This article deals with the contributions to the psychology of religion made by Dr. Marianne Beth (1890-1984), an almost totally forgotten pioneer of the psychology of religion. The article especially contextualizes her initiative to turn "unbelief" into a topic for research in psychology of religion, and describes the tragic end the Nazi reign made to her development and career. Born as the daughter of a prominent Austrian Jewish lawyer living in Vienna, Marianne von Weisl received excellent intellectual training. Initially, her wish to become active in the same field as her father was frustrated by the injunction against women studying law. When this injunction was lifted, she went for a second doctorate in law, her first doctorate having been in the humanities. Marianne Beth became very active in public life (serving on the boards of many organizations, including international ones); she travelled and gave lectures and developed a large radius as a prolific author in newspapers and periodicals. Although clearly committed women's rights, she did not belong to any feminist movement. Her interest in psychology was certainly stimulated by her husband Karl Beth (1872-1959), a professor of systematic theology, who developed an increasing interest in both history and the psychology of religion. In fact, psychology of religion seems to have become the field in which the couple collaborated intellectually most. They were both involved in the founding of a "research institute" for the psychology of religion, of an international society for the psychology of religion, and of a journal for the psychology of religion. All these activities took place from the apartment of the Beths in Vienna, where the preparations for the First International Congress for the Psychology of Religion also occurred. That congress had as its theme; "the psychic causes of unbelief". Even earlier than her husband, Marianne Beth had published on the topic of unbelief. Her interest may have been triggered by a call for papers by the internationally renowned KantSociety. The Society issued a prize for a treatise on "the psychology of belief" in 1928, which Marianne Beth then won. It is also possible, however, that the call for papers had been triggered after her initial publications on the subject. Her paper was published in the well-known journal Kant-Studien. There was a plan to publish the contributions to the 1931 congress in Vienna in book form in a series of three volumes, but only one was published, probably due to financial problems. The rest of the papers presented were published in the Zeitschrift für Religionspsychologie, edited by the Beths. (Marianne Beth's paper was also published in this journal.) As her publications since then show, she grew increasingly interested in empirical topics and approaches, and was broadly read in contemporary psychology. She authored numerous contributions to the Zeitschrift für Religionspsychologie. However, when Nazi-Germany annexed Austria in 1938, she left the country for the United States, taking both her children with her. Shortly afterwards, Karl Beth was also obliged to follow his family into exile. In the US, neither had any opportunity to pursue their interests in the psychology of religion; Marianne taught sociology briefly and German; Karl taught "comparative theology". Nevertheless, Marianne Beth's impulse to turn "unbelief" into a research topic in the psychology of religion did have some lasting influence: the work of better-known psychologists of religion such as Rümke, Pruyser and Vergote are indebted to her, at least indirectly, as this article tries to show.


Vehicles with combustion engines are significant emitters of air pollutants and therefore have
a major influence on the environment. Road and tunnel studies are important tools in
evaluating the traffic emission models and in assessing the achievements of new technologies
for emission reduction.
 During three tunnel measurement campaigns namely: the Lundby Tunnel in Sweden (March,
2001), the Plabutsch Tunnel in Austria (November, 2001), the Kingsway Tunnel in England
(March, 2003) and an additional field experiment conducted along a section of the A656
motorway in Germany (May 2001), emissions from a large variety of vehicles were
investigated. The measurements covered the standard pollutants CO 2 , NOx and non methane
volatile organic compounds (NMVOC).
 The data obtained from the measurements carried out in these European locations were
analysed with respect to the composition of the NMVOC mixture and the ratio of individual
compounds to benzene, CO 2 and NOx. The NMVOC profiles observed in the tunnel as well as
in motorway measurements are in good agreement with the NMVOC profiles observed in
other campaigns. Among the aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene showed the highest mixing ratio,
whereas iso-pentane and propene had the highest mixing ratios among the alkanes and
alkenes, respectively. During the motorway experiment, vertical gradients were observed for
several NMVOC downwind of the motorway, in contrast to the upwind measurement site,
where NMVOC were constantly distributed. This indicates that the studied NMVOCs are
directly emitted by the traffic. The ratio toluene/benzene, which is an indicator of traffic
activity, was found in the performed studies to be: 3.09 in the Lundby Tunnel, 2.44 in the
Plabutsch Tunnel and 2.87 in the Kingsway Tunnel. During the A656 motorway experiment,
the ratio was constantly 2.5 except for stop and go periods when this could increase up to 3.6.
These values are higher than the previously measured ratios at traffic sites. This finding can be
explained by an over proportional decrease in the benzene emissions compared with the
aromatic compounds since the year 2000, when the new European Directive 98/70/EC
limiting the benzene content in gasoline to 1% started to be applied.
 Within the framework of extensive emission data validation experiments, the emission factors
for the Lundby Tunnel, the Plabutsch Tunnel and the A656 motorway have been determined
using the local traffic measurements in combination with new emission models. The models
provide emission factors with a temporal resolution of 20 min for the tunnel studies and 3 h
for the motorway study. The models took as input parameters the emission factors for CO 2 -
model 1; total hydrocarbons (THC) - model 2; and benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX) - model 3
from the Handbook Emission Factors for Road Transport (HBEFA) version 2.1. The input
parameters were modified by taking into account the slope gradients for the corresponding
measurement sites as well as the fleet composition and the driving pattern. By comparing the
direct calculated values of emission factors with the model 1 values, a good correlation of data
was obtained for the time intervals characterised by fluent and high traffic density. This
proves that the emission factors for CO 2 in the HBFEA 2.1 are a good estimation for the real
traffic situation. In the case of the Lundby and the Kingsway Tunnels, for all analysed
compounds except benzene, the emission factors calculated through model 1 were higher than
those obtained from model 2 and 3. For the Plabutsch Tunnel, the models 2 values were
higher. The data analysis of THC emission factors for the given traffic fleets was used in order
to clarify the discrepancy between measured and model calculated emission data.
 Two hypotheses were verified:
 the THC emission factor of heavy duty vehicles is not correct; and/or the percentage of catalyst vehicles determined from the fleet data analysis does
not reflect the reality, i.e. cars that are registered with catalyst in fact have a
malfunctioning catalyst and should be counted as non-catalyst vehicles with the
corresponding emission factor.
The influence on the emission factors of the about 12% malfunctioning catalysts was
demonstrated.
 From the overall emission factors determined for weekday traffic, in the Plabutsch Tunnel, the
emission factors for light duty vehicles (LDV) and heavy duty vehicles (HDV) were
calculated by means of a regression analysis. The comparison of the LDV emission factors for
benzene and toluene obtained in the Plabutsch Tunnel, to data from a previous study
performed in the same tunnel shows a clear decrease of the emission factors in this tunnel.
The A656 motorway experiment, showed for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and 1,2,4
trimethylbenzene/decane that within the statistical errors the measured values are in good
agreement with the modeled ones.
 The results of the present study show that the NMVOC split is influenced by the fleet
composition and that the most important contribution to the NMVOC emissions results from
poorly maintained vehicles and those with malfunctioning catalysts. The results of the present
study reflect the current situation and the improvements of the European car fleet with respect
to hydrocarbons emissions after the introduction of the new European legislation in 2000.


New forms of urbanization are unfolding around the world that challenge inherited conceptions of the urban as a fixed, bounded and universally generalizable settlement type. Meanwhile, debates on the urban question continue to proliferate and intensify within the social sciences, the planning and design disciplines, and in everyday political struggles. Against this background, this paper revisits the question of the epistemology of the urban: through what categories, methods and cartographies should urban life be understood? After surveying some of the major contemporary mainstream and critical responses to this question, we argue for a radical rethinking of inherited epistemological assumptions regarding the urban and urbanization. Building upon reflexive approaches to critical social theory and our own ongoing research on planetary urbanization, we present a new epistemology of the urban in a series of seven theses. This epistemological framework is intended to clarify the intellectual and political stakes of contemporary debates on the urban question and to offer an analytical basis for deciphering the rapidly changing geographies of urbanization and urban struggle under early 21st-century capitalism. Our arguments are intended to ignite and advance further debate on the epistemological foundations for critical urban theory and practice today.


The use of cereals and other agricultural crops for energy purposes and the increased demand for food world-wide have increased cereal prices. However since energy prices have also increased, it can still be profitable to use cereals for energy production. To date, the cereals used for bioenergy have usually been grown in the same way as food and feed cereals, but there is scope to tailor the cultivation system to the end product. The overall objective of this project was to improve the profitability of cereal cultivation for energy purposes. Changes to the cultivation system in terms of e.g. choice of crop and cultivar, strategies for fertilisation and crop protection and transport/handling of cereals for bioethanol production or combustion were studied. Timeliness costs associated with bioenergy cereals were also examined. The financial impact of changes in the cultivation system for bioenergy cereals was then examined for three typical farms, located in the provinces of Skane, Ostergotland and Uppland. Based on the results obtained, concrete guidelines for farmers were formulated. The average arable area of the typical farms was 203 ha, the farms had a seven-year crop rotation and for all locations winter wheat was the dominant crop but triticale and oats were also included. Two cultivation systems, Traditional and Energy, were examined. In the Energy cultivation system, the winter wheat and triticale were used for bioethanol production in an ethanol plant located in Norrkoping (Ostergotland), while the oats were used for combustion in plants close to the typical farms. The results showed that cultivation of bioenergy cereals did not differ greatly from cultivation of food/feed cereals. However, when cultivating cereals for bioethanol production it is important to adapt the nitrogen fertilisation strategy to achieve high starch content together with high yields of the specific cultivar grown. The most important change in the Energy system proved to be decreasing the nitrogen fertiliser dose to winter wheat for bioethanol production compared with food winter wheat, by 25 kg per ha and year overall for the typical farms. Yield then decreased by 200 kg per ha. There are currently no cereal cultivars developed specifically for combustion, but plant breeders should work towards producing cultivars that combine high yield with high energy content per kg dry matter. The economic analyses of the typical farms showed that the Traditional system gave higher profits than the Energy system in Uppland and Skane, but the systems were equally profitable in Ostergotland. This was because the ethanol plant was located in Ostergotland, so the transport costs were the same for both systems in this province but were higher for the Energy system in Skane and Uppland. Detailed analysis of the energy cereals grown showed that due mainly to the increased transport costs associated with the ethanol plant being located in Norrkoping, the price of winter wheat for ethanol production in Skane should be 0.06 SEK/kg higher than the price of feed wheat to achieve the same level of profit. In Ostergotland the profitability was higher for bioethanol wheat both when delivered at harvest or after storage (in December). For delivery at harvest, for each percentage increase in starch content there was a bonus of SEK 0.02 per kg winter wheat produced, and also higher permitted grain water content on delivery to the ethanol plant. The price of bioethanol wheat could therefore be 0.08 SEK/kg lower at harvest delivery and 0.03 SEK/kg lower at delivery after storage without lowering the profitability compared with feed wheat. For Uppland the profitability for bioethanol wheat was comparable with that of feed wheat. Compared with wheat, the profitability of triticale increased more when it was used for bioethanol instead of feed. The price of oats for combustion rather than for feed could decrease for all typical farms without decreasing profitability due to the subsidy available for cultivation of energy crops and to the decreased transport costs when the combustion plant is located close to the typical farm. In this study timeliness costs had minor effects on overall costs, at most constituting 4% of the total. Lower quality requirements (falling number) on bioethanol wheat compared with food wheat resulted in lower timeliness costs for the Energy system, while timeliness costs for the other cereals studied were similar.


Indignation is often understood to be the translation of an essentially just moral evaluation. However, it is necessary to investigate the ambiguities of this moral emotion. In the first part, an examination of the genealogy of indignation sheds light on the differences and similarities between ancient and modern conceptions of indignation. Modern indignation presupposes a universalist notion of dignity and thus sets itself not only against injustice, as is the case of ancient nemesis, but also indignity. The paper then discusses the sources of modern indignation, in particular pity and disgust. It appears that compassionate indignation operates a distancing between the "spectator" and the victim, while disgusted indignation involves a more reflexive process by which the distinction between in-groups and out-groups is reinforced. The findings of cognitive neurology and social psychology are then analyzed in order to show to what extent moral indignation and primary disgust are in fact homologous. Finally, the political effects, both positive and negative, of indignation are studied.


Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility data for a ferromagnetic granite (Godhra Granite, NW India) are presented and it is shown that the degree of magnetic anisotropy (P′) is not controlled by the mean susceptibility (Km). Analyses carried out across a high-strain zone lying between granite and adjacent gneiss show that P′ values are highest in samples that lie close to the contact and decrease away from it. Based on these results it is concluded that if P′ is not controlled by Km, then the former can be used to gauge strain-intensity variations in ferromagnetic granites.


In this study retrievals of forest canopy height were obtained through adjustment of a simple geometric- optical (GO) model against red band surface bidirectional re fl ectance estimates from NASA's Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), mapped to a 250 m grid. The soil-understory background contribution was partly isolated prior to inversion using regression relationships with the isotropic, geometric, and volume scattering kernel weights of a Li-Ross kernel-driven bidirectional re fl ectance distribution function (BRDF) model. The height retrievals were assessed using discrete return lidar data acquired over sites in Colorado as part of the Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) and used with fractional crown cover retrievals to obtain aboveground woody biomass estimates. For all model runs with reasonable backgrounds and initial b/r (vertical to horizontal crown radii) values b 2.0, root mean square error (RMSE) distributions were centered between 2.5 and 3.7 m while R 2 distributions were centered between 0.4 and 0.7. The MISR/ GO aboveground biomass estimates predicted via regression on fractional cover and mean canopy height for the CLPX sites showed good agreement with U.S. Forest Service Interior West map data (adjusted R 2 =0.84). The is that multiangle sensors such as MISR can provide spatially contiguous retrievals of forest canopy height, cover, and aboveground woody biomass that are potentially useful in mapping distributions of aboveground carbon stocks, tracking disturbance, and in initializing, constraining, and validating ecosystem models. This is important because the MISR record is spatially comprehensive and extends back to the year 2000 and the launch of the NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra satellite; it might thus provide a ~10-year baseline record that would enhance exploitation of data from the NASA Deformation, Ecosystem Structure and Dynamics of Ice (DESDynI) mission, as well as furthering realization of synergies with active instruments.


Neoteric (new) solvents such as supercritical CO2
(scCO2), ionic liquids (ILs), ILs with cosolvents, and CO2-expanded ionic liquids (EILs) offer flexible physical properties, which allow chemists and engineers to select the optimal solvent system for a specific reaction process. Homogeneously-catalyzed asymmetric hydrogenation of α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acids was chosen for its economic interest and its multiple H2-concentration dependent behaviours. For example, with ruthenium BINAP-type catalysts, type I substrates require high H2 concentration in solution, while type II require low H2 concentration. ScCO2, ILs and EILs are highly attractive because of their contrasting properties and their potential flexibility in improving or reducing hydrogen transfer rates and thus concentrations. Several ILs were tested and compared with EILs, IL–cosolvent mixtures, scCO2, and normal methanol as media for these reactions to establish the most effective system for each substrate type. Atropic acid (type I) was hydrogenated up to 92% ee which is not better than in methanol. However, tiglic acid (type II) was hydrogenated up to 93% ee in the optimized IL system, which is significantly better than was observed in MeOH. CO2-expansion of ionic liquids affected the selectivity for both substrates, improving the selectivity for atropic acid and lowering it for tiglic acid. The solubility of the catalyst in scCO2 was measured and the antisolvent effect of H2 in scCO2 was demonstrated and discussed.


We investigate the relationship between terms-of-trade shocks and the current account of a small open economy in the presence of imperfect competition and nominal price rigidities in the nontraded sector. We show that a temporary termsof- trade improvement results in a current account surplus since the increase in consumption of traded goods is smaller than the magnitude of terms-of-trade shock. This result is consistent with the well-known Harberger-Laursen-Metzler effect. However, the effects of permanent term-of-trade shocks on current account depend mainly upon the intra- and intertemporal elasticities of substitution in consumption. When prices are perfectly flexible, permanent terms-of-trade shocks have no dynamic effects on the current account.


PURPOSE
Our purpose in the current study was to examine the relationship between health services utilization delivered by means of the Homeless Outreach Medical Services (HOMES) program and health services utilization delivered by means of the Parkland emergency room and inpatient units among a sample of older and younger homeless adults being served by the Parkland Health and Hospital System.

DESIGN AND METHODS
The HOMES program uses two 40-ft-long mobile medical units and a fixed-site outpatient clinic to provide primary health care on a walk-in, no-charge basis to individuals who are homeless. We used a quasi-experimental design, and we randomly selected health services utilization data from 293 male (50.4%) and 288 female (49.6%) homeless patients from among the 14,876 homeless patients aged 20-64 years who used HOMES and the Parkland Health and Hospital System between June 1, 1992, and June 30, 1999. The dependent variables were measurements of inpatient and outpatient utilization of psychiatric, substance abuse, and musculoskeletal services by homeless patients. Inpatient and outpatient utilization patterns by age were assessed. Data were analyzed using a split-plot repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and simple linear regression.

RESULTS
Older homeless individuals utilized the HOMES more than inpatient services for substance abuse and musculoskeletal conditions, but they utilized inpatient services the most for psychiatric-related conditions.

IMPLICATIONS
This level of inpatient utilization is perhaps a result of greater severity or progression of mental illness among older homeless adults. The level of outpatient utilization is probably because the HOMES program mitigates many of the barriers that prevent homeless individuals from obtaining primary medical care.


In the industrialised world, waste management systems have developed to maturity without primary concern for recycling. These systems have originally been designed to ensure human health and a high local hygienic standard. More recently environmental concerns have been the driving force behind a technological development of sewage treatment with biological removal of N, P and organic matter. This technology addresses some immediate problems in the aquatic environment, but the sewage sludge from the treatment plants contains considerable quantities of xenobiotic compounds and heavy metals, and only a fraction of the nutrients that entered the urban areas, thus making the sludge a non-attractive fertiliser source. In recent years there has been concern about the sustainability of this state of affairs as regards wastewater handling, as well as concern about the fate of the final waste deposits in the environment. In the mid 1990s Danish organic farmers made a point of refusing to accept sewage sludge as a source of nutrients. This sparked a heated debate, and for a time all farmer organisations refused to accept sewage sludge on their fields, leading to severe problems in urban areas. One of the consequences of this conflict is that municipalities are increasingly seeking alternatives to returning sewage sludge to the land (e.g. burning or dumping), in order to rid their dependence of farmers acceptance.
Another consequence has been that the issue of 'closing the urban-rural nutrient circle' as part of a sustainable development has received increasing attention among Danish organic farmers. This issue had been identified already in the early days of the organic movement in Denmark, but has never been a top priority. It was accentuated by a strong Swedish emphasis of agricultural use of human urine from source separating toilets that provided inspiration to look at implementing such techniques in Danish urban areas.
One additional factor that has increased the priorities of the issue was the growing realisation that current day organic farmers have a strong bias towards milk production, due to the natural integration of the clover-grass in the production system, that is essential for ensuring an ample supply of fixed atmospheric nitrogen. If more stockless organic farms (e.g. vegetable and grain production for human consumption) are to become economically sustainable, it is important to find ways of using the land with less emphasis on clover grass. One of the ways of doing this is to increase the amounts of nutrients that can be re-cycled from urban areas in a form that is acceptable to organic farms.


Although there is growing evidence of the increasing role of nonfarm activities in rural livelihoods, there is still relatively little empirical evidence regarding the factors that influence smallholder farmers to diversify into nonfarm activities. This study analyses the factors that influence household labor allocation decisions and demand for farm labor in Uganda. Data were collected from 660 households in three banana-based production zones with divergent production constraints and opportunities. The determinants of demand for hired labor were estimated with the Tobit model. Linear regression was used to estimate reduced-form equations for the time-allocation decisions of household members. Our findings show that household members respond positively to increases in wages, suggesting that they respond to economic incentives. Increased wage rates negatively affect the use of hired labor, but household size has no effect on the use of hired labor, indicating that the economic rationing of labor hiring has more to do with the market wage than family size or composition. Education and road access have positive effects on the amount of time allocated to off-farm activities. Access to off-farm opportunities, however, takes away the most productive labor from farm production. These findings suggest that investment in road infrastructure and education suited to smallholder production needs could help alleviate bottlenecks in labor markets and improve resource allocation between farm and nonfarm sectors.


Payment by results is a relatively new way of giving development aid, where a recipient's performance against pre-agreed measures determines the amount of aid they receive. Advocates for the mechanism argue it provides donors with both a ready justification for maintaining aid budgets and better results through innovation and autonomy. It has proved popular, with most bilateral aid donors having at least experimented with the mechanism and the variety of measures stretching from individual health workers being paid for each procedure, to national governments being paid for students' test scores. However, there has not been a robust assessment of whether Payment By Results (PbR) achieves its aims for greater effectiveness. I synthesize the evidence from eight projects fully or partially funded by DFID, the recognized world leader on PbR. This represents the best evidence currently available, and is critically analysed using the leading theoretical framework that breaks each agreement into its constituent parts. I find no evidence that PbR leads to fundamentally more innovation or autonomy, with the overall range of success and failure broadly similar to other aid projects. This may partly be due to the current use of Payment by Results, with no readily identifiable examples of projects that truly meet the idealized PbR designs. Advocates of PbR may thus conclude the idea is yet to be tested. I argue PbR does not deal with the fundamental constraints that donors face, and so it is unsurprising that PbR is subject to the normal pressures that affect all aid spending.


Globalization has brought many people and organizations together. Healthcare is one of the fields that has been the most engaged in global collaboration. Healthcare professionals working from the framework of Christian faith have been participants and leaders in global health for many years. The current challenges in global health call for the active involvement of all concerned players, Christian healthcare professionals among them. This paper will describe a unique framework for Christians involved in global health to make contributions to research and scholarship in the field of global health.


International student enrollment in the U.S. higher education system has recently experienced profound growth. This research examines leadership-oriented differences between international and domestic students and focuses on their growth in capacity associated with participation in co-curricular leadership programs. Similarly-sized gains emerged after participation, suggesting that these leadership programs create equal growth effects across both groups. However, the factors that predicted international students' increases in leadership skill were different than their domestic peers, suggesting that developing effective leaders among college students across national background is a non-uniform, complex process. Recommendations include the suggestion for partnerships between international student scholar units and leadership educators, specialized workshops for international students, and creating nuanced curricula based on the various pathways that students take to becoming an effective leader.


The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa is a causal agent of Pierce's disease in grapevines and is considered to be vectored by several xylem-feeding insects. Xylella fastidiosa and its primary insect vector Homalodisca vitripennis are not currently present in New Zealand, but considered a biosecurity threat to the wine industry. Should it be introduced, infection and dispersal of X. fastidiosa within New Zealand vineyards could occur through extant vectors, especially spittlebugs. Electrical Penetration Graph technology was used to compare the feeding behaviour of three spittlebug species (Philaenus spumarius, Carystoterpa fingens and Carystoterpa minor) on grape (Vitis vinifera Sauvignon blanc) and their original host plants. Results suggest that Philaenus spumarius feeds on grape more than the other two spittlebug species. As Philaenus spumarius has been reported as a vector of X. fastidiosa, their potential to transmit the bacterium into grapevines is discussed based on the real feeding times recorded by EPG.


Association between depressive symptoms, risk factors for sexually transmitted infections, and nongonococcal urethritis Christopher Hearne Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Lisa E. Manhart, PhD (chair), Professor, Epidemiology Adjunct Professor, Global Health BACKGROUND: Depressive symptoms and urethritis are common, and may be associated with one another. Severe depression may lead to different risk behaviors than more moderate depression. Therefore individuals with moderate depression may be at increased risk for engaging in certain risk factors and for acquiring nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) compared to individuals with severe depression. METHODS: This is a retrospective study of 521 men at high-risk for acquiring NGU. Men with and without NGU were given a depression screening instrument and asked about behavioral risk factors for acquiring sexually transmitted infections, including total partners, total new partners, condom use, and history of transactional sex. Poisson regression was used to calculate prevalence ratios for the association between depressive symptoms and behavioral risk factors. Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios for the association between depressive symptoms and prevalent NGU. RESULTS: Compared to men with severe or minimal depressive symptoms, men with moderate depressive symptoms were more likely to have 3 or more sexual partners in the past 60 days, to have 2 or more new sexual partners in the last 60 days, and to report a history of transactional sex. There was no association between condom use and depressive symptoms. There was no association between NGU and depressive symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: Some behavioral risk factors for acquiring sexually transmitted infections may be more common in men with moderate depressive symptoms, and men with severe depression may have similar behaviors compared to men without depression. This association between depressive symptoms and behavior may not result in increased frequency of NGU in a high-risk population.


Over recent years, the concept of resilience has gained increasing support within the academic community. Given the potentially devastating implications of disruptions, understanding the dynamics of successful adaption within organisations yields an important avenue for future research. This theoretical article will focus on addressing the features detection and activation within the response of an organisation to disruptive events. Through this, a conceptual framework of a resilient organisational response is presented. As such, this article will focus on establishing a solid conceptual base for organisational resilience upon which future empirical studies can be based. This article outlines the background literature relating to resilience and presents a working definition for organisational resilience. The conceptual framework supports analytical thinking toward characterising the response of an organisation to disruptive events and aims to support organisational development through outlining the fundamental processes necessary for an organisation to elicit a resilient response. Finally, conclusions are presented and attention is drawn to the implications of resilience on small and medium-sized enterprises and future research directions are outlined.


We develop an intercalibrated astrochronologic and radioisotopic time scale for the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary (CTB) interval near the Global Stratotype Section and Point in Colorado, USA, where orbitally influenced rhythmic strata host bentonites that contain sanidine and zircon suitable for 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb dating. Paired 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb ages are determined from four bentonites that span the Vascoceras diartianum to Pseudaspidoceras flexuosum ammonite biozones, utilizing both newly collected material and legacy sanidine samples of J. Obradovich. Comparison of the 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb results underscores the strengths and limitations of each system, and supports an astronomically calibrated Fish Canyon sanidine standard age of 28.201 Ma. The radioisotopic data and published astrochronology are employed to develop a new CTB time scale, using two statistical approaches: (1) a simple integration that yields a CTB age of 93.89 ± 0.14 Ma (2σ; total radioisotopic uncertainty), and (2) a Bayesian intercalibration that explicitly accounts for orbital time scale uncertainty, and yields a CTB age of 93.90 ± 0.15 Ma (95% credible interval; total radioisotopic and orbital time scale uncertainty). Both approaches firmly anchor the floating orbital time scale, and the Bayesian technique yields astronomically recalibrated radioisotopic ages for individual bentonites, with analytical uncertainties at the permil level of resolution, and total uncertainties below 2‰. Using our new results, the duration between the Cenomanian-Turonian and the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundaries is 27.94 ± 0.16 Ma, with an uncertainty of less than one-half of a long eccentricity cycle.


Online language learning has become a growing phenomenon in todays' times. The real questions lie in what motivates the learners to study language in a non-traditional and a technology-integrated environment. This question was explored with the help of a small-scale survey conducted from 60 students of a technology integrated language course offered by a language institution. This study investigated the motivational orientation of the learners with the help of thirty-five-item questionnaire adopted from AMTB- Attitude Motivation Test Battery. Modest differences were found in students' motivation for learning English via technology (M=2.57, SD=.811) for integrative and (M=2.71, SD=.811) for instrumental motivation. Moreover, the relationship of motivational orientation to the individual background, especially in the context of gender was investigated with the help of one-way ANOVA and Tukey Post hoc tests. The results implied that gender plays a vital role for deciding the integrative or instrumental motivation among the respondents. Tukey HSD test indicated that the mean scores for the integrative motivation in females (M = 2.60, SD = .892) was significantly different from the mean integrative motivation in males (M = 2.54, SD = .735). The females tend to show higher integrative motivation than males. Hence, the mean scores for instrumental motivation in females (M =2.74, SD = .778) is modestly different from males (M = 2.69, SD = .653). It is confirmed by this study that distinction between instrumental and integrative orientation are significant in technology integrated language learning and are very much related to gender differences.


HCI has developed a powerful vocabulary for thinking about, and methods for engaging with, users. Similarly, recent work has advanced complementary understanding of technology non-use. However, other spaces of interaction with technology may occur that sit uncomfortably between these two poles. This paper presents two case studies highlighting individuals who neither are clearly users of a system nor are clearly non-users. Based on these cases, the paper develops the concept of usee to help account for such situations that lie between existing analytic categories.


This paper presents a solution to interactive navigation planning and real-time simulation of a very large number of entities moving in a virtual environment. From the environment geometry analysis, we deduce a structure called navigation graph, which is the base to our method. After the description of this structure, we introduce a set of algorithms dedicated to answer navigation queries with a set of various solution paths and to execute the planned navigation in an efficient manner. We equally demonstrate method performance and robustness over several examples.


The allocation of differentiated activities to students is a didactic strategy that essentially aims to promote inclusive education in higher education and is an act that encourages pedagogical differentiation. Therefore, with this article we aim to reflect on the practices and challenges of promoting differentiated activities in higher education. For this study, we opted to work with teachers, students of the Degree in Teaching Chemistry and with the pedagogical management at the Niassa Faculty Extension of Rovuma University. Methodologically, we opted for the case study, with a qualitative approach, supported by a literature review. For data collection techniques, we used semi-structured and focus group interviews, and content analysis, which facilitated the action of analyzing and interpreting the results. For the theoretical foundation we cited authors such as Nhangumbe et al. (2017); Pacheco (2011); Tomlinson (2008) and Heacox (2006). The results show that the teachers of the Teaching Chemistry course do not diversify the exercises and assessments, according to the specific learning needs of each student, although they approach the contents using different strategies. Keywords: pedagogical differentiation; differentiated activities; didactics.


Records from two herds in India and two in Columbia representing respectively two breeds of Bos indicus (Hariana and Deshi) and two Bos taurus breeds—Blanco Orejinegro (BON) and Costeno Con Cuernos (CCC) were evaluated for breeding efficiency and viability. Average age at first calving was 52.1, 46.3, 39.5 and 40.7 months for Hariana, Deshi, CCC and BON. Season of birth did not influence age at calving. Ranking for calving interval was similar, average 479, 418, 396 and 382 days with season effects significant (P<.05) for only Deshi. BON and CCC had fewer days open but much shorter lactation periods, average 73 and 157, thus days carried calf in lactation were similar for all breeds. Percent of time dry per calving interval was high for all breeds, 44.2, 36.7, 64.1 and 81.0 for Hariana, Deshi, BON and CCC. Average annual mortality of females by 12 months of age was 23.6% for Hariana, 17.0% Deshi and 27.0% BON. In the same herds 46.4%, 51.1% and 49.0% of females born alive lived to first calving and annual losses among cows were 18.0%, 17.0%, and 21.0%; therefore, affording little opportunity for selection among females. Temperament, as determined by response to the milking process with and without the calf present, showed all the breeds were similar in this respect. Environmental effects were most important for all traits but genetic differences were indicated for age at first calving and milk yield. On a theoretical basis little gain could be expected in net dairy merit from crosses between the Columbian and Indian breeds. Copyright © 1973 American Society of Animal Science. Used by permission. R E P R O D U C T I V E E F F I C I E N C Y A N D V I A B I L I T Y I N T W O B O S I N D I C U S A N D T W O B O S T A U R U S B R E E D S I N T H E T R O P I C S O F I N D I A A N D C O L O M B I A L. Lemka, 1 R. E. McDowell, L. D. Van Vleck, H. Guha 2 and J. ]. Salazar 8 CorneU University, 4 Ithaca, New York 14850, Central Livestock Research-cumBreeding Station, Haringhata and Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario, Turipan~


Learn how to build great Windows Store apps! Figures and code appear as they do in Visual Studio. In just 24 sessions of one hour or less, Sams Teach Yourself Windows 8.1 Apps with XAML and C# in 24 Hours will help you build compelling apps for Windows 8.1 devices of all kinds. Using this books straightforward approach, youll learn to design and build apps, create flexible user interfaces, handle inputs, integrate controls, and more. Step by step, youll discover how to leverage XAMLs visual richness and the immense power of Windows 8.1. Every lesson builds on what youve already learned, giving you a rock-solid foundation for real-world success! Step-by-step instructions carefully walk you through todays most common XAML and C# development tasks. Quizzes at the end of each chapter help you test your knowledge. Notes present interesting information related to the discussion. Tips offer advice or show you easier ways to perform tasks. Cautions alert you to possible problems and give you advice on how to avoid them. Learn how to Create user interfaces that adapt to any device, from tablets to high-def TVs Handle input from touch, mouse, pen, and keyboard Manage the entire Windows 8.1 app lifecycle and all execution states Master powerful XAML controls for text, images, audio, video, and more Integrate vector graphics that scale perfectly to any size Apply rich animations Work with styles, templates, and visual states Exploit the Windows charms within your apps Take full advantage of data binding and contracts Read data from sensors and control external devices Provide dynamic updates via live tiles, notifications, and the lock screen Discover the many ways to monetize your Windows Store apps


In dentistry, ceramics are often referred to as nonmetallic, inorganic structures primarily containing compounds of oxygen with one or more metallic or semimetallic elements. They are composed of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, silicon, phosphorus, zirconium, and titanium. Structurally, dental ceramics contain a crystal phase and a glass phase based on the silica structure, characterized by silica tetrahedra, containing central Si4+ ion with four O− ions. Biocompatibility, esthetics, durability, and easier customization properties have led to the increased usage of ceramics. The specialty of ceramic teeth is its ability to mimic the natural tooth in color and translucency along with its strength. Ceramics have excellent intraoral stability and wear resistance adding to their durability. Basically, the inorganic composition of teeth and bones are ceramics which is hydroxyapatite. Over the past few years, the technological evolution of ceramics for dental applications has been incredible, as new materials and processing techniques are being introduced. The improvement in strength, as well as toughness, has made it possible to expand the range of indications to long-span fixed partial prostheses, implant abutments, and implants. While porcelain-based materials are still a major component in dental science, there have been moves to replace metal ceramics systems with all-ceramic systems. Numerous all-ceramics are being developed which is highly esthetic, biocompatible to tissue, and long-lasting in nature. Advances in computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing technologies have led to immense popularity of high-strength ceramic materials. These materials are highly esthetic, biocompatible to tissue, and long-lasting in nature. In this review, we will discuss all-ceramic materials which are used in dentistry.


The magnetic mineralogy, palaeomagnetism, and magnetic fabric of a Carboniferous mudstone-dominated red bed sequence and associated sandstones are described. Natural remanent magnetization (NRM) is carried by hematite both as relatively coarse particles and as pigmentary material; magnetite and goethite also contribute to the remanence of some mudstones. The magnetization of red sandstones is carried exclusively by hematite. Magnetic carriers have been identified using a combination of rock magnetic measurements, X-ray diffraction and 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. Both sandstones and mudstones carry a primary style magnetic fabric apparently related to the deposition of hematite particles. The reddening is associated with areas which developed better drainage and is genetically related to complex palaeosols in the mudstones, a feature indicating that it (and the magnetization) must have been approximately contemporaneous with sediment deposition.


Adult attachment style (AAS) refers to individual differences in the way people experience and regulate their social relationships and corresponding emotions. Based on developmental and psychological research, it has been hypothesized that avoidant attachment style (AV) entails deactivating strategies in social contexts, whereas anxious attachment style (AX) involves hyper vigilance and up-regulation mechanisms. However, the neural substrates of differences in social emotion regulation associated with AAS have not been systematically investigated. Here we used fMRI in 19 healthy adults to investigate the effect of AAS on the processing of pleasant or unpleasant social and nonsocial scenes. Participants were asked either to naturally attend (NAT), cognitively reappraise (REAP), or behaviorally suppress (ESUP) their emotional responses. Avoidantly attached participants showed increased prefrontal and anterior cingulate activation to social negative scenes when making spontaneous emotion judgments. They also exhibited persistent increases in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and left amygdala activity for the same stimuli during reappraisal, as well as additional activation in supplementary motor area and ventral caudate during the suppression of social positive emotions. These results suggest that AV may imply less efficient reappraisal strategies to regulate social negative emotions, and lead to higher conflict or effortful control when suppression cannot be employed. In contrast, anxiously attached participants showed differential increases in the right amygdala and left parahippocampal cortex for social negative and positive stimuli, respectively, but only when making spontaneous emotion judgments. No effect of AX was found during down-regulation conditions. This suggests heightened arousal to negative information without difficulty in down-regulating emotions through cognitive re-evaluation or suppression. Taken together, these findings reveal for the first time the neural underpinnings of attachment-related differences in social emotion regulation.


Modern web applications replicate their data across the globe and require strong consistency guarantees for their most critical data. These guarantees are usually provided via state-machine replication (SMR). Recent advances in SMR have focused on leaderless protocols, which improve the availability and performance of traditional Paxos-based solutions. We propose Tempo - a leaderless SMR protocol that, in comparison to prior solutions, achieves superior throughput and offers predictable performance even in contended workloads. To achieve these benefits, Tempo timestamps each application command and executes it only after the timestamp becomes stable, i.e., all commands with a lower timestamp are known. Both the timestamping and stability detection mechanisms are fully decentralized, thus obviating the need for a leader replica. Our protocol furthermore generalizes to partial replication settings, enabling scalability in highly parallel workloads. We evaluate the protocol in both real and simulated geo-distributed environments and demonstrate that it outperforms state-of-the-art alternatives.


Power to the People: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment of a Community-Based Monitoring Project in Uganda* Strengthening the relationship of accountability between health service providers and citizens is by many people viewed as critical for improving access to and quality of health care. How this is to be achieved, and whether it works, however, remain open questions. This paper presents a randomized field experiment on increasing community-based monitoring. As communities began to more extensively monitor the provider, both the quality and quantity of health service provision improved. One year into the program, we find large increases in utilization, significant weight-for-age z-scores gains of infants, and markedly lower deaths among children. The findings on staff behaviour suggest that the improvements in quality and quantity of health service delivery resulted from an increased effort by the staff to serve the community. Overall, the results suggest that community monitoring can play an important role in improving service delivery when traditional top-down supervision is ineffective. JEL Classification: D78, I12 and O15


We obtained optical imaging polarimetry with the ACS/HRC aboard the HST of the 9 closest radio- galaxies in the 3C catalogue with an FR I morphology. The nuclear sources seen in direct HST images in these galaxies are found to be highly polarized with levels in the range � 2 - 11 % with a median value of 7 %. We discuss the different mechanisms that produce polarized emission and conclude that the only viable interpretation is a synchrotron origin for the optical nuclei. This idea is strengthened by the analogy with the polarization properties of BL Lac objects, providing also further support to the FR I/BL Lac unified model. This confirms previous suggestions that the dominant emission mechanism in low luminosity radio-loud AGN is related to non-thermal radiation produced by the base of their jets. In addition to the nuclear polarization (and to the large scale optical jets), polarization is detected co-spatially with the dusty circumnuclear disks, likely due to dichroic transmission; the polarization vectors are tangential to the disks as expected when the magnetic field responsible for the grains alignment is stretched by differential rotation. We explored the possibility to detect the polarimetric signature of a misaligned radiation beam in FR I, expected in our sources in the frame of the FR I/ BL Lac unification. We did not find this effect in any of the galaxies, but our the results are not conclusive on whether a misaligned beam is indeed present in FR I.


Caffeine is a psychoactive substance that may affect the normal course of pregnancy, therefore its intake during that time should not exceed 200 mg/day. The aim of this study was to evaluate caffeine intake among pregnant women from the Warsaw region. The study was conducted among 100 pregnant women who delivered at the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Oncology, Medical University of Warsaw. Caffeine intake from coffee, tea, and energy drinks was measured using a questionnaire. Direct interviewing was used, with all interviews conducted by the same dietitian. Multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between caffeine intake and anthropometric measurements of the newborns. Mean caffeine intake among pregnant women was 68 ± 51 mg/day. Only 2% of the respondents exceeded the safe dose of 200 mg. Tea (mostly black) was the source of 63% of all caffeine. No relationships were found between caffeine intake and neonatal weight, length, or head and chest circumference (p > 0.05). Caffeine intake in our study population was relatively low and did not negatively affect fetal growth.


The recently introduced Gene-pool Optimal Mixing Evolutionary Algorithm (GOMEA) has been shown to be among the state-of-the-art for solving discrete optimization problems. Key to the success of GOMEA is its ability to efficiently exploit the linkage structure of a problem. Here, we introduce the Real-Valued GOMEA (RV-GOMEA), which incorporates several aspects of the real-valued EDA known as AMaLGaM into GOMEA in order to make GOMEA well-suited for real-valued optimization. The key strength of GOMEA to competently exploit linkage structure is effectively preserved in RV-GOMEA, enabling excellent performance on problems that exhibit a linkage structure that is to some degree decomposable. Moreover, the main variation operator of GOMEA enables substantial improvements in performance if the problem allows for partial evaluations, which may be very well possible in many real-world applications. Comparisons of performance with state-of-the-art algorithms such as CMA-ES and AMaLGaM on a set of well-known benchmark problems show that RV-GOMEA achieves comparable, excellent scalability in case of black-box optimization. Moreover, RV-GOMEA achieves unprecedented scalability on problems that allow for partial evaluations, reaching near-optimal solutions for problems with up to millions of real-valued variables within one hour on a normal desktop computer.


Arithmetic circuits (ACs) exploit context-specific independence and determinism to allow exact inference even in networks with high treewidth. In this paper, we introduce the first ever approximate inference methods using ACs, for domains where exact inference remains intractable. We propose and evaluate a variety of techniques based on exact compilation, forward sampling, AC structure learning, Markov network parameter learning, variational inference, and Gibbs sampling. In experiments on eight challenging real-world domains, we find that the methods based on sampling and learning work best: one such method (AC2-F) is faster and usually more accurate than loopy belief propagation, mean field, and Gibbs sampling; another (AC2-G) has a running time similar to Gibbs sampling but is consistently more accurate than all baselines.


The use of the (1/σ) expansion to calculate the thermodynamic properties of systems such as the Ising model or percolation whose diagrammatic expansion contains only diagrams with no free ends is reviewed. Here σ=z−1, where z is the coordination number of the lattice. For more general problems we formulate a selfconsistency condition for a site potential h, so that diagrams with free ends are eliminated. Construction of h gives the leading order in (1/σ) solution and is exact for the Cayley tree. We obtain correction terms by using a bond renormalized interaction so that to order (1/σ)5 we need only consider two-site problems. Results are given for (1) Kc, the critical fugacity for animals, when either H, the fugacity for free ends, or Q, the density of free ends, is fixed, and (2) (t/Ec), where Ec is the mobility energy and t is the magnitude of the hopping matrix element whose sign is random. At d=8 our results appear to be accurate to within about 0.01% for both animals and localization. We also obtain an expansion for Q(Kc)/(zKc) whose divergence near spatial dimensionality d=4 supports the idea that the order-parameter exponent β for lattice animals passes through zero at d=4.


Literature on Digit Ratio is rapidly growing in Economics. Quite surprisingly we observe that there is no consensus about how to make an accurate measurement in such a delicate task. Along this brief document we offer some concise guidance of how to scan the hands using digital scanners and provide a comprehensive guideline to make a reliable measurement of the 2D:4D. Furthermore, we point out the most common imaging and measurement errors. We also provide a number of hints aimed to avoid these errors that in some cases may cause systematic inaccuracies.


In the present manuscript, we reported extracellular biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles through extract of leaves from Dictyota dichotoma. Biosynthesized nanoparticles were characterized using UV– Vis spectroscopy, HRTEM, EDX and FTIR spectroscopy. The polyshaped gold nanoparticles of size 8±21 nm were synthesized. The antibacterial activities were observed by the agar well diffusion method for the action of Streptomycin and Gentamycin and their formulation with biocapped gold nanoparticles. The profound efficacies were supported by the increase in fold area of inhibition against the tested bacteria. The appropriate cause of this divergence has also been discussed due to suitable binding of biogenic gold nanoparticles with drugs and supports these findings to overcome the conflict of previously reported data.


Background: Ectopic pregnancy continues to be a life threatening gynaecological emergency. Objective: To determine the incidence, pattern of presentation and management of ectopic pregnancy in UDUTH Sokoto. Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective study of cases of ectopic pregnancy managed in the gynaecological unit of UDUTH from 1 st January 2002 to 31 st December 2011. Results: During the period, there was a total of 20,095 deliveries and 7,254 gynaecological admissions in the centre. Two hundred and ninety eight (298) patients had ectopic pregnancy accounting for 1.5% of all deliveries and 4.1% of all gynaecological admissions. Most of the affected patients were young nulliparous women. Abdominal pain, amenorrhoea, vaginal bleeding and cervical excitation tenderness were the most common clinical features amongst patients. The ampulla of the fallopian tube was the commonest site of implantation (59.7%) and majority of the cases (70.1%) were already ruptured at the time of presentation. The main mode of treatment was unilateral salpingectomy (76.3%) However, 3.8% of the patients benefited from medical treatment using methotrexate. The case fatality rate was 1.4%. Conclusion : The rate of ectopic pregnancy in the centre is relatively high. Majority of the patients presented late with the ruptured variety. Improvement in health seeking behaviour among our populace coupled with high index of suspicion and use of modern diagnostic techniques by the clinicians will assist in early diagnosis and treatment prior to tubal rupture which will ultimately lead to reduction in maternal morbidity and mortality associated with the condition.


Politicians, the media, and the public express concern that immigrants depress wages by competing with native workers, but 30 years of empirical research provide little supporting evidence to this claim. Most studies for industrialized countries have found no effect on wages, on average, and only modest effects on wage differentials between more and less educated immigrant and native workers. Native workers' wages have been insulated by differences in skills, adjustments in local demand and technology, production expansion, and specialization of native workers as immigration rises.


Transmission through an opaque Au film with a single subwavelength aperture centered in a smooth cavity between linear grating structures is studied experimentally and with a finite element model. The model is in good agreement with measured results and is used to investigate local field behavior. It shows that a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) is launched along the metal surface, while interference of the SPP with the incident light along with resonant cavity effects give rise to suppression and enhancement in transmission. Based on experimental and modeling results, peak location and structure of the enhancement/suppression bands are explained analytically, confirming the primary role of SPPs in enhanced transmission through small apertures in opaque metal films.


Abstract. Run-up is defined as sea wave up-rush on a beach. Run-up height is affected by many factors, including the shape of the bay. As an archipelagic country, Indonesia consists of thousands of islands with bays of diverse profiles, including Palu Bay, which is a well-known example of a bay with a drastically-increasing wave run-up height. In the case of the 2018 Palu tsunami, scientists found that the incident wave was amplified by the shape of the bay. The amplifying wave played a large role in the significant increase of run-up height. The run-up in question caused severe inundation, which led to a high number of casualties and damages. Therefore a mathematical model will be constructed to investigate the wave run-up. The bay's geometry will be approximated using three linearly-inclined channel types: one of parabolic cross-section, one of triangular cross-section, and a plane beach. We use the generalized nonlinear shallow water equations, which is then solved analytically using a hodograph-type transformation. As a result, the nonlinear shallow water equation system can be reduced to a one-dimensional linear equation system. Assuming the incident wave is sinusoidal, we can obtain a simple formula for calculating maximum run-up height on the shoreline.


Recently academic work has been put forward that argues for a great urgency to implement effective climate policies to stop global warming. Concrete policy proposals for reducing CO2 emissions have been developed by the IPCC. One of the major instruments proposed is a carbon tax. A main obstacle for its implementation, however, are concerns about the short-term effects on employment and output. In order to miti-gate possible negative effects of enviromental taxes on output and employment, several European countries have introduced so-called environmental tax reforms (ETR) which are designed in a budget neutral manner: Revenues from the tax can be used to reduce existing distortionary taxes or to subsidize less polluting activities. We apply this idea to a carbon tax scheme by performing a vector autoregression (VAR) with output and employment data of nine industrialized countries. We impose a simultaneous policy shock on the economy whereby a carbon tax is levied on high-carbon intensive industries and the resulting tax revenue is redistributed to low-carbon intensive industries. Impulse response analysis shows that such a policy allows for net gains in terms of output and employment.


With the prolonging of education, social inequalities in access to higher education have become a major concern in research on social stratification. This article provides an empirical description of how inequalities develop throughout secondary education with a view to explaining inequalities in access to higher education (he) in France. Based on the 1995 statistical sample of secondary school students, it estimates that inequalities in access to he are 81% the result of inequalities in attainment of the baccalaureat [end of high school diploma]. Confirming the cumulative aspect to education, the accumulation of negative academic results at secondary level strongly contributes to the under-representation of disadvantaged students among those who obtain their baccalaureat. The data also show that the educational careers of students with similar initial academic difficulties differ considerably according to their parents' level of education, confirming the hypothesis of compensatory advantage. Conversely, a reinforcement effect, leading to divergent educational careers among good students and depending on social background, is also highlighted where access to prestigious he tracks is concerned, further substantiating the hypothesis of compensatory advantage. These results underline the importance of considering interactions between school performance and social background in order to understand how inequalities develop throughout education.


We explore the effects of mandatory third-party review of mortgage contracts on the terms, availability, and performance of mortgage credit. Our study is based on a legislative experiment in which the State of Illinois required "high-risk" mortgage applicants acquiring or refinancing properties in 10 specific zip codes to submit loan offers from state-licensed lenders to review by HUD-certified financial counselors. We document that the legislation led to declines in both the supply of and demand for credit in the treated areas. Controlling for the salient characteristics of the remaining borrowers and lenders, we find that the ex post default rates among counseled low-FICO-score borrowers were about 4.5 percentage points lower than those among similar borrowers in the control group. We attribute this result to actions of lenders responding to the presence of external review and, to a lesser extent, to counseled borrowers renegotiating their loan terms. We also find that the legislation pushed some borrowers to choose less risky loan products in order to avoid counseling.


Nursing Research covers key issues, including health promotion, human responses to illness, acute care nursing research, symptom management, cost-effectiveness, vulnerable populations, health services, and community-based nursing studies. Each issue highlights the latest research techniques, quantitative and qualitative studies, and new state-of-the-art methodological strategies, including information not yet found in textbooks. Expert commentaries and briefs are also included. In addition to 6 issues per year, Nursing Research from time to time publishes supplemental content not found anywhere else.


A wide range of applications involve interface problems. In most of the cases, mathematical modeling of these interface problems leads to partial differential equations with non-smooth or discontinuous inputs and solutions, especially across material interfaces. Different numerical methods have been developed to solve these kinds of problems and handle the non-smooth behavior of the input data and/or the solution across the interface. The main focus of our work is the immersed finite element method to obtain optimal numerical solutions for interface problems. In this thesis, we present piecewise quadratic immersed finite element (IFE) spaces that are used with an immersed finite element (IFE) method with interior penalty (IP) for solving two-dimensional second-order elliptic interface problems without requiring the mesh to be aligned with the material interfaces. An analysis of the constructed IFE spaces and their dimensions is presented. Shape functions of Lagrange and hierarchical types are constructed for these spaces, and a proof for the existence is established. The interpolation errors in the proposed piecewise quadratic spaces yield optimal O(h) and O(h) convergence rates, respectively, in the L and broken H norms under mesh refinement. Furthermore, numerical results are presented to validate our theory and show the optimality of our quadratic IFE method. Our approach in this thesis is, first, to establish a theory for the simplified case of a linear interface. After that, we extend the framework to quadratic interfaces. We, then, describe a general procedure for handling arbitrary interfaces occurring in real physical practical applications and present computational examples showing the optimality of the proposed method. Furthermore, we investigate a general procedure for extending our quadratic IFE spaces to p-th degree and construct hierarchical shape functions for p = 3. In the name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful.


AIMS
This study builds upon previous research by assessing the relationship of breath blood alcohol concentrations (BrAC) to environmental and individual characteristics.

DESIGN
We conducted a multi-level study of college parties. Our design included observational measures of party environments, a brief self-administered questionnaire, and the collection of breath samples from partygoers.

SETTING
Data were collected in private residences of students living in a neighborhood adjacent to a large public university located in the Southwestern United States.

PARTICIPANTS
A total of 1,304 individuals attending 66 parties participated in the study.

MEASURES
Observational measures of party characteristics were made by 2 trained research assistants at each party. Four to 5 trained interviewers administered a brief field survey to partygoers at each party. In addition, the trained interviewers collected breath samples using handheld breathalyzer devices.

FINDINGS
Hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed significant variation at the party and individual levels. At the individual level, motivations to socialize were significantly associated with lower BrAC, while drinking games and providing the sample after 11:00 pm were associated with higher BrACs. At the party level, large parties were significantly associated with lower BrACs while reports of many intoxicated partygoers were associated with higher BrACs. Finally, we identified a significant gender by theme party interaction, indicating women had higher BrACs at theme parties relative to nontheme parties; however, BrACs for men were similar regardless of the type of party attended.

CONCLUSIONS
Alcohol consumption among young adults in natural settings is a function of both person and environmental factors.


Hematopoietic stem cells rarely contribute to hepatic regeneration, however, the mechanisms governing their homing to the liver, which is a crucial first step, are poorly understood. The chemokine stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), which attracts human and murine progenitors, is expressed by liver bile duct epithelium. Neutralization of the SDF-1 receptor CXCR4 abolished homing and engraftment of the murine liver by human CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors, while local injection of human SDF-1 increased their homing. Engrafted human cells were localized in clusters surrounding the bile ducts, in close proximity to SDF-1-expressing epithelial cells, and differentiated into albumin-producing cells. Irradiation or inflammation increased SDF-1 levels and hepatic injury induced MMP-9 activity, leading to both increased CXCR4 expression and SDF-1-mediated recruitment of hematopoietic progenitors to the liver. Unexpectedly, HGF, which is increased following liver injury, promoted protrusion formation, CXCR4 upregulation, and SDF-1-mediated directional migration by human CD34+ progenitors, and synergized with stem cell factor. Thus, stress-induced signals, such as increased expression of SDF-1, MMP-9, and HGF, recruit human CD34+ progenitors with hematopoietic and/or hepatic-like potential to the liver of NOD/SCID mice. Our results suggest the potential of hematopoietic CD34+/CXCR4+cells to respond to stress signals from nonhematopoietic injured organs as an important mechanism for tissue targeting and repair.


Within the growing domain of software engineering in the automotive sector, the number of used tools, processes, methods and languages has increased distinctly in the past years. To be able to choose proper methods for particular development use cases, factors like the intended use, key-features and possible limitations have to be evaluated. This requires a taxonomy that aids the decision making. An analysis of the main existing taxonomies revealed two major deficiencies: the lack of the automotive focus and the limitation to particular engineering method types. To face this, a graphical taxonomy is proposed based on two well-established engineering approaches and enriched with additional classification information. It provides a self-evident and -explanatory overview and comparison technique for engineering methods in the automotive domain. The taxonomy is applied to common automotive engineering methods. The resulting diagram classifies each method and enables the reader to select appropriate solutions for given project requirements.


The vertical distribution of the photosynthetic fixation of carbon dioxide within a crop of corn was calculated from carbon dioxide profile data and transfer coefficients obtained by analysis of windspeed measurements. Infrared analyzers were used to measure the carbon dioxide concentration at several heights within and above the crop. The calculated total fixation for the day was approximately 60 g CO 2 in (equivalent to 470 pounds of sugar per acre per day). The results demonstrated the importance of the upper leaves in the fixation of carbon dioxide and showed the increased fixation by the lower leaves during periods of high light penetration. There was some indication that a coupling existed between the level of windspeed and fixation under conditions of high light and relatively low winds peed. With refinement in technique the method could be used to obtain more quantitative estimates of the distribution of photosynthesis in other crops.


Due to hardware limitations of the imaging sensors, it is challenging to acquire images of high resolution in both spatial and spectral domains. Fusing a low-resolution hyperspectral image (LR-HSI) and a high-resolution multispectral image (HR-MSI) to obtain an HR-HSI in an unsupervised manner has drawn considerable attention. Though effective, most existing fusion methods are limited due to the use of linear parametric modeling for the spectral mixture process, and even the deep learning-based methods only focus on deterministic fully-connected networks without exploiting the spatial correlation and local spectral structures of the images. In this paper, we propose a novel variational probabilistic autoencoder framework implemented by convolutional neural networks, in order to fuse the spatial and spectral information contained in the LR-HSI and HR-MSI, called FusionNet. The FusionNet consists of a spectral generative network, a spatial-dependent prior network, and a spatial-spectral variational inference network, which are jointly optimized in an unsupervised manner, leading to an end-to-end fusion system. Further, for fast adaptation to different observation scenes, we give a meta-learning explanation to the fusion problem, and combine the FusionNet with meta-learning in a synergistic manner. Effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed method are evaluated based on several publicly available datasets, demonstrating that the proposed FusionNet outperforms the state-of-the-art fusion methods.


The sorption characteristics of cesium (Cs) ions into weathered biotite with biotite–vermiculite interstratification collected from weathered granodiorite in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan has been investigated. Both single crystals and crushed powder forms of the weathered biotite were experimentally reacted with 20–2000 ppm CsCl aqueous solutions, and analyzed by powder X–ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) to examine the distribution of Cs inside the crystals. From the XRD pattern, the proportion of vermiculite unit layers in the weathered biotite was estimated at ~ 12%, with a tendency for segregation, and the whole XRD pattern was explained by the coexistence of biotite and vermiculite packets as well as the interstratified regions. Powder XRD of Cs–sorbed specimens showed that the 14.9 Å peak of the vermiculite packets was weakened at a low Cs concentration in the solution. Single crystals of the weathered biotite with a polished edge–surface were immersed in the CsCl solutions and examined using SEM and high–angular annular dark field (HAADF) imaging in STEM. Cs was not only incorporated in the vicinity of the exposed surface but also penetrated deeply inside the crystals. These analyses and observations revealed the Cs–sorption process in weathered biotite. At first, Cs preferentially replaced specific vermiculite interlayers in the vermiculite packets. With a higher Cs concentration in the solution, the Cs–substituted vermiculite interlayers increased in the vermiculite packets, and vermiculite layers interstratified in biotite also incorporated Cs.


Abstract. This paper discusses the automatic generation of thermal infrared ortho image mosaics and the extraction of solar cells from these ortho image mosaics. Image sequences are recorded by a thermal infrared (TIR) camera mounted on a remotely piloted aerial system (RPAS). The image block is relatively oriented doing a bundle block adjustment and transferred to a local coordinate system using ground control points. The resulting ortho image mosaic is searched for solar cells. A library of templates of solar cells from thermal images is used to learn an implicit shape model. The extraction of the single solar cells is done by estimating corners and centre points of cells using these shape models in a Markov-Chain-Monte-Carlo algorithm by combining four corners and a centre point. As for the limited geometric resolution and radiometric contrast, most of the cells are not directly detected. An iterative process based on the knowledge of the regular grid structure of a solar cell installation is used to predict further cells and verify their existence by repeating the corner extraction and grammar combination. Results show that this work flow is able to detect most of the solar cells under the condition that the cells have a more or less common radiometric behaviour and no reflections i.e. from the sun occur. The cells need a rectangular shape and have the same orientation so that the model of the grammar is applicable to the solar cells.


ABSTRACT Objective: This study evaluates the contribution of measures for social cognition (SC), executive functioning (EF) and dysexecutive behavior to the statistical prediction of social and vocational participation in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), taking into account age and injury severity. Method: A total of 63 patients with moderate to severe TBI participated. They were administered a semi-structured Role Resumption List for social (RRL-SR) and vocational participation (RRL-RTW). EF was measured with planning- and switching tasks. Assessment of SC included tests for facial affect recognition and Theory of Mind (ToM). Dysexecutive behavior was proxy-rated with a questionnaire. Additionally, healthy controls were assessed with the same protocol. Results: Patients with TBI performed significantly worse on tests and had significantly more behavioral problems compared to healthy controls. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses for the TBI group revealed that SC accounted for 22% extra variance in RRL-RTW and 10% extra variance in RRL-SR, which was significant over and above the amounts of variance explained by EF, dysexecutive behavior, age and injury severity. Conclusions: Our findings underline the added value of measures of SC and dysexecutive behavior in the prediction of social and vocational participation post-TBI. In particular, impairments in ToM, and dysexecutive behavior were related to a lower participation making them important targets for rehabilitation.


1. Activities of the three major classes of immunoglobulins were quantitatively determined in 481 sera from 106 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus residing in Mexico City and compared with activities in 112 healthy Mexico City residents. 2. To allow comparison with studies from other laboratories, results were related to a standard reference preparation from the World Health Organization and expressed in international units of immunoglobulin activity. 3. The mean activities of IgG and IgM, but not those of IgA, were significantly higher in the lupus sera than in controls. Abnormal elevation of IgG activity was related to the presence of antibodies to whole calf thymus nuclei, but not to those directed to nucleoprotein or DNA. Sera with rheumatoid factor activity had a higher mean IgA activity than those without it. 4. Patients with active lupus had significantly higher IgM activity than those with inactive disease. High IgM activities also correlated with presence of antibodies to calf thymus nuclei, nucleoprotein and native and heat-denatured DNA. 5. Abnormal elevation of the IgM activity without concurrent elevation of IgG or IgA activity was the most frequent pattern observed but was not predominant enough to be characteristic of systemic lupus.


Purpose: This study aims to verify changes in the debt structure of companies in the main Latin American countries. Approach/Methodology/Design: A difference-in-differences test is applied in a sample of 520 publicly-traded and closed companies, whose data are collected in the previous (2003-2007) and subsequent (2008-2012) periods of the crisis. Findings: The results include the replacement of bank debts by private and public non-bank debts, reduction of maturity of debts and relevance of better level of governance or regulatory environment of countries in guaranteeing the rights of creditors in this process. Practical Implications: These results are in line with the countercyclical fiscal policy adopted by these countries, guaranteeing them greater credibility in international markets. Social Implications: This study also suggest questions for future research. Each Latin American country faces many problems that are motivated by diverse events - political, for example - that impact the economy. That task involves the broadening of this methodology to incorporate internal shocks as well as global crisis. Originality/Value: One of the principal contributions of this study is the finding that companies in the main Latin American countries replace their banking credit by utilizing non-banks, just as done by the developed countries. Understanding better this effect of the global financial crisis may lead to helpful permanent macroeconomic and microeconomic measures.


In the recent case of Glossip v. Gross, the Supreme Court denied a death row petitioner's challenge to Oklahoma's lethal injection protocol. An important part of Justice Alito's majority opinion highlighted the existence of a relationship between the constitutionality of a punishment and the requirement of a constitutional technique available to administer the punishment.

Far from foreclosing future challenges, this principle ironically highlights the failure of the Court to describe the relationship under the Eighth Amendment between three distinct categories of punishment: (1) the type of punishment imposed by the court — i.e., death penalty, life without parole, life with parole, (2) the method of punishment — the tool by which the state administers the punishment, and (3) the technique of punishment — the manner in which the state administers the punishment. Because, as Justice Alito insists, a constitutional method and technique must exist for a constitutionally approved punishment, there is a constitutional relationship between these categories.

As such, this Article articulates a holistic model for applying the Eighth Amendment on three levels — the punishment type, method, and technique. This Article develops this taxonomy, making explicit the concepts implicit in a number of Eighth Amendment cases. To be sure, the Court has assessed types of punishments, punishment methods, and punishment techniques individually, but it has never offered a holistic framework by which to understand these related constitutional inquiries. This Article develops such an approach.

In light of the applicable framework, the Article then explores the Court's application of the Eighth Amendment with respect to the three categories, demonstrating how the Court deviates from its doctrine when considering punishment techniques. It next describes use of secrecy in the context of lethal injection, uncovering the manner in which this secrecy frustrates the application of the Eighth Amendment framework. Further, the Article argues that the state-instigated secrecy does more than create a doctrinal smokescreen — it raises serious constitutional and legitimacy questions concerning lethal injection protocols. Finally, the Article concludes by exploring what transparency in execution methods might mean both in terms of restoring dignity to death row prisoners and for the future of capital punishment in America.


Book synopsis: The Latin etymological origin of the word "conspiracy" is conspīrāre, literally "to breathe together", whence, "to accord, harmonize, agree, combine, or unite in a purpose, plot mischief together secretly."

Formally, conspiracy is a category of criminal law, and as such, it is functional across different legal systems, save for subtle differences. Generally, it denotes "illegal combinations" of persons, and is often prosecuted as a "crime of intent", especially when the alleged conspiracy is of a political nature, i.e. when the security of the state is deemed to be the target. In other words, no actual damage or injury need to materialize for the crime of conspiracy to be prosecuted, with shared intent or alleged agreement between individuals being sufficient grounds. Technically, one can be tried for her state of mind, convicted for linguistic association of a particular kind, or for sharing a code deemed to be subversive. But then the charge of conspiracy often proves a misnomer in law. Across legal systems, conspiracy trials often signal misrecognition, or the law's inability and refusal to incorporate a proper understanding of the act/crime in question. The charge of conspiracy can be notoriously clumsy and nefariously vague.

Then there are the countless conspiracy theories that bestow us with a world where everything is connected to everything else, where everything under the sun is controllable, and where everything, in the final instance, can be explained. Conspiracy theory, according to Frederic Jameson, is "a degraded attempt to think the impossible totality of the contemporary world system."[1] Such structural attempts tend towards a specific narrative genre of their own, arguably amounting to an epistemology replete with a distinct paranoid style. Often deemed to be politically irresponsible, immature and bereft of critical thought, conspiracy theories are apocalyptic and absolutist, fantastic and magical realist.

These trials and theories are set against the backdrop of a world where conspiracy indeed proves to be a ubiquitous mode in which contemporary power operates, often with impunity. Brave investigative journalists and whistleblowers testify. Declassified and leaked documents corroborate. "Are you a history buff who wants to learn more about the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam or the A-12 Oxcart? Have stories about spies always fascinated you?" asks the CIA's Freedom of Information Act website with that feigned marketing enthusiasm – the retailer spellbound by his own product. What exactly is the relationship between the surreal imagination of conspiracy theorizing, and the state of the world today? Is the world as vast a place for outrageous conspiracies precisely because those in power imagine it as such? And is it, perhaps, the law of the conspiring state that mistakes other forms of breathing together as conspiracy?

The Manual for Conspiracy is a collection of critical and literary texts exploring the suspect epistemics and paranoid style of conspiracy, while reclaiming the uncertainty and subversive potential that lie at its core.


The authors present a new recursive least-squares adaptive nonlinear equaliser based on Volterra series expansion. The main approach is to transform the nonlinear equalisation problem into an equivalent multichannel, but linear, equalisation problem. Then the multichannel input signal is completely orthogonalised using sequential processing multichannel lattice stages. With the complete orthogonalisation of the input signal, only scalar operations are required, instability problems owing to matrix inversion are avoided, and good numerical properties are achieved. Avoidance of matrix inversion and vector operations reduce the complexity considerably, and make the filter highly modular and suitable for VLSI implementation. Several experiments demonstrating the performance under different channel distortion and channel noise conditions are also included in the paper.


Canadian police have exceptionally broad powers to stop and investigate motorists for driving related offences without objective suspicion of wrongdoing. Though extraordinary, the "traffic stop" power has survived constitutional challenge on the basis that driving is dangerous and thus requires extensive regulation and surveillance. Because it is intrinsically arbitrary, however, courts have attempted to cabin its reach to driving related offences. But under the "dual purpose" doctrine, they have also allowed police to use information gleaned from lawful traffic stops to develop grounds for other detention and search powers, as long as they do not do so "pretextually," i.e., by taking investigative steps that serve no traffic safety purpose.

In practice, however, courts have often permitted investigative intrusions that are at best tenuously connected to traffic safety. This has encouraged police to leverage the stopping power to further vague suspicions of criminality and gather general intelligence, especially in the context of "roving" patrols of high crime neighbourhoods and major highways. Most disturbingly, there is mounting evidence that this practice is associated with discriminatory racial profiling. I therefore propose prohibiting police from: (i) conducting roving, suspicionless stops; (ii) using drivers' compelled identifying information to conduct database searches for non-driving offences; (iii) questioning drivers about matters unrelated to traffic safety; and (iv) interacting with passengers without grounds to believe that they have committed an offence or threaten public safety.


Extensive Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.) mortality caused by the spruce bee- tle (Dendroctonus rufipennis Kirby) has been occurring at the southern end of the Wasatch Plateau in central Utah. This spruce beetle outbreak is the largest recorded in Utah history. An extensive ground survey was conducted in 1996 on the Manti-LaSal National Forest, Sanpete and Ferron Ranger Districts, to document mortality and impact of a major spruce beetle outbreak on post-outbreak forest composition. In 1998 the same sites were resurveyed. Survey results indicate Engelmann spruce basal area (BA) loss averaged 78% in trees ≥5 inches diameter breast height (DBH) in 1996. Ninety percent of BA ≥5 inches DBH was lost within the same sites by 1998. Tree mortality of spruce ≥5 inches DBH expressed in trees per acre (TPA) averaged 53% in 1996. In 1998 TPA ≥5 inches DBH mortality averaged 73%. Before the outbreak live Engelmann spruce BA ≥5 inches DBH averaged 99 square feet, and TPA ≥5 inches DBH averaged 97. In the sites surveyed in 1996 and resurveyed in 1998, Engelmann spruce BA ≥5 inches DBH averaged 21 and 9 square feet, and TPA ≥5 inches DBH averaged 43 and 25, respectively. Overstory tree species composition changed from stands dominated by spruce to subalpine fir. Stand ratings for potential spruce beetle outbreaks were high to mostly medium hazard pre-outbreak and medium to primarily low hazard by 1998, as a result of reduction in average spruce diameter, total basal area, and overstory spruce.


The paper aims to recognize whether family firms that introduce the creative ideas of their employees are more innovative than the other family firms, i.e. if they introduce more products, processes, marketing, and organizational innovations. Moreover, it explores the relationship between the innovation of family businesses and their involvement in activities that stimulate innovative thinking by building a trusting workplace climate, driving employees' development, and supporting team integration. The study is based on the primary research which was conducted in Poland on a sample of 353 family firms. The statistical analysis of the research results shows that family firms that implement the creative solutions of their employees introduce significantly more product innovations than other family businesses. However, there are no differences between these two groups of family firms regarding organizational, process, and marketing innovations. Our analysis also revealed that: (i) supporting employee development is an independent factor influencing the product, process and organizational innovation of family businesses; and that (ii) building team integration by the company is an independent factor that impacts process innovation.


ABSTRACT This article provides a timely review of the interdisciplinary and disjointed literature on social sustainability and identifies some readily available measures of this concept for American cities. Based upon a comprehensive review of the literature, four broad dimensions are identified as being reflective of social sustainability: equal access and opportunity, environmental justice, community and the value of place, and basic human needs. Breaking these four dimensions into measurable indicators, this research provides a method for researchers and for American cities to begin to evaluate and to assess social sustainability efforts within their jurisdictions.


'Kunstgeographie' – the study of the geographical dimension of art is a relatively undeveloped eld, at least in English language studies. This article, which is developed from art history research at Sussex University, studies the images of Bucharest in art as it grew from a loosely organised collection of village-like groups to the capital of a new state – over the same period that Romanian art broke away from the religious art of the Orthodox church to become westernised as exchanges with western Europe grew. The growth of Bucharest has been analysed by Guiseppe Cina (2010) in four distinct phases, and these are used as the basis of this analysis.


Oil has played a major role in Venezuela's economy since the first gusher was discovered along Lake Maracaibo in 1922. As Miguel Tinker Salas demonstrates, oil has also transformed the country's social, cultural, and political landscapes. In The Enduring Legacy , Tinker Salas traces the history of the oil industry's rise in Venezuela from the beginning of the twentieth century, paying particular attention to the experiences and perceptions of industry employees, both foreign and Venezuelan. He reveals how class ambitions and corporate interests combined to reshape many Venezuelans' ideas of citizenship. Middle-class Venezuelans embraced the oil industry from the start, anticipating that it would transform the country by introducing modern technology, sparking economic development, and breaking the landed elites' stranglehold. Eventually Venezuelan employees of the industry found that their benefits, including relatively high salaries, fueled loyalty to the oil companies. That loyalty sometimes trumped allegiance to the nation-state.

North American and British petroleum companies, seeking to maintain their stakes in Venezuela, promoted the idea that their interests were synonymous with national development. They set up oil camps—residential communities to house their workers—that brought Venezuelan employees together with workers from the United States and Britain, and eventually with Chinese, West Indian, and Mexican migrants as well. Through the camps, the companies offered not just housing but also schooling, leisure activities, and acculturation into a structured, corporate way of life. Tinker Salas contends that these practices shaped the heart and soul of generations of Venezuelans whom the industry provided with access to a middle-class lifestyle. His interest in how oil suffused the consciousness of Venezuela is personal: Tinker Salas was born and raised in one of its oil camps.


Reverse engineering is a technology that enables acceleration of data acquisition for CAD, CAM, CAE systems and thus greatly reduces the time of development, design and production of components. In general, reverse engineering technology can be considered as the conversion of analog data to digital data, which is further processed. Individual industries are still increasing their demands for accuracy, size, quality, and so, therefore the use of digitization is found in many manufacturing areas such as the automotive, aerospace, shipping, medicine, industrial design, design, and so on. The paper deals with the analysis of the prototype component of the agitator gearbox in the form of a rough and chip-machined casting. The inspection of the shape of the gearbox consisted in reading the reference CAD model, establishing the digitized shape with respect to this reference model, checking the dimensions and creating a color map of the variations at selected points.


RF signals transmitted via wireless mobile channels suffer from several effects like smallscale fading and signal dispersion and distortion. This paper reviews these effects and simulates Rayleigh and Rician multipath fading channels with a comparison between them in terms of the effect of RF signal random fluctuations, average received signal level, outage probability, and effect of Doppler shift. In addition to that, signal dispersion occurring to pulses transmitted through these types of channels has also been discussed and simulated.