/L platelet count group, and 1.30 (1.09-1.55) for the 100-149*109/L platelet count group. Plateletcrit was associated with SPPH (aOR 1.15 (1.08-1.21) per 0.05% decrease), and, although rarely present, a PDW ≥23% (n=22) also increased the odds of SPPH (aOR 6.13 (2.29-16.4)). Conclusions: Low platelet count, low plateletcrit, and a PDW ≥23% were associated with the occurrence of SPPH, independent of common PPH risk factors.


Summary 1. Burning of slash (woody debris) piles resulting from the harvest of fuel wood is a common management technique designed to reduce fire risk and increase establishment of understorey vegetation in many semi-arid woodlands. However, the consequences of slash burning on plant communities and their below-ground fungal mutualists are poorly understood. 2. We examined how the burning of slash piles affected understorey plant communities and arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in a pinyon‐juniper woodland in northern Arizona, USA, 5 years after harvesting. We analysed plant communities and AM inoculum potential along 16 transects in: (i) burned slash pile sites; (ii) interspaces between burned slash piles; (iii) non-burned canopy sites; and (iv) non-burned interspaces. We quantified AM colonization of dominant native and exotic plants in burned and non-burned areas. 3. Burned areas had significantly fewer understorey plant species than non-burned areas, and exotic species were four times more abundant at burned slash sites than at other sites. 4. Exotic plants from burned and non-burned areas exhibited levels of AM colonization that were 50% greater than native plants. Bioassay and field-collected plants exhibited similar levels of AM colonization and there were no significant treatment differences. 5. The total biomass of bioassay plants grown in soil from burned slash sites averaged 19% greater than plant biomass from other sites, and had 27% more phosphorus in their shoot tissue; however, tissue nitrogen contents were similar. 6. Synthesis and applications . These results suggest that either fire did not reduce AM inoculum potential, or that AM fungal populations recovered in the 5 years after the slash was burned. Changes in understorey plant communities and increases in exotic species with burning could result from other soil changes (e.g. species of AM fungi present), reduction of native species in the seed bank or greater dispersal ability of exotic plants compared with native plant species. We suggest that burning slash piles as a management tool in pinyon‐juniper woodlands can result in plant communities that are persistently dominated by exotic species. Management approaches that utilize fuel wood harvest alone or that incorporate seeding of native plants may achieve the desired results.


The development of solution‐processable routes to prepare efficient photoelectrodes for water splitting is highly desirable to reduce manufacturing costs. Recently, sulfide chalcopyrites (Cu(In,Ga)S2) have attracted attention as photocathodes for hydrogen evolution owing to their outstanding optoelectronic properties and their band gap—wider than their selenide counterparts—which can potentially increase the attainable photovoltage. A straightforward and all‐solution‐processable approach for the fabrication of highly efficient photocathodes based on Cu(In,Ga)S2 is reported for the first time. It is demonstrated that semiconductor nanocrystals can be successfully employed as building blocks to prepare phase‐pure microcrystalline thin films by incorporating different additives (Sb, Bi, Mg) that promote the coalescence of the nanocrystals during annealing. Importantly, the grain size is directly correlated to improved charge transport for Sb and Bi additives, but it is shown that secondary effects can be detrimental to performance even with large grains (for Mg). For optimized electrodes, the sequential deposition of thin layers of n‐type CdS and TiO2 by solution‐based methods, and platinum as an electrocatalyst, leads to stable photocurrents saturating at 8.0 mA cm–2 and onsetting at ≈0.6 V versus RHE under AM 1.5G illumination for CuInS2 films. Electrodes prepared by our method rival the state‐of‐the‐art performance for these materials.


Rationale, aims and objectives : Patients in stroke rehabilitation units spend considerable time unengaged in therapeutic or meaningful activity, feeling bored with suboptimal engagement in rehabilitation. Systematic reviews have shown that novel interventions such as interactive video gaming result in improved motor function and cognitive performance. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of introducing "tablet computers - iPads" in hospital rehabilitation programmes and their impact on patients' boredom and overall satisfaction. In addition, acceptance and familiarity of the multidisciplinary members of the neuro-rehabilitation team with iPads were explored. Methods: A £10,000 fund was secured from Health Education England, UK to buy 10 iPads. A loan scheme was implemented to regulate iPad use. Information technology and governance issues were agreed with the hospital trust to ensure safety, accountability and confidentiality. Members of the multidisciplinary team offered training and education to patients on iPad use. Questionnaires were used before iPad use to assess patients and staff views on iPads. After iPad use patients and staff completed another questionnaire and were interviewed about which specific applications were used, boredom levels before and after use, and overall satisfaction. Results: Nine patients (7 males) used the iPads (8 strokes and 1 traumatic brain injury), with an average age of 59 (19-79) years. Staff used several applications in physiotherapy and speech therapy and found some applications such as memory games and puzzles particularly helpful. In addition to therapeutic uses, patients used iPads for internet searches, e-mail, Facebook, Skype and games. Eighty-nine percent of patients were satisfied with the iPad experience and 100% reported less boredom or between better and the same boredom compared to baseline. Conclusions: iPad use is feasible and beneficial to patients and welcomed by staff in neuro-rehabilitation units.


The role of invertebrates and their contribution to the functioning of eroded soils is discussed. The edaphic fauna of the ordinary chernozem located in the southern zone of the Republic of Moldova has been investigated in dependence on the degree of erosion, the type of agricultural uses and the method of tillage. The highest values abundance and biomass of invertebrates were registered in the soils with a normal profile as well as in the soils with a truncated profile in conditions of the multiannual fallow under natural vegetation. The fallow soil is characterized by a greater diversity of invertebrates. In addition to the Lumbricidae family, in samples of invertebrates, there were found the species of the Arthropoda and Lucanidae classes, Chrysomelidae, Forficulidae, Formicidae, Gloremidae, Attelabidae, Tenebrionidae, Scarabaeidae families as well as other ones. The biomass of the edaphic fauna is represented predominantly by the Lumbricidae family. Their number amounts to 71.9-75.9% of the total number of invertebrates. The diversity of invertebrates in the arable and especially in the eroded soils decreases sharply. Representatives of only 2-5 families, usually Lumbricidae, Pyralidae, Scarabaeidae and Araneae families inhabit the eroded chernozems. The number of Lumbricidae family constitutes 60.5% of the total number of invertebrates in chernozem with a normal profile and 42.4-60.7% in eroded soils respectively. Research carried out during tree years show that, application of disking on eroded soils have been more efficiently for vital activity of the edaphic fauna in comparision to "no – till" technique.


In the globalization era like today, where radio, television, and print media are mushrooming everywhere, the tradition or habit bedtime story increasingly rare. The role of the mother to story telling for children, or her sister who told stories to his younger brother, has rarely done, and has been shifted by the electronic media or print media. Little by little story tellers As with their role has
been taken over by the story books, magazines, radio, or television. Tales no longer in the oral world, but in the world of writing, or impressions Mentari as a children's magazine became the object of study because in addition to the magazine as one of the children of the most prominent, as well as this magazine contains a lot of fairy tales. By reading fairy tales, the child will be free to imagine, fantasize about the contents of the fairy tales she read. Tale will affect the child to do good, if the story contains things that are positive, and vice versa.
This is where the important role of parents, in choosing the right fairy tale for the sons and daughters, including the kinds of stories what was suitable for consumption by children. Consideration of the above, the content analysis of the kinds of stories in the magazine Mentari is an interesting study to study. With so are expected to know the kinds of stories appropriate to better understand the
messages contained in the contents of a fairy tale as a whole, whether it be information and educational entertainment for children.
The problem in this research is "What kind of fairy tale that is the tale of 40 magazine titles published Mentari between 2003 to 2004?" This type of research used is descriptive research, which is to illustrate how content analysis of 40 kinds of fairy tales in a magazine title Mentari children published between the years 2003 to 2004. Population in this study is a collection of fairy tales published in 20 editions of the magazine Mentari is drawn at random between the years 2003 to 2004. The analysis in this study by incorporating data into the coding sheet is adjusted each category, included in the table according to the frequency and the total dipersentasekan. This study tested the reliability and validity by using the formula Holsty The author concludes that the category of common fairy tales have appeared at most frequencies, because the themes and characterizations of the usual fairy tale very familiar with everyday life, so the story is easily digested by children. The author suggested to the media, to be more selective in choosing which stories will be served to the children. To the author, to be more creative in
the ideas put into writing the story a fairy tale. It is important to the story writing encouraged the people of Indonesia to the tale. To the parents, to be more prudent
and selective in choosing appropriate reading for their children. Parents can also use fairy tales as a child care facility, for example, accompanied by children when they read a fairy tale, or fairy tales read to them and explain the core of the story and what messages are contained in the story.


In aerodynamically intense stock-car races like the Daytona 500, the drivers form into multi-car draft lines to gain extra speed. A driver who does not enter a draft line (slipstream) will lose. Once in a line, a driver must attract a drafting partner in order to break out and try to get further ahead. Thus the effort to win leads to ever-shifting patterns of cooperation and competition among rivals. This provides a curious laboratory for several social science theories: (1) complexity theory, since the racers self-organize into structures that oscillate between order and chaos; (2) social network analysis, since draft lines are line networks whose organization depends on a driver's social capital as well as his human capital; and (3) game theory, since racers face a "prisoner's dilemma" in seeking drafting partners who will not defect and leave them stranded. Perhaps draft lines and related "bump and run" tactics amount to a little-recognized dynamic of everyday life, including in structures evolving on the Internet.


We used an online questionnaire study of volunteers working for the German Red Cross (GRC) to analyze whether Internet use is correlated with the commitment of volunteers. We measured commitment multidimensionally in terms of the willingness of the volunteers to donate, their reported willingness to expand their volunteer work, and their satisfaction with their volunteer work. Upon controlling for numerous socioeconomic factors, we found that volunteering-related use of the Internet is positively correlated with commitment while Internet use for leisure-related activities does not exhibit such a positive correlation. We derive our findings using a micro data set that contains information on the intensities and forms of Internet use of volunteers. Our findings contribute to the literature on the implications of Internet use for social capital and the social integration of users.


In this article we explore the relationship between pre-existing patterns of gender inequality and the occurrence of widespread and systematic sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). We ask three questions: What do we know about the status of gender inequality in high-risk situations prior to the outbreak of atrocities (which include SGBV)? What can be done to understand the relationship between systemic gender inequality and the use of sexual violence in the particular high-risk situations? And what long-term approaches are necessary to prevent SGBV?


Judge David Edward has enjoyed a glittering career. After a substantial,successful period in Scotland, both as a practising advocate and professor of EC law, he was appointed to the Court of First Instance upon its creation in 1989. He was subsequently appointed to the Court of Justice where he has served for many years. This book has been prepared in honour of his retirement from that position in December 2003. The contributions reflect all aspects of Judge Edward's career as a lawyer, both in Scotland and in Luxembourg. In keeping with the respect with which he is held, contributions have been received from eminent members of the Scottish and Luxembourg judiciary, academics and practitioners. Not surprisingly, the main focus is on Community law, with important contributions on competition, institutional, substantive and remedial issues. This book will be an essential addition to the library of anyone with a genuine interest in Community law.


Which features of a computer game contribute to the player's enjoyment of it? How can we automatically generate interesting and satisfying playing experiences for a given game? These are the two key questions addressed in this dissertation. Player satisfaction in computer games depends on a variety of factors; here the focus is on the contribution of the behaviour and strategy of game opponents in predator/prey games. A quantitative metric of the 'interestingness' of opponent behaviours is defined based on qualitative considerations of what is enjoyable in such games, and a mathematical formulation grounded in observable data is derived. Using this metric, neural-network opponent controllers are evolved for dynamic game environments where limited inter-agent communication is used to drive spatial coordination of opponent teams. Given the complexity of the predator task, cooperative team behaviours are investigated. Initial candidates are generated using off-line learning procedures operating on minimal neural controllers with the aim of maximising opponent performance. These example controllers are then adapted using on-line (i.e. during play) learning techniques to yield opponents that provide games of high interest. The on-line learning methodology is evaluated using two dissimilar predator/prey games with a number of different computer player strategies. It exhibits generality across the two game test-beds and robustness to changes of player, initial opponent controller selected, and complexity of the game field. The interest metric is also evaluated by comparison with human judgement of game satisfaction in an experimental survey. A statistically significant number of players were asked to rank game experiences with a test-bed game using perceived interestingness and their ranking was compared with that of the proposed interest metric. The results show that the interest metric is consistent with human judgement of game satisfaction. Finally, the generality, limitations and potential of the proposed methodology and techniques are discussed, and other factors affecting the player's satisfaction, such as the player's own strategy, are briefly considered. Future directions building on the work described herein are presented and discussed.


In this work we introduce Power Spectral Density Sampling (PSDS), a new method for building a reduced rank approximation to a stationary kernel matrix. We apply this method in the framework of Gaussian Processes (GP). The resulting model can be trained in an online fashion: As each training sample arrives, we can include it in the model using only O(r) time and storage, where r is the selected number of spectral samples used in the approximation. For n training points, the overall cost is O(nr) time and O(r) storage. The resulting GP is properly defined and model hyperparameters can be selected by evidence maximization. Though it is especially well-suited for low dimensional problems, it can reach and even outperform other (batch) state-of-the-art sparse GP methods on higher dimensional datasets if allowed to work in batch mode, learning the locations of the spectral samples. We check this possibility on some large datasets.


In nineteenth-century America, visions about the good life among labor reformers often entailed the concept of a democratic republic of citizens dedicated to self-directed work as small producers. Specific strains of the emerging workingclass movement helped to transform this artisan republican ideology into an anticapitalist critique of what was called the system of "wage slavery." Their spokesmen sparked the imaginations of working people with a vaguely defined but powerful vision of a "cooperative commonwealth." This article1 focuses on the reformunionist, populist, socialist, and syndicalist movements in US labor history that aimed at enhancing workers' control and eliminating "wage slavery" in the years between 1870 and 1920. These movements differed from "bread-and-butter" trade unionism and progressivism that pinned all hope on progress, the rise of prosperity, and redistribution of wealth. For the sake of brevity, the various forms of anarchism and Utopian communitarianism will be omitted, since their impact was relatively less significant in the domain of labor participation. Special attention will be paid to the Utopian, millenarian, and dystopian aspects of the movements concerned, and to the view, initially expressed by Daniel Bell, that American socialists were "other-worldly chiliasts" who neither understood nor cared about the realities of American life (6-7). While there is an element of truth in this assertion, on its own it falls short of adequately explaining why these attempts at workers' control resulted in such dismal failure. The key, as I hope to demonstrate, lies elsewhere. Gilded Age Reformers, Christian Rhetoric, and the Battle Against "Plutocracy" The period between 1873 and 1897 was marked by steadily falling prices, economic recessions and depressions, and a working-class movement dominated by the rise and fall of the Knights of Labor. The next period, up until 1914, saw rising prices, corporate consolidation, and the emergence of the industrial, craft-based unionism of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and its affiliates challenged by socialist and syndicalist opponents on the left (Stromquist 544; Dubofsky, State 2). The Knights of Labor (1878-1893) was an industrial union organized at the national level, headed by a General Assembly. Workers were eligible to join, at least in theory, regardless of gender, "race," or ethnicity. With the exception of certain professionals, all gainfully employed individuals (including unskilled workers) could join, but three-fourths of each assembly had to be wage earners. This union was part of a broader reform movement that pressed for a "producerist" republican society, and it supported the eight-hour day, boycotts and arbitration (rather than strikes), various political reforms (including a graduated income tax), as well as consumers' and producers' cooperatives. The AFL, a self-appointed adversary of the Knights, was founded in 1886, and accepted individuals and locals from its rival union. The AFL, however, recognized the autonomy of each trade, thus limiting itself chiefly to business unionism and to skilled workers. Its unions stressed "job ownership," favored checks on immigration, demanded relief from technological job displacement, and proposed enactment of labor legislation. As a less radical strand of labor reform, the AFL also cooperated with employers, participating in the National Civic Federation (1900), for example, to help foster mediation of labor disputes (Encyclopedia 755-56). During the first period, particularly between 1886 and 1894, many labor reformers denounced the "wage system" and envisioned a "cooperative commonwealth" where productive labor would reap its full reward. An insecure economy marked by declining prices made producerism attractive to heavily indebted small farmers, struggling small businessmen, artisans experiencing deskilling, and laborers in "saturated labor markets" (Stromquist 545). …


BACKGROUND
Obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and increased sympathetic activity is considered to be a causative link in this association. Higher levels of sympathetic activity have been reported in children with OSAS. Sympathetic predominance is indicated on heart rate variability (HRV) analysis by increased heart rate (HR) and a higher ratio of low-frequency to high-frequency band power (LF/HF). Improvement in OSAS after adenotonsillectomy (AT) in children with OSAS could, therefore, be associated with reduced HR and reduced LF/HF.

METHODS
Changes in HR and time and frequency components of HRV were retrospectively analyzed in 2-min epochs free of respiratory events during light, deep, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep in children with OSAS who underwent polysomnography before and after AT.

RESULTS
Eighteen children with OSAS, aged 4.9 ± 2.4 years (mean ± SD) were studied. After AT, the apnea-hypopnea index decreased from 31.9 ± 24.8 events/h to 4.1 ± 3.7 events/h. The HR decreased after AT in all stages of sleep (99.8 ± 16.9 beats/min to 80.7 ± 12.9 beats/min [light sleep]; 100.2 ± 15.4 beats/min to 80.5 ± 12.4 beats/min [deep sleep)]; and 106.9 ± 16.4 beats/min to 87.0 ± 12.1 beats/min [REM sleep]), as did the LF/HF (1.6 ± 2.7 to 0.6 ± 0.5 [light sleep]; 1.2 ± 1.6 to 0.5 ± 0.6 [deep sleep]; and 3.0 ± 5.4 to 1.4 ± 1.7 [REM sleep]).

CONCLUSIONS
The proportion of sympathetic activity of the autonomic nervous system declines in children with OSAS after AT in association with improvement in sleep-disordered breathing.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this study was to assess the promptness of antibiotic administration to patients presenting with sepsis and the effects on survival and length of hospitalization.

METHODS
Consecutive, adult patients presenting with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) to the emergency department of the Aga Khan University hospital were enrolled in a prospective, observational study over a period of 4 months. Univariate, multivariate regression modeling and one-way ANOVA were used to examine the effects of various variables on survival and for significant differences between timing of antibiotic administration and survival, two-sided p values < 0.05 were considered significant.

RESULTS
One hundred and eleven patients were enrolled. Severe sepsis was present in 52% patients; the most frequent organism isolated was Salmonella typhi (18%). Overall mortality was 35.1%. One hundred (90.1%) patients received intravenous antibiotics in the Emergency room; average time from triage to actual administration was 2.48 +/- 1.86 hours. The timing of antibiotic administration was significantly associated with survival (F statistic 2.17, p = 0.003). Using a Cox Regression model, we were able to demonstrate that survival dropped acutely with every hourly delay in antibiotic administration. On multivariate analysis, use of vasopressors (adjusted OR 23.89, 95% CI 2.16,263, p = 0.01) and Escherichia coli sepsis (adjusted OR 6.22, 95% CI 1.21,32, p = 0.03) were adversely related with mortality.

CONCLUSIONS
We demonstrated that in the population presenting to our emergency room, each hourly delay in antibiotic administration was associated with an increase in mortality.


Summary Anthraquinone (AQ) derivatives play a prominent role in medicine and also in textile industry. Bromaminic acid (1-amino-4-bromoanthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid) is an important precursor for obtaining dyes as well as biologically active compounds through the replacement of the C4-bromo substituent with different (ar)alkylamino residues. Here we report methods for the synthesis of bromaminic acid analogues bearing different substituents at the 2-position of the anthraquinone core. 1-Aminoanthraquinone was converted to its 2-hydroxymethyl-substituted derivative which, under different reaction conditions, yielded the corresponding carbaldehyde, carboxylic acid, and nitrile derivatives. The latter was further reacted to obtain 1-amino-2-tetrazolylanthraquinone. Subsequent bromination using bromine in DMF led to the corresponding bromaminic acid derivatives in excellent isolated yields (>90%) and high purities. Alternatively, 1-amino-4-bromo-2-hydroxymethylanthraquinone could be directly converted to the desired 2-substituted bromaminic acid analogues in high yields (85–100%). We additionally report the preparation of bromaminic acid sodium salt and 1-amino-2,4-dibromoanthraquinone directly from 1-aminoanthraquinone in excellent yields (94–100%) and high purities. The synthesized brominated AQs are valuable precursors for the preparation of AQ drugs and dyes.


Corticobasal syndrome is characterized by cortical dysfunction and L-dopa-unresponsive Parkinsonism, with asymmetrical onset of clinical presentation and evidence of atrophy and/or hypometabolism at neuroimaging. Recently, the heterogeneous pathologic substrate of corticobasal syndrome has been further expanded to include cases with pathologic diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin/TDP-43 (TAR DNA binding protein 43)-positive inclusions associated with progranulin (PGRN) mutations. We report a family in which several individuals have been affected with a dementia/movement disorder phenotype. The proband presented at age 45 with spontaneous left arm levitation, ideational apraxia, asymmetric parkinsonism, and dystonia. Subsequently, he developed limb-kinetic apraxia, left-side hemineglect, memory loss, and executive dysfunction. Magnetic resonance imaging and [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography studies revealed severe cerebral cortical atrophy and hypometabolism, which were significantly more pronounced in the parietal lobes (right > left). Neuropathologic examination displayed the highest degree of degeneration and ubiquitin/TDP-43 pathology in the proband's parietal areas. Genetic analysis revealed the presence of the c.26C>A PGRN mutation in 1 allele. This mutation has been reported in association with hereditary-dysphasic-disinhibition-dementia, Alzheimer-like dementia, progressive supranuclear palsy, and primary progressive aphasia. The peculiar findings observed in this patient indicate that the parietal lobe may represent the most vulnerable anatomical area in some of the PGRN-associated frontotemporal lobar degeneration with ubiquitin/TDP-43-positive inclusion cases.


Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal hematopoietic stem cell disorders characterized by abnormal cellular differentiation and maturation with variable progression to acute leukemia. Over the last decade, scientific discoveries have unraveled specific pathways involved in the complex pathophysiology of MDS. Prominent examples include aberrations in cytokines and their signaling pathways (such as tumor necrosis factor‐alpha, interferon‐gamma, SMAD proteins), mutations in genes encoding the RNA splicing machinery (SF3B1, SRSF2, ZRSR2, and U2AF1 genes), mutations in genes disrupting the epigenetic machinery (TET2, DNMT3A, DNMT3B, EZH2, ASXL1). In addition, abnormalities in regulatory T‐cell dynamics and atypical interactions between the bone marrow microenvironment, stroma and progenitor cells, and abnormal maintenance of telomeres are also notable contributors to the complex pathogenesis of MDS. These pathways represent potential targets for novel therapies. Specific therapies include drugs targeting aberrant DNA methylation and chromatin remodeling, modulating/activating the immune system to enhance tumor‐specific cellular immune responses and reduce anomalous cytokine signaling, and blocking abnormal interaction between hematopoietic progenitors and stromal cells.


Natural products, and molecules derived from them, have played an extremely large role in the field of medicine and have contributed as therapies for numerous disease states. Unfortunately, the rate of discovery of medically relevant molecules from natural sources is slowing as secondary metabolite studies from microbes are increasingly yielding the re-isolation of previously known compounds. This study focused on isolating new secondary metabolites through the usage of two different techniques: (1) treatment of fungi and bacteria with epigenetic modifying compounds to induce natural product production, and (2) genome mining/bioinformatic analysis of natural product gene clusters to enhance the isolation of new compounds from previously uninvestigated species. Previous studies in the literature have shown treatment with chemical epigenetic modifiers to be successful in inducing new secondary metabolite production in fungi. At the start of my research, no natural product studies involving epigenetic modifiers had been performed in bacteria, and, to date, only one publication has appeared in the peerreviewed literature. The approach used during my investigation was to induce new metabolite formation in the bacterium Bacillus pumilus strain RI06-95 via epigenetic modification using agents that target several epigenetic regulatory mechanisms. Reproducibility proved a difficulty as treatment of the same organism induced the production of different metabolites in repeat experiments. The second focus of this study utilized genome mining and bioinformatic analysis of natural product gene clusters in order to isolate new secondary metabolites from organisms previously unstudied for natural product synthesis. The Secondary Metabolite Online Repository (SMOR) is a new tool that rapidly analyzes the well-curated complete microbial genome sequences located on the National Center for Biotechnology Information Genome Database and flags natural product gene clusters. Many organisms are sequenced for reasons other than determination of their biosynthetic potential, and thus have been largely overlooked for their secondary metabolite production. By using SMOR and other bioinformatic tools, this study sought to isolate natural products, particularly predicted cyclic lipopeptide antibiotics, from the potentially overlooked microorganism Bradyrhizobium sp. BTAi1. Extract fractions showed bioactivity against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and structural characterization of a purified bioactive molecule indicated the potential presence of one of the predicted cyclic lipopeptides. Unfortunately due to insufficient material and long culturing times, structural elucidation of the bioactive molecules was not possible.


The problem of processing visual motion is underconstrainedmany possible real world motions are compatible with any given dynamic retinal image. Recent psychophysical and neurophysiological experiments have shown that the primate visual system's normally veridical interpretation of moving patterns is attained through utilization of image segmentation cues unrelated to motion per se. These findings challenge notions of modularity in which it is assumed that the processing of specific scene properties, such as motion, can be studied in isolation from other visual processes. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to both experimental and computational approaches to the study of visual motion.


To better understand factors related to greater social control of norm violators, I conducted two studies. The social group membership of the norm violator was of foremost importance to these studies and tested the general prediction that who violates the norm determines the perceived appropriate reaction to the norm violation. Consistent with contemporary theories of prejudice (i.e., the justification-suppression model of prejudice, the stereotype content model, and aversive racism theory) results revealed that norm violators with intellectual disabilities were given stronger (yet more paternalistic) social control reactions than Black norm violators and that Black norm violators were perceived as less competent when they violated a norm that was high (vs. low) in personal implication. Results also supported theories related to social-identity theory by demonstrating that White norm violators were generally less liked than other norm violators. The results of these studies demonstrate that social group membership influences how individuals react to norm violators and contributes to our understanding of the unfair treatment of individuals in our society. PUNISHING COUNTERNORMATIVE BEHAVIOR: PERCEIVED SOCIAL GROUP MEMBERSHIP OF THE NORM VIOLATOR PREDICTS SOCIAL CONTROL


I mend it with sugar Abstract "Gluttony" and "sloth" is the sugar addictions best friend, or could it be that the addiction comes out of a disturbed hormone production caused by the environment that surrounds us? Trying to understand my own sugar addiction I weave in my personal story into my artistic research around this subject.The sugar might be the cause of the pandemic obesity and that's why it has to bee brought up into the light from its darkness down the basement of the food giants that roles over the world economy. There might be no answer yet to the questions I ask myself but it is time that we all do what it takes to get closer to the answers, by questioning the nature of the food that we stuff our self full of, we all have a part of it, or do we? Have our brain already been kidnapped by the white gold that we're no longer capable to think clear? This is a subject that suits very well to be highlighted through body related art, such as jewellery and corpus. We use our body when we eat, our feelings is coming from the inside of our body, by looking at our body and how it acts we can easily see the signs of how we really feel it's just that we forgot to look, we forgot to listen to our body, maybe it's the sugar that has numb our bodies…


Different signal processing transforms provide us with unique decomposition capabilities. Instead of using specific transformation for every type of signal, we propose in this paper a novel way of signal processing using a group of transformations within the limits of Group theory. For different types of signal different transformation combinations can be chosen. It is found that it is possible to process a signal at multiresolution and extend it to perform edge detection, denoising, face recognition, etc by filtering the local features. For a finite signal there should be a natural existence of basis in it's vector space. Without any approximation using Group theory it is seen that one can get close to this finite basis from different viewpoints. Dihedral groups have been demonstrated for this purpose. General Terms signal processing, algorithm, group theory.


We present a general approach to design modular controllers for limit cycle locomotion over unperceived rough terrain. The control strategy uses a Central Pattern Generator (CPG) model implemented as coupled nonlinear oscillators as basis. Stumbling correction and leg extension reflexes are implemented as feedbacks for fast corrections, and model-based posture control mechanisms define feedbacks for continuous corrections. The control strategy is validated on a detailed physics-based simulated model of a compliant quadruped robot, the Oncilla robot. We demonstrate dynamic locomotion with a speed of more than 1.5 BodyLength/s over unperceived uneven terrains, steps, and slopes.


In short-exposure imaging through turbulence, there is some probability that the image will be nearly diffraction limited because the instantaneous wave-front distortion over the aperture was negligible. A number of years ago in a rather brief paper, Hufnagel (1966) argued heuristically that the probability of getting a good image would decrease exponentially with aperture area. This paper undertakes a rigorous quantitative analysis of the probability. We find that the probability of obtaining a good short-exposure image is Prob ≈ 5.6 exp[−0.1557 (D/r0)2] (for D/r0 ≥ 3.5), where D is the aperture diameter and r0 is the coherence length of the distorted wave front, as defined by Fried (1967). A good image is taken to be one for which the squared wave-front distortion over the aperture is 1 rad2 or less. The analysis is based on the decomposition of the distorted wave front over the aperture, in an orthonormal series with randomly independent coefficients. The orthonormal functions used are the eigenfunctions of a Karhunen-Loeve integral equation. The integral equation is solved using a separation of variables into radial and azimuthal dependence. The azimuthal dependence was solved analytically and the radial, numerically. The first 569 radial eigenfunctions and eigenvalues were obtained. The probability of obtaining a good short-exposure image corresponds to a hyperspace integral in which the spatial dimensions are the independent random coefficients in the orthonormal series expansion. It is equal to the probability that a randomly chosen point in the hyperspace will lie within a hypersphere of unit radius, the points in the hyperspace being randomly chosen in accordance with the product of independent Gaussian probability distribution—one distribution for each dimension. The variance of these distrbutions is directly proportional to the eigenvalues of the Karhunen-Loeve equation. This hyperspace integral (involving up to several hundred dimensions) has been evaluated using Monte Carlo techniques.


This collection of essays by leading scholars of constitutional law looks at a critical component of constitutional democracy - judicial independence - from an international comparative perspective. Peter H. Russell's introduction outlines a general theory of judicial independence, while the contributors analyze a variety of regimes from the United States and Latin America to Russia and Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Japan, and South Africa. Russell's conclusion compares these various regimes in light of his own analytical framework.