Social and socioeconomic interactions and transactions often require trust. In digital spaces, the main approach to facilitating trust has effectively been to try to reduce or even remove the need for it through the implementation of reputation systems. These generate metrics based on digital data such as ratings and reviews submitted by users, interaction histories, and so on, that are intended to label individuals as more or less reliable or trustworthy in a particular interaction context. We undertake a disclosive archaeology (Introna, 2014) of typical reputation systems, identifying relevant figuration agencies including affordances and prohibitions, (cyborg) identities, (cyborg) practices and discourses, in order to examine their ethico-political agency. We suggest that conventional approaches to the design of such systems are rooted in a capitalist, competitive paradigm, relying on methodological individualism, and that the reputation technologies themselves thus embody and enact this paradigm within whatever space they operate. We question whether the politics, ethics and philosophy that contribute to this paradigm align with those of some of the contexts in which reputation systems are now being used, and suggest that alternative approaches to the establishment of trust and reputation in digital spaces need to be considered for alternative contexts.


Using redox enzymes as biocatalysts in fuel cells is an attractive strategy for sustainable energy production. Once hydrogenase for H2 oxidation and bilirubin oxidase (BOD) for O2 reduction have been wired on electrodes, the enzymatic fuel cell (EFC) thus built is expected to provide sufficient energy to power small electronic devices, while overcoming the issues associated with scarcity, price and inhibition of platinum based catalysts. Despite recent improvements, these biodevices suffer from moderate power output and low stability. In this work, we demonstrate how substrate diffusion and enzyme distribution in the bioelectrodes control EFC performance. A new EFC was built by immobilizing two thermostable enzymes in hierarchical carbon felt modified by carbon nanotubes. This device displayed very high power and stability, producing 15.8 mW h of energy after 17 h of continuous operation. Despite the large available electrode porosity, mass transfer was shown to limit the performance. To determine the optimal geometry of the EFC, a numerical model was established, based on a finite element method (FEM). This model allowed an optimal electrode thickness of less than 100 μm to be determined, with a porosity of 60%. Thanks to very efficient enzyme wiring and high enzyme loading, non-catalytic signals for both enzymes were detected and quantified, enabling the electroactive enzyme distribution in the porous electrode to be fully determined for the first time. High total turnover numbers, approaching 107 for BOD and 108 for hydrogenase, were found, as was an impressive massic activity of 1 A mg−1 with respect to the mass of the electroactive enzyme molecules. This strategy, relying on stable enzymes and mesoporous materials, and the model set up may constitute the basis for a larger panel of bioelectrodes and EFCs.


The objective of this work is threefold. We firstly present an optimization model for a price-taker hydrothermal generation company (Genco) to devise bidding strategies in multi-item iterative auctions of long-term contracts. The bidding model calculates a bidder's best-response function, which takes into account the key issues on the auctioned contracts, such as its time horizon, the risk factors that affect the future contract outcomes, interdependence between auctioned products, and the agents' risk profile. The risk profile of the Gencos are represented as piecewise linear utility functions and a practical specification approach is proposed. We finally present a simulator of a uniform-pricing and iterative multi-item contract auction, where the set of auction rules is implemented and the optimization model developed is used to determine the Gencos's best responses at each auction round. The simulator enables auctioneers and generators to estimate the auction's competitive equilibrium price and to study the auction dynamics. A real multiproduct descending clock auction is simulated for the Brazilian power system under the proposed bidding scheme.


"Still Life – The Pleasure of Stopping Time" surveys the manners in which photographers have explored and refreshed the great traditional genre from early in the twentieth century to innovative practices of today. Within photography, still lives have served as both conventional and experimental forms across many periods of significant aesthetic and technological change. By using straightforward as well as latent symbolism such as the motif of memento mori, or the impermanence of life, the camera came to be regarded as more than a straight recorder of objects. It came to express the ambiguous nature of the world and the individual's role in perceiving it. Considering the amount of control exerted over still life arrangements, photographers would create deeply personal compositions. Modernists, as well as pioneers of twentieth century photography, would experiment with elements of pure form, arrangement, and lighting in order to create an aesthetic emotional response within the artist and the viewer.

Olivier Richon's color work that has preoccupied him since the 1980s focuses on staged portraits of animals and still lives, subjects that recall the classical allegorical tradition yet confuse conventional meanings. Richon often references Old Masters through his highly adept understanding of perspective, composition, and chiaroscuro lighting while also employing elements such as draped material that recall traditional still life painting. Approaching from a painterly and occasionally surreal direction, Richon's photographs appear to imply highly specific meanings but resist simple interpretation.


The paper presents a case study of the design of emotionally durable ceramics, which is then applied in real commercial contexts. It illustrates how designers can be inspired by hand crafted unique objects, and how designers in turn can translate some of their qualities for use in mass-produced objects. Examples of existing commercial products are given, which the author feels stimulate an emotional connection to ceramics. Her own, personal experience of these objects is related, giving insight into how these products have inspired her work. The author explores, for example, what factors determine why a mug is someone's favorite, and what determines a meaningful experience with cups. Interviews and questionnaires are used to gather information about peoples' relationships with ceramic cups and mugs, and Donald Norman's (2005) levels of cognitive processing are then used to categorize and analyze the results. Suggestions are made as to whether one's response to products can stem from design, or happen regardless of it. The title of this paper was inspired by Jonathan Chapman's book, Emotionally Durable Design. This book provided a useful language to describe the contemporary relevance of this project, which was initiated by the ambition to design responsible, well made, tactile products which the user can get to know and assign value to in the long-term.


This report addresses how individuals from various racial and ethnic groups fare under the current Social Security system. It examines the relative importance of Social Security for these individuals and how several aspects ofthe system affect them. Executive Summary In recent articles, some commentators have criticized the Social Security system as being unfair to minorities. This criticism has generated discussions about how minority groups fare under the current Social Security system and how they might be affected as the system undergoes changes in the future.1 To understand the policy implications of any changes for these groups, it is important to understand the current system. This paper addresses how minorities fare under the current system and sets the stage for a later discussion on how various changes to the Social Security system may affect them. The Social Security program is raceneutral. That is, people in identical economic and family situations are treated identically. Rarely, however, are individuals in identical situations; minority2 groups, on average, have different earnings and life expectancies than whites, which affect the benefits that minorities receive under the Social Security system. They also have less retirement income from other sources, on average, than whites. This paper shows that: Social Security plays a larger role in retirement income for minorities than for whites because minorities have fewer other resources such as pensions and assets. Several aspects of the Social Security system work to the advantage of minority groups. For example, minorities who tend to have lower earnings (blacks and Hispanics) benefit from the progressive benefit formula, and those with shorter life expectancies (blacks) benefit from the disability and survivors benefits. Minorities will become a greater percentage of the U.S. population. Minorities are expected to increase from 25 percent of the population in 1990 to 47 percent in 2050, with most of that growth due to an increase in the Hispanic, Asian, and black populations. I. Social Security Plays a Large Role for Minorities Social Security is the nation's largest family protection program. Because Social Security spreads risk among almost the entire population and provides nearly universal coverage, relatively few older individuals are forced into situations where they are wholly dependent on family members for retirement income support. The importance of Social Security for minorities in retirement can be demonstrated in a couple of ways. First, minorities rely on Social Security for most of their retirement income because they lack other sources of income and have fewer income-producing assets than whites. Second, Social Security benefits are particularly important to blacks (aged 65 or older) who would have poverty rates as high as 60 percent without Social Security, while the poverty rate for whites would increase to near 50 percent.3 Minorities Rely on Social Security for More of Their Retirement Income While Social Security is expected to be only one part of a person's retirement income, many minorities rely on it for more of their income than do whites. As chart 1 shows for those aged 65 or older in 1996: About three-fourths of minority beneficiaries rely on Social Security for at least half their income, while only two-thirds of whites rely on it to the same extent. Almost half of the minority beneficiaries (45 percent of blacks and 44 percent of Hispanics) relied on Social Security for 90 percent or more oftheir income, compared with 29 percent of whites. A much higher percentage of minorities relied on Social Security for all of their income; 33 percent of blacks and 33 percent of Hispanics, compared with only 16 percent of whites. Fewer minorities have other income sources.-Minorities rely more heavily on Social Security due to a lack of other income in retirement. …


Seaweeds of the Southeastern United States offers a definitive manual for the identification of the seaweeds that inhabit the deep offshore waters as well as the near shoreline and shallow sounds from North Carolina to Florida. The volume provides a natural key to the class, order, family, and genera with detailed descriptions, 560 illustrations, and an artificial key listing simple characteristics for quick identification of the green, brown, and red benthic marine algae (or "bottom growers") that inhabit the region.

The southeastern Atlantic coast is home to 334 species of seaweed flora. The greatest diversity occurs along the North Carolina coast between Cape Lookout and Cape Fear. With the exception of a few additional species south of Cape Fear, there is not a marked change in the flora until the more tropical waters and seaweeds of southern Florida. The barrier island system of the region and the enclosed shallow water sounds extend the miles of shoreline available for study.

This book, the product of a twenty-year collaboration, is the first comprehensive guide to appear in over seventy years and includes the addition of nearly one hundred species to the region, including twenty-five described by the authors.


The aim of this paper is to find out flow pattern of air streaming past bluff bodies. From pressure profile it is possible to evaluate velocity profile. From pressure profile it has been measured pressure co efficient. To design tall building pressure coefficient is very much parameter. The instability of flow due to occurrence of point of inflection has verified. From literature review the result is verified. Kai Fan Liaw investigated in his thesis the flow pattern around bluff bodies and simulated the flow pattern of the bluff bodies like rectangular, cylindrical bodies. In this paper it has been represented the flow pattern around of bluff in a diffuser. Flow around rectangular square with x/H=1.5 the velocity ratio with varying y/H is matching with our result although in our experiment rectangular bluffs are 110 mm apart. Objective of this paper is to study the flow pattern between two bluffs which is essential to design of high rise tall tower and building. In this paper it has been presented pressure recovery in the diffuser with the presence of two bluff bodies.


We study synchronous values of games, especially synchronous games. It is known that a synchronous game has a perfect strategy if and only if it has a perfect synchronous strategy. However, we give examples of synchronous games, in particular graph colouring games, with synchronous value that is strictly smaller than their ordinary value. Thus, the optimal strategy for a synchronous game need not be synchronous. We derive a formula for the synchronous value of an XOR game as an optimization problem over a spectrahedron involving a matrix related to the cost matrix. We give an example of a game such that the synchronous value of repeated products of the game is strictly increasing. We show that the synchronous quantum bias of the XOR of two XOR games is not multiplicative. Finally, we derive geometric and algebraic conditions that a set of projections that yields the synchronous value of a game must satisfy.


We study the Cerenkov-type second-harmonic generation in several different two-dimensional nonlinear photonic structures formed in birefringent crystals with the 3 m symmetry. Depending on the degree of birefringence, we observe either single or double Cerenkov-like second-harmonic rings. We discuss the properties of these parametrically generated rings and show that their sixfold azimuthal modulation is associated with the hexagonal symmetry of the individual ferroelectric domains.


Aim from this watchfulness measuress performance ud. andalas banyuwangi with balanced scorecard. as to technical analysis that used in measures performance in ud. andalas banyuwangi by means of ukur balanced scorecard. Finance perspective analysis result memfokuskan in sales growth rate (income increase) and profit net margin show enhanced, so that inferential that more the increasing of on profit growth and more the increasing of profit level that got. customer analysis shows that company always give best service to consumer, while from result number of customer knowable that depreciation existence tingakt prosentase, where does this depreciation not influence income level because balanced
with order enhanced existence (order). analysis result business prespective knowable company success maximise potential that has and can depress jobless capacity level that can harm to company. based on study perspective result and growth knowable that during the time company management side always pay attention quality and productivity employees, also knowable that during the time company to can to defend employee that has spirit and tall discipline. Suggestion that can be submitted in this watchfulness that is supposed company can increase product quality and increase customer total. supposed company in do measurement on performance that achieved not only pass finance performance yardstick, but must look at yardstick non-keuangan also. Keyword: Performance And Balanced Scorecard


ABSTRACT. Caching of animal remains is common among carnivorous species of all sizes, yet the effects of caching on larger prey are unstudied. We conducted a summer field experiment designed to test the effects of simulated mountain lion (Puma concolor) caching on mass loss, relative temperature, and odor dissemination of 9 prey-like carcasses. We deployed all but one of the carcasses in pairs, with one of each pair exposed and the other shaded and shallowly buried (cached). Caching substantially reduced wastage during dry and hot (drought) but not wet and cool (monsoon) periods, and it also reduced temperature and discernable odor to some degree during both seasons. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that caching serves to both reduce competition from arthropods and microbes and reduce odds of detection by larger vertebrates such as bears (Ursus spp.), wolves (Canis lupus), or other lions.


Conservation or reduced tillage practices in cotton-based crop rotation systems were studied in field experiments initiated at Marana, Coolidge and Goodyear in 2001. Following barley cover and grain crops, soil and water management assessments were made during the 2002 cotton season at the three sites. Cover and grain crop residues and a lack of tillage prior to planting cotton or during the cotton season increased the infiltration of irrigation water into coarsetextured soils, slowed irrigation advance times, and increased the amount of irrigation water used at two of the three sites compared to conventional tillage treatments.


AbstractAlthough literacy has become a multi-faceted aspect of education essential to students' future success, studies have found that many secondary students lack basic literacy skills. In the past, much of the blame for adolescents' literacy problems has been placed on elementary teachers, but recent research suggests that secondary teachers must share in the responsibility for teaching literacy This paper explores the various characteristics and modalities of literacy and reviews current literature in the field including the Common Core State Standards initiative. Most importantly, this paper provides suggestions for integrating literacy learning in the general curriculum at the secondary level with particular attention to content area literacy and technology integration.Keywords: literacy, reading, technology, integration, curriculum, Common Core State StandardLiteracy has become an increasingly important research topic as the components of literacy have become increasingly complex. The term literacy no longer refers simply to the ability to read. Rather, literacy has taken on intricate characteristics with major consequences for the success of today's students (Carroll, 201 1). Multiple modes of literacy have been found to be essential for students' future endeavors (CCSSO, 201 0; Ritter, 2009) including fluency, the comprehension and analysis of complex texts, and effective social and electronic communication.Although much research exists on the topic of literacy, the wide scope of the field may confuse or intimidate teachers who serve areas that are not directly related to reading and language. The typical math or science teacher, for example, may lack the support and training necessary to fully implement the teaching of literacy. Additionally, because literacy research has tended to focus on the elementary levels, secondary teachers may struggle to find effective and efficient means of integrating literacy learning in the general curriculum. In this article, we will summarize information about the forms of literacy and its importance. Then we will provide suggestions for implementing literacy learning in secondary classrooms by focusing on content area literacy and technology integration as ways to meet the growing crisis in adolescent literacy.The Literacy GapMuch recent research has focused on early identification and intervention for students with learning disabilities in the elementary grades (Wexler, Vaughn, & Roberts, 2010). Early intervention strategies have been shown to assist students with learning disabilities in the areas of reading and literacy (Espin, Wallace, Lembke, Campbell, & Long, 201 0), but recent studies have shown that many students, especially those with learning disabilities, have remained below the threshold of basic literacy skills. Despite multiple initiatives to improve reading and literacy, the 201 1 Nation's Report Card for Reading reported no significant improvements in average reading scores from 2009 to 201 1 for grade 4 (IES, 201 1 ). The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (IES & NCES, 2007), moreover, reported that 64 percent of 4th grade students with disabilities in public schools scored below a Basic Level, a level that implies only partial proficiency, compared to only 31 percent of students without disabilities. These numbers are daunting, especially in the face of mandates such as those in No Child Left Behind(NCLB) that require all students to achieve basic mastery of subject content.Progress is expected to take time; unfortunately time is in short supply for students who will soon be required to critically engage in literacy both inside and outside of the classroom. Literacy is crucial even for younger adolescents, who seemingly have time to grow and improve. Concerted efforts are needed to ensure that adolescents receive a strong set of literacy skills on which to build throughout their educational careers. …


Can online trackers and network adversaries de-anonymize web browsing data readily available to them? We show---theoretically, via simulation, and through experiments on real user data---that de-identified web browsing histories can be linked to social media profiles using only publicly available data. Our approach is based on a simple observation: each person has a distinctive social network, and thus the set of links appearing in one's feed is unique. Assuming users visit links in their feed with higher probability than a random user, browsing histories contain tell-tale marks of identity. We formalize this intuition by specifying a model of web browsing behavior and then deriving the maximum likelihood estimate of a user's social profile. We evaluate this strategy on simulated browsing histories, and show that given a history with 30 links originating from Twitter, we can deduce the corresponding Twitter profile more than 50% of the time.To gauge the real-world effectiveness of this approach, we recruited nearly 400 people to donate their web browsing histories, and we were able to correctly identify more than 70% of them. We further show that several online trackers are embedded on sufficiently many websites to carry out this attack with high accuracy. Our theoretical contribution applies to any type of transactional data and is robust to noisy observations, generalizing a wide range of previous de-anonymization attacks. Finally, since our attack attempts to find the correct Twitter profile out of over 300 million candidates, it is---to our knowledge---the largest-scale demonstrated de-anonymization to date.


During the past century, fire management has focused on techniques both to protect human communities from catastrophic wildfire and to maintain fire-dependent ecological systems. However, despite a large and increasing allocation of resources and personnel to achieve these goals, fire management objectives at regional to global scales are not being met. Current fire management techniques are clearly inadequate for the challenges faced by fire managers, and technological innovations are needed. Advances in unmanned aerial systems (UAS) technology provide opportunities for innovation in fire management and science. In many countries, fire management organizations are beginning to explore the potential of UAS for monitoring fires. We have taken the next step and developed a prototype that can precisely ignite fires as part of wildfire suppression tactics or prescribed fires (fire intentionally ignited within predetermined conditions to reduce hazardous fuels, improve habitat, or mitigate for large wildfires). We discuss the potential for these technologies to benefit fire management activities, while acknowledging the sizeable sociopolitical barriers that prevent their immediate broad application.


Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze, with the aid of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), the chemical and structural changes in metal brackets subjected to an in vitro biodegradation process. Methods: The sample was divided into three groups according to brackets commercial brand names, i.e., Group A = Dyna-Lock, 3M/Unitek (AISI 303) and Group B = LG standard edgewise, American Orthodontics (AISI 316L). The specimens were simulated orthodontic appliances, which remained immersed in saline solution (0.05%) for a period of 60 days at 37°C under agitation. The changes resulting from exposure of the brackets to the saline solution were investigated by microscopic observation (SEM) and chemical composition analysis (EDX), performed before and after the immersion period (T0 and T5, respectively). Results: The results showed, at T5, the formation of products of corrosion on the surface of the brackets, especially in Group A. In addition, there were changes in the composition of the bracket alloy in both groups, whereas in group A there was a reduction in iron and chromium ions, and in Group B a reduction in chromium ions. Conclusions: The brackets in Group A were less resistant to in vitro biodegradation, which might be associated with the type of steel used by the manufacturer (AISI 303). Abstract


OBJECTIVE
To determine the rates and demographic determinants of work disability, hours worked per week, work-loss days, and wages in individuals with diabetes.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS
A probit regression analysis was performed on a cross-sectional population-based survey of U.S. noninstitutionalized civilian population (National Medical Expenditures Survey--2, 1987). The sample was restricted to individuals aged > or = 25 years. A total of 1,502 individuals reported having diabetes, and 20,405 did not. Information on workforce participation and income were collected quarterly. Work disability was defined as a self-report of having been unable to work because of illness or disability for > or = 2 quarters in 1987.

RESULTS
Work disability was reported by 25.6% of individuals with diabetes, compared with 7.8% of those without diabetes. Work disability rates were higher for older people, females, and African-Americans, and lower for Hispanics and for individuals with greater non-wage income. Individuals with diabetes engaged in the workforce had more work-loss days than did nondiabetic individuals, but had similar hourly wages. Predicted mean earnings were significantly lower for individuals with diabetes at all ages, resulting in $4.7 million loss in earnings in 1987 due to work disability.

CONCLUSIONS
Work disability is significantly higher for individuals with diabetes than for those without diabetes at all ages, and results in a significant decrease in earnings. A disproportionate burden of work disability is borne by older individuals and women with diabetes. Better information on the determinants of work disability in individuals with diabetes is needed.


The Thai Way of Counterinsurgency The goal of this study is to ascertain how Thailand wages counterinsurgency (COIN). Thailand has waged two successful COINs in the past and is currently waging a third on its southern border. The lessons learned from Thailand's COIN campaigns could result in modern irregular warfare techniques valuable not only to Thailand and neighboring countries with similar security problems, but also to countries like the United States and the United Kingdom that are currently reshaping their irregular warfare doctrines in response to the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The first set of COIN lessons comes from Thailand's successful 1965-85 communist COIN. The second set comes from Bangkok's understudied 1980s90s COIN against southern separatists. The third set comes from Thailand's current war against ethnic Malay separatists and radical Islamic insurgents attempting to secede and form a separate state called "Patani Raya," among other names. Counterinsurgency is a difficult type of warfare for four reasons: (1) it can take years to succeed; (2) the battle space is poorly defined; (3) insurgents are not easily identifiable; and (4) war typically takes place among a civilian population that the guerrillas depend on for auxiliary support. Successful COINs include not only precise force application operations based on quality intelligence, but also lasting social and economic programs, political empowerment of the disenfranchised, and government acceptance of previously ignored cultural realities. Background: In 1965, communist insurgents, backed by the People's Republic of China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), began waging an insurgency against Thailand in order to overthrow its government and install a Marxist regime. The Thai government struggled, both politically and militarily, to contain the movement for years, but eventually, it prevailed. Its success was based on a combination of effective strategy and coordination, plus well-designed and run security, political, and economic programs, the latter nowadays called the "three pillars of COIN," a phrase developed by David Kilcullen, a modern COIN theorist and practitioner. One of Bangkok's most successful initiatives was the CPM program (civil-military-police), which used a linked chain of local forces, police, and the military to not only provide security for villages, but also economic aid and administrative training to rural peoples. State political programs that undercut communist political programs backed by masterful diplomacy and a constant barrage of rural works helped erode the communist position. The 1980s-90s COIN against southern separatists followed similar lines. The far South's four border provinces, comprised of 80 percent ethnic Malay Muslims, had been in revolt on and off for decades since Bangkok annexed the area in 1902. Bangkok had waged haphazard COIN campaigns against rebel groups there for decades with mixed results. But after the successful communist COIN was up and running in 1980, Bangkok decided to apply similar ways and means to tackle the southern issue. The government divided its COIN operations into two components: a security component run by a task force called CPM-43, and a political-economic component run by the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Center, or SB-PAC. SB-PAC also had a Special Branch investigative capacity. Combined, the 80s-90s southern COIN strategy relied on extensive military intelligence networks to curb violence, civilian administrators to execute local political reforms, and local politicians to apply traditional Malay and Muslim problem solving techniques to keep the peace. These programs worked well against the multitude of southern insurgent groups that conducted sporadic attacks against government and civilian targets while also running organized criminal syndicates. By the end of the 1990s, with a dose of Thailand's famed diplomacy and help from Malaysia's Special Branch, Bangkok defeated the southern separatists. In January 2004, however, a new separatist movement in southern Thailand emerged – one based on ethnic Malay separatism and radical Islam. It is a wellcoordinated movement with effective operational expertise that attacks at a higher tempo than past southern rebel groups. It moreover strikes civilian targets on a regular basis, thereby making it a terrorist group. Overall, it dwarfs past southern movements regarding motivation and scale of violence. Thai officials think the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Coordinate, or BRN-C, leads the current rebellion, but there are several other groups that claim to also lead the fight. Members of the insurgency are nearly exclusively ethnic Malays and Muslims. The movement demonstrates radical Islamic tendencies thought its propaganda, indoctrination, recruitment, and deeds. It is a takfiri group that kills other Muslims who do not share its religious beliefs, so it wrote in its spiritual rebel guidebook, Fight for the Liberation of Patani. BRN-C seeks to separate the four southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat, and Songkhla from Thailand in order to establish an Islamic republic. The separatists base their revolt on perceived military, economic, cultural, and religious subjugation going back to the early 1900s. And they have a point. The central government has, at different times in the past, indeed treated southerners with tremendous disdain and sometimes violence – especially those considered insurgents. But Bangkok has also instituted scores of economic and social aid programs in the south – mosque building, college scholarships, and medical aid, for example – so it has not been a continual anti-Muslim "blood fest" as government detractors have painted it. Still the maltreatment, certainly many times less than yesteryear, has provided today's insurgents with ideological fodder for a steady stream of recruits and supporters. Combined with radical Islam, it has bonded the insurgents to a significant degree. Statistically, in the 2005-07-time frame, insurgents assassinated 1.09 people a day, detonated 18.8 bombs a month, and staged 12.8 arson attacks a month. In 2005, they conducted 43 raids and 45 ambushes. The militants target security forces, government civilians, and the local population. They have killed fellow Muslims and beheaded numerous Buddhist villagers. The insurgents' actions have crippled the South's education system, justice system, and commerce, and also have maligned Buddhist-Muslim relations. Overall, the separatists pose a direct threat to Thailand's south and an indirect threat to the rest of the country. Moreover, their radical Islamic overtones have potential regional and global terrorist implications. The Thai Government spent much of 2004 attempting to ascertain whether the high level of violence was, in fact, an insurgency. To begin with, the government, led by PM Thaksin Shinawatra, was puzzled by the fact that the separatists had not published a manifesto or approached Bangkok with a list of demands. By mid-2004, however, the insurgents had staged a failed, region-wide revolt, and their prolific leaflet and Internet propaganda campaign clearly demonstrated that a rebel movement was afoot. By fall 2005, the separatists had made political demands via the press, all of which centered on secession. By 2006, a coup against PM Thaksin succeeded and the military government that replaced him instituted a new COIN strategy for the south that by 2008 had reduced violence by about 40 percent. Some of the tenets of this new strategy were based on Thailand's past successful COIN strategies. Whether or not the government has concocted a winning strategy for the future, however, remains to be seen. This paper analyses these COIN campaigns through the COIN Pantheon, a conceptual model the author developed as an analytical tool. It is based on David Kilcullen's three pillars of COIN. The COIN Pantheon has as its base the concept of strategy, and then as the next edifice, coordination. Three pillars of security, politics, and economics rise from these to push against the insurgent edifice. The roof is the at-risk population. By researching the specifics of all these issues for the three COINs discussed here, the Thai way of COIN emerges. Then, by measuring these results against the tenets of COIN theorists David Galula, Sir Robert Thompson, and Kilcullen, the Thai Way of COIN is more clearly illuminated.


Strategic Management in the International Hospitality Industry: Content and Process, is a vital text for all those studying cutting edge theories and views on strategic management. Unlike others textbooks in this area, it goes further than merely contextualising strategic management for hospitality and tourism, and avoids using a prescriptive, or descriptive approach. It looks instead, at the latest in strategic thinking and theories, and provides critical and analytical discussion as to how and if these models and theories can be applied to the industry, within specific contexts such as culture, profit and non-profit organisations. This title features cutting edge approach: applies advance and recent strategic management views into tourism and hospitality field. It offers critical treatment: provides critical discussions about whether and how strategic models/theories can be applied into the hospitality and tourism field. It is sensitive to specific contexts: as the tourism and hospitality industry has become one of the largest industries worldwide, discusses how strategic management concepts can be applied in different cultures and profit and non-profit tourism organizations. With supporting case studies related to the strategy content, context and process, from international industries such as, Radisson, McDonalds, Carnival Cruiselines and Disney, this text consist of five main sections: introduction, strategy content, strategy context, strategy process and cases.


Smart home environment monitoring systems will incorporate more and more
multimedia information and technology, bringing a sense of visual reality into the
control room and providing more effective communication using a richer vocabulary
of media This is a prototype system where the top 80%, approximately, of the
window is associated with the console-based interface and the bottom 20% with the
command based interface
This Multimedia Interface (MUI) prototype is to convey as much possible
information in the main screen display as possible, without forcing the user to
burrow down through different layers of screens or menus Secondly to facilitate
user-initiated changes to the system with minimal mouse/keyboard action (console)
or keyboard (command-based) action on the user's part Lastly to facilitate rapid
learning on the user's part, and to couple the visual feedback of both systems so that command-based system changes are indicated on the console-based system and
vice-versa
The console-based interface is activated by clicking on the appropriate widget like
buttons in most cases, check boxes and radio buttons for a few systems The
prototype command-based interface includes an edit box at the extreme bottom of
the screen, where the user can type a command The user then clicks on the "Process
Command Line" button to execute the command Immediately above the edit box is
a list box (read only) in which the user's command is duplicated, and then followed
by the program's response
The results are based on analytical results, questionnaire analysis and console and
command based interface results From the results tell that the prototype interface is
very easy to use, and that no real major changes need to be made in order to increase
learn ability The analysis also showed that the open standards and security is a
priority of designing the multimedia interface of smart house.


The decision to grant bail is the first contact that a judge has with a defendant. If a defendant is unable to pay the set bail amount, this inability affects nearly every aspect of the defendant's case from beginning to end. Despite attempts to ensure insolvency does not solely determine pretrial detention, the current bail system, in many cases, ensures just that. Special interest groups, specifically the bail bond industry, oppose any reform efforts that aim to decrease the use of money in the administration of bail. Defendants unable to afford a bail bondsman can spend weeks, months, and sometimes years detained while awaiting their day in court. Law and public policy compels courts to secure bail only to the extent that it will guarantee a defendant's appearance in court. This Note argues that in order to accomplish this, two important changes must occur. First, commercial bail bonds should be eliminated in favor of a system in which cash bail is not the default method of securing pretrial release. Second, all states should establish pretrial services agencies that aid courts in making bail determinations.


Modern business discourse suggests that a key bulwark against market fluctuation and the threat of failure is for organizations to become 'agile', a more dynamic and proactive position than that previously afforded by mere 'flexibility'. The same idea is also directed at the personal level, it being argued that the 'agile' individual is better placed to secure employment and to maintain their economic worth within globalized, rapidly changing markets. Educational discourse, particularly relating to the tertiary sector, is also beginning to appropriate such concepts and in this paper the discourse is probed from the perspective of Foucault's notion of governmentality. The paper argues that agility can be seen to be aligned both with the neoliberal concept of the entrepreneurial self and also with the 'governance turn', whereby policy aims are achieved through the apparently autonomous actions of agents, but actions which are heavily steered by various control mechanisms. The paper suggests, however, that the 'agile' self is but one, albeit powerful, response to the current crisis of capitalism and that counter‐conduct is possible by focusing on alternative ethical and political stances.


The conflict between Christianity and Islam is a core issue for all varieties of European neo-nationalist and nativist right-wing ideological organisation, from populist and far-right parties to extra-parliamentary groups and individuals. As a mundane political-social critique, this defensive and nationalistic form of anti-Islamism focuses on the downsides of mass immigration from Northern Africa and the Middle East, stressing the incompatibility of gross gender inequality, sexual intolerance and religiously motivated Islamist terrorism as well as the theocratic sharia system of laws with the secular European model of society. Antisemitism makes an appearance in the guise of the old Nazi concept which portrays 'World Jewry' as a community of international financial exploiters, allegedly inspired in their misdeeds by their religion. However, this notion is being countered by a stronger, prosemitic ideology, portraying the state of Israel as an ally in the struggle against Islam(ism). As 'traditional' European religions, Christianity and the different historical and local varieties of paganism serve as important points of positive identification.


Liquid phase crystallized Si thin-film solar cells on nanoimprint textured glass substrates exhibiting two characteristic, but distinct different surface structures are presented. The impact of the substrate texture on light absorption, the structural Si material properties, and the resulting solar cell performance is analyzed. A pronounced periodic substrate texture with a vertical feature size of about 1 μm enables excellent light scattering and light trapping. However, it also gives rise to an enhanced Si crystal defect formation deteriorating the solar cell performance. In contrast, a random pattern with a low surface roughness of 45 nm allows for the growth of Si thin films being comparable to Si layers on planar reference substrates. Amorphous Si/crystalline Si heterojunction solar cells fabricated on the low-roughness texture exhibit a maximum open circuit voltage of 616 mV and internal quantum efficiency peak values exceeding 90%, resulting in an efficiency potential of 13.2%. This demonstrates that high quality crystalline Si thin films can be realized on nanoimprint patterned glass substrates by liquid phase crystallization inspiring the implementation of tailor-made nanophotonic light harvesting concepts into future liquid phase crystallized Si thin film solar cells on glass.


The extraordinary current craze around NFTs reflects their perceived value as a technological development that can bring greater certainty to questions of ownership and authenticity in fields like art and other collectibles. This is, among other things, the promise of crime prevention through technology, as ownership and authenticity are in the art world closely tied to criminal legal matters like theft, handling stolen goods and fraud. The crime prevention promise looks to fall flat though, as the technology seems to be less capable of delivering these benefits than has been assumed by its promoters. Much of the attraction of NFTs is therefore not actually based on effective crime prevention, but rather on hype. This paper explores the hype, and its relationship to the crime prevention promise of NFTs, through the lens of 'the social lives of things'. We argue that as well as social lives, things have criminal lives. Analysis sensitive to the criminal lives of things finds an NFT trading scene heated by emotion: excitement, attraction, temptation, speculative euphoria and acquisitive, possessive sentiment. This creates a sense of object agency more active than the cold traditional vision of material structure presented in standard criminological treatments of things-in-the-world as passive opportunity structures. The hyped NFT market trades in affecting objects that create crime in emotional as well as structural ways. We therefore arrive at a conclusion opposite to starting assumptions: far from preventing crime, NFTs are making it.


Loss of farmland, as farmers used new technology to produce more food on fewer acres. A sharp decline in the number of horses, which had been replaced by cars. By 1959, the government no longer bothered to count asses and mules used as draft animals, because tractors had largely replaced them. Most farm products were becoming more heavily concentrated in particular parts of the state best suited to raising them on a larger scale.


Background: Equal access to healthcare facilities, patient's satisfaction, and respect for the desire of the patient were recognized as the basic principles of each of the health care system. Each person must be given the opportunity to access health services in accordance with the requirements of their health. We aimed to prove the existence of disparities hospital utilization based on the category of urban-rural areas. Methods: The research used the 2013 Indonesian Basic Health Survey (RKD) as analysis material, that was designed a cross-sectional survey. With the multi-stage cluster random sampling method, 722,329 respondents were obtained. Data were analyzed using Multinomial Logistic Regression tests. Results: The results showed adults living in urban were likely to use hospital outpatient facilities 1.246 times higher than adults living in rural areas (OR 1.246; 95% CI 1.026 – 1.030). The likelihood of utilizing at the same time outpatient and inpatient facilities at 1.134 times higher in adults living in urban than those in rural areas (OR 1.134; 95% CI 1.025 – 1.255). While for the category of hospital inpatient utilization, there was no significant difference. Conclusion: There was a disparity in hospital utilization between urban-rural areas. Urban show better utilization than rural areas in outpatient and at the same time the use of inpatient care.


Hybrid organo-metal halide perovskites are an exciting new class of solar absorber materials and have exhibited a rapid increase in solar cell efficiencies throughout the past two years to over 17% in both meso-structured and thin-film device architectures. We observe slow transient effects causing hysteresis in the current–voltage characterization of these devices that can lead to an over- or underestimation of the solar cell device efficiency. We find that the current–voltage (IV) measurement scan direction, measurement delay time, and light and voltage bias conditions prior to measurement can all have a significant impact upon the shape of the measured IV light curves and the apparent device efficiency. We observe that hysteresis-free light IV curves can be obtained at both extremely fast and slow voltage scan rates but only in the latter case are quasi-steady-state conditions achieved for a valid power conversion efficiency measurement. Hysteretic effects are also observed in devices utilizing alternative selective contacts but differ in magnitude and time scale, suggesting that the contact interfaces have a big effect on transients in perovskite-absorber devices. The transient processes giving rise to hysteresis are consistent with a polarization response of the perovskite absorber that results in changes in the photocurrent extraction efficiency of the device. The strong dependence of the hysteresis on light and voltage biasing conditions in thin film devices for a period of time prior to the measurement suggests that photo-induced ion migration may additionally play an important role in device hysteresis. Based on these observations, we provide recommendations for correct measurement and reporting of IV curves for perovskite solar cell devices.


In its examination of bilateral Canada-European Community (EC) relations since 1957, this dissertation tests two hypotheses: that the Canadian foreign policy process is predominantly state-led; and that given Canada's relative power capability in the immediate post-Cold War period (1989-1993), it faced considerable constraints in not only its broader foreign policy choices but specifically with regard to the EC "pillar" of its European foreign policy framework. This study's overview of the history of bilateral Canada-EC relations, its analysis of the Canadian government's interests in the negotiations leading to the 1990 EC-Canada Transatlantic Declaration and the Canadian response to the Single European Market, highlight a watershed - starting in 1989 and lasting four years - in Canada's post-Second W orld War intemational relations. It was during this period that Ottawa was forced to make a fundamental reassessment not only of the value of its traditional Atlanticist foreign policy orientation but also the relative value of the three "pillars" (NATO, CSCE, and the EC) that upheld this approach. The dissertation concludes by outlining the choices available to Canadian decision makers at the end of 1993, as they sought to use Canada's bilateral relationship with the Community to reconfigure transatlantic economic, political and security relations.


This paper has the purpose to analyze the territorial changes produced in Chile since the middle 70's as a consequence of the implementation of a radical new macroeconomic strategy of economic liberalization. The latter, drastically modified the basic criteria that had guided previously urban and territorial policies. The analysis of the impacts of this policies on the national territorial structure -and, in particular, on its main metropolitan area- are studied considering the two phases of the emerging process of restructuring and globalization. This study concludes that while in the first phase it took place a certain territorial deployment of the productive activities and the population, in the second phase, the secular tendencies to territorial concentration were reestablished and intensified, in the context of a strongly polarized national configuration. For this last phase, the available empiric evidence about the locational territorial preferences of most the new secondary and tertiary activities, shows a proclivity to concentration in the main metropolitan region. This, this new stage of polarization, presents as one of its most relevant features, the steady growth of the urban sprawl around Santiago, marked by an uncontrolled process of suburbanization.


Comets are the best sample of primitive solar nebula material presently available to us, dating back 4.57 billion years to the origin of our planetary system. Past missions to comets have all been "fast flybys": They provided only a snapshot view of the dust and ice nucleus, the nebulous coma surrounding it, and how the solar wind interacts with both of these components. Such space-based investigations of comets began in the 1980s with a flotilla of spacecraft: the European Space Agency's (ESA's) first deep space mission, Giotto, which pursued comet 1P/Halley; Deep Space 1 at 19P/Borrelly; Stardust at 81P/Wild 2; Deep Impact and Stardust NeXT at 9P/Tempel; and EPOXI at 103P/Hartley 2.

![Figure][1]

PHOTO: ESA/ROSETTA/PHILAE/CIVA

Rosetta is now taking a more prolonged look. The spacecraft is an ESA mission, with contributions from member states and from NASA, and it currently orbits the Jupiter family comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (67P). Rosetta met the comet nucleus on 6 August 2014, at 3.7 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, and delivered the Philae lander to the nucleus surface on 12 November 2014, when the comet was 3.0 AU from the Sun.

Rosetta is uniquely positioned to further the understanding of these primitive bodies, having revealed an unusual and fascinating object. After rendezvous, the Rosetta spacecraft moved from 100 km above the comet to a bound orbit only ~10 km away. This early period of the mission has revealed previously unseen details of a comet nucleus, as Rosetta's instruments recorded measurements that were once impossible. This issue of Science contains the first published scientific results from Rosetta at comet 67P.

The surface of the comet shows evidence of many active processes and is highly complex. The solid nucleus is an object for which neither horizontal nor vertical variations are modest (Thomas et al. , this issue). The current comet shape model suggests that the mass is 1013 kg (about 100 million times the mass of the international space station), with a bulk density of ~470 kg/m3 (similar to cork, wood, or aerogel). The low mass and density values strongly constrain the composition and internal structure of the nucleus, implying a relatively fluffy nature, with a porosity of 70 to 80% (Sierks et al. , this issue). The nucleus surface itself appears rich in organic materials, with little sign of water ice (Capaccioni et al. , this issue).

The coma produced by ices sublimating from the nucleus is highly variable, displaying large diurnal and possibly seasonal changes. For example, both atomic H and O have been detected close to the nucleus and vary with time, probably stemming from electron impact dissociation of venting H2O vapor. The total H2O gas production rates varied from 1 × 1025 molecules per second in early June 2014 to 4 × 1025 molecules per second in early August, broadly consistent with predictions. In August, water outflow from the surface varied by a factor of at least 5, owing to the effects of terrain, comet shape, and daily illumination changes and possibly other factors (Gulkis et al. , this issue). The science team reports the detection of several molecules, including H2 17O, H2 18O, CO, and CO2, and assessed their time variability and heterogeneous distribution (Hassig et al. , this issue). A high D/H ratio in water, 5.3 × 10−4, was measured, which precludes the idea that Jupiter family comets contain solely Earth ocean–like water (Altwegg et al. , this issue). As observed at 3.6 AU from the Sun, a cloud of about 105 grains (larger than 5 cm) surrounds the nucleus in bound orbits, likely from the previous perihelion passage. The nucleus currently emits dust grains up to 2 cm in size, giving a dust/gas mass ratio of 4 ± 2 averaged over the sunlit nucleus surface (Rotundi et al. , this issue). This is higher than generally accepted for comets. In a progressive series of observations, Rosetta observed the emergence of an energetic ion environment from a low-activity comet nucleus under the influence of the solar wind (Nilsson et al. , this issue).

The data presented here allow us to build a detailed portrait of comet 67P. These initial observations provide a reference description of the global shape, the surface morphology and composition, and the bulk physical properties of the nucleus. Subsequent measurements with the orbiter and with the Philae lander will further describe the comet over time. Rosetta will follow the comet at close range through its closest approach to the Sun, perihelion, in August 2015, and then as the comet moves away from the Sun. The spacecraft will perform many flybys that will allow the onboard instruments to measure the evolution of the nucleus and coma with respect to the comet's initial state, defined by the data presented here.

The Rosetta mission has begun to explore our origins, thanks to the efforts of thousands of people at ESA, NASA, industrial partners, and space agencies and to engineers and scientists from around the world. For more than 25 years, they dreamed of these moments when they designed, developed, and launched the Rosetta spacecraft and then followed its interplanetary journey, watched over its long sleep, and woke it from hibernation. These first papers are dedicated to all of them.

 [1]: pending:yes


Grounded by Arthur Chickering's Student Development Theory, this banded dissertation uses an ecological framework to examine trends in higher education and the importance of intercultural development, trauma-informed care, and contemplative pedagogy to promote a holistic approach to higher education. While exploring student development, the goal was to develop a conceptual framework that utilizes contemplative practice to foster intercultural development and attend to students' personal experiences with trauma by using contemplative practices. The first article, Social Work Education and Trauma-Informed Contemplative Pedagogy, bridges the literature on trauma-informed care and contemplative practices and introduces trauma-informed contemplative pedagogy as a model for social work education. Noted to improve self-awareness, mediate practice and content related stress, and have positive implications for metacognitive and critical thinking skills, contemplative practices are particularly relevant in social work education. As students prepare to work in an increasingly global context, the necessity of intercultural competence is more urgent than ever. This is a call to action for faculty in preprofessional programs like social work where intercultural development and competence is essential to effective and ethical practice. The second article, Intercultural Development and Social Work Education in a Liberal Arts Context, examined pre and post test results for an intercultural development inventory among students enrolled in an undergraduate social work program. Finally, the presentation Cultivating a Trauma-Informed Contemplative Pedagogy, highlighted the importance of disciplinary focus, institutional context, and student iii demographics. This presentation invited a multidisciplinary audience to consider the ways in which educators can integrate contemplative practices to create trauma-informed teaching environments that attend to the ways in which students' personal histories intersect with course content. Trauma-Informed Contemplative Pedagogy was presented as a method of teaching relevant to a range of disciplines. Social work has a long tradition of drawing on ecological theory and knowledge from many fields of study in building the unique person-in-environment perspective. Grounded by well developed theories of practice and emerging research on contemplative practices, intercultural development and trauma-informed care, social worker educators are keenly positioned to be leaders in twenty-first century liberal education. iv Dedication/Acknowledgements With gratitude to my advisor, Dr. David Roseborough, for your consistent feedback, constructive criticism, and enthusiasm for my work. Your steady and compassionate presence made all the difference. To my children, Margaret, Andrew, and Nathan for their willingness to sacrifice some of our time together for this individual pursuit. May you always know that we will support you in achieving your goals while remaining united through the strong bonds of family. To my husband, Mark, for your consistent love throughout the process. May the next 20 years of marriage have a little slower pace than the first 20.


The Principles and Practice of International Commercial Arbitration provides the reader with immediate access to understanding the world of international arbitration. Arbitration has become the dispute resolution method of choice in international transactions. This book explains how and why arbitration works. It provides the legal and regulatory framework for international arbitration, as well as practical strategies to follow and pitfalls to avoid. It is short and readable, but comprehensive in its coverage of the basic requirements, including the most recent changes in arbitration laws, rules, and guidelines. The second edition includes updates on rules and guidelines, such as the arbitration rules of the ICC, the SCC, the ACICA, and UNCITRAL, as well as the 2010 IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration. In this book, the author includes insights from numerous international arbitrators and counsel, who tell firsthand about their own experiences with arbitration and their views of the best arbitration practices. Throughout the book, the principles of arbitration are supported and explained by the practice, providing a concrete approach to an important means of resolving disputes.


Background and Objective Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by abnormalities in social interaction and communication skills, in addition to stereotypic behaviors and restricted activities and interests. Autism prevalence has dramatically increased from 1 case per 5000 children in the early 1980's to1 case per 68 children as of 2015. A recent pilot study on the demographic distribution of children with autism in Qatar showed a preliminary ratio of 1 child with autism per 500 school children. Currently, It is widely accepted that abnormalities in serotonin (5-HT) neurotransmission is one of the most important reasons for ASD. Consequently, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) have been utilized to target various symptoms of the disorders by their ability to increase 5-HT in synaptic clefts. Unfortunately, it was observed that there is a delay in the therapeutic effect of about 4–6 weeks that may be attributed to the time needed for 5-HT autoreceptor (5-HT1B/1D) desensitization. This delay adversely affects child compliance. Accordingly co-administration of SSRIs with 5-HT1B/1D antagonists would increase serotonin levels in the brain. It was then proposed that a "hybrid" drug that can act on both receptors would have the advantage of low cost and better compliance. In the presented study, we report the design of a dual pharmacophore model for binding with serotonin transporter and 5-HT1B/1D receptors, followed by the microwave-assisted synthesis of structurally diverse N-aryl and heteroarylpiperazines as dual antagonists at reuptake transporter and 5-HT autoreceptors. Method Molecular Modeling All compounds with IC50 value < 10 nm against serotonin transporter were retrieved from ChEMBLdb database (Version 20, 1,463,270 molecules) and filtered using Lipinski's rule of five, which led to 367 inhibitors. The retrieved compounds were then clustered into 15 cohorts using FCFP_6 fingerprints implemented in Accelrys Discovery Studio software. The most active compound of each cohort was picked and used to build the pharmacophore model using Common Feature Pharmacophore Generation module of Discovery Studio. The pharmacophore hypotheses were evaluated, ranked and validated using a set of mixed actives and decoys. Chemistry and Biology The first reaction of the scheme was a modified Buchwald-Hartwig amination, in which different aryl and heteroaryl bromo-derivatives were coupled with 1-Boc-piperazine utilizing microwave energy. Deprotection was then performed to remove the Boc group from the synthesized compounds and liberate the free amine that was coupled with the activated acid that mimics the SSRI Fluoxetine. The Synthesized compounds obey Lipinski rule of five and pharmacophoric features were mapped using molecular modeling studies. Results The proposed compounds were successfully synthesized and purified using flash chromatography. The chemical structures were confirmed with mass spectrometry and NMR. The binding affinity was then tested at 5-HT1B/1D receptors and 5-HT reuptake transporter. Some of the compounds showed promising activity and further in-vivo assay will be performed. Conclusion A molecular modeling study was successfully performed to generate a hypothetical pharmacophore model. A microwave-assisted synthetic scheme was accomplished and all final compounds were purified. Chemical structures were confirmed using different spectroscopic techniques. Biological in-vitro testing was conducted and all relevant data will be presented.


This article examines the 2004 French law restricting ostentatious religious symbols in the public schools. It explores the law and its impact from a critical race feminist perspective, i.e. centering the discussion based upon the views of Muslim women and girls whose ability to wear religious headscarves was affected. Very few of them were heard in the public debate. Research for the article included searches of French websites and blogs. Part I gives a brief history on the Muslim headscarf in France. Part II emphasizes the diverse views of Muslim girls and women, some of whom support the ban on headscarves and some of whom do not. These females continue to face discrimination based upon their gender, religion, nationality, language, class, and other identities. Part III concludes with some suggestions for considering the headscarf issue in the future. First, France and other nations might consider legal approaches adopted by international and national courts and jurisdictions. Some countries support the notion of separation of church and state as France does, but have permitted wearing of religious items in public schools. Next, banning the headscarf may constitute a form of spirit injury that might negatively affect not only the Muslim females who want to wear it, but also the rest of Muslim society, and indirectly, all of France. The ban may thus constitute a psychic human rights violation even if it is not deemed illegal under French or European law. If the ban is not lifted in the near future, the French government may have to think of other ways to express support for the Muslim minority. Finally, Muslim females need to increase their level of educational, economic, political, and legal empowerment so that they can directly participate in decisions of this kind, and in all aspects of life in France.


Collisions at rail level crossings (RLXs) represent a major challenge for both road safety and rail safety professionals. RLX collisions are typically high-severity and high-cost, often involving multiple injuries and/or fatalities as well as major disruptions to the transportation network. Most research examining road users' behaviour at RLXs has focused exclusively on drivers and consequently there is little existing knowledge on how other road users make decisions at RLXs. We designed a longitudinal survey to prospectively record interactions at RLXs over a two-week period. The sample included 166 adults residing in metropolitan Melbourne (80%) and regional Victoria (20%), with a mix of car drivers, motorcyclists, bicyclists and pedestrians. Respondents completed the survey daily and provided a detailed account of any encounters with trains and/or activated RLX warnings, with the survey prompts based on a cognitive task analysis methodology. The results reveal that both experiences and behaviour at RLXs differ substantially across different road users. Visual information (e.g., flashing lights) emerged as one of the most influential factors for car drivers and motorcyclists, whereas pedestrians and to a lesser extent cyclists relied more on auditory information (e.g., bells) to alert them to the presence of a train. Pedestrians were also more likely than other road users to speed up and cross the tracks ahead of an approaching train. Overall these results emphasise the importance of designing road systems to support cognition and behaviour across a range of road users, in order to ensure a safe system for all


This paper records an incidence of 10.4% of aneurysm of the splenic artery in 250 consecutive routine post-mortem examinations. Medial degeneration seemed to be the commonest cause ofsuch aneurysms and although a number were associated with other intraabdominal pathology, including portal hypertension, the association may be fortuitous and not causal. Aneurysm of the splenic artery was first reported by Beaussier (1770). This and case


We solve the coupled mode equations governing the chalcogenide nonlinear fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) numerically, and obtain the bistability characteristics. The characteristics of the chalcogenide nonlinear FBGs such as: switching threshold intensity, bistability interval and on-off switching ratio are studied. The effects of FBG length and its third order nonlinear refractive index on FBG characteristics are investigated. We obtain an interesting result that independent of the third order nonlinear refractive index; there exists an optimum FBG length of about 6 mm at which the on-off switching ratio becomes maximized. It is also found that by increasing the nonlinearity, the maximum value of on-off switching ratio decreases. The results of this paper can be mainly used for designing alloptical switches and memories.


For a few brief years in the late 1970s and early 1980s Mozambique was a key site on the global map of revolutionary cinema. Immediately after independence in 1975 the Instituto Nacional de Cinema was set up by the revolutionary government and it quickly because a focal point for militant filmmakers internationally. It was a site where various experiments were carried out into how film might act as an agent of radical social change. Cinema was to be part of an international cultural front against capitalist imperialism, but it was also harnessed to a local project of decolonization – to teach people the meaning of 'independence' and to build a different kind of specifically Mozambican revolutionary modernity. The vast majority of people swept up in this radical process had no prior experience of the moving image. It was, therefore a unique and unrepeatable moment when cinema was at the centre of a movement that would, in Amilcar Cabral's words, make 'Africa the vanguard of the world'. What survives of the archive re-animates the moment when Mozambique was at the heart of revolutionary hope. It gives evidence of a different kind of globalization, one woven out of connections and hopes lived and dreamed through cinema.


Most computer users think that fiddling with the insides of their PC is taboo. They fear that by removing the screws that hold the case on, they're crossing into forbidden territory. And even for those who know they can open the box and fix or upgrade their PC, analysis paralysis often stops them in their tracks: Which upgrades offer the best bang for the buck? How do you pinpoint the faulty component that's making your system freeze? What about compatibility issues?Get ready to get unstuck and get your PC running fast and running right. Repairing and Upgrading Your PC delivers start-to-finish instructions, simple enough for even the most inexperienced PC owner, for troubleshooting, repairing, and upgrading your computer. Written by hardware experts Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson, this book covers it all: how to troubleshoot a troublesome PC, how to identify which components make sense for an upgrade, and how to tear it all down and put it back together. This book shows how to repair and upgrade all of your PC's essential components:Motherboard, CPU, and Memory. Choose the optimal match of these core components to keep your PC running at top speedHard Drive, Optical Drive, and Removable StorageGive your computer what it needs for long-term and short-term storageAudio and Video. Enhance your computing experience with the right sound and graphics devices for your needsInput Devices. Pick the best keyboard and mouse to keep your hands happy and healthyNetworking. Set up secure wireless networking to keep the bits flowing between your computers and the outside worldCases and Power Supplies. Keep everything running cool and reliablyWith its straightforward language, clear instructions, and extensive illustrations, this book makes it a breeze for PC owners of any skill level to work on their computer.


This article reviews and evaluates recent research on parliamentary recruitment in Western Europe. It illuminates the particular difficulties of doing comparative legislative research in Europe and summarizes several important studies and their methodologies. Next, it presents a country-by-country overview of comparative and case studies on legislative recruitment. Included are the Mediterranean countries (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece), France, the United Kingdom and Ireland, the Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Belgium and the Netherlands, the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), and the European Parliament. Additionally, studies on gender effects in legislative recruitment are reviewed. A final section evaluates several major substantive and methodological issues. These include the strengths and shortcomings of European recruitment research; the types of data collected and research questions answered; the common research methods and their limits; the theoretical frameworks applied; and the neglect of normative research.


Abstract. The response of the Earth system to greenhouse-gas-driven warming is of
critical importance for the future trajectory of our planetary environment.
Hyperthermal events – past climate transients with global-scale warming
significantly above background climate variability – can provide insights
into the nature and magnitude of these responses. The largest hyperthermal of
the Cenozoic was the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM ∼ 56 Ma).
Here we present new high-resolution bulk sediment stable isotope and major
element data for the classic PETM section at Zumaia, Spain. With these data we
provide a new detailed stratigraphic correlation to other key deep-ocean and
terrestrial PETM reference sections. With this new correlation and age model
we are able to demonstrate that detrital sediment accumulation rates within
the Zumaia continental margin section increased more than 4-fold during
the PETM, representing a radical change in regional hydrology that drove
dramatic increases in terrestrial-to-marine sediment flux. Most remarkable is
that detrital accumulation rates remain high throughout the body of the PETM,
and even reach peak values during the recovery phase of the characteristic
PETM carbon isotope excursion (CIE). Using a series of Earth system model
inversions, driven by the new Zumaia carbon isotope record, we demonstrate
that the silicate weathering feedback alone is insufficient to recover the
PETM CIE, and that active organic carbon burial is required to match the
observed dynamics of the CIE. Further, we demonstrate that the period of maximum organic
carbon sequestration coincides with the peak in detrital accumulation rates
observed at Zumaia. Based on these results, we hypothesise that orbital-scale
variations in subtropical hydro-climates, and their subsequent impact on
sediment dynamics, may contribute to the rapid climate and CIE recovery from
peak-PETM conditions.


Tobacco use in Ukraine is a major public health problem that imposes a substantial health and economic burden on the country. On December 17, 2017, the government passed a seven-year plan (2018-2024) laying out annual increases in the price of cigarettes. This seven-year plan is significant as, for the first time in the history of tobacco excise taxes in Ukraine, annual increases in the specific tax rate imposed on cigarettes are mandatory for many years into the future.

Given Ukraine's success, a case study was conducted to explore the process and determinants that led to the passage of the seven-year plan, with a specific focus on the tactics and arguments used by proponents and opponents. Data were gathered between February and June 2019 from two sources: key informant interviews document review.

Results showed that this achievement was attained through an effective advocacy campaign grounded in scientific evidence and an in-depth understanding of the political economy of the country. Lessons from this case can be used by tobacco tax proponents in other countries interested in pursuing similar policy change.


This study examined whether bilinguals activate phonological representations from their first language when reading in their second language. Specifically, the effect of interlingual homophones in Vietnamese-English bilinguals with unequal proficiencies in their respective languages was examined. Participants were completely fluent in English (could speak, read, and write it) with limited abilities in Vietnamese (could speak it, but not read or write it). Therefore, for each interlingual homophone, these unbalanced bilinguals were expected to have a phonological representation for both languages but an orthographic representation for English alone. Consequences of this relationship were examined in a lexical decision task. The critical stimuli were Vietnamese-English interlingual homophones and their matched English control words. Decision latencies and error data for the critical stimuli were recorded and analyzed. A facilitative interlingual homophone effect was predicted but only a small inhibitory effect was found in the error data. These results indicate that the lack of a second orthographic representation may reduce the inhibitory homophone effect compared to that seen in English monolinguals and that a facilitative homophone effect may only be found when there are many homophone mates. The results also indicate that weaker (Vietnamese) representations may have little influence on dominant language (English) processing.


We studied the efficacy of WR279396, a topical formulation of aminoglycosides that cures 100% of cutaneous leishmaniasis lesions in mice. We conducted what is to our knowledge the first controlled study of WR279396 therapy for clinical cutaneous leishmaniasis. A total of 45 Colombian soldiers, all men, were randomly assigned to treatment with WR279396 (33 patients) or placebo (12 patients). Each lesion was treated twice daily for 20 days. Lesions were measured at the end of therapy and at 45, 90, and 180 days after treatment began. A total of 17 (61%) of 28 assessable WR279396-treated patients were cured, and 5 (55%) of 9 assessable placebo-treated patients were cured (P = 0.9). For the 36 lesions treated with WR279396 that were cured, cure took a mean of 35 days, whereas for the 6 lesions that were cured in the group of patients receiving placebo, cure time took a mean of 56 days (P = 0.04). WR279396 is a nontoxic topical formulation that significantly accelerated cure time in patients with Leishmania panamensis cutaneous leishmaniasis.


Global Software Development (GSD) is gradually becoming the standard practice in the software industry. The core reasons for popularity of this approach are the substantial reduction in cost and development time, access to specialized skilled manpower across the globe, strategic flexibility and availability of support to perform 24/7 operations. Despite several benefits of GSD, there is still room for further improvements as it faces many challenges. One of the main challenges in distributed development is to establish effective communication and coordination mechanisms among the distributed teams to exploit their full potential. In this paper we have made an attempt to identify several communication issues that usually cause serious problems for developers, customers and testers of the GSD projects. We also suggest some measures to overcome these challenges.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the long-term effects of ovulation-stimulating drugs on the risk of ovarian cancer.

METHODS
A retrospective cohort study of 12,193 eligible study subjects (median age 30 years) who were evaluated for infertility during the period of 1965-1988 at 5 clinical sites identified 45 subsequent ovarian cancers in follow-up through 1999. Standardized incidence ratios compared the risk of cancer among the infertile patients to the general population, whereas analyses within the cohort allowed the derivation of rate ratios for drug usage compared with no usage after adjustment for other ovarian cancer predictors.

RESULTS
The infertility patients had a significantly elevated ovarian cancer risk compared with the general population (standardized incidence ratio 1.98, 95% confidence intervals [CI] 1.4, 2.6). When patient characteristics were taken into account and risks assessed within the infertile women, the rate ratios associated with ever usage were 0.82 (95% CI 0.4, 1.5) for clomiphene and 1.09 (95% CI 0.4, 2.8) for gonadotropins. There were higher, albeit nonsignificant, risks with follow-up time, with the rate ratios after 15 or more years being 1.48 (95% CI 0.7, 3.2) for exposure to clomiphene (5 exposed cancer patients) and 2.46 (95% CI 0.7, 8.3) for gonadotropins (3 exposed cancer patients). Although drug effects did not vary by causes of infertility, there was a slightly higher risk associated with clomiphene use among women who remained nulligravid, based on 6 exposed patients (rate ratio 1.75; 95% CI 0.5, 5.7).

CONCLUSION
The results of this study generally were reassuring in not confirming a strong link between ovulation-stimulating drugs and ovarian cancer. Slight but nonsignificant elevations in risk associated with drug usage among certain subgroups of users, however, support the need for continued monitoring of long-term risks.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
II-2


Generally speaking, the Supreme Court of the United States is a tribunal with the final say on what the law is. But the desirability of the Supreme Court's acting as final law sayer is questionable in patent law, where the Court primarily reviews the work of the Federal Circuit, a comparatively expert body having virtually exclusive jurisdiction over initial appeals. Nonetheless, in recent years, the Supreme Court has spoken repeatedly and forcefully on questions of substantive patent law. I argue that such Supreme Court activity is best justified and conceived not as directed toward final law saying, but instead as involving limited interventions to stimulate new or renewed judicial examination of important legal questions. Centralized appellate review in the Federal Circuit makes patent law unusually susceptible to doctrinal ossification. By engaging in periodic merits review of patent law doctrines that the Federal Circuit may have locked into place either too quickly or for too long, the Supreme Court can help initiate escapes from suboptimal legal equilibria. But the Court's competence is limited. Consequently, when intervening in substantive patent law, the Court should generally leave primary responsibility for developing precise legal formulas to the Patent and Trademark Office, district courts, and the Federal Circuit.


This note explores the way traditional banks and financial technology companies, or Fintech's, interact in Africa and Asia, and their ability to offer innovative digital financial services that grant unbanked individuals access to financial transactions. The Fintech sector is experiencing explosive growth in both continents, but while Asian banks have managed to efficiently integrate with Fintech solutions, African banks have been slower to adapt to this change. Still, the outlook for mobile banking remains positive, and its prevalence will boost the financial industry in both regions.


While some pronouncements of expert treaty bodies have been considered 'key catalysts' for the development of international human rights law, others are only selectively referred to in legal practice. This article argues that the varying normative impact is due to the informal character of pronouncements. In the absence of treaty provisions specifying their legal effect, practitioners tend to rely on different factors and arguments when either drawing on or rejecting certain pronouncements. Scholars in turn face difficulties when trying to identify explanatory patterns within this diverging practice as the informal character confronts both international lawyers and international relations scholars with their respective methodological 'blind spots'. In light of these intradisciplinary challenges, this article explores the extent as to which an interdisciplinary approach helps to assess the reasons for the varying impact of pronouncements. After analysing the factors determining their legal significance on the basis of State practice and the academic debate, this article identifies the drafting process as a factor which promises to be particularly insightful when explored from an interdisciplinary perspective and sketches out a framework for future research.


Deconvolution is a computationally intensive digital signal processing (DSP) function widely used in applications such as imaging, wireless communication, and seismology. In this paper deconvolution of two finite length sequences (NXM), is implemented using direct method to reduce deconvolution processing time. Vedic multiplier is used to achieve high speed. Urdhava Triyakbhyam algorithm of ancient Indian Vedic Mathematics is utilized to improve its efficiency. For division operation non-restoring algorithm is modified and used. The efficiency of the proposed convolution circuit is tested by embedding it on Spartan 3E FPGA. Simulation shows that ,the circuit has a delay of 79.595 ns from input to output using 90nm process library. It also provides the necessary modularity, expandability, and regularity to form different deconvolutions for any number of bits.


In the next 25 years, South Asia's food requirements are likely to double, while its natural resource base is likely to shrink. The subcontinent, which carries 21 percent of the world's population on just 3 percent of its land area, already has a high proportion of its land under cultivation and relatively little under forest and pastures (Figure 1). Industrialization and urbanization will further encroach on agricultural and forest land. Over the next quarter century, countries in the region will need to feed their growing populations on increasingly restricted natural resources, with the added requirement of safeguarding the environment and natural resource base. The author describes the current state of the natural resource base and explores ways of managing resources in unfavored areas and in favored areas.


In order to study QoS and SLAs in inter-domain environment, network tomography mechanisms could be applied to inference inter-domain network characteristics from end-to-end observations. QoS estimates can be used by Internet Service Providers and corporate users to evaluate and validate the QoS as provided by the Autonomous systems. In this paper , a practical approach to inference statistical and model characteristics of inter-domain QoS based on active end-to-end QoS monitoring is discussed. The focus is a systematic approach for analysis of spatiotemporal composition of end-to-end QoS in interdomain evironment based on active QoS monitoring combined with estimation of "hidden" unobservable inter-domain QoS impacting the end-to-end traffic. In order to validate the inter-domain tomography approach for spatial composition of end-to-end application QoS, we establish an emulation environment which models realistic topologies and utilises real network traces. We studied practical scenarios for estimating of spatial composition of emulated end-to-end VoIP traffic using the CM Toolset as active end-to-end QoS monitoring tool with integrated technologies for estimation of "hidden" unobservable spatial QoS of the end-to-end connection.


L.P. Hartley's moving exploration of a young boy's loss of innocence The Go-Between is edited with an introduction and notes by Douglas Brooks-Davies in Penguin Modern Classics. 'The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there' When one long, hot summer, young Leo is staying with a school-friend at Brandham Hall, he begins to act as a messenger between Ted, the farmer, and Marian, the beautiful young woman up at the hall. He becomes drawn deeper and deeper into their dangerous game of deceit and desire, until his role brings him to a shocking and premature revelation. The haunting story of a young boy's awakening into the secrets of the adult world, The Go-Between is also an unforgettable evocation of the boundaries of Edwardian society. Leslie Poles Hartley (1895-1972) was born in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, and educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford. For more than thirty years from 1923 he was an indefatigable fiction reviewer for periodicals including the Spectator and Saturday Review. His first book, Night Fears (1924) was a collection of short stories; but it was not until the publication of Eustace and Hilda (1947), which won the James Tait Black prize, that Hartley gained widespread recognition as an author. His other novels include The Go-Between (1953), which was adapted into an internationally-successful film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates, and The Hireling (1957), the film version of which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. If you enjoyed The Go-Between, you might like Barry Hines's A Kestrel for a Knave, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'Magical and disturbing' Independent 'On a first reading, it is a beautifully wrought description of a small boy's loss of innocence long ago. But, visited a second time, the knowledge of approaching, unavoidable tragedy makes it far more poignant and painful' Express


extract] Like the late Lord Denning, David is not "a very retiring person". David was born a Jew although he later converted to Anglican Christianity. This has led to a creative tension in his life – British in manner but Jewish in his restless drive and academic entrepreneurship. His drive and output put many of his younger colleagues to shame. He has been involved in 20 books, more than 50 articles and countless papers at seminars and conferences. David in fact counts his joint venture with Mary as his major achievement. David and Mary married in 1980, so their joint venture became in a sense a merger.


Research into sports-related concussion (SRC) or brain injury has vastly expanded our knowledge of the connection between brain activity and behavioral outcomes. Historical examination of concussion reveals components of structural changes in the brain resulting from injury. A constellation of clinical symptoms is typically present following concussion for several days and weeks. However, the intersection of structural changes and clinical examination still remains elusive to medical professionals. With emerging technologies and modalities such as quantitative electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), virtual reality (VR), and the study of movement, we can better understand the brain–behavior relationship on clinical findings post-injury. Our advancement in SRC study using athletics provides a unique window into the advances in our ability to study this public health crisis. SRC also allows us to understand how athletics and exercise influence brain health. The evolution ...


The Meteorological Synthesizing Centre-West (MSC-W) of the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) has been performing model calculations in support of the Convention on Long Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) for more than 30 years. The EMEP MSC-W chemical transport model is still one of the key tools within European air pollution policy assessments. Traditionally, the model has covered all of Europe with a resolution of about 50 km x 50 km, and extending vertically from ground level to the tropopause (100 hPa). The model has changed extensively over the last ten years, however, with flexible processing of chemical schemes, meteorological inputs, and with nesting capability: the code is now applied on scales ranging from local (ca. 5 km grid size) to global (with 1 degree resolution). The model is used to simulate photo-oxidants and both inorganic and organic aerosols. In 2008 the EMEP model was released for the first time as public domain code, along with all required input data for model runs for one year. The second release of the EMEP MSC-W model became available in mid 2011, and a new release is targeted for summer 2012. This publication is in-tended to document this third release of the EMEP MSC-W model. The model formulations are given, along with details of input data-sets which are used, and a brief background on some of the choices made in the formulation is presented. The model code itself is available at www.emep.int, along with the data required to run for a full year over Europe.


There is today growing momentum behind proposals for 'data sharing' as a remedy for competition concerns in digital markets, as well as efforts by the European Commission to promote the sharing of data more widely in the European economy. However, there is as yet less focus on the practical challenges that will need to be overcome to implement data sharing arrangements that effectively promote innovation and competition in or preserve the contestability of digital markets. There is also limited experience of regulated data sharing in practice. This report aims to address that gap and offers a series of recommendations on what authorities will need to do if data sharing by digital platforms is to occur at scale in Europe.


This dissertation presents the findings of an exploratory, multiple-case study in which eight public secondary school teachers engaged in a professional development (PD) program centered on improving teacher instruction for English learners (ELs). The participants worked as co-teachers with teacher credential candidates, serving as both mentors and collaborators in professional development. The PD program focused on improving participants' instructional practices with ELs as a way to support the high numbers of ELs enrolled in California public schools. The PD included cycles of inquiry, collaborative dialogue within a professional learning community, working with a university consultant, ongoing reflection, and collaborating with a teacher candidate as a way to improve their own teaching practices. This study explores changes in mentor teachers' beliefs, practices and self-efficacy toward working with ELs over the course of a seven-month professional development project. This research was viewed through the framework of Mezirow's Transformative Learning Theory. Findings suggest that all participants entered the PD experience with positive beliefs toward the academic capabilities of ELs and the desire to improve their own instructional practices. Data from this research reflects the need for PD programs to include differentiated, or individualized, activities that help to reach the professional growth needs of participants who are in various stages of transformative learning.


Educators in many disciplines are too often forced to rely on intuition about how students learn and the effectiveness of teaching to guide changes and improvements to their curricula. In computer science, systems that perform automated collection and assessment of programming assignments are seeing increased adoption, and these systems generate a great deal of meaningful intermediate data and statistics during the grading process. Continuous collection of these data and long-term retention of collected data present educators with a new resource to assess both learning (how well students understand a topic or how they behave on assignments) and teaching (how effective a response, intervention, or assessment instrument was in evaluating knowledge or changing behavior), by basing their decisions on evidence rather than intuition. It is only possible to achieve these goals, however, if such data are easily accessible.
I present an infrastructure that has been added to one such automated grading system, Web-CAT, in order to facilitate routine data collection and access while requiring very little added effort by instructors. Using this infrastructure, I present three case studies that serve as representative examples of educational questions that can be explored thoroughly using pre-existing data from required student work. The first case study examines student time management habits and finds that students perform better when they start earlier but that offering extra credit for finishing earlier did not encourage them to do so. The second case study evaluates a tool used to improve student understanding of manual memory management and finds that students made fewer errors when using the tool. The third case study evaluates the reference tests used to grade student code on a selected assignment and confirms that the tests are a suitable instrument for assessing student ability. In each case study, I use a data-driven, evidence-based approach spanning multiple semesters and students, allowing me to answer each question in greater detail than was possible using previous methods and giving me significantly increased confidence in my conclusions.


Monthly observations on prices from 10 weight/gender classifications of Nebraska beef cattle are studied in an error correction model (ECM) framework. This study attempts a replication of the 2003 paper on Texas prices by Bessler and Davis, where they find medium heifers (600-700 1b) at the center of price discovery. Using the ECM results Nebraska light steers are found to be weakly exogenous, with the innovation accounting results showing marked differences. Industry structure, production choices, and animal type and breeding herd differences between Texas and Nebraska are proposed as plausible reasons for partial (or incomplete) success at replication.