Across the United States, the energy used to power commercial buildings represents a sizeable portion of overall energy consumption and resulting greenhouse gas emissions. Until recently, building owners and managers did not have an easy way to compare the efficiency of their buildings. Through the ENERGY STAR program, the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy created a tool to evaluate a building's relative efficiency, a process called benchmarking. Recently, a growing number of cities have passed legislation requiring commercial building owners to track energy performance, as a way to help the cities meet their own climate goals. This Note examines three cities' benchmarking legislation amidst the complex web of energy regulatory authority at the local, state, and federal levels and suggests that a successful energy benchmarking program must carefully coordinate with state regulators and local utility companies.


Nishida Kitaro (1870–1945) is the most important Japanese philosopher of the last century. His constant aim in philosophy was to try to articulate Zen in terms drawn from Western philosophical sources, yet in the end he found that he could not do so, and his thought illustrates a conceptual incommensurability at the deepest level between the main line of the Western tradition and one of the main lines in Eastern thought.

This book is a work of comparative philosophy. Attention is given to the consequences of Nishida's metaphysics in the areas of ethics, aesthetics, the philosophy of religion and notably the implications of Nishida's example for the question of pluralism. This study of Nishida brings into sharp focus the question of whether, faced with a conceptual incommensurability at as deep a level as that manifested by Zen, the choice between it and its Western alternative can be wholly rational.


Annually laminated (varved) Holocene sediments from Derby Lake, Michigan, display variations in endogenic calcite abundance reflecting a long-term (millennial-scale) decrease in burial punctuated with frequent short-term (decadal-scale) oscillations due to carbonate dissolution. Since 6000 cal yr B.P., sediment carbonate abundance has followed a decreasing trend while organic-carbon abundance has increased. The correlation between organic-carbon abundance and the sum of March-April-October-November insolation has an r 2 value of 0.58. We interpret these trends to represent a precession-driven lengthening of the Holocene growing season that has reduced calcite burial by enhancing net annual organic-matter production and associated calcite dissolution. Correlations with regional paleoclimate records suggest that changes in temperature and moisture balance have impacted the distribution of short-term oscillations in carbonate and organic-matter abundance superimposed on the precession-driven trends.


Phenolic compounds contribute greatly to the sensory attributes of wine and have a wide range of human health benefits as well. In this study, four trellis/ training systems were evaluated for effects on fruit-zone light environment, fruit chemical composition (including phenol and flavonoid concentrations), and yield of 'Frontenac' grapes (Vitis sp. MN 1047) grown in southeastern Nebraska over two growing seasons. Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) was measured above the canopy and within the fruiting zone at berry set, veraison, and harvest. Point quadrat canopy analysis was performed at veraison. Both bound and free (unbound) flavonoid and total phenolic contents were determined for the skins and seeds of fruit samples in 2008. At all sampling dates in 2008, vines grown on Geneva double curtain (GDC) and high cordon (HC) had higher midday percentage PAR transmittances than vines grown on Smart-Dyson (SD) and vertical shoot positioned (VSP) training systems. In 2009, transmittance relationships between trellises were not consistent throughout the season. In both years, leaf layer number (LLN) was lower for GDC and HC than for SD and VSP. Flavonoid and total phenol concentrations of the bound seed and bound skin extracts did not differ among trellises. Within the free extracts, VSP had higher total phenol concentration than SD (GDC and HC were intermediate) and there were no differences in flavonoid concentration. In 2008, GDC had higher pH than other trellises and higher soluble solids than SD and VSP; titratable acidity (TA) was lower in GDC and HC than in SD and VSP. In 2009, SD and VSP had the highest soluble solids concentrations; HC had lower pH than SD and VSP and there were no differences in TA. Results were inconclusive regarding light environment effects on fruit chemical composition.


Due to the rapid increase of digital based evidence, the requirement for the timely identification, examination and interpretation of digital evidence is becoming more essential. In certain investigations such as child abductions, pedophiles, missing or exploited persons, time becomes extremely important as in some cases, it is the difference between life and death for the victim. Moreover, the growing number of computer systems being submitted to digital forensic laboratories is creating a backlog of cases that can delay investigations and negatively affect public safety and the criminal justice system. To deal with these problems, there is a need for more effective 'onsite' triage methods to enable the investigators to acquire information in a timely manner, and to reduce the number of computer systems that are submitted to DFLs for analysis. This paper presents a Formal Two-Stage Triage Process Model fulfilling the needs of an onsite triage examination process.


This article suggests that the insurance industry's increased recognition of the economic implications of climate change, as evidenced by the industry's desire to use updated hurricane models that account for global warming in the rate setting process, will enable insurers to make more accurate estimates of their losses but only if state insurance regulators step up to the challenge of understanding and scrutinizing the models. The article briefly discusses how states are empowered to regulate the insurance industry and influence its rate setting approaches. The article then discusses the major approaches to rate setting and highlights the inaccuracy that is characteristic of the traditional approaches. It also discusses the primary obstacle to increased usage of modeling in the rate setting process- state insurance regulators, who are concerned for consumer protection, fear insurers will use the proprietary nature of the models to hide the fact that they are charging unjustifiably high premiums for insurance. Next the article shows, through a case study from Massachusetts, how this fear can be addressed. The paper further discusses how proactive measures to encourage more widespread understanding and usage of the models will contribute to a more financially stable insurance industry that can withstand climate change and enable homeowners to make better long-term decisions about where they want to live and how they want their homes to be constructed.


We address two problems regarding the structure and representation theory of finite W-algebras associated with the general linear Lie algebras. Finite W-algebras can be defined either via the Whittaker model of Kostant or, equivalently, by the quantum Hamiltonian reduction. Our first main result is a proof of the Gelfand-Kirillov conjecture for the skew fields of fractions of the finite W-algebras. The second main result is a parametrization of finite families of irreducible Harish-Chandra modules by the characters of the Gelfand-Tsetlin subalgebra. As a corollary, we obtain a complete classification of generic irreducible Harish-Chandra modules for the finite W-algebras.


In this paper, the VLSI-oriented fast, efficient, lossless image compression system (FELICS) algorithm, which consists of simplified adjusted binary code and Golomb-Rice code with storage-less k parameter selection, is proposed to provide the lossless compression method for high-throughput applications. The simplified adjusted binary code reduces the number of arithmetic operation and improves processing speed. According to theoretical analysis, the storage-less k parameter selection applies a fixed k value in Golomb-Rice code to remove data dependency and extra storage for cumulation table. Besides, the color difference preprocessing is also proposed to improve coding efficiency with simple arithmetic operation. Based on VLSI-oriented FELICS algorithm, the proposed hardware architecture features compactly regular data flow, and two-level parallelism with four-stage pipelining is adopted as the framework of the proposed architecture. The chip is fabricated in TSMC 0.13-¿m 1P8M CMOS technology with Artisan cell library. Experiment results reveal that the proposed architecture presents superior performance in parallelism-efficiency and power-efficiency compared with other existing works, which characterize high-speed lossless compression. The maximum throughput can achieve 4.36 Gb/s. Regarding high definition (HD) display applications, our encoding capability can achieve a high-quality specification of full-HD 1080p at 60 Hz with complete red, green, blue color components. Furthermore, with the configuration as the multilevel parallelism, the proposed architecture can be applied to the advanced HD display specifications, which demand huge requirement of throughput.


The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is interested in gaining a better understanding, both quantitative and qualitative, of the aquifer system in and around Albuquerque. Currently (2000), the City of Albuquerque and surrounding municipalities are completely dependent on ground-water reserves for their municipal water supply. This report presents the results of a longterm aquifer test conducted near the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. The long-term aquifer test was conducted during the winter of 1994-95. The City of Albuquerque Griegos 1 water production well was pumped continuously for 54 days at an average pumping rate of 2,331 gallons per minute. During the 54-day pumping and a 30-day recovery period, water levels were recorded in a monitoring network that consisted of 3 production wells and 19 piezometers located at nine sites. These wells and piezometers were screened in river alluvium and (or) the upper and middle parts of the Santa Fe Group aquifer system. In addition to the measurement of water levels, aquifer-system compaction was monitored during the aquifer test by an extensometer. Well-bore video and flowmeter surveys were conducted in the Griegos 1 water production well at the end of the recovery period to identify the location of primary waterproducing zones along the screened interval. Analytical results from the aquifer test presented in this report are based on the methods used to analyze a leaky confined aquifer system and were performed using the computer software package AQTESOLV. Estimated transmissivities for the Griegos 1 and 4 water production wells ranged from 10,570 to 24,810 feet squared per day; the storage coefficient for the Griegos 4 well was 0.0025. A transmissivity of 13,540 feet squared per day and a storage coefficient of 0.0011 were estimated from the data collected from a piezometer completed in the production interval of the Griegos 1 well.


The anatomical description of the reproductive tract of the female llama was studied in four animals. Macroscopically, the reproductive system is morphologically similar to the cow. However, the difference is the absence of intercornual ligament and cotyledons, and the presence of an intercornual septum, as in the alpaca. The distribution of the arteries and veins that irrigated and drained the blood to and from the pelvic cavity and reproductive system presented a vascular distribution almost equal to the ruminant's pattern and then, they followed a pattern similar to that on the equine. At the reproductive system level, blood vessels adopted a totally different pattern from those described for domestic species. Some arteries had never been described such as the caudal vaginal artery, medium vesical artery, cranial vaginal artery, dorsal uterine artery with its lateral and medial branches, and the arch cervical artery. Each artery had the corresponding satellite vein. The left uterine horn presented a better irrigation as the right uterine artery send its medial right branch to the left side of the reproductive system; moreover, the arch cervical artery established communication between the left and right uterine arteries through the cervix ventral surface. This artery could emerge from the uterine artery itself as well as from its medial branch.


: Biomedical text processing is relying heavily on terminological resources. Independently of the method used for creating terminologies, either automatically extracted from a domain corpus or human crafted, there is one aspect of which is rarely considered – that terms evolve over time. Terms in the domain literature change due to many factors: new factual evidence, proposing new hypothesis or denying old ones, a shift towards increasing specificity, variation in expression, different people working independently on the same novel phenomenon, etc. This paper reports an experimental investigation carried out on biomedical domain literature capturing how specific domain terminology changes over time. Abstract. Biomedical text processing is relying heavily on terminological resources. Independently of the method used for creating terminologies, either automatically extracted from a domain corpus or human crafted, there is one aspect of which is rarely considered – that terms evolve over time. Terms in the domain literature change due to many factors: new factual evidence, proposing new hypothesis or denying old ones, a shift towards increasing specificity, variation in expression, different people working independently on the same novel phenomenon, etc. This paper reports an experimental investigation carried out on biomedical domain literature capturing how specific domain terminology changes over time.


Book Three of the American Singer music series, recently released from the press, is designed for the third-year level of instruction. It is a logical successor to the book which precedes it and paves the way for instruction that is to follow. In itself it presents a plan for teaching music based on sound educational principles. The various phases of music are closely related, thus making a unified, meaningful program. Moreover, the content is admirably suited to young children. In fact, the songs reflect their interests and have withstood the test of use for several years in typical classroom situations. Most of the songs are by contemporary writers, many of them the creation of the authors. The music is tuneful and in suitable singing range. The words, often of artistic poetic quality, will appeal to children. Standard folk and art songs, although in lesser number, are not ignored. Among familiar favorites are: Foster's "Old Folks at Home," Luther's "Cradle Hymn," Stainer's "A Child's Evensong," the old American tunes "A Paper of Pins" and "Way Down in the Paw Paw Patch," and the patriotic songs "America" and "America the Beautiful." A few melodies of our neighbors to the south and those of European countries are included. Some may regret that there are not more of this type, but it is probable that the book is not intended primarily as a source of traditional or classical material. Stress is placed on the teaching of music reading, but the common drudgery of this activity is supplanted by enjoyable; well-organized musical exercises and experiences. These show the insight and skill of the authors in this important part of music instruction, one which is frequently poorly taught and is unsatisfying musically to boys and girls. In this book, songs designated "note" or "rote-note" are simple in construction and within the grasp of the beginning music reader. Problems are introduced gradually and only technical items deemed essential are used. These are repeated to insure understanding. Questions and directions make clear, not only to the pupils what they are to learn and apply, but serve as guides to the teacher to such a degree that even without the manual, which will be available, progress in interpreting the score is assured. No dynamic and tempo terms or symbols are used. A few might well have been introduced as a part of musical reading at this time. As in Book Two of the series, the treatment of rhythm is commendable. Patterns observed in notation and experienced in singing may also be danced or felt through other physical responses. The little tales, "Music Makers of Long Ago," "Drum Beaters and Shakers," "Blowers and Reeds," and "Pluckers and Bowers" give brief but pertinent historical information that should arouse musical curiosity. Suggestions for the use of instruments in connection with singing and dancing are practical and valuable. The book is pleasing in appearance and sturdily bound, with clear type of good size. Illustrations in black and white enliven but do not clutter the pages nor do they obscure the music notation. Several full-page pictures are in color. There is no classified index for which there seems to be adequate space. But with this exception, Book Three of this new series is a fine example of book making. The book is recommended to the consideration of those seeking a text to teach music to boys and girls interestingly and sensibly. It deserves the hearty welcome it will doubtless receive from both general and special educators and from the pupils themselves. -Anne E. Pierce


Monitoring temperature inside a pallet specimen during a test could be challenging. In this study, two methods were used to estimate temperature in a softwood pallet stringer at the time of testing based on the initial temperature of when it was removed from a temperature chamber and the duration of when it was removed from a chamber until the time it was tested. Five cooling down and three warming up temperature profiles were collected using thermocouples. In the first method, an artificial neural network was developed based on the collected data. In the second method, a mathematical model was suggested based on heat transfer principles. Collected data was used to validate the model. Both methods yield satisfactory results. The heat transfer model allows temperature estimation for specimens with different thickness and species, while the neural network is more precise but limited to the specimen used. Both methods allow other researchers to estimate the temperature without having to collect temperature data.


The Problem. Gethsemane French Seventh-day Adventist Church with a total membership of 1,200 serves a large diverse urban community in Brooklyn, New York. Church elders and deacons have little or no training on visiting the sick. No previous efforts to equip church elders and deacons for effective visitation in the healthcare setting have been attempted in order to re-affirm their mission to serve and visit those who are sick. This project aims to increase and enhance the knowledge of lay leaders to effectively visit the sick in the healthcare setting. The Method. Three training sessions on visiting the sick in the healthcare setting were conducted and implemented at Gethsemane Church in Brooklyn, NY during the month of May 2011. The training sessions provided theological foundations, theoretical analysis and clinical skills on visiting the sick in healthcare settings. Instruments such as presession and post-session interview questionnaires, pastoral verbatim reports and evaluation forms were collected and analyzed. The Results. Three elders, two deacons and three deaconesses were trained. All of them agreed to apply these visiting skills during their personal visitation in the healthcare setting. They all endorsed that a trained lay visitation team would be very beneficial for the Church. Eighty five percent of the participants felt very comfortable sharing visiting tips with other elders and deacons. Ninety percent of the participants wished for and felt that more time should have been spent during the training sessions on exploring the art of visiting non-Adventist patients. Conclusions. Training lay leaders for effective visitation of Adventist and non-Christian patients in healthcare settings demonstrates positive impact on church growth. This finding suggests that implementation of this project to other local churches in Greater New York Conference would help church members to establish a friendship ministry of compassion and care to non-Adventist patients. This project, however, acknowledges directions for further research, recommendations, and reflections on equipping church leaders for effective visitation in healthcare settings.


We examine whether the market interprets changes in dividends as a signal about the persistence of past earnings changes. Prior to observing this signal, investors may believe that past earnings changes are not necessarily indicative of future earnings levels. We empirically investigate whether a change in dividends alters investors' assessments about the valuation implications of past earnings. Results confirm the hypothesis that changes in dividends cause investors to revise their expectations about the persistence of past earnings changes. This effect varies predictably with the magnitude of the dividend change and the sign of the past earnings change.


The robustness of the 8-phase model of burnout was tested by using the Revised Maslach Burnout Instrument (MBI) on a sample of entrepreneurs. The results are consistent with the model's proposition that mean scores on the subdomains of (a) depersonalization, (b) (lack of) personal accomplishment, and (c) emotional exhaustion, increase regularly and predictably as the-experienced level of burnout reported by respondents increases.


Dummett has recently presented his most mature and sophisticated version of justificationism, i.e. the view that meaning and truth are to be analysed in terms of justifiability. In this paper, I argue that this conception does not resolve a difficulty that also affected Dummett's earlier version of justificationism: the problem that large tracts of the past continuously vanish as their traces in the present dissipate. Since Dummett's justificationism is essentially based on the assumption that the speaker has limited (i.e. non-idealized) cognitive powers, no further refinement of this position is likely to settle the problem of the vanishing past.


A simulation of arbitrary beam array generation by ultrashort pulses using diffractive optical elements (DOEs) will help us to understand and optimize various pulse propagation effects in the target plane prior to the design and fabrication of optical systems for a variety of applications. The spatial-temporal distortion of a few femtosecond optical pulses in the imaging plane on propagation through a DOE is numerically studied with an efficient algorithm. A visualization of the pulse evolution is presented in three-dimensional space and time. The propagation effects include pulse front delay, lateral walk-off of the various spectral components in the imaging plane and the time dependence of the diffraction pattern in the target plane.


Different approaches to defining the essence and content of the concepts of "love", "joy" and "fear", their interaction in terms of teaching are analyzed in the article. It is emphasized that the main thing in love is its spiritualization. Only the spirit, the spiritual power, reveals to a man the true, worthy object of love. Love is creativity, openness of the human soul, it is an organic, aesthetic need of a man. This approach is especially important in the system of relations "teacher – student; teacher – student". It is proved that the teacher's love for the student must be effective, it is based on trust, mutual assistance, without love pedagogical activity loses its value. An important manifestation of love is the joy of common achievements. Love and joy are related concepts. Joyful hobbies that guide cognition, enter the noosphere of a man, contribute to mental and spiritual growth. Instead, the category of "fear" is defined as an emotion that arises in a situation of threat to the biological or social existence of the individual and is aimed at the source of real or imagined danger. In the article, the concept of "fear" is considered on a Christian basis, and therefore, analyzed as the fear of God and human fear. The need to train specialists in the field of professional and pedagogical activities in the context of solving the outlined problems is emphasized.


This paper presents an analytical design of an ultrasonic power transfer system based on piezoelectric micro-machined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) for fully wireless brain implants in mice. The key steps like the material selection of each layer and the top electrode radius to maximize the coupling factor are well-detailed. This approach results in the design of a single cell with a high effective coupling coefficient. Furthermore, compact models are used to make the design process less time-consuming for designers. These models are based on the equivalent circuit theory for the PMUT. A cell of 107 um in radius, 5 um in thickness of Lead Zirconate Titanium (PZT), and 10 um in thickness of silicon (Si) is found to have a 4% of effective coupling coefficient among the highest values for a clamped edge boundary conditions. Simulation results show a frequency of 2.84 MHz as resonance. In case of an array, mutual impedance and numerical modeling are used to estimate the distance between the adjacent cells. In addition, the area of the proposed transducer and the number of cells are computed with the Rayleigh distance and neglecting the cross-talk among cells, respectively. The designed transducer consists of 7x7 cells in an area of 3.24 mm2. The transducer is able to deliver an acoustic intensity of 7.185 mW/mm2 for a voltage of 19.5 V for powering brain implants seated in the motor cortex and striatum of the mice's brain. The maximum acoustic intensity occurs at a distance of 2.5 mm in the near field which was estimated with the Rayleigh length equation.


Beginning in the late nineteenth century, thousands of Americans turned to an unexpected pastime that had been theirs to take up all along: the study of nature. Armed with cameras and collecting jars, everyday citizens wandered the country's forests, prairies, and mountains to gain an appreciation of local flora and fauna and to escape the increasingly industrialized world as well. Kevin Armitage presents the first comprehensive history of the nature study movement, demonstrating its significance to American environmental thought and politics. He shows how nature study, as both a pedagogic and popular idea, has had a lasting effect on American culture and society, and his reevaluation of the movement has much to tell us about the American relationship with the nonhuman world. Armitage explains that the ways in which nature study advocates tried to reconcile science with spirit were surprising, incomplete, and sometimes contradictory. As Progressive Era Americans embraced scientific modernity, they became increasingly uneasy about the dispassionate character of social and economic life, turning to nature for unmediated experiences that might enhance the joy of living. By examining the complex ways American culture struggled with science and its application to the natural world, Armitage shows how the development of nature study reflected the social dynamics of an emerging industrial society - and exerted a decisive influence on some of the great conservationists of the twentieth century, including Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, both of whom were encouraged to study nature at an early age. Armitage reveals how nature study advocates, notably progressive educators, devoted themselves to inculcating an appreciation of nature among children through direct contact with the natural world. Indeed, by 1907 "Nature Study" had been incorporated into a great many school curricula. He also tells how educators like John Dewey and Booker T. Washington contributed to conservationist thought and includes biographical sketches of some of the major, if often overlooked, nature study conservationists: Anna Botsford Comstock, Ernest Thompson Seton, Mabel Osgood Wright, Gene Stratton Porter, and Liberty Hyde Bailey. The nature study movement left a rich legacy that has been too long overlooked. Armitage shows that the personal study of nature remains central to modern environmentalism - and that in nature study one finds much that is universal to modern America.


The original edition of this book studied the nature of symbol in Coleridge's work, showing that it is central to Coleridge's intellectual endeavor in poetry and criticism as well as in philosophy and theology. Symbol was for Coleridge essentially a religious reality, that participates in the nature of a sacrament as an encounter between material and spiritual reality. The author shows how Wordsworth and Coleridge developed a poetry, unlike that of the eighteenth century, based on symbolic imagination. He then related this symbolic poetry to the tradition of romanticism itself Richard Harter Fogle wrote of the original edition: This is a just, graceful, and penetrating book. Considering the complexity of the material, it is lucid and often eloquent. Father Barth's interpretation of Coleridge's doctrine of symbol is essentially original, as are his illustrative readings from the poems. His substantial essay moves harmoniously from Coleridge's particular insights to their wider implications for romanticism.In this new edition, the author has enlarged the scope of his study, first reviewing in an introductory chapter the important scholarship of the past twenty years on symbol and imagination. He then goes on to give his work a deeper theological foundation, and to extend his argument to embrace what he calls Coleridge's scriptural imagination.As in the original edition, he concludes that symbol is a phenomenon profoundly linked with the experience of romanticism itself and with a fundamental change in religious sensibility that has echoes even in our own time.


Abstract The clay mineralogy of sediments collected from the San Simón inlet, the Ría de Vigo, the Galician Platform, the Galician Margin and the Celtic Sea has been studied using XRD, IR and TEM with a microanalytical attachment. All samples consisted largely of dioctahedral mica and kaolin minerals, in addition to significant amounts of gibbsite, chloritic and smectitic minerals. The clay mineralogy of the sediments is generally consistent with terrigenous inputs from soils and weathered rocks of the Galician granitic hinterland. It is of particular interest that gibbsite, which is not a common constituent of soils of temperate climates, has previously been shown to occur in weathering profiles in this region and may therefore be regarded as an indicator of ''continentality'', as suggested by Macías Vásquez and co-workers. The smectitic mineral is Fe-rich and also contains significant amounts of K. This mineral is likely to be ultimately of an authigenic origin and may possibly be important as a precursor mineral in a diffuse, non-granular glauconitization process.


Text classification tends to be difficult when data are deficient or when it is required to adapt to unseen classes. In such challenging scenarios, recent studies have often used meta-learning to simulate the few-shot task, thus negating implicit common linguistic features across tasks. This paper addresses such problems using meta-learning and unsupervised language models. Our approach is based on the insight that having a good generalization from a few examples relies on both a generic model initialization and an effective strategy for adapting this model to newly arising tasks. We show that our approach is not only simple but also produces a state-of-the-art performance on a well-studied sentiment classification dataset. It can thus be further suggested that pretraining could be a promising solution for few-shot learning of many other NLP tasks. The code and the dataset to replicate the experiments are made available at https://github.com/zxlzr/FewShotNLP.


Platform business models are gaining rapid traction in today's world. As of 2016, the four most valuable companies—Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft—have been using this business model. So do some of the most promising start-ups, including Uber and AirBnB. These providers of multi-sided platforms have a common goal, which is to match producers and consumers in order to create value through their interactions. The evolving ecosystems around a platform business are characterized by network effects among the groups of stakeholders, as each market side is influenced by the other side of the platform. A goal of the platform owner is to create and exploit as many monetization opportunities as possible. As the main revenue source, usually, is based on the interactions on or access to the platform, managing the demand and the supply side is at the core of platform management. One example of an uprising area of business that leverages a platform business model is crowdfunding platforms. These multi-sided markets try to facilitate the interaction of individuals who seek funding for a specific project, with a crowd of people that is willing to invest in the idea. The idea behind the model has been around for a long time, but due to reduced transaction cost is now available on a global scale. As of November 2016, Kickstarter, one of the most famous players in the business of reward-based crowdfunding, has already raised 2.7 billion USD in total pledges and has funded over 114,000 projects. This dissertation tries to shed light on the dynamics that are at work in a platform ecosystem by investigating distinct behaviors of platform participants and observing the impact on other stakeholders and the platform ecosystem as a whole. Each of the papers included in this dissertation focuses on a certain participant or dynamic of the platform ecosystem. With the first article, the theoretical basis of asymmetric information between consumers and producers in a crowdfunding environment is established. Furthermore, it shows that the opinion expressed in the form of electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) and the observable popularity information (e.g. decision-making of other participants) serve as credible quality signals, subsequently influencing consumers' decision-making. Also, popularity information and eWOM differ significantly in terms of effectiveness over time. Both factors, eWOM and popularity information, can therefore be seen as means to reduce information asymmetries in platform ecosystems. Since the importance of popularity information and eWOM is known to producers, an incentive to manipulate these performance indicators can be deducted. We therefore suspected that producers might establish non-genuine indicators of eWOM or popularity information. Article 2 then identifies a manipulation strategy of project creators on Kickstarter, who illegally alter the number of Facebook Shares their campaign supposedly has. After identifying the fraudulent campaigns, we were able to observe the resulting effects of non-genuine social information on consumer decision-making over time, showing that a short-term gain can be achieved, whereas the total effect is indeed harmful to the campaign. Contrary to the deliberately fake social information sent by the producers, the third article then concerns non-explicit campaign characteristics in the form of personality traits of producers. Here we were able to extract the Big Five personality traits of a project creator from the campaign description and the included video and to analyze their effectiveness for influencing potential consumers. The influence was measured by means of project adoption by the crowd and diffusion on Facebook. Finally, article 4 investigates a governance decision made by the platform provider. Under the condition of a natural experiment, we were able to observe and analyze how a policy change by the platform owner with regard to their gatekeeping strategy can influence a platform ecosystem as a whole, as well as certain participants in particular. The policy change, made by Kickstarter in 2014, lowered the barrier for entering the platform for pro-ject creators, resulting in a shift in average quality, number of projects and platform revenue. Implications for future research and practice are discussed in depth for each article and summarized in the final chapter.


It is shown that in cosmological models based on a vacuum energy decaying as a − 2 , where a is the scale factor of the universe, the fate of the universe in regard to whether it will collapse in the future or expand forever is determined not by the curvature constant k but by an effective curvature constant k eff . It is argued that a closed universe with k = 1 may expand forever, in other words simulate the expansion dynamics of a flat or an open universe because of the possibility that k eff = 0 or -1, respectively. Two such models, in one of which the vacuum does not interact with matter and in another of which it does, are studied. It is shown that the vacuum equation of state p vac = − ρ vac may be realized in a decaying vacuum cosmology provided the vacuum interacts with matter. The optical depths for gravitational lensing as a function of the matter density and other parameters in the models are calculated at a source redshift of 2. The age of the universe is discussed and shown to be compatible with the new Hipparcos lower limit of 11 Gyr . The possibility that a time-varying vacuum energy may serve as dark matter is suggested.


From very early times, the Buddhist intellectuals have made the notion of a self existing over and above the bodily and mental constituents one of their main targets. Their critique first culminates in Vasubandhu's treatise against the Buddhist personalists (early 5th century CE). The eighth-century philosophers Śāntarakṣita and Kamalaśīla provide another milestone in the history of the mainstream Buddhists' critique of the self and the person: their Tattvasaṅgraha(panjikā) contains the most learned and elaborate treatment of the subject (at least before Karṇakagomin's and Śaṅkaranandana's Nairātmyasiddhi monographs). But how have Dignāga and Dharmakīrti (6th century [?]) contributed to this heated debate? The present study attempts to answer at least in part this question by offering a monographic account of Dharmakīrti's position regarding the self. The book's introduction deals with Dharmakīrti's view of the self as the paramount expression of nescience. Chapter 1 is devoted to his critique of the two main expressions of Buddhist substantialism, viz. the Buddha-nature teachings and Personalism (pudgalavāda). Chapter 2 presents his way of undermining the non-Buddhists' arguments in favour of the self. Finally, Chapter 3 provides a detailed account of Dharmakīrti's most original contribution on the subject, viz. his demonstration that the (belief in the) existence of a self makes salvation impossible.
Table of contents available at https://paris3.academia.edu/IsabelleRati%C3%A9


Electromagnetic fields are all around us. They are a part of our natural environment, produced by the Earth and the sun. But they are also becoming increasingly prominent with advancements in technology, such that we are surrounded daily by many different sources of electromagnetic energy. Mobile phones, Wi-Fi, personal computers, smart meters, radio, television and even the TV remote control they all emit this kind of energy. Mobile phone base stations are continually being installed, and Wi-Fi hotspots are increasing all of the time. Cafes and restaurants, libraries, hotels and even some city centres and parks now offer free Wi-Fi. But with all of this new infrastructure it is also getting harder to avoid exposure to the electromagnetic fields that these technologies emit. And the question often asked is what does all of this exposure mean for our health? It is an issue that has continued to gain exposure, culminating this month in what's being touted as a "breakthrough" case, with a French woman being awarded compensation for an allergy to Wi-Fi. Martine Richard, who suffers from what is called electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), was granted disability payments due to claims that her symptoms, which she attributes to electromagnetic energy, prevent her from being able to work. This ruling was made despite the science saying that no relationship between exposure to these fields and symptoms exists. So what is EHS, what do we know and what don't we know about this condition? And what does this case mean for the future?


OBJECTIVE
A type of respiratory disorder resembling some aspects of human allergic asthma can be induced in mice using ovalbumin. The factors that influence the etiology of asthma are poorly understood even though cytokines are known to play a pivotal role. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis whether an administration of Asian pear pectin during presensitization could suppress allergic response to ovalbumin in BALB/c mice.

DESIGN
High-dose (100 microg) of pectin-sol was used and values were compared to those from the control. Ovalbumin and aluminum hydroxide were utilized for sensitization while ovalbumin aerosol was used for provocation 2 weeks later. The bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) and assessment of tracheal smooth muscle responsiveness to electrical field stimulation or acetylcholine were performed 1 day after ovalbumin provocation. Two main cytokines of interferon (IFN)-gamma and interleukin (IL)-5, and serum immunoglobulin E (IgE) were assayed.

SETTINGS
Laboratory of the Chosun University Medical School

SUBJECT
Male BALB/c mice

RESULTS
Antigen dose of 5 microg for sensitization generated TH1 type cytokines in the lungs with a high level of IFN-gamma and a low level of IL-5. In contrast, TH2 type cytokines were produced in splenocytes including a high level of IL-5 and a low level of IFN-gamma. Asian pear pectin-sol administration during presensitization significantly inhibited (p < 0.05) sensitivity of airway smooth muscle to electrical field stimulation and acetylcholine. Further, IFN-gamma production significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in BAL fluids while it significantly increased (p < 0.05) in splenic cells. On the other hand, IL-5 production significantly increased (p < 0.05) in BAL fluids while it was a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in splenic cells. For the histopathologic changes in the lung, pear pectin-sol recovered ovalbumin (OVA)-induced abnormal signs to an almost normal state. As a correlate, IgE production significantly decreased (p < 0.05) in pectin-sol-treated animals compared to the control.

CONCLUSIONS
It is possible from these data that BALB/c mice have different susceptibilities to different doses of OVA regulated by pulmonary TH1 and TH2 type cytokines, independent of splenic TH1 and TH2 type cytokines production. These results also indicate that administration of Asian pear pectin-sol in presensitized mice suppresses allergic asthmatic reaction.


We know from research that news media create their preferred meanings of environmental issues, from the angle of problems and dangers (e.g. Roll-Hansen 2014, Foust, C. R. & O'Shannon Murphy, W., 2009). While some environmental events are associated with drama such as earthquakes, most of environmental phenomena are rather invisible such as the thinning of Earth's protective ozone layer (Hansen 2010, 95). Also the time scale of most environmental issues does not fit to 24-hours news making such as climate change. It needs a great deal of journalistic work to make such phenomena visible. Hence, to fit in to conventional news format, mainstream media "over-report the risks generating by acute crises" (Allan de. 2000, in Cox 2013, 167).This paper discusses the consequences of news media's coverage of environmental issues as threats and dangers. Fear has emerged as a framework for engaging in ecological issues. Danger and fear are perceived as a central feature of our environment. We take it for granted that our physical environment is in danger, something we are afraid of. Fear cannot be forbidden or scholarly falsified, and is therefore not contested in social communication (Luhmann 1989). Fear is just there.The constant concern about risks and dangers leads to the impression that nothing is harmless and all is contaminated. It promotes a sense of disorder and a belief that things are out of control (Luhmann, 1989, 189). It reproduces itself and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy (Altheide, 2002, 189. The problem lies less in the psychical reality of fear and anxiety but in the communicative actuality in society. "If anxiety is communicated but not contested in the communication, it acquires a moral existence" (Luhmann, 1989, 130). Those who uses this frame is morally in the right. "It becomes a duty to worry, and a right to expect participation in fears and to require standards for defense against danger. Those who worries… become warner with all risks that it implies" (Luhmann, 1989, 130). It implies, for instance, for scientific arguments that they are in a difficult position when arguing against anxiety-related issues. It implies also that the fear frame does not allow for the arguing of any progress that possibly has been made concerning environmental issues. In this way, environmental communication is infused with morality, based on fear and/or anxiety frame and, hence, it makes it difficult for controversies. However, only the future can show whether the fear has been justified.


SharePoint 2010 is a huge technology with tens of thousands of companies adopting it from all across the globe. Within the SharePoint product stack, workflows are one of the most compelling and ROI generating features for many business.SharePoint 2010 Workflows in Action will take you through the SharePoint workflow fundamentals, and all the way to very advanced topics to help you meet your most complex workflow requirements. This includes covering topics such as the out of box workflows, and building custom workflows with SharePoint Designer 2010, Office Visio 2010, and Visual Studio 2010.Additionally, the book covers topics that are very important to workflow such as building forms with InfoPath 2010, building custom task processes, building custom activities and conditions, and how to leverage external data sources in your workflows via Business Connectivity Services. Other goodies include building State Machine workflows, leveraging ASP.NET forms, workflow event handlers, and publishing custom actions and conditions into SharePoint Designer. The book is a one stop shop workflow resource for anyone building workflows for the SharePoint 2010 platform.


Rembrandt van Rijn is the quintessential Old Master. His intimately observed, vivid and profoundly atmospheric works are what many museum-goers consider traditional painting ought to be. But in his own lifetime Rembrandt was not always so well regarded. The expressive honesty of his paintings and prints could evoke disdain as easily as admiration. For more than a century after his death his style was dismissed by many academically trained art theorists and critics. In the nineteenth century, however, he was championed by artists fired by the revolution and change of their times. For them, Rembrandt was a kindred, radical spirit, his paintings imbued with a truly modern ethos.
Born at the beginning of the seventeenth century in the Golden Age of the newly formed Dutch Republic, Rembrandt found early fame and great wealth as a painter, living with the opulence of a rock star. But he spent way beyond his means. When, midway through his career, public taste turned away from him, these combined factors proved ruinous. For the rest of his life he would be destitute, crippled by debt, the loss of patrons and the deaths of loved ones. Nonetheless, he continued to paint with the same passion. The art he produced in his final years is arguably his most enduringly sensitive and open.


Aiming at the fault diagnosis of the charging module of the electric vehicle DC charging pile, a fault diagnosis method of the DC charging pile based on deep learning is proposed. First, through circuit simulation, the DC charging pile model is simulated under different faults and different working conditions, and the three input current signals are obtained as fault characteristic parameters. Perform three-layer wavelet packet decomposition and reconstruction of the fault characteristic parameters, calculate the frequency band energy spectrum data through the reconstruction coefficients, and normalize it. Finally, the fault characteristic set is composed of the fault data and the fault result, which is used as a deep neural network (DNN) Model input and verification. After the output layer of the constructed DNN model, a Softmax classifier is added to fine-tune the output fault characteristics and realize fault type recognition. Through the analysis of different types of faults of the charging module of the DC charging pile, the accuracy and effectiveness of the fault diagnosis method is verified, and its accuracy rate can reach more than 95.56%. Keywords—DC charging pile, deep learning, wavelet analysis, fault diagnosis


Also available as an e-book In spite of the undoubtedly great and rising importance of the international legislative co-operation regarding private international law, it must be remembered that no successful unification or harmonization of conflict rules has ever taken place on the universal level, and that the conflict rules stemming from international legislative co-operation between a limited number of countries give rise to the same problems as non-harmonized rules, whenever they have to be used in relation to countries not participating in the legislative co-operation in question. This book will therefore focus on the last-mentioned problems and refrain from dealing with the particular issues arising from international legislative co-operation in the field of private international law. One of the principal aims of Michael Bogdan is to demonstrate the relationship between the national rules of private international law and the rest of the legal system of the forum country, in the first place its substantive private law and its law of civil procedure, as well as to illustrate the impact of the forum country's general ethical and other values on its private international law.


The purpose of this research is to identify student-specific characteristics that are related to students' preference for distance education courses. Since distance education courses provide students with more convenient and flexible class schedules, they should be preferred by students who have a greater number of competing demands, such as work and family, on their time. Not surprisingly, previous research has shown that such competing demands are also risk factors for undergraduate degree non-completion. Therefore a major purpose of this research is to examine whether students with risk factors for noncompletion of their undergraduate degree prefer distance education courses. Another purpose of this research is to examine whether students with a disability that limits their mobility, and thus experience greater barriers to access their face-to-face class rooms, prefer distance education classes. For this research, the data are from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS) conducted in 200304. The NPSAS uses a complex survey design to collect data from a nationally representative sample of about 80,000 postsecondary undergraduate students in the US. Results confirm that students with increasing number of risk factors for non-completion of their degree show a significantly greater preference for distance education courses. Results also show that students with limited mobility also prefer distance education classes. Taken together, these results suggest that distance education classes are likely to increase enrollment and degree completion rates both for non-traditional undergraduates, who have more risk factors for degree non-completion than traditional undergraduates, and for students with physical disabilities that limit their mobility.


The inhibitors of growth (ING) family of tumor suppressors consists of five homologous proteins involved in chromatin remodeling. They form part of different acetylation and deacetylation complexes and are thought to direct them to specific regions of the chromatin, through the recognition of H3K4me3 (trimethylated K4 in the histone 3 tail) by their conserved plant homeodomain (PHD). We have determined the crystal structure of ING4-PHD bound to H3K4me3, which reveals a tight complex stabilized by numerous interactions. NMR shows that there is a reduction in the backbone mobility on the regions of the PHD that participate in the peptide binding, and binding affinities differ depending on histone tail lengths Thermodynamic analysis reveals that the discrimination in favor of methylated lysine is entropy-driven, contrary to what has been described for chromodomains. The molecular basis of H3K4me3 recognition by ING4 differs from that of ING2, which is consistent with their different affinities for methylated histone tails. These differences suggest a distinct role in transcriptional regulation for these two ING family members because of the antagonistic effect of the complexes that they recruit onto chromatin. Our results illustrate the versatility of PHD fingers as readers of the histone code.


Mesh selectivity studies on commercially important species are essential to identify the fishable
segment of the stock. This is required for assessing the effect of fishing effort on the exploited stocks and
suggesting effective management measures for maximum sustainable yield.
The present paper attempts to give a general review of the work done in this sphere. At centres like
Kakinada (Andhra Pradesh) change in the cod - end mesh size in trawls over the years has resulted in considerable
variations in production, catch composition and size distribution of commercially important
species of shrimps. Instances of heavy landings of undersized prawns (penaeids less than 65 mm TL) have
been noticed during the peak landing period along the coast of Kerala particularly at Sakthikulangara and
it is partly attributed to the smaller mesh size of the trawls operated there. Considerable quantities of juvenile
prawns of the marine species are caught from the estuaries and backwaters using stake nets having cod - end
mesh sizes as low as 5 mm which in turn will adversely affect the recruitment of the species in the marine
sector.
Experimental studies on mesh selectivity of gill nets for oil sardine, and of trawls for shrimps in
Kerala and of dol nets for Bombayduck in Maharashtra and Gujarat clearly indicate the necessity of mesh
regulation for the judicious exploitation of these resources. Stock assessment studies carried out on
shrimps along the southwest coast of India also emphasise the urgent need for an upward revision of the
existing cod - end mesh size of 20 - 25 mm to atleast 30 mm in order to save the fishery from the danger
of depletion.


In How Development Projects Persist Erin Beck examines microfinance NGOs working in Guatemala and problematizes the accepted wisdom of how NGOs function. Drawing on twenty months of ethnographic fieldwork, she shows how development models and plans become entangled in the relationships among local actors in ways that alter what they are, how they are valued, and the conditions of their persistence. Beck focuses on two NGOs that use drastically different methods in working with poor rural women in Guatemala. She highlights how each program's beneficiaries—diverse groups of savvy women—exercise their agency by creatively appropriating, resisting, and reinterpreting the lessons of the NGOs to match their personal needs. Beck uses this dynamic—in which the goals of the developers and women do not often overlap—to theorize development projects as social interactions in which policymakers, workers, and beneficiaries critically shape what happens on the ground. This book displaces the notion that development projects are top-down northern interventions into a passive global south by offering a provocative account of how local conditions, ongoing interactions, and even fundamental tensions inherent in development work allow such projects to persist, but in new and unexpected ways.


Chirality is a critical property of amino acids that form proteins, the building blocks of life, and of DNA, which encodes the genetic traits passed from one generation to the next. Furthermore, chirality can be observed throughout nature in objects ranging from spiral seashells to the human hands. If an object and its mirror image are nonsuperimposable, then they have the property of chirality. This property is found in nearly every biological molecule and in many synthetic bioactive molecules such as pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. From a practical perspective, the importance of molecular chirality arises from the fact that the two mirror images of a chiral molecule, known as enantiomers, can have vastly different physiological impacts when ingested by living organisms. As a result, it is necessary to produce many chiral compounds in enantiomerically pure form. Understanding chirality and enantioselectivity is critical to the development of the separations and reactions used to achieve enantiopurity. Many processes used in chemical production involve solid surfaces and can be made enantioselective by using chiral surfaces. There are three common types of chiral surfaces: surfaces modified by chiral organic adsorbates, surfaces of any naturally chiral bulk crystalline solid, and chiral surfaces prepared from achiral bulk crystals. A number of studies have shown that such chiral surfaces exhibit enantiospecific properties when exposed to chiral species in either the gas phase or in solution. Although chirality is simply a symmetry property of an object or an extended lattice, the enantiospecificity of surfaces is derived from the local structure of nanoscale features such as molecular adsorbates, or specific arrangements of atoms at a crystal surface. Experimental and theoretical work to elucidate the properties of these nanostructured surfaces is an active area of research in surface chemistry. Although a number of aspects of the enantioselectivity of chiral surfaces are now understood, many unanswered questions remain as topics of ongoing research in the field. CHIRALITY OF MOLECULES, SOLIDS, AND SURFACES


The paper examines Croatian media pluralism policy in relation to the context of its implementation in a post-socialist Mediterranean media system. Croatian media policy is examined in relation to external, internal, and received diversity at the structural and content levels. In line with this media pluralism policy instruments related to market concentration, media content, diversity in the types of program functions, genres and ideas in media programs, and public service television regulation as an example of internal structural diversity (Hallin & Mancini, 2004) are being examined. In addition, the analysis of received diversity focuses on the role of media audience in the policy framework. The study aims at contributing to the development of the media policy dimension in a comparative media system framework (Humphreys, 2012). To this end it is expected that it will contribute to better understanding of different policy arrangements in relation to media pluralism in different European countries.


All infant formulas must support the normal growth and development of infants, and this needs to be scientifically demonstrated. Formulas have to contain sufficient amounts of basic nutrients, and so are nutritionally interchangeable, with no evidence indicating that one brand is superior to another.


Purpose - This study seeks to examine practices in, and rationales for, internal audit outsourcing in New Zealand (NZ) companies. The purpose is to assess whether practice and preference conform to expectations where small-to-medium businesses dominate. Design/methodology/approach - Senior financial managers of all 165 NZ Stock Exchange listed companies are surveyed. Questions are drawn from the strategic management and auditing literature. Relationships between size, international association and industry are tested or revealed from descriptive statistics and qualitative analyses. Comparisons to overseas studies, where possible, are drawn. Findings - Of 63 usable responses (38.2 per cent response rate), a comparatively low 57 per cent carry out some form of internal audit and a further 27 per cent claim interest in doing so. International companies are more likely to engage in internal audit, and preliminary findings point to less interest within consumer and equity/trust industries. As to outsourcers, 65 per cent (11) only began doing so recently, Big4 accounting firms are a major source, access to quality is an important reason and most 82 per cent (14 of 17) are aware of independence issues. Conclusions analyse legislative incentive patterns found and suggest further research. Originality/value - Recent scandals and legislation in the USA, UK and Australia highlight the importance of the internal audit function to industry. This study looks at practices in and rationales for internal audit outsourcing found within the NZ corporate sector.


Organ-on-Chips (OOCs) are micro-fabricated devices which are used to culture cells in order to mimic functional units of human organs. The devices are designed to simulate the physiological environment of tissues in vivo. Cells in some types of OOCs can be stimulated in situ by electrical and/or mechanical actuators. These actuations can mimic physiological conditions in real tissue and may include fluid or air flow, or cyclic stretch and strain as they occur in the lung and heart. These conditions similarly affect cultured cells and may influence their ability to respond appropriately to physiological or pathological stimuli. To date, most focus has been on devices specifically designed to culture just one functional unit of a specific organ: lung alveoli, kidney nephrons or blood vessels, for example. In contrast, the modular Cytostretch membrane platform described here allows OOCs to be customized to different OOC applications. The platform utilizes silicon-based micro-fabrication techniques that allow low-cost, high-volume manufacturing. We describe the platform concept and its modules developed to date. Membrane variants include membranes with (i) through-membrane pores that allow biological signaling molecules to pass between two different tissue compartments; (ii) a stretchable micro-electrode array for electrical monitoring and stimulation; (iii) micro-patterning to promote cell alignment; and (iv) strain gauges to measure changes in substrate stress. This paper presents the fabrication and the proof of functionality for each module of the Cytostretch membrane. The assessment of each additional module demonstrate that a wide range of OOCs can be achieved.


Building models for any kind of complex process is an important tool of today's applied computer science. There are many situations where the trust in the model varies over the input space, and where the amount of trust or confidence should significantly affect the behaviour of the model and the resulting decisions (this applies when the model is used within some decision process, e.g., in a control or optimization task). In this paper, we will focus on special one-sided situations where overestimating the true process is considered critical, while underestimating is tolerable (or conversely). We introduce a new type of radial basis function, the confidence term, with the following properties: (a) it is smooth, i.e., infinitely differentiable and (b) compactly supported. We show how one-sided trust control can be achieved for any kind of model by a simple multiplication with the confidence term. To demonstrate the power and flexibility of our approach, two quite different applications are presented, both of which are practically relevant. One is model-based optimization with constraints, where we have to be careful not to narrow the search space too quickly, until we can trust the constraint model. This requires imposing a low confidence on the constraint model until enough data is available. In the other application, active learning with multiple point queries, we need to achieve the opposite and impose a high value of trust in regions that have been already explored.


"This is the turtle that slid into the pond and ate the snake that dropped from a branch and swallowed the fish that swam after the frog - JUMP, FROG, JUMP!" This infectious cumulative tale will soon have the young frogs you know jumping and chanting with joy.


The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries aims at establishing principles and criteria for the elaboration and implementation of national policies for sustainable fisheries management and development. This objective consists in the identification of correct policy measures on the fish market, which have a strategic consequence on Maximum Sustainable Yield. The paper provides an investigation into small pelagic fishery in some areas of the Italian Adriatic Sea through the time series method; the investigation is applied to landed captures and prices. The analysis approach is based on annual data acquired empirically. The study focuses first on the main dynamics in the period 1976-1986. IN particular, historical data concerning market quantities and prices are analyzed. This paper emphasizes the role of business strategy, which is focused on processing and product quality. Quality can be considered a tool for responsible fisheries and at the same time an opportunity for producers' organizations to quote better prices.


Abstract Furnas is the easternmost of the trachytic active central volcanoes of São Miguel. Unlike the other central volcanoes, Sete Cidades and Fogo, Furnas does not have a substantial edifice built up above sea-level. Although not as dominant as the other two volcanoes, Furnas does, however, have an edifice rising from the basal basaltic lavas exposed on the north coast to around 600 m asl on the northern rim of the main caldera. In common with Sete Cidades and Fogo, Furnas had major trachytic explosive eruptions in its volcanic history that emplaced welded ignimbrites. In the last 5 ka Furnas has had 10 moderately explosive trachytic eruptions of sub-Plinian character; two of these have taken place since the island was settled in the mid-fifteenth century. A future eruption of sub-Plinian magnitude is a major hazard posed by Furnas Volcano. Even when not in eruption, Furnas is a hazardous environment. Its fumarolic fields discharge high levels of CO2 and concentrations in some area of Furnas village present a risk to health; the steep slopes and poorly consolidated volcanic materials are prone to landslides, in particular when triggered by earthquakes or following heavy rain, as was the case in 1997, when landslides caused severe damage and casualties in Ribeira Quente.


In this paper, drain current transient characteristics of β-Ga2O3 high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) are studied to access current collapse and recovery time due to dynamic population and de-population of deep level traps and interface traps. An approximately 10 min, and 1 h of recovery time to steady-state drain current value is measured under 1 ms of stress on the gate and drain electrodes due to iron (Fe)–doped β-Ga2O3 substrate and germanium (Ge)–doped β-Ga2O3 epitaxial layer respectively. On-state current lag is more severe due to widely reported defect trap EC – 0.82 eV over EC – 0.78 eV, −0.75 eV present in Iron (Fe)-doped β-Ga2O3 bulk crystals. A negligible amount of current degradation is observed in the latter case due to the trap level at EC – 0.98 eV. It is found that occupancy of ionized trap density varied mostly under the gate and gate–source area. This investigation of reversible current collapse phenomenon and assessment of recovery time in β-Ga2O3 HEMT is carried out through 2D device simulations using appropriate velocity and charge transport models. This work can further help in the proper characterization of β-Ga2O3 devices to understand temporary and permanent device degradation.


In this paper we identify the challenges of multi-hop communication when using a micro-segmented switched-Ethernet protocol with enhanced HaRTES switches. The HaRTES architecture has been explored in the scope of single-switch topology, and provides dynamic virtual channels that can be composed hierarchically and provide bounded latency together with temporal isolation. Herein we propose two different solutions regarding the traffic forwarding in multi-switch architectures, while maintaining the unique properties of the single HaRTES switch case. In the first approach, the traffic is buffered and scheduled sequentially in each hop. In the second solution the traffic is scheduled once and forwarded immediately through multiple switches without buffering. In this paper we present a brief comparison of both approaches and we report on the on-going work towards effective support to real-time communications in dynamic and complex Cyber-Physical Systems.


Predicting energy demand peak is a key factor for reducing energy demand and electricity bills for commercial customers. Features influencing energy demand are many and complex, such as occupant behaviours and temperature. Feature selection can decrease prediction model complexity without sacrificing performance. In this paper, features were selected based on their multiple linear regression correlation coefficients. This paper discusses the capabilities of M5 model trees in energy demand prediction for commercial buildings. M5 model trees are similar to regression trees, however they are more suitable for continuous prediction problems. The M5 model tree prediction was developed based on a selected feature set including sensor energy demand readings, day of the week, season, humidity, and weather conditions (sunny, rain, etc.). The performance of the M5 model tree was evaluated by comparing it to the support vector regression (SVR) and artificial neural networks (ANN) models. The M5 model tree outperformed the SVR and ANN models with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 8.94 compared to 10.02 and 12.04 for the SVR and ANN models respectively.


The allergic irritability of closely inbred guinea pigs as represented by their capacity to produce hemolytic antibodies for beef and sheep corpuscles, and agglutinins for Bacillus typhosus and Bacillus abortus (Bang) differs by families and therefore is at least partly dependent on inherited characteristics. These differences show an imperfect but suggestive correlation with the differences in resistance of the same families to inoculation tuberculosis as previously determined by Wright and Lewis. The differences in antibody production also show an imperfect correlation with the differences in response in the anaphylactic reaction complex as previously determined by Lewis and Loomis. These studies suggest very strongly that the allergic irritability is one of the several inheritable characters which form a partial basis for the natural resistance to tuberculosis. The antibody-producing capacity is only satisfactorily defined when minimal or moderate amounts of antigen are used and this in single treatments. The irregularities in experimental result when repeated treatments or very large single treatments are used suggest that antibody production in the second or "acquired capacity" phase may rest on a somewhat different fundamental basis than the latent or potential natural capacity. There is some very slight evidence that production in the second phase may also be influenced by inherited qualities.


Choosing the optimal teaching method appropriate to the purpose and field of the subject is one of the issues that have been discussed by many researchers of various fields over the past few decades. Critical pedagogy is one of the most learner-centered teaching method, according to which the relationship between the professor and students is not made based on the one-sided transfer of information, but also on changes in the power-sharing and the mutual exchange of information. Consistency of this problem-based teaching method with the essence of learning environments of architectural workshops made it possible to apply this teaching method in master's architectural design course (1). Accordingly, the present study aims to evaluate students' intrinsic motivation under the circumstances of the critical education method. To this end, 24 graduate students of Islamic Azad University of Gorgan attending the architectural design course (1) are chosen as samples. The research hypothesis is that the critical pedagogy significantly affects the internal motivation of architectural students attending the design courses. This study is descriptive research carried out using inferential statistics. To compare the effectiveness of the two conventional teaching method and critical pedagogy on students' intrinsic motivation, Deci & Ryan's learning climate questionnaire is used. This questionnaire is based on Deci and Ryan's "Self-Determination Theory", which knows the three criteria of "autonomy", "competence" and "relatedness" necessary in the development of intrinsic motivation. Moreover, the research conceptual model is designed and developed based on these criteria. Then, the data are analyzed using independent sample t-test and SPSS software. The results showed that the critical pedagogy produced a higher level of intrinsic motivation in students than the conventional teacher-centered educational method.


As predictive models are increasingly being deployed in high-stakes decision-making, there has been a lot of interest in developing algorithms which can provide recourses to affected individuals. While developing such tools is important, it is even more critical to analyse and interpret a predictive model, and vet it thoroughly to ensure that the recourses it offers are meaningful and non-discriminatory before it is deployed in the real world. To this end, we propose a novel model agnostic framework called Actionable Recourse Summaries (AReS) to construct global counterfactual explanations which provide an interpretable and accurate summary of recourses for the entire population. We formulate a novel objective which simultaneously optimizes for correctness of the recourses and interpretability of the explanations, while minimizing overall recourse costs across the entire population. More specifically, our objective enables us to learn, with optimality guarantees on recourse correctness, a small number of compact rule sets each of which capture recourses for well defined subpopulations within the data. We also demonstrate theoretically that several of the prior approaches proposed to generate recourses for individuals are special cases of our framework. Experimental evaluation with real world datasets and user studies demonstrate that our framework can provide decision makers with a comprehensive overview of recourses corresponding to any black box model, and consequently help detect undesirable model biases and discrimination.


Bana's Harsacarita not only contains the oldest Indian reference to the game of chess, caturanga, played on the 64-square-board called astapada, but also gives a hint to terracotta chessmen in the phrase parthivavigrahah, which is not only to be rendered as "fights among kings", but as "earthen figures" as well.
Chess, it seems, was played at Harsa's court in Kanyakubja/Kanauj in the first half of the 7th century A.D. with earthen figurative chessmen. Before the game caturanga was invented – so my thesis – the theoreticians of warfare used similar terracottas as means to teach strategy and tactics of battles in sand-tables. Further, Bana's adhikaranavicarah can be read as adhika-rana-vicara and translated as "thoughts on further battle(s)", pointing at continuous discussions on warfare.


Haemopoietic stem cells (HSC) maintain lifelong haemopoiesis through the monitoring and production of cells from multiple haemopoietic cell lineages. A key property of HSC is their ability to maintain quiescence. Quiescence refers to a state of inactivity in which the cell is not dividing and remains dormant. It is this property of the HSC that is thought to maintain genomic integrity and to allow the HSC to sustain haemopoiesis over the period of a lifetime. However, the regulation of quiescence in this context is not well understood. Numerous studies have aimed to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying HSC quiescence using high-throughput approaches. A previous microarray study by our group aimed to understand the transcriptional differences between quiescent and proliferating human HSC. Data from this microarray showed that the most up regulated group of genes in quiescent compared to proliferating human HSC were chemokine ligands, specifically within the CXC family. Although this was a novel finding at the time, the biological function of these chemokine genes was not studied until the current work presented here. In this thesis, we aimed to extend foregoing research and importantly, investigate the role of CXC chemokines in HSC properties, using both human and mouse systems.

First, we validated the results from the microarray study using gene expression analyses to show that chemokine ligands CXCL1 and CXCL2 were significantly up regulated in quiescent HSC (CD34+CD38-) in comparison to more proliferative progenitors (CD34+CD38+). Focusing on CXCL1, we showed positive expression of the ligand protein in human stem/progenitor cells using immunofluorescence and western blotting on human primary CD34+ cells. In addition, we identified positive expression of receptor CXCR2 by gene and protein analyses on CD34+ cells, indicating the presence of an autocrine chemokine signalling loop. To determine the biological function of CXCL1/CXCR2 signalling in human HSC, we used shRNA to reduce CXCL1 expression and a commercially available inhibitor (SB-225002) to block CXCR2 receptor signalling. Experiments on cell lines expressing CXCL1 and CXCR2 (HT 1080) showed that reduction of CXCL1 and over-expression reduced or increased cell viability and proliferation respectively. Experiments on human primary CD34+ cells revealed that reduction of CXCL1 induced apoptosis and reduced colony formation. Similarly, inhibition of CXCR2 signalling in CD34+ cells using SB-225002 induced apoptosis and reduced colony formation in a dose dependent manner. However, due to human sample availability and technical challenges, experiments need repeated in order for a valid conclusion to be made and statistical analysis could not be carried out for some primary experiments. In addition, further experimental work is required to conclusively prove that human stem/progenitors express CXCL1 and CXCR2 as different techniques showed varying results. In summary, we provide some evidence that CXCL1 and CXCR2 is expressed by human HSC and may be an important survival pathway in normal human HSC which requires further experimental data to provide valid conclusions.

In order to gain a deeper understanding of the biological function of chemokine signalling in HSC biology, we used an in vivo murine system. First, we examined mRNA transcripts of CXC chemokines in mouse HSC populations. We screened a small selected group of CXC chemokines using primitive mouse HSC and single cell quantitative PCR using the Fluidigm™ platform. Gene expression analyses identified that Cxcr2 and Cxcl4 mRNA transcripts were detected including in the most rare, primitive HSC fraction. To elucidate the mechanism of action, we used a transgenic reporter and knock out mouse models for both genes of interest. Analysis of a Cxcr2 null mice model (Cxcr2-/-) validated previous research in which animals lacking Cxcr2 show disrupted haemopoiesis with an expansion of myeloid cells in the haemopoietic organs. Interestingly, within the current work, analysis of steady state haemopoiesis revealed an expansion of the most primitive HSC in the BM of animals lacking Cxcr2 and enhanced mobilisation demonstrated by an increase in the stem/progenitor activity in the spleen and PB. HSC functional analyses using BM reconstitution assays with wildtype (WT) or Cxcr2-/- HSC showed that there was a trend towards a reduction in engraftment in animals transplanted with HSC lacking Cxcr2. However, this result was not statistically significant due to high sample variability and due to time constraints and the length of this assay, this was not repeated. The data suggests that Cxcr2 expressing HSC may be important for stem cell maintenance via a cell autonomous mechanism however experiments are required to be repeated to draw valid conclusions.

Cxcl4-Cre transgenic mice containing a RFP construct under the control of the Rosa26 promoter (Cxcl4-Cre) showed RFP expression in HSC and progeny. RFP expression in HSC populations was in accordance with Cxcl4 mRNA transcripts therefore suggesting RFP expression was correlated with endogenous Cxcl4 expression. Interestingly, flow cytometry analysis identified that not all (~50%) HSC showed positive expression for RFP. Flow cytometry sorting of positive and negative populations revealed that cells with enhanced colony formation potential reside within the RFP (Cxcl4) positive fraction. To extend this data, we aimed to knock out and reduce Cxcl4 expression and examine the phenotype. Targeted deletion of Cxcl4 in vitro using a Cxcl4 shRNA vector demonstrated that Cxcl4 reduction in vitro diminished colony formation in primary and secondary replating assays. Since data for human CXCL4 mRNA were not conclusive from the original microarray, we reassessed the relevance of CXCL4 in the human system. Gene expression analyses showed that CXCL4 transcripts were indeed detected and furthermore, up regulated in primitive HSC (CD34+CD38-CD90+) compared with proliferative progenitors (CD34+CD38+). Collectively, the data indicates that CXCL4 may play an important role in mouse and human HSC biology, however further experimental work is required to address this.

In summary, the data presented in this thesis demonstrate that several chemokines including CXCL1, CXCL4 and receptor CXCR2 may have key roles in HSC survival and maintenance, both in the mouse and human systems. However, increased biological replicates and further experiments are required to draw valid conclusions. Enhanced understanding of the regulation of stem cell properties is critical for improving our ability to manipulate normal stem cells in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, understanding normal stem cell regulation is fundamental for the research of diseases such as leukaemia in which leukaemic stem cells are less sensitive to drug treatment.


Design: Multinational double-blinded placebo-controlled trial. Patients randomised in 1:1 ratio to receive cannabidiol or placebo, in addition to stable antiepileptic treatment regime.

Setting: Twenty-three centres in Europe and USA.

Patients: Patients aged 2 years to 18 years with established diagnosis of Dravet syndrome having at least four convulsive seizures during the 28-day baseline period despite regular antiepileptic medication.

Intervention: Adjunctive cannabidiol or placebo oral solution at 20 mg per kilogram of body weight per day.

Primary outcome: Percentage change in median frequency of convulsive seizures per month.

Follow-up period: Outcome measured over a 14-week treatment period in comparison to a 4-week baseline period.

Patient follow-up: One hundred and eight (90%) completed the trial: 85% (52/61) in the cannabidiol group and …


John Rawls's international theory, The Law of Peoples, has been read and
criticized as "A Theory of International Justice". His major objective, however, is
not the establishment of a just (liberal) world order, but to guide liberal societies
towards a reasonable peaceful, stable and just international system. From this
starting point, the thesis assesses whether Rawls's international theory can
meet its task to function as a guideline for the promotion of international peace,
stability and justice and how that peace might be conceived. The author argues
that Rawls sketches the path to a "decent peace".
The scrutiny of the issue takes the form of an in-depth analysis and discussion
of The Law of Peoples and a systematic investigation of a number of cases. The
dissertation examines the possible contribution of Rawls's ideas, primarily the
Society of Peoples and the principles of the Law of Peoples, to international
peace, stability and justice. As the focus lies on decent regimes and a decent
peace, three actual decent societies are identified (Oman, Qatar and
Singapore), in order to highlight the applicability of the notion to the international
system, as well as to ensure that decent regimes are not mere constructions
serving to justify imposing liberal principles of non-liberal regimes. The
dissertation finally investigates the enlargement of the democratic peace thesis
towards a decent peace; it discusses the arguments for a democratic peace and
applies them to Rawls's conception of decent peoples as well as to the identified
regimes. It concludes asserting that the decent peace thesis is theoretically wellfounded, whereas the empirical evidence is – due to only three identified
regimes – rather weak. As a guideline for the foreign policy of liberal (and
decent) societies The Law of Peoples can contribute to more stability and justice
in the international realm and promote a decent peace.


Extracted from text ... A
Southeast Asian tigers,
cubs and dragons:
lessons from an African lone wolf?
56 Management Today March 2006
African countries have declared the 21st
century to be the African century, reflected
in the establishment of the African Union
and the active proclamation of African solutions
for African problems. Despite these
well meant initiatives, multinationals have
not exactly been falling over their feet to
be part of this trend.
On the other side of the world, in Southeast
Asia, the 'tigers, cubs and dragons' are
silently chipping away at economic growth
and attract the lion's share of internationalisation
by multinationals. ..


In this paper, we show how the SES construction, pruning, and model generation process, can support a web-based system for personal wellness planning and self-management. Our focus is on the process by which modeling and simulation kernels are integrated within other layers of a web-application. The System Entity Structure (SES), Pruned Entity Structures (PES), and libraries for pruning processes from the MS4 Me™ platform technology are used to implement the personal wellness plan web application. This paper discusses the approach taken to support user graphic and web service requirements for interfaces to the embedded SES/PES kernels. We conclude with a discussion of how this example generalizes to integration of Discrete Event System Specification (DEVS) and SES with information technology systems thus increasing their applicability within such systems.


Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of the Sultanate of Brunei, is located on Borneo Island. The Society last organized a visit to Brunei in 1981; the late Tun Mohammad Suffian led that delegation. Brunei, independent since 1983, is an integral member of the MBRAS. HH Pengiran Muda Mohamed Bolkiah, the country's Foreign Minister, is a patron of the Society. Brunei is represented on the Council by PM Dato' Shariffudin, a Vice President of the Society. This time, the 11-member delegation was led by our President Tun Hanif Omar and organized by PM Dato' Shariffuddin. The delegation was met at the Brunei International Airport and very generously accommodated at the Radisson Hotel by our Brunei hosts. On the first night, a welcome dinner was held in the home of Dato' Shariffuddin, in a leafy suburb some 15 minutes from the centre of town. It was a great opportunity for the Council to meet the Society's Brunei members, including Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants, academics and business leaders. The highlight of the dinner, which was a lavish affair, included tropical fruits of a very high quality. This writer, for example, has never tasted better rambutans and pulasan anywhere in the Malaysian region. The following day started with a tour of the country's important institutions and historical sites. These included the Islamic Museum, which is also the Kathi's office. The museum's collection of the Holy Qur'an is both fascinating and wideranging—not only in the physical size but also in its historical production, script, illumination and styles. The exhibition highlights the range and breath of Islamic traditions with a special focus on Southeast Asian Muslim communities. The visit to the museum was followed by a visit to the Royal Gallery dedicated to HRH the Sultan of Brunei, his coronation and the royal traditions associated with the Brunei court. The exhibits are well maintained with careful descriptions about the history of the Brunei Royal lineage, one of the oldest in the region. Interestingly, gifts from all over the world are elegantly displayed in an extensive gallery on the first floor. Finally, the tour ended with a visit to the floating village, the proto-typical dwelling of old Brunei. Here, well-maintained houses linked by a series of jetties and a modern sewerage system are another symbol of the peoples' seafaring roots. Bandar Seri Begawan, it must be recalled, began in these humble dwellings before modern town planning arrived in the late nineteenth century. These visits gave us an interesting insight into the three key aspects of the country's national philosophy, which is predicated upon Malay heritage, Islam and the monarchy. Lunch was followed by a public talk organized by the Society given by HE Pehin Dato Dr Haji Abdul Aziz Umar, Brunei's last colonial Chief Minister and its first Education Minister. He was among the country's 'founding leaders', Western-educated Bruneians who had the opportunity to contribute to their country after independence.


CONTEXT
Obese men with normal semen parameters exhibit reduced fertility but few prospective data are available.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to determine the effect of male factors and body mass among the Pregnancy in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome II (PPCOS II) participants.

METHODS
This is a secondary analysis of the PPCOS II trial. A total of 750 infertile women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) were randomly assigned to up to receive five cycles of letrozole or clomiphene citrate. Females were 18-39-years-old and had a male partner with sperm concentration of at least 14 million/mL who consented to regular intercourse. Analysis was limited to couples with complete male partner information (n = 710).

RESULTS
Male body mass index (BMI) was higher in couples who failed to conceive (29.5 kg/m(2) vs 28.2 kg/m(2); P = .039) as well as those who did not achieve a live birth (29.5 kg/m(2) vs 28.1 kg/m(2); P = .047). At least one partner was obese in 548 couples (77.1%). A total of 261 couples were concordant for obesity (36.8%). After adjustment for female BMI, the association of male BMI with live birth was no longer significant (odds ratio [OR] = 0.85; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.68-1.05; P = .13). Couples in which both partners smoked had a lower chance of live birth vs nonsmokers (OR = 0.20; 95 % CI, 0.08-0.52; P = .02), whereas there was not a significant effect of female or male smoking alone. Live birth was more likely in couples with at least three sexual intercourse attempts over the previous 4 weeks (reported at baseline) as opposed to couples with lesser frequency (OR = 4.39; 95 % CI, 1.52-12. 4; P < .01).

CONCLUSIONS
In this large cohort of obese women with PCOS, effect of male obesity was explained by female BMI. Lower chance of success was seen among couples where both partners smoked. Obesity and smoking are common among women with PCOS and their partners and contribute to a decrease in fertility treatment success.


Before Hurricane Katrina, renters comprised the majority of New Orleans' population.  The disaster destroyed a disproportionate amount of rental housing, particularly in the affordable sector.  Yet the vast majority of reconstruction funding and volunteer labor has gone to homeowners and initiatives to increase homeownership in the city.  We explore the legitimation of this bias toward propertied interests through the lens of Engels' (1872) critical assessment of Proudhonist and bourgeois socialist 'solutions' to the housing question of 19 th century Europe.  We consider three aspects of Engels' critique that have been crucial to the post-storm policy regime in New Orleans: homeownership framed as a solution to social problems, the shifting of the housing question into legal and moral spheres, and housing 'solutions' enacted by the state that ultimately benefit the propertied and moneyed classes.  In examining the contemporary housing question of post-Katrina New Orleans, we extend Engels' evaluation of the legal and moral spheres that come to veil and reproduce urban economic and racial inequalities, while distinguishing the expanded role of the contemporary state in supporting the tenets of an 'ownership society.'  Our argument explores how neoliberalism disguises state actions that protect and expand property ownership in contemporary capitalism


Advances in automated data acquisition in electron tomography have led to an explosion in the amount of data that can be obtained about the spatial architecture of a variety of biologically and medically relevant objects with resolutions in the "nano" range of 10-1000 nm. The development of methods to automatically analyze the vast amounts of information contained in these tomograms is a major challenge since the electron tomograms are intrinsically very noisy. A fundamental step in the automatic analysis of large amounts of data for statistical inference is to segment relevant 3D features in cellular tomograms. Procedures for segmentation must work robustly and rapidly in spite of the low signal to noise ratios inherent to biological electron microscopy. This work first evaluates various non-linear denoising techniques on tomograms recorded at cryogenic temperatures. Using datasets of bacterial tomograms as an example, we demonstrate that non-linear diffusion techniques significantly improve the fidelity of automated feature extraction. Our approach represents an important step in automating the efficient extraction of useful information from large datasets in biological tomography, and facilitates the overall goal of speeding up the process of reducing gigabyte-sized tomograms to relevant byte-sized data.


Nowadays it is worldwide accepted that early diagnosis and early treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) can improve the prognosis in most of patients. In this way, the 2010 ACR/EULAR Rheumatoid Arthritis classification criteria have shown to be more sensitive than the ACR 1987 criteria and include better patients with early RA. Other important point to focus on is to identify predictive factors for outcome, in order to propose a more aggressive treatment for early RA patients who could develop a persistent and/or erosive disease. The presence of Rheumatoid Factors (RF) and Anticitrullinated peptides antibobies (ACPA), as well as the duration of the disease at the time of diagnosis, are independent risk factors for the development of erosive RA. As for imaging, both traditional X-ray and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) highlight respectively the Rapid Radiological Progression (RRP) and the presence of bone edema which are associated to a more aggressive disease. In the last years, the musculoskeletal ultrasonography (MSUS) has emerged as a useful imaging technique since it allows to identify synovitis and bone alteration earlier than the radiological examination. Interating clinical, serological and imaging data the clinician can define the effective disease activity of each patient.


Deep learning approaches have been established as the main methodology for video classification and recognition. Recently, 3-dimensional convolutions have been used to achieve state-of-the-art performance in many challenging video datasets. Because of the high level of complexity of these methods, as the convolution operations are also extended to an additional dimension in order to extract features from it as well, providing a visualization for the signals that the network interpret as informative, is a challenging task. An effective notion of understanding the network's innerworkings would be to isolate the spatio-temporal regions on the video that the network finds most informative. We propose a method called Saliency Tubes which demonstrate the foremost points and regions in both frame level and over time that are found to be the main focus points of the network. We demonstrate our findings on widely used datasets for thirdperson and egocentric action classification and enhance the set of methods and visualizations that improve 3D Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) intelligibility. Our code 1 and a demo video 2 are also available.