This thesis develops new methods for obtaining optimal frequency domain approximation in the design of digital filters. The approach uses a squared error approximation criterion and allows a transition band in the desired frequency response specification. Four particular cases are considered.
The first case considers FIR filters whose frequency responses include transition bands and whose errors are uniformly weighted. The new technique defines the exact transition edges, maintains optimality, reduces the Gibbs' phenomenon, and has low computational requirement. Two error measures are investigated, the discrete squared error and the integral squared error.
The second case involves the near-singularity problems which occur in the design of FIR filter with zero transition band error. A new approach is developed and a considerable improvement over the existing techniques is obtained. This new design method could accommodate almost any weighting function, and has computational complexity comparable to those of the existing ones.
The third case includes a complex frequency domain approximation in the IIR filter design. A technique based on the quasilinearization method is developed, and comparison shows that in most design examples the new approach appears to converge more rapidly than other competitive algorithms. Unlike other frequency domain linearization methods, the new algorithm does not modify the error criterion.
The fourth case includes an IIR filter design method with magnitude specification in the frequency domain. The problem is formulated as a successive complex frequency domain approximation. A new algorithm to solve this problem is developed, and experiments indicate that the algorithm converges faster than the other competitors do for most of filter design examples.


With over $1 trillion in assets, the U.S. Social Security trust fund is the largest pension reserve in the world, and potentially a model for other developed countries facing future financing problems. But are those assets actually worth anything?' This question has generated a heated debate in the U.S. as policymakers debate options for Social Security reform, with the understanding that the characterization of the trust fund influences these decisions. Some observers claim that the trust fund is not worth anything while others argue that it is valuable. However, different reasons are given for the same position. This paper provides a unified conceptual framework for thinking rigorously about the assets accumulated in the trust fund. Multiple perspectives of the trust fund are identified and are summarized under two categories: (I) storage technology arguments and (II) ownership arguments. Storage technology arguments focuses on whether the trust fund surpluses actually reduce the level of debt held by the public or, alternatively, are used to hide' smaller on-budget surpluses. Ownership arguments focus on property rights, i.e., how trust fund credits should be allocated regardless of whether they reduce the debt held by the public. Only the storage technology argument can be empirically tested, as we do herein. We find that there is no empirical evidence supporting the claim that trust fund assets have reduced the level of debt held by the public. In fact, the evidence suggests just the opposite: trust fund assets have probably increased the level of debt held by the public. Moreover, the adoption of a unified budget' framework in the late 1960s appears to play a statistically significant role in this result. We show how this counterintuitive result can be explained by a simple split the dollar game' where competition between two political parties exploits the ignorance of voters who don't understand that the government's reported budget surplus actually includes the off-budget' Social Security surplus. To be sure based on a limited annual time series (1949 2002) and so the results should be interpreted with caution. But the empirical tests are, if anything, biased toward finding a reduction in the level of debt held by the public, and not the increase that we find.


DYNAMIC BALANCE CONTROL DURING TREADMILL WALKING IN CHRONIC STROKE SURVIVORS Eric Walker, B.S. Marquette University, 2013 Maintaining dynamic balance is an important component of walking function that is likely impaired in chronic stroke survivors, evidenced by an increased prevalence of falls. Dynamic balance control requires maintaining the center of mass (COM) within the base of support during movement. During walking, dynamic balance control is achieved largely by modifying foot placement to adjust the base of support. However, chronic stroke survivors have difficulty with both precision control of foot placement, as well as reduced control of COM movement. The objective of this dissertation was to characterize dynamic balance control strategies during walking in chronic stroke survivors. Additionally, we evaluated whether altered sensory feedback could be used to improve balance control in stroke survivors. Dynamic balance control was characterized during challenging walking conditions in stroke survivors and age-matched neurologically intact individuals. Adaptations to perturbations in frontal plane COM, induced using a custom cable-driven device, were used to further probe mechanisms of dynamic balance control. Despite larger amounts of COM movement and step widths, chronic stroke survivors produced a similar ratio of step width to COM sway, indicating that simply increasing step width does not produce a safer walking pattern for the stroke group. Placement of the paretic limb was unchanged in response to the external perturbations of trunk movement, which might underlie deficits in dynamic balance control. Augmented sensory feedback improved paretic foot placement and COM control, when applied during a stepping or treadmill walking task. These results provide insight into differences in dynamic balance control in stroke while also demonstrating that augmented sensory feedback signals might be used to improve balance control, and thus walking function for chronic stroke survivors.


Objectives: To describe the reliability of reported dates of first and last sexual exposure, as elicited from sexually transmitted disease/human immunodeficiency virus cases during routine contact investigation, and determine their adequacy for assessing concurrency. Methods: We used contact tracing data from 5 studies in which both members of 774 dyads were interviewed and named each other as sex partners. We assessed partners' agreement on the dates of first and last exposure as related to precision (to the day, month, or year) of reported dates and demographic and behavioral characteristics of the dyad. We performed simulations that introduced reporting error, based on our observed data, to posited "true" temporal configurations of partnerships to assess the impact of unreliability in reporting on the measurement of concurrency. Results: Thirty-two percent of dyads agreed on the exact date of first sexual exposure, and 36% did so for the date of last sexual exposure. Sixty-four percent agreed within 30 days on the date of first sexual exposure, and 81% did so for the date of last sexual exposure. The reliability of reported dates was positively related to the precision of the reports. Agreement on reported exposure dates was not meaningfully associated with any of the sociodemographic and behavioral variables available. Based on simulations, the positive predictive value of reported dates for estimating concurrency is approximately 80% over a wide range of conditions. Conclusions: These data suggest that the reliability of reported exposure dates is reasonably good but that estimating concurrency with reported dates is subject to some error. Data designed for the purpose and analyzed with adequate attention to the statistical and epidemiologic issues of assessing concurrency are needed.


Purpose: To analyze long-term results of modified Schocket implant. Methods: The records of 45 patients (45 surgeries) with at least one year follow-up who received a modified Schocket implant were analyzed. Comparisons were made regarding success rates (final IOP< 22 mmHg), survival time, diag- nosis, initial and final IOP, percentual postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction and complications. Results: After a mean follow-up of 31.9 ± 19.9 months 28 cases (62.2%) were considered successful. Mean survival time was 38.9 months and success probability around 30 months 0.74. Initial IOP was 37.2 ± 11.3 mmHg and final IOP was 16.3 ± 9.3 mmHg and postoperative IOP reduction was 49.6 ± 32.6%. Survival analysis in the different diagnosis groups (neovascular, congenital, aphakic, postkeratoplasty) did not reveal statistical significance. Conclusion: The results suggest that the modified Schocket implant provides satisfactory long-term control of refrac- tory glaucomas.


Congress has created a mechanism through which victims of securities fraud may pursue remedies for their losses against the perpetrators. That mechanism includes the substantive prohibitions of the federal securities laws, as well as the procedural pathways established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence. In this Article, we delineate those access barriers and question both their constitutionality and wisdom. We begin by describing how some federal courts have rewritten the PSLRA and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Evidence to erect merits barriers at three key pre-trial litigation stages that force plaintiffs to prove their case without the benefit of discovery to a judge before reaching a jury. In particular, some federal courts have redesigned the pleading standard under the PSLRA and the federal rules so as to steeply discount allegations of scienter based on circumstantial evidence. Other courts have doctored Rule 23 to require plaintiffs to prove the elements of reliance and loss causation by a preponderance of the evidence to pursue a class action. And some other courts have adjusted Rule 56 and the expert-witness regime to require plaintiffs to establish the weight and credibility of their expert witnesses to avoid summary judgment. At each of these pre-trial stages, the federal courts have effectively required plaintiffs to meet a burden of proof which is actually greater than or equal to the burden of proof which should be encountered only later at trial. The next part explains that these access barriers pose both constitutional and practical concerns. First by rewriting rules of procedure, rather than deferring to traditional rulemaking bodies like Congress and the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference, the judiciary has usurped the rulemaking function of the legislature. Second, the pre-trial barriers erected require plaintiffs to meet, or at times even exceed, their burden of proof at trial and leave district courts with considerable fact-finding power, encroaching on the province of the jury. The constitutional implications of these merits-based access barriers alone should be sufficient to prevent federal courts from continuing to redesign the private securities litigation process. If it is not, this next part offers another reason cautions against mainstream acceptance of these judicial access barriers: they are unwise. The judicial access barriers rest on three premises that are incomplete, unsupported, or not true, including the incomplete and unsupported contention that defendants settle claims in terrorem, the myth that Congress is incapable of fashioning rules responsive to litigation concerns and that the jury is incapable of merited fact-finding, and the flawed assumption that merits-based screening precludes only "frivolous" litigation. We discover no legitimate support for any of these assumptions.


Summary: Worldwide, 700,000 infants are infected annually by HIV-1, most of them in resource-limited settings. Care for'these'children requires simple, inexpensive tests. We have evaluated HIV-1 p24 antigen for antiretroviral treatment (ART) monitoring in children. p24 by boosted enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay of heated plasma and HIV-1 RNA were measured prospectively in 24 HIV-1-infected children receiving ART. p24 and HIV-1 RNA concentrations and their changes between consecutive visits were related to the respective CD4+ changes. Age at study entry was 7.6 years; follow-up was 47.2 months, yielding 18 visits at an interval of 2.8 months (medians). There were 399 complete visit data sets and 375 interval data sets. Controlling for variation between individuals, there was a positive relationship between concentrations of HIV-1 RNA and p24 (P < 0.0001). While controlling for initial CD4+ count, age, sex, days since start of ART, and days between visits, the relative change in CD4+ count between 2 successive visits was negatively related to the corresponding relative change in HIV-1 RNA (P = 0.009), but not to the initial HIV-1 RNA concentration (P = 0.94). Similarly, we found a negative relationship with the relative change in p24 over the interval (P < 0.0001), whereas the initial p24 concentration showed a trend (P = 0.08). Statistical support for the p24 model and the HIV-1 RNA model was similar. p24 may be an accurate low-cost alternative to monitor ART in pediatric HIV-1 infection.


Over the past few decades, advances in technology, most notably the industrial revolution of the late 18-century, has brought about dramatic improvements in the socioeconomic circumstances of developed nations. This has also brought with it rapid change in terms of human population, environmental impacts as well as energy consumption. Growth in energy consumption has been largely associated with increased use of finite fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) in industrialized nations. However, this growth is unsustainable due to the depletion of these natural resources as well as the impact their consumption has on the environment, in terms of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions. A shift towards renewable fuels (wind, hydro, solar, geothermal, tidal) is currently underway, but progress remains slow, and the current reliance on fossil fuels for many existing essential technologies (e.g. transport) remains a major barrier to the large-scale transition that is required. Energy efficiency has the potential to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) and provide additional scope for the transition to a sustainable renewables-based energy future. Buildings account for approximately 40% of global energy consumption. Approximately half of this energy requirement stems from space heating and cooling. Studies have shown that savings of up to 40% are possible through the implementation of energy conservation measures (ECM's) and continuous commissioning (CC). Whole building energy simulation tools have the potential to play a significant role in achieving this goal. However, their widespread adoption in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry depends on their perceived reliability and the accuracy of their outputs. Currently, simulation tools are used primarily in building design with litt le integration or comparison to real building operation. It is often found that the actual buildings perform far worse than the design simulation initially predicted. This gap between measured and simulated data needs to be carefully addressed. This thesis proposes a new methodology for calibrating building energy simulation (BES) models to measured data including the incorporation of parameter uncertainty into final model predictions and recommendations.


This article explores the controversial "lost chance theory" that CCP leader Mao Zedong genuinely wished to build a working relationship with the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, but was rebuffed by shortsighted decision makers in Washington who passed on the opportunity to cooperate with China's future ruler. The authors note key historiographical developments and explain the major arguments both for and against the lost chance theory before advancing a post-revisionist position that its opponents have in recent years inadvertently created the false impression that there was never any real possibility that Washington and the CCP might have built a positive working relationship during the war years, while the window for CCP-US cooperation was far more ephemeral than lost chancers understood. This paper argues that Mao's wartime expressions of his desire to work with the United States were indeed sincere through to the end of 1944, however by the spring of 1945 cooperation had become an impossibility because the Roosevelt administration badly misread Jiang Jieshi's ability to unite the country andclung to unfounded suspicions that the CCP would serve as an obedient Soviet proxy in East Asia.


Abstract This paper asks whether the motivations behind mergers manifest themselves in different ways across small versus large plants, and between foreign- and domestic-owned plants. The sample consists of all the manufacturing plants in Canada between 1973 and 1999 and is divided into size quartiles by industry and grouped into foreign- and domestic-owned producers. We find that characteristics that are postulated to be associated with the type of synergy upon which ownership changes rely are found to be important factors leading to plant ownership changes across most size classes. However, the importance of synergies increases across size classes in domestic plants. Foreign-owned plants are more likely to experience control changes than domestic plants across all size classes. These differences are closely related to the characteristics possessed by foreign plants that offer takeover synergies. There is also evidence of a managerial failure motive for mergers in the foreign sector that is not found in the domestic sector.


The Sequoia computer is a tightly coupled multiprocessor that avoids most of the fault-tolerance disadvantages of tight coupling by using a fault-tolerant hardware-design approach. An overview is give of how the hardware architecture and operating system (OS) work together to provide a high degree of fault tolerance with good system performance. A description of hardware is followed by a discussion of the multiprocessor synchronization problem. Kernel support for fault recovery and the recovery process itself are examined. It is shown the kernel, through a combination of locking, shadowed memory, and controlled flushing of non-write-through cache, maintains a consistent main memory state recoverable from any single-point failure. The user shared memory is also discussed.<<ETX>>


Biochar has a wide range of applications in the field of water technology, not only as part of the technological solution for water purification and treatment, but also as a material produced from waste products of this technology. In the article we consider the perspective of this application and the possibility and need for its research.


Glass offers a wide variety of possible applications for the realization of even the most ambitious designs in architecture, and in the past two decades it has experienced an unparalleled burst of innovation. For planners, this means working constantly with this high-performance material. In compact and appealing form, the completely revised Glass Construction Manual presents the current state of the art on planning and building with glass, from the history through the technical foundations all the way to the most innovative applications. Astonishing perspectives on thermal insulation and solar protection and the addition of thoughtfully selected new practical examples round off this comprehensive reference work.


During 1999-2000, the illegal and unregulated logging of Indonesia's forests became the focus of critical attention. It has been estimated that logging outside the State legal regime produces approximately half of the total timber production from Indonesia's forests. In 2000, as Indonesia's forests continued to rapidly recede, the problem had become so critical that, without serious changes, the World Bank and other foreign donors considered withdrawing entirely from forestry sector projects in Indonesia. While on a national scale the extent of the problem is now understood, insufficient attention has been paid to how this 'informal sector' operates at the district level. The paper is based on research carried out in the district of South Aceh during 1996-1999, before and during the crisis that marked the end of the Suharto era. By considering the emergence of logging networks in this district, this paper examines the institutional arrangements associated with this phenomenon, explores how logging networks emerge, how they operate, and how they respond to economic and political changes as well as interventions by outside conservation agencies. Webs of political, economic and social exchanges have emerged around illegal logging, constituting institutionalised sets of relationships that operate in ways antithetical to State legal norms. Extra-legal logging generates revenue for local clientele networks and the district budget and offers impoverished villagers viable survival strategies, but threatens the ecological future of Indonesia's once vast forests. By considering the changes that most affected logging networks over this period, the paper concludes by discussing the conditions necessary for successful project interventions.


"Divided America" tells the biggest story in American politics today. It's the story behind the emergence of a ferocious power struggle between conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats that is tearing the country's politics apart.Drawing on extensive polling data and close analyses of presidential, senatorial, and congressional elections over the past fifty years, two eminent political scientists show, for the first time, how partisan warfare has reduced both major parties to minority status and locked them into fierce power struggles in each election cycle, thereby making America less stable and more difficult to govern.Because the two major parties are now evenly balanced in the national electorate, control of the White House and Congress can shift dramatically with each election. Neither Republicans nor Democrats operate with any "lock" on the presidency, House of Representatives, or Senate, as demonstrated by the 2006 congressional elections. Earl Black and Merle Black examine the party battles as they've played themselves out in the nation's five principal geographic areas. Each party has developed two important regional strongholds, as exemplified in the 2004 elections, when Republicans won all the electoral votes and sizable majorities of House and Senate seats in the South and Mountain/Plains states while the Democrats won almost all the electoral votes and large majorities in the Northeast and the Pacific Rim states. The Midwest is the perennial swing region.The authors describe the enormous changes that have occurred in the electorates of each region over the past fifty years -- with emphasis on how the size and partisan affiliations of key groups havechanged -- and show how these transformations have generated today's unstable two-party battles. Although the relentlessly competitive nature of modern American politics is generally appreciated, the regional causes underlying this new state of affairs are not well understood. Because neither Democrats nor Republicans can produce national majorities simply by sweeping their regional strongholds, they are locked in a fierce power struggle in each election. "Divided America" tells the story of these remarkable developments in clear, vigorous prose and provides a pragmatic understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each party.For the foreseeable future, each party will be within striking distance of winning -- or losing -- political power in every national institution. Understanding the party battles in America's regions is vital to understanding how today's losers can become tomorrow's winners


In the 1950s, before the Ad Hoc Committee on the Classification of Headache and the more detailed criteria devised by the International Headache Society from 2004 onwards, the separation of headache entities was far from clear. During that period I had the privilege of having George Selby as a mentor while attending the Northcott Neurological Centre in Sydney. He was a meticulous clinician with a particular interest in migraine, a condition that was in ample supply in that outpatient clinic, which had been established to provide neurological advice to returned servicemen and their families after World War II. Retrospective analysis of data was aided by a set pattern of history taking and typed records. Why did we refer to 'allied vascular headaches'? The occurrence of severe episodes of headache accentuated by each heart beat was accepted as migrainous in type even though habitually bilateral as it was in 191 of our 500 patients. Visual disturbances and paraesthesiae occurred with generalised headaches as often as hemicrania. Unilateral paraesthesiae were followed by ipsilateral headache as often as contralateral (which would not have been the case were the cortical disturbance responsible for causing headache). In 103 patients, headache persistently affected the same side of the head without any underlying structural cause becoming apparent, contrary to popular belief at that time. In 21% of patients, headaches started under 10 years of age and 31% of adults questioned recalled the frequent occurrence of vomiting ('bilious attacks') encountered unassociated with headaches. A feature in our report that has recently been rediscovered 3 is scalp tenderness (allodynia) experienced during or after the headache by 65% of our patients. This varied in intensity from sensitivity on combing their hair to preventing the sufferer from lying on the affected side at night. The development of allodynia suggests the withdrawal of inhibition of the afferent inflow from cutaneous receptors in line with that from cranial arteries causing the pulsatile nature of the headache, and from the special senses responsible for enhanced susceptibility to light, sound and smells. True vertigo within the definition of hallucination of movement had occurred in 33% of 217 patients in whom this symptom was sought. Confusion at the height of the attack had been experienced by 14% of patients and some exhibited automatisms or apparently hysterical behaviour. Another point of interest was that the frequency of headaches increased with emotional factors. In the 15% of patients who reported more than 10 headaches a month, tension headaches were often present as well, making it difficult for patients to distinguish between the two in what is now known as 'chronic migraine'. Understanding the broad clinical spectrum of migraine encouraged laboratory and clinical studies that followed. Inspired by observations of Sicuteri in Florence and Kimball et al in New York, we embarked on studies of plasma serotonin in migraine. 7 These drew the attention of Dr Patrick Humphrey in England who devised sumatriptan as a selective 5HT1 B/D agonist for the acute treatment of migraine. He wrote to me: "Undoubtedly your clinical studies on serotonin were seminal in our discovery of sumatriptan because they were critical in getting me to focus on serotonin rather than prostaglandins. Your observation too, which you confided in me, that sometimes methysergide was effective acutely was also key. They were certainly exciting days". Following the serotonin trail our team reported that a double blind trial of the serotonin uptake inhibitor amitriptyline proved effective in the relief of chronic daily headache and presented a pilot study of the monoamine inhibitor phenelzine in the management of intractable migraine. An animal model linking neural and vascular factors applicable to migraine was put forward as the result of experiments by Goadsby and Lambert in our laboratory. Collaboration between Peter Goadsby in our Sydney laboratory and Lars Edvinsson in Uppsala showed that the content of calcitonin gene related peptide was increased in jugular venous blood during migraine headache. Calcitonin gene related peptide antagonists have recently been shown to be effective in acute migraine therapy without causing vasoconstriction, a useful addition to the migraine armamentarium. Over the past 50 years patients have asked the questions and research has provided some answers. Our quest is continued by Goadsby, now in San Francisco, and by colleagues in Sydney. In the 1960 paper, Selby and I concluded that the migraine syndrome presents an interesting study for the clinician because of the diversity and severity of its symptoms. "With further research, the time should be closer when the many fragments of knowledge may be joined together into a single concept." Fifty years later one still remains optimistic. Title: OBSERVATIONS ON 500 CASES OF MIGRAINE AND ALLIED VASCULAR HEADACHE Authors: Selby G, Lance J W Published: 1960


The democratic legitimacy of the European Union has become an increasingly urgent issue. In searching for a way out, academics, EU institutions, and political forces advocate the involvement of civil society. The Commission's new governance approach and finally the Lisbon Treaty introduced elements of participatory democracy and elevated civil society to a key actor in democratizing the EU. Does this hold upon closer scrutiny? This is the main question of this book. It investigates how the promise of civil society participation is put into practice and, based on an elaborate theoretical framework, evaluates whether the political practice deserves the quality attribute "participatory democracy". The book presents the results of a large research project composed of several highly original empirical studies. The research team used various methodological approaches and generated a rich data set. The wealth of empirical insight is evaluated against clear criteria deduced from normative democratic theory. As key elements of the analyses – democracy, participation, and civil society – are contested concepts, the authors placed particular emphasize on clarifying their understanding of these concepts and on considering competing interpretations. By relying on a consistent theoretical approach the authors present an unusually balanced evaluation. They come to convincing, though rather skeptical conclusions. Civil society participation in EU governance is not the democratic remedy its advocates had hoped for. This may not be a welcome but nevertheless it is an important finding both for European decision-makers, for civil society organizations, and for scholars.


This dissertation presents the study of a wireless remote monitoring and control system utilized for cultural heritage preservation purpose. The system uses wireless sensor networks to remotely monitor and control the indoor climate, i.e., temperature and relative humidity of the cultural buildings.The system mainly consists of three parts, i.e., the wireless sensor network part, the gateway part and the web service part. Wireless sensor networks are deployed in different cultural buildings. The ZigBee protocol is utilized for the wireless sensor network communication. Sensor nodes report the indoor climate periodically. By connecting with radiators and/or dehumidifiers, the wireless control nodes can control the indoor climate according to the remote configuration. A gateway maintains the communication between a wireless sensor network and the web service. In monitoring function, the gateway forwards sensor messages from the wireless sensor network to the web service. In control function, the gateway synchronizes the climate settings from the web service to the wireless sensor network. The gateway also sends control commands to the wireless control nodes in the wireless sensor network. The web service provides a web-based user interface for the system.Different from ordinary cable-connected sensor networks, a wireless sensor network that works for cultural heritage preservation should be a system with a large number of sensor nodes covering a large area in a building, high reliability in message transmission, low power consumption and low cost. In this study, the performance of the ZigBee wireless network is improved to meet such requirements base on the investigation of the ZigBee protocol limitation. Firstly, a method for enhancing the wireless sensor network communication reliability is developed. The reactive routing protocol defined by the ZigBee standard is improved so that the wireless nodes automatically detect and repair network communication problems. This method minimizes the message lost within the wireless sensor network by always reserving a route from the source node to the destination node. Secondly, a generic low power working method is developed for sensor devices. This method defines the general sensor module behavior which includes sensor data collecting, sensor message forwardingand wireless network rejoining upon communication failure. It allows sensor devices to maintain high message reliability with low power consumption. Especially, these methods are developed as a complementary infrastructure of the ZigBee wireless sensor network in order to increase the transmission reliability with low power consumption. Finally, methods and algorithms are developed to make it possible to power the ZigBee message relays (i.e., routers) with small batteries. In this system, the whole ZigBee network is synchronized. Wireless communications within the ZigBee network are scheduled so that every wireless transmission is collision-free. During the period when no communication is scheduled, the router can go into low power mode. This design improvement removes the original requirement of using mains power for ZigBee message relays. A truly battery-driven and low power consumption wireless sensor network is developed for monitoring cultural heritage buildings without (or with limited) mains power.The remote control function is developed to mainly prevent biological degradation by controlling indoor climate, i.e., temperature and relative humidity. After studying the requirements for heritage preservation, a high flexibility, high reliability and low cost wireless indoor climate control system is developed. Different control algorithms are implemented to achieve different control results.Till today, the remote monitoring and control system presented in this dissertation has been installed in 31 cultural heritage buildings both in Sweden and Norway.


From the time of American independence to the antebellum period, Americans labored to distinguish their collective identity from that of their colonial forebears in a world increasingly shaped by technological advances, industrial transformations, and scientific developments. Discoveries regarding electricity and electromagnetism resulted in inventions that would especially revolutionize human life. The advent of the lightning-rod in the mid-eighteenth century challenged prior notions that a destructive lightning bolt was an inevitable consequence of divine will, with any interference with that power understood as sacrilege. The rod symbolized a new, Franklinian American, who, steeped in Enlightenment science and philosophy, could stand up against religious and cultural dogma. In a post-Franklin America, one could re-invent oneself—and embody divine power—by harnessing and mastering nature, replacing old gods with new "gods" of technology and reason. Lightning-Rod Men, Magnetic Lives, Bodies Electric examines a strange and powerful epistemological and representational turn inside this discourse: those moments in which antebellum American writers imagined the human body itself as a lightning rod, as a centralized conductor that could use, transform, or synthesize this newly understood power beneficially. Images of the body as a lightning-rod came to signify a new American corporeal identity, one that allied the spirit of Franklinian independence and selfreliance with a materially manifest, independent and self-reliant body. Could a body's ability to channel, control, and convey electrical current, all the while remaining insulated from its harm, indicate some exceptional, supernatural power, or a form of artistic genius? This is the question that came to pre-occupy the writers whom I treat. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman exemplify the antebellum American struggle to grasp the significance of emerging electromagnetic technologies and determine how this new knowledge could illuminate our understandings of the human body. Investigating the prominence of electromagnetic metaphors and representations of corporeality in Emerson's essays, Melville's MobyDick and "The Lightning Rod Man," and Whitman's 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, I find ambivalent readings of electromagnetism's significance for constructions and conceptualizations of the human body vying with a theme of electromagnetic conductivity as a trope for genius: the image of an integrated body, mind, and soul that could directly translate the influence of nature into words and actions. Although all three writers espouse self-reliance and liberation from external influences, they share an impulse to create imagery that would pose the body of the attractive or enlightened poet, artist, performer, or orator as an electrified automaton, influenced and guided by the forces of nature. In their formulations, the attractive poet or performer seems marked for success by remaining impervious to the danger of conducting electrical currents, while synthesizing these currents and conveying them to audiences through "electrified" or "electrifying" performances. Through such imagery, these writers not only anticipated later constructions of corporeality, but also invented them through language. Such imagery continues to inform metaphors of corporeality today, as exemplified by cliched language used to characterize celebrities. These "dead metaphors" reveal larger frameworks of cultural metanarratives that inform our understanding of a range of affective traits or personal characteristics, from spirituality to enthusiasm, from attractiveness to enlightenment, from animation to genius.


ABSTRACT We studied the penetration of raltegravir and HIV shedding in the genital tract among 14 HIV-1-infected women receiving a raltegravir-containing regimen who had <40 copies/ml blood plasma (BP) HIV RNA. None of the cervicovaginal fluid (CVF) samples showed detectable HIV RNA. Median raltegravir concentrations were 235 ng/ml in BP and 93 ng/ml in CVF, with a CVF/BP ratio of approximately 2.3. This good penetration of raltegravir may contribute to the control of viral replication in the female genital tract.


Abstract. Western wildfires have a major impact on air quality in the US. In the fall
of 2016, 107 test fires were burned in the large-scale combustion facility at
the US Forest Service Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory as part of the Fire
Influence on Regional and Global Environments Experiment (FIREX). Canopy,
litter, duff, dead wood, and other fuel components were burned in
combinations that represented realistic fuel complexes for several important
western US coniferous and chaparral ecosystems including ponderosa pine,
Douglas fir, Engelmann spruce, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir, chamise, and
manzanita. In addition, dung, Indonesian peat, and individual coniferous
ecosystem fuel components were burned alone to investigate the effects of
individual components (e.g., "duff") and fuel chemistry on emissions. The
smoke emissions were characterized by a large suite of state-of-the-art
instruments. In this study we report emission factor (EF, grams of compound
emitted per kilogram of fuel burned) measurements in fresh smoke of a diverse
suite of critically important trace gases measured using open-path Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (OP-FTIR). We also report aerosol optical
properties (absorption EF; single-scattering albedo, SSA; and
Angstrom absorption exponent, AAE) as well as black carbon (BC) EF
measured by photoacoustic extinctiometers (PAXs) at 870 and 401 nm. The
average trace gas emissions were similar across the coniferous ecosystems
tested and most of the variability observed in emissions could be attributed
to differences in the consumption of components such as duff and litter,
rather than the dominant tree species. Chaparral fuels produced lower EFs
than mixed coniferous fuels for most trace gases except for NO x and
acetylene. A careful comparison with available field measurements of
wildfires confirms that several methods can be used to extract data
representative of real wildfires from the FIREX laboratory fire data. This is
especially valuable for species rarely or not yet measured in the field. For
instance, the OP-FTIR data alone show that ammonia (1.62 g kg −1) ,
acetic acid (2.41 g kg −1) , nitrous acid (HONO, 0.61 g kg −1) ,
and other trace gases such as glycolaldehyde (0.90 g kg −1) and formic
acid (0.36 g kg −1) are significant emissions that were poorly
characterized or not characterized for US wildfires in previous work. The PAX
measurements show that the ratio of brown carbon (BrC) absorption to BC
absorption is strongly dependent on modified combustion efficiency (MCE) and
that BrC absorption is most dominant for combustion of duff (AAE 7.13) and
rotten wood (AAE 4.60): fuels that are consumed in greater amounts during
wildfires than prescribed fires. Coupling our laboratory data with field data
suggests that fresh wildfire smoke typically has an EF for BC near
0.2 g kg −1 , an SSA of ∼  0.91, and an AAE of ∼  3.50, with
the latter implying that about 86 % of the aerosol absorption at 401 nm
is due to BrC.


Helicobacter hepaticus causes hepatitis in selected strains of mice and in A/JCr mice is linked to liver cancer. To analyze whether H. hepaticus persists in specified ecological niches, to determine whether biomarkers of infection exist, and to analyze the influence of H. hepaticus on hepatocyte proliferation, a longitudinal study of H. hepaticus-infected A/JCr mice was undertaken. A/JCr mice were serially euthanatized from 3 through 18 months and surveyed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; bacterial culture of liver, colon, and cecum; histology; electron microscopy; hepatocyte proliferation indices determined by using 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine; and measurement of the liver enzyme alanine aminotransferase. In infected animals throughout the 18-month study, H. hepaticus was consistently isolated from the lower bowel but only sporadically from the liver. By electron microscopy, H. hepaticus was noted infrequently and only in bile canaliculi. Infected mice, particularly males, showed chronic inflammation; oval cell, Kupffer cell, and Ito cell hyperplasia; hepatocytomegaly; and bile duct proliferation. The inflammatory and necrotizing lesion was progressive and involved the hepatic parenchyma, portal triads, and intralobular venules. Hepatic adenomas were noted only in male mice, whereas 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine proliferation indices were markedly increased in both sexes, but especially in males, compared to control A/J mice. Infected mice also developed sustained anti-H. hepaticus serum immunoglobulin G antibody responses and elevated alanine aminotransferase levels. H. hepaticus, which persists in the lower bowels and livers of A/JCr mice, is associated with a chronic proliferative hepatitis, and hepatomas in selected male mice indicate that this novel bacterium may cause an increased risk of hepatic cancer induction in susceptible strains of mice. This murine model should prove useful in dissecting the molecular events operable in the development of neoplasms induced by bacteria belonging to this expanding genera of pathogenic Helicobacter species.


Robert College, an elite private high school in Istanbul, has become a legend within Turkish society, often being cited as one of the most prestigious, most expensive educational institution in the country. Every year, tens of thousands of Turkish teenagers attempt to enter the school; approximately 200 will be accepted. The present study will examine how the position of incomparability attributed to Robert College is employed by former students as a defense against challenges to both the school itself and their own identity. I will also explore the issue of how Robert College students' perception of the institutional legacy is internalized as constitutive of their own identity and outwardly represented as a source of social or cultural capital. In order to do so, I will take as a theoretical background the types of capital outlined by Bourdieu and I will use the social interaction analysis of Goffman to examine the way in which the presentation of the school and identity performed by former students during interviews depends on or refers to a shared knowledge/acknowledgement of what alumni consider to be Robert College's 'legendary' reputation.


This paper deals with a collection of birds from Trinidad and Tobago brought together by the junior author during a stay on these islands from the end of June 1953 till February 1954. The collection contains 835 specimens belonging to 178 species. About one hundred skins have been collected on Tobago. The collection mainly consists of the smaller species, which is due to the fact that at the time Mees was not in the possession of an adequate shooting gun for the larger species. Though much collecting work has already been done on Trinidad the collection contains one new subspecies, Pipra erythrocephala flavissima, jointly described, while it was shown that Tanagra violacea rodwayi is a tenable race. Moreover the Trinidad list is augmented by the following forms not previously recorded: Muscivora tyrannus monachus, Myiarchus swainsoni swainsoni, Elaenia parvirostris, Atticora cyanoleuca patagonica, Sporophila schistacea. Dendroica striata and Nuttalornis borealis only had been touched on by the way, but now Mees actually collected specimens. Myiarchus ferox is only known from Tobago, the pretended occurrence on Trinidad depended on confusion with the southern migrant Myiarchus swainsoni. The two species resemble each other so closely that the one can easily be taken for the other. The same confusion certainly has occurred between Sporophila schistacea and Sporophila intermedia. Though much has been written on the birds of Trinidad, nearly all publications are mainly faunal lists on the collected birds, mostly without giving the measurements of the individual specimens. Mees during his stay badly felt the need of a guide to the birds, which, however, is still lacking. Contacting the local field naturalists it appeared that they too felt uneasy about this


This brief presents considerations for COVID-19 management among structurally vulnerable populations in Southeast Asia, including transnational migrants, people working in the informal economy, and people living in informal urban and peri-urban settlements. These vulnerable groups are generally poorly understood, ignored, or left out of formal policy and as such represent an area of concern for disease control in the region more generally. The brief summarises the vulnerabilities associated with the limited legal and social protection of these groups, and it is not a systematic study of COVID-19 control measures and impacts across the region. It does, however, include information on alternative, parallel, or informal responses that are relevant to COVID-19 control in the region.


A handy reference to the Pandora's box of mythical and biblical allusions, this work is a comprehensive resource offering abundant information that readers should find clear and to the point. A companion to the "Facts on File Dictionary of Modern Allusions", this volume explains the meanings and origins of allusions from the Bible and classical mythology, including Greek, Roman and Norse. A useful reference for anyone interested in literature, art, history and religion, the book features approximately 2000 A-Z entries, from Aaron to Zeus. Each entry explains the essentials of the original reference and details its meaning and use in allusions. The dictionary also includes a pronunciation key for difficult words and terms, examples of usage and extensive cross-references. Coverage includes: biblical and mythological figures (Cupid, Athena, Daniel); places (Mount Olympus, Gethsemane, Elysian Fields); key concepts (Doomsday, wages of sin); and other references with biblical and mythological origins (judgement of Solomon, salt of the earth, patience of Job, labours of Hercules).


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is altered by treatment in an in vivo tumor with 17 beta-estradiol (E2) or medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA).

METHODS
A well-differentiated endometrial carcinoma tumor was isolated from a patient and explanted into the dorsal skin of ovariectomized nude mice, from which it was serially passaged in vivo. The explanted tumor retained all the properties of the original tumor, including estrogen and progesterone receptor expression and growth promotion and inhibition by E2 and MPA, respectively. The mice were treated with continuous E2 administration followed by treatment with either a single intramuscular administration of 2 mg MPA or weekly administrations of 2 mg MPA. Untreated tumor-bearing mice served as controls. The tumors were harvested at 0 to 21 days from first MPA administration. RNA from the tumors was isolated and VEGF expression was determined by Northern analysis.

RESULTS
VEGF was expressed in the absence of treatment with E2 or MPA, and expression was unaltered by continuous treatment with E2. Additional treatment with a single does of MPA did not alter expression at Days 1, 2, 3, 7, 14, and 21, and additional treatment with E2 or E2 + MPA. Regulation of VEGF expression is not a mechanism by which these hormones exert their growth effects on endometrial tumors.


Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction Michael H. Glantz 2. General characteristics of El Nino-southern oscillation Kevin E. Trenberth Part II. Regional case studies of teleconnections: physical aspects: 3. Brazil's climate anomalies and ENSO Pao-Shin Chu 4. Australasia R. J. Allan 5. West Africa Peter J. Lamb and Randy A. Peppler 6. The Asian snow cover-monsoon-ENSO connection T. P. Barnett, L. Dumenil, U. Schlese, E. Roeckner and M. Latif 7. Teleconnections in global rainfall anomalies: seasonal to inter-decadal time scales K. M. Lau and P. J. Sheu Part III. Scientific Basis for Teleconnections: 8. El Nino and QBO influences on tropical cyclone activity William M. Gray and John D. Sheaffer 9. The rudimentary theory of atmospheric teleconnections associated with ENSO Joseph J. Tribbia 10. Observational aspects of ENSO cycle teleconnections Eugene M. Rasmusson 11. Forecasting El Nino with a geophysical model Mark A. Cane 12. Use of statistical methods in the search for teleconnections: past, present and future Barbara G. Brown and Richard W. Katz Part IV. Regional Impacts of Climate Anomalies: Environmental and Societal Impacts: 13. Impact of ENSO events on the southeastern Pacific region with special reference to the interaction of fishing and climate variability Romulo Jordan S 14. ENSO, monsson and drought in India George Kiladia and Suresh K. Sinha 15. The shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico: relation to climatic variability and global atmospheric patterns Marie E. White and Mary W. Downton 16. Teleconnections and health Neville Nicholls Part V. Implications for ENSO forecasts: 17. Teleconnections and their implications for long-range forecasts Neville Nicholls and Richard W. Katz Index.


Labor migration is the international phenomena. From the economic perspective, it is very good source of remittance which has significant contribution in the development and change of Nation. Nepal has also trend of youth migration. The remittances to GDP ratio increased from 10.7 percent in 2001 to 13.8 percent in 2007 and further to 29.1 percent ($6.6bn) in 2015, putting Nepal among the top five recipients in terms of size of the economy. Regarding the importance of remittance, the study aim is to measure the impact of remittance on income inequality and poverty reduction in Nepal. The study was done in three districts covering the 385 remittance receiving household through purposive sampling. The result shows that the remittance has contributed 35.6% in total expenses of remittance receiving household whereas there was only 2.3% contribution made by non-remittance. So, it can be claimed that there is significant contribution of remittance in poverty reduction. The main contribution of remittance is to enable the access of poor to health and education through the improvement their economic status.


In the presence of strong magnetic fields, two-dimensional (2D) electron systems display highly degenerate quantized energy levels called Landau levels. When the Fermi energy is placed within the energy gap between these Landau levels, the system bulk is insulating and charge current is carried by gapless edge modes. This is the quantum Hall effect, belonging to the remarkable class of macroscopic quantum phenomena and the first member of an ever-growing family of topological states. While angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been a powerful tool to investigate numerous quantum phases of matter, the traditional quantum Hall states -- and thus their momentum-resolved structure -- have remained inaccessible. Such observations are hindered by the fact that ARPES measurements are incompatible with the application of magnetic fields. Here, we circumvent this by using graphene's peculiar property of exhibiting large pseudomagnetic fields under particular strain patterns, to visualize the momentum-space structure of electrons in the quantum Hall regime. By measuring the unique energy spacing of the ensuing pseudo-Landau levels with ARPES, we confirm the Dirac nature of the electrons in graphene and extract a pseudomagnetic field strength of B = 41 T. This momentum-resolved study of the quantum Hall phase up to room temperature is made possible by exploiting shallow triangular nanoprisms in the SiC substrates that generate large, uniform pseudomagnetic fields, arising from strain, confirmed by STM and model calculations. Our work demonstrates the feasibility of exploiting strain-induced quantum phases in 2D Dirac materials on a wafer-scale size, opening the field to a range of new applications.


Identities are present in the interactions between individuals and organizations. Online shopping requires credit card information, while e-government services require social security or passport numbers. The involvement of identities, however, makes them susceptible to theft and misuse. The most prominent approach for maintaining the privacy of individuals is the enforcement of privacy policies that regulate the flow and use of identity information.
This approach suffers two drawbacks that severely limit its effectiveness. First, recent research in data-mining facilitates the fusion of partial identities into complete identities. That holds true even if the attributes examined are not, normally considered, to be identifying. Second, policies are prone to human error, allowing for identity information to be released accidentally.
This thesis presents a system that enables an individual to interact with organizations, without allowing these organizations to link the interactions of that individual together. The system does not release individuals' identities to organizations. Instead, certified artificial identities are used to guarantee that individuals possess the required attributes to successfully participate in the interactions. The system limits the fusion of partial identities and minimizes the effects of human error. The concept of using certified artificial identities has been extensively researched. The system, however, tackles several unaddressed scenarios.
The system works not only for interactions that involve an individual and an organization, but also for interactions that involve a set of individuals connected by structured relations. The individuals should prove the existence of relations among them to organizations, yet organizations cannot profile the actions of these individuals. Further, the system allows organizations to be anonymous, while proving their attributes to individuals. Reputation-based trust is incorporated to help individuals make informed decisions whether to deal with a particular organization. The system is used to design applications in e-commerce, access control, reputation management, and cloud computing. The thesis describes the applications in detail.


Schnitzler, one of the most prolific Austrian writers of the 20th century, ruthlessly dissected his society's erotic posturing and phobias about sex and death. His most penetrating analyses include Lieutenant Gustl, the first stream-of-consciousness novella in German; Reigen, a devastating cycle of one-acts mapping the social limits of a sexual daisy-chain; and Der Weg ins Freie, a novel that combines a love story with a discussion of the roadblocks facing Austria's Jews. Today, his popularity is reflected by new editions and translations and by adaptations for theater, television, and film by artists such as Tom Stoppard and Stanley Kubrick.This book examines Schnitzler reception up to 2000, beginning with the journalistic reception of the early plays. Before being suspended by a decade of Nazism, criticism in the 1920s and 30s emphasized Schnitzler's determinism and decadence. Not until the early 60s was humanist scholarship able to challenge this verdict by pointing out Schnitzler's ethical indictment of impressionism in the late novellas. During the same period, Schnitzler, whom Freud considered his literary "Doppelganger," was often subjected to Freudian psychoanalytical criticism; but by the 80s, scholarship was citing his own thorough going objections to such categories. Since the 70s, Schnitzler's remonstrance toward the Austrian establishment has been examined by social historians and feminist critics alike, and the recently completed ten-volume edition of Schnitzler's diary has met with vibrant interest. Andrew C. Wisely is associate professor of German at Baylor University.


Industrial wind and tidal turbines are complex systems consisting of several different components and subsystems. Many of wind and tidal turbines use gearbox in their systems that is one of the most important components in the system. Gearboxes are designed to operate for the entire lifetime of a wind or tidal turbine or the equivalent of 20 years. However, very few gearboxes do achieve their intended lifetime without significant refurbishment or even replacement at least once or twice within this 20-year period.

Offshore wind turbine in particular, suffer from relatively high gearbox failure rate due to the harsh sea environment. Any unpredicted gearbox failure in the wind or tidal turbines can results in considerable downtime as a result of limited access caused by weather condition. This results in loss of energy production and excessive maintenance costs that increases the total energy production costs. A reliable and effective condition monitoring system can play a significant role in reduction of operation and maintenance costs by providing early fault diagnostics and consequently longer time frame for planning required maintenance and repairs. Thus, preventing catastrophic failures due to unpredicted gearbox damages.

This study presents an experimental investigation assessing the effectiveness of acoustic emission and vibration analysis in identifying different types of defects in wind and tidal turbine gearbox with means of advanced signal processing techniques, such as Spectral Kurtosis, Kurtogram analysis, Empirical Mode Decomposition and cyclo-stationary analysis to assess their effectiveness.

Advanced machine learning techniques such as support vector machine (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN) are also explored to evaluate the possibility of the fault detection using existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) condition monitoring data. Finally, combination of advanced signal processing techniques are employed to enhance the fault detection, by removing signal contamination and extraction of hidden features in the vibration and acoustic signal for better fault detection.


Abstract: Sector Education and Training Authorities (Setas), established in terms of the Skills Development Act, 97 of 1998, were launched amid much fanfare and expectation of delivery towards achieving a skills revolution in the country. Upon their immediate establishment in March 2000, these perceived bureaucracies – which controlled the flow of billions – came under attack and became the subject of constant criticism. Over the years, this criticism has not abated and perceptions of Seta non-delivery has been exacerbated by recent reports that a resolution to the 'skills crisis' is critical for the success of government's Accelerated and Shared Growth Strategy for South Africa (Asgisa). The perception of a skills crisis has raised concerns as to whether Setas are responsive enough to the needs of employers (private and public) and the country as a whole. In view of these underlying sentiments, the University of Cape Town's Development Policy Research Unit (DPRU) commissioned a study to evaluate the role of Setas in contributing towards addressing the country's skills needs. This study will seek to evaluate Seta performance since their inception by exploring: • Seta functioning and distill, from a range of perceptions (and legislation), their core deliverables and responsibilities; • Whether there are underlying factors – systemic or otherwise – which are impacting on the way in which Setas are supposed to operate; and • Based on the findings of three case studies, recommend interventions to improve Seta performance.


A study was conducted to find out the food selection by Asian Elephant (Elephus maximus) in Kameng Elephant Reserve (KER) during 2001-05. For this, two methods were followed viz (i) twelve trails were surveyed 42 times covering different seasons to record the feeding sign of elephant and (ii) another six trails were laid for vegetation sampling to know the abundance and distribution of different food plant on the habitat. A total of 36 quadrats each with 10 x 10m were plotted at every 500 meter interval of each trail. The vegetation data (food plants) was processed using computer programs Biodiversity Pro and EstimateS 8.0. Species diversity, evenness, spatial distribution, and similarity matrix were calculated. The study found that the Asian elephant selected 46 species of plant as food belonging to 26 families. Plant family Arecacea (Calamus sp.) was selected more as food followed by Moracea (Artocarpus, Ficus species). Although only 18% food plants show significant random distribution (out of 77% species random distribution) and most of the food plants seem to have scattered distribution.  The relative abundance of the food species consumed by elephant appeared to be on an average only 0.8 % (SE = 0.3) of the total number of tree species found in the sampled region. This random distribution and relatively low abundance of food species may result in wider movement or distribution of elephants in search of food plants.


The development of hydraulic-hydrologic models is a challenge in the case of large catchment areas with scarce or erroneous measurement data and observations. With his study Mr. Dr. Jose Pedro Matos made several original contributions in order to overcome this challenge. The scientific developments were applied at Zambezi River basin in Africa in the framework of the interdisciplinary African Dams research project (ADAPT). First of all, procedures and selection criteria for satellite data regarding topography, rainfall, land use, soil types and cover had to be developed. With the goal to extend the time scope of the analysis, Dr. Matos introduced a novel Pattern-Oriented Memory (POM) historical rainfall interpolation methodology. When POM interpolated rainfall is applied to hydrologic models it effectively opens up new possibilities related to extended calibration and the simulation of historical events, which would otherwise be difficult to exploit. A new scheme for rainfall aggregation was proposed, based on hydraulic considerations and easily implemented resorting to remote sensing data, which was able to enhance forecasting results. Dr. Matos used machine-learning models in an innovative way for discharge forecast. He compared the alternative models (e.g. Autoregressive Moving-Average (ARMA), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support-Vector Regression (SVR)). Dr. Matos made then significant contributions to the enhancement of rainfall aggregation techniques and the study of limitations inherent to SVR forecasting model. He proposed also a novel method for developing empirical forecast probability distributions. Finally Dr. Matos could successfully calibrate, probably for the first time, a daily hydrological model covering the whole Zambezi River basin (ZRB).


The work environment for nurses is challenging, and even though new technology has major advantages, it has often also caused new stressors and problems for nurses. When Patient Accessible Electronic Health Records (PAEHR) was introduced in Sweden, research showed that nurses were worried about possible negative effects for patients as well as on their work. However, to this date there are very few follow up studies on the more long term effects of PAEHR, despite research pointing to the fact that reactions after long term use might differ from initial experiences. In this paper we present an interview study to fill this research gap. An analysis based on interviews with physicians and nurses in Oncology care reveals three areas where nurses' work is experienced to have been affected: 1) nurses receive more questions from patients after PAEHR has been introduced, 2) nurses have changed their documentation practices and 3) the log list functionality has made nurses feel questioned. Finally, these results are discussed in relation to nurses' work environment from a sociotechnical and gender perspective.


White-shouldered Ibis Pseudibis davisoni and Giant Ibis Thaumatibis gigantea are two of the most threatened yet poorly known birds of South-East Asia's dry forests. Anecdotal evidence suggests these species have an intriguing combination of ecological similarities and differences, and as they occur sympatrically there may be an opportunity to safeguard them through joint conservation measures. We compared their foraging ecology and proximity to people in an attempt to unravel their ecological differences and better inform conservation. Landscape-scale habitat use was assessed by recording ibis sightings on journeys through a 75,000 ha dry forest landscape; White-shouldered Ibises were surveyed over 526 journeys (totalling 17,032 km) and Giant Ibises over 349 journeys (11,402 km). The ibises showed broadly similar habitat selection, using a range of wetland and terrestrial habitats. Giant Ibises were more often sighted further from settlements than White-shouldered Ibises, with maximum sighting frequency predicted at 9.9 km from villages for the former and 8.3 km for the latter. Giant Ibis may be less tolerant of human disturbance and/or White-shouldered Ibis may be more dependent on traditional land management practices, but the species' differing use of abandoned paddyfield (a habitat typically near settlements) could also be a contributing factor. At waterholes in the dry season foraging Giant Ibis used wetter microhabitats than White-shouldered, suggesting the species occupy different foraging niches. We make preliminary observations regarding Giant Ibis breeding strategy and discuss potential habitat management actions, concluding that, although conservation could address these species simultaneously in dry dipterocarp forest landscapes, their ecological differences must also be taken into account.


Background Angiosarcoma is a rare cancer of endothelial cells that can be aggressive and carries a high mortality. A subset of angiosarcomas are characterized by high tumor mutational burden (TMB) and UV light exposure DNA mutational signature. Isolated case reports have suggested clinical efficacy of immune checkpoint blockade in angiosarcoma; no prospective studies of immune checkpoint inhibition in angiosarcoma have been reported. We report efficacy analysis results for patients with advanced or unresectable angiosarcoma treated with ipilimumab and nivolumab as a cohort of an ongoing phase II study for rare cancers (NCT02834013). Methods This is a prospective, open-label, multicenter phase II clinical trial of ipilimumab (1mg/kg IV q6weeks) plus nivolumab (240mg IV q2weeks) for patients with metastatic or unresectable angiosarcoma. Primary endpoint is objective response rate as assessed by RECIST v1.1, including measurable cutaneous disease that can be followed by photography. Secondary endpoints include PFS, OS, stable disease at six months, and toxicity. A two-stage design is used with six patients in the first stage and an additional ten patients in the second stage. Results At data cutoff, 16 patients with angiosarcoma were enrolled. Median age was 68 years (25-81 years). Median number of prior lines of therapy was 2 (0-5). 9 patients had cutaneous primary tumors of any cutaneous site, 7 had non-cutaneous primary tumors. ORR for all patients was 25% (4/16, table 1, figure 1). Subgroup analysis revealed that 60% (3/5) of patients with primary cutaneous tumors of the scalp or face had a confirmed objective response. 6-month PFS was 38%. 75% of patients experienced an adverse event (AE), and 25% experienced a grade 3-4 AE. 68.8% experienced an immune related AE (irAE), and 2 (12.5%) developed grade 3 or 4 irAEs. Grade 3-4 irAEs were ALT and AST increase and diarrhea. There were no grade 5 toxicities. Conclusions The combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab was well tolerated and had an ORR of 25% in angiosarcoma regardless of primary site, with 3 of 5 patients with cutaneous tumors of the scalp or face responding. Ipilimumab and nivolumab warrant further investigation in angiosarcoma. Acknowledgements Funding: National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute grant awards CA180888, CA180819, CA180868; and in part by Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Trial Registration NCT02834013 Ethics Approval This study was approved by the NCI CIRB.


One of the major threats to wireless communications is jamming. Many anti-jamming techniques have been presented in the past. However most of them are based on the precondition that the communicating devices have a pre-shared secret that can be used to synchronize the anti-jamming scheme. E.g. for frequency hopping the secret could be used to derive the hopping sequence and for direct sequence spread spectrum the secret is used to derive the spreading codes. But how can the devices bootstrap a jamming-resistant communication without having a pre-shared secret? Christina Pöpper and Mario Strasser propose as scheme for Uncoordinated Frequency Hopping (UFH) and Uncoordinated Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (UDSSS) in their papers [1] and [2] respectively. The goal of my project was an implementation of Uncoordinated Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (UDSSS) using Software Defined Radios. The first version should serve as an easy to use and extendable proof of concept for the proposed scheme.


The study discussed in this article examined the extent to which fathers were aware of unsafe farm behaviors engaged in by their youth. Fathers and youth provided information about the youth's behaviors on the farm, particularly related to tractors/large equipment. Fathers indicated whether they were familiar with the North American Guidelines for Children's Agricultural Tasks (NAGCAT). Youth engaged in numerous unsafe and dangerous behaviors of which their fathers were unaware. Fathers were not familiar with NAGCAT. Extension professionals from agriculture, family and consumer sciences, and 4-H youth development all have roles to play in educating parents about NAGCAT and youth farm safety.


I. Introduction Perhaps no other area of African/Black Psychology has such a legacy of controversy and strident intellectual debate than the area of Theories of African American (AA) personality (Belgrave & Allison, 2006; Cross, 1991; Kambon, 1992, 1998, 2006; Thomas & Sillen, 1972; Wilcox, 1971). This has not only been because of the legacy of the notorious contentiousness of the literature on AA intelligence, but also the subsequent literature on AA self-concept/racial identity and self-esteem, as well as the focus on AA motivation (i.e., achievement motivation) and antisocial behaviors such as drug abuse, delinquency, violence and criminality (Belgrave & Allison, 2006; Cross, 1991; Jones, 1972, 1980, 1991, 2004; Kambon, 1992, 1998; Pettigrew, 1964; Wilson, 1993). Each of these areas of the psychological study of AA personality has brought to the table their own set of controversial theoretical models, methodologies, data bases, analyses and conclusions. Through the years and as a result of the accumulation of a relatively large amount of research data and theoretical constructs, a distinct area of study called AA Personality has emerged within the African-centered psychological literature (Baldwin, 1976; Kambon, 1992, 1998) that commands serious consideration in any social policies respectful of cultural diversity that focus on truly improving the lives of all of the population. Thus, the growing body of psychological literature focused on African American personality will be discussed in this article in terms of the following considerations: (1) Classification of Basic Theoretical Paradigms, (2) Core Constructs and Empirical Predictions and Assessments, and (3) Future Directions of this important area of focus in African-Centered Psychology. II. Classification of Theories of African American Personality: Basic Theoretical Paradigms What then have emerged as the basic theoretical paradigms in this area of study and knowledge? Azibo (1990) has used such classifications as Positivists versus Negativist-Pejorativists to categorize these paradigms, whereas Kambon (1992, 1998) has proposed the categories of Africentric versus Non-Africentric as more appropriate to capture the distinguishing features of these paradigms. Kambon's (1992, 1998) work has been the primary guide in the development of classification schemes relevant to this area. More similar to Kambon, but incorporating many features from Azibo's scheme as well, we propose that three distinct approaches or paradigms seem to have emerged and have come to characterize contemporary work in this area. They might best be designated as (1) Eurocentric Models, (2) Transitional Africentric Models, and (3) Africentric Models. This schematic is summarized in Table 1. A. Eurocentric and Pseudo-Africentric Models Following Kambon's (1992, 1998) earlier scheme, theories whose racial-ethnic and philosophical orientation is of European/European-American descent and thus asserts the European Worldview (EWV)-cultural reality are classified as "Pure Eurocentric" because of its Caucasian authorship and exclusive emphasis on the EWV as the conceptual framework (i.e., the absence of the African Worldview). And in a related vein, we define the Pseudo-Africentric Models as those theories whose ethnic--philosophical orientation is of AA descent, yet asserts the European Worldview-cultural reality as the conceptual framework of analysis (Kambon, 1992, 1998). In the case of the Pure Eurocentric Approach, it, of course, has represented one of the oldest traditions in Eurocentric social sciences concerned with such theoretical formulations of AA personality (Kambon, 2006). These theories therefore are distinguished philosophically and ideologically from other approaches by their imposition of the European Worldview (being their natural cultural orientation) as the appropriate conceptual framework for explaining AA personality or some important aspects of it. …


How can parental leave design be more socially inclusive? Should all parents be entitled to parental benefits or only those parents who are eligible based on a particular level of labour market participation? To think through questions of social inclusion in parental leave policy design, particularly issues related to entitlements to benefits, I make three arguments. First, aiming to extend Dobrotic and Blum's work on entitlements to parental benefits, I argue that 'mixed systems' that include both citizenship‐based and employment‐based benefits are just and socially inclusive approaches to parental leaves and citizenship. Second, to build a robust conceptual scaffolding for a 'mixed' benefits approach, I argue that that we need to attend to the histories and relationalities of the concepts and conceptual narratives that implicitly or explicitly inform parental leave policies and scholarship. Third, and more broadly, I argue that a metanarrative of care and work binaries underpins most scholarship and public and policy discourses on care work and paid work and on social policies, including parental leave policies. In this article, I outline revisioned conceptual narratives of care and work relationalities, arguing that they can begin to chip away at this metanarrative and that this kind of un‐thinking and rethinking can help us to envi‐ sion parental leave beyond employment policy—as care and work policy. Specifically, I focus on conceptual narratives that combine (1) care and work intra‐connections, (2) ethics of care and justice, and (3) 'social care,' 'caring with,' transforma‐ tive social protection, and social citizenship. Methodologically and epistemologically, this article is guided by my reading of Margaret Somers' genealogical and relational approach to concepts, conceptual narratives, and metanarratives, and it is written in a Global North socio‐economic context marked by the COVID‐19 pandemic and 21st century neoliberalism.


Flows in the urban boundary layer (UBL) are strongly affected by the inhomogeneous roughness elements at the bottom surface. In particular, in the near-ground region (roughness sublayer), the effect of the surface roughness dominates that complicates the behaviours of mean flow and turbulence and subsequently the near-wall transport processes. To safeguard the health of urban inhabitants, it is crucial to develop an in-depth understanding of the correlation among near-wall fluid motions, UBL turbulence and city ventilation. However, rather limited information is available. In this study, physical modelling in a laboratory wind tunnel is employed to measure the profiles of both stream-wise and vertical velocities over an array consisting of idealised two-dimensional (2D) roughness elements. Various arrangements are adopted in attempt to cover different flow regimes to examine city ventilation problems. The ventilation performance is measured by the air exchange rate (ACH). Consistent with our previous large-eddy simulation (LES) results, the current wind tunnel measurements suggest that city ventilation is dominated by the ACH turbulent component, i.e., air masses are mainly driven by atmospheric turbulence (at least 80% of the total ACH).


In 2004, Ofcom launched a strategic review of the telecommunications market. This established that the expectation of non-price discrimination by the incumbent
operator, BT, against its smaller rivals was a significant concern holding back investment in market entry via local loop unbundling (LLU). To address this problem,
Ofcom and BT agreed a set of Undertakings in lieu of a reference to the Competition Commission. BT agreed to a new form of non-discrimination remedy referred to as
Equivalence of Input (EoI) and to a set of organisational changes known as functional separation. Under EoI, BT's retail division had to use the same inputs under the same terms and conditions as its rivals. Functional separation referred to the creation of a separate access services division that would supply services in markets where BT was dominant.
This thesis discusses the economic principles of network industries and why discrimination can be a particular problem. It makes three specific contributions to knowledge of the subject. First, a historical record of the actions and issues that led to the Undertakings. Secondly, a breakeven analysis to determine how effective the
Undertakings, and other regulations imposed by Ofcom, were at correcting the problem of non-price discrimination. The breakeven analysis establishes the location
of "marginal exchange" before and after the regulatory changes. Finally, an assessment of the longer-term consequences by employing a discrete choice model
to determine whether the presence of entrants using LLU or Virgin Media had a stronger effect on where BT installed fibre.
The thesis concludes that the Undertakings did affect the location of the marginal exchange by up to 950 exchanges covering 31% of customer premises. LLU price
cuts imposed by Ofcom moved the marginal exchange by a further 796 exchanges: 11% of premises. The thesis also finds that up till the end of 2012, the presence of LLU operators had a stronger influence on the location of fibred exchanges than Virgin Media.


Pulsatile flows in geometries of physiological relevance have been investigated.
Atherosclerotic plaques are (initiated) near junctions and bifurcations in larger arteries.
The flow in these regions is characterized by flow separation and unsteadiness, which indicates that local flow conditions contribute to atherogenesis.

Flows in curved and bifurcating pipes have been investigated over many years. However, details of dynamical patterns of pulsating flow, near wall effects, and differential diffusion effects are not well documented. The effect of wall elasticity on the flow has been assumed to be small but no quatification data exist.

There are same basic difficulties in studying physiological flow: The geometries have large inter-individual variations. The mechanical properties of the vessels are unknown. Equally, the boundary conditions (temporal and spatial distribution of the blood velocity) are not know. Additional difficulties arise due to measuring difficulties both in-vivo and in-vitro. The flow itself may be rather complex (time-dependent 3-D, transitional with locally strong effects of viscosity and unsteadiness, leading to variable phase lag between pressure gradient and the local flow).

The aim of this study is to enhance understanding of the time-dependent, physiologically relevant, flow field in bifurcations, and relate that to hypotheses of atherosclerotic disease. Additionally, an FSI-model has been developed with the purpose to model flow through elastic pipes, and to assess the effect of wall elasticity on the flow.

The investigations have shown clear patterns of wall shear stress (WSS) variations. Local regions of temporal and spatial variations of the WSS was found at sites usually referred to as risk-sites of atherosclerosis, but also at locations often referred to as ``safe''.

Some of the characteristics of the WSS are further related to changes in the secondary flow field. The secondary flow shows similar characteristics for an increased Reynolds number, although unsteady asymmetric patterns appear at peak flow, while a large Womersley number shows more simple secondary flow structures.

It is also shown that the effects of upstream geometrical variations on the flow field itself, are important mainly over one stage of arterial bifurcation. On the other hand, blood components (modeled as passive scalars with different values of Schmidt numbers) do exhibit upstream effects over a longer range.An important finding is that Schmidt number effects may lead to redistribution of the different scalars. The variations in the concentrations of the scalars are of the same order as the local concentration themselves.

The FSI-model developed combines an Immersed Boundary-Finite Difference code with a shell model for the arterial wall. The shell model is solved on a (surface 2D) using a Finite Element Method (FEM) code.
The structural solver is verified against an analytical expression for bending of a thin-walled pipe. The studies with respect to the importance of arterial wall elasticity on the flow, are not yet completed.


Selection bias, caused by preferential exclusion of units (or samples) from the data, is a major obstacle to valid causal inferences, for it cannot be removed or even detected by randomized experiments. This paper highlights several graphical and algebraic methods capable of mitigating and sometimes eliminating this bias. These nonparametric methods generalize and improve previously reported results, and identify the type of knowledge that need to be available for reasoning in the presence of selection bias


Large area fabrication of organic solar cells is critical to achieve sufficient energy for power applications. However, large-area organic solar cells still suffer from low production yields because their thin active layer (100–300 nm) is prone to form leakage current when film defects exist in the active layer. In this study, we proposed a novel strategy to patch the defects to suppress the leakage current and improve the device yield of large-area organic solar cells. The defects in the active layers have been patched by coating an insulating polymer using a Maobi tool that has the advantage of patterning and ink holding. Insulating polymers including polyethylenimine (PEI), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) have been used to patch the defects. Electrical insulativity, solution processability, solvent orthogonality to the active layer, good wetting on the active layer, and chemical inactivity with the active layer and interfacial layer are important properties for a good candidate used for patching the defects. The patching strategy is applicable to both fullerene-based and non-fullerene-based solar cells and can effectively restore the photovoltaic properties of the active layers with defects. Finally, we have demonstrated the construction of large-area (up to 52 cm2) monolithic none-fullerene organic solar cells with the assistance of the proposed patching strategy.


This paper focuses on capturing section-level (a signalized intersection to the next) travel times on urban street segments using Bluetooth detectors as well as from INRIX data source and comparing it with manual and Global Positioning System (GPS) floating test car methods (test car with a trained technician and GPS unit to capture travel time between selected points) for each travel time run. Results obtained indicate that section-level travel time data captured using Bluetooth detectors on urban street segments are less accurate and not dependable when compared with GPS unit and INRIX. The role of various on-network characteristics on the percentage difference in travel time from GPS unit, INRIX, and Bluetooth detectors was also examined.


Several works showed that biomolecular data integration is a key issue to improve the prediction of gene functions. Quite surprisingly only little attention has been devoted to data integration for gene function prediction through ensemble methods. In this work we show that relatively simple ensemble methods are competitive and in some cases are also able to outperform state-of-the-art data integration techniques for gene function prediction.


In order to estimate the potential impact of the adoption of the main techniques of precision agriculture in the Brazilian agriculture on socio economic development, this study used an extensive bibliographic review of the main results that the techniques of precision agriculture and simulated impacts in agriculture. For this, was considered the potential of agricultural activity that can be benefited by these technology. The following impacts were analyzed using the inputoutput matrix of the country with the main products analyzed as individual sectors. The products analyzed were: sugarcane, corn and soybeans. It was observed that a scenario of a 10% increase in productivity indicated that the impacts on the economy could be increased from $ 11 billion in GDP and more than 450.000 jobs. However, a scenario of reduced use of fertilizer did not show favorable socio-economic impacts considering the impacts in Brazilian economy.


End-to-end security in the cloud has gained even more importance after the outbreak of data breaches and massive surveillance programs around the globe last year. While the community features a number of cloud-based security mechanisms, existing solutions either provide security at the expense of the economy of scale and cost effectiveness of the cloud (i.e., at the expense of resource sharing and deduplication techniques), or they meet the latter objectives at the expense of security (e.g., the customer is required to fully trust the provider). In this paper, we shed light on this problem, and we analyze the challenges in reconciling security and functional requirements in existing multi-tenant clouds. We also explore the solution space to effectively enhance the current security offerings of existing cloud storage services. As far as we are aware, this is the first contribution which comprehensively explores possible avenues for reconciling the current cloud trends with end-to-end security requirements.


Aggregation of the neuronal microtubule-binding protein, tau, is associated with cognitive decline and neuronal degeneration in tauopathies, including Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. In particular, changes in tau gene (MAPT) expression and splicing are directly linked with pathogenesis. Most genes, including MAPT, are now known to be associated with one or more sense/antisense non-coding RNA genes (ncRNA). We identified alternatively spliced variants of MAPT-AS1 that overlap in antisense with the MAPT 5' promoter region, producing three transcripts, tau-NAT1, tau-NAT2s and tau-NAT2l (tNAT1, tNAT2s and tNAT2l, respectively) and investigated the role of these alternate isoforms in functional regulation of MAPT under physiological and stress conditions. The tau-NATs, with MAPT, are predominantly expressed in the brain and with increasing levels during neuronal differentiation of human fibroblast-derived iPSCs. Compared to tNAT1 and tNAT2l, the tNAT2s variant is most abundant and correlates with MAPT transcript levels in different brain regions. Using RNA-FISH we show that the tau-NATs are mostly present in the cytoplasm with some in nuclear spots that could be the sites of active transcription. To study the role of the tau-NATs in MAPT regulation, we created SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma clones stably expressing the tau-NAT variants and targeted deletions and mutants. Although full-length tNAT1 and tNAT2l do not effect MAPT gene transcription, they significantly repress tau expression at the translational level. By targeted deletions, we demonstrated that this translational repression requires the regions of 5'-5' antisense overlap with MAPT as well as an MIR-repeat element in the 3'-domain of tNAT1 and tNAT2l. On the other hand, tNAT2s enhances tau translation due to additional regulatory elements. In this work, we further demonstrate that tNAT2s may have a selective role in heat-shock response whereby endogenous tNAT2s levels in SH-SY5Y cells are significantly elevated during heat shock with an accompanying increase in tau protein levels. Our data support a possible physiological role of MAPT-AS1 in post-transcriptional regulation of tau expression with a specific role of tNAT2s in cellular stress response.


Heteroatomic conjugated polymers (HCPs) can have complicated molecular structures with several heteroatoms in the repeat unit, which is helpful for designing color-tunable emitters, photovoltaic donors and high mobility materials. In order to understand their relatively complex molecular superstructure characteristics in depth, heteroatomic substitution-induced diverse non-covalent interactions must be investigated. Here, we systematically studied the gelation processing and its influence on the optoelectronic properties of a series of sp2 nitrogen (N) substituted polyfluorenes (PF8-co-DAF8) towards highly stable blue polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). This heteroatomic substitution allows for diverse chain C–H⋯N hydrogen bonds, correlating with an excellent gelation behavior at room temperature. Films with a gelation superstructure show a weak interchain π–π interaction and energy transfer compared to non-gelation ones. PLEDs based on a gelation film give a stable, deep-blue emission with CIE coordinates of (0.16, 0.17) and a luminous efficiency (L.E.) of 1.30 cd A−1, while non-gelation film-based PLEDs display a stable, sky-blue emission (CIE: 0.20, 0.24; L.E.: 2.13 cd A−1). Diverse non-covalent interactions originating from the heteroatomic substitution cause a complicated molecular aggregation behavior in solution that can significantly affect the chain rearrangement in the film-casting process, thereby dominating the optoelectrical properties.


Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) offer unique possibilities for exploring the deep seafloor in high resolution over large areas. We highlight the results from AUV-based multibeam echosounder (MBES) bathymetry / backscatter and digital optical imagery from the DISCOL area acquired during research cruise SO242 in 2015. AUV bathymetry reveals a morphologically complex seafloor with rough terrain in seamount areas and low-relief variations in sedimentary abyssal plains which are covered in Mn-nodules. Backscatter provides valuable information about the seafloor type and particularly about the influence of Mn-nodules on the response of the transmitted acoustic signal. Primarily, Mn-nodule abundances were determined by means of automated nodule detection on AUV seafloor imagery and nodule metrics such as nodules m−2 were calculated automatically for each image allowing further spatial analysis within GIS in conjunction with the acoustic data. AUV-based backscatter was clustered using both raw data and corrected backscatter mosaics.

In total, two unsupervised methods and one machine learning approach were utilized for backscatter classification and Mn-nodule predictive mapping. Bayesian statistical analysis was applied to the raw backscatter values resulting in six acoustic classes. In addition, Iterative Self-Organizing Data Analysis (ISODATA) clustering was applied to the backscatter mosaic and its statistics (mean, mode, 10th, and 90th quantiles) suggesting an optimum of six clusters as well. Part of the nodule metrics data was combined with bathymetry, bathymetric derivatives and backscatter statistics for predictive mapping of the Mn-nodule density using a Random Forest classifier. Results indicate that acoustic classes, predictions from Random Forest model and image-based nodule metrics show very similar spatial distribution patterns with acoustic classes hence capturing most of the fine-scale Mn-nodule variability. Backscatter classes reflect areas with homogeneous nodule density. A strong influence of mean backscatter, fine scale BPI and concavity of the bathymetry on nodule prediction is seen. These observations imply that nodule densities are generally affected by local micro-bathymetry in a way that is not yet fully understood. However, it can be concluded that the spatial occurrence of Mn-covered areas can be sufficiently analysed by means of acoustic classification and multivariate predictive mapping allowing to determine the spatial nodule density in a much more robust way than previously possible.


When Things Went Right is a colourful and insightful portrait of Washington at the beginning of the Reagan-Bush era (November 1980-March 1983) as lived and recorded by an insider in his personal journal. Chase Untermeyer was a Texas state legislator and former journalist when called to national service by his friend and mentor George H. W. Bush after the 1980 election. In his journal entries and subsequent annotations he describes how the Reagan Administration began to grapple with the major national and international challenges it inherited. He also reveals specifically how then-Vice President Bush, Reagan's former rival, became a valued participant in this effort, in the process solidifying the vice presidency as a significant position in modern American government. As executive assistant to the Vice President, Untermeyer saw how Bush, Reagan, and their top associates began asserting conservative principles on domestic, political, and foreign affairs. He captured in his journal not just the events of each day but also the atmosphere, the key personalities, and the witty, trenchant, and revealing things they said. The book's long-lasting value will be in providing historians of the period with telling anecdotes and quotations that were caught and preserved with a reporter's eye and ear. In addition to perceptive portraits of Reagan and Bush, When Things Went Right also features numerous cameo appearances by such diverse characters as Margaret Thatcher, Pope John Paul II, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Clare Boothe Luce, and jazz great Lionel Hampton. For those who look back on the presidencies of Reagan and Bush with nostalgia and respect, and also for those interested in the inner workings of the administration during its earliest days, this is the story of the time "when things went right."


Graph neural networks (GNNs) have achieved lots of success on graph-structured data. In the light of this, there has been increasing interest in studying their representation power. One line of work focuses on the universal approximation of permutation-invariant functions by certain classes of GNNs, and another demonstrates the limitation of GNNs via graph isomorphism tests.
Our work connects these two perspectives and proves their equivalence. We further develop a framework of the representation power of GNNs with the language of sigma-algebra, which incorporates both viewpoints. Using this framework, we compare the expressive power of different classes of GNNs as well as other methods on graphs. In particular, we prove that order-2 Graph G-invariant networks fail to distinguish non-isomorphic regular graphs with the same degree. We then extend them to a new architecture, Ring-GNNs, which succeeds on distinguishing these graphs and provides improvements on real-world social network datasets.