This paper focuses on two initiatives: fostering the entrepreneurial mindset in the first year introduction to engineering course and successfully combining discipline-specific courses into a multi-discipline course. While most first year introduction to engineering courses focus on design and problem solving, at the same time familiarizing the student with basic technical content, very few also focus on the entrepreneurial mindset – a way of thinking increasingly required of engineers entering the workforce. Skills associated with the entrepreneurial mindset such as effective communication (written, verbal, and graphical), teamwork, ethics and ethical decision-making, customer awareness, persistence, creativity, innovation, time management, critical thinking, global awareness, self-directed research, life-long learning, learning through failure, tolerance for ambiguity, and estimation are as important in the workforce as technical aptitude. In fact, employer feedback has indicated that graduates with these skills are more highly sought than those with an overly technical education since technical engineering skills can be readily obtained on the job; the entrepreneurial mindset takes years of practice/refinement. Although students may eventually begin practicing many entrepreneurial mindset skills in the curriculum especially during a senior project sequence, it is paramount that the importance of the entrepreneurial mindset is stressed in the first year. This paper will include details of how to integrate all of the skills listed here into well-established design projects, homework, and active learning classroom modules in a first year engineering course using entrepreneurially minded learning. Informal interviews with students reveals successful implementation. As the lines between engineering disciplines are becoming more blurry, employers also covet engineering graduates whose technical skills span a variety of disciplines. Engineers must work on teams that are diverse, and being able to understand and communicate the broad field of engineering is vital to success. Therefore, while completing an engineering degree, students need to become familiar with a multitude of engineering disciplines and work with students from many departments. This is not a new concept and many introduction to engineering courses are interdisciplinary. On the other hand, many colleges still contain only discipline-specific introduction to engineering courses. Over the past year and a half, Lawrence Technological University underwent a successful college-wide transition from many discipline-specific introduction to engineering courses to a multi-discipline course. This paper will outline keys to a successful transition including pitfalls to avoid and working with university administrators, faculty, and staff during the transition.


The interest in extensions of the logic programming paradigm beyond the class of normal logic programs is motivated by the need of an adequate representation and processing of knowledge. One of the most difficult problems in this area is to find an adequate declarative semantics for logic programs. In the present paper a general preference criterion is proposed that selects the 'intended' partial models of generalized logic programs which is a conservative extension of the stationary semantics for normal logic programs of [Prz91]. The presented preference criterion defines a partial model of a generalized logic program as intended if it is generated by a stationary chain. It turns out that the stationary generated models coincide with the stationary models on the class of normal logic programs. The general wellfounded semantics of such a program is defined as the set-theoretical intersection of its stationary generated models. For normal logic programs the general wellfounded semantics equals the wellfounded semantics.


A 15-YEAR-OLD girl presented with a 2-hour history of severe abdominal pain. The pain was located in the left lower quadrant and was not initially associated with nausea and vomiting. It was neither relieved nor aggravated with movement. She reported similar pain several months earlier, with rapid spontaneous resolution. That episode was considered to be related to a renal stone, but no further testing was performed because she was symptom free at the time of the office visit. She had no history of urinary symptoms. There was no notable medical history and her last menstrual period was 1 week prior to this presentation. Physical examination indicated she was afebrile with normal vital signs; however, she was writhing in pain. Bowel sounds were normal and there was no rebound tenderness and no organomegaly. The rectal examination did not reveal a mass or blood. Laboratory data included a negative pregnancy test result and normal findings from urine analysis. The white blood cell count was 8.1310/L. An abdominal radiograph (Figure 1) and pelvic ultrasonographic scans (Figure 2) were obtained.


Numerous techniques are used to measure deposited sediment and quantify substrate quality in streams. We evaluated the relationship between land disturbance and stream habitat by comparing 25 commonly used deposited sediment parameters to watershed, riparian, and local‐scale drivers. We also tested whether land use regressions were improved by accounting for geomorphic setting (measures of slope and channel incision) and how visual versus measurement‐based estimations of percent fines and embeddedness were related to each other and to percent agriculture. Of the 16 metrics significantly related to watershed agriculture, subsurface percent fines was the best indicator of land use. Subsurface fines were more strongly related to both watershed and riparian percent agriculture than surface sediment metrics. The second best‐performing parameter was the visual assessment of percent fines <2 mm. Surface particle counts also performed moderately well. Sediment percentiles (d50, d84) and stability indices were among the weakest indicators of watershed land use. All measures of local percent agriculture were poor predictors of deposited sediment parameters. Mean slope within the entire stream network was nearly as good of a predictor of deposited sediment as watershed percent agriculture. This suggests that we may improve our ability to predict deposited sediment by considering land use within the appropriate geomorphic context.


Policy makers and analysts often view the reduction of student mobility across schools as a way to improve academic performance. Prior work indicates that children do worse in the year of a school move, but has been largely unsuccessful in isolating the causal effects of mobility. We use longitudinal data on students in New York City public elementary and middle schools to isolate the causal effects of school moves on student performance. We account for observed and time-invariant differences between movers and non-movers using rich data on student sociodemographic and education program characteristics and student fixed effects. To address the potential endogeneity of school moves arising from unobserved, time-varying factors, we use three sets of plausibly exogenous instruments for mobility: first-grade school grade span, grade span of zoned middle school, and building sale. We find that in the medium term, students making structural moves perform significantly worse in both English language arts (ELA) and math, whereas those making nonstructural moves experience a significant increase in ELA performance. In the short term, there is an additional negative effect for structural moves in ELA. These effects are meaningful in magnitude and results are robust to a variety of alternative specifications, instruments, and samples.


We deal with the initial boundary value problem for systems of conservation laws in one space dimension and we focus on the boundary Riemann problem. It is known that, in general, different viscous approximations provide different limits. In this paper, we establish sufficient conditions to conclude that two different approximations lead to the same limit. As an application of this result, we show that, under reasonable assumptions, the self-similar second-order approximation and the classical viscous approximation provide the same limit as e → 0+. Our analysis applies to both the characteristic and the non-characteristic case. We require neither genuine nonlinearity nor linear degeneracy of the characteristic fields.


In the last fifty years or so, since Yogācāra texts have been available to western academics, there has been a debate as to how Yogācāra Buddhism should be interpreted. This article seeks to establish that Yogācāra Buddhism is most properly interpreted as an idealist school of Buddhist thought. Specifically, it challenges the arguments that have been put forth in recent years that suggest a phenomenological interpretation of Yogācāra Buddhism. The primary target of my argumentation is Dan Lusthaus but arguments of other scholars are also taken into account. In the process of defending my thesis I will explain the fundamentals of Yogācāra Buddhism, provide the reasons why Yogācāra Buddhism should be interpreted as an idealist school, provide reasons why some have interpreted Yogācāra Buddhism as phenomenology, refute non-idealist interpretations of Yogācāra Buddhism, and investigate the relation between Yogācāra Buddhism and other forms of idealism. In order to achieve each of these goals I will utilize the original texts of Yogācāra Buddhism, known as the Trimsika, authored by Vasubandhu and the Cheng Wei-Shih Lun, authored by Hsüan-Tsang. I will also reference and expound upon the philosophies of George Berkeley, Immanuel Kant, and Georg Hegel along with recent scholars who have partaken in this debate. "All this is consciousness-only, because of the appearance of nonexistent objects, just as someone with an optical disorder may see nonexistent nets of hair."


The general concept of transparency in disclosure that applies to public and private and domestic and international institutions and governments also applies to mutual funds. The key issue is no longer whether transparency is desirable, but rather how it should be achieved. This study further develops and defines the concept of normative transparency of disclosure. To attain normative transparency of mutual funds disclosure, Congress, the SEC, and fund advisers, managers, and independent directors should individually and collectively become more proactive in serving and protecting shareholders. Normative transparency of disclosure is not likely to be achieved across the board. There are political obstacles to complete transparency being achieved by Congress and the SEC, or by collaboration with individual funds, the funds industry, and its trade association. The final reality is that it will likely fall to independent directors of individual mutual funds to provide normative transparency of disclosure for their shareholders. What should be done will also change over time as the industry evolves.


The East African Rift System is the world's major continental rift. While much geophysical and petrological attention has been paid to it, at least in the eastern branch ("Eastern Rift"), comparatively little research has been carried out into the geochemistry of rift fluids, despite the potential benefits to theoretical and practical studies. Hydrothermal activity provides the opportunity to sample a very wide range of waters and gases in the Eastern Rift. This thesis combines data from the literature with the results of the author's major investigation into Eastern Rift fluids carried out chiefly in Kenya, though with subsidiary investigations in Ethiopia and Djibouti. A synthetic approach has been adopted, whereby relationships and interactions are cross-referenced as far as possible to illuminate problems, thus demonstrating the usefulness of considering a wide range of fluids in the rift context.

After reviews of physiography, geology, geothermics and hydrology of the Eastern Rift, the following topics are considered in detail: (i) chemical and isotopic evidence for water origin, movement and evolution, (ii) chemical and isotopic evidence for gas origin, movement and evolution, and (iii) fluid geothermometry.

Within this context some specific aims have been pursued. The strong possibility of longdistance axial flows of groundwater has been shown by use of stable isotopic techniques. Further insights into alkaline hydrological discharge areas have been obtained by a combination of chemical and isotopic approaches. While carbon isotope ratios indicate an apparently homogeneous source of carbon dioxide, the existence of distinct mantle sources for volcanic rocks beneath different parts of the Eastern Rift has been comprehensively demonstrated by use of helium isotope ratios. Following the rather unsatisfactory performance of various gas geothermometers for evaluating geothermal system temperatures, a new relationship based on hydrocarbon breakdown has been developed. The possible use of oxygen isotopes in hydrothermal sinters as indicators of palaeoconditions has been investigated.

In conclusion, topics worthy of further research in the Eastern Rift are suggested where the study of fluids would be of benefit.


Boundary detection is a fundamental problem in computer vision. However, boundary detection is difficult as it involves integrating multiple cues (intensity, color, texture) as well as trying to incorporate object class or scene level descriptions to mitigate the ambiguity of the local signal. In this paper we investigate incorporating a priori information into boundary detection. We learn a probabilistic model that describes a prior for object boundaries over small patches of the image. We then incorporate this boundary model into a mixture of multiscale conditional random fields, where the mixture components represent different contexts formed by clustering overall spatial distributions of boundaries across images and image regions (vistas). We demonstrate this approach using challenging real-world road scenes. Importantly, we show that recent spectral methods that have been used in state-of-the-art boundary detection algorithms do not generalize well to these complex scenes. We show that our algorithm successfully learns these boundary distributions and can exploit this knowledge to improve state-of-the-art boundary detectors.


Pneumocystis jirovecii is responsible for P. jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) in immunocompromised individuals, with a recent rise of cases noted in non-HIV patients. A middle-aged man presented with new-onset cough, fever, hypoxia and tachypnoea. He was on a tapering course of dexamethasone for amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis. He developed worsening airspace disease necessitating mechanical ventilation. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid was positive for P. jirovecii and he was managed with trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and pentamidine, but succumbed to cardiorespiratory arrest. One-third of PJP cases occur in non-HIV patients, and have a higher morbidity and mortality. Most immunocompromised patients typically exhibit PJP during a corticosteroid taper. The accurate dose, duration or frequency of steroid use in not well established. Diagnosis of PJP in this population is more challenging due to lower BAL yield with alternate modalities such as serum/BAL β-d-glucan and PCR enhancing the yield. Further studies are needed to highlight PJP prophylaxis in patients with steroid use.


Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder among children and adults. Impulsivity, inattention, and hyperactivity are hallmark of ADHD. While ADHD is not on the autism spectrum, they are related in several ways as they have some overlapping symptoms. The pathogenesis of ADHD has so far remained enigmatic, however, there is some evidence suggesting critical association among ADHD and the level of oxidative stress which trigger cell membrane damage, changes in inner structure and function of proteins, as well as structural damage to DNA which eventually culminate into development of ADHD. Although stimulants as well as some classes of non-stimulants are used to ameliorate symptom of ADHD, various adverse effects have been associated with such compounds. To date, treatment of ADHD is done with a combination of medications, behavior modifications, psycho-education, family therapy and life-style changes. The American Academy of Pediatrics officially promote stimulant medications and/or behavior therapy as 'first line of therapy'. In addition to the presently therapeutic armamentarium, evidences are emerging on relevancy of natural products. There has been an interest on the therapeutic role of antioxidants in the treatment of ADHD. The present review aims to highlight the beneficiary role played by different antioxidants in mitigating the symptoms of ADHD.


An experimental simulation of serpentine and chromite interaction was conducted at the pressure ( P ) and temperature ( T ) conditions of garnet-peridotite stability in order to clarify the potential role of serpentinite as a source for the crystallization of subcalcic garnet in the depleted subcratonic mantle. The experiments were performed at 4 GPa and 1100 °C and 5.5 GPa and 1200 °C using the high-pressure apparatus BARS. Natural antigorite from ophiolites of the Eastern Sayan (Russia) was used as a starting material. Two groups of chromite grains with different Cr# = 100Cr/(Cr + Al) ratios (from spinel peridotite xenoliths from the Udachnaya kimberlite pipe, Yakutia) were added to the antigorite. Newly formed garnet, spinel, olivine and orthopyroxene were observed as the products in the experiments. Garnet formed only around chromite grains with the lower Cr# value (46.4). Garnet has low CaO contents (<0.05–1.10 wt.%) with chromium contents showing wide intra- and inter-grain variations (Cr# = 0.7–33.5). The Cr content increases from core to rim with the outer zones corresponding most closely to the equilibrium composition of the relevant bulk composition. The garnet total FeO content is in the range 3.4–5.8 wt.%. The experiments demonstrate that serpentinite decomposed at a temperature of 700 °C to olivine + orthopyroxene + water. If mingled mechanically with spinel-bearing mantle-wedge peridotite upon subduction, it could react to form the range of subcalcic garnet compositions found as inclusions in diamonds.


We report off-white circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from supramolecular aggregates formed by a chiral carboxylic acid-functionalized naphthalene diimide. The self-assembly behaviour and the stability of the aggregates in solution were assessed by variable-temperature UV-Vis and electronic circular dichroism experiments. The observed 200 nm-wide emission band is unusual for a single chromophore and is a consequence of the supramolecular ordering due to a combination of π-stacking and H-bonding interactions, leading to excimer formation. High emission anisotropy factors glum, around |1–2| × 10−2, were observed over the whole spectrum in chlorinated/hydrocarbon solvent mixtures, as well as in thin films. These values are one order of magnitude higher than those of most chiral self-assembled fluorophores and other common small organic emitters.


Teachers aim to transmit their knowledge to students so that they acquire certain accepted and shared concepts. However, what students actually understand is, in many cases, something completely different. Students build their own conceptual models as a network of interrelated concepts depending on their particular background and emotions. In this work, a new procedure to automatically generate students' conceptual models from their free-text answers is presented. Moreover, teachers can visualize, at any time, the generated conceptual models to discern their students? faulty or incomplete knowledge in order to organize more efficiently the agenda of their courses; and, students can organize their study, i.e. review which concepts have already assimilated and, which ones are still missing or are wrongly connected to other concepts. The procedure has been implemented in the Will Tools that consist of: Willow, a free-text ACAA system; Willed, an authoring tool; Willoc, a configuration tool; and COMOV, a conceptual model viewer in which several representations have been used to show the conceptual models.


Most tourists who engage in gold panning find gold which is worth less than their price of admission to the gold mine. From a tax standpoint, they have nondeductible, personal losses. Those precious few who find gold which is worth more than their price of admission should not have taxable income unless or until they sell the gold to a third party. Due to the valuation and allocation difficulties inherent in measuring basis and amount realized, there should be no realization event when the gold is panned. Alternatively, the gold panning activity can be viewed as producing tax free, imputed income, at least until the later sale event.


Reporting from the heartland of Yugoslavia in the 1970s, Washington Post correspondent Dusko Doder described "a landscape of Gothic spires, Islamic mosques, and Byzantine domes." A quarter century later, this landscape lay in ruins. In addition to claiming tens of thousands of lives, the former Yugoslavia's four wars ravaged over a thousand religious buildings, many purposefully destroyed by Serbs, Albanians, and Croats alike, providing an apt architectural metaphor for the region's recent history. Rarely has the human impulse toward monocausality-the need for a single explanation-been in greater evidence than in Western attempts to make sense of the country's bloody dissolution. From Robert Kaplan's controversial Balkan Ghosts, which identified entrenched ethnic hatreds as the driving force behind Yugoslavia's demise to NATO's dogged pursuit and arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the quest for easy answers has frequently served to obscure the Balkans' complex history. Perhaps most surprisingly, no book has focused explicitly on the role religion has played in the conflicts that continue to torment southeastern Europe. Based on a wide range of South Slav sources and previously unpublished, often confidential documents from communist state archives, as well as on the author's own on-the-ground experience, Balkan Idols explores the political role and 1nfluence of Serbian Orthodox, Croatian Catholic, and Yugoslav Muslim religious organizations over the course of the last century. Vjekoslav Perica emphatically rejects the notion that a "clash of civilizations" has played a central role in fomenting aggression. He finds no compelling evidence of an upsurge in religious fervor among the general population. Rather, he concludes, the primary religious players in the conflicts have been activist clergy. This activism, Perica argues, allowed the clergy to assume political power without the accountablity faced by democratically-elected officials. What emerges from Perica's account is a deeply nuanced understanding of the history and troubled future of one of Europes most volatile regions.


Inhibiting signaling through β1 integrin reduces tumor growth but promotes metastasis in a type of breast cancer. This Podcast features an interview with Erik Danen, author of a Research Article that appears in the 11 February 2014 issue of Science Signaling, about how interfering with cell adhesion signaling through the cell surface receptor β1 integrin affects the behavior of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. Contacts with neighboring cells and with the extracellular matrix are very important in controlling the growth, survival, and behavior of epithelial cells. Loss of cell contacts can trigger extrusion of epithelial cells and subsequent apoptosis. The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a process by which epithelial cells leave the epithelial sheet and become migratory instead of undergoing apoptosis. EMT occurs as a normal part of development, but EMT also occurs in cancers, where it can drive metastasis. Integrins are cell surface receptors that mediate interactions between cells and between cells and extracellular matrix. Signaling through integrins promotes survival and proliferation, so drugs that block integrin-mediated signaling are candidates for cancer therapeutics that could be used to kill epithelial cell cancers. Truong et al. report that TNBC cells lacking β1 integrin produced smaller tumors when injected into mice but were more metastatic than TNBC cells with β1 integrin.


By understanding the various theories held about distinct types of psychopathological and criminal behaviour, certain assumptions that may be hindering the care and management of the mentally ill can be tackled. That being the premise of this volume, the author examines the results of a factorial experimental survey, carried out across a range of agencies (students, politicians, police, mental health practitioners, social workers and probation officers). Three underlying components form the basis of the survey and its subsequent study: "sick" role, medical control and social treatment. Significant differences in the perception of the three are found, and analysed with reference to respondents' age, gender, previous experience of the mentally ill and the nature of each mental disorder or type of criminal offence considered. Discussion follows on the theoretical and practical implications these findings may have at both a criminological and clinical level.


Due to changes in the global industrial structure, the number of employees in the manufacturing industry has decreased in developed countries. One of solutions to this situation offered in Industry 4.0 is "the utilization of robots and AI as alternatives to skilled workers." This solution has been applied to various operations conventionally performed by skilled workers and has yielded consistent results. A skilled worker has two skills, namely, "physical operation skill" and "decision making skill," which correspond to the utilization of robots and AI, respectively.
 Conventionally, robots have simply played back programs they were taught. However, owing to feedback technologies using force, position, or various other sensors, robots have come to be able to perform smart operations. In some of these, the capabilities of robots exceed those of human workers. For example, while humans are highly adaptive to various operations, it is difficult for them to maintain a constant force or position for long periods of time.
 Generally, humans make decisions about operations according to their experience, and this experience is gained from many instances of trial and error. Now, the trial-and-error learning of AI has become significantly superior to that of humans in terms of both number and speed. As a result, many systems can find operational strategies or answers much faster than humans can.
 This special issue features papers on robot hands, path planning, kinematics, and AI. Papers related to robot hands present an actuator using new principles, new movements, and the realization of the precise sense of the human hand. Papers related to path planning present path generation on the basis of CAD data, path generation using image processing, automatic path generation on the basis of environmental information, and the prediction of error and correction. Path generation using VR technology and error compensation using an AI technique are also presented. A paper related to kinematics presents the analysis and evaluation of a new mechanism with the aim of new applications in the field of machining.
 In closing, I would like to thank the authors, reviewers, and editors, without whose hard work and earnest cooperation this issue could not have been completed and presented.


A large number of mobile-app analysis and instrumentation techniques have emerged in the past decade. However, those techniques' components are difficult to extract and reuse outside their original tools, their evaluation results are hard to reproduce, and the tools themselves are hard to compare. This paper introduces DECREE, an infrastructure intended to guide such techniques to be reproducible, practical, reusable, and easy to adopt in practice. DECREE allows researchers and developers to easily discover existing solutions to their needs, enables unbiased and reproducible evaluation, and supports easy construction and execution of replication studies. The paper describes DECREE's three modules and its potential to fundamentally alter how research is conducted in this area.


The limited evidence about disaster education programs for children indicates that they can increase disaster resilience, family based preparedness activities and reduce child fear and anxiety. However there are still gaps in the literature, including qualitative studies to provide insights into children's experiences of disaster education programs, and follow up with children who are impacted by actual disasters. This paper reports on a pilot study in Victoria, Australia of a 'Survive and Thrive' bushfire education program delivered by the local Fire Brigade and incorporated into the school curricula for upper primary school children in Anglesea, a coastal town with very high bushfire risk. A mix of longitudinal qualitative methods captures the child experience and the program impacts including impact on child agency. The results show the children enjoyed the program and valued the life skills acquired. They demonstrated knowledge and skills gained in monitoring environmental risks and bushfire behaviour, and more nuanced understanding of the differential roles of adults and children in responding to a bushfire in different contexts. Faced with the reality of a nearby bushfire in the summer holidays, children demonstrated their capacity to apply their knowledge and to contribute to family response.


The association between visit‐to‐visit systolic blood pressure variability and cardiovascular events has recently received a lot of attention in the cardiovascular literature. But, blood pressure variability is usually estimated on a person‐by‐person basis and is therefore subject to considerable measurement error. We demonstrate that hazard ratios estimated using this approach are subject to bias due to regression dilution, and we propose alternative methods to reduce this bias: a two‐stage method and a joint model. For the two‐stage method, in stage one, repeated measurements are modelled using a mixed effects model with a random component on the residual standard deviation (SD). The mixed effects model is used to estimate the blood pressure SD for each individual, which, in stage two, is used as a covariate in a time‐to‐event model. For the joint model, the mixed effects submodel and time‐to‐event submodel are fitted simultaneously using shared random effects. We illustrate the methods using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study.


We first seek to explore the relationship between attachment styles of professional financial service customers and their ability to experience customer satisfaction and build relationships with a commercial bank. Secure attached people identify with the commercial bank, feel satisfied and are loyal with the commercial bank. Second, we question whether attachment styles and degrees of satisfaction are also reflected in a capacity to feel pleasure in attachments to luxury products, feel happiness and pro-activeness, develop positive relationships with others, and sleep well for multiple samples of non-commercial customers. Apparently, secure attached people form enjoyable attachments with luxury goods/brands. Equally, in life in general they show a proactive attitude and generosity toward others, and feel low envy. Anxious attachment style relates negatively with appraisal of and relationship formation with commercial banks, negatively with enjoyment and attachment to luxury goods, and negatively with generosity towards people and happiness. In addition, anxious attachment style relates positively with envy towards people and low sleep quality. Avoidant attachment style does not relate with any of the above variables except for a negative association with happiness with life in general. Finally, none of the attachment styles scales relates with the BIS-BAS scale, except that anxious attachment relates with the BIS scale, indicating largely that the attachment system does not function as an approach-avoidance system but helps in homeostatic regulation of stress due to the experience of quiescence with others. By studying how attachment styles affect people in commercial and general social domains we hope to pave the way for further exploration of the fundamental mechanisms that drive secure attached people as opposed to insecure attached people to generally experience positive emotions and outcomes in life. We tentatively suggest that compared to insecure attached people, secure attached people possess a different i°style of being in the social world.i±


Background: This study has been done to compare Hyomental Distance Ratio (HMDR) with the modified Mallampati test (MMD) for accurately predicting difficult visualization of the larynx (DVL) in apparently normal patients. Methods: 198 apparently normal patients of more than 18 years of age, with ASA I and II, undergoing general anesthesia with tracheal intubation were evaluated. A hard-plastic b ond ruler is used to measure the distance from the tip to the anterior-most part of the mentum was measured and defined as the Hyomental distance. After induction using thiopentone and paralysis using suxamethonium, glottic visualisation was assessed by using modified Cormach and Lehane classification without external laryngeal manipulation. Results: The sensitivity of HMDR for predicting Difficult Laryngoscopy was 27.78% and specificity was 98.89%. The test has a positive predictive value of 71.43%, Negative predictive value of 93.19%. Conclusion: Due to very low sensitivity and positive predictive value of HMDR, we recommend MMT test should be used because of its greater diagnostic accuracy along with HMDR to pedicting the DVL


This paper describes the design of conventional Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) systems, and the novel Counter Current Dissolved Air Flotation Filtration (COCODAFF®) process. The operation and performance of these plants on a variety of water types in the United Kingdom and South Africa is also described. The advantages of flotation processes for the treatment of impounded waters either high in colour, or with a high concentration of algae, is discussed. Other topics covered in this paper are hydraulic flocculation, and the application of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), to the design of flotation plants. It is concluded that the COCODAFF ® process offers a number of advantages over conventional DAF systems. Keywords Algae; COCODAFF ® ; flotation; FEA.


In an experimental study, a series of tests was performed on seam-welded structural stainless steel circular hollow sections (CHS) subjected to bending. The test program included various cross section geometries of CHS that covered a range of structural responses. Three-dimensional nonlinear finite-element (FE) models (ABAQUS) were established and verified with the experimental results accounting for material nonlinearity and manufacturing distortions. Close agreement was achieved between the test and finite-element analysis results in terms of load-deformation response and ultimate strength. The test and finite-element strength results with additional FE results generated for CHS models not considered in the test are compared with the strengths predicted using the American, Australian, and European specifications for cold-formed stainless steel structures. In light of the experimental/numerical results and code recommendations, strength and cross section classification criteria for stainless steel circular hollow section members in bending were examined. The results showed that significant improvements are possible for cross section slenderness limits provided by the current specifications.


With the development of distributed computing environment , many learning problems now have to deal with distributed input data. To enhance cooperations in learning, it is important to address the privacy concern of each data holder by extending the privacy preservation notion to original learning algorithms. In this paper, we focus on preserving the privacy in an important learning model, multilayer neural networks. We present a privacy-preserving two-party distributed algorithm of backpropagation which allows a neural network to be trained without requiring either party to reveal her data to the other. We provide complete correctness and security analysis of our algorithms. The effectiveness of our algorithms is verified by experiments on various real world data sets.


Jim Corbett is world famous for his classic man-eater stories. However, the three volumes collected here show a very different side to this remarkable man. In My India, he describes the villages of the Kumaon Hills, and the customs and lifestyles of the people he encountered. Jungle Lore is the closest Corbett ever came to writing an autobiography, combining recollections of his earliest days with frank views on the need for conservation which were well ahead of their time. Finally, in Tree Tops, the only book Corbett set outside his beloved India, he captures the savage beauty of Kenya's wildlife as well as telling the story of the royal visit of 1952, during which Princess Elizabeth learned she was Queen.


Human CD2 locus control region (LCR) sequences are shown here to be essential for establishing an open chromatin configuration. Transgenic mice carrying an hCD2 minigene attached only to the 3′ CD2 transcriptional enhancer exhibited variegated expression when the transgene integrated in the centromere. In contrast, mice carrying a transgene with additional 3′ sequences showed no variegation even when the latter integrated in centromeric positions. This result suggests that LCRs operate by ensuring an open chromatin configuration and that a short region, with no enhancer activity, functions in the establishment, maintenance, or both of an open chromatin domain.


In e-commerce, online retailers are usually suffering from professional malicious users (PMUs), who utilize negative reviews and low ratings to their consumed products on purpose to threaten the retailers for illegal profits. PMUs are difficult to be detected because they utilize masking strategies to disguise themselves as normal users. Specifically, there are three challenges for PMU detection: 1) professional malicious users do not conduct any abnormal or illegal interactions (they never concurrently leave too many negative reviews and low ratings at the same time), and they conduct masking strategies to disguise themselves. Therefore, conventional outlier detection methods are confused by their masking strategies. 2) the PMU detection model should take both ratings and reviews into consideration, which makes PMU detection a multi-modal problem. 3) there are no datasets with labels for professional malicious users in public, which makes PMU detection an unsupervised learning problem. To this end, we propose an unsupervised multi-modal learning model: MMD, which employs Metric learning for professional Malicious users Detection with both ratings and reviews. MMD first utilizes a modified RNN to project the informational review into a sentiment score, which jointly considers the ratings and reviews. Then professional malicious user profiling (MUP) is proposed to catch the sentiment gap between sentiment scores and ratings. MUP filters the users and builds a candidate PMU set. We apply a metric learning-based clustering to learn a proper metric matrix for PMU detection. Finally, we can utilize this metric and labeled users to detect PMUs. Specifically, we apply the attention mechanism in metric learning to improve the model's performance. The extensive experiments in four datasets demonstrate that our proposed method can solve this unsupervised detection problem. Moreover, the performance of the state-of-the-art recommender models is enhanced by taking MMD as a preprocessing stage.


Sampling-based motion planning is the state-of-the-art technique for solving challenging motion planning problems in a wide variety of domains. While generally successful, their performance suffers from increasing problem complexity. In many cases, the full problem complexity is not needed for the entire solution. We present a hierarchical aggregation framework that groups and models sets of obstacles based on the currently needed level of detail. The hierarchy enables sampling to be performed using the simplest and most conservative representation of the environment possible in that region. Our results show that this scheme improves planner performance irrespective of the underlying sampling method and input problem. In many cases, improvement is significant, with running times often less than 60% of the original planning time.


We consider the study of symmetry analysis of difference equations. The original work done by Lie about a century ago is known to be one of the best methods of solving differential equations. Lie's theory of difference equations on the contrary, was only first explored about twenty years ago. In 1984, Maeda [42] constructed the similarity methods for difference equations. Some work has been done in the field of symmetries of difference equations for the past years. Given an ordinary or partial differential equation (PDE), one can apply Lie algebra techniques to analyze the problem. It is commonly known that the number of independent variables can be reduced after the symmetries of the equation are obtained. One can determine the optimal system of the equation in order to get a reduction of the independent variables. In addition, using the method, one can obtain new solutions from known ones. This feature is interesting because some differential equations have apparently useless trivial solutions, but applying Lie symmetries to them, more interesting solutions are obtained. The question arises when it happens that our equation contains a discrete quantity. In other words, we aim at investigating steps to be performed when we have a difference equation. Doing so, we find symmetries of difference equations and use them to linearize and reduce the order of difference equations. In this work, we analyze the work done by some researchers in the field and apply their results to some examples. This work will focus on the topical review of symmetries of difference equations and going through that will enable us to make some contribution to the field in the near future.


It is shown that an interferometer using one scatter plate and a plane mirror is well suited for testing long focus optical systems. Stability is automatically achieved in this system because of its +1 magnification. Two methods of introducing straight fringes into the field in order to examine a nearly perfect optical system, and a method of making scatter plates to give high-contrast fringe patterns are described.


The identity of the Caribbean as a territory is a veritable bricolage of cultural forms. Since Columbus' mistaken arrival in the West Indies, these islands have become home to Spanish, French, Dutch, British, African, Indian and Chinese immigrants, alongside its Aboriginal inhabitants. Despite the massive diversity that can be seen in these islands, there exists one common cultural expression that has persisted for the past 200 years throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. This celebration is Carnival. Trinidad is the southernmost island in the archipelago that composes the Caribbean. Carnival is celebrated in many of Trinidad's towns, the biggest celebration being held in its capital city, Port-of-Spain. This research thesis looks at Carnival in Portof-Spain as a complex urban entity that ritualistically re-energises and reclaims the city's streets. Through ecstatic celebration, the festival engenders a strong sense of communitas and collective identity, annually reinventing itself and occupying a liminal space between the Ordinary city of day-to-day living and the Extraordinary city of mythological complexity. As the festival moves through the city along its annual Parade Route, it creates an urban narrative which exists invisibly during the year in the city's collective memory. Through a combination of descriptive text, scholarly research and experiential mapping, A City with Two Faces outlines the transformative qualities of Carnival in the streets of Port-of-Spain from its largest temporary urban forms to its smallest manifestations in syncretic masquerade archetypes.


Vormela petenyii Kretzoi, 1942 and Baranogale balcanica n. sp., the lctonychini species from the Villafranchian locality of Varshets, Bulgaria (first half of the MNQ17 zone), which includes a total of 18 macromammalian species, are concerned. The fossils of V. petenyii (the earliest Vormela species), from Varshets, are among the very few known, and probably the oldest sure remains of this taxon. B. balcanica n. sp. differs from B. helbingi Kormos, 1934 mainly by its much smaller dimensions and by the combination of a reduced pm2 and the plesiomorphic condition of the pm4 and m2.


From a desire to better understand the effect of both external and internal factors on vowel production in immigrant groups, this paper explores the change in vowel quality of two speakers of Romanian in Canada. The focus is on the behaviour of the central high vowel, which lacks a correlate in English, and the implication of age at the time of immigration. The Lobanov vowel extrinsic method for normalization of speaker data was used to analyze two speakers' vowel production. The raw and normalized means from each participant are compared to a control. Language internal factors were better at predicting change than language external ones. Both participants maintained their production of the high central vowel due to its phonetic distance. Further, both participants produced a more raised schwa than the control. This points to a divergence rather than convergence towards English.


Abstract A gastropod fauna has been studied from upper Pliensbachian – upper Toarcian deposits of two sections of the Causses Basin (southern France) in order to investigate the mode of recovery after the early Toarcian anoxic event. The fauna consists of 15 species, one of which is new (Bathrotomaria kronzwilmesorum sp. nov.). Their stratigraphical distribution shows two peaks of diversity – in the Bifrons Zone (Bifrons Subzone) and in the Aalensis Zone (Mactra Subzone) – which reflect brief times during which the oxygen content and bottom consistency favoured the settlement of a relatively diversified fauna. In the Variabilis–Pseudoradiosa zones, gastropods are only represented by two species. This probably indicates more severe and unstable environmental conditions, only allowing the survival of gastropod taxa with wide adaptive capacities. The very low species diversity and the discontinuous and slow faunal recovery were probably determined by physiographic factors. The Causses area was a small basin confined by exposed lands and open towards the central part of western Tethys. Gastropods described here occur exclusively in the Toarcian – early Aalenian communities of the European epicontinental seas, whereas species from the central region of western Tethys are absent. Geographic isolation and marginal location of the Causses Basin restricted faunal exchange with the western European epicontinental seas, preventing fast recovery after the anoxic event. Gastropods of the central region of the western Tethys were probably unable to settle and colonize that area due to the strongly different environment.


These days, the once obscure engineering term "DSP" (digital signal processing) is working its way into common use. It has begun to crop up on the labels of an ever wider range of products, from home audio components to answering machines. This is not merely a reflection of a new marketing strategy, however; there truly is more digital signal processing inside today's products than ever before. But why is the market for DSP processors booming? The answer is somewhat circular: as microprocessor fabrication processes have become more sophisticated, the cost of a microprocessor capable of performing DSP tasks has dropped significantly to the point where such a processor can be used in consumer products and other cost sensitive systems. As a result, more and more products have begun using DSP processors, fueling demand for faster, smaller, cheaper, more energy-efficient chips. Although fundamentally related, DSP processors are significantly different from general purpose processors (GPPs) like the Intel Pentium or PowerPC. The authors explain what DSP processors are and what they do. They also offer a guide to evaluating DSP processors for use in a product or application.


Modern sensorization, communication and computational technologies provide collecting and storing huge amounts of raw data from large cyberphysical systems. These data should serve as the basis to take better decisions at all levels (from the design to operation and management). Nevertheless, raw data needs to be transformed in useful information, usually in the form of prediction models. Machine learning plays thus a key role in this task. The process industry is not alien to this digital transformation, although large processing plants present particularities that differentiate them from other systems. These differences, if neglected, can make machine learning for general purpose fail in extracting the right information from data, leading thus to unreliable process models. As such models are the basis on which the ideas towards the cognitive plant rely, this issue is of key importance for a successful full digitalization of the process industry. Here we discuss these aspects, as well as the more suitable machine-learning approaches, through our experience in an industrial case study.


Abstract Turkey is rapidly transforming into a country of immigration in addition to its roles as a country of emigration and of transit. Bearing in mind that existing arrangements in this policy area are increasingly replaced by new legal, administrative and institutional mechanisms, this paper aims to map out these recent changes in Turkish refugee and asylum policy. In this context, the mass influx of Syrian refugees has become an issue of particular concern due to the complex interplay between its security, humanitarian and socio-economic dimensions and the multifaceted relationship between the growing number of state and non-state institutions. The numerous reports, policy briefs and analysis generated so far, however, lack a clear analytical framework that would explain both the domestic contestation and the role of various actors in Turkish asylum debate about the Syrian refugees. This paper thus examines different perspectives and approaches of the Turkish state, local and national NGOs and international organizations regarding the policies addressing Syrian refugees in Turkey.


This paper investigates whether foreign institutional investors in the United States earn future returns by responding to analysts target price revisions. to examine this issue, this study is using firm fixed effect and industry fixed effect regression in order to examine the effect of using analyst's target price revisions on future abnormal return for foreign institutional investors. We used 51,427 firm-quarter observations between 2003 and 2013 in the U.S. equity market. Different robust approaches were used to proxy foreign institutional trading. We find a positive and significant increase in foreign institutional ownership in response to a positive change in analysts' target prices, which predict positive stock returns. The results are robust to controlling for other analysts' outputs, such as revisions to their earnings' forecasts and stock recommendations, in addition to other determinants of institutional trading. These results are also robust using different measures of institutional trading. In addition, the results show that foreign institutional trading based on target prices' revisions is more pronounced in firms with high information asymmetry. The results show that foreign institutional investors rely more on analysts in small firms and firms with low analyst coverage.


The groundwater-surface water interface (GSI) is a critical environmental hotspot, a key area influencing the fate of carbon, nutrients and contaminants of surface and subsurface origin, and a zone of ecological importance. Policy seeking to mitigate issues relating to dissolved contaminants and to improve stream health, increasingly recognizes its significance, particularly in the context of integrated management of streams and aquifers. Techniques assessing riverbed flow and solute patterns are often limited to the local scale. When related to the multi-scale pattern of hydrogeologic and geomorphic features controlling stream, hyporheic and groundwater fluxes, they can improve larger scale predictions of flow and solute behaviour at the GSI. This study develops a conceptual model of riverbed flow and solute patterns, and tests it in a 4th order stream in the UK. It assesses the interaction between large scale subsurface flowpaths, driven by the distribution of bedrock outcrops, and the expansion and closure of alluvial deposits, and small-scale hyporheic flowpaths, driven by riffle-pool sequences. It uses two networks of riverbed mini-piezometers and multi-level samplers: network 1, across fifteen sites in a 7.2 km length of river in unconstrained (open alluvial valley), asymmetric (bedrock outcropping on one bank) and constrained (bedrock on both banks) contexts; and network 2, across six riffle-pool sequences in a 350-m reach, at the transition between asymmetric/unconstrained and constrained contexts. Subsurface flowpaths and stream-water infiltration were deduced by relating vertical exchange fluxes to stream and pore-water patterns of conservative natural tracers. Biogeochemical processes were highlighted using reactive natural tracers. At network 2, measurements of surface water profiles and riverbed coring were also undertaken, and dissolved metal concentrations in the first 15 cm of sediments assessed using gel probes. Network 1 was sampled twice. Monthly head measurements and seasonal pore-water sampling were undertaken at network 2. Results from network 1 showed the combined influence of valley type and riffle-pool sequences on riverbed flow and solute patterns. In asymmetric and unconstrained contexts, stream water infiltrated deeply in the riverbed in riffles. In pools, a vertical stratification of hydrochemically distinct flowpaths, often disconnected hydrologically from the stream, was observed. Biogeochemical reactions were more developed in pools. In constrained context, riverbed pore-water was dominated by upwelling subsurface flowpaths displaying a low vertical variability of hydrochemistry. Biogeochemical reactions were not apparent, and stream water infiltration was limited to shallow depth in riffle context. The replicability of these patterns with regards to local conditions (groundwater discharge, surface water profile and riverbed permeability) will be discussed at network 2. Finally, implications of the conceptual model for the near-bed ecosystem will be illustrated by assessing the bioavailability of metals in the shallow riverbed. This work will help to better design monitoring strategies aiming to consider the control of the GSI on solute fate across scales.


In this paper we present some of the main results obtained within the European project COPERNICUS 621 "GRAMLEX" aiming at development of basic resources, tools and methods useful in language engineering. Results presented here were obtained by the Polish team of the GRAMLEX project using Polish data but are easily portable to all Indo-European languages. They are of special interest for highly inflectional languages (e.g. for all Slavonic languages). The high portability of results follows from the proposed, very general format of morphological description (GRAMCODE) and from the general character and great simplicity of algorithms referring to this format. In the paper we briefly present the GRAMODE format, as well as the fundamental dictionary based tool for morphological lemmatization and tagging of texts (LEXAN).


OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to compare the effectiveness of a youth-friendly HIV video with in-person counseling in conveying HIV knowledge and obtaining consent for HIV testing among adolescent patients of an urban emergency department. METHODS: A 2-armed, randomized controlled trial was conducted on a convenience sample of 200 stable, sexually active people aged 15 to 21 years in an urban emergency department. Participants in both the in-person counseling group and the video intervention group completed preintervention and postintervention HIV knowledge measures. HIV knowledge was the primary outcome measure, and consent for HIV testing was the secondary outcome. Characteristics associated with voluntary HIV testing were identified. RESULTS: Of 333 eligible people, 200 agreed to participate. There was no difference in preintervention HIV knowledge scores between groups. Mean postintervention knowledge scores differed significantly between the video (78.5% correct) and the counselor (66.3% correct) (P < 0.01) groups. Overall, 51% of the video group accepted HIV testing compared with 22% in the control group (P < .01). Watching the video (OR: 3.6 [95% CI: 1.8–7.2]), being female (OR: 2.1 [95% CI: 1.0–4.2]), engaging in oral sex (OR: 2.8 [95% CI: 1.4–5.9]), and being older than 18 years (OR: 3.8 [95% CI: 1.8–7.8]) were all positively associated with testing. CONCLUSIONS: A youth-friendly HIV educational video improved adolescents' HIV knowledge and increased their participation in HIV testing more than in-person counseling. video-based HIV counseling can perform as well or better than in-person counseling for adolescents in the ED.


Security of a key exchange protocol is formally established through an abstract game between a challenger and an adversary. In this game the adversary can get various information which are modeled by giving the adversary access to appropriate oracle queries. Empowered with all these information, the adversary will try to break the protocol. This is modeled by a test query which asks the adversary to distinguish between a session key of a fresh session from a random session key; properly guessing which correctly leads the adversary to win the game. In this traditional model of security the adversary sees nothing apart from the input/ output relationship of the algorithms. However, in recent past an adversary could obtain several additional information beyond what he gets to learn in these black box models of computation, thanks to the availability of powerful malwares. This data exfiltration due to the attacks of Memory Scraper/Ram-Scraper-type malwares is an emerging threat. In order to realistically capture these advanced classes of threats posed by such malwares we propose a new security model for identity-based authenticated key exchange (ID-AKE) which we call the Identity based Strong Extended Canetti Krawzyck (ID-seCK) model. Our security model captures leakages of intermediate values by appropriate oracle queries given to the adversary. Following this, we propose a round optimal (i.e., single round) ID-AKE protocol for two-party settings. Our design assumes a hybrid system equipped with a bare minimal Trusted Platform Module (TPM) that can only perform group exponentiations. One of the major advantages of our construction is that it does not involve any pairing operations, works in prime order group and have a tight security reduction to the Gap Diffie Hellman (GDH) problem under our new ID-seCK model. Our scheme also has the capability to handle active adversaries while most of the previous ID-AKE protocols are secure only against passive adversaries. The security of our protocol is proved in the Random Oracle (RO) model.


Background Comprehensive care for critically ill children in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is done with the aim of achieving good outcomes. Severe disease in children is characterized by disruption of homeostatic processes, and can be evaluated by mortality scoring methods. There are several mortality scoring methods which can be used to predict mortality in children, the pediatric risk of mortality (PRISM) and pediatric index of mortality (PIM) are the most preferably used among all. The pediatric index of mortality 2(PIM2) is a key mortality prediction model for children receiving treatment in intensive care units, but its use has not been well validated in Indonesia. Objective To evaluate the performance of PIM2 model in PICU patients. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted on PICU patients at Sanglah Hospital from November 2012 to April 2013. Patients underwent PIM2 scoring during their admission. The predictive ability of PIM2 scoring for patient mortality was analyzed using ROC curve. Results A total of 54 patients were included in this study, of whom 8 (14.8%) died. Discrimination between survival and death was assessed by the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and found to be 0.81 (95% CI 0.59 to 1.03). Sensitivity was 75 (95%CI 36 to 96)% and specificity was 98 (95%CI 87 to 99)%. The PIM2 cut off value was ≥ -0.99. Conclusion The PIM 2 model has a good discriminatory power and calibration for predicting the mortality of children admitted to PICU and therefore is recommended for routine use in clinical practice. [


Recent years have seen calls for the private sector to become more involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Business has valuable skills and other resources that could assist government and civil society efforts, and some firms (although by no means all) also have strong reasons for involvement. HIV/AIDS hits hardest the working-age individuals who make up the bulk of the private sector's workforce and consumer base. As well as a moral case for action, deflecting the virus's impacts on employees and economies can avert business costs and strengthen corporate reputations. This article presents some of the key arguments for business action on HIV/AIDS and provides examples of where business has less reason to be concerned about the impact of the epidemic in specific situations. It also outlines findings from the World Economic Forum's 2006 Executive Opinion Survey, which polls the views of over 11,000 business leaders in 125 countries. It finds a small proportion of firms reporting that the virus is seriously affecting their operations, with the greatest effects felt in Sub-Saharan Africa. A much larger proportion of firms believe the virus will affect them in the next five years. Despite this growing worldwide concern, it is primarily companies in the hardest-hit countries that have developed policies to cope with the threat. It is noteworthy that most firms are basing their action or inaction on a subjective perception of the risk posed by HIV/AIDS, rather than on a formal risk assessment.


This paper describes the determinants of FDI location among Italian provinces, focusing on the role of market potential (in terms of market access to Mediterranean and European countries) and institutions (presence of Mafia-type crime, corruption of public officers, inefficiency of the labour judicial system). Provinces with better access to neighbouring countries are expected to receive larger amounts of investments. Better efficiency in settling disputes relative to labour subjects, fewer corruption episodes and lower presence of organized crime should also be associated with higher flows of FDIs. Data have been drawn from different sources (FDI Markets Database, OECD, IMF, EuroStat Regio, and various Italian statistical, economic and political institutions) and were elaborated in order to create specific indices. All together, they constitute a detailed collection of information on this subject (the appendix contains maps to better visualize data on the Italian territory). The particular structure of the data - characterised by high presence of zeros, large overdispersion and high volatility of the dependent variable - required extensive econometric testing. Baseline analysis was carried out through Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial, Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood and Logit estimations. Additional tests were conducted adopting fixed effects methodologies (including a Mundlak procedure on a Negative Binomial random effects estimation) and other procedures able to deal with excess zeros and overdispersion in the dependent variable (Zero-Inflate Poisson, Hurdle Poisson, Hurdle Negative Binomial). Conclusions partially confirm initial hypotheses, while giving new insights on this issue. Market potential has a positive impact on FDIs, especially in relation to Mediterranean countries. Provinces with better infrastructural networks, in particular port and railway facilities, are more able to grasp the opportunities offered by economic growth in the Mediterranean. Inefficiencies in the labour judicial system are associated with lower probability to receive any investment (binary process). The relation between FDIs and Mafia follows a more insightful pattern, as the presence of Mafia reduces the probability of receiving inflows of foreign capital, but it is associated with larger projects, implying the investment of higher volumes of money. Similarly, higher levels of corruption are associated with larger investment projects, although they do not have any significant relation with the probability of receiving any investment (binary process). Regressions were further estimated with year fixed effects and additional covariates. Results were also tested introducing 1- and 2-period lags of the dependent variable. Dummies for specific areas of the country (north, centre, south) were constructed and interacted with market potential indices.


Abstract. A new error budget assessment of the global Mean Sea Level (MSL) determined by TOPEX/Poseidon and Jason-1 altimeter satellites between January 1993 and June 2008 is presented using last altimeter standards. We discuss all potential errors affecting the calculation of the global MSL rate. We also compare altimetry-based sea level with tide gauge measurements over the altimetric period. Applying a statistical approach, this allows us to provide a realistic error budget of the MSL rise measured by satellite altimetry. These new calculations highlight a reduction in the rate of sea level rise since 2005, by ~2 mm/yr. This represents a 60% reduction compared to the 3.3 mm/yr sea level rise (glacial isostatic adjustment correction applied) measured between 1993 and 2005. Since November 2005, MSL is accurately measured by a single satellite, Jason-1. However the error analysis performed here indicates that the recent reduction in MSL rate is real.


Background and purpose Early or primary application of high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) has been recently suggested not to offer benefit to patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). However, the rescue effects of HFOV on severe pediatric acute respiratory distress syndrome (PARDS) with hypoxemia refractory to conventional mechanical ventilation (CMV) remain unclear. This study aimed to determine whether severe PARDS children would benefit from HFOV when oxygenation deteriorated on CMV and to identify any potential risk factors related to mortality. Patients and methods In a retrospective and observational study, 48 children with severe PARDS between January 2009 and July 2015 were divided into two groups: 26 in HFOV group and 22 in CMV group. Data regarding demographic, underlying conditions, arterial blood gases and clinical outcomes were collected and analyzed. Results The arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2)/fraction of inspiration oxygen (FiO2) ratio and PaO2 improved significantly during HFOV, whereas arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) and oxygenation index decreased. There was no statistical difference in the in-hospital mortality between the groups (P=0.367). The odds ratio of survival in HFOV group was 2.74 (95% confidence interval 0.52 to 14.58, P=0.237). The pediatric intensive care unit length of stay and total ventilation duration were longer in HFOV group (P=0.048 and P=0.000, respectively). Vasoactive agents were used more frequently in HFOV group (P=0.007). The incidence of new air leak was similar between the two groups (P=0.674). The presence of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and heavier body weight were identified as predictors of mortality in the HFOV group (P=0.006 and P=0.020, respectively). Conclusion HFOV as an efficient alternative therapy could significantly improve hypoxemia and promote CO2 removal in severe PARDS children when oxygenation progressively worsens on CMV.


In this work the educational capabilities of the virtual world Second Life are researched and tested. A virtual world is constructed to support education for sustainable development. The life and characteristics of the shark is studied as this fish has received a lot of negative publicity and is in the danger of extinction. A virtual museum was developed for this purpose. The research question is focused on whether it can be used effectively in a modern classroom and how difficult is for an educator to develop such an application. To achieve that, a number of learning activities were developed, a number of on line questionnaires were issued and a series of virtual meetings were held. Teachers used the application and answered the questionnaires. The entire effort was attempted through Internet exclusively.


Research on the role of top–down (predation) and bottom–up (food) effects in food webs has led to the understanding that the variability of these effects in space and time is a fundamental feature of natural systems. Consequently, our measurement tools must allow us to evaluate the effects from a dynamical perspective. A population-dynamics approach may be appropriate to the task. More specifically, because food and predators both affect birth rate, birth rate dynamics may be a key to understanding their impact on the population of interest. Based on the Edmondson–Paloheimo model for birth rate, we propose a new population metric to assess the relative strength of top–down vs bottom–up effects. The metric is the ratio of contributions of changes in proportion of adults and fecundity to change in birth rate. Proportion of adults reflects a top–down effect (predators are assumed to be size-selective), fecundity reflects a bottom–up effect, and birth rate appears as a common currency with which to compare the former and the latter. Using microcosm experiments and computer simulations on the cladoceran Daphnia, we calibrate the metric and show that, in both types of tests, the ratio of contributions is typically 0.5–0.7 under a strong bottom–up effect and 2.0–2.2 under a strong top–down effect. This provides experimental evidence that the ratio of contributions may allow one to distinguish a strong top–down effect from a strong bottom–up effect.


Summary  A major management decision in an ecological restoration or rehabilitation project is whether supplementary planting or natural vegetation regeneration is the better alternative or if a combination can be applied. Management decisions are further complicated when the project involves saltmarsh as tidal cycles, the effects of salinity and sea level rise add to the complexity of decisions. The ecological values of the saltmarsh community in Australia were only recognized relatively recently but the endangered ecological community listing in 1994 (under the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995) highlighted the need to protect, rehabilitate and restore saltmarsh.

This project measured vegetation change after soil profile reconstruction in saltmarsh surrounding Sponsors Lagoon, Fingal Peninsula in north coastal New South Wales, Australia. Restored sites (planted and non-planted) were compared with nearby disturbed (control) and reference sites. The dominant species in the community to be restored were Saltwater Couch (Sporobolus virginicus), Suaeda (Suaeda australis), Sarcocornia (Sarcocornia quinqueflora ssp. quinqueflora and Sea Rush (Juncus kraussii ssp. australiensis). Changes in percentage cover of the species in the first three years after soil reconstruction work showed that the dominant Saltwater Couch established only from vegetative growth arising from remnant vegetation but there was strong seedling regeneration of several other species. It was concluded that planting is important for species that are less vagile, in larger, denuded parts of this site where their resilience is lower and natural regeneration potential is limited. An understanding of the biology of the individual species is therefore likely to be essential in saltmarsh restoration projects. A combination of techniques, incorporating planting of slower establishing species and encouragement of seed-germinated colonizers is useful for initial site stabilization and progressive ecological recovery at this site. The inclusion of migration zones in the planning phase will allow for the long-term viability of this restoration project.


The research:
The research project is a case study which aims to provide direct evidence of the connection between a specific staff development strategy, an institution-wide staff development festival day held in August, and enhanced educational outcomes for all learners (Ako Aotearoa's vision).
The research asks "What, if any, evaluation strategy will provide direct evidence of a connection between a specific staff development strategy and enhanced educational outcomes?". Literature from the tertiary sector, which notes a theoretical link between professional development and enhanced student outcomes will be discussed. The notion that direct evidence of a connection between staff development and student outcomes can be collected and measured will be critiqued and potential ways of providing direct evidence will be explored.
Why this topic is important:
The accountability heat is turned up in tertiary education. Public funding is capped, there are growing professional development requirements, and each institution is expected to make "a distinctive contribution to the national goals of a high income knowledge based economy" (Ministry of Education, 2007). The staff members of a tertiary education institution (TEI) are a key resource. They are a significant component of the institutional budget and play a major role in achieving institutional objectives, providing the main interface with students (Rowley, J. 1996). Staff development activities have been found to influence teachers' professional development (Weurlander & Stenfors-Hayes, 2008).

Literature from the tertiary sector also notes the strong theoretical link between professional development and enhanced student outcomes, but direct evidence is limited. There are also gaps when it comes to definitively stating which type of professional development yields the best results (Knox, 2009). This finding challenges Ako Aotearoa's stated goal of supporting activities, which support the best possible educational outcomes for learners in the tertiary sector. The missing link then, is direct evidence of the connection between specific staff development strategies and enhanced student outcomes. Yet organizations who fund tertiary education initiatives, such as Ako Aotearoa, and other stakeholders often require the link to be established.

In an era of lifting of overall educational outcomes and an underlying culture of quality improvement (Waikato Institute of Technology, no date) a sound evaluation strategy for assessing the benefits of staff development activities is needed (Partington & Brown, 1997).
How the session will be run:
At the beginning of the workshop, participants will complete the following statement:
Staff professional development would be beneficial to my students if ...

A short role play of planning, implementing and evaluating an institution wide staff professional development festival at Wintec will set the scene for the critical discussion of the links between staff professional development and enhanced student outcomes.
Reported effects of staff development and measures of enhanced student outcomes will be presented. Participants will workshop the 'missing link', discussing the nature of 'direct evidence' and exploring potential methods of collecting, measuring and reporting such data. Methods of assessing the benefits of staff development activities which provide direct evidence of a connection to enhanced educational outcomes for all learners will be proposed. The workshop will finish with a review of participants' statements in light of the workshop discussions.

Jane Stewart
Waikato Institute of Technology
Tristram Street
Private Bag 3036
Hamilton
email@example.com


An experiment was conducted at Metahara Sugar Estate of Ethiopia with the aim to evaluate the effects of three different polyethylene bag sizes on the propagation responses of three sugarcane genotypes in a completely randomized design with factorial treatment combination arrangements. Analysis of variance revealed that the interaction effects of polyethylene bag sizes and sugarcane genotypes have significant influence on the number of tillers per shoot, number of roots per shoot and average root length of the sugarcane genotypes studied. white colored polyethylene bag size with 10 cm diameter and 8 cm height (W10*8) gave the maximum number of tillers per shoot while white polyethylene bags with 10 cm diameter and 10 cm height (W10*10) and black polyethylene bag with 30 cm diameter and 20 cm height (B30*20) gave maximum number of roots per shoot and maximum average root length, respectively, in all the sugarcane genotypes tested. As the number of tillers per shoot is a key response variable in planting material propagation, polyethylene bag size W10*8 is found to be economical in its volume of planting media consumption and in production of maximum number of tillers per shoot of the three sugarcane genotypes tested.


Ireland has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the world. Abortion has been criminalised since 1861, and the passage of the 8 th Amendment in 1983 introduced 'the right to life of the unborn' into the Constitution. The effects of the 8 th Amendment are felt on a daily basis by women leaving Ireland for abortion, by pregnant women receiving maternal care, by doctors caring for pregnant women, and by lawyers working for the health service. As predicted by the then-Attorney General Peter Sutherland at the time of the referendum, the 8 th Amendment has introduced an uncertain and practically unusable position to Irish law. It has, simply put, become "unliveable". In late 2014 Labour Women, a branch of the Irish Labour Party, established a Commission for Repeal of the 8 th Amendment. That Commission comprised three groups: a political group, a medical group, and a group of legal experts. The authors of this paper are those legal experts. In this paper, we first outline the legal status quo as regards abortion in Ireland before making a case for constitutional reform. Having established the desirability of, and need for, constitutional reform we then outline the working principles that informed our drafting of the accompanying Access to Abortion Bill 2015, bearing in mind our intention to craft a model for reform that would be workable from the perspective of women's lives, medical practice, and politics. Although drafted as part of the Labour Women Commission, and with some (limited) input from the other Commission groups, the proposed draft is that of the authors of this paper (working within the confines of our remit as 'legal experts' to the Commission) and not of the Labour Party or of Labour Women. It is made available here for discussion, debate and development by all interested parties.


In this work we investigate the influence of dark energy on structure formation, within five different cosmological models, namely a concordance $\Lambda$CDM model, two models with dynamical dark energy, viewed as a quintessence scalar field (using a RP and a SUGRA potential form) and two extended quintessence models (EQp and EQn) where the quintessence scalar field interacts non-minimally with gravity (scalar-tensor theories).
We adopted for all models the normalization of the matter power spectrum $\sigma_{8}$ to match the CMB data.
For each model, we perform hydrodynamical simulations in a cosmological box of $(300 \ {\rm{Mpc}} \ h^{-1})^{3}$ including baryons and allowing for cooling and star formation.
We find that, in models with dynamical dark energy, the evolving cosmological background leads to different star formation rates and different formation histories of galaxy clusters, but the baryon physics is not affected in a relevant way.
We investigate several proxies for the cluster mass function based on X-ray observables like temperature, luminosity, $M_{gas}$, and $Y_{X}$.
We confirm that the overall baryon fraction is almost independent of the dark energy models within few percentage points. The same is true for the gas fraction.
This evidence reinforces the use of galaxy clusters as cosmological probe of the matter and energy content of the Universe.
We also study the $c-M$ relation in the different cosmological scenarios, using both dark matter only and hydrodynamical simulations.
We find that the normalization of the $c-M$ relation is directly linked to $\sigma_{8}$ and the evolution of the density perturbations for $\Lambda$CDM, RP and SUGRA, while for EQp and EQn it depends also on the evolution of the linear density contrast.
These differences in the $c-M$ relation provide another way to use galaxy clusters to constrain the underlying cosmology.


- This paper presents a semiautomatic evaluation method of usability in websites. Expert review is done in this case using a template based on the ISO 9241-151 guidelines that provides numerical and graphical results. Such results permit to observe the aspects of usability that are missed on the evaluated website. This template has many applications as it can be used both to evaluate websites and to teach heuristic evaluation method for students who are studying subjects of usability.


This paper proposes REFUEL, a reinforcement learning method with two techniques: {\em reward shaping} and {\em feature rebuilding}, to improve the performance of online symptom checking for disease diagnosis. Reward shaping can guide the search of policy towards better directions. Feature rebuilding can guide the agent to learn correlations between features. Together, they can find symptom queries that can yield positive responses from a patient with high probability. Experimental results justify that the two techniques in REFUEL allows the symptom checker to identify the disease more rapidly and accurately.


Locating Italy: East and West in British-Italian Transactions is part of a series of books that examines cross-cultural processes between Great Britain and Italy. The volume explores for the first time British-Italian cultural exchanges in terms of East-West, rather than North-South. In so doing, it reveals that Italy has long been a meeting point of East and West as much as one of North and South. Comprising essays from the fields of history, political science, the philosophy of language, linguistics, literature, and the arts, the collection illustrates that the dynamics of British-Italian transactions have long been shaped by a fascinating process of location and relocation. Locating Italy is pathbreaking in that it questions the traditional categories of North, South, East and West in interactions between these two countries and their respective cultures.


This paper presents a theoretical estimate of the roof strength required to protect contained occupants during a rollover crash assuming an effective restraint system is implemented in the vehicle. To date a number of road safety advocates have suggested that a roof's strength-to-vehicle weight ratio (SWR) must be a minimum of 3.5, as measured according to the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 216 protocol, to protect contained occupants from severe or fatal injury. To date these conclusions have been based on real world crash data, statistics and crash test data. This study further validates the conclusions reached by these researchers using a purely mathematical approach that utilises Newtonian laws of physics, empirical values from rollover crash test data and the FMVSS 216 test protocol. The mathematical derivation identifies what proportion of crash energy each component of the vehicle absorbs. The analysis considers both friction between the vehicle and the roadway and deformation of the vehicle. By identifying the energy that must be absorbed through deformation of the vehicle's roof using the FMVSS 216 five inches (127 mm) of roof crush strength limit as a constraint, it was possible to calculate theoretically using some broad empirical assumptions generated from rollover crash test data, that a SWR of 3.6 is required to prevent serious and fatal injuries.


Tissue regeneration is fundamental to sustaining life, but the multi-tissue regeneration capacity of adult mammals is extremely limited. In a classic model of multi-tissue regeneration, rodents display the capacity to replace amputated distal digit tips that are comprised of many various tissues including bone, muscle, nerve, nail, and skin. The mechanisms by which these various tissues collectively generate a properly patterned replacement digit tip, however, have not been fully elucidated.


We present the experimental demonstration of in-fiber acousto-optic coupling in a polyimide-coated optical fiber. Although the presence of the polyimide coating increases is significantly the attenuation of the acoustic wave, we show that acousto-optic interaction can still be produced with reasonable efficiency. The effect of the polyimide coating on the acousto-optic interaction process is analyzed in detailed. Theoretical and experimental results are in good agreement. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of acousto-optic coupling in optical fibers with robust protective coating.


Most studies of coral reef fish communities have been restricted to site-attached species on small, isolated patches of habitat. Few have investigated spatial variation in fish species richness in relation to predictions based on stochastic or deterministic processes of community organisation. Our aims were to: (1) compare species richness on contiguous and fragmented reef habitats, and (2) investigate the mechanisms underlying spatial variation in species richness. Quantitative comparison of species-area curves for contiguous and patchy coral reef indicated that patch reefs support more species than equivalent areas of contiguous reef. However, Monte-Carlo simulated rarefaction curves indicated little difference in the species-individuals relationship for both habitats. Rarefaction was employed to eliminate variation in species richness among sites due to differences in sample size (number of fish present). After removal of sample-size effects, multiple regression models explained 30% and 25% of total variability in species richness on contiguous and patchy coral reef based on variation in habitat structure (e.g., depth, shelter availability, substratum characteristics). To investigate the likely importance of stochastic processes in determining spatial variation in species richness, we compared the species-individuals relationship from contiguous reef sites with the relationships derived from null models involving the random reallocation of fish among sites. Comparisons of the observed data with the outcomes of the null models indicated that spatial variation in species richness was not wholly attributable to stochastic processes. We suggest that the observed patterns of species richness may reflect species interactions (e.g., competition and predation) within fish communities.


JOHN PALMER [1] ABSTRACT: Two series are reported in which subjects could use psi to continue playing computer solitaire and possibly win a $100 prize. Subjects were told nothing about using psi for this purpose. After they recorded their scores for each set of four games, a pseudo-random algorithm activated by a keyboard button press determined if they could continue. The principal psi measure was the number of sets of solitaire completed. ESP scores in Series I for 48 subjects were nonsignificant, and the only significant post-hoc finding was a positive correlation between the number of sets completed and a question asking how much the subject desired to get a high score. Several procedural modifications were introduced in Series II, most notably use of a hardware RNG, which generated either 20 or 200 numbers. The average number of sets completed by the 50 subjects was once again nonsignificant, but the mean overall standard score based on the RNG output was suggestively above chance (p = .057) and significantly above-chan ce (p = .015) for the 20-trial condition. The squared standard scores correlated positively with the addiction scale of the Solitaire Questionnaire (p = .010), confirming the PMIR hypothesis that the most highly motivated subjects should demonstrate the most psi. Numerous psi experiments have demonstrated that psi can occur without the intention of the ostensible psi source (e.g., Berger, 1988; Weiner & Zingrone, 1986; West & Fisk, 1953), who may not even be told that psi is involved in the experiment (e.g., Nelson, Bradish, Dobyns, Dunne, & Jahn, 1996; Stanford, Zenhausern, Taylor, & Dwyer, 1976). In theory such a situation might be advantageous, because subjects' doubts about their ability to succeed, which may precipitate either chance scoring or psi-missing, will not arise. In his psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model, Stanford (1977) postulates that subjects must be supplied with some sort of motivation if they are to apply their psi abilities. As the desire to demonstrate psi is not engaged in a covert psi task, some sort of extrinsic motivation must be supplied in such situations. Investigators in recent years have sometimes turned to computer games to aid in motivating subjects in ordinary psi experiments (e.g., Broughton & Perlstrom, 1986, 1992), and there is no reason why such games cannot be used in covert psi experiments as well. A computer game that I thought would have particular potential in this regard is computer solitaire. First, the game is supplied free of charge with the widely used Microsoft Windows software, so many potential subjects will already be familiar with it. Second, as I can attest personally, for some people the game can be quite addictive, in the sense that once one starts playing, one wants to continue. This suggests an experimental design in which subjects can continue to play solitaire by using psi in a positive manner. Also, because solitaire is a game that can be scored, another sort of motivation can be supplied by offering a prize to the person who achieves the highest score in the experiment. Because subjects' scores cumulate across the number of ga mes played, using psi to play more games also increases the chance of winning the prize. Because the solitaire game software cannot be accessed by the user, it was necessary to build the psi component into a separate program that was interfaced with computer solitaire. Subjects began by playing a set of four solitaire games. Whether they could move on to another set was influenceable by psi in the following manner. Unknown to the subject, a button press called for by the companion program to change a screen also activated the computer's pseudo-random algorithm so that it generated a number from 1 to 4. This number defined a "key game," and continuation in the experiment depended on subjects' getting a relatively high score in the key game. Thus, subjects could use psi to designate one of the games on which they would obtain a high score as the key game, thereby allowing themselves to continue playing. …


These figures display gender- and education-related gaps in U.S. gender attitudes from 1977 to 2018. The authors use data from the General Social Survey (N = 57,224) to estimate the historical trajectory of U.S. attitudes about women in politics, familial roles, and working motherhood. Of all attitudes analyzed, Americans hold the most liberal attitudes toward women in politics, with no gender gap and little educational difference on this issue. Attitudes toward familial roles have the largest educational gap but a small gender difference. The gender gap in attitudes toward working motherhood has persisted over time, with women holding more egalitarian attitudes than men. The educational disparity on this issue disappeared during the mid-1990s "stalled gender revolution" but has widened since. Although the "stall" occurred among all gender and educational groups on all four gender attitude measures, the decline was starkest among the college educated regarding working motherhood.


We present a new contour segmentation method for femoral head detection in CT images. The principal idea underlying our approach is to represent the contour using active rays. Each ray has internal energy (continuity and smoothness constraints), as well as external energy (image-oriented edges and global a-priori knowledge). The causal nature of this representation allows a globally optimal, non-iterative solution to be found using dynamic programming. Moreover, even pathological bone structures can be automatically segmented. Several clinical situations on pelvis CT scan with hip degenerative change shows that this approach is more efficient than conventional methods. In this paper, we describe our method and discuss how it can be used to create graphical 3D models of the hip that are suitable for preoperative planning.


We discuss the formation of technical standards platforms in industries with network externalities where firms are free to choose their degree of technical compatibility with competitors. In our model, firms choose affiliation to a technical standards coalition in the first stage of a game, and play an oligopoly game in the second stage. In adding itself to a technical standards coalition, a firm benefits from the network effects of the whole coalition, but also faces increased competition in the output market from other firms in the coalition. Also, the increase of the size of the coalition changes the competitive position of members of that coalition relative to other firms. We find that the extent and size of coalitions at equilibrium depends crucially on the degree of the intensity of network effects. When network effects are very strong, full compatibility prevails. When externalities are slightly weaker, two standards coalitions are formed, a singleton, and one with all remaining firms. On the other extreme, for very weak network effects, the equilibrium is total incompatibility, and for slightly more intense network effects, coalitions are of small size. We characterize a number of other equilibria for intermediate strengths of network externalities.


ArchBook is an online, open-access knowledge base of textual features that illustrate technologies and human practices for transmitting knowledge in textual form.


In 2013, the Internal Revenue Code ("Code") will mark 100 years. Attacks on the tax policy generally, and on the Code specifically, have formed part of the income tax landscape since the enactment of the Code in 1913. For nearly 100 years, taxpayers have engaged in reasonable, and unreasonable challenges to Congress' power to tax. Challenges range from legitimate interpretational issues, to quasi-legitimate tax shelter issues, to illegitimate tax protester issues. Taxpayer challenges are motivated by any number of reasons: a desire to equalize the perceived disparity of the income tax laws in relation to one's particular tax position, a desire to pursue aggressive positions in the absence of explicit authority, or a misplaced belief in the illegitimacy of the Code. A number of factors combine to create an environment ripe for taxpayer challenges and for self-executing equalization by taxpayers - voluntary tax assessments, varying tax preferences, fluctuating tax policies, and ambiguous language. These factors influence a faction of taxpayers, tax protesters and aggressive tax participants, into behavior that is questionable and destructive to the tax policy goals of simplicity, fairness, efficiency and revenue sufficiency. This paper explores the actions taken by tax protesters and aggressive tax planners, the response by Congress, and examines whether Congress has taken sufficient action to curb abusive taxpayer practices. The thesis of the paper is that Congress' fainthearted responses to abusive taxpayer conduct is untimely, inefficient, and ineffective. Congress' weak responses since the inception of the Code have contributed to a culture of income tax avoidance and a growing sense of exasperation by taxpayers with the income tax laws. The paper makes two proposals, one to address tax protesters, and the other to address unintended tax benefits as a result of aggressive tax planning resulting.