Noise is introduced into images usually while transferring and acquiring them.The main type of noise added while image acquisition is called Gaussian noise while Impulsive noise is generally introduced while transmitting image data over an unsecure communication channel , while it can also be added by acquiring. Gaussian noise is a set of values taken from a zero mean Gaussian distribution which are added to each pixel value. Impulsive noise involves changing a part of the pixel values with random ones. Various techniques are employed for the removal of these types of noise based on the properties of their respective noise models. Impulse Noise removal algorithms popularly use ordered statistics based ¯lters. The ¯rst one is an adaptive ¯lter using center-weighted median. In this method, the di®erence of the center weighted mean of a neighborhood with the central pixel under consideration is compared with a set of thresholds. Another method which takes into account the presence of the noise free pixels has been implemented.It convolutes the median of each neighborhood with a set of convolution kernels which are oriented according to all possible con¯gurations of edges that contain the central pixel,if it lies on an edge. A third method which deals with the detection of noisy pixels on the binary slices of an image is implemented. It is based on threshold Boolean ¯ltering. The ¯lter inverts the value of the central pixel if the number of pixels with values opposite to it is more than the threshold. The fourth method has an e±cient double derivative detector, which gives a de- cision based on the value of the double derivative. The substitution is done with the average gray scale value of the neighborhood. Gaussian Noise removal algorithms ideally should smooth the distinct parts of the image without blurring the edges.A universal noise removing scheme is implemented which weighs each pixel with respect to its neighborhood and deals with Gaussian and impulse noise pixels di®erently based on parameter values for spatial, radiometric and impulsive weight of the central pixel. The aforementioned techniques are implemented and their results are compared subjectively as well as objectively.


Ansh Systems is an Indian-Dutch company that focuses on Business Process Outsourcing of accounting and software engineering activities to Dutch small to medium-sized enterprises. The company has recently been through a growth of personnel, and expects more growth in demand for products and personnel for the future. Because the company's evaluation system is not prepared for more employees, and there is no clearly defined reward system, a need is identified for these systems to be re-designed into a new software application.
In this research, the designing cycle of Verschuren & Hartog (2005) is put into use to design a new performance management & reward system for Ansh Systems. The model structures the design project, and evokes an overview of the criteria for the system, divided into functional, user and contextual requirements. This methodological line of thought gains insight into the designing phase of a new system.
The main theoretical criteria that are found can be best described per concept. Abilities, motivation and opportunities can be seen as dimensions that make up a performance, and comparative approaches of performance appraisal are more valid to companies instead of a 'best practice' approach. Performance management is different from performance appraisal, and is accomplished through a stage model that includes a clear setup, planning, delivering & monitoring, review and finally reward of performances. Rewards are a motivational tool for performance, and can be divided into individual, transactional, relational and communal rewards.
Justice in the system is accomplished through consistent application of rules, making rules free of bias, accurate, representative of stakeholders and consistent with ethics in the organisation. Formalisation of rules is a way to accomplish justice. Formalisation of processes, clear communication of structures, objectives and strategies are methods of handling threats to the performance of employees in Small to Medium-sized Enterprises in the branch Business Process Outsourcing in India.
The result of the design is a set of criteria, requirements and assumptions that lead to a set of competencies that can be assessed in the company's employees. The specific operationalised competencies are assigned to abilities, which are again assigned to main groups, in order to create a hierarchical evaluation structure. The four main groups are Quality, Planning, Business Logic and Internal Discipline. Employees will be appraised on these competencies on function-specific and not-function-specific subjects, and are given a rating, which is coupled to an overall performance grade. This performance grade is linked to the reward policy, which is set up according to current salary standards in the company. Systemization is made possible as a formula for the calculation of a salary is feasible in a software application.
A web-application is created with the results of the research, which is meant for internal use in Ansh Systems. The software provides information and calculations to managers and their subordinates, combining the information gathered from evaluations with the salary calculation application. The system is therefore useful for both employees as well as managers, and makes the company's performance management and reward system insightful and accessible to all people involved in the process.


ABSTRACT In the context of Child Welfare, collaboration is used to ensure that families receive the best public services. In these working processes children have the legal right to participate. Research has demonstrated that children are sensitive to whether they feel they are treated with respect. The issue of partnership relations can be demanding. This article examines children's experiences with recognition in the context of service collaboration. Based on a Norwegian qualitative research project about professional-child interactions in the context of public services and a narrative analysis of two accounts, we have identified key professional actions associated with recognition in collaborative processes with children. A dialogical form of communication, as well as the exploration of children's troubles, abilities and skills, highlighted the children's experiences of recognition and respect. Further research should concentrate on how to ensure that recognition occurs during communication with children in Child Welfare Services.


Complications of COVID-19 have been particularly severe among older adults, who are the focus of this article. Public policy goals should prioritize pandemic preparedness in nursing homes, as well as civic and local government-based support programs for community-dwelling older adults, to ensure that risk of infection is mitigated while promoting wellness during a period of stress and uncertainty.


Video signals are sequences of natural images, where images are often modeled as piecewise-smooth signals. Hence, video can be seen as a 3D piecewise-smooth signal made of piecewise-smooth regions that move through time. Based on the piecewise-smooth model and on related theoretical work on rate-distortion performance of wavelet and oracle based coding schemes, one can better analyze the appropriate coding strategies that adaptive video codecs need to implement in order to be efficient. Efficient video representations for coding purposes require the use of adaptive signal decompositions able to capture appropriately the structure and redundancy appearing in video signals. Adaptivity needs to be such that it allows for proper modeling of signals in order to represent these with the lowest possible coding cost. Video is a very structured signal with high geometric content. This includes temporal geometry (normally represented by motion information) as well as spatial geometry. Clearly, most of past and present strategies used to represent video signals do not exploit properly its spatial geometry. Similarly to the case of images, a very interesting approach seems to be the decomposition of video using large over-complete libraries of basis functions able to represent salient geometric features of the signal. In the framework of video, these features should model 2D geometric video components as well as their temporal evolution, forming spatio-temporal 3D geometric primitives. Through this PhD dissertation, different aspects on the use of adaptivity in video representation are studied looking toward exploiting both aspects of video: its piecewise nature and the geometry. The first part of this work studies the use of localized temporal adaptivity in subband video coding. This is done considering two transformation schemes used for video coding: 3D wavelet representations and motion compensated temporal filtering. A theoretical R-D analysis as well as empirical results demonstrate how temporal adaptivity improves coding performance of moving edges in 3D transform (without motion compensation) based video coding. Adaptivity allows, at the same time, to equally exploit redundancy in non-moving video areas. The analogy between motion compensated video and 1D piecewise-smooth signals is studied as well. This motivates the introduction of local length adaptivity within frame-adaptive motion compensated lifted wavelet decompositions. This allows an optimal rate-distortion performance when video motion trajectories are shorter than the transformation "Group Of Pictures", or when efficient motion compensation can not be ensured. After studying temporal adaptivity, the second part of this thesis is dedicated to understand the fundamentals of how can temporal and spatial geometry be jointly exploited. This work builds on some previous results that considered the representation of spatial geometry in video (but not temporal, i.e, without motion). In order to obtain flexible and efficient (sparse) signal representations, using redundant dictionaries, the use of highly non-linear decomposition algorithms, like Matching Pursuit, is required. General signal representation using these techniques is still quite unexplored. For this reason, previous to the study of video representation, some aspects of non-linear decomposition algorithms and the efficient decomposition of images using Matching Pursuits and a geometric dictionary are investigated. A part of this investigation concerns the study on the influence of using a priori models within approximation non-linear algorithms. Dictionaries with a high internal coherence have some problems to obtain optimally sparse signal representations when used with Matching Pursuits. It is proved, theoretically and empirically, that inserting in this algorithm a priori models allows to improve the capacity to obtain sparse signal approximations, mainly when coherent dictionaries are used. Another point discussed in this preliminary study, on the use of Matching Pursuits, concerns the approach used in this work for the decompositions of video frames and images. The technique proposed in this thesis improves a previous work, where authors had to recur to sub-optimal Matching Pursuit strategies (using Genetic Algorithms), given the size of the functions library. In this work the use of full search strategies is made possible, at the same time that approximation efficiency is significantly improved and computational complexity is reduced. Finally, a priori based Matching Pursuit geometric decompositions are investigated for geometric video representations. Regularity constraints are taken into account to recover the temporal evolution of spatial geometric signal components. The results obtained for coding and multi-modal (audio-visual) signal analysis, clarify many unknowns and show to be promising, encouraging to prosecute research on the subject.


Bulk electrical conductivity of soil is generally assumed to be dominated by the electrical conductivity of the soil solution, with perhaps a small contribution from surface charges associated with soil solids. Soils highin smectites often exhibit high electrical conductivity due to water associated with the days. These charges are either associated with the exchangeable cations or with proton migration in the clay-associated water. The purpose of this study was to use percolation principles to elucidate mechanisms of charge transfer in humidified smectites. The theory predictions were compared with electrical conductivity spectra measured for mono-ionic humidified smectites. The measured spectra were consistent with a percolation model of proton hopping in the maximum interlayer spacing beyond a threshold water content, plus an offset term for some samples. The threshold water content for percolation in the maximum interlayer spacing was 0.07 m 3 m - 3 , which was assumed the same for all basal spacings. The spectra should converge at the phonon frequency (ν p h ), but for some samples at the higher humidity levels, the spectra were offset. The samples with this offset were determined by examining the spectra for the same mono-ionic smectite at different humidity levels. The mean offset level was 0.015 m 3 m - 3 and was likely related to charge transfer on external surfaces. The phonon frequency fitted across all samples was 3.54 X 10 8 Hz, lower than the 10 1 2 Hz often assumed. These results are generally consistent with the idea that water associated with smectite clays generated the observed electrical conductivity.


A secure computation protocol for a function f (x,y) must leak no information about inputs x,y during its execution; thus it is imperative to compute the function f in a data-oblivious manner. Traditionally, this has been accomplished by compiling f into a boolean circuit. Previous approaches, however, have scaled poorly as the circuit size increases. We present a new approach to compiling such circuits that is substantially more efficient than prior work. Our approach is based on online circuit compression and lazy gate generation. We implemented an optimizing compiler for this new representation of circuits, and evaluated the use of this representation in two secure computation environments. Our evaluation demonstrates the utility of this approach, allowing us to scale secure computation beyond any previous system while requiring substantially less CPU time and disk space. In our largest test, we evaluate an RSA-1024 signature function with more than 42 billion gates, that was generated and optimized using our compiler. With our techniques, the bottleneck in secure computation lies with the cryptographic primitives, not the compilation or storage of circuits.


Mobile money systems, platforms built and managed by mobile network operators to allow money to be stored as digital currency, have burgeoned in the developing world as a mechanism to transfer money electronically. Mobile money agents exchange cash for electronic value and vice versa, forming the backbone of an emerging electronic currency ecosystem that has potential to connect millions of poor and "unbanked" people to the formal financial system. Unfortunately, low service levels due to agent inventory management are a major impediment to the further development of these ecosystems. This paper describes models for the agent's inventory problem, unique in that sales of electronic value (cash) correspond to an equivalent increase in inventory of cash (electronic value). This paper presents a base inventory model and an analytical heuristic that are used to determine optimal stocking levels for cash and electronic value given an agent's historical demand. When tested with a large sample of transaction-level data provided by an East African mobile operator, both the base model and the heuristic improved agent profitability by reducing inventory costs (defined here as the sum of stockout losses and cost of capital associated with holding inventory). The heuristic increased estimated agent profits by 15% relative to profits realized through agents actual decisions, while also offering substantial computational advantages relative to the base model.


BACKGROUND
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) diagnostics are emerging as a new paradigm of disease monitoring and therapy management. The clinical utility of these diagnostics is relatively limited by a low signal-to-noise ratio, such as with low allele frequency (AF) mutations in cancer. While enriching for rare alleles to increase their AF before sample analysis is one strategy that can greatly improve detection capability, current methods are limited in their generalizability, ease of use, and applicability to point mutations.

METHODS
Leveraging the robust single-base-pair specificity and generalizability of the CRISPR associated protein 9 (Cas9) system, we developed a deactivated Cas9 (dCas9)-based method of minor-allele enrichment capable of efficient single-target and multiplexed enrichment. The dCas9 protein was complexed with single guide RNAs targeted to mutations of interest and incubated with cfDNA samples containing mutant strands at low abundance. Mutation-bound dCas9 complexes were isolated, dissociated, and the captured DNA purified for downstream use.

RESULTS
Targeting the 3 most common epidermal growth factor receptor mutations (exon 19 deletion, T790M, L858R) found in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we achieved >20-fold increases in AF and detected mutations by use of qPCR at an AF of 0.1%. In a cohort of 18 NSCLC patient-derived cfDNA samples, our method enabled detection of 8 out of 13 mutations that were otherwise undetected by qPCR.

CONCLUSIONS
The dCas9 method provides an important application of the CRISPR/Cas9 system outside the realm of genome editing and can provide a step forward for the detection capability of cfDNA diagnostics.


We investigate unobstructed, plane-symmetric systems of two spherical mirrors that are intended for imaging a single point. Low-order imaging constraints are determined that eliminate all but two of the seven parameters that specify the configuration of such a system. It is found that when these constraints are applied, the object point, the center of curvature of each mirror, and the image point necessarily lie along a single line. The associated merit function space is mapped as a function of the two independent parameters. Selected systems from various regions of the configuration space are illustrated.


Background Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) comprises a poorly understood group of chronic, childhood onset, autoimmune diseases with variable clinical outcomes. Objectives We investigated whether profiling of the synovial fluid (SF) proteome by a fluorescent dye based, two-dimensional gel (DIGE) approach could distinguish the subset of patients in whom inflammation extends to affect a large number of joints, early in the disease process. The post-translational modifications to candidate protein markers were verified by a novel deglycosylation strategy. Methods SF samples from 57 patients were obtained around time of initial diagnosis of JIA. At 1 year from inclusion patients were categorized according to ILAR criteria as oligoarticular arthritis (n=26), extended oligoarticular (n=8) and polyarticular disease (n=18). SF samples were labeled with Cy dyes and separated by two-dimensional electrophoresis. Multivariate analyses were used to isolate a panel of proteins which distinguish patient subgroups. Proteins were identified using MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry with vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) expression and siaylation further verified by immunohistochemistry, ELISA test and immunoprecipitation. Candidate biomarkers were compared to conventional inflammation measure C-reactive protein (CRP). Sialic acid residues were enzymatically cleaved from immunopurified SF VDBP, enriched by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and analysed by mass spectrometry. Results Hierarchical clustering based on the expression levels of a set of 23 proteins segregated the extended-to-be oligoarticular from the oligoarticular patients. A cleaved isoform of VDBP, spot 873, is present at significantly reduced levels in the SF of oligoarticular patients at risk of disease extension, relative to other subgroups (p Conclusions The data indicate that a subset of the synovial fluid proteome may be used to stratify patients to determine risk of disease extension. Reduced conversion of VDBP to a macrophage activation factor may represent a novel pathway contributing to increased risk of disease extension in JIA patients. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Latin America ranks highest in the world in markers of social and economic inequality, as well as in the negative effects of inequality on other realms of social life, such as access to basic services, political power, and, in many countries, unfair treatment by police and the justice system. Yet in Latin America it is not possible to talk about racism, ethnic-racial discrimination, and inequality without taking into consideration the hegemonic narratives of mestizaje and racial democracy that shape the way many Latin American nations think about themselves today. Can a region characterized by extreme levels of social inequality also be ethnically and racially democratic? The pattern of ethnic and racial relations in Latin America is marked by discrimination, but at the same time, it creates mechanisms that prevent individuals from recognizing the existence of discrimination against themselves. This reality carries several complications for census-taking and other forms of statistical data collection intended to measure ethnic-racial inequality. Because the main paradigms of analysis of social inequality prioritize economics and class, they have directly or indirectly strengthened the discourse that in Latin America, there is no racism. Certainly, the future of research on race relations and inequality in Latin America will benefit from new demographic data and public opinion surveys, carried out since the turn of the century, which include the identification of indigenous and Afro-descendant people. This trend may advance the production of studies grounded in more robust empirical evidence of ethnic-racial asymmetry.


A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PHARMACOLOGY, SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES, ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY, IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN MEDICAL PHARMACOLOGY


In the Netherlands fourteen publicly funded research universities accommodate more than 270.000 students and 53.000 staff members - together they manage about 4,4 million m2 Campus NL (gross floor area, data 2015/2016). This paper elaborates on past, present and future of Campus NL, based on literature, previous campus research - including Den Heijer's dissertation (2011) - analysis of recent (campus) strategy documents and interviews in 2016 with more than 35 campus directors, policy makers and board members of the fourteen Dutch universities. The results of this research are presented in four steps, aligning with the four tasks to design an accommodation strategy (DAS steps): (step 1) assessing the campus anno 2016, compared to 2006 and clarified with historical background, (step 2) exploring changing demand, based on developments in society and higher education, (step 3) generating future models, derived from ten campus trends and (step 4) defining strategic choices for Campus NL and their functional, financial and physical consequences for universities. This research report covers subjects like the changing academic place to learn and work, the total costs of (campus) ownership and sustainable campus ambitions.


Forbidding and enforcing systems (fe-systems) provide a new way of defining classes of structures based on boundary conditions. Forbidding and enforcing systems on formal languages were inspired by molecular reactions and DNA computing. Initially, they were used to define new classes of languages (fe-families) based on forbidden subwords and enforced words. This paper considers a metric on languages and proves that the metric space obtained is homeomorphic to the Cantor space. This work studies Chomsky classes of families as subspaces and shows they are neither closed nor open. The paper investigates the fe-families as subspaces and proves the necessary and sufficient conditions for the fe-families to be open. Consequently, this proves that fe-systems define classes of languages different than Chomsky hierarchy. This work shows a characterization of continuous functions through fe-systems and includes results about homomorphic images of fe-families. This paper introduces a new notion of connecting graphs and a new way to study classes of graphs. Forbidding-enforcing systems on graphs define classes of graphs based on forbidden subgraphs and enforced subgraphs. Using fe-systems, the paper characterizes known classes of graphs, such as paths, cycles, trees, complete graphs and k-regular graphs. Several normal forms for forbidding and enforced sets are stated and proved. This work introduces the notion of forbidding and enforcing to posets where fe-systems are used to define families of subsets of a given poset, which in some sense generalizes language fe-systems. Poset fe-systems are, also, used to define a single subset of elements satisfying the forbidding and enforcing constraints. The latter generalizes graph fe-systems to an extent, but defines new classes of structures based on weak enforcing. Some properties of poset fe-systems are investigated. A series of normal forms for forbidding and enforcing sets is presented. This work ends with examples illustrating the computational potential of fe -systems. The process of cutting DNA by an enzyme and ligating is modeled in the setting of language fe-systems. The potential for use of fe-systems in information processing is illustrated by defining the solutions to the k-colorability problem.


Multisensory environmental design has long been at the discretion of our industrial partners. However, very little research has considered the impact of design on engagement and well-being (Collier et al., 2010; Anderson et al., 2011). This paper presents the preliminary findings from an interdisciplinary study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK. This study aims to explore the quality of multi-sensory stimulation offered in homes caring for residents living with dementia, and whether design can help to improve such experiences and maximise therapeutic benefits. Within this context the research examines strategies of providing specific sensory experiences – focusing on Multi Sensory Environments (MSEs), their design, and their demanding role within homes caring for residents living with dementia.

MSEs are widely used in dementia care as both a resource for meaningful leisure activity and a therapeutic intervention. However, evidence suggests that they often fail to succeed because of inadequate design and arrangements not addressing the specific needs of people with dementia or older people in general (Cruz et al., 2011; Dalke et al., 2011; Klages et al., 2011). In particular, the project investigates the aesthetic and functional qualities of MSE facilities such as material/colour/imagery applied, spatial set up, usability, accessibility - currently provided in care homes, with the aim to establish reasons for success and failure.

The study involves 15 care homes with some type of MSE facility. Data will be collected using an ethnographic design incorporating structured interviews with care staff who are familiar with the MSE and observations from the point of view of the individual. The results of this study will provide valuable information on how improved overall design of MSEs could add value to the experience maximising the benefit for users and their carers. Subsequently, this will inform the development of design ideas for MSE facilities tailored towards people with dementia and their needs.

References:

Anderson, K., Bird, M., MacPherson, S., McDonough, V., & Davis, T. (2011). Findings from a Pilot Investigation of the Effectiveness of a Snoezelen Room in Residential Care: Should We Be Engaging with Our Residents More? Geriatric Nursing, 32, 166-177.

Collier, L. McPherson, K. Ellis-Hill, C. Bucks, R. The use of multi-sensory environments to improve in older people with dementia: a randomised controlled trial. American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and other Dementias. 25(8), 2010, 698-703.

Cruz, J., Marques, A., Barbosa, A. L., Figueiredo, D., & Sousa, L. (2011). Effects of a Motor and Multisensory-Based Approach on Residents with Moderate-to-Severe Dementia. American Journal of Alzheimers Disease and Other Dementias, 26, 282-289

Dalke, H., Corso, A., Stott, L., Dusmohamed, H., & Hunt, R. (2011). Living with Dementia: Can Design make a difference? Kingston University, 282-289

Klages, K., Zecevic, A., Orange, J. B., & Hobson, S. (2011). Potential of Snoezelen room multisensory stimulation to improve balance in individuals with dementia: a feasibility randomized controlled trial. Clinical Rehabilitation, 25, 607-616


Objective: To determine the alteration of coagulation profile (PT, APTT, D-dimers) in malaria patients and its correlation with the degree of Parasitemia.Study Design: Cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: Pathology department of Combined Military Hospital Lahore, from Jan to July 2018.
Methodology: A total of 92 patients were included in the study. The malarial parasite was identified using thick and thin smears. Hemoglobin, Red blood cell, White blood Count, Prothrombin Time, Activated Partial Thromboplastin Time, and Ddimer levels were measured using automated analyzers Sysmex KX-21 and CA-600.
Results: The mean age of the patients was 23.35 ± 14.4 years with 53 (57.6%) males and 39 (42.4%) females. Plasmodium falciparum was identified as the causative species in 33 (35.9%) of the cases, 59 (64.1%) cases were caused by Plasmodium vivax. Based on parasitic load, 50 (54.3%) patients were found to have a mild degree of parasitemia whereas 26 (28.3%) had moderate and 16 (17.4%) had severe parasitemia. A significant association was found between the degree of parasitemia and coagulation parameters.
Conclusion: Partial thromboplastin time, activated partial thromboplastin time and D-dimer levels were positively correlated with the degree of parasitemia specifically in plasmodium falciparum as compared to the other species. Therefore, special care should be exercised in patients having an underlying inherited bleeding disorder and a strict prevention protocol should be made.


Large-scale session log analysis typically includes statistical methods and detailed log examinations. While both methods have merits, statistical methods can miss previously unknown sub- populations in the data and detailed analyses may have selection biases. We therefore built Session Viewer, a visualization tool to facilitate and bridge between statistical and detailed analyses. Taking a multiple-coordinated view approach, Session Viewer shows multiple session populations at the Aggregate, Multiple, and Detail data levels to support different analysis styles. To bridge between the statistical and the detailed analysis levels, Session Viewer provides fluid traversal between data levels and side-by-side comparison at all data levels. We describe an analysis of a large-scale web usage study to demonstrate the use of Session Viewer, where we quantified the importance of grouping sessions based on task type.


Our work at Ireland's National Rehabilitation Hospital involves designing communication systems for people suffering from profound physical disabilities. One such system uses the electro-oculogram, which is an (x,y) system of voltages picked up by pairs of electrodes placed, respectively, above and below and on either side of the eyes. The eyeball has a dc polarisation between cornea and back, arising from the photoreceptor rods and cones in the retina. As the eye rotates, the varying voltages projected onto the electrodes drive a cursor over a mimic keyboard on a computer screen. Symbols are selected with a switching action derived, for example, from a blink. Experience in using this mode of communication has given us limited facilities to study the eye position control system. We present here a resulting new feedback model for rotation in either the vertical or the horizontal plane, which involves the eyeball controlled by an agonist-antagonist muscle pair, modelled by a single equivalent bidirectional muscle with torque falling off linearly with angular velocity. We have incorporated muscle spindles and have tuned them by pole assignment associated with an optimum stability criterion.


The power and connectivity of today's Internet presents the opportunity for interactive multimedia applications across the world. However, today's Internet has been predominantly designed for TCP traffic, wherein the end hosts recognize lost packets as congestion and reduce their transmission rates appropriately. Unfortunately, TCP is not the protocol of choice for multimedia applications, because TCP's lossless transmission is stricter than required by multimedia flows and TCP adds considerable network jitter, greatly decreasing multimedia quality. UDP, the alternate transport protocol to TCP, does not respond to packet loss as a measure of congestion, often resulting in UDP flows that get an unfair share of their network bandwidth. In this work, we demonstrate that a proper network protocol can be built on top of UDP, providing well-behaved performance in the face of congestion. Moreover, we demonstrate such protocols provide far better multimedia performance than does TCP. Another contribution we make is NS simulator implementation of our multimedia network protocol.


User profiling has attracted an enormous number of technological methods and
applications. With the increasing amount of products and services, user profiling
has created opportunities to catch the attention of the user as well as achieving
high user satisfaction. To provide the user what she/he wants, when and how,
depends largely on understanding them. The user profile is the representation of
the user and holds the information about the user. These profiles are the
outcome of the user profiling.
Personalization is the adaptation of the services to meet the user's needs and
expectations. Therefore, the knowledge about the user leads to a personalized
user experience. In user profiling applications the major challenge is to build and
handle user profiles. In the literature there are two main user profiling methods,
collaborative and the content-based. Apart from these traditional profiling
methods, a number of classification and clustering algorithms have been used
to classify user related information to create user profiles. However, the profiling,
achieved through these works, is lacking in terms of accuracy. This is because,
all information within the profile has the same influence during the profiling even
though some are irrelevant user information.
In this thesis, a primary aim is to provide an insight into the concept of user
profiling. For this purpose a comprehensive background study of the literature
was conducted and summarized in this thesis. Furthermore, existing user
profiling methods as well as the classification and clustering algorithms were investigated. Being one of the objectives of this study, the use of these
algorithms for user profiling was examined. A number of classification and
clustering algorithms, such as Bayesian Networks (BN) and Decision Trees
(DTs) have been simulated using user profiles and their classification accuracy
performances were evaluated. Additionally, a novel clustering algorithm for the
user profiling, namely Multi-Dimensional Clustering (MDC), has been proposed.
The MDC is a modified version of the Instance Based Learner (IBL) algorithm.
In IBL every feature has an equal effect on the classification regardless of their
relevance. MDC differs from the IBL by assigning weights to feature values to
distinguish the effect of the features on clustering. Existing feature weighing
methods, for instance Cross Category Feature (CCF), has also been
investigated. In this thesis, three feature value weighting methods have been
proposed for the MDC. These methods are; MDC weight method by Cross
Clustering (MDC-CC), MDC weight method by Balanced Clustering (MDC-BC)
and MDC weight method by changing the Lower-limit to Zero (MDC-LZ). All of
these weighted MDC algorithms have been tested and evaluated. Additional
simulations were carried out with existing weighted and non-weighted IBL
algorithms (i.e. K-Star and Locally Weighted Learning (LWL)) in order to
demonstrate the performance of the proposed methods. Furthermore, a real life scenario is implemented to show how the MDC can be used for the user
profiling to improve personalized service provisioning in mobile environments.
The experiments presented in this thesis were conducted by using user profile
datasets that reflect the user's personal information, preferences and interests.
The simulations with existing classification and clustering algorithms (e.g. Bayesian Networks (BN), Naive Bayesian (NB), Lazy learning of Bayesian
Rules (LBR), Iterative Dichotomister 3 (Id3)) were performed on the WEKA
(version 3.5.7) machine learning platform. WEKA serves as a workbench to
work with a collection of popular learning schemes implemented in JAVA. In
addition, the MDC-CC, MDC-BC and MDC-LZ have been implemented on
NetBeans IDE 6.1 Beta as a JAVA application and MATLAB. Finally, the real life
scenario is implemented as a Java Mobile Application (Java ME) on NetBeans
IDE 7.1. All simulation results were evaluated based on the error rate and
accuracy.


Research Content: An investigation of artist's use of copyright-free content in the creation of new works distributed online and offline.
The residency was the first for the established artist-run organisation to engage a joint researcher, art historian, theorist and writer, and their first substantial bilingual publication. The project involved new commissions from 7 artists of six new single channel works created in partnership with Library and Archives Canada, the national repository. The research concerned marking the changing landscape of copy-left creative production and the role of both open access and closed databases of moving image work online in the creation of new work, and the national geographically designated legal boundaries of artistic reuse.
The Guggenheim Museum partnership with YouTube was the first to address online video at an international level with physically-sited exhibitions of the selected works at all four Guggenheim museums at the same time. The accompanying online blog edited by the Guggenheim was widely read and cited including contributions from internationally recognised artists and theorists such as Dara Birnbaum, Maria Fusco, Michael Connor, Mike Sperlinger, Ryan Trecartin and others.

Cook, Sarah (2011) "SBJDSC" In: Penny McCann (ed.) Public Domain. Ottawa: SAW Video. In French and English. Edited by Emily Falvey; Translation: Marie-Claire Forte; Foreword by Penny McCann; Introduction by Caroline Forcier-Holloway;
Essays and Photo Essays by Mireille Bourgeois, Sarah Cook, Sara Angelucci, Maureen Bradley, Gennaro de Pasquale, Steve Reinke, Ryan Stec & Veronique Couillard, Suzan Vachon


BACKGROUND & AIMS
There are few validation studies of existing diagnostic criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). We conducted a validation study of the Rome and Manning criteria in secondary care.

METHODS
We collected complete symptom, colonoscopy, and histology data from 1848 consecutive adult patients with gastrointestinal symptoms at 2 hospitals in Hamilton, Ontario; the subjects then underwent colonoscopy. Assessors were blinded to symptom status. Individuals with normal colonoscopy and histopathology results, and no evidence of celiac disease, were classified as having no organic gastrointestinal disease. The reference standard used to define the presence of true IBS was lower abdominal pain or discomfort in association with a change in bowel habit and no organic gastrointestinal disease. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios, with 95% confidence intervals, were calculated for each diagnostic criteria.

RESULTS
In identifying patients with IBS, sensitivities of the criteria ranged from 61.9% (Manning) to 95.8% (Rome I), and specificities from 70.6% (Rome I) to 81.8% (Manning). Positive likelihood ratios ranged from 3.19 (Rome II) to 3.39 (Manning), and negative likelihood ratios from 0.06 (Rome I) to 0.47 (Manning). The level of agreement between diagnostic criteria was greatest for Rome I and Rome II (κ = 0.95), and lowest for Manning and Rome III (κ = 0.59).

CONCLUSIONS
Existing diagnostic criteria perform modestly in distinguishing IBS from organic disease. There appears to be little difference in terms of accuracy. More accurate ways of diagnosing IBS, avoiding the need for investigation, are required.


A series of experimental investigations and finite element analyses is presented in the compression response and subsequent failure modes in foam-filled corrugated core sandwich panels. The corrugated cores based on carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) and glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) were fabricated using a hot press molding process and then bonded to face sheets based on the same material, to produce a range of lightweight sandwich panels. A liquid of low-density Rigid Polyurethane (PUR) foam was injected to fill the empty space of the panels, where to investigate the influence of filling the corrugation with the foam. The experiments also provide an insight into the post-failure response of the sandwich panels. The results are compared with the numerical predictions offered by a finite element analysis (FEA). Buckling of the cell walls has been found to be initial failure mode in these corrugated core panels. Continued loading resulted in fracture of the cell walls, localized delamination as well as debonding between the skins and the core. The predictions of the FEA show reasonably good agreement with the experimental measurements, for semi-filled and fully-filled foams. Finally, filling the inside of the corrugated core sandwich panels with the foam significantly improved the specific energy absorption (SEA) characteristics of the panels. The SEA for the GFRP and the CFRP fully-filled specimens were improved by almost 160% and 105%, respectively. This improvement was due to the constraint effects between the foam and the corrugated core members.


The importance of the virally encoded dUTPase for CAEV replication, invasiveness, pathogenesis, and genetic stability was investigated in goats infected by viruses with single point (DU-G) and deletion (DU-1) mutations of the dUTPase gene (DU gene). The DU gene was found to be dispensable for CAEV replication in vivo as judged by times taken to seroconvert, frequencies of viral isolation, and tissue distribution of viral RNAs. DU- reversion at week 34 in one of three goats infected with the single point mutant DU-G, however, suggested that the viral dUTPase confers some advantages for replication in vivo. Moreover, we show that dUTPase is necessary for the timely development of bilateral arthritic lesions of the carpus. Finally, dUTPase was shown to efficiently prevent accumulation of G-to-A transitions in the viral genome.


Previous literature demonstrates that in a computational life cycle model the optimal tax on capital is positive and large. Given the computational complexities of these overlapping generations models it is helpful to determine the relative importance of the economic factors driving this result. I highlight the impact of changing two common assumptions in a benchmark model that generates a large optimal tax on capital similar to the model in Conesa et al. (2009). First, the utility function is altered such that it implies an agent's Frisch labor supply elasticity is constant, as opposed to increasing, over his lifetime. Second, the government is allowed to tax accidental bequests at a separate rate from ordinary capital income. The main finding of this paper is that these two changes cause the optimal tax on capital to drop by almost half. Furthermore, I find that the welfare costs of adopting the high optimal tax on capital from the benchmark model in the model with the altered assumptions, which calls for a lower tax on capital, are equivalent to 0.35 percent of total lifetime consumption. Quantifying the impact of these assumptions in the benchmark model is important because the first has limited empirical evidence and the second, although included for tractability, confounds a motive for taxing capital with a motive for taxing accidental bequests.


This study provides a detailed, empirically based examination of the institutional
dynamics of the new parties and political groupings that have emerged Poland, the
largest country of the former Soviet bloc, since the collapse of communist rule in
1989. It draws upon and utilises the models developed in the contemporary West
European party literature as an analytical framework with which to examine the main
parties from a structural and organisational perspective and considers how they
approximate to these taxonomical ideals. It examines the six main parties and political
groupings around which the Polish party system appeared to be consolidating in the
run up to the 1997 parliamentary elections. The study considers: the internal
distribution of power and modes of representation with the parties; the role of the
party bureaucracy; the relationship between the parties and their electorates; the
development of parties as membership organisations; and the relationship between
parties and the state. It concludes that the new Polish parties are strong at the level of
state institutions and appear capable of fulfilling their role in terms of structuring
elections, institutions and recruiting elites. However, they are also likely to develop as
remote and somewhat distant institutions that are weak at the societal level. Given that
the nature of the links between parties and their electorates are likely to remain fairly
shallow, the new parties are likely to prove less successful at aggregating societal
interests and relatively ineffective in mobilising the citizenry and integrating them
into the political process. The study, therefore, draws broader conclusions about the
process of party development in post-communist Eastern Europe at the same time as
augmenting the relatively undeveloped literature on internal party dynamics.


Numerical integration is a key component of many problems in scientific computing, statistical modelling, and machine learning. Bayesian Quadrature is a modelbased method for numerical integration which, relative to standard Monte Carlo methods, offers increased sample efficiency and a more robust estimate of the uncertainty in the estimated integral. We propose a novel Bayesian Quadrature approach for numerical integration when the integrand is non-negative, such as the case of computing the marginal likelihood, predictive distribution, or normalising constant of a probabilistic model. Our approach approximately marginalises the quadrature model's hyperparameters in closed form, and introduces an active learning scheme to optimally select function evaluations, as opposed to using Monte Carlo samples. We demonstrate our method on both a number of synthetic benchmarks and a real scientific problem from astronomy.


AbstractThis article reports two studies in which the developmental relationship be-tween affective and linguistic expression is explored by comparing the comple-mentary skills of storytelling (performance) and story construction (structure). In the first study, children of the two age groups (3- to 4-year-olds and 6- to 8-year-olds) were shown a picture book, Frog, Where Are You? (Mayer, 1979) and then asked to tell the story. Analyses of the data revealed a striking dif-ference in both story structure and storytelling performance. The older group consistently produced stories of greater length and complexity than those of the younger group; with respect to storytelling performance, however, 3- and 4-year-olds used significantly more affective elements of good storytelling than did the 7- and 8-year-olds. In a second study, ten 7- and 8-year-olds and ten 10- and 11-year-olds retold the same story, but to a 3-year-old. In this con-text, the 10- and 11-year-olds used significantly more affective devices, both linguistic and paralinguistic, than did the 7- and 8-year-olds. Considering both cognitive and discourse perspectives, the developmental implications of these findings are discussed.


MENJOGE, ZEHLAM, Software Development using the Knowledge Insight Approach. (Under the direction of Dr. Thomas L. Honeycutt). Software development processes currently in use often result in the production of low-quality software. The earlier the properties such as quality, security, safety and reliability are addressed during the software development life cycle, the lower is the development cost and the greater is the probability that the end product functions with no unintended consequences. Unclear and inadequate requirements, unexpected problems during implementation, unwise decisions made in the beginning stages of the projects are some of the reasons, due to which changes may be required in the later stages of the project. A good software development model is one which accommodates changes, has the ability to adapt well to them and minimizes budget and schedule overruns. The Knowledge Insight Model (KIM) is an iterative software development process. It is flexible enough to accommodate changes at any point during the software development life cycle. KIM is also a higher abstraction of many of the existing software development processes. It consists of four related models, namely, the Framer, the Maker, the Sharer and the Finder. The Framer is responsible for planning the course of action to be taken and defining the strategies, activities and tasks that are required for developing software. The Maker creates a design from the plan formulated by the Framer, which isimplemented by the Finder. The Sharer defines the ways in which the activities of the Maker and the Finder can be tracked and monitored. In this way, it implements organized activity and separation of duties very effectively. The purpose of this thesis is to perform a comparative analysis of the Knowledge Insight Model with some other commonly used models, namely, the Waterfall Model, the Spiral model, the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and Extreme Programming (XP). These models are representatives of various classes of models. By studying each one of them, an understanding of the classes to which they belong, may be developed. The criteria for comparing them are based on the various aspects such as their structure and usability and the system's products, property and success models. This analysis serves to evaluate KIM. The results of this analysis show that the KIM is very flexible. It is also suitable for use as a software development model when evolutionary prototyping is required for all sizes of projects. Software Development using the Knowledge Insight Approach


This paper looks at the private schooling sector in Pakistan, a country that is seriously behind schedule in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Using new data, the authors document the phenomenal rise of the private sector in Pakistan and show that an increasing segment of children enrolled in private schools are from rural areas and from middle-class and poorer families. The key element in their rise is their low fees - the average fee of a rural private school in Pakistan is less than a dime a day (Rs.6). They hire predominantly local, female, and moderately educated teachers who have limited alternative opportunities outside the village. Hiring these teachers at low cost allows the savings to be passed on to parents through low fees. This mechanism - the need to hire teachers with a certain demographic profile so that salary costs are minimized - defines the possibility of private schools: where they arise, fees are low. It also defines their limits. Private schools are horizontally constrained in that they arise in villages where there is a pool of secondary educated women. They are also vertically constrained in that they are unlikely to cater to the secondary levels in rural areas, at least until there is an increase in the supply of potential teachers with the required skills and educational levels.


Advanced imaging, such as MRI, can sometimes provide inconclusive results with knee pathology, leaving both patients and providers with a diagnostic challenge. In-office arthroscopy is a newer, low-risk, diagnostic procedure that allows the physician to use a small bore needle arthroscope to view the intra-articular anatomy of the joint. The patient and provider are provided with immediate results of the pathology found. This pre- vents having to undergo repeat imaging, which can be a costly, time-consuming, and inconclusive process. Ideal indications are patients who are claustrophobic, have previ- ously undergone meniscal or chondral surgery, or whose MRI results are inconclusive. This chapter will review the background, indications, technique, and risks of this novel procedure.


In the southwestern United States, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests have been decreasing in biological diversity for the past century. Today's forests are characterized by dense stands of small-diameter trees that are susceptible to stand-replacing crown fires. There is now an emphasis on ecological restoration in the Southwest, whereby forests are thinned to reduce fuel content so that the natural fire regime can be reintroduced. However, given the multiple impacts humans have had on the landscape over the past 100 years, it is unclear whether thinning and burning treatments will restore all aspects of ecosystem health. Given this uncertainty, managers and stakeholders want information on the impacts of treatments on multiple ecosystem components, including wildlife. I used meta-analysis to compare effects of restoration treatments on wildlife species in southwestern conifer forests. Thinning and burning treatments had positive effects on most small mammals and passerine bird species reported in 25 studies suitable for meta-analysis; overstory removal and wildfire resulted in an overall negative response. I recommend that managers implement thinning and burning treatments, but that future research efforts focus on long-term responses of species at larger spatial scales and target species for which there is a paucity of data. iii No comprehensive analysis of the small mammal community in response to restoration treatments at large scales has been conducted in ponderosa pine forests. Small mammals are important in forest ecosystems in serving as prey, recycling nutrients, dispersing fungal spores and seeds, and aerating soils. During 2006-2009, I trapped eight species of small mammals at 294 sites in northern Arizona, and used occupancy modeling to determine wildlife responses to habitat. The most important habitat variables in predicting small mammal community occupancy were pine basal area, treatment intensity (percent of trees removed and time since treatment), the number and length of time slash piles are left on the ground, rock cover, and snags >40cm diameter. The average occupancy of all species was positively related to thinning treatment and slash. No one treatment benefitted all species, but rather an arrangement of dense and open stands across the landscape with heterogeneity in fine-scale features is likely the best management approach for restoring and maintaining a diverse small mammal community. Similarly, community composition differed in each of 6 years following treatment, but total density remained constant. Total species densities were significantly lower in stands with dense conditions than in stands with more open structural conditions similar to those of presettlement times, which had similar small mammal densities as the thinning treatments. In addition, tassel-eared squirrels (Sciurus aberti), golden-mantled ground squirrels (Spermophilus lateralis), and gray-collared chipmunks (Tamias cinereicollis) appeared to play a functionally redundant role in dispersing ectomycorrhizal fungi across different stand structures. These results iv suggest that restoration treatments can maintain ecosystem stability in terms of small mammal community structure and function. Finally, I found that the rapid assessment, occupancy and density modeling approach was highly effective in evaluating the response of the small mammal community to treatment and other habitat attributes. Particularly in the arid Southwest, most small mammal population studies end up primarily tracking precipitation patterns, but I showed a lack of a year effect by all species. Although this study was a big effort, it obtained more reliable, repeatable results for a greater number of species than many equally-intensive small mammal studies with similar objectives, which relied on mark-recapture methods and density estimation. I suggest this design be utilized in other studies that grapple with high variability and large spatial and temporal scales in assessing general impacts of treatments or habitat change on wildlife species.


Insulin and glucose delivery (muscle perfusion) can modulate insulin-mediated glucose uptake. This study was undertaken to determine 1) to what extent insulin sensitivity modulates the effect of perfusion on glucose uptake and 2) whether this effect is achieved via capillary recruitment. We measured glucose disposal rates (GDRs) and leg muscle glucose uptake (LGU) in subjects exhibiting a wide range of insulin sensitivity, after 4 h of steady-state (SS) euglycemic hyperinsulinemia (>6,000 pmol/l) and subsequently after raising the rate of leg blood flow (LBF) 2-fold with a superimposed intrafemoral artery infusion of methacholine chloride (Mch), an endothelium-dependent vasodilator. LBF was determined by thermodilution: LGU = arteriovenous glucose difference (AVGdelta) x LBF. As a result of the 114+/-12% increase in LBF induced by Mch, the AVGdelta decreased 32+/-4%, and overall rates of LGU increased 40+/-5% (P < 0.05). We found a positive relationship between the Mch-modulated increase in LGU and insulin sensitivity (GDR) (r = 0.60, P < 0.02), suggesting that the most insulin-sensitive subjects had the greatest enhancement of LGU in response to augmentation of muscle perfusion. In separate groups of subjects, we also examined the relationship between muscle perfusion rate and glucose extraction (AVGdelta). Perfusion was either pharmacologically enhanced with Mch or reduced by intra-arterial infusion of the nitric oxide inhibitor N(G)-monomethyl-L-arginine during SS euglycemic hyperinsulinemia. Over the range of LBF, changes in AVGdelta were smaller than expected based on the noncapillary recruitment model of Renkin. Together, the data indicate that 1) muscle perfusion becomes more rate limiting to glucose uptake as insulin sensitivity increases and 2) insulin-mediated increments in muscle perfusion are accompanied by capillary recruitment. Thus, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake displays both permeability- and perfusion-limited glucose exchange properties.


This article uses a signaling model to explain the role of symbols in people's behavior and beliefs, with special attention to legal manipulation of symbols. It is argued that certain actions become symbolic because they have the proper cost structure and because they are, for historical or psychological reasons, focal. The cost structure enables people to obtain advantages by revealing information about themselves in separating equilibrium. The focal character of the action removes ambiguities about the motives for engaging in it. The government can in theory use standard legal instruments (which mainly affect the costs of the signal) to change equilibrium behavior and belief. The use of the law in this way is likely to have unpredictable effects because of multiple equilibria and of the sensitivity of behavior to parameters, but it occurs frequently because lobbying and other actions that influence lawmaking can become signals themselves, and the law is simply an equilibrium outcome.


The purpose of this workshop was to bring together leading biologists and computational scientists interested in exploring shared principles between computing and biology. These two communities have a shared history of mutual influence where the transfer of concepts and tools has resulted in significant advances in both fields. Typically, the computing community develops techniques useful to the biological sciences such as mathematical models or search algorithms, while the biological sciences community develops hypotheses, which inspire new computational techniques such as swarm theory, genetic algorithms, and learning theories. This workshop was intended to take the discussion further, and ask to what extent there are larger organizing principles that are shared between computer science and biology, and whether the exploration of such shared principles might enable new and deeper collaborations between the two communities. The ultimate goal of the workshop was to yield of set of a and recommendations that will be helpful to NSF program officers in identifying new directions, designing new cross-disciplinary programs, and facilitating collaborations.


A comprehensive study on the feasibility of use of natural antioxidants, namely
rosemary and sage, together with citric acid acting as a synergist during repeated deep-fat
frying process of potato chips in palm olein was carried out. The study was inclusive of
evaluation of oxidative behaviour of these antioxidants, monitoring of physico-chemical
changes of oil during frying, development of some new instrumental methods for
detecting quality parameters of used oil, effect of addition of the antioxidants on
organoleptic properties of fried product and relationship between quality indices of the
oil and sensory acceptability of the fried product.Results showed that rosemary and sage extracts are feasible to be used in
retarding the palm olein deterioration during repeated deep-fat frying of potato chips.
The two natural antioxidants were proven to significantly (P<0.05) lower the rate of
oxidation of the oil during frying, while having very good thermal resistance.
Organoleptically, both rosemary and sage extracts could improve acceptability of fried
potato crisps. There were significant correlations between sensory attributes of fried
potato chips and quality parameters of palm olein used.
Optimization study on the effect of use of the natural antioxidants during deep-fat
frying on fatty acid composition of palm olein revealed that C 1 8:2 and C 16:0 fatty acids
were the most important fatty acids for predicting changes in oil quality after frying.
However, for optimization purposes, the use of the C 18:2/C 16:0 ratio best predicted the
efficacy of natural antioxidants in preserving palm olein during deep-fat frying.
This study also successfully developed instrumental methods for monitoring the
physico-chemical changes of palm olein during repeated deep-fat frying. The alkaline
contaminant materials (ACM) contents in palm olein could be determined
spectrophotometrically at 540 nm, whereas the use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR)
spectroscopy to monitor changes in the iodine value, peroxide value and free fatty acid
contents in palm olein during frying was found to be a viable alternative to the wet
chemical methods, with FTIR providing rapid results taking less than 2 min per sample
and minimum use of solvent and labour.


Irish forest cover was reduced to less than one percent by the early 1900s, and since then the amount of forested land has risen steadily, with approximately 10% of the total land area forested today. Just 10% of this forested land is accounted for by native woodlands, while the majority is comprised of plantation forests predominately made up of non-native conifers. The Irish government ultimately aims to achieve a national forest cover of 17% and with such large-scale afforestation planned it is necessary to assess both the impact of such large areas of plantations on the native flora and fauna and also the potential of plantations to provide a refuge for forest-associated biota. Biodiversity research in Ireland's plantation forests is a relatively new field and native woodland research has focused on floristic differences between stands while largely ignoring forest fauna. This study was undertaken at 25 sites with a wide geographical spread across Ireland in the following forest types: 5 first and 5 second rotation commercially mature Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) plantations; 5 commercially mature Ash plantations (Fraxinus excelsior); 5 Oak (Quercus petraea and Q. robur) and 5 Ash (F. excelsior) dominated native woodlands. Pitfall traps were used to sample the ground-dwelling spider fauna using three plots of 5 traps per site. At each plot plant species diversity, plant structural diversity, canopy cover, soil pH and organic content and litter and deadwood cover were recorded. Spiders were identified to species level and assigned habitat associations as follows: woodland specialists, open-habitat specialists, or generalists. Spider assemblages were assessed among the different forest types and Generalised Linear Modelling was used to identify potential biodiversity indicators and make management recommendations. Existing sustainable forest management plans frequently overlook smaller, less charismatic organisms such as spiders, which are difficult to capture and identify. Identification of links between their biodiversity and the structural and compositional characteristics of the forest ecosystem, which can be readily identified by non-specialists, will facilitate their incorporation into forest management plans.


In the interconnected world of today more and more people get on the move. We go abroad for vacations, visits or business trips and we change countries of residence as we pursue new opportunities. Cross-border mobility is becoming part of our life. In recent years consumer researchers have been showing an increasing interest in particularities of consumption in condition of global mobility. Although previous studies have acknowledged the importance of economic capital in enabling global consumer mobility, existing research could be enriched by a deeper understanding of how globally mobile consumers manage their financial consumption across borders.The aim of this dissertation is to is to contribute to the uncovering of the particularities of consumption of financial services in global mobility by documenting globally mobile consumers' financial consumption patterns, the ways they build and maintain relationships with their financial service providers and the ways in which they navigate cultural norms of service consumption and financial consumption across borders.The study is based on four research articles that develop an understanding of the dimensions of financial consumption and uncover purchasing, relational and acculturative aspects of consumption of financial services in mobility. The overarching chapter further develops the insights from the articles, bringing forward the concept of the cephalopodic consumption mode – a particular way in which globally mobile consumers organize their financial consumption.This work contributes to the domain of research on serially relocating consumers by showing how globally mobile professionals engage in cephalopodic consumption mode (CCM), using their economic capital in order to navigate their international movement. The multipresence, multi-acculturation, instrumentality and camouflage of CCM emerge as an answer to challenges of mobility – the need to reacquaint with new countries every time upon relocation, the future need to leave again and the necessity to organize consumption across borders.


In a professional and business-social context such as that of global hotel brands in the United Kingdom, intercultural communication, contacts and relationships are found at the heart of daily operations and of customer service. A large part of the clientele base of hotels in the United Kingdom is formed by individuals who belong to different cultural groups that travel in the country either for leisure or business. At the same time, the global workforce which is recruited in the hotel industry in the United Kingdom is a reality here to stay. Global travelling and labor work mobility are phenomena which have been generated by changes which occur on a socio-economic, cultural and political level due to the phenomenon of globalization. The hotel industry is therefore well acquainted with the essence of different cultures either to be accommodated within hotel premises, as in the case of external customers, or of diversity management where different cultures are recruited in the hotel industry, as in the case of internal customers.
This thesis derives from research conducted on eight different global hotel brands in the United Kingdom in particular, with reference to three, four and five star categories. The research aimed to answer the question of how hotels are organized in order to address issues of intercultural communication during customer service and if intercultural barriers arise during the intercultural interaction of hotel staff and global customers. So as to understand how global hotel brands operate the research carried out focused in three main areas relating to each hotel: organizational culture, customer service–customer care and intercultural issues. The study utilized qualitative interviews with hotel management staff and non-management staff from different cultural backgrounds, public space observations between customers and staff during check-in and checkout in the reception area and during dining at the cafe-bar and restaurant. Thematic analysis was also applied to the official web page of each hotel and to job advertisements to enhance the findings from the interviews and the observations. For the process of analysis of the data interpretive (hermeneutic) phenomenology of Martin Heidegger has been applied.
Generally, it was found that hotel staff quite often feel perplexed by how to deal with and how to overcome, for instance, language barriers and religious issues and how to interpret non verbal behaviors or matters on food culture relating to the intercultural aspect of customer service. In addition, it was interesting to find that attention to excellent customer service on the part of hotel staff is a top organizational value and customer care is a priority. Despite that, the participating hotel brands appear to have not yet, realized how intercultural barriers can affect the daily operation of the hotel, the job performance and the psychology of hotel staff. Employees indicated that they were keen to receive diversity training, provided by their organizations, so as to learn about different cultural needs and expand their intercultural skills. The notion of diversity training in global hotel brands is based on the sense that one of the multiple aims of diversity management as a practice and policy in the workplace of hotels is the better understanding of intercultural differences. Therefore global hotel brands can consider diversity training as a practice which will benefit their hotel staff and clientele base at the same time. This can have a distinctive organizational advantage for organizational affairs in the hotel industry, with potential to influence the effectiveness and performance of hotels.


Guided by a life course perspective and attachment theory this study aimed to examine the impact of the death of a mother or father, or both, on multiple dimensions of psychological and physical health, as well as to examine gender differences in these effects. Analyses of longitudinal data from 8,933 U.S. adults revealed that the death of one or both parents over a period of 5 years was associated with several negative effects on mental and physical health. Gender differences were inconsistent. Death of a father led to more negative effects for sons; death of a mother led to more negative effects for daughters. Negative effects of parent loss were more apparent for men in terms of physical health. Overall, these results suggest that scholars and practitioners working with families should not ignore or underestimate the impact of filial bereavement on adult well-being.


Quantifying tree canopy cover in a spatially explicit fashion is important for broad-scale monitoring of ecosystems and for management of natural resources. Researchers have developed empirical models of tree canopy cover to produce geospatial products. For subpixel models, percent tree canopy cover estimates (derived from fi ne-scale imagery) serve as the response variable. The explanatory variables are developed from reflectance values and derivatives, elevation and derivatives, and other ancillary data. However, there is a lack of guidance in the literature regarding the use of leaf-on only imagery versus multi-season imagery for the explanatory variables. We compared models developed from leaf-on only Landsat imagery with models developed from multi-season imagery for a study area in Georgia. There was no statistical difference among models. We suggest that leaf-on imagery is adequate for the development of empirical models of percent tree canopy cover in the Piedmont of the Southeastern United States.


Energy efficiency of the MAC protocol is a key design factor for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Due to the importance of the problem, a number of energy efficient MAC protocols have been developed for WSNs. Preamble-sampling based MAC protocols (e.g., B-MAC and X-MAC) have overheads due to their preambles, and are inefficient at large wakeup intervals. SCP-MAC, a very energy efficient scheduling MAC protocol, minimizes the preamble by combining preamble sampling and scheduling techniques; however, it does not prevent energy loss due to overhearing; in addition, due to its synchronization procedure, it results in increased contention and delay. In this paper, we present an energy efficient MAC protocol for WSNs that avoids overhearing and reduces contention and delay by asynchronously scheduling the wakeup time of neighboring nodes. To validate our design and analysis, we implement the proposed scheme on the MicaZ platform. Experimental results show that AS-MAC considerably reduces energy consumption, packet loss and delay when compared with SCP-MAC.


The proliferation and ease of access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as Facebook, text messaging, and instant messaging has resulted in ICT users being presented with more real-time streaming data than ever before. Unfortunately, this has also resulted in individuals increasingly engaging in multitasking as an information management strategy. The purpose of this study was to examine how college students multitask with ICTs and to determine the impacts of this multitasking on their college GPA. Using web survey data from a large sample of college students at one university (N=1,839), we found that students reported spending a large amount of time using ICTs on a daily basis. Students reported frequently searching for content not related to courses, using Facebook, emailing, talking on their cell phones, and texting while doing schoolwork. Hierarchical (blocked) linear regression analyses revealed that using Facebook and texting while doing schoolwork were negatively associated with overall college GPA. Conversely, emailing was positively associated with college GPA. Engaging in Facebook use or texting while trying to complete schoolwork may tax students' capacity for cognitive processing and preclude deeper learning, while emailing may be directly related to learning. Our research indicates that the type and purpose of ICT use matters in terms of the educational impacts of multitasking.


Prenatal exposure to acetaminophen may result in compromised neurodevelopment through inflammatory and immunologic mechanisms, through predisposition to oxidative stress, and through endocrine, endogenous cannabinoid, and other mechanisms. Several small and large prospective studies have found an association between gestational acetaminophen exposure and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-like behaviors, use of ADHD medication, and ADHD diagnoses in offspring during childhood; the only negative study was a small investigation that examined only one aspect of attention as an outcome. Creditably, most of the studies adjusted analyses for many (but not all) confounds associated with ADHD risk. Importantly, one pivotal study also adjusted for pain, infection, inflammation, and fever to reduce confounding by indication; this study found a dose-dependent risk. In the light of the finding of a single study that infection and fever during pregnancy by themselves do not raise the ADHD risk, it appears possible that the use of acetaminophen during pregnancy is itself responsible for the increased risk of ADHD. This suggests that acetaminophen may not be as safe in pregnancy as is widely believed. However, since fever during pregnancy may itself be associated with adverse gestational outcomes, given the present level of uncertainty about the ADHD risk with acetaminophen, it is suggested that, until more data are available, the use of acetaminophen in pregnancy should not be denied in situations in which the need for the drug is clear.


Mn4+-Doped K2SiF6 (KSF:Mn4+) is identified as a promising down-conversion narrow-band red phosphor used in warm-white light emitting diodes (wLEDs) or wide color gamut LED backlights, owing to its outstanding photoluminescence properties. However, the highly toxic and concentrated HF is essentially used as a raw material to synthesize KSF:Mn4+ phosphors, which leads to environmental and safety issues. Herein, we report a novel green synthetic route to prepare highly efficient KSF:Mn4+ red phosphors using non-toxic NH4F/HCl instead of HF. The microstructure, photoluminescence properties and reaction mechanisms of the title phosphor were investigated and discussed. The KSF:Mn4+ phosphor (4.8% Mn) synthesized by this green route exhibits a spherical particle morphology and a fine particle size of 5.5 μm. The internal and external quantum efficiencies of the phosphor are 92 and 44% under 460 nm excitation, respectively. A warm wLED using KSF:Mn4+, YAG:Ce3+ and a blue LED chip is demonstrated to have a luminous efficacy of 137.2 lm W−1, a correlated color temperature of 3585 K and a color rendering index of Ra = 88.1, respectively. This indicates that the proposed green synthetic approach enables the preparation of highly efficient KSF:Mn4+ phosphors that have a comparable ability with the commercial ones to produce warm wLEDs.


This paper focuses on the methodology of a study that asked what factors English mothers of very young babies consider when making employment decisions and childcare choices, and sought their views on the idea of carers in day care settings 'loving' their children. After a characterisation of life historical study, a four-staged process of analysis demonstrates how meaning was made from data created with six mothers. The discussion 'voices' their stories through excerpts from their expressions of emotion. The conclusion acknowledges insights generated into the dilemmas of mothers' choices, but importantly points up how the careful listening and critical attending required by life historical study themselves generate stories that 'go awry' to reveal something of personal and of social importance. The paper concludes that using life story methods is a difficult process which may create discomfort for researcher and 'researched' long after the study is finished.


Recent years have seen an increase in the amount of statistics describing different phenomena based on "Big Data." This term includes data characterized not only by their large volume, but also by their variety and velocity, the organic way in which they are created, and the new types of processes needed to analyze them and make inference from them. The change in the nature of the new types of data, their availability, and the way in which they are collected and disseminated is fundamental. This change constitutes a paradigm shift for survey research. There is great potential in Big Data, but there are some fundamental challenges that have to be resolved before its full potential can be realized. This report provides examples of different types of Big Data and their potential for survey research; it also describes the Big Data process, discusses its main challenges, and considers solutions and research needs.


Abstract: This article is about the state of social rights in the European Union, in comparison with their protection at national level. The first part aims to define the term of social citizenship as it is understood in European legal culture. The second part examines the recent evolution of the case-law of the ECJ on social rights protection, which is, essentially, a jurisprudence which does not recognize but few, if any, fundamental social rights. This disparity between the national and the EU concept of social citizenship could create serious problems of legitimacy in the future.


This thesis sets out to investigate the organizational aspects of information processing systems
at a macro organizational level of analysis, using both static and dynamic modelling
techniques.
Chapter 1 validates the use of organizational taxonomies for small and medium sized
manufacturing firms and highlights the importance of the dynamic nature of organizational
variables.
Chapter 2 models each of the ten Miller configurations using Beer's Viable System Model,
enabling the strengths and weaknesses in each of the five information processing systems to be
identified.
Chapter 3 introduces a dynamic element into what would otherwise be static models. The
Viable System Model is used once again, in this instance to highlight the information
processing properties of organizational transition states.
Chapter 4 investigates the concept of configuration at the System 3 level of analysis, i. e. the
existence of internal information system archetypes. The results suggest distinct clusters
amongst existing management accounting and control systems, but fail to link them to the
organizational configuration identified by Miller and Friesen's 31 variable questionnaire.
Chapter 5 studies the System 4 function, validating its role within the Viable System Model
and developing a measure of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty.
Chapter 6 looks at the System 5 policy-making function in more detail, introducing the
concept of delta to account for softer issues such as personality traits, locus of control and
culture, all of which prove to be of significant importance in small and medium sized
manufacturing firms.


Network functions virtualization (NFV) continues to gain attention as a paradigm shift in the way telecommunications services are deployed and managed. By separating network function from traditional middleboxes, NFV is expected to lead to reduced capital expenditure and operating expenditure, and to more agile services. However, one of the main challenges to achieving these objectives is how physical resources can be efficiently, autonomously, and dynamically allocated to virtualized network function (VNF) whose resource requirements ebb and flow. In this paper, we propose a graph neural network-based algorithm which exploits VNF forwarding graph topology information to predict future resource requirements for each VNF component (VNFC). The topology information of each VNFC is derived from combining its past resource utilization as well as the modeled effect on the same from VNFCs in its neighborhood. Our proposal has been evaluated using a deployment of a virtualized IP multimedia subsystem, and real VoIP traffic traces, with results showing an average prediction accuracy of 90%, compared to 85% obtained while using traditional feed-forward neural networks. Moreover, compared to a scenario where resources are allocated manually and/or statically, our technique reduces the average number of dropped calls by at least 27% and improves call setup latency by over 29%.


The Hippo signaling target Yap is dispensable for homeostasis of the intestinal epithelium but is required for regeneration. Many factors that stimulate cell proliferation in regenerating tissues are known, but few mechanisms for restricting proliferation during regeneration have been identified. Cai et al. used a mouse model of intestinal regeneration after damage by dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) to investigate whether signaling through the Hippo pathway, which limits organ size in diverse species, also plays a role in limiting regenerative proliferation. Knocking out Yap in the intestinal epithelium during embryonic development had no effect on intestinal morphology or function but impeded regeneration after DSS treatment, with DSS-treated Yap mutant epithelia showing less proliferation and more apoptosis in the colon compared to wild type (WT). Removal of the Hippo signaling component Sav1 caused increased intestinal epithelial cell proliferation, which was rescued by concomitant knockout of Yap, and male mice lacking Sav1 in the intestinal epithelia developed colonic polyps by 13 months of age, suggesting that Hippo signaling plays a role in limiting epithelial proliferation during normal homeostasis. Transient DSS treatment resulted in the development of colonic polyps by 3 months of age in mice lacking Sav1 in the intestinal epithelium but did not induce polyps in WT mice or those lacking only Yap or lacking both Yap and Sav1, indicating a critical requirement for Hippo signaling in limiting regenerative proliferation. These polyps were morphologically similar to sessile serrated polyps (SSPs) and did not show increased nuclear accumulation of β-catenin, but they did show increased nuclear accumulation of Yap, and some of them subsequently underwent adenomatous transformation and invaded the intestinal smooth muscle. SSPs removed from human patients showed increased nuclear accumulation of Yap compared with adjacent normal tissue but no nuclear accumulation of β-catenin. These findings support the notion that SSPs represent an alternative to β-catenin–dependent colorectal tumorigenesis and implicate the repression of Yap activity by Hippo signaling in this oncogenic pathway. The authors propose a model in which Hippo signaling activity in the intestinal epithelium keeps Yap inactive until regeneration is initiated and limits Yap activity to terminate proliferation when regeneration is complete. J. Cai, N. Zhang, Y. Zheng, R. F. de Wilde, A. Maitra, D. Pan, The Hippo signaling pathway restricts the oncogenic potential of an intestinal regeneration program. Genes Dev. 24, 2383–2388 (2010). [Abstract] [Full Text]


This luminous story begins in the present day, when a professor invites a colleague to his home to see a painting that he has kept secret for decades. The professor swears it is a Vermeer --but why has he hidden this important work for so long? The reasons unfold in a series of events that trace the ownership of the painting back to World War II and Amsterdam, and still further back to the moment of the work's inspiration. As the painting moves through each owner's hands, what was long hidden quietly surfaces, illuminating poignant moments in multiple lives. Vreeland's characters remind us, through their love of this mysterious painting, how beauty transforms and why we reach for it, what lasts and what in our lives is singular and unforgettable.


One of the more exciting aspects of academic postmodernism has been the attention it has generated in popular culture. With the dissolution of what Andreas Huyssen called "the great divide" between elite and popular culture, the image of professors as high-brow arbiters of decorum and taste is now often replaced with another, equally reductive perception: the professor as carnival barker, enthusiastically leading young minds away from the cultural center and towards a sideshow of debased or alien social elements. As theorists of popular culture, we shamelessly cast our gaze on cultural productions that once were "beneath us," recognizing pornography, working-class literature, B-movies, pulp fiction, and soap operas as relevant objects of scrutiny. If, as Huyssen asserted in After the Great Divide, modernism constituted itself through a conscious strategy of exclusion, "an anxiety of contamination by its Other: an increasingly consuming and engulfing mass culture," then we might say that postmodernism delights in this "contamination" (1). It marks the historical moment when academics climb down from the ivory tower and join the carnival in the streets. The official sponsor of the carnival was of course postmodernism, that rambunctious child of what Fredric Jameson calls "late-capitalism." In theory, postmodernism initiated a symbolic inversion fraught with carnivalesque implications: the margins became central in Western epistemology and the "low" (the popular, the vulgar) achieved a privileged status in "high" theoretical discourse. Academic discourses have translated Mikhail Bakhtin's observations on the anarchic vitality of the carnival spirit into critical trends that celebrate the decanonization of art and culture. In this discussion, I will examine this celebration of the margins in the context of U.S. cultural centers, focusing on carnivalizing strategies that mask or defer identity, collapse borders, channel dissent, and simulate folk rebellion. In the process, I will critique the role of high theory in the production of a mass-mediated pseudo-festival-a festival in which fresh images of "the folk" are embraced and exploited. In its institutional context, postmodernism emerged in the '60s as legitimized protest. Its various tactics simulated the transgressive and regenerative vitality of Bakhtinian carnival: rejecting ethnocentric notions of self and nation, proclaiming the arbitrary nature of all hierarchies, and celebrating creolization and eclecticism. By emphasizing the importance of "lower" strata of culture as opposed to the uniform, official "high culture," postmodernists resuscitated a project initiated by Bakhtin's work on carnival. Bakhtin's methodology had rejected the cultural centrism that upheld a social and ethnic hierarchy in Russia during the years prior to World War II. In Rabelais and His World, Bakhtin argued that Rabelais "summoned all the resources of sober popular imagery in order to break up the official lies and the narrow seriousness dictated by the ruling classes. He did not implicitly believe in what his time `said and imagined about itself'; he strove to disclose its true meaning for the people" (439). Bakhtin's analysis of the carnivalesque sought to revitalize the connection between "high" and "low" culture, a connection virtually ignored in scholarship since the Renaissance. In Bakhtin's view, "the grotesque tradition peculiar to the marketplace and the academic literary tradition have parted ways and can no longer be brought together.... The link with the essential aspects of being, with the organic system of popular-festive images, has been broken" (109). With the emergence of formerly colonized or marginalized subjectivities, this link is necessarily reestablished. In recent years, the so-called "third world" seems bound to invert a long-standing hierarchy of power by invading the "first"-with its literature, its immigrants, its languages, foods, fashions, and movies. …


Food literacy is a set of skills and knowledge that are integral to diet. It is common among teenagers to not have basic food literacy skills needed to consume a healthy diet. This study examined: (1) the current state of food and nutrition knowledge among adolescents 13–19 years of age in the census metropolitan area of London, ON, Canada; and (2) correlates of food knowledge and nutrition knowledge among adolescents. Data for this study were drawn from baseline youth and parent survey data collected from a larger population health intervention study. Statistical analysis of the survey data indicates that higher parental education and higher median neighbourhood family income, the use of mobile health applications, liking to cook, as well as confidence in reading and understanding food labels were all consistently associated with increased food and nutrition knowledge. Findings may help guide future research towards optimal methods for delivering food literacy interventions to effectively educate teenagers. Results of this study may help guide policy makers, researchers, and public health professionals in developing appropriate food and nutrition programs and curriculums to combat the decline in food literacy skills.


Educational value orientations reflect teachers' philosophical beliefs about schooling and serveas the basis on which teachers make their decisions. Five value orientations have been identifiedempirically among physical educators: disciplinary mastery (DM), learning process (LP), selfactualization (SA), ecological integration (EI), and social responsibility (SR) (Ennis & Chen,1993). The Ennis Value Orientation Inventory (EnnisVOI) was designed and used in valueorientation research to elicit physical educators' educational values by having teachers prioritizea set of curricular decisions. The original inventory (VOI-1) (Ennis & Hooper, 1988) consistedof 75 decision statements organized into 15 five-statement sets. Each statement in a setrepresented one value orientation. In testing, teachers first read and consider statements in a set.Then, they rank the five statements using a different number on a 5-point scale (in which 1 =least important and 5 = most important) to indicate their value priority. Teachers' valueorientations emerge when they consistently rank the statements representing one particular valueorientation higher than others throughout the 15 sets.


Abstract Epigenome-Wide Association Study (EWAS) has become an effective strategy to explore epigenetic basis of complex traits. Over the past decade, a large amount of epigenetic data, especially those sourced from DNA methylation array, has been accumulated as the result of numerous EWAS projects. We present EWAS Data Hub (https://bigd.big.ac.cn/ewas/datahub), a resource for collecting and normalizing DNA methylation array data as well as archiving associated metadata. The current release of EWAS Data Hub integrates a comprehensive collection of DNA methylation array data from 75 344 samples and employs an effective normalization method to remove batch effects among different datasets. Accordingly, taking advantages of both massive high-quality DNA methylation data and standardized metadata, EWAS Data Hub provides reference DNA methylation profiles under different contexts, involving 81 tissues/cell types (that contain 25 brain parts and 25 blood cell types), six ancestry categories, and 67 diseases (including 39 cancers). In summary, EWAS Data Hub bears great promise to aid the retrieval and discovery of methylation-based biomarkers for phenotype characterization, clinical treatment and health care.


A golden opportunity for graphene Reducing friction can limit wear and improve the energy efficiency of mechanical devices. Graphene is a promising lubricant because the friction between sheets is minuscule under certain circumstances. Kawai et al. show that the same ultra-low frictional properties extend to other surfaces. They find ultralow friction when dragging graphene nanoribbons across a gold surface using an atomic force microscope. This discovery sets up the potential for developing nanographene frictionless coatings. Science, this issue p. 957 Experiments reveal ultralow friction when graphene nanoribbons slide across an oriented gold surface. The state of vanishing friction known as superlubricity has important applications for energy saving and increasing the lifetime of devices. Superlubricity, as detected with atomic force microscopy, appears when sliding large graphite flakes or gold nanoclusters across surfaces, for example. However, the origin of the behavior is poorly understood because of the lack of a controllable nanocontact. We demonstrated the superlubricity of graphene nanoribbons when sliding on gold with a joint experimental and computational approach. The atomically well-defined contact allows us to trace the origin of superlubricity, unraveling the role played by ribbon size and elasticity, as well as by surface reconstruction. Our results pave the way to the scale-up of superlubricity and thus to the realization of frictionless coatings.


Due to hardware design or cost consideration, sensors may possess sector-like sensing coverage. Furthermore, by stepper motors, sensors can rotate to cover the objects around them. This type of sensors are called rotatable and directional (R&D) sensors. Through rotation, R&D sensors provide temporal coverage to objects by "periodically" detecting their existence. In the paper, we first develop an event-driven surveillance system by R&D sensors, where objects are monitored by the sensors equipped with infrared detectors and cameras. When an object is taken away, the sensor monitoring the object reports a warning message along with detailed snapshots from the surroundings. Then, motivated by the system, we formulate an R&D sensor deployment problem, which tries to deploy the minimum number of R&D sensors to cover a given set of objects such that each object is covered by 0 < \delta \le 1 ratio of time in every frame. We show this problem to be NP-hard and propose two efficient heuristics. The maximum covering deployment (MCD) heuristic iteratively deploys a sensor to cover more objects, and performs well when objects congregate together. The disk-overlapping deployment (DOD) heuristic deploys sensors to cover the joint sectors of overlapped disks, so it works better when objects are arbitrarily placed in the sensing field. The paper contributes in defining a new temporal coverage model by R&D sensors, developing a surveillance application for this model, and proposing efficient heuristics to reduce the deployment cost.


As mobile nodes move to new links, they need to resume their communications in a timely fashion. To communicate, IPv6 nodes need to complete router discovery, address auto-configuration, and other tasks. Unfortunately, this depends on prior completion of the Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol, introducing a mandatory delay of up to one second. This document discusses where this can be problematic and proposes solutions that can alleviate the problem.