The influence of local equilibrium parameters on the Alfven spectrum is studied. The aim is to solve the inverse problem: identification of the plasma profiles, and especially the safety factor profile, using measurements of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves. A study case is presented to determine what the possible uses of MHD spectroscopy are. The dependence of the TAE (Toroidicity induced Alfven Eigenmode) frequency on the safety factor at the edge is shown. The possible use of Alfven continuum modes near the edge is investigated. A very accurate determination of the safety factor on axis will be presented for plasmas where core-localized TAE's are present. It will be shown how measurements of mode structures can provide information on plasma parameters at particular points in the plasma. The numerical findings will be compared to experimental results from the Joint European Torus (JET) [P. ii. Rebut and the JET Team, Plasma Physics and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research 1984 (International Atomic Energy Agency,Vienna, 1985), Vol. 1, p. 11] active Alfven wave diagnostic.


Cardiac hypertrophy -- that is, enlargement of the heart resulting from increased myocyte size -- is observed with many forms of human heart disease. It may arise secondary to an insult, such as infarct or chronic hypertension, or may occur as a consequence of a genetic defect, such as in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Traditionally, it has been widely believed that hypertrophy occurred as an adaptive response to normalize increased wall stress due to disease. Recently, however, it has been observed that while hypertrophy initially appears to improve the function of the heart following insult, over time, it frequently leads to a decompensated state, characterized by fibrosis and chamber dilation, resulting in overt heart failure. Hypertrophy also occurs during fetal development, immediately after birth, and in trained athletes; however, it does not lead to decompensation in these states. Experiments over the last 15 years have implicated similar signaling pathways in both pathological and physiological hypertrophic responses. Recently, important differences have been demonstrated that might hold the key to the development of effective new treatments for human diseases. This chapter focuses on how these hypertrophic responses differ from one another phenotypically and discusses how inefficient or impaired energy metabolism in the heart may contribute to the development of pathological responses. We also discuss recent evidence that the myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) transcription factor family, which previously has been shown to be important in cardiac development and hypertrophy, may have a role in regulation of cardiac energy metabolism.


The dispersion of the waveguides that constitute microring resonators can considerably affect the dispersion characteristics of coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs). We derive expressions for CROW dispersion and group delay for silicon-on-insulator microring CROWs, showing both theoretically and experimentally the band-to-band dependence of the bandwidth and group delay on the dispersion properties of the constituent single-mode silicon waveguide.


Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Financial Fraud Detection (FFD) have been receiving increasing attention in the past few years, especially in light of the global financial crisis. Closer systems integration and a number of latest steep technological developments in areas like Big Data; High Frequency Trading; e-payments; and mobile payment systems, to name a few, are now promising enhanced risk management through superior decision support for the global financial industry. At the same time, however, resident regulatory frameworks, national and international, appear to lack the connectivity and flexibility required to support integrated AML and FFD approaches. This is strongly testified by the disparate technological approaches to FFD across different Financial Institutions and their reluctance to share practice within the industry. Focusing on Financial Transaction Fraud, this paper draws on the authors' past research work which presented a prototype system that uses a workflow approach to identify abnormal financial transactions and applies Artificial Intelligence for classification. That work has shown successful applicability at short scale experiments, limited by the wide concern that information sharing should be achieved within the broader sector in order to achieve improved results. Drawing from there, this paper proposes that extending that approach across transaction infrastructure will deliver higher quality intelligent monitoring against Financial Transaction Fraud. Following from that, we argue that the necessary technological maturity does exist to support full-scale operable FFD systems working on large disparate datasets. We then discuss the evidence in favour of the view that such systems can only be realised in the presence of wider regulatory consensus. There is, therefore, the need for a framework within which the technical infrastructure, business architecture and regulatory rules will harness that technological capability to deliver superior fraud prevention. The paper first reviews computer-aided techniques and approaches for FFD available to the financial sector and discusses the business value of their application. It then addresses the main impediments for their full-scale applicability and uses an analytical framework for assessing their significance, in technological, business-specific and regulatory terms. A brief account of the authors' workflow-based approach is then provided and its capabilities are outlined. In light of the above analysis, the paper proposes a techno-economic framework that will facilitate delivery of unified knowledge from large and disparate data sets of financial transactions. That, we propose, will augment fraud reduction capabilities and contribute to significantly lower associated costs. Keywords: Financial fraud detection, Anti-money laundering, Transaction monitoring, Artificial intelligence


Evolving networks by definition are networks that change as a function of time. They are a natural extension of network science since almost all real-world networks evolve over time, either by adding or by removing nodes or links over time: elementary actor-level network measures like network centrality change as a function of time, popularity and influence of individuals grow or fade depending on processes, and events occur in networks during time intervals. Other problems such as network-level statistics computation, link prediction, community detection, and visualization gain additional research importance when applied to dynamic online social networks (OSNs). Due to their temporal dimension, rapid growth of users, velocity of changes in networks, and amount of data that these OSNs generate, effective and efficient methods and techniques for small static networks are now required to scale and deal with the temporal dimension in case of streaming settings. This chapter reviews the state of the art in selected aspects of evolving social networks presenting open research challenges related to OSNs. The challenges suggest that significant further research is required in evolving social networks, i.e., existent methods, techniques, and algorithms must be rethought and designed toward incremental and dynamic versions that allow the efficient analysis of evolving networks.


We present the results of a search through the photometric database of Kepler eclipsing binaries looking for evidence of hierarchical triple-star systems. The presence of a third star orbiting the binary can be inferred from eclipse timing variations. We apply a simple algorithm in an automated determination of the eclipse times for all 2157 binaries. The "calculated" eclipse times, based on a constant period model, are subtracted from those observed. The resulting O − C (observed minus calculated times) curves are then visually inspected for periodicities in order to find triple-star candidates. After eliminating false positives due to the beat frequency between the ∼1/2 hr Kepler cadence and the binary period, 39 candidate triple systems were identified. The periodic O − C curves for these candidates were then fit for contributions from both the classical Roemer delay and so-called physical delay, in an attempt to extract a number of the system parameters of the triple. We discuss the limitations of the information that can be inferred from these O − C curves without further supplemental input, e.g., ground-based spectroscopy. Based on the limited range of orbital periods for the triple-star systems to which this search is sensitive, we can extrapolate to estimate that at least 20% of all close binaries have tertiary companions.


Background: Several studies have shown effects of current and maternal smoking during pregnancy on DNA methylation of CpG sites in newborns and later in life. Here, we hypothesized that there are long-term and persistent epigenetic effects following maternal smoking during pregnancy on adolescent offspring DNA methylation, independent of paternal and postnatal smoke exposure. Furthermore, we explored the association between DNA methylation and cardiometabolic risk factors at 17 years of age. Materials and Methods: DNA methylation was measured using the Illumina HumanMethylation450K BeadChip in whole blood from 995 participants attending the 17-year follow-up of the Raine Study. Linear mixed effects models were used to identify differential methylated CpGs, adjusting for parental smoking during pregnancy, and paternal, passive, and adolescent smoke exposure. Additional models examined the association between DNA methylation and paternal, adolescent, and passive smoking over the life course. Offspring CpGs identified were analyzed against cardiometabolic risk factors (blood pressure, triacylglycerols (TG), high-density lipoproteins cholesterol (HDL-C), and body mass index). Results: We identified 23 CpGs (genome-wide p level: 1.06 × 10−7) that were associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy, including associated genes AHRR (cancer development), FTO (obesity), CNTNAP2 (developmental processes), CYP1A1 (detoxification), MYO1G (cell signalling), and FRMD4A (nicotine dependence). A sensitivity analysis showed a dose-dependent relationship between maternal smoking and offspring methylation. These results changed little following adjustment for paternal, passive, or offspring smoking, and there were no CpGs identified that associated with these variables. Two of the 23 identified CpGs [cg00253568 (FTO) and cg00213123 (CYP1A1)] were associated with either TG (male and female), diastolic blood pressure (female only), or HDL-C (male only), after Bonferroni correction. Discussion: This study demonstrates a critical timing of cigarette smoke exposure over the life course for establishing persistent changes in DNA methylation into adolescence in a dose-dependent manner. There were significant associations between offspring CpG methylation and adolescent cardiovascular risk factors, namely, TG, HDL-C, and diastolic blood pressure. Future studies on current smoking habits and DNA methylation should consider the importance of maternal smoking during pregnancy and explore how the persistent DNA methylation effects of in utero smoke exposure increase cardiometabolic risk.


Introduction In order to prevent medical errors, it is important to know why they occur and to identify their causes. Healthcare failure modes and effects analysis (HFMEA) is a type of qualitative descriptive that is used to evaluate the risk. The aim of this study was to assess the risks of using Entonox for labor pain by HFMEA. Methods A mixed-methods design (qualitative action research and quantitative cross-sectional research) was used. The modes and effects of failures in the process of using Entonox were detected and analyzed during 2013–2014 at Hefdahe Shahrivar Hospital, Mashhad, Iran. Overall, 52 failure modes were identified, with 25 being recognized as high-risk modes. Results The results revealed that 48.5% of these errors fall into the care process type, 22.05% belong to the communicative type, 19.1% fall into the administrative type, and 10.2% are of the knowledge and skills type. Strategies were presented in the forms of acceptance (3.2%), control (90.3%), and elimination (6.4%). Conclusion The following actions are suggested for improving the process of using Entonox: Close supervision by the midwife, precise recording of all the stages of the process in the woman's medical record, the necessity of the presence of the anesthesiologist at the woman's bedside during labor, confirming the indications for use of Entonox, and close monitoring to ensure the safety of the gas cylinder guards.


Closed recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are a technological innovation that reduces
the amount of water needed for culture by treating and reusing up to 90% of the total water
volume daily. Such systems consequently produce substantially smaller volumes of effluent,
though it is enriched in nutrients relative to effluent from flow-through or open systems. For
RAS to emerge as a viable culture strategy, an economical and efficient method must be
developed to reduce effluent nutrient concentrations before discharge. As part of a larger project
evaluating biofilter effects on RAS effluent, this study focused on the effect of bivalve culture on
the composition of southern flounder RAS effluent. This system produces 1270 L/day of
effluent, with nutrient and suspended solids concentrations 20-100x that of ambient levels. Two
trials were conducted using this effluent as a nutrient base for bivalves stocked in an upwelling
system for four weeks. Trial I utilized raw effluent nutrients for two densities of oysters
(Crassostrea virginica, (average shell height ± standard error = 63.4 ± 1.7 mm). Trial II utilized
effluent inoculated with microalgae, Isochrysis galbana, as the nutrient base for two densities of
clams (Mercenaria mercenaria, average shell height ± standard error = 16.7 ± 0.2 mm).
Effluent nutrient composition (total nitrogen, total phosphorus, and total suspended solids) was
analyzed from samples (collected twice weekly) taken before and after bivalve filtration.
Change in shell height was quantified by measuring subsamples at the start and end of each trial.
Oysters did not have a significant impact (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test, p>0.05) on the RAS
effluent nutrient compositions in this flow-through integrated system. Clams, also, did not have
a significant impact (Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Test, p>0.05) on the RAS effluent nutrient
compositions. Significant change in shell height was not exhibited in the oysters (Wilcoxon-
Mann-Whitney and Welch-ANOVA Tests, p>0.05) over the time course of Trial I. Over the course of Trial II, a significant change in shell height was exhibited within treatments (Low:
p=0.01, High: p=0.049) and between clam densities (p=0.01). The magnitude of seawater
dilution, high flow rates, and high suspended solids loads may have inhibited my detection of
effluent composition reductions.


As the workforce becomes increasingly diversified, it becomes increasingly important to understand the conflict resolution attitudes brought to IS by both men and women. This research is designed to investigate (and possibly to challenge) assumptions that may exist regarding the relationship between gender and conflict resolution for both males and females. Using a large group of emerging IS professionals as subjects, the results of this study indicate that men and women show differences in their conflict resolution attitudes. When compared to their male counterparts, women entering the IS workforce are more likely to utilize a collaborative conflict resolution style and men are more likely to avoid conflict. As collaboration is generally considered more productive and avoidance more disruptive in the conflict resolution process, the study suggests that women entering the IS workforce may initially possess more effective and constructive conflict resolution attributes than their male counterparts.


This note presents a first cut at analysing the tariff schedule that is applied to South African imports. The aim is to show various ways in which tariffs on South African imports can be analysed such that DTI can develop in-house capacity to undertake such analysis on an on-going basis. A cursory comparison with earlier analysis suggests that tariffs have declined over the period 1997-2001, notably for manufacturing. However, further tariff liberalisation has been slow in last couple of years. Tariff peaks still exist for a number of broad categories of commodities such as processed foods (HS 0- 2), vehicles and components thereof (HS 87), tobacco products (HS 24), rubber products (HS 40) and clothing and textiles (HS6). About 25% of the HS8 commodity lines are faced with non ad-valorem tariffs, although the value of imports involved is not more than 4% of total import in 2000. An attempt is made to convert non ad-valorem tariffs in order to check for tariff peaks. The highest ad-valorem equivalents are recorded for processed food, in various stages, and textiles. Finally, duty collection rates, which can give an indication of the efficiency of duty collection are lowest for mineral fuels, motor vehicles and components thereof. Using a couple of static methods on effective tariff rates singles out the textiles, clothing, footwear, leather, motor vehicles, and some food processing sectors as directly and indirectly highly protected. Simple correlation coefficients suggest that duty collection rates and the nominal tariff schedule are reasonable indicators of effective rates of protection at the chosen aggregation level of activities.


Residual networks (ResNet) and weight normalization play an important role in various deep learning applications. However, parameter initialization strategies have not been studied previously for weight normalized networks and, in practice, initialization methods designed for un-normalized networks are used as a proxy. Similarly, initialization for ResNets have also been studied for un-normalized networks and often under simplified settings ignoring the shortcut connection. To address these issues, we propose a novel parameter initialization strategy that avoids explosion/vanishment of information across layers for weight normalized networks with and without residual connections. The proposed strategy is based on a theoretical analysis using mean field approximation. We run over 2,500 experiments and evaluate our proposal on image datasets showing that the proposed initialization outperforms existing initialization methods in terms of generalization performance, robustness to hyper-parameter values and variance between seeds, especially when networks get deeper in which case existing methods fail to even start training. Finally, we show that using our initialization in conjunction with learning rate warmup is able to reduce the gap between the performance of weight normalized and batch normalized networks.


ABSTRACT DEVELOPMENT OF BOND-ORDER POTENTIALS FOR BODY-CENTERED-CUBIC TRANSITION METALS AND THEIR APPLICATION IN ATOMISTIC STUDIES OF PLASTIC PROPERTIES MEDIATED BY DISLOCATIONS Yi-Shen Lin Professor Vaclav Vitek Bond-order potentials (BOPs), based on the tight binding (TB) approach for the evaluation of bonding, are an real-space method. They are eminently suitable for atomistic simulations of extended defects in transition metals in which the bonding is mixed nearly free electron and covalent. The latter requires a rigorous quantum mechanical treatment performed within the TB. In this Thesis, new BOPs were developed for non-magnetic BCC transition metals, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo and W, as well as for the ferromagnetic Fe. In these BOPs, bond integrals used in the bond part of the cohesive energy were directly extracted from DFT calculations employing a projection formalism and a physically more transparent functional form was established for the repulsive part of the cohesive energy. In the ferromagnetic Fe, the magnetism was introduced through the Stoner's model of the itinerant magnetism. In the bond part of the cohesive energy only d bonds are included explicitly but the screening of these bonds by the surrounding s electrons needs to be taken into account. This is particularly important when studying atomic arrangements in which the deviation from the ideal BCC lattice is very localized and inhomogeneous. The developed BOPs show an excellent transferability to various atomic environments which was tested by calculating energies of alternative crystal structures, vacancy formation energies, transformation paths, phonon spectra and -surfaces, all of which allow for direct comparisons with experiments and/or DFT based calculations. Moreover, we show that with slight variation of the number of d electrons used in BOPs, they are suitable for the atomistic studies involving self-interstitial atoms. This is essential if the BOPs are to be used in studies of the radiation damage. Employing these BOPs, the core structures and glide of 1⁄2<111> screw dislocations, which govern the plastic deformation in BCC metals, were investigated using a variety of applied stress tensors. These simulations reveal a breakdown of the Schmid law that has two aspects. First is the so-called twinning-antitwinning asymmetry of the critical resolved shear stress, which has been known for a long time and occurs even when the applied stress is the pure shear stress parallel to the Burgers vector. The second relates to core transformations induced by the shear stress components perpendicular to the Burgers vector. Our simulations suggest that the latter may explain the anomalous slip found in a number of BCC transition metals, which has been known for a long time but its full understanding is still elusive. Most importantly, the calculations employing BOPs suggest significantly different anomalous slip for group 5 (V, Nb and Ta) and group 6 (Mo and W) metals, which is observed but has never been explained based on the standard continuum theory of dislocations. Finally, a very simple formalism was proposed for the development of BOPs for binary homogeneous substitutional alloys that leads to a good agreement with DFT calculations of basic structural and mechanical properties. Studies of 1⁄2[111] screw dislocations in Ta-W alloy confirm the applicability of this formalism to investigation of the effect of substitutional alloying on the dislocation glide. This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1849 Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Materials Science & Engineering First Advisor Vaclav Vitek


Background: Constipation and other symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort, such as abdominal swelling, are common among healthy individuals and have a significant impact on quality of life. Despite the known contribution of gut microbiomes to this pathology, little is known regarding which groups of microorganisms play a key role. Yeasts have been used for fermenting foods since ancient times. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a type of yeast used for industrial and pharmaceutical purposes in the genetic and medical fields because it is unicellular with a simple biological structure. Yeast also helps improve the intestinal environment. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of foods containing Saccharomyces cerevisiae on bowel movement and to validate the safety of its long-term usage. Stool frequency and consistency were also assessed.Methods: This was a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group study. The test food contained S. cerevisiae NK-1 powder (1 × 1010 cells), whereas the placebo did not contain it. The food was made into sticks and provided to healthy individuals with infrequent bowel movements (3–5 movements a week), three times a day for 12 weeks. Then we investigated the changes in stool frequency, volume, and other adverse events. Results: The number of days with bowel movement significantly increased in the test group compared with the placebo group after 8–12 weeks of consuming the test food (p < 0.05). Based on the blood test results, there were no adverse events associated with the consumption of the test food observed.Conclusions: Consumption of the test food regulated intestinal function by promoting defecation in healthy individuals prone to constipation. Thus, S. cerevisiae NK-1 helps facilitate smoother defecation.Keywords: Saccharomyces cerevisiae NK-1, bowel movement, stool frequency volume, gastrointestinal discomfort


Using Source-to-Source Transformations to Add Debug Observability to HLS-Synthesized Circuits Joshua Scott Monson Department of Electical and Computer Engineering, BYU Doctor of Philosophy This dissertation introduces a novel approach for exposing the internal, source-level expressions of circuits generated by high-level synthesis (HLS) for in-circuit debug. The approach uses source-to-source transformations to instrument specific source-level expressions with debug ports. These debug ports allow a user to connect a debugging instrument (e.g. an embedded logic analyzer) to record the activity of the expression corresponding to the debug port. This dissertation demonstrates that a debugging solution based on these source-to-source transformations is feasible and that individual debug ports can be added for a cost of a 1-2% increase in circuit area on average. It also introduces another transformation that permits pointer-valued expressions to be instrumented for debug. It is demonstrated that all pointers in the CHStone benchmarks can be instrumented for an average 4% increase in circuit area. The debug port transformations are demonstrated on two HLS tools – Vivado HLS and Legup. The architecture of the source-to-source compiler allowed the necessary adaptations for the second tool (Legup) to be implemented using a minimal amount of additional code. Due to limitations in the Legup compiler an additional optimization was added to reduce the latency overhead incurred by the debug ports. User manuals and other documentation from 10 additional C-based HLS tools is examined to determine whether they are amenable to debug instrumentation using the source-to-source transformations. Of the 10 additional HLS tools examined, 6 were amenable to the transformations, 3 were likely to be amenable, and 1 was not. This dissertation estimates the cost of a complete debugging solution (i.e. one with debug ports and a debugging instrument) and identifies a possible worst case bound for adding debug ports. Finally, this dissertation analyzes two different debugging instruments and determines which instrument would be best for most HLS circuit mapped to FPGAs. It then estimates the overhead of this debugging solution.


We develop a computational framework to examine the factors responsible for scattering-induced distortions of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) signals in turbid samples. We apply the Huygens-Fresnel wave-based electric field superposition (HF-WEFS) method combined with the radiating dipole approximation to compute the effects of scattering-induced distortions of focal excitation fields on the far-field CARS signal. We analyze the effect of spherical scatterers, placed in the vicinity of the focal volume, on the CARS signal emitted by different objects (2μm diameter solid sphere, 2μm diameter myelin cylinder and 2μm diameter myelin tube). We find that distortions in the CARS signals arise not only from attenuation of the focal field but also from scattering-induced changes in the spatial phase that modifies the angular distribution of the CARS emission. Our simulations further show that CARS signal attenuation can be minimized by using a high numerical aperture condenser. Moreover, unlike the CARS intensity image, CARS images formed by taking the ratio of CARS signals obtained using x- and y-polarized input fields is relatively insensitive to the effects of spherical scatterers. Our computational framework provide a mechanistic approach to characterizing scattering-induced distortions in coherent imaging of turbid media and may inspire bottom-up approaches for adaptive optical methods for image correction.


ABSTRACT . Arabica coffee grown in the Gayo Highlands, which includes Central Aceh, Bener Meriah and Gayo Lues district. The impact of climate change, affect the aspects related to the cultivation of coffee. The research objective is to determine the productivity, quality of results and arabica coffee farmers' income from various types kentianggian arabica coffee cultivation. The study was conducted in an area with a height difference of 1000-1200, 1200-1400, and 1400-1600 m above sea level. Coverage of further research is the analysis of the aspects that affect production, quality of results, and the income of farmers. Data collected by purposive sampling technique. Primary data were gathered through observation, interviews and focus group discussions. The results were obtained, Productivity arabica coffee ranged between 250-750 kg / ha / year. The regression analysis shows, production, altitude, farmers' income, the number of stems, soil conservation, crop care, harvesting patterns, treatment outcome, drying, storage, fruit production, pest and disease control and land a positive effect. Coffee quality of areas, production of the shade management, negative effect.


Transverse surface cracks in low carbon steel slabs are invariably inter-granular and follow the soft ferrite films outlining the grain boundaries of exceptionally large prior-austenite grains often found at the roots of oscillation marks in continuously cast low-carbon steel slabs. Plastic deformation is concentrated in the ferrite films and cracks initiate in the ferrite films, leading to crack propagation along the austenite grain boundaries. Hot-ductility is significantly reduced by an increase in austenite grain size and in situ observations revealed that depending on the cooling rate, austenite can nucleate and grow by diffusional mechanisms or forms by a massive type of reaction. The delta-ferrite transformation has also been studied by using neutron diffraction techniques and high-energy X-rays in a synchrotron.


In this paper, we propose a new lightweight hash function supporting three different digest sizes: 80, 96 and 128 bits, providing preimage security from 64 to 120 bits, second preimage and collision security from 40 to 60 bits. LHash requires about 817 GE and 1028 GE with a serialized implementation. In faster implementations based on function T , LHash requires 989 GE and 1200 GE with 54 and 72 cycles per block, respectively. Furthermore, its energy consumption evaluated by energy per bit is also remarkable. LHash allows to make trade-offs among security, speed, energy consumption and implementation costs by adjusting parameters. The design of LHash employs a kind of Feistel-PG structure in the internal permutation, and this structure can utilize permutation layers on nibbles to improve the diffusion speed. The adaptability of LHash in different environments is good, since different versions of LHash share the same basic computing module. The low-area implementation comes from the hardware-friendly S- box and linear diffusion layer. We evaluate the resistance of LHash against known attacks and confirm that LHash provides a good security margin.


High-throughput sequencing analysis has accelerated searches for genes associated with risk for colorectal cancer (CRC); germline mutations in NTHL1, RPS20, FANCM, FAN1, TP53, BUB1, BUB3, LRP6 , and PTPN12 have been recently proposed to increase CRC risk. We attempted to validate the association between variants in these genes and development of CRC in a systematic review of 11 publications, using sequence data from 863 familial CRC cases and 1604 individuals without CRC (controls). All cases were diagnosed at an age of 55 years or younger and did not carry mutations in an established CRC predisposition gene. We found sufficient evidence for NTHL1 to be considered a CRC predisposition gene—members of 3 unrelated Dutch families were homozygous for inactivating p.Gln90Ter mutations; a Canadian woman with polyposis, CRC, and multiple tumors was reported to be heterozygous for the inactivating NTHL1 p.Gln90Ter/c.709+1G>A mutations; and a man with polyposis was reported to carry p.Gln90Ter/p.Gln287Ter; whereas no inactivating homozygous or compound heterozygous mutations were detected in controls. Variants that disrupted RPS20 were detected in a Finnish family with early-onset CRC (p.Val50SerfsTer23), a 39-year old individual with metachronous CRC (p.Leu61GlufsTer11 mutation), and a 41-year-old individual with CRC (missense p.Val54Leu), but not in controls. We therefore found published evidence to support the association between variants in NTHL1 and RPS20 with CRC, but not of other recently reported CRC susceptibility variants. We urge the research community to adopt rigorous statistical and biological approaches coupled with independent replication before making claims of pathogenicity.


Home to hundreds of millions of souls and land of excessiveness, the Himalaya is also the locus of a unique seismicity whose scope and peculiarities still remain to this day somewhat mysterious. Having claimed the lives of kings, or turned ancient timeworn cities into heaps of rubbles and ruins, earthquakes eerily inhabit Nepalese folk tales with the fatalistic message that nothing lasts forever. From a scientific point of view as much as from a human perspective, solving the mysteries of Himalayan seismicity thus represents a challenge of prime importance. Documenting geodetic strain across the Nepal Himalaya with various GPS and leveling data, we show that unlike other subduction zones that exhibit a heterogeneous and patchy coupling pattern along strike, the last hundred kilometers of the Main Himalayan Thrust fault, or MHT, appear to be uniformly locked, devoid of any of the "creeping barriers" that traditionally ward off the propagation of large events. The approximately 20 mm/yr of reckoned convergence across the Himalaya matching previously established estimates of the secular deformation at the front of the arc, the slip accumulated at depth has to somehow elastically propagate all the way to the surface at some point. And yet, neither large events from the past nor currently recorded microseismicity nearly compensate for the massive moment deficit that quietly builds up under the giant mountains. Along with this large unbalanced moment deficit, the uncommonly homogeneous coupling pattern on the MHT raises the question of whether or not the locked portion of the MHT can rupture all at once in a giant earthquake. Univocally answering this question appears contingent on the still elusive estimate of the magnitude of the largest possible earthquake in the Himalaya, and requires tight constraints on local fault properties. What makes the Himalaya enigmatic also makes it the potential source of an incredible wealth of information, and we exploit some of the oddities of Himalayan seismicity in an effort to improve the understanding of earthquake physics and cipher out the properties of the MHT. Thanks to the Himalaya, the Indo-Gangetic plain is deluged each year under a tremendous amount of water during the annual summer monsoon that collects and bears down on the Indian plate enough to pull it away from the Eurasian plate slightly, temporarily relieving a small portion of the stress mounting on the MHT. As the rainwater evaporates in the dry winter season, the plate rebounds and tension is increased back on the fault. Interestingly, the mild waggle of stress induced by the monsoon rains is about the same size as that from solid-Earth tides which gently tug at the planets solid layers, but whereas changes in earthquake frequency correspond with the annually occurring monsoon, there is no such correlation with Earth tides, which oscillate back-and-forth twice a day. We therefore investigate the general response of the creeping and seismogenic parts of MHT to periodic stresses in order to link these observations to physical parameters. First, the response of the creeping part of the MHT is analyzed with a simple spring-and-slider system bearing rate-strengthening rheology, and we show that at the transition with the locked zone, where the friction becomes near velocity neutral, the response of the slip rate may be amplified at some periods, which values are analytically related to the physical parameters of the problem. Such predictions therefore hold the potential of constraining fault properties on the MHT, but still await observational counterparts to be applied, as nothing indicates that the variations of seismicity rate on the locked part of the MHT are the direct expressions of variations of the slip rate on its creeping part, and no variations of the slip rate have been singled out from the GPS measurements to this day. When shifting to the locked seismogenic part of the MHT, spring-and-slider models with rate-weakening rheology are insufficient to explain the contrasted responses of the seismicity to the periodic loads that tides and monsoon both place on the MHT. Instead, we resort to numerical simulations using the Boundary Integral CYCLes of Earthquakes algorithm and examine the response of a 2D finite fault embedded with a rate-weakening patch to harmonic stress perturbations of various periods. We show that such simulations are able to reproduce results consistent with a gradual amplification of sensitivity as the perturbing period get larger, up to a critical period corresponding to the characteristic time of evolution of the seismicity in response to a step-like perturbation of stress. This increase of sensitivity was not reproduced by simple 1D-spring-slider systems, probably because of the complexity of the nucleation process, reproduced only by 2D-fault models. When the nucleation zone is close to its critical unstable size, its growth becomes highly sensitive to any external perturbations and the timings of produced events may therefore find themselves highly affected. A fully analytical framework has yet to be developed and further work is needed to fully describe the behavior of the fault in terms of physical parameters, which will likely provide the keys to deduce constitutive properties of the MHT from seismological observations.


This paper describes university faculty and leaders' perspectives on the role of Public Egyptian universities in developing national innovation system(NIS), as universities are often cited as a critical institutional actors in national innovation systems, most of the literature on national innovation systems defines them as the institutions and actors that are critical for the creation, development, and diffusion of innovations. This qualitative study is based on interviews with 73 University Faculty and Leaders in  Egypt, finds possible advantages for Public Egyptian universities to develop national innovation system, as well as a number of barriers that hinder the Public Egyptian universities to develop national innovation system. The main objective of this paper is to discuss the relevance of innovation systems to economic growth , analyze the Egyptian NIS beginning with a brief introduction of the role of innovation and an examination of the elements that comprise national innovation systems, interaction between various actors involved, and shows how the Public Egyptian universities are important players in developing the National Innovation System. One important theme in this paper is to define the challenges that faces the Public Egyptian universities to substantially support NIS. Three existing Frameworks ( "Mode 2 " ,"Triple Helix" and "Entrepreneurial University) to explain the significance of universities linkages to NIS  are discussed, and the context of developing innovation systems in Egypt and the government initiatives in that regard will be explored. Keywords : Innovation ,National Innovation System; Egyptian universities; knowledge Innovation; education reform;  Mode 2;  Triple Helix.


The ability to measure location using time of flight in IEEE 802.11 networks is impeded by the standard clock resolution, imprecise synchronization of the 802.11 protocol, and the inaccuracy of available clocks. To achieve real-time location with accuracy goals of a few meters, we derive new consensus synchronization techniques for free-running clocks. Using consensus synchronization, we improve existing time of arrival (TOA) techniques and introduce new time difference of arrival (TDOA) techniques. With this common basis, we show how TOA is theoretically superior to TDOA. Using TOA measurements, we can locate wireless nodes that participate in the location system, and using TDOA measurements, we can locate nodes that do not participate. We demonstrate applications using off-the-shelf 802.11 hardware that can determine location to within 3m using simple, existing optimization methods. The synchronization techniques extend existing ones providing distributed synchronization for free-running clocks to cases where send times cannot be controlled and adjusted precisely, as in 802.11 networks. These location and synchronization techniques may be applied to transmitting wireless nodes using any communication protocol where cooperating nodes can produce send and receive timestamps.


Two coherent optical systems are described that can realize local nonlinear preprocessing operators such as the Sobel edge-enhancement function in parallel on a 2-D input image. By local, we refer to the size of the image region rather than a nonstationary process. Realization of such operators using a multiple-exposure matched spatial filter and a computer-generated hologram is discussed. Experimental results using these techniques for 3 × 3 and 5 × 5 Sobel operators, respectively, are presented. Our techniques can be extended to larger window sizes and other edge-enhancement operators. These new operators are achieved by novel coherent systems using complex arithmetic with magnitude evaluation of the output pattern.


This paper presents a summary mortality index, the cross-sectional average length of life (CAL). By combining the mortality experience of various cohorts in a cross-sectional fashion, CAL complements traditional one-period or one-cohort indexes and enriches our understanding of population processes. First, CAL provides an alternative insight into the analysis of mortality. By taking into account the real mortality conditions to which individuals in a population have been subject, it tends to yield less favourable mortality levels than e0 and produces different rankings of mortality levels across countries. Second, CAL is a relevant index for the study of population dynamics. In particular, change in CAL over time shows the direct impact of mortality change on population growth, and the e0/CAL ratio for a given year shows the mortality-induced growth that can be expected given current mortality levels. It illustrates that mortality can play a non-negligible role in future population growth, even in the absence of future mortality improvements.


The work presented in this thesis focuses on measurements of chemical reactive C2 C7 non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC) and C1 C2 chlorocarbons with atmospheric lifetimes of a few hours up to about a year. The group of reactive chlorocarbons includes the most abundant atmospheric species with large natural sources, which are chloromethane (CH3Cl), dichloromethane (CH2Cl2), and trichloromethane (CHCl3), and tetrachloroethylene (C2Cl4) with mainly anthropogenic sources. The NMHC and chlorocarbons are present at relatively low quantities in our atmosphere (10-12 10-9 mol mol-1 of air). Nevertheless, they play a key role in atmospheric photochemistry. For example, the oxidation of NMHC plays a dominant role in the formation of ozone in the troposphere, while the photolysis of chlorocarbons contributes to enhanced ozone depletion in the stratosphere. In spite of their important role, however, their global source and sinks budgets are still poorly understood. Hence, this study aims at improving our understanding of the sources, distribution, and chemical role of reactive NMHC and chlorocarbons in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. To meet this aim, a comprehensive data set of selected C2 C7 NMHC and chlorocarbons has been analyzed, derived from six aircraft measurement campaigns with two different jet aircrafts (the Dutch TUD/NLR Cessna Citation PH-LAB, and the German DLR Falcon) conducted between 1995 and 2001 (STREAM 1995 and 1997 and 1998, LBA-CLAIRE 1998, INDOEX 1999, MINOS 2001). The NMHC and chlorocarbons have been detected by gas-chromatography (GC-FID/ECD) in pre-concentrated whole air samples collected in stainless steel canister on-board the measurement aircrafts. The measurement locations include tropical (Maldives/Indian Ocean and Surinam), midlatitude (Western Europe and Canada) and polar regions (Lapland/northern Sweden) between the equator to about 70oN, covering different seasons and pollution levels in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. Of special interest in this thesis are the tropical regions because they are becoming increasingly important in terms of global anthropogenic pollution and climate change. In addition, natural emissions of hydrocarbons (notably isoprene and terpenes from plants) and reactive chlorocarbons appear to be concentrated in the tropics, where the largest uncertainties exist with respect to source type and source strength. Whenever available, the reactive NMHC and chlorocarbon data have been analyzed with the help of concurrent measurements, which includes ozone (O3), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxide (NO), total reactive oxidized nitrogen (NOy), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), acetone (CH3COCH3), methanol (CH3OH), acetonitrile (CH3CN), the chlorofluorocarbons CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-12 (CCl2F2), the hydrofluorocarbon HFC-134a (CH2FCF3), and the hydrochlorofluorocarbons HCFC-141b (CH3CCl2F) and HCFC-142b (CH3CClF2). These additional measurements provided important information about the air mass origin, pollution sources, and chemical age of the encountered air masses.
The STREAM-measurements contribute to the present understanding of the budgets of reactive organic trace species in the mid-latitude lower stratosphere at different seasonal conditions. It was found that during summer and fall, the mean concentrations of reactive NMHC and acetone in the lower stratosphere were a factor of two or more higher than during winter, as a result of more intense and frequent mixing across the tropopause.
The role of tropical emissions in the global budget of hydrocarbons and the chlorocarbons CH3Cl, CH2Cl2, CHCl3, and C2Cl4 has been investigated during the LBA/CLAIRE 1998, INDOEX 1999 and MINOS 2001 campaigns. The INDOEX measurements over the Indian Ocean showed that strongly enhanced CH3Cl and related combustion tracers, such as CO, hydrocarbons and CH3CN in polluted air masses from India and Southeast Asia, relate to the extensive use of biofuels (notably the burning of agricultural waste and dung) in households and small industries. During the MINOS campaign it was found that deep convection associated with the Asian summer monsoon followed by long-range transport carries Asian pollution towards the eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa, thus affecting tropospheric chemistry on a hemispheric scale. Enhanced levels of CO, and hydrocarbons in Asian pollution were found to be comparable to or higher than those found in westerly air masses, containing pollution from the North American continent. It is expected that the increasing use of fossil fuel in Asia will enhance photochemical ozone formation in the Asian plume in the future. This is important because ozone acts as an effective greenhouse gas near the tropopause.
Based on measurements performed over the Surinam rainforest during LBA-CLAIRE it is concluded that tropical forests are the most important source of organic chlorine, mainly in the form of CH3Cl, to the atmosphere. It is shown that the reduction of tropical forest area over the past 20 years could largely explain the observed downward trend in atmospheric CH3Cl.


The present study examined the relationship between defensive hostility, cardiovascular responses to interpersonal stress and health-risk behaviours associated with CHD pathogenesis. For the analysis of health-risk behaviours, subjects completed a General Health Survey and monitored their intake of calories, saturated fat, total fat, cholesterol, alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes on one weekday and one weekend-day. The results offered no conclusive support for the hypotheses that the Defensive Hostile group would exhibit significantly greater cardiovascular reactivity under harassment and report increased engagement in health-risk behaviours relative to others. Instead, the LoDef/LoHo group showed the most elevated SBP reactivity under harassment, although no strong conclusion can be made due to their limited sample size. The harassed LoDef/LoHo group also displayed greater SBP and SV responses while the harassed Defensive Hostile group displayed greater SBP reactivity relative to their own non-harassed counterparts. No group differences in negative emotional reactions to harassment were observed. The groups also did not differ in any of the health-risk behaviours although a positive association was found between hostility and cholesterol intake. A negative association between defensiveness and beer intake with trend results for general alcohol consumption were also obtained. These study findings suggest that further research is needed to examine the moderating influence of interpersonal stress, such as harassment, not only in the relationship between defensive hostility and cardiovascular reactivity but between low levels of both defensiveness and hostility and cardiovascular responses as well. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)


The efficiency of current cargo screening processes at sea and air ports is unknown as no benchmarks exists against which they could be measured. Some manufacturer benchmarks exist for individual sensors but we have not found any benchmarks that take a holistic view of the screening procedures assessing a combination of sensors and also taking operator variability into account. Just adding up resources and manpower used is not an effective way for assessing systems where human decision-making and operator compliance to rules play a vital role. For such systems more advanced assessment methods need to be used, taking into account that the cargo screening process is of a dynamic and stochastic nature. Our project aim is to develop a decision support tool (cargo-screening system simulator) that will map the right technology and manpower to the right commodity-threat combination in order to maximize detection rates. In this paper we present a project outline and highlight the research challenges we have identified so far. In addition we introduce our first case study, where we investigate the cargo screening process at the ferry port in Calais.


We present weight normalization: a reparameterization of the weight vectors in a neural network that decouples the length of those weight vectors from their direction. By reparameterizing the weights in this way we improve the conditioning of the optimization problem and we speed up convergence of stochastic gradient descent. Our reparameterization is inspired by batch normalization but does not introduce any dependencies between the examples in a minibatch. This means that our method can also be applied successfully to recurrent models such as LSTMs and to noise-sensitive applications such as deep reinforcement learning or generative models, for which batch normalization is less well suited. Although our method is much simpler, it still provides much of the speed-up of full batch normalization. In addition, the computational overhead of our method is lower, permitting more optimization steps to be taken in the same amount of time. We demonstrate the usefulness of our method on applications in supervised image recognition, generative modelling, and deep reinforcement learning.


This short article, which was prepared for a conference on civil recourse theory at Florida State University School of Law, asks whether Blackstone's rejection of maintenance is inconsistent with the theoretical commitments of modern civil recourse theory. Blackstone strongly believed that third parties should not help victims of wrongdoing discover that they have been wronged, this article asks whether modern civil recourse theory is committed to the position (now in retreat throughout common law nations) that third parties who help strangers' lawsuits are acting against the public interest (or, as Blackstone put it, are "pests of society . . . disturbing their neighbor's repose"). I argue that although modern civil recourse theory is not committed to repeating Blackstone's mistake, the reasons why are illuminating. One possible justification for Blackstone's position is that he believed that a victim who did not know that she was wronged suffered no legal wrong at all. This justification is based on the error of equating subjective experience with juridical fact. What, however, is the basis of the juridical fact of being wronged in civil recourse theory if it is not the subjective experience of mistreatment at the hands of a private law wrongdoer? According to civil recourse, tort victims are wronged because they have suffered a mistreatment in law. The article argues that it is only once victims learn the facts necessary to ground the conclusion that they have been legally wronged (as opposed to injured) – a state of affairs that may not take place until months if not years after the initial injury – that their subjective experience of being wronged comes into alignment with the juridical fact that they suffered a mistreatment in law. If this analysis is correct, the "resentment" experienced by victims, which civil recourse identifies as a justification for holding wrongdoers accountable in law, is not grounded in the victim's own subjective interests (although it often coincides with that) but the victim's interest in the enforcement of obligations created by the state. The article concludes that, if this analysis of "wrongs" in tort is correct, then there is no conflict between litigation finance and civil recourse theory, since the civil recourse theorist – Blackstone – should endorse a practice that promotes the enforcement of obligations created by the state by those whom the state has empowered to enforce them, regardless of whether the victims of tort experienced (or suffered) any non-legal wrong.


The Heavy Photon Search Experiment (HPS) seeks to detect a hypothesised hidden sector boson, the A', predicted to be produced in dark matter decay or annihilation. Theories suggest that the A' couples weakly to electric charge through kinetic mixing, allowing it, as a result, to decay to Standard Matter (SM) lepton pair, which may explain the electron and positron excess recently observed in cosmic rays. Measuring the lepton pair decay of the A' could lead to indirect detection of dark matter. The HPS experiment is a fixed target experiment that will utilize the electron beam produced at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jefferson Lab). The detector set-up includes a silicon vertex tracker (SVT) and an Electromagnetic Calorimeter (ECal). The ECal will provide the trigger and detect e+e- pairs and its construction and testing forms the focus of this thesis. The ECal consists of 442 PbWO4- tapered crystals with a length 16cm and a 1.6x1.6cm2 cross-section, stacked into a rectangular array and are coupled to Large Area APDs and corresponding pre-amplifiers. Supplementary to the ECal is a Light Monitoring System (LMS) consisting of bi-coloured LEDs that will monitor changes in APD gain and crystal transparency due to radiation damage. Beforemore » construction of the ECal each of the components were required to be individually tested to determine a number of different characteristics. Irradiation tests were performed on PbWO4 ECal crystals and, as a comparison, one grown by a different manufacturer to determine their radiation hardness. A technique for annealing the radiation damage by optical bleaching, which involves injecting light of various wavelengths into the crystal, was tested using the blue LED from the LMS as a potential candidate. The light yield dependence on temperature was also measured for one of the PbWO4 crystal types. Each APD was individually tested to determine if they functioned correctly and within the requirements of the experiment, then arranged into groups of similar gain at chosen applied voltages, for connection to High Voltage (HV) supplies. Each bi-coloured LED was also tested to determine if they functioned within the specifications of the experiment; including their signal quality at high frequency and their radiation hardness. The HPS crystals were recycled from a previous Jefferson Lab detector, the Inner Calorimeter from CLAS, which needed to be dismantled and reconditioned using various removal and cleaning techniques. The HPS ECal was then constructed in a new formation using a combination of different gluing and construction techniques, and initial functionality tests were performed.« less


In this paper, a dynamical systems (DS) approach is proposed for the analysis and design of bio-inspired silicon central pattern generator (CPG) systems. Based on this approach, a new leaky-integrate-and-leaky-discharge oscillator circuit is proposed that has dynamical properties closer to biological half-center oscillators while being power and area efficient. The membrane potential charges and discharges through a single resistor eliminating mismatch in charging and discharging phases. Switched-capacitor (SC) and floating-gate wide input linear range operational transconductance amplifier (FGOTA) based approaches have been proposed to implement the resistor. Both approaches enable controllable and large resistances in a small area. Oscillation frequency can be easily controlled by the frequency of switching in SC based and bias current in FGOTA based implementations, which are very useful for global change of oscillation frequency in an array of oscillators. Dynamical systems analysis has shown that when it is used as a single oscillator, the proposed circuit is able to produce a phase response curve (PRC) close to that of a lamprey CPG system. By applying averaging theory to a system of coupled oscillators, the averaged H and G functions for unidirectional and bidirectional coupling cases are obtained. Analysis of these functions shows our circuit's superior capability to achieve entrainment when driven by a periodic input (e.g., from sensory feedback) and reach equilibrium even with high frequency mismatch.


A preliminary study was conducted on the environmental impact of sea urchin (Tripneustes gratilla Linnaeas) grow-out culture in Lucero, Bolinao, Pangasinan. It was hypothesized that the feces generated by the caged urchins (~6,000 individuals at any one time) might cause localised sediment organic enrichment and subsequent shifts in benthic faunal communities. Results from preliminary surveys conducted in April and August of 1999 indicated minimal impact of sea urchin grow-out culture on the local reef flat community. Some enhancement of faunal abundance and sediment organic matter content in the cage area were noted; however, the impact was limited to a radius of 5-25 meters from the grow-out cages. The enhancement effects appeared to be seasonal occurrences that were dependent on local currents and degree of wave exposure. Epiphyte biomass, total suspended solids, sediment grain size, and relative water movement seemed largely unaffected by sea urchin grow-out culture. However, more frequent and thorough samplings are needed to validate these initial results. The presence of localised enrichment in sediment organic content and epibenthic faunal density suggest the possibility of converting the sea urchin grow-out area into polyculture systems that would make more efficient use of the food resources available while minimizing potential anthropogenic impacts on the environment.


The demand for ubiquitous networks has pushed the designs of networks all the way. The requirement for access point to be integrated into IEEE 802.3 standard and other networks has always been a sore point in the limitation of wireless coverage of IEEE 802.11 standard networks. Wireless Mesh Network (WMN) is expected to be the future of the next generation wireless network. It is experiencing a fast growing development due to its attractive features which includes high reliable connectivity, easy deployment, self healing, self configuring, flexible network expansion etc. Hence the mobility of the WMN nodes has been of paramount importance, which would make it independent of wired infrastructure and flexible interoperability with various networks and devices. The requirements like mobility, transparency etc. have led to the amendment of the WMN standard by the Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) 802.11 Working Group (WG), Task Group (TG) "S. The IEEE 802.11s standard tackles these issues by its operation on layer 2 of Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model and creates a transparent IEEE 802 broadcast domain that supports any higher layer protocol. In our work we give the evaluation of the upcoming IEEE 802.11s standard based on its features some of which include routing at layer 2 and medium access control to enable its design and implementation in the existing mesh frame work of Communication Research Labs (CRL) using the proposed IEEE 802.11s routing protocols with focus on RA-OLSR and HWMP. We concentrate on how to integrate these features into the existing CRL's C-CORE which runs other layer 3 routing protocols and complex functions as Application Programming Interface (API) modules. The implementation of the IEEE 802.11s standard creates major challenges as we have to create a roadmap on integrating the new wireless kernel interfaces like the nl80211, cfg80211 and the Wireless Extension (Wext) into the CRL's C-CORE framework for communication between user space and kernel space, especially taking into consideration of the existing HAL and madwifi wireless drivers of the CRL's framework. To support the evaluation of the features like the layer 2 routing and the modified MAC performance, we compare results of the CRL's real time mesh network test with our simulation result of the IEEE 802.11s standard using the Qualnet 4.5 simulator with focus on the basic network parameters like delay, jitter and throughput. The comparison shows that the CRL's network has higher throughput running its existing layer 3 protocols. The analysis also proves that the 802.11s is flexible, scalable and efficient in delivering multi hop capabilities to clients that cannot afford the deployment time or the cost for wired networks that use access points. With the complete integration, of the 802.11s standard specifications the CRL's C-CORE framework can be much more capable of supporting more diverse network scenario deployments.


Fusarium head blight (FHB), primarily caused by Fusarium graminearum Schwabe [teleomorph: Gibberella zeae (Schwein.) Petch], is a devastating disease of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), causing low yields and poor quality kernels that may be contaminated by the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON). The objective of this study was to examine kernel damage resistance and to map quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with FHB resistance in wheat. A population of 269 recombinant inbred lines (RILS) derived from a cross between IL94-1653 x Patton was evaluated for FHB resistance in greenhouse and field trials at Urbana, IL. The RIL population exhibited a broad and continuous distribution for all FHB resistance measurements. The correlation of disease severity with kernel damage was 0.78 in the greenhouse trial and 0.58 in the field trial. Grain DON concentration appeared to be environmentally affected, and correlated the most consistently with the ISK index, an index combining incidence, severity, and kernel damage measurements. Four severity QTL were identified on chromosomes 2B, 3B, 4B, and 6B, each explaining about 4 to 6% of the phenotypic variation. The same severity QTL were not detected in both the field and greenhouse trials. Three kernel damage QTL were identified on chromosomes 2B, 4B, and 6B, with the 4B QTL explaining 7 and 12.3% of the phenotypic variation for kernel damage in the greenhouse and field trials, respectively. This is the second report of a kernel damage QTL in this region of chromosome 4B, indicating that this QTL may contribute to reducing Fusarium-damaged kernels percentage.


On-line web-based technologies provide students with the opportunity to complete assessment instruments from personal computers with internet access. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in paper-based and web-based administrations of a commonly used assessment instrument, the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). Results demonstrated no appreciable difference on FCI scores or FCI items based on the type of administration. A 4 way ANOVA (N = 376) demonstrated expected differences in FCI scores due to different sections of the same sections, different courses and gender. However, none of these differences was influenced by the type of test administration. Similarly, FCI student scores were comparable with respect to both test reliability and predictive validity. For individual FCI items, paper-based and web-based comparisons were made by examining potential differences in item means and by examining potential differences in response patterns. Chi Squares demonstrated no differences in response patterns and t Tests demonstrated no differences in item means between paper-based and web-based administrations. In summary, the web-based administration of the Force Concept Inventory appears to be as efficacious as the paper-based administration.


Purpose The current study was undertaken to investigate whether glaucoma affects the sleep quality and whether there is any difference between patients with primary glaucoma (primary open angle glaucoma, POAG and primary angle-closure glaucoma, PACG) and healthy subjects, using a validated self-rated questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Methods The sleep quality of patients with POAG and PACG was tested against normal controls. Subjects were divided into three sub-groups according to age. Differences in the frequency of sleep disturbances (PSQI score >7) were assessed. The differences of sleep quality within the three groups and within the POAG group depending on the patients' intraocular pressure (IOP) and impairment of visual field (VF) were also studied. Results 92 POAG patients, 48 PACG patients and 199 controls were included. Sleep quality declined with age in control and POAG group (tendency chi-square, P<0.05). The prevalence of sleep disturbances was higher in POAG and PACG group than in the control group, the differences were statistically significant. The prevalence of sleep disturbances was higher in patients with PACG, compared to POAG patients in the age interval of 61–80. In POAG group, the ratio of patients with sleep disorders increased with augmented impairment of VF, but the differences were not statistically significant (χ2-test, P>0.05). No significant differences were found in POAG group between patients with a highest IOP in daytime and at nighttime (χ2-test, P>0.05). Conclusions The prevalence of sleep disorders was higher in patients with POAG and PACG than in controls. PACG patients seemed to have a more serious problem of sleep disorders than POAG patients between 61 to 80 years old. No correlation was found between the prevalence of sleep disorders and impairment of VF or the time when POAG patients showed a highest IOP.


This research, via case study investigation of the Islington Educational Psychology Service (EPS)
examines the applicability of Performance Indicators (PIs) in the management of a professional
service in the public sector. The research explores the theoretical and political basis for the
introduction of PIs and tests their use by examining their strengths,w eaknessesa nd applicability
within a local context.
PIs are examined in relation to their usefulness in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of
service delivery within an inner city service. Key issues investigated include: performance
requirements linked to Special Educational Needs (SEN) resourcing, PIs generally in the SEN area,
and clients/stakeholdersd emandso n the service. PIs are examined in relation to their impact on the
short and long term delivery of the service.
The investigation covers the period 1992-1999, though draws on data from 1990 and extension work
undertaken in 2000. Utilising concepts from economic theory the research examines the psychological
service input to schools, SEN input from the schools themselves and school output measures. LEA PIs
are analysed to gain an overview of the strengths and weakness of the organisation and to determine
priorities for the development of the EPS. The research includes the active participation on the part of
the researcher/manager to generate and learn from the use of PIs. This exploration includes the
attempt to construct a managerial model for PIs. The research is pursued by the generation of a series
of case study questions. The experience of the researcher/manager is included as source data within
the analysis.
The research finds that PI systems are needed to measure `output' and `value added' as well as `input'
factors. Also demonstrated is the need for the EPS to be more clearly linked to the meeting of national
targets for raising achievement. PI systems are shown to be needed to facilitate team working,
commitment and professional ownership, ensure appropriateness of tasks and to support professional
re-alignment within the organisation. The research identifies the need for a local political as well as a
professional framework for the consideration and selection of PIs. The research proposes a model for
generating and selecting key PIs.
At a wider professional level the researchd emonstratesw eaknessesin managerial as well as
traditional professional control systems. Also shown is the limited potential of relying on
client/stakeholder feedback to determine successful functioning of systems. The research
demonstrates the need to address managerial, professional as well as client requirements. Key areas of
concern are identified in relation to national and local policy. To address this, recommendations are
made regarding policy at a national and local level in the use of PIs to assist planning, priority setting
and control functions in order to deliver quality professional services in the short and longer term.


The workforce providing noninstitutional personal assistance and home health services tripled between 1989 and 2004, according to U.S. survey data, growing at a much faster rate than the population needing such services. During the same period, Medicaid spending for such services increased dramatically, while both workforce size and spending for similar services in institutional settings remained relatively stable. Low wage levels for personal assistance workers, which have fallen behind those of comparable occupations; scarce health benefits; and high job turnover rates highlight the need for greater attention to ensuring a stable and well-trained workforce to meet growing demand.


Purpose: The lack of adequate perioperative documentation has legal implications and can potentially affect the quality and safety of patient care. Despite the presence of guidelines, the adequacy of perioperative documentation in Australasia has not been adequately assessed. The aim of this study is to assess the adequacy of anesthetic documentation on the pre and intraoperative encounters and to test the hypotheses that documentation is incomplete in the settings of emergency vs. elective procedures, regional vs. general anesthesia, and manual vs. electronic documentation. Materials and Methods: The study was an observational retrospective study in the setting of a 250-bed teaching hospital in metropolitan Adelaide, Australia. The perioperative records of 850 patients were analyzed. A scoring system was designed, based on a policy statement from the Australian and New Zealand College of Anesthetists and a survey of the hospital anesthetists. Scored and categorical data was analyzed using Chi-square test. Numerical data was analyzed using student t-test. The null hypothesis was accepted or rejected at 0.05 significance. Results: There were significant deficiencies in the adequacy of preanesthetic and intraoperative records. This has been shown to be true in all cases. Documentation was found to be poorer in the emergency setting when compared to elective cases (median scores 15 vs. 21 P = 0.03) as well as documentation of airway assessment for cases done solely under regional anesthesia (42 vs. 85%, P = 0.05). There were no significant differences in the adequacy of electronic vs. manual records (P = 0.92). Conclusion: There are significant deficiencies in the adequacy of perioperative records. This has been shown to be true in all cases, but is especially so in emergency cases and for patients having only regional anesthesia.


The 10th International Conference on Sustainable Energy and environmental Protection – SEEP 2017 was organised on June 27th – 30th 2017 in Bled, Slovenia, by Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Maribor, Slovenia, and University of the West of Scotland, School of Engineering and Computing. The aim of SEEP2017 is to bring together the researches within the field of sustainable energy and environmental protection from all over the world. The contributed papers are grouped in 18 sessions in order to provide access to readers out of 300 contributions prepared by authors from 52 countries. We thank the distinguished plenary and keynote speakers and chairs who have kindly consented to participate at this conference. We are also grateful to all the authors for their papers and to all committee members. We believe that scientific results and professional debates shall not only be an incentive for development, but also for making new friendships and possible future scientific development projects.


ABSTRACT Trauma is responsible for a large proportion of the world's burden of disease, and is by far the biggest killer of young adults. Hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death and its effects are directly correlated with the incidence multi-organ failure in survivors. Trauma research is challenging due to patient heterogeneity, limited randomized controlled trials, and in vitro studies that fail to mimic the systemic injury response. Preclinical research remains essential for mechanistic and therapeutic discovery. Yet modeling the multifaceted nature of traumatic injury poses important experimental and welfare challenges associated with the onset of injury and prehospital and intra-operative care, the limited inter-species validation of coagulation profiles, the use of anesthesia/analgesia, and its impact on the systemic response to trauma; and the challenge of sustaining intensive care in recovery models. Proper model selection depends on the purpose of a given model and the criteria by which the experimental readouts will be clinically relevant. Such complexity warrants further refinement of experimental methodology and outcome measures to improve its clinical efficacy, while ensuring animal well-being. We review the experimental methodologies currently used for modeling traumatic hemorrhagic shock and addressing their impact on clinical translation. The aim of the review is to improve transparency and form a consensus when reporting methodology in trauma modeling.


Hospice is a place of caring, a place where life is measured in quality, not quantity. During a terminally ill patient's final weeks, days or hours, it is important that hospice facilities provide comfort through any and every means possible. The physician administers pain relief, the building has the ability to administer a kind of relief the patient may not even cognitively perceive. Through the eyes of a terminally ill patient, the architect should consider the views, connections and relationships the patient has with their surroundings. Keeping the patients' experiences at the forefront of all design decisions, the architect can promote a sense of dignity within the patients that seems to be lost in most modern health care facilities.

This thesis proposes a 30-bed hospice to be built along the Skogafoss falls in Skogar, Iceland. The hospice design addresses the patients' connections to the physician, structure and natural surroundings through articulation of spaces based on these relationships. The placement of every element within the hospice, from the patients' bed to the physicians' offices, can have a drastic effect on the patients' experiences in many ways. Exploring layouts and forms not common in traditional health care design, the hospice at Skogafoss falls provides an experience unique to any hospice in the world. The spatial connections and materiality of the hospice allow the patients to determine their own relationships to the facility and the natural world beyond. Through simplicity and mindfulness, the hospice can be more than a place to die. Rather it is a place for one to spend their final hours with both comfort and dignity.


As a major challenge to humanity, sustainable development calls for safe, environmentally sound, and economically viable energy pathways. This is a global challenge, not only to energy policy change and defining operational terms of sustainability, but also to improving analytical tools and modelling frameworks. To this end, fundamental requirements of sustainable development are discussed from a conceptual and theoretical point of view. From an energy policy and modelling perspective, special reference is given to the issue of global climate change which constitutes a major challenge for energy policy and sustainable development. Efficiency, equity, ecological integrity, and technological change are introduced as fundamental aspects that need to be considered in a comprehensive sustainability framework. Since these issues cannot be suitably included within the frame of a single model, a combination of ecological, economic, technological and demographic models to analyse different aspects of global and national energy systems and sustainable development is proposed. In particular, the combination of energy-technology allocation models and general equilibrium models is suggested as appropriate framework to identify the major economic problems related to global climate change, to assess alternative policy instruments, and to simulate the consequences of their implementation.


In this work, novel electrostatic micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) sensor and sensors are introduced and demonstrated. First, a novel bifurcation-based MEMS ethanol vapor sensor is demonstrated. In contrast to traditional gas sensors that measure in analog mode (quantify) gas concentration, this sensor does not quantify the gas concentration. Rather, it detects its gas concentration in binary mode, reporting (1) for concentrations above a preset threshold and (0) for concentrations below the threshold. The sensing mechanism exploits the qualitative difference between the sensor state before and after the static pull-in bifurcation in electrostatic MEMS. The transition between these states is the bifurcation used in detection. A driving circuit with a resolution of 1 mV was used to drive the sensor at a point close to the pull-in limit to achieve maximum sensitivity. The sensor was able to detect concentrations as low as 5 ppm of ethanol vapor in dry nitrogen, equivalent to a detectable mass of 165 pg. Gas detection was verified electrically and optically through a detection circuit and a CCD camera, respectively. Second, a novel tunable MEMS magnetic field sensor is demonstrated in this work. It measures torsional vibrations excited via Lorentz force. The sensor sensitivity and dynamic range can be tuned by varying a bias voltage. Experimental demonstration shows that the sensor sensitivity can be changed from 0.436 (mm/s)/mT at 6 V bias to 0.87 (mm/s)/mT at 1 V bias. Unlike most commercial magnetic sensors, this magnetic sensor achieves a higher bandwidth (182 kHz) and a tunable sensitivity adjustable on-the-fly.


Improvisation is an important aspect of music, not only in jazz and other 'improvised music', but also of classical music. Pianists may add improvised interludes to their recitals and cadenzas to a concerto they perform. They may conclude their recitals by playing compositions composed on the spot, freely invented or on themes handed to them by the public. Violinists and other instrumentalists may do the same. Singers may add embellishments to their arias which are not notated in their scores, a practice widely spread in nineteenth-century opera. For the listener it may perhaps not make very much difference whether or not what he hears is improvised or composed, but for the performer it does, of course. In fact, the improviser shows that he is a real master of the art: he can do at once, without preparation, what others can do only with preparation. But there is also a genre of written compositions which is supposed to sound as improvisations, especially those entitled Improvisation, Fantasy, Impromptu, Prelude, and so forth.

Beyond Notes: Improvisation in Western Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries brings together twenty essays that do confirm the many sides of the concept of 'improvisation' and the wide range of approaches that can be taken to it. Because of the collective nature of this volume, the approaches do indeed vary greatly. Some contributions deal with improvisation from the conceptual point of view: what really is improvisation? Others deal with certain repertoires, or with specific examples. Some deal with improvised additions, others with improvisational aspects of written compositions. The contribution on the improvisations of the French organist Louis Vierne deals directly with recorded improvisations. The contribution on the flute-cadenza in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor encompasses recorded material, but this was rather semi-improvisational, prepared certainly, but not necessarily notated and not necessarily performed identically every time. Contemporary descriptions of improvisations are found in contributions on Italian music theorists and musicians in general, and in those on composers such as Hummel, Paganini, Beriot, Clara Wieck Schumann, Czerny, Liszt and Henselt. Compositions in improvisatory style are discussed in several of these contributions and in one on nineteenth-century Hungarian or so-called 'Gypsy' music. Ad libitum ornamentation is discussed in relation to Tartini's violin sonatas and nineteenth-century operatic arias. Other contributions discuss the instability that is a property of nearly all music or the migration of motives and schemes from one composition to another, processes that pave the way for improvised additions. Several contributions provide theoretical reflections on improvisation.

Beyond Notes: Improvisation in Western Music of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries contains contributions by Carmela Bongiovanni (Genoa), Philippe Borer (Boudry, Switzerland), Rogerio Budasz (Riverside, California), Vincenzo Caporaletti (Rome), Gregorio Carraro (Padoa), Simone Ciolfi (Rome), Damien Colas (Paris), Mariateresa Dellaborra (Pavia), Raffaele Di Mauro (Rome), Martin Edin (Stockholm), Valerie Woodring Goertzen (New Orleans), Martin Kaltenecker (Paris), John Lutterman (Walla Walla, Washington), Naomi Matsumoto (London), Laura Moeckli (Bern), Csilla Pethő-Vernet (Paris), Rudolf Rasch (Utrecht), Renato Ricco (Salerno), Rohan Stewart-MacDonald (Cambridge), and Steven Young (Bridgewater, Massachusetts).


From the Proceedings of the 2005 Meetings of the Hydrology Section - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science - April 9, 2005, University of Nevada, Las Vegas


A rarely discussed issue that bears upon the topic of education is that which takes seriously the relationship between medium and message; how is the content of what is taught shaped by the way in which it is taught? It is a question of especial pertinence today when in all areas of pedagogy we find people advocating the use in education not only of computers but on-line access and the wonders of the virtual world as well. The argument of this paper, via the writings of the recent Pontiffs (and more secular authors with a philosophical and political interest in the area), is that the use of computers and on-line technology is deleterious to all education, but especially to Catholic education. This is because, while the understanding of real presence and mediation are fundamental to the faith, the idea of insubstantiality and friction-free immediacy are of a piece with virtual technology. As a medium of dissemination the latter cannot help but invest the content of the former with its understanding of presence. The paper also touches upon the economic factors at play in the use of virtual technology as well as the utopian hopes this technology gives rise to, hopes that are fundamentally inhuman and therefore at odds with the Catholic faith. The paper argues its point using the trope of fairyland and the opposition between, on the one hand, enchantment, and on the other, glamour. This article is available in Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics: http://researchonline.nd.edu.au/ solidarity/vol5/iss1/2 The Cathedral of Being: Re-enchantment and the Writings of the Popes


Lina Steiner. For Humanity's Sake: The Bildungsroman in Russian Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011. x, 284 pp. Index. $65.00, cloth.In this original and wide-ranging intellectual history, Lina Steiner situates Herder's view of culture ("as a spiritual organism whose growth depends on dialogue with other cultures" [p. 35]) at the core of a tradition of personal and national character formation in Russia. This tradition is explored in two parts: the first isolates a stream in Russian critical theory which unites Apollon Grigor'ev's organic criticism with Iurii Lotman's semiosphere; the second outlines a history of the Russian bildungsroman from Aleksandr Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter to Lev Tolstoi's War and Peace and then to Fedor Dostoevskii's The Adolescent. The conception of cultural growth as an organic process embraced by these thinkers and artists, Steiner maintains, provides an alternative to the neat syntheses of dialectical models of progress by emphasizing "personal and national evolution [...] as a perpetual expansion of the horizon that forecloses on all attempts to bring about some kind of absolute, identifying closure" (p. 53).An engaging historical introduction goes a long way to open up the topic to the general reader, providing glosses on such phenomena as the Decembrists and the Westernizer / Slavophile controversy. With discussion of cultural figures as diverse as Petr Chaadaev, Mikhail Pogodin, Nikolai Π, and Sergei Uvarov, the author brings an immense breadth of knowledge to an absorbing portrait of Russia's volatile adolescence. This prepares us for the book's central contribution: the avenue of cultural exploration, elegantly drawn and substantiated, which extends from Herder to Grigor'ev to Lotman.The book's protagonist is Grigor'ev, whose theory of culture Steiner distinguishes by its "intrinsic heterogeneity, tolerance, and openness toward differences" (p. 33). Thus, unlike some of the adherents of his "pochvennichestvo" (native soil) movement, Grigor'ev-following Herder-"carefully avoided binary oppositions, keeping his cultural nationalism from turning into a militant theory of national exclusivity" (p. 37). In the theoretical section, Steiner provides an excellent discussion of the critic's emergence from his socio-cultural milieu and traces the trajectory of his view of culture to Lotman's organic "semiosphere" in which growth emerges from the meeting of "mutually opaque, untranslatable codes" (p. 46). By contextualizing Lotman in the Herder-Grigor'ev tradition, Steiner helps to distinguish his semiosphere from some of the contemporary mechanistic notions with which, as the author shows, it has often been conflated.One of Steiner's more daring conceits, implicit throughout, is that personal and national development in Russia can be approached as analogous processes-both subsumed within the concept of bildung. …


SCALA is an attractive programming language because it is both very expressive and statically strongly typed. This marriage against nature comes at the price of a certain complexity in the language constructs and the static analysis. This complexity makes type safety unclear. The goal of this thesis is to initiate a rigorous and formal process of validation of the SCALA type system. The correctness of a type system can only be established in relation to a formal description of a program execution. The first contribution of this thesis is the definition of a formal semantics for SCALA, by translation in a minimal class-based calculus. SCALA offers two means for expressing type abstraction: type parameters and type members, also called virtual types. Virtual types seem more primitive since they allow to encode type parameters whereas the existence of a reverse encoding is not clear. The soundness of virtual types has been the object of a long debate in the community; they are now commonly believed to be safe, but at this time, there exists no formal argument that would confirm this belief. The second contribution of this thesis is to provide a formal proof of type safety for virtual types.


This work proposes non-equilibrium headspace solid-phase microextraction (HSSPME) sampling under reduced pressure conditions for extracting at room temperature two of the most common earthy-musty odor compounds found in water samples (2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and geosmin). MIB and geosmin are semi-volatile compounds with Henry's law constants (KH) close to the threshold values for low KH compounds. Accordingly, non-equilibrium HSSPME sampling under reduced pressure conditions (referred to as vacuum-assisted HSSPME or Vac-HSSPME) increased the volatilization rates of target analytes and resulted in a room temperature HSSPME procedure, eliminating the need for heating the sample as seen in regular HSSPME. Several experimental parameters were studied and optimized (salt content, sample temperature, sample volume, agitation and extraction time). Analytically the method showed good linearity over the concentration range of 5–250 ng L−1 and the limits of detection were 2.5 and 1.7 ng L−1 for MIB and geosmin, respectively. The repeatability of the method expressed as the relative standard deviation was 4.3% for MIB and 8.0% for geosmin. The matrix was found not to affect the extraction. The proposed method was successfully applied to quantify trace amounts of MIB in real tap water samples. Overall, compared to regular HSSPME methods currently in use, Vac-HSSPME sampling eliminated the need for heating the sample and yielded high extraction efficiencies and very good sensitivities at room temperature and without sampling for a longer time.


A computerized procedure for assessing body image, called the Body Morph Assessment Version 2.0 (BMA 2.0), was developed to serve as reliable and valid measure of body image. The BMA 2.0 is an extention of an earlier prototype called the Body Morph Assessment (BMA; Stewart, Williamson, Smeets, & Greenway, 2000). Although flexible in its uses, the BMA 2.0 targets the measurement of body image in people ranging in body size from very thin to very obese. The BMA was evaluated in terms of its psychometric characteristics. A sample of 217 subjects, composed of four distinct groups classified by gender and ethnicity [(White females (n= 107), White males (n=38 ), Black females (n=57) and Black males (n= 15)], were recruited. The lower and upper limit of BMI for the sample was 17.78 and 56.68. Validity studies were conducted to assess the content, convergent and discriminant validity of the BMA 2.0. A study of convergent validity was conducted to assess the BMA 2.0's association with measures designed to assess body image. Measures that were utilized for this purpose were; Body Image Assessment-Obesity (BIA-O: Williamson, 1997), and the Body Satisfaction Scale (BSS; Slade, Dewey, Newton, Brodie & Keimle, 1990). A study of discriminant validity was conducted to assess the proposed measure's association with the restraint scale of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ; Stunkard & Messick, 1985). The BMA 2.0 was found to have good convergent and discriminant validity. Test-retest reliability was found to be adequate. The study also investigated the association between perceived BMI and BMA goals. The BMA 2.0 can be used for the prediction of success in the task of weight loss, and in treatment outcome studies for eating disorders and obesity.


The current winner-take-all or first-past-the-post system of voting promotes an inefficient market where votes are often wasted. In this system, representatives are selected from a single district in which the candidate with the plurality of votes gains victory. Candidates who appear non-generic can rarely, if ever, expect to receive the most votes in this system. This phenomenon is especially apparent when African-Americans and other minority groups seek elected office. In part because white voters constitute at least a plurality of voters in every state except Hawaii, minorities in the forty-nine other states have had historically little success in gaining election to the United States Senate. As a consequence, the only real opportunity for minorities to gain access to federal elected office remains limited to the United States House of Representatives. The flaws of the winner-take-all-system and single member district are readily apparent. First, significant blocs of voters are consistently denied the right to elect a truly preferred candidate, because such candidates can almost never expect to receive the most votes. Consequently, many potential candidates are deterred from running because the prospect for victory is so slim. As a result, large numbers of voters are often forced to select the candidate they believe has the greatest chance of winning, rather than their preferred candidate. In addition, many voters in a winner-take-all system are represented by persons they did not support. For instance, in 1994, while Democratic candidates for Iowa's five seats in the United States House of Representatives received 42% of the total votes cast in Iowa, none of Iowa's five congressional seats was won by a Democrat. Similarly, in 1992, Republican congressional candidates garnered 48% of the two-party statewide vote in North Carolina, but won only four of twelve seats. Thus, many losing votes may be considered wasted. Wasted votes may also include those cast for the victorious candidate: any vote cast in addition to the number needed for victory might as well have never been cast. Thus, in landslide races, where the prospect of wasting one's vote is high, the incentive to vote seems almost non-existent. Since over 75 percent of congressional races in any given election tend to be landslide races, many eligible voters do not vote. This Article considers an alternative system of voting: proportional representation, of which there are two basic forms,List System and Choice Voting/Single Transferable Vote. In the list system, a voter simply selects one party and its slate of candidates. Thereafter, the seats are allocated on the basis of the share of votes each party earned. For instance, in the Iowa congressional example discussed above, instead of receiving zero congressional seats with 42% of the statewide vote, the state Democratic Party would have earned two seats out of the available five. Often, with the list system, a minimum share of votes (such as 5%) is required for a party to earn representation. Alternatively, in a choice voting system, a voter simply ranks candidates in order of preference (first choice, second choice, etc.). Once a voter's first choice is elected or eliminated, the voter's excess votes are transferred to subsequent preferred candidates until all the seats are filled. In either arrangement, proportional representation would diminish wasted votes, provide greater opportunities for minority groups to gain access to legislative positions, and offer greater incentive for eligible voters to vote. Though proportional representation risks the election of fringe groups (such as hate groups), a minimum bar of 5% to 7% would likely neutralize that possibility. All told, proportional representation appears to be an intriguing alternative to our present winner-take-all voting system.


Voice over IP (VoIP) uses the existing data networks to support voice services. It has a broad appeal in that it is currently unregulated and calls can be placed free of cost to any part of the globe. The integration of voice traffic with data traffic opens up opportunities for new revenue stream for Internet Service Providers. However, in mixing data types the constraints on each data type must still be met and unlike regular data, voice networks are chiefly limited by end-to-end delay. In the case of packet switched networks delay becomes a determining factor in the quality of the voice call and therefore the success of VoIP. At the same time, WLANs are becoming widely adopted due to the simplicity in installation and convenience offered. Advancement in technology now enables WLANs to provide most of the facilities provided by their wired counterparts with the added benefit of mobility at a very low cost. The benefits of combining IP telephony and WLANs can be effectively utilized if the control over end-to-end delay can be achieved. In conventional IP telephony the voice packets travel across the wired Internet. We developed a study in which the final hop on each end of the communication channel is a wireless 802.11b network. Results show that with a wireless network at the transmitting end the delay characteristics change considerably.