I. Introduction In 2007, a brief article by Professor John Duffy questioned the constitutionality of the appointment method for Administrative Patent Judges. (1) Duffy argued that Administrative Patent Judges were at least inferior officers under the Appointments Clause due to the substantial power they held--and with that contention, questioned the validity of eight years of Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences determinations. (2) The article made such an impact that Congress enacted a statutory patch to correct the issue. (3) But the spark didn't die there--a series of articles followed "The Duffy Defect," (4) questioning the applicability of the Appointments Clause to a range of government actors, from Bankruptcy Judges to the Pay Czar. (5) The impact of Duffy's article reached courtrooms as well, prompting an Appointments Clause challenge in Tucker v. Commissioner (6) In the United States Tax Court, Tucker argued that Appeals Officers or their managers within the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are inferior officers of the United States because they provide statutorily required Collection Due Process (CDP) hearings. (7) In 2010, the IRS Office of Appeals received over 49,000 CDP hearing requests to determine whether it would move forward with proposed liens or levies on delinquent taxes, and that number increases each year. (8) A determination that CDP conductors are officers could halt compelled tax collection until appropriate personnel are appointed. Even more concerning, such a holding could compel the same result for similarly situated personnel in other federal agencies. A prime example is the Social Security Administration, which received 408,314 requests for benefit-determination hearings in the six months ending in March 2011. (9) The Appointments Clause requires that officers of the United States be appointed by one of its specified methods. Principal officers must be appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. (10) With statutory permission, inferior officers may be appointed directly by the President alone, the Courts of Law, or Heads of Departments. (11) But the Constitution provides little guidance on the characteristics that define an officer. In one of the most thorough opinions to address the distinction between constitutional officers and mere employees, the Tax Court rejected Tucker's arguments, ruling that neither Appeals Officers nor their managers are officers in the constitutional sense and therefore need not be appointed. (12) The court first found the position of Appeals Officer was not "established by Law." (13) The court then found that IRS agents were mere employees because their decisions were not the "last word" of the agency. (14) The court further determined that the statutes establishing CDP hearings assigned those duties to the entire Office of Appeals, rather than to the named position of Appeals Officer, thus precluding the application of the Appointments Clause. (15) The Tax Court concluded that finding Appeals Officers to be constitutional officers would be an inappropriate singling out, because a myriad of other administrative government actors who perform similar duties were not appointed. (16) This Article concludes that, in so holding, the Tax Court provides Congress with a blueprint on how to circumvent the Appointments Clause. (17) The Tax Court decision is on appeal to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. (18) But even if Tucker settles his appellate case, the spark ignited by Duffy's article suggests that this issue will resurface, in and out of the tax context, and in every circuit. This Article goes beyond Duffy's brief analysis to explore the officer-versus-employee distinction that Tucker highlighted and that is bound to become a common challenge to agency action. Duffy looked at the question for patent judges, but this Article sets forth a broader framework that can be applied to any government personnel. …


Professor Tobias suggests that federal judicial selection is one important area in which ·President Bill Clinton hopes that he will leave a legacy. The author finds that the first Clinton Administration realized much success in choosing judges who make the federal judiciary more diverse and who possess excellent qualifications. Over the last five years, however, the Administration has not been equally successful either in placing highly competent female and minority attorneys on the bench or in filling the perennial judicial vacancies, partly because the Republican Party has enjoyed a significant majority in the Senate. The author's analysis shows that similar circumstances existed in 1999. He, therefore, affords suggestions that should enable President Clinton to appoint additional women and minorities, while filling the bench in his final year of office.


In this paper, we propose TopicRNN, a recurrent neural network (RNN)-based language model designed to directly capture the global semantic meaning relating words in a document via latent topics. Because of their sequential nature, RNNs are good at capturing the local structure of a word sequence – both semantic and syntactic – but might face difficulty remembering long-range dependencies. Intuitively, these long-range dependencies are of semantic nature. In contrast, latent topic models are able to capture the global underlying semantic structure of a document but do not account for word ordering. The proposed TopicRNN model integrates the merits of RNNs and latent topic models: it captures local (syntactic) dependencies using an RNN and global (semantic) dependencies using latent topics. Unlike previous work on contextual RNN language modeling, our model is learned end-to-end. Empirical results on word prediction show that TopicRNN outperforms existing contextual RNN baselines. In addition, TopicRNN can be used as an unsupervised feature extractor for documents. We do this for sentiment analysis and report a new state-of-the-art error rate on the IMDB movie review dataset that amounts to a 13.3% improvement over the previous best result. Finally TopicRNN also yields sensible topics, making it a useful alternative to document models such as latent Dirichlet allocation.


I. Background-The Planet as a generative network
In the past decade, more and more organizations across the governmental and nongovernmental sectors come to realize that they must come together to face the imminent challenges-crises in order to maintain a livable and sustainable earth. This global consciousness, once being well recognized, could guide organizations to find new approaches to organizational transformation. In the past few years, Senge and his colleagues (Scharmer, Sue & Jaworski, 2004) have been working to cultivate a collective consciousness of global sustainability, aiming at fostering a new social technology of 'presencing.' Indeed, organizations across the 3 sectors have to collaborate with one another in order to create possibilities in the complicated 'problem maze' for resolving unending problems and emerging crisis. Organizational leaders' wholeness awareness and awakened global consciousness undoubtedly would help nurture the public's collective consciousness of human's shared wholeness. Moreover, it is encouraging to observe that not only do more organizations across the 3 sectors endeavor in building sustainable culture with wholeness perspectives, innumerous divergent learning communities are also undertaking the grass-root movement of wholeness praxis. Therefore, in this paper, the authors will highlight the emerging wholeness spirit embodied in the practice of many small but rigorous learning communities, and explicate how the wholeness praxis communities might interact and evolve with other communities.

II. Research Questions and Methodology
It is revealing that the learning communities taking the holistic approach tend to embrace wholeness paradigm of organizational learning and transformation. Such a new paradigm of wholeness praxis is grounded in the community leaders' perspectives of wholeness wellness. It is essential to explore how the community leaders' lives are transformed with their wholeness praxis. The research aims at exploring the community leaders' professional practice and life transformation, and how such transformation guides them to create new possibilities and opportunities. It is expected that with more and more learning communities transcending from their bounded world view and being transformed into wholeness praxis communities, it is more likely that we might create a positive and negentropic global force to prevent our environment and ecology from being further exploited. There are three main research questions to be inquired in depth, which are listed below:

1. How might learning communities transform into wholeness praxis communities and how the community leaders' lives are transformed?
2. How do the wholeness praxis communities interact with other communities to realize their vision and mission, and become self-generative and self-organized communities?
3. How do such self-generative, self-organized communities cultivate the public's wholeness consciousness for global sustainability?

In this study, the authors integrate three approaches for research design and data collection. They are whole systems design and wholeness dialogue design of the world cafe, models integration and application, and textual analysis, which serve for wholeness praxis theory construction and revision. They also designed two tools for guiding the collective dialogue in the world cafe and in-depth interviews. One is the life transformation model and the other is holistic dialogue model. The participants of this research are community leaders and their learners from 12 divergent learning communities with various practice of wholeness.

III. Research findings and results
The results of this study reveal that leaders of the emerging "wholeness praxis communities" not only experience deep life transformation, but also wholeheartedly committee themselves to creating supporting and regenerative network for their wholeness practice and their learners' wholeness experiential learning. With the cultivation of wholeness spirit, they could relate to as many organizations as possible in order to co-create collective transformation for realizing a sustainability world.
Moreover, such wholeness praxis communities are generative and regenerative in nature, which emerge from the spirit of co-relating, co-suffering, co-sensing, co-presencing and co-creating. In brief, the primary findings of this study include:

1. The wholeness images, wholeness mindfulness, wholeness enlightenment and
wholeness praxis (e.g. learning design) of the community leaders.
2. The essence of the emerging wholeness praxis communities and their critical roles in building a global sustainable culture.
3. The levels of wholeness consciousness cultivated in the wholeness praxis communities in this study.
4. The wholeness dynamics to be enacted among the wholeness praxis communities and other communities, such as communities of practice, communities of meaning construction, and communities of spiritual awakening for building a global sustainable culture.

It is expected that this contemplative and philosophical reconceptualization of organizational transformation and community praxis would bring forth more inspiring and intellectual discussions about the emerging wholeness-praxis organizations and communities in the contemporary age. If more and more communities or organizations could transform from knowledge learning and skill development to wholeness learning and praxis, the many ecological, global, technological, and ethical challenges we are facing would serve to illuminate our reflective dialogue and enlighten our collective thinking. Moreover, collaboration within the wholeness praxis communities and with other generative communities would be likely to shape a new culture for global sustainability.


Clinical needs for new antifungal agents have gradually and steadily increased with the rise of AIDS-related mycoses, and the change in spectrum of fatal disseminated fungal infections. Triazoles are taken as potential antifungal molecules considering the existing portfolio of antifungal agents available in the market. This study was aimed to evaluate antifungal potential of 4-Amino 5-(2-Hydroxyphenyl)-1,2,4-Triazole-3-Thione and 4-(2-hydroxybenzalidine)amine-5- (2-hydroxy)phenyl-1,2,4-triazole-3-thiol using molecular docking and in-vitro antifungal screening approach. This study was further designed to evaluate potential drug likeness properties and ADME/T prediction of aforementioned experimental triazoles. 3D crystal model of cytochrome P450 lanosterol 14 α-demethylase enzyme was acquired from Protein Data Bank (PDB ID 5EQB). Docking studies revealed that both experimental compounds showed stable binding complex with lowest binding affinity values compared to reference standard Fluconazole (-6.8, -7.8 and -7.1Kcal/mol respectively for UI, UIA and Fluconazole) against cytochrome P450 lanosterol 14 α-demethylase, which is a key yeast target. In-vitro evaluation revealed that both experimental triazoles especially UIA showed promising MIC values, 24, 48 and 80 μg against Candida albican, Candida tropicalis and Candida glabrata respectively. Rat acute toxicity prediction using GUSAR model suggested that both experimental molecules were virtually nontoxic when computationally studied through IV, IP, SC and oral routes of administration. This experimental work concludes that both triazoles possess strong fungicidal potential and should be further explored. In-silico work in current study further proposes an exceptional strategy for drug discovery with minimum cost and time.


This thesis presents the first full-length study of modernist literary luggage. It explores all facets of imaginative engagement with luggage, both material and metaphorical, in modernism, as this builds upon and develops a long-standing and overlooked symbolic and analogic tradition. The study approaches luggage in two ways; as thematic motif and as model for modernist form. Drawing on an extensive range of primary sources spanning from the mid-nineteenth through to the mid-twentieth century, it identifies the proliferating appeal of luggage imagery over the course of this period as defined against the diminishing appeal of governing sedentary paradigms for apprehending and framing experience, exemplified in the symbolic form of the house. It contends that the 'case' overtakes the 'house of fiction' in the early-twentieth-century literary imagination as the central structural model for modern fiction in line with the emergence of what E.M. Forster disparagingly refers to as the 'civilisation of luggage' in Howards End in 1910. As Forster's disparagement suggests, the very idea of a civilisation of luggage provoked conflicting responses and contentious readings. Correspondingly, the case of fiction model was characterised by its very paradoxical nature; most conspicuously, it enacted a break from old forms while also demonstrating an inability to entirely leave the past behind. Yet it was precisely because, and not in spite of, this paradoxical quality, this semantic instability, this capacity to inspire divergent responses, that modernist literary luggage became such an appropriate means of encapsulating the experience of modernity in all its complexity.

A central focus is the special significance of luggage for women. The thesis will consider the recurrent use of the woman's bag as a pivotal motif and sticking point in portrayals of shifting gender relations around the turn of the twentieth century in order to demonstrate that the woman's struggle for a bag of her own was a necessary precursor to the struggle surrounding the room, feeding into a wider modernist preoccupation with the nature of the relationship between freedom and property. Following this preoccupation more generally into the interwar period, the thesis charts the impact of the politicization of forms of mobility in late modernist work as this is manifested in the problematization of an earlier modernist luggage paradigm. Taking account of luggage conceptions of refugee and evacuee writers caught in the political crossfire on mainland Europe - that other civilization of luggage compelled by force, rather than by choice, to travel light - the study will conclude with a detailed discussion of the widespread reappraisal of the case of fiction model in the late 1930s in light of complicating political factors. Overall, the thesis contends that luggage - signalling obstruction as much as mobility, adventure as much as dispossession, the exhilaration of travel as much as the terror of flight, the material attachment to a familiar past as much as the immaterial projection forward into an unfamiliar future - proposes an innovative re-description of modernist fiction which offers illuminating new perspectives on the contradictory forces, interests and imperatives of modernism with wide-reaching implications.


Background Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, urology was one of the specialties with the lowest rates of telemedicine and videoconferencing use. Common barriers to the implementation of telemedicine included a lack of technological literacy, concerns with reimbursement, and resistance to changes in the workplace. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic declared in March 2020, the delivery of urological services globally has quickly shifted to telemedicine to account for the mass clinical, procedural, and operative cancellations, inadequate personal protective equipment, and shortage of personnel. Objective The aim of this study was to investigate current telemedicine usage by urologists, urologists' perceptions on the necessity of in-person clinic appointments, the usability of telemedicine, and the current barriers to its implementation. Methods We conducted a global, cross-sectional, web-based survey to investigate the use of telemedicine before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Urologists' perceived usability of telemedicine was assessed using a modified Delphi approach to create questions based on a modified version of the validated Telehealth Usability Questionnaire (TUQ). For the purposes of this study, telemedicine was defined as video calls only. Results A total of 620 urologists from 58 different countries and 6 continents participated in the survey. Prior to COVID-19, 15.8% (n=98) of urologists surveyed were using telemedicine in their clinical practices; during the pandemic, that proportion increased to 46.1% (n=283). Of the urologists without telemedicine experience, interest in telemedicine usage increased from 43.7% (n=139) to 80.8% (n=257) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among urologists that used telemedicine during the pandemic, 80.9% (n=244) were interested in continuing to use it in their practice. The three most commonly used platforms were Zoom, Doxy.me, and Epic, and the top three barriers to implementing telemedicine were patients' lack of technological comprehension, patients' lack of access to the required technology, and reimbursement concerns. Conclusions This is the first study to quantify the use, usability, and pervading interest in telemedicine among urologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the face of this pandemic, urologists' usage of telemedicine nearly tripled, demonstrating their ability to adopt and adapt telemedicine into their practices, but barriers involving the technology itself are still preventing many from utilizing it despite increasing interest.


Policy-based management (PBM) is a research topic that has been driven by the tremendous complexity inherent in the administration and management of present-day networking and telecommunications systems and services. The increasingly diverse organisational forms of modern industry represent a significant component of this complexity. Internet communities offer extreme examples of organisational diversity, since they often lack any central authority and many subsections operate with almost complete autonomy. This paper argues that PBM systems offer great potential in this domain due to the complexity of management arrangements. However, since these communities lack any single trusted administrative hierarchy, a centralised solution to policy engineering and management is not possible. This paper proposes an approach to modelling communities for PBM systems. This approach focuses on the concept of communities within a hierarchy of authority as the fundamental unit of organisational analysis. As such, the model reflects the distribution of authority in the real-world community, the resulting policies reflect the community's operational needs and contracts between the various groups and individuals that make up the community. Policy conflicts are used to identify organisational conflicts that must be resolved. In order to illustrate and validate these concepts, the paper presents a conceptual architecture and case study based on the secure management of an open publishing network.


Background: Based on the theoretical basis of the pathological mechanism of cerebral ischemic injury, from the molecular level, using PC12 cells in vitro cell model pharmacodynamics and PK-PD correlation model research, to explain NaomaitongNMTpharmacodynamic material basis for the treatment of cerebral ischemic injury.
Methods: Four in vitro cell models of cerebral ischemic injury were established. The side-leakage of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and NO content were used as pharmacodynamic indicators to establish the corresponding drug-time curves of NMT and each single-drug; Based on the SVM algorithm, a PK-PD correlation mathematical model was established.
Results: The cerebral ischemia model caused by NMT has obvious protective effects compared with each single herb. Each single herb has different protective effects on the four damage mechanisms. The protective effect of Radix Pueraria(RP) was stronger in cerebral ischemic injury induced by Glu, In the cerebral ischemic injury caused by calcium overload mechanism, the protective effect of Ligusticum chuanxiongLCwas greater than that of Panax Ginseng(PG) and RP. The 15 components in NMT contained drug serum had a certain correlation with the cell injury model caused by the four mechanisms. It may be a medicinal material for NMT, and the different components have different correlations for cerebral ischemia damage caused by different mechanisms, and each component also has different efficacy.
Conclusions: It reveals the medicinal substance basis of NMT in treating cerebral ischemia,and provides reference for the clinical rational use of NMT for the treatment of cerebral ischemic injury, and provides guidance for the basic research on the substance of traditional Chinese medicine.


Background and Purpose: The increasing popularity of sushi in Metro Vancouver raises public health concerns over the consumption of sushi rice being held out of temperature control. Although sushi rice is acidified to control growth of pathogenic microorganisms, there is no existing documented system to monitor the pH of sushi rice, and pH testing is rarely performed by Environmental Health Officers(EHOs)/Public Health Inspectors(PHIs) during routine inspections. The purpose of the study was to measure the pH of sushi rice samples collected from different sushi restaurants in Burnaby, BC and determine whether the pH meets the accepted standard of 4.6 or below. Methods: 30 sushi rice samples were collected from 30 randomly selected sushi restaurants in Burnaby, British Columbia. The samples were kept at room temperature and then tested for pH using the Waterproof Palm pH Meter. Results: The mean pH of the samples was 4.09; the median was 4.115; the standard deviation was 0.198; and the range was 0.82 with the minimum value of 3.71 and the maximum value of 4.53. 100% (30 out of 30 samples) had the pH less than 4.6. The statistical z-test resulted in a p-value of 0.00. Discussion: All of the sushi rice samples had pH values less than 4.6. Therefore, the samples were adequately acidified to inhibit the growth of pathogens. The low pH values indicate that the samples are not considered potentially hazardous food, thus safe to be stored at room temperature for extended periods of time. However, due to the nature of Bacillus cereus that can grow at a pH 4.3 or higher, the target pH of sushi rice is 4.3 or lower. Conclusion: Inadequately acidified sushi rice may pose a health risk if it is stored out of temperature control. The study shows that sushi rice being consumed by the public in Burnaby, BC is generally safe and has a low public health concern. Therefore, EHOs/PHIs can feel assured that sushi rice stored at room temperature is unlikely to cause potential foodborne illness.


The interaction of economic agents is one of the most important elements in economic analyses. While most empirical studies investigate peer effects on objective final achievements, peer effects on subjective outcomes are inherently difficult to identify and estimate because these variables are prone to measurement errors. In particular, peer effects on students' attitudes towards learning are believed to have a significant impact on their achievements, while we found the presence of misclassification errors in students' self-reported attitudes. We develop a binary choice model with misclassification and social interactions and use a recently developed technique of measurement error models to correct misreporting errors for estimating the peer effects on attitude. Our estimates suggest that a significant proportion of students overreport their attitudes towards learning and that peer effects are not only significant, but also much larger than estimates ignoring the misreporting errors. Our method may be generalized to the identification and estimation of peer effects with imperfect data information.


In 1976, Sporn has defined chemoprevention as "the use of pharmacologic or natural agents that inhibit the development of invasive breast cancer either by blocking the DNA damage that initiates carcinogenesis, or by arresting or reversing the progression of premalignant cells in which such damage has already occurred." Although the precise mechanism or mechanisms that promote a breast cancer are not completely established, the success of several recent clinical trials in preventive settings in selected high-risk populations suggests that chemoprevention is a rational and an appealing strategy. Breast cancer chemoprevention has focused heavily on endocrine intervention using selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) and aromatase inhibitors (AIs). Achieving much success in this particular setting and new approaches as low-dose administration are actually under investigations in several topics. Unfortunately, these drugs are active in prevention of endocrine responsive lesions only and have no effect in reducing the risk of estrogen-negative breast cancer. Thus, recently new pathways, biomarkers, and agents likely are to be effective in this subgroup of cancers and were put under investigation. Moreover, the identification of new potential molecular targets and the development of agents aimed at these targets within cancer have already had a significant impact on advanced cancer therapy and provide a wealth of opportunities for chemoprevention. This paper will highlight current clinical research in both ER-positive and ER-negative breast cancer chemoprevention, explaining the biologic effect of the various agents on carcinogenesis and precancerous lesions, and finally presenting an excursus on the state-of-the-art about new molecular targets under investigations in breast cancer settings.


In recent years, the necessity of using renewable resources and sustainable solutions in the building sector has become obvious, and interest in timber as a building material has revived. Novel timber-derived products, such as massif block panels, have emerged and the use of such products is spreading. The IBOIS research concerns the development of a new generation of timber constructions, made out of innovative timber-derived products, derived by applying textile principles on a building scale. It aims at the unprecedented exploration and study of timber related structures and their structural analyses within a framework integrating the mechanical and structural principles of textiles. The validity of this approach is based on the fact that both, wood and fabrics, are fibre-based tissues. Since timber can be viewed as a fibre-derived product it follows that the analogy between micro scale fibre structures and timber-derived wooden structures can be explored at micro-and macro-scale. The concise observation of existing textile techniques and fabrication methods combined with investigation lines such as textiles, mathematical descriptions, study of timber rib shells, woven wood fabrics, architectural and structural applications, digital modelling, scalar relationships, structural analysis and optimisation processes lead to a new family of timber constructions based on the logic and principles of textile fabrics.


While teaching in a California charter school in the late 1990s, I had the experience of working one year under the dictates of a highly scripted curricular program and the next year in the absence of an effectively crafted instructional plan. In both cases it proved difficult for teachers to provide quality instruction to students. In an effort to analyze such contemporary experiences, I explore here the ideas and practices of an important educational innovation from our past: the Laboratory School of the University of Chicago, under the direction of John Dewey from 1896 to 1904. I argue that the very practices that promoted teachers' intellectual freedom at the school, such as weekly meetings to discuss teachers' reports of classroom practice, also provided needed guidance. By avoiding the mindless following of dictates, the school community simultaneously worked to prevent the fragmentation and muddiness of purpose that can result from too little direction. Thus, I argue, a solution to both of the problems I encountered can be found in practices that result from a strong commitment to the intellectual freedom of teachers to make important decisions about curriculum and instruction.


a b s t r a c t Corridors are thought to reduce the negative biological effects of habitat loss and fragmentation by provid- ing connectivity and suitable habitat for many species, including carnivores. Although corridor structure maintenance is considered to be an essential tool for carnivore conservation in a human-dominated landscape, surprisingly little is known about the effects of different factors at various spatial scales. The main aim of this study was to determine how local and landscape-scale habitat characteristics and prey availability influence the corridor use by carnivores in a Central European agricultural landscape. More- over we investigated carnivore corridor occurrence in two contrasting landscapes that differ in level of habitat loss and fragmentation to evaluate relative effect of species-specific response to regional context. Results show that the availability of principal prey (small mammals) was the most crucial factor affecting carnivore corridor use. Other important factors influencing corridor use were corridor width (positive), proportion of shrubs (positive) and presence of local, low-traffic, roads (positive). Single species models revealed interspecific and area-specific differences in carnivore preference at both spatial scales. Our findings confirm the general importance of multi-level approach to evaluating species-specific habitat requirements as a crucial tool for determining suitable methods for carnivore efficient conservation in human-dominated agricultural landscape. © 2012 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.


After performing hydraulic fracturing treatments in shale reservoirs, the hydraulic fractures and their adjacent reservoir rocks can be damaged. Typically, the following fracture damage scenarios may occur: (1) choked fractures with near-wellbore damage; (2) partially propped fractures with unpropped or poorly propped sections within the fractures; (3) fracture face damage; and (4) multiple damage cases. The basic equations of fracture skin factors, which are widely used to depict fracture damage, are derived under steady-state conditions. They are not accurate when the damaged length is relatively long and are not applicable for multiple fracture damage and partially propped fractures. In this paper, a new composite linear flow model is established considering all above-mentioned fracture damage mechanisms, complex gas transport mechanisms, and the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) of shale gas reservoirs.
 The matrix model is modified from de Swaan-O's spherical element model considering the slip flow, Knudsen diffusion, surface diffusion, and desorption. Natural fractures are idealized as a thin layer that evenly covers the matrix. The reservoir-fracture flow model is extended from the seven-region linear flow model with four additional sub-regions to handle single and multiple fracture damage mechanisms. Specifically, the inner reservoir region near the primary hydraulic fracture is treated as the SRV where the secondary fracture permeability is higher than that of other unstimulated dual-porosity regions and obeys a power-law decreasing trend due to the attenuate stimulation intensity within the SRV. The flows in different regions are coupled through flux and pressure continuity conditions at their interfaces.
 This model is validated by matching with the Marcellus Shale production data. And the degraded model's calculation matches well with that of the seven-region linear flow model validated by KAPPA software. Type curves with five typical flow regimes are generated and sensitivity analyses are conducted. Results indicate that the presence of the SRV diminishes pressure and derivative values in certain flow regimes depending on the SRV properties. Fracture face damage, choked fracture damage, and partially propped fractures all control specific flow regimes but the fracture face damage shows the smallest influence, only dominating the late fracture linear flow regime and the matrix-fracture transient regime. In the multiple fracture damage case, some typical flow regimes can be easily identified except the partially propped fractures. The field application example further ensures the applicability in dealing with real field data.


Trends in Indian wheat production before and after the inception of the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on wheat have been analyzed to show its significant progress over the years. A brief intercountry comparison of productivity, production and area coupled with regional comparison within India has been attempted to give an idea about the contribution of country and regions, respectively, for global and national food security. The milestones in Indian wheat programme and research outcomes were highlighted post-AICRP along with the vision and strategies set for 2050 against diverse production challenges. Regional disparities, zone-wise production constraints and research programmes for achieving the set production target were briefed. The chapter concludes with possible interventions in strengthening the complete wheat value chain for ensuring food security for the future generation.


Despite the amount of research into the cavity flow problem the prediction of the flow patterns, associated forces and acoustic phenomena remains an unsolved problem. The coupling of the shear layer dynamics, the internal vortical structures and the acoustics of the cavity make it a very complex flow despite the simple geometry. Once doors, stores and release mechanism are added the problem is compounded, thus accurate prediction methods are a necessity.

The cavity has been shown to oscillate in different modes depending on the flow conditions and the geometry of the cavity. Two modes of oscillation were examined in detail, these being the wake and shear layer mode, using computational fluid dynamics and experimental data where available. The flow code used is the in-house CFD solver PMB and the experimental data has been provided by DERA. The cavity geometry was for a 1VD=5 cavity with a W/D ratio of 1 for the 3D investigation.

For the wake mode the Reynolds number has been varied from 5,000 to 100,000 and the Mach number has been varied from 0.3 to 1.0 in order to examine the effect of changing conditions on this mode of oscillation. The characteristics of this mode of oscillation have been identified and a stable region within the varying Mach and Reynolds numbers has been shown. Outside of this stable region a blended flow has been identified.

For the shear layer mode of oscillation the open cavity environment has been examined. This cavity is of great interest as examples of it can be found in current airframes, the H- 111 for example. This flow type is characterised by intense acoustic noise at distinct frequencies which could cause structural fatigue and damage sensitive electronics. However, this cavity type also has a relatively benign pressure distribution along the length of the cavity making it ideal for store separation. The flow cycle predicted shows that the separated shear layer impact on the rear wall generates strong acoustic waves. These waves are further enhanced by the interaction of the wave with the vortices and upstream wall of the cavity. The flow conditions of interest for this case are M=0.85 and Re=6.783 million. A study of the effect of time step, grid refinement and turbulence model has been performed. It has been seen that the density of the grid and the turbulence model chosen must be considered as a pair; if the grid is too fine it may resolve scales being modelled by the turbulence model and result in a double counting of energy resulting in spurious results.

One area of cavity studies that has received only sparse investigation is the effect of 3-Dimensionality on the flow. One objective of this work was to try and rectify this. However, it was found that the choice of solver could play a significant role in the accurate prediction of the 3D cavity flow. For cases where the acoustic spectrum is broad, typical URANS codes may have difficulty in predicting these flows. Under such conditions DES or LES would be more appropriate choices. However, when the frequency spectrum is not as spread out URANS can provide good results. This can be seen in the 3D cavity case where doors are present and aligned vertically.

The wake mode, while identified in 2D. has received little attention in 3D. It is generally thought that the effect of the third dimension would be to trip the wake mode to shift to another mode of oscillation. This study has shown that this is indeed the case. The flow cycle shown is more reminiscent of the blended flows shown in some 2D cases.


Metal matrix composites have been widely used in industries, especially aerospace industries, due to their excellent engineering properties. However, it is difficult to machine them because of the hardness and abrasive nature of reinforcement elements like silicon carbide particles (SiCp).In the present study, an attempt has been made to investigate the influence of spindle speed (N), feed rate (f), depth of cut (d) and various %wt. of silicon carbide (S) manufactured through stir cast route on tool flank wear and surface roughness during end milling of LM25 Al-SiCp metal matrix composites. Statistical models based on second order polynomial equations were developed for the different responses. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to identify the significant factors affecting the tool flank wear and surface roughness. The contour plots were generated to study the effect of process parameters as well as their interactions. The process parameters are optimized using desirability-based approach response surface methodology.


This critical commentary reviews and contextualises existing research on
Photographic strategies for visualising the landscape and natural history of
Northern England: the ordinary and the extraordinary. The commentary
examines three major bodies of photographic work that have each been publicly
disseminated as major exhibitions, Sharpe's Wood (2007) nominated for the Prix
Pictet (Earth) Photography Award (2009), Chasing the Gloaming (2011)
nominated for the Deutsche Borse and Re: Collections (2013). Each case study
has been subject to critical peer and public review and this is evaluated in the
commentary and a comprehensive box of evidential research material is
presented to support the practice-led research submission.
The commentary positions the practice-led enquiry against the overall research
aims and objectives. The research focus has made a significant contribution to
landscape photographic discourse, through experimental and transformational
analogue and digital photographic methodologies (camera and non-camera) in
the visualisation of the hidden and unseen aspects of the landscape and natural
history of the north of England.
The commentary frames and highlights the wide-ranging historical collections
based research across photographic, artistic and science disciplines, and it tracks
their impact on the research trajectory and on my contemporary photographic
practice. Photographic critical thinking (Walter Benjamin and Roland Barthes)
supported the theoretical research aims; their ideas provided critical filters for
practice-led experiments with camera and non-camera seeing and the aim of
visualising the hidden through experimental photographic methodologies.
Historical and contemporary nature writing also informed the photographic
research trajectory, specifically with ideas around the locale within a wider
cultural context and ideas around the (lost) meaning of landscape.
The resulting research outputs have culminated in an examination of the wider
cultural value of the ordinary and the local landscape visualised
photographically.


ABSTRACT Educational partnerships occur at the intersection of early childhood education and care (ECEC), families, and the surrounding community, and have been shown to play a significant role in student success rates in education. There is, however, a gap in research on the role and potential of 'partnership' in the case of bilingual families with children enrolled in monolingual minority language ECEC. This study aimed to fill this void by examining parental and practitioner discourses on partnership and on obligations, desires, abilities, and competencies involved in acting on a bilingual childhood in the context of monolingual minority ECEC. Parents in nine Finnish–Swedish bilingual families and six pedagogical practitioners at three Swedish-medium minority language ECEC units in Finland were interviewed. We applied ethnographic discourse analysis – nexus analysis – on the interview data and found that the family languages (Finnish and Swedish) did not seem to be given equal importance; Swedish, the minority language in Finland and the language of the ECEC, was foregrounded at the expense of Finnish. The study suggests that partnership is a useful concept and a tool to understand the possibilities and challenges involved in promoting bilingualism in ECEC, especially in the context of a minority language ECEC.


The openEHR community has developed a specification that has been taken up by the standards community and has this year been adopted as ISO 13606. The specification offers an engineering and semantic framework for implementing an electronic health record (EHR) service within a service-oriented architecture. The semantic framework provides the means of agreeing the clinical and other content of the EHR independently of the implementation infrastructure. The clinical content is expressed using a formal language, itself part of the ISO standard, which ensures the content specifications provide a single computable source for many key artifacts required for semantic interoperability.


Fluidity is a term sometimes used in reference to bisexual identity, thus positioning sexuality as an adaptive, evolving set of behaviors performed to constitute alternately straightness or queerness. Part of the speciousness of using fluidity to describe bisexuality centers on the implication that heterosexuality and homosexuality occupy opposite ends of a psychological spectrum, leaving bisexuality vaguely straddling poles of identity, without specificity or intent. This article is predominantly concerned with the notion of intentionality in bisexual behavior and whether or not deliberate choices are made to participate in communities that identify as either straight or queer. Rather than framing this investigation in terms of whether or not sexuality itself is a choice, this article compares bisexuals who alternately engage in straight or queer practices in the context of passing, as when a person presents herself as an alternate race. Using personal narratives, theoretical works from Judith Butler, bell hooks and Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, and drawing on descriptions of racial passing, I am interested in crafting psychological profiles of women who routinely perform their sexualities differently as part of belonging to and identifying with distinct communities of queerness and straightness.


Substantial sums of money have been poured into developing countries by donors, aid agencies and NGOs to improve people's access to water. However, many of the constructed water sources have broken down or are dysfunctional. At the same time, donors, governments and NGOs rush to achieve coverage targets, ambitiously set and inaccurately measured. This paper proposes a new way of measuring the impact of investments. Assessing investments in 'water-person-years' over a defined period of time, allows for a more efficient allocation of resources, and calls for a rethinking of the current development approach. Measuring in water-person-years is necessary in order to shift focus from new infrastructure development to operation and maintenance of existing water systems, something that is crucial for sustainability.


Background. Malignant pleural mesothelioma – is a rare malignant tumor of the pleura. The most common risk factor is asbestos exposure. It is prognosed that the incidence of the mesothelioma will increase due to intensive use of asbestos in 20th century. This disease has a very poor prognosis. The average survival time after diagnosis is about 1 year. The biggest diagnostic dilemma is the mesothelioma and benign pleural diseases have the same clinical features. However, our aim is to prove that by using radiological and histological testing it is possible differentiate these diseases and diagnose a mesothelioma earlier. The patient survival time could be prolonged. Case report. A 74-year-old man with suspected malignancy in the right lung was sent to an oncology institute. After repeated a chest x-ray and the first computer tomography scan a possible pleural mesothelioma with metastases to the right adrenal gland was suspected. A surgeon performed a videoassisted thoracoscopic surgery for diagnostic and treatment purposes. In biopsy of the tumour, loss of BAP1 expression was found. The pathologist diagnosed an epithelioid malignant pleural mesothelioma. The patient was treated with combination of carboplatin and pemetrexed. After 2 cycles of chemotherapy a computer tomography was repeated. Images showed partial response to the treatment, but overall prognosis was poor. Conclusion. The patient's radiological images showed typical signs of the mesothelioma: pleural mass, pleural effusion, thickening of the pleura, involvement of intralobular fissures, ipsilateral volume loss of the lung. Recognizing these features could help differentiate malignant and benign lesions. Loss of BAP1 marker's expression is the most important indicator for a mesothelioma in histology.


The Golden Thread: Storytelling in Teaching and Learning. By Susan Danojj. Kingston, NJ: Storytelling Arts Press, 2006. 1 75 pp. Susan Danoff has produced a small, sparkling gem of a book that addresses not so much the "how to" as the why of storytelling in the school curriculum. She explores how storytelling operates as an integral part of the learning process, arguing that "storytelling is a method of teaching, a way to gain trust, to communicate effectively, to inspire imaginative thinking, and to provide a foundation for the thinking that is basic to literacy" (xv). Building trust and communication skills are essential to establishing a learning environment; imaginative thinking enables "resourcefulness in dealing with new or unusual experiences" (89), a significant part of the learning process; and the skills involved in story listening, visualization, reflecting, and retelling are core elements of literacy development. Danoff describes her early realization, when she tutored as a teenager, that one of her students, a self-acknowledged slow learner, had never realized "that letters were symbols and that words signified meaning" (18). She discovered that he thought reading was "magic" that some people could do and others couldn't. It took her many more years to learn the effectiveness of storytelling as a classroom tool to break the secret code and help students recognize the magic of reading for themselves - and to understand why storytelling contributes so much to the learning process. Educators are fortunate that in this book she passes on what she has learned. Danoff's use of stories, both traditional and original, to establish the framework of her book suggests vividly how she incorporates her telling into teaching. The book is divided into six parts, each set off with an appropriately chosen story. She opens with an original story, "The Forgotten Gifts," which pays tribute to the creative arts of dance, song, and storytelling, more valuable by far than material goods; this is followed by an assertion that "every teacher can be a storyteller" (39). She explains processes involved in storytelling, either informal anecdotes or polished performance, and why folktales, in particular, are important tools for teaching narrative. The anecdotes she shares from her classroom experience support her argument that storytelling works. A section on "Storytelling and Classroom Culture" follows, beginning with a vivid retelling of "The Tiger's Whisker," a Korean folktale of a woman who needs patience and understanding to gain the trust of a tiger in order to communicate with her troubled husband. Danoff then explains how storytelling can be used to build a sense of community, setting the stage for learning to take place. Oral storytelling can be especially effective in drawing in students with differing learning styles, who may have trouble learning through more conventional teaching methods. Part 3 is an ardent tribute to the powers of the imagination, the way storytelling enables imaginative play among listeners, and the connection between imaginative play and effective learning. She draws parallels between children's use of the imagination and the Scottish folktale "The Lost Child," in which a mother wins her child back after it is stolen by the Sidh, who love beauty but lack the power to create. Creative use of imagination is an important human skill, taught through stories. …


This paper focuses on analyzing the structure of several egocentric networks of collective awareness platforms for sustainable innovation (CAPS). It answers the question whether the network structure is determinative for the sustainability of the created awareness. Based on a thorough literature review a model is developed explaining and operationalizing the concept of sustainability of a social network in terms of importance, effectiveness and robustness. By developing an agent-based model, the expected outcomes after the dissolution of the CAPS are predicted and compared with the results of a network with the same participants but with different ties. Twitter data from different CAPS is collected and used to feed the simulation. The results show that the structure of the network is of key importance for its sustainability. With this knowledge and the ability to simulate the results after network changes have taken place, CAPS can assess the sustainability of their legacy and actively steer towards a longer lasting potential for social innovation. The retrieved knowledge urges organizations like the European Commission to adopt a more blended approach focusing not only on solving societal issues but on building a community to sustain the initiated development.


Many companies initiate programmes containing continuous improvements (CI) and work development (WD), but a lot of those fail in terms of sustainability. The paper identifies important factors that need to be considered urgently if one wants to reach a sustainable work with CI and WD. The factors include aspects such as basic ideas, personal interest, simplicity, active management, structured work, clear goals and adaptability. These factors are then illustrated by two engineering companies that have been working with CI and WD for two to three years. The outcome of this test confirms that the identified factors are important.


Coordinate Frame Transformation, or Reference Frame Transformation, is a process that is used to effectively locate a target, detected in a robot's field of view, in three-dimensional Cartesian space. Being able to evaluate the three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates of a target object helps eliminate the usage of error based proximity detection of the robotic arm, in relation to the target. This greatly reduces the grasp time, which in-turn reduces the overall time for completion of a complex task involving multiple grasps. Here, the grasp approach mechanism begins with detecting, and isolating the target object within the task frame, which is a subset of the field of view of the robot's camera.

Post the detection of the target by the robot, the coordinates of the centroid of the target are now fed into a trained Deep Learning model, which effectively outputs the corresponding three-dimensional Cartesian coordinates of this target in the robot's own frame of reference. Subsequently, the usage of an Inverse Kinematics solver, on the calculated Cartesian coordinates, directs the motion of the robot arm towards the target, effectively attempting a grasp. This mechanism attempts a grasp without the usage of dynamic calibration of the robotic arm, during the traversal, which leads to significant reduction in latency between planning and the grasp action itself.

Dynamic trajectory planning can sometimes lead the robot arm to take a very convoluted path from its initial position, to ultimately reach the target object. Alternate approaches, that use external cameras equipped with depth sensors, extend the dependence of the robot beyond its own resources. The presented Frame Transform model can reduce this dependence, by using only the robot's resources, and Deep Learning to bridge the gap created by the absence of advanced features(in this case, lack of depth sensors on the built-in head Camera), in the hardware present on the Baxter Robot.

The goal of the experiment is to determine the extent to which a Deep Learning Model can be used to replace a more conventional semi-analytical multi-stage pipeline for location estimation. We aim to explore the capabilities of Deeper Models and their ability to learn complex relations which would otherwise be concluded by means of a multi-stage pipeline of execution. While this experiment is constrained to a sample Cartesian Plane in the Baxter's frame of reference, it is intended to be a starting point to using Deep Learning to locate targets in Baxter's proximity efficiently.


The railroads in the American West were constructed in a few concentrated building booms. This timing of construction resulted from the alternate creation and collapse of imperfect property rights to rights of way in partially settled areas. These "property rights" arose from strategic behavior within the railroad oligopoly. When enforcement costs of cooperative action were low, the railroads were able to create rents by avoiding construction ahead of demand. When enforcement became difficult, however, construction was the only way to capture rents on unbuilt lines so a construction boom ensued.


"The American Dream" is one of the most familiar and resonant phrases in our national lexicon, so familiar that we seldom pause to ask its origin, its history, or what it actually means. In this fascinating short history, Jim Cullen explores the meaning of the American Dream, or rather the several American Dreams that have both reflected and shaped American identity from the Pilgrims to the present. Cullen begins by noting that the United States, unlike most other nations, defines itself not on the facts of blood, religion, language, geography, or shared history, but on a set of ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence and consolidated in the Constitution. At the core of these ideals lies the ambiguous but galvanizing concept of the American Dream, a concept that for better and worse has proven to be amazingly elastic and durable for hundreds of years and across racial, class, and other demographic lines. Cullen then traces a series of overlapping American dreams: the quest for of religious freedom that brought the Pilgrims to the "New World"; the political freedom promised in the Declaration; the dream of upward mobility, embodied most fully in the figure of Abraham Lincoln; the dream of home ownership, from homestead to suburb; the intensely idealistic-and largely unrealized-dream of equality articulated most vividly by Martin Luther King, Jr. The version of the American Dream that dominates our own time-what Cullen calls "the Dream of the Coast"-is one of personal fulfillment, of fame and fortune all the more alluring if achieved without obvious effort, which finds its most insidious expression in the culture of Hollywood. For anyone seeking to understand a shifting but central idea in American history, The American Dream is an interpretive tour de force.


3C seismic applications provide enhanced rock property characterization of the reservoir that can complement P-wave methods. Continued interest in converted P- to S-waves (PS-waves) and vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) has resulted in the steady development of advanced vector wavefield techniques. PS-wave images along with VSP data can be used to help P-wave interpretation of structure in gas obscured zones, of elastic and fluid properties for lithology discrimination from S-wave impedance and density inversion in unconventional reservoirs, and of fracture characterization and stress monitoring from S-wave birefringence (splitting) analysis. The book, which accompanies the 2016 SEG Distinguished Instructor Short Course, presents an overview of 3C seismic theory and practical application: from fundamentals of PS-waves and VSPs, through to acquisition and processing including interpretation techniques. The emphasis is on unique aspects of vector wavefields, anisotropy, and the important relationships that unify S-waves and P-waves. Various applications and case studies demonstrate image benefits from PS-waves, elastic properties and fluid discrimination from joint inversion of amplitude variations with offset/angle (AVO/A), and VSP methods for anisotropic velocity model building and improved reservoir imaging. The book will be of interest to geophysicists, geologists, and engineers, especially those involved with or considering the use of AVO/A inversion, fracture/stress characterization analyses, or interpretation in gas-obscured reservoirs.


Abstract Of all patients with low back pain (LBP), 85% are diagnosed as "non-specific lumbar pain". It has been postulated that the only reliable test is a straight leg raise test for detecting sciatic pain, and for other diagnostic subgroups, tests are of varying value. Only a few standardized tests exist to test function, inspection, mobility, pain, muscle flexibility or stability for patients with early phase lumbar spine and sacroiliac joint pain and dysfunction in the non-laboratory setting. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the inter- and intra-tester reliability of selected standardized clinical tests. Fifteen eligible, consecutive and voluntary LBP patients (aged 18–56 years), whose pain had lasted less than 3 months were recruited by an invitation letter. Patients were examined by two physiotherapists specialized in orthopaedic manual therapy. These PTs examined the same patients at a 1-week interval, changing the examination order at the second session. The assessment consisted of seven categories: history, observation of posture, function of low back and lower extremities, stability tests, pain provocation and mobility tests, neurological and neurodynamic tests, and tests of muscle tightness. In analysing these seven test categories, the mean inter-tester kappa was 0.5 (95% CI –0.05 to 1.20) and intra-tester kappa 0.6 (95% CI –0.40 to 1.28). Overall inter- and intra-tester reliability was at an acceptable level, except for the inspection test category, where agreement was poor. However, the reliability of individual tests ranged from poor to very good. In conclusion, when assessing LBP patients in the early phase (<12-week duration), reliability of one or more tests were acceptable on a group level with inter- and intra-tester reliability in every test category. However, our results need confirmation in a larger sample, especially when this great number of examination findings is tested, to reduce the likelihood of spurious findings.


Abstract
 Perenniporiopsis gen. nov. is described to accommodate Perenniporiopsis minutissima spec. et comb. nov. Phylogenetic analyses based on two data sets, [ITS+n28S nrRNA] and [ITS, n28S, mtSSU, tef1], and using Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian inferences, showed that specimens of Perenniporia minutissima form a monophyletic well-supported clade within the core polyporoid clade, The new genus grouped with the Abundisporus, Perenniporiella and Perenniporia s.s. lineages, and is phylogenetically distinct from the Perenniporia s.s. lineage (100% BS, 99% MP, 1.00 BPP). Morphologically, the consistency of the basidiocarps, waxy when fresh, drying rigidly osseous, as well as the large basidiospores characterize this species and distinguish it from Perenniporia s.s. The species seems to be endemic to temperate east Asia, and is known from temperate Japan and China.


Background: We have previously reported that immunization with GRA2 antigen of Toxoplasma gondii induces protective immunity in CBA/J (H2k) and BALB/c mice (H2d). We aimed to examine whether immunization of a distinct strain of rodent with recombinant dense granule antigens (GRA2) combined with monophosphorryl lipid A (MPL) adjuvant elicits protective immune response against T. gondii. Methods: C57BL/6 (H2b haplotype) mice were immunized with GRA2, formulated in MPL adjuvant. Results: Strong humoral response, predominantly of IgG1 subclass and cellular response, IFN-γ, was detected at three weeks post immunization. Mice immunized with GRA2 had significantly (p < 0.01) fewer brain cysts than those in the adjuvant group, upon challenge infection. Despite the production of a strong antibody response, IFN-γ production and brain cyst reduction were not significant when the immunized mice were infected four months after the immunization. Conclusions: We can conclude that GRA2 immunization partially protects against T. gondii infection in C57BL/6 mice, though the potency and longevity of this antigen as a standalone vaccine may vary in distinct genetic backgrounds. This observation further emphasizes the utility of GRA2 for incorporation into a multi-antigenic vaccine against T. gondii. DOI: 10.22034/ibj.22.1.22


The effect of a 20-kDa protein on cell viability and CytA crystal production in its natural host, Bacillus thuringiensis, was studied by expressing the cytA gene in the absence or presence of this protein. In the absence of the 20-kDa protein, B. thuringiensis cells either were killed during sporulation (strain cryB) or produced very small CytA crystals (strain 4Q7). Expression of cytA in the presence of the 20-kDa protein, however, preserved cell viability, especially in strain cryB, and in both strains yielded bipyramidal crystals of the CytA protein that were larger than those of wild-type B. thuringiensis. These results suggest that the 20-kDa protein promotes crystal formation, perhaps by chaperoning CytA molecules during synthesis and crystallization, concomitantly preventing the CytA protein from interacting lethally with the bacterial host cell.


Background: Clinical epidemiology data for young adults on renal replacement therapy (RRT) are lacking. While mostly transplanted, they have an increased risk of graft loss during young adulthood. Methods: We combined the UK Renal Registry paediatric and adult databases to describe patient characteristics, transplantation and survival for young adults. We grouped patients 11–30 years of age starting RRT from 1999 to 2008 by age band and examined their course during 5 years of follow-up. Results: The cohort (n1⁄4 3370) was 58% male, 79% white and 29% had glomerulonephritis. Half (52%) started RRT on haemodialysis (HD). Most (78%) were transplanted (18% preemptive, 61% as second modality); 11% were not listed for transplant. Transplant timing varied by age group. The deceased:living donor kidney transplant ratio was 2:1 for 11–<16 year olds and 1:1 otherwise. Median deceased donor transplant waiting times ranged from 6 months if <16 years of age to 17 months if 21 years. Overall 8% died, with being on dialysis and not transplant listed versus transplanted fhazard ratio [HR] 17.6 [95% confidence interval (CI) 4.36–70.9], P< 0.0001g and diabetes versus glomerulonephritis [HR 4.48 (95% CI 3.05–6.58), P< 0.0001] increasing mortality risk. Conclusions: This study highlights the frequent use of HD and the importance of transplant listing and diabetes for young adults. More than half the young adults in our cohort started renal replacement therapy on HD. One in 10 young adults were not listed for transplant by 5 years and were 20 times more likely to die than those who were transplanted. Diabetes as a primary renal disease was common among young adults and associated with increased mortality. Overall, almost 1 in 10 young adults had died by 5 years from the start of RRT.


Cycling as a green transportation mode has been promoted by many governments all over the world. As a result, constructing effective bike lanes has become a crucial task for governments promoting the cycling life style, as well-planned bike paths can reduce traffic congestion and decrease safety risks for both cyclists and motor vehicle drivers. Unfortunately, existing trajectory mining approaches for bike lane planning do not consider key realistic government constraints: 1) budget limitations, 2) construction convenience, and 3) bike lane utilization. In this paper, we propose a data-driven approach to develop bike lane construction plans based on large-scale real world bike trajectory data. We enforce these constraints to formulate our problem and introduce a flexible objective function to tune the benefit between coverage of the number of users and the length of their trajectories. We prove the NP-hardness of the problem and propose greedy-based heuristics to address it. Finally, we deploy our system on Microsoft Azure, providing extensive experiments and case studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.


This article compares some principal components of the philosophical thoughtof the fifth century B.C.E. Greek philosopher Parmenides and the second century C.E. Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna. It argues that there are strong parallels between these two philosophers and the schools associated with them. It suggests a European line of philosophy which independently supports some of the principal insights of Buddhist thought, and which was developed contemporaneously with Buddhism.


One of the most pressing policy issues of the modern era is how to improve public health in the world's poorest regions. Of particular concern are those diseases spread by mosquitos: the World Health Organisation estimates a total of 96 million cases of dengue [1] and, in 2017 alone, 219 million cases of malaria [2]. Policies targeting such vector-borne diseases (VBDs) represent nothing new. However, there seems to be a continuing inability to move the agenda from one of disease reduction to eradication: clearly, current policy initiatives are not proving effective enough. This report aims to tackle this issue by outlining the problems associated with current policies and how they can be addressed through epidemiological innovation, with need to not only improve the efficacy of such policies, but also their cost-effectiveness and sustainability. Two innovative policies will be presented: that of manipulating the urban environment to reduce mosquito habitat and of harnessing predation pressure to better regulate mosquito populations.


Wasting and secretion of the catabolic cytokines tumor necrosis factor (TNF)/cachectin and interleukin 1 (IL-1) were assessed in weanling Syrian hamsters infected with Leishmania donovani amastigotes. Whereas the mean weight of uninfected animals increased progressively over 9 weeks, the mean weight of infected animals plateaued at 4-6 weeks and then decreased progressively until death. Splenic mononuclear cells from control hamsters produced 11.3 +/- 8.3 (SD) ng TNF/10(6) mononuclear cells/24 hr. TNF secretion in infected animals was greater than the mean +/- 2 SD of controls in 1 of 3 hamsters at 2 weeks post-infection and in 8 of 9 hamsters at weeks 4-8. The mean TNF secreted by infected animals studied at weeks 4-8 was 371 (range 28-800) ng TNF/10(6) mononuclear cells/24 hr (P = 0.005). Control hamsters produced 7.7 +/- 2.7 pg IL-1/10(6) mononuclear cells/24 hr. At 2 weeks, mononuclear cells from 2 of 3 infected animals secreted amounts of IL-1 greater than the mean +/- 2 SD of controls. All of 8 infected hamsters secreted increased amounts of IL-1 at 4-8 weeks. The mean was 164 (range 17-370) pg IL-1/10(6) mononuclear cells/24 hr (P = 0.002). In comparison to infected animals, mononuclear cells from control hamsters incubated with lipopolysaccharide, 10 micrograms/ml, produced 172.5 ng TNF and 44.6 pg of IL-1/10(6) mononuclear cells/24 hr. The effect of visceral leishmaniasis on food intake was assessed in a separate group of animals housed individually in metabolic cages. Significant reductions in weight and food intake were first observed at 2 and 3 weeks of infection, respectively. By 5 weeks, the food intake of infected animals was 46% that of controls. Syrian hamsters infected with L. donovani provide an excellent model with which to study the mechanism of wasting.


In this doctoral project, a relatively new form of carbon material, with unique narrow pore size distribution around 7 A and with uniform structure, has been electrochemically characterised using the single particle microelectrode technique. The carbon has been used as electrode material for supercapacitors. This type of capacitors is used as high power energy buffers in hybrid vehicles and for stationary power backup. The principle for the microelectrode technique consists of connecting a carbon particle with a carbon fibre by means of a micromanipulator. The single particle and carbon fibre together form a microelectrode. Combination of this technique with electroanalytical methods such as cyclic voltammetry and potential step measurements allows for the survey of electrochemical phenomena and for the determination of ion transport parameters inside the nanopores. A mathematical model based on Fick's second law, for diffusion of ions inside the nanopores at non steady state, was used for the determination of effective diffusion coefficients (Deff). The coefficients were calculated from an asymptotic solution of Fick's equation, applied for a thin layer adjacent to the external surface of the carbon particles and valid for the current response in a short time region. Another asymptotic solution was obtained, using spherical geometry and valid for the current response in a long time region. In this doctoral work, the carbon particles have been exposed to potential cycling, which mimics that of large electrodes during operation of a double layer capacitor. The potential-current response, E-I, for the nanoporous carbon, shows a pure capacitive behaviour between –0.5 V and 0.1 V vs. the Hg|HgO reference electrode. The detection of the faradaic processes beyond these potentials was possible by lowering of the voltammometric sweep rate. The electrochemical processes occurring at positive and at negative potential were investigated separately. Cyclic voltammometric measurements showed that the chemisorption of hydroxyl groups, occurring between 0.1 and 0.3 V, leads to a mild oxidation of the carbon structure, resulting in surface groups containing an oxygen atom at a specific carbon site (e.g., phenolic or quinine type). These oxygen-containing surface groups caused an increase of the specific capacitance, which remained constant throughout a number of voltammometric cycles. The Deff decreased on the other hand with the number of cycles. The Deff decreases also with the positive potential. The evaluation of Deff indicates adsorption of hydroxyl groups and an increase of the effective tortuosity of the pore system. The oxidation of the carbon particles, between 0 and 0.5 V, leads to more extensive oxidation and to surface groups containing two oxygen atoms at a single carbon site, followed by formation of carbonate ions. The oxygen-containing surface groups and carbonate ions formed at these potentials do not contribute to the specific capacitance and drastically retard or obstruct the ion transport inside the nanopores. At negative potentials the carbon particles show a dominantly capacitive behaviour. The faradaic processes taking place below –0.5 V vs. Hg|HgO reference electrode are generation and adsorption of hydrogen. These processes do not perturb significantly the electrochemical and ion transport properties of the nanoporous carbon particles. It was found that hydrogen generation occurs at –0.5 V vs. Hg|HgO and that two hydrogen oxidation processes take place at positive potentials. The results indicate that the weakly adsorbed hydrogen undergoes oxidation between 0 and 0.1 V and that the strongly adsorbed hydrogen is oxidised at more positive potentials. The single particle technique was adapted for the determination of diffusion coefficients of an organic electrolyte. The different size of the anions and cations caused different transport characteristics at negative and positive potentials. Slow cycling was found important for ion penetration inside the nanopores and for the evaluation of the effective diffusion coefficients. The effective diffusion coefficients for the nanoporous carbon using aqueous 6M KOH and 0.1M TEABF4 in acetonitrile were estimated to 1.4 (±0.8).10-9 cm2 s-1 and 1.3 (±0.4) 10-8 cm2 s-1, respectively.


Even after the new millennium, the Korean peninsula still remains not only the heart of the Northeast Asian security discourse, but also as the centre of global security concerns. The absence of visionary leadership in East Asia and North Korea's self-destructive survival strategy make it difficult to achieve peace on the Korean peninsula. Looking back at the last two decades of globalisation, the South Korean people have been embarrassed by the fact that although the country has been extending its reach as a meaningful global player economically, it has been struggling to contend with security issues such as the North Korean nuclear problem, revision of the South Korean-US alliance, Japanese militarisation, the rise of China, and so on. Thus, there continues to be many security concerns remaining for South Korea (also known as the Republic of Korea, or ROK) in the new millennium.


We present explicit evaluation of K-shell ionization caused by photoelectric absorption, by Compton scattering, and by electron collisions in supernovae envelopes. Each process derives from the radioactivity that dominates the bolometric luminosity of the model supernovae. We include the ionization by bremsstrahlung. We find that electron-collision ionization with decelerating Compton electrons is the dominant process of K-shell ionization for light elements (lighter than Si) whereas photoelectric K-shell absorption of Comptonized gammas is the dominant process of K-shell ionization for heavy elements (like Fe). The relative importance of the ionization processes also depends upon composition and upon time, as well as upon supernova type. For Type Ia all four ionization sources are of importance. We present fitting formulas for the deposition of radioactive power in each class of models studied. The energy deposition of all mechanisms decreases with time, including the rate of K-shell ionizations of all elements throughout the supernovae model evaluated herein. We compare the relative contributions to the energy deposition and confirm with greater numerical detail results already established.


Introduction: During keyless abdominal rope-lifting surgery (KARS) the intra-abdominal operations are performed through the single intra-umbilical incision following the lifting of the abdominal wall by sutures loaded in the Veress cannula without using CO2 and trocars. However, it is unclear whether KARS is suitable for the combination of two different surgical procedures performed in the lower and upper abdominal viscera. In this paper we aimed to present the first case of the combination of cholecystectomy and salpingooophorectomy performed by using the KARS technique. Case Report: A sixty-seven year old, gravidity 7, parity 7, postmenopausal woman was referred to our center with the symptoms of nausea, vomiting and right upper abdominal pain. Physical examination was not remarkable other than a mild right upper abdominal tenderness and a positive Murphy sign. Ultrasound examination revealed a hydropic gall bladder with micro calculi and the bile duct was dilated with a width of 11–12 mm and there was an image compiled with bile sludge located distal to the dilatation area. In addition, there was a septated cyst with 95x65x46 mm diameters in the left adnexal region. Cholecystectomy and salpingoophorectomy were performed through the same single incision of KARS. The woman was discharged at the 2 postoperative day. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first case report presenting the operative management of a gall-bladder disease and adnexal cyst by using a single incision and gasless minimal invasive surgical technique. KARS seems feasible for the combination of cholecystectomy and salpingoophorectomy.


This is the editorial introduction to Gender, Sexualities and Law. Bringing together an international range of academics, Gender, Sexualities and Law provides a comprehensive interrogation of the range of contemporary issues – both topical and controversial – raised by the gendered character of law, legal discourse and institutions. The gendering of law, persons and the legal profession, along with the gender bias of legal outcomes, has been a fractious, but fertile, focus of reflection. It has, moreover, been an important site of political struggle. This collection of essays offers an unrivalled examination of its various contemporary dimensions, focusing on: issues of theory and representation; violence, both national and international; reproduction and parenting; and partnership, sexuality, marriage and the family. Gender, Sexualities and Law will be invaluable for all those engaged in research and study of the law (and related fields) as a form of gendered power.


The historical space undergoes both natural destruction and creative transformation that reflects the needs and aims of contemporary people.

Due to the character of his profession an architect plays a vital role in analyzing the distant past and planning the future space. His technical knowledge allows him to understand the space structure and form, while the historical background – to locate the space against cultural and social events. The techniques used by a historian and an architecture researcher are very similar or even identical to an archaeologist's methodology.
However, by the end of the research process an architect starts to design a completely new spatial phenomenon that makes use of the material culture elements from the past. His participation in both documentation stages gives an architect specific insight into research methods and technologies, designer's technical expectations, and documentation compatibility in both fields of study.

Architecture and archaeology can be very close fields thanks to the use of innovative technologies and digitalization in the measurement and documentation processes, provided, however, they present similar levels of technical mastery, make use of similar vocabulary of concepts (graphic, too) and compatible computer systems.

We do not want to deal here with the documentation technology shared by an archaeologist and an architect, but rather with the possibility of using and adapting the research knowledge in the newly designed space. It is not so difficult to structurally keep this knowledge in a historical monument or its relics. However, if on object or space has been completely destroyed, the question is how to show this knowledge, e.g. in a museum's program for visitors.

The Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk project is an excellent training ground at both stages: research (historical and archaeological) and design works. The Museum is to be located in the historic Gdansk Main Town, in less than 150 m distance from the limits of the medieval city (10-13th c.) and the Teutonic Knights' fortress (14-15th c.). Until 1945 this area of 17.000 m2 was known as Wiadrownia (germ. Eimermacherhof) housing district. At the end of the Second World War it was completely demolished and has never been reconstructed.

The historical and archaeological research conducted since 2011 has revealed a complex process of dynamic changes in natural systems of two rivers, as well as numerous time horizons of historic colonization. All spatial phenomena continuously and cyclically disappear. Sometimes only few relics of them are kept, and sometimes they can be read only through their negatives or spatial context signalling their presence. Like the shadow world of people, communities, and cultures – the world not so distant in time, but so characteristic of Central and Eastern Europe.
The Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk is a daring project, not only with regard to its architectural design, but also to its internal structure and museum program that makes use of the most advanced concepts and technologies. The project aims determine the methods, techniques and organization of the archaeological research, as well as the methodology and scope of the documentation process. The Museum is planned to be opened on 1 September 2014 – the 75th anniversary of the war outbreak. Now the research and design teams are in the last stage of preparing the museum concept and program scenario that is going to be finished by September 2012.

In our paper we are going to present draft versions of the documentation and the museum exhibition regarding the location history rather than the global phenomenon of the Second World War.


This paper models a stock split as a mechanism for inducing uninformed investors to pay brokers' analysts (through trading commissions) and informed investors (through trading losses) to monitor managers and make stock price more informative, which in turn creates a better investment environment with lower information risk for themselves. The increased price informativeness enhances the efficiency of equity-based managerial compensation, which motivates managers to put more efforts and consume less perks, but causing them to face higher stock price volatility. To overcome the adverse effect of price volatility on their expected utility, managers would do a stock split only when the firm has been doing well and the persistent component of earnings is sufficiently large. Thus, our model suggests that stock splits have economic benefits because they serve as a corporate governance device that invites market monitoring and keeps managers better motivated.


Alcohol abuse and binge drinking is on the increase, with Ireland having the highest percentage change in per capita of alcohol consumption in Europe since 1989 and one of the worst underage drinking problems in Europe, with one in three 15 year olds binge drinking on a regular bases. As a result, alcohol abuse is having a significant impact on the health service and its associated costs of provision but also a negative impact on economic productivity. In order to prevent the debilitating effects of long-term alcohol abuse it is becoming increasingly important to train medical professionals and nurses in particular, as to how to recognize the signs of and subsequently treat those who abuse alcohol. This paper presents the results of the development of an interactive multimedia training tool specifically designed to educate nursing students in the detection and treatment of alcohol abuse, utilising best practice Human Computer Interaction as well as instructional design, principles and techniques. Content covered includes: early, established, chronic and crucial phases of dependency; physical, psychological and social aspects of alcohol abuse; range of therapeutic interventions and; associated pharmacology.The results from an initial evaluation conducted with clinicians,Addiction Services Manager and academics teaching undergraduate nursing will be presented. Further work including the development of a patient- centered interactive multimedia education tool on alcohol abuse will be outlined.


Multimedia service providers on the web need their services to be well protected and easily accessible worldwide. This has initiated several lines of research to provide semantically rich policy-aware web services. However, the existence of various technologies to define and protect services has made the communication of services questionable. Currently, it is ambiguous how a broker agent looking for a special object would communicate to an online service provider, with different policy and service definition languages, to obtain the appropriate object. Here, we propose a solution to such problems by introducing an interchange framework to transform business rules and policies between different enterprises using REWERSE Rule Markup Language.


The lower 3000 m basalt stratigraphy on the Faeroe Islands shows strong positive correlation between degree of fractionation and Zr/Y ratio. This is ascribed to the presence of garnet in the cumulus assemblage during fractionation at the base of the continental crust or in the upper lithospheric mantle at 40-50 km depth. Later basaltic magmas fractionated at low pressures, which is a typical shift in fractionation regime among continental flood basalts. Seismic velocity ( V p ) for the garnet-bearing high-pressure fractionates is in excess of 7 km/s. This is comparable to velocities observed in high- V p bodies in the basal crust of Precambrian shields. High-pressure fractional crystallization of basaltic magmas may thus be an important process in generating the chemical complexity of continental flood basalts and has implications for crustal underplating.


A fast analytical method for calculating the radiation pattern of solar antennas (SOLANTs) consisting of metasurface-based solar cells is proposed. The proposed method is able to analyse both uniform and non-uniform metasurfaces. In the developed method, the reciprocity theorem along with the transmission line model is used to model the layered structure used in the design of SOLANTs. To model the printed antenna, the cavity model is modified to include the loading effect of solar cells on the antenna. The proposed method is used to analyse three different SOLANTs operating at different frequency regimes, and the results are verified through comparison with full wave numerical results. The proposed model can be used for optimization purposes with the goal of achieving the best possible configurations for SOLANT structures.


ABSTRACT The simulated presence of conspecifics has been proposed to attract territorial songbirds to protect nesting areas when the habitat is being disturbed by human activities. We studied the effects of conspecifics on the nest-site selection of the Thorn-tailed Rayadito (Aphrastura spinicauda; Furnariidae), a forest songbird that depends on cavities for nesting. Plantations represent usable habitat for foraging, but the scarcity of cavities restricts their use during the breeding period. The use of nest boxes is a documented measure to mitigate the negative effect of plantations on cavity users. We installed nest boxes in a plantation of Pinus radiata in south-central Chile, using the simulated presence of conspecifics as a potential tool to attract rayaditos to new available sites to nest. We simulated the presence of conspecifics through playback during 45 days prior nest building. Our results showed two contrasting outcomes. Firstly, conspecific simulation attracts rayaditos, by increasing their density before playback experiments by 75%. Secondly, rayaditos tended to avoid playback treatment sites as nesting started. The establishment of nests occurred 71% of the time and started 20 days earlier in control sites compared to playback treatment. Other secondary cavity-nesting birds, such as the House Wren (Troglodytes aedon; Troglodytidae) and White-throated Treerunner (Pygarrhichas albogularis; Furnariidae), also avoided playback plots as nesting sites. The scarcity of cavities in pine plantations may increase the aggressive defense of breeding territories, making cavity-nesting birds move to other previously known vacant sites to nest when they listen other birds in the nesting site. It is highly recommended to assess the behavioral response to conspecific and heterospecific birds before the establishment of a management measure aiming to attract or discourage the presence of a target species.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
We assessed direct health care costs associated with the most commonly prescribed treatments for indolent follicular non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (FL).

DESIGN AND METHODS
New and previously diagnosed FL patients (>or=18 years) known during 1997-1998 to 15 Dutch hospitals were selected for inclusion. Each patient was followed for 3 years, and resource use associated with each of the treatments, including watchful waiting, was recorded. The hospital perspective was adopted. Unit costs were based on 2003 price levels.

RESULTS
Two hundred patients were included of whom 75% underwent one or more treatments during the 3-year data collection period [25% were not treated because of a watchful waiting strategy (10%) or complete remission (15%)]. Allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplantations were the most expensive treatments, with a mean (median) per patient cost of 45,326 euro(44,237; n=7) and 18,866 euro (16,532; n=9), respectively (up to discharge only). Intravenous fludarabine cost 10,651 euro (9,995; n=33), rituximab (10,628 euro; 10,124; n=7), and CHOP 7,547 euro (5,833; n=42). Classical FL treatments were found to be the least expensive treatments used with an estimated cost for cylophosphamide, vincristine and prednisone of 5,268 euro (2,644; n=58), for radiotherapy of 4,218 euro (4,313; n=52), and for chlorambucil of 2,476 euro (1,098; n=53).

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
This study presents information on resource use and costs associated with the most commonly prescribed FL treatments. In addition to differences in effectiveness, commonly used treatments vary considerably in terms of resource use and overall cost. This information is of value for resource planning, given the high costs of new treatment modalities.


A wide variety of inflammatory stimuli trigger the activation of IκB kinase (IKK), the enzyme complex that activates the NF-κB transcription factors. But all NF-κB–inducing signals are not the same, according to Filipe-Santos and colleagues (page 1745), who identify mutations in the regulatory subunit of IKK that selectively disarm just one of these pathways.

Figure 1

CD40-induced nuclear accumulation of NF-κB (green) is blocked by NEMO mutations.

Most NF-κB–inducing stimuli, including byproducts of microbial infection and inflammatory cytokines, trigger the phosphorylation of the α and β subunits of IKK. Heterodimers of IKKα and β then bind to IKKγ (or NEMO)—the regulatory subunit of the complex. Thus assembled, this protein complex phosphorylates the NF-κB inhibitor proteins (IκBs), tagging it for proteasomal degradation and freeing NF-κB for translocation into the nucleus.

Here, Filipe-Santos et al. identify two point mutations in NEMO in patients with an X-linked susceptibility to mycobacterial infection. These mutations blocked the NF-κB–driven production of interleukin (IL)-12 by monocytes and dendritic cells (DCs). But this block occurred only in response to T cell–based signals, triggered by the interaction between CD40 ligand (on activated T cells) and its partner CD40 (on monocytes and DCs). IL-12 production in response to other IKK-inducing stimuli (including bacterial LPS and live mycobacteria) was unaffected.

It is unclear why these NEMO mutations, both in the protein's leucine zipper (LZ) domain, preferentially affect CD40-induced signals. One possibility is that NEMO interacts with distinct IKK-activating kinases depending on the upstream signal, and the LZ domain is required for NEMO to latch on to a specific CD40-triggered kinase.

From the disease standpoint, it makes sense that IL-12-blocking NEMO mutations predispose people to mycobacterial infection, as IL-12 is known to be essential for defending against mycobacteria. Monocytes infected with mycobacteria themselves produce IL-12, but these data suggest that infection-induced IL-12 is not enough to control the growth of the bug. Perhaps the amount of IL-12 is simply too low unless T cells get in on the act.


In this paper I analyze appositive relative clauses that modify quantified nominals. This new data supports a theory of appositives as a phenomenon at the interface between syntax/semantics and discourse. More precisely, I propose that the appositive relative pronoun is E-type (see Sells 1985a and Demirdache 1991), and that it needs to follow its antecedent. I also propose that appositives are propositions (type t), merged to the DP they modify in narrow syntax, and moved to the matrix CP after Spell-Out and at the discourse level. I claim that merge within discourse is linear order dependent, and that at the discourse level, both PF and LF representations are available to the computational component. The designed system accounts for differences between appositives and restrictives and makes the strong empirical prediction that prenominal relative clauses cannot be true appositives.


In Brazil, rice (Oryza sativa L.) varieties adapted to different ecological regions are available on the market. However, these varieties exhibit highly similar morphologies, which makes their identification difficult. In this study we identified microsatellites in and around genes that are useful for the identification of the main rice varieties cultivated in Brazil. Thirteen microsatellites were selected from the region upstream of MADS-box genes and 37 were derived from expressed sequence tags (ESTs). Of the 50 microsatellites selected, 19 were polymorphic, and a small set of five primer pairs was sufficient to discriminate among the 37 rice varieties studied. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value of the 19 microsatellite markers varied between 0.05 and 0.94. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (UPGMA) analysis showed that these markers group the 37 varieties according to their subspecies, indica or japonica. These results indicate that it is possible to identify informative microsatellites in and around rice genes, and that these markers are capable of discriminating between closely related varieties of rice. Moreover, our findings suggest that microsatellite markers can play an important role as a source of additional information to supplement the morphological descriptors recommended by International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV).


Strategy-to-performance gaps foster a culture of under-performance Unrealistic plans create the expectation throughout the organisation that plans simply will not be fulfilled. This book shows how to overcome such failings and implement strategy effectively. Common failings include: Companies rarely track their performance against long-term plans - less than 15% of companies make it a regular practice to go back and compare the business' results with the performance forecast for each business unit in its prior years' strategic results Results rarely meet projections - when companies do track performance, it rarely matches the prior years' projection. The consequence is year-after-year of under-performance relative to the original plan A lot of value is lost in translation - a combination of poor communications, misapplied resources, limited accountability and lack of information creates an in-built strategy-to-performance gap


We propose a novel approach for multi-person tracking-by-detection in a particle filtering framework. In addition to final high-confidence detections, our algorithm uses the continuous confidence of pedestrian detectors and online trained, instance-specific classifiers as a graded observation model. Thus, generic object category knowledge is complemented by instance-specific information. A main contribution of this paper is the exploration of how these unreliable information sources can be used for multi-person tracking. The resulting algorithm robustly tracks a large number of dynamically moving persons in complex scenes with occlusions, does not rely on background modeling, and operates entirely in 2D (requiring no camera or ground plane calibration). Our Markovian approach relies only on information from the past and is suitable for online applications. We evaluate the performance on a variety of datasets and show that it improves upon state-of-the-art methods.