Karimata is a restaurant that has two branches at Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII), Jakarta and Sentul, Bogor. Even though they are in the same management, both of them have different turnover rates. The average annual turnover at TMII is higher than in Sentul. The purpose of this study was to examine job satisfaction, employee involvement and turnover intentions in both Karimata restaurant locations to reduce turnover rates. The method used is quantitative analysis. The data used is primary data which obtained through filling out questionnaires directly to all permanent employees. Data were collected by census method. The data were analyzed by SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) using SmartPLS software. This study concludes that indicators that affect job satisfaction in TMII are tasks, promotion opportunities, and colleagues, while Sentul branches are salaries, assignments, promotion opportunities, supervisors, and colleagues. The indicator that influences employee involvement in TMII is sincerity and dedication, while in Sentul is dedication. The indicator that influences turnover intentions in TMII is the intention to leave, while in Sentul there is no indication of employees who intend to leave, look for other jobs or think of quitting.
Keywords: employee engagement, job satisfaction, restaurant, SEM, turnover intention


The localized surface-plasmon resonance absorption of metal nanoparticles is currently utilized in many fields such as near-infrared (NIR) curing and biomedical applications. In this paper, we study theoretically the influence of an oxide (SiO2, ZrO2, or TiO2) shell on a metal (Ag, Au, or Cu) nanoparticle from the point of view of shifting the resonance peak to a more desirable color or NIR wavelengths while conserving the intensity of the absorption or extinction peak. The computational models used in the studies include the Mie theory and the four-flux method. We find shifts of up to hundreds or even close to 1000 nm. Among the material combinations studied, the largest shifts are obtained with Ag-TiO2 core-shell nanoparticles when going from a few nanometers sized core without an oxide shell to a 100 nm size core with a 100 nm thick shell. However, the huge shifts happen together with severe intensity loss of the absorption peak, leading to a more conservative estimate of practically useful shifts of a few hundreds of nanometers.


An unwanted effect of antibiotic treatment is promotion of antibiotic resistance through the dissemination of resistance genes and the selection of resistant subpopulations of bacteria. Prudhomme et al. discovered that the stress of exposure to antibiotics triggers competence ("parasexuality") in Streptococcus pneumoniae, not only enabling the acquisition of new antibiotic resistance genes but also permitting the acquisition of virulence determinants. Natural transformation is widespread--it has been observed in about 50 different species of bacteria. The discovery that it can be stimulated by antibiotics has significant implications for strategic antibiotic development. M. Prudhomme, L. Attaiech, G. Sanchez, B. Martin, J.-P. Claverys, Antibiotic stress induces genetic transformability in the human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae. Science 313, 89-92 (2006). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In simulations, probabilistic algorithms, and statistical tests, we often generate random integers in an interval (e.g., [0,s)). For example, random integers in an interval are essential to the Fisher-Yates random shuffle. Consequently, popular languages such as Java, Python, C++, Swift and Go include ranged random integer generation functions as part of their runtime libraries. Pseudo-random values are usually generated in words of a fixed number of bits (e.g., 32b, 64b) using algorithms such as a linear congruential generator. We need functions to convert such random words to random integers in an interval ([0,s)) without introducing statistical biases. The standard functions in programming languages such as Java involve integer divisions. Unfortunately, division instructions are relatively expensive. We review an unbiased function to generate ranged integers from a source of random words that avoids integer divisions with high probability. To establish the practical usefulness of the approach, we show that this algorithm can multiply the speed of unbiased random shuffling on x64 processors. Our proposed approach has been adopted by the Go language for its implementation of the shuffle function.


The standard models for genomic prediction assume additive polygenic marker effects. For epistatic models including marker interaction effects, the number of effects to be fitted becomes large, which require computational tools tailored specifically for such models. Here, we extend the methods implemented in the R package bigRR so that marker interaction effects can be computed. Simulation results based on marker data from Arabidopsis thaliana show that the inclusion of interaction effects between markers can give a small but significant improvement in genomic predictions. The methods were implemented in the R package EPISbi-gRR available in the bigRR project on R-Forge. The package includes an introductory vignette to the functions available in EPISbigRR. R package URL: https://r-forge.r-project.org/R/?group_id=1301


ex
Computational solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations
have proven to be a useful tool in the design of aircraft.
A Newton-Krylov flow solver for unstructured grids is
developed in order to demonstrate that a formulation in which
the mean-flow and turbulence mechanism equations are loosely coupled
can be more economical than a similar fully-coupled formulation. The Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are derived for steady
two-dimensional flows, and the turbulence mechanism is described.
These equations constitute a model of the physics of aerodynamic
flows. The model is validated against experimental data. The
objective of this thesis is to examine a means to improve the
iterative process by which the solutions are generated. The
Newton-Krylov iteration is selected in order to refine the solution,
and its features examined. The authors of current Newton-Krylov
techniques have fully coupled the turbulence mechanism to
the Navier-Stokes equations. A contrast and comparison study made here
between the fully-coupled formulation and a loosely-coupled
alternative favours the latter. An `equivalent function
evaluation' metric is selected for comparison purposes, and is
assessed by means of diverse computers. Published results which use
the metric are located, and the present loosely-coupled formulation
for unstructured grids is found to be significantly faster in this
metric than similar fully-coupled formulations. The advantages of the
loosely-coupled formulation with respect to the fully-coupled
formulation are stated and future avenues for exploitation of the
proposed technology are examined. Appendices consist of: a formalism
for the Favre average and consequences of its derivation; a short
tract on Taylor series; and an essay on the Fr\'echet differential.


The Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) is the party representing the private sector in a Public Private Partnership (PPP), and combines a number of stakeholders including equity shareholders, designers, contractors, and service providers under one umbrella. Consequently, the key to ensuring successful project delivery is achieving an efficient integration of the different SPV stakeholders involved, to deliver the project as a unified entity. However, the SPV's stakeholder management role is highly under-investigated in the literature, and no studies have attempted to explore SPV stakeholder integration. This highlights a significant need to do so, considering that the former is both a prerequisite and a driver of PPP project success. This research aims to address this need through generating a list of SPV characteristics that reflect stakeholder collaboration and developing Critical Success Factors (CSFs) to measure the level of SPV stakeholder integration, based on concepts projected from the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) system. The aforementioned factors relate to the project's organization structures, commercial frameworks, and operating systems and processes. This research is the first of its kind that aims to investigate the SPV's integration level, from a holistic IPD perspective, as an enabler of successful relationship management.


Travel books bring us to places. War books bring us to tragedy. This book brings us to one woman's travels in war zones: the locals she met, the compassion they scraped from catastrophe, and the food they ate."Peace Meals "is a true story about conflict and food. It illustrates the most important lesson Anna Badkhen has observed as a journalist: war can kill our friends and decimate our towns, but it cannot destroy our inherent decency, generosity, and kindness--that which makes us human. Badkhen writes: "There is more to war than the macabre--the white-orange muzzle flashes during a midnight ambush . . . the scythes of shrapnel whirling . . . like lawnmower blades spun loose; the tortured and the dead. There are also the myriad brazen, congenial, persistent ways in which life in the most forlorn and violent places on earth shamelessly reasserts itself. Of those, sharing a meal is one of the most elemental. "No other book about war has looked at the search for normalcy in conflict zones through the prism of food. In addition to the events that dominate the news today--the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--"Peace Meals "also bears witness to crises that are less often discussed: the conflict in Chechnya, the drought cycle in East Africa, the failed post-Soviet states, the Palestinian intifada. "Peace Meals "focuses on day-to-day life, describing not just the shocking violence but also the beauty that continues during wartime: the spring flowers that bloom in the crater hollowed by an air-to-surface missile, the lapidary sanctuary of a twelfth-century palace besieged by a modern battle, or a meal a tight-knit family shares in the relative safety of their home as a firefight rages outside. It reveals how one war correspondent's professional choices are determined not only by her opinion of which story is important but also by the instinctive comparisons she, a young mother, makes each time she meets children in war zones; by her intrinsic sense of guilt for leaving her family behind as she goes off to her next dangerous assignment; and, quite prosaically--though not surprisingly--by her need to eat. Wherever Badkhen went, she broke bread with the people she wrote about, and the simple conversations over these meals helped her open the door into the lives of strangers. Sometimes dinner was bread and a fried egg in a farmer's hut, or a packet of trail mix in the back of an armored humvee. Sometimes it was a lavish, four-course meal at the house of a local warlord, or a plate of rice and boiled meat at a funeral tent. Each of these straightforward acts of humanity tells a story. And these stories, punctuated by recipes from these meals, form "Peace Meals." Following Badkhen's simple instructions, readers will taste what made life in these tormented places worth living.


Cultural heritage managers in general and informatio n users in particular are not usually used to deal with high-technological hardware and software. On the contrary, information providers of metric surveys are most of the times applying latest developments for real-life conservation and restoration projects . This paper addresses the software issue of handli ng and managing either 3D point clouds or (photorealistic) 3D models to bridge the gap between information users and information provi ders as regards the management of information which users and providers share as a tool for decision-making, analysis, vis ual zation and management. There are not many viewers specifically designed to handle, manage and create easily animations of arc hitectural and/or archaeological 3D objects, monuments and sites, amo ng others. 3DVEM – 3D Viewer, Editor & Meter softwa re will be introduced to the scientific community, as well as 3DVEM – Liv e and 3DVEM – Register. The advantages of managing p rojects with both sets of data, 3D point cloud and photorealistic 3D model s, will be introduced. Different visualizations of true documentation projects in the fields of architecture, archaeology and industr y will be presented. Emphasis will be driven to hig hli ht the features of new userfriendly software to manage virtual projects. Furth e more, the easiness of creating controlled interac ive animations (both walkthrough and fly-through) by the user either onthe fly or as a traditional movie file will be demo nstrated through 3DVEM – Live. * Corresponding author.


This Special Publication is a celebration of research into the Folding and Fracturing of Rocks to mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of the seminal textbook by J. G. Ramsay. Folding and Fracturing of Rocks summarised the key structural geology concepts of the time. Through his numerical and geometric focus John pioneered and provided solutions to understanding the processes leading to the folding and fracturing of rocks. His strong belief that numerical and geometric solutions, to understanding crustal processes, should be tested against field examples added weight and clarity to his work. The basic ideas and solutions presented in the text are as relevant now as they were 50 years ago, and this collection of papers celebrates John's contribution to structural geology. The papers explore the lasting impact of John and his work, they present case studies and a modern understanding of the process documented in the Folding and Fracturing of Rocks.


Nodulisporium sp. has been isolated as an endophyte of Myroxylon balsamum found in the upper Napo region of the Ecuadorian Amazon. This organism produces volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that have both fuel and biological potential. Under microaerophilic growth environments, the organism produces 1, 4-cyclohexadiene, 1-methyl- , 1-4 pentadiene and cyclohexene, 1-methyl-4-(1-methylethenyl)- along with some alcohols and terpenoids of interest as potential fuels. The fungus was scaled up in an aerated large fermentation flask, and the VOCs trapped by Carbotrap technology and analyzed by headspace solid –phase microextraction (SPME) fiber-GC/MS. Under these conditions, Nodulisporium sp. produces a series of alkyl alcohols starting with 1-butanol-3-methyl, 1- propanol-2-methyl, 1- pentanol, 1-hexanol, 1-heptanol, 1- octanol, 1-nonanol along with phenylethyl alcohol. The organism also produces secondary alkyl alcohols, esters, ketones, benzene derivatives, a few terpenoids, and some hydrocarbons. It appears that many of the products have fuel potential. Furthermore, the VOCs of Nodulisporium sp. were active against a number of pathogens causing death to both Aspergillus fumigatus and Rhizoctonia solani and severe growth inhibition produced in Phytophthora cinnamomi and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum within 48 hr of exposure. The Carbotrapped materials somewhat mimicked the bioactivities of the culture itself when certain test organisms were exposed to these VOCs. A brief discussion on the relationship of these fungal VOCs to those compounds found in transportation fuels is presented.


Importance
Sepsis is a common syndrome with substantial morbidity and mortality. A combination of vitamin C, thiamine, and corticosteroids has been proposed as a potential treatment for patients with sepsis.

Objective
To determine whether a combination of vitamin C, thiamine, and hydrocortisone every 6 hours increases ventilator- and vasopressor-free days compared with placebo in patients with sepsis.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Multicenter, randomized, double-blind, adaptive-sample-size, placebo-controlled trial conducted in adult patients with sepsis-induced respiratory and/or cardiovascular dysfunction. Participants were enrolled in the emergency departments or intensive care units at 43 hospitals in the United States between August 2018 and July 2019. After enrollment of 501 participants, funding was withheld, leading to an administrative termination of the trial. All study-related follow-up was completed by January 2020.

Interventions
Participants were randomized to receive intravenous vitamin C (1.5 g), thiamine (100 mg), and hydrocortisone (50 mg) every 6 hours (n = 252) or matching placebo (n = 249) for 96 hours or until discharge from the intensive care unit or death. Participants could be treated with open-label corticosteroids by the clinical team, with study hydrocortisone or matching placebo withheld if the total daily dose was greater or equal to the equivalent of 200 mg of hydrocortisone.

Main Outcomes and Measures
The primary outcome was the number of consecutive ventilator- and vasopressor-free days in the first 30 days following the day of randomization. The key secondary outcome was 30-day mortality.

Results
Among 501 participants randomized (median age, 62 [interquartile range {IQR}, 50-70] years; 46% female; 30% Black; median Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score, 27 [IQR, 20.8-33.0]; median Sequential Organ Failure Assessment score, 9 [IQR, 7-12]), all completed the trial. Open-label corticosteroids were prescribed to 33% and 32% of the intervention and control groups, respectively. Ventilator- and vasopressor-free days were a median of 25 days (IQR, 0-29 days) in the intervention group and 26 days (IQR, 0-28 days) in the placebo group, with a median difference of -1 day (95% CI, -4 to 2 days; P = .85). Thirty-day mortality was 22% in the intervention group and 24% in the placebo group.

Conclusions and Relevance
Among critically ill patients with sepsis, treatment with vitamin C, thiamine, and hydrocortisone, compared with placebo, did not significantly increase ventilator- and vasopressor-free days within 30 days. However, the trial was terminated early for administrative reasons and may have been underpowered to detect a clinically important difference.

Trial Registration
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03509350.


Most public pension systems, whether they are of the predominant pay-as-you-go defined benefit type or of the defined contribution type, include guarantees for retirement income. The guarantees come in different and distinct forms, with the two polar cases being the universal pension (such as in the United Kingdom and Argentina) and the topping-up to a minimum pension level (such as in Germany and Chile). The paper reviews the design of such guarantees in a large set of countries and discusses the economic rationale and incentive structure resulting from these designs. It also reviews past experience for a number of countries, paying particular attention to the importance of changes to these guarantees over time and inflation. Based on the analysis, the paper will draw conclusions as to whether these guarantees are an effective instrument to protect against low retirement income and evaluate advantages and disadvantages of different designs.


This Article provides the first comprehensive study of blame in the U.S. immigration system. Beyond blaming migrants, we blame politicians, bureaucrats, and judges. Meanwhile, these players routinely blame each other, all while trying to avoid being blamed. As modeled here, these dynamics of "immigration blame" have catalyzing effects on the politics, policies, and structures of immigration law. Yoking key insights from a range of social sciences, this Article offers unique perspectives on the operation and design choices of the immigration system. Moreover, through a blame lens, the terms of debate over amnesty, immigration enforcement, the travel ban, sanctuary cities, and the Supreme Court's plenary power doctrine come into sharper focus. In turn, this Article's descriptive portrayal of immigration blame prompts some vexing normative questions: Is immigration blame desirable? Can its inputs and outputs be controlled? If so, how and toward what ends? In immigration, as elsewhere, blame is a paradox: both functional and dysfunctional, socially cohering and corrosive. That being so, we should not aim for a blame-free immigration system. Rather, we should seek ways to promote the values of immigration blame, while minimizing its more unsavory manifestations. Toward those ends, this Article prescribes an "ethics of immigration blame" and suggests ways that law might be harnessed to mediate some of blame's pathologies. Today's sociopolitical conditions crystallize the need for this work.


One of the more popular means utilized by foreign private issuers in recent years to create a market for their securities and to raise capital in the United States has been the issuance of American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"). The estimated total dollar volume of ADR trading on U.S. exchanges in 1992 was approximately U.S.$125 billion. ADRs are negotiable certificates issued by a United States bank or trust company. These certificates represent an ownership interest in a foreign private issuer's securities deposited, usually outside the United States, with a financial institution as depositary.The underlying securities represented by ADRs may be either debt or, more commonly, equity instruments. This Article will address the benefits and uses of ADR financing and the legal and practical issues related to the establishment and operation of ADR facilities. Additionally, this Article will provide an analysis of pending Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") initiatives with respect to international securities regulations, which are likely to impact the ADR market. AMERICAN DEPOSITARY RECEIPTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO U.S. CAPITAL MARKETS FOR FOREIGN COMPANIES


Surveying the relationship between religion and the state in the US and in European liberal democracies the article distinguishes between five different facets of the relationship between religion and the state in liberal democracies - institutional differentiation between religion and the state, strong protection of religious liberty, the involvement of religion in politics, the extent of religious involvement in education and social services, and the levels of religious belief of individuals in society - and discusses how each of them affects women's right to equality. The article argues that contrary to common assumptions the relationship between patriarchal religion and the state in liberal democracies adversely affects the rights of all women, and that liberal states cannot live up to their commitment to women's equality without significantly changing their relations with patriarchal religions. The article concludes that liberal states need to take proactive steps to minimize the power of patriarchal religion and advance women's right to equality and that such steps are compatible with the liberal commitment to neutrality and toleration.


The apple maggot, Rhagoletis pomonella (Walsh), occurs commonly in black hawthorn in Utah, attacks tart cherry infrequently, and has generally failed to infest apples. This study investigated how the timing of fruit maturation might account for this pattern. Infestation of hawthorn at three sites in 1988 commenced when fruits were rapidly increasing in size and water content, and perhaps most significantly, when mean resistance to penetration of the fruit skin dropped below a threshold. Dissections of trapped females indicated that a significant fraction of flies possessed mature ovaries before oviposition occurred in hawthorn in the field. The importance of fruit toughness early in the season also was suggested by measurement of individual fruits in 1989; no fruit with a penetration resistance >60 kg/cm2 yielded a fly puparium. No puparia were obtained from three apple cultivars that were sampled from an unsprayed orchard adjacent to a densely infested hawthorn stand. When apples collected during the oviposition period in hawthorn were presented to caged flies, only the early-maturing cultivar was successfully infested. Penetration resistance of mid- and late-season cultivars remained high throughout the period of fly activity. These results suggest that flies that originate in hawthorn in Utah emerge too early to attack the dominant local cultivars of apple. In contrast, the timing of adult emergence is relatively late for infestation of cherry, which ripens well before hawthorn. In behavioral assays, fruit phenology had only a minor effect on fruit acceptance; ovipositing females were less likely to attempt oviposition in immature hawthorn or cherry fruits but failed to discriminate between nearly ripe and ripe fruits.


Frameworks have fundamental impact on software quality of robot control systems. We propose systematic framework design aiming at high levels of support for all quality attributes that are relevant in the robotics domain. Design decisions are taken accordingly. We argue that certain areas of design are especially critical, as changing decisions there would likely require rewriting significant parts of the implementation. For these areas, quality-motivated solutions and benefits for actual applications are discussed. We illustrate and evaluate their implementations in our framework Finroc - after briefly introducing it. This includes a highly modular framework core and a well-performing, lock-free, zero-copying communication mechanism. Finroc is being used in complex and also in commercial robotic projects - which evinces that the approaches are suitable for real-world applications.


textabstractOne of the most important and defining processes during development is the
pattern formation of the various compartments in embryos. In an effort to
discover the participants involved in regulating compartment size, we
identified, in Danio rerio (zebrafish) embryos, the ankyrin repeat and
SOCS box-containing protein 11 (d-asb11) gene. We first showed that
d-Asb11 is a key mediator of Delta-Notch Signaling, acting at the level of
DeltaA ubiquitylation, important in fine-tuning the lateral inhibition
gradients between DeltaA and Notch. We, then, isolated a zebrafish having
a germline deletion of the d-Asb11 cullin box subdomain and showed that
this deletion resulted in loss of d-Asb11 activity. As a consequence, the
animals were defective for Notch signaling and proper cell fate
specification within the neurogenic regions of zebrafish embryos. We also
provided evidence that d-Asb11 is important in maintaining myogenic
proliferation in the stem cell compartment of zebrafish embryos and muscle
regenerative responses in adult animals. This finding is supported by the
highly specific d-Asb11 expression found in proliferating satellite cells
in zebrafish muscle. In addition, we have applied immunoaffinity
chromatograpy followed by tandem mass spectrometry to identify human ASB11
interacting proteins. The data confirmed the role of ASB11 as a
substrate-recognition that targets proteins for ubiquitylation and
proteasomal degradation via the canonical ECS ubiquitin ligase complex.
Altogether our results provide important new insight on the action and
function of ASB11 in regulating progenitor compartment expansion, possibly
by controlling protein levels in the cells.


The structure of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and its influence on regional air quality over the Pearl River Delta (PRD) were examined through two intensive observations in October 2004 and July 2006. Analytical results show the presence of two types of typical weather conditions associated with poor air quality over the PRD. The first is the warm period before a cold front (WPBCF) and the second is the subsidence period controlled by a tropical cyclone (SPCTC). Two typical low air quality situations, which are affected by WPBCF and SPCTC, and one high air quality situation were analysed in detail. Results showed that continuously low or calm ground winds resulted in the accumulation of pollutants, and sea-land breezes had an important role during low air quality conditions. Data on recirculation factors showed that recirculation was significant during low air quality conditions, and steady transportation occurred during high air quality conditions. The ventilation index and the 24 h average ventilation index during high air quality conditions were significantly higher than those during low air quality conditions. Deep and stable inversion layers inside the ABL remarkably affected low air quality. Surface and low-altitude inversions were usually observed during WPBCF, contrary to during SPCTC, during which only the low-altitude inversion appeared frequently.


This paper explores the protection of expressions of folklore within the right to culture in Africa by considering three issues, which are the increased understanding of the right to culture in national constitutions and the recognition that customary law is a manifestation of the right to culture; an expanded understanding of the substantive content of the article 15(1) of the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as part of the right to culture; and the recognition of the rights of indigenous peoples marked significantly by the 2007 United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People. The paper demonstrates how a human rights regime may assist in overcoming some of the deficiencies in the national protection of expressions of folklore in Africa.


Hormones, Brain, and Behavior Second Edition is a comprehensive work discussing the effect of hormones on the brain and, subsequently, behavior. This major reference work has 109 chapters covering a broad range of topics with an extensive discussion of the effects of hormones on insects, fish, amphibians, birds, rodents, and humans. To truly understand all aspects of our behavior, we must take every influence (including the hormonal influences) into consideration. Donald Pfaff and a number of well-qualified editors examine and discuss how we are influenced by hormonal factors, offering insight, and information on the lives of a variety of species. Hormones, Brain, and Behavior offers the reader comprehensive coverage of growing field of research, with a state-of-the-art overview of hormonally-mediated behaviors. This reference provides unique treatment of all major vertebrate and invertebrate model systems with excellent opportunities for relating behavior to molecular genetics. The topics cover an unusual breadth (from molecules to ecophysiology), ranging from basic science to clinical research, making this reference of interest to a broad range of scientists in a variety of fields. Available online exclusively via ScienceDirect. A limited edition print version is also available. * Comprehensive coverage of a growing field of research * Unique treatment of all major vertebrate and invertebrate model systems with excellent opportunites for relating behavior to molecular genetics * Covers an unusual breadth ranging from molecules to ecophysiology, and from basic science to clinical research


This 1967 edition of the "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems" is a revision of a 1953 edition. It includes a foreword by Albert Einstein, which is presented in en face German and English versions. The translation itself is based on the definitive National Edition prepared under the direction of Antonio Favaro and published at Florence in 1897. The material specifically added to the text by Galileo himself after publication of the first edition (1632) has been included as well. In addition, the margins of the book include translations of Galileo's own postils (running notes), placed as nearly as possible beside their textual references.


In Modern West Frisian, by New Frisian Breaking, two rising diphthongs have developed with initial /w/. However, in the eastern part of the language area these sequences are nowadays pronounced as (jo) and (ja), respectively. The change started when immigrant peat diggers became integrated into Frisian society, and as a result of imperfect learning did not master fully those difficult Frisian diphthongs. As an escape strategy, they fronted the initial glide to /j/. A second centre of hange was at the language border, where peat-digging also resulted in the mixing of populations. In the course of the 20th century, the new forms were rapidly spread- ing. An analysis of the change as a case of shift (cf. Thomason and Kaufman 1988) can nicely explain the platalization of the glide, and moreover, it gives insight into the question why this only oc- curred after labials. In the case of a minority-majority contact situ- ation, however, change by shift in the minority language is not to be expected in the first place, as it requires that a population is switching to a target language that is less powerful or prestigeous. However, the peat diggers all spoke a Dutch Low Saxon dialect, which had a low prestige, indeed.


The present paper presents an enhanced Activated Sludge Model No. 1 in which nitrification and denitrification are modelled as two-step processes. The nitrification process is considered as a sequence of two steps carried out by two distinct genera of bacteria, with nitrite as an intermediate product. For the denitrification process a parallel approach was used that considers nitrate and nitrite to be directly reduced to molecular nitrogen. The new model is compared to the original Activated Sludge Model No. 1 using the Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1. In order to make the simulation model more realistic the secondary settler was considered to be reactive. The new modelling approach showed different dynamics for the autotrophic biomass and the growth substrate of the heterotrophic biomass, enhancing the agreement with the real process behaviour. The last part of the paper presents the investigation of finding the optimal set-point for a cascade control scheme based on the Model Predictive Controller at the outer control level and three PI controllers at the inner level. The control architecture is designed to keep the nitrate nitrogen level at the end of the aerated zone at predefined set-points. The wastewater treatment plant performance is evaluated using the operational costs criteria. The simulation results show that noteworthy costs can be saved using this control strategy.


Agricultural diffuse pollution, particularly from nitrate and phosphate, is a significant problem
in the UK and is the focus of the national Demonstration Test Catchments (DTC) study — a UK
Government initiative.
The DTC programme is providing evidence for investigating how on-farm mitigation measures
can reduce the impact of agricultural diffuse water pollution on ecological function. This will
involve studying how such measures affect pollutant concentrations in so-called receptors, such
as the streams which drain the catchments. It is therefore important to investigate how water
moves from the land surface to the receptors and in particular to quantify the amounts and
timescales involved in the different water flow routes.
The DTC catchments are the Eden, the Avon and the Wensum and groundwater flow is a
significant component of main river flow in all of the catchments, ranging in overall terms from
around 50% of river flow in the Eden to 90% in the Avon. It is therefore important that robust
conceptual models of the groundwater flow systems of the catchments — and in particular of
the monitored sub-catchments — are developed.
BGS is contributing to the creation of DTC groundwater conceptual models in all three study
catchments. The BGS work is funded principally by NERC and by DEFRA.


Deficiency of the urea cycle enzyme carbamylphosphate synthetase 1 (CPS1) causes hyperammonemia with a vast range of clinical severity from neonatal onset with early lethality to onset after age 40 with rare episodes of hyperammonemic confusion. The cause for this variability is not understood. We report two patients from one family with highly divergent clinical course, one presenting neonatally with a fatal form and the other at age 45 with benign diet‐responsive disease. The patients are compound heterozygous for two mutations of the CPS1 gene, c.3558 + 1G > C and c.4101 + 2T > C. The haplotypes containing each mutation are identical between the two patients, as are the sequences of CPS1 exons and flanking introns. Transcriptional experiments show that the abnormal CPS1 transcripts generated by both mutations are identical in these two patients. We characterize promoter and enhancer sequences of the CPS1 gene and find also in these regions no sequence differences between patients. Finally, we perform cloning experiments and find that in the neonatal‐onset case, clones of messenger RNA (mRNA) expressed from the allele carrying the c.4101 + 2T > C mutation are threefold more than clones of mRNA from the allele with the c.3558 + 1G > C mutation, whereas in the adult‐onset case the two types of clones are equal, indicating skewed expression towards the c.4101 + 2T > C allele in the neonatal case. Although we are yet to understand the mechanism of this differential expression, our work suggests that allelic imbalance may explain clinical variability in CPS1 deficiency in some families.


Methanol is regarded as an attractive substrate for biotechnological production of value‐added bulk products, such as amino acids and polyamines. In the present study, the methylotrophic and thermophilic bacterium Bacillus methanolicus was engineered into a microbial cell factory for the production of the platform chemical 1,5‐diaminopentane (cadaverine) from methanol. This was achieved by the heterologous expression of the Escherichia coli genes cadA and ldcC encoding two different lysine decarboxylase enzymes, and by increasing the overall L‐lysine production levels in this host. Both CadA and LdcC were functional in B. methanolicus cultivated at 50°C and expression of cadA resulted in cadaverine production levels up to 500 mg l−1 during shake flask conditions. A volume‐corrected concentration of 11.3 g l−1 of cadaverine was obtained by high‐cell density fed‐batch methanol fermentation. Our results demonstrated that efficient conversion of L‐lysine into cadaverine presumably has severe effects on feedback regulation of the L‐lysine biosynthetic pathway in B. methanolicus. By also investigating the cadaverine tolerance level, B. methanolicus proved to be an exciting alternative host and comparable to the well‐known bacterial hosts E. coli and Corynebacterium glutamicum. This study represents the first demonstration of microbial production of cadaverine from methanol.


RESUMÉ Taxation and Economic Growth This paper investigates the design of tax structures to promote economic growth. It suggests a "tax and growth" ranking of taxes, confirming results from earlier literature but providing a more detailed disaggregation of taxes. Corporate taxes are found to be most harmful for growth, followed by personal income taxes, and then consumption taxes. Recurrent taxes on immovable property appear to have the least impact. A revenue neutral growth-oriented tax reform would, therefore, be to shift part of the revenue base from income taxes to less distortive taxes such as recurrent taxes on immovable property or consumption. The paper breaks new ground by using data on industrial sectors and individual firms to show how redesigning taxation within each of the broad tax categories could in some cases ensure sizeable efficiency gains. For example, reduced rates of corporate tax for small firms do not seem to enhance growth, and high top marginal rates of personal income tax can reduce productivity growth by reducing entrepreneurial activity. While the paper focuses on how taxes affect growth, it recognises that practical tax reform requires a balance between the aims of efficiency, equity, simplicity and revenue raising. JEL classification codes: H23; H24; H25; O40; O43; C33


'With a single announcement from a herald, all the cities of Greece and Asia had been set free; only an intrepid soul could formulate such an ambitious project, only phenomenal valour and fortune bring it to fruition. (Livy, 33. 33) Thus Livy describes the reaction to the Roman commander T.Q. Flamininus' proclamation of the freedom of Greece at the Isthmian games near Corinth in 196 BC. Half a century later Greece was annexed as a province of the Romans who burned the ancient city of Corinth to the ground. Books 31 to 40 of Livy's history chart Rome's emergence as an imperial nation and the Romans tempestuous involvement with Greece, Macedonia and the near East in the opening decades of the second century BC; they are our most important source for Graeco-Roman relations in that century. Livy's dramatic narrative includes the Roman campaigns in Spain and against the Gallic tribes of Northern Italy; the flight of Hannibal from Carthage and his death in the East; the debate on the Oppian law; and the Bacchanalian Episode. This is the only unabridged English translation of Books 31 to 40. The complete Livy in English, available in five volumes from Oxford World's Classics. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.


In air-breathing supersonic transport aircraft the efficiency of the engine inlet has a huge influence on the engine and the aircraft performance. Nowadays, variable inlet geometries allow optimised inlet geometries and by this also maximum performance at multiple Mach numbers. The downside of this approach is the high weight fraction of the variable geometry mechanics. Determining and evaluating alternative approaches in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations is the intention of this research.
Discussing state-of-the-art flow control methods leads to the most promising method, shock angle increase by mass flow injection at the beginning of the compression ramp. The concept is found in the literature but no further flow investigations have been acknowledged. Effort to increase the understanding in this particular area is done in this study by CFD simulations. Firstly, a validation of the used axisymmetric-injection and extraction boundary conditions is accomplished. After that, in quasi-three-dimensional simulations a parameter sensitivity study about the injection total pressure and injection angle is performed on a two-ramp axisymmetric configuration and on NASA's Hypersonic Research Engine inlet geometry, which was extensively studied in wind tunnel experiments. With the obtained knowledge of the axisymmetric injection simulations, there follows three-dimensional analyses of the identical inlet to confirm the findings of the preliminary study. In addition, the flow control possibilities and its behaviour are investigated at a small angle of attack. Finally, this dissertation concludes with a summary of the key findings.
Concerning the results chapters, validation of the relevant boundary conditions verifies that the used flow solver, the DLR TAU-Code, ensures correct and accurate results. In the preliminary analysis, the influence of the injection angle is analysed. It turns out that best performance can be achieved when injecting with an angle of 45° to the main flow direction. In the following studies, the influence of further injection parameters, total pressure and total density, is evaluated. The injection total pressure is identified as the main parameter influencing the shock angle. In concluding studies, it is shown that the total pressure recovery of a Mach 6 inlet in a Mach 8 freestream flow can be enhanced by 9.5 %, when injecting 0.9 % of the captured mass flow rate at the centre-body tip, in comparison to the non-controlled case at the same Mach number.
Finally, in asymmetric flow around an inlet at a 3° angle of attack it was investigated, whether the flow control by injection can be used for performance increases. The results were indicating that the applied asymmetric injection is not leading to performance increases in the selected configurations. However, it is shown that asymmetric injection, in the chosen configuration only at the lower inlet side, influences the flow field around the complete inlet, when regarding a position considerably downstream of the injection.


We propose Magemite, a fine-grained input system that exploits the around device space (ADS) as an expansion of the limited input area. The key insight underlying Magemite is, magnetic sensor integrated in smart devices can sense nearby magnetic field strength. Using a permanent magnet, users could "write" in ADS to communicate with matched devices. Different from previous magnetic-sensing schemes that recognize only coarse-grained gestures, Magemite can recognize user's fine-grained input like characters. However, individual's diverse writing patterns affect the recognition accuracy. To address this challenge, we preprocess the input trajectories and abstract different features of trajectories to uniquely identify user's input, then use these feature vectors to train several pattern recognition models for character recognition. We evaluate Magemite in various scenarios, and experimental results show Magemite can achieve average recognition accuracy over 85%.


The recognition of handwritten mathematical symbols and equations are the critical and challenging issue in the field of pattern recognition. It is the need to recognize complicated handwritten mathematical equations viz. law of gravity, convolution integral etc. The issues like overwriting of symbols, characters etc. are identified and solved it by selecting best classifier to improve recognition rate. The machine learning approach with enhanced multi layer precentor feed forward back propagation neural network algorithm with an offline mode of recognition has been used to improve throughput, accuracy and overall efficiency of mathematical equations recognition. The hybrid features extracted viz. centroid, boundary box, zoning density, line segment etc. and gradient descent with momentum training algorithm has been used. Adaptive learning is used to carry out the experiment on numerous kinds of equations. Through experimental result, the system is evaluated and illustrated which shows the significant improvement 93.5 % accuracy in recognition of simple as well as complicated mathematical equations. In future current methodology will be the key factor to initiate paperless work and digital world.


European household consumers have seen a gradual increase in the cost of their electricity bill, partly due to ambitious support policies for the development of renewable energy. Some consumers may have a higher willingness to pay (WTP) for clean energy, which could constitute a competitive advantage for electricity suppliers branding themselves as "sustainable".A discrete choice experiment has been used in order to estimate the WTP of households for renewable energy. For the last decade, researchers have debated whether to add a "status quo" / "not willing to pay for changes" option in the experimental design, as this may generate complications and not add sufficient benefits.In this paper we use an original approach based on two parallel model estimations applied to the same sample of respondents in order to demonstrate the effect of adding a "status quo" option. Our results show that not including it would have led to an overestimation of about one third of the respondents" WTP.While more research on the topic is needed, we demonstrate the risk of simplifying the experimental design and propose a facile method of enhancing the experiment with a dual model design.Keywords: discrete choice experiment, status quo, renewable energy, household consumers, willingness to pay


Inference is the process of using facts we know to learn about facts we do not know. A theory of inference gives assumptions necessary to get from the former to the latter, along with a definition for and summary of the resulting uncertainty. Any one theory of inference is neither right nor wrong but merely an axiom that may or may not be useful. Each of the many diverse theories of inference can be valuable for certain applications. However, no existing theory of inference addresses the tendency to choose, from the range of plausible data analysis specifications consistent with prior evidence, those that inadvertently favor one's own hypotheses. Because the biases from these choices are a growing concern across scientific fields, and in a sense the reason the scientific community was invented in the first place, we introduce a new theory of inference designed to address this critical problem. We introduce hacking intervals, which are the range of a summary statistic one may obtain given a class of possible endogenous manipulations of the data. Hacking intervals require no appeal to hypothetical data sets drawn from imaginary superpopulations. A scientific result with a small hacking interval is more robust to researcher manipulation than one with a larger interval and is often easier to interpret than a classical confidence interval. Some versions of hacking intervals turn out to be equivalent to classical confidence intervals, which means they may also provide a more intuitive and potentially more useful interpretation of classical confidence intervals. This paper was accepted by J. George Shanthikumar, big data analytics.


Governance literature in the developed world is rich with scholarship on the role conceptions of civil servants and how these guide their behavior in the attainment of political objectives set by elected representatives. There is however a dearth of research on the various roles civil servants play in developing countries, specifically those located in authoritarian states. This study uses Q methodology to examine the politician–bureaucrat interface in Kazakhstan, a highly centralized post-Soviet state. It finds evidence of three types of officials: job bureaucrats, policy entrepreneurs, and ethno-politicos. Tribalism and ethno-politics feature as an undercurrent in the political-administrative interface at the senior level. There is an overriding allegiance to the dominant political party that makes neutrality less important as an administrative tenet. Advancement as a career official has little to do with meritocracy, despite the façade, but rather connections are what matter.


In her 1903 study The Home: Its Work and Influence , Gilman considers the effect of the concept "the home" on both men and women.  She explores how established norms and traditions inform society's views of the abilities and appropriate behaviors for each sex.  As Gilman points out, beliefs about what a man ought to do have a direct effect on what a woman is allowed to do: changes to established practice are regarded as threats to the social roles of "man" or "woman."  She sums up the argument by saying that "man considers any effort of the woman to support herself as a reflection on him" ( Home 290). Gilman was aware of the need to include men in her proposals for improving society, in order to achieve lasting reform.  Thus, to gain the sympathy of her male readers, Gilman shows that a working wife is not the threat traditional opinion held, but rather a comfort to her husband.  Having asserted this in works such as The Home , Gilman deliberately adjusts her short stories to her political writing and her audience, offering role models for both sexes and creating stories in which women become powerful for their own sake, though their empowerment often benefits a man. The stories discussed here, "Her Housekeeper" and "The Cottagette", both published in 1910, approach the topic of Gilman's belief, as stated in The Home , that a woman should work not just to gain independence or to share the financial expenses of the home (which should remain the responsibility of the man of the house) but also to create a happy atmosphere within her home and thus become a positive influence on her husband and as well as any children she may have.  However, Gilman was not only recreating femininity, by providing fictional examples of cultural evolution in United States homes.  By including men in this development, and creating male characters who actively want their wives to continue with their artistic work after marriage, she was also presenting methods of recreating masculinity without undermining men's sense of security.


With the invention of chirped pulse amplification for lasers in the mid-1980s, high power ultrafast lasers entered into the world as a disruptive tool, with potential impact on a broad range of application areas. Since then, ultrafast lasers have revolutionized laser-matter interaction and unleashed their potential applications in manufacturing processes. With unprecedented short pulse duration and high laser intensity, focused optical energy can be delivered to precisely defined material locations on a time scale much faster than thermal diffusion to the surrounding area. This unique characteristic has fundamentally changed the way laser interacts with matter and enabled numerous manufacturing innovations over the past few decades. In this paper, an overview of ultrafast laser technology with an emphasis on femtosecond laser is provided first, including its development, type, working principle, and characteristics. Then ultrafast laser applications in manufacturing processes are reviewed, with a focus on micro/nano machining, surface structuring, thin film scribing, machining in bulk of materials, additive manufacturing, bio manufacturing, super high resolution machining, and numerical simulation. Both fundamental studies and process development are covered in this review. Insights gained on ultrafast laser interaction with matter through both theoretical and numerical research are summarized. Manufacturing process innovations targeting various application areas are described. Industrial applications of ultrafast laser based manufacturing processes are illustrated. Finally, future research directions in ultrafast laser based manufacturing processes are discussed.


This paper examines the risks surrounding a growing trend for young people to create personal websites that feature online diaries or live video feeds. These websites often chronicle the most intimate parts of their owners' lives in great detail. Unfortunately, a young person may sometimes unintentionally attract the attention of an internet predator visiting the site, for example by publishing unsuitable pictures or through inappropriate self‐disclosure. This risk is increased when a young person has only limited awareness of the basic precautions that should be taken when publishing material to a website or communicating with visitors. However, in a growing number of cases young people are deliberately placing themselves at risk in order to gain a variety of benefits, both emotional and material. The discussion examines the emergence of a 'wish list' scene and considers some of the ways in which adults can exploit young people, for example by encouraging them to promote adult services. The paper concludes by offering several potential measures that might be used to reduce risks to young people.


This study compared the effectiveness of two types of preemptive feedback in a CALL environment. As part of their regular course assignments throughout the fall 2009 semester, L2 learners of German (N = 185) performed a sentence completion task. For each individual exercise, the CALL system generated preemptive feedback based on the error profiles from 5000 users who previously used the CALL system between 2003 and 2008. Two types of preemptive feedback with varying specificity were designed to draw attention to the most common errors associated with each item. Results indicate that both types of preemptive feedback were significantly more effective than not providing any task assistance. In addition, differences with respect to proficiency levels and error types were found.


This is a powerful story of the shattering effects of the First World War on both a family and a country - from Hans Fallada, bestselling author of Alone in Berlin. "This remarkable work, now complete after 76 years, could well be one of the finest novels any of us will ever read". (Irish Times). Gustav Hackendahl's will is law. Known as 'Iron Gustav', he runs his family and his Berlin carriage business with stern, unyielding discipline. But his children have wills of their own, and soon they slip from his control - some to better lives, some towards disaster. As war breaks out and Gustav's beloved Germany is devastated by hardship and violence, he finds everything he believes in destroyed. Can the man of iron endure, or even change? Brutal and moving, written with Hans Fallada's gift for capturing the small tragedies of ordinary lives, Iron Gustav is a heartbreaking family chronicle and an unflinching portrayal of the First World War and its aftermath.


This article discusses the limits of the Anthropogenic Global Warming Theory advocated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A phenomenological theory of climate change based on the physical properties of the data themselves is proposed. At least 60% of the warming of the Earth observed since 1970 appears to be induced by natural cycles which are present in the solar system. A climatic stabilization or cooling until 2030-2040 is forecast by the phenomenological model.


This study documents the reasons and processes for involvement of women into sex work in India. The study is based on in-depth interviews with a cross-section of commercial sex workers in four Indian states – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It shows that most women enter sex work due to a complex set of reasons as opposed to any one single over-riding reason. While abject poverty was cited as the main cause by almost three-fourths of the women interviewed, lack of education, financial freedom, domestic violence, family responsibility, lack of support by family members and harassment and abuse in society and in the workplace, were other inter-linked factors facilitating involvement into sex work. Some women reported that they were pushed into sex work by deception or force by known or unknown persons. Many women who initiate sex work are not forced physically, but do so because of reasons over which they had little or no control. In this sense, initiation into sex work is far more complicated than a simple distinction of 'voluntary' and 'involuntary' as explained by other studies in India and around the world.


Many serious ecosystem consequences of climate change will take decades or even centuries to emerge. Long‐term ecological responses to global change are strongly regulated by slow processes, such as changes in species composition, carbon dynamics in soil and by long‐lived plants, and accumulation of nutrient capitals. Understanding and predicting these processes require experiments on decadal time scales. But decadal experiments by themselves may not be adequate because many of the slow processes have characteristic time scales much longer than experiments can be maintained. This article promotes a coordinated approach that combines long‐term, large‐scale global change experiments with process studies and modeling. Long‐term global change manipulative experiments, especially in high‐priority ecosystems such as tropical forests and high‐latitude regions, are essential to maximize information gain concerning future states of the earth system. The long‐term experiments should be conducted in tandem with complementary process studies, such as those using model ecosystems, species replacements, laboratory incubations, isotope tracers, and greenhouse facilities. Models are essential to assimilate data from long‐term experiments and process studies together with information from long‐term observations, surveys, and space‐for‐time studies along environmental and biological gradients. Future research programs with coordinated long‐term experiments, process studies, and modeling have the potential to be the most effective strategy to gain the best information on long‐term ecosystem dynamics in response to global change.


Background: Indigenous healthcare practices are widely used by the majority of people in Ethiopia. People use them for various health needs; however the knowledge and practice of ethnomedicine across different parts of Ethiopia have not been extensively studied. This study explores ethnomedical knowledge and indigenous healthcare practices in Nekemte District, western Ethiopia.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2015 in Nekemte town and surrounding areas in western Ethiopia. The study employed a chain referral sampling technique to identify study participants. A total of 12 indigenous healers were interviewed through semi-structured interviews. Qualitative data procured through interviews were transcribed and translated into English, categorized, and narrated thematically.Results: The study revealed that ethnomedical knowledge in the study area was conveyed orally and through practical experience, and was characterized by secrecy. Fourteen different human ailments/conditions identified to be treated by the different indigenous healers, including gonorrhea, 'evil eye', diarrhea, herpes zoster, measles, and bone fractures. A further finding was that there is a lack of cooperation between modern and indigenous healthcare practitioners.Conclusions and recommendations: Indigenous healthcare practices were used to treat several human ailments. Although indigenous healthcare serves as an alternative source of healthcare for communities, lack of documentation of ethnomedicine and its associated knowledge, the lack of collaboration with modern practitioners, and the lack of support have a negative impact on indigenous healthcare. Properly considering these factors in health policies will help to preserve the local heritage of health care and resources. [Ethiop.J. Health Dev. 2019; 33(1):17-21]Keywords: Indigenous healthcare, biomedicine, ethnomedicine, ethnomedical knowledge, indigenous healer, Nekemte


The objective of this research is 1) to study the level of five variables consist of understanding, feeling, thinking, behavior and satisfaction of personal income tax payment and 2) to investigate the relationship between the four variables of attitudes in personal income tax and satisfaction of service from revenues office through the people who live in Muak Lek Subdistrict Municipality, Muak Lek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand. The multiple regression was used to test the statistical value of the four variables of attitude in personal income tax which are understanding, feeling, thinking, behavioral paying and satisfaction of service model, developed from prior research, were used as the source of the questionnaire for 232 people in Muak Lek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand. A questionnaire containing overall twentytwo items consist of four items on understanding, five items on feeling, five items on thinking, four items on behavioral paying and four items on the satisfaction of service were utilized. The finding revealed that the conceptual model showed the positive relationship between understanding, feeling, thinking, behavioral paying and satisfaction of service. The result exhibited that the strong relationship and significant only two variables with the satisfaction of service are thinking and behavioral paying at 0.05 level. However, understanding and feeling variables showed not significant with the satisfaction of service. It is established that people in Muak Lek Sub-district Municipality have the understanding and feeling about personal income tax at a low level. Therefore, revenues office or another unit that involve personal income tax should be given more knowledge and understanding to these people. This study concludes and describes the results for future in personal income tax research.


We measured rates of sediment, C, N, and P accumulation at four floodplain sites spanning the nontidal through oligohaline Choptank and Pocomoke Rivers, Maryland, USA. Ceramic tiles were used to collect sediment for a year and sediment cores were collected to derive decadal sedimentation rates using 137Cs. The results showed highest rates of short‐ and long‐term sediment, C, N, and P accumulation occurred in tidal freshwater forests at the head of tide on the Choptank and the oligohaline marsh of the Pocomoke River, and lowest rates occurred in the downstream tidal freshwater forests in both rivers. Presumably, watershed material was mostly trapped at the head of tide, and estuarine material was trapped in oligohaline marshes. This hydrologic transport bottleneck at the head of tide stores most available watershed sediment, C, N, and P creating a sediment shadow in lower tidal freshwater forests potentially limiting their resilience to sea level rise.


Sandy submarine braid plains, like their fluvial counterparts on land, are sand-rich depositional environments that may display excellent reservoir characteristics in terms of sediment volume, porosity, and permeability. The submarine examples may be laterally associated with potential source rocks such as the fine-grained levee deposits of deep-sea channels. A side-scan sonar study of the central Labrador Sea revealed the existence of a more than 700 km long and up to 120 km wide submarine sand and gravel plain that has been supplied with sediment by high-density turbidity currents, possibly resulting from subglacial lake outburst flooding in the Hudson Strait. The side-scan imagery of parts of the plain displays a conspicuous streaky pattern of alternating high and low backscatter intensity. High-resolution 3.5 kHz seismic profiles and 12 kHz bathymetric profiles show that the pattern represents a furrow-and-ridge (erosional) or channel-and-bar (depositional) topography, similar to a braided alluvial plain. The furrows or channels have low acoustic backscatter, are less than 10 m deep, and are separated by ridges or bars having high backscatter. Some channels terminate in depositional lobes. Individual channels and bars (or furrows and ridges) are less than 100 m wide and can be followed up to 40 km downcurrent. On sleeve-gun seismic profiles, the total sand thickness appears to be between 200 m (proximal) and 100 m (distal). Piston cores from the plain recovered massive sand layers up to 4 m thick, buried under 1 m of Holocene hemipelagic ooze. Texturally, the sands and gravelly sands display a trend of improving sorting with increasing mean grain size. Some very coarse grained samples are moderately well sorted and almost matrix free. The flooding events that deposited the sands might be the submarine counterpart of Heinrich events but need not be restricted to such events. Radiocarbon ages of about 10 k.y. from the base of the ooze overlying the youngest sand gave a minimum age for the sand that is similar to the age of Heinrich event 0. Estimates for the discharge volume of individual events are poorly constrained and range from 103 to 105 km3. Braided channel patterns in deep-water (Begin page 1500) sandy depositional environments are not restricted to high latitudes but also have been identified in various submarine fan settings in the lower latitudes, for example, the Orinoco, Var, and Monterey deep-sea fans and in the Santa Monica Basin. The largest examples, however, are known from high latitudes, suggesting that melt-water discharge from continental ice sheets may favor the formation of this habitat of giant sands in the deep sea. The occurrence of sandy braided deep-water environments having favorable reservoir characteristics in a variety of tectonic settings makes this type of environment a potentially interesting deep-water target.


Globalization has created a competitive environment for corporations. In addition, trade agreements between countries emphasize the need for international competitiveness, as corporations can move business operations across borders, for example between Canada and the United States. Corporate income tax rates significantly impact international competitiveness. In addition, other taxes and fees increase the overall tax burden of a corporation. The tax and economic policy literatures have examined various factors affecting international competitiveness, including reference to some tax factors. This paper extends this literature by critically examining the key factors in Canada's tax system that affect its international competitiveness and analyzing these factors in assessing the international competitiveness of Canada and the United States. The paper focuses on an examination of five key tax factors, corporate income tax rates, other taxes and fees, capital allowances, complexity of the tax system and tax policy in foreign direct investment.


This study analyses the evolution of France's relations with Iraq since 1958. It seeks to understand the motivations behind French government, state and private sector
interests in Iraq. This is done in the dual context of France's economic rivalry with other western powers in the Middle East, and the Iraqi state's attempts to follow an
independent foreign policy while using its oil revenues to rapidly industrialise and arm itself. The text first charts France's rivalry with Britain in the ex-Ottoman empire and its fears of Anglo-American domination of oil supplies. It then demonstrates that while France's early links with Israel continued under President De Gaulle, by the mid sixties they had been eclipsed by the commercial importance of trade with Arab states. The core text then focuses on France's relationship with Iraq since 1958, the year in which new governments came to power in both states. Despite the 1972 nationalisation of the Iraq Petroleum company, in which France had a 25% stake, French politicians and businessmen nevertheless gained favourable access to oil supplies, greatly increasing their exports of defence and high technology products, including a nuclear reactor, to Iraq during the seventies. The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) intensified both bilateral trade links and the indebtedness of Iraq to France. By the mid-eighties what become a de-facto alliance generated severe problems for France's middle eastern policies, particularly towards Iran. The central themes of the study are the processes of foreign policy formation in France, and the extent and impact of economic interests underlying policy making. The thesis argues that substantial state ownership in France's oil, defence and
aeronautical industries, coupled with the common interests and interpretations of a relatively homogeneous and interconnected corps of businessmen, politicians and
civil servants, helps explain the continuity of French policy in the region. This is seen to be true despite the change of government (from Gaullist to Socialist) in
France in May 1981.


This article examines an important but up to now, still unexplored area in the federalism debate: May the federal government require local governments to cooperate with the enforcement of immigration law or other federal scheme? Or may local governments constitutionally refuse to provide that cooperation? I use immigration law enforcement as a case study to argue that the current legal framework, which allows the federal government to mandate local cooperation, ignores the significant federalism harms that federal cooperation laws impose. And these federalism harms are not simply limited to the immigration field. In other areas where federal and local governments disagree (e.g., medical marijuana, stem cell research, and physician-assisted suicide), there is similar potential for conflict and resulting federalism harms. Rather than apply the current bright line Printz/New York rule that ignores these federalism harms, I suggest using an intermediate balancing test, where both federal and local sovereign interests are considered. The cooperation debate in the immigration context has immediate, practical significance. Currently, some 49 cities and states have laws that limit the authority of their police and other employees to cooperate with federal immigration law enforcement. These local non-cooperation laws prohibit local government employees from reporting to the federal government undocumented persons they encounter in the course of providing police protection, health care, education, and other essential local government services. At the same time, the federal government has passed laws requiring the very same cooperation that local governments have prohibited: under federal law, local governments must allow their employees who want to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement on a voluntary basis to do so. This federal push to get local governments involved in immigration law enforcement has intensified after the attacks of 9/11. Under the current legal framework, the federal government wins. Its exercise of its preemption power faces no Tenth Amendment challenge because, unlike Printz and New York, federal cooperation laws do not commandeer local governments into passing legislation or enforcing federal schemes. Yet, the broad strokes of this preemption/commandeering analysis ignore the significant federalism harms that federal cooperation laws cause. In the case of immigration law enforcement, those federalism harms include (1) undermining democratic rule by interfering with local governments' ability to exercise their police powers in the ways they deem most effective to protect their communities, (2) upsetting the tyranny-prevention function of federalism by greatly augmenting federal power and disturbing the local-federal balance of power, and (3) thwarting local governments' right to experiment and find the appropriate law enforcement balance for their communities.


The authors adopt the Five-Factor Model of personality structure to explore how personality affected the earnings of a large group of men and women who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957 and were re-interviewed in 1992. All five basic traits—extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience—had statistically significant positive or negative earnings effects, and together they appear to have had effects comparable to those commonly found for cognitive ability. Among men, substantial earnings advantages were associated with antagonism (the obverse of agreeableness), emotional stability (the obverse of neuroticism), and openness to experience; among women, with conscientiousness and openness to experience. Of the five traits, the evidence indicates that agreeableness had the greatest influence on gender differences in earnings: men were considerably more antagonistic (non-agreeable) than women, on average, and men alone were rewarded for that trait.


The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 2 target aspires to ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. South Africa's education system experiences a range of problems extending beyond the simple issues of meeting the MDG targets. Poor quality education reinforces major racial inequalities in society and inadequate systems make it difficult for South Africa to deliver on internal infrastructural promises or to achieve competitive levels in a globalised economy. These factors impact negatively on long-term development and internal stability in the country.


Quantum cryptography provides security using the laws of quantum mechanics. Currently, several types of protocols of quantum key distribution (QKD) have been established. Some QKD protocols have been certified by proofs of unconditional security. QKD protocols have been confirmed to be resistant to any possible attack. Along with the progress in key transmission and post processing, the system control needs to be integrated with some steps for the QKD. No future technology can break such security. There is a sequence of process for implementing a QKD protocol. Starting from clock synchronization function, real-time frame synchronization, transmission, postprocessing protocols to system control and security. In this paper we are considering only transmission and system control for QKD.


Intimate Transactions is a networked interactive installation for two participants located in different geographical locations. During a 30-minute, one-on-one session they individually and collaboratively explore a range of virtual, interactive environments mediated by digital image, sound and haptic feedback. This major work evolved from a single site, non-networked version to a multi-site, server-driven artwork that operates in mixed online/offline modes. In 2005, the work was awarded an Honorary Mention in the Prix Ars Electronica and began an international tour of several high profile festivals and arts venues. Intimate Transactions is a product of the Transmute Collective (www.intimatetransactions.com).

Intimate Transactions networked, inter-relational design was inspired by a range of conditions, discourses and practices drawn from scientific and critical ecologies, new media and innovative performance that I collectively name 'ecosophical praxis. An inherent part of this approach involves the continual development of contextualizing questions, which in turn mould the work's practice and presentation. This paper considers the issues and implications of applying this approach during the Intimate Transactions project. The concluding questions are relevant as a guiding method for other creative practitioners similarly interested in eco-social and eco-political engagement.


In the West, Translation Studies as a discipline has a very short but lively history. Founded in the early 1970s in the Low Countries—Holland and Belgium—translation studies is a fairly new field. Yet, today some theorists suggest that the discipline is too limited to translated texts and excludes much translation data being generated from other fields of inquiry, including theater, art, architecture, ethnography, memory studies, media studies, philosophy, and psychology. This paper has four sections: 'Pre-Discipline', in which I discuss the period after World War II and up until the 1970s; 'Discipline', which discusses the founding period of translation studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s; 'Interdiscipline', which focuses on the expanding field in its many collaborations with outside groups in the 1990s and 2000s; and (4) Post-Discipline, a new phase that further expands the definitions of the field. I refer to some of my work from Translation and Identity in the Americas (2008) and discuss the concept "post-translation studies" as posited by Siri Nergaard and Stephano Arduini in their article "Translation: A New Paradigm" (2011)  in the introduction to the new journal called translation.


Wavelet intensity based algorithm developed previously at VirginiaTech has been furthered and paired with an SVM based classifier. The wavelet intensity algorithm acts as a feature extraction algorithm. The wavelet transform is an effective tool as it allows one to narrow down upon the transient, high frequency events and is able to tell their exact location in time. According to prior work done in the field of signal processing, the local regularities of a signal can be estimated using a Lipchitz exponent at each time step of the signal. The local Lipchitz exponent can then be used to generate the wavelet intensity factor values. For each vertical acceleration value, corresponding to a specific location on the track, we now have a corresponding intensity factor. The intensity factor corresponds to break-no break information and can now be used as a feature to classify the vertical acceleration as a fault or no fault. Support Vector Machines (SVM) is used for this binary classification task. SVM is chosen as it is a well-studied topic with efficient implementations available. SVM instead of hard threshold of the data is expected to do a better job of classification without increasing the complexity of the system appreciably.


Introduction Vitamin D may modulate cardiometabolic disease risk, although the relationship has not been investigated in the general Canadian population. Understanding this relationship may inform public health strategies to curb the incidence of cardiometabolic disease in Canada and elsewhere. The objectives of this study were to examine the association between vitamin D and traditional and novel biomarkers of cardiometabolic disease and to describe the extent of the month-to-month fluctuations of vitamin D in the Canadian population. Methods We examined the association between plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D and a range of cardiometabolic risk biomarkers in participants (n = 1,928; age range, 16–79 years) from the Canadian Health Measures Survey. We conducted linear regressions analyses (adjusted for sex, waist circumference, physical activity, hormone use, and season) to assess the relationship between 25-hydroxyvitamin D and biomarkers of dysglycemia, dyslipidemia, and inflammation in the study population. We repeated analyses stratified by sex, and we evaluated monthly fluctuations in 25-hydroxyvitamin D in men and women. Results We observed wide month-to-month variations in 25-hydroxyvitamin D; fluctuations were more pronounced in men. Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D was inversely associated with insulin, insulin resistance, triglycerides, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and the ratio of total to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol but not with fasting glucose, apolipoprotein A1, apolipoprotein B, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, or homocysteine. This pattern varied between men and women. Conclusion Vitamin D may modulate various metabolic processes and may influence cardiometabolic disease risk in Canadians. These findings may have public health implications when recommending vitamin D for the prevention of cardiometabolic disease and related conditions.


I have been asked to provide a response to a series of four papers presented at a session on philosophy, psychopathology, and neuroscience by Elena Bezzubova, Alina Feld, Andrew Gluck, and Lydia Voronina, all observers more qualified than I to discuss the relation of philosophy and psychiatry in Jaspers' psychopathology as well as salient alternatives. Jaspers, who was friendly with Martin Heidegger, was later overshadowed by the latter, whose reception led to a gigantic and still rapidly growing debate. Yet what if Jaspers were in some ways more important than Heidegger, especially with respect to so-called existential analysis?


The Constitution of Cadiz or the Spanish Constitution of 1812 is presently undergoing world-wide and extensive study because of its bicentennial and because of its important place in the development of liberal constitutionalism in Europe and Latin America. It also played a role in the independence of many Latin American republics which will celebrate their bicentennials over the next decade. This article contributes to the intellectual and legal history of this constitutional document. It also provides a close study of how pre-constitutional laws are employed in writing constitutions. It examines the way Spanish colonial law, known as "derecho indiano" in Spanish, was used in the process of drafting the Constitution and particularly the way these constitutional activities and provisions related to the Americas. The article asserts that this pre-constitutional law was used in three distinct ways: (1) as general knowledge related to the Americas and their institutions; (2) as a source for providing a particular answer to a specific legal question; and (3) in the debates about how grounded the Constitution is in historical sources and laws, its historicity. Although the example is drawn from Spanish colonial law and the Constitution of Cadiz, the general methodology will likely be appealing to others working in the fields of comparative constitutional law and constitutional history.


2,4,6-tribromophenyl azide was synthesised as previously described and fully characterised
using Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis, NMR spectroscopy (1H, 13C, 14N)
and X-ray structural analysis. 2,4,6-tribromophenyl azide was recrystallised from ethanol to
give pink needles which are monoclinic, with space group P21/n. The crystal packing diagram
of 2,4,6-tribromophenyl azide shows that every terminal N(3) atom of the azide group has two
intermolecular contacts with two bromine atoms of symetrically related molecules within the
unit cell. The intermolecular distances are N(3) to Br(2)* (x – 0.5, -y-0.5, z-0.5) 3.605 A and
N(3) to Br(1)* (x + 1, y, z) 3.881 A. These distances are both below the sum of the van der
Waals radii of both atoms. The crystal packing diagram of 2,4,6-tribromophenyl azide is
shown in the figure below.
2,6-diiodo-4-nitrophenyl azide was synthesised as previously described and fully
characterised using Infrared and Raman spectroscopy, elemental analysis, NMR. spectroscopy
(1H, 13C, 14N) and X-ray structural analysis. 2,6-diiodo-4-nitrophenyl azide was recrystallised
from ethanol to give green needles which are monoclinic, with space group P21/c. There are
two independent molecules in the asymmetric unit, one molecule has an ordered azide group
and the other molecule has a disordered azide group. There is a most unusual intermolecular
contact of 3.041 A between O(11) and I(22) and between O(21) and I(12). This distance is
well below the sum of the van der Waals radii of both atoms. The crystal packing is a chain
with alternate ordered ands disordered molecules linked by this oxygen –iodine
intermolecular contact (see figure below) The ab initio calculations of the vibrational frequencies for all of the halogen phenyl azides
derivates were carried out at the self consistent HF level of theory using a 6-31G(d) basis set.
Generally the agreement between calculated and experimentally observed (IR, Raman)
frequencies is very good at HF/6-31G(d) level of theory for all derivatives prepared so that no
scaling of the computed frequencies was necessary. The fact that the asymmetric azide
vibration is calculated too high for 2,4,6-tribromophenyl azide, 2,4,6-trichlorophenyl azide 199
and 2,6-diiodo-4-nitrophenyl azide may or may not be explained by strong intermolecular
interactions via the N3 group in these compounds as revealed by X-ray diffraction which due
to the increased formal) charges on Nβ and Nγ weaken the terminal nitrogen-nitrogen triple
bond.
The thermal decomposition of three nitrophenyl azides, 1,3,5-(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6
(TNTA), 1,3-(NO2)2-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6H (DNTA) and 1,3,5-(NO2)3-2-(N3)-C6H2 (TNMA) was
studied experimentally using gas-phase IR spectroscopy
1,3,5-(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6 →  6 CO + 6 N2 (1)
1,3-(NO2)2-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6H →  HCN + 4 CO + 5 N2 + C (2)
1,3,5-(NO2)3-2-(N3)-C6H2 →  2 HCN + 2 CO2 + NO2 + 3/2 N2 + 2 C (3)
The combustion of 1,3.5-(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6 (TNTA) in an O2 atmosphere (two fold
excess) yielded CO2, N2, very small amounts of NO2 and traces of N2O (eq. 4).
1,3,5-(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6 + 3 O2 →  6 CO2 + 6 N2 (4)
In a further experiment exploring the potential of TATA as a solid fuel we mixed the material
with the stoichiometric amount (cf. eq. (5)) of NH4NO3
1,3,5-(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6 + 6 NH4NO3 →  6 CO2 + 12 N2 12 H2O (5)
The calculated enthalpy value of –908.9 kcal mol-1 makes the 1:6 molar mixture of 1,3-5-
(NO2)3-2,4,6-(N3)3-C6 and NH4NO3 a very promising high energy density material (HEDM)
the potential of which we are going to explore in more detail in future studies.
In the drophammer testing of TNMA, DNTA and TNTA the order of the acoustic level is
TNMA < DNTA < TNTA, but the values for DNTA and TNTA are very similar. Even the
weakest of the investigated organic explosives (TNMA) is more powerful than AgN3 or
Pb(N3)2, if the acoustic level is interpret as somewhat proportional to the detonation power.
The calculated factor (F) and detonation velocities ( D) for TNMA, DNTA and TNTA were
calculated using the Rothstein equation that calculates the detonation velocities of a variety of
explosives on the basis of their molecular formulae. The calculated detonation velocities (D)
are in agreement with the drophammer tests for these compounds i.e the values for detonation
velocities (D) show TNMA < DNTA < TNTA, but the values for DNTA (9.185 mm µs-1) and
TNTA (9.441 mm µs-1) are very similar. TNMA, DNTA and TNTA have higher calculated F
factors and detonation velocities than several commercial explosives.
In order to measure the 14N NMR spectrum of a pentazole, the pentazole was prepared in the
NMR tube already in the probe. This was done by dissolving the diazonium salt in
dichloromethane and placing this solution in the NMR tube and freezing it solid with liquid
nitrogen and then the azide solution was added on top and also frozen solid, the NMR tube
was then placed in the probe at –50°C. The two layers were allowed mix in the NMR tube as
it obtained equilibrium at –50°C. The 14N NMR spectrum was recorded from the moment the
tube was placed in the probe. In most of the spectra recorded using this method it was
possible to see very small signals in the predicted region for the nitrogen atoms of the
pentazole for about 30 minutes but again the strongest signals belong to the corresponding
azide. The signals in the predicted pentazole region were not much more than the noise signal
so we were not able to assign these with any confidence. However in the experiment using the
above method for 2,4-dichlorophenylpentazole we were able to see three clearly distinctive
signals in the expect range for the nitrogen atoms in a pentazole . This experiment was carried
out several times and each time we observed the same spectra. As well as the three signals of
the pentazole the are two signal of the 2,4-diclorophenyl azide present. The spectrum of this
experiment can be seen in figure below. When the sample was allowed to warm up to room
temperature the three signals for the pentazole disappear but the two signals of the azide
remain. We can tentatively assign the signals in the spectrum of 2,4-dichlorophenylpentazole
and 2,4 diclorophenyl azide as N1 ( δ = -176.0 ) ppm, N2 N5 ( δ = -72.0 ) ppm, N3 N4
( δ = -24.0 ) ppm for the pentazole and Nβ ( δ = -135.0 ) ppm and Nγ ( δ = -141.0 ) ppm for
the azide. Although the values we obtained for the 14N spectrum of the 2,4-dichloropenyl pentazole are shifted from the values previously reported, we are certain that the signals have
been assigned correctly due to the fact that no other nitrogen containing substance could be
present at –50°C and that the signals disappear as the temperature is raised which is in
accordance with the pentazole decomposing to the azide. This is the first reported 14N NMR
spectrum of a pentazole.


Three pupil-coordinate definitions are considered for the description of aberrations. The corresponding sets of expressions for the third- and fifth-order image-aberration coefficients as well as the third-order pupil-aberration coefficients are presented. We show their interrelations and the connection with eikonal coefficients. One pupil-coordinate definition leads to the occurrence of 9 independent fifth-order image-aberration coefficients; the other two definitions lead to 12 independent fifth-order image-aberration coefficients. We find that the third-order image-aberration coefficients are independent of the choice of pupil-coordinate definition, whereas the third-order pupil-aberration coefficients and the fifth-order image-aberration coefficients do depend on this choice. We show that the case of ideal imaging may imply finite pupil aberrations.


Tau, MAP2 and MAP4 are structural microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs) that promote the assembly and stability of microtubules. They share three or four imperfect tandem repeats of an amino acid motif, which is involved in the binding to microtubules. All sequences to data containing this motif are of mammalian origin. We report here the cloning and functional characterisation of a new member of this family of proteins from the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. This protein exists as two isoforms of 413 and 453 amino acids with four or five tandem repeats that are 50% identical to the tau/MAP2/MAP4 repeats. Both isoforms bind to microtubules and promote microtubule assembly, with the five-repeat isoform being more effective at promoting assembly than the four-repeat isoform. When expressed in COS cells, the five-repeat isoform co-localises with microtubules and induces the formation of microtubule bundles, whereas its expression in Sf9 cells leads to the extension of long unipolar processes. In view of its length, amino acid sequence and functional characteristics, we have named this invertebrate structural MAP 'Protein with Tau-Like Repeats' (PTL-1). In C. elegans PTL-1 is expressed in two places known to require microtubule function. It is first seen in the embryonic epidermis, when circumferentially oriented microtubules help to distribute forces generated during elongation. Later, it is found in mechanosensory neurons which contain unusual 15 protofilament microtubules required for the response to touch. These findings indicate that MAPs of the tau/MAP2/MAP4 family are found throughout much of the animal kingdom, where they may play a role in specialised processes requiring microtubules.


The Australian Wet Tropics bioregion is a hotspot for bryophyte diversity. In 2004, 397 moss taxa were known from the bioregion, since when extensive field work and taxonomic studies have added many taxa to the Wet Tropics bryophyte flora, while revisions and nomenclatural changes have reduced the number previously published. In this paper we summarise the additions to our knowledge of Wet Tropics bryophytes, and accept 410 moss taxa from the bioregion, including 170 genera in 60 families. We add 55 taxa to the flora, and 24 are rejected on the basis of false records or misidentifications, or because the records were found to be outside the Wet Tropics bioregion. Records of 14 taxa from the bioregion are considered uncertain, and 6 taxa previously considered doubtful for the bioregion are confirmed. A number of records including Holomitrium cylindraceum and Taxithelium lindbergii are reported as new to Australia.


We present a unified approach to type checking and property checking for low-level code. Type checking for low-level code is challenging because type safety often depends on complex, program-specific invariants that are difficult for traditional type checkers to express. Conversely, property checking for low-level code is challenging because it is difficult to write concise specifications that distinguish between locations in an untyped program's heap. We address both problems simultaneously by implementing a type checker for low-level code as part of our property checker.
 We present a low-level formalization of a C program's heap and its types that can be checked with an SMT solver, and we provide a decision procedure for checking type safety. Our type system is flexible enough to support a combination of nominal and structural subtyping for C, on a per-structure basis. We discuss several case studies that demonstrate the ability of this tool to express and check complex type invariants in low-level C code, including several small Windows device drivers.


For many years, the literature concerning agricultural knowledge transfer has emphasised the importance of using processes designed around the needs of the target population, rather than those of the providers. This paper reports on the AgriNet project in South West England, whose essential feature was the use of minibuses converted into mobile computer facilities. This enabled the project team to take training in the use of information and communication technology (ICT) to even the most remote rural areas in the region, parking in farmyards, pub carparks, and at village halls. Working closely with various community groups, especially Young Farmers Clubs, the project acquired another 80 laptops and created a 'cascading' process in parallel with its use of the buses – individuals would be trained to train others, and provided with a loaned laptop to make it possible. This paper reflects on a project which achieved more than double its targets, and raises questions about the use of project-type funding to meet endemic problems.


Abstract In this paper, we present a large-scale measurement study of the smart TV advertising and tracking ecosystem. First, we illuminate the network behavior of smart TVs as used in the wild by analyzing network traffic collected from residential gateways. We find that smart TVs connect to well-known and platform-specific advertising and tracking services (ATSes). Second, we design and implement software tools that systematically explore and collect traffic from the top-1000 apps on two popular smart TV platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. We discover that a subset of apps communicate with a large number of ATSes, and that some ATS organizations only appear on certain platforms, showing a possible segmentation of the smart TV ATS ecosystem across platforms. Third, we evaluate the (in)effectiveness of DNS-based blocklists in preventing smart TVs from accessing ATSes. We highlight that even smart TV-specific blocklists suffer from missed ads and incur functionality breakage. Finally, we examine our Roku and Fire TV datasets for exposure of personally identifiable information (PII) and find that hundreds of apps exfiltrate PII to third parties and platform domains. We also find evidence that some apps send the advertising ID alongside static PII values, effectively eliminating the user's ability to opt out of ad personalization.