This paper investigates the impact of the introduction and implementation of the new EU bail-in framework on the banks' subordinated bond yield spreads over senior unsecured bonds, and links the bond yields developments with the characteristics of the issuing entities and the economic and financial environment. The analysis does not show evidence of a significant and generalized increase in the spreads as a result of a higher risk perception in the sample under review. The results reinforce the relevance of the Tier 1 capital ratio for making subordinated debt safer, while markets price the higher risk of banks with less stable sources of funding in their liability/capital structures. Market conditions and economic environment variables also play a key role in explaining bond spreads. Interestingly, after the introduction of the new bail-in framework, there is a convergence between the bond yields of the GSIBs and the non-GSIBs, which could point out to a reduction in the market perception of the so-called too big to fail public implicit guarantee. Nonetheless, this convergence is mostly driven by the reduction of the yields of bonds issued by banks not categorized as GSIBs, and not by significant increases in the GSIBs' bond yields.


Abstract Purpose: A wheelchair can enhance the quality of life of an individual with limited mobility, poor trunk control and stability, by enabling activity and participation and so occupational engagement. High specification wheelchairs which can tilt-in-space enable the position of users to be altered to suit activity and context. Despite tilt-in-space wheelchairs being expensive little is known about their therapeutic value. Methods: A critical literature review of the evidence was undertaken to evaluate whether the use of tilt-in-space increases occupational engagement. A wide ranging search strategy identified 170 articles which were screened using inclusion criteria. The eligible literature (n = 6) was analysed thematically using open coding. Results: The majority of the participants used tilt-in-space but the data was too heterogeneous to combine. Measures of occupational engagement were not used so the therapeutic value could not be assessed. Conclusion: There is a lack of high quality evidence about the therapeutic benefits of tilt-in-space wheelchairs. Given the expense associated with providing these wheelchairs, and the increase in their provision, research is needed to justify provision of high specification wheelchairs to meet the occupational needs of users within the limited resources of health and social care. Implications for Rehabilitation Tilt-in-space wheelchairs. Wheelchairs are an important and essential assistive device for promoting independence and function. Suggests there are benefits for tilt-in-space wheelchairs. Identifies the need for additional large scale research.


A feasibility study of a "range-extended" EXAFS measurement was conducted on the Pt L3-edge of Pt/Al2O3 in the presence of Au2O3. The Pt L3-edge EXAFS spectrum of the Pt/Al2O3 sample was successfully obtained without any interference at the Au L3-edge by means of high energy resolution fluorescence detection (HERFD) of the Pt Lα1 line with a Bragg type X-ray emission analyser crystal. A newly observed significant enhancement of the EXAFS oscillation amplitude was discussed on the points of the core-hole lifetime width and X-ray energy width. We also successfully obtained reasonable physical parameters by a conventional EXAFS curve fitting on the HERFD-EXAFS data. The HERFD-EXAFS technique can broaden the scope of application of EXAFS spectroscopy for complicated samples with many different elements.


The delta S 34 values for 261 sulfide concentrates from the "B" limestone replacement and Galena fissure deposits of the U. S. mine range from +3.8 to --8.0 permil; the mean is +0.56 permil. The data indicate that (1) sulfides of the "B" limestone ore deposits are depleted in S 34 by 0.4 to 0.7 permil relative to those of the Galena fissure ore deposits; (2) sulfides of both deposits exhibit a primary fractionation trend characterized by increasing S 34 depletion in the sequence pyrite, sphalerite, tetrahedrite, and galena; (3) delta values for coexisting sulfide pairs of the "B" limestone deposit increase with increasing altitude; (4) sulfides of both deposits are increasingly depleted in S 34 with increasing altitude; (5) the paragenetic order of sulfide deposition is accompanied by an apparent depletion of S 34 that is independent of mineral species; and (6) pyrite disseminated in wall rocks is depleted in S 34 relative to pyrite from adjacent ore deposits.The similarity of delta S 34 values and isotopic trends to those of the central porphyry-type deposit at Bingham (Field, 1966) suggests that the hydrothermal deposits of the district were formed by fluids that originated from a common source during one episode of sequential mineralization. Gross isotopic differences between the deposits, consistent differences between coexisting sulfides, and systematic variations of delta values are attributed to temperature effects imposed upon sulfide exchange equilibria; isotopic temperatures suggest a lateral gradient between the "B" limestone and adjacent Galena fissure deposits and a possible vertical gradient within the "B" limestone deposit. The vertical zonation of delta S 34 values and trends related to pyrite physical occurrence and sulfide paragenesis are provisionally attributed to a pH-Eh control. Although the apparent trends are imperfectly resolved because of textural complexities, the marked depletion of S 34 in pyrite disseminated in country rocks warrants additional study as a potential exploration method.


Within a few short months in 1997, Asian economies that had been considered not only healthy but "miraculous" suddenly fell off a precipice as investors withdrew massively first from Asian currencies and, in rapid order, from equity markets across the region. On October 27 1997, the turmoil in Asian markets spooked Wall Street in the largest single-day decline in history, a drop of 550 points. It was predicted that the Asian crash could drive the US trade deficit from $191 billion to $300 billion by 1998, creating huge new tensions in relations with some of the largest US trading partners. These wrenching changes, following a generation of success, raise numerous questions about the steps that led to the crisis, its likely outcome and the limits and constraints of "Asian capitalism". Edith Terry presents a blow-by-blow account of the crisis, beginning with the 1996 collapse of the Bangkok Bank of Commerce. In her overview, she links the fall of the Asian miracle with the theme of globalization, arguing that the crisis demonstrates the urgency of dismantling restraints to trade, investment, and financial services, and that the United States should take leadership in pushing for new and sweeping reform through the World Trade Organization and in bilateral negotiations with its trading partners. The final section of the book deals with the rise of the "Asian miracle" - how the myth was created, who created it, why it succeeded for so long - and is informed by analysis of the Japanese prototype.


Several experimental and clinical studies have indicated a prominent role of vascular inflammation in the development of endothelial dysfunction. In endothelial dysfunction, the endothelium loses its physiological features, decrements nitric oxide bioavailability, and shifts towards a vasoconstrictor, pro-thrombotic and pro-inflammatory state. Within arterial wall, the interplay between the pro-inflammatory and pro-oxidant milieus promotes vascular dysfunction, and perivascular adipose tissue seems to play an important role. Inflammation is now considered a key event in vascular dysfunction and the development of vascular disease associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes. This concept is supported by the fact that anti-inflammatory adipokines such as adiponectin protect endothelial function, and interventions resulting in reduced inflammation such as the administration of salicylates prevent vascular dysfunction and cardiovascular events. Thus, the aim of this review is to address the role of inflammation and its mechanisms in endothelial dysfunction associated with diabetes, describing the impact of these conditions on vascular function.


The video, Doris Humphrey Technique: The Creative Potential, begins with a good, very general introduction to Humphrey's work and ends with rarely seen reconstructions of early Humphrey solos and a duet. The video might be a nice way to introduce Humphrey in a dance history class or to round out your knowledge of her choreography. The central portion of the video, however, includes a discussion of using Humphrey technique as the impetus for new choreography that is best used by those with an in-depth knowledge of Humphrey's work. The book of Labanotation scores, Doris Humphrey: The Collected Works, Vol. 2, is best suited to those that read Labanotation, but also contains interesting, more easily deciphered information on the process of Labanotating dance scores. Both resources offer insights into the work of Humphrey expert Ernestine Stodelle.


A ureterocele is a cystic dilatation of the distal ureter with variance in anatomy and presenting symptoms. Ureteroceles can be associated with single or duplex collecting systems. The clinical presentation can be so diverse as to be ranging from totally asymptomatic to overt urinary tract infection. It is multimodal management when it comes to managing a case of ureterocele for optimal outcomes. Literature is still struggling to find best practices guidelines in managing ureteroceles. Basic measures are taken to preserve renal function. Primarily these cases are managed by adopting transurethral incision of the ureterocele which is an easy, minimally invasive and practicable option for dealing patients who have ureteroceles. In this review we tried to explain the importance of diagnosing this rare ailment in time and taking the measures to deal with it in terms of preservation of renal function. New advances and surgical options have also been discussed here in managing such cases.


This work presents a new approach of resolution of the Partial Differential Equations (PDE), which makes it possible to solve problems defined by complex PDEs. We named this method "Finite Windows Methods" (FWM). This method is adapted to the complex problems such as the modeling of the multiphasic phenomena of transfer in porous environments (drying, flows in an oil tank, …), which utilizes conservation PDEs (mass, energy, momentum) generally nonlinear, and of mechanical balance in the porous matrix which becomes deformed under the effect of the transfers. The first part of this work consists of presenting and describing the method in general. Then the method is tested on a simple case of transfer of heat through a wall.


A revised estimate of the relationship between the maximum growth rate (μmax, d−1) of Emiliania huxleyi and temperature (T, °C) was made using quantile regression and literature data from culture experiments (n = 1415). For modeling E. huxleyi bloom formation and coccolithophore functional group growth rate, this relationship is commonly assumed to follow an exponential relationship, as is the case for photosynthetic algal species in general. However, data specific to E. huxleyi show that this relationship is better described by a power function. Direct comparison with growth rate‐temperature relationships used to model E. huxleyi from the literature shows that they overestimate growth rate by up to 250% over a wide range of temperatures. It is recommended that the revised relationship of μmax = 0.1419T0.8151 be used in future models incorporating temperature‐dependent maximum growth rate estimates of E. huxleyi and of coccolithophores as a functional group.


Low fertilizer use is professed to be among the many reasons for low agricultural productivity in Nigeria. Fertilizer application, estimated at 13 kg/ha in 2009 by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is far lower than the 200 kg/ha recommended by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This report reviews the status of the fertilizer sector in Nigeria on the basis of a thorough overview of existing literature on Nigeria, reports on recent survey results, and analytic work conducted by IFPRI in Nigeria under the Global Food Security Response (GFSR) initiative of the USAID. It synthesizes the findings on key fertilizer issues in Nigeria, focusing on the demand and supply environment, the role played by subsidies, the regulatory environment, and the use of the vouchers system to aid fertilizer distribution. A key finding is that the heavy emphasis on price subsidization to the detriment of other approaches, such as complementary actions to improve farmersi?½ fertilizer-use techniques, has hampered market development. Three policy recommendations arise from this report. First, the initial step the government should take should be to eliminate the existence of dual fertilizer markets by establishing the primal role of the private sector in fertilizer production, procurement and distribution. Second, the government should seek policy stability by reducing the frequency of government intervention in preference to building capacity in the private sector to handle all levels of the fertilizer value chain activities. Finally, it should provide a clear assignment of monitoring and regulatory roles, which are needed at every stage of fertilizer production (including blending) and distribution with a broader reach of regulatory activities at peri-urban and rural markets.


Abstract A parallel of education with transformative processes in standard markets suggest that a more severe control of the quality of the output will improve the overall quality of the education. This paper shows a somehow counterintuitive result: an increase in the exam diffculty may reduce the average quality (productivity) of selected individuals. Since the exam does not verify all skills, when its standard rises, candidates with relatively low skills emphasized in the test and high skills demanded in the job may no longer qualify. Hence, an increase in the testing standard may be counterproductive. One implication is that policies should emphasize alignment between the skills tested and those required in the actual jobs, rather than increase exams' diffculty.


Excerpt] The aim of this working paper is to provide information about the working conditions and inservice training opportunities of early childhood education and care (ECEC) workers and to describe how these factors are linked to outcomes for children. This paper is part of the research project 'Assessing childcare services' being carried out by Eurofound in 2013 and 2014. The project focuses on the two dimensions of early childhood education and care that have been the main focus of policy initiatives at European level: ensuring that services are accessible and that they are of good quality. This is the main message of the 2011 Council of the European Union conclusions on early childhood education and care; it is also one of the main messages of the 2013 European Commission recommendation 'Investing in children: Breaking the cycle of disadvantage'.


Peace and judgement in the gospel according to Luke. Quite rightly Luke is called an evangelist of peace and non-violence. It is recognised in several studies that peace, nonviolence and love for the enemy are integral parts of the message of the Lucan Jesus. Yet this statement cannot be made without criticism. In the gospel of Luke there are many texts in which violence is present, which is incongruent with the message of peace and non-violence. Sometimes there is even violence that is excessive. In many of these texts violence has to do with vengeance in the judgement. In some recent studies the relation of the peace-message of Jesus and the retribution in the judgement is discussed. In this article we first examine the problem of violence in Luke's gospel with the help of Luke 19:9–27. In the vision of Luke the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE is a consequence of the refusal to accept the message of Jesus. To understand this it is necessary to place the fall of Jerusalem in the eschatological timetable of Luke. We see here a certain equivalence between the situation of the contemporaries of Jesus within the gospel and the situation of the intended readers in the last quarter of the first century CE. Moreover we propose to reverse the way the question is put. We do not have to enlighten how it is possible that after the peace-message of Jesus there will be vengeance in the judgement. First there is the announcement of the judgement. After that a delay is announced for the contemporaries of Jesus as well as for the intended readers of Luke's gospel: a year of the Lord's favour. This delay gives room for repentance. (Full text article to follow)


In this paper, we analyze wave propagation properties (transmitted, reflected, and absorbed powers) of composite multilayer structures consisting of bi-anisotropic metamaterial (MM) slabs and conventional isotropic materials. We also separately investigate the propagation properties of bi-anisotropic MM slabs and conventional materials to better interpret the results. We consider two different bi-anisotropic MM slab structures composed of only split-ring-resonators (SRRs) and composing SRRs and a rod. In the analysis, we apply the well-known transfer matrix method to obtain transmitted, reflected, and absorbed powers of the composite structures. From the analysis, we note the following three important results. First, while the transmitted powers from forward and backward directions of the multilayer structure are identical (reciprocal feature), reflected (and absorbed) powers from forward and backward directions of the multilayer structure are different. This difference arises from reflection asymmetric nature of the bi-anisotropic MM slabs. Second, whereas the conventional material loss influences propagation characteristics aside resonance frequencies of bi-anisotropic MM slabs, bi-anisotropic MM loss worsens propagation properties of the multilayer structure at resonance frequencies of these slabs. Third, variations in (or determination of) electromagnetic properties of low-loss thin conventional materials in between two bi-anisotropic MM slabs can be realized at frequencies in which conventional materials demonstrate thickness-resonance effect.


Modern day ocean voyaging in private sailing vessels dates back to the turn of the century. Despite this, the present thesis is the first academic study of ocean cruising to be completed of the thousands of people who make ocean voyages only a few hundred are committed to the lifestyle of cruising, that is, see cruising as a whole way of life that they will pursue indefinitely. The thesis first presents an ethnography of the lifestyle of cruising with particular attention to (1) what activities constitute the lifestyle, (2) why people cruise, and (3) what values, attitudes, and characteristics attach to the participants. Second, the thesis relates this ethnography to several theories in sociology and psychology.

In sociology, subculture and deviance theories are used to place cruising in the context of the wider scholastic study of society. Pearson (1979) and others are drawn upon in placing cruising in the context of subcultures while the work of Walter Buckley (1967) is used to modify deviance theory to account for the apparently positive nature of the deviance inherent in the cruising lifestyle.

In psychology, theories of autotelic rewards, enjoyment, and human satisfaction are used to understand the experience of and motivation to cruise. In addition, theories of personal growth developed by Hampden-Turner (1970) and others are applied to cruisers and their way of life.

The thesis concludes that cruisers, as cultural 'heroes', can be seen as affirmative deviants. That is to say, given an humanistic and western individualistic value system their deviance can be seen as contributing to their individual health and growth, and to positive social evolution.


In our previous work, we proposed few updated data dissemination methods to refresh old replicas efficiently in mobile ad hoc networks. These methods disseminate updated data items every time when owners of original data items update the items or every time two mobile hosts are newly connected with each other and this causes heavy traffic in the entire network. In this paper, we assume applications that periodically execute read operations with strict deadlines to data items and propose few alternative updated data dissemination methods. These methods reduces the traffic for data dissemination while keeping a high success ratio for read operations.


Microsatellite ('single sequence repeats', SSR) markers were widely used in the last decade for the identification of parents of a given grapevine variety or for pedigree reconstruction as well. By now the pedigree of the majority of the most important varieties is established. At the same time, knowing both of the parents gives information about which one was the mother plant and which one was the pollinator. Analyses of archaeological grapevine seeds can give new opportunities in the research of the evolution of varieties. In most of the angiosperms, the endosperm is triploid with two genome equivalents from the maternal line and one from the paternal line. Our presumption was that this numeral difference in the maternal and paternal alleles causes measureable difference in the amplification of SSR alleles from grapevine seeds. To validate our method, pre-experiments were carried out on 12 'Pinot gris' seeds, which verified our theory.


We investigate the process of circularly polarized high harmonic generation in molecules using a bicircular laser field. In this context, we show that molecules offer a very robust framework for the production of circularly polarized harmonics, provided their symmetry is compatible with that of the laser field. Using a discrete time-dependent symmetry analysis, we show how all the features (harmonic order and polarization) of spectra can be explained and predicted. The symmetry analysis is generic and can easily be applied to other target and/or field configurations.


Norway's integration model is based on the premise that counties (kommuner) are the best judges of their ability to settle and integrate refugees. While in principle this free choice makes sense, the practice is unsustainable. I 2013 11,570 people sought asylum in Norway, and of those 5330 received asylum, thus becoming refugees. In 2013 the Integration and Diversity Department (IMDi) was able to settle 6551 refugees, however at the beginning of 2014, 5700 refugees were still waiting in asylum centers (mottak) in order to be settled in a county. How to settle and integrate these people has gained an increasing political focus both in Oslo and in counties throughout the country. Several questions have been raised, such as whether the asylum seekers should decide where to move to, and how many people from a very different cultural background and educational level an area can "sustain."
Based on experience as a refugee consultant in Austrheim kommune, together with open interviews with stakeholders in the kommune, the corresponding author has observed and had first-hand experience with systemic challenges worth investigating. Experiences suggest that the top down approach implemented by the central decision makers (IMDI) affects the relationship between the decision makers and implementers within the county receiving refugees. This again affects the chances of "integrating" refugees in the local community, and the willingness to choose to receive refugees in the future. Key factors that the leadership of a county see as relevant when deciding to settle refuges are that the reception of refugees also fits within the political objectives of the county, fills gaps in the local employment market, and increases the population and therefore sustainability of small counties. In their haste to get as many people out of the reception centers as possible, IMDi emphasizes the benefits and downplays the challenges all county, but especially small county face. Further, the word "integration" is not a defined concept and refugee consultants in the counties are not comfortable with the term. The term is however used by national and local media, which have rated the counties ability to "integrate" their newcomers in addition to highlighting many cases of "failed" "integration". While the general public and the media focus on integration, the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Service (NAV) and implementers in the county are focused on finding settled refugees employment. This creates a disconnect, which is not addressed in either public or governmental discourses. IMDi's current role as "refugee salesmen" will have to be explained into a more holistic coaching role. There is a precedent for this, before the creation of IMDi, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) had a more involved role in the counties that settled refugees.


Abstract The higher education sector is under increasing pressure to deliver more and to evidence the fruits of its contribution to society. There is a particular focus on the enhanced engagement of students in order to maximise success, and for this engagement to be achieved equitably across the student body, regardless of demographic backgrounds. This calls for the sector to increase its capability to enhance student engagement in a targeted manner, and to be able to evidence success. The purpose of this article is to critically review, as a result of trialling, frameworks which offer guidance on the structuring of student engagement activity and/or encouraging behaviours associated with student engagement whether at student, teacher or institutional level. We assess the value of these frameworks in practice by identifying opportunities provided by them, reveal gaps in how they support effective student engagement activity, and identify further work for the sector in plugging the guidance gaps that lead to sub-optimal evaluation.


On the north coast of present-day Peru, between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, approximately between 100 and 600 ad, the Moche civilization prospered. The Moche were very sophisticated artisans and metal smiths, so that they are considered the finest producers of jewels and artifacts of the region. Their metalworking ability was impressively demonstrated by the excavations of the tomb of the 'Lady of Cao' (dated around third–fourth century ad) discovered by Regulo Franco in 2005. Impressive is the beauty of the artifacts, and also the variety of metallurgical solutions, demonstrated by not only the presence of objects composed of gold and silver alloys but also of gilded copper, gilded silver, and tumbaga, a poor gold Cu-Au alloy subject to depletion gilding.

About 100 metal artifacts from the tomb of the Lady of Cao, never before analyzed, were studied by using various portable equipments based on following non-destructive and non-invasive methods:

energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence with completely portable equipments;
transmission of monenergetic X-rays;
radiographic techniques; and
optical microscopy.

Gold objects and gold areas of nose decorations are characterized by approximately the same composition, that is, Au = (79.5 ± 2.5) %, Ag = (16 ± 3) %, and Cu = (4.5 ± 1.5) %, while silver objects and silver areas of the same nose decorations show completely erratic results, and a systematic high gold concentration. Many gilded copper and tumbaga artifacts were identified and analyzed. Further, soldering gold–silver was specifically studied by radiographs.

Additional measurements are needed, particularly because of the suspect that depletion gilding was systematically employed also in the case of some nose decorations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Information Bottleneck (IB) is a conceptual method for extracting the most compact, yet informative, representation of a set of variables, with respect to the target. It generalizes the notion of minimal sufficient statistics from classical parametric statistics to a broader information-theoretic sense. The IB curve defines the optimal trade-off between representation complexity and its predictive power. Specifically, it is achieved by minimizing the level of mutual information (MI) between the representation and the original variables, subject to a minimal level of MI between the representation and the target. This problem is shown to be in general NP hard. One important exception is the multivariate Gaussian case, for which the Gaussian IB (GIB) is known to obtain an analytical closed form solution, similar to Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA). In this work we introduce a Gaussian lower bound to the IB curve; we find an embedding of the data which maximizes its "Gaussian part", on which we apply the GIB. This embedding provides an efficient (and practical) representation of any arbitrary data-set (in the IB sense), which in addition holds the favorable properties of a Gaussian distribution. Importantly, we show that the optimal Gaussian embedding is bounded from above by non-linear CCA. This allows a fundamental limit for our ability to Gaussianize arbitrary data-sets and solve complex problems by linear methods.


OBJECTIVE
The objective was to update the 2001 systematic review conducted by the Institute For Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) on the use of positron emission tomography (PET) in assessing myocardial viability. The update consisted of a review and analysis of the research evidence published since the 2001 ICES review to determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of PET in detecting left ventricular (LV) viability and predicting patient outcomes after revascularization in comparison with other noninvasive techniques.

BACKGROUND
Left Ventricular Viability Heart failure is a complex syndrome that impairs the contractile ability of the heart to maintain adequate blood circulation, resulting in poor functional capacity and increased risk of morbidity and mortality. It is the leading cause of hospitalization in elderly Canadians. In more than two-thirds of cases, heart failure is secondary to coronary heart disease. It has been shown that dysfunctional myocardium resulting from coronary heart disease (CAD) may recover contractile function (i.e. considered viable). Dysfunctional but viable myocardium may have been stunned by a brief episode of ischemia, followed by restoration of perfusion, and may regain function spontaneously. It is believed that repetitive stunning results in hibernating myocardium that will only regain contractile function upon revascularization. For people with CAD and severe LV dysfunction (left ventricular ejection fraction [LVEF] <35%) refractory to medical therapy, coronary artery bypass and heart transplantation are the only treatment options. The opportunity for a heart transplant is limited by scarcityof donor hearts. Coronary artery bypass in these patients is associated with high perioperative complications; however, there is evidence that revascularization in the presence of dysfunctional but viable myocardium is associated with survival benefits and lower rates of cardiac events. The assessment of left ventricular (LV) viability is, therefore, critical in deciding whether a patient with coronary artery disease and severe LV dysfunction should undergo revascularization, receive a heart transplant, or remain on medical therapy. Assessment of Left Ventricular Viability Techniques for assessing myocardial viability depend on the measurement of a specific characteristic of viable myocytes such as cell membrane integrity, preserved metabolism, mitochondria integrity, and preserved contractile reserve. In Ontario, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) using radioactive (201)thallium is the most commonly used technique followed by dobutamine echocardiography. Newer techniques include SPECT using technetium tracers, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and PET, the subject of this review. POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY: PET is a nuclear imaging technique based on the metabolism of radioactive analogs of normal substrates such as glucose and water. The radiopharmaceutical used most frequently in myocardial viability assessment is F18 fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), a glucose analog. The procedure involves the intravenous administration of FDG under controlled glycemic conditions, and imaging with a PET scanner. The images are reconstructed using computer software and analyzed visually or semi-quantitatively, often in conjunction with perfusion images. Dysfunctional but stunned myocardium is characterized by normal perfusion and normal FDG uptake; hibernating myocardium exhibits reduced perfusion and normal/enhanced FDG uptake (perfusion/metabolism mismatch), whereas scar tissue is characterized by reduction in both perfusion and FDG uptake (perfusion/metabolism match).

REVIEW STRATEGY
The Medical Advisory Secretariat used a search strategy similar to that used in the 2001 ICES review to identify English language reports of health technology assessments and primary studies in selected databases, published from January 1, 2001 to April 20, 2005. Patients of interest were those with CAD and severe ventricular dysfunction being considered for revascularization that had undergone viability assessment using either PET and/or other noninvasive techniques. The outcomes of interest were diagnostic and predictive accuracy with respect to recovery of regional or global LV function, long-term survival and cardiac events, and quality of life. Other outcomes of interest were impact on treatment decision, adverse events, and cost-effectiveness ratios. Of 456 citations, 8 systematic reviews/meta-analyses and 37 reports on primary studies met the selection criteria. The reports were categorized using the Medical Advisory Secretariat levels of evidence system, and the quality of the reports was assessed using the criteria of the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) developed by the Centre for Dissemination of Research (National Health Service, United Kingdom). Analysis of sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and likelihood ratios were conducted for all data as well as stratified by mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). There were no randomized controlled trials. The included studies compared PET with one or more other noninvasive viability tests on the same group of patients or examined the long-term outcomes of PET viability assessments. The quality assessment showed that about 50% or more of the studies had selection bias, interpreted tests without blinding, excluded uninterpretable segments in the analysis, or did not have clearly stated selection criteria. Data from the above studies were integrated with data from the 2001 ICES review for analysis and interpretation.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The evidence was derived from populations with moderate to severe ischemic LV dysfunction with an overall quality that ranges from moderate to low.PET appears to be a safe technique for assessing myocardial viability.CAD patients with moderate to severe ischemic LV dysfunction and residual viable myocardium had significantly lower 2-year mortality rate (3.2%) and higher event-free survival rates (92% at 3 years) when treated with revascularization than those who were not revascularized but were treated medically (16% mortality at 2-years and 48% 3-year event-free survival).A large meta-analysis and moderate quality studies of diagnostic accuracy consistently showed that compared to other noninvasive diagnostic tests such as thallium SPECT and echocardiography, FDG PET has:Higher sensitivity (median 90%, range 71%-100%) and better negative likelihood ratio (median 0.16, range 0-0.38; ideal <0.1) for predicting regional myocardial function recovery after revascularization.Specificity (median 73%, range 33%-91%) that is similar to other radionuclide imaging but lower than that of dobutamine echocardiographyLess useful positive likelihood ratio (median 3.1, range 1.4 -9.2; ideal>10) for predicting segmental function recovery.Taking positive and negative likelihood ratios together suggests that FDG PET and dobutamine echocardiography may produce small but sometimes important changes in the probability of recovering regional wall motion after revascularization.Given its higher sensitivity, PET is less likely to produce false positive results in myocardial viability. PET, therefore, has the potential to identify some patients who might benefit from revascularization, but who would not have been identified as suitable candidates for revascularization using thallium SPECT or dobutamine echocardiography.PET appears to be superior to other nuclear imaging techniques including SPECT with (201)thallium or technetium labelled tracers, although recent studies suggest that FDG SPECT may have comparable diagnostic accuracy as FDG PET for predicting regional and global LV function recovery.No firm conclusion can be reached about the incremental value of PET over other noninvasive techniques for predicting global function improvement or long-term outcomes in the most important target population (patients with severe ischemic LV dysfunction) due to lack of direct comparison.An Ontario-based economic analysis showed that in people with CAD and severe LV dysfunction and who were found to have no viable myocardium or indeterminate results by thallium SPECT, the use of PET as a follow-up assessment would likely result in lower cost and better 5-year survival compared to the use of thallium SPECT alone. The projected annual budget impact of adding PET under the above scenario was estimated to range from $1.5 million to $2.3 million.

CONCLUSION
In patients with severe LV dysfunction, that are deemed to have no viable myocardium or indeterminate results in assessments using other noninvasive tests, PET may have a role in further identifying patients who may benefit from revascularization. No firm conclusion can be drawn on the impact of PET viability assessment on long-term clinical outcomes in the most important target population (i.e. patients with severe LV dysfunction).


The mixing of liquids is a common operation in process industries such as chemical and pharmaceutical industries. However the problem of mixing different liquids has not been rigorously characterized yet. Therefore one of the aims of this PhD thesis was focused on mixing in microsystems, like microcapillaries and micromixers.
Microfluidic systems, fabricated by utilizing silicone, biomaterials, or stainless steel, have gathered enormous attention in the recent years. Compared to industrial laboratory equipment, these microsystems offer reduced reagent consumption, more safety and lower time for analysis. Their reduced size makes them suitable for mobile field laboratories, while their reduced cost allows them to be disposable after sensitive applications. Microsystems fit perfectly with the Process Intensification (PI) strategy, an engineering expression that refers to making changes that render a manufacturing or processing design substantially improved in terms of energy efficiency, cost-effectiveness or enhancement of other qualities. The design of microfluidic systems often requires unusual geometries and the interplay of multiple physical effects such as pressure gradients and capillarity, which lead to interesting variants of well-studied fluid dynamical problems and some new fluid responses. The rapidly increasing interest in the application and control of emulsions in microfluidics devices for industrial biotechnological purposes motivates this research. In particular emulsification process to form stable samples over time by using different techniques was investigated. Fluid dynamic behavior of a stable oil-in-water emulsion was characterized in microcapillaries and contrast-enhanced optical microscopy was used for direct observation and automated image analysis algorithms have been developed to characterize the velocity and the deformability of drops flowing in capillaries of micrometric dimensions. Fundamental understanding of emulsification process is very important from a biotechnological point of view because it is present in many biological processes. For example the motion of droplets under confined flow has attracted some interest due to the similarities with the shape taken by red blood cells in microcapillaries.
Furthermore emulsification process in micro static mixers of different diameter and length was analyzed and theoretical models to predict emulsion particle size distribution were performed. Finally scale-up of these microreactors was performed.


A proper modeling of flow and turbulence within and over urban canopies is key to properly predict air pollution and dispersion in cities. Trees are an integral part of the urban landscape. In many suburban neighborhoods, tree cover is 10 to 30% and trees are often taller than buildings. The effect of trees on drag, mean wind and turbulence in cities is not accounted for in current weather, air pollution and dispersion models. Our goal is to use high-resolution Large Eddy Simulations (LES) over a realistic urban canopy to inform about the effects of trees drag, mean wind and turbulence in the urban roughness sublayer (RSL). The simulated area is part of the Sunset-Neighborhood in Vancouver, Canada. In this area, long-term wind and turbulence measurements are available from instruments on a 28m-tall tower. Further, a high precision airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) point cloud provides data to represent both buildings and trees at high spatial resolution in a realistic configuration. Trees are described by location-specific leaf area density (LAD) profiles. LES simulations are performed over a 512 x 512m characteristic subset of the city that contains the tower location and source area. In the LES, buildings are accounted for through an immersed boundary method, adopting a zero level-set distance function to localize the surface location, whereas drag forces from trees are parametrized as a function of the height-dependent LAD. Spectra of streamwise and vertical velocity components compare well between tower data and the model data, confirming the good performances of LES in simulations of flow over fully rough surfaces. We show how the presence of trees affects mean velocity and computed momentum flux profiles, significantly decreasing dispersive terms in the bulk of the flow, which are usually found to play a role in pressure driven boundary layer flows. The impact of trees on integral length scales in the flow is discussed.


Limited evidence exists about how to design interventions to improve access to health care for people with disabilities in low and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper documents the development of two behaviour change interventions. Case study one outlines the design of an intervention to improve uptake of referral for ear and hearing services for children in Malawi. Case study two describes the design of an intervention to improve menstrual hygiene management for people with intellectual impairments in Nepal. Both followed existing approaches—Medical Research Council Guidance for developing and evaluating complex interventions and Behaviour Centred Design. The purpose is to demonstrate how these frameworks can be applied, to document the interventions developed, and encourage further initiatives to advance health services targeting people with disabilities. Important components of the intervention design process were: (1) systematic reviews and formative research ensure that interventions designed are relevant to current discourse, practice and context; (2) people with disabilities and their family/carers must be at the heart of the process; (3) applying the theory of change approach and testing it helps understand links between inputs and required behaviour change, as well as ensuring that the interventions are relevant to local contexts; (4) involving creative experts may lead to the development of more engaging and appealing interventions. Further evidence is needed on the effectiveness of these types of interventions for people with disabilities to ensure that no one is left behind.


The paper presents the influence of several nutritive elements available in the composition of two industrial waste products (A,B), on the soil features and plant development . The nutritive supplementation was achieved by treating the soil with different doses of waste products (A,B). These two mineral sources (A,B) comprise in their composition significant contents of calcium and magnesium as well as low contents of iron, copper, manganese and zinc. The experimental alternatives consist of four different doses from each waste product, administered to soil with or without nitrogen supplement. The main objective of this study is to present the influence of waste type and doses on the fertility features of an acid soil and on plant development by pursuing some physiological characteristics of wheat green plants (Triticum). The higher additional magnesium contribution, administered to soil by waste product B, generates some important alterations in soil and plant characteristics. The pH values rise, soil reaction turns from low acid to low alkaline. The magnesium content increase by 2-16 %, in soil tilled with wheat, while in presence of nitrogen, the magnesium content of soil was improved by 11-25%. The soil calcium content increases by 2-5%, while nitrogen addition improves the calcium content in soil by 5-19%. A beneficial effect on grain germination was established, improving the number of risen plants; the nitrogen addition increases this number by 100% for green wheat plants. At harvest time, a significant increase of plant size was established, while nitrogen addition increases supplementary their size by 35%. The fresh weight of plants show a considerable increase (79%).The dry matter values are decreasing, once with the rise of the waste doses, while nitrogen addition decreases the dry matter values by 19%. The originality of this paper consists in the use of waste products resulted from the magnesium products industry in agriculture as soil amendment and fertilizer. The importance of this study lies in the fact that, on the basis of the obtained results, a new technology to improve soil quality can be conceived by specifying the suitable dose, usage manner and application frequency of the tested waste products. The usefulness of the study is represented by the utilization of large amounts of waste, obtained from the magnesium compounds industry, as fertilizer and amendment for low fertile soils.


Language acts as the lynchpin of cohesion maintaining electronic conversations across social networking sites. Analysis of that cohesion facilitates the detection of linguistic patterns that initiate and compound hate speech in online environments. This research reports on analysis of hate speech in videos and asynchronous conversation using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) within social networking site. Focussing on the architecture of language and the influence of social context, SFL facilitates the analysis of language in its temporal and contextual use. In applying SFL to the chosen corpus of texts the research team are building reference dictionaries of offensive words and reference catalogues for the clausal structures in which these words are used. The team is exploring the detection of and analysis of hate speech across conversation, that is across texts within social networking sites (SNS). In accumulating data that allows the expansion of dictionaries and clausal catalogues, the team is enabling the building of an automated alert system that scans texts as they develop independently and in their engagement with other texts across time. Overall, this paper outlines the application of SFL to texts accrued from SNS that exhibit aspects of hate speech associated with dehumanisation, details the analysis of visualisations of hate speech within developing texts and demonstrates the building of an automated alert system using SFL to detect hate speech across texts.


Computing has moved away from a focus on performance-centric serial computation, instead towards energy-efficient parallel computation. This provides continued performance increases without increasing clock frequencies, and overcomes the thermal and power limitations of the dark-silicon era. As the number of parallel cores increases, we transition into the many-core computing era. There is considerable interest in developing methods, tools, architectures and applications to support many-core computing. The primary aim of this edited book is to provide a timely and coherent account of the recent advances in many-core computing research. Starting with programming models, operating systems and their applications; the authors present runtime management techniques, followed by system modelling, verification and testing methods, and architectures and systems. The book ends with some examples of innovative applications.


A central question for corporate law scholarship has revolved around the ownership structure of enterprises. Why are some businesses owned by employees, some by customers, and some by investors? Until now, the question has centered on the relative benefits offered to these stakeholders by one form or another. This Article explores how ownership structure can be a matter of public importance for financial stability and proves that it is so by delving into an institution of immense importance and timeliness: the clearinghouse, a critical financial market infrastructure.
Clearinghouses process, settle and guarantee the performance of several trillion dollars in securities and derivatives trades daily. By operating as central counterparties, they act as private stability mechanisms, reducing counterparty credit risk and sharing default risk among their members. Clearinghouses achieve this result via a unique economic structure, which includes a double layer of capital: the traditional equity capital and the so-called mutual guaranty fund (the clearinghouse's loss sharing fund).
Historically, clearinghouses have been mutual enterprises owned by their members (users), who contributed to the firm's mutual guaranty fund. But most clearinghouses have recently demutualized their ownership structure, opening their equity capital to external investors and transforming into for-profit public corporations, while keeping members on the hook for losses. This structural evolution has catalyzed new agency costs between the now coexisting and "competing" stakeholders: members and external shareholders. These costs, which have been further exacerbated by the post-crisis systemic role of clearinghouses are exemplified by shareholders with control and economic rights but limited "skin in the game," and members who bear the final risk and losses if things go south, but who have no control or monitoring rights. This Article identifies how the agency costs between members and shareholders threaten the financial stability of clearinghouses and argues that aligning control and monitoring rights with final risk-bearing costs is the path clearinghouses should follow to achieve a more resilient ownership and governance structure.


Kaposi's sarcoma (KS)-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) was discovered in 1994. KSHV is associated with at least three types of human cancer; KS, an endothelial tumour, and two lymphoproliferative disorders, primary effusion lymphoma (PEL) and a variant of multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD). In KSHV, the genes expressed in latency have been implicated in cell transformation. One of a cluster of three latency-associated genes, that regulate proliferation and apoptosis, encodes a viral FLICE inhibitory protein (vFLIP) in open reading frame 71 (ORF71). Two roles have been proposed for vFLIP; when expressed in heterologous cells it both blocks Fas-mediated apoptosis and activates the NF-KB pathway by interaction with IKB kinase (IKK). Given the two contrasting roles assigned to vFLIP, the aim of this study was to determine the function of vFLIP in KSHV-infected cells. vFLIP was therefore immunoprecipitated from PEL cells and four associated proteins were identified by mass spectrometry: IKK components and the chaperone, Hsp90. Using gel filtration, a single population of vFLIP in the cytoplasm of PEL cells co-eluted and co-precipitated with an activated IKK complex. An inhibitor of Hsp90, geldanamycin, inhibited vFLIP-induced IKK activity and killed PEL cells, inferring that vFLIP activation of NF-KB contributes to PEL survival. In a yeast-two-hybrid screen, our collaborators identified IKK as an interacting partner of vFLIP. Fragments of IKK were expressed in mammalian cells and bacteria, and the central portion of IKK? (amino acids 150-272) was identified as the vFLIP binding region. Finally, it is suggested that vFLIP activates the alternative pathway of NF-KB activation, leading to processing of p100 and generation of p52. This process is phosphorylation dependent and results in nuclear translocation of RelB and p52. A possible mechanism of action is suggested by the physical interaction between p100/p52 and vFLIP. These data strongly support an important role for vFLIP in NF-KB activation. This may be crucial for cell transformation by KSHV, for survival of infected cells and for the maintenance of latency.


ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to describe the differences between Sukuk and conventional bonds and discuss issues concerning accounting, recognition, measurement and disclosures in the financial statements. Currently most of the Sukuk issuers are Islamic financial institutions, but others including Singapore and the European countries are also joining the band-wagon to capture the capital-flows from the Middle Eastern countries. A number of issues are discussed in this paper; among them include recognition, measurement and disclosure of Sukuk according to two different international accounting standards. The possibility of harmonization of between IFRS for financial instruments and AAOIFI standard on investment is also discussed. The comparative analysis shows that there are not major differences between IFRS and AAOIFI standards as per recognition, measurement and disclosures of Sukuk, and therefore IFRS can be adopted by issuers worldwide for international comparability of financial statements. Global challenges and opportunities facing Sukuk are also discussed in this paper along with some recommendations on how to overcome them.INTRODUCTIONIslamic finance is gaining popularity worldwide for more than three decades and demand for Islamic financial instruments is also growing rapidly. Among the Islamic financial instruments, Sukuk has become the main attraction among banks, corporations and customers. Sukuk is the Islamic asset-backed financial instrument issued by Islamic financial institutions according to the Shari'ah.Although it is commonly referred to as Islamic bonds similar to conventional bonds, they, however, are not the same. Sukuk is not the counterpart of conventional bonds as commonly referred to in many articles. Conventional bonds are interest bearing debt instruments, but Sukuk, on the other hand, are assets-backed financial instruments. Sukuk are not interest bearing financial instruments but rather Sukuk holders have a right of ownership in the assets or properties of the corporation or the issuer (Vishwanath & Sabahuddin, 2009). Interest is forbidden in Islam so Sukuk does not bear interest to the holders, but they have a right to the profit made by the company. Losses are also to be shared among the Sukuk holders and the issuer according to the contract between the two parties.The basic principle behind the Sukuk is that the holder has an undivided ownership interest in a particular asset and is therefore entitled to the return generated by that asset. The classic Sukuk structure involves an acquisition of a property asset by a special purpose company (SPC). The SPC funds itself by the issue of Sukuk, declaring a trust in favor of the Sukuk holders. The Sukuk holders then receive a return based on the rental income of the asset (Wilson, 2008a).Sukuk therefore are considered as certificates of equal value that represent an ownership interest in tangible assets. The Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) based in Bahrain has issued guidelines that emphasize the differences between Sukuk and conventional bonds. AAOIFI is mainly responsible for formulating and implementing international Islamic finance standards in the market. Currently AAOIFI has issued 85 standards and is supported by 200 institutional members (http://www.aaoifi.com/).There are 14 different types of Sukuk described as permissible in the AAOIFI Shari'a standard 17 Investment Sukuk. Muhammad Taqi Usmani, Chairman of the Shariah Council, outlines the following differences between Sukuk and the conventional bonds. First, bonds do not represent ownership on the part of the bond holders in the enterprises for which the bonds were issued. Rather, they document the interest-bearing debt owed to the holders of the bonds. Second, regular interest payments are made to the bond holders. The amount of interest is determined as a percentage of the capital and not as a percentage of actual profits. …


Some studies have placed Sample entropy on the same data length constraint of 10m–20m (m: pattern length) as approximate entropy, even though Sample entropy is largely independent of data length and displays relative consistency over a broader range of possible parameters (r, tolerance value; m, pattern length; N, data length) under circumstances where approximate entropy does not. This is particularly erroneous for some fMRI experiments where the working data length is less than 100 volumes (when m = 2). We therefore investigated whether Sample entropy is able to effectively discriminate fMRI data with data length, N less than 10m (where m = 2) and r = 0.30, from a small group of 10 younger and 10 elderly adults, and the whole cohort of 43 younger and 43 elderly adults, that are significantly (p < 0.001) different in age. Ageing has been defined as a loss of entropy; where signal complexity decreases with age. For the small group analysis, the results of the whole brain analyses show that Sample entropy portrayed a good discriminatory ability for data lengths, 85 ≤ N ≤ 128, with an accuracy of 85% at N = 85 and 80% at N = 128, at q < 0.05. The regional analyses show that Sample entropy discriminated more brain regions at N = 128 than N = 85 and some regions common to both data lengths. As data length, N increased from 85 to 128, the noise level decreased. This was reflected in the accuracy of the whole brain analyses and the number of brain regions discriminated in the regional analyses. The whole brain analyses suggest that Sample entropy is relatively independent of data length, while the regional analyses show that fMRI data with length of 85 volumes is consistent with our hypothesis of a loss of entropy with ageing. In the whole cohort analysis, Sample entropy discriminated regionally between the younger and elderly adults only at N = 128. The whole cohort analysis at N = 85 was indicative of the ageing process but this indication was not significant (p > 0.05).


This thesis studies teachers' and students' conceptions of history and history teaching and aims to explain the importance of an interest in history among teachers and students of the subject. Research on teachers' conceptions (e.g. Martin 2005) shows that the didactical question "Why?" influences the "How?" and "Why?" questions and that teachers' thinking about their own practice is mainly influenced by their background and their experiences from teaching. Research on students' opinions (e.g. Youth and History, 1997) shows that they enjoy history shown in films, that they appreciate museums, and that the preferred topic is 20th century history. In this thesis learning is envisaged as something individual but it is the learners' social context that defines what is important, meaningful and interesting to learn. The research methods consist of a survey study concerning the pupils' attitudes towards history and history education, and an interview study with their teachers about their teaching and their opinions about history in general. Nine teachers and their 217 pupils participated.It is mainly topics from 20th century that are described as interesting by both students and teachers. The teachers had different views on the didactical whyquestion, which they described either as student oriented or subject oriented. Their views on why history is important influenced their teaching methods. The student oriented teachers stated that their pupils' needs and wishes affect their methods while the subject oriented teachers said that they give varying lessons, and have a more student active teaching, but decide for themselves what teaching methods are to be used. The subject matter is influenced by the teachers' personal interest in history, in most cases a Eurocentric political history. This choice of content, and the teachers own interest, are explained by the historical culture of Swedish society rather than the curriculum. The teachers state that exciting stories and dramatic events related in books or films were, and still are, important to their interest in history. Their individual interpretation of what is important and meaningful in their historical culture influences teachers' personal interest, their knowledge, and the content of their history teaching. The students' attitudes to history are also influenced by various factors, of which history education at school is merely one.


This article looks at forest policy as empirical case study of European integration. By applying different theoretical lenses of European integration approaches (neo-functionalism, liberal intergovernmentalism, three institutionalist approaches and constructivism), it seeks to explain and understand the integration of forest policy in the European Union during the policy's emergence (1958 to 1960s), expansion (1970 to late 1990s) and stabilization period (late 1990s to now). The findings clearly show that, to a certain extent, all European integration theories have their merits for the analysis. However, none of the employed integration theories alone can explain all the relevant aspects of the broader developments in EU forest policy. No individual theory can help explain why forest policy developed only incrementally and why it has been weakly institutionalized. This article, therefore, argues to combine them so as to establish a clearer picture of the driving factors and constraints. As each of the grand theories has its weak spots, it is further argued that scholars of European studies should work across a broader theoretical spectrum as only this would allow light to be shed on blind spots in empirical investigation over longer time periods.


Nematodes are the only major metazoan group which is persistently abundant and diverse across marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. This could be the result of a few major habitat transitions followed by extensive diversification, or numerous habitat transitions followed by moderate diversification. To pinpoint habitat transitions, we superposed nematode habitat associations on an available phylum-wide phylogenetic tree based on small subunit ribosomal DNA sequences (≈2730 SSU rDNA sequences covering ≈1750 nematode taxa). Our analysis revealed at least 30 major habitat transitions within the phylum Nematoda. These transitions as well as their directionality were unevenly spread over the 12 major clades. Most transitions reside in Clades 1–6, and these transitions are bidirectional. Members of Clades 8–12 showed five full transitions, and these took place exclusively from terrestrial to marine systems. We relate our results to the distinct secretory–excretory systems in Clades 1–6 and Clades 8–12, as well as to differences in water permeability of the nematode cuticle. Hence, the phylum Nematoda is characterized by a relatively large number of habitat transitions followed by moderate diversification. The identification of multiple habitat transitions at a low taxonomic level will facilitate future investigations into the mechanisms underlying this unusual ecological flexibility.


One of the most successful approaches to automated planning is the translation to propositional satis ability (SAT). This thesis evaluates incremental SAT solving for several modern encodings for SAT based planning. Experiments based on benchmarks from the 2014 International Planning Competition show that an incremental approach signi cantly outperforms non-incremental solving. Although, planning speci c heuristics and advanced scheduling of makespans is not used, it is possible to outperform the state-of-the-art SAT based planning systems Madagascar and PDRPlan in the number of solved instances.


What role does affirmative action play in transitioning toward a more just society? The two literatures best equipped to answer this question — transitional justice and affirmative action — have neglected both the question and one another. Transitional justice scholars have focused on a limited set of measures (such as truth commissions and criminal prosecutions) and overlooked the role of affirmative action in facilitating transition. At the same time, affirmative action scholars have neglected the ways in which affirmative action may be part of a larger transitional justice project. Bringing these literatures into conversation for the first time, this Article shows how integrating affirmative action and transitional justice can advance our understanding of both practices. Affirmative action can bring attention to structural inequalities in transitional societies and help delineate the boundaries of transitional justice. In so doing, affirmative action can bridge a divide between the field of transitional justice and the phenomenon of societal transition that it seeks to understand and facilitate. Transitional justice, on the other hand, can elucidate how the period of transition informs affirmative action's features and functions; it can also illuminate affirmative action's strengths and shortcomings in bringing about a more just society. Affirmative action should, therefore, be added to the transitional justice "toolkit" and anchored in transitional justice concepts and debates.


With its strong growth in exports, China is becoming increasingly competitive to Canadian exports in third markets. This is specially a concern in Canada's largest export market, the U.S., where China has quickly gained market share while Canada's has decreased. This paper asks the question; is China competition to Canadian merchandise exports to the United States? Using a measurement of revealed comparative advantage shows that China is currently not competition to Canada, since China and Canada specialize in different sectors of exports to the U.S. market. On the other hand, constant market share analysis, which looks at the change in market share, indicates that China is rapidly gaining in sectors where Canada has enjoyed a large share of the U.S. market. Therefore, although China is not currently in direct competition with Canada in the U.S. market, its strong growth in many sectors where Canada has a revealed comparative advantage point to increased competition from China in the future.


This thesis aims to investigate and study a variety of dimensions of the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), domestic investment (DI) and economic growth in the host countries. The main purpose of this thesis is to empirically examine the implications of the
relationship and complementarity between FDI and DI, and the contribution of the host country's factors in achieving the benefits of FDI inflows.
To achieve the aim and to examine the argument of this thesis, the thesis was structured to include six chapters, containing three empirical chapters. These empirical chapters studied different hypotheses of the relationship between FDI and economic growth. The first empirical
chapter attempted to find the answer to these two questions: (a) does FDI contribute positively
to GDP; and (b) does FDI really crowd out DI in the host countries. The second empirical chapter also tried to offer the answer to this question: does FDI contribute to economic growth in developing countries alone, or does it depend on its initial conditions? Furthermore, the
third empirical chapter studies the direct impact of not only FDI but also other foreign capital inflows on economic growth, and their indirect impact on economic growth, which works via domestic investment channel. This chapter searched for the answer to this question: how do FDI and other types of foreign capital inflows affect economic growth?
Chapter one presents the motivation of the thesis and sets its aim and structure. Chapter two presents a background of economic literature on the relationship between FDI, DI and
economic growth. This chapter also provides a brief review of theoretical and empirical background on the interrelationship between those variables, in order to reach a better understanding of the contributions of FDI and DI to economic growth in the host countries.
Based on this chapter, Chapter three studies empirically the relationship between FDI, DI and economic growth by applying a multivariate VAR system with the error correction model (ECM) and time-series and panel-data techniques of cointegration to investigate the links
between FDI, DI and GDP. The empirical evidence reported in this chapter shows that, on the one hand, FDI crowds out DI in the host countries, either in the short-run or in the long-run based on the results of time-series analysis. On the other hand, Panel-data techniques provide strong evidence that FDI has crowding-in effect on DI. Both time-series and panel-data analysis also provide evidence that FDI can positively affect economic growth in host countries. The results of this chapter also show that GDP have a positive impact on FDI and DI, either in the short-run or in the long-run. The results also show that DI is positively related to GDP and FDI in receiving economies.
Based on the results of Chapter three, Chapter four investigated empirically whether FDI contributes to economic growth alone, or does it depend on the host country's conditions. The empirical evidence stated in this chapter shows that FDI inflows have, in general, a
significantly positive impact on growth; however, the magnitude of this effect depends on the host country's absorptive capacity as measured by human capital, technology gap, infrastructure, institution quality, financial market, and trade openness. The results of this
chapter show that the host country must reach a threshold of absorptive capacity in order to gain the positive externalities offered by FDI inflows. The results of this chapter also show that domestic investment, human capital, infrastructure development, financial market development, institution quality, and trade openness are positively related to economic growth, while the technology gap is negatively related to economic growth.
Based on the results of chapter three and four, chapter five explored whether the positive impact of FDI and other foreign capital inflows (portfolio investment and loans inflows) in DI on the host economies can be considered as a growth-enhancing role not only for FDI but also for other foreign capital inflows. The results reported in this chapter show that all types of foreign capital inflows have a significant positive influence on economic growth in the host economies. The empirical evidence reported in this chapter also shows that FDI inflows have a more significant effect on economic growth than other type of capital inflows, such as portfolio investment and loans inflows. The results of this chapter also show that all types of
foreign capital inflows have a strong crowding-in effect on DI in the host countries; however, FDI inflows have a greater crowding-in effect on DI than portfolio investment, and loans inflows are in between them. The main result presented in chapter five is that the impact of FDI, portfolio investment and loans inflows on economic growth, which works via domestic investment channel, is not a significant one, but also is generally greater and more robust than the direct impact in the host economies.
Generally, the most important contribution of this thesis is that a better understanding of the relationship between FDI, DI and economic growth in developing countries, taking into account the influence of the host country's absorptive capacity, and different types of foreign capital inflows.


Worldwide an increasing migration from rural to urban regions can be observed. Hence cities are growing and as a result the building density and the land sealing rise. Concrete as commonly used building material in urban structures provides a high heat storage capacity. Therefore the microclimate in cities has become warmer than in the surrounding areas. This phenomenon is called Urban Heat Island Effect. To mitigate this situation a large scale application of self-cooling concrete pavers is an approach to reduce the urban heat island effect. Making use of evaporation enthalpy, this new type of pavements counterbalances the absorption of solar radiation and the subsequent transfer of heat to the surrounding environment. The typical double-layer structure of concrete paving stones can be maintained. The mass concrete acts as a water storage layer and is covered by a permeable face concrete. As the different requirements of these layers demand different concrete mixtures, they are developed and optimised for their respective functions. This paper presents some suitable no-slump concrete mixtures that combine a sufficient compressive strength as well as good water transportation properties for the above mentioned approach.


Sex offenders cause particular concern upon release and are often received with apprehension or hostility by the community. This in turn may increase their feelings of loneliness and poor self-esteem hindering re-integration and potentially increasing re-offending. Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSAs) were first developed in Canada in 1994 and introduced in the UK in 2000. A "Circle" consists of a group of four to six volunteers with the offender as the "Core Member". Appropriately trained volunteers support and hold to account the core member, who has to volunteer to be part of the scheme, by providing them with social contact and practical support while at the same time maintaining links to statutory agencies alerting them of any risk issues. Following completion of initial pilots the scheme is currently rolled out across the UK. This systematic review will describe the Circles model and its history and summarise the empirical literature particularly with regards to outcomes.


Aim: To clinically evaluate the effects of a novel anti-calculus mouth rinse containing sodium tripolyphosphate and tetrapotassium pyrophosphate (Periogen, USA) on development of gingivitis and plaque around dental implants versus control over a period of six months. Material and methods: This was a randomized, 6 month, parallel groups, double blind, single center clinical trial. Forty subjects with present dental implants (22 zirconium dioxide and 20 titanium) were randomly assigned to one of two subgroups: control group (regular brushing) and test group (regular brushing followed by using the calculus dissolution based oral rinse). All subjects were assessed with gingival index (GI), plaque index (PI) and Volpe-Manhold calculus index (VMI) after 3 and 6 months. Results: Statistical analysis found that test group in both zirconium dioxide and titanium group demonstrated statistically significant lower GI, PI and VMI scores. Conclusion: This study demonstrates that calculus dissolution based Periogen® mouthrinse provided clinically significant reduction in calculus formation in subjects with zirconium dioxide and titanium dental implants when used twice daily for 6 months as an adjunct to toothbrushing.


Protests continue in Greece as its leaders debate the latest suggestions for dealing with its crippling debt. One proposal is for Greece to privatise several of its assets. This Commentary argues that privatisation is a mirage. If solvency is the problem, privatisation will only make matters worse, especially if it has to be done at distressed prices.


Robots are leaving the friendly, well-structured world of automation and are facing the challenges of a dynamic world. The uncertain conditions in the dynamic world call for a high degree of robustness and adaptivity for individual robots as well as interactions between multiple robots and other system entities. The uncertainty makes it difficult for designers and engineers to anticipate all conditions, interactions, and side effects a system will have to deal with while the system is specified and developed. Furthermore, implicit and explicit coordination is required to perform a joint goal with multiple entities in a multi-robot system. Enabling scalability for multi-robot applications can be especially supported by means of implicit and decentralised coordination approaches. Nevertheless, robots that adapt to the dynamic environment and coordinate themselves still have to pursue their given tasks or goals. This thesis researches how multi-purpose, mobile, multi-robot systems can be enhanced to operate more adaptively in dynamic environments. This is done by analysing and exploring the combination of so far separated research directions of goal-driven decision-making and planning as well as self-adaptation and self-organisation. The presented hybrid decision-making and planning framework is integrated into the popular robotic middleware Robot Operating System (ROS). The solution combines symbolic planning with reactive behaviour networks, automated task delegation, reinforcement learning, and pattern-based selection of suitable self-organisation mechanisms. On that account, it brings together the advantages of bottom-up and top-down oriented architectures for task-level control of multi-robot systems. The developed framework enables a coherent and integrated design and implementation of decision-making and planning as well as coordination application logic within one software ecosystem that features a common domain model and a modular architecture. This results in a simplification of the development of adaptive multi-purpose multi-robot systems by avoiding system discontinuities and enabling a holistic view on the actual implementation. The presented approach has been successfully evaluated in various research projects and international competitions in the field of robotics and multi-agent systems.


The present study was designed to investigate the effects of color temperature of lighting sources on the heart rate variability. Eight male students volunteered as subjects. The heart rate variability during task and rest sessions were estimated under nine different lighting environments consisting of three levels of color temperature (3000 degrees K, 5000 degrees K and 6700 degrees K) and three levels of illuminance (1001x, 3001x and 9001x). The lighting condition caused no effect on the mean heart rate. On the other hand, the power spectrum of heart rate was significantly influenced by the lighting conditions. The respiratory sinus arrhythmia component and Mayer wave related sinus arrhythmia component of the power spectrum increased under higher color temperature conditions. Judging from the consistency of heart rate level, the balance between the effects of parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems remained at a constant level irrespective of lighting quality and intensity. Therefore, both parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous functions were concluded to be enhanced under higher color temperature conditions. The light with higher color temperature was considered to activate the autonomic nervous function more than the light of lower color temperature. The effect of color temperature was much remarkable in the rest session comparing with the task session. This fact was discussed from the viewpoint of color temperature effect in environmental lighting.


Antipersonnel mines, weapons of cheap manufacture but lethal effect, have a high impact on the population even decades after the conflicts have finished. Here we investigate the use of a chemo-sensing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (cUAV) for demining tasks. We developed a blimp based UAV that is equipped with a broadly tuned metal-thin oxide chemo-sensor. A number of chemical mapping strategies were investigated including two biologically based localization strategies derived from the moth chemical search that can optimize the efficiency of the detection and localization of explosives and therefore be used in the demining process. Additionally, we developed a control layer that allows for both fully autonomous and manual controlled flight, as well as for the scheduling of a fleet of cUAVs. Our results confirm the feasibility of this technology for demining in real-world scenarios and give further support to a biologically based approach where the understanding of biological systems is used to solve difficult engineering problems.


The operating range of a compressor is limited by surge or rotating stall line, among others. Numerical simulations must accurately predict these phenomena. This study is based on the experimental compressor CME2, which is a low-subsonic axial compressor. This compressor is tip-critical as the rotor tip is responsible for the rotating stall. This paper shows that the rotating stall onset flow rate is well captured by CFD, compared to experiments. After ten revolutions, all cells are merged and only one cell remains, as in experiments. Active flow control improves compressor performance and extends the stable operating range. In the present configuration, flow injection is performed at the casing. In the simulation, the insertion of the actuators is carried out through hybrid meshes: structured mesh for blade passages and unstructured mesh for each actuator. For the some stalled operating points of baseline configuration, there is no rotating cells in the controlled configuration. Thus, the rotating stall is delayed at lower flow rate, as expected by the use of active flow control and is in agreement with the experiments.


In addition to their direct effects, banking crises may decrease investor confidence; lead some investors to withdraw funds from the formal financial sector, and thereby exacerbate the impact of crises. We quantify the effects of financial crises on investor confidence by studying the investment behavior of immigrants in the U.S. who vary in their exposure to systemic banking crises prior to arriving in the U.S. We find that individuals who have experienced a systemic banking crisis in their countries of origin are 11 percentage points less likely to use banks in the U.S. compared to otherwise similar individuals from the same country that have not lived through a crisis. This finding is robust to including country-decade of migration fixed effects and other methods to address potential unobserved heterogeneity. Consistent with the view that personal experience plays an important role in decision-making, we also find that the effects of living through a crisis are larger for individuals who are adults at the time of the crisis and for people who experience crises in countries without deposit insurance.


In this paper, we study how policies limiting the spending capacity of local governments may lead to a reduction in corruption. We exploit the extension of one such policy, the Domestic Stability Pact (DSP), to Italian municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants that occurred in 2013. Using a 'local Difference-in-Differences' approach, we show that the extension of the DSP led to a substantial decrease in recorded corruption rates. This effect emerges only in areas in which the DSP put a binding cap on municipal capital expenditures, in line with the hypothesis that investments and procurement are naturally prone to corruptive phenomena. We also show that i) the reduction in corruption is linked to accountability incentives; ii) and it is not just a mechanical consequence of the decrease in investments, by pointing out evidence of an improvement in the corruption-proofness of public spending. We then estimate the impact of the extension of the DSP on local welfare, finding a null effect. Overall, our findings suggest that budget constrains might induce local governments to curb expenditures in a way that dampens their exposure to corruption without depressing local welfare.


Several recent developments have inspired us to consider a non-standard model of the dollar as a speculative bubble without the constraint of fully rational expectations: (1) the dollar continued to rise in 1984 after real interest rate differentials and other fundamentals began moving the wrong way; (2) the results of market efficiency tests imply, that the rationally expected rate of dollar depreciation has been less than the forward discount; (3) Krugman-Marris current account calculations suggest that the rationally expected rate of depreciation is greater than the forward discount; (4) survey data show an expected rate of depreciation that is also greater than the forward discount; (5) the hypothesis of a "safe-haven" shift into U.S. assets and a decrease in the U.S. risk premium, which would explain some of the foregoing, is contradicted by a decline in the differential between off shore interest rates (covered) and U.S. interest rates. Our model features three classes of actors: fundamentalists, chartists and portfolio managers. Fundamentalists forecast a depreciation of the dollar based on an overshooting model that would be rational if there were no chartists. Chartists extrapolate recent trends based on an information set that includes no fundamentals. Portfolio managers take positions in the market, and thus determine the exchange rate, based on expectations that area weighted average of the fundamentalists and chartists. The first stage of the dollar appreciation after 1980 is explained by increases in real interest differentials. The second stage is explained by the endogenous takeoff of a speculative bubble when the fundamentalists have mis-forecast for so long that they have lost credibility. In 1985, the dollar may have entered a third stage in which an ever-worsening current account deficit begins a reversal of the bubble.


This study aimed to identify women's thoughts on how children are affected by responsibility and how the children may be developed as adults. Earlier research on the topic describes the concept of responsibility based on specific orientations. Therefore, this study is motivated to ensure responsibility from a holistic perspective. Data was collected by discussions in two focus groups, followed up with five individual interviews. The data collection was processed with thematic analysis. The study resulted in five final themes: "Responsibility as a behavior", "The parental role and preschool role", "The importance of social values and rules" and "How responsibility influence and develop us as people". The main finding of the study was that responsibility is a phenomenon changing at various life changes. Therefore, responsibility change in parallel with humans when faced with different changes and challenges of life.


This Article examines the dynamic intersection between freedom of speech and equal protection, with a particular focus on the race and LGBT equality movements. Unlike other works on expression and/or equality, the Article emphasizes the relational and bi-directional connections between freedom of speech and equal protection. Freedom of speech has played a critical role in terms of advancing constitutional equality. However, with regard to both race and LGBT equality, free speech rights also failed in important respects to facilitate equality claims and movements. Advocacy and agitation on behalf of equality rights have also left indelible positive and negative marks on free speech doctrines, principles, and rights. The free speech-equality relationship underscores several important lessons regarding reliance on speech rights to advance constitutional equality. Moreover, through a comparative analysis, the Article demonstrates that freedom of speech intersects in distinctive ways with different types of equalities. The Article's general lessons and comparative observations carry important implications for future equality movements, including the current campaign for transgender equality.


The digestion of natural, mainly crustacean zooplankton, by different age groups of turbot Scophthalmus maximus larvae was evaluated by comparisons of visual appearance, dry weight and carbon and nitrogen content of fresh food organisms with material recovered from faeces. Visually, the degree of digestion of food particles ranged from no discernible change of lamellibranch larvae, copepod eggs, intact copepod faecal pellets and some phytoplankton species, to varying degrees of removal of body constituents in copepods, cladocerans and decapod zoea. For crustaceans, the proportion of body constituents removed was related to the size and construction of their apparently indigestible exoskeleton. Uppon defaecation larger organisms showed the greatest percentage loss in dry weight and carbon. A high percentage of nitrogen was extracted from all organisms.


IT product trial is an important method to promote consumers' attitude toward IT product. Affect is one of the most essential factors and components in determining consumers' attitude. However, previous studies pay more attention to the affective response to trial, which measure the holistic feeling about product trial experience. Affect in product trial is complex and multipartite that different parts may have different influence on consumers' attitude. Therefore, we build the Affective Response Framework to divide consumers' affect into affective response to product, affective response to behaviour, and affective response to environment. And then we analyse the relationship between three components of affective response and consumers' attitude. In order to test the hypothesis, we launch a field study of new IT product trial (an electroencephalogram product) among 205 college students. Results reveal that affective response to product and behaviour have positive influence on attitude toward product; affective response to behaviour and environment have positive influence on attitude toward trial.


Utilizing solely the freely available solar radiation pressure for propulsion, solar sails provide a wide range of opportunities for low-cost deep space missions, many of which are of great scientific relevance and – due to their large ∆V requirements – difficult or even impossible to accomplish with any other type of conventional propulsion system. But very advanced solar sails that are very large and lightweight are required to perform those missions. Taking the current state-of-the-art in engineering of ultralightweight structures into account, solar sails of the first generation will be of relatively moderate performance. It will be shown in this paper that even with such moderate performance solar sailcraft of the first generation, challenging scientific missions are feasible at relatively low cost. Near-Earth asteroids with moderate inclinations are a promising category of target bodies for those solar sailcraft, since they can be accessed relatively easily and since they are of great scientific relevance. Some proposed missions to near-Earth asteroids will be analyzed.


In a microservice architecture, solutions are created by teams focused on specific domains and needs. They independently develop and deploy distributed services in the network. One characteristic of microservices is decentralized data management. Each microservice may use different data management technology which best fit its needs. Hence, it is an issue to integrate data of heterogenous microservices to come up with consolidate data views. Flexible and efficient solutions in this scenario are needed. This work is based on the use of a canonical data model as the mechanism for data integration in microservices. The canonical data model is the reference for query specifications and data integration. This work proposes and implements a microservice architecture based on this strategy and it is composed by nodes that intercommunicate through several mechanisms (e.g., SPARQL, GraphQL and JDBC queries, calls to REST services and proprietary APIs). The solution was analyzed in a proof of concept in a fictitious scenario but using real services available at DBPedia and Twitter. The evaluation goal was to qualitatively analyze the use of the architecture in the design, development and execution of microservices in order to identify the characteristics one should consider when using the canonical data model strategy. The evaluation employed the criteria of ISO/IEC 25010 model that most relate to the SOA challenges, which were: usability; performance; compatibility; and, maintainability. The identified advantages and disadvantages of using the architecture (i.e., the strategy) can be used by architects and developers to make their development decisions.


Finance and insurance companies are facing a wide range of parametric statistical problems. Statistical experiments generated by a sample of independent and identically distributed random variables are frequent and well understood, especially those consisting of probability measures of an exponential type. However, the aforementioned applications also offer non-classical experiments implying observation samples of independent but not identically distributed random variables or even dependent random variables.

 Three examples of such experiments are treated in this book. First, the Generalized Linear Models are studied. They extend the standard regression model to non-Gaussian distributions. Statistical experiments with Markov chains are considered next. Finally, various statistical experiments generated by fractional Gaussian noise are also described.

 In this book, asymptotic properties of several sequences of estimators are detailed. The notion of asymptotical efficiency is discussed for the different statistical experiments considered in order to give the proper sense of estimation risk. Eighty examples and computations with R software are given throughout the text.

 Examines a range of statistical inference methods in the context of finance and insurance applications

 Presents the LAN (local asymptotic normality) property of likelihoods

 Combines the proofs of LAN property for different statistical experiments that appears in financial and insurance mathematics

 Provides the proper description of such statistical experiments and invites readers to seek optimal estimators (performed in R) for such statistical experiments


Infrastructure is a critical element in the countries' growth and development. Poor management of these systems would lead to their failure and in turn to disastrous situations. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fifth report on drinking water infrastructure, the investments in the drinking water utilities need a total amount of $384.2 billion for the next 15 years, i.e. until December 2030. Also, according to the 2013 American's Infrastructure Report Card, the Drinking Water System (DWS) is graded as "D", implying a status between poor and fair, with an increasing failure probability. Similarly, as stated in the last 2016 Canadian Infrastructure Report Card, the water system received a ranking of "Good", representing an 'adequate for now' status. However, about 29 percent of pipelines condition is rated between fair and very poor, signifying that an urgent repair is needed with total replacement cost of $ 60 billion. Meanwhile, due to budget deficits, municipalities find it is a challenge to prioritize which asset to repaire or rehabilitate. Thus, a lot of research is done to predict the probability of failure. Yet, most of this research is limited to the consequence of failure and the criticality of water pipelines.
The main objective of this study is to develop a priority index induced by a combination of the criticality and performance of water distribution network. In this research, criticality factors that affect the water distribution networks are identified. Criticality is divided into three main aspects: (i) Economic, (ii) Environmental/Operational and (iii) Social factors. Each of these key elements is divided into subfactors with different attributes to describe the actual status of the proposed area. Paprika and Swing techniques are used to determine the weights of subfactors. The effect values are obtained from experts from North America, Europe and Qatar through questionnaires and meetings. After all the required data are collected, the data are analyzed and incorporated into the criticality model to determine the criticality index for each pipeline in the desired location. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to define the factors with the highest and the lowest impact on the criticality index. It is determined that the "Road type" sub-factor has the highest influence on the criticality index, based on Qatar's data analysis. Meanwhile, the "Pipeline diameter" sub-factor has the greatest impact on the criticality index, based on North America and Europe data analysis.
The developed criticality index is utilized with the performance index to develop the priority index, which is illustrated on the emerged priority scale and matrix for a better evaluation of the current asset status. It is concluded that "Ville Marrie" sector is found to have the highest priority index in Montreal city, equals to 4.42. While,"Bizard Island" has the lowest priority index value in the city, equals to 3.69. The developed model will guide municipalities and governments to generate a capital plan and allocate the available budget to the most critical parts of their networks. These results are also used as a reference to highlight the key areas in each sector of the designed city that need an urgent repair. This will decrease the risks, defects and health hazards of the water networks while maintaining the safety and durability of the water distribution networks in a cost-effective manner.