Insurance coverage for natural disasters remains low in many exposed areas. A limited supply of insurance is commonly identified as a primary causal factor in this low insurance coverage. The French overseas departments provide a rare natural experiment of a well-developed supply of natural disasters insurance in highly exposed regions. The French system of natural disasters insurance is underwritten and regulated by the French government; instituted initially for metropolitan France only, it was extended to overseas departments in the state of emergency following Hurricane Hugo in 1989. This natural experiment makes it possible to analyze the determinants of insurance coverage on the demand side. Based on unique household-level microdata, I estimate an insurance market model which had not yet been empirically tested. Using this structural approach, I show that underinsurance in the French overseas departments is neither due to perception biases nor to unaffordable insurance, but mainly to uninsurable housing and to the anticipation of assistance, which crowds out insurance. Individual insurance decisions are influenced by neighbors' insurance choices through peer effects and neighborhood eligibility for assistance


File lists and checksums for a hard drive containing 931.5 GB of documentation related to games developed at and published by Origin Systems. The documentation was collected by members of the Wing Commander CIC website, during a two-day visit to EA Mythic, the company which then owned the documentation as part of EA's acquisition of Origin Systems. Many of the floppy disks imaged during the visit are game disks, rather than documentation. The hard drive image itself is stored securely on tape-- contact the Briscoe Center's digital archivist for information on how to access it.


This study aims at investigating the effect of using English short messaging service (SMS) on the development of the foundation year students" speaking and writing skills at King Abdulaziz University (KAU). Written and oral tests developed by the researcher were used to measure such development. During the six weeks of the experiment (the time each module usually lasts) each student in the experimental group was asked to write at least one 10-15 word SMS in English to their teacher every day. The teacher corrects the SMS and sends it back to the student. A T-test was used to find the effect of practicing SMS on the students" oral and written performance. Findings showed that students who practiced SMS with their teacher noticeably improved their writing and speaking performance. In the light of the findings above, the researcher encourages all the students in the foundation year in KAU in particular and students in general to use SMS but in correct English as a means of communication because of their great impact on oral and written performance.


How should monetary policy respond to changes in financial conditions? In this paper we consider a simple model where firms are subject to idyosincratic shocks which may force them to default on their debt. Firms' assets and liabilities are denominated in nominal terms and predetermined when shocks occur. Monetary policy can therefore affect the real value of funds used to finance production. Furthermore, policy affects the loan and deposit rates. We find that maintaining price stability at all times is not optimal; that the optimal response to adverse financial shocks is to lower interest rates, if not at the zero bound, and engineer a short period of inflation; that the Taylor rule may implement allocations that have opposite cyclical properties to the optimal ones.


Proteins that are components of the secretory machinery form a cellular pathway of paramount importance for physiological regulation, development and function of human tissues. Consistently, most secretory pathway components are ubiquitously expressed in all tissues. At the same time, recent studies identified that the largest fraction of tissue-specific proteins consists of secreted and membrane proteins and not intracellular proteins. This suggests that the secretory pathway is distinctively regulated in a tissue-specific fashion. However, a systematic analysis on how the protein secretory pathway is tuned in different tissues is lacking, and it is even largely unexplored if the secretome and membrane proteome differs in, for example, posttranslation modifications across tissues. Here, analyzing publically available transcriptome data across 30 human tissues, we discovered the expression level of key components previously categorized as housekeeping proteins were specifically over-expressed in a certain tissue compared with the average expression of their corresponding secretory pathway subsystem (e.g. protein folding). These extreme genes define an exceptional fine-tuning in specific subnetworks, which neatly differentiated for example the pancreas and liver from 30 other tissues. Moreover, the subnetwork expression tuning correlated with the nature and number of post translational modification sites in the pancreas or liver-specific secretome and membrane proteome. These patterns were recurrently observed also in other tissues, like the blood, the brain and the skeletal muscle. These findings conciliate both the housekeeping and tissue-specific nature of the protein secretory pathway, which we attribute to a fine-tuned regulation of defined subnetworks in order to support the diversity of secreted proteins and their modifications.


Purpose: To compare health related quality of life (HRQOL) and handicap of stroke survivors in Hong Kong (HK) and Chengdu (CD) in Mainland China.

Method: Fifty-four pairs of first ever stroke patients in CD and in HK matched by age, sex and Modified Barthel Index (MBI) were interviewed using a structured questionnaire at 16–36 months after stroke. HRQOL and handicap outcomes were evaluated by the Chinese version of the Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and London Handicap Scale (LHS) respectively.

Results: Compared to stroke patients in CD, HK subjects reported significantly greater handicap, especially in the occupation domain. HK subjects also had significantly lower HRQOL Z scores in domains of role limitations due to emotional or physical problems, and bodily pain. CD subjects had more social support, but had more difficulties in meeting medical costs, and were less likely to have regular medical follow-up and dysphagia symptom. After adjusting for social and health related factors, the site differences in handicap and the role limitation (physical) domain of SF36 became insignificant.

Conclusions: CD stroke survivors had better scores in HRQOL and fewer handicaps than their counterparts in HK, because of social and health related factors.


There are numerous reasons why substance abuse has emerged as a major concern in the United States. The widespread distribution and use of cocaine among all social classes and the introduction of crack cocaine during the 1980s clearly have alarmed our society; witness the many crack cover stories in the mass media and the creation of a national Office of Drug Control Policy. Illicit drug use and the associated drug trade are major contributors to crime and violence. Injection of illicit drugs is a major source of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States. The various forms of substance abuse have other serious health consequences that contribute to the current cost crisis in the nation's health care system. Finally, alcohol and drug dependency are frequently implicated in individual and family dysfunction. Increases in substance abuse at all levels of society have made the roles of social workers and other helping professionals that much more complex and demanding. As a volunteer on a citizens' panel reviewing foster care placements, I have been disheartened to observe the increasing numbers of children and families harmed by substance abuse. When I began as a reviewer in 1986, my impression was that substance abuse, mainly alcohol, came up rather infrequently in the agency's reports, whereas today substance abuse, often cocaine or heroin, seems to be involved in dose to one-quarter of the cases, including the especially sad situation of HIV-positive infants. The caseworker's usual recommendation is that the substance abusing parent or youth enroll in treatment. Certainly there is a great deal of implicit faith in treatment. But how effective are substance abuse treatment programs, and could the skills of social workers be better used to increase the programs' effectiveness? On any day there are at least 800,000 clients in about 9,000 substance abuse treatment units in the United States, with 45 percent of these clients receiving alcoholism services, 29 percent receiving drug abuse services, and 26 percent receiving both (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1993). Little hard effectiveness data exist for most substance abuse treatment programs (methadone maintenance may be an exception), but few in the field would dispute that considerable room for improvement in client outcomes remains. It is no secret that client dropout rates are high for all modalities and that relapses are common even after treatment participation (Brownell, Marlatt, Lichtenstein, & Wilson, 1986; Hubbard et al., 1989; Marlatt & Gordon, 1985). Across all treatment programs nationally, 6 percent of total staff are social workers at the master's level or higher, including both administrators and direct care staff (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1993). Social workers do not appear to be well represented in substance abuse treatment programs when one considers the problems of the client populations and the program functions that need to be performed. Expanding the participation of social workers in substance abuse treatment programs would improve the effectiveness of this vital service area. The rationale for such expanded participation includes improvement in direct services to clients, evaluation and accountability of programs, research on practice issues, and development of new treatment models. Alcohol- and drug-dependent clients have multiple emotional, family, interpersonal, and environmental problems. Any one of these problems may be a causal factor in substance abuse, may be a consequence of substance abuse, may coexist with substance abuse to complicate the situation, or may involve all of the above to some degree. Thus, a high degree of assessment and diagnostic skills are required to begin disentangling the client's situation and to develop a workable case plan. In addition, specialized training and skills are needed to implement a case plan successfully, which may involve such diverse tasks as serving as the overall case manager or providing individual or family psychotherapy. …


This thesis discusses the link between men's HIV treatment seeking behaviour and their masculinity. It is based generally on ethnographic research conducted in Busia district, rural eastern Uganda, and specifically on 26 interviews conducted between 2009 and 2010 with different categories of men: treated for HIV, tested but dropped out of treatment, not tested but suspect HIV infection, and those with other health problems unrelated to HIV. The study explored how masculinity is constructed and discussed among the men from the Iteso ethnic group, how those notions of masculinity influence men's uptake of HIV treatment, and how HIV diagnosis and/or its treatment, in turn, affects men's perception of their masculinity. Thematic framework analysis identified recurrent themes and variations across the data.

The thesis argues that there are, essentially, two forms of masculinity in rural Uganda, one based on reputation, the other on respectability, and that these emerge in different contexts, and have different effects on men's behaviours regarding HIV testing and treatment. Respectable masculinities are endorsed largely by the wider society, while reputational masculinities are endorsed predominantly by the men themselves, although some ideals are shared by both. Theoretically, this categorisation is consistent with the distinction between the value systems of respectability and reputation as described by PJ Wilson (1969). Men's dividuality (Helle-Valle 2004), allowed them to, unproblematically, adopt the different and sometimes contradictory, forms of masculinity, in different social circumstances and phases of life.

Individual men can engage in a variety of HIV treatment seeking behaviours that typically correspond with different masculine ideologies and dividualities; some discouraging treatment seeking for HIV, others encouraging it. On the one hand, acknowledging illness is incompatible with men's notion of strength. Being diagnosed with HIV threatens respectability and ability to work and earn an income, hence treatment is delayed, while couple testing threatens men's freedom to engage in extramarital sex. On the other hand, HIV treatment may be undertaken and adhered to, in order to regain and maintain health, so as to fulfill family and societal expectations, notably that of provider and being a role model. Through the core themes of 'dented' and 'resuscitated' masculinities, this study suggests that HIV diagnosis negatively affected masculinity while treatment led to more positive ways to express masculinity.


Abstract. The IbicuA River basin in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, has recurring problems of water deficits, commonly attributed to the indiscriminate use of water to irrigate rice. The objective of this study was a statistical analysis of water flow data in the IbicuA basin to verify if significant trends in water availability are related to the withdrawal of water for rice crop irrigation. We used data from 11 fluviometric stations for 1970 to 2011, which corresponds to the period of major expansion in rice cultivation in the basin. Daily flows were normalized, and for each month the flow rate was calculated for durations from 50% to 99%. Trends in these series were evaluated using the Mann-Kendall test. Results show that over the 40-year period of study there are trends of increasing water flow for eight of the 11 stations, and at six of those eight stations the increasing trend was statistically significant. In a river with sequential stations, differences between the stations indicated a decreasing trend for durations >80% as reflected by the Mann-Kendall Z s . However, the primary analysis failed to show trends that might reflect increasing irrigation withdrawals. Thus, contrary to expectations, we conclude that, for the IbicuA basin, analysis of trends in the flow data does not clearly implicate water withdrawals for rice irrigation as the reason for water deficits.


Ecosystem engineers substantially alter physical flow characteristics and shape a river's form and function. Because the recurrence interval of geomorphic processes and disturbances in rivers commonly match the temporal scale of plants' life cycles or alterations by animals, the resulting feedbacks are an important component of rivers. In this review, we focus on biota that directly or indirectly induce a physical change in rivers and cause positive feedbacks on the functioning of that organism. We provide an overview of how various ecosystem engineers affect rivers at different temporal and spatial scales and plot them on a conceptual gradient of river types. Various plants engineer the river environment through stabilizing sediment and reducing flow velocities, including macrophytes, woody plants, and algal mats and biofilms. Among animals that engineer, beaver that build dams cause substantial changes to river dynamics. In addition, benthic macroinvertebrates and mussels can stabilize sediment and reduce velocities, and aquatic and riparian grazers modulate the effect of plants. Humans are also considered river ecosystem engineers. Most of the ecosystem engineers reported in literature occur in rivers with low to intermediate relative stability, intermediate channel widths, and small to intermediate grain sizes. Ecosystem engineers that create positive biogeomorphic feedbacks are important to take into account when managing river systems, as many common invasive species are successful due to their engineering capabilities. River restoration can use ecosystem engineers to spur holistic recovery. Future research points towards examining ecosystem engineers on longer spatial and temporal scales and understanding the co‐evolution of organisms and landforms through engineering. WIREs Water 2018, 5:e1271. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1271


Privacy protection of surveillance videos is an important issue because of the pervasiveness of surveillance cameras. Region of interest (RoI) privacy protection prefers encrypting limited privacy-sensitive areas to encrypting the entire video because of the resource-tightened Internet of Things devices. However, many cryptographic technologies now applied in privacy protection, e.g., AES and RSA, are not efficient to meet the real-time requirement for surveillance videos. A lightweight encryption approach is then devised based on layered cellular automata (LCA). Using our approach, the extracted RoIs are fed into the initial state of an 8-layer cellular automata, which is driven by the randomly selected rules for the LCA's state transitions. As a result, all RoIs are encrypted independently and synchronously. The encrypted RoIs are stored at the camera side and can be used by authenticated users through an on-demand manner. The surveillance video without RoIs can be watched in real-time by any user online. Theoretical analyses and experimental results show that our approach is both efficient and effective.


Sensations of color show a strong correlation with reflectance, even though the amount of visible light reaching the eye depends on the product of reflectance and illumination. The visual system must achieve this remarkable result by a scheme that does not measure flux. Such a scheme is described as the basis of retinex theory. This theory assumes that there are three independent cone systems, each starting with a set of receptors peaking, respectively, in the long-, middle-, and short-wavelength regions of the visible spectrum. Each system forms a separate image of the world in terms of lightness that shows a strong correlation with reflectance within its particular band of wavelengths. These images are not mixed, but rather are compared to generate color sensations. The problem then becomes how the lightness of areas in these separate images can be independent of flux. This article describes the mathematics of a lightness scheme that generates lightness numbers, the biologic correlate of reflectance, independent of the flux from objects


IPSS are popular in different fields of transport, mainly for personal use (car-sharing, bike-sharing). Their usage in urban goods transport is not still generalized but those systems present a good potential. This paper proposed to assess and analyze four different scenarios for urban goods transpor t to compare IPSS configurations to a business as usual situation, in terms of environmental impacts. Those impacts will be estimated via a life cycle analysis (LCA) method. First, the four scenarios are presented. The first scenario is the reference one, i.e. the business as usual situation. The other three scenarios represent possible IPSS configuration, i.e. a vehicle leasing system, a vehicle sharing system and an urban consolidation system. Second, the methodology for scenario assessment using LCA is described, and the main proposed indicators defined. Third, the main results of the scenario assessment are presented, analyzed and discussed. Finally, future researches are proposed.


—This report establishes a baseline inventory of microorganisms in acidic hot springs of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). The analysis is based on observations carried out over the past 25 years using light microscopy, DNA staining, and electron microscopy of environmental samples. The inventory, while incomplete in that not all organisms have been cultured or examined using genetic approaches, represents a study of several solfatara (acid sulfate) geyser basins in YNP. We found that the types of microorganisms in flowing springs had changed over time. In contrast, no such changes occurred in mixing pools. We solicited opinions of prominent YNP microbiologists to address the issue of change in the context of human cross-contamination of springs and to suggest sampling protocols. While the consensus is that research has not introduced exotic species, this explanation is always uncertain. The issues related to this uncertainty, including human cross-contamination, are discussed, and sampling methods designed to best preserve the springs for future investigations are described.


Articular cartilage lesions, with their inherent limited healing potential, are hard to treat and remain a challenging problem for orthopedic surgeons. Despite the development of several treatment strategies, the real potential of each procedure in terms of clinical benefit and effects on the joint degeneration processes is not clear.
Aim of this PhD project was to evaluate the results, both in terms of clinical and imaging improvement, of new promising procedures developed to address the challenging cartilage pathology. Several studies have been followed in parallel and completed over the 3-year PhD, and are reported in detail in the following pages. In particular, the studies have been focused on the evaluation of the treatment indications of a scaffold based autologous chondrocyte implantation procedure, documenting its results for the classic indication of focal traumatic lesions, as well as its use for the treatment of more challenging patients, older, with degenerative lesions, or even as salvage procedure for more advanced stages of articular degeneration. The second field of study involved the analysis of the results obtained treating lesions of the articular surface with a new biomimetic osteochondral scaffold, which showed promise for the treatment of defects where the entire osteochondral unit is involved. Finally, a new minimally invasive procedure based on the use of growth factors derived from autologous platelets has been explored, showing results and underlining indicatios for the treatment of cartilage lesions and different stages of joint degeneration.
These studies shed some light on the potential of the evaluated procedures, underlining good results as well as limits, they give some indications on the most appropriate candidates for their application, and document the current knowledge on cartilage treatment procedures suggesting the limitations that need to be addressed by future studies to improve the management of cartilage lesions.


Mental disorders impose an enormous burden on society, accounting for almost one in three years lived with disability globally. In addition to their health impact, mental disorders cause a significant economic burden due to lost economic output and the link between mental disorders and costly, potentially fatal conditions including cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV, and obesity. Eighty percent of the people likely to experience an episode of a mental disorder in their lifetime come from low- and middle-income countries. Two of the most common forms of mental disorders, anxiety and depression, are prevalent, disabling, and respond to a range of treatments that are safe and effective. Yet, owing to stigma and inadequate funding, these disorders are not being treated in most primary care and community settings. Confronting mental disorders will require new sources of funding to bridge current resource gaps. Investment from a combination of national governments and international development partners could bridge these gaps and result in cost-effective mental health interventions. This funding will provide a strong return on investment, with scale-up leading to good returns in restored productivity as well as improved health.


This paper presents an improved anti-islanding algorithm for utility interconnection of multiple distributed fuel cell powered generations (DFPGs). A cross-correlation method is proposed and implemented in conjunction with the anti-islanding algorithm developed in the previous work (C. Jeraputra and P.N. Enjeti, 2004). While the power control algorithm continuously perturbs (plusmn5%) the reactive power supplied by the DFPG, the proposed algorithm calculates the cross-correlation index of a rate of change of the frequency deviation with respect to (plusmn5%) the reactive power to confirm islanding. If this index is above 50%, the algorithm further initiates (plusmn10%) the reactive power perturbation and continues to calculate the correlation index. If the index exceeds 80%, the occurrence of islanding can be confirmed. The proposed method is robust and capable of detecting the occurrence of islanding in the presence of several DFPGs, which are independently operating. Viability of the cross-correlation method is verified by the simulation. Experimental results are presented to support the findings of the proposed method


Territorial location has been a criterion for the development of an industry. In this regard, the formation of a single economic space between enterprises (organizations) of various forms of incorporation can be considered as an instrument for leveling the unevenness of economic development, which has been proved as a successful clustering practice. This efficient integration has transformed clustering into a national priority on a global scale.The constant decline in the growth rate of world GDP is being discussed, and measures are suggested to solve this problem through the formation of efficient spatial relationships, the creation of which is a condition for expanding the number of "locomotives" of growth that carry out intensive exchange of production factors. Clustering has been the result of efforts to achieve competitiveness for quite a long time.Further economic development is impossible without the development and the implementation of a new clustering model involving an increase in the level of cohesiveness of the monetary policy and the clustering strategy. A practical tool for transforming the economic space is the formation of clusters, the distribution of which allows achieving a synergic effect ensuring the growth of performance of economic entities in the region, which implies a change in the design of the monetary policy.In this study, a hypothesis about the existence of a significant relationship between the costs of creating and implementing innovations and the volume of innovative products received has been put forward and confirmed, which is the rationale for monetary support for competitiveness.


Cell-surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans bind to various extracellular proteins, including growth factors and proteases, and can thereby affect their function, increase their local concentration, and modify their interactions with receptors. In migrating plasma and myeloma cells, which become polarized, the transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan syndecan-1 localizes to a membrane region called the uropod at the trailing edge of the cell. Syndecan-1 in the uropod plays a role in cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix adhesion and may regulate the activity of heparin-binding cytokines and the bone destruction seen in myeloma. Yang et al. investigated the mechanism of syndecan-1 targeting to the uropod of myeloma cells and discovered that this was mediated by its heparan sulfate side chains and was regulated at the cell surface. Adding exogenous heparin (which structurally and functionally resembles heparan sulfate) to cultured myeloma cells or treating the cells with heparitinase to remove cell-surface heparan sulfate side chains triggered redistribution of immunofluorescently labeled syndecan-1 over the cell surface. Heparin-mediated redistribution was reversible; recovery was accelerated by antibody binding to syndecan-1 and was abolished by disruption of the actin cytoskeleton. Other heparan sulfate proteoglycans expressed in myeloma cells did not localize to the uropod. The authors expressed syndecan-1 mutants to determine that the heparan sulfate side chains were required for targeted localization, whereas the cytoplasmic and transmembrane regions were not. Thus, heparan sulfate side chains are not only important in mediating proteoglycan interactions with extracellular proteins, but may also play a role in cell-surface localization of proteoglycans. Y. Yang, M. Børset, J. K. Langford, R. D. Sanderson, Heparan sulfate regulates targeting of syndecan-1 to a functional domain on the cell surface. J. Biol. Chem. 278, 12888-12893 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Everyone who has studied the upheavals of modern China knows that one of them has taken place in Chinese writing. Anyone who has read Chinese texts has also eventually pondered the possible significance of this upheaval for understanding the text, and vice versa. By analyzing formal features and speculating about their relevance to the construction of a modern Chinese culture, this book intends to show why the Chinese have come to write the way they do in this century. Drawing on linguistic and rhetorical descriptions of language in writing as features of style, the author reviews the innovations that have been introduced into modern Chinese prose from both Chinese and foreign sources. The social history of these features, the attempts by various writers to assert cultural, political, and aesthetic principles through them and the resulting tensions and conventions that arise all form the critical framework for a study of Chinese prose literature and its most innovative authors in this century. The study is introduced and informed throughout by a succinct review o scholarly research from a wide range of disciplines relevant to the question of style as an object of study in contemporary criticism. The book begins its approach to style with an Introduction that draws on Gestalt theory, information theory, and linguistics to develop a nuanced concept of what "style" is, one that gives adequate weight to the complex interplay of psychological, formal, and historical features at work. Two chapters then examine various aspects of convention, necessarily a historical phenomenon. The fourth chapter, by contrast, discusses the aesthetic prescriptions by which modern Chinese writers sought consciously to introduce innovation and points out the limitations of a prescriptive approach. The final two chapters study the strategies of specific writers. Almost half the book is an Appendix that consists of a rich catalog of rhetorical and stylistic examples, drawn from a wide range of twentieth-century Chinese literary writing. These hundreds of examples, identified by the nomenclature of grammar, rhetoric, and sentence cohesion, constitute a veritable handbook of modern Chinese prose. The book also contains a Glossary of terms draw from rhetoric and linguistics.


Native parasitoid species became associated with the galls of Trichilogaster acaciaelongifoliae (Froggatt) within two years of its deliberate introduction into South Africa during 1982 for biological control of Acacia longifolia (Andr.) Willd., a perennial, leguminous shrubby weed from Australia. Emergence of adult parasitoids from galls collected during the 1994 austral summer indicated that levels of parasitism were low (0.6 %) and had not increased from previous years. Inspections of immature T. acaciaelongifoliae within galls showed that the incidence of parasitism was much higher (8.6 %) than was deduced from adult emergence. Levels of parasitism varied from 0 % to 21.3 % at four different localities. Most parasitoids were found in chambers located close to the surface of the gall, irrespective of gall size or the numbers of chambers per gaU, and only a small proportion of the occupants of deep-seated chambers were parasitized. There were no parasitoids in the galls until late-November, by which time adult emergence of T. acaciaelongifoliae was well advanced. Consequently, T. acaciaelongifoliae is protected, both by its physical position and by its asynchronized phenology, from the generalist parasitoids it has acquired, and the wasp persists as an important biological control agent of A. longifolia in South Africa.


Granulation is a key factor towards improvement of the flowability of fine ceramic powders to make them suitable
for industrial dry pressing. Controlled granulation of fine alumina particles with a primary particle size of ∼ 150 nm was carried out using spray-freeze drying, which led to the production of flowable granules with high crushability. The fracture surface of uniaxially die-pressed green bodies made from granules with density values of ≥ 50%of theoretical showed a uniform microstructure. Sintering experiments were performed using conventional single- and two-stage
radiant heating methods followed by density and grain size measurement and characterisation of the final dense compacts to study the efficiency of two-stage sintering in grain growth elimination. The results have been compared with those of alumina bodies prepared using similar suspension by the slip-casting route.


Mobile broadband internet is the main technology through which individuals access the internet in developing countries. Understanding the barriers to broadband adoption is thus a priority in designing policies aiming to expand access and close the digital divide across socioeconomic groups and territories. This paper exploits data from harmonized household expenditure surveys in seven countries in West Africa in 2018/19 — a subregion with one of the lowest levels of mobile internet penetration in the world — to identify the main factors that limit mobile broadband internet adoption. Results show that low levels of household consumption and prices of services are two key constraints. One standard deviation increase in household expenditure, about US$65 per capita per month, is associated with a 6.5 percentage point rise in the probability of adoption, while one standard deviation drop in the price of mobile internet services, about US$3.60, increases the probability of adoption by 2.4 percentage points. Other determinants include demographic characteristics (sex, age, language, urban location), socioeconomic features (educational attainment, sector of employment), and other factors linked to policy (access to electricity, ownership of assets, alternative means of internet access). Results are robust to specifications focusing only in areas with mobile internet coverage (3G).


This study illustrates how a manufacturer can use leadtime differentiation-selling the same product to different customers at different prices based on delivery leadtime-to simultaneously increase revenue and reduce capacity requirements. The manufacturer's production facility is modeled as an exponential single-server queue with two classes of customers that differ in price sensitivity and delay sensitivity. The manufacturer chooses the service rate and a static price for each class of customer, and then dynamically quotes leadtimes to potential customers and decides the order in which customers are processed. The arrival rate for each class decreases linearly with price and leadtime. The manufacturer's objective is to maximize profit, subject to the constraint that each customer must be processed within the promised leadtime. Assuming that some customers will tolerate a long delivery leadtime, we show that this problem has a simple near-optimal solution. Under our proposed policy, capacity utilization is near 100%. Impatient customers pay a premium for immediate delivery and receive priority in scheduling, whereas patient customers are quoted a leadtime proportional to the current queue length. Queue length and leadtime can be closely approximated by a reflected Ornstein-Uhlenbeck diffusion process. Hence, we have a closed form expression for profit, and choose prices and capacity to optimize this. In case customers may choose either the class 1 deal or the class 2 deal, the proposed policy is made incentive compatible by quoting a leadtime for the class 2 (patient) customers that is longer than the actual queueing delay.


Two distinct Phytophthora taxa were found to be associated with brown rot of pomelo (Citrus grandis), a new disease of this ancestral Citrus species, in the Vinh Long province, Mekong River Delta area, southern Vietnam. On the basis of morphological characters and using the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region of the rDNA and the cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 (COI) as barcode genes, one of the two taxa was provisionally named as Phytophthora sp. prodigiosa, being closely related to but distinct from P. insolita, a species in Phytophthora Clade 9, while the other one, was closely related to but distinct from the Clade 2 species P. meadii and was informally designated as Phytophthora sp. mekongensis. Isolates of P. sp. prodigiosa and P. sp. mekongensis were also obtained from necrotic fibrous roots of Volkamer lemon (C. volkameriana) rootstocks grafted with 'King' mandarin (Citrus nobilis) and from trees of pomelo, respectively, in other provinces of the Mekong River Delta, indicating a widespread occurrence of both Phytophthora species in this citrus-growing area. Koch's postulates were fulfilled via pathogenicity tests on fruits of various Citrus species, including pomelo, grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi), sweet orange (Citrus x sinensis) and bergamot (Citrus x bergamia) as well as on the rootstock of 2-year-old trees of pomelo and sweet orange on 'Carrizo' citrange (C. sinensis 'Washington Navel' x Poncirus trifoliata). This is the first report of a Phytophthora species from Clade 2 other than P. citricola and P. citrophthora as causal agent of fruit brown rot of Citrus worldwide and the first report of P. insolita complex in Vietnam. Results indicate that likely Vietnam is still an unexplored reservoir of Phytophthora diversity.


A new class of Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithms, based on simulating piecewise deterministic Markov processes (PDMPs), have recently shown great promise: they are non-reversible, can mix better than standard MCMC algorithms, and can use subsampling ideas to speed up computation in big data scenarios. However, current PDMP samplers can only sample from posterior densities that are differentiable almost everywhere, which precludes their use for model choice. Motivated by variable selection problems, we show how to develop reversible jump PDMP samplers that can jointly explore the discrete space of models and the continuous space of parameters. Our framework is general: it takes any existing PDMP sampler, and adds two types of trans-dimensional moves that allow for the addition or removal of a variable from the model. We show how the rates of these trans-dimensional moves can be calculated so that the sampler has the correct invariant distribution. Simulations show that the new samplers can mix better than standard MCMC algorithms. Our empirical results show they are also more efficient than gradient-based samplers that avoid model choice through use of continuous spike-and-slab priors which replace a point mass at zero for each parameter with a density concentrated around zero.


Quantitative approaches to evolutionary biology traditionally consider evolutionary change in isolation from an important pressure in natural selection: the demography of coevolving populations. In Analysis of Evolutionary Processes , Fabio Dercole and Sergio Rinaldi have written the first comprehensive book on Adaptive Dynamics (AD), a quantitative modeling approach that explicitly links evolutionary changes to demographic ones. The book shows how the so-called AD canonical equation can answer questions of paramount interest in biology, engineering, and the social sciences, especially economics. After introducing the basics of evolutionary processes and classifying available modeling approaches, Dercole and Rinaldi give a detailed presentation of the derivation of the AD canonical equation, an ordinary differential equation that focuses on evolutionary processes driven by rare and small innovations. The authors then look at important features of evolutionary dynamics as viewed through the lens of AD. They present their discovery of the first chaotic evolutionary attractor, which calls into question the common view that coevolution produces exquisitely harmonious adaptations between species. And, opening up potential new lines of research by providing the first application of AD to economics, they show how AD can explain the emergence of technological variety. Analysis of Evolutionary Processes will interest anyone looking for a self-contained treatment of AD for self-study or teaching, including graduate students and researchers in mathematical and theoretical biology, applied mathematics, and theoretical economics.


On September 2, 1998, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda issued its first conviction for genocide, condemning a Rwandan mayor, Jean-Paul Akayesu, for directing and inciting local mobs to the rape and murder of innocent Tutsi victims. The tribunal's companion, which deals with war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, is currently proceeding with its first indictment for genocide. In October 1998, a Spanish prosecutor sought the extradition of General Augusto Pinochet for charges of genocide. And Bosnia has challenged the International Court of Justice to construe the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in a pending case it has filed against Belgrade. Ethnic conflict and atrocities committed within civil wars have thrust genocide to center stage.

Genocide is defined in the Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, adopted by the U.N. General Assembly fifty years ago, on December 9, 1948. For a time, it was the forgotten convention, drafted in the aftermath of the Holocaust but then relegated to obscurity as the human rights movement focused on more "modern" atrocities: apartheid, torture, disappearances. Events in Rwanda and Bosnia have rehabilitated the Convention, whose application and interpretation have become matters for urgent attention.

In the half-century since the convention's adoption, many of the difficult questions concerning genocide have remained unanswered. What groups are protected by the convention? Does it cover political, social and gender groups, as well as racial and ethnic groups? And just how are racial and ethnic groups defined, according to the precise legal requirements of criminal prosecutions? What are states required to do when genocide offenders are found on their territory? Does the obligation to prevent genocide include a duty to intervene, even militarily, if the crime is being committed?


Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2011 - States that it is U.S. policy: (1) to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel, and (2) that the U.S. Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem not later than January 1, 2013. Amends the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 to eliminate the President's authority to waive certain funding limitations for Department of State acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad until the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has officially opened. Requires any official U.S. document which lists countries and their capital cities to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Limits appropriations that may be obligated in FY2013 for Department acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad until the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has officially opened. States that for each of FY2012-FY2013, of funds authorized to be appropriated for Department acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad, necessary sums should be made available until expended only for construction and other costs associated with the establishment in Jerusalem of the U.S. Embassy in Israel.


The contribution of light and thermal conditions to berry anthocyanin accumulation was investigated in grapevine Vitis vinifera L. cv. Cannonau/1103P subjected to different irrigation strategies in Sardinia, Italy in 2009. In two of the deficit irrigation treatments the root system received 50% and 25% crop evapotranspiration (ETc), referred to as DI50 and DI25, respectively. In the third treatment, which included partial root-zone drying (PRD), ETc was set at 50%. All three treatments were compared to a full irrigation control (FI), thus 100% ETc. Analysis of the thermal conditions during the growing season in 2009 provided evidence for a high frequency of elevated temperatures (> 30°C) during berry development. During ripening, the DI25 clusters intercepted significantly higher intensities (P < 0.01) of solar radiation, UV and PAR, particularly on the southeast canopy side, in comparison to FI and PRD. The analysis of berry temperatures in the DI treatments showed higher exposure to more than 35°C in the DI25 southeast berries. Thermal time for anthocyanin accumulation was computed for the DI50 and DI25 berries using normal heat hours (NHH). The patterns of daily NHH showed a reduction in thermal efficiency for anthocyanin accumulation during mid-ripening in the DI25 southeast berries compared to the DI50 ones. The higher temperatures at mid-ripening led to lower total anthocyanin contents in the DI25 berries. However, the coumaroyl-glucoside anthocyanin forms continued to increase in both the DI50 and DI25 berries, while a significant reduction in berry total contents of these forms was observed in FI and PRD. Both deficit irrigation and light conditions in the DI25 berries favoured the accumulation of more colourstable anthocyanins in the berry skin until harvest, namely p-coumaroyl-glucoside and acetyl-glucoside forms.


Abstract Context. Provision of key habitat resources is essential for effectively managing species that have specific ecological requirements and occur in production landscapes. Threatened black cockatoos in the jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) forest of Western Australia have a wide range, so their conservation requires support from all land tenures, not just reserves. Mining in the jarrah forest temporarily removes cockatoo feeding habitat, so it is important to understand how cockatoos exploit revegetated areas for food resources. Aims. We aimed to determine whether there were successional patterns in cockatoo feeding activity in revegetation aged from 4 to 23 years at three mine sites in the jarrah forest in south-western Australia. Methods. We surveyed 232 plots in revegetation to document (1) structural and floristic variation in vegetation across mine sites and revegetation ages, (2) differences in cockatoo feeding activity across mine sites and revegetation ages on the basis of feeding residues and (3) any edge effect reflecting preferential use of vegetation at the interior or exterior of mine pits. We also documented the frequency of occurrence of cockatoo food plants and feeding residues in 480 plots in unmined forest to compare with revegetated areas. Key results. Marri (Corymbia calophylla) and jarrah were commonly consumed in unmined forest and Banksia and Hakea species were also fed on to a lesser extent. Revegetated mine pits provided food within 4 years and continued to do so up until the oldest plots studied (23 years). The relative importance of food plants shifted from proteaceous species in young revegetation to myrtaceous species in intermediate to older revegetation. However, extent of feeding on myrtaceous species in older revegetation did not equate to feeding rates in unmined forest, with lower frequencies recorded in revegetation. Conclusions. Black cockatoos fed in revegetation at all three mine sites, despite variations in vegetation age, structure and floristics. Feeding on proteaceous and myrtaceous food plants occurred within 4 and 7 years of revegetation being established, respectively, indicating that some food resources are restored quickly after mining disturbance of the jarrah forest. Implications. Our results emphasise the importance of monitoring fauna recolonisation over appropriate time scales, to understand how successional processes in revegetation influence fauna population persistence in production landscapes.


This study examined the relationships between children's reported levels of physical activity, body-mass index, self-esteem, and reading and mathematics scores, while controlling for sex, family structure, and socioeconomic status. The data were collected from the full population of Grade 6 students (N = 6,923) in New Brunswick (NB), Canada in 1996, as part of the Elementary School Climate Study, and the NB Department of Education's Grade 6 Assessment. Physical activity had a negative relationship with body-mass index. Physical activity had a positive relationship with self-esteem, and a trivial negative relationship with academic achievement. The analysis revealed that both females and males who were more physically active had considerably higher levels of self-esteem. The study suggests that the relationship between physical activity and academic achievement is weak. For some children, physical activity may be indirectly related to enhanced academic performance by improving physical health and self-esteem.


This book explores the relationship between various types of reproduction and the evolutionary process. Starting with the concept of meiosis, George C. Williams states the conditions under which an organism with both sexual and asexual reproductive capacities will employ each mode. He argues that in low-fecundity higher organisms, sexual reproduction is generally maladaptive, and persists because there is no ready means of developing an asexual alternative. The book then considers the evolutionary development of diverse forms of sexuality, such as anisogamy, hermaphroditism. and the evolution of differences between males and females in reproductive strategy. The final two chapters examine the effect of genetic recombination on the evolutionary process itself.


When I left my tenured professorship for a nonacademic job, I thought I had already done the hard part: making the decision to leave the professional world that had been my home for many years. I had little inkling of the culture shock that awaited me in my new sphere of science policy and how disorienting it would be. In the 17 years since, I've seen that I'm far from the only one who struggles with this transition. Regardless of career stage, leaving academia requires some adjusting. For those who, like me, make the move later in their careers, after decades as established academics, it can be even harder. Knowing what to expect beforehand can take some of the shock out of the transition to the world outside academia.

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ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER

YOU AREN'T THE CENTER OF THE WORLD, AND YOU WILL HAVE AN ACTUAL BOSS. If you're a senior academic, teaching, advising, and managing a research group can turn your world into a solipsistic universe where what you say goes. Most students are attentive and agreeable, no matter what they really think. The dean and department chair are loosely construed as your supervisors, but they generally want you to focus on your own ideas so that you can bring in grant money and prestige.

Outside of academia, on the other hand, collaboration in service of a common goal is far more important than any one person's ideas. That is true even if you are in a very senior leadership role. There are goals to achieve and relationships to manage; you can't pursue just your own interests. Having a more formal boss might feel odd, but be open to it. Bosses can offer support in ways that university structures can't.

YOU WON'T HAVE NEARLY ENOUGH TIME TO DO THE BACKGROUND WORK YOU'D LIKE. Completeness and thorough examination are hallmarks of a serious scholar. In academia, you can usually take all the time you need to do plenty of background research, talk to colleagues, and cogitate before producing a decision or a publication. But in the outside world, you may have 30 minutes to come up with an answer. This was a particularly hard lesson for me to learn. Sage advice from someone more junior than I but with more "real world" work experience helped immensely. They said that sometimes I just had to go with my gut and call it a day.

SUMMER IS NOT SPECIAL. After a long academic year, summer feels different and, in some ways, special. It can be a time to regroup and refresh—write, develop ideas, even spend a few months away from the distractions of campus. Outside of academia, summer is generally three more months in the workplace. It might be punctuated by vacation, but by and large, work goes on as usual for 12 months a year.

THERE IS NO TENURE. This is a tough one! Many in the professoriate value this near-guarantee of steady employment for a lifetime. But leaving tenure can actually be liberating for a go-getter with a good work ethic. Employers want to keep strong, creative employees around, and they realize that individuals are not necessarily there for life. That means that organizations can be very loyal to their long-term, high-performing employees and treat them well. And if you don't enjoy the work or feel badly treated, there's no reason to stay.

If you decide to take the plunge into the outside world, take some time to acclimate to the new environment. You'll probably experience some initial surprises, but give yourself a chance to see whether things get better. And if this article convinces you that academia is the right place for you and that you should stay and flourish there, then that is a win, too.

 [1]: pending:yes


Saudi society is undergoing dramatic social transformation, brought about by rapid industrialisation and massive urbanisation. In this period of haste, home environments have experienced significant changes. There was a strong temptation by architects to pick Western houses designs off-the-shelf and by occupants to furnish their houses with modern imported furniture. A surplus economy made such 'shopping' possible. But while the Saudi society was transforming it would be an over simplification to term it `Westernising'. The new home environment leads us to question: how does modern furniture relate to the present-day Saudi family? Does modern furniture hinder or support Saudis' cultural values and identity? The aim of this study is to identify the influence of the use and meaning of modern furniture on the home environment in Jeddah. The study examines the home environment as a system within which constituents communicate continuously to reach different stages of compatibility. People communicate to furniture by using it and shaping its form, and furniture communicates to people by conveying how it is used and what it stands for (meaning). A model of nine stages has been developed to identify the possible relationships between form, use and meaning. The model is then used to analyse r, the relationship between occupants and furniture in both the traditional and contemporary home environment. The methodology of the study is qualitative. The data collection includes in-depth interviews with older women who lived in the traditional houses of Jeddah and housewives in contemporary houses, house floor plans, site and museums visits, a literature review, statistical data of furniture and appliances imported to Saudi Arabia, and other data related to social changes in Saudi Arabia. It has been found that traditional furniture was highly compatible with use, values and occupants' expression of identity. Modern furniture was introduced mainly for its meaning function and was incompatible with cultural values. Because cultural values have resisted change, some traditional furniture is still used and new local furniture was developed. This has led to an increase in the number of rooms, as some are used to express identity while others are used to maintain activities driven by traditional values.


Epoxy coatings are highly in demand due to their excellent corrosion protective properties. Currently, raw materials for epoxy coatings mainly originate from diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA), a compound derived from petrochemicals. However, health concerns associated with bisphenol A, combined with the limited supply of petroleum are driving researchers to look for alternative raw materials. Plant oils are considered as potential alternative resources to generate more environmentally-friendly coating formulations. This study aims to investigate the possibility of developing a new raw material for coating using a mixture of epoxidized palm olein (EPO) and DGEBA. and subsequently evaluate the resulting coating filnr s properties and performance. The main study was done in four stages. In the first stage, coatings containing 0-30 wt. % EPO were formulated and applied on mild steel plates. The coating was then tested for adhesion, hardness, chemical resistance, water resistance and solvent resistance. The third and final stages consisted of EIS study and performance tests, respectively. The EIS study shows that the corrosion protection from EPO is comparable to that of a conventional epoxy coating. Natural weathering test was carried out for 90 days while a cyclic salt fog/UV exposure test took place for 30 days. EP030 did not show any sign of rusting or blistering upon exposure to both weathering conditions. Weathering study indicated that EPO imparted to the EPO/epoxy coating a higher tendency to discolor upon weathering in comparison on conventional epoxy coatings. Nonetheless, EIS response and weathering test results suggested that EP030 performed as well as conventional epoxy coatings in protecting metallic substrates from corrosion.


Public awareness of aquatic invasive species and proper boat cleaning procedures may prove to be beneficial in reducing the transport and establishment of aquatic invasive species like New Zealand mud snails and zebra and quagga mussels as well as hydrilla and Eurasian watermilfoil. The primary objectives of this research project were to observe the use and determine the efficacy of a public boat wash station as well as increase the public's awareness of proper boat cleaning procedures and aquatic invasive species. The Tenmile Lakes Basin Partnership, Oregon State Marine Board, and the United States Forest Service (USFS) have undertaken an initiative to increase public awareness of invasive species and proper cleaning procedures by building a boat wash station at the Tenmile Lake public boat launch. In the summer of 2012, 199 qualitative human subject surveys were administered at Tenmile Lake in Lakeside, Oregon to boaters on their boating habits and knowledge of invasive species prior to building the boat wash ("pre-boat wash"). An extension of the 2012 study was conducted in the summer of 2013 on 200 boaters after the completion of the Tenmile Lake boat wash station ("post-boat wash"). Comparisons were made on the observations and answers of boaters prior to and after the boat wash installation. Of the boaters surveyed in the pre-boat wash field season, 75.9% of boaters claimed they would use a boat wash station at Tenmile Lake. The actual use of the boat wash station based on observations made by the field researcher during the post-boat wash field season indicated only 38.5% of surveyed boaters used the station. Furthermore, more than 20% of boaters could not verbally identify an invasive species in either field season when asked their awareness of aquatic invasive species. However, the majority of boaters surveyed at Tenmile Lake in the pre-boat wash field season (63.3%) and post-boat wash field season (66%) were aware of the phrase "Clean, Drain, Dry". These results identify a disconnect in what boaters say and what boaters do and the knowledge gaps boaters have on aquatic invasive species, but these results also identify a growing awareness of proper boat cleaning procedures.


The need for highly qualified physics teachers in the U.S. is well established, and reform efforts are underway to develop novel and innovative teacher professional development experiences to improve the quality of K-12 physics education. Streamline to Mastery is an NSF-funded, learner-centered professional development program that seeks to capitalize on teachers' knowledge and experience to move physics teachers toward mastery in their fields. Teacher participants in this teacher-driven program choose their own goals and areas of growth. One of these areas has been the development and implementation of inquiry-oriented curriculum, as well as the adaptation of traditional lessons toward a greater inquiry orientation. Results indicate that teachers' conceptions of inquiry teaching and learning have become more expert-like as they have engaged in teacher participant-driven experiences in the pursuit of greater understanding and more effective classroom practice.


We present high‐resolution benthic δ13C records from intermediate water depth core site MD01‐2461 (1153 m water depth), from the Porcupine Seabight, NE Atlantic, spanning 43 to 8 kyr B.P. At an average proxy time step of 160 ± 56 years this core provides information on the linkage between records from the Portuguese Margin and high‐latitude North Atlantic basin, allowing additional insights into North Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC) variability during millennial‐scale climatic events of the last glacial. Together, these records document both discrete and progressive reductions in Glacial North Atlantic Intermediate Water (GNAIW) formation preceding Heinrich (H) events 1, 2, and 4, recorded through the apparent interchange of glacial northern and southern‐sourced intermediate water signatures along the European Margin. Close coupling of NW European ice sheet (NWEIS) instability and GNAIW formation is observed through transient advances of SCW along the European margin concurrent with pulses of ice‐rafted debris and meltwater release into the NE Atlantic between 27 and 16 kyr B.P., when the NWEIS was at maximum extent and proximal to Last Glacial Maximum convection zones in the open North Atlantic. It is such NWEIS instability and meltwater forcing that may have triggered reduced North Atlantic THC prior to collapse of the Laurentide ice sheet at H1 and H2. Precursory reduction in GNAIW formation prior to H4 may also be inferred. However, limited NWEIS ice volume prior to H4 and convection occurring in the Norwegian‐Greenland Sea require that if a meltwater trigger is invoked, as appears to be the case at H1 and H2, the source of meltwater prior to H4 is elsewhere, likely higher‐latitude ice sheets. Clarification of the sequencing and likely mechanisms of precursory decrease of the North Atlantic THC support theories of H event initiation relating to ice shelf growth during cold periods associated with reduced North Atlantic THC and subsequent ablation through subsurface warming and sea level rise associated with further reductions in meridional overturning.


In signalling environments ranging from consumption to education, high-quality senders often shun the standard signals that should separate them from lower-quality senders. We find that allowing for additional, noisy information on sender quality permits equilibria where medium types signal to separate themselves from low types, but high types then choose to not signal, or countersignal. High types not only save costs by relying on the additional information to stochastically separate them from low types, but countersignalling itself is a signal of confidence that separates high types from medium types. Experimental results confirm that subjects can learn to countersignal.


Collaborative research has a critical role to play in furthering our understanding of African politics. Many of the most important and interesting questions in the field are difficult, if not impossible, to tackle without some form of collaboration, either between academics within and outside of Africa—often termed North–South research partnerships—or between those researchers and organizations from outside the academic world. In Africa in particular, collaborative research is becoming more frequent and more extensive. This is due not only to the value of the research that it can produce but also to pressures on the funding of African scholars and academics in the Global North, alongside similar pressures on the budgets of non-academic collaborators, including bilateral aid agencies, multilateral organizations, and national and international non-government organizations.
 Collaborative projects offer many advantages to these actors beyond access to new funding sources, so they constitute more than mere "marriages of convenience." These benefits typically include access to methodological expertise and valuable new data sources, as well as opportunities to increase both the academic and "real-world" impact of research findings. Yet collaborative research also raises a number of challenges, many of which relate to equity. They center on issues such as who sets the research agenda, whether particular methodological approaches are privileged over others, how responsibility for different research tasks is allocated, how the benefits of that research are distributed, and the importance of treating colleagues with respect despite the narrative of "capacity-building." Each challenge manifests in slightly different ways, and to varying extents, depending on the type of collaboration at hand: North–South research partnership or collaboration between academics and policymakers or practitioners. This article discusses both types of collaboration together because of their potential to overlap in ways that affect the severity and complexity of those challenges.
 These challenges are not unique to research in Africa, but they tend to manifest in ways that are distinct or particularly acute on the continent because of the context in which collaboration takes place. In short, the legacy of colonialism matters. That history not only shapes who collaborates with whom but also who does so from a position of power and who does not. Thus, the inequitable nature of some research collaborations is not simply the result of oversights or bad habits; it is the product of entrenched structural factors that produce, and reproduce, imbalances of power. This means that researchers seeking to make collaborative projects in Africa more equitable must engage with these issues early, proactively, and continuously throughout the entire life cycle of those research projects. This is true not just for researchers based in the Global North but for scholars from, or working in, Africa as well.


Controversial, challenging and outspoken, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is one of the most visible and controversial cultural critics of our time. Her reputation was first made by her translation and preface to Jacques Derrida's ground-breaking work, "Of Grammatology". She has since built a global reputation in feminist, marxist and literary criticism as well as post-colonialism. A reputation underpinned by her active involvement in the practical politics of women's empowerment, third world education and development debates. In these thought-provoking interviews and talks, we see her being provocative, playful, personal and accessible in a way that her complex, theoretical essays do not allow. The interviews collected here reflect the international character of her intellectual engagement with the ideas and the politics which are shaping our world.


Novelty detection in time series is an important problem with application in different domains such as machine failure detection, fraud detection and auditing. An approach to this problem uses time series forecasting by neural networks. However, time series forecasting is a difficult problem, thus, the use of this technique for time series novelty detection is sometimes criticized. Alternatively, a number of different classification-based techniques have been recently proposed for this problem. The idea of these methods is to learn to classify time series windows as normal or novelty. Unfortunately, in many cases of interest there are only normal data available for training. Several of the classificationbased techniques tackle this problem by adding random negative samples to the training set. In some cases the performance of the novelty detection method depends on the number of random negative samples added and selection of this number can be a problem. In this work, we present a method for novelty detection in time series based on RBF neural networks. The proposed method does not need negative samples and is based on the dynamic decay adjustment (DDA) algorithm for RBF networks training. We have carried out a number of experiments using four real-world time series, whose results have shown that the performance of the method proposed in this work is much better than that of a method that needs negative samples.


In the framework of a research project focusing on mitigation measures for hydropeaking, a lateral embayment in riverbank is studied as a fish shelter. With the goal to find attractive configurations of shelter, systematic experiments with wild juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta fario) were carried out in a flume supplied with freshwater from a natural river. The experimental is equipped with a rectangular lateral embayment. In order to follow the fish trajectories, their movements were recorded continuously by video camera during every test, and their positions were periodically observed. In order to link the swimming trajectories of the trout with the flow conditions, 2D simulations were computed to obtain the diverted discharge in the shelter, and systematic UVP measurement of the velocity field was performed. The flow velocities were analysed in the vertical interface between the shelter and the flume. Comparing the velocity patterns with the fish trajectories, the attractiveness of different configurations of fish shelters could be analyzed. The first tests reveal that a very basic shelter configuration, with low water exchange between shelter and channel, is not interesting for fish. When forcing a water exchange By introducing a deviation groyne into the shelter with the aim to force the water exchange, the frequentation rate can be increased significantly. The fish can easily detect the refuge by the exchange flux when searching its way upstream. The shelter attractiveness was optimized by testing different groyne orientations, in order to create an expanded velocity field close to the exit and entrance sections. Important is a high velocity field leaving the refuge at its lower end but also a backwater zone near the groyne. The high velocity field attracts the fish and the close backwater zone allows the fish to enter the shelter. For the best configuration, more than 80% of the fish found the shelter by swimming mainly from downstream, during the next 20 minutes after the beginning of hydropeaking.


This paper proposes VaR estimation methods that are a synthesis of conditional autoregressive value at risk (CAViaR) time series models and implied volatility. The appeal of this proposal is that it merges information from the historical time series and the different information supplied by the market's expectation of risk. Forecast combining methods, with weights estimated using quantile regression, are considered. We also investigate plugging implied volatility into the CAViaR models, a procedure that has not been considered in the VaR area so far. Results for daily index returns indicate that the newly proposed methods are comparable or superior to individual methods, such as the standard CAViaR models and quantiles constructed from implied volatility and the empirical distribution of standardised residual. We find that the implied volatility has more explanatory power as the focus moves further out into the left tail of the conditional distribution of S&P500 daily returns.


This paper assesses a parallel electric hybrid propulsion system utilizing simple and recuperated cycle gas turbine configurations. An adapted engine model capable to reproduce a turboshaft engine steady state and transient operation is built in Simcenter Amesim and used as a baseline for a recuperated engine. The transient operation of the recuperated engine is assessed for different values of heat exchanger effectiveness, quantifying the engine lag and the surge margin reduction which are results of the heat exchanger addition. An oil and gas (OAG) mission of a twin engine medium helicopter has been used for assessing the parallel hybrid configuration. The thermoelectric system brings a certain level of flexibility allowing for better engine utilization, thus first a hybrid configuration based on simple cycle gas turbine scaled down from the baseline engine is assessed in terms of performance and weight. Following the recuperated engine, thermoelectric power plant is assessed and the performance enhancement is compared against the simple cycle conventional and hybrid configurations. The results indicate that a recuperated gas turbine based thermo-electric power plant may provide significant fuel economy despite the increased weight. At the same time, the electric power train can be used to compensate for the reduced specific power and potentially for the throttle response change due to the heat exchanger addition.


Using information derived from interviews with Palestinians from Bourj al-Barajneh refugee camp, Beirut, this thesis examines the importance of village origin in the camp and whether any role played by village origin is the result of deliberate actions by the Palestinians or purely accidental. The pattern of settlement within the camp is established to determine whether village origin in Palestine has influenced the camp structure. Factors that may initially have influenced the camp structure are evaluated such as, the route taken by the Palestinians between their villages and Bourj al-Barajneh, and their reasons for settling in the camp and choosing where to pitch their tents. Throughout its history the camp structure has evolved, different areas being more extensively developed at different times. Reasons for the camps changing structure are also examined. The importance of village origin to the social and political life of the camp is considered and its significance compared with other factors that play a role in camp life. To put in context information collected from Bourj inhabitants, this thesis begins by discussing the Palestinian refugee problem and presenting a brief history of the camp based on inhabitants' recollections. For comparison, Rashidieh and Ein al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camps also in Lebanon were visited and a brief description of their structures and village origins of their inhabitants included. This thesis concludes that to a certain extent the camp structure has been influenced by village origin aJthough other factors have played an important role. Initially village origin had some influence socially which has now decreased. Politically village origin has never had any influence. Above all, there does not appear to have been a deliberate attempt to promote the importance of village origin in the camp.


Although much research has been devoted to designing and experimenting on ad hoc networks of tiny devices, very little has focussed on devising theoretical models to capture the inherent power and limitations of such networks. A notable exception is the population protocol model of Angluin et al. [2]. This model is simple and elegant but is sometimes considered too restrictive because of its anonymity: mobile agents have no identities and all look the same. We investigate in this paper the inherent power of the population protocol model augmented with the ability of each agent to be uniquely identified as well as store a constant number of other agents' identifiers. We provide an exact characterization of what can be computed in this new community protocol model: a function can be computed if and only if it is symmetric and in NSPACE(n log n). This is shown using a simulation of pointer machines. We also consider the ability of our community protocol model to handle failures. We describe what can be computed when there are a constant number of benign failures and show that nontrivial computations can be achieved even if agents can be Byzantine.


A severe complication of dengue virus infection, dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), is hypothesized to be immunologically mediated and virus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) may trigger DHF. It is also likely that dengue virus-specific CTLs are important for recovery from dengue virus infections. There is little available information on the human CD8+ T cell responses to dengue viruses. Memory CD8+CTL responses were analyzed to determine the diversity of the T cell response to dengue virus and to identify immunodominant proteins using PBMC from eight healthy adult volunteers who had received monovalent, live-attenuated candidate vaccines of the four dengue serotypes. All the donors had specific T cell proliferation to dengue and to other flaviviruses that we tested. CTLs were generated from the stimulated PBMC of all donors, and in the seven donors tested, dengue virus-specific CD8+CTL activity was demonstrated. The nonstructural (NS3 and NS1.2a) and envelope (E) proteins were recognized by CD8+CTLs from six, five, and three donors, respectively. All donors recognized either NS3 or NS1.2a. In one donor who received a dengue 4 vaccine, CTL killing was seen in bulk culture against the premembrane protein (prM). This is the first demonstration of a CTL response against the prM protein. The CTL responses using the PBMC of two donors were serotype specific, whereas all other donors had serotype-cross-reactive responses. For one donor, CTLs specific for E, NS1.2a, and NS3 proteins were all HLA-B44 restricted. For three other donors tested, the potential restricting alleles for recognition of NS3 were B38, A24, and/or B62 and B35. These results indicate that the CD8+CTL responses of humans after immunization with one serotype of dengue virus are diverse and directed against a variety of proteins. The NS3 and NS1.2a proteins should be considered when designing subunit vaccines for dengue.


Abstract. Newtonian relaxation allowing RCM to follow GCM is a widely used technique for climate downscaling and regional weather forecasting. A thorough assessment on effects of the relaxation procedure in an idealized framework is presented in this paper for both synoptic variability and long-term mean climate. LMDz is a global atmospheric general circulation model that can be configured as a regional model if the outside domain of the focused region is applied with a relaxation. It thus plays the role of both GCM and RCM in this paper. Same physical parameterization and identical dynamical configuration are kept to ensure a rigorous comparison between the two models. The experimental set-up that can be referred to as "Master (GCM) versus Slave (RCM)" considers the GCM as the reference to assess the behavior of RCM. A further simulation with RCM in a higher resolution configuration allows isolating the effect of relaxation procedure from that of mesh refinement. In terms of mean climate in GCM and RCM, there are noticeable differences, not only in the border areas, but also within the domain. In terms of synoptic variability, there is a general spatial resemblance and temporal concomitance between the two models. But there is a dependence on variables, seasons, spatiotemporal scales and spatial mode of atmospheric circulation. Winter/Summer has the most/least resemblance between the RCM and the GCM. A better similarity is noticed when atmospheric circulations manifested on large scales. No-correlation cases can be remarked when the dominant circulation of the region is at a small scale.


Legal duties are created by society for any sort of reason that seems good to society. Thus, where a harmful act has been done by the defendant with resulting profit to himself, the law can declare that these facts shall operate to create either a duty in the defendant to make good to the plaintiff for all thz damage suffered by him or a duty in the defendant to restore to the plaintiff the amount of the profit wrongfully received by the defendant. Both of these alternative duties are secondary, remedial duties, created to redress the wrong done by a tortious act. The first is the duty that is enforced in the more common of tort actions like trespass and case. The second has come to be called a quasi-contractual duty, chiefly because the form of action in which it was recognized and enforced was assumpsit; by the use of fictionso common in the growth of our law-the tort was said to be waived and a contract to be implied by the law. The use of the language of -iction, such as this, might well be expected to result in error and confusion. Such a result is made almost certain by the prevailing ignorance of the history and character of the common-law forms of


The study of teacher identity developed greatly during the 1990s and, in a way, replaced other studies on teacher professionalism. Highlighting the interactions, emotions and cognitions in their everyday expression, these studies contributed to making visible the role of specific communities of professionals in valuing and improving professional action. However, after almost two decades, it became clear that the study of the construction of teacher identity could not be based solely on the description of the interactions, but in fact also required a macro-sociological analysis. Coordinating these levels of analysis is important for developing the construct of the teacher as a professional, a profile that inspires current teacher training policies in Europe. Based on theoretical contributions such as the 'construction of professional identities for real social change' (Claude Dubar), and the ideal-typical model of professionalism (Eliot Freidson), this article aims to present the construction of teacher identity as a subjective dimension of the process of teacher professionalisation, viewing it as an ecological construct. To this end, the article presents the results of research carried out during the 1990s and the early twenty-first century, in order to shed some light on the dynamics inherent to each of the levels of analysis and the interactions which are established between them. The article concludes with a discussion of the advantages of this approach for teacher training and research.


The evaluation of the production efficiency of sugar beets and sugar in Ukraine for the period of 2001–2015 was made. The preconditions of negative changes in the sugar branch were studied. The output of sugar production in Ukraine depends on the gross harvest of sugar beets, their yielding capacity and the sown area under this crop. A polynomial model which describes the yielding capacity level of sugar beets in Ukraine in 1913–2015 has been worked out; the prediction of sugar beet yield for the year of 2017 has been made and its increase by 28% is expected. The importance of marketing in enterprises of the agrarian sector and in the enterprises of the sugar industry are indicated. Diversification trends of the supply of sugar-mills which will favor the efficiency enhancement of sugar beet production have been explained. As the problem of supplying our country with power-carriers becomes urgent, it is expedient to speed up and diversify the manufacture of alternative fuel kinds, in particular, bio ethanol and biogas. The ways of the efficiency enhancement of sugar beet production to ensure stable business development in the branch which requires active government support of producers have been identified. The research results can help solve practical problems of farm enterprises and in agrarian business in general.


An analysis of aligned nematic liquid crystal cells containing core-shell nanospheres shows that it is possible to devise a new type of metamaterial whose index of refraction is tunable from negative, through zero, to positive values. The design parameters for the constituents can be scaled for application in the optical as well as very long wavelength (e.g., terahertz and microwave) regions.


Abstract Western-derived maker movements and their associated fab labs and hackerspaces are being lauded by some as a global industrial revolution, responsible for groundbreaking digital "entanglements" that transform identities, practices and cultures at an unprecedented rate (Anderson 2014; Hills 2016). Assertions proliferate regarding the societal and entrepreneurial benefits of these "new" innovations, with positive impacts ascribed to everything, from poverty to connectivity. However, contradictory evidence has started to emerge, suggesting that a heterogeneous set of global cultural practices have been homogenized. This paper employs a materialist genealogical framework to deconstruct three dominant narratives about information technologies, which we call "technomyths" in the tradition of McGregor et al. After outlining the maker movement, its assumptions are examined through three lesser-cited examples: One Laptop per Child in Peru, jugaad in India and shanzhai copyleft in China. We then explore two preceding technomyths: Open Source and Web 2.0. In conclusion, we identify three key aspects as constitutive to all three technomyths: technological determinism of information technologies, neoliberal capitalism and its "ideal future" subjectivities and the absence and/or invisibility of the non-Western.


It is argued that corpus methods help to reduce analyst bias in conducting (critical) discourse analysis. This paper describes an experiment whereby five analysts were independently given a British newspaper corpus about foreign doctors and asked to analyse how such doctors were represented. The resulting five reports were analysed to compare which findings were shared, which varied and which factors may help predict variance or productivity of analysis. Considerable variance was found in the findings of the five analysts, meaning we cannot claim that corpus approaches to critical discourse analysis completely remove bias. However, such approaches seem effective at identifying 'majority' patterns and giving an overall picture of the data.


Objective Several studies have reported increased perioperative risk after carotid artery stenting (CAS) for patients ≥80 years of age; however, most have not considered unfavorable anatomic features noted more frequently in this population as a confounding variable. The purpose of this study was to show a correlation between poor aortic arch anatomy and perioperative ischemic complications after CAS. Methods Our prospectively maintained database was queried for all CAS procedures performed on symptomatic patients between 2009 and 2011. Retrospective analysis of consecutive CAS procedures was performed. The primary endpoint was perioperative (within 30 days) ischemic events (stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA)). Event incidence was compared between groups dichotomized by age and anatomical features. Incidence of unfavorable arch (acute angle between aortic arch and treated common carotid artery) was compared between age groups. Results Perioperative ischemic events included four ischemic strokes and three TIAs (all events ipsilateral to the treated vessel). Event incidence was more frequent in patients with unfavorable arch anatomy (7.9%) than in those with favorable aortic arch features (0.7%) (p=0.0073). Event incidence in patients ≥80 years of age (4.5%) was not statistically different than that in patients <80 years (2.3%) (p=0.428). Unfavorable aortic arch anatomy was increased in frequency in patients aged 80 years and over (<80 years, 29%; ≥80 years, 52%; p<0.001). Conclusions In the present series, the incidence of perioperative complications was increased in patients with unfavorable aortic arch anatomy but not in patients ≥80 years. CAS represents a revascularization option for patients of all ages; however, patients with unfavorable aortic arch anatomy may represent a group at relatively high risk for periprocedural ischemic events.


Abstract International environmental law (IEL) as a discipline has failed to respond to problems of fairness in a meaningful and systematic fashion. Whilst IEL has long acknowledged the existence of competing claims regarding the fair distribution of costs, resources, and responsibilities, fairness remains at the periphery of the disciplinary discourse. The present essay considers some possible explanations for this neglect. The first part of the essay examines a set of implicit assumptions and beliefs in which IEL is embedded, which somewhat prevent genuine and critical engagement with fairness issues. The second part of the essay considers normative and policy arguments recently developed in the law and economics literature that explicitly argue against the notion that fairness should play a role in the design and implementation of environmental regimes. The essay concludes by calling for a more robust engagement with fairness issues and by considering some of the implications this project may have for IEL.


Programming distributed memory multiprocessors requires program parallelization as well as program optimization with respect to data locality. SVMFortran is a programming language for shared virtual memory architectures with special language features for specifying the distribution of parallel tasks onto the processors. It is realized on top of a shared virtual memory implementation on Intel Paragon. A programming environment provides performance analysis tools helping the user in the optimization of data locality. This paper outlines the environment, describes the basic concepts of the performance analysis support, and presents a design for the automation of performance analysis.


The discovery of mutations associated with disease pathogenesis does not have to rest solely on genetic evidence. [Also see Research Article by Novarino et al.] The perennial promise of human disease genetics is the delivery of etiology-based therapies. This rests on the notion that identifying disease-causing mutations will provide a basis for determining the molecular networks that constitute the disease process—an understanding that is critical for the development of such therapies. On page 506 of this issue, Novarino et al. (1) perform what is perhaps the most complete genetic analysis of the neurological disorder hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP), and deliver on part of this promise by creating an "HSPome," a plausible network of proteins involved in this disease.


About 50 species of elasmobranchs and 460 species of bony fishes are currently known from the Arabian Gulf. They are key components of the region's marine biodiversity, contributing to ecosystem functions and services, such as food security. Addressing natural and human-induced threats and the absence of adequate species-specific information, bony fishes were recently assessed against the criteria of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which assigns species to extinction risk categories, based on objectively verifiable criteria. Two Red List Assessment workshops were held by the IUCN Global Marine Species Assessment team, Qatar University, and Qatar Museums, funded by the Qatar National Research Fund. Regional and international experts on fish taxonomy, fisheries, and Arabian Gulf environmental issues participated. Preliminary results indicate that 7% of the fish species, including several of high commercial importance, were at an elevated risk of extinction (5% Vulnerable and 2% Endangered); another 2% were designated as Near Threatened. Most species (71%) were listed as Least Concern. For 20% of all species adequate information was unavailable and they were listed as Data Deficient. Naturally stressful environmental conditions such as high salinities and temperature extremes prevail in the semi-enclosed, shallow Gulf. In addition, degradation resulting from urban and industrial developments, pollution, and unsustainable fisheries is increasing rapidly, aggravated by climate change. The findings of the regional Red List Assessment are attributed to these multiple stressors. While in general, overfishing is the dominant threat, coral-associated species are mainly impacted by habitat loss. Fish assemblages recovered from major oil spills within a few years, but climate change resulted in permanent shifts in species compositions. The high percentage of Data Deficient species underlines the need for more research. Improved scientific knowledge will be the basis for region-specific conservation measures. Most international scientists participating in the assessments have a museum background, underlining the importance of Natural History Museums in research and conservation. There is an urgent need to establish regional research collections, which will provide Qatar with prime sources of objectively verifiable, species-specific information for management and conservation purposes.


This thesis is dedicated to the study of Recommendation Systems for implicit feedback (clicks) mostly using Learning-to-rank and neural network based approaches. In this line, we derive a novel Neural-Network model that jointly learns a new representation of users and items in an embedded space as well as the preference relation of users over the pairs of items and give theoretical analysis. In addition we contribute to the creation of two novel, publicly available, collections for recommendations that record the behavior of customers of European Leaders in eCommerce advertising, Kelkoofootnote{url{https://www.kelkoo.com/}} and Purchfootnote{label{purch}url{http://www.purch.com/}}. Both datasets gather implicit feedback, in form of clicks, of users, along with a rich set of contextual features regarding both customers and offers. Purch's dataset, is affected by popularity bias. Therefore, we propose a simple yet effective strategy on how to overcome the popularity bias introduced while designing an efficient and scalable recommendation algorithm by introducing diversity based on an appropriate representation of items. Further, this collection contains contextual information about offers in form of text. We make use of this textual information in novel time-aware topic models and show the use of topics as contextual information in Factorization Machines that improves performance. In this vein and in conjunction with a detailed description of the datasets, we show the performance of six state-of-the-art recommender models.Keywords. Recommendation Systems, Data Sets, Learning-to-Rank, Neural Network, Popularity Bias, Diverse Recommendations, Contextual information, Topic Model.


The delivery of cognitive behaviour therapy over the internet (iCBT) has developed in tandem with recent technological advancements. In this chapter, we briefly explore the background of iCBT and its ongoing evolution in the relatively short period that has been available. We summarise the empirical evidence that supports the efficacy and effectiveness of iCBT in different settings, and for different populations. We provide an overview on how an iCBT platform works for service users, and we offer some thoughts on the processes involved in repurposing an evidence-based treatment protocol into an online format. Using iCBT service, users can avail of the benefits of cognitive behaviour therapy in a flexible manner, with or without support. The case presentation provided an illustrative on some of these advantages and highlights opportunities for the individual. The service delivery examples describe the use of iCBT and its application in different contexts. Lastly, we discuss several areas of importance for the future research and practice of iCBT.


The construction of large software systems from existing components requires efficient access to possibly large collections of such components. In this paper, we present a content-based framework to organize this large collection of components in a semi-automatic fashion, according to an extensible user-defined ontology. Neural associative memories are used for fast, similarity-based access. Relevant characteristics of components are extracted and stored as a "signature" in such an associative memory, and during retrieval the closest matches to the query are indicated in very short time. In addition to content-based characteristics such as keywords, function and variable names, comments, and the location of the component in the class hierarchy, this method can be easily expanded to include usage characteristics, resource requirements, or other task- or customer-specific criteria.


This study bestows an essential abridged review of the manifestations of carbon capture & storage (CCS) systems and the ambivalence of quantum-dot & organic photovoltaic (PV) solar cells. This research implicates that CCS system is evolving in capturing emissions from coal-fired electrical power stations to further mitigate climate change. Different manifestations are discussed for capturing and storing the with repercussions on operating costs, toxicity and energy efficiency. Chemical Looping Combustion appears to be the more energy efficient than Oxy-fuel CFBC and Ionic Liquids, and less expensive than Calcium Looping and Amine Scrubbing. Calcium Looping (Cal) and Ionic Liquids are also less toxic than Amine Scrubbing. Direct air technology is also very compelling at capturing emissions but highly expensive. Nevertheless, further research is still required for all CCS systems to be able to implement them widely in existing/new electrical power stations. Waste heat energy recovery systems can be used in conjunction with capture systems for further reduction of emissions. The ambivalence of quantum dot and organic solar cells are briefly reviewed. It implicates that composite film with enhanced quantum dot effects will make the film highly transparent and options of tunability of its color spectrum make the quantum dot solar cells highly attractive to a wide variety of applications. Organic solar cells are carbon-rich polymers and can be designed to improve a precise function of the cell, such as sensitivity to a certain type of light. OPV cells can only be considered as half-competent to crystalline silicon and have smaller beneficial lifespans, but could be less costly to produce in high volumes. Current research issues are substitution/compromises between electrical power conversion efficiency and average visible light transmittance. However, improving average light-transmittance decreases electrical power conversion efficiency and vice versa.